It all recalls a famous song...

Mushrooms. As a child, I could find the best concealed mushroom in any dish my mom made and root it out, shoving it to the side of the plate, complaining loudly.  It wasn’t until I moved to California and married a mushroom loving guy that I tried them again, discovering that I really liked them.

It was a third cousin, which brought the tree back to the early 1800s. That DNA search was fascinating, it involved creating a family tree and then doing a genealogy which involved searching death and birth certificates, census records and even sending investigators to graveyards to check on headstones. When they got…

One of the best memories of my childhood was when my mom and my oldest sister did an “omelette party”. I bugged my mom about doing one when we watched Julia Child do french omelettes on her cooking show. It seemed so magical and fancy.

Ask any IT person of a certain generation about what film they found funny about their collective work experience, Office Space comes up frequently. The mafia style beat down of the printer is something that gets referenced in particular. Another TV series that seems to spring from the Office Space mold is the British …

When the kids were home, we used to go through the big box of Cheerios easily every two weeks, along with the mac n’ cheese, and Goldfish.  Lots and lots of Goldfish...

Because things like this are fascinating for me, I looked this up. Dear god there are are seventy-seven characters, and its over four hundred pages in length.

Vintage coppertone childhood kitchen here. Along with vintage Tupperware, it amazes me how much vintage Corningware is going for these days at the local “antique” fairs.

As much as I love Drag Race, I think I’m going to stick with the regular seasons and bag All Stars.  This ending felt like a compromise of the highest order.

Rick Steves was great when we did our first trip to Berlin and Brussels. One thing that I thought he said that was brilliant “No one ever takes a larger suitcase on their second trip to Europe”. After dragging a too large suitcase on the Regio and InterCity trains first trip, we definitely downsized our second trip.

You all are the hops to my barley.  Happy Valentine’s Day.

I lust your kitchen.  Seriously.

We stopped going out for Valentine’s Day a few years back, since as a vegetarian the non-meat options on a fixed menu are always abysmal and the service always feels rushed. Plus as a co-worker recently said, it always feels like a weird cult of only couples meeting in one place en masse.

I saw your post and was going to ask if you had the poster. My son was cataloging the family vinyl archives and texted me about that album. I asked him, is the poster still inside? I got a text that said just this:

Belgian chocolates or go home.  Seriously.  

As much as I love In and Out (even as a vegetarian, getting their burger sans meat is a really nice tomato sandwich), their fries are seriously horrible.  The only way to get them to palatable state is to request them “extra crispy”.

Yes, parts of Germany, at least where my Nana came from added sour cream.  I’ve actually made goulash with seitan and it comes pretty close to the original taste.  I’m a bit heavy handed with paprika tho’; I think its a genetic trait. 

If you want to do a cool weekend, do the Garlic fest and the Antiques Fair at Moss Landing. They always land on the same weekend. The Antiques Fair is fun just to see all the odd stuff people have out to sell. Then if you’re feeling adventurous, go kayaking in Elkhorn Slough! 

It’s a fun culinary event if you love garlic. The only drawback is that in July, Gilroy can hit the century mark. Like San Genaro in NYC, its one of those festivals you skip breakfast before you go. The food booths are plentiful, and the usually have a good variety of amateur and professional chefs.  I still make a…

If you are ever in the Bay area of CA in late July, the Gilroy Garlic festival is worth a drop in. Its a huge festival in celebration of Garlic and yes, it can lean heavily towards the kitsch, but the food can be amazing. The oddest thing I ate that tasted quite good, was garlic ice cream. It was a nice strong vanilla…