Steger Creek Opens New Stores! Steger Creek Fine Gifts and Collectables always felt like home to me. For years I’ve gone to their Starkey Road location to buy the prettiest greeting cards, hostess gifts and home décor items. They recently opened two delightfully charming new locations (the Starkey location is now closed). When I visited…
Recipes
Celebrating Summer's Bounty ~ PAN CON TOMATE ~ Spanish Tomato Toast
PAN CON TOMATE ~ SPANISH TOAST WITH TOMATO Tomorrow I am going to a Tomato Fest at our local farmers market and I will share photos from that event in a future blog post. Today I am sharing one of my favorite snack recipes…Pan Con Tomate ~ crusty grilled or toasted bread rubbed with garlic…
Put Sunshine In Your Champagne Flute This Weekend! Champagne Snockered Watermelon!
If you LOVE melon, you are going to LOVE this idea! Champagne Snockered Watermelon! The Wall Street Journal July 14/15, 2018 issue: “Drunk on Summer… recommends matching your favorite melon variety with a sympatico spirit.” The article, written by Aleksandra Crapanzano, makes these melon/spirit combinations: Cantaloupe (Sugar Cube, Serenade Cavaillon or Savor melons may be…
Carrabba's Sausage And Lentil Soup Recipe For Father's Day
Potatoes Picante, Grilled Prosciutto Wrapped Peaches, Charred Corn Burrata Salad…find fabulous tapas recipes on the Roanoker Magazine blog. Here’s the link: https://theroanoker.com/blogs/behind/it%E2%80%99s-time-for-tapas/ Did someone say SOUP?! Here’s the most delicious soup you can serve Dad on his special day. Tastes like a yummy chili with the spicy addition of Italian sausage. Our bubbly friends Judy and…
National Cheese Day ~ Comeback Cow!
Cheese Glorious Cheese! In celebration of National Cheese Day – June 4, 2018 – I am tasting a new cheese and it is delicious! Dorothy’s Comeback Cow Soft Ripened Cheese A pleasant surprise! Dorothy was known to work tirelessly or, as they say, until the cows came home, perfecting her soft-ripened cheeses. Comeback Cow is…
Wine ~ Spirits Infused Grilling Planks For Father's Day!
My blogger friend Anatoli sent me some Beyond Salt and Pepper wine infused cedar grilling planks to try on my grill. Please visit his blog https://talk-a-vino.com/ to experience his inspiring stories about wine and food. I was couldn’t wait to get grillin’… then it started to rain and rain and rain. Every day it rained buckets. …
Spring Fun With Champagne And Chocolate Lace Cookies!
It’s Spring…time to get out of the house and have some FUN! Oatmeal Lace Cookies are THE BEST COOKIES! Perfect for a Spring picnic. The recipe is compliments of Gloria Smiley, Food Stylist Extraordinaire. She served them for lunch when we visited her in Atlanta, Georgia and I didn’t want to look like a piglet, but I just…
Kumquat Champagne Cocktail With Candied Kumquat Garnish
Kumquats may look like miniature oranges but make no mistake they are very different… Kumquats have an edible rind which is tender and sweet. Oranges have inedible rinds. Kumquat flesh is dry and very tart. The flesh of an orange is sweet with a bit of tartness. Kumquats are more expensive than oranges. I paid…
A Toast To Italian Wine ~ Molto Bene! ~ A Favorite Mamma Leone Recipe
Our recent Italian wine experience with the Angelini family at the Shenandoah Club in Roanoke, Virginia brought back many “bei ricordi d’Italia” (fond memories of Italy). I love Italian cooking so naturally one of my favorite cookbooks is Leone’s Italian Cookbook. The author Gene Leone dedicated his cookbook“to the memory of my beloved mother”. He was the…
Bloody Leprechaun Cocktail! Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Perfect for St. Patrick’s Day brunch…Bloody Leprechaun Cocktail made with Green Peppercorn Vodka… Green Peppercorn Vodka 1 cup vodka 2 tablespoons green peppercorns 1 tablespoon pink peppercorns 1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns Place vodka in a mason jar. Put peppercorns in a mortar and pestle. Grind peppercorns with pestle until most of the peppercorns are broken…
