Accidental Hedonist

One of the benefits of living in Washington State is a wine industry that is no longer burgeoning, but can now be said to be well established. But back in the day, Chauteau Ste Michelle was one of only a handful of wineries in the area. Bah, but that was the past. It’s simply nice [...]

I’ve been giving this post a lot of thought, as it can be rather tricky. I know, I know… I can hear you saying out loud, “What? How can reading wine labels be tricky? “ Well, it’s only tricky if you do not know what you are looking for. But you can learn a fair [...]

In my recent post linking to Mark Morford’s most excellent column about supermarkets, a reader commented the following: What does republican have to do with this rant – albeit his point is an excellent one, why politicize it? The dems have taken lots of money from the Safeway/Vons/Albertsons of the world. Starbucks – the Safeway [...]

In my never ending search to quench my thirst for information, I’ve decided to research several varietals of wine. Why? Why not? It gives me a great excuse to drink and find out the characteristics of these wines. But where to start first? Why my wine of choise, rieslings of course! Obviously I have a [...]

Well…not really…but kind of….well, it’s not like you can taste any human while eating the rice. What the hell am I talking about? It seems that Japanese researchers have inserted a gene from the human liver into rice to enable it to digest pesticides and industrial chemicals. The thinking being that this rice might be [...]

The first recipe from the Marches has both elements of the sea (the fish, obviously) and the forest (the mushrooms). The initial recipe called for monkfish, but I suggest using haddock, if only to be somewhat ecologically aware. Besides, monkfish is expensive. I also replaced black truffles with truffle spread (meh) and crimini mushrooms here [...]

Ooo.. tihs is a sweet pie. Not sweet in the way an 11th grader would respond to the latest Play Station Portable. No, this is sugary sweet. Almost overly so. I’ve made this dessert for the latest version of Is My Blog Burning, hosted this month by the ever fashionable Lady Goat from the Food [...]

I know, I know… I’m way off the standard path that I walk upon. But this’ll just take a minute of your time, and then we’ll get back to food, I promise. For those who don’t want politics or sexuality with their food blogs, move quickly along. Okay.. for the rest of you. Microsoft screwed [...]

I have to admit to feeling a bit guilty when posting ice cream recipes. After all, the same basic principle applies from recipe to recipe. Plus, ethey’re so damned easy to make. Then I realized that subtle changes in the recipes can create different textures, something in which an ice cream afficianado would fully understand. [...]

To paraphrase an observation by my friend Kerry… Over this weekend, hundreds, if not thousands of people will willingly wait more than an hour to eat at an Olive Garden. I find that observation amazing on so many levels.

Ah yes, the age old tradition of wine and cheese tasting. These events provide a chance for folks to test their palates while having wonderful cheese and interesting wines. My idea of these types of get togethers revolved around cultured epicureans standing around, nibbling cheese, sipping the wine and giving witty bon mots. The truth? [...]

We’ve now migrated to the East Coast of Italy, to a region that doesn’t leap to the forefront when one thinks of Italy. It lays between the Adriatic Sea and the high Apennine mountains. As with many of the areas that we’ve already discussed, we have a region with Mountains and coastal shorelines, with plentiful [...]