Autumn in the US is the time for many happy sports fans as they settle in for months of football and hockey on the television.  Unfortunately it also brings out the couch potato in everyone as they fill up on foods high in fat, sodium, cholesterol, and sugar.  Hot dogs, burgers, ribs, hot wings, pizza, [...]

Autumn anywhere in the culinary world is always a wondrous time.  The harvest brings us the joys of fresh mushrooms, cranberries, various types of squash, and of course pumpkins.  In America we usually signify pumpkins with Jack-O-Lanterns and the traditional Thanksgiving pumpkin pie, but it was in Italian cuisine that I became enamored with the [...]

I’ll confess, this was an entry I originally wanted to post BEFORE I headed off to Europe, but work and trip preparation caused delay.  I then thought I’d post it while in Greece, but realized I left my notes at home. If I haven’t mentioned it before, most of my cooking skills I owe to [...]

You know, it’s always funny how no matter where we live and what we have around us, there are always things we desire that just aren’t in our neck of the woods (but we experienced them somewhere else). For me, traveling to places like Slovakia, Greece, Austria, and Hungary made me appreciate smoked cheeses, natural [...]