Sylvia's Scenario

This Mother's Day my sister, Barbara, made a special treat for us.  It was an espresso martini that she had first made with my cousin during her visit to New York City recently.  My cousin had been tweeking this recipe for awhile and when my sister visited her in April, she was eager for Barbara to try her perfected version.  This is the same cousin who I wrote about here who does the waffle parties in her New York apartment.  My sister hosted a barbecue at her house on Mother's Day with Bruce and I, her son and his wife and their kids. Here are the three moms together with our special espresso martinis.   The men fired up the barbecue and cooked some bratwurst for dinner and we all contributed some salads to accompany them.  It made for another wonderful family feast, something my family is very good at pulling together.  And a lovely coconut cake for dessert to top it off.  Now, back to his espresso martini.  I could tell when I tasted it ...

We finally made it back to one of our favorite European cities; Venice, Italy.  We were there nine years ago on a  Rick Steves Tour  in 2016, my first trip to Europe.  It was a Best of Italy tour that started in the north and worked its way south where we ended in Rome.  I wrote multiple blog posts on that trip labeled  Italy '16 .  I was pretty excited about my first trip to E urope.  When I think back to that time...how things have changed.  Bruce and I are such seasoned travelers now (thanks to Nick living in Japan and Spain).  Not to mention how I'm in such better shape after three joint replacement surgeries. I can easily walk and walk and walk without all the issues I previously had. Thank goodness. We also don't feel we need a Rick Steves tour guide to help us along. We've learned the ins and outs of European travel after that first experience and now it's quite easy for us. We look forward to doing whatever we want and on our...

This is a French recipe that I got from the Seattle Times developed by Chef Jim Drohman who worked at Cafe Presse, a very popular Seattle French restaurant.  Cafe Presse was one of Lauren's favorite neighborhood spots and one that we would all go to frequently.  So, needless to say everyone was devastated when it closed (after the pandemic).  Seattle has lots of French restaurants but Cafe Presse was the darling of them all.  Last year, the memory of Cafe Presse came up when Bruce and I went to the Bite of Seattle.   One of our favorite dishes was at a Spanish booth called Maripili where they were making paella to sample.  We had just returned from visiting Spain and we were still into all things Spanish so this turned out to be our favorite of the Bite.   We told them we loved their paella and wanted to come to their restaurant but guess where they were?  In the same spot where Cafe Presse was!  When the cook told me that, I didn't say a wor...