counting down

Two hours until our New Year's Eve dinner, a Southern-themed extravaganza featuring a collaborative effort from our kitchen, Whit...

first stop

I arrived in L.A. yesterday. The weather was sunny with only the very slightest winter chill (I actually felt silly with a coat)....

seeking sol

Since I can't seem to click my heels together the right number of times or pick the winning Lotto numbers to magically transport...

the christmas burrito

While others dined on turkey and ham and pies and puddings, we discovered the Taqueria Santa Cruz taco truck.Feliz Navidad indeed....

bah!

Usually, 95 percent of the time, Christmas is my favorite holiday. But this year, it feels like just another item to check off on...

the unveiling

Here's to a great grand opening for Tillerman! (And Taoist priests with great shoes!)The event went really well. Plenty of people...

learn more, want more

This is the photo I took in late October of the brand-spanking-new tea shop I am doing the PR for. (Yes, in addition to my full-time...

frock

This is Mari's holiday dress.(It's also possible that she may kill me in my sleep tonight.)...

six minutes of fame

Had my "big TV debut" today -- I did a segment on Australian sparkling wine on "The View From the Bay," a daytime talkshow based...

booby prize

This is the "prize" that goes to the last place wine at our tasting group meetings. (It's also known as "vag-wine-a." For real.)And...

fire up the stove, get fat

Also known as How I Keep Warm When It's Ridiculously Cold Out.Today was chilly, overcast and all-around ugly, so I stayed indoors...

addicted

I don't know what it is. Maybe the wrestling with the electric hand mixer. Or the way the batter looks when it's reached ideal consistency....

early present?

The Chron's Top 100 wine list leaked out this morning. It was posted online before the print version hit newsstands. As a result,...

the downside of food

Spent Thanksgiving in a cabin near Bass Lake. Dinner included 37 people, two turkeys, 10 pies, nine salads, three kinds of stuffing,...

baking

My mother took a cake decorating class when we lived in Georgia. I was 4 or 5 years old. She had a set of frosting tips -- so many...

... and try again.

Spent the past week rethinking my cupcake strategy and pinpointing where I went wrong with my previous red velvet attempt.I tried...

in the raw

I can’t believe I ate this.I know steak tartare is considered a delicacy. I also know that the friend who prepared it at last night’s...

(not) seeing red

Given that this blog is called "petit gâteau," you would think I was a hardcore baker.Ha! And double ha!Right now, I am in my kitchen,...

jack and co.

I hope we get trick-or-treaters....

night out in napa

Went out with some co-workers tonight. Started with bubbles at the lounge at Domaine Chandon. This place is pretty cool -- from 6...

breakfast for dinner

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. I love the egg-based dishes and the toast and the bubbly.So I was thrilled last night when...

giddy

Our Australian sister brand is on Wine & Spirits' Top 100 list this year, so we poured at the Top 100 tasting Wednesday.It was...

the fall

Spent the morning running around. Started with a 9 a.m. tasting for some Canadian writers, who were so friendly. I had met one of...

creature comfort

First, there was the Terrible Fast Food Breakfast Sandwich, which resulted in an eight-hour stomachache. Then, there was the Surprise...

elevation, elation

You know a wine is really good when it makes your dinner taste better than it really is.Case in point: We opened a bottle of 2001...

old school

Seven years and you can barely remember east and west, up and down. So you drive around, slowly, until things begin to come back:...

god bless the crock pot

Part of the reason we eat mostly vegetables and fish is because, well, we don't really know how to cook meat.True, occasionally,...

what the hell?

Sometimes, that is the question. Like when you turn around and realize: Hey, that's not a crock pot!Or when you find yourself at...

"real tokyo style" in l.a.

In L.A. again and absolutely thrilled by last night's dining discovery: Sake House Miro. Susan and I went there for dinner -- it's a teeny-tiny restaurant on La Brea that's modeled after a Tokyo pub. (I wouldn't know if this is true since I was only 2 years old when I was in Tokyo and obviously not going to sake bars, but from what other people have said online, this place is pretty much dead-on.) The vibe is more neighborhoody than the usual L.A. see-and-be-seen. There are Japanese street signs on the walls, a pink vintage Japanese payphone and lots of Japanese magazines to read while you're waiting. The sake selection is awesome, you can get a huge (huge!) can of Asahi for only $4.50 and the food rocks.

We had some sushi (well, kind of -- I had tamago and she had a spicy tuna handroll, so we weren't that adventurous), the albacore sashimi carpaccio (you can see it in the photo above -- it came in a soy-garlic-sesame sauce of some kind -- delish), a plate of sizzling beef short ribs served over onions and a side of asparagus. And of course, a very nice, floral-ish sake to help it all go down.

I told Susan all she had to do was say the word and I would fly down from the Bay Area for this place any time.

last rosé of the season?

Gosh, I hope not. But the days are getting shorter and the bounty from our garden has slowed down and there's a 60 percent chance...

evil

This wine is responsible for the nastiest hangover I've had in awhile. I should've known; it was a Cab that didn't taste even remotely...

there are names for people like me

Today at work I got a phonecall from a telemarketer who was trying to sell me some sort of long-distance plan specifically for calling...

nudity always wins

I spent all day today sending out information about the new sales and marketing alliance between Clos Du Val and all of its sister...

I am psychic

Last week I dreamt my friend Leah from work got engaged. When I told her about my dream, she laughed and said there was absolutely...

harvest widow needs holiday. bad.

Suspicious cloud formations this morning: Pretty, but not what you want to see when you are bringing grapes in and the last thing...

at the end of the day

Home. Shoes off. Feet up on the coffee table. Tall glass of something cold....

productivity

Today was one of those days: You wake up. You never quite get dressed "presentably." You spend the day wearing a sports bra and doing...

on spitting and south africa

Went to a South African wine tasting Thursday night.I love South African wines. I know they can be inconsistent and dirty and not...

remember it

It was 2005. The midst of the Sideways craze. And we were in Shell Beach for the World of Pinot Noir. Back then, I was still writing....

one thing I have always loved

Watching him chop veggies....

ad hoc

Went to Thomas Keller's ad hoc for dinner tonight. This is the restaurant that was only supposed to be open for a few months -- sort...

fill 'er up

I often hear about wines smelling of petrol, and I thought I knew what this meant.Until I opened the 1991 Bert Simon Kaseler Kehrnagel...

dumb pérignon

Everyone says that the whole experience -- where you are, who you're with, etc. -- really influences whether or not you'll enjoy...

cat lady

I spent last night and Tuesday night in Calistoga for our national sales and marketing meeting.The location was beautiful. The meeting...

friday nights

I am not good at them....

two of my favorite things

The local Chickenland wine shop held the most ingenius tasting last Saturday: various sparkling wines paired with French fries.Of...

in la-la land

I have a weird relationship with L.A. It's where I grew up, but I don't really like coming "home" because (a) my parents moved so...

already homesick

It's hard to pack your suitcase when certain furry orange creatures don't want you to leave....

the beast

So you may have heard about the mega-mushroom that was picked in a forest in Mexico. I sent the article to our mushroom expert friend,...

clock-watching

As the clock ticks its way toward The Weekend (finally!), I find myself asking a very important question: What are we going to have...

bridge-and-tunneler

That's me.The truth became clear last week, when I was making plans to meet a friend who was in town from Cleveland. (And this friend...