[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]e just got back from a road trip, across Wisconsin up to Duluth, Minnesota, at the western tip of Lake Superior. Then up along the lake’s northern shore. Up into the Minnesota Northwoods. Up into Canada, to Thunder Bay. Up to the top of the Sleeping Giant in Ontario’s Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, to an open observation platform 100 meters above Lake Superior’s rocky shore below. Up north. Continue reading “Up North”
Tuna quickly pan-seared with capers and parsley is served with a drizzle of blackberries, balsamic vinegar and garlic. Recipe below, courtesy of one of our San Francisco hosts.
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]e like to do our homework before we travel, carefully researching museum exhibits, places to eat (and drink), good walking/shopping neighborhoods, even overhyped things to ignore. On our recent trip to San Francisco, we did none of that. Just told our various friends we were coming and showed up. It was glorious. Continue reading “Our San Francisco host turns guest cook: Blackberry Balsamic Pan-seared Tuna”
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]e just got back from a wonderful long weekend in San Francisco. “Just got back” as in it’s Tuesday, sneaking up on midnight, and we got home after midnight this morning and both somehow managed to get up and go to work on this same morning. I’m sitting here staring at a blinking cursor, staring down my Tuesday night post deadline and realizing it’s not going to happen. We’ll be back next week, possibly with a recipe, certainly with some stories.
Meanwhile, enjoy the Calder sculpture above, one of many in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s collection, this one in an outdoor courtyard with a living wall. Or as I said when we saw it, “A Calder walks into a fern bar.” Thanks, folks, I’m here all week. Try the veal.
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]F[/su_dropcap]riday night, we met daughter Claire’s train from Detroit at Chicago Union Station, its Great Hall pictured here. Sunday morning, daughter Laurel drove in from Milwaukee. After many, many years of traveling to our parents’ homes for the holidays, we are the destination. Have been for a while now—and it feels good. Continue reading “Holiday traditions—never changing, always changing”
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]e went to Detroit last weekend, a quick overnight trip to hang out with our older daughter Claire, grab a couple of meals out and maybe do a little shopping. As happens every time we go to Detroit these days, we did/saw/thought/felt so much more. Continue reading “Detroit weekend, too condensed”
No recipe this week—just a few thoughts about a road trip we’re on, driving the coast of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec.
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]e are at Land’s End, in the town of Gaspé at the easternmost tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec. We are on another of our patented road trips, but this one is unlike the others. We are not visiting any museums. We are spending little time in urban areas. Continue reading “Notes from the back roads of Quebec”
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]O[/su_dropcap]n this most American holiday, it is yet again necessary to remind us all that one thing that makes America what it is—that makes it, in fact, great—is immigrants. The men who drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence (and they were all men—don’t get me started on that) were either immigrants or children or grandchildren of immigrants. If you are not a descendant of Native Americans, you are the product of immigrants.
Today, Marion and I are going to a barbecue hosted by friends of ours, both first generation Americans, children of immigrants. We will be bringing this kimchi potato salad as our contribution to the meal. Not as a political statement, but because it is amazingly delicious. This is what happens when you welcome everyone to the table. You get to share wonderful riches. Happy fourth of July, everyone.
Music, camaraderie and a recipe (not mine) for some decadent brownies.
THE AD AGENCY WHERE I WORK HAS A FUN COMMITTEE. Their task, which they take quite seriously, is to create events that give us even more reasons to be happy to show up every day. Last Friday, thanks to their efforts, we celebrated Record Store Day a day early. Continue reading “Celebrating Record Store Day’s Eve with vinyl and “outrageous brownies””
The Prisoner Wine Company produces super premium wines by carefully sourcing their grapes. And in The Mamma Mia! Diet, an Italian biochemistry professor and a pharmacist, researcher and food writer explain why the Mediterranean diet is so good for us and how to eat it.
Not all wineries grow their own grapes. In fact, many makers of modestly priced wines work with multiple growers, combining the same varieties of grapes from many sources to produce their wines—with an eye on price and availability as well as the final product. Napa Valley-based The Prisoner Wine Company takes a different approach. Continue reading “Review: An innovative red and a good read”
This week, we share a book review and a recipe from the book—for Snow Cream.
We’re big fans of goat cheese. So when we were asked to review Flat Broke with Two Goats, a memoir with recipes, we answered with an enthusiastic yes. We didn’t find the goat cheese recipes I was expecting. Instead, we found something much richer. Continue reading “Review: Flat Broke with Two Goats”