Inspired to find your niche – chocolatier, hotelier – Rick Steves in Bruges, Belgium

  Chocolate Lady It’s so clear: A fundamental part of the joy of travel is to simply be in the presence of people who’ve found their niche. We only live once on this beautiful planet, and we have the personal challenge of doing with our lives what God intended — of finding our niche. I …

The Unites States of Pie – yum!

We hold this truth to be self-evident: America loves pie. Food writer Adrienne Kane celebrates that right. She has gathered those regional pie recipes into a new cookbook, United States of Pie. Some excerpts from the interview: Bakewell Pie: “is adapted from the very common English dessert, Bakewell Tart. I found the Bakewell Pie recipe …

Searching for the perfect Panna Cotta dessert recipe

I’ve spent a good chunk of the last two weeks surrounded by spreadsheets, crumpled paper packets, cartons of dairy products and dirty ramekins. Josef Centeno has a lot to answer for. A couple of weeks ago I stopped in at his Bäco Mercat restaurant downtown for a lunch that ended with one of the best …

After surfing treats – from the 50s-60s to today

Every week I read the surf column from local surf legend, Corky Carroll, and this week I was delighted to find him musing about the ideal after-surf food. For young whippersnappers, like me, these stories let you know how long surfers have been catching waves and scarfing afterwards. Enjoy Corky’s stories and afterwards I’ll share …

The official program from opening day of Golden Gate Bridge in 1937

The 1937 guide contains articles on the amazing architectural achievement as well as 130+ advertisements. Here are some of the more interesting ones:  

New Guinness Record for largest chocolate sculpture – 18,000 pound Mayan temple

A California dessert and pastry school, located in Irvine, has just broken the Guinness World Record for the World’s Largest Chocolate Sculpture: To celebrate our 30th anniversary, Qzina Specialty Foods, has broken a Guinness World Record for building the largest chocolate sculpture. The sculpture models an ancient Mayan temple and weighs 18,239 pounds, far surpassing the previous record set in Italy …

Jacques Pepin Desserts – light and healthy panache, tatin, and tart

My favorite chef, Jacques Pépin, cooks up four delicious, and mostly healthy desserts: Tartelettes Aux Fruit Panaches Tarte Tatin Mémé’s Apple Tart Individual Chocolate Nut Pies Episode 103: Jacques helps his daughter Claudine relinquish her fear of making pastry with his easy Tartelettes Aux Fruit Panaches. She goes on to assist her father in the …

Chocolate stamps from 1800s France

Beautiful images of chocolate from French ministry of culture (culture.fr). These are a just a few of thousands to browse through. Most of them are chocolate stamps that came with the packaging (like baseball cards), and are from a few makers, like Menier and Poulain.