There is nothing more amazing than the phenomenal tomatoes that are available here in the summer and early fall season. I love the vibrancy of flavors that fresh tomatoes bring to any dish and adding tons of garlic and basil makes them even more marvelous. Here is my friend Maria Paniccia’s outstanding yet simple stuffed [...]
I am not a huge lasagna or butternut squash fan. I always get tons of squashes in my weekly CSA box and other than soup, I’ve been a little fearful to try making much else with them. So you can imagine my excitement when I found this recipe (courtesy Giada De Laurentiis) and saw that [...]
I belong to a wonderful local CSA where I get all kinds of organic vegetables all through the fall and winter months. Since I get only seasonal vegetables through the CSA, I often have to be inventive with how I can make my kids eat those veggies over and over again. I was really thrilled [...]
This is a really healthy, quick spaghetti dish that can be cooked up in minutes. I always keep imitation crab meat in my freezer. It adds a really nice flavor to this dish. You can substitute the shredded carrots and corn for any other vegetables that you have on hand. Spaghetti with Shredded Carrots, Corn [...]
Here is a really quick pasta dish I make whenever I have some rotisserie chicken lying around. You can omit the chicken to make this a vegetarian pasta dish. I usually use frozen corn that I always keep on hand in my freezer. Spaghetti with Corn, Broccoli & (Chicken) 2 cups of chopped rotisserie chicken (optional) 2 cups of frozen corn [...]
This is one of my favorite - do it yourself- appetizers to serve. It is so easy and yummy. Use a good quality French or Italian loaf as a base. I usually don’t grill or toast the bread but in a happy accident my friend Oz (the culinary queen of Queens) toasted the bread on the grill the last time I served this. I found that [...]
This is a really quick and tasty pasta dish that I make whenever I have rotisserie chicken lying around. You could substitute for grilled chicken too and if you want to keep the dish vegetarian , you could leave out the meat all together. Penne with Chicken and Peas (serves 6-8) 1 packet penne pasta cooked according to directions 3 cups of chopped rotisserie chicken [...]
My friend Maria Paniccia is one of the most unbelievable Italian cooks ever. She has spoilt me so throughly with her farm fresh, home cooked Italian food that I really have a hard time eating at Italian restaurants. This is one of my favorite pastas. It is so simple and tasty. She uses quite a bit of olive oil in [...]
