EASY STUFFED POTATOES

Top view of food on a white color plate

If you’ve had a bad day and need a little comfort food, it’s hard to go wrong with these stuffed potatoes. You can fool yourself into thinking how all the wonderful nutrients from the potatoes are helping your heart and blood pressure, while ignoring all the evils from the bacon, sour cream and cheese.…

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ASIAN DUCK SOUP

Top view of a soup in white color bowl

About once a year, my friends and I head down to Chinatown for a Peking Duck feast. There’s a great restaurant — Hwa Yuan Szechuan on East Broadway — that serves this classic dish tableside. After the waiter slices every last possible bit of meat off of the carcass, I ask him to wrap…

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STUFFED MUSHROOMS

So many small pieces of Stuffed Mushrooms

Stuffed mushrooms are an old classic that never goes out of style. Why have they stood the test of time? Could it be the bacon or garlic or Parmesan that gets stuffed inside each cap? Personally, they had me at bacon. I like serving these on a platter during a martini-fueled cocktail hour or…

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SALMON STEAK WITH GARDEN FRESH RELISH

Top view of Salmon Steak in a plate

Every summer we plant lots of cherry tomatoes on our deck. Of course, they all become ripe around the same time, so I’m always looking for new things to do with them. This simple relish is great on top of almost any fish. I like serving it on top of salmon steaks because the…

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3-CHEESE GRILLED WHITE PIZZA

Close up shot of a Grilled pizza

I know this is sacrilege, but I’m not a big fan of tomato sauce on my pizza. To be honest, it’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that it doesn’t like me. It gives me terrible heartburn. But I refuse to give up pizza, so I came up with this recipe for a…

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ASIAN GRILLED CHICKEN OVER GREENS

Close up shot of Asian Grilled Chicken Over Greens

When I was living and working in Asia, I had a tiny little kitchen in my flat. No oven, just a three-burner cooktop, a microwave, and a half-refrigerator. But I managed to cook up some feasts with all of the exotic ingredients I would find at the markets. This was one of my favorite…

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GRILLED PEACHES

Close up image of Grilled peaches

I love peaches, but it’s really hard to get perfectly ripe ones here in New York without spending a fortune. One way I’ve found to bring out their flavor is to grill them. The heat helps bring out the juiciness of even the saddest peach. Here’s a recipe for a fun and easy summer…

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SOMETIMES THE BEST MEALS ARE A SURPRISE

Top view of a table with so many dishes

When I travel, my husband and I love to go off the beaten path to discover things many tourists might miss. We love the back roads and small towns where every day life just moves along in its normal flow. While in Hanoi, we wanted to get a sense of life outside of the…

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GRILLED EGGPLANT WITH TZATZIKI

Top view of Egg plant Tzatziki in a plate

During my college semester abroad, I made my way from Belgium all the way to Greece to meet up with my college roommate, Sarah. We spent a month on the southern side of Crete in the little beach town of Matala. We lived on grapes, chocolate cookies, and beer, but once a week we…

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BLACK BEAN BURGERS

Close up image of Bean burgers

If you’re trying to cut back on meat, but miss the experience of burgers on the grill, here’s a vegetarian version that will make you wonder why you ever ate meat in the first place. Okay, that may be an overpromise, but these bean burgers are still pretty tasty. INGREDIENTS (Makes 4 burgers) 1…

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