A couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending Damaris Philips wedding in Kentucky. It was a day filled with vintage everything, homemade food, love, laughter and some serious dancing.
Damaris made all the food for her wedding (way to show me up Damaris ;) and it was as delicious as you might expect.
The 4th of July is just around the corner and that means fun, frolicking, and most importantly FOOD. Most years I find myself making sweet treats for my niece Lucy, as her birthday falls on the 4th. We all like to gather in Fire Island to celebrate as we sing happy birthday and watch the fire works.
To say Lucy loves dessert is an understatement, so I always try my best to put a smile on her sweet little sugar addicted face and make her some incredible treats. No matter what you are making this July 4th it should be easy, should make people smile and if it happens to also be red white and blue than even better. So here are some of my favorite July 4th recipes that will make your weekend that much more sweet.
Red, White + Blue Sangria by Crista at Peace.Love.Quinoa
Let’s start this 4th of July with fizzy and refreshing white wine sangria's! In this recipe she finishes her sangria off with sparkling water; I think I'm going to skip that part and finish it with some bubbly champagne! The best part about sangria is you can use whatever wine, fruit and juice you like.
The word “balance” is thrown out a lot in our lives.
You’re supposed to have a balance between work and play; we all need physical balance, especially when in a crow pose in yoga class or trying to balance our love of chocolate with our love of fitting into our jeans is always a challenge. When it comes to our food, that little word is thrown around like peanuts at a baseball game.
Today was a day full of exciting stuff: I stole someone’s car and drove out to Long Island to buy plants for my garden terrace, I tried out a new hair color that’s a little less Barbie doll (but still banging blonde), and I made the most delicious and exciting side dish.
How can a side dish be exciting? Oh now you have opened a can of worms. It's simple; this dish is exciting because I'm preparing a vegetable, in this case cucumber, in a totally different way.
It wasn’t that long ago that I was huddled up under a mound of blankets watching Hawaii Life on HGTV as I seriously considered packing up and joining those happy people on TV.
But no matter how never-ending winter might seem,before you know it the sun is shining and the temperature is rising.
I like so many different things in life; I like to have tea on my terrace while the birds are singing and the people on the streets are yelling. I like to find a spot in yoga class which is far enough away from the smelly man who says his “om” with a bear-like grunt.
However, the things I like most of all is to make meaty tasting meals, without the actual meat and to stretch a little bit of meat with other hearty, smoky flavors.
I like the taste of matzo bread, I know that many people find it dry and bland, I find it flavorful and…no actually, it’s pretty dry and bland.
However, just because on its own it’s not amazing doesn’t mean we can’t make it amazing. I know that it isn’t bursting with flavor, but it issuper crunchy and it makes a great base to build on.
Spring has sprung! Growing up in Buffalo you would think that I would be used to the snow and cold, but that was not the case; instead I was simply over it before I even hit middle school.
So being the kind of person who mumbles obscenities at the weather under my breath all winter long, you can imagine that seeing signs of spring make me a very happy camper.
Many of us can’t imagine having dinner for breakfast, but it seems like we can all get on that "breakfast for dinner" train.
It may be hard to imagine having steak and potatoes at 7 a.m., but having eggs at 7 p.m. always sounds like a good idea.
Bunnies are adorable, they are soft, their ears are far too big for their little heads, and they hop! Let’s face it, they are cute; that is as long as we are talking about a small furry animal and not the random guy hopping up and down behind me on the street. He’s not cute, he’s just creepy.
I tend to make the appetizers for Easter dinner and leave the heavy lifting for my father in-law. It’s hard to help him as I barley have a free hand (no, I cannot put the Sauvignon Blanc down. And what about my other hand? Well, it’s usually helping me taste test the cheese, a very important job).
I recently found myself in Kentucky with my good friend Damaris Phillips. To go along with the bourbon that you know is always on her table, she made me a sandwich with her signature tomato aioli.
Back home in NYC I found myself seriously craving her aioli, I needed more (but not more bourbon, I’m done with bourbon for a while). It was so rich, so meaty and so deep in flavor that I would not be forgetting it anytime soon.
I’ve been obsessed with traditional basil pesto for a very long time.
When I first tried it I was at a point in my life when green things still made me feel a little queasy--but once I closed my eyes and took a bite, I realized how crazy flavorful and addicting pesto can be.
There are not often tears shed in my kitchen, but the event has taken place before. It actually became a frequent occurence years ago when I really got on a pizza making kick.
I had acquired the ESSENTIAL pizza making tool- the pizza stone. The magical stone that when pizza is cooked upon- the crust is crisp on the outside but remains chewy on the inside. It had changed my pizza making experience. There was only one problem, transferring the perfectly topped raw pizza onto the stone that had to be preheated in the oven...
And this is where the tears came in...
I'm convinced that the reason Broccoli Cheddar soup is so popular is because parents like that they can sneak a vegetable into a kids' bowl and disguise it as Cheese soup.
And let's face it! There are times when all of us would rather cozy up to a hot and cheesy bowl of soup rather than a bowl of steamy veggies.
And so we pat ourselves on the back for choosing such a healthy option while still feeding that inner child who is craving comfort food in a bowl.
The squirrels in NYC can get a little close... too close for my liking.
Through years of experiencing that getting close to humans results in the receiving of french fries, pretzels and maybe if they're lucky a classic NYC hot dog (probably better that they eat it than us), these little guys have no fear.
I was reminiscing yesterday, remembering that very first cooking video I shot in my kitchen. The lighting wasn't great, the sound was a little off, and as I felt the need to explain everything in utmost detail, it was entirely too long.
But people started watching. And since I was featuring “Zucchini Noodles” a fairly new and exciting concept no one seemed to mind the low budget quality or rambling host.
That first video is what started everything...
I'm a traditionalist when it comes to my Pesto. I like it just the way an old Italian Grandmother would make it. A few simple, fresh, quality ingredients tossed with some hot pasta and call it a day.
If you start using walnuts or almonds or anything besides pinenuts, I start getting angry. Throw in some parsley with the basil and I might just lose it.
Kabocha squash is like that quirky but cute guy you have been eyeing at the grocery store but are too afraid to approach. There is something about him that intrigues you and you have a feeling that he's better for you then some of the other handsome junk in the store but...
He seems like too much work to get to know. You wouldn’t even know where to begin. And so you walk away from Mr. Kabocha Squash, never knowing the love affair that could have been.
I like any sauce with a name that I can’t easily pronounce. Because I'm guaranteed that I will eventually say it to someone else and they will have no idea what I'm talking about and suddenly I will look super smart.
And really my goal in life is to pretend to be smart.
Oh, and make delicious food of course!!
Today we are going to talk about cute things. Silly cute things. And no, I'm not referring to another YouTube video of a wet cat or a laughing baby...
And no, it's not a picture of two animals that don’t belong together and yet are best friends.
Oh! Like the one where the baby monkey is sleeping with the doggy and he's got his arm around him and you just know they will be BFF's till the end of time!
No!!
I’m talking about something cute…silly cute…that you can eat!
Something that says “hey, look at me” and when you do you think, “well hello, aren’t you beautiful, and precious, and...and...I MUST EAT YOU!!”
I'm talking about the crazy delicious idea of making an apple pie...
wait for it...
keep waiting...
IN AN APPLE!
