When Life (Or Your Mom) Gives you a Bag of Lemons… My mom came over toting a humongous bag of lemons. Seriously, lots of lemons. Thankfully, I love lemons and the weekend was coming up which means one thing in my house: PANCAKES…. Lemons always remind me of Italy, especially the Amalfi Coast. My husband…
A Recipe for Mango Salsa. Every spring I wait patiently for the first appearance of Ataulfo mangoes at the store. As soon as I spy them, I buy a box and start making mango salsa. Ataulfo mangoes are often called Champagne mangoes due to their smooth, velvet like consistency and juicy sweetness. They are grown…
A Recipe for Portabella Mushroom Burgers with Sun Dried Tomato Miso Spread and a Side of Mustard Potatoes Did you know that the name Portabella is believed to be a marketing scheme? These mushrooms were once so unpopular due to their gargantuan size and unappealing color that they were almost unsellable. In the 1980s, the…
A Recipe for a Greek Salad with Kalamata Olive Dressing. Coming from an Italian-Greek family, I fondly remember childhood trips to Greek town in Chicago. We lived quite a distance from the city, so eating at the Parthenon in Greek town was always a special event. My favorite menu items included Greek chopped salad, avgolemono…
A Recipe for Fennel, Pea, Green Garlic Pesto with a Mason Jar Salad. Maybe it’s because I always enjoyed chemistry in school and most wanted to go to to Hogwarts to have a wand and take Potions class; but I always love interesting combinations. (I also love the word amalgamations meaning the process of uniting)….
A Recipe for Dill, Mint, Pistachio Pesto served over a medley of spring vegetables; raw fennel, roasted cauliflower, baby beets, and asparagus topped with pea shoot tendrils. I love making pesto because it is so versatile. Pesto can be made with any herb, nut, or green leafy thing you can think of. The variations don’t…
A Recipe for Hot Honey Roasted Parsnips with a Creamy Garlic Horseradish Dip. It’s getting to the end of winter root vegetable season in South Carolina, and I have been racking my brain for creative ways to prepare and serve them! I stumbled across a bottle of Red Clay Barrel Aged Hot Habanero Honey in…
Did you know that basil is considered one of the seven lucky plants for 2021 according to Feng Shui? I wondered if combining a lucky plant like basil, with the leaves of the lucky fava bean if you could double your luck…. A Recipe for Fava Greens Pesto served over couscous with carrots, spring peas,…
Roasted Radishes, Rainbow Carrots, Murasaki Sweet Potatoes, Peas, and Scallions with a Cashew Wasabi Miso-Soy Sauce An Unlikely Doppelganger… Introduction: I love picking up a CSA box! Sometimes, the ingredients are a complete surprise and other times I know a day or two in advance what to expect. Either way, I like to imagine I…
Easy Chocolate Hummus I have to admit when I first came across chocolate hummus at the store, I thought it sounded revolting. I decided to purchase it anyway because; hey it’s chocolate how bad could it be? Thankfully, my willingness to try a new product paid off and I loved it. There are lots of…