Sharing my favorite recipes with you
Here is a favorite for my husband to make for me on Mother’s Day. He loves anything with a poached egg and he is also the egg poaching master of the family. It is very easy to assemble and so impressive to look at. The […]
Here’s a super simple yet totally impressive appetizer that I’ve been making for years. And just in case you were wondering, the proper way to pronounce this dish is with a hard “k”, so phonetically, it is (broo-sket-uh). It drives my Italian husband crazy that […]
I was always intimidated by the idea of making Chinese food because it seemed too difficult. I mean, its nearly impossible to get good Chinese take-out where I live so how could I possibly do better? But alas, I was forced to face my fears […]
What do you do when you have a bunch of eggs and some veggies you need to get rid of? Make a frittata or what my friend calls a crustless quiche. I happened to have some green onions, tomatoes, parsley and cheese so that’s what […]
My husband and I had this combination of ingredients at a local restaurant called The Greenbelt and he liked it so much, he ate kale (he actually hates kale). The parmesan with the dates and the almonds was a really great combination. Ingredients: 10 oz […]
I had a pork bone left over from a whole pig my husband and his friend roasted so I thought it would be the perfect time to make these yummy beans. Yes, yes, I did just say that they roasted a whole pig. There’s definitely […]
Every Asian culture has it’s own version of dumplings or something made with a wonton wrapper. The Korean version is very similar to Japanese gyoza and it’s what I grew up making and eating my entire life. I remember sitting at the kitchen table before family […]
I like broccoli but I LOVE Chinese broccoli. I don’t know what it is, but I find the flavor milder (even though when you read about it, it says its more bitter). You can do a simple prep and just steam it and drizzle oyster […]
My daughter is lactose intolerant so I have moved away from making cream sauces for pasta, which makes my son very sad because he LOVES cream sauces. I had some left over ricotta in the fridge so I thought, what the heck, lets just throw […]
Who doesn’t like dumplings? Our obsession with Din Tai Fung, created my aspiration to make my own Chinese dumplings. I’ve been making Korean dumplings (mandoo) my entire life, but never Chinese dumplings. Same basic idea, just a few ingredient tweaks. They are really not that hard […]
This coconut rice dish is so easy to put together and has so much flavor and texture. My daughter, who loves coconut, really loved it. I toast almonds and coconut flakes and then incorporate them in separately. Great to serve alongside fish or chicken. It […]
I first discovered farro at a fast casual restaurant called Tender Greens. It’s a terrific place to get nicely prepared salads, plates and sandwiches. I sometimes like to get a salad they call the Happy Vegan (which I add chicken or steak to and then […]
My son Carter is obsessed with chicken pot pie. Everywhere we go, if they have it, he’s ordering it. His favorite so far is from a restaurant in Crested Butte, Colorado on the mountain called Avalanche. I guess it could be the effect of this […]
I threw this salad together to pack for a picnic lunch for a dear friends birthday celebration. We packed it in cute mason jars along with sandwiches chips and some veggies and dip. So yummy and healthy. Ingredients: 1 cups quinoa 2 cups vegetable stock […]
We still love brussels sprouts even though it seems like they are a bit overdone which means that we must actually love them. Here’s a great simple recipe that doesn’t require use of the oven – which is a big plus when cooking a big […]
This is a flavorful fried rice to make with pretty much any type of leftover meat. We just happened to have pork on hand when I decided to make it. You can also add green onions, Ingredients: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 tablespoon sesame oil […]
This is one of my husband’s favorite dishes ever. We make with veal shanks mostly but sometimes we can substitute pork shanks if we can’t get the veal. Just ask your butcher to cut these into 3 inch thick portions. We like to serve this […]
This may be the only 3 Michelin Star restaurant I have ever been to. I know for a fact that this was the most expensive meal I’ve ever had and my husband is so happy that I didn’t pay for it. My sister Mia and […]
Here’s what you do when you realize that the sweet spicy green beans you love having in your bloody marys is $10 a jar! You pickle your own for about a couple of bucks! Ingredients: 1 cup white vinegar 1 cup of water 2 tablespoon […]
Wow! This is such an amazing restaurant. We have been a big fan of Chef Stephanie Izard since her season on Top Chef, so when we were in Chicago as a family, rather than for business alone, we had to go to her restaurant, The […]
My sweet friend Christi Hilt bought me this cookbook called Plenty which is full of really great vegetable recipes from a restaurant in London called Ottolenghi. The idea was that we’d pick a night, I would give her the handful of recipes we wanted to […]
Here is a very easy and festive dish to serve at any dinner or party. It goes great with beef or steak as a side dish. I like to make it with either kabocha or butternut squash. Ingredients: 1 whole kabocha squash 3 tablespoons extra […]
I’ve been a huge fan of pupusas ever since I attended school at USC and discovered them through a woman I worked with in my work study job on campus. Pupusas are an El Salvadorian dish and I never thought of making them on my […]
Chinese green beans are so good. Here is a very simple recipe. If you want it spicy, add a tablespoon of chili garlic sauce when adding in the other sauces. Great for a quick weeknight meal. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 lb green beans, […]
Here’s one of my favorite dishes to make when I need a big pot of something good to serve a crowd. We make this for big USC games when we’re entertaining all of our Trojan friends. This is a red chili with a good kick […]
This is caprese 2.0. I mean seriously so good. It’s a recipe from the cookbook Plenty that my girlfriend gave me so we could try out recipes together. So easy! You can just serve it as is or toast some yummy crostini and serve alongside. Ingredients: […]
My kids love this garlic rice that we get from a Peruvian place around the corner so I decided to recreate it and add cilantro to serve it alongside any Mexican dish I’m cooking. It’s a big hit! Ingredients: 1/2 tablespoon of vegetable oil 2 […]
This is my mother-in-law’s baked ziti recipe that is a staple for Christmas. She was an Irish woman from Brooklyn that made an incredible Italian dish. It’s just not Christmas if we don’t have sauce on the stove all day with family members and guests […]
Looking for an app to take to a party that everyone will love? These sticky wings will do the trick. A little messy but so, so good. This past summer was full of picnics at the beach and the park for us and this dish […]
This is a traditional Korean pork dish for a weeknight. Korean markets will have packages pre-sliced, that look like bacon but not cured. If you buy these packages, just cut the strips into fourths. I like to make extra so we can make quesadillas the next […]
My daughter Sabrina loves enchiladas. I’ve never been a huge fan because I don’t think the filling has enough umph. That is until I found a way to make the filling so good you can eat it on its own. I do an easy, quick enchilada […]
So this is the version of creamed corn that I make. It’s not quite so mushy and definitely a far cry from the stuff you get in cans. It is also pretty much the only thing my son, Carter needs at the holiday table. It’s […]
This is such a rich, satisfying soup and people love to add their own accompaniments. We heard the recipe at first from the NPR show Splendid Table and decided to give it a try – having never even had pozole before. It was so delicious […]
Here’s a super simple yet totally impressive appetizer that I’ve been making for years. And just in case you were wondering, the proper way to pronounce this dish is with a hard “k”, so phonetically, it is (broo-sket-uh). It drives my Italian husband crazy that […]
This is what I love to do with leftover meats of pretty much any kind. I asked my daughter if she wanted me to take leftover ham home from my in-laws Thanksgiving dinner and she shrugged, but then I said I’d make sandwiches and she was […]
I was always intimidated by the idea of making Chinese food because it seemed too difficult. I mean, its nearly impossible to get good Chinese take-out where I live so how could I possibly do better? But alas, I was forced to face my fears […]
This dish is a take on coq au vin but with riesling instead of red wine. I’ve adapted a recipe that I found in Food and Wine by adding a roux to thicken the sauce a bit. My family loves this dish with the thicker […]
Okay, this is my Throwback Thursday recipe. These pork chops are a great retro, homey dish. Make sure you don’t over cook the pork chops or they will be as tough as shoe leather. We served this with a wonderful wedge salad and it felt […]
With my husband’s Italian heritage, meatballs are near and dear to our hearts. After lots of experimentation to make the best, classic meatballs that are not dry, we’ve discovered that ricotta cheese does the trick. We also started taking a small piece of the meatball […]
There are many many things you can do with a good basic marinara sauce. Serve it over pasta, use it for meatballs, add cream to it for a tomato cream sauce, braise meats. Here is a very traditional, standard recipe that I always use. The […]
My family loves meat. We love a great steak, preferably aged, prime steaks or a beautiful filet mignon. But we can’t eat that all the time or we’ll go broke. So I have to come up with ways to make cheaper cuts of meat appetizing. […]
I’m not sure if we’re weird because we love radishes, but we really do. We’ll eat them raw with butter and sea salt or sautéed with butter. Either way, they are delicious. For this recipe, I really wanted to use the radish greens, but they […]
It’s the end of the school year and time to figure out where to take the kids for the end-of-the-year, straight A’s reward dinner. Yes, that’s right. My kids (age 11 and 13) want to be taken to fancy restaurants as the reward for getting […]
My daughter and I had these at a sushi restaurant and they were fantastic so I recreated it at home. They are packed with garlicky, spicy, sesame goodness. I think my daughter sat and mowed through about a pound of them in 10 minutes. My husband had to finally remove her from the table to get her away from them. Your fingers will get a bit oily but these are well worth it.
20 oz frozen edamame with shell on
1 tablespoon sea salt plus 1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon gochugaru (Korean chili flakes)
4 garlic cloves minced
Place frozen edamame into a medium pot. Cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add 1 tablespoon of sea salt. Cook for about 3 minutes. Then drain edamame and let drain for about 10 minutes in the colander to allow the water to evaporate a bit. The in a large skillet, heat the sesame oil and sauté the garlic and gochugaru. Add the cooked edamame and add 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Stir gently to mix and ensure all the pods are coated well. Pour into a bowl and serve along with an empty bowl to discard the shell.
Where to buy key ingredients:
Toasted Sesame Oil
Gochugaru
