Ten days ago today, was my 3rd Blogiversary and I put up my 1000th post. On that momentous day, I included this picture.

Yesterday, I found this picture of a painting by artist Sarah Ashley Longshore, on Facebook…

[Read more →]

We arrived home on Wednesday night and hit the ground running on Thursday. Dave and I have been singing THAT SONG for the last couple of days now.

I have enough photos and stories from our Alaskan adventures to fill days and days of blog posts – but of course, this IS a cooking/food blog, NOT a travel log – so this will be my last Alaskan entry. A pictorial really, which much to Dave’s dismay, is not necessarily in chronological order – I hope you enjoy it…

The photos above and below were taken in Ketchikan, and they just caught my fancy.

While in port in Ketchikan, Dave and I went on a “Cruise George Inlet and Crab Feast” excursion. I was one of the lucky two chosen to haul up a crab trap.

Here is Dave holding the largest Dungeness crab of the day.

And below is the pile of crab shells our table of four amassed at the feast! There was a competition between tables for the tallest tower.

[Read more →]

photo credit: Erik Roper

So sorry! I was just informed that the last two posts had no photos. Without my knowledge, they were not uploaded while I was WiFi challenged in Alaska.  Please go back to two posts and check out the missing pictures… they are awesome!

[Read more →]

I have very limited minutes of free internet while we are in Juneau… so I give you just a few of my amazing Alaska images. That is Sawyer Glacier behind us in the photo above.

It looks tiny compared to the fabulous Hubbard Glacier. We watched as it calved more than a dozen times. Spectacular!!!

[Read more →]

We’ve seen and done some wonderful things… all prior to boarding the ship for the cruise portion of our trip. The final day and night were spent in at The Hotel Alyeska in Girdwood, surprisingly, one of the few ski resorts in Alaska.

Upon viewing the map of ski trails, I’ve never seen so many black double-diamond runs in one place before!

The best thing I did that last day?

[Read more →]

For the first four days of our Alaskan trip, we have been in Denali National Park and Preserve. We stayed at the lovely Grande Denali Lodge, high on a hilltop over the town. The best day, by far, was when we were taken on the Tundra Wilderness Tour – a 53-mile, 8-hour tour, with a certified driver/naturalist. Our driver was Peter, and he was beyond amazing! Although we were riding on a “remodeled” school bus, it was one of the most enjoyable and informative tour-guided trips I’ve ever done.

Beautiful Denali Mountain looming large in the background, still visible, even beyond my huge hair – frizzed out from the humidity.

And from what not only Peter said, but just about everyone else in Denali told us, it was one of the most perfect, beautiful, and fruitful sighting days seen in many a summer.  Denali Mountain (also known as Mount McKinley – see the story and controversy over that name HERE) is most often shrouded in clouds. It was such a warm (warm for Alaska) and cloudless day, that the mountain was “Out” for what Peter told us was only the sixth day since May.

And although, we came with the expectations of seeing literal herds of caribou and moose, packs of wolves, and flocks of eagles – turns out, that no matter what we’ve all seen in movies, that is not how it “works” in Denali.

So when we not only saw the mountain in all its unclouded glory, but we saw just about every wild animal possible. First a small herd of Dall sheep on the mountainside.  Then two male caribou, with full racks of antlers, on a ridge and a lone bear in the brush, quite far from the bus. Next, up, is a cow moose, also rather far from the bus, but viewable with the zoom lens on my camera. Plus the bus is equipped with a super-zoom video camera that Peter is an expert with and screens throughout the bus for all to see “up-close”.

Best of all, we saw four different sets of mama bears with their cubs – from new spring cubs to 3-year-olds (grizzly cubs stay with their mother for the first 3 years of their lives before heading out on their own) and oh my, are they adorable!

[Read more →]

This is my first photo of Alaska, flying into Anchorage on Alaska Airlines – with glaciers below.

After checking into our hotel, we went exploring and found a huge open-air market. Love these license plate maps.

It was a beautiful 70+ degree day. Don’t know why these people have long pants and sleeves on – we were in shorts and t-shirts!

Kinda wish I would have bought some of these antler buttons.  If I stumble upon them again, I will for sure.

Ulu knives with bone handles. An ulu is an all-purpose knife of the Yupik and Inuit Eskimo. It was traditionally used for everything from skinning and cleaning animals, to cutting food and, if necessary, trimming the blocks of snow and ice used to build an igloo.

[Read more →]

Three Years and Exactly 1000 posts!

Wow, time flies when you’re doing what you love to do! I didn’t realize until I began planning for this post, that I started my blog the day after Julia Child’s birthday.  It is appropriate though, especially if you read my very first entry HERE!

As I’m traveling through Alaska on this momentous day, I want to thank each and every one of you who read what I write and cook the recipes that I create. Whether you check in every day and are a treasured loyal follower, or just stop by every now and then… I appreciate you more than you know!

[Read more →]

American legend, Julia Child, would have turned 100 today. Julia died two days shy of her 92nd birthday in 2004.

Photo by Hans Namuth
Gelatin silver print, 1977
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

In 2001, Julia Child donated the kitchen from her Cambridge, Massachusetts home to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C.  It includes the cabinets, appliances, cookbooks, pegboard, kitchen table, and hundreds of her kitchen utensils and gadgets.

Julia’s turquoise kitchen had been on display from 2002 until this past January.  The National Museum of American History will temporarily reopen the exhibit today through September 3, 2012, in honor of her birthday. It will be open again permanently in November 2012 and will anchor an expanded food exhibit.

Image

Additionally, 100 restaurant chefs across the country have been firing up their ovens all week to honor Julia’s amazing culinary legacy. Four of our own Valley chefs are participating. CLICK HERE to read about some of their fond and funny memories of Julia and then drool over their menus, especially the one at Quiessence at the Farm at South Mountain. The tribute dinner there has been organized and will be hosted by our Phoenix Chapter of Les Dames d’Escoffier International, the chapter of that I am a founding member.  So sorry to be missing it!

As I’ve mentioned before, I too, had the pleasure of meeting and later working with the incomparable Mrs. Child.

1994 in San Francisco

2001 in Minneapolis

Believe me, I know how very blessed I am to have had that honor.

Here are two photos from the IACP Culinary Concerts from when I was the producer.

Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, Shirley Corriher, and Martin Yan on stage in Providence, Rhode Island on March 29, 2000

In this photo, the chefs were choosing ingredients for a signature dish they were going to make together. Martin had pulled out a bunch of cilantro and handed it to Emeril. Emeril showed it to Julia and she matter-of-factly said, “I don’t like cilantro.” Emeril said, “No cilantro, then!” as he tossed it back into the basket in front of Martin. Martin made some comment and tossed the cilantro into the audience and obviously, it struck Emeril’s funny bone!

Martin Yan, Mary Sue Milliken, Emeril Lagasse, Jacques Pépin, and Susan Feniger in San Diego on April 18, 2002

Julia was scheduled to perform with these great chefs, but wound up with a bout of bronchitis. Here the chefs are making a birthday cake (a few months early) in her honor.

I am also privileged to own an autographed first edition of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, an amazing treasure. 

I have brought along the new Julia Child biography, Bob Spitz’s “Dearie:  The Remarkable Life of Julia Child” to read on my Alaskan trip. Can’t wait to dive into it.

[Read more →]

Pure brilliance!!! That is what I think of the idea of making Sriracha Powder from the wildly popular Sriracha sauce. The brilliant idea and recipe are courtesy of Chef Dale Talde of Talde in Brooklyn, New York.

Image

Chef Talde uses the powder to make his signature Sri-rancha, a Sriracha-flavored homemade ranch dressing. In my book, turning the sauce into a powder is brilliant for two reasons. First, it intensifies the delicious Sriracha flavor. Secondly, it prevents the sauce from watering down dressings, such as the ever-popular Sriracha Mayo. So many wonderful uses come to mind – including sprinkling it atop deviled eggs and potato salad or stirring it into soups and stir-fry.

Plus when you run out of Sriracha, which I do more often than I’d like to admit, you can have the powder on hand as a quick substitute until you get to the market again.

[Read more →]