Here you’ll find everything I’m preparing in my kitchen - from veggies, to leftovers and pasta. I eat simply, and I cook for one, but love cooking for others. And no matter what, I always pause to plate pretty.
Most of my meals are often times the result of freestyle recipe free ingredient riffing and a trip to the vegetable market. Produce is my passion, and I hope that you won’t simply come here for a recipe - but that you’ll read, cook and create a new story of your own.
I believe there’s power in a stocked pantry and freezer. From traditional Italian dishes to alternative sweets, vegan and vegetarian swaps - there’s something for everyone.
Let this serve as inspiration and let’s eat!
Butternut squash baked ziti is a gooey, cheesy, baked faux-pasta bomb that will leave you wanting more every time. A true transformation of comfort food, you won’t miss a beat or the pasta when you immerse your entire being in the process of making and eating this spin on an old classic. And listen, I love pasta as much as the next human, and carbs are my friend,
Read MoreCanned tomatoes, chicken stock (or concentrated bullion) wine, butter and onions are something I always have in my home. And, usually, a few carrots or bag of baby peeled carrots so I have something lying around when I want to snack “sensibly.” All of the above are my cooking essentials, particularly in the case of the aforementioned wine. Anything that allows me to cook and party, well, I’m into it.
Read MoreI love eggs. I love my eggs scrambled, sunny side up and poached. Sure, I also love a fluffy filled to the max mega frittata and the popular omelette but, of late, my only true love is the open faced omelette. The open faced omelette, AKA the pizza omelette - made with a thin layer of egg and then piled high with ingredients such as veggies, meats and/or cheese
Read MoreWeeknights leave little room for making any sort of gourmet dinner, you and I both know that. But dinner also doesn’t have to be gourmet or recipe based. With work, busy schedules, the compounded effects of technology and the need to be “always on,” it’s getting harder and harder to find a work life balance … let alone get in the kitchen.
Read MorePeeling fava beans was a favorite childhood summertime cooking chore. Way better than mom asking me to get a new roll of paper towels or sending me to the corner store for bread. Splitting open a fava pod and peeling off the beans thick skin is a labor of mealtime love - it takes time, patience and must be done gingerly so as not to break apart your beans.
Read MoreFor the last few days I’ve found myself feeling disconnected. Not as engaged in my own life, perhaps a touch sad and weighed down by myself and my thoughts. Having just written about the ways I try to maintain my “home” I’m totally struggling this week and I believe this is what we call being human. I don’t bake to eat, usually. I bake to get out emotion.
Read MoreInspired by an epic Friday night meal of branzino, eggplant, zucchini, salad and wine I planned to relive it at home. A kingdom for grilled branzino every day, deboning and picking pins like a professional - but it gets costly … sometimes a lady has to get her wild flounder on because the price is right at the fish market.
Read MoreMaking salsa is simple. It requires little prep, minimal tools and ingredients that are easy to come by in your grocery store. A certified crowd pleaser, great for vegetarians, vegans and even your meaty buddies (scoop this fruit salsa on a burger, shrimp or salmon) and delight everyone around your table.
Read MoreWhile everyone else is eating warm potato and macaroni salad (gulp) this July 4th, perhaps you can choose to make a side that can double as a salad or a salsa. With interchangeable ways to use these two salsa/sides, you’re guaranteed to please guests and yourself with nutrition, hydration and leftovers.
Read MoreAs a champion for grocery shopping, real food, cooking and caring for my home (mind, body, the actual space I live in) - when the weather gets beautiful and the weekend rolls around … The last thing I want to do is roll my food suitcase from store to store. Sure, I love Astoria, long walks, exploring, and saying hi to my local produce people … but …
Read MoreAlthough I cannot promote these cookies from a health standpoint - they’re loaded with butter, potato chips, pretzels, peanut butter and white chocolate chips - I can tell you they are holiday cookie swap award winning. I just took home a Starbucks gift card for having won my friends 2018 cookie swap.
Read MoreI closed in on a quick granola for the yogurt, muffin, oatmeal and fruit topping win! And I baked some apples that were looking sad in my fridge! Most days in my kitchen, cooking is about using what I’ve got in order to survive hunger, mealtime and loneliness. Lemme not go down the emotion path and keep this on the quick cooking tip!
Read MoreMy grandmother used to make a sauce from Birds Eye frozen winter squash. Bright orange, garlicky, cheesy in flavor, silken in texture - I can still picture the way the thick sauce coated broken pieces of pasta in the bottomless bowls she served on a weeknight. The summer I went to live on the farm in Connecticut, I spent half the time recreating her lentils and the other half perfecting this sauce.
Read MoreThere are few things I find as warming as a bowl of soup and as comforting as pasta. I love foods that make me feel satisfied, a lot of texture, hearty and that stick to my insides. I need to stay padded for winter, you see. Grains are up on my list of foods I try to fit in a few days a week into at least one meal. From buckwheat to quinoa, cous
Read MoreLast Tuesday I met a woman named Mary Heyward, and two days a week - on Tuesdays and Thursdays - she sells her vegetables at the Surfside Farmers Market in South Carolina. I let her know I had to come back to her stand because her kirby cucumbers were, by far, the sweetest and crunchiest I’ve ever had. She sold me her
Read MoreMy freezer is stocked with frozen vegetables for many reasons, but the two main ones would be convenience and budget. Frozen vegetables are an economical way to stay stocked on healthy goods and they only take moments to prepare with some garlic, olive oil and - of course - love. Lately, between school, being tight on time and an income that is in constant flux, I find myself relying on the power of the freezer.
Read MoreThe recommendation from my friend Susana was to go out for breakfast this morning, and I was totally into it. A morning off from family cooking sounded glorious until I thought about all of the avocados sitting on the counter, the giant onions staring back at me and the dozen and a half eggs sitting in the refrigerator. I couldn’t justify spending money on breakfast
Read MoreI dislike hollandaise sauce, but I love the idea of eggs benedict particularly for Sunday brunch. I am, however, English muffin-less with no smoked salmon to be found in my fridge and lord knows I’m not going out in this NYC rain to shop. In my freezer I found one last wild salmon filet to defrost in cold water. You can also use canned wild
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