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I love cheese. It's usually the first thing I grab when I get home from work to curb my hunger until dinner is ready. A little piece of cheese will definitely quiet my grumbly tummy until we can sit down and eat. Plus it tastes fab with the glass of wine I'm drinking. Which is the second thing I grab after getting home. So I have to tell you about all the awesome cheese at BevMo! We included a bunch of it in the photos we took for the upcoming BevMo! newsletter. We had Couronne Brie, Manchego, Black Creek Cheddar, Dry Jack, Rosenborg Blue, Kerrygold Reserve Cheddar, Blue Stilton, Montchevre Garlic Herb Wedge, Fromage D'Affinois, Jarlsberg, Havarti......plus prosciutto, olives, crackers, bread sticks, nuts. Aaaaaaaah! I was in snack heaven.  We got huge wheels of cheese for the shoot from Marin Cheese Company. This isn't how they sell it at BevMo, it's portioned out. Because most people don't need a wheel of Manchega, It was seriously the size of a small t...

Last Saturday we went to Pine Ridge Vineyards in Napa. I had won an awesome prize at the Napa Chamber Golf Tournament by somehow, miraculously, winning the most accurate drive contest in our group. HA! I got my ball closest to the string - and wasn't even really trying. My goal is usually to just make contact with the ball and not completely humiliate myself. So winning something was a bit shocking. My prize was a Cabernet tasting for two and two bottles of amazing Cabernet from Pine Ridge. Awe-some! We asked our nice friend Blair if Elli could play with her daughter for the day so we could go to the store for a bit then go wine tasting without Elli being completely bored out of her mind. We spent the morning at Pollin's . I helped organize fabrics and Don caught up on paperwork. Then we took an hour to go over to Pine Ridge. We used to be a wine club member, so it was really nice to be back tasting their amazing wine. We got to taste five lip-smacking good reds. 200...

On Monday I mentioned that I tried some new recipes last week. The first was Mustard Pork Tenderloin (Good). The second was Thai Style Beef Salad (OK) and the third was Chicken and Orzo Greek Salad (Great!). The Thai salad was a bust. It didn't have any flavor. We ended up drowning it in Trader Joes' Asian Style Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette Dressing. Which helped it tremendously and made it taste really good. But that wasn't the intended recipe. I doubt we'll ever make it again. So we're going to move on. Thai-Style Beef Salad with Angel-Hair Pasta The recipe that Don and I liked a lot was the Chicken and Orzo Greek Salad . The flavors were great - light, fresh and summery tasting. It was perfect for dinner, and the leftovers made an awesome lunch. Elli wasn't as thrilled with this as Don and I were. But she's a trooper. She ate it anyway, even though she's not crazy about tomatoes and olives, so she picked through it. Shrimp (or Chicken) Orzo Gr...

So, since this blog is called "What's Cooking?" I figured I should share some food stuff every once in a while. Last week I was really stressed. I was at a photo shoot for three days and Don has some "stuff" going on at the store that has my stomach in knots. So what do I do when all this is happening? I cook. It takes my mind off my troubles. It gets me focused on something other than all my worries - for a little while anyway. And we get to eat some good chow! (Hopefully.) I was in the mood for salads that could be served as an entree. A one dish kind of meal. So, I opened this cookbook and started looking at all the pretty pictures. I picked out three totally different salads, made my shopping list, went to the store, and was set for the week. It really was as easy as that. Recipe #1  is Pork with Mustard Lime Vinaigrette, served with a Napa Valley Merlot. Now in hindsight, I don't really recommend trying to cook meals at home after you've b...

Don and I came home last Friday night to find a camper parked next to our patio. The drapes were closed, which signaled to us they were staying. Like sleeping next to our patio. Uh, hello. This is not a camp ground. I do not know you. And I doubt my neighbors do either. But I will investigate. Don't you worry!  The license plates are from Arizona. So I'm assuming the nice folks who own this camper are visiting someone here on our street. And they didn't just randomly pick our curb to park and camp. As I'm sitting here typing this Saturday morning I hear the camper door open. WAH! I jump off the lounge chair, run inside, and race to every window in the house, hoping to get a glimpse of the human inside. DOH! I missed them, but the door is still open. They will be back. I'm starting to feel like a cross between Monk and Mrs. Kravits (from Bewitched.) When all of a sudden SLAM! The camper door shuts. This time I just ran to the patio to see. Forget subtlet...

I love this part of my job! I got to spend three days in Sonoma on a photo shoot for an upcoming BevMo! catalog. This is the fun part of my job where I get to be a little creative. Normally they don't like it when us account folks get creative. But here we all work as a team making sure everything is just right for the client. Here are some behind-the-scenes shots that I took. I can't wait to see all our hard work in the catalog! Joanna, our stylist, making everything pretty. Joanna and Jimmy hard at work. The beautiful flowers and grape vines at Jacuzzi winery. Yummy wine in the making. I highly recommend a trip to Jacuzzi and Cline Cellars . They are both in Sonoma and are directly across the street from one another. They are wonderful places to visit if you are here in wine country.

I totally lied to my mom about this one. I'm sure she knows that. We started talking about weight and dieting while hanging out at the pool. Talking about dieting while in your bathing suit is never a good idea. So I lied, hoping we would move on to another subject. I told her I'm totally OK with my weight right now. Because if I said I wasn't, and wanted to lose weight, I would feel like she would be counting my glasses of wine and calories I'm consuming. The thing is, I'm not OK with my weight or what kind of shape my body is in. But I just don't feel like doing anything about it.  I hate the way I look in pictures. I have no shape. My body has changed to a  middle-aged mom figure. Blaaaaaaaaah. That bites. I know what needs to be done and I just don't have the energy. No, actually I just don't want to. That's even worse. But that's about to change. I'm going to do something soon. Right after I finish this post, and the laundry, a...

See this cute little face? It did this to the poor piggy. If you are a stuffy, you better stay away from my house. Because we are the house of death in stuffy-land. When I see all the stuffing guts all over the living room I feel a little sad. I know that's lame. But I think I've seen Toy Story one too many times. I know the stuffed animals are not real. They don't have feelings, or friends. They are fake. Not real. NOT REAL. Or are they? Last night I had to throw away Elli's little alligator that she won at the fair. Bentley found it. Tore off a leg and ripped out all it's guts. I felt a little sad this morning when I opened the trash can and saw the alligator lieing there all dead. And now he's covered in coffee grinds. Sorry little fella. So listen here Mr. Bentley. Unless you want to be banned to the kitchen the rest of your life you better straighten up. 'Cuz we're not buying anymore stuffies. We're done. And don't you dare...

There is a blogger out there by the name of Heather Armstrong who writes a blog called Dooce . It's a really funny blog. She's a great writer. I would compare her style to Larry David. It's not that she writes about nothing. But she writes about ordinary, everyday stuff, that makes you laugh. Because we've all been there too. So there's her introduction. Now on to the meat of the matter. She and her husband Jon just bought a new house. I have complete, and utter, house envy. Big time envy. Like my blood pressure is up kind of envy. Their business is blogging. They support themselves from her site Dooce and other things too I'm sure. They just bought this amazing house in Utah. It looks like it was custom-built. There are all kinds of "extras" including the most beautiful wood floors. Here's the kitchen . And the rest of the house . I WANT THAT HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!! What are we doing wrong? I have a full-time job in San Francisco running a very b...

To finish our lovely evening, Chef Knickerbocker guided us in making meringue served with berries and home-made whipped cream. It was fresh, light and tasty. Perfect for a summer evening dinner party. DESSERT Summer Meringue with Fresh Berries and a Rose Geranium Flavored Cream Fresh Mint Infusion We each took turns doing things. I was in charge of making one of the batches of meringue. Luckily I have some experience with meringue. Last Thanksgiving I made a coconut cream pie with meringue. Which I had to make twice. (Something funky happened with the first batch.) I had no problems this time around. After the meringue was done we spread it on a large baking sheet, lined with parchment. Then it went into the oven for a few hours. A good tip on this is to make the meringue the night before you want to serve it. Heat your oven, place the meringue in the oven. Turn off the oven. Go to bed. When you wake up you'll have perfect meringue. We also hand-whipped cream for the l...

Don and I didn't work on the entree. But I kept a close eye on what was happening.  I did help on the salad team. And wouldn't you know it, it's a tomato salad I have made many times. The only thing I do different is add fried shallots on top. Where she added croutons. MAIN COURSE Grilled Salmon with Peas and Mint Potato Gratin with Artichokes Heirloom Tomato Salad with Basil Vinaigrette Before we started to cook, Jayne, the head chef, told us about where she got the salmon. She is all about farm-fresh vegetables and sustainable farmed seafood and meats. So it was important to her that we knew about the fish.   She only buys fish that is in season, from a restaurant/fish market here in Sausalito called FISH because they have such strict policies with the fishermen they buy from. They have to abhold to a one man, one pole, one hook policy. That way they only fish for, and hopefully catch, what they set out to get. I guess I never really thought about it befor...