Share/Bookmark Everyone has Thanksgiving leftovers unless you are Henry VIII. It starts out on Thanksgiving Day with a wonderful feast giving appreciation for a year of bounty. After dinner, time is spent lounging around, letting the tryptophan kick in and watching football. The day after Thanksgiving is nice, no meals to prepare, a nice turkey [...]
Share/BookmarkI own two cookbooks, “Retro Cocktails, Shake It Baby” by Kate Moseley, and “The Martini Book” by Sally Ann Berk. They shouldn’t be called cookbooks as the recipes do not start cooking until after ingesting. I pour over each book with affection, as if looking through a family album. Friends and family know I enjoy [...]
Share/BookmarkOn Friday, Sept. 14, I drove to Palm Springs and picked up a girlfriend whom I have not seen in about 25 years. My car’s air conditioning is broken, so the trip was somewhat uncomfortable. I was more concerned the heat would be difficult for her since she is from Santa Cruz. But what worried [...]
Share/BookmarkIn previous columns, I have established how I tormented my little sister. Thinking back, I did take great delight in making her life miserable. Connie was a quiet, serious child, three years younger than I am. Often after teasing her unmercifully, my mother would eventually intervene. She would admonish me and warn, “Just wait until [...]
Share/BookmarkGrowing up on an apricot ranch had it’s drawbacks. On the positive side, my mom never wasted anything. She canned and grew vegetables and herbs, corn, tomatoes, etc. We also had a wide variety of fruit and citrus trees. Now for the negative side. My little sister and I had a pet duck named Elmer. [...]
Share/BookmarkI love ice cream; it’s my favorite dessert. Ice cream brings back great memories of my childhood. As a little girl every Saturday afternoon, my parents would load my younger sister and I up in the old pickup truck and make a dusty trip to the grocery store. Across the street was a creamery, which [...]
Share/BookmarkBefore you know it, cooler weather will be upon us. What’s not to love about hearty fall and winter food. Thick stews, soups, paella, cassoulet, pastas, roasted squashes, I could go on. (Cliche alert, something everyone says). My mother would make the best chicken soup I have ever tasted. Unfortunately, I have never been able [...]
Share/BookmarkGrowing up in Santa Clara Valley, San Jose, California, filled my childhood memories with visions of fruit orchards bursting with spring blossoms. Acres of mustard plants with raging yellow blooms were throughout my father’s property. The Mount Hamilton range was on the east side of the valley, the Santa Cruz range was on the west. [...]
Share/BookmarkThe only problem with dining on a lovely brunch, it starts at about 10 a.m. or so. By then most people are famished. My favorite brunch is Eggs Benedict of course. I first prepared this full brunch while I lived in Arizona. A variation on traditional Eggs Benedict 4 servings Slice four full-size crescent rolls, [...]
Share/BookmarkIt is relatively easy for me to admit I occasionally use cake mixes instead of making cupcakes or cakes from scratch. In my collection of cookbooks, several are for cakes or cupcakes. One book is called, “The Cake Doctor” by Anne Byrn. The great thing about cake mixes, anyone can doctor them up and it [...]
