It must be a sign of the times (one of many) that I flipped through my morning Wall Street Journal yesterday to find an item about new advertising efforts by the Velveeta folks “designed to appeal to budget-conscious consumers.” They’re taking advantage of this weekend’s Super Bowl snack-o-rama for some targeted (Internet-savvy women aged 25 to 50 [...]
Entries from January 2009
January 29, 2009
A Distinctive Wine Experience: Saint Vincent Tournante
It was already pretty wonderful just to be in France at all for those nearly three years I spent (mostly) working and studying at La Varenne. But on occasion a really magnificent, unexpected, enchanting experienced came along to make the stay even more magical. This was one of those occasions: a very cold, foggy January [...]
January 8, 2009
Kitchen Treasures: Vanilla Sugar
I don’t recall the exact moment that I was first introduced to vanilla sugar, though it certainly was in France. May have been during my study-abroad time in Dijon, seeing my host family using those little envelopes of sucre vanillé in a recipe. And it certainly came up a number of times when back in [...]
January 6, 2009
Here truffle, truffle
The Puget Sound Business Journal featured an item recently about a new kind of cultivation coming on the scene: that of the truffle. It’s no easy feat to cultivate truffles, they’re still going to have some unpredictable, wild tendencies and take their time to (hopefully) flourish. But at least one 2-acre plot of recently planted hazelnut trees–whose roots [...]
January 5, 2009
One Favorite Ingredient: Vermouth
I really have a thing for vermouth. And it’s not ALL about the cocktails. I use it loads in cooking too — last night to deglaze a skillet after pan-frying steaks, sometimes splashed in a pan of braising greens, and I pour a swig or two into the roasting pan about halfway through roasting chicken. I go [...]
