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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| a331e99 | If possible, get the ingredients at your local farmer's market. Food tastes better when you know where it comes from. 1/3 cup honey 2 cups melon cubes 1/3 cup lemon or lime juice 2 cups green seedless grapes 6 fresh mint leaves, 1 cup fresh blueberries finely snipped 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks Use a whisk or hand mixer to whip the honey until it turns thick and opaque. Add the lemon or lime, then stir in the mint leaves. Combine the f.. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 269793d | When she returned to Bella Vista, she discovered Isabel in her manic-baking mode. The kitchen was filled with the aromas of butter, vanilla and cinnamon. She'd created Danishes and rugelach and crispy twisty things that promised to glue themselves promptly to Tess's hips. | baked-goods baking isabel-johansen | Susan Wiggs | |
| 334f5ea | To tell you the truth, I'm curious about this place now. I wouldn't mind exploring. What do you know about it?" "I haven't been in here in years," he said. "I liked coming here as a kid. There was always something to eat, always something interesting to look at, like a puzzle of bent nails or one of Magnus's boxes, things made of beeswax from the local hives." "Isabel said her grandmother used to be in charge of the shop." Gratefully she bu.. | fruit-store inventory tess-and-dominic | Susan Wiggs | |
| 2f8eecf | In the wake of the storm, sunset lay in a pink-and-amber swath over the rolling landscape, the trees in the orchard casting elongated shadows on the hillside. To the other side of the slope were Dominic's vineyards. The vines were heavy with fruit, the dense bunches of grapes nearly black in the deepening light. They held hands like a couple of teenagers. It felt ridiculously good to hold hands with this man. His touch was both safe and sex.. | tess-and-dominic vineyards | Susan Wiggs | |
| bf71c88 | The woman at the other end of the room stood unmoving, her posture a slender question mark, silhouetted against the light from the window. She had large dark eyes surrounded by thick lashes that appeared damp from crying. Her sable-brown hair was looped into a careless braid down her back, and she wore a gauzy skirt and blouse, an apron, a pair of oven mitts and espadrilles tied at the ankles. The two of them stared at one another. The stra.. | isabel-johansen | Susan Wiggs | |
| 43a60df | Isabel felt soft and yielding; her blouse felt soft. Everything about her seemed soft, and she smelled of dried flowers, rosemary, fresh baked bread. This whole kitchen seemed alive with a peculiar energy; in the old fixtures and furniture, Tess sensed a place where cooking and eating had happened for decades, where people gathered to sample life's sweetest pleasures. | kitchen scents soft tess-and-isabel | Susan Wiggs | |
| e87a8f4 | The last dress in the wardrobe was loosely wrapped in thin tissue paper that tore away at the slightest touch. Isabel was intrigued by this one, a cocktail dress in peach-colored silk, embellished with a line of crystal bugle beads around the neckline, a fitted bodice and flaring skirt. In the glow of the bedside lamp, the dress was luminous and shimmering with a life of its own. | francesca-cioffi isabel-johansen peach-color | Susan Wiggs | |
| c3ff0ab | Servers moved among the guests with trays of hors d'oeuvres and the signature cocktail, champagne with a honey infused liqueur and a delicate spiral twist of lemon. The banquet was bursting with color and flavor- flower-sprinkled salads, savory chili roasted salmon, honey glazed ribs, just-harvested sweet corn, lush tomatoes and berries, artisan cheeses. Everything had been harvested within a fifty-mile radius of Bella Vista. The cake was e.. | champagne cocktail honey speech tess-and-dominic wedding-banquet wedding-cake | Susan Wiggs | |
| 9378747 | They shared a look, and Tess felt a wave of emotion. How quickly she'd found an affinity with Isabel, a woman so unlike her, they might have been from different species. Only a short time ago they had been strangers. Now she couldn't imagine not knowing Isabel, her guileless and fragile sister. They shared a birthday, they shared their father's DNA, but the bond now ran deeper than that; it ran as deep as blood and secrets. | sisters tess-and-isabel | Susan Wiggs | |
| 85846ca | Isabel was a surprise. There were depths to her he wanted to understand, and maybe, just maybe, she would let him. She was skittish, though, not exactly distrustful, but protective of herself. At the mountaintop, she'd given him a glimpse of that girl she'd been, growing up in a lush and sheltered place. At the hot springs, he'd had a glimpse of her that was going to haunt his dreams. Yes, he'd looked. Of course he'd looked. He was only hum.. | isabel-johansen | Susan Wiggs | |
| 72173c9 | In this life, I had all I ever wanted. Losing Erik was a sadness that knit itself into my soul, but that sadness was balanced out by all that came after. The years with you, my little girl, and with your grandfather and all the people of Bella Vista. It has been a life of abundance, and I will always be grateful for that. | gratefulness last-words | Susan Wiggs | |
| 456557a | They each took a plate and helped themselves to a feast that looked as if it had been prepared for a magazine layout. There was a salad sprinkled with fresh flowers- Isabel said they were baby pansies, nasturtium and angelica. The spread included plates of artisan cheeses and raw and grilled vegetables, big chafing dishes of fragrant casseroles, berries and apples with a variety of sauces, an array of local wines and water from Calistoga. T.. | feast isabel-johansen spread tess-and-isabel | Susan Wiggs | |
| dbf0589 | She shrugged her shoulders, then shifted her attention to the hand-labeled glass jars of honey. "Which one do you want to use?" "Something mild to go with the cheese." "The milkweed blossom?" Isabel nodded. "We're probably the only ones who'll notice." "The different flavors of honey have always been obvious to me," Jamie said. "Not to me. I've had to train my palate. Same with wines. But I'm not a natural, but I love the alchemy of pairing.. | honey isabel-johansen jamie-westfall minor palate pregnant-teenager sauvignon-blanc wine-tasting | Susan Wiggs | |
| 6af15ca | The undulating terrain was cloaked in lush abundance, the vineyards like garlands of deep green and yellow, orchards and farms sprouting here and there, hillocks of dry golden grass crowned by beautiful sun-gilt houses, barns and silos. And overhead was the bluest sky she'd ever seen, as bright and hard polished as marble. There was something about the landscape that caught at her emotions. It was both lush and intimidating, its beauty so a.. | farm-stands farms landscapes nature-s-beauty orchards produce sonoma-county tess-delaney vineyards | Susan Wiggs | |
| 499e372 | Here, he felt like a stranger in a strange- and extremely seductive- land. In contrast to the places of his past, Bella Vista seemed weighted by a sense of permanence- the old country house with its courtyard and patios, the rustic stone barn and machine shop, outbuildings and weathered work sheds, the acres of age-gnarled apple trees, now covered in springtime blooms. He wondered what it would be like to watch the seasons change all in one.. | cormac-o-neill sonoma-county | Susan Wiggs | |
| eb488d4 | I think I loved her from the first moment I saw her. Before that, I loved her, too. Before I even knew she existed outside the realm of my dreams. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| ea26ff5 | Lately, she'd been waking up early every day, too excited to sleep. She was working on the biggest project she'd ever dared to undertake- transforming her family home into a destination cooking school. The work was nearing completion, and if everything went according to schedule, she would welcome the first guests of the Bella Vista Cooking School at harvest time. The big rambling mission-style hacienda, with its working apple orchard and k.. | cooking-school dream isabel-johansen project | Susan Wiggs | |
| cf7a1e4 | She kept sneaking looks at him. He had strong, chiseled features, his jaw softened by a day or two's growth of beard. And those shoulders. She'd always been a sucker for a guy's strong shoulders. Big square hands that looked as if they did harder work than writing biographies. No wedding band. At thirty, Isabel couldn't help noticing a detail like that. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 813959f | Life could be very distracting, thought Isabel. And that was a good thing. It kept her from focusing on things that couldn't be changed, such as the fact that she'd never finished culinary school, or that she'd allowed one failed relationship to keep her closed up tight inside a hard, protective shell. Now she had a new project that consumed her every waking moment- the cooking school. It was true that she didn't have the official certifica.. | dream isabel-johansen talent | Susan Wiggs | |
| bd129af | Language, Sweet," said Magnus's mother, arriving with a plate full of homemade biscuits. She didn't scold him too harshly about his talk these days. Magnus suspected this was because Mama shared Uncle Sweet's opinion about the Nazis. Yet despite the shortages and rationing, she had managed to turn out the most delicious biscuits Magnus had ever tasted. They were redolent of butter, which Mrs. Gundersen up the hill traded for apples from the.. | biscuits magnus-johansen rationing uncle-sweet | Susan Wiggs | |
| c636077 | In contrast, Bella Vista was lush and seductive, the landscape filled with colors from deep-green to submerged-gold. Gardeners, construction workers and farm workers swarmed the property. Isabel Johansen was in charge; that had been clear from the start. Yet when she'd shown him to Erik's room, she'd seemed vulnerable, uncertain. Some might regard the room as a mausoleum, filled with the depressing weight of things left behind by the depart.. | isabel-and-cormac isabel-johansen | Susan Wiggs | |
| 5ad1831 | Let's grab something for you from the kitchen, and then we'll go find Magnus." The "something" turned out to be a wedge of the most amazing cake he'd ever tasted. It had cream in the middle, a crust of honey and almonds on top. He crammed half a wedge into his mouth and moaned aloud. "Damn, that's good," he said around the mouthful. "Damn." "I already ordered it for my wedding breakfast," said Tess. "It's called Bienenstich- bee sting cake,.. | cake isabel-and-cormac isabel-johansen tess-delaney | Susan Wiggs | |
| f457cf9 | When Tess had told him about the book project, she hadn't mentioned hostile women and swarms of bees. In fact, she'd characterized it as a working vacation of sorts, a way for him to recover from his bum knee by soaking up the charms of Sonoma County. In contrast, Bella Vista was lush and seductive, the landscape filled with colors from deep green to sunburned-gold. Gardeners, construction workers swarmed the property. Isabel Johansen was i.. | isabel-and-cormac isabel-johansen | Susan Wiggs | |
| bac5c63 | I like the organza tiebacks. They're pretty and ethereal." "Lovely. I think those are the ones." "Me, too. And hey, can we invent a signature cocktail for the wedding, using honey?" "I'm working on one made with honey syrup, apple juice and calvados. Garnished with an apple slice, of course." | cocktail honey ingredients tess-and-isabel wedding-planning | Susan Wiggs | |
| 2e7c96d | The garden flourished that summer because Magnus's mother was determined to feed her family despite the depredations of the distant war. In the fall, there were beans and tomatoes and pickles to can, and jar after jar of applesauce. Mama's hives yielded fresh honey, and then willow skeps were winterized. The bees would not come out until the air warmed and the sun appeared. | bees canned-goods garden harvesting magnus-johansen produce | Susan Wiggs | |
| c6878f6 | Maybe that was why the term "old flame" had been invented. Somebody always got burned." | Susan Wiggs | ||
| e6230aa | She realized that no matter how old she got or how far she traveled, she would never stop needing her mom. Now, staring her in the face, was the possibility of a loss so devastating Sonnet didn't see how she could survive it. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 23d92da | Again, he had the urge to touch her. She was just... delicious to him. He couldn't understand it. He'd never felt so drawn to a woman- her scent, her soft curves, the curls of hair framing her face, the fullness of her lips. It was something more than attraction. She moved him- the way she cared so much about her grandfather and Bella Vista, her earnest dedication to her family and friends. Her unbelievable cooking. The tiny pulse beneath t.. | isabel-johansen | Susan Wiggs | |
| d6ac9e6 | Is there anything I can do?" He gave her a tired grin. "Crawl in bed with me." She glared at him, then got up and tossed him a terry-cloth robe she found hanging on the back of the bathroom door. "Meet me in the kitchen. I'll make you a sandwich." "You don't need to make me a sandwich." "But I'm going to." She left the room before he could protest further. In the kitchen, she layered grilled pancetta, tomato and lettuce on toasted thick sla.. | hospitality ingredients isabel-and-cormac sandwich-making | Susan Wiggs | |
| f29dc3c | You're good at so many things," Camille said. "I'm a fat loser," Julie stated. "And don't say I'm not fat because I am." Camille felt ill. She'd been blind to what Julie wanted. Was she a terrible mother for being overprotective? Was she letting her own fears smother her daughter? By withholding her permission to take surf rescue, she'd forced Julie to go behind her back." | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 8eca6b6 | I'm fat, okay? Getting rid of my braces and glasses is not going to change that." "Stop it," Camille said. God, why were teenagers so hard? Had she been that hard? "I won't let you talk about yourself that way." | Susan Wiggs | ||
| ecc899f | As a volunteer for the Military History Center, he visited Arlington whenever he was in town, recovering items that had been left on headstones. With his fellow volunteers, he helped catalog the items for a database so each remembrance, no matter how small, would be preserved. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 493dd82 | Of course his name would be Dominic. It meant "gift from God." AKA a life-support system for an ego. Still, that didn't mean he wasn't fun to stare at. Dominic Rossi looked like a dream, the kind of dream no woman in her right mind would want to wake from. She had always been susceptible to male beauty, ever since the age of ten, when her mother had taken her to see Michelangelo's David in Florence. She recalled staring at that huge stone b.. | dominic-rossi tess-delaney | Susan Wiggs | |
| 7d05c80 | a group of villagers in the highlands of Vietnam, he'd discovered the crash site of four U.S. soldiers who had gone missing fifty years before. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| a2ae864 | It was a gorgeous evening, with a breeze shimmering through the trees, people strolling hand in hand through the quaint streets and the plaza. The shops, bistros and restaurants were abuzz with patrons. She showed him where the farmer's market took place every Saturday, and pointed out her favorite spots- the town library, a tasting room co-op run by the area vintners, the Brew Ha-Ha and the Rose, a vintage community theater. On a night lik.. | cafes churros food-and-wine isabel-and-cormac restaurants street-music | Susan Wiggs | |
| 9aec91c | More than a thousand veterans still remained unaccounted for, and his father, Richard Arthur Finnemore, was one of them. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 4b2a437 | There, a simple headstone marked the grave of Eva Saloman Johansen, "beloved wife and grandmother." Tess was intrigued to see a phrase in Hebrew characters. Her paternal grandmother had apparently been Jewish. Beside that was a marker for Erik Karl Johansen, inscribed, 'Measure his life not by its length but by the depths of joy he brought us. He jumped into life and never touched bottom. We will never laugh the same again." | eva-johansen inscription jewish | Susan Wiggs | |
| bc71450 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, "America's greatest contribution to the world is the summer camp." Anyone" | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 8af7a21 | Returning to the buffet, she helped herself to another piece of focaccia bread, the top glistening with a sheen of olive oil and sprinkled with big crystals of salt, fronds of rosemary and tiny curls of thinly sliced garlic. She tasted the bread and made a sound of pleasure that would have embarrassed her if anyone had heard. "It's even better with this Cabernet." Dominic Rossi stood there with two full glasses of red wine. Tess felt her fa.. | ingredients taste tess-and-dominic tess-delaney | Susan Wiggs | |
| 46aea96 | The moments of life are ephemeral and unpredictable. We must capture the best ones and keep them safe in our hearts. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 9d431a1 | But life had a way of interfering with one's plans. Things popped up unexpectedly, and suddenly a carefully plotted route had to be recalculated. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| 3a696a2 | Maybe you're not meant to remember the details. Just the feelings. Just the lessons. Just the love. pp274 | Susan Wiggs | ||
| d766f98 | He couldn't stop himself from checking her out from behind. He kind of wished she wasn't wearing all that flowy stuff because he suspected there was something much more interesting underneath. Pretty women were one of his several weaknesses. There was something about long hair, shapely legs, tanned skin, smooth and soft... He couldn't remember the last time he'd held a woman, inhaled the scent of her hair, pressed his lips to the pulse in h.. | Susan Wiggs | ||
| adfa96b | Grandfather, is it all right if we join you for a bit?" "Of course. Particularly since you've brought sustenance." He eyed the tray of food. It looked like a food magazine layout, featuring a variety of cheeses with fresh berries on brightly painted Italian pottery, and a tiny glass container of honey with the smallest spoon he'd ever seen. Isabel laced a thread of honey across the cheeses. "These are my favorite honey and cheese pairings. .. | honey isabel-johansen tray-of-food | Susan Wiggs |