On Thursday, Nov. 15, Julia Child Cookbook of the Year winner Deborah Madison (no relation to Dolly) will be the guest of honor at this year's Elegant Autumn Evening. Madison is the author of an abundant crop of vegetarian titles such as The Greens Cookbook and Local Flavors: Cooking and Eating from America's Farmers' Markets.

My experiences with French food and wine have been better than my experiences with the French language. In high school, my Midwestern-accented mispronunciations were second only to my grossly butchered written phrases. But my homemade coq au vin (chicken stewed with wine) was tasty enough to get me out of the class with an A.

Nursing It Back

Little Sir Dan, sat with his hands, aloft over keyboard with a frown. Along came his boss, and with a crumpled note he did toss, asking “Hey, we doing a Chowtown?!”

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