Life on the Vine

Despite the fact that we have been living overseas for 3.5 years now, I follow the news back home in the United States pretty closely and regularly.  I've been thinking a lot about race and class and our American society.   For me, the word that comes to mind is "reckoning."  My nation is being reckoned with.  I am being reckoned with.  One of the ways the American Heritage Dictionary defines 'reckoning' is "a settlement of accounts."  The United States of America has been building on a debt that goes all the way back to 1619.  Can we settle the account?  Can we face the truth of our origins and address it so that we can move forward -- together -- as a country?  A few days ago I finished reading Isabel Wilkerson's book " Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents ."  A book that will help you delve into those questions.  An Essential Read It is a powerful book that explores the United States as a caste society.  When some of us look at the news

Escaped into any good books lately?  Has reading helped you survive 2020?  With two months to spare, I finished the Book Riot 2020 Read Harder Challenge .  Completing all 24 challenges for the third year in a row.  I'm already stalking the Book Riot website waiting for the 2021 challenge to be posted.  It usually goes up in early December. I enjoy looking over the new challenge.  Identifying books I might read for each category.  My process remains unchanged.  I look first at the books I own.  Then I review my "Wish List" of books I want to read and then ultimately do internet searches. This year I had to do a fair amount of online research.  My searches included: Read a play by an author of color and/or queer author.  Read a debut novel by a queer author.  Read a food book about a cuisine you've never tried before.  Read a book about climate change.  Read a sci-fi/fantasy novella (under 120 pages).  Read a picture book with a human main character from a marginalized

Life has changed the world over.  For more than two months I've been teleworking and leaving the house by car only once a week.  We haven't bought gasoline since early March and I still have over a half a tank of fuel in my vehicle.  I'm driving less -- this is not unique.  It's the same for millions across the globe.  The crisis response to COVID-19 has demonstrated that we -- the citizens of planet Earth -- are capable of drastically changing behavior when life is on the line. I thought about this as I finished reading Hope Jahren's new book The Story of More .  A book about climate change.  She explores the drive for 'more' and its contribution to increased climate change.  She highlights what's changed the past 50 years -- since 1969 -- the year of her birth. A scientist, Jahren has converted decades of research and data into a highly readable 200 page book on what is a complex topic.  In the appendix, she shares 11 pages of sources and suggest

Early last year Tom and I started researching some of the chefs highlighted in Netflix's show Chef's Table .  We know a few people who have journeyed to Modena, Italy to dine in Massimo Bottura's Osteria Francescana .  It is a three-star Michelin restaurant and Chef Bottura was the very first chef featured when Chef's Table premiered.  While researching Hiša Franko , the restaurant that features Ana Roš's artistry as a self-taught chef, featured in Season 2 of Chef's Table, we discovered it was less than three hours away.  We devised a plan to visit her restaurant in October as our anniversary gift/trip/experience.  We made reservations in March and waited in anticipation for seven months! Hiša Franko is located in the Soča Valley and is less than 8 kilometers from the Italian border of Udine province -- closest good-size Italian town is Cividale del Friuli.  The restaurant has its own hotel so we were able to stay onsite the night of our reservation.  Th

I originally sat down to write a combined food and wine post -- since its about time for another one on wine -- but after spending about 30 minutes looking through all my photos it felt a bit overwhelming.  Since September we've had some pretty memorable food moments and I think they warrant posts of their own.  We'll begin with our trip to Greece in September where we did a 7-day sailboat cruise around the Ionian Sea -- with all our meals prepared by our lovely hostess Despina.  I want to also share some photos from our trip to Slovenia in October where we got to dine in Chef Ana Roš' restaurant Hiša Franko -- she was featured in Season 2 of Chef's Table.  As well as some food pics from our trip earlier this month to Calabria -- the toe of Italy's boot -- where we literally ate high on the hog for an entire week while Tom took a charcuterie course at the Italian Culinary Institute. After just writing the Greek portion - which follows - I thought this post wou