Life in the key of E flat minor

I can't remember when I first made this dessert; I would say that it was over 10 years ago. I can't remember where I found the recipe; I think that I what I was watching was a long forgotten show on the Food Network. I do remember that it was an episode about cooking with cheese, and the original recipe was for making 6 individual Cranberry-Ricotta Tarts with toasted Almond Crust. I do remember going on line for the recipe with the foresight to copy and paste into a word document since I have never found it on line since.  Folks starting to enjoy the tart I go into more detail about the history of this dish earlier in my blog, Musing on how traditions get to be . According to that post it’s now been about 11 years since I’ve been making the Cranberry Ricotta Tart. Also, I’ve gone back to calling it a tart since a torte is a cake. Aunt Florence's attempts to keep the tart for herself I am sharing a Ryan family tradition that over a decade old. I hope you make i...

My hotel chain of choice is Starwood and I am a member of the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program. Earlier this year, SPG ran the SPG Getaway Free promotion.  It entailed earning one free Resort Night Award for every three eligible stays at over 1,000 hotels across all their brands from May 1 through July 31. During that time, I stayed a total of 8 nights – split between work and leisure – at the following hotels: Aloft Houston by the Galleria; Sheraton Syracuse University Hotel; Sheraton Reston Hotel; Four Points by Sheraton San Diego; Sheraton Mission Valley San Diego and Palace Hotel, San Francisco (one of my favorites!) These six stays earned me two award nights at over 200 of Starwood's resorts ; I should have squeezed a night in a Philly Starwood to get 3 nights! Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Beach Hotel, beach view, image courtesy of Starwood The West Coast and Southwest choices were out of the question since the airfare would be prohibitively high. The majorit...

When I was up in Cambridge for the Penn/Harvard tailgate, I had a wonderful view of Boston and the Charles River.  I felt for the quintessential American autumnal holiday that a classic view of changing leaves in the home state of the "first" Thanksgiving would be the best way to wish my friends and readers a wonderful and loving Thanksgiving. Let me leave you with this: As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. - John Fitzgerald Kennedy

One thing about the Philadelphia airport that sours me on traveling is going through the TSA security lines.  I have no problem with the scanning itself to make sure that we are secure for flight.  It’s both the security guards who stand at the entrance to the long queue shoot and, of course, my fellow passengers. My first beef is with these security folks; I assume they are not an official part of the TSA due to their dress and lack of TSA accessories.  They seem to be airport-employed agents who obliviously tell you which line to get into: Expert, Casual or Family/Medical Liquids.  I’ve been cattle-shooted (or is it cattle-shot) into the Family line several times, and not because it’s empty.  Sometimes, it is the shortest line and I’m sent there to alleviate the back up.  However, it doesn’t actually speed my time through security. What Kind of Traveler Are You? icons, images courtesy of TSA This leads to my grievances with my fellow passengers....

Well the Boston Garden...  Friday night, I worked an alumni event at the Boston Beer Works on Canal Street and I walked back to my hotel in Cambridge.  I had to pass the Boston Garden (TD Garden - they have the naming rights) en route. The large illuminated sign caught my eye. It's bold and alluring. This was a better angle to get a clear, interesting picture than the dead-on example below.

One of my newest treats is seltzer water. Not just any seltzer water, but Polar Seltzer with Vanilla. It is an intriguing beverage that starts with strong smell of vanilla before the salty taste of carbonation hits your palate and is follow up with sweet notes that compliment the aroma.  I love it ice cold on its own and I have used it as a mixer. I was introduced to this new flavor in seltzer during a visit to Connecticut about two years ago. My dear friend, Julie, had offered us something to drink and rattled off about 5 flavored seltzers – one of which was vanilla. I was intrigued, but cautious. She offered me a sip of hers and from the first scent of vanilla, I was hooked. Later during my visit, I hit the area Stop and Shop and purchased 6 liters of vanilla for my drive back to Philadelphia. The difficulty of this new treat is that it is not readily available in my neck of the woods. Polar Beverages are distributed mainly in New England and Upstate New York, with...

Just over 10 miles off the coast of Newfoundland lies the last slice of Nouvelle-France , the former French colony in North America. The French jurisdiction which once spanned over 2 million square miles has been reduced to just over 90 in the form of the collectivité territoriale (territorial collectivity) of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon . The archipelago of eight islands, located in the entrance of Fortune Bay, strongly celebrates its Basque, Breton and Norman roots as a sea fairing land. A view of Saint-Pierre, the capital of Saint Pierre and Miquelon The inhabitants of Saint Pierre and Miquelon are French. They have French citizenship and vote in national elections. The collectivity is represented in France’s National Assembly with both a senator and a deputy (similar in role to a US Representative). The euro is the currency. Though over 4,000 miles from the closest continental French city, Saint Pierre and Miquelon is France's oldest remaining overseas territory as well...

I spend last week in Virginia and made the trip to DC as well.  I played an evening tourist, visiting the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the National World War II Memorial. I was memorized by the grandeur of the memorial, in scope and in style. This is a detail of the Freedom Wall is on the west side of the memorial. The wall has 4,048 gold stars, each representing 100 Americans who died in the war. In front of the wall lies the message "Here we mark the price of freedom."