From the category archives:

Ya Gotta Love It

My Favorite {aka Best} Recipes ~ A Roundup

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Early in this blog’s life, I published my go-to recipes. I know their outcome, and I cook them often. But they have fallen deep, deep, deep into the archives after years of new posts. No! Don’t get lost, my little favs! Here are my 10 go-do recipes, which means they are my family’s “best.”

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Hot Coffee ~ We Saw The Movie

Remember the lady who sued McDonald’s for millions of dollars after she spilled their hot coffee in her lap? If you one day have the chance to see the movie Hot Coffee, I think you might find it quite worthwhile. I now know what a Tort is… besides a yummy dessert. This is a teensy [...]

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I Have Gray Hair

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This post may totally torpedo anybody wanting to read my blog again. Gray hair does that. It makes certain people turn away. Yet, just yesterday, a stranger told me, “I like your hair color.” A MAN, and I don’t think he was gay. So if you don’t already know, I have gray hair. Silver. Salt [...]

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OMG, There’s A Spa Within Walking Distance of Our Home

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Our neighborhood is a wreck. Westwood and Brentwood area, Southern California. The 405 freeway widening project, now known the world over for “carmageddon,” is exhausting. Noise level, grit, gridlock and general construction chaos make it nearly impossible to feel peaceful anywhere outside of our own homes. Don’t bother walking with an iPod unless you crank [...]

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I Think About Food A Lot

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Here I am at one year of age, clearly not happy with being jailed for some infraction of toddlerhood. I was a robust baby; mom says I was born “full grown” at 9+ lbs. Second of five girls. No dessert unless you finished dinner.

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Carmageddon Report ~ When You Live In “The Zone”

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Hello from Los Angeles! I shot this from the top of the Angelino Hotel. Larry and I live just East of the 405 freeway, and south of Sunset Boulevard. It’s now officially Carmageddon; the freeway is closed for 53 hours in order to knock down half of the Mulholland Bridge, and clean up in time [...]

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Pierre & Paulette, A Parisian Love Story

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The story of Pierre and Paulette may need a little explaining, unless you are a Facebook friend of mine or Denise Vivaldo’s. We recently traveled to Paris, many thanks to Denise (links below tell you more). For comic relief, Denise often travels with little plush toys from the Idaho Potato Commission called Spuddy Buddy. She [...]

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I Want To Talk You Into Volunteering

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Looking for a New Year’s Resolution to help others besides yourself? Volunteer. I came late to community volunteering. My pro bono work was always career-focused. Committee work for professional associations. PR support. Program chair. Treasurer. President. Only in the past two years have I discovered more satisfying types of volunteering. This past Thanksgiving, Larry joined [...]

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Dining In The Dark

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You have not seen a restaurant review on this blog. I’m easy: I like to eat in restaurants, never send food back, always clean my plate. This review is about an experience, not the menu; our dinner at the restaurant Opaque wasn’t anything I expected. Their marketing is European-ish, but the actual dining is… [...]

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Look: My Glazed Lemon Pound Cake Recipe Is Now An Illustration

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This blogger is an artist with a delightful idea – draw high-quality illustrations of food bloggers’ recipes and post the art on her blog. Then, allow visitors to click to the source recipe. This is the work of the talented Lisa Orgler at The Lunchbox Project. Her artwork and products are available here on Etsy. [...]

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Camp GetAway is for Mothers – AND Others, Like Me

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Circa 2001. Somewhere in this happy crowd was me. Mountains. Cabins. Hikes. Arts & crafts. Sing-a-longs. Dance class. Water aerobics. Skits. Archery. Canoeing. Sounds like good times for the kiddies, except that THIS was camp for grownup women.

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How To Stay Married For 99 Years

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Thirty-two years ago this week, as my dad walked me down the aisle to marry Larry, I remember noticing how “sparse” 150 people seemed (discovering later that our map drove friends straight through the path of an Armed Forces Day parade). Oh well… Larry and I giggled through the entire ceremony. And that was an [...]

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Tasting Wine for Larry’s Top Charity

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If you are in marketing, advertising or media and live in Southern California, you should (a) know about the Advertising Industry Emergency Fund (AIEF) and (b) get on their email list. This week, Larry and I sipped and supped at the group’s wine tasting fundraiser sponsored by Sales Athlete (nobody needs to twist my arm [...]

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Happy Birthday to my Dad

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This is me with my dad, the handsomest man I know (sorry, Larry, you are a close second). Today is Dad’s 86th birthday! We all grew up knowing that mom married the hottest guy in Kewaunee, a source of pride to us. Dad was born in Suring, a small town in northern Wisconsin, and moved [...]

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Happy Blogiversary Worth The Whisk!

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This morning it occurred to me… if I write THIS post during THIS week, it will be a convergence of two accomplishments: my 150th post on Worth The Whisk, now officially One Year Old. I was an adorable one-year-old if I do say so myself.

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Living on Wisteria Lane

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Wisteria EXPLODES late March in our neighborhood, making it look pretty much like the set of Desperate Housewives. This is not my house; ours is around the corner – within a block of four wisteria vines that demonstrate what TO DO and NOT DO. It’s incredibly easy. It thrives on abuse. So much so, that when you drive [...]

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Chocolate Dipped Peeps

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I am definitely no food snob, witness this post. Believe it or not, Larry and I saw Chocolate Covered Peeps at a high-end cheese shop on LA‘s 3rd Street about a month ago. Packaged, and expensive. So, of course, now that I know how to dip and cover things in chocolate, I couldn’t pass up [...]

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Crockpot Caramel Sauce Cooked in a Can

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My goal was to make dulce de leche, a South American sweet spread. Traditional recipes boil milk, sugar, vanilla bean for some time, then strain, lots of sticky work. People also boil or bake sealed cans of sweetened condensed milk immersed in water, bringing to mind the thought of potential explosions. Then I discovered blogger [...]

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Road Trip! Segway Riding Around Long Beach

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You know, Larry has some awesome ideas sometimes. So when he suggested to me, plus friends Cathi and Barry to buzz around Long Beach (CA) on Segway two-wheeled electric vehicles, YEAH. Was it really, REALLY fun? “Better than I actually expected,” was Larry’s review and he was right.

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My 2009 Gratitude List

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This was a giant year for food blogging, I think. So many people joined the ranks, as did I. The learning curve! Achieving a modicum of success doesn’t happen in a vacuum; I want to THANK some gracious folks and Secret Santas for your generous boosts:

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Jose Cuervo Christmas Cookies

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The “boy” in the pix with me (very top left of this scrapbook page) is now an international pilot for a shipping company. He may have met Larry at one of our Rolling Hills High School reunions, but now with the internet and Facebook, all these old contacts are right there again! And he knows [...]

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Westwood Village Farmers Market and How to Sauté Mushrooms

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One recent Wednesday, I wanted to walk to our Westwood Village Farmers Market but had forgotten the hours. Google, google, google… where the heck is their website? All I found were press releases from last summer’s reopening after a lengthy absence due to construction, and plenty about our OTHER Farmers Market at the Westwood VA [...]

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New Year’s Eve Party for People Who Have a Hard Time Staying Awake

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Are you like me? I have a hard time staying up New Year’s Eve. Larry is also a geezer, there I said it. Rarely do we see midnight. Parties? A LOT of hours ‘til the stroke of 12. But a few years back, we threw a cooking party that our guests still rave was THE [...]

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How Firefighters Cook and Eat

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This is not Larry. Michael James is a Westwood, CA firefighter, and I cornered him at the grocery store. Firehouse 37 is OUR neighborhood fire department. They were right there when Francoise’ vintage gravity heater blew a fireball, when Margie’s wall was mysteriously smoking, when senior neighbors fall ill and UCLA students do what they [...]

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Food Tasting Walking Tour of Old Pasadena

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Larry and I LOVE touristy things, even in our own backyard. We’re both native Angelinos; been to Pasadena plenty of times. But never on foot for a tasting, history and architecture tour. When friend Chef Diane Scalia and her sister, Lisa, launched Melting Pot Food Tours, Larry and I were totally on board.

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Halloween Costume for Foodies – My Rendition of Julia Child

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Couldn’t help myself. Our Saturday Dinner Theme Party last weekend at Camp GetAway for Mothers & Others was “Meet Me At The Movies.” Julie & Julia was a no-brainer to this foodie; one of the funniest photo stills from the movie is Meryl holding that raw chicken. HEY! I already had that shirt and apron. [...]

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Meet Friend, The Lord Wedgwood of Barlaston

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You’ll never meet a nicer Lord. Seriously, Lord Wedgwood of Barlaston is cool. He’s a former client. Quick bio: direct descendent of Josiah Wedgwood, the 18th century “father of pottery,” served in the House of Lords for more than 20 years – until 1999 – as the fourth Lord Wedgwood of Barlaston. He travels to every [...]

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The History of Aprons

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Friend, Caroline is an enigma. On the surface: a classic beauty, self-assured self-employed food pro who travels the country for clients and around the globe for fun. Yet, she’s kind of a country girl. Choosing Home Ec as a profession fit her to a T. One of her favorite pastimes is Knit ‘n Bitch potlucks [...]

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How to Make a Tin Can Man

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A Peeping Tin was eyeing me from Cathi and Barry’s garden wall during their BBQ. He was a gift from their daughter Kristi, purchased from a local Italian restaurant. Once you know that, you can see the types of tomatoes used for cooking: diced, pureed, crushed, sauce, paste. Isn’t this a perfect way for a [...]

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An Insider’s Peek at County Fair Recipe Contests

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Meet Chef George Geary, the Eveready bunny o’ food. He and I have known each other for ages, and I’ve seen him in action as (1) a corporate spokesperson, (2) prolific cookbook writer, (3) pastry chef, (4) culinary tour director (he takes travelers to Paris to walk Julia Child’s French life), (5) culinary competition judge, [...]

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10 Favorite Foodie Swag Items

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This post isn’t about “free products” companies send bloggers in the hopes of scoring positive reviews. Today I’m writing about what’s known in the biz as “trinkets and trash” – goodies from food companies at the hundreds of trade shows and conferences I’ve attended, lugged home via overstuffed suitcases to outfit my kitchen with their [...]

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10 Reasons to Take a Farmer’s Market Chef Tour

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Westwood Village, California is home to movie premieres and UCLA Bruins. Plus one tiny Farmer’s Market. Just 23 stalls, it is reworking itself back up after losing its venue during a drawn out construction job here. Larry and I walk to the market on Wednesdays, and walk the second half-mile back home with such things [...]

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10 Tiny Tools I Love & Art for Foodies

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We all have our favorite cooking tools, don’t we? Most of mine spend half their lives in the dishwasher, we use them so often. These are my favorite Tiny Tools. This collection is only about 5% of all the stuff in our gigantic utensil drawer, but just like a cache of signature recipes, these seem [...]

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Fancy Food Show

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I’ve attended or worked a hundred “food shows.” That’s the short name for a food industry conference with booths for product displays, tastings, sales, marketing. I’m a food PR practitioner; companies hire my little PR firm to do fancy things for them. There can be a strange celeb rub-off in the job, too. I’ve taken [...]

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Roadkill Cake

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In the spirit of a kicking off your fun, long holiday weekend, I present this ROADKILL CAKE. No, I didn’t make this, it was Adriana Shoning’s blue ribbon winner in the Ugly Cake Contest at the Iowa State Fair, a competition for teens. Animal lovers like me needn’t stew… better this happened to a cake [...]

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What Is This Teensy Serving Utensil?

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Polishing silverware from Aunt Dede’s estate in preparation for a dinner party here, I discovered this tiny 4-inch long slotted serving piece. Of course, I could google around and discover it’s truth but it would be more fun to ask out there… what is it? OK, I hear the collective SHE DOES WHAT??? Yes, I [...]

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How to Snag a Seat at Martha’s

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Freezing weather was my ticket. Standing outside the Today Show during a New York City mid-week morning, I spied personnel giving away tickets to the Martha Stewart Show A thought crossed my mind… a heated building. You see, my friend, Vicki and I actually braved 4 degree wind chill to wave signs to the Today Show [...]

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