Main Dish

Simple Fritatta

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 […]

Korean Dumplings (Mandoo)

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 […]

Penne with Pancetta, Peas and Ricotta

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 […]

Pork Dumplings with Sichuan Sauce

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 […]

Farro with Sausage and Brussel Sprouts

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 […]

Chicken Pot Pie (sort of)

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 […]

Leftover Pork Fried Rice

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 […]

Veal Osso Buco served on Creamy Polenta

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 […]

Pupusas

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

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, […]

Game Day Chili

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 […]

Ma’s Baked Ziti

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 […]

Spicy Korean Pork Belly

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 […]

Chicken Enchiladas

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 […]

Pozole Verde (Green Pozole)

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 […]

Leftover Turkey Pressed Sandwiches

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 […]

Mapo Tofu

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 […]

Chicken in Riesling Sauce

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 […]

Smothered Pork Chops

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 […]

Classic Italian Meatballs

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 […]

Basic Marinara Sauce

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 […]

Marinated and Grilled Skirt Steak

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. […]

Bourbon and Coke Meatloaf with Fried Egg and Black Pepper Gravy

Yes, we love meat loaf. It’s meat, which is loaf as well! (I know it’s weird but that’s always the way we refer to it). So I was reading through Chef Edward Lee’s cookbook, “Smoke and Pickles, Recipes from a New Southern Kitchen” and came […]

Chicken and Broccoli Slaw with Peanut Dressing

I made this to take to our Father’s Day Picnic at the park. Kids, dogs, good food, great friends, lots of wine and oh yeah, the fathers too! Since it was Father’s Day, it was a good thing my husband really liked this salad. He’s […]

Grilled Rib Eye with Port Reduction and Mushrooms

Ok, there are more things on this steak than the port reduction and mushrooms but I really couldn’t make the title any longer. So I ask, blue cheese? Yes! sautéed onions? Yes!, sautéed mushrooms? Yes! port wine reduction? Yes, yes, yes!! Sometimes, when I have […]

Korean Meatballs with Chili Glaze

We went to a James Taylor concert at the Hollywood Bowl and I made these to take along for our picnic dinner. Meatballs make a great picnic dish because they’re bite-sized so they’re very easy to eat. It’s got a little kick but they’re not […]

Thai Red Curry with Chicken

I love curry. I love curry. I love curry. Do you get the sense that I love curry? Sometimes, I will go for an entire week and have it everyday. Making a good thai curry requires a little more than just opening a can of […]

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

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

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

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 […]