My little sister recently announced she no longer will eat any red meat or chicken.  For a family of rabid foodies that is akin to saying she is moving to Africa.  We are meat lovers. I have tried to reason with her and she is pretty convinced that when she eats at my house I will [...]

Looking for a quick summer salad that’s filling and healthy …. Heirloom tomatoes, feta , English cucumber, green onion, kalamata olives and a bit of mint hits the spot every time. Chop all of your ingredients … Wisk a simple dressing of olive oil, balsamic, kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper and you have lunch [...]

Thinking of doing a quick day trip and not sure where to go?  Come up to Healdsburg for the Jazz festival. The Healdsburg Jazz festival is one of the best small jazz festivals in the country. It is spread out over different venues with different types of jazz artists.  Like Jazz with your dinner?  No [...]

  The black iris is amazing in that at sometimes it appears black while at others it appears a rich purple.  I first became entranced in this flower a few years back when I was going through a dark stage.  My garden was full of pink and red but I wanted something deeper and richer.  One of the [...]

There is nothing like a rose.  A nice fat garden rose. Scents can range from a true rose scent to a violet or citrus smell.  No other flower has such a color or fragrance range.  No other flowers elicits such love as a rose.    According to fossils the rose is 35 million years old.   [...]

When I was young my friend had a field that was filled with sweet peas.  As children, we would wander through the field gathering bouquets of sweet peas.  There were always a ton of them in a variety of colors.  There are over 250 varieties of sweet peas and they self pollinate.  Easy to get [...]

 I love the Healdsburg Farmers market.  It is truly one of my favorite places.  They have the BEST flowers!  There are few things I love more than flowers. Introducing the fully bloomed Peony if you have never seen one before. They start out tightly wound and then unfurl into a beautiful spectacle of a flower. [...]

I have been obsessed with cheese for about 5 years.  To the extent that every dinner out starts and ends with a cheese plate.  For the true cheese lover the below are two of the restaurants I feel have true cheese experiences for the cheese lover 1) Willi’s Wine Bar, Santa Rosa.  Local small production [...]

Tilapia is the 5th most consumed fish in the world.   It has low levels of mercury, low carbohydrates, low calories and low sodium while still serving a healthy dose of protein. A one ounce serviong has 36 calories, 7 grams of protein, 0 carbs and one gram of fat.  Better yet it can taste very [...]

I absolutely love pancakes but what I love even more than pancakes is chocolate which is why it makes perfect sense to eat only chocolate chip pancakes.  If you use an excessive amount of chocolate chips there is no need for syrup.  Just add whipped cream. Recipe below You will need: 1 cup of chocolate chips.  [...]