Give me all the CARBS! Ever since I was a kid I have always been all about the carbs. Not necessarily the sugary carbs but definitely the savory and salty carbs. Pizza, yes. Dinner rolls, of course. Bagels, hell yes (even Lender's Bagels did the trick and don't even get me started on bagel bites! )
Read MoreA friend of mine recently asked me to bring over an appetizer to a dinner party she was throwing. After giving it some thought I decided to try and go healthy. Often times appetizers are heavy and not necessarily healthy - or at least the ones I am used to serve. I love a cheese board but who doesn't totally pig out on a cheese board to the point where they are no longer hungry? (Am I the only one?) I decided to go with a crudite platter (because crudite is the next cheese board? Maybe I have been living in LA too long) along with the most delicious dip out there, romesco.
Read MoreAfter a particularly crazy holiday season filled with lots of food and LOTS of booze, I decided to try to out dry January (basically no drinking all of January). For the most part it was really easy (thanks to the flu) but it becomes crazy apparent, for me at least, how often I drink. Wine is my total drink of choice but when you don't have it, especially when you are out to dinner, it becomes obvious how often you are drinking! So I am not giving up booze completely but I am glad I did this "mostly" dry January because hopefully it will make me more cognizant of how many glasses of wine I am sipping.
Read MoreI am not one for gimmicky food - you know trendy food that is trying to be different just for the sake of being different. Like for example carrot hotdogs, if I want a hot dog, I will eat a hot dog. Maybe that is a bad example because vegetarians want hot dogs sometimes ( I would imagine) but you know what I mean. Or here is a better example - a ramen burger. A ramen burger is a hamburger that uses ramen noodles instead of a bun. Consider me old and uncool but that is not my jam at all. Give me an amazing hamburger or an amazing bowl of ramen - just don't give me a hybrid to both of them.
Read MoreI get asked all the time how I resist all the food that I make; the truth is I taste everything but try my hardest not to eat it all. I also never recipe test on an empty stomach because that is just asking for trouble. I can usually resist most sweet baked goods, plus I actually send them immediately to my husband's office to give it to the neighbors - it if it is in front of me, I will eat it.
Read MoreI spent this past Thanksgiving up in wine country. We rented a wonderful house right outside of Sonoma. We were staying at a rental, and I wasn't sure what the kitchen would be like, so I decided to make as much of the meal ahead of time, so we could drive it up. Also I didn't want to have to cook while everyone else was out wine tasting. I found this recipe on Food 52 and decided to adapt it. Even a day later, this cake was everyone's favorite thing on my Thanksgiving menu.
Read MoreMayonnaise really isn't my jam. Growing up we used to have bologna sandwiches with lots of mayo pretty much every day for lunch at school. I can still taste those nasty sandwiches. There was no crunch or texture just soft sandwich bread, bologna and mayonnaise. To this day I still can't have mayo on a sandwich.
Read MoreI was cleaning out my fridge recently, something that I need to do more of, and discovered a bottle of buffalo wing sauce. I bought this bottle for a recipe development project a couple weeks ago and since I was in search of a relatively healthy dinner, I decided to make some buffalo chicken in my Instant Pot. I served it with a vinegar based cole slaw and a pretzel hamburger bun and it hit the spot.
Read MoreAny easy way to eat more fruits and vegetables is to use a salad dressing as a dipping sauce. In these fresh spring rolls, I loaded them with lots of fruits and veggies like radish, yellow bell peppers, mango, and spiralized zucchini. I also think people are more likely to eat more veggies when they don’t look like a boring salad.
Read MoreWho can resist any dish with the word nacho in it, right? I swapped out the corn tortilla chips for sweet potato wedges and topped the sweet potatoes with avocado, radish, sprouts and black beans. I also threw on some some fried eggs, because a perfectly runny egg yolk will convince even the pickiest of eaters that this dish is worth eating
Read MoreI think in a past life I lived some exotic gorgeous Mediterranean or middle eastern country. I know that sounds crazy, but I am totally drawn to that type of food - food that is loaded with olive oil, chickpeas, yogurt, pomegranate, spices, lemons, dates, tahini - the list could go on. Flavorful and simple food. When I see something with any of these flavors on a menu I automatically order them. I recently had this amazingly delicious chicken dish at a California/Mediterranean restaurant in San Francisco and I had an epiphany, the secret to juicy chicken is yogurt.
Read MorePretty much everyone in my family got an Instant Pot as a gift for the holidays. They were seriously discounted on Amazon just in time for the holidays. Since I don't want my family to starve I thought I would start writing up recipes for them and put them on here as well. There is already a killer chicken taco recipe on my site, but up next is turkey and sweet potato chili.
Read MoreWhen I was home for the holidays I think I finally discovered why I love pie so much. My whole family was there and we were telling family stories (as you do after a couple glasses of wine). Somehow it came up that my brother remembered reading an article in my dad's high school newspaper where my dad declared that his favorite food was pie. Not sure how my brother got his hands on my dad's high school newspaper, but regardless it showed that my love of pie, is in my genes! I can't help it, I was born to love pie!
Read MoreI am back with another one pot pasta - this one is full of kale, lemon zest, and pine nuts. If you haven’t already noticed I am a huge fan of pan sauces in pasta dishes because they use kitchen staples to create a complete meal. Plus they work in a pinch when you forget the pasta sauce or are not feeling a heavy pasta dish.
Read MoreBelow is my recipe for the perfect tart dough. I like adding in some almond flour to give the tart shell a little heartiness and texture but feel free to skip. Also make sure to refrigerate the tart dough at least an hour before baking, this will help prevent it from shrinking.
Read MoreI am going to the Golden Globes! What alternate universe did I just fall into? I keep on thinking they are going to email and say just kidding, your invitation was meant for someone else, someone in the “bizz.” Since that hasn’t happened yet at least, I have teamed up with Lindt Chocoalte to create a “golden” Meyer lemon and white chocolate tart in honor of the 74th Golden Globe Awards.
Read MoreI am no expert, but I am pretty sure chicken pho cures everything. A while back I travelled through Vietnam and I came down with the usual travellers sickness. I was down for the count until I tried my first bowl of pho. It completely cured me. More recently I enjoyed a couple too many glasses of red wine one night over the holidays and woke up feeling pretty awful. One bowl of chicken pho and I was back to normal.
Read MoreSalted caramel sauce is one of my weaknesses. I can’t resist anything that is salty and sweet. I recently got my hands on some vanilla bean sea salt, thanks to my friends at Jacobsen Salt and I knew that I needed to use it in some homemade salted caramel sauce.
Read MoreI have no self control when it comes to the peppermint and chocolate combo and this bundt cake is everything I love and more
Read MoreMy family doesn't have a ton of food traditions for the holidays, but the ones that we have, we are fiercely loyal to. Enter cinnamon rolls.
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