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Unlike most of the country last week. We were blessed with gorgeous, sunny, spring like weather for most of the week. Unfortunately for us it disappeared in time for the weekend and drizzly cold rain came in it's place. Now I know those of you that are buried in snow really don't care. And I don't blame you. I've been there in the snowy northeast. But I live in California now. Home of sunshine and palm trees. It doesn't feel like winter. More like fall in the northeast. Which reminds me of pumpkin, and pumpkin muffins which I just so happen to have in the freezer. See? You don't even have to wrap them very well. I made these weeks ago and froze them individually for times like this - when you want something sweet but the cupboards are bare. Well not really bare. But it doesn't feel like there is anything good in there. Pumpkin Muffin I plan to go shopping tomorrow after I get my last pay check. Holy cow. As of tomorrow I'm a free agent. Unem...

Ok. This may not mean anything to you. But holy cow. This was the tasting of all tastings for us ordinary folk. And I was there. The winemakers from Bordeaux go on a week long US tour previewing the 2008 Bordeaux for all the wine snobs in the world. They start in San Francisco, then head to Chicago, Boston and New York. The San Francisco tasting was held in the grand ballroom at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. There were  hundreds of people in attendance. I was a guest of my friend Wilfred Wong . The entrance to The Palace Hotel San Francisco. Gorgeous! There were people from wineries, restaurants, magazines, websites, blogs, retailers. Everyone was required to wear a nametag so you knew who they were. I saw people from every top wine retailer on the West Coast - along with some of the best restaurants. At one point I found myself standing in one spot just rotating in a circle about three times checking it all out. Check out the crowd and this beautiful room. ...

I think I need to start setting my sights higher.  Check out what Tyler Florence has done since moving to Mill Valley. Holy cow. He's making me feel like a slacker. I better get to it! Wine Enthusiast Magazine - Restaurateur of the Year Chef Tyler Florence from Michael Coleman on Vimeo . He's on TV, he has cookbooks, kitchen shops, a signature wine label, an iPhone app and opened THREE restaurants in six months. Really!!! Clearly I need to get over my sad, sorry self and kick it into gear. His money people need to speak to my money people. 'Cuz he's got some serious financial backing coming from someone. And our little Napa business wants in on the fun. sigh...... I must confess. After I typed in the first sentence, and linked the video, I went back to read what I wrote and totally cracked myself up. I typed in "I think I need to set my sites hire." You gotta love subliminal messages your brain sends to you. I was having a separate conversation...

I lost a dear friend to lung cancer last Friday. He was a husband. A father. And a friend. He was also a life-long smoker. He worked in the tobacco business most of his career. As did his father. He was only 58. And now he's gone. And I'm sad. And I don't want anyone else to feel this way. Ever. So please. To everyone out there that smokes. Please stop. Today. Greg Watson 1952 - 2011 Mya and Greg in China, 2002 We met Greg in 2000. He and his wife Kelley were part of our small group that traveled to China to adopt our daughters. We all became very close - almost like family. It was quite an emotional journey. We shared laughs and tears, and stories, and more than one bottle of wine. Our most memorable moments were at their house hanging out on their deck eating Greg's famous ribs and drinking his special margaritas.   I wish we could have gone to Connecticut to say goodbye. I have to tell you though. On Tuesday morning ...

Thanks to Trop 50 for sponsoring my writing about fabulous bloggers. This year Trop50 is granting 50 fabulous wishes. Click here to enter for a chance to win $1,000 to help grant a friend's wish! Speaking of friends, I was talking to a friend the other day about blogs. She's a new blogger. And I'm somewhat of a veteran now that I've had my blog almost two years. I was giving her a few tips that I've learned along the way which led to bringing up some of the blogs that I like. I remember asking my friend Kelly what blogs she likes. And from there I discovered a whole, huge world of blogs. So I thought I would share five of my favorites with you. Here they are. In no particular order. I couldn't really pick a favorite favorite. Deb SMITTEN KITCHEN Love, love, love her blog. Deb lives in NYC. She cooks in a teeny, tiny kitchen. She has a toddler. And cranks out some of the most amazing, yummy food. Ever. She has great photography skills. You will ...

I don't know about you. But the mister and I love our margaritas on Friday night. There's nothing better to end the work week than one (or two) margaritas on the rocks. Oh who am I kidding. Really. Who only has one margarita? You have to have two. Because the first one is finished before your date can answer the question "How was your day?" And you need the second one to wash down the salty tortilla chips and the guacamole. This one you can take your time and enjoy. And f-u-g-g-e-t about frozen margaritas. That is so 1990. Let's not go there. If you're in our neighborhood on a Friday night you'll probably find us at a local Mexican restaurant. Feel free to come and join us. The more the merrier! We recently did a little tequila tasting at home (for fun.) Don read about a new tequila that got a Silver Medal at the SF Spirits competition so he wanted to give it a try. It's distributed locally so we thought that was kind of cool. Lucky for us they...

There are certain names you don't forget. They are unique. Or are tied to someone who had a huge effect on you - positively or negatively. They stick with you. Like the name Margaret. It reminds me of a big, red-headed girl in gym class that could throw the dodge ball harder than any boy. I have secretly feared the name Margaret ever since. Then there's the name Sclafani. I once knew a family named Sclafani that was unlike any family I had met before. I haven't seen them in thirty years. But I remember them. I thought of Donna Sclafani the other day when I wrote the story about the Italian one pot meal. She's Italian, her mother was always cooking, and it just made me think of her. We were friends in 8th grade. She lived down the street from me in a split level house. I have no idea where she is now. But at the time, I had never met a family like hers before. They were very New York. I don't remember where her parents were from. But my guess is Brooklyn or t...

Ya gotta love a word like Spezzatino. You have to say it like a character on The Sopranos. S-p-e-z-z-a-t-i-n-o. It helps if you squint your eyes a bit and cock your head to one side when you say it. And don't forget to nod. Now try it one more time. "Yo, anyone seen Joey Spezzatino?" Ha. So yeah, I made a new recipe from My Giada de Laurentiis cookbook called Chicken Spezzatino. And I think I had the cast of the Soprano's in the kitchen with me. Weird, I know. I didn't set out to make this recipe. I had chicken and a can of tomatoes and was in need of some inspiration. So I looked in the index of the Giada book and voila, I had MOST of the ingredients needed for Chicken Spezzatino. Perfect. This is how I fly. (And why things don't always taste exactly like they should.) But don't worry, I don't include those recipes here - unless they turn out. It's technically supposed to be a one pot meal. It took me three pots - a small, medium...

I'm not afraid to admit it. And I can say it out loud. I like this Pinot. I know, I know..... You've heard me moan and groan about my issues with Pinot and my sensitive palate. You've put up with all my whining about how I think they all smell and taste like stinky old barn. Not that I have actually tasted a barn, or hay, or dirty goats. But the smell is so strong for me that I can't get past it. So when Don poured me a glass of wine on Saturday and had a devilish smirk on his face I knew he was up to no good. He was going to try and trick me into something. But I'm smarter than that, because I spotted the BevMo purchase he made and noticed he bought a few bottles of Dahlia Pinot Reserve. Apparently he has forgotten that my friend Rob Jensen, of Testarossa fame, makes this Pinot and it is one of the few pinots I actually like! Because it tastes like fruit. Imagine that! Don bought it because Wilfred gave it a whopping 93 pts. And it was on sale. That's...

When I see the pictures of the people in Haiti it breaks my heart. I can't imagine. We experienced an earthquake here in San Francisco the other day. It rattled the building, shook our desks and made the rafters squeak. It was over in a matter of seconds. No harm done. We all went on with our day. Or in my case I jumped on Twitter to see if any of my other SF twitter friends felt it. The earthquake was recorded as a 4.1 and it's epicenter was somewhere near San Jose. By the next morning it was old news. This was not the case for the poor people in Haiti. On January 12, 2010, their world literally crumbled in a matter of 30 seconds. The people that live in San Francisco can relate to the horror and damage that an earthquake creates - - more than most people. Many people here experienced the horrible earthquake that occurred in 1989. It was recorded as a 7.1. You should hear the stories. But nothing can compare to what happened in Haiti. The 7.0 earthquake created so m...

This is not one of those buy this product and we promise you'll never have to do dishes again. But wouldn't THAT be awesome. It's much simpler. And a teeny bit ridiculous that something so simple took three years to accomplish. It has to do with my growing cookbook collection and the need to put them somewhere. I used to have my cookbooks piled up in the kitchen on top of the microwave, and on top of our sideboard. It made me crazy how messy they were. I wanted a shelf. (This picture was taken a few years ago before they took over the top of the microwave.) We looked for a shelf at West Elm. Didn't find one. But we did find a nice looking teeny weeny mantle for our fireplace. Great. What about my cookbooks? A year passes by...... I wanted one of those cool streamlined shelves that look really modern and seem-less. But Don insisted it wouldn't be strong enough for all the books. And he's right. So, another year passes by....... Finally I de...

 As in, "Oh no. Oli the parking attendant is gone. Fired." "What? Who?" you're asking yourself. Oli managed the parking garage where I park for work. I work in San Francisco where parking can be really challenging. I'm lucky I get to park my car in the same garage every day. It's in a condo building next door to my office. Most of the tenants work, so it frees up spaces for all the nearby businesses during the day.   That's my window! Oli (pronounced Oh lee) knew exactly where every car should go. He piled them in. And treated them with TLC. He hardly ever took a day off and when he did it was never good. No one could park the cars with such efficiency. We were always happy when he was back. And now he's gone and the parking garage is an unorganized mess. Cars are everywhere. They're piled in the wrong order. They're all over the place. It doesn't give you much comfort when you leave your car to someone creating such...

I feel old today. Mainly because my back hurts. I don't know if it's stress, lack of exercise, sore muscles from putting away the Christmas stuff (lame), an old mattress, or what. Or a combination of all those things. But my back hurts. And it's killing me. I'm no spring chicken so I'm not surprised that I have some aches and pains. But in my mind I'm still young. It's not until I look in the mirror - and see a face that I barely recognize do I really realize that I'm not young anymore. Don usually does a good job of keeping me in check. I'll say something like, "She looks a lot older than me and we're the same age!" and he'll give me that crazy look, with one eyebrow cockeyed. "Uh, hate to break it to you. But you look like you're the same age." he'll say, in the most loving way. "Oh no you didn't." Is what immediately goes through my mind. humph. I don't want to be old. But then ag...

Elli gave me this cookbook for Christmas. She went to the book fair at her school right before Christmas and saw two books that she wanted to buy for me and Don. She got Don the book "Earth" that Jon Stewart wrote. She knows how much he likes Jon Stewart and thought this was the perfect gift for him. She could not wait until Christmas when he could open the book. It was really cute. She picked out the new Tyler Florence cookbook for me. Tyler lives in Mill Valley and has a shop here. So she thought I would like it. And she's right. It was an incredibly thoughtful gift. I think she's going to grow up to be a thoughtful gift giver like her daddy. So over the next few months I'll be trying out some of his recipes. Don will be happy. He's got recipes like chicken fried steak, chicken and dumplings, gravy - real southern favorites that I've never made, that Don will love. The interesting thing about this cookbook is all the stories he incorporate...

WOO HOO!! Picture by Kristy Washburn Rapson, '86 Congrats to my alma mater. It was a great game! I can't wait to see all my office mates on Monday! This has been in my office for 2 weeks. You can imagine how happy everyone is that the game is finally over. It was a little bigger than I imagined it would be. Ha!