WATERCOLOR, FL— The older I become the more I appreciate substantive dinner party conversation. I am on the second leg of a Spring Break sandwich that started in the rapidly melting Spring snow of Colorado and has ended on the sugar white sands of the Florida Panhandle. I am here with my family on a [...]

Salads The weather is warming and salad sales in the restaurant are booming. I like salads, but I am not an entrée-salad eater. I like a salad as a small course or as a component or accompaniment to a main course. When I am entertaining friends at home, I rarely serve a salad. Sometimes at [...]

St. Patrick’s Day is a paradox. It’s an annual feast day set in the middle of a season in which people are supposed to be fasting. During my childhood in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, St. Patrick’s Day was nothing more than a small mention in my elementary school classroom and the opportunity to pinch someone if they [...]

ASPEN— The question of the day is: How far will a man travel for a Quiche Muffin from Paradise Bakery? The answer: 1,362 miles. Well, actually, I was out her on Spring Break with my family, but we’re staying in Snowmass, 12 miles away. I had a craving for a Quiche Muffin from the Paradise [...]

The Lenten Season has begun. In most Christian denominations, Lent is the 40-day period of fasting and prayer before Easter. Growing up, I attended church, religiously. If the doors were unlocked at Main Street United Methodist Church in my hometown of Hattiesburg, I was usually there— Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, Wednesday evenings, Thursday night youth [...]

Cocktail Sauce Yesterday, I was watching my 11-year old daughter eat Chargrilled Oysters at Drago’s in New Orleans while my seven year-old son ate fried shrimp. Oysters and shrimp are the foods from my youth which still lease a substantial plot of real estate in my heart. While we were sitting at the counter in [...]

Four Diamonds I am currently in my 10th year of writing this weekly column. For the last decade I have written approximately 750 words every week, 52 weeks a year, without ever missing a column. Over the course of those 520 columns, 352 recipes, and roughly 390,000 words, I have written about strange foodstuffs, quirky [...]

The First Presbyterian Church in my hometown asked me to serve as a judge in their first annual chili cook-off this weekend. After some persistence, I agreed. I have tried to wean myself off of judging cooking contests. Several years ago I was asked to judge an out-of-state cooking contest where the contestants were asked [...]

What’s In A Name? Whenever I give a speech or speak to a classroom full of students, I always solicit questions. It’s my favorite part of the process. I am much more interested in responding to issues people are interested in than trying to decipher what they want to hear. One of the most common [...]

The 11 Worst Foods of 2008 I have been told that more gym memberships are sold in January than during the other months of the year, combined. Being in the restaurant business for 28 years, I can attest that more diets are started during the first month of the year. I can personally confirm that [...]