My Favorites from the Condé Nast Traveller – Best Hotels 2010

Condé Nast Traveller has released their Gold List 2010, which is their annual list of the world’s best hotels as selected by readers and travel experts alike. The list is extensive to say the least, so I’ve compiled a list of my favorites. Most of these hotels are beyond the price point of most travelers, but one can dream about the perfect destination and vacation.

The Balmoral: Edinburgh

If you’re looking for history in Edinburgh, Scotland you can’t go wrong with The Balmoral. It’s a piece of history itself. The modern, clean interiors are a refreshing combination with the beautiful gothic exteriors of the grand building surrounded by some of the city’s best known landmarks. The sign of a perfect hotel for me is when you can look out the window and see the reason you’re visiting the city in the first place.

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Brittany Murphy

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My Top 5 Scary Movies

In honor of the day I figured I’d offer my take on the movies that scare me the most. Most of these have terrified me so much that I refuse to watch them. I’m not much for scary movies. I just don’t like that feeling of having to be afraid of something. Life is scary enough. I have also included an honorable mention that doesn’t fall into the genre of a scary Halloween movie but it still scared the willies out of me.

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Top Chef – The Real Question

Everyone watches Top Chef. Everyone talks about Top Chef. Everyone blogs about Top Chef. But there’s one thing that I have never seen anyone actually discussing about this show and I’m about to today…

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Cook Booking

As the second (self-published, mind you) cook book comes to a close I’ve been thinking about what I’m going to do for the next one. I don’t know why, because it usually takes me until the end of the summer to recover from the previous one. But my first book was just a plain jane collection of recipes that I did from my mother’s favorite recipes that she has, and then everyone wanted another book, so the second is all desserts. I know I really want some kind of theme but I have yet to really come up with something that blows my socks off.

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My Super Sandwich Secret

I’ve decided to divulge my super secret for making the perfect grilled cheese sandwich. I’ve done this particular way of cooking them for the past few years after I got bored with the plain ‘ol way of doing it. I had never been a huge fan of grilled cheese sandwiches. I don’t like the orange cheese slices, the bread always ended up soggy, so I upped the ante.
Personally, I prefer mozzarella cheese in my sandwiches. I also like to add bacon and tomato, which probably makes it more of a panini than grilled cheese, but it’s all the same to me.
But there’s one ingredient that I add that absolutely makes the sandwich….

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Keller Art Show and Sale

I just dropped off a couple of pictures for the Keller Art Show and Sale this morning. You should stop by! Several works will be featured and available for sale at the Keller Town Hall through the month of October.

Keller Web site

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Things a comin’

I’ve got several new recipes coming down the pike, but a lack of computer space and about a billion pictures that need to be downloaded has kept me from updating yet. Hopefully, I’ll have that rectified soon. Here’s a daffodil to tide you over til then!
Anyway, some of the things to come:
-Cheesecake cake
-Chocolate covered cherries
-Truffles
-Chocolate covered bananas
-Lemon bars
I promise I’ll have these soon!

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Sparking

Recently, whether it be because of business, laziness, or frustration, I haven’t taken as many food pictures as I’d like or need to. Whatever the reason, I still have the Christmas present deadline looming, so my lack of epicurian photo activity has been frustrating.
Tonight while dealing with a bit of procrastination I began to search through some old bookmarks. I revisited the the blog written by one Matt Armendariz called Mattbites.

When I first ran across his blog many moons ago he introduced me to my new fantasy camera, the Canon 5D Mark II and his food photography is exactly what I aspire mine to look like. In my opinion it’s flawless. It teeters on the level of perfection that doesn’t even exist on earth. Anyway…..

I found the site again tonight, and I want to thank Mr. Matt Armendariz for reawakening my desire to take more and more food pictures. Your pictures are incredible, and I want to be you.

The End.

P.S. I would give nothing more than to attend his class at Studio B in September, but I think my bank account has a little too much say in all that.

cilantro chicken

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We Interrupt This Broadcast, Part II, An Update

I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the people of David McDavid Honda in Irving who have stood up for their product and have told us they will take care of the difference in the cost of repairing my car. After dealing with a situation that was in fact a recall that we were never informed of and facing opposition from a Honda representative, we were frustrated with the prospect of having to pay for repairs that should be taken care of by Honda, as a rule set forth by the government. Link However, I have nothing but good things to say about the people working at the dealership who have done their best to help us out. Because of them we will not have to pay for the repair of the faulty bearings on my Civic, which is being repaired right now. So, if after all this you still want a Honda, go see them.
David McDavid

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