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 [...]
Ever since I fell in love with the portobello mushroom ravioli with the creamy roasted red pepper sauce at Olive Garden back in the day, Italian food has always equaled "celebration" to me. So naturally when it came time to toast a successful Pitch Slam back in 2017, and again [...]
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 [...]
When in Wisconsin, it's your moral imperative to eat all the cheese. In fact, I'm pretty sure they'll kick you out if you don't. Or if you cheer for any football team other than the Packers (whew, I'm safe there). And really is there anything more sinfully delicious than fried [...]
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 [...]
Yes, I know what you're thinking... C'mon Christa, this is a food blog, we don't want to hear you waxing poetic about a bowl of oatmeal. Pizza? Definitely. Tacos? Oh yeah. But this is oatmeal, how life-changing could it actually be? No amount of slivered almonds, no amount of fruit [...]
