A happiest new year to all of you. My apologies having disappeared since Thanksgiving, but life has been busier than ever. But I'm back and ready to roll for 2017 and find that cooking with my friends is really the only time I get to see my friends. Teaching at two universities, working on marketing ...
Kitchen Chronicles
Thanksgiving Leftovers
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I wanted to focus this Thanksgiving post on the leftovers and remind you about the world's best use of those mounds of excess. Those of you who have already experienced the culinary pleasure of this dish (like my friend Gloria) can be testimony which neatly packs all the ...
Uncommon Goods — Review and Giveaway
DISCLOSURE: I was given these products for no cost in exchange for writing a review. I only review those products I can do so favorably and omit others. Tell me by leaving a comment below what you'd like to buy at Uncommon Goods and you'll be entered into this giveaway for a chance to win a $50 ...
Farm Fresh Freezer Cooking
Labor Day weekend is flashing it's yellow lights of warning. Not only does it mark the official end of summer, but also provides the heads up that summer's finest -- sweet corn, Jersey perfect tomatoes and crisp kale -- are on their way out. For some people, Labor Day weekend might be that final ...
College Care Package Connection
As my eldest son spends his last days at home before departing for college, a chapter in my family life is rapidly drawing to a close. In these bittersweet times, just as the years have carried me through his life, my emotions ebb and flow as I recollect the days gone by. Within my thoughts, the ...
Summer Cooking & Savoring Farm Fresh
Upon my return from the Algarve, I've felt myself in a race against time. As the farms abound with my favorite ingredients -- corn, zucchini, beets and tomatoes -- I'm hustling to create as much as I can. Needless to say, my freezer is stuffed with farm fresh everything, from gazpacho and blueberry ...
Fresh Figs and the Algarve Air
Cooking is a whole lot easier when you've got the freshest ingredients available at your fingertips. That's why cooking in the summer is ideal, where farmers' markets abound with foods begging to be made into something delectable. My vacation cooking in the southwestern Algarve was interrupted this ...
Cinnamon Chip Zucchini Bread
Upon my return from vacation, I was greeted by an overgrown garden with one extraordinarily large, on steroids-like, zucchini. I wasn't functioning too well the first day feeling the jet lag pretty strongly. Having already had a few mishaps in the kitchen (like nicking my finger on the mandoline) I ...
Vacation Cooking
When I think about my vacation kitchen, far away across the Atlantic Ocean, I think not just of the foods I've made for more than two decades with and for my family, but what it is that I will make that's new this year. My vacation kitchen is in the Algarve region of Portugal, surrounded by fig, ...
Self Catering my Son’s Graduation Party
I've hired a caterer for my son's graduation party and it's me. Whether it's with a friend or solo, I've been cooking and freezing for the last few weeks getting ready for his high school graduation party. I've got his many friends in mind as I mold crab cakes, stuff empanadas and brine pork ...