• Food

    Ribollita

    We had some pretty cold winters while I was growing up in upstate New York. Doing anything that required being outside for longer than five minutes was an especially painful experience once the temperature fell below 20 degrees, which it sometimes did. It’s no wonder I grew up to love soups so much. I’m pretty non-discriminatory when it comes to soup, but I do have a few favorites. Tomato soup with a hot grilled cheese sandwich conjures up many childhood memories. I’ve always been a big fan of claim chowder, I’m in the New England camp on that one. I think my all-time favorite is a potato and leek soup…

  • Cooking,  Food

    Fermentation

    Hello again! Since returning from a two week holiday down under, I’ve been working on a few posts from our Australian trip that I’m working on. While in between stops and layovers, I came across this interesting article from Nature in my newsfeed, and it reminded me of a research paper I did in school. Have you ever heard of bog butter? In case you haven’t, bog butter is animal fat that is found usually wrapped in plant material sometimes including wild garlic, and then encased in barrels or baskets and then buried in a bog. Why a bog? Scientists believe the reason is because people in ancient times probably…

  • Food,  Travel

    First Meal

    Ah Paris… My first meal in a foreign country was this charcuterie and cheese plate. Looks amazing, right? My picture couldn’t do justice to the taste, but of course what would you expect in Paris. This plate represented a first for many things. It was the first “I love you” to the person I would choose to spend the rest of my life with. It was the first trip outside of the United States I would take – it had to be France, and it had to be Paris! It was not the initial spark of wanting to learn more about the people of the world, their culture, and their…