With all the cold, damp, rainy or snowy weather we have been experiencing lately in the Carolinas, I have gone back to my roots to re-discover some "stick to the ribs" meals I grew up with as a child in Cleveland. My ethnic background is Italian (actually Sicilian on my mother's side) and ...
Vegan
If Life Gives You Lemons . . . Make Sure They are Organic!
I always choose organic produce . . . whenever I have a choice. But many folks complain that organic produce is too expensive. I decided to test out this theory with lemons – one of my most frequently used ingredients. I bought a bag of conventionally grown GMO Sunkist lemons for ...
The Best Meatless Meals in St. John
Finding restaurants at which to enjoy great meatless meals when I'm traveling is always a challenge. I'm thankful that this is a not a problem on St. John. St. John is the least populated of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the most beautiful. We've been to all three (St. Thomas, St. Croix, and ...
The Most Real Vegan Cream Cheese
Who makes the best vegan cream cheese? Since I have been trying to minimize the amount of dairy I consume, I have been experimenting with different vegan dairy products to try and find the brands that I think most closely mimic dairy. I tested the three brands of vegan cream cheese that I was ...
Meaty Seven Layer Bean Dip for your Super Bowl Party
With Super Bowl fast approaching, I decided to re-think a dish that is a fixture at most Super Bowl parties. Although Seven Layer Dip is often a vegetarian dish (one of the few I can eat at parties!), I’ve seen some folks make it with a ground meat layer over the refried beans. That’s why I decided ...
Great Turkey Analogue for Two
Since Thanksgiving is only two weeks away, I figured I better get cracking and start evaluating all the new turkey analogues that have come on the market since last year. Sure, there are some tried and true favorites, like Quorn’s Turk’y Roast. But what if you are having your Thanksgiving meal with ...
Beyond Meat Puts the Carne Back into Chili
When the weather starts to turn cool, I always turn to my slow cooker. My Cuisinart Cook Central Mulit-Function Cooker has truly revolutionized how I make dinner. No longer do I have to separately sauté in another pan that needs to be washed. Now I do everything in this wonderful ...
Sicilian Swiss Chard with Chicken Cutlets
Swiss chard has been one of my favorite greens since childhood. I grew Swiss Chard in my summer garden at Miles School, and always marveled at how different it was in flavor than spinach, collards, and the other greens we grew. Because my mom has macular degeneration, I am very conscious about ...