Why I Love My Charred Lemony Risotto One of my favorite comforting dishes is risotto. I love rice of all kinds, but there is something about the complexity of risotto that speaks to my soul. It is sometimes a side, but also a wonderful one-pot complete meal. It combines all the warming attributes…starchy, creamy, deeply […]
Latest Posts
Biscotti Means Cookie
This is a beloved family recipe; no matter what, if I only have time for one cookie, it’s my Grandma’s Biscotti. Most of you think of biscotti as this hard, twice-baked cookie that needs to be dunked in coffee or tea to make it edible. But, my friends that is not always so. Biscotti Means […]
Fancy Finnish Shortbread Cookies
If I had to rank cookies these Fancy Finnish Shortbread Cookies would be at the top of my list. They are the perfect cookie for any occasion and can be modified in many ways. These Fancy Finnish Shortbread Cookies, are a classic dough made festive with a little bedazzling from edible glitter. Why I Love […]
Lakritssnittar: Black Licorice Strips
I have a long love affair with black licorice, it’s one of the first candies I remember eating as a child. It is in my blood…a flavor profile I was gifted from my dad’s side of the family, and I feel blessed to love the deep, dark, earthy, and polarizing taste. You either love it […]
Brutti Ma Buoni: “Ugly But Delicious”
Take meringue and mix in a healthy dose of hazelnut chocolate, bake it to a crispy outside with chewy-gooey inside, and you make me a happy girl. Brutti Ma Buoni: “Ugly But Delicious,” as the Italian translation states. I don’t know about you, but I think these are my definition of beautiful. Why I Love […]
My Favorite Anise Drop Cookies
I only remember my grandmother making My Favorite Anise Drop Cookies once during childhood, but I have been thinking about them for decades. Over the years I have attempted other versions hoping they would be similar, one my mom thought was the one. Still, it wasn’t until I flipped through grandma’s handwritten recipes looking for […]
Mimi’s Butterfinger Cookies
Hiding in the back of my recipe box, handwritten on a purple notecard, is Mimi’s Butterfinger Cookie recipe. It has been years since I remembered this delightful gem, and I could not remember who graciously shared this with me. A quick Google search jogged my memory…”Sweet Potato Queens” gave us this Royal offering of Mimi’s […]
Thanksgiving Leftover Porridge
Why I Love My Thanksgiving Leftover Recipe It’s a playlist more than a recipe. Comforting Thanksgiving Leftovers turn into a warm and delicious porridge. Porridge can be made from any grain: wheat, corn, rice, millet, oat, or sorghum, and can be flavored in any way. Around the world, porridge goes by many different names: Congee, […]
My Essential Blueprint for Velvety Mac & Cheese
My Essential Blueprint for Velvety Mac & Cheese is like a mother’s hug: the ultimate comfort, the cure for whatever ails you. I’m sure there is scientific evidence somewhere in the archives! My essential requirements for the perfect mac, I want a creamy sauce, and the consistency you get from a stovetop, BUT, I love […]
Shameless Glazed Duck with Crispy-liscious Shallot and Plum Sauce
Shameless Glazed Duck with Crispy-liscious Shallot and Plum Sauce is the new roasted chicken… Why I Love This Shameless Glazed Duck with Crispy-liscious Shallot and Plum Sauce Recipe When I think of roasted duck, I immediately go to my love of Chinese Roast Duck served with Hoisin and savory pancakes. Not being of Chinese heritage, […]
Big Zuke Squash-A-Mole
When the garden gives you zucchini make Big Zuke Squash-A-Mole
Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chili Sauce and Cilantro-Avocado Salad
Around my house, we usually go for a green enchilada sauce, something bright, verdant, and tangy. Most of the red sauces I have had fall into the smoky, deep, umami category and lack the acidity we tend to crave. This Chicken Enchiladas with Red Chile Sauce and Cilantro-Avocado Salad recipe is driven by the flavors […]
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, My Ultimate
This is not just any cookie, but the ultimate oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, that are so rich and decadent you can only eat one per sitting…ok, maybe two! Not only is this cookie the best version I’ve ever made, and it comes with a wicked story. Good food is all about the stories, and this […]
Perfectly Crispy Pancakes
Call it breakfast, call it brunch, or serve them for lunch, 2nd lunch, or dinner, pancakes are always a win. They can be sweet or savory, topped with an egg or maple syrup, loaded with fruit and whipped cream, or filled with berries, chocolate chips, or scallions, they are all delicious. The best pancakes are […]
My Favorite Turkey Washed in Butter and Wine
Over the years, I have cooked turkey in a million different ways, and I always come back to this method. I first learned about this when I went about planning my very first Thanksgiving feast that I was cooking and hosting. I found this technique of covering the turkey breast in cheesecloth soaked in white […]
It’s The Easiest Turkey Giblet Gravy
Gravy really is one of the easiest sauces to make and to fail! But it doesn’t have to be if you follow a couple of tried and true steps. When I buy my turkey, I always also buy some additional turkey wings. Pull the giblet packet from the cavity of the bird and use everything […]
A Really Good Pumpkin Pie
There is no need to invent the wheel here when others have done such a good job already! Thank you Dorie Greenspan for this deliciously perfect pumpkin pie recipe. Whenever I use someone else’s recipe I always take a little liberty with the ingredient list and so should you! In baking though, some ingredients should […]
All “Dressing’d” Up With ‘Shrooms and Cippolini
It’s my exceptional Thanksgiving dressing. I know it’s dressing because I’m not stuffing it up a bird, but doesn’t stuffing sound more Thanksgiving-ish? Anywho, dressing/stuffing is a crowd-pleaser in my house, and a requirement on the Thanksgiving table or my family would surely riot! This is the dressing I have been perfecting for years and […]
It’s A Perfect Chicory and Anchovy Vin
If I wasn’t already married, I might call this marry me salad. When my husband first tasted this he was more enthusiastic about a salad than I have ever seen him, and made the bold statement, “This is my new favorite thing!” I will admit it is perfection and my new favorite fall combo. If […]
This Is Not Canned Cranberry Sauce
I love a tart and fresh cranberry sauce, made from whole berries and zippy ginger, not a fan of the sauce that comes from a can. I know there is a lot of debate over this topic, and everyone has an opinion, but the canned variety has a grainy texture and cloying taste that just […]
It’s The No Recipe Charcuterie/Crudité Board Of Your Dreams
Maybe it’s both! I can’t even call this a recipe it’s more of a blueprint. It’s really what I want to snack on before the main meal comes out. And, if you are anything like me, you have so much food being prepared for dinner but planned nothing for mid-day eating. It’s everyone fending for […]
Better Than Childhood Ranch
Who doesn’t love a good ranch? Am I right, or am I right? Nothing is better than a good creamy ranch for salad or a crudité platter. We grew up on this stuff! I don’t know about you all, but the ranch I grew up on was Hidden Valley. Now, my mom did not buy […]
My Dream Paris Travel Guide
10 Days Wandering, Eating, and Drinking in Paris I am so excited to share my Paris guide with you. This is a trip I have been dreaming of for longer than I can remember, and Paris does not disappoint. There is no one right way to do Paris, but this is how I like to […]
Bottarga Tagliolini
Sunday Pasta Club Ep. 1 For the down and dirty on what went right, what went wrong, and how I fixed recipe errors, subscribe to my newsletter. At the beginning of 2023, I decided to spend the year on a journey through the endless different pasta shapes, sauces, doughs, and processes, documenting my journey with […]
Not My Momma’s Lima Beans and Ham
Each year right after Christmas, my family unceremoniously drenched the simple dish of large dried lima beans and ham hock cooked in water, at the table with the only garnish that made it palatable: ketchup. Lima beans and ham prove my die-hard mantra: “If you don’t like a food, you have not had it prepared […]
Spatchcock Za’atar Chicken with Blistered Carrots and Potatoes
Spatchcock chicken is the whole roasted chicken’s ride or dies BFF! Spatchcock is such a funny word…my boy’s reaction, “What did you call me?” Dictionary.com defines it as “a dressed fowl that has had its backbone removed and has been split open and flattened so that it cooks more evenly when grilled…” Also called butterflying, […]
Zucchini Fritter with Hot Hatch Chili Aioli
If you’ve ever planted a zucchini plant in your garden you know what happens — you end up with zucchini for days! You can make zucchini bread, muffins, saute it, grill it, but my favorite is to fry it up as fritters. Creamy, and mild, and just right to soak up some tangy spicy sauce. […]
Everyday Taco Salad
When I was in high school I always loved when it was taco salad bar day. I loved the combination of temperatures of warm meet and crisp cold greens, drizzled with a good amount of ranch dressing and tortilla chips for scooping, this was my favorite. This also tended to be my preferred taco night […]
Eggplant Cutlet with Fennel-Herb Salad
The eggplant, or the mighty aubergine, is one of those vegetables, I mean fruit — nope it’s a berry, you either love it immensely or hate it intensely. I wager if you fall into the latter category you have probably had some pretty mushy bad renditions of this delightful purple orb. Eggplant should be silky […]
Chamomile-Lavender Strawberry Shortcake
For me Strawberry Shortcake is the quintessential spring dessert. When my kids were growing up I always served Strawberry Shortcake for Easter and springtime celebrations. When local strawberries hit the market is when it truly feels like the change of season and springtime is upon us. After the short grey winter days and dreary cold […]
My Flakiest, Butteriest Biscuit Yet
If you read THE Pie Crust recipe, the start to My Flakiest, Butteriest Biscuit Yet will look very familiar. You would be right. I have made some form of all-butter biscuits a million different ways over the years, but ever since I came across this method of leaving the butter in big shingles my biscuits […]
Anyday Crispy Tacos
This is a throwback to those crispy shell, ground beef tacos of my childhood, but oh! so much better! There is nothing authentic or traditional about these tacos. The hard-shell taco is an American invention, and these definitely blow the processed, pre-packaged taco mix out of the water. In my humble opinion, my family heartily […]
7 Steps To Simply Roasted Chicken
A simply roasted chicken is a go-to for your dinner toolbox. Whether it’s for a Sunday Supper or mid-week fare. It will reward you with juicy meat, everyone’s favorite piece, shatteringly crispy-salty skin, and the best is the leftovers for lunches, salads, sandwiches, and bones for homemade chicken broth. This is not really a recipe […]
Blackberry Mascarpone Pie
This is the pie I dream about, and you will too, long after blackberries are out of season. When I was a kid we had a ridiculous hedge of blackberry brambles that ran all along one side of the house and edged around the field that was behind us. I would go out before they […]
THE Pie Crust
There are few words to say about this pie crust except that it is amazing! It’s flaky and buttery and everything you want in a crust. THE Pie Crust recipe is more about the technique than the recipe itself. The ingredient list isn’t unusual or very different from what you generally see in a crust […]
Jeweled Winter Squash and Bitter Greens Salad
This is the first installation of my 1000 calorie salad series. To be completely transparent, this is missing one very important component…protein, but that can be easily added. What’s a 1000 calorie salad? It all started with my good friend Joe…he pinned the term for any salad that is an entire meal in itself. There […]
The Cheesecake You Never Knew You Needed
For my son’s 21st birthday he requested cheesecake. I knew I wanted to make him a decadent, luxurious, and overly impressive version. I came across a recipe on Epicurious originally published in Gourmet’s November 1999 Issue. This became an instant family hit. This cheesecake recipe is based on the version from 1999 and has become […]
Anyday Meatballs and Sauce
When I think about where my love of cooking comes I always go back to my Grandma Frasca, and nothing reminds me more of her than Meatballs and Sauce with fresh homemade pasta. My grandmother was an amazing cook and spending hours in the kitchen with her during their annual summer visits is my all-time […]
Hi I’m Jennifer, Welcome To My Kitchen!
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Charred Lemony Risotto
February 2, 2025
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Biscotti Means Cookie
December 14, 2024
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Fancy Finnish Shortbread Cookies
December 13, 2024
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Lakritssnittar: Black Licorice Strips
December 12, 2024