Have you ever gotten disapproving looks at parties for eagerly scooping up too much of the caviar? That’s never happened to me per se (I’m much too sneaky to get caught), but if you have then you will enjoy this scoop-worthy roe.

Tarama is cod or carp roe that is salted, dried and sometimes smoked. [...]

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You can’t have tapas without having a good sausage or two, and the two that top my list are cantipalitos and morcilla.
Cantipalitos are little red sausages with smoked paprika - an essential ingredient in Spanish cooking - and garlic (among a few other things). They are smoky sweet with a nice garlic tang, and are [...]

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Flowers enhance food in both an alluring and fun way. They give a romantic dinner a sensual touch, or add a bit of playfulness with a surprising splash of color. Best of all, there’s that little “lift” of fragrance that’s unbeatable.
My favorite is to toss in a small amount of nasturtiums or pansies to a [...]

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I have a bit of Irish running through my blood so genetically I love potatoes. Baked, gratin, mashed, fried, hash browned, and I will even admit it, Tater Tots.
Tonight we’re barbecuing with our friends and nothing goes better with ribs than a good potato salad (and corn bread and coleslaw, but Irish girl here is [...]

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Remember those car games you used to play as a child? You’d pick something, briefly describe it, and your just-as-bored sibling would try and figure out what you found on the horizon?
“I spy something red!”
“The sumac bushes!”
Often seen on roadsides, sumac is one of those plants we always believed to be poisonous (No, [...]

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It’s Easter Sunday, and as I write this I sit aboard my dad’s 1958 Beechcraft Bonanza bound for Puerto Vallarta, Mexico via Phoenix, James Taylor singing in my ears. The beautiful clear skies that surround us conjure up memories of past Easter Sundays.
My very first memory, in fact, is of Easter Sunday 1970 and I [...]

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I just got back from South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas. If you aren’t familiar with SXSW, it’s a 3-way combo festival and trade show for Music, Film, and the Internet. I was there with Kyte.tv, who had a booth and announced very cool new live streaming features. It was a fantastic trip…highlights for [...]

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Have you ever seen those humongous looking grapefruits and said to yourself, “What is that!?” It’s called a pomelo and it looks like a grapefruit on steroids - they can weigh up to 25 pounds and grow to a foot in diameter! Holy Pomelo, Batman! Native to Southeast Asia, it is also cultivated for commercial [...]

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It’s hard to believe that these dirty looking root vegetables can transform into such tender, buttery goodness. Beets contain more sucrose than any other vegetable, which is probably why I love these sweet beauties. But they get such a bad rap. Why is that? Is it because as children we only had Grandma’s canned ones? [...]

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We’ve had a sudden burst of fabulous weather here in the Bay Area that has given me a serious case of Spring Fever. It also makes me crave fresh veggies plucked straight from the vine and still warm from the sun. Unfortunately, I don’t have a garden –yet! So I went out prowling my [...]

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