Sharing my favorite recipes with you

Month: May 2014

Spatchcock Chicken

Spatchcock Chicken

That’s right. I said spatchcock. What the heck is a spatchcock you ask? That’s what I said when my husband told me what he was making for dinner one night. I soon learned that it is a way to prepare chicken that results in delicious, […]

Fettuccine with Chicken Lemon Cream Sauce

Fettuccine with Chicken Lemon Cream Sauce

What do you do when you’re short on time, didn’t go to the grocery store and have to create something from what you have in the refrigerator and pantry? This lovely dish. Anything with a cream sauce is always a big hit with the kids. […]

Pappardelle with Sausage and Pork Ragu

Pappardelle with Sausage and Pork Ragu

I love the idea of a great hearty Sunday dinner with the family or sometimes in our case, the neighborhood. In the summers, we set up a few long tables in our front yard and serve Sunday dinner at 5. When the neighborhood sees us […]

Cannellini Bean and Rosemary Soup

Cannellini Bean and Rosemary Soup

Here’s a quick and easy weeknight meal. Make it vegan by substituting vegetable broth for the chicken broth and removing the cheese. Whenever I make soup, I make extra to freeze into single serving containers. Then I take them for lunch and keep them on […]

Spinach Gratin

Spinach Gratin

This is an adaptation of Ina Garten’s spinach gratin recipe which was always our go to for any holiday dinner. I added bacon and decreased the butter and we loved it even more. Ingredients 5 slices of bacon, chopped 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 4 cups […]

Grilled Flank Steak

Grilled Flank Steak

This is a super easy, delicious flank steak. Its a great weeknight meal. Just add a salad or your favorite vegetable to it and dinner is served. Can even the main course for a super casual get together. If you can’t find flank steak, I […]

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Curried Cauliflower Soup

This soup has got a kick. My husband’s comment was, “This is good fire soup”. If you are sensitive to spice, you may want to take down the amount of curry paste you use. Ingredients 1 tablespoon ginger, minced 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon […]

Arugula Salad with Proscuitto and Poached Eggs

Arugula Salad with Proscuitto and Poached Eggs

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 […]

Greens and Eggs

Greens and Eggs

Yes, greens and eggs, not green eggs. We love putting eggs on things. Its actually a good trick to get the kids to eat vegetables that they normally would not. We found and adapted a recipe we found in Food & Wine Magazine. Really great […]

Spinach Salad with Champagne Dijon Vinaigrette

Spinach Salad with Champagne Dijon Vinaigrette

What makes this very simple salad so good is the combination of flavors. I find that this dressing really makes the salad stand out. And the bacon doesn’t hurt either. I don’t need any sweetness in this dressing but if you find that you need […]

Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus

Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus

This is the one way I can get my kids to eat asparagus and not complain. It’s an easy dish to make for those of my friends who really don’t like to cook, but like to “assemble”. Serve it as an appetizer or a side […]

Gazpacho

Gazpacho

I LOVE gazpacho when the weather turns warm. I know that not everyone shares that same love. Perhaps that’s because they think of it as cold tomato soup and cold soup doesn’t sound appetizing to them. Maybe we should come up with another way to […]

Curried Chicken Salad

Curried Chicken Salad

Everyone loves a good curried chicken salad. People often make it with raisins or grapes. I am not a huge fan of raisins in my food and my neighbor Paul just happened to have brought over some peaches the day before so I decided to use […]

Cauliflower Tots with Harissa Dipping Sauce

Cauliflower Tots with Harissa Dipping Sauce

So maybe these are not technically “tots” because we’re not shredding the cauliflower and reforming them into cute cylindrical shapes, but we are deep frying them. I like to strike a balance between healthy and really not healthy at all. So we take this very […]

Spicy Edamame

Spicy Edamame

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 […]

Fresh Pasta

Fresh Pasta

Once you’ve had fresh homemade pasta, you will be spoiled for life. Thankfully, I have an Italian husband who became obsessed with mastering the art of pasta making. All I had to do was ply him with wine to get him to sit and tell […]

Lemon Thyme Grilled Chicken Panini

Lemon Thyme Grilled Chicken Panini

I’m always trying to find new ways to serve chicken that isn’t dry and boring. Especially on those days that I don’t have much time to make dinner. This chicken is great served with a green salad or in a panini. Ingredients 4 chicken breast […]

Cinco de Mayo party – or the would be party

Cinco de Mayo party – or the would be party

So if Cinco de Mayo would have landed on a weekend, here’s what we would have served at our party. But instead, we just enjoyed it ourselves with our good friends the Marine family for an early dinner so the kids could get to bed […]

Refried Beans

Refried Beans

I love good refried beans and I hate bad ones. By good I mean it needs to have good flavour and not be bland. Yes, this takes some time but its totally worth it. Beware, this is not a recipe for vegetarian beans. Ingredients 3 […]

Chile braised pork

Chile braised pork

Who doesn’t love fork tender pork served in a spicy chipotle sauce? This is a great dish to serve to a crowd because its not fussy and its so good. Just make sure your guests can handle some heat! I made this dish for a […]

Candied Bacon

Candied Bacon

Here’s just another reason and way to love bacon. We serve this as an appetizer and people go crazy for it. Kids, grown-ups, grandparents, everyone. Its really very easy but it can be a bit time consuming because you will need to make multiple batches […]

Jus’ Poke – Redondo Beach, CA

Jus’ Poke – Redondo Beach, CA

My daughter and I ventured into a new little place which just open up in Redondo Beach called Jus’ Poke because we love poke. For those who don’t know, poke is a sort of raw fish salad, often made with chunks of ahi tuna that comes from […]

The Tripel, Playa Del Rey, CA

The Tripel, Playa Del Rey, CA

The Tripel is an eating and drinking establishment in Playa Del Rey, California that when I enter,  I just want to sit, eat and drink there all day. Brooke Williamson is absolutely at the top of my list of favorite chefs. I had been to Hudson House, […]

Front yard cocktail party

Front yard cocktail party

For my last birthday, my dear husband threw me a swanky cocktail party in our front yard. We hired a couple of friends who wanted to try their hand at bartending and they came up with a great drink menu, added a few tables, white tablecloths, flowers […]

Champagne Mignonette

Champagne Mignonette

This is a very simple recipe with just a very slight twist on the classic mignonette. I just replace red wine vinegar for champagne vinegar. Ingredients 1/4 cup champagne vinegar 1 tablespoon minced shallot 1/4 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper Combine all ingredients in a […]

Shrimp Cocktail

Shrimp Cocktail

You may be wondering why you need a recipe for shrimp cocktail. All you do is boil some shrimp or defrost cooked frozen shrimp and put out some store bought cocktail sauce right? Well, you could go that route, but you can create something more […]