Kitty Deschanel

Remember the great time we had at the Taos Summer Wine Festival ? That was only our first day! After partying it up with new friends in the lovely Taos Ski Valley, we got to bed nice and early, ready to continue the fun in the morning. Did someone say champagne brunch? I advised SN that jeans and hiking boots are not appropriate attire for a champagne brunch at 192 at The Blake. He donned his fanciest hat to appease me. We arrived early, hoping to nab a table for 2. Success! We even had a lovely view of a bubbling stream right outside the window. Luxury condos too, which led to a potentially expensive discussion about real estate investments we should be making. Shortly after being seated, we were brought a tray of some of the tastiest pastries I've ever had in my life. Even better than in Paris? Absolutely! There was a flaky cinnamon roll and these homemade croissants contained shreds of fresh orange. I may have eaten 3 of the 4 while my husband gazed outsid

Sexy Nerd and I recently had a disagreement about a smudge on one of our new windows. I said it was the result of an unfortunate bird. He said I was out of my mind. I think you know where I'm going with this. The smudge was just a smudge, caused by an indistinguishable source...until I snapped a photo of it at just the right angle. Do you see it?  Poor Tweety. We never did find a bird, so either it was okay and flew off or, more likely considering how hard it must have walloped our window to leave that smudge, another animal came by and took advantage of the easy meal. Coyotes and bobcats are common in our new neighborhood. At a certain point, I expect they'll start hanging out in our yard, waiting for our picture windows to serve up more tasty snacks. Yesterday, while chatting with Sexy Nerd in our new kitchen, a flash of yellow smacked another window. He didn't notice and I thought it had been a large butterfly. I went outside to investigate and found th

Last week, Sexy Nerd and I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Angel Fire Food & Wine Roundup in the beautiful New Mexico mountains. Remember how we'd just barely returned home from the Taos Wine Festival a few days earlier? Yes, life without kids sure is tough. There weren't any drunk chipmunks this time. There was a weasely ferret thing though and he was a bit of a pervert. More on that below. See the ice in my wine glass? I mixed my own crazy drink by visiting 3 different vendors, which was a fun idea until other festival-goers kept stopping me to ask what I was drinking and where I'd gotten it. My response always embarrassed us both. Before I get into the details of the Angel Fire festival, I need to speak to you about a very serious matter. I need to report a food crime.  Our first thought when arriving at the Angel Fire Food & Wine Roundup was that they'd one-upped the nearby city of Taos by incorporating chile roasting into th

Do people still use the term "fail" in 2017, like That was such an epic fail  or is my use of the word a fail of its own? Hmmm. As told through  drunken chipmunks  last week, old man Sexy Nerd recently celebrated his 35th birthday. I baked his favorite cake, Red Velvet, and topped it with cream cheese frosting. Except, I didn't actually have any boxes of Red Velvet cake mix, so I used Strawberry instead and doctored it with chocolate powder and red food coloring. No one was fooled. That's not the fail though. That blood-red strawberry cake tasted amazing, like love and angel sneezes. The fail lies in my decorating. It started out well, with a nice layer of white frosting followed by a surprisingly legible SN written in sprinkles. I was done. I nearly took a photo and called it a day. Then, I found a tube of decorating gel and decided to outdo myself. I don't need to take a photo first , I thought. This gel is made for intricate cake details. It's not lik