Wine
“Great wine works wonders and is itself one.” Edward Steinberg, Making of a Great Wine ‘Tis is the season for sumptuous food and memorable meals, complemented by scintillating wine and sparkling champagne. In the past, we’ve explored exotic cocktails, but herewith we pay tribute to wine – the nectar of the gods. For millennia, man has labored to perfect and preserve the ambrosia of the glorious grape. The love affair is unending, and the history of the handkerchief records this passion. A Merry Christmas/Happy New Year greeting features celebratory champagne. A nascent tower of...
Read MoreMenus and Recipes
“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.” Ruth Reichl When it comes to food, it appears we’re coming full circle, back to the basics, but with a touch of flair. In the past, succulent home-cooked meals which satisfied both palette and spirit,took hours to prepare, and were eventually replaced with time-saving microwaved fare, minute rice, and take out. Harried income earners working 50-60 hrs. a week often gulped dinner, only to leave the table feeling full, but also empty – of satisfaction. Along came Alice Waters and California Cuisine prepared with...
Read MoreKitchen
Whether you love to cook, or employ the Cuisinart and Kitchen Aid only during the holidays, now is the season for sauce sorcerers, celestial bakers, and cuisine virtuosos. Who among us hasn’t relished rushing home through sleet, snow, rain or wind to savor a stovetop simmering with delectable delights? I recall one frigid evening I was caught in a Denver snowstorm with a flat tire! I had assembled spaghetti sauce the night before, and left it to simmer in a crock pot while I was at work. I arrived home – freezing, exhausted, and very late to find neighbors from across the hall outside my...
Read MoreTea
“There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.” Henry James The Portrait of a Lady Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Sleet and snow, blizzards and cloudbursts envelope and surround us. Yet the flip side to winter’s frosty coin always lands happily heads up when we can take a moment for a cup of tea. It’s the perfect prelude for a snuggle or siesta, a game of backgammon or chess, or burrowing with a best seller by a blazing fire. Perhaps most comforting of all, it’s an elixir for every hour – from purple pre-dawns,...
Read MoreSummer Cherries
Summer’s here – time for swimming, napping in the hammock, catching lightening bugs in a jar, and yum! fresh, warm cherry pie. If you subscribe to the legend of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree as a boy, then this hankie is about as all-American as you can get. It practically says church picnic and patriotism all rolled into one. The beautiful embroidery combined with the formal white border render it elegant and timeless – equally appropriate for the wife of a President or the girl next door. . The kelly green border on this stunner makes those red cherries zing! It’s...
Read MoreDiet
You can’t watch tv or listen to the radio the first few weeks in January without being deluged with diet programs of every kind. The tv show Biggest Loser promises to return “Bigger and Bolder” than ever – perhaps not the best choice of adjectives for a show on dieting. Even Jane Fonda has resurfaced in leotard and headband to teach AM/PM yoga. Yep, you can work out with her morning and night! Whether you planned to get into shape or not, you may be shamed into doing so. Calorie counting is nothing new, as these 1940’s and 50’s hankies will attest, although methinks they did it with a...
Read MoreHappy New Year
Oh dear, looks like this hapless chap may require a bit of “hair of the dog” to restore him to his former glory, or at the very least to an ‘upright and locked’ position. Note the wobbly-kneed stance so cleverly depicted by the four-footed stumble of our staggering celebrant. Or is it just our own double vision? If you’ve ever attempted to “party hearty” like this sad creature, your sympathies are with him, I’m sure. Aside: Hair of the Dog dates back to the time of Shakespeare, and is a term we use today to refer to treatment for a hangover. Apparently the Scots believed that a...
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