categories

calzone for christmas eve

Christmas.

I feel like I’ve done nothing but cook for a week.  I mean of course there was wrapping and baking and cleaning and shoveling and last minute shopping as well.

I’m exhausted, but happy.

My mom and Rich flew in from Miami a few days before Christmas and I wanted to feed them well while they were [...]

eyeballs, spiders and breaded steak

October is a busy month for us.

Birthday parties, soccer tournaments, Halloween, Mom always comes to visit for two weeks and it’s one of my busiest months at work. So this is why, as you may have noticed, I haven’t been posting as much. But, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been cooking! I have to find time [...]

ragú alla rigatoni

Oh, I’m just being fancy.

We call this pasta with meat sauce, and it’s anything but fancy.

When I hear the word “ragú”, I first think of that nasty jarred pasta sauce. Please don’t tell me you eat that stuff, because Mama would turn over in her grave if she knew.

Actually, ragú is an Italian term for a meat-based [...]

holy friselle!

Did you see the movie Julie and Julia?

There is this great scene in the movie where Julie is making this fabulous looking bruschetta for dinner. She crisps chunks of thick crusty bread in a sauté pan with olive oil and you can just hear it sizzling. Then she piles the bread high with tomatoes, which [...]

biscotti for raffle

This past Saturday, my brother Phill held his annual End of the Summer Picnic. It’s an all-day event, and so much fun!

He’s been throwing this picnic for 16 years, for old friends and new friends and each year it gets bigger and bigger…

and curiously enough, simultaneously year after year….

so does Phill’s facial hair!

He’s really handsome [...]