Grandma’s Sicilian Stuffed Mini Artichokes

Stuffed Artichokes with Lemon and Fresh Mint

My beautiful Sicilian grandmother cooked the most delicious, simple and rustic foods. Her kitchen always smelled of sautéing garlic and olive oil and she had a gift for elevating every leftover in her refrigerator into something new and delicious. Some of her specialties were lentil soup, “polpette,” or seasoned, flattened meatballs, homemade manicotti and if…

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Lemon Chiffon Tart with Easy Pretzel Pecan Crust

Lemon Rectangular Tart with Strawberries and garnished with Lemon slices and mint

This Lemon Chiffon Tart is a celebration of spring. It pairs a light and fluffy lemon filling with a crunchy and buttery pretzel pecan crust. It’s a bright, nostalgic dessert that comes together quickly and combines wonderful flavor and textural contrasts. So What is A Chiffon Pie Anyway? Chiffon pies originally date back to the 1920s…

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Easy Pretzel Pecan Brown Butter Pie Crust

Mini baked pretzel pecan pie crust with pretzel and pecan garnish on the side.

This foolproof pretzel pecan crust is simple as can be and requires only a 10 minute bake time. It is delicious with a tart citrus filling or a chocolate cream filling. To play up on the malty flavor profile, I used brown butter and dark brown sugar. Ingredients Step-by-Step Instructions 1. PREP FILLING COMPONENTS 2.…

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Easy Garlic Lemon Chicken Strips with Rice

chicken strips and rice on a white plate with a side of green salad with carrots, berries, and purple cabbage. A blue and white checked napkin and fork are in the corner of the picture.

We all have those rinse and repeat meals that we can make with our eyes closed and just know that they will always turn out delicious. For my mom, that meal was garlic lemon chicken strips and rice. As I kid, I remember it being incredibly comforting and flavorful. However, as an adult, I understand…

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Pistachio Pudding – Simple and Scrumptious

As a kid, instant pistachio pudding always felt so grown-up and decadent. Little did I know, there were little, if any, actual pistachios in it! Over the years, I have come to appreciate the subtle, complex flavor of real pistachio. During a family trip to Italy last year, I swooned over a symphony of pistachio…

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“Lady in Red” : A Celebration of Old and New Red Velvet Cake

“Lady in Red” is an incredibly moist, subtle red velvet cocoa cake that is boosted by a silky filling of bittersweet chocolate ganache and crunchy chocolate pearls. It is finished with a creamy vintage vanilla frosting that is not too sweet and lets the delicate flavors and textures of this cake shine through. This cake…

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Creamy Vintage Vanilla Frosting: Easy and Delicious!

This frosting is pure bliss. Dating back over a century, this frosting, sometimes called “Ermine Frosting,” “Roux frosting,” or “Flour Frosting,” it begins with cooked flour and milk that comes together as a roux. It is cooled and then gradually added to softened butter until it become something between a whipped cream and a silky…

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Homemade, Naturally Green Pistachio Paste

Pistachio Paste in a white ramekin with blue stripes. Pistachio nuts are pictured on the right side and a blue and white checked napkin are pictured in the left corner.

My love of pistachio has always run very deep. As a child, my sense of it was completely skewed and limited to artificial pistachio flavored pudding and cakes, which is basically almond flavor with green food coloring. But over the years, I was awakened to the natural beauty of real pistachios – their stunning, vibrant…

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Italian Wedding Cookies (One Dough * Three Flavors)

Unlike myself, my grandmother, Josephine, never had a sweet tooth. So making dessert was a rare and super special thing. However, around the holidays or when special guests would visit, she would always make Italian Wedding Cookies. These little orbs of heaven were soft and crumbly and always glazed in a ballet slipper pink anise…

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