Author: Kathrin

My weekly blog, originally started with my friend Jessica, entices readers to get into the kitchen and cook meals, every day. I provide inspiration, recipes, and reasons to overcome the struggles that keep people from cooking at home: confidence, time, desire, money or priorities. No excuses! Come and cook with us!

Comida y Amigas: an Ode to Spanish Food and Friends

Even with the best of intentions, it’s easy to fall into bad habits when it comes to eating and cooking. It happens to the best of us, including food-blog-writing me, so a trip to visit my friend Arantza in Spain is just what I needed to remind me how important it is to eat well. Arantza has always had a knack for good nutrition, and when it comes to food the Spanish don’t take shortcuts. They use the best ingredients, individually selected from a specific region in Spain, and expertly put it all together in a meal that is long on nutrition and short on process. Join me for a short review of what it means to eat healthily in Madrid, Spain. Come and cook with us!

Continue reading “Comida y Amigas: an Ode to Spanish Food and Friends”

A Bouquet of Cauliflower

Jessica and I continually talk about filling your plate with a rainbow of colors, and staying away from the – mostly- processed foods in shades of white. There are, however, a few foods whose white hue is welcomed, and at the top of this list is cauliflower. Along with the entire family of brassica vegetables, cauliflower contains compounds that give it it’s rightly deserved reputation a potent cancer fighter. And cauliflower is versatile, accessible, and very easy to prepare, so if you have a hankering for some white on your plate, give it a try and come and cook with us!

Please Pass the Parsley

Last week we took a walk down summer’s lane and gave you a few terrific summer sauces to stock your fridge with.  This week we want to tell you a bit about a key ingredient in many of these sauces: parsley.  It’s not something we think about much in this country; usually it is found as a garnish on a dish, set to the side, and never eaten.  But parsley has so much more to offer than just decoration.  It’s unique flavor profile, and nutritional properties make it a great addition to many dishes.   And because it is easy to grow in a home garden, it is easy to come by and cheaply!  So get out those parsley seeds and plant them in your window box today.  Come and cook with us! Continue reading “Please Pass the Parsley”

Summer Bounty: Salsas and Sauces for the 4th and Beyond!

Let’s face it.  Summer can be tough on the home cook.  Whether it’s time you’d prefer spending at the beach, or heat that withers even the hardiest of chefs, keeping up your efforts in the kitchen while the sun shines late into the evening, well, it’s not easy.  Lucky for us, Mother Nature understands that it can be tough to cook in the summer, so she fills our gardens and CSA boxes with wonderful, fresh herbs that will, with a little prep, make simple-to-prepare dishes shine. To help you get out of the kitchen and into the sun (where you’ll get lots of Vitamin D) we’ve collected our favorite recipes that add fragrance and flavor straight from the garden. They are easy to make and even easier to store in the fridge or freezer for later use.  Talk about immediate satisfaction. Come and cook with us! Continue reading “Summer Bounty: Salsas and Sauces for the 4th and Beyond!”

Sweet 16, it’s the Magic Number

As two former New Yorkers who are also strong advocates of cutting sugar consumption across the board, Jessica and I could not remain silent on Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed ban on serving sugary drinks bigger than 16oz. We see both sides of the argument, and applaud the Mayor for bringing to the forefront the idea that as a nation we consume too much, and in particular too many sweet foods and drinks. While it seems over-the-top to have your drinking rights regulated in – by some measures – the greatest city in the free world, it is a proven fact that the larger the portion size the more we consume.  And, as the size of sugary drinks has risen from a standard of 6.5 ounces in 1960 to 20 ounces today, Mayor Bloomberg may just have a point.  Because if it’s water or vegetables we are talking about, certainly more is better, but when the item in discussion is sugary soda the result is less than ideal and bordering on dangerous. So, in honor of the Mayor’s bravery and willingness to talk about this issue, we dedicate this week’s post to portion sizes, big and small.  Come and cook with us! Continue reading “Sweet 16, it’s the Magic Number”