Less is More

When your kids live halfway across the country, sending homemade baked goods that won't break in the mail can be a challenge. For my daughter's last birthday, I decided brownies might travel more successfully than cookies would. I took the best of two recipes and then made some additional adjustments.

Not only did my daughter and her friends go crazy for the 'birthday brownies,' but a friend's dad tried one and absolutely raved over it. "I consider myself a brownie expert," he said, "and these are the best brownies I've ever eaten."

Of course my daughter wanted the recipe and that's when I told her using less sugar, butter, and flour than in the original recipes had likely resulted in the very fudgy texture, and deep chocolate flavor. A few substitutions even made the brownies a bit healthier, including olive oil for some of the butter, and ground oatmeal for some of the flour.

For all you chocoholics out there, here are Ultra Fudge Brownies:

4 squares unsweetened chocolate
1 stick unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup ground oatmeal
1 cup chopped nuts, optional
1 cup white chocolate chips

Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on HIGH, for two minutes or until the butter is melted; or you may use a double boiler. Stir the chocolate until it is melted and then stir in the olive oil.

Stir in the sugar and mix in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, oatmeal, white chocolate chips and nuts. Spread in a greased 9 x 13 pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Pour chocolate chips across the entire pan of batter. Bake and additional 15-20 minutes and do not overbake. Cool completely before cutting. Makes 24 brownies.

Eye of the Beholder

My traveling partner and I had arrived in Taos on the previous evening. This day began with a sumptuous breakfast buffet of scrambled eggs with hot sauce, spicy potatoes, fresh fruit, and strong coffee, in the kiva-shaped dining room at our hotel, the Best Western Kachina Lodge & Meetings Center.

We spent the next several hours viewing art, buying souvenirs and gifts, and sampling New Mexico wines around the quaint Taos Plaza. At mid-afternoon we enjoyed enormous salads and iced tea in the shady courtyard of Caffé Renato, where I also snapped almost a dozen architectural photographs. After we paid our bill, my friend drove our car back to the hotel, and I set out on foot looking for more architecture.

As always, in New Mexico, several ornate doors captured my lens. I snapped some views of one with a curved top, against warm adobe and a cobalt sky. But when I moved closer to better capture the carved details, I found that this door led nowhere. It was merely laid against the wall – an optical illusion visible only at close range.

Eating Emu

A friend and I attended a live broadcast of local chef, Jasper Mirabile’s, weekly radio show at Louisburg Cider Mill, on one very chilly Saturday. Hot cider warmed our cold hands and then, much to our surprise, we sampled emu meat and egg.

Mike Hursey, private chef, caterer, and a member of Slow Food Kansas City with Mirabile, sprinkled on fresh herbs as he stirred meat and veggies in a large frying pan over a portable burner. By the time he distributed samples the red meat had turned dark brown and slightly chewier than beef, which I would have assumed it was if I hadn’t been told otherwise.

But the emu egg was a revelation. Dark green, rounded, and at least six inches long, it looked like an over-sized avocado. Much less ‘white’ shared space with the two-inch-round, yellow-orange yolk than the proportions found in a chicken egg.

Mirabile added herbs and whisked the egg vigorously before pouring it into the pan. The scrambled eggs felt lighter and somewhat runnier on the tongue than scrambled eggs from a chicken. This time, it was difficult to mistake one for the other.

Dungeness Crab at Fisherman's Wharf

Fishermen still moor their boats and unload their catches daily at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. I walk along Jefferson Street in the early morning, and see tanks full of live crabs at Alioto-Lazio Fish Company, one of only two commercial fish-processors and sellers here, and one of less than two dozen companies at the Wharf that still catch and process their own fish. The family-run operation opened in 1940 and offers shipping services throughout the nation.

Hours later, I walk back towards the docks for dinner. Classic fish stands line the sidewalk where vendors extol the virtues of their enormous shrimp, plump Dungeness crab, succulent swordfish and glistening oysters as hundreds of visitors stream past. Stomach growling, I enter Nick’s Lighthouse - a seafood institution since 1934.

Gingham-checked vinyl covers the tables, fake grapes hang from the ceiling and model ships and thousands of Christmas lights line wooden walls. I seat myself as Sinatra croons and order linguine with crab and tomato sauce. Huge bits of crab are tossed in a chunky light tomato sauce and tiny shrimp pile high on my house salad. I order a crisp chardonnay, dig into my pasta and wonder if the crab came from the Bay this morning.

Fantastic Flavors

You'll never go hungry - or thirsty - at Honor Mansion in Healdsburg, California - a resort inn that mixes luxury with a homey vibe. If you haven't already bought wine at a Sonoma winery, there's a crystal decanter of sherry in your room, and another in the main house near the public access computer.

Ready for something warm and decadent? Check out the free, 24-hour cappuccino machine, with four flavored syrups and sprinkles of cinnamon, nutmeg, or chocolate. Add a chocolate chocolate chip cranberry cookie dipped in white chocolate for a real treat.

Snuggle into your lofty comforter with the newspaper, pot of coffee and biscotti that arrive outside your door each morning. Then bask amidst antiques, linen, and lace as you enjoy the breakfast buffet in the main house. From fresh juice and mimosas to fruit and yogurt, and house specialties such as breakfast strata or Eggs Benedict, there are choices to satisfy every appetite and palate. Each evening the dining room becomes a complementary wine bar with mouthwatering hot and cold hors d'oeuvres.

But there's more to Honor Mansion than eating and drinking. Swim a few laps, practice your putt, work on your tennis swing or jump shot, or even try your hand at croquet or bocce ball. And, after a hard day of visiting wineries, sip some sherry as you luxuriate in your over-sized soaking tub. It doesn't get much better than this.

Au Naturel

The yeasty aroma of freshly baked artisanal bread, and exposed brick, surround me inside Fervere Bakery in Kansas City, Missouri's revitalized Westside neighborhood. Racks of rustic loaves flank the wall, and customers dip samples into herbed olive oil.

Owner, Fred Spompinato, has spent the last 7 1/2 years creating his over-sized, crunchy-crusted loaves using organic milled Kansas flour and a brick-limestone oven with a centuries-old French tradition. The only mechanized equipment that he and his two co-bakers use is a large mixer. Other tools of their trade include Belgian linen used in proofing and large wooden paddles that heft risen dough into the oven. While most of the world sleeps, they're hard at work creating incomparable loaves for appreciative customers who drive as much as half an hour to purchase and enjoy them.

Because Spompinato decided he would not be consumed by his business he only sells bread on Thursdays through Saturdays – until they run out. So you'll have to visit Kansas City to try Pain Complet, Ciabatta and Cheese Slipper, or Olive-Rosemary, Polenta and Grain Travel Breads. Fervere Bread is worth the trip.

Iced Elegance

Sunshine lovers might be surprised to learn there's plenty of sun beyond the coasts or the Southwest. While Seattle and Boston only see sun 164 days per year, Denver enjoys sunshine 245 days annually, and Kansas City enjoys at least a few rays 216 days per year.

After a massive ice storm, brilliant sun sometimes creates a sparkling fairytale world in the Kansas City area. We're infamous for the ice that arrives at least once each winter season - the result of weather fronts that collide at the country's mid-section in harsh yet beautiful ways. Our bushes and rooftops glisten with iced elegance as roads become impassable skating rinks and decades-old trees groan beneath the weight of frozen water. One late October ice storm toppled dozens of trees still laden with fall leaves and disrupted power for several weeks.

But when the ice comes and then sunshine arrives, neighborhoods become true winter wonderlands for a few hours and photo frames.