The Fuzzy Chef & Friends

I don't much like turkey, and neither do my in-laws.  So for the last several years we've been doing something else entirely for American Thanksgiving ... and because I do most of the cooking, without meat.   Usually I do something around a specific ethnic theme.  Past Thanksgivings have included: Turkish food, Austrian food, and Cioppino. 

This year, it was time for Cajun/Creole.  Accordingly we requested every New Orleans cookbook available at the San Francisco Public Library, and I went browsing for recipes.  I'll have cookbook reviews later; in the meantime, click through for pictures.

I make a lot of middle eastern food, especially lately.  Turkish, Israeli, Syrian, Bulgarian, Greek, Persian, you name it.  Partly it's because I find middle eastern food is adaptable to many dietary requirements, especially non-meat.  Partly it's because it's healthful.  Partly it's because I own a lot of really good middle eastern cookbooks.

However, a lot of those recipes require special ingredients.  And in the Bay Area, the absolute best place to get those is Alhana in San Mateo.  More ... 

For my and Lisa's birthdays (they're about a week apart) we took off Memorial Day for a weekend in the California Gold Country.  This weekend was the Rocks & Rhones event at some of the wineries there, plus we thought we'd get some hiking and other fun in.

First thing: Snow?  In May?  In California?  This Global Climate Thrash thing is getting out of hand.

We did get to go wine tasting though, even though the hiking didn't happen.  Click through for a review of some of the wineries you probably haven't heard of before ...