Ah, Napoli! A city with a rough reputation, there are so many hidden delights, and wonderful food, that you can’t discount Naples if you’ve never been there. A few weeks ago I spent most of a short weekend outside of Naples but I made sure we put aside time for lunch when we first arrived, [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I posted the Fig & Chocolate Oatmeal Bars recipe from the new cookbook, “Cookie Swap” by Julia Usher. Today Julia shares some of her decorating tips for cookies and how her career path led her from engineer to that of cookbook author and food writer. SARA ROSSO: Julia, you’ve had such an interesting career [...]

[Read more →]

One thing’s becoming clearer to me the more I cook is that I am not an ideal cookbook user. I usually view recipes in them as “suggestions” and guidelines for how the final result will be, mainly because as soon as I see a picture and description, my mind starts wandering off in a “what-if-maybe” [...]

[Read more →]

So if you’ve read about how celebrating birthdays in the US and Italy is different, you’ll know that usually the birthday girl/boy makes their own cake or brings food/drink to celebrate a birthday with their colleagues*, I thought it only fair to give some presents to my readers, too! Remember Pocket Coffee**? And what about [...]

[Read more →]

The final part in the 3-post series about how prosciutto crudo, cured ham from Parma is made. If you’ve just stumbled on the series, the first two posts in the series covered the topics below. I’ll wait while you go read those posts and catch up. Making Italian Prosciutto Crudo, Cured Ham in Parma: The [...]

[Read more →]