Gastronomy 101

Share our Strength, an organization that works to end childhood hunger in America and the organization that put on the recent Taste of the Nation event, is bringing you a new way to contribute to the cause. The Great American Bake Sale is a campaign to get people to host bake sales in their community to raise money to aid children at risk of hunger. This is a way to contribute for those of us who may not have $100 to pay for a food festival, but may be rich in friends and neighbors who like to eat (and who doesn't, really?) If you love to bake, or know people that do, please visit the Great American Bake Sale website for details on how you can organize your own bake sale, or how you can find a bake sale to attend, or even how you can contribute to someone else's bake sale. To find out more about Share Our Strength, visit their website HERE .

I'm an L.A. foodblogging fool! I posted again, this time about taking a weekend trip up the Central Coast. Read it!

Yeah, I went. I didn't think it would be possible for a bit, but turns out that if you're up for an early dinner, it's not that hard to get a seat in the hottest new restaurant in town. Batali was not in the house, but Nancy was and that's good enough for me. Read about my din-din on la.foodblogging . Sorry, no pix this time.

Something you may not yet know about me is that July is my birthday month. Officially, I just turned 21. I can legally drink now! Unofficially, that might not be entirely accurate. Being born in July means I am a Cancer. Cancer is a crab and according to astrology, that means I am kind, nurturing, imaginative and sympathetic. On the other hand, I am also moody, hypersensitive, depressed, and clingy. Sweet. Aren't you glad you married that, honey? Being a Cancer, I supposedly also gravitate toward other Cancers. Now, I've never been big on astrology. I'm not sure I believe that a star and planet can control my life, but it is a fact that I have a few friends who are celebrating birthdays this month, including my sassy ex-coworker Milla . I only sort of met Milla at first. She and I shared a computer at the company we worked for in San Francisco. She was night shift and I was day. All I knew of her at first was that she had drink label stuck on the computer that said "Bi...

Carrots are my all-time favorite vegetable. I can eat carrots like nobody's business. Even at my pickiest, carrots have always been a vegetable I would eat. When I was a baby, I started to turn orange from all the carrots and it still did not diminish my love for them. Carrots are actually a member of the parsley family, as evidenced by their greens. Root vegetables in this family are aromatic and so are often used in stocks, stews and soups. What we eat are actually the roots. They are very high in vitamin A. In the eye, Vitamin A allows us to detect light and helps us to see. Carrots are also available year round so you always have them as a vegetable option with your dinner. Carrots came from the Mediterranean and have been cultivated into two main groups: the reddish purple to purple black central Asian carrots and the Western carotene carrot, which is what we normally see. The Western carrot is a hybrid developed from yellow carrots of Europe, white carrots, and wild carrots. ...