Category Archives: Uncategorized

A few weeks ago, I wrote that 2023 will go down as the summer of watermelon. I mentioned how I like to put salt on watermelon. I put salt on a lot of atypical things. Many times, it’s on sweet things. There have been a lot of sweet things in my life lately as weContinue reading “Potatoes, Peas, Popcorn, and Pancakes (but not all at once)”

BARBERINO-TAVARNELLE, TUSCANY— Things are different over here. It’s not just the language. Spaces are smaller. Roads are tighter. Bathrooms are tinier. But there’s a reason for all of that. The roads are tighter because many were built over one thousand years ago and were meant to accommodate horses, carriages, wagons, and people traveling by foot.Continue reading “Pondering Chips”

PETROGNANO, TUSCANY— Most of my early childhood memories come from Christmas and Easter. If I let my memory go back as far as it will take me, I can remember opening gifts and the smell of the scotch pine Christmas tree. I also remember eating Christmas cookies. Over the past 61 years I’ll come acrossContinue reading “An Easter to Remember”

Sometimes the simplest things give me the most satisfaction. That probably seems like an obvious statement to most. I have only recently come to that realization in my personal life. For the first 30 years of my career, I was a hardcore devotee of fine dining. My early goal was to open a fine diningContinue reading “Perfect Simplicity”

TAVARNELLE, TUSCANY— My love of bakeries goes back as far as my episodic memory will allow. The earliest bakery recollection I can drum up comes from the Blue Ribbon Bakery in my hometown of Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In a kid’s eyes a bakery is a wonderland of shapes, sizes, colors, and all things sweet. In 1968Continue reading “A Lifetime Love Affair”

SEVILLE— Travel is situational. I could almost end this column with that first sentence. That sums up everything I am about to cover in the next 1,000 words or so. But let’s have some fun and flesh out that three-word opening. I’ve written countless times over the past 12 years about the long, six-month tripContinue reading “Porcine Paradise”

MADRID—Irish pubs have always intrigued me. The attraction doesn’t come from the typical things one expects from a pub. I’m not interested in Guinness on tap, or Irish whiskey, or any alcohol for that matter. I’m not a prude, and I’m certainly not against responsible alcohol consumption (it put both of my kids through college),Continue reading “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling in Spain”

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” –Henry David Thoreau, Walden Of all the great debates I have held with friends over the years, most have been about music. Beatles or the Stones? Bonham or Moon? VanContinue reading “Seasons in Mississippi”

Cartoon credit: Marshall Ramsey   It’s February in the Pine Belt of South Mississippi. It’s 82 degrees outside, the azaleas are blooming, and the crawfish are in season. I’m not stupid enough to think that spring is already here, but it sure feels like it today. This is what I call Mississippi fake spring. ItContinue reading “Endure”