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!
Lately, I feel like it’s a miracle I’m even cooking. My spirits have been struggling, my energy low, although I’m working to wear smiles on the outside. After a day of substitute teaching, I sometimes want to close my eyes and nap, but most days I confront the light, my kitchen and make peace with myself.
Read MoreIn 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 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 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 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 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 MoreLittle Frankie’s in NYC makes a fantastic whole roasted eggplant, served with a giant douse of oil and warm bread - the charred skinned and soft flesh of the eggplant separate; allowing the oily eggplant goodness to be spread all over a thick slice…
Read MoreWith summer officially gone, so with it goes seasonal eggplants and many of my other farm fresh favorite vegetables. The eggplant will likely be prepared in my kitchen in the coming months, clearly not locally sourced (don’t produce shame me), so I scooped up three purple beauties at a farmers market last week.
Read MoreGrilling a tray of vegetables and a few chicken cutlets on the weekend is a great way to get through lunches and weeknights, but it can also be done on the fly - taking about 10 minutes on a barbecue or on a grill pan, in your kitchen. Summer is grilling season, we all know, but when you’re not blessed with a backyard, you need to find
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 MoreTomorrow I head back to New York after two weeks of being in the south. I love being with and around my family, close to the beach, the smell of salt water, rainy concrete, morning bike rides with swan sightings and cranes in the distance - I think you get it. My mom still isn’t feeling herself, which worries me because life is fragile and
Read MoreMy love for turkey meat has grown over the years. I’ve found ways to jazz it up, from adding vegetables and herbs to the mix, to topping it with onion jam or caramelized cabbage. Turkey meat on its own still reminds me of diet food and that time my parents bought me these pills called “Fit America” where one eats an Atkins style diet
Read MoreOne of my all time favorite spring/summer and early fall events is the picnic. There's an art to a picnic, you see. One does not want to pack food that is messy or cumbersome, as proper picnic food should be portable, light and easy to eat. The best picnic baskets, if you ask me, are filled with fresh fruit, nuts, spreads, bread, olives, a
Read MoreThis week I spent $13.49 on vegetables to get me through the week until I fly south to see the family. That said, it's been hot and sticky here in NY which means that roasting and turning on the oven is a huge no no. Luckily, my life is pretty saucy (that's a pesto joke) and I've figured out a thing or two when it comes to cooking veggies on
Read MoreThe cucuzza - known in my home as googootz - may be my very favorite squash. I anxiously await summer because I await its seasonal goodness. OK, the absolute truth, Italian woman’s honor, is that I anxiously await summer because I can finally say goodbye to pale Tina and hello to Turbo Tanning Tina AND THEN I can say
Read MoreIf you’ve read anything I’ve ever written recently or in the past, you know I’m single and over buy produce - it’s my thing. I’m a well intentioned shopper and eater who is sometimes tempted by wine, crepes, a night out or sushi on my couch. Every week I buy what looks best at the market - my only goal is to refresh my refrigerator with real/fresh food and produce.
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