Let me share my adventures and stories in hopes to inspire you.

Before we visited Texas for the first time in 2017, I pictured all of Texas to look like how West Texas actually looks. West Texas looks like a scene from a cowboy movie with the high hills, vistas and desert vegetation. In actuality, the Hill Country of Texas is very green, except when we’re in […]

I decided it was time to expand Over a year ago my friend Anna told me that her husband was very into reading things on Substack. Being a Gen Xer and not knowing what she was even talking about, I decided I had too much to think about and said, “I would think about it”. […]

Wine and Cheese Day Happy Wine and Cheese Day 2023! Honestly, it is just an excuse for me to share one of my favorite things to do! Eat cheese and drink wine. Cheese and wine go together like peas and carrots. One makes the other so much better and that makes for a great pairing. […]

I love a good sale! Especially when it is on something that I have had my eye on for quite awhile. Most of the things that I am interested in make my life a bit better. Little fans to keep flies off of my food outdoors, or something to satisfy my morning addiction, a Nespresso […]

Midwestern Caviar Growing up in South Dakota, I never had real caviar. For me, that was something that was told about in books from far away places. Maybe it would be served at very fancy parties in big cities. Midwesterners like their mustard. A large portion of the population can trace their roots back to […]

Above and beyond Life as a Bon Vivant, well for me anyways, includes learning all about food and wine. How to best pair them together, how the grapes are grown and even enjoying a cigar in the vines. I am excited to share with you some of my favorite elevated wine experiences in the Texas […]

First half of the year in review I love cookbooks. Cookbooks are my addiction, my kryptonite if you will. At one point I had collected over 500 cookbooks since 1988. In 2019, when we were relocating to Texas, I paired down to my top 50. Those cookbooks all have a place in this food bloggers […]

Roasting Cruciferous Vegetables There is something so lovely about roasting veggies like broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and of course, cauliflower. I love roasting a whole head of cauliflower. A whole roasted head of cauliflower makes the meal feel extra special. When the TV show, The Chew, was still on ABC, Clinton Kelly prepared a beautiful […]

When you google the definition of bon vivant, you will find it is derived from the French adjective for “good living”. When I first heard the term bon vivant, it was back in the early 2000s. I had recently moved to Longmeadow MA and was looking for connections. This group of women gathered together four […]

I can’t believe I did it Ok. I know this makes me sound old, but I am not a fan of TikTok or its “food trends”. Some things, like the fake coke, burn my biscuits. I feel like it makes cooking real food with real methods and ingredients irrelevant, but honestly a lot of it […]