Tag Archive
Your Holiday calorie counter
For those of us in the United States, Thanksgiving is this Thursday. Many of us are looking forward to traditional family dinners complete with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and pumpkin pie. We are also anticipating–though not as eagerly– those extra pounds that the holidays always seem to add to our bodies. Often, we take a walk more »
Be a Better Cook: Make Fantastic Salads
Learn how to properly make a great salad, and you’ll instantly improve your status as a home cook. Wow your guests, starting with the first course!
The Essentials of Buying a Wine Refrigerator
Considering buying a wine refrigerator, but don’t know where to start? Here are some great guidelines to help narrow down your choices.
Ingredient of the Month: Strawberries!
Strawberries aren’t just for dessert! Try these unique savory strawberry recipes and expand your horizons with this delightful summertime fruit.
Wine is the New Golf
Think of group wine tastings as the new golf outing. It requires no prior experience, is a team sport, and the price is right!
Waiter, there is someone drinking my wine!
The role of a sommelier has changed over the decades. Some still taste test your wine before pouring it for you. Is this necessary?
Ingredient of the Month: Shrimp!
Add an element of elegance and pizzazz to your meals by cooking with shrimp! Here are some of my favorite preparations, as well as some important shrimp cooking tips.
Wine Decanting: What’s the Deal?
There are two main reasons to decant wine. One is to remove the sediment, which is more often found in wines with ten or more years of bottle age and vintage ports. The other is to soften young tannic wines through aeration.
Ingredient of the Month: Sweet Potatoes
Discover unique & fun ways to prepare the mighty sweet potato. Hearty and comforting, yet beautiful and delicate in flavor, this root is a true kitchen staple.
Fall in Love with Loire Valley Wines
The Loire Valley is in northwestern France— a cool climate growing area that produces wines known for their crisp acidity, which makes them exceptionally food-friendly. The Loire produces a diverse range of wines that includes sparkling, white, rose, red and luscious dessert wines.
Introducing Austrian wines
Vibrant, fun-loving, interesting, and great to eat with—this is a great description of the wonderful people I met in Austria last January. But it also describes their wines. Austria might not be the first country that comes to mind when you think of fine wine, but it could be. The combination of Austria’s long history more »
Calcium Supplements: Dangerous for Women?
Calcium supplements can be dangerous for women by causing an imbalance in magnesium, which is vital to proper heart function. How can women avoid potentially serious heart problems?
Wine Temperatures: Why Ask Why?
Why Ask Why? At a recent wine tasting someone asked, “Why is white wine served cold and red wine served at room temperature?” This simple question inspired me to share with you the “Whys” of ideal serving temperatures. Unfortunately, the biggest problem with temperature is actually that whites are often served too cold and reds more »
Be a Better Cook: Make Your Own Stocks!
“If you want to prepare delicious food, ‘incredible’ food, you absolutely must start with the right ingredients. And, without a doubt, that includes homemade stock.” – Chef Jean-Pierre Brehier It’s true. Homemade stock is invaluable. It is used to some extent in virtually every dish that comes out of a professional kitchen. To kick your more »
Secrets to Ordering a Great Bottle of Wine- Every Time!
Do you ever find yourself overwhelmed by the wine list? Intimidated by the options, whether there are 20 or 200 to choose from, only to settle on the only thing that sounds familiar to you (you know, the same ol’, same ol’). Laurie Forster, the Wine Coach, is here to the rescue. With these more »
Give Your Wine Some TLC!
We all instinctively know that without proper care our bodies do not operate at their best. For this reason we need to treat ourselves to Tender Loving Care or TLC with things like getting a good night’s rest, eating healthy and hopefully get a bit of exercise. Most of us however fail to treat our more »
Take Control of the Wine List!
Imagine this—You are seated at an upscale restaurant with one of your best clients and then handed a wine list thicker than a college textbook. You want to pick out the “perfect” wine to impress your client but everything looks like it is written in a foreign language. After only a few minutes the server more »
Be a Better Cook: Learn How to Use Salt!
Before I really learned to cook, I thought salt was something that belonged on the rim of my margarita. I ignored it in sticky plastic shakers on restaurant tables, lazily omitted salt from recipes, and essentially feared it, as the health culture has trained us to do so to an unreasonable extent. Not until culinary more »
Perfect Partners: Food & Wine
Which comes first the food or the wine? This is a common debate at the Forster dinner table. I met my husband Chef Michael Forster at a food and wine pairing class eight years ago and we have been discussing the topic ever since. When we go out to dinner I like to first select more »
The Girlfriends Dinner….
A group of 15-year-old girlfriends discussed where to meet for dinner. Finally, they agreed to meet at the Dairy Queen next to the Oceanview restaurant because they had only $6.00 among them and Jimmy Johnson, the cute boy in Social Studies, lived on that street. 10 years later, the group of 25-year-old girlfriends discussed where more »
Great wine & food
The older I get, the more I appreciate good food and wine, especially when shared with great friends. I love to go to wine tastings and learn all about food & wine pairings. It’s amazing what a difference the right pairing can make in your dinner. My husband and I attended a wine and food more »
Red wine for trim waistlines!
Great news Ladies! Here’s a story from Reuters released today about the benefits of red wine for your waistline. Light to moderate alcohol consumption, especially red wine, is not only good for a woman’s heart, it’s also good for her waistline, according to a study reported Monday. The study started out with nearly 20,000 trim more »
Bread Pudding and Wellness
Today I had bread pudding after lunch. So, instead of doing what I wanted to do–to curl up with a blanket and enjoy reading on a rainy cool afternoon–I turned on an exercise video and “felt the burn.” Instead of snoozing with the drone of Sunday afternoon football in the background, I listened to a more »
Learn more about IPE’s
Nutritionist Certification
