Thanksgiving Meatballs with Easy Pan Gravy

Here we are again. It’s that time of year where I say predictable things like “What? How is the year almost over?” or “The holidays are chasing me down and I feel like I can’t breathe–can you pass me that paper bag to breathe into? Thank you.” Oh, was that second thing not as predictable? I dunno, it feels about right. The holidays are filled with a lot of joy, but they can also fuel a lot of stress and panic. For me, I’m pretty much always traveling on a holiday to get to family. So, a lot of the stress is logistical. I also get stressed out because my birthday is very near Thanksgiving and I’m getting old and I don’t want to feel my feelings–but that’s an entirely different post that isn’t centered around meatballs or topped with anything like gravy. […]

Grain-Free Lemon Apricot Yogurt Cake + How Social Media Makes Me Feel Like A Big Fat Failure

Hello. How are you? I made you cake.

In truth, I made you this cake months ago, but I didn’t share it with you then. Rude. I know.

More truth.

I have two speeds when I’m overwhelmed. The first speed is the high speed of my Kitchen Aid mixer making something superfluous, or the low and slow bubbling of something rich and comforting (read: this eggplant parm). Yeah, the first speed happens somewhere in my kitchen. The second speed isn’t really a speed at all. It looks more like a scared, paralyzed possum who’s instinctively playing dead.  Yes, this is perhaps the slowest speed. It’s a dead (er…playing dead) stop. This is one functional step above lying on the floor of your closet with the lights off and the door closed, foraging a bed out of your impressively large worn-out sweater collection. […]

Spring Asparagus Salad with Pistachios and Pecorino

Hello. It’s nice to see you all again.

First off, I’d just like to casually acknowledge that I’m not dead. So, that’s good. Still alive. But, if you follow me on Instagram, and watch my Insta-Stories, you might know that I happened to catch some sort of viral pneumonia situation, which at times, felt like I very well might be dead. Or, at least deliriously living in between a state of breathing and some sort of dark cough-prison where my bones weigh a million pounds and the Real Housewives of Potomac waxes un-poetically in the background. Do you understand the depths of Netflix garbage you can consume in a period of nine weeks of respiratory lock down? I pray you never have to know. […]

Grain-Free Spring Harvest Quiche with Sausage, Sun Dried Tomatoes & Goat Cheese

There are defining moments in life where you’re forced to examine what makes you different. For me, one of these moments centered around a hot dog. It was a sunny afternoon in ’94, and a friend of mine had come over for a play date. We were hungry, so my mom suggested some snacks. One of the things on the list was “a cold hot dog”. This didn’t strike me as particularly alarming, as I had been eating hot dogs in various states of cooked-ness for as long as I could remember. It wasn’t uncommon to grab a cold one right from the package and eat it with my hands like it was a hydrated Slim Jim. I grew up in a Hawaiian family, and this was normal. Other ways to eat hot dogs included: in a sandwich, fried in a pan, with Pork n’ Beans, and of course, with eggs. […]