menus

putting it all together.

Montana (family reunion) menu.

07/13/2012 | 6 Comments | Topics: family frolics, food., frolics., menus

Every year I create a new menu… [more] to feed 25 familial mouths at a family reunion off in Montana’s wilderness. Stores are hours away, so we cart in all of our food for a week and we each cook one evening dinner to feed the masses. Many of my siblings have it down to a science, cooking the same thing year after year and creating a bit of a tradition

happy birthday mom!

06/11/2012 | 1 Comment | Topics: food., menus

A french white wine to toast her. A menu with her favorite foods. Nice notes, cards and quotes—actually long lists—of things we appreciate about her. This past weekend we celebrated my mom’s 70th birthday. What a treat on so many levels.
I promised her I would post the menu I created just for her—complete with a gorgeous lemon cake from my chef-friend Elizabeth, owner of Heavenly Chocolates… [more] in Seattle.
Some

foodbuzz 24×24: an all white wintry meal

01/29/2012 | 7 Comments | Topics: food., menus

I have long been intrigued with color. Some geniuses can look at the piano and ‘get it’ or do math in their sleep. To some, a canvas speaks to them or the sculpture is in the marble waiting to be carved free. Others are born to sing or work with their hands, have a sense of people’s needs or can readily wrap their mind around litigation. Numbers dance in patterns… [more]

foodbuzz 24×24: an all-jar feast.

08/28/2011 | 35 Comments | Topics: food., menus, recipes

I didn’t quite know what to call this themed-menu: Jars for Dinner? A Jarred Feast? Cooking in Jars? This meal—strewn with jars—is a perfect ‘confession’ of my obsession with jars.
Yes: I am obsessed. I adore jars… [more], I go to garage sales and estate sales in search of jars. I find dilapidated boxes full of forgotten, apparently past-their-prime preserving jars. Perhaps the whole notion feels like a rescue mission?

Wilderness Menu.

07/01/2011 | 11 Comments | Topics: family frolics, food., frolics., menus

Every year we have a reunion in some tucked-away corner in Montana. It is definitively my children’s favorite year – the one thing they hated to miss when we went abroad for a year. Because. Because it is magical.

Adults sit around and catch up about everything and nothing. Kids make up games, kayak on the lake, ride go-carts and hang with aunts and uncles, grandpa and grandma. We all… [more]

POM-centric party plus POM swag bags!

11/15/2010 | 15 Comments | Topics: contests, food focus, food., just talk, menus

I was chosen by POM to participate in their ‘pomegranate challenge.’ I adore a good challenge, and party themes? How did you know? Its the perfect thing for me to obsess over: weaving together decor, cocktails, a full-blown menu with multiple desserts, SWAG bags for guests and homemade pomegranate preserves (jelly AND molasses)… you should have seen all the cookbooks I blew threw—and new recipes I created, the menu scratches… [more]

Black tie. Black fork.

10/29/2010 | 5 Comments | Topics: food., menus

How about a Black Fork meal?
With Halloween coming, it makes me think of the COLORS of the food I like to make. This year I sent out an invitation called ‘finger food,’ and have all sorts of well-laid plans. But already my brain is attaching to a theme for next year: Black Fork.
Like a Black Tie dinner (formal plus a Halloween-spirited ambiance) but Black Fork meaning every … [more]

Luxury menu challenge: a Festive Fiesta Fiest

10/03/2010 | 18 Comments | Topics: contests, food., just talk, menus

‘Back in the day’ I took a few modeling classes. I don’t remember much (though a video clip of this retired basketball player learning to walk the catwalk in 4 inch heels WOULD be great fodder for U-tube). Oddly, the one thing I do remember is the insistence that every piece of flare makes a statement. You don’t just throw something on to ‘match’ or fill-in your ensemble. You make… [more]

Foodbuzz 24×24: Returning to America

06/27/2010 | 8 Comments | Topics: contests, food., just talk, menus

We just returned from living abroad for one year—a family adventure that started with 4 bikes and a GPS and ended with Italian soccer and school. We cycled from Amsterdam to Paris, toured London, flew to Florence and settled in for the school year (where my sons age 13 and 14 attended an Italian school). We blogged all about it on www.familyfrolics.com… [more].
Since we sold our home and

easter in Italy.

04/02/2010 | 5 Comments | Topics: food., frolics., holiday food, Italian food & wine, Italy, menus

My brother, sister and two nephews are coming to Italy for an extended visit. We love that they are here for Easter—Florence boasts fireworks and a ‘dove’ delivering big bangs and smoke from a chariot near the Duomo. Does it get any better than that?
And since we cannot seem to find the colored plastic eggs to fill with prizes and candy, we are buying straight chocolate eggs—wrapped in foil—to… [more]