Time Flies...especially in Israel

Time flies …and I have been having lots of FUN.

I didn’t realize how much fun I was having until I sat down to write this!  During the past several months I have:  taught cooking classes in my San Francisco studio kitchen; taken students on Culinary Journeys through Provence, Tuscany and the Piedmont; published my new cookbook, Cooking Confidence, Dinner Made Simple; celebrated the first anniversary of my restaurant, Copita Tequileria y Comida; and a few hundred other things.  It’s been a crazy year!

Just when I thought I’d traveled the globe, a trip to Israel changed everything.  My husband, Joe, and I booked the trip along with good friends and I was really looking forward to my first venture to this part of the world.  Joe had been there several years earlier and I thought I was prepared for some of the incredible places we’d visit, but I will tell you that Israel was one of the most exciting trips I’ve taken in a long time.   

I have to tell you just one story about my travels, along with a few remarkable photos:

Driving around the Golan Heights through some of the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever seen in my life….  Cows grazing in the green grass, millions of wild flowers, rolling hills and the most beautiful deep blue sky...I was speechless!  This is one of the most important Israeli wine regions so I couldn’t pass up a tasting at Golan Heights Winery.  After wine tasting (especially two of my favorites, Gamla Riesling and Yarden Katzin), you know how hungry you can get.  We heard that grass fed Golan Heights beef at Meat Shos in Qasrin was the best and what better way to balance the alcohol than with a burger and fries?  Can I tell you that it was the best beef I have ever had?  That wouldn’t be a lie.

 

cows of Bashan and Mt Hermon

Moshe Basson!

Spice mixes for chicken and fish

village streets

Aged t-bone

cooks at the Culinary Workshop

Hope you can get there soon!

Links to some of my favorite spots in Israel: 

Meat Shos

Flam Winery

The Workshop Restaurant

Golan Heights Winery

Moshe Basson at Eucalyptus