I am so sorry. There are a number of posts that I promised and didn’t get posted. The week slipped away from me. I am in the midst of a very difficult situation which more or less exploded very late Sunday night. It has been difficult for me to concentrate on work. I will try to get the posts up that didn’t get posted early in the week. O.k. I hate whining and excuses so that is that end of that.
Recently I was sent a little book called, Notes on Cooking. I could make this review really short and just say …read more

One thing I have noticed about food bloggers is that we tend to be an opinionated bunch. And nothing can get an argument happening faster in a meeting of food bloggers (online or IRL) than whether or not you should accept products for review.

If you have been reading my blog for very long you probably know where I stand on that issue. I do it. If a manufacturer wants me to try something that I think might  be something you are interested in I will usually try it. I don’t accept everything. There was a first aide kit that was …read more

Sometimes being a food writer is like Christmas everyday. Boxes come in the mail and are full of delightful things. The box from Dei Fratelli was like that. Two pasta sauces, two salsas. Yum.

Rather than doing a separate review for each I am just going to say that all  four of these products are delicious. The corn and black bean salsa was not too spicy, but had a very fresh flavor. In fact, all of the sauces had a good, fresh tomato flavor.They are not overly salty and all of the ingredients are well balanced. I really liked this brand. …read more

It has been awhile since we did the whole guilty pleasures thing. It is hard because, although I get a lot of companies interested in sending me things not many of those things are products that I would pass on to you. And of the ones that I get not all of them are worthy of the space to review!

A few weeks ago a representative of FarmRich emailed me to see if I would be interested in a cookbook and a sample of meatballs. Sure!

Well it has been a long time since we did an issue of Guilty Pleasures. Blame it on my time, my complete and utter lack of organization, or stress.
Anyway… here is it. Better late than never, right?

Patrizio in Uptown Mall in Cedar Hill, Texas is open. What did I think?
Short version- 3.5 out of 5 stars.
I have lived in the southwest Dallas County area for … umm.. a lot of years. When we moved here this part of North Texas was largely rolling pasture and cedar trees. Well times change and over the years the tiny towns became little cities, but for the most part it was a bedroom community. No shopping, no restaurants (besides Dairy Queen, burger places, and a few equivalents of a greasy diner), and when a good restaurant …read more

This afternoon Marc and I went to The Melrose Hotel in Dallas for lunch.  One of the things I love about reviewing restaurants and interviewing chefs is …. I get to eat lots of really amazing food.  Really amazing.
We had the best time and the food was incredible.

I got two pounds of bacon in the mail the other day.  Now, this isn’t a random happening as you may think.  I don’t just randomly get bacon in the mail.
No, this was planned bacon in the mail.

Ahh..guilty pleasures. Those little things we do that are totally out of our ordinary activities or mindset and yet….and yet they add a little Mona Lisa smile to our days.
Well, this post introduces a new feature here. Several companies have contacted me about reviewing their products. I was unsure about it because so much of what we do here is based on fresh and homemade. But in discussing this with a friend we decided that you deserve to know what is out there that can stand in once in awhile when you just don’t have time …read more

 
A few weeks ago Alex from Isle de France contacted me to see if I was interested in reviewing a sample of one of their cheeses.  How fast can a person type, “YES!”?
Pretty stinkin’ fast…..