Aisle Twelve

Who taught you to love food? That answer is not so simple for me because that person is someone I barely remember. In fact, when she did cook for me, I preferred buttered noodles over her spaghetti with “red sauce.” Now I can’t imagine anything I would rather eat in this world than her zugu . My love of food came from my parents and aunts and uncles who have kept the memory of my grandma’s cooking alive and painstakingly tried to make her dishes come as close to her cooking as they possibly could. Which I can’t imagine was easy. It wasn’t for a lack of trying or that they didn’t get the recipes from my grandma before she passed away, but that was the thing with her. She didn’t really have recipes and didn’t really have measurements. She did everything by look and feel – the hallmark of every good cook. From that persistence of relatives trying to match her beloved recipes, I learned a respect for not only the wonderful woman that she was but the magic of good food. Her recipes were a...

Oh the lazy days of summer! That includes me being lazy about updating this blog! It never fails that every summer no matter how hard I try, each work night fills up with things to do to prepare for the weddings, showers, bbqs , reunions, etc. of the weekend. It doesn’t seem like there is much time to eat let alone get dinner on the table. Good thing that salads are quick and easy and the perfect summer meal. This salad is a great, refreshing summer side salad. It’s crisp, crunchy and juicy. It’s tart, sweet and savory. It’s my fennel grapefruit salad. I got the idea from a combination of a Barefoot Contessa and Giada DeLaurentis recipe. I start with spicy arugula and top it with a bed of thinly sliced fennel and thin rings of shallot (I use a mandolin to get paper thin slices). I segment a grapefruit and drop the juicy gems on top of the fennel and shallot. The juice of the grapefruit is reserved for a quick and easy grapefruit vinaigrette with basil, salt pepper and olive oil. T...