It's no secret that I'm a fan of Anthony Bourdain, so it'll come as no surprise that I've very much enjoyed reading his latest book, Medium Raw. In reading through my review of The Nasty Bits in 2008, I realize that a lot of what I could say about this book will sound the same. He's older, wiser, still snarky, still humble. But this is the better work, and I'll do my best to tell you why I loved it so.

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When one thinks of wine country, one rarely thinks of Texas. However, according to the literature supplied by  Go Texan, there are actually eight designated viticultural areas in the state, with the Hill Country area being the second largest in the United States. It was our recent good fortune to be invited to the Texas Two-Sip Dinner at Jack Allen's Kitchen.

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I hate licorice. There, I said it. You'd think I'd be totally into the strange black rope-like candy that is, against all aesthetic evidence, edible, but I'm not. I do, however, find that I enjoy food items with licorice-like flavors. Fennel, for instance, is lovely. Star anise is an excellent flavoring. And it turns out that if the variety's right, I even enjoy absinthe (beyond the tiny dab I use in my Sazaracs).

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This is Sean's and my eleventh year in Austin, and this is the first year we really did SXSW. South by Southwest is a couple weeks long film, interactive, and music extravaganza filled with conference activity, films, endless musical acts, and of course, parties. We've gone to a sprinkling of free shows in the past, but we've never really done the immersive, four-days-of-music-debauchery that we managed this year. Matt, a college friend and the fellow who officiated our wedding, came down to make sure we didn't puss out and go home too early.

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I've mentioned before that I didn't even really start learning to cook till I was in college, and even then it was slow going as I was neck-deep in engineering coursework. Since then, I've cooked almost obsessively and loved every minute of it. Even before I left my job, I considered the notion of culinary school. After a fair amount of soul-searching, I expect I'll never go that route (mostly because I doubt I'd use it for anything other than my own enjoyment, and it's awfully expensive). However, I needn't forgo the experience entirely. Michael Ruhlman in The Making of a Chef invites the reader to vicariously experience a cooking school education at none other than the Culinary Institute of America.

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Several months ago, I received a review copy of Ree Drummond's new cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I've been a fan of her lovely website and warm, self-effacing writing for a while and was excited for the chance to see her in print (I'm one of those awful tree-killing people who may never be able to let go of physical books in favor of e-readers). I'm pleased to report that the book doesn't disappoint.

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On my to-do list yesterday was to write my top-10 post for 2009. Not on my to-do list yesterday was dealing with an icky half-hangover, half-sinus headache and general crankiness, but it happened anyway. 2009 was an odd year for me blog-wise. I had days when I wondered why I bothered, and still other days when I happily wrote two or three posts at a time. What's interesting about the most-read posts in 2009 is that several of them were from 2008. In a weird way, that makes me happy. It's good knowing that at least some of these posts aren't written, read by a handful of folks, and then never seen again. And here they are:

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As promised, here's my almost-certainly-not-objective review of Alton Brown's latest book, Good Eats: The Early Years. But first, indulge my food-nerd glee (or maybe more nerd-who-cooks than food-nerd) and check this out.

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You remember when the Food Network was just plain old Food TV and you could learn how to cook by watching it? One of my absolute favorite cooking shows to watch was Good Eats and its crazy host Alton Brown. With AB's help, I developed a hatred for uni-taskers (except for the fire extinguisher, of course), learned how to make chocolate syrup, and above all had gobs of fun.

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You remember how in college it was a funny joke to buy the box of wine from Wal-Mart and stick it in your fridge? And it was extra hilarious that it was dispensed via a spigot in its side? Well, now the joke's on us. As it happens, our first experience with a more recent boxed wine offering was actually pretty positive.

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