One of the best things about travel is the opportunity it provides to discover new things. Especially delicious new things. Our trip to Palm Springs over Thanksgiving week included such a discovery: Palm Springs’ iconic date shake. But at the time, I had no idea that date shakes were a thing let alone iconic. And if
France
A Laissez Faire Approach to Wine Tasting in the Médoc
It was a hot night in late July as my husband, Matt, and I gathered for aperitifs with our friend, Caroline, and her parents at their two-hundred year-old, ivy covered house in St. Seurin de Cadourne. Across the road, the Gironde Estuary flowed north-west to the Atlantic, while millions of ruby-red grapes slowly ripened on
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Napa & Sonoma Wine Country
Wining & Dining Among the Vines
It’s a cool evening in mid-August, and I’m in the Russian River Valley vineyards of Sonoma-Cutrer, chatting with the winery’s head winemaker, Mick Schroeter, about his recent trip to Talon Fish Lodge, in Sitka, Alaska. While there to host a wine and food pairing event featuring Sonoma-Cutrer wines, Mick had the chance to go fishing,
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Napa & Sonoma Wine Country
Where We Go When It’s Sweltering in Sonoma
It was a hot one last week at our unairconditioned house in the Sonoma wine country, with temperatures several degrees north of 100. The heat was making us all cranky and lethargic, my daughters bickering while I tried unsuccessfully to write, sweat pooling in the small of my back and dampening my forehead. Even our
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South Africa
Too Much Eating & Drinking in Cape Town & The Stellenbosch
A week or so before we left for Cape Town, my husband, Matt, and I received an email message from our Italian-South African friend, Gianfranco, whose 50th birthday celebration was the cause for our trip. He instructed us, in no uncertain terms, that we were not to bring gifts. Instead, he said: “I want you