Texas Adventure

Last week I spent the week in Austin and attended IACP's Annual Conference (International Association of Culinary Professionals). After the conference, my husband and I headed to the Texas Hill Country and then to San Antonio. Every day we were in Texas it was in the mid 90s to 100 degrees. Hot, hot, hot!

Around Fredericksburg, vibrant German town in the hill country, there are almost 30 wineries. We didn't have much time but we were able to visit two of them and sampled six wine at each.

Our first stop was Becker Vineyards based on the recommendation of my husband's cousin, who grew up with the owners. On the wall, they had framed several menus from the White House featuring Becker wines served by George and Laura Bush.

We tasted a pinot grigio, viognier, fume blanc, claret, malbec and sweet dessert wine made from viognier grapes. The claret and dessert wines were our favorites.

The photo hung at Singing Water Vineyards shows a sparkling creek flowing over a small drop with the water sparkling in the sun. Unfortunately the creek bed is now completely dry as Texas swelters throug a drought.

We tasted all the wines that they are producing today. My favorite was a crisp, dry Sauvignon blanc, perfect for summer sipping. Their blend of merlot, named Sweet Lupe, is medium dry and perfect for sangria.

For summer sipping, I like prosecco, vinho verde, pinot grigio and soave. To me, a crisp chilled wine is a great refresher.

News from the Cruise

I was going to write about the food- but until tonight I was disappointed. tonight's dinner was very good. We've been busy taking some classes- Dad did golf and I'm doing ceramics. We went snorkeling in St Thomas today- we were the only two on the excursion. It was a little cloudy but that meant it wasn't too hot. We kayaked out to two different spots in a beautiful bay. After that we were dropped off in town and did some shopping - my favorite thing. Tomorrow is formal night so we will have a special dinner. Tonight I bought their cookbook. We've also done some dance classes. Everymoring we're having breakfast on our balcony and on port days we stand out there for sail away. Tomorrw is another day at sea- I'm getting a manicure and a makeover. Hope you'll leave me some comments. Oh yes, I was so seasick on the first night I couldn't eat dinner!

It Begins Here

I never thought I'd become a cookbook author. I always thought I'd be in the background testing recipes. Over a period of several years and many ups and downs, my first cookbook, Baking Basics and Beyond, was created. It started with a recipe to a friend that was submitted to a community cookbook. After that cookbook was published, the editors contacted me and I became a part of the team. Our efforts resulted in Breakfast in Cairo, Dinner in Rome for the International School of Minnesota. This book was the Midwest regional winner for the Tabasco Community Cookbook Awards in 2000.

Unfortunately this was the only cookbook we created together but it opened new horizons for me. After working on a large recipe project on baking I had and idea for a basic baking cookbook focusing on techniques. This was just the beginning- it takes a long time and a lot of effort to go from an idea to a proposal to a publisher to a cookbook but I did it!

Now I'm starting a new career as an author and a food writer.