Articles by traveleatlove

Hello from 36153 feet! It is – 80 degrees F up here. . . brrr. 🙂 I am on my way to San Francisco for the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival which we will follow up with a 2.5 day adventure in California wine country. It feels like I have been waiting forever for this trip, but in reality it has only been planned for about 6 weeks or so. We visited San Francisco back in September and decided we had to come back soon. Coming for Foodbuzz was the only logical move! Over the next couple of days I will be eating my way through San Francisco with many amazing, brilliant foodie bloggers. We will be sitting in on sessions like “Farm to Table” with                         Chef Paul Arenstam, MA native and Executive Chef at the Americano Restaurant in San Francisco and “Underappreciated California Merlots” with Alder Yarrow, proprietor of vinography.com. We will be faced with the task of tasting food and wine from 40 different producers, and we will even have an Outstanding in the Field dinner at a real produce warehouse! It will be tough, but I am sure we will make it through! 😉

This morning was rushed. Our taxi driver was 15 minutes early, calling and honking the horn outside so we flew out the door. I always feel like I forgot something. We pre-empted our hunger with a lovely Nasoya tofu/frozen blueberry/Trader Joe’s Super Red Drink Power of deliciousness smoothie. Yum. Unfortunately I was hungry again not long after. Then came Virgin America. . .

Have I mentioned that I love flying on Virgin America? We settled in, and immediately I had to start ordering food and drinks like it was my job. I love the novelty of touch screen ordering. Clearly I don’t get out enough?! 🙂

We split the fresh veggies and cheese box which was delish, especially the mini gherkins and fresh mozzarella. I could eat pickled food all day long.  I am sure there will be more snacks ordered throughout the flight.

Today is a really big day for another couple of reasons. First, it is my sister and her husband’s wedding anniversary, so Happy Anniversary to them! It is also my nana’s 95th birthday! I can not even imagine being 95. Nana lived in a time when women couldn’t vote. She lived through the food rations and disastrous unemployment of the Great Depression. She saw two World Wars, prohibition, the rise and fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, the Civil Rights movement, and the first man on the moon. She has also witnessed insane cultural and technological changes. She has never owned or even used a computer or owned a cell phone. She actually flew for the first time just a few years ago!

Nana raised 4 kids and has many many grandkids and great grandkids. She is feisty but loving and was a great cook when she was able. She is in great health and is 100% with it mentally and intellectually. She will tell you what she thinks of politicians, family members, and the other people in her nursing home. And we all listen. I have mentioned this before, but she has used all sorts of natural health boosters such as barley green and apple cider vinegar as part of her diet, and I definitely think her health is an inspiration to us all. I am sad that I can not be with her today, but I will see her in just a few weeks at Thanksgiving and will give her loads of hugs then. In the meantime she will have other family visits today, complete with cookies and cupcakes. Hey, she’s 95, she can eat what she wants!

I will be spending the next few hours catching up on reading your blogs. I am so excited. I have really neglected reading and commenting lately, and it is a little luxury to spend some time doing so. Have a great afternoon and check back later tonight for a beautiful guest post!

In 1989, after more than three decades of dreading the winters of Long Island and Philadelphia, I decided that I never wanted to see snow again unless I was watching the Olympics on television. For months, I researched the perfect place to move. Now, this was before the internet, so research meant using this archaic thing called the reference section of a library. I spent hours poring over voluminous government, industry and census reports making note of the number of men versus women in certain age groups, their average incomes, economic predictions and real estate prices for various cities in warm climates. I read newspapers, trying to get a flavor of the local culture, looking to see if my short list of cities had a symphony, live theater, low crime and politics that I could tolerate. Mostly, I read the yellow pages. My passion for all things food required that my new home have enough restaurants that I would enjoy. I made lists with checkmarks, notes and columns of pros and cons. How many Vietnamese joints? Was there dim sum on weekends? Could I find Thai and Portuguese food? However, Mexican food was completely absent from my lists. At that time in my culinary education, I knew Mexican food to be globs of yellow cheese melted on some dry, shredded meat that was wrapped in soggy tortillas, and then covered in a runny red sauce. When my Philly friends insisted on Mexican food, I grudgingly ordered fajitas, calling it “Mexican Stir-Fry.” Accordingly, my Philly friends were somewhat surprised when I told them the Phoenix had won the new home lottery. Simply put, it had more checks in the pro column than in the con column. Knowing my distain for Mexican food, my closest friends inquired about how I was going to handle living in one of the Mexican food capitals of the country. Stubbornly, I insisted that I would educate my Phoenician friends-to-be to expand their foodie horizons beyond Taco Bell. Unexpectedly, my new neighbors introduced me to authentic Mexican cooking. None of the pseudo-Mexicano chain restaurant greasy glop for these folks. I learned that chile rellenos were stuffed with delicious picadillo or queso Oaxaca cheese, not Monterey Jack bulk purchased at Costco. As much as I enjoyed those shrimp cocktails from the 1960’s, I liked campechana’s better. I discovered pepita-crusted fish with a lovely and light jicama, orange and avocado salad. Who knew that guacamole that didn’t have the consistency of baby food? Even green chile burritos or salsa and chips, the McDonald’s of Mexican food, were evidence that fast food could be delicious. That Mexican cooking had such variety of styles, spices and flavors was a revelation to me. In retrospect, it shouldn’t have been. Doesn’t Chinese have Cantonese, Szechuan, Mandarin and Hunan? Why did I not realize that our Latin American neighbors would have their regional specialties, too? Twenty years later, maybe I would find authentic Mexican food in Philly, too. But I’m guessing that America’s southwestern cities do it better simply because we have large populations of Hispanics who demand food that tastes like la madre used to make. We have five Ranch Markets, the mother of all Hispanic grocery stores. I’m just glad that they are willing to share with the ignorant, uneducated foodie’s like me.

Would you like to learn more about great gourmet gifts, wine accessories and kitchen gadgets? Jeanette Hauser is the founder of the third largest gift basket business in Phoenix, AZ. She has been a frequent guest on the radio, discussing gourmet gifts, restaurants and food related travel, and has been honored to be a judge at the International Fancy Food Show. Visit Anything Goes Gourmet for great discussions, gourmet gift suggestions, and free wine and food reports. Thank you Jeannette for sharing your cross-country foodie awakening with us! 🙂

Happy Thursday! I am in the midst of trying my best to get as much work done as possible before I leave for a few days. Tonight begins a series of guest posts on travel intermingled with updates and recaps from the Foodbuzz festival, the Sonoma coast, and Napa Valley. I am obviously excited but have so much work to do today and over the weekend that I am also more than a little stressed. Oh well. Since I do have some new readers, I thought I would share a few of my favorite posts all which involve food, wine, or travel in some way. Click on the images below, and happy reading! 🙂