Rosé Sunday

I know a couple – early 40’s, successful, wine connoisseurs – who is so smitten with rosé wine they actually dedicate a whole day to it. They toil all week, drinking chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon, and then when Sunday rolls around they spend it paying homage to the pink stuff.

Not just any pink stuff, though. No, these two oenophiles pop open a bottle (or two) of the good stuff. So good, in fact, it’s not available in stores and they either pick it up directly at the winery or they have it shipped to them – or both. The wine is Arrowood La Rosé, and probably retails (if you could get it) for about $20.

I’ve been on a rosé kick for the past three years, ever since I tasted Chateau d’Aqueria Tavel in Avignon, France. It was a complete revelation – a blush wine that was bone dry! My only other experience with pink wine was with sickly sweet white zinfandel that my friend Besty used to drink. And now I, too, am smitten. Every since that fateful sip, I’ve been on a continuous quest for THE perfect rosé.

Apparently, lots of wine drinkers are discovering the joy of rosé because it seems everywhere I turn I’m reading something about a top ten list of rosés. Of course, it’s summer and technically rosé is a summer wine, but wine wonks drink it all year long, like me, because it is such a food friendly wine.

The Provence region of France is the birthplace of rosé, but every wine producing region is now making some sort of rosé. The French style is dry, crisp, with fruit in the background, and generally made with a blend of Cinsault, Grenache and Syrah.

California is producing a variety of rosés, some French-like, but also a great deal like other California wines – fruit bombs. I tend like those fruit forward rosés, like Arrowood. I just can’t seem to get my hands on that particular one. The fruit flavors in rosés tend to taste like strawberries, cherries, or watermelon, especially if Grenache is in the mix.

I would suggest that you go to your best wine store (one with a good selection of rosés and a knowledgeable staff) and buy three or four different rosé styles. Do a taste test and see what style you like. Some like the pinot noir rosés (not me). Some prefer Grenache heavy ones (me – I love the strawberry and watermelon flavors).

Here are the five rosés I’m drinking now. All of them are fruit forward. None are sweet like white zinfandel, but only the Bonny Doon is what I think of as bone dry. The sweetest, even though it isn’t really sweet, is the Chateau Ste. Michelle. All of these wines are under $20, and some under $10.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Nellie’s Garden Dry Rosé

La Vieille Ferme Rosé

Crios de Susana Balbo Rosé of Malbec

SoloRosa

Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare

Survey Says...

I ran across a blog last night (I don’t even know how I got there… I started on one blog, a link from my brother, and once I got there, I saw another interesting link which led me to another blog, and of course, that blog had a cool link. So 50 layers in, I ended up on this particular blog that had a survey…. Whew!)

The survey asked: what is your favorite kind of food: Asian, Mexican, Indian, Italian, French or Other? Do you notice anything about this list? I did. My first thought was, where is American? Are we ‘other’? And what is American food?

American food is apple pie, right? And ice cream, and fried chicken, and grilled cheese, and a hamburger, of course (no, the Germans didn’t invent the hamburger…we did…and German wasn’t on the list of options, anyway).

Now, Mexican food is my favorite cuisine, so I’m not trying to cause trouble here; I was just curious as to why this list didn’t have an American option. We do have a cuisine, you know. So then I pondered, do other countries have food surveys that list American as an option? Is it considered ethnic like we consider Asian or Indian food?

These are the things that run through my brain at the end of the evening, when the dishes are done, the last drop of wine is drunk and I really should be taking out the trash instead of surfing the web.

Pay it Forward

In the course of dining out the last couple of days, two things struck me as worth mentioning.

The first surprise came when I received the check at Bombay Spice, a restaurant claiming to "redefine" Indian cuisine by replacing fattening gee and cream with olive oil and fat free yogurt. That's a whole other post but back to the check.

I opened the bill and there was a silver dollar with a note that they recognize gas prices are crazy, it costs more to even drive to dine out now and they were so glad that we came. Interesting concept. I left the silver dollar for the server (on top of her tip, of course). You know, pay it forward?

The second surprise came today on the menu at Lisa G's. The menu announced a partnership between the restaurant and the Southwest Autism Research and Resource Center. The restaurant is allowing young adults to come and train in the restaurant (with their job coach). Interesting concept. And generous and touching, too. Pay it forward by helping others help themselves.

Sink or Swim

It's here! My new baby...my new sink! Oh joy, oh joy.

I finally picked out a sink after debating it for, oh I don't know, 3 years? What kind of sink to get? Stainless steel or one of those new composite sinks by Blanco?

Maybe I should stick with the porcelain coated cast iron sink that came with the house? I finally decided that stainless steel would suit me just fine, but with deep, large bowls big enough for my stockpots.

It was time for my old sink to go. The faucet was leaking, the porcelain finish was long gone, and the sink itself had serious dings from surviving 1,000 recipe testings for my three cookbooks, 500 cooking class preps, and a few meals I made just for us when testing and prepping wasn't in session.

I bought the sink from Loews, because they offered to come and install it, too. That turned out to be problematic. The first guy they sent over, Mr. "No," was not only just plain rude, he said I'd better be prepared to be without a sink until I found someone who could do tile work, if that became necessary. He didn't do tile work. He didn't know if it would need tile work, but if it did, he couldn't do it. He said the problem was that Loews didn't know how to sell sinks. I sent him on his way and called Loews.

They lined me up with another installer who did do tile work, in addition to installing sinks, if in fact, any tile work needed to be done. He didn't show up. I call Loews and they called him. He called me and we rescheduled. He did eventually come and he was charming, polite and quite competent. Turns out he didn't need to cut out any tile out after he removed the old sink but he could have, whereas Mr. No couldn't have.

None of that matters now. I have a new sink. It looks great. There is only one problem. I don't like it. I hope that I'm just suffering from separation anxiety over losing my old sink, and that I'll come to love this sink. But it's different. And I'm not sure I like it. But it doesn't leak and it sure does look good. So maybe I will like it in a few days or a week. I hope so, because it's mine now.

Word Nerds Rejoice!

I managed to escape the bookstore without buying a single cookbook. Yes, I know, a minor miracle. There is a simple explanation, though. I ran out of time before I could peruse the cooking aisle. I did, however, make a contribution to my fellow food professionals by purchasing a reference book on the history of coffee (for an article I'm researching) and Holly Hughes Best Food Writing 2007.

But what's really cool, is the new Bill Bryson book I bought. If you don't know this prolific, bestselling English author, he is best known for A Walk in the Woods about the Appalachian trail and A Short History of Nearly Everything, (the latter which we bought as an audio book and listened to while driving to Crested Butte, to Santa Fe and to Tucson a couple summers ago. It may be a short history of everything, but it's a long, long book...fascinating, but long.)

This new book is Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors. Now, I know not everyone is comfortable curling up with a good dictionary, but I think it's perfectly normal -- and I'm having fun learning the difference between frowsty and frowzy. (The former means stale, the latter means dingy.) I did not know that before I cracked open his book, and am actively plotting my first chance to interject both words in the same sentence.

Word nerds rejoice!

Outed...Sort of...

It's true.... I'm writing for PHOENIX Magazine now. I had only told a couple of friends because I wanted to see my name in print before I started telling the world. Just because I turned in articles, didn't mean they would soak up ink on a page, I thought. But today, a friend forwarded me a blog entry from the Phoenix New Times restaurant critic, Michele Laudig.

She writes in her 6/19 post that the magazine unveils three new scribes, including me. I haven't seen the July issue yet...it's June 20, for crying out loud... but regular subscribers apparently get the next month's issue about two weeks before it hits the newsstand.

I am extremely honored to write for PHOENIX Magazine. I loved reading long-time critic Nikki Buchanan's reviews, even though I didn't always agree with her, nor experience the same dining experience she did that formed the basis of her reviews.

Not often, but occasionally, I thought her choice of words were brutal and unnecessarily hurtful. There are ways to convey you have issues with food and/or service without interjecting heart-piercing words. But I admired her talent for writing -- describing food so that the reader could taste it -- and her wealth of knowledge about food and restaurants in general.

Before I agreed to write for the magazine, I met with the editor. Rumors were swirling about the circumstances of Buchanan's departure. It was a "He said, she said," scenario. I grew up as the daughter of a newspaper editor. My Dad had built a figurative firewall around his news/editorial department that the advertisers were constantly trying to climb over. He never once caved in even though the pressure, at times, was unrelenting.

I felt comfortable enough after my meeting with the editor to start writing for the magazine, and I made it excruciatingly clear that I would bail if anything happens in the course of my work for them that compromises my standards. I do understand that advertisers bring money to the table. I also understand that the real customer is the reader, and the reader has every right to expect and receive credible information from the writers that is in no way influenced by advertising dollars.

My goal, in writing for PHOENIX Magazine, as it is for every other client I write for, is to be honest, to entertain, and to share the passion of food I have with all who read what I write.

The South's Gonna Rise Again...

Frankly, my dear, I would say it already has, based on the number of southern cookbooks released in the past couple of years. The newest addition, is called Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, by Martha Hall Foose.

A couple of months ago, another southern cookery book, Bon Appetit, Y'all, by Virginia Willis came out and before that, it was Y'all Come Eat by Paula Deen's hunky son, Jamie. The Lee Brothers introduced the Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook, and before that, The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock.

Earlier this month, the James Beard Foundation announced it's cookbook awards, and guess who won the Americana category? The Glory of Southern Cooking by James Villas. The picture of perfectly fried chicken on the cover is deliciously tempting.

There is a new cookbook on Southern cakes. I didn't realize that we had enough cakes to fill a cookbook, but apparently we do! There are 6 or 7 different recipes for coconut cakes alone. Seriously.

I can't think of another region of the country that gets as much attention (at least in the cookbook world) than the South. Maybe Texas, which is technically part of the South, but don't try to tell us Texans that. We like to think we're kind of unique.

So, what do you think? Do you think this amount attention given to the cooking of the South is warranted?

Say Cheese...

This annoying little cold won't go away, and when I'm sick, I crave two, no, three, things. A smashed grilled cheese sandwich, a bowl of tomato soup with saltines, and a bottle of ginger ale.

Thinking about the grilled cheese sandwich reminded me that everyone has a spin on the classic. The grilled cheese of my childhood doesn't resemble any of the fancy shmancy takes I've seen in the past year in glossy food magazines and on the menus of trendy little cafes and bistros.

And truth be told, I'd rather have one of the newer, trendy sandwiches than my old standby anyway. A couple pieces of white bread, a slice of American cheese, a little butter and a saucer to smash the thing down in a skillet is the grilled cheese of my youth. Comforting? Yes. Exciting? No.

The picture above will take you to an article on Chow (a pioneering food site consisting of stories, recipes and discussion boards) about 10 gourmet twists on the grilled cheese. There are even restaurants based on just the grilled cheese (Chedd's in Denver and Melt in Ohio -- although Grilled Cheese NYC in New York recently closed). And nearly every restaurant serving hot sandwiches serves up some sort of grilled cheese.

My ideal grilled cheese would start with artisan, multi-grain bread, and include at least two kinds of cheeses -- an American aged cheddar and an American fontina -- and perhaps a slice or two of a homegrown, ripe red tomato. That's it... Buttered on both sides and toasted in a panini grill.

I'll just have to dream about it for now because I don't have a panini grill (quite possibly the only kitchen toy I don't own) and I'm all out of homegrown tomatoes (with the recent salmonella scare, I'm not about to buy a store bought one).

What's your go-to food when you're under the weather?

Smooth Operator

Do you know how many smoothie cookbooks are floating around? I found more than 20 on Amazon alone. I only have one smoothie book (I can feel a trip to the bookstore coming on....) by those Corpening twins who owned a catering company called Thymes Two in San Francisco and went on to pen a dozen books or so.

There is even a low-carb smoothie book; which seems counter productive to me. Most smoothies are made with fruit and most fruits are loaded with carbs. I'm really sick of the whole low-carb thing anyway. I mean, cutting out white sugar and white flour is a noble thing to do, but cutting out all carbs is ridiculous. Our bodies need a healthy does of carbohydrates to function. You wouldn't run your car without gas, so why would you run your body without fuel? But I digress.... this post is about smoothies.

The temperature forecast for today is 112. It's already 97 and it's only 9 a.m. And I'm battling a cold, so this morning, I made a smoothie for breakfast. Again, I didn't specifically measure the ingredients (I just started blending and when it looked the right consistency and tasted like heaven, I stopped). It tasted so good, in fact, that I wanted to share it with you. Here goes...

Grapefruit-Orange-Blueberry Banana Smoothie

Makes about 2 cups

1 cup grapefruit juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup half & half
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 ripe, frozen banana

Place all the ingredients (in order, starting with the juices) in a blender and puree until smooth, adding more juice or half & half if too thick.

[NOTE: keeping peeled, sliced ripe bananas in the freezer, along with a good supply of other frozen fruits makes for the best smoothies because then you don't need ice, which just dilutes the smoothies in my opinion.]

TTYL, Dad

At 83, my Dad might be the coolest, hippest Dad in Texas. Maybe the world. He sent me a quick email yesterday about something, and signed it TTYL, Dad.

I did a "huh?" Dad's got quite a texting vocabulary, don't you think? TTYL (Talk To You Later) is pretty hip for an old dude, don't you think? (Sorry, Dad, but I've always considered you an old dude, albeit a cool, hip old dude).

I wonder where he picked up the text shortcut? Maybe from the grandkids. Maybe from surfing the net, which he does a fair amount of the time. See, Dad was the editor of our hometown paper for 25 years, and after that, he dabbled in other writing/editing gigs instead of retiring like normal people.

In fact, he is still writing and editing. He looks over my articles. He writes a column for his community's newsletter. He reads the paper everyday, occasionally firing off a searing tirade to the editor, often which ends up on the Letters to the Editor page. He's amazing.

So, I will talk to my Dad later, on this Father's Day, and I'll probably tell him: jtluk, iluvuvm...

Sugar Shock

Remember my post from a few days ago about my new cupcake cookbook (number 413)? Well, let me tell you about cookbook number 412, Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey (yes, that's the name) by Jill O'Connor.

I met Jill in New Orleans last April at the International Association of Culinary Professionals annual conference. I only met her because my new best friend, Dave, a cooking school owner from Florida and a first time attendee, was hell bent on meeting every single person attending the conference, and he introduced me to Jill. He introduced me to lots of people, even though this was my 7th conference and his first.

We got to talking and it turns out that I had one of Jill's previous cookbooks in my library (probably number 287 or something like that... I've had it a while...a book on phyllo). Anyway, Jill starts telling me hilarious stories about writing this book. She could be a comedienne if she ever decides to give up cookbook writing. I can't even imagine testing recipes this sweet for months straight. It's a miracle she didn't go into diabetic shock.

I might not cook anything out of Jill's SCMG book...but the pictures are mouthwatering and her writing voice is just as personable as she is. "Have you ever noticed that there are no 'vanillaholics' "? she writes as an introduction to her Heart of Darkness Brownies. Good point.

Some other recipes that look "to live for" include all-grown up s'mores, sticky toffee pudding, blackberry jamble shortbread bars and sugared stuffed dates that couldn't be simpler to make but kinda messy -- split medjool dates, remove the pit and stuff in as many toasted walnut halves as you can before rolling the date in granulated sugar.

You know, after writing this post, I have a sudden urge to go into the kitchen... so I'll see you later...

My dog ate it...

A deadline is looming and yet I sit here thinking about everything but the writing at hand that needs my full and undivided attention.

Maybe I'll write better under pressure, I rationalize (is irrationalize a word?)... I hear my brain say "if you push it off until the very last minute, you'll probably deliver your best creative effort yet!"

"Um, excuse me, Gwen," a soft raspy voice says, "We're the few cells left in your brain (and we are on the left side of your brain, make no mistake) that think procrastination is NOT the true genius of creativity." Dang it. And I was all psyched about flitting off this afternoon.

The thermometer says it's 97 -- but it's a dry heat, so it only feels like, oh, I don't know, 93. The pool is calling me, the cool grocery store is calling me, my dogs want me to play with them.

I can hear the phone call now. "Hi [editor], um, I'm calling because I need another day. Yeah, it seems my dog ate my research. Yes, I know. It sounds crazy. Who knew dogs liked restaurant menus, made of paper, for crying out loud."

Enough venting... I'm back to writing... that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Oxymoron

I'm fairly certain that if you look up the definition of oxymoron, you'd see a picture of turkey bacon. Seriously, everyone knows that bacon comes from a pig -- his fat little belly to be specific. Now, I'm not knocking the product called turkey bacon. It is quite tasty -- both smoky and salty, with a slight meaty taste. But it is not, I'm so sorry to say, bacon.

My kid brother has lost 25 pounds since January eating turkey bacon practically every morning, along with a scrambled egg and occasionally a few other ingredients my sister-in-law manages to sneak into her low carb tortillas. Recently, while I was visiting them, she made one of her breakfast treats for me. It was really delicious.

They're following a South Beachy style diet. What they've really done is changed their eating habits more than following a specific diet. And they've added serious, regular exercise to their weekly routine. Steve says, "It's funny, before, I never ate breakfast, and now I eat it every morning and I've lost weight."

I think his weight loss is due more to simple math -- eat less + exercise more = weight loss --than it is to the addition of breakfast to his routine. But it really doesn't matter how he arrived at his new, slimmer self. He looks fabulous. So does my sister-in-law, but she always looks fabulous and this new, healthier way of eating isn't new to her. She just somehow convinced my brother to hop on the slimming train.

Olive You....

How can you not like olives? I ask my husband this question all the time. He eschews anything with olives in it. What a shame, I think. I adore olives...every kind of olive -- from the Spanish green olive stuffed with a pimento to the wrinkly black olive that's first dry cured with lots of salt and then coated with olive oil. The latter is especially disgusting to my guy. All the better... more for me.

So, knowing how much I love olives, imagine how delighted I am to learn that the Lindsay Olive Company has sent me (and probably hundreds of other food writers and media types) a little brochure packed with new recipes using, of course, Lindsay olives. The one that stopped me in my tracks was the fried stuffed olives recipe (see picture above).

Being from Texas, I pretty much like anything fried. To be honest, I never thought about frying olives, although I don't know why not. I've seen lots of things fried lately that I never would have thought of before. Like a basil or sage leaf. Or an Oreo. Although the latter, I've learned, is a staple at county fairs across the country. I need to get out more.

Back to the fried olives from Lindsay Olives -- you can find the recipe at lindsayolives.com. If you are more interested in the cute little bamboo skewers, I've seen them both at Sur La Table and Cost Plus World Market.

A Girl Needs a Cupcake

It's Sunday and I feel like confessing. I bought another cookbook recently... number 413 to be exact. How do I know how many cookbooks I have? My husband made me count them one day. It actually took several days to count them.

I can't help it. I'm addicted. How many have I actually cooked from? Maybe 5. How many have I read? 413. I read every book I buy, and not just a quick little flip through. I read them cover to cover. I read the publishing data page. I read the acknowledgments. Being a food professional, and a cookbook author, it's funny how many people I actually know when I read the acknowledgments.

My latest purchase is A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes by Dede Wilson. It's my fourth cupcake book, not to mention all the other baking books I have that contain cupcakes. I also have cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans, Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman, and The Artful Cupcake by Marcianne Miller.

How many cupcakes have I ever made? Zero... But I'm going to, someday. Or maybe instead I'll just mosey down into town and buy a cupcake at our new Sprinkles Cupcakes store.

A Plum of an Idea

Last night I cooked dinner. Not so much cooked, but assembled. Not exactly assembled -- I did sear Mahi Mahi -- but then I put it on top of a fresh mesclun salad, which is technically more assembling than cooking. But then I made this plum vinaigrette. Is that cooking? No.

It turned out to be the most beautiful shade of rich pink, with flecks of black from the skin. (Totally reminded me of the Minted Black Plum Sorbet from The Great Ranch Cookbook, at least in color.)

The vinaigrette was creamy (using fruit --fresh or dried -- will do that... something about pectins).

It was sweet (also from the fruit, and a splash of mirin that's been sitting in the fridge for too long but I don't think it will go bad in my lifetime from all the salt and sugar -- natural preservatives) and tart (from the champagne vinaigrette and dab of mustard).

The bad news is that I didn't write down the exact proportions, but I'm going to share it with you anyway. The good news is that I trust you to taste and adjust appropriately. You might like more tartness (add more vinegar) or less tartness (add either a little sugar/sweetener or a little more oil).

And if you don't have all of these ingredients... don't worry... the key ingredients are acid (vinegar in this case) and oil (olive, not extra virgin in this case). Oh, and a plum... the riper the better.

Plum Vinaigrette

Makes just over 1/2 cup

1/4 cup champagne (or white) vinegar
1 ripe plum (seeded, but not skinned, and roughly chopped)
1 tablespoon mirin (Japanese plum wine) or honey
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon fresh chopped basil, or 1/4 teaspoon dried or leave it out
pinch salt and pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

Place all ingredients EXCEPT the olive oil in a blender. Puree until smooth. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil. Taste and season to your taste. Keeps refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Tortilla Soup Reaches Mainstream

It's true. Tortilla soup, the beloved Mexican peasant soup once a closely guarded secret among those of us in the Southwestern region of the U.S., has finally gone mainstream.

How do I know? A story and recipe for tortilla soup recently graced the food pages of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Yes, that Pittsburgh known for perogies and pubs and Heinz ketchup.

The article was written by a California writer and the Pittsburgh paper just picked up the syndicated story to fill a hole, but it tells me that Mexican food is becoming less ethnic. I couldn't be more happy. Mexican cuisine is my favorite, and tortilla soup comforts me more than a bowl of chicken soup.

The writer points out that there are as many versions of tortilla soup as there are cooks (isn't that true of most dishes that have names?)

Two of my cookbooks have tortilla soup recipes, both very different from each other, yet connected through a few common ingredients -- namely chicken and chicken stock, jalapeños and tomatoes.

The Great Ranch Cookbook has a recipe from The Alisal Guest Ranch featuring a thin but deeply flavored chicken broth and simple garnishes of chicken, avocado and tortilla strips. Par Fork! The Golf Resort Cookbook has a more stew-like tortilla soup from Barton Creek near Austin and includes corn kernels in addition to corn tortillas.

Recently, I reviewed The Plaza Grill, a new restaurant in Phoenix for The Arizona Republic, and tasted one of the most basic but divine tortilla soups I've ever tasted. In the review, I wrote:

"The tortilla soup ($5.95) is unadulterated simplicity, and I love it. The brick red broth tastes of charred chile peppers (guajillo, the menu says) and is garnished with a few tortilla chips and a dollop of chewy-creamy Chihuahua cheese. That’s it. No chicken, no vegetable chunks – just broth, tortillas and cheese."

Tortilla soup can be transformative or it can be comforting or it can be anything you want it to be. Here is my recipe from The Great Ranch Cookbook... it is one of my favorites, and falls into the "comforting" category.

Tortilla Soup

I know why this is one of the Alisal’s most requested recipes. The broth is so flavorful it’s like biting into a fresh homegrown tomato. My tasters practically licked the bowl clean. If you like a little more “heat” don’t remove the seeds from the jalapeno.

6 Servings

• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 each, corn tortillas cut into 1” squares
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 jalapeno pepper, seeds and veins removed
• 1/8 cup tomato paste
• 3 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 cups chopped tomatoes
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• Garnish:
• 2 cups cooked and cubed chicken breast, about 4 breast halves
• 2 cups diced avocado
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 4 corn tortillas, cut into thin strips and fried crisp in 1/4 cup oil

Prepare all the garnishes. Cook corn tortilla 1” squares in oil until crisp. In a food processor, mix the garlic, onions, jalapeno and tomatoes by pulsing 10 times or continuously for 10 seconds. It will look a little like mush. Add this mixture to stockpot with tortilla squares. Add tomato paste and cumin. Cook 4 to 5 minutes. Add chicken stock and simmer until liquid is reduced by 1/3, about 20 to 30 minutes. Strain and adjust seasonings with salt, black pepper and cumin. To serve, ladle 6 to 8 ounces of soup in bowl and top with chicken, avocado, cheese, cilantro and fried tortilla strips.

Gwen Ashley Walters ©2008

It's a Mystery

About ten years ago, my mother gave me a copy of Dying for Chocolate, by Diane Mott Davidson. It was a culinary mystery and Mom just knew I'd love it. I was in Dallas for a cookbook signing and a local television spot to promote my newly released cookbook, The Great Ranch Cookbook.

I read that book in less than a day, and it left me wanting more. Now, it is not a great literary read. Ms. Davidson's books are beach reads...think of them as romance-cum-mystery novels for the food obsessed. You can breeze through them quicker than it takes to assemble and bake a souffle...almost.

But they are fun reads. And Ms. Davidson has just penned her 14th book in the series featuring the unflappable caterer, Goldie, who has seen hard times with an abusive ex-husband called "the jerk" but is now married to the wonderful, loving, attentive, strong, handsome Tom... which brings me to why I'm writing this post.

I attended a business meeting of culinary professional women last night, and our host, Ms. Gaye, served these luscious little prosciutto bites -- halved croissants spread with peach jam, topped with prosciutto and goat cheese, warmed in an oven. They were delicious -- sweet, salty, buttery, crunchy -- so naturally I asked Ms. Gaye about them.

"I read this book, and there were recipes in the back," she said. It turns out that the book was Dark Tort by Ms. Davidson. Go figure. I've read 11 of her 14 books. I never thought about trying any of the recipes she sprinkles throughout her books (her later books group them in the back instead of breaking up the novel with them).

The recipes really didn't sound that appealing to me as I was reading the novels, but after tasting the prosciutto bites last night, I think I will flip through the Mott Davidson paperbacks I have on my shelf. There might be other treasures buried in there along with the dead bodies that Goldie invariably digs up.

Ms. Davidson will be starting a book tour of 25 or so cities beginning in August. Visit her website to see if she's coming to your town. She'll be in Phoenix at the Poisoned Pen on October 17. I hope she brings Tom. I'm curious to see what "the perfect man" looks like.

Welcome to Pen & Fork -- The Journey Begins with a Fork

I've finally decided to start blogging. Should I welcome myself to the 21st century or should I be careful what I wish for? I first want to thank Corinna for helping me get Pen & Fork at Blogger....

Now that I have a blog, I'm drawing a blank about what to write about. I have written content for my website (www.penandfork.com) for years, but I only have to update it once a month. This blogging thing makes that seem old-fashioned.

Will I post every day? Probably not. What I do hope to accomplish with this blog is to create a dialog between you and me.

This blog will replace my monthly e-newsletter. And it's even better than the email newsletter because you can comment as soon as you read it, and I will respond as soon as I read your comment... if you want me to comment, that is. I recognize that not every comment warrants a response.

Let the journey begin....with a fork....of course.