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!
A few days after Thanksgiving, there was a turkey carcass sitting in a plastic bag, on the bottom shelf of the 2nd refrigerator in my aunt and uncle’s basement. I opened the door and heard it whisper “Use me. I will make you the most tasty and delicious bowl of soup.” And, so it was. And, so it was true. I removed the turkey carcass from the plastic bag, cleaned out her cavity so there were no more stuffing remains, trimming some fat and gelatinous bits.
Read MoreWhen my mother took out her old brown crockpot, a classic I wish still worked or that she’d have passed down to me, I knew there was only one meal to be made - her classic beef stew. Filled with vegetables, beef (clearly), a heavy pour of red wine, I loved watching her assemble all ingredients in the crockpot and plug it in before she left for work at the bakery.
Read MoreWith ½ a can of chickpeas, ½ of a lemon, ½ an onion, garlic, a few baby carrots and tomatoes lingering on my countertop, I decided to make a single serving soup for lunch. The spice cabinet is loaded and I’ve feta in the fridge from my trip to the Mediterranean market over a week ago.
Read MoreWhen the going gets tough and you’re in quarantine, grocery items and leaving the house can be limited. You can push cooking aside, you know, like peas on a kids dinner plate. In adulting, cooking has become our universal pea - but I want to help end that struggle by reframing cooking. Especially now and especially during this time.
Read MoreMy Dear Friends and Family - As we all sit in a giant bottomless bowl of uncertainty soup, I want to remind you that we can also access our joy at any point in the day. It’s a choice. I know we’re living in unprecedented times and it’s scary. I’m trying to find the gift of time with myself, without being afraid of myself and without thinking into the future.
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’m not guaranteeing this veggie loaded turkey chili will change your life, but it will probably change your life!
One pot, no slow cooker needed, this was a flavor, veggie and texture experiment as next week I plan to amp up the veggies and make this chili wholly vegan. I can’t wait for more kitchen experiments. Clearly.
Lately I’m dropping beans into bowls like they’re hot …
1) ’Cause they’re easy to cook (hello, can opener!) and prepare well ahead of time.
2) They’re inexpensive, while also being filling. See more on #3
3) Finally, they add a meatless, high fiber protein pop to mealtime.
In a celebration of food and friendship, which if you ask me is the me is the main reason to revel in every day we’re blessed to be on this earth, last night I made soup for dinner. Not just any soup, but a soup that harkens the fondest of childhood memories alongside my mother and father in an old world Brooklyn that no longer exists.
Read MoreToday I had my favorite kind of day; a day spent cooking with a kind hearted, hard working and beautifully spirited client I can call my friend. My clients aren’t people I work for, they’re people I consider friends and those I teach and learn from through shared experiences. Julie and I spent 4 hours in the kitchen making soup, sauce,
Read MoreI’ve just now realized it’s Halloween weekend and I’m home on a Saturday night in a solo soup slurping contest with myself. I like to keep it really real.
3 reasons to stay in, stay safe and Saturday night soup when you’re 38:
Read MoreToday it was 65 degrees and gloomy all day in NYC. A slight chill was in the air, a slight chill only soup could solve. I’ve been on somewhat of a grind to find work, so I’m a little slow in body and mind these days, but still feel happy and pretty hopeful overall. It’s when I step into my kitchen to cook that the most hope fills me up.
Read MoreI’ve been warding off the ills since Wednesday. The creep of a cough, sneezes in succession, ear buzzing and a runny nose - I told myself it was the onset of allergies. I popped a Zyrtek and told myself it was the onset of allergies knowing full well that tiny humans who put their hands in their mouths, fingers up their noses and wipe snots on their sleeves … touch me all day long. And you know what, I don’t even mind. I imagined going down this whole sub teaching path I’d be way more neurotic about sickness, being within close proximity to small beings and with the knowledge that all of my teacher friends are always - in some way - sick. I don’t have it in my heart to not let them tap my hand, high five or pinky promise even after said snot riot I speak of above. I simply remind them to cover their mouth when they cough, wash hands after sneezing and remind them how germs spread.
Read MoreThis spicy veggie powered soup is littered with a lot of goodness and not for the faint of heart in the kitchen.
You can make it as simple or complex as you want and I’m gonna roll out what I did to make this masterpiece in 3 separate posts.
Now … On with the soup …
Read MoreAfter 4 days alone and quarantined in my apartment, I've been living on homemade chicken soup. It's times like these I know I'll get by because there's always stock in my home to make something. No desperate soup orders for this woman, only the finest thighs from the back of the freezer.
The simplicity of a bowl of soup is comfort, ease and happiness and it does the same thing for me when I'm sick - minus hugs from my mom.
Read MoreIt's a snowy NYC night, perfect for putting up a crooked Christmas tree and for making a pot of soup. There's something about cooking for one that I've always found therapeutic, a gift that keeps on giving even in the times it feels lonely and isolating to eat alone. I'd be lying if I didn't write that - that it can be lonely to cook and eat for one ...
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