While I'm pretty sure that Ancestry.com — or any of the popular genealogy sites — would concur that I'm exactly 0% Italian, I've always felt like an honorary Italian because of how much I adore their food, the culture, their love of art, the reverence for buildings more than 100 [...]
During one of our many lunches when she lived in DFW (sigh!), my dear friend Sarah Higgiston mentioned that I should start a restaurant blog for fun. And I remember thinking that was an incredibly cool idea, but could I really pull it off? I mean, I don’t even eat [...]
Truth is, I’ve always liked to cook. Or bake, more specifically. My Mom had a drawer in our kitchen I was rather fond of. It contained a well-worn copy of Betty Crocker’s iconic orange cookbook, the one we’d make the Christmas sugar cookies from with the game-changing addition of almond [...]
Normally I've let the restaurant chefs contend with all the big ol' pots of boiling water and Old Bay seasoning required for a proper shrimp boil. Well, until I stumbled upon this gem of a recipe. I'm already a big fan of sheet pan suppers because not only is everything [...]
There's nothing quite like a summer tomato. They're sweet, they're juicy, they're absolutely perfect over garlicky toast with Mozzaralla or as a fresh tomato sauce over pasta. But thanks to your oven, those elusive summer tomatoes are now available year round. By roasting them in the oven (350 degrees for [...]
Sometimes dinner comes around, and let's be honest, you don't really have a plan. You look in the fridge, scour the freezer, tear through the cupboards and wonder how in the world these random items might taste together. It's like Chopped, you know minus Ted Allen, the $10,000 prize and, [...]
It's no secret that I love pasta, but sometimes it feels a little too, um, heavy for a Texas summer. But rather than going an entire four-plus months — sometimes longer — without it, I discovered a way to lighten the experience up in a thoroughly satisfying way. Cue Ina [...]
During that looooong five-to-six-month stretch where there's no Packers/Cowboys football, deciding what to make for Sunday lunch is a little less clear cut. But when I noticed how beautiful the asparagus was at Sprouts, makes sense since it's Spring and all, I knew exactly what I'd make — a simple [...]
People have been raving about overnight oats for a while now, and I desperately wanted to love them. But whenever I tried the recipe, the one that was supposed to convert me from a plain ol’ oatmeal enthusiast to a lover of this surprisingly low-maintenance variety that I could (gasp!) [...]
A pasta dish that originated in Puglia, really the most difficult thing about Orecchiette with sausage and broccoli was learning to spell Orecchiette (I always wanted it to have one more "r" and one less "c."). Even now, the spell check doesn't seem to like it, but I know I've [...]
