December in NYC

Outside of Central Park by the Essex House

Central Park

Fifth Avenue--interesting store

The Plaza

Ave of the Americas

Big Wong King in Chinatown.

Merry Christmas

Treasure all of your Christmas memories!

Nina's First Gingerbread House

Not much to say. She pretty much did it all herself. Took her a week to do it---she's a perfectionist and motivation got a little thin during school.

Wonder if she'll want to do it again next year. Smells great!
Looks gorgeous!

Brewing

All the hops and grains are in this giant sock-thingy that boils and boils for awhile.

This is when you get the wort going and you boil over the stove with some grains and stuff. You walk in the house and the aroma screams "BEER!!!"

Yes, sometimes the garage does double as a brewery. How rude of you to point that out! Now only 2 weeks to bottling and then another 2 weeks to consuming. Bill's gotten really good at this. I don't particularly love beer but that brown ale is very good with a burger. Thanks to Buzz for getting us started on this.

All the cozy smells of Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Buon Natale!

Vesele Vianoce!

Nollaig chridheil agus Bliadhna mhath ùr!

Kielbasa steaming from Teprovich's Market in Quakake PA

Gingerbread!

Seven seafood feast on Christmas Eve. Viva Italia!

Christmas day ravioli preparation

The smell of the Christmas tree...aahhh!

Rainy Christmas eve. ('tis the season for rain in SoCal)

Christmas a long time ago

Holidays have a strong association with food for me. I have great memories of Christmases past at Baba's house and the Slovakian treats. When I baked the nut and poppyseed rolls, I remembered more clearly. Same thing with the lekvar cookies. And when I bake them, I hope my kids get that same feeling too.

Cozy and delicious!

Thanksgiving garden

The winter garden is looking pretty good right now. The spinach is nice and green and has been added to many omelets.







The wine barrel full of carrots is coming along.






The peas and radishes are flourishing.






Swiss chard is looking colorful and happy (with some bug bites, after all we're organic here!)




Broccoli is finally looking ok. And the Japanese eggplant is on its third set of little guys!






And thanks to some bird netting around the perimeter, my little space has not yet been considered a litter box by gato gordo!

Under the hazy Tuscan sun

There are times in life when you are doing something and later you say: wow, that was amazing--what an experience.

Then there are the times in life when you are doing something and say right then: wow, this is amazing--what an experience.

Tuscany was the latter.

It was so wonderful run into Nancy and Stuart last night. Of course, the first thing we did was reminsce about Tuscany and what I think was probably the best part: the night of La Chiusa.






Dania was a wonderful chef and a lovely woman and owned a Michelin star. And she was hostess enough that, when John called me out as a foodie and a fan, she led us all to the humble kitchen that created such wonder.

And isn't this irony: we travelled Italy with cameras adherent to our necks but that night, we thougth it was "just a dinner" and didn't bring one. And it turned out to be the essence of Tuscany and one of our most treasured memories.

Nancy emailed me all of her photos from that night. The jpgs are low res but they are plenty to remind me of what a wonderful world it was in Tuscany!

Don't ruin my dinner!

DOGGIE SAYS "YOU STINK!!!!"

Last night we went out for sushi at our usual, favorite local spot. Happily at the sushi bar, sipping sake and waiting for Tony to make a #18, I smell the front door open. Yes, I SMELL it!

An elderly couple walks in ...well, her gross perfume walked in way ahead of them. And sits....yes, next to me-- the last open spot at the bar. I spent the rest of my meal with my hand over my nose between bites and there were no tables open for us to switch to. The experience was severly limited, needless to say.

My GOD! I've had this happen in other restaurants too. DO NOT PUT ON HEAVY SCENTS WHEN GOING OUT TO EAT! It ruins it for everyone with a sense of smell ( I know older people lose that so just stop putting it on because you are putting too much on all the time).

Then we go out to the symphony and the symphony crowd is also a lot of elderly people and therefore, gross over-perfumed smells.

AAARRRGGGHHH!

I couldn't wait to enter the night clean air despite the lovely Parisian pianist playing spectacular Saint-Saens.

Enough with banning cigarettes. I'd prefer a ban on cologne, perfume and aftershave and the like. LET ME BREATHE AND EAT CLEANLY!!!

/end rant

Welcome November!

Halloween ended up being slow last night. A flurry of kids until 8, then nothing. A pumpkin got kicked but my favorite was my puking pumpkin. One kid said: "that's a nice vomiting jack-o-lantern you have here!"

Hopefully, this hot and dry turns to cool and wet soon. I re-did the garden, thinned seedlings and added some swiss chard. I am ready for a cooling trend!