Here is a fantastic conversation about Eating Animals and the way Americans feed!

A leisurely afternoon spent with friends, eating good food and sipping champagne is the best way that I know to spend my time!

The asparagus were delicious.

I sautéed them in olive oil, 3 cloves of crushed garlic and crushed red pepper flakes and a handful of pine nuts.

We sipped on Mimosas and soaked in the gentle sunlight listening to music and chatting about old times.

This restaurant was the scene of one of the funniest and best nights out that I have had in a while.

And this evening proved that an easy going guy with a great sense of humor is highly underrated.

Notice these chairs. My date was not a large man but definitely a man, none the less.

As we walked in and saw that these bar tables were the only available seating in the restaurant , we both shot nervous glances around the room and scanned the bar for empty stools; no luck.

So we sat, precariously balanced, on fancy “stools” designed for speed not comfort.

As we tried to maintain eye contact and to pretend that actively balancing oneself was quite normal and comfortable, my date started to descend, ever so slowly.

By the time the waiter came by my date’s chin was just inches from the top of the table.

Trying to maintain our composure took everything we had.

When the waiter arrived to take our order; also pretending that the scene was quite normal, we burst out laughing with an intensity that rendered us inaudible; silent, frozen, mouths agape, tears streaming down our faces.

An older couple at the bar, who had watched this whole scene with empathetic horror, motioned to us that there were two available seats; sturdy seats, at the bar.

We quickly maneuvered our selves off our perches and settled in comfortably offering thanks to the couple for rescuing us.

The rest of the evening went well. The bartender took care of us and made sure that our glasses were full of champagne all night long.

My date never lost his smile and enjoyed his meal of scallops and crab cakes with elbow room to spare!

Our Bartender

Dr. Junger M.D. shares some of the best nutritional advice you’ll ever find.

His program offers detox and dietary programs to help you create optimal health and vitality.

Check out his new book, Clean

Fresh and joyful! Zee Avi will put a smile on your face! Take a listen.

Roger Ebert waxes poetic about the beauty of fellowship and community which surrounds food.

He reminisces about the flavors and textures that he misses most since he has lost his ability to eat and drink.

Nostalgia stirs the memory of childhood pleasures and eating in diners.

Nil by Mouth brings a fresh look at why we love food.

How gorgeous are these Brownie Pops from Beaucoup!

I am tempted to order them but feel that I may be up to the challenge of making them myself!

I am sure that children will have fun playing with and icing these little pops.

Baked to Perfection has an easy and yummy recipe. I am sure that I will improvise as I am feeling inspired by these pretty little holiday treats and the beautiful blue and white icing!

The iconic images of our time shown to us in a sweeping gesture put to music!

Great food moments in movie history as seen in this montage, Feast, by Matt Zoller Seitz

It’s the calm before the storm. The quiet right before the frenzy of Thanksgiving cooking begins here in our house.

And it is the start of the holiday season that will last until New Years Day.

For those of us who love to cook; It’s game time!

We love the madness, the energy and the chaos of the three of us; my two daughters and me, bumping elbows in the kitchen, swapping measuring cups and trying to figure out metric conversions or fractions, (my eldest is a math genius, thank goodness, or we could never double a recipe in our house!).

It is the Monday before Thanksgiving and I will begin to set the wheels in motion tonight.
First step is to take butter out of the freezer to soften for use in the morning. I gather up all the bread that I have been saving over the past few months and put that out to thaw, also.

I make a general roundup up of gadgets and gear necessary for preparing this meal. I have lists, menus, and recipes in neat piles in the kitchen and tomorrow morning I will start the preparing the stock which will flavor our dinner.

Although not a meat eater myself, I make an exception for this one holiday and prepare a turkey for my family. I have a local, organic, free-range, farm raised chicken and turkey to start the stock which will not only be used for Thanksgiving but for soup and turkey pot pie which will inevitably follow.

I make the pie dough and put it in the fridge for use on Thursday. The cheesecakes I always make the day before.

We start with appetizers on Tuesday. Yep. With all the activity we just kind of pick on appetizers while working in the kitchen for 2 whole days before the big meal.

No one seems to mind and there is often a stream of friends in and out who join us in the pre-festivity, festivities!

Mimosas are a must and with enough fresh juice you can drink them all day long!

I chose this photo out of the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book because it truly illustrates the mood right now. We are giddy in our little world of food and love; happy like a cupcake!

This past Sunday was one of those autumn days, days that remind you of your childhood; the kind of sunny sky and warm wind that is the last tease before the long mid-west winter.

It’s time to get the rakes out of the garage and make an afternoon of cleaning the yard and battening hatches.

I stored all the clay pots, put away the patio furniture, hung the bikes and cut all the annual plants to the ground.

Weekend warriors with leaf blowers strapped to their backs give each other the knowing salute of someone who has surrendered to the whims of nature.

This house is the house I drew in art class as a little girl. The meandering stone walkway, which I built in the spring, is just as I had always imagined my walkway would be, someday.

After a day of bagging and hauling leaves it was time for dinner.

Only a veggie pizza from the neighborhood pizza joint would do. A nice malbec and a seat under the stars was the perfect way to end the day.