From the monthly archives:

September 2009

Pumpkin Soup

September 30, 2009

Some foods are forever linked to the place you first ate them or first cooked them. For me, pumpkin soup stirs up memories of St. Lucia. I spent three weeks in St. Lucia in early 1993, not entirely by design. I blame it on Northern Magic.

Read the full article →

Wipeout

September 28, 2009

I had a little conversation with myself right before this photograph was taken. It went something like this…

Read the full article →

In Defense of America

September 18, 2009

Our Italian holiday is now but a pleasant memory and life is back to normal. The kids are in school, the cruise ships are starting to come back and the dinner parties are in full swing. There was the usual international island crowd at our friend Michael Helm’s on Wednesday. There were fifteen dinner guests from five different countries [...]

Read the full article →

Back on the Balcony

September 14, 2009

Home. It took 3 airplanes and 23 of hours traveling through 4 countries to get back. Amazingly, every single flight took off and landed on schedule. We had tapas in the very modern and very cool Madrid airport. Tropical Storm Erika was cooperative and didn’t delay us (though she did bring some much needed rain to the B.V.I.). A kind U.S. Customs agent [...]

Read the full article →

Hitting the Chianti Trail

September 9, 2009

I’ve never been one for touring vineyards. The thought of tripping through Napa with the wine snooties certainly doesn’t appeal. I do like to drink wine, but never bothered to find out much about the places that produce it. Though I always admire a pretty vineyard view in the countryside. Hell, I’ve never even seen Sideways.

Read the full article →

Lunch With The Grouch

September 2, 2009

To paraphrase (very loosely) Ebenezer Scrooge - if I had my way, every restaurateur who goes about with truffle oil on his menu would be boiled in a vat of truffle oil and buried with a vial of the vile stuff stuck through his heart. There may be good truffle oil out there, but I haven’t tasted it yet. I detest [...]

Read the full article →