Falling Temperatures and Rising Expectations

Over the summer we make the most of warm, long days.  Weekends are packed with beach trips, camping, and BBQs.  We take vacations and rarely spend a moment simply relaxing.  Then fall hits.  We’re happy to stroll around the neighborhood, go apple picking, or just sit on the couch and watch football.  And then we…

Venetian Inspired

While I can’t say that I was born with a wooden spoon in my hand, I definitely had a passion for cooking and food from an early age.  That’s thanks mainly to my mother and a few aunts who were/are wonderful cooks.  But when I studied abroad in Venice as a junior in college (back…

Fresh Pasta with Grilled Squid and Ramps

Here’s one last ramp recipe for the tail end of the season on a not so warm (early) start to the Memorial Day weekend in the Northeast.  If you’ve been following me on Facebook and Instagram, you’ll see I’ve been experimenting with making my own pasta using my Mom’s machine.  It only takes a few…

Spicing Up Your Ramps

For the food-obsessed and locavore crazed, spring means ramps, dandelion greens, wild chives, fiddlehead ferns, and eventually peas and morel mushrooms.  Because ramps, which have a short growing season, appear first, the hype around how to use this wild onion has reached insane proportions.  Ramps were in such demand that they cost as much as…