Sharing my favorite recipes with you
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 […]
I’ve been trying to come up with a new dip recipe to post because I have folks who make the rosemary white bean dip and the lemony chick pea dip over and over again. So here’s a new one that I hope you like just […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
So I’ve mentioned my pear balsamic that I’m in love with. I also have a meyer lemon extra virgin olive oil that is yummy and I thought that the combination of the two would make a fantastic dressing. It turns out that I was right! […]
My dear friend Sandra Marine brought over some beautiful home grown cucumbers which inspired this dish. It’s a fantastic appetizer to serve for a small gathering unless of course your guests don’t like kalamata olives, which is what happened to me. But that was fine […]
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 […]
I have this pear balsamic vinegar that is so delicious, I just want to find new dishes to use it on. I tried this spin on a traditional caprese using peaches instead of tomatoes and burrata cheese. Burrata is a mozzarella cheese that is filled […]
I love chick peas and will use them in as many ways possible. This is a terrific, fresh salad that is super easy to assemble and has a wonderfully fresh flavor because of the mint and lemon zest. Great for picnics and barbecues. Ingredients 1 […]
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, […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
This version of deviled eggs has a nice hint of spice to them with the curry. Ingredients 3 hard boiled eggs 2 tablespoon mayonnaise 1/2 teaspoon curry powder 1/3 teaspoon sea salt Preparation The best way I have found to make hard boiled eggs is […]
This recipe is for the traditional version of deviled eggs I do. I’ve tried adding vinegar as many recipes specify but I just don’t like them as much as the simple mayo and dijon mustard combination. I’ve made these deviled egg recipes for just 6 […]
Truffles go so well with eggs, so why not truffled deviled eggs? To pair with the truffle flavor, I removed the traditional mayonnaise and used just creme fraiche instead. Ingredients 3 hard boiled eggs 1/3 teaspoon truffle oil 2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream […]
This is such an easy way to prepare brussels sprouts and always a hit. Even my son likes these. Ingredients 1 1/2 pounds brussels sprouts 3 ounces pancetta, diced extra virgin olive oil aged balsamic vinegar sea salt freshly ground pepper Preparation Preheat oven to […]