Category Archives: Uncategorized

BOURBON , THE B-LINE TOUR AND NORTHERN KENTUCKY

Sorry vodka. Get lost gin. Forget about it rum. Bourbon is the glory-be American alcohol.
Born as moonshine, bourbon rose to superstar status in 1964 when Congress officially declared “Bourbon whiskey is a distinctive product of the United States and is unlike other types of alcoholic beverages, whether foreign or domestic.” Bourbon ranks right up there with the American flag, Fourth of July and the Bald Eagle as a patriotic treasure.
How do we know this?

CITY WINERY, BURRATA, CHRIS GRAZIOSE

City Winery St. Louis (in the exciting City Foundry STL) serves the most extraordinary burrata. Here are the recipes needed to duplicate the masterpiece at home.

GOOEY BUTTER CAKE FROM ROBIE’S ON 8TH

Chef Quincy Johnson, of Robie’s On 8th, makes an incredible rich and utterly diving Nutella Gooey Butter Cake. His recipe is printed here…

THE SLEIGH SHED and HOLIDAY COCKTAIL RECIPES

It’s as if Santa, on a pre-Christmas reconnaissance, took a rest stop at Union Station in St. Louis, wandered into The Train Shed and decided to stay. The popular restaurant renamed “The Sleigh Shed” for the holiday season, brims with spirit. Lights twinkle. Ornaments shine.  The staff radiates good will towards man and woman 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 […]

HONEY CRACKED WHEAT BREAD and SUZANNE CORBETT

Glory be! Suzanne Corbett just launched a new book. A Culinary History of Missouri: Foodways & Iconic Dishes from the Show-Me State, co-written with fellow food and travel writer Deborah Reinhart, promises to excite everyone interested in food, history, Missouri and recipes. Suzanne declares a passion for “food history and anything that fills a plate […]

DOSA AND MAYURA INDIAN RESTAURANT

Dr. Aniyan, or Padmini as her friends call her, greets guests at the door of her south Indian restaurant with a smile as brilliant as the gold trimmed sari that she explains is her “work” uniform. The Ph.D professor of business management and accounting and her restauranteur husband, Aniyan Puthanpurayil, immigrated to the United States […]

MOLLY WELLMANN, JAPP’S, HEMINGWAY DAIQUIRI

What a spark! What a charmer! What pizzazz!  Molly Wellmann is bar none the most spirited woman I know. And it’s not just because this Cincinnati local won the Nightclub and Bar Media award for Best Bartender/Owner in the Nation and that Bon Appetit magazine says her bar is the best in Cincinnati or that […]

CAFE NOVA SPANAKOPITA

KATERINA SHESHI Cafe Nova St. Louis, Missouri Born and raised in communist Albania, Katerina Sheshi knows about oppression and hard work. She learned to cook from her mother and expanded her skills during her formative years by working in restaurants watching the “good cookers” who ran them. Katerina became such a proficient cook that the […]