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Many years ago, I had the great good fortune to be traveling in India over Christmas and New Year’s. I didn’t know as much about Indian cuisine as I do now. To play it safe, and avoid Deli belly, I kept my food choices relatively simple. One of the dishes I ordered every day was […]
I love homemade pizza! I have often made it completely from scratch, even the dough. If you don’t have time to make the dough, which requires time for the dough to rise, this is a great alternative: Readymade raw pizza dough can be found in most supermarkets or at Trader Joe’s! The secret to a […]
Sautéed Spinach is quick, easy and delicious. This takes on a depth of flavor because I sauté the spinach with oven roasted garlic. I roast several dozen cloves of garlic at once and keep them on hand for vegetable sauté, homemade pizzas, or for garlic lovers, spread it directly on a toasted baguette. OVEN ROASTED […]
It’s great to have one or two cold pasta salads in your repertoire. They are simple to make and you can tweak them to your own taste. This one includes cheese tortellini and baby spinach. For this party, I served the pasta mounded on top of the spinach, but I have also tossed it all […]
I love making savory or sweet rustic tarts or galettes. I usually make my own dough but for this party, with such a large number of guests, I needed to save time. I used one of my go-to shortcuts: Refrigerated Pie Crust. Yes, handmade dough is wonderful but this works just fine. I made two […]
Baked pastas are always great as part of a lunch buffet. This one is both vegetarian and gluten free. I wanted to come up with a way to use brown rice pasta (for my gluten free guests) that tasted as good as regular pasta. You can use spinach or chard or kale. I love to buy […]
Everybody loves a small, savory two-bite pastry as an appetizer. I watched as my gluten-free, wheat-free, no-carb-eating friends devoured these. While spinach and feta are frequently seen in Greek spanakopita, here they are combined with savory chermoula (available at my Amazon Affiliate Store), allspice and pine nuts and formed into rustic, open triangles for a […]
One of my favorite food writers is Melissa Clark of The New York Times. I love her enthusiasm and sense of adventure, and suspect dinner at her house would be especially tasty. This recipe is adapted from her book In the Kitchen with a Good Appetite (available at my Amazon Affiliate Store). Her recipe is […]
During a vacation in Italy, a friend I was traveling with ordered prosciutto and melon as an appetizer. I thought of all the delicious choices on the menu, it was the most boring. And then I tasted it. Wow! The contrast between the tissue paper thin, perfectly cured, salty prosciutto and the juicy, ripe, sweet […]
When I was growing up, we only had soup when we were sick. Then, of course, it was chicken soup. Since then, I learned to love simple pureed vegetable based creamy soups. This is one of my all time favorites because it’s simple to make, very versatile and freezes beautifully. Another make-ahead dish. For this […]
