I just returned from a trip to Tokyo for work and am finally over my jet-lag and settling back into my old routine.  It was a crazy week: not much sleep, constantly walking, and encountering carb-laden foods wherever I turned. Soba noodles for breakfast, tempura with rice for lunch, dough-covered sweetened chestnuts for a snack — it was a recipe for disaster. And indeed that’s what I thought I’d be writing about for my first post upon my return. (I ate more noodles last week than I have in years.) But here’s...

Our family jokes about how our dinner conversation is always in regard to what is on the menu for the next meal.  We like to eat.  We like to eat almost anything, although we also consider ourselves gastronomical snobs.  None of us ever stops in at a fast food joint, even in a dire emergency.  Food is just too respected among us to ever lower ourselves to the quickie Big Mac or Double Double.  We cook from the Julia Child’s cookbooks, research epicurean specialties, and because my parents are Texans we can innately grill any...