How I Cook and Eat

• I eat a primarily plant-based diet. While I’m not strictly vegetarian, I only eat meat or fish once every few weeks, and when I do it’s usually sausage (I love Seemore broccoli melt sausages) or salmon. Chicken freaks me out so I never cook it, though I do always use chicken broth (Better than Bouillon all the way!).

• I cook with a lot of fat (olive oil and butter), a lot of veggies, a lot of beans, a lot of lemon, a lot of potatoes. I roast veggies several times a week, often having crispy roasted Japanese sweet potatoes, carrots, and parsnips (my favorite combo) as a breakfast, snack, lunch, or dinner. Roasted red cabbage is another favorite!

• I also cook with a lot of carbs — just about every single dinner I make features a grain or other starch. I just find them comforting, delicious — and healthy! You’ll see a lot of toasts, farro dishes, risottos, polenta, mashed potatoes, and my favorite, pasta (see next bullet point).

• I love pasta and if I’m being totally honest, eat a half pound at a time most times I make it. (As in, I’ll cook a pound of pasta and eat the entire pot for dinner with my husband — and I’m not ashamed to say I actually eat more like 60% of it.)

• I love making batches of sauces, spreads, and pestos to eat throughout the week on toast, as a dip for roasted veggies, to smear on jammy eggs, or toss with pasta.

• I think most of the time when a recipe doesn’t taste quite right, it either needs more salt or a squeeze of lemon.

• I don’t like leftovers for dinner, but I love them for breakfast and lunch. Because I find such joy in cooking, I truly look forward to making a new dinner every night. At the same time, I don’t want to waste food. This means I usually eat leftovers for breakfast or lunch. I might top leftover polenta or pesto farro with a few eggs, and have been known to enjoy soup at 10 am. And who doesn’t love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for breakfast — practically the same as having a bowl of oatmeal, right?

Disclaimer

For the most part, I don’t measure anything! I usually just pour in a splash of wine straight from the bottle, measure spices using my palm, and salt with abandon every step of the way. So, take my rough measurements with a grain of salt (pun intended ;-)) and go by your own taste — start small, and you can always add more later (but you can’t take away!).

This blog is written in a diary-style format, meaning I share what I make after the fact, loosely writing up what I did. These aren’t strict recipes that have been tested several times — often I’ve only made them once, on a whim, based on a vague idea or inspiration. And when it works, it works! I might suggest substitutions or things I’d do differently next time, but I also encourage you to put your own spin on it. Take a technique and leave the rest if you like — maybe you love the idea of making a sauce out of creme fraiche, lemon, and dill but want it served with chicken instead of pasta. Go for it!

That’s what makes cooking so great — you can have fun with it, adding more hot pepper flakes if you like spice, swapping in marscapone for cream because that’s what you have, throwing some of your favorite toppings on the pizza. Adapt, adapt, adapt!

This diary format also means I share what I eat for dinner every night, even if it’s a repeat recipe — if that’s the case, I’ll share new photos but link back to the original recipe post, possibly noting what I did differently this time around. I think it’s worth noting what meals are so good (or easy) I keep coming back again and again — and how these recipes evolve over time!