Well, I have to say the trip from the Portland area to Seaside takes about two and a half hours. Our trip took us seven. Why? Because we ate and drank our way across the city and countryside winding our way through the mountain pass and down to the seashore.  We left at a reasonable
Read more…

Summer season is salad season in our house. Salads just taste better in summer. You can’t get ingredients fresher than picking off the vine in a backyard garden or picking them up at a local farmer’s market. Even the vegetables in the local grocery stores seem to carry fresher veggies this time of year.  When
Read more…

I love the time of year when the vegetable garden is in high production. Neighbors are scoping out each other’s gardens and comparing the size of their zucchini plants (…among other things). When we first moved to Oregon we were aghast that zucchini would not grow in our yard. For years the plants did nothing
Read more…

Do you know the tongue-twister “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. How many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?…” I don’t know why this came to mind when making this recipe as there are no peppers involved. Maybe it was the wine I was sipping while cooking that brought on the childhood memory
Read more…

Springtime awakens the earth and brings out the beauty of nature. The harsh winter weather has faded so gastronomic delights have shifted from heavy stews to lighter fare. The ingredients in these Greek Chicken Quesadillas are essentially Greek salad fixings wrapped up in a tortilla and can be eaten hot or cold.  I tried this
Read more…

One of my favorite things to do is to take cooking classes. Shocker I know. What I love about taking a class is learning new cooking techniques or ingredient combinations or secrets from other chefs that make them successful in presenting a meal, or, or, or….  So when I was in Sicily a few years
Read more…

Alfredo sauce has intimidated cooks for years. In the Southern regions of Italy where my family originates, it is not used much because they tend to use the tomato based sauces. The white sauces are typically used more in the Northern regions of Italy. So Alfredo sauce was not something that was cooked in our
Read more…

Taquitos have a history in our family, well mostly with my hubby. Back in the day, he used to eat them by the dozen. Yes, literally by the dozen! He claims he only ate 10 at a time, but why quibble over two taquitos. (I swear it was a dozen.) He would buy them frozen
Read more…

Growing up in Southern California and living most of my life less than two hours from the Mexican border I was exposed to good Mexican food. Mexican restaurants are abundant in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas.  When we moved to Oregon a little over ten years ago I realized that good Mexican food
Read more…

Do you have a favorite “go-to” meal that you just have to have when you are not feeling well? Soups have such a calming and nurturing effect. Chicken soup is a popular favorite for many people. How about good old Campbell’s tomato soup? That is also on the list of top soups for the sick. 
Read more…

Some movies are destined to become popular and ultimately classics that live on in the minds of movie goers. “It’s A Wonderful Life” is one of those classics that is revisited every Christmas time and quotes from the movie are shared over and over. “When Harry Met Sally” is another movie that falls into the
Read more…

I had my DNA processed a few weeks ago and found out that there is a little Greek ancestry mixed in with my very predominate Italian roots. Well, Greece is just across the water from Bari, Italy where half my family is located so not really a big surprise to me. But somehow knowing this
Read more…