We have been traveling a good bit recently, disrupting my already chaotic routine. Low posting as a result. When we got back from a trip to Rome (it was lovely and good to be back there after a three-year hiatus), we ordered Chinese, which is our traditional back-from-a-trip meal. I […]
Padma Lakshmi. 2025. Padma’s All American: A Cookbook. Knopf. We watched Padma’s amazing show Taste the Nation last year, and truly enjoyed the trip she took us on around the country, meeting various communities and hearing their stories, talking about food, and cooking their traditional recipes with them. This cookbook […]
Chicken salad is a staple for sandwiches, brunch, and the like. Sometimes it is pretty boring though! Saw a version of this Venezuelan chicken salad on a cooking show and started salivating. That means research and build a recipe so I can make this at home. Arepas are cousins to […]
When you cook a big pot of red beans, you aren’t done till you serve up a bunch of rice. Here’s how to do that….
The very first thing that comes to mind when it’s a grey, rainy day — or a snowy mess of a day — is a big pot of red beans and rice. I have a ridiculous pantry, so I have the ingredients for this dish on hand pretty much all […]
The big storm requires us to eat good food so we keep up our strength and our spirits. That means comfort food to me. One of our favorite dishes reminds Chris of his summers excavating a Roman cemetery and a circus (racecourse) in Carthage, now a suburb of Tunis, Tunisia. […]
The ultimate comfort meal is a simple roast chicken. When I first saw the original version of this recipe in Santa Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, I was terrified: never having tried to roast a whole bird, this looked intimidating. Then I cooked it. It was very easy, […]
Porchetta is a roast, seasoned pork – I think of it as Italian BBQ. It’s well-loved in Rome and you can get spectacular porchetta sandwiches all over town. My favorite version was from Aristocampo, the most amazing sandwich joint in Rome. Theirs was porchetta on ciabatta, with Brie cheese and […]
The Spouse was in London for two weeks leading a study abroad program, and when he returned, it was crazy cooking time. I usually cook simple stuff for just myself, and he was eating in restaurants the whole time away, so first dinner is a big deal for us both. […]
I love soup in all its forms and varieties. I make soup regularly and make up recipes for soup almost as often. Soup is just good stuff in a broth, so anything goes. And when it’s cool or cold (and let’s be real, sometimes in the middle of the summer, […]