Lise's Ramblings

Source: etsy.com via Jennifer’s Pinterest board Put down that sippy cup. Set aside those primary-coloured Tupperware tumblers.  Few can resist succumbing to the lure of a fancy glass topped by a bendy straw, citrus slices, a paper umbrella or a plastic sword skewering maraschino cherries. My grown-up foods entry in April 2011 didn’t spark a flurry of emails or online comments, but I bet many of you remember your earliest grown-up drinks.      Where were you when someone introduced you to a mocktail? Who poured your earliest cup of tea or coffee? What was your first taste of wine like?   I hear brandy, surprisingly not sherry, would quiet me when I was an infant (Thank you, Mom-mom) and family photos, videos and tales represent me as a baby motivated to learn to crawl and walk based on my desire to reach beer bottles.      But, what I recall is feeling like a proper young lady when family ordered me a Shirley Temple a...

Oh, the varied ways to enjoy grapes. You may relish just tossing cold, seedless grapes into the air and catching them in your mouth. Chefs and bakers cook up dried grapes in bread pudding, butter tarts and raisin bread. And on a hot day, you can reach into the freezer to treat yourself to rum raisin ice cream. Even grape leaves serve a purpose. In Greek cuisine, dolmades are a popular appetizer with grape leaves wrapped around rice and meat concoctions. Gardeners train grapevines to climb trellises. Then, the vines and their fruit are grown on a larger scale at wineries, where people harvest, crush, ferment and bottle grapes to cater to our thirst for vino . Children’s television programmers even use non-alcoholic grape juice to instruct and entertain. Recall Ernie and Bert explaining the difference between more and less in the classic and comedic delicious grape juice skit (a circa 1970s episode of “Sesame Street”).   Apart from consuming grapes in their many form...