Spring Lasagna

Today is my birthday, and for years, that meant I got to eat ribs and birthday cake.

Summer Happy Hour Spreads: Herbed Ricotta, Pea Pesto, & Pimento Cheese

Well, Memorial Day Weekend has come and gone and I’m so happy it’s the start of another summer season.

Our House

Remember 11 months ago when I wrote this earnest and emotional post about my parents leaving our home of seventeen years? Well, a month ago, it finally happened.

Minestrone Soup

The weather in suburban New Jersey today is ideal for the lazy vacation day I’m taking. It’s one of my favorite kinds of days: a grey and drizzly day in December during which I feel perfectly content to order Christmas presents from bed while snuggling with one of my loving pets. What it is, is the perfect afternoon for a bowl of soup. But all of my soup is in Brooklyn, frozen and waiting for me to have the forethought to thaw it before I want it. Where did I learn how to do that? Well, from my mother, who also has several soup varieties sitting downstairs in her freezer, perfectly frozen and hard as a rock.

Spring Orecchiette with Asparagus, Peas, Sausage, & Ricotta

Spring, is that you? Is that you peeping past the clouds and whispering in our ears with each faint breeze? I sure as heck hope so because I am done with winter. We all are. I’m ready to spend days out of doors again, walking around Brooklyn, grazing on little nibblies from food trucks and stopping for mimosas or pitchers of beer at bars with back patios. I love my cozy apartment but I’m ready to put the oversized sweater I wear at least once a week away now. I’m ready to frolic. I’m ready for sunshine.

And I’m ready for spring vegetables.

A Pinch of Leftovers: Bacon, Brussels, & Pea Quiche

This right here is a perfect leftover dish. You can use almost any leftovers you have in a quiche, and quiche itself makes for great, no-fuss leftovers. I went so far as to use a leftover store-bought, pre-made pie crust (we’re not getting super fancy here – we’re cooking with what we have on a weeknight). Or, at least, I tried to use a leftover pre-made crust. It was from a year and a half ago (from that French week of cooking that I somehow keep talking about) and when I unrolled it, it crumbled everywhere. UGH. What I had hoped would be an easy evening was, like the pie crust, crumbling around me.

Let me begin at the beginning.

Warm Bread Salad with Peas and Bacon

What kind of food do you make when you want to appear virtuous and wholesome after a rather hedonistic start to the weekend? You make panzanella. “What is panzanella?” some of you may be asking. It’s bread salad. A salad…based around bread. Um, YOU’RE WELCOME, EVERYONE.