Category Archives: ENTERTAINING

BRIDAL SHOWER and GLUTEN-FREE QUICHE

To everything there is a season. And this season is the time for showers. Bridal Showers. Woo-hoo! Our favorite bridal shower is a brunch. We like the old-fashioned variety, held in a home where all is lighthearted, lovely and lovingly personal. Here are a few tips for keeping a bridal brunch shower sweet, simple and […]

HOMEMADE for the HOLIDAYS

  Gift wrapped in sugar and spice and everything nice, Sweet Leisure brings you some sensational, truly terrific, and downright delicious recipes that you can make for happy holiday indulging. Click below for:   GOOD, GRAND AND GROOVY GOURMET GIFTS TO GIVE Peanut Butter cookies, Hot Cocoa Cake, Coffee Rub, Spiced Pecans, Sponge Candy and Pompelmocello. […]

CRANBERRY SALAD FROM BARBARA GIBBS OSTMANN

Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and I have been friends for so long that I don’t remember how we met. I think it was when she first became food editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch sometime in the mid 1970s. She interviewed me about my cooking school for kids and then subsequently hired me to freelance, not […]

NATHALIE DUPREE AND TIAN

The extraordinary cook, cookbook author and food celebrity, Nathalie Dupree, shares her favorite recipe perfect for summer bounty.

A PERFECT MEZZE MEAL

Great ideas and recipes for a snazzy brunch or family dinner mezze meal. Concept copied from Toast Bakery Cafe and Ta-eem Grill in Los Angeles.

SAN SEBASTIÁN, PINTXOS, AND THE GILDA

For those who have never been to San Sebastián, Spain, put it on your bucket list. If you have already been—then you know. You’ll return. What makes the city so appealing? Food, glorious food, and more food. Of course the setting is lovely. Once a small fishing village, San Sebastián now spreads from the sea […]

INVERAWE and SMOKED SALMON PATE

Anyone hooked on smoked salmon has probably heard of Inverawe and Robert & Rosie Campbell-Preston. Robert & Rosie opened Inverawe Smokehouse in Argyll, on the West Coast of Scotland, in 1980. Robert was the fish smoker, an art he learned growing up on the banks of the Awe. Rosie tackled the marketing, a talent she […]

SAN ANTONIO, BOILER HOUSE & S’MORES

  San Antonio, the Texas city with south-of-the-border flair, offers gourmets much to love. Good restaurants cluster around town, accessorizing the River Walk like fine jewelry. But the shiniest, most-polished restaurants string around Pearl, the 22-acre food, entertainment and educational development on the site of the former Pearl Brewery. Pearl boasts a treasure trove of […]

Crowd-Pleasing Barbecue Beef Brisket

A terrific make-ahead barbecue brisket recipe, nice to serve at backyard barbecues and other casual parties.

FABULOUS SOUP RECIPES

Recipes for two great soups, Cream of Brie and Cream of Bean. Both are luxuriously rich and beautifully versatile (can be served hot or cold, summer or winter, with any number of garnishes changing the flavor).