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Last night we opened a jar of Sicilian Eggplant Caponata that we picked up at Michael Chiarrelo's Napa Style store. Yum-my. Elli and I were in there a few weeks ago and sampled all the different bruschetta spreads . Believe it or not, the eggplant was her favorite. So we bought a jar. (Only one, because it's 10 bucks.) I have to tell you, the flavor is awesome. (And I'm not a huge eggplant fan.) It's made with roasted eggplant, capers, olive oil, roasted red peppers, balsamic, garlic, anchovies, italian parsley, and thyme. It tastes great with crackers and wine. Actually, that's all you need. Some nice fresh bread would have been nice, but the crackers worked just fine. We pulled a bottle of red wine from from the wine cellar (aka, the hall closet.) The 2004 Rubaiyat from Cakebread Cellars tastes a lot like a zinfandel (I think.) It's fruity, jammy, with aromas of blackberry. It was totally delish. My kind of red wine for sure. So the next tim...

One of the demonstrations that got a lot of attention was sponsored by Scharffen Berger Chocolate and TuttiFoodie.com . Chef Elizabeth Faulkner took about 18 ingredients and mixed them all up in the biggest chocolate box you've ever seen. She had everything from pretzels and corn nuts to brownies, peanut butter, and home-made marshmallow (YUM!) to stranger stuff like Pandan Leaf , smoked paprika and chili peppers. After she got it all mixed up everyone donned rubber gloves, and dug their hands in the mix and ate the ooey gooey chocolatey concoction.  I'm serious. They did. I have to tell you. I couldn't do it. Watching everyone eat it was hilarious though. And watching the people watch the people, was also hilarious. It looked like....well.... the pictures tell it all. I will say one thing. The whole area smelled divine. I was standing with Danica from Danica's Daily Blog. She was a trooper and tried it. She said it was "interesting and smokey" or...

On Saturday I attended BlogHerFood 09 in San Francisco at the gorgeous St. Regis Hotel . I wish I got to stay there. But since I live about 25 minutes away, and I've only earned $1.09 from my blog. I couldn't cough up the $$$. BlogHerFood was a one-day event filled with seminars, food demonstrations, food to eat, food to look at, and lots and lots of bloggers. Some bloggers were invited to special dinners in Napa and SF. Not me.  But maybe next time. Who knows. There were some true Food/Chef celebrities in attendance. Rocco DiSpirito was there. And Elizabeth Faulkner , of Citizen Cake was there! I'm sure you'll recognize her from Top Chef Masters or Iron Chef. I got a front row view of her making this crazy chocolate thing for Scharffenberger Chocolate. I'm going to blog about it tomorrow. I have to admit, I was completely overwhelmed most of the day. And I was not alone. A lot of bloggers knew each other. Many of us came alone and felt like very small f...

Two years ago, this weekend, Don and I got to spend a glorious weekend at the Calistoga Ranch - all on someone else's dime. First of all, anytime you can go on a business trip with your spouse it's fun. When it's a fancy schmancy resort made up of individual guest lodges, that includes cool dinners and spa treatments - - it's even better. The picture to the right is just like the "lodge" we stayed in! I seriously didn't want to leave. Don had to drag me away. This is a photo of the living room - looking out onto the deck. We don't get perks like this much anymore. Which is a MAJOR bummer. So all I have are the memories.  Ah, the memories. Driving up to Calistoga in a stretch limo with my friend James, his friend and two others. Drinking wine. Stopping twice to make pit stops and buy more wine. (The journey is only about one hour.) Don was already there relaxing on the deck waiting for spazzo to arrive. We got to enjoy a delicious dinner...

Tomorrow I am attending my first ever blog-related function. I'm feeling a little geeky about it. But I'm also really excited. Don thinks I'm losing it. I'm spending more time with Mac than him. I think he's just jealous. He spends more time with Sam than me - so we're even. So I will be in San Francisco on Saturday attending an all-day conference called BlogHer Food  '09.  It's being hosted by a group called BlogHer . This one-day conference is specific to food bloggers. It's basically going to be about 200+ super chatty girls at the St. Regis hotel - together - for a full day. And into the evening. Because of course there is a happy hour and after-happy hour-parties. Yippee! There is a breakfast and lunch sponsored by California Milk and Bertolli. And breaks and demonstrations by TopChef, Pillsbury, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, Campbell's Soup Company and Swanson. There are three types of breakout sessions to choose from. The first, on d...

We get tons of magazines at our agency so I picked up a few in the mailroom to read over the weekend. As I was flipping through Body + Soul I came upon an article called "How to Eat Slowly". The girl in the article even looks like me. Have I been punked? Is Martha spying on me? Ok, I admit it. I eat fast. It's kind of a joke in my family. I don't know why I do it. But I have always eaten fast. Sometimes it's embarrassing. I'm often done way before everyone else. Elli is the opposite. We call her pokihontas. She is so slow it makes me nuts. According to the article, if I slow down it will help with digestion, weight and my overall health. So if I quit eating like a woodchuck maybe I can wear a bikini like Elli.  Just kidding. That is not a pretty image. I think I'll aim for wearing jeans comfortably (without having to do knee bends.) Here are the tips. I'm laughing. #1 is especially funny. Here we go. 1) Mealtime pause. Have another famil...

I've been on a huge kick lately making different salsa's, pesto's and chimichurri type sauces and pairing them with grilled steak, fish, pork, pasta and chicken. These sauces add so much flavor and are so easy to make in the food processor. They take minimal ingredients, and are pretty much risk free - which I really love. You really can't go wrong with fresh herbs, garlic and good olive oil, right? So I found this recipe in a new brochure promoting the fall wine releases from Duckhorn Vineyards in St. Helena - and I can't wait to try it. Have you ever had their wine? OMG it is good. Smooth, rich, delish. It's kind of on the expensive side. I've been lucky enough to taste quite a few of these wines at BevMo! events. The merlot they pair with this recipe is $85. Gulp. So here's the recipe. Ribeye with Salsa Verde     Salsa Verde 3 cloves of garlic 1 bunch of Italian Parsley, stems removed Zest of 1 lemon 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 t....

I got home last night and had a taste for breakfast. Amazingly, Don was ok with this. Elli was psyched.  She immediately asked for a bowl of cereal. That was not exactly what I had in mind. But ok. Here's your cereal, milk and banana. Yeah! You're fed. Now what about me!? I have eggs, cheese, a leftover baked potato, bacon, and some fresh herbs. I think I'll make a frittata. Giada de Laurentiis is always making yummy looking frittata's. So I pulled out her Everyday Italian Cookbook and made a few modifications (based on what I had on hand.) It was super simple and quite delish I must say. I made some toast to eat with it. All we had was wheat bread. Which is fine. But sourdough toast would have been divine. Next time. Of course I had a glass of wine with dinner too.  I brought home an opened bottle of Tapiz Malbec from the tv shoot we did today. Believe it or not, the wine tasted fantastic with the frittata. Who knew? You really should try a Malbec if you have...

Have you shopped on the Piperlime website yet? It's awesome. They started with really cute shoes, expanded to handbags, and now they have clothes. They recently posted the top 10 trends for fall. So when I saw this on their website I immediately  made a mental checklist of what I would be shopping for and what wine would I pair with each trend. Strange, I know. It's probably not healthy. But fashion and wine go hand-in-hand. They change with the season. Each one has personality, depth, history. Sometimes "you're in" and sometimes "you're out." So here are my picks. I have a bottle of Cava in the fridge that I'm dieing to open. I better order these little ruffle boots pronto. Won't they look cute with a pair of jeans? Click here to see the Piperlime  Fall Trend Guide  for yourself - without the pairings. Oh, did I tell you how fun it is when you receive the Piperlime box?  It's like getting a present. You'll have to place...

I saw this last year and thought it was hilarious. I swear I watched it five times in a row. I could totally see my brothers doing a stunt like this when they were young.  In fact, I think my brother Bill is the one who forwarded it to me. My sense of humor leans more towards tasteless, stupid human tricks. Nothing serious. Nothing too political or with much, if any, meaning. It's basic stuff like tripping or crashing into something. And I love pranks and practical jokes. Most of the jokes I see are forwarded from my brother. I don't know where he gets them. But they are usually hilarious. So here you go. I love a good laugh. I hope it makes you laugh too. Ya gotta love New Zealanders. Neckagility....that's funny.    

I had a pretty long day yesterday. So by the time I got home I was wiped out and definitely didn't feel like cooking. I needed something super simple. Hello freezer. Speak to me. Potstickers. Excellent. I can make some sticky rice and I'm done. Not the most nutritious meal on the planet. But no one will go to be bed hungry. And I have some champagne from my TV shoot today which I might just have to drink with my potstickers. Say what? Yes. Champagne, or, Sparkling Wine actually. It goes fantastic with spicy asian food. And, the new handy champagne stoppers really work in the fridge to keep the bubblies bubbly. So there you have it. Don't save champagne for a special occasion,  it will make those frozen potstickers taste super duper special. This rule goes for wine with every day foods too. Just because you're eating something simple doesn't mean you can't enjoy it with a great glass of wine.  Like burgers, they go really well with practically any red win...

The other day Elli asked me why we named her Elli. We've had this discussion before. I told her again that we thought it would be nice to give her a family name. So we named her Elliott Grace. Elliott, after her grandmothers maiden name on Kris's side, and Grace, after her great-grandmother on Don's side. We knew we would shorten Elliott to either Elli or Elle. But we also thought we would reserve picking the main name until we met Elli.  If she was full of spunk and energy we would call her Elli.  If she was more reserved and quiet we would call her Grace.  She is definitely an Elli. She asked if we thought about any other names. I remembered that I had a list in a diary that I kept about our whole adoption journey and trip to China. We looked in the back of the book and sure enough, there was a list of names. She thought this was the coolest thing ever. We've actually had many discussions with her about her name. A few years ago some kids told Elli she had a boy...

I've been making these potato wedges for a while now.  Everyone seems to like them - kids, adults, even picky eaters. They taste better than french fries - and they're not fried! The recipe originally came from an issue of Everyday Food  . But I cannot find it on Martha's site. So, what makes them so yummy? Well, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, of course! It gives them a nice, salty, cheesy flavor. They get really crisp when you bake them in the oven. And they leave yummy, cheesy bits on the pan. The potatoes pair really well with grilled chicken, barbeque, steak or burgers on the grill. They take about 30 minutes to bake, so they can be cooking away while you are at the grill. Parmesan Steak Fries 2 Potatoes - yukon gold or red potatoes, cut into wedges 1 - 3 egg whites whipped until frothy Salt Freshly grated Parmesan cheese Preheat oven  to 425. Bake 30 minutes. The recipe is really flexible. You decide how many potatoes you want based...

On Sunday I decided to make chili and cornbread. It was a gloomy morning. Football would be on all day. It just sounded good. Instead of letting Don make the chili. I decided to make it and use a new recipe. I found one in my Bobby Flay cookbook . I'm a huge fan of Bobby's. So I knew it would be full of flavor and have some heat to it. I had to go to two stores to get all the ingredients. He uses a lot of chili spices that apparently are not stocked at every grocery store. The cornbread recipe called for white corn meal. Couldn't find that. So I bought yellow. Things did not go well in the kitchen. The recipe is time consuming. Definitely not worth all the effort and ingredients. I should have checked the recipe and reviews online first. Of course I did after. I think the people with positive reviews were telling a little white lie. I believe the people with multiple exclamation points in their answer were truthful. The chili took forever to make. And it was horri...

We had grand plans to go to the beach on Saturday. Unfortunately, there was a killer rainstorm with thunder and lightening on Friday night into Saturday morning. The sky was gloomy.  It was definitely not going to be a beach day. So I took our sandwich fixings and made some killer grilled cheese sandwiches instead. I didn't have any fancy ingredients. Just basic stuff. Of course if I had some better bread and different cheese I definitely would have used that. I don't know about you. But I love grilled cheese. When I was young I loved it made with Muenster cheese for the excellent stretchy factor. It seemed like it could stretch, and stretch and stretch.  When I worked for Einstein Bros Bagels they had a grilled cheese sandwich that was made with three cheeses and in my opinion was too die for delicious. It was called the Ultimate Toasted Cheese Sandwich. Today I made us grilled cheese with ham, Tillamook cheddar and a huge heirloom tomato that we bought on Friday. I s...

It feels like fall here in Northern California. Yeah! I finally did something with the very ripe bananas in the fruit bowl. So now we have some nice, warm banana crunch muffins. Ya gotta love the Barefoot Contessa. She has the best recipes. Yum. This afternoon I'll be making chili and cornbread. I'm trying two new recipes from my Bobby Flay cookbook. He seems like a chili-kind-of-guy to me. So I trust that it will be full of flavor and have some heat to it. Don will probably be glued to the tv all day watching football. So it's going to be a somewhat lazy day here in the Mulkey household. My mom sent me this picture this morning in the t-shirt we sent her from the Sausalito Arts Festival. She looks awesome doesn't she! So Mom, hate to to this to you, but.......the 49ers play the Cardinals today. Go niners !!!!! "I don't know, but I've been told The Niners rock and the Cardinals are old. We'll kick your butt, you better watch out. Game o...

The festival was last weekend. It was a gorgeous, sunny day. We rode bikes.  Ate some food. Drank some wine. And some beer. And some water. Looked at art. Bought art. Listened to music. Had a great time. Click here  and you can see a few more pics. The artist, Pop Zhau, who paints the Mao paintings wasn't at the festival in 2008. He was commissioned by the Chinese Olympic committee to do work there. But he was back this year. Here is Elli in front of the same painting we saw in 2007. Weird. Then (2007) and now (2009.)

I don't know where I've been. But somehow I missed that there is a movie coming out about Anna Wintour, Editor of Vogue. Sometimes referred to as "The Devil." Ms. Wintour has quite a reputation. Remember the movie "Devil Wears Prada"? Well Anna Wintour is the real person that Meryl Streep portrayed in the movie. Aaaah, now you're interested, right? Powerful women. Claws. Supermodels. I'm in. (kidding about the claws. They are beautifully manicured nails.) The movie "September Issue", is a documentary by director R.J. Cutler, about the making of the single largest issue of Vogue ever printed - weighing in at a whopping 5 lbs! The magazine hit the news stands right as the economy was starting to tank in the fall of 2007. Remember? The movie is a behind-the-scenes peek at how the September 2007 issue was put together. It follows Anna Wintour and her creative director Grace Coddington, as they made major decisions involving big buck pho...

This has to do with laundry. Sheets in particular.  As my client would say, "I have a nit." He's British. I was doing laundry the other night. I put the sheets in the dryer to dry. When I went get them out of the dryer the sheets and pillowcases were in a huge CLUMP.  All balled up in the fitted sheet. AAAAHHHHHHH!!!  Does this happen to anyone else, or just me? Stuff like this makes me cranky.  The sheets get all wrinkled. And everything that gets caught in the fitted sheet doesn't dry and is so krinkled it looks like a piece of paper you have crumpled up and thrown in the trash. Inevitably, I end up taking everything out, but the flat sheet, and drying it separately. How mad would you be if your beautiful Bella Notte linens (shown here) were in a clump in the dryer! Here's my idea.  Instead of making the fitted sheets with elastic. Which turn into nice little pockets for everything to get caught in, use snaps .  Yes, snaps. This way, you ca...

I go through phases where I bake all the time and then not at all. I've been going through a baking kick lately. I love desserts with fruit in them, and now's the time to bake with fruit. My favorite recipes are from  Nancy Silverton  from LaBrea Bakery. I've had pretty good success with her recipes. They are not simple or quick to make, but they are always delicious. Baking is tricky. The slightest mistake can mean disaster. Sometimes you don't know what you did wrong. It just didn't work out for some reason. I often wonder if the recipe is right. I knew a woman a few years ago who wrote cookbooks for a well-known, high-end kitchen store/chain. She said they often created recipes without really making them! That was eye opening to me. Maybe it's not me. Maybe it's the recipe. See this image here? It's for a Brown Butter and Fruit Picnic   Tart that called for butter and vanilla bean cooked until you get brown butter. mmm, mmm, mmm. (Elli is sh...

Oh jeez. I just had a major flashback to 1987. True story: I walked into my office and realized that one of the foam shoulder pads I was wearing was missing. MISSING! I panicked. I quickly patted down my entire body to see if it had moved to a new location. Which happened a lot. Nope. Oh...my...gosh.  Where is it?  I quickly retraced my steps and found it on the ground in the parking garage. It had fallen out and I didn't even notice. I wonder if anyone saw it happen? It must have looked like I pooped out a big piece of foam! Nice. This was a sign and I completely missed it.  I should have realized that foam shoulder pads worn with every clothing item I owned (including t-shirts) was a bad, and ridiculous looking idea.  But no, I stuck it back in its place and went on with my day like nothing happened. So to my horror, I read on the front page of the Style section in the SF Chronicle that bold shoulders and shoulder pads are back.  No way. Not gonna do it...

Here's one more exhibitor for the Sausalito Art Festival that I want to mention. The company name is Chajo . They are based in Napa and make gorgeous custom wood furniture. The owners are Jonathan and Chanin, really nice youngish couple (as in my age. So youngish!) We do all the leather work for their cubes and chairs, so in essence, we're at the festival too!! Here's a peek at a new chair we've been working on with them and their super-cool cubes with fossilized limestone tops. (You know you want one.) Now, before you go, take at look around you. See an empty space on the wall? Are you tired of staring at the cheap print you picked up at Ross or L-N-T? Is your coffee table from 1980? Measure the space, and get your tooshie over to the festival and start shopping. It's time to spruce up. Forget about the price tags. They all take plastic. Support these talented artists. Buy some art!

The Sausalito Art Festival is this weekend. Yeah! This is really the only art festival we go to anymore.  It has the most interesting and professional art of any show in the area - in our opinion anyway.  And it's rated the #1 outdoor art festival in America. Not sure who voted them #1. But I completely agree. I've been to a lot of festivals in my lifetime (used to do corporate event sponsorship.) I've seen it all. They have an interesting mix of art, sculpture, music , food and wine. Here is Elli, in 2007, standing in front of a painting and a sculpture that we saw.  We didn't buy the Chairman Mao painting, or the horse sculpture, but they definitely got our attention and got us talking. Which is what I think art should do -get your brain churning. One of the nice things about the festival is that it's close enough to where we live in Mill Valley that we can bike to it. They have V.I.P. bike parking right up front in a secure area. It's free. Super convenient....