It’s time for my culinary year in review.
Now that it’s January, I like to go through my mental file cabinet and revisit some of  my taste memories from the prior year. 
It’s also when I like to make mental predictions about the year ahead.  I ask  myself, what was my most special meal for 2009?   What will [...]

While perusing a used book sale recently, I found a copy of the The Sense of Wonder by Rachel Carson.
Published in 1956 by Harper & Row, the book features Carson’s summer adventures with her little nephew Roger. There are fabulous black and white photos throughout the book, and Carson recounts the [...]

When my Eagle Scout husband and I decided to buy our 23-foot travel trailer six years ago, we thought it would be a great way to educate our children about traveling, camping, nature, life experiences, and resourcefulness. At the time, I never imagined we’d travel as far and wide as we have.
While hauling our [...]

What do you do when you want to take a large salad on a weekend camping trip? How do you deal with the extras like the dressing, the blue cheese, the Walla Walla onions? Which lettuce variety will transport best and survive a couple days in the cooler?
These are the questions I asked myself a few [...]

Five years ago this month, I was off on a very special adventure.
As a tenth wedding anniversary gift, my husband had arranged to send me to County Cork, Ireland, for a one week hands on cooking class at the Ballymaloe Cookery School. It was a fabulous trip that I eventually wrote about for The [...]

Let’s consider the benefits of the raw veggie platter.
When I worked for Ina Garten at Barefoot Contessa more than twenty years ago, I learned the ins and outs of arranging crudite platters.
Crudite was very fashionable back then and many parties catered by Ina at the time had a large veggie filled basket prominently [...]

When I moved to Seattle from New York fifteen years ago, I was immediately struck by the quality of the foods found here.
Simply by strolling through the grocery stores, natural foods coop and farmers market, it was obvious that things were different here. The fish looked cleaner, shinier, fresher. The shellfish smelled like the ocean. [...]

If you are heading to England for business or pleasure, why not source some of your meals, snacks, wines and edible necessities from Waitrose?
When we were in London last February, Waitrose quickly became our supermarket of choice. I loved the bright clean stores, the superior friendly service, the fabulous high quality recipe booklets, the [...]

We had big plans last week. My sister in law was visiting from Missouri with her family, and we were all heading out to Washington’s Grayland and Westport, which are located smack on the Pacific Ocean. The weather was supposed to be clear and gorgeous.
We planned on staying in our travel trailer at Grayland [...]

The Vacation Kitchen?? Is there such a thing? Should there even be such a thing? Afterall, vacations are supposed to bring relief from the daily grind
Well, as a mother of three children, I learned early on that there is indeed a need for the vacation kitchen. More than ten years ago, my husband and [...]