Thanksgiving is what you would call a strictly North American holiday. Now, before we get into any philosophical debates about the origins of the upcoming version here in the United States, let me just say this. Yes. Yes. I agree. No. Yes. There, that should take care of that.

Moving on, I want to talk about food. More specifically, I want to talk about which women I would love to have in my kitchen helping to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends. I chose to limit myself to real-life chefs, rather than including some of my favorite fictional ones. I have no reason for that, really, except that I can only think of two fictional chefs I'd really love to have over to cook dinner. One isn't even a woman. He's a Swedish Muppet. The other once wooed my favorite fictional tennis player.

I love to cook. At times, I even consider myself to be rather good at it. My better half seems to enjoy the experiments I put on the table in front of her, or at least that's what she tells me. I tend to use recipes as "suggestions" rather than mandates. Such a cooking style has resulted in several happy accidents, as well as a few disasters. But the process is always fun. So, now that my status as a wannabe Iron Chef has been revealed, here are the real ladies I'd love to have slaving over my hot stove. … continue reading

The reigning queen of accents is about to tackle another challenge: Julia Child.

Meryl Streep will play Child in Julie and Julia, based on the book Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, by Julie Powell, which was based on the Julie/Julia Project blog. (I'm not sure if this is the first movie based on a blog, but hey, Hollywood, you know where to find me.) Nora Ephron will direct and Amy Adams will play Julie. … continue reading

Two things I will surely love for the rest of my days? Women and food. I love cooking. I love women. I especially love women who can cook, and if they happen to look like Nigella Lawson, I'm not complaining. I'm seriously, totally, definitely not complaining:

The Domestic Goddess who brought about a renewed interest in the sensuality and pleasure of food will be back on bookshelves this fall with a new title, Nigella Express. According to the Canadian publisher's website, Nigella Express promises to feature recipes that involve various shortcuts and time savers — a big plus for those of us who want to impress the ladies but don't want to spend the day slaving over the proverbial hot stove.

Here's a fun fact: According to Wikipedia, in 2000 Nigella wrote an Observer article entitled "Sapphism is more than designer-dykery," wherein she discusses her views on the utilization of "lesbianism" (read: straight women doing what appeals to heterosexual men, so, in other words, not lesbianism) in advertising, as well as her thoughts on why heterosexual women sometimes like having sex with other women. … continue reading

I'm not going to lie: I didn't see that coming.