Just a little food porn to get your Monday morning off to a good start. A friend and I have started cracking open our cookbooks in an attempt to get back to the fun of cooking and since these happen to be collections of lighter and healthier recipes, it doesn’t hurt the bottom line either. Above is a “Lighter” Fettucine Alfredo from America’s Test Kitchen which cut the usual cals/fat by roughly 40% or so. They use fresh (or store-packaged fresh) pasta, swap out the …

Last week, CommonWealth held a free cocktail reception for local media and food bloggers to introduce their new small plates, dinner and dessert items with a patio roast. Thankfully, as it was really too hot to enjoy it on the patio, they seated us inside.

I used to live down the street from CommonWealth and would often stop in after work for a drink and bar snack before heading home. It’s a very warm place, often busy, but it’s always felt more like a restaurant than a …

When we saw Sara Moulton at Hill’s Kitchen a while back, one of the things she said was she didn’t care for the microwave because she didn’t think that “pushing buttons is cooking.” She’s clearly not a fan of The Jetsons. I do agree with her, for the most part, as I mainly use the microwave to help prepare ingredients or make items specifically designed to be cooked using that method. As I’ve never owned a tea kettle, one of my primary uses for the microwave has …

“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.”
–Benjamin Franklin
I’m not quite as much of a wine drinker as I used to be. Vintage Virginia used to be firmly scheduled each year, but when I got rid of my car and other friends with cars moved away, it wasn’t quite as easy to make it out to VA to attend. This year a last-minute invite in response to my need for a day trip appeared out of nowhere and Vintage Virginia …

Just over a week ago, I was fortunate enough to meet one of my food idols. I’d already planned to make it a “food excursion day” with some friends, grabbing a bite on the Hill and heading up to Bethesda to check out a tea shop when we saw that Hill’s Kitchen was hosting Sara Moulton for a cooking demonstration and book signing. You never saw plans change so fast!