Kitchen On Top...

By Steven V. Philips. If you’re building a second home and it’s just for you and you’re starting from bare dirt, be brave. And if you have more than a few friends you’d like to invite to visit and to entertain, be really brave. Think eating and think good times. This house doesn’t have to be your daddy’s. Anything goes. Upside down even. If it feels good, do it! Scott acquired a rare...

Pot Luck: Optimizing Container Plants...

By Marsha Fottler. I didn’t discover Guy Wolff. Martha Stewart did. Then she gave Oprah Winfrey some Guy Wolff pots for Christmas on television and in an instant these two cultural divas alerted the entire world to a gifted Connecticut potter who had been quietly and successfully throwing exquisite flower pots for serious gardeners since 1971. Wolff’s terra cotta containers are based upon 18th and 19th century English...

Take Stock of Your Bistro Chops...

By Herb Gardener. “This book is a field manual to strategy and tactics,” Anthony Bourdain, executive chef of the “best (expletive) brasserie/bistro in the country” proclaims in the introduction to the Les Halles Cookbook. Nevermind that he peppers instruction with language heard at a longshoreman’s bachelor party. Whether you simply dodge, or appreciate, Bourdain’s signature irreverence and snark — stay...

WELLBEING: Breaking The Diet Cycle...

By Anna Dantoni. Dr. Michelle May, who is an established and popular author, public speaker, teacher of wellness workshops and a formerly overweight person, is brilliantly positioned as the right authority to pen the book Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat and so she has. May is clear at the outset that is not a diet book, it’s a strategy on how to confront and then vanquish a familiar cycle of eating, repenting,...

Summertime and the Cooking is Easy...

By Judi Gallagher. I love to cook and eat year-round, that’s no secret. But, since we’re deep in the heat of high summer, I’ve been having fun trying new recipes and paying attention to new summer food trends. My indoor kitchen and big gas cooktop have limited appeal and are on vacation this time of year. We’ve been spending a lot of time eating in my new outdoor kitchen, experimenting with the new grill and enjoying...

Brothers In Botany...

By Kelley Lavin. Every so often I read a book that so mesmerizes me that I stockpile copies to give to anyone who happens to ask “have you read a good book lately?” This year I undoubtedly messed up Amazon’s customer tracking strategy when I – a person who has never ordered a book about gardening – ordered 15 copies of The Brother Gardeners by Andrea Wulf. To say it is simply about the history of the English...

GOURMET HIGHWAY: North Carolina’s Yadkin Valley ...

By Doc Lawrence. The Andy Griffith Museum is in Mount Airy, North Carolina, a lovely place that the actor called home through high school. It’s also the place where you can still rub elbows with cast members. The museum houses an impressive collection by Griffith’s close friend Emmett Forrest. “Andy Griffith Show” fans marvel at the memorabilia like the iconic signs from the show’s courthouse doors along items...

Summer Family Fun...

By Marsha Fottler. Barbara Glanz is a motivational/inspirational speaker, consultant and author of 11 books, which, I guess, are classified as self-help for want of a better and more complex descriptive category. Glanz is so popular worldwide that she’ll be included in the next edition of the Guinness Book of World Records because she has spoken to groups on every continent. Yes, it was a brief lecture on Antarctica...