Tag: homemade

  • Butternut Squash Cavatelli & Balsamic Caramelized Onion Pesto

    Butternut-Cavatelli

    Boston got hit with a big ol’ blizzard yesterday, leaving us all a little bit buried. And as I stare out of my bedroom window onto the adjacent roof tops all covered in a hefty helping of heavy snow, I can’t help but think about what it means to feel stuck.

    Butternut-Cavatelli-Close-Up

    I’m pretty sure there is no such thing as “stuck”. We make it up so we feel better about not being able to decide what to do with ourselves. When we’re surrounded by a feeling of heavy wetness that prevents us from even leaving the house, it’s easy to feel as if we have no choice but to stay put. We forget how we used to stomp around when we were kids, bundled up to our eyeballs in snow gear, having snowball fights and building igloos with any other kids that happened to be nearby.

    We forget how to unstick ourselves.

    Creamy-Caramelized-Onion-Pesto (more…)

  • Handmade Carrot Pasta with Carrot Top Pesto

    Carrot Pasta and Pesto

    When I was a little thing and hadn’t yet learned to make my own dinner, my mother had the impossible task of whipping something up that my picky palate would actually accept as edible.

    Most of the time I just sucked it up and ate what was in front of me so that I would be allowed to have ice cream for dessert. Of the few dishes that I would eat without complaint, pasta and hot dogs were my all time favorites. It’s a good thing I didn’t cook for myself or else that would be all I ate.

    Boston Organics Carrots

    So when my mom wanted to easily sneak some vegetables into me, she’d usually make soup (if a kid can’t see what they’re eating, they can’t complain, right?). And it worked – I vividly remember gobbling down bowlfuls of butternut squash or carrot soup with black pepper and globs of sour cream. (more…)

  • Vegetable Ragù

    vegan ragu on tagliatelleNecessity is the mother of invention.

    For the past couple of months, I’ve been a staunch vegetarian. I’ve never really eaten much meat, so I naively thought that switching from eating a little meat to eating zero meat would be a cinch.

    tagliatelle with vegan ragu

    Well…I was wrong. (And I don’t admit that often. Just ask my boyfriend.)

    vegan ragu ingredients

    (more…)

  • Chicken Cabbage Dumplings

    Chicken Dumplings Chopsticks

    Independence Day is finally upon us but fear not – there are no aliens coming to destroy Earth. Sorry, I just saw the film for the first time recently and I had to reference it somewhere.

    Chicken Dumplings Final 2

    Aliens aside, are you guys prepared for our country’s birthday? I’m sure you are all stocked up on alcohol, sunscreen, and good company.  I also hope you’re all stocked up on food if you’re hosting, because that’s the only thing that matters – food and fireworks. For me, the best thing about parties are the appetizers; I would happily snack on appetizers all day. (more…)

  • Granita di Caffe con Panna {Espresso Granita with Whipped Cream}

    granita di caffeYou need a pick-me-up.

    Whether you’re mentally preparing for Game of Thrones tonight and feel too fragile thinking about the fate of Jon Snow to do anything too strenuous, or you just need a Sunday morning boost that’s a little more decadent than your typical black cuppa Joe, you need this.

    granita

    Last summer I went galavanting through Italy and ate all the things. Check it out here, and also here, where I actually show you what real granita di caffe looks like from the famous La Cassa del Caffe Tazza d’Oro. When wandering the narrow cobblestoned streets of Rome, I got a little too used to walking around in the scorching hot sun with one of these in my hand. (more…)

  • Roasted Five Spice Pork Belly

    Pork Belly Platter 2

    If you’ve read enough of our posts and seen the places we’ve gone, you would know by now we have a special love affair with pork belly. If this delicious cut of meat is on the menu, you best believe that we are going to order it and cry with joy while we devour it.

    Pork Belly and Rice

    I think I told Leili not too long ago that I plan to post a new pork belly recipe each year because it’s just one more reason for me to eat it. If you are unfamiliar with this cut of meat or may have just heard the words floating around in the food scene, then allow me to break it down. (more…)

  • Homemade Pita Bread & Pita Chips

    pita chips from scratch

    Alright guys. We’re a week away from the Super Bowl.

    buttery cinnamon pita chips

    And I’ll be honest: I’m no football fan. I’ll watch it purely for, um, aesthetic reasons, but most of the time I’d much rather cozy up with a Seinfeld rerun.

    pita bread

    I am, however, a huge snack lover. So if you invite me over for a football game and you promise me beer and some snacks, then I will become a fan of whatever the hell you want. And I will definitely make you some of these bad boys. (more…)

  • 5 Steps for Beginner Bread Baking

    pizza dough before

    Making homemade bread is way easier than it’s made out to be.

    Really. With just a few ingredients, very little hands-on time, and such a forgiving subject, making bread is technically easier than whipping up a batch of cookies. I’m here to tell you that no matter what bread recipe you want to use, you can play around with it and tailor it to get exactly the results you want.

    And if you’ve never made bread before, hopefully this will assuage your fears.

    Let’s dig in. (more…)

  • Chocolate Orange Challah Bread

    chocolate orange challah

    I apologize, friends.

    zest and chocolateBecause I know you. I know that the knowledge that this challah bread exists will now eat away at you until you get the chance to make it for yourself. (Or at least until you can bribe your roommate/spouse/pet to make it for you so you can shove some in your face.) I know that one look at it already has you itching to get into your kitchen, and scanning the ingredients to see if you could get started on it right away, before any of the day’s other demands can be faced.

    challah dough challah dough1challah dough2 (more…)

  • Handmade Ricotta Cavatelli & Hazelnut Pea Sprout Pesto

    ricotta cavatelli3We’re going traditional, straight-up, full-frontal Italian with today’s recipe, because I have some very relevant news:

    ricotta cavatelli

    I’m officially going to Italy this summer!

    In one month, I’ll be hightailing it out of Boston for a month-long adventure of smelling and eating and seeing all the things in Paris and then a bunch of cities throughout Italy. Even with all my tickets booked, Airbnbs reserved and regional food research completed, I still feel like I could wake up one day and find that all these plans were just a dream; something my travel-thirsty mind created to keep me from going totally insane. (more…)