For a while now, I’ve been want­ing to make my own limon­cello, to see if I could make a more-flavorful, less expen­sive home­made ver­sion than store-bought brands. Limon­cello is an Ital­ian liquor made with grain alco­hol or 100 proof vodka infused with lemon zest and sweet­ened with a sugar syrup. It is best when served well chilled and can be an aper­i­tif or dessert liquor.

Con­tinue Reading…

Many of my fam­ily and friends ask my advice on how to buy knives for their kitchen. The 3 most basic knives are the Chef’s or San­toku, Par­ing, and Bread knives. There are 6 impor­tant things to look for when buy­ing knives.

Con­tinue Reading…

My hus­band, David, recently took a busi­ness trip to Europe. I’ve always dreamed of going to Europe and I haven’t had the chance yet. As con­so­la­tion, David promised to bring me back a truf­fle from France. He vis­ited fam­ily friends in Paris who have a sec­ond home in the coun­try. At the farm, they have a tree that fre­quently har­bors black truf­fles buried in the dirt under­neath. Con­tinue Reading…

I have been dream­ing about caramel for a few months now and caramel apples just have not sat­is­fied the crav­ing. So the other day I made cin­na­mon caramel squares with smoked sea salt on top. I have made the recipe before many times before and most times they are per­fect but some­times… Con­tinue Reading…

The other day I was shop­ping at Whole Foods for my client and I passed by a shelf of honey. As I stared at a jar of golden honey with the comb, my mouth started water­ing. I had to remind myself that I already have at least 5 vari­eties of honey at home! So here (in no par­tic­u­lar order) are more of my biggest temp­ta­tions at the gro­cery store.

Cheese I am a sucker for cheese. It is really tough to pass by a fancy cheese counter with­out pick­ing up a wedge of creamy brie, blue, manchego, fresh mozzarella…I could go on and on. My cur­rent favorite is Delice de Bour­gogne, avail­able at Whole Foods, Pas­toral, and many other good cheese shops.

Con­tinue Reading…

As I was mak­ing Christ­mas cook­ies the other day, I remem­bered the hun­dreds of cook­ies that my grand­par­ents used to make every year. With my grandpa’s help my grandma would mix up sugar cookie shapes, labchuck­ens, springer­les, molasses crin­kles, peanut but­ter cook­ies with a Hershey’s kiss, snow­balls and more. She also made candy. There was peanut brit­tle, pink and white divin­ity, coconut bon­bons and tof­fee. Con­tinue Reading…

I was pretty sat­is­fied with the win­ner of Top Chef, Las Vegas. My top four were all there until the end so I was excited to see who would come out on top. Don’t worry — I won’t spoil the fun for all of you who are behind on your DVR, but here is why I liked the top four. Who were your favorites?

Kevin — I really liked that he cel­e­brated sus­tain­able food and repeat­edly recre­ated his favorite ingre­di­ents — fish and pork. But, above all, I think he did a good job of mak­ing “sim­ple” food deli­cious. Con­tinue Reading…

My hus­band, David, and I opted to stay in this Valentine’s Day. We made a very nice din­ner of fancy salamis, cheeses and wine. Then we fin­ished the meal with a dessert that we made together.

It seems that stay­ing in and mak­ing din­ner at home has become more pop­u­lar lately. I hear that my friends and clients would rather stay in, and I have seen the trend pro­moted on real­ity TV, mag­a­zines, and blogs. It prob­a­bly has a lot to do with the econ­omy. If you have the time and skill to cook at home, it can be done less expen­sively than going out to a nice restau­rant. And some peo­ple are just tired of deal­ing with the crowds, espe­cially on a hol­i­day such as Valentine’s Day. Con­tinue Reading…