During my growing up years, my parents had a sheet metal shop in Brooklyn, close to the docks and the Battery Tunnel that connected our borough to Manhattan.  Every year, as the December holidays approached, gifts began arriving from suppliers.  The best of all the gifts was a box of Comice pears from an orchard way on the other side of the country.  Although the docks provided us with a year-round supply of luscious fruits from all over the world, those holiday boxes of pears were bigger, better, and juicier than any other pear, bar none.  

Seattle lost a great man last week, when Chef Thierry Rautureau died on October 29th. Only 64 years old, he succumbed to pulmonary fibrosis, an autoimmune disease that scars the lungs, making breathing difficult.

My husband’s birthday present to me this past summer was a Fall mushroom adventure.  He found Travis online and arranged a private tour for the two of us.