Enjoy Life with Valerie’s Cookies

It is important to enjoy life. Obvious, but bears daily reminder. One thing living in New Orleans has taught me is –frequent celebration is the secret of life. If you ever need a prompt to get your celebration on, check out National Today, a fantastic website that regards every day as a holiday. For example, […]

New Years 2018 with a Side of Superstition

Feeling rounder than usual after the holiday cookie marathon? One too many holiday macarons from Larsen’s Bakery in Ballard? Motivated to get moving? To lose weight and feel a little better? Be sure to get an EatSmart scale for you and your chubby pet while you work on changing your eating habits for the millionth […]

Be A Cookie Monster this Christmas with Krusteaz

In Cookie Monster’s dreams, some famous cookie company arrives on his doorstep and puts boxes of their cookie mix and sprinkles in his blue carpet palms and his eyes spin opposite on their orbs like big banged worlds going round in a blink. Well, dreams come true, Cook. Call me Cookie Monster, and thanks to […]

Travelwise in Search of Konjac Fideos among Palms

Finally, last weekend, my dream came true and “going to work” meant strolling through gardens of bougainvillea-bestrewn gates, sitting by a pool at a Palm Springs resort, meeting with old friends and colleagues and inventing a new beverage I call the Mexican 75. I love academic conferences. I learned a lot at a leisurely pace. […]

Nourished on a Sunday

Perhaps Nourished spoke to me because I too recently discovered the healing power of food. Lia Huber has written this charming memoir with spiritual notes—a lovely Sunday morning sort of read—in which she describes the journey to the epiphany that food has soul. There are recipes, but for me, the real grit of her book […]

Cherry Gazpacho a la Stoneridge Orchards

Gazpacho is the ideal late summer cuisine—a chilled soup that is spicy, hearty and just the shade of autumn leaves. This was my first gazpacho attempt, and I wanted to find a recipe for gazpacho that would allow me to use Stoneridge dried cherries because Stoneridge Orchards also makes a chocolate dipped cherry that I […]