ExperiencePlus!
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A Guide’s Guide to the Best Travel Guide Books (and websites)
A Guide’s Guide to the Best Travel Guide Books and Websites With the massive amount of information available for travel planning these days, it’s hard to know where to begin. That’s why we suggest first considering what your specific… Read full article
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The Tour de France Companion by Bob Roll
The Tour de France Companion by Bob Roll Bob Roll’s Nuts, Bolts and Spokes on the famous Tour This is a great book, just out, for those of us who haven’t had time to follow the Tour de France every year… Read full article
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Daily Bicycle Maintenance: Paying Attention to Your Bike
Daily Bicycle Maintenance: Paying Attention to Your Bike by Rich Young, ExperiencePlus! Tech Guy One of the best things about bikes is their elegant simplicity. But when it comes to keeping your bike running smoothly, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.… Read full article
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Fava Bean Salad with Fresh Sage and Lemon
Fava Bean Salad with Fresh Sage and Lemon This month Ellen Brinks, a colleague of Paola’s, shares her fava bean recipe. Here’s a recipe that features the wonderful taste of fresh sage and makes a delicious picnic or potluck offering,… Read full article
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Tuscan-Style Baked Cannellini Beans with Rosemary and Garlic
Tuscan-Style Baked Cannellini Beans with Rosemary and Garlic Baking beans in a covered dish in slow oven heat allows them to soften without their skins puckering and separating. Another version of baked beans calls for onions, thyme and sage… Read full article
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Al Young, Shifting Gears, My Global Bike Odyssey (including an interview with the author)
Al Young, Shifting Gears, My Global Bike Odyssey (including an interview with the author) Shifting Gears: My Global Bike Odyssey by Al Young Trafford Publishing, Victoria, 2005 (See the end of the review for details on how to purchase… Read full article
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Latin American Caramel Flan
Latin American Caramel Flan Flan is a traditional desert from Mexico and is popular all over South and Central America. It is an excellent finish for a spicy dinner. Emma Wells and Corey Odell made this recipe for the ExperiencePlus!… Read full article
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Giving Good Weight: Unmasking Food Writer John McPhee
Giving Good Weight: Unmasking Food Writer John McPhee My all time favorite food essayist is John McPhee. This may come as a surprise, mainly because McPhee writes about so many things (his interests are even more eclectic than mine, it… Read full article
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Bagna Cauda (“Hot Bath”) – A Garlic and Anchovy Sauce
Bagna Cauda ("Hot Bath") – A Garlic and Anchovy Sauce Bagna Cauda, which literally translates as "hot bath", is a unique specialty of the Piedmont region often eaten with white truffles. According to Matt Kramer in A Passion for Piedmont,… Read full article
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Mussels in ‘Sauce Poulette’
Mussels in ‘Sauce Poulette’ Josette Smyrl, our French Hotel Coordinator, has sent me this recipe from her home in Provence. She had just prepared this dish for some friends, so she gladly passed it on to me to share with… Read full article
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The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005) When I began graduate school in geography at the University of Oregon in the early 1970s some of the… Read full article
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Mushroom Soup or Zuppa di Funghi or Soupe aux Champignons
Mushroom Soup or Zuppa di Funghi or Soupe aux Champignons As Paola says in her accompanying article on the tenuous connections between Tuscany and the Loire Valley, the two regions are quite different. But one thing they do have in… Read full article
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Renaissance Cuisine in France and Italy
Renaissance Cuisine in France and Italy Italy’s Tuscany and France’s Loire Valley don’t have much in common as far as geography or climate are concerned, but they share a special place in the history of the European Renaissance. From Florence,… Read full article