I will not hide that one of the main reasons I wanted to visit Portugal was… azulejo tiles! Yes, not pastel de nata pastries, not port wine, not incredible views of the Atlantic or the Douro river valley, but tiles. I am generally obsessed with handicrafts anyway, and when something is elaborate, distinctive and BLUE, I will buy a transatlantic ticket to get up close and personal with it. Since I don’t have the skills or equipment to go into tile production, I turned to a new embroidery technique I have been dying to try – bargello. This is actually a Florentine tapestry technique, but I found that the visual…

Marc Chagall National Museum in Nice is my favorite. The museum is housed in a building that Chagall specifically designed to house this collection. Every room is planned for display and lighting of each specific painting, therefore each work is positioned precisely how the artist intended, with proper angles, and in conversation with the other works surrounding it. Marc Chagall is a Russian-French artist whose dreamlike paintings reflect on his shared Jewish-Russian heritage. His works are full of wonder, mysticism and folk beauty. His subjects often float among the stars, delight in bright colors and glow in stained glass windows. “When Matisse dies,” Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, “Chagall will be the only…

Colcannon with Brown Butter! Ok, so cabbage is not as common here in the United States, except for coleslaw. Most people have a tendency to perceive certain foods only in the one familiar context. Here is an opportunity to broaden your cabbage vocabulary… Hehe! Colcannon is a traditional Irish recipe of mashed potatoes and cooked cabbage, mixed together, with added butter! And it is delicious, if you don’t insist that your mashed potatoes must be creamy! 😉 The cabbage gets quickly stewed (no need to boil it!) to soften it some, and then it’s thoroughly mixed with the mashed potato, some green onions and maybe some other herbs like dill.…

If you look closely at online photos of dining in Venice, you’ll see it in almost every shot. Once your eye is trained, spotting the unmistakable deep orange color becomes a game of “I spy with my thirsty eye”. Aperol Spritz aka Venezia Spritz, nice to meet you! 1 part Aperol 2 parts Prosecco (did you know it comes from Veneto, an Italian region with Venice as its center?) Club soda A slice of orange Ice Fill a wine glass with ice, add Aperol and Prosecco, top with club soda and garnish with a half slice of orange. Serve with a straw and act Venetian!