Hey, I’m not the one who shouted it out…they did, but I did consider the concept once before. You see, I have this group of tremendous and passionate foodie friends; they inhabit my supper club and like me, live their lives, loving and adoring food. They are the ones who said it, proclaiming raucously this particular Lobster Bisque was better than sex. Before I knew it, the terms orgasmic and seductive were thrown out there. I unexpectedly felt exposed at the dinner table. Had I really created something better than sex? I guess that depends upon the state of your sex life but I will say this, this bisque is incredibly sexy.
It all started in the late 90’s when my husband and I would frequent “The Grill”, a restaurant at the Ritz Carlton-Laguna Niguel. Our friend Jim was the head chef and we were in love with his version of Lobster Bisque. We would sit at our table, almost giddy with excitement until our waiter delivered the empty, shallow bowls except for the two prawns placed strategically in the center. He then artfully ladled in the velvety goodness until only the prawn’s tails were visible. He quickly left us to privately slurp the exquisite bounty present before us.
We desperately wanted to replicate the amazing bisque in the confines of our own kitchen. Every visit to the restaurant, every taste, brought us a little closer to bringing its luscious taste to fruition in our own home.
I consumed so many delicious things this year, it's really hard to pin down one meal or one bite. But if there was a night that stands out, and a single dish that truly made me happy, it has to be a sausage sampler that I consumed with my best friend Don in early November. He showed up one night with some Spanish chorizo sausages, a blood sausage, a couple of wedges of runny cheese, and a small cooler with a few kick ass craft beers in it.
Non-stick pans, kitchen tools and storage containers. Your kitchen is filled with them, some good and some not so good. Sometimes your kitchen deserves an upgrade. Here are a few of my recent discoveries:
from Meyer corporation. The non-stick surface is made from sand, and has no PTFE or PFOA and it can be used with high heat! It's stovetop safe up to 600 degrees. I've been using a 12-inch pan for several weeks and it is easy to clean, and shows no signs that it will chip and there is no coating to flake off. Of course, the true test is how it performs in the long term, but so far so good.
My old measuring cups were so ugly! They were stained and I hated looking at them, never mind using them. When someone from 
. Each piece is a different color and the shape is particularly easy to use. I also got their can opener since my old one had melted from being to close to the stove one day. If you don't have a can opener that lifts the top rather leaving sharp edges this is a great upgrade. I already have and love the Trudeau 
and one piece 
(no wooden handle to burn or stain). 
Wednesday was a hellish day. Because you left your
Blackberry in a restaurant the night before, you failed to remember
about the
four people coming over for dinner that evening but were conveniently
reminded
of it when you listened to your messages after coming in the door just
after 6
pm. “Really excited to see you guys tonight – what wine can we bring?”
At that moment, just when you were looking forward to watching the
Dexter episodes you missed over a leisurely dinner of re-heated pizza
and beer did reality bite you in the ass.
The first is 
and it's subtitled "a bulging little book for the truly epicurious." Can I just say if there is anything more irritating than someone using the word foodie, it has to be someone using the brand name epicurious as if they made it up. It's a website, ok? Despite the annoying title, the book is a lot of fun. It's filled with little tidbits of information that you will either find essential or completely trivial but either way it is equal parts entertaining and informative. Do you know how mustard got its name? What to savor in Franche-Comte? What and who inspired the famous blue Le Creuset? What season to eat fresh lotus flower root? It's all in there and then some. It's not a book to read cover to cover but it it enjoyable nonetheless.