November 12, 2009

 A three-day long birthday celebration in Sonoma required a week of recuperation. Well, maybe longer, since the party was early in September, and it’s now November. Most of the time, we enjoyed meals prepared by our hosts at their gorgeous home overlooking the Sonoma Valley in California. Sitting on the top of a small mountain,

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February 11, 2009

Sometimes you are just so tired of the hustle and bustle, so sick of the words economic crises, you can’t even think straight. That’s when you REALLY need a plane ticket the heck out of Dodge and you might be willing to rent out the cat, sell the Jaguar, or throw your house keys in

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September 7, 2008

I’ve never considered a dinner of peaches until my friends and I went to the Vail Farmer’s Market over Labor Day weekend and carried a basket of beautiful orbs back home. To celebrate the unofficial end of summer, I was invited by friends who own a wonderful house overlooking the golf course in East Vail. We

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May 5, 2008

Oh, oh, I found it! Or better said, it found me. The absolutely perfect romantic Italian restaurant in Boston. No gimmicks. No joke. There I was in Boston, a foreign and fascinating city to a Southerner like me, attending a conference, when who – to my surprise – should be sitting in the lobby waiting

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February 21, 2008

Especially now, when everyone is weary beyond reason with “winter,” Pooka says it is a good time to stop off in Scottsdale. One of the best things about Phoenix, of the exotic name, is Scottsdale, which sounds so preppy and isn’t. It is unusual, though, squat in the desert surrounded by segura cactus and dusty

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