Articles

Three Mexican American Families Strike Gold in the Wine Country

October 1, 2010

kathleen thompson hill sonoma

This story begins in remote villages in Mexico. It ends in the Sonoma and Napa valleys of California. During the Great Depression, up to a million people of Mexican descent were forced to leave the United States during what was called “Mexican repatriation.” This is a misnomer as many of those forced or “encouraged” to [...]

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The Plaza Tasting Tour

September 30, 2010

Kathleen Thompson Hill sonoma writer food wine lifestyle

If you don’t have time for a day-long wine tour, Sonoma’s historic Plaza offers the same experience in microcosm. You won’t need your car, and the Plaza park is a perfect place to unwind and uncork because alcohol is allowed between 11:30 a.m. and sunset. Numerous cult wineries have opened tasting rooms and wine bars [...]

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The food and wine world of Kathleen Hill

June 15, 2010

KathleenHill

The world beats a path to Sonoma. First Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa visited the Robledo Family Winery, then he invited former field worker, now winery patriarch Reynaldo Robledo to a White House state dinner with President Obama. Robledo enjoyed lunch with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, and spoke for [...]

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Got Goat’s Milk Cheese?

June 1, 2010

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Goat’s milk cheese is one of the oldest dairy products in the world. Legends have it that Bacchus, Dionysus and the Romans all ate goat cheese. The Moors brought goats to France’s Loire Valley from the Eastern Mediterranean around 8 A.D., along with their milking and cheesemaking methods. Apparently the Moors didn’t cross the Loire [...]

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Kathleen Hill’s Hot Tips

May 22, 2010

Kathleen Thompson Hill writer sonoma food wine lifestyle

Harvey’s Gourmet Donuts; Fred Franzia and Bronco’s new Napa facilities; Sonoma and Napa new restaurants; Nibs and Sips Harvey Cohen of Glen Ellen has a new invention, business and passion: Harvey’s Gourmet Donuts. These mini made-before-your-eyes and melt-in-your-mouth morsels come in paper cones, and you choose what toppings you want, if any. These babies are [...]

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Liquids Sweeter Than Wine

May 6, 2010

Kathleen Thompson Hill writer wine food sonoma lifestyle

Mia’s Kitchen is a new company owned and founded by Mia Sebastiani and her mother, Nancy Sebastiani, wife of Don Sebastiani. Mia designed her first wine label at age 3, and her father named a wine after her (Mia’s Playground) before she was old enough to drink. Her Mia’s Kitchen is now part of The [...]

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Got Lemons? Make Limoncello

May 6, 2010

Kathleen Thompson Hill sonoma writer food wine lifestyle

After “studying” and sipping their way through limoncello in Italy for many moons, Fred and Amy Groth arrived a few years ago in Sonoma. They had both graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder. While Amy became a super successful wedding planner, Fred worked for an environmental engineering company and was involved with radar, [...]

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Sonoma Meats the World

May 6, 2010

Kathleen thompson Hill Sonoma writer food wine lifestyle

With all the cattle, sheep and goats still stirring in Sonoma’s wine country, it’s no wonder some locals have come up with ways to use their meat. Angelo’s Meats and Deli actually butchers and produces its jerky, bacon, pancetta, salami, barbecued tri-tip and sauces in Petaluma at Angelo Ibleto’s ranch. Angelo took over Bud Maffei’s [...]

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Signs from Sign of the Bear

April 29, 2010

Kathleen Thompson Hill Sonoma writer food wine lifestyle

Steve Havlek and Laura Nicholas’ signs all pointed in the same directions, both out of Sonoma and back to Sonoma again. Full disclosure: I have known this couple since they were kids. Sonoma is still a small town, which is why we all live here. During high school, Steve worked for Dick Foorman and Gene [...]

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Aphrodisiac Food

January 9, 2009

kathleen thompson hill sonoma writer food wine lifestyle

Oysters or Bubbly- What turns you on? Looking for the sure fire aphrodisiac foods that work? Some foods are turn-ons because of their suggestively sensual shapes, such as bananas and avocados. Ever really look at a Hershey Kiss? So what is an aphrodisiac food anyway? Mara Kahn, co-owner with her husband Phil of Jacob’s Kitchen [...]

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Learning from locals on Vancouver Island

October 8, 2008

Boston Globe writer food wine travel

VANCOUVER ISLAND, Canada – Vacation means sampling regional cuisine, stopping at farmers’ markets, maybe even getting inside someone’s kitchen to see how the locals really cook. On this large island off the coast of British Columbia, you can do all that at two inns. Sinclair and Frédérique Phillip transformed an old farmhouse into the elegant [...]

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New spirit, fashionable dining lift downtown Napa’s appeal

May 14, 2008

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NAPA, Calif. – If you’re headed to Napa, you’re either going to the valley, the county, or Napa itself. The formerly neglected downtown Napa, 55 miles northeast of San Francisco, is one of those places where you wish you had purchased a craftsman or Victorian house 10 years ago when nobody went there. Visitors were [...]

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Chocolate Weddings

November 19, 2007

kathleen thompson hill sonoma writer food wine lifestyle wedding

The fancy San Francisco caterer reacted visibly with shock, aw and horror. She paled. She gasped. She sat down. She thought, “Kathleen must not be a virgin!” All I had asked for was a chocolate wedding cake. Granted, this was in the prehistoric era when writers banged more quietly than before on IBM Selectric typewriters. [...]

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Paula Poundstone

November 14, 2007

Kathleen Thompson Hill wine food writer sonoma lifestyle

KTH: “How come you haven’t gotten married? Couldn’t you use some help with your buzzing traveling lifestyle, or haven’t you found the right person?” PP: “Even if I found the right guy, how could I do it? I live in this whirling dervish home of mine with three kids with needs and eleven cats spinning [...]

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Winery Architecture

July 22, 2007

Kathleen Thompson Hill food wine writer sonoma lifestyle

Wild new winery architecture often tends toward monumentally garish displays of ego, success in other industries, an edifice complex, or just plain testosterone – especially in the Napa Valley. Hall Winery is something else. Inject a significant dose of estrogen into the wildly innovative and world-famous Frank Gehry design for the controversial new Hall Winery, [...]

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Eating with Love: Confessions on Concession:

June 6, 2007

Kathleen Thompson Hill sonoma food wine writer lifestyle

Was it the Big Hunk or the cartoons and movies that attracted me to the Oaks Theatre every pre-adolescent Saturday afternoon? Or maybe the Big Hunk (candy bar, not good looking dude) and the cartoons, or was it just a chance for my mother to drop me off and do what she wanted to do [...]

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Cooking with Love: Lettie Teague

April 18, 2007

Kathleen Thompson Hill writer sonoma food wine lifestyle

Robin Williams, Tony Shalhoub, Bonnie Hunt and Cheech Marin all came to town for the recent Sonoma Valley Film Festival – Sonoma Epicuria to honor their buddy, Pixar and Disney creative genius John Lasseter. Lettie Teague came to the film festival as a representative of one of its co-sponsors, Food & Wine magazine, and am [...]

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Cooking with Love: Cline

February 21, 2007

Kathleen Thompson Hill wine food sonoma writer lifestyle

For the last few months a monumental collection of five stone-faced buildings has been growing out of the ground just north of Viansa Winery along Highway 121 in the southern end of Sonoma Valley. Many of us who drive between Sonoma and Marin or San Francisco have watched progress of the Jacuzzi Family Winery with [...]

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Cooking with Love: Food Taboos

January 25, 2007

Kathleen Thompson Hill writer food wine sonoma lifestyle

What’s Taboo to You? My taboos are self imposed. For me, taboo foods means food I shouldn’t eat, such as ice cream, cookies, chocolate mousse, creamy mashed potatoes, and white bread. That’s just because they are bad for my health and shape (?) For others, taboo or forbidden foods might originate in religious, ethnic or [...]

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Cooking with Love: Georgeanne Brennan

January 10, 2007

Kathleen Thompson Hill writer food wine sonoma lifestyle

Georgeanne Brennan has done it all in the food and writing fields, from living and cooking in Provence to developing a specialized vegetable seed company known then as Le Marché and writing for the New York Times, Bon Appétit, Organic Gardening, Gourmet, 25 gardening and cookbooks, and finally the “Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook,” with [...]

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