Hi everyone,
It’s that time of year when I post menus from meals that I had over the prior year, illustrated in watercolor and with the label from the wine we had. I’m pretty proud of myself for doing this consistently five years running. The story behind the creation of these menus can be found on posts from my prior years:
Commemorating Meals and Wines in 2021
Commemorating Meals and Wines in 2022
Commemorating Meals and Wines in 2023
Commemorating Meals and Wines in 2024
Thanks for looking, everyone. I appreciate the feedback I’ve gotten over the years and knowing that some of you like seeing these menu pages encourages me to keep it up. Here’s to a fantastic 2026!
Noah
My dad has been talking about visiting the family’s ancestral homeland in Puglia ever since I was a little kid. Well, we finally tracked some distant relatives down on Facebook and my sister and I finally took him in January of this year. He had a blast. This is from a photo I took of him shortly after arriving in the old city of Bisceglie, where is grandparents (and countless generations before them) lived. My dad never smiles in pictures. This meal was prepared from food I brought back from the trip just a few days after getting home.
We had a trip to Vermont in the late spring where I was excited to find some blueberry wine for sale. I’ve wanted to try some since reading about it here on WBers. We also took a glass blowing lesson and the studio had tons of these whimsical glass sculptures all over the grounds.
I’m very happy with how this one came out. One of by best. I’m particularly proud of the detail where it looks like the leaves are coming out and over the wine label.
It’s not a party without a bottle of Six Cloves @Sonoe_Hirabayashi .
Lots of lightning bugs this summer.
Portrait of a neighborhood calico that has adopted our yard as a second home. We named her Meg.
I had a fun time making paella over an open fire. Never tried it before but the food came out great!
Syrah dinner with a fellow WBer.
The page for my five Curnonsky dinners, which I posted about here.
Finally, 2025 was the year that I got to meet Jacques Pepin, the man who inspired all these menus in the first place. Not only did I get to meet him, but he signed the inside cover of my 2021 menu book. What a thrill. Here I am telling him about the books and groveling for an autograph.
