Grenache Grenade

Grenache Grenade

Normally not a fan of rosé, I was pleasantly surprised by the power of this Grenache rosé whose terracotta tint hints at its deeper flavor. Winemaker Jeff Emery of Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard feels that “Rhone varieties pushed into cooler California growing regions...
Salmon and Sauerkraut

Salmon and Sauerkraut

  Salmon, sauerkraut, and fennel sounds like a weird if not downright disgusting combination but it’s my favorite new summer salad! Tinned salmon is both economical and healthy, loaded with the Omega 3 fatty acids that fish is famous for. Canned pink salmon...
Pumpkin Bread vs. Pumpkin Teacake

Pumpkin Bread vs. Pumpkin Teacake

Pumpkin Bread Two recipes for this winter favorite, plus two uses for the opened pumpkin purée can! One is a bread, the other more like a cake…try them both. This one is more of a bread than a cake; the slices want to be buttered! The recipe calls for butter...
Dog Day Salads

Dog Day Salads

In this heat, it’s time to round up some terrific salads, by which I mean hearty ones that are more than lettuce leaves with dressing. Pasta salads are of course a favorite but today I’m going to replace the pasta with couscous, according to Food.com, “a...
Jicama & Orange Salad

Jicama & Orange Salad

A perennial favorite, this refreshing veggie/fruit salad is perfect for indoor and outdoor meals during the hottest days of summer. Jicama is a tuberous root packed with potassium, rich in fiber and vitamin C, its flavor a crunchy cross between an apple and a water...
Root Soup

Root Soup

Trifecta of winter vegetables to keep you warm inside Hearty and healthy and perfect for the long cold spells ahead, this earthy, budget-friendly soup should satisfy just about everyone. Ingredient quantities are very loosely measured here…just how big is a...

Breakfast in Guadalajara

Earlier this year I spent several days in the historically rich capital of Jalisco, but I arrived in the middle of a national holiday, which brought a traffic tsunami that began taking its toll on the long, loud, dusty drive in from the airport to my hotel in...

Carrots in Scapece

This six-ingredient dish will joosh up your carrots and is equally delicious hot or cold. Plus, you can use those carrots that have begun to lose their crispness, so this one is an all-around winner! Perfect as a warm side dish, equally delicious as a cold picnic...
Spice Hacks

Spice Hacks

Flavor enhancement with spices rather than salt: these recipe hacks should allow you and your family to drastically reduce sodium intake while pleasing the taste buds with newer, sharper, spicier delights. Important thing—I know I’ve said this before—is to use...
Pasta Primavera Prima Donna

Pasta Primavera Prima Donna

We’re always on the prowl for variations on the classic pasta primavera, that culinary catch-all for vegetables in sauces that marry well with pasta. I’ve developed this one for its speed of prep while presenting a complex flavor profile…it’s...
Moroccan Stoup offers Warm Comfort

Moroccan Stoup offers Warm Comfort

  As defined by Rachel Ray, a stoup comes in somewhere between a soup and a stew in consistency…and that is what we have with this simple-to-assemble one pot wonder. For the vegetable you can use any leafy green or even a combination of several: kale is...
CauliBroc with Spicy Mint Sauce

CauliBroc with Spicy Mint Sauce

  Broccoli and cauliflower make fine bedfellows when covered with this exceptional sauce, which can also be used to spice up other vegetables ordinarily labeled bland or boring. Quantities do not need to be exact…start with what’s written here and...
The Pros of Prosecco

The Pros of Prosecco

The “pro” in Prosecco might just mean that this reasonably priced Italian charmer is one to consider if Champagne—the real stuff—is not in your budget. If you like champagne but don’t appreciate the price tag, I’d like to suggest a high quality Prosecco....
Pinot Precision

Pinot Precision

Once again there was an embarrassment of riches among the many excellent Pinot Noir offerings at the May 2016 SLH Gala. Pinots from the Santa Lucia Highlands tend to be bigger and bolder than their Burgundian counterparts, darker and denser and milder in their...
Spices for Salt

Spices for Salt

Flavor enhancement with spices rather than salt: these recipe hacks should allow you and your family to drastically reduce sodium intake while pleasing the taste buds with newer, sharper, spicier delights. Important thing—I know I’ve said this before—is to use...
Fennel Fancies

Fennel Fancies

This delicious cookie is just unusual enough to pique interest but not weird enough to offend traditional cookie lovers. Fennel, with its hint of anise and licorice flavors, brings a zesty flavor profile to an otherwise ordinary sugar cookie.   It’s also a...
Presto Pasta

Presto Pasta

For a last-minute entertainment emergency, you might have use for this fast yet fancy pasta. It will take you no more than 15 minutes to put this together! You can use any short-cut pasta but I like campanelle, or “little bells.” Other favorites are gemelli (twins),...
Ginger Pumpkin Bread

Ginger Pumpkin Bread

Here’s another take on a seasonal favorite. This is more of a bread than a cake; the slices want to be buttered! This recipe calls for butter instead of oil and is delicately ginger flavored. I always add more ginger, or grate in a touch of fresh. Nuts add vital...
Victual* Bits

Victual* Bits

Here are some tips, tricks, and shortcuts that I have come across or invented in the course of my foodie journey, ones that I think readers may enjoy. While I make every effort to give credit where it is due, many of these ideas may have become so much a part of my...
Rhônes Rule in Oakland

Rhônes Rule in Oakland

  Fifteen northern California wineries recently showcased their Rhône style wines for aficionados in—where else—Oakland! Syrah, Petite Sirah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignane, Roussane, Counoise in red varietals and Viognier, the prime Rhône white, strutted their...
Liquid Gold at Mutari in Santa Cruz

Liquid Gold at Mutari in Santa Cruz

Lovers of hot chocolate and mocha should run, not walk, to Mutari Chocolate House & Factory, located in downtown Santa Cruz, CA. This is melted—molten better conveys the unctuousness—dark chocolate in a cup: no cocoa powder or lecithin. According to the...
Tempting Tempranillo

Tempting Tempranillo

Founded in 2003, the Grandes Pagos de España — great growths of Spain— honors single estate wines from its thirty premium member wineries. Many of them were on display at a recent tasting in San Francisco, at the Absinthe Brasserie & Bar, where the food...
TASMANIA:  A Land Apart

TASMANIA: A Land Apart

  Barossa. McLaren Vale. Coonawarra, Margaret River. Most U.S. wine consumers are familiar with these names for they are the Australian wine regions which export abundantly overseas: those chesty Chardonnays and heady reds from Western Australia and the old-...
Swiss Idyll

Swiss Idyll

    I recently went on a wine safari of Switzerland. This is the only way to define a voyage of discovery as filled with tantalizing tastes and sights as you might experience during a safari through the African veldt. Only here the exotic flora is rare grape...