Kitty Deschanel | Food, Wine, and Travel Adventures Across the USA

Let me start this post by stating, for the record, that I stay at Marriott hotels all the time. I'm in it for the breakfast and when a hotel doesn't include this, I stay elsewhere. I am a hotel waffle-making pro . Then again, making your own waffle is easy peasy, right? Behold, the tower of waffle batter goodness. How many gallons does it contain? We would soon find out. I always look forward to creating a decadent hotel waffle. The fateful Monday morning after the Summit County Parade of Homes was no exception and I was pleased to discover that no one was using the waffle iron, despite the crowd in the hotel breakfast room. It's no secret that I'm a social-anxiety mess, even with something as basic as navigating a shared waffle iron, so this was a relief and a great start to my day. I picked up my little plastic batter cup. I pressed down on the dispenser nozzle, as I've done 100 times. And then... The nozzle broke off. It just snapped right off...

Sexy Nerd has an annoying habit of calling me to complain when he's on business trips. "It's too hot here in Napa Valley," and "That chocolate lava cake was too rich after such a big dinner."  After a morning surrounded by screaming pediatric dental patients and their overprotective, crazy parents (my generation is nuts, BTW), I'll check my voicemail during lunch and learn Sexy Nerd's flight bumped him to first class and the rental lot only had BMWs left. Also, his meeting has been postponed so he's "stuck here" another two days. Boo hoo, Sexy Nerd. Also, if you bring your children to our dental office, it's the other parents I'm referring to, not you. Wondering where I'm going with this? I was recently a bad employee and played hooky from work, which is something I never, ever do. (You know, after having received permission for said-hooky several weeks in advance. I'd hate for you to think I'm  that bad.) I...

Hey there, fellow flavor fanatics! Hold onto your ladles because last weekend, my Sexy Nerd and I embarked on another culinary adventure at The Food Depot's Souper Bowl in Santa Fe, NM. Here's the scoop: Picture 24 local chefs in a soup showdown extravaganza, like the Super Bowl, but with more slurping and less tackling. The 30th-anniversary Souper Bowl drew 2,000 hungry souls, VIPs storming the scene at 11:00, and the General Admission fiesta kicking off at noon. Winners were crowned by 2:00 pm, with categories like Best Soup in Santa Fe & Best Vegetarian Soup. Now, the Lobby Soup Showdown had us torn between Chicken Posole Rojo and Tomato Lentil. This is New Mexico, so our money was on posole for the win. Saving room for soup, not just bread, was a smart move. There was so much soup I could barely sample them all, lest I burst, or at the very least make a funny sloshing sound when I walk. Sexy Nerd's fave? Boxcar Santa Fe's, which cleverly included Green Chile...