Hope everyone had the happiest of holidays, and cheers to the New Year!

We will be taking the next few months off to clean out the office, while we noodle around on a new book.

Which means, for the foreseeable future, the Northwest Notes blog is on hiatus. I figure if Seattle Times food writer Nancy Leson could take six months off last year, and Hillary (Clinton) is taking some time off this year, so can I.

Thanks for reading my bl0g over the past many years. It started way back in December 2004 with a recipe for Holiday Crab Boils. . .and wraps up for now, at least, with a total of 707 blog posts as of today.

I will continue to our Recipes of the Month, along with a suggested wine pairing, as recipes are one of the most popular features on the Northwest Wining and Dining website.

And perhaps I’ll write an occasional blog post about a subject of great interest and/or urgency. Got to keep that SEO ranking high as well. J

Please continue to catch up with me on the social-media networks including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

Also please don’t forget that my Pike Place Public Market Seafood Cookbook is available in both print and e-versions. At just $14.95 per copy for the print version (substantially less on Amazon.com), it’s the perfect gift book and/or Northwest souvenir.

Thank you for your support so far, and cheers to the promise of 2013!