There are few things I love as much as I love a cheese plate — before it became ever so fashionable here in the States, I was serving up platters of miscellaneous fermented cow’s milk to my friends (and they’d like it) even if I wasn’t overly ambitious with my selections (brie, cheddar, perhaps a [...]

Confession: since the last time I wrote here I made two batches of cupcakes: one pumpkin with chocolate-ganache frosting for Halloween; and one devil’s food chocolate with vanilla buttercream for a friend’s birthday. But this is not a cupcake-blog, I swear.
Lately I’ve been availing myself and my household of the Sunday farmers market at the [...]

Michael Bauer recently reported on Thomas Keller’s “temporary” restuarant in Yountville, and the description of one night’s menu proved yet again the man makes food beautiful — the meal included an heirloom tomato salad fresh from the French Laundry garden and made-that-morning mozzarella; tri-tip smothered with a mix of olive oil-poached mushrooms served with corn [...]

The first - and only - time I went to Ireland, I stumbled through a grey Dublin morning with my best friend in search of a place to breakfast. I was a bit shocked by the many, many men perched on their pub stools with a pint resting on the ledge before them — [...]

Today’s observation is that organic bananas really do taste better than conventional ones, and are worth the few extra pennies that make up the price difference. They always seem to melt more gently in the mouth, and are more tender.
For my 28th birthday I was feted throughout the weekend with meals at various fine [...]