Savvy Eats

There are only a handful of situations in which plain or lightly salted popcorn is better than flavored.  Game nights are one, the nights that you want to grab a handful or two of popcorn while someone else takes their turn without getting cheesy fingerprints on all the game pieces.   These popcorn seasonings are for [...]

Dan and I competed in the Finger Lakes International Dragon Boat Festival with his company team again this weekend.  We paddled as hard as we could, yelling to keep in sync at times, exerting ourselves far too thoroughly to make any noise at all at others.  Sadly, our 500 meter races times of 2:56, 2:56 and [...]

This weekend was a good one, unseasonably warm and sunny.  There were 20-mile bike rides, the first ones out this spring.  There were visits to antique stores, taking advantage of the store-wide 20% off sale. There were afternoons spent at waterfalls with good friends. There were hours spent out in the garden, building up the [...]

Let’s talk happy surprises. 1.  BN.com told me that the books I ordered with my Christmas gift cards weren’t going to ship until the end of the month because one is on back order.  Surprise!  Two of the three arrived yesterday. 2.  I got Dan the 5th season of Dirty Jobs on DVD for Christmas. [...]

Dan is a pro at the whole “drive across the country in the middle of the night” thing. As long as he has some Mountain Dew, Red Vines or something else snacky, he can keep his focus and attention on the road.  He’s been known to make the 13 hour drive from Madison to Ithaca [...]

My favorite stadium or fair special treat is candied nuts, especially the pecans or walnuts.* They are covered in a crunchy sugary coating, and are typically served in paper cones slicked with oil from the roasted nuts. As you bite in to one, the sweet outer layer cracks to give way to a perfectly roasted [...]

One of our favorite stands at the Madison Farmers’ Market for sampling was Savory Accents {formerly Out of Our Gourd}. The booth was always decked out in strings of dried chili peppers and piled high with gourds. Every week, we stopped for a pretzel dipped in their hot pepper dip. At first, it didn’t seem [...]

Yesterday, I tweeted asking what time everybody typically ate Thanksgiving dinner. Surprisingly, an overwhelming number of people told me they started the big meal sometime between noon and 2 pm. That seems so early to me! Do you still eat a smaller dinner at your regular meal time, and treat the Thanksgiving feast as your [...]