Every other month or so, we gather with a group of friends for wine night. We have explored Washington, Italy, Australia, Spain, and Germany with our taste buds, each of us bringing a bottle of wine and a dish from the country we chose for the evening. Having traveled around the world, we decided to [...]

Getaway to Lake Chelan, wine tasting with wino friends, and the first official barbecue of the season; the weekend was as close to a ten as it could get. We had the trip planned for quite some time, but accommodations fell through at the last minute. I spent hours trying to find a replacement – [...]

Decadence is a word that just feels inherently guilty. I have to look over both shoulders to make sure no one is watching before I take a bite of something decadent. But, if I share a piece of decadent chocolate, for instance, I feel automatically relieved of all guilt… partly because I have just reduced [...]

I simply adore Saturday mornings with my husband. We sleep in until we can’t sleep in anymore, roll out of bed, and head downstairs to our kitchen. My husband fills up our black and stainless steel teapot with water and he makes Vivace coffee in our used and abused French press. We take turns making [...]

The moment I walked into Bon Vivant’s Smart Bread Baking (which I have renamed Bread Baking 201), I was put to work. Apron on, recipe in hand, ingredients, KitchenAid mixer, and go! I was paired up with a perfect stranger – everything started so fast, I’m not sure I ever caught her name. We bonded [...]

Every Sunday morning after church, my cousins, aunts, and uncles would cram into every little nook and cranny at my grandparents’ house. One group gathered around a card table to watch my grandpa and my uncles play a fierce game of Wist, the girls hibernated to my aunt’s room to gossip about boys, and the [...]