One of my favorite breakfast dishes is strata. Great for occasions when you want to serve something homemade, but also want to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen, and focus on guests/family. Strata is an easy, one-dish meal that you prep the night before, refrigerate and pop in the oven the next morning. There are endless combinations, but the base of strata is generally: bread, eggs, milk, herbs, butter, cheese and some sort of meat. I make a different version every year on Christmas Eve, for Christmas morning. It's the perfect pairing when having mimosas around the Christmas tree. This year I made a prosciutto strata with goat cheese, fresh basil and provolone. We were down in Florida visiting my folks, so we were able to have brunch outside by the pool. A nice break from the Northeast cold :)

Alvin and I had so much fun making cupcakes for John & Lee Anne's shindig :) This time I added food coloring to the cake as well as the frosting, so the cupcakes with white frosting would have a colorful surprise inside.
Happy holidays!

Everyone has their own version of this classic. Mine has lots of fennel, fresh rosemary and purple potatoes. When my boyfriend and I found ourselves feeling sick this weekend, it seemed the perfect time for chicken soup. And I'd been eyeing some nice purple majesty potatoes at the Eataly market this week. If you haven't cooked with purple potatoes, check them out for a few reasons: They're beautiful! The vibrant purple color inside and out makes for a gorgeous presentation. And they taste similar to your usual spud. Just a bit more earthy. So you can use them in any recipe you'd make with idaho potatoes or red skins. More importantly, if you're making soup because you're not feeling well, purple potatoes have six times the antioxidants of their paler cousins. I find them to be a bit more delicate though. Sometimes, in soup, they can become mushy if not cooked for the perfect amount of time. So I just cook them separately, chop them, and add when serving. Same goes for the spinach and pasta. Spinach is tastiest when lightly wilted, and it's easy to overcook. Pasta can also get mushy when added to soup. So wait to add these three when serving and you'll have a better result.
Add the first 12 ingredients here to a large pot, cover and cook on medium for an hour and a half, stirring every 20 minutes or so. Remove cover and reduce heat to low. Continue cooking for a half an hour. Add pasta, potatoes and spinach to bowls and ladle soup on top. Top with a sprinkle of fresh parmesan (and croutons/crackers, if you like). Serve with fresh, warm bread. Feel better :)

1 large fennel bulb and stalk, chopped, pulsed in food processor
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 large shallots, chopped
1 large, ripe tomato, chopped
3 cups sweet corn
5 baby portobello mushrooms, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
4 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
3 chicken breasts, cooked with rosemary, salt, pepper, chopped
4 strips of bacon cooked & crisped, chopped
12 cups low sodium, organic chicken broth
Few splashes of dry white wine
3 cups penne pasta, cooked (add when serving so it doesn't get mushy)
5-6 medium purple majesty potatoes, cooked, chopped (add when serving so they don't get mushy)
Couple cups of fresh baby spinach (add when serving so it doesn't overcook)
Sprinkle of fresh parmesan
5-6 garlic croutons or crackers
Salt and pepper to taste
Warm bread

It's Fall, ya'll. Time to switch up the shakes. One of my favorites this time of year (and a good way to make use of all the apples you picked!): Slice up a crisp apple, add a handful of roasted, unsalted almonds, a few good shakes of cinnamon, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder, 6-8 oz. milk (substitutes: soy milk or water), 5 or 6 ice cubes, and a couple tablespoons of honey. Tasty and healthy.

Years ago I took a Cuban cooking class and fell in love with dishes that successfully combine the bright, sweet flavors of tropical fruit with smoky, spicy peppers. They alternately refresh, and give your tongue a little lashing. A far more interesting experience than sweet or spicy could ever deliver on their own. Just as with people, all sweet with no spice can be... yawwwn :) I often treat my kitchen like a lab. I like to tinker. One of my favorite things is combining random ingredients from my cabinet to see what comes up. The other day I found coconut milk and mango chutney. Tasty start for sweet. As for heat: Chipotle peppers. I'm a big fan of the smokiness of chipotle. It's offers a more layered, complex flavor than many other peppers. So here's everything I threw together in a small pot on the stove, for 20 minutes on medium low...

20 large shrimp
Small amount of lime zest
Juice from half a meyer lemon
Half a jar of mango chutney
Half a cup of light coconut milk
Half of an orange bell pepper, chopped
Half of a local yellow squash, chopped
Several dashes freshly ground chipotle
Several chopped leaves from my basil plant

This came together nicely, and made for a quick, tasty dinner. I served it over basmati with sliced avocado sprinkled with chipotle, and curry naan on the side. Before plating, I rubbed cut meyer lemon across the dish, to add some citrus to the basmati and the avocado. Also... a dish with serious heat needs a cool beverage to pair with. So I made meyer lemon soda: Add juice from a quarter of a meyer lemon to a glass of seltzer with one teaspoon sugar. Nom. A word on chutney: Find one that's all natural, with no funny stuff. Geeta's is the best I've had. It's from the UK, and available at Whole Foods.

Eggs just taste better if you listen to Koop while cooking. Also helps to add fresh chives from the garden, and goat cheese from a local farm.

One of my favorite Summer shakes: Handful of roasted, unsalted almonds, handful of fresh mint leaves, one scoop vanilla protein powder (I like Whole Foods or Kashi, vanilla), 6-8 oz. milk (Substitutes: soy milk or water), nice amount of fruit (in this case yummy, frozen organic peaches), splash of vanilla or a couple spoonfuls of naturally flavored syrup (Vanilla, almond, hazelnut all work well). If you're using fresh fruit instead of frozen, also add 5 or 6 ice cubes.

Frozen fruit is a good choice for a couple of reasons: It's picked and frozen at the peak of freshness/ripeness. So unlike the occasional pint of strawberries you buy that looks gorgeous but tastes bitter, frozen fruit is usually ripe and sweet. With shipping and storage, fresh fruit can sit around for as long as two weeks before it hits your supermarket. During that time it loses a lot of nutrients. Especially Vitamin C, which depletes fairly quickly.

As for mint, it's always been my secret weapon in shakes. Not only is it tasty and super refreshing, it also masks the taste of protein powder. Because even the best protein powder still tastes like... protein powder :) Try mint in shakes with berries, tropical fruit, peaches or melon. Ixnay on mint if you're using bananas.

Most of the time, when it comes to food, I experience surprise OR delight. Rarely do the two come together. I got home last night and was craving something yummy for a midnight snack. Sliced some ripe, super-sweet mission figs, topped them w/goat cheese and chopped maple bacon, drizzled them in honey and baked them for a few minutes @ 375. Nom. That was delightful. The surprising part? After the figs were gone I mopped-up the remaining pool of creamy-honeyed-figgy-bacony goodness with tandoori curry naan. Curry seriously upped the ante on the whole thing. Pretty stellar with fig. I had no idea...

My herb pots are doing great, with all the sunny weather we've had. One problem: I can't use all of my mint and basil - it's growing like crazy! One way to make sure herbs don't go to waste: Chop them and freeze them in ice cube trays. It can be tough to find fresh mint in winter but if you freeze it now with a bit of water, store the cubes in ziplocs, you can use them all winter long. Mint is great in hot or iced tea, with fruit, in salads, desserts, protein shakes and lots of other recipes. Basil needs to be cut back before it flowers, so if your basil is getting really tall, make some cubes. I make combo cubes of rosemary, basil and garlic with a little bit of stock. Defrost and drizzle over bread when you want garlic bread, or use them as a quick marinade for chicken or fish. You can also add them to pasta sauces, stews, soups, omelettes, etc.

Pictured: Mint cubes (Also great for spontaneous winter mojitos :)

Briny goodness, straight outta Brooklyn.

(via iPhone)

I wasn't sure what to expect since, as usual, I MacGyvered the recipe a bit :) But these came out pretty tasty. Best if you only use super fresh, tart key limes (in the absence of those, tangy meyer lemons would be a yummy substitute). Vanilla buttercream does a nice job of cutting the acidity of the limes. Third photo is a cautionary tale: Difference in cooking times between the tray on the left and the tray on the right is less than 30 seconds! When toasting sweetened coconut for baked goods, a high sugar content can make it ignite very quickly. Do not avert eyes!

I heart baking.

Amazing macarons @ Maison du Macaron on 23rd St. Highly recommend the salted caramel, praline, passion fruit & fig.

Pretty adventurous when it comes to food and cooking, but have no idea what to do with these. Ideas? Also... There are emus in NJ?

(via iPhone)

I'm a big fan of white space. But there's a difference between sparse and blank. So let's test the simplicity of posting to posterous & add some color. I made these for a friend's party. Making cupcakes is something I do quite often. Eating cupcakes comes in a close second.