Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

My Pioneering Role Model Mom

Mom's 91st birthday - you bet with wheels rolling under her

Like a rumbling multistage rocket ripping with purpose to a world beyond, positive role models boost, guide and inspire us to heights not even they could ever imagine. My greatest role model is my dear ol’ mom.

Mom is an only child. I don’t remember ever meeting her parents. They died when I was young. But I sure heard stories of how my mom was influenced by them.

Most significantly, when Mom was 12 growing up in Santa Paula, California, just inland of Santa Barbara, she told her parents she wanted to be a nurse. Her dad had little formal education but a lot of common sense as a successful businessman and lemon rancher. He suggested, “Why not be a doctor? They’re the ones who make the important decisions.” Read more »

“Tasting the Tour” with Cherries, Blueberries and Peaches on Top – All in Pictures

Summer Fruit Compote

 

The 100th Tour de France wrapped up three incredibly exciting weeks of road racing with a spectacular first ever late evening finish in Paris last night. Terrific stuff – kind of like ending it all with a big fat red cherry on top.

Night finish to 100th Tour de France

As a tribute to a fantastic close to what I think is the toughest endurance sport event on Earth, here’s an easy-to-make summer fruit compote made with fresh Read more »

“Tasting the Tour” – Food From the 100th Tour de France Route, Part 4: Pan Seared Sea Scallops

After a well-earned day of rest following a week of fast-paced racing through France capped by eye-bugging climbs up the Pyrenees, the Tour got back on the road today ripping their way from Saint-Gildas-des-Bois to Saint-Malo in northwestern France. (For more information about the, click the picture below for a link to the official Tour de France site. For friendly, personalized help about traveling to Saint Malo – or anywhere else in France – click this link.) Read more »

“Tasting The Tour” – Food From the 100th Tour de France Route, Part 2: Provencal Vegetable Tian

Provencal Vegetable Tian

I got a good wry smile out of this line from SBNation.com regarding today’s stage 6 of the Tour de France from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier: “A relatively short 176.5 km trek across flat land should see this year’s sprinters shine once again”.

A relatively short 176.5 km (110 miles) – ripping the pedals at over 30 mph average? Ow! Read more »

“Tasting the Tour”: Food From the 100th Tour de France Route, Part 1 – Corsican Calzone

Corsican Calzone

The biggest cycling event of the year, the Tour de France, just got underway today. This year marks the hundredth anniversary of by far the toughest race on Earth that runs three weeks covering well over 2000 miles through the spectacular flats, hills and mountains of France.

Click for more info on Stage 1 from SBNation.com

As a lifelong cyclist and big tour fan, this year I’m researching some of the foods particular to the major regions the tour will ride through. For the first time ever, the first three days of the tour will be on the island of Corsica just southeast of France and west of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. As you might well imagine just by its sheer location, the food on Corsica is a fantastically rich blend of French and Italian flavors. Read more »

Starting a Conversation with New Dorm Room Food Video and Picture Book Recipe Ebook

Four years ago, I dreamed of putting together step-by-step video and picture books to help people get in and out of the kitchen as quickly as possible – and live to tell about it – with something darn flavorful on a plate. And though I hopped on that dream right away and do have video and picture books on the market, I’ve always been limited by book distributor file size constraints and could never have the videos directly embedded in the books free of Internet access. Now I can – but only through Apple and iTunes – and specifically, only for the iPad. Read more »

“Out of This World” Mai Tai Cocktail – All in Pictures

Mai Tai

Mai Tai is Tahitian for “out of this world”. Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron created his signature drink in Oakland, California in 1944 and is remembered for saying, “Anybody who says I didn’t create the Mai Tai is a dirty rotten stinker!”

That full-on attitude matches the rich citrus, almond and rum “out of this world” flavor of this popular tropical cocktail.

Rule of thumb to make two 4-ounce drinks: for every 2 ounces of lime juice, add 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 ounce almond (orgeat) syrup, 1 ounce orange curaçao 2 ounces white or amber rum and 2 ounces dark rum. Just click any picture on this page for a complete step-by-step picture book recipe.

Read more »

Fresh and Quick Iced Tea – All in Pictures

Fresh & Quick Iced Tea

All right! The temperature’s finally changing from cool to warm, so how ‘bout we take tea from hot to cold as easily as possible. What you’ll see here is the fastest and easiest way I know to make fresh and flavorful iced tea. The key is warming the water only enough to get the tea bags to steep effectively and then getting the tea in the refrigerator to cool as quickly as possible.

Just click any picture on this page for complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book directions. Read more »

Pickled Pork and Harvest Grains Alfredo Fusion – All in Pictures

Harvest Grains & Pickled Pork Alfredo

All right! Last post was something totally different: pickled pork. If you haven’t tried it yet, I hope you give it a shot sometime soon.

And if you do try it, here’s something very cool to make: Harvest Grains with Pickled Pork Alfredo. if you don’t have pickled pork on hand or don’t even want to make it yet, you can substitute any kind of leftover meat, chicken or fish. The same goes for Harvest Grains, which are a mix of Israeli couscous, baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa and can be substituted with rice, pasta or even quinoa. Easy! Read more »

Pickled Pork: Different But Delicious – All in Pictures

Pickled Pork

Now for something completely different – and darn good!

I got a request from a high school student in Saudi Arabia a few weeks ago for pickled meat. I’d never even heard of the stuff. So, I did some research online and put together the step-by-step picture book recipe for pickled pork you can get right here by clicking any picture on this page.  Read more »

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