The Endless Summer

24 Jan 2014 12 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Humor Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I had just finished lunch of Mexican food and ice-cold beer with my father and brothers, and was now standing outside the Home Depot in my t-shirt, shorts and flip flops, waiting for a customer service associate to swap out my empty Amerigas propane tank for a full one.

I would be barbecuing for friends this evening, and needed my back-up tank full just in case. After all, I’d had to use the Weber to cook my Christmas dinner when the main propane tank went dry. And suddenly, thinking of this, I had a moment of sadness. It was mid-January. Another 80-degree day, another cold beer, another barbecue… and what happened to winter, to whisky and braises?? We can’t even go skiing because there’s no snow in the mountains. As I write this, many of the mountains are, in fact, on fire.

Happy, lightly dressed girls, camping in January

Happy, lightly dressed girls, camping in January

I know it’s difficult for those of you friends in the Midwest, on the East Coast, and in Canada, Iceland, the British Isles and beyond, swallowed by various polar vortices, nor’easters, blizzards, ice storms and so on, to have much sympathy for our plight. More

Just Another Tequila Sunset

30 Oct 2012 Leave a comment

by scolgin in Beverages, Observations, Recipes Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Long a beer and wine (and sometimes saké) man, I’ve recently taken to tequila.

I’ve always drank tequila, in the form of a margarita or the occasional shot. But it wasn’t until I was well beyond my freewheeling 20s that I discovered good tequila — sipping tequila. More

Skinny Girls Roadshow LIVE from Mexico — Letting Go

05 Oct 2012 6 Comments

by scolgin in Food, Humor, On the Road Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

The first thing you must let go of at the Casa Tres Coronitas is your need for walls. Because there are few of them, and when Euphracio appears in the morning, many of those fold away into the vistas of the Bay of Banderas.

Sunset on the Bay of Banderas

Because we are in the jungle, the collapsing away of walls means you become integrated with the surrounding nature. More

Glensomethingorother & the Passing of Time

13 Jul 2012 14 Comments

by scolgin in Observations, Starlets, Yoga Students & Quinoa (stories) Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

My dad was always pushing some drink or other at me as a kid. Less in the interest of corrupting me than fostering a strong cultural foundation, an appreciation of the better things life had to offer.

A father and his son. Mt. Rainier National Park. 1968

“Try this, it’s the finest dark roasted arabica coffee,” he would say. Or, “You’ll never taste a wine this good, my boy…” I developed tastes for both. But not Scotch. That was Dad’s drink. Scotch on the rocks. There was always a Glensomethingorother in his glass, it was always “the best Scotch you’ll ever taste,” and it always tasted the way rubbing alcohol smelled. More

Combating Watermelon Fatigue

26 Jul 2011 10 Comments

by scolgin in Recipes, Sensational Salads Tags: , , , , , , , ,

One of the best and worst parts of summer is the watermelon. Sure, everyone loves watermelon, and nothing says summer like a cold, sweet slice on a hot afternoon. That’s the good part. The bad part is that even the “mini” ones are larger than a child’s head. And the big ones are the melon equivalent of a Cruise America RV.

By some point into the summer — usually early to mid July — I begin suffering from watermelon fatigue. My kids insist on watermelon, so I buy the smallest one I can find. And then people begin showing up with them. More

Previous Older Entries Next Newer Entries