It's SHOWTIME

Ah, yes, tomorrow is the BIG DAY: Thanksgiving. I have SO much to be thankful for here in Every Meal A Feast land. While the cooking begins this afternoon, tomorrow will be D-day for the tur-kay. And how, pray tell, do we cook our turkey. Why of course, in our Ron Popeil Ronco "Showtime" rotisserie. And it's awesome!

First, the story. Of course, when I saw the rotisserie commercial on TV, I was sold. And of course, G. DIDN'T want me to buy this baby. But cooler heads prevailed, as they say, and I'm happy to report that the rotisserie has been one of our best cooking-related purchases EVER. It's wonderful. Here are some the reasons we love the rotisserie:

* The food tastes wonderful -- very moist and tender

* It makes the whole house smell wonderful while its turning away...

* It's healthier, as the fat drips off

* It's fun to watch

Now, it can be a bit of a pain to clean up, and we are limited to no more than a 12-lb turkey. But hey, it's perfect for our fam, and is now a central part of our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. Consider a Ronco rotisserie: we love ours!

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Unique Gift: Wine Chests

Here's a new, unique, and, I think, cool gift idea for the wine lover: a hand-crafted "wine chest" perfect for delivering in style a great bottle of wine. These works of art are the inspiration of Sonoma County artists Nancy Ehlers and Raymond Hunt. And because each wine chest is handmade, you can pick your stain color and featured print. Tool cool for school, huh?

The wine chests come in single-bottle and double-bottle size. They are meant to be given as a gift with a bottle or two of wine. Drink the wine, then viola, the wine chest remains as an ongoing room decoration. Anyway, check em out sometime: http://www.winechests.com/.

Food Confession: No. 1

With this blog, I’ve wanted to share with you my good and bad experiences with food and wine, as well as the funny and…well, sometimes, not so funny. But am I ready to share something a little deeper, a little darker, a little more, shall we say, twisted? Do I really want to sink into those places where we almost always only whisper about behind closed doors?

I think so. I wouldn’t be doing FROTB (Frequent Readers of this Blog) justice if there were food and wine topics I shied away from, for any reason. So here goes my first Food Confession (yes, there will be others—I think).

Deep breath, hold, now exhale…. Count to five. And….

I have a favorite set of dishes.

There, I’ve said it. Here they are:

It’s the “Cabaret” series from Sango. To me, these plates and dishes and cups and sauces epitomize fun and making “every meal a feast.” They remind me of the Belle Epoque, or “Beautiful Era,” that time between world wars when Paris was vibrant and spontaneous and very much alive. Anyway, I love these with Sunday brunch…and with Thanksgiving dinner. I drink my coffee every morning in a Cabaret cup. They help put a smile on my face, make food a little more fun. They’ll never show up in one of our garage sales, as long as I’m around and kicking.

Hey, that wasn’t so bad. In fact, I’m going to share ANOTHER food confession right here, right now: I have my eyes on another set of dishes (they’ll never replace Cabaret as my favorites, but man can’t live by one set of dishes alone). Here they are. They’re the “Black Forest” series created by the artist Bodo Sperlein.


These obviously are the complete opposite of Cabaret: black and white, starker, simplistic. I, however, happen to have a thing for bare trees. I just like the looks of them. And to me they also symbolize dormancy, that rest before spring’s big explosive growth. As a writer and creative marketing guy, it’s very hard to be creative EVERY SINGLE DAY. You need that rest, those "away" times to mull, to recharge the batteries, and to…well, do nothing.

Anyway, these are expensive ($82 per dinner plate plus tax and shipping) so I won’t be running out to get them soon. But I have my eye on them. And they will be mine one day. I just don’t know when.

There. Two confessions. That wasn’t so bad.

Now, what’s your favorite food/wine item? A favorite coffee mug? Set of wine glasses? A plate handed down by Grandma Betsy? It's O.K., you're among friends. It's alright to let it all out.