January dreaming and restaurant rave: memories of a perfect lunch at L’Escargot Montorgueil on a warm summer day during an anniversary trip to Paris

Fierro Argentine Grill is a very casual, very chill outdoor eatery, but the service is 4-star. So is the food. And the relaxed outdoor seating and ambiance is a plus, making you feel like everything is ok and you could sit there all afternoon and just enjoy life.

These images are from a photo safari I undertook this week in Jefferson, Colorado, in between intense empathy and hand-wringing.

Tom-Erik and his wife Anne-Grethe ooze gracious Norwegian hospitality, making you feel as welcome and easy as a summer sunset at their home in Kongsberg.

Paris always has a surprise in store for you. Walking in this city at night is the best way to lasso that travel serendipity that happens when you don’t have a plan but are open to whatever comes along.

Still reminiscing about Paris, I have a little Glover Gardens Makes the Bigtime story for you, set at Bistro des Augustins in the City of Lights.

Thinking warm thoughts about Paris, a magical anniversary trip in June of 2019, and how much I’d like to get back there.

Grab a cup of coffee and I’ll walk you through a couple of happy hours I spent with my camera on Easter afternoon at the Tarryall Reservoir State Wildlife Area.

Let’s step back in time, to a weekday in April of 2017, and together experience my lunch and subsequent walk to one of our offices in the outskirts of Paris.

The Grill-Meister and I celebrated Valentine’s of 2020 at Field’s restaurant in Bay St. Louis; we’re reliving the memory with the photos.

Hurricane Zeta is behind us, the new roof is going on and Kimball’s is back where it belongs. It’s the little things.

The strawberry lemonade from Mockingbird Cafe is a drink that instantly transports you back to childhood summers, all reminiscent of church picnics, sunburns and innocence.

Scrabble is a great game for COVID-19 quarantining. (And I finally won.)

A mountaintop picnic in Colorado’s Pike National Forest sparkled with nature and pineapple mimosas.

It’s clear that these COVID-19 hardships aren’t going away any time soon. We are all, in a way, staying in, but looking out the window toward that future where things aren’t quite so hard.

RIP, K-Paul’s. You will be missed, but not forgotten. Our celebration of your cuisine and legacy will continue as long as we are able to make a roux or blacken a fish.

Bruschetta is so simple, so summery, so garlicky-good. Ripe red tomatoes meet their life partner in soft green basil, with garlic and oil to seal their commitment.

A year later, reminiscing about the bustling scene at Gare du Nord in Paris and dinner at Da Corradi later that night in London.

A video that conjures the feeling of the New Orleans Jazz Fest.

A Jazz-Fest inspired recipe: to soothe our lonesome-for-NOLA feelings, I made a Muffuletta Pasta Salad.