Stuffed Artichokes

Artichokes… love them or hate them? They seem to be one of those foods where there is no gray area! I’ve met so many people in my life who have basically told me they don’t have the patience to eat them, don’t know how to make them, or just don’t care for them. Yet, growing […]

Butternut Squash Soup

October once again has arrived and along with it are some delicious butternut squash! I couldn’t help but grab one yesterday at the grocery store with plans to make some yummy soup. I love this soup because there are so many little adjustments you can make to it to have a very different tasting soup. […]

Neopolitan Eggplant Parmigiana

Today I was given a few eggplants from a friend’s garden… yum! I was so excited to use them to make my favorite eggplant recipe, Neopolitan Eggplant Parmigiana. I first discovered this recipe in a cookbook from Bibba Caggiano. The difference of this eggplant is that you are not going to be breading each piece […]

Stuffed Zucchini Flowers (Blossoms)

Ahhh summer…. so much to look forward to!  The delicate flowers of young zucchini plants are something we look forward to all year long in our home.  I get the same question from my husband every year while planting the garden, “Are you sure you planted enough zucchini??  You know how I LOVE zucchini flowers!”  […]

Zucchini Muffins

I love Saturdays for many reasons but mostly because the local farmer’s market in town offers up some fantastic fruits and vegetables.  On a recent trip, I think I slightly overdid it at the zucchini table.  My infant daughter had just been given the green light from her pediatrician to start fruits and veggies and […]

Garden Pesto

  I don’t know about you, but I just love the smell of fresh basil.  For the last two weeks our garden has been producing beautiful basil plants, zucchini flowers (blossoms) and small tomatoes.  My husband goes out there every morning before the direct sunlight reaches the garden to water all the plants and pick […]

Blueberry Hand Pies

I was flipping the pages of July’s Bon Appetit magazine, when I came across this interesting looking recipe for Blueberry Hand Pies.  Just yesterday I bought a large container of organic blueberries and so I figured this would be a perfect way to use 2 cups worth and try out a new recipe.  I was […]

Carrot Cake Muffins

Carrot cake happens to be one of my family’s favorite desserts.  When I made one recently for Easter, I starting thinking about how most people probably don’t make it because they think it is time consuming or just too difficult to make.  I think most people are reluctant to attempt cakes that are multilayer and […]

Crepes

  One of my absolute favorite treats is fresh crepes.  Making crepes brings back a ton of memories of helping my mom make them for Christmas dinner.  She probably had me make hundreds of them on her little crepe machine since back then we had so many people for every holiday.  I never asked her […]

Minestrone Soup

On a rainy Saturday in January, I tend to think of making a soup for lunch.  Today when I looked around my kitchen and pantry and saw the ingredients I had available, minestrone soup immediately came to mind.  When I think of minestrone soup I sometimes think of it as an “everything but the kitchen […]

Escarole & Bean Soup

Happy New Year! It’s been a busy couple of months and cooking dinner has had to be only three things: delicious, fast and healthy.  Easy enough, right?  Well, believe it or not it really can be when you enjoy eating fresh vegetables and cannellini beans as much as I do. One of my favorite dishes […]

Butternut Squash Risotto

October is a beautiful time of year here in New York and a delicious way to embrace the season is by making butternut squash risotto.  So many people I know get excited when they read butternut squash risotto listed on restaurant menus, but they all seem to think that it is a difficult dish to […]

Pignoli Cookies, Yum!

As soon as I start to make pignoli cookies I start to smile just from the scent of the almond paste!  You no longer have to go to an Italian bakery to enjoy these little treats.  These cookies take time to prepare so I don’t suggest making them if you are in a rush.  The […]

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

There is a chill in the air in New York and for me that means there is soup boiling on my stove.  I find soups to be so easy to make for lunch, pairing them with a delicious sandwich or as a great starter to a heavier meal at dinner.  Instead of always roasting cauliflower […]

Pasta with Fresh Tomatoes

Today’s lunch included tomatoes and basil from my garden and I only wish there was a way for you to smell my kitchen right now! My little gardening project shocked us this year by pumping out endless amounts of tomatoes, zucchini, zucchini blossoms and basil.    It has been tremendous fun to build lunch and dinner […]

Zucchini Chips

This time of year is perfect for baking some delicious zucchini chips. The zucchini featured on the homepage is growing right now in my garden =) In another day or two, I will slice, bread and bake this zucchini into an amazingly delicious treat.  Zucchini chips are a perfect healthy snack for kids or a […]

Mom’s Tomato Soup

A rainy summer day only means one thing to me, tomato soup.  I love tomato soup, let me just put that out there.  Actually, I love tomatoes.  I put them in almost everything I eat.  It is hard for me to understand why anyone would feel any differently about them but, just recently I was […]

Florentine White Bean Soup

Ahhh Firenze!  Who doesn’t love Florence, Italy and all of the beauty it offers us?  I was sitting on my couch about a year ago looking at a photo of the Ponte Vecchio (the old bridge in Florence) and started thinking about my time spent attending school in Florence.  During that period of time, I […]

Ricotta Gnocchi

  One of my favorite things to do is make pasta.  I love the freedom fresh pasta offers.  Just knowing that I can fill, stuff or create a new variation is so exciting to me! Gnocchi is a pasta I usually stay away from eating because I am not a fan of feeling completely full […]