Beautifully Homegrown Tomatoes🍅

  These past two months have been very busy for me, a lot of traveling and spending time with my extended family but I’m so glad that I was home long enough to enjoy these beauties!!!! Thank you Ben & Peg for sharing them with us, they were magnificent ❤️ I didn’t let any of them go…

Another lovely Autumn day in the Vineyard🍇

  As I’ve done for many years for as long as I can remember on a beautiful September day I went to my Hometown in Chautauqua County to pick some of these luscious purple grapes! The aroma and the beautiful landscapes this time of year in this area are amazing … has to be one of…

Fresh Roasted Tomato Sauce 🍅

These past few months I’ve been so busy, had loads of company and have been doing a lot of traveling. I just haven’t had much time in one place to cook like I would’ve liked to☺️ but I did get to spend some alone time with my darling Husband, got to have short but sweet visits…

Mixed Greens Salad with Grilled Nectarines

When it’s the end of summer and the weather is still warm and wonderful, this salad is simple, easy and light for a late evening dinner with a crisp glass of white wine and some of your favorite savory toasts. Relax and enjoy every bite!! 2 to 4 ripe nectarines, cut in half and pitted…

Hand cut Pappardelle Pasta with Spinach & Bacon 🥓

  While I was resting at home one day I decided to make pasta quickly because I had a craving. So I took out my food processor and my pasta attachments and got to it!! Cutting the pasta sheets into wide strips and combining lots of fresh garden veggie favors … this is what came…

Southern Sausage Gravy and Biscuit Casserole ❤️

Usually being a little Italian pasta girl I’m always looking for different ways to combine foods with that delectable carb. and so far I think I’ve got it down pretty well… But I do have lots of other carb. loves and so many years ago when I lived down south in North Carolina I truly did…

Fresh Sausage filled Tortelloni with Homegrown Zucchini & Tomatoes 🍅

It’s garden fresh veggie time and with great friends who have a glorious garden and who are much better gardeners than I, I have found myself today with a bounty of some beautifully green tender zucchini to cook with!!❤️ I do love this time of year and look forward to all the homemade things that…

Fresh Basil Chicken Salad

Those of you who know me, know that I love rotisserie chicken and the simplicity of having a ready made meal quickly when time is short and everyone is hungry☺️ But there is so much more you can do with the chicken…casseroles, sandwiches, soups & salads just to name a few. So since this year I have an…

Mimi is visiting again!!❤️

Once again I’m in my happy place….visiting with my grandchildren!!! Bryce (almost 4, as he says!) and Paige (1 1/2). I have been cooking but mostly I’ve been swimming, having jewelry parties, tea parties & so many dance parties that I can’t count, playing trains& cars, swinging, riding bikes, watching movies & music videos, even reading some…

Ricotta Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Cream Sauce❤️

Oh my, this dish has got to be up on the top of my favorites list! As many times as I’ve made my Ricotta Gnocchi, I’ve never attempted to put this kind of sauce with them before🤗 I’ve had some version of it on another kind of pasta at a restaurant and I’ve recently seen…

Cream of Broccoli Soup

 Just a quick and delicious way to use leftover Broccoli 😄 I forget sometimes when I’m cooking that I am not feeding a room full of people anymore.  My daughters & their families are not close by to come over and eat them up so we always have a lot of leftovers, someday I’ll remember that!!…

Puff Pastry with Fresh Picked Blueberries on Lemon Cream🍋

If you didn’t already notice I am in love with Blueberries and at this time every year I love to go pick them at a beautiful organic farm near my home. It’s so relaxing and on a glorious sunny day I spent my afternoon listening to music and picking warm berries. Most often I make…

Antipasto Tortellini Salad❤️

This recipe is an inspiration from all those lovely antipastos I’ve made in my life but today didn’t have the time to put one together before going out. It will be ready when I return and we can sit with a great glass of wine and a soft buttered piece of Italian bread!! Bella❤️  …

Spicy Sausage Risotto🍚

  I wanted a simple Rice dish but one that’s flavorful so I put some ingredients together and came up with this!!! It’s spicy, creamy and delicious… great as a side dish with a luscious piece of meat or just by itself, wonderfully filling😋 Enjoy!   1 cup Aborio rice 2 tablespoons of extra virgin…

Meeting Lidia Bastianich and making her recipe of Pasta con Gamberi e Zucchine…Such a thrill❤️

  I have been a longtime fan of this lovely lady and her PBS cooking show. I’ve collected all her cook books and even have a few of her recipes ingrained in my memory! But nothing compares to watching her cook in person, listening to her speak about her life, her family and her food….

Plum Berry Galette with Puff Pastry

So many people have asked for this recipe that I figured I better sit down and write!! This is called a Galette which is just simply a one Crust, Freeform sort of pie, it can be made sweet or savory but the key is putting things together that come out delicious❤️ This Fourth of July…

Pasta with Peas (Pasta e piselli)

I know I could have made a more sophisticated meal with those deliciously plump peas that I just picked but I kept going back to my grandmother’s kitchen in my mind. Remembering as I shelled the Peas at her kitchen table, she was at the stove cooking up this dish quickly so we could eat…

Pickin Fresh Snap Peas☀️

  I did something today that brought me right back to my childhood!!! Every year at about this time for as long as I can remember, my grandmother would take me to a local farm and we would wander through a field of beautiful green vines. We were picking fresh green snap peas! I was…

Chicken Cacciatore over Homemade Pappardelle Pasta

Originally posted on karenskitchen … Homemade with Love❤:
Soooo good you won’t be able to stop eating! ❤️ RECIPE: 2 tablesp olive oil 1 tablesp Butter 6 chicken thighs (boneless or bone in) salt and pepper to season chicken 1 med. onion, chopped 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 green bell pepper, chopped 1 red bell pepper,…

Tuna Bucatini❤️

This recipe peaked my attention as I read my new cookbook from Eataly, I just had to try it! A very simple seafood dish that you can add a little spice too or not!  Another one of those quick dinners served with a big salad that will make you fall in love with Italian cooking…