Cross-posted from the Ciao Italia blog

Relax. All those zucchini plants you planted are now in over production and you are wondering what to do with all of it. Your neighbors can't be the dumping ground you've come to depend on, and your family is tired of sautéed...

It is going to be a long, hot summer if the weather forecasters are right, and that means who wants to cook over a hot stove and heat up the kitchen when the grill will do very nicely, thank you.

Grill preferences and their cooking techniques vary a lot. I...

If you are as serious a cook as you are a vegetable gardener, then you know that the true flavors of freshly harvested vegetables can get even more palate power by adding fresh herbs. So can lots of other foods you cook. So forget relying on the salt shaker to...

I guess it was only a matter of time. The craze for meatballs has taken hold in a big way. Food magazines cannot stop writing about them; restaurant chefs have elevated them to super-food-star gourmet status on their slick menus; food bloggers adore them. All this time the lowly meatball...

Cross-posted from the Ciao Italia Blog.

A sub by any other name is still just a sub when it comes to Super Bowl Sunday.

Even though I know absolutely nothing about football, I get into the spirit of this gladiator game by making my family and neighborhood football...

Ok, I'll give you that not everyone makes their own pizza dough from scratch but if you are so inclined please see the recipe for homemade pizza dough on my website. It is easier than you think and since the ingredients are flour, water, yeast and salt, it...

The countdown is almost over (these days it begins before Halloween), and the holidays are here, with all the stress that goes with them.

Most of us have limited time to devote to all of those things that will claim our sanity from now until January 2nd. But we try...

By now, most food magazines have us all starting to think about preparations for the Thanksgiving turkey, but I say what about the sides? Sides give added significance to the bounty of the table.

Most of us are comfortable with making the traditional family favorites. There will most likely be...

Cross-posted from Ciao Italia with Mary Ann Esposito

Stop. Stop buying so called “parmesan cheese” in a box in the grocery aisle next to the jarred tomato sauce. If you read the back of the box carefully you...

Ok, so you went overboard with tomato plants this year and now you have an abundant crop... too abundant. Your neighbors thank you for your thoughtfulness, and your family has had its fill already of BLT's and homemade tomato sauce.

Here are 10 other ways to enjoy tomatoes while they...

Cutting hard boiled eggs into perfectly even, round slices is not my forte; for that I use my trusty egg slicer. This gadget has been around since before I was a kid, and it was only used to slice eggs for egg salad. But now I like to use it...

Summer is no time to be a slave to your oven. The grill will handle the bulk of the work for outdoor cooking, but what can you do about dessert?

That's easy if you think of cool, no bake desserts you can make ahead with little fuss. My favorite has...

According to the American Diabetes Association, 15.7 million people in the U.S. suffer from diabetes, and it is considered the sixth leading cause of death.

Perhaps it's time to jump-start your eating habits by adopting the Mediterranean diet.

You may have been hearing about its benefits for years, but do...

What do you do: You have zilch time to roast a chicken, but you're craving something fowl. Quick! Think about chicken cutlets. They are lean, thin and cook in just a few minutes. Chicken cutlets are boneless, skinless and thinly cut from the breast meat.

Now, a lot of people...

Nasty. That's how so many people describe artichokes. Many are afraid of those thorny, tough leaves that, if one is not careful when handling them, could require a Band-Aid or two.

But, in reality, artichokes are one of the glories of spring and fall. Their color hues range from delightful...

The calendar may say that spring is still a couple of weeks away, but for me the gardening season began to heat up in earnest in January when seed catalogs began arriving daily in my mailbox.

Having a home vegetable garden seems to be growing in popularity as much as...

Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow, and the northern region waits for the Great Melting and the first signs of the early spring that he promised. He has been known to be wrong on more than one occasion.

For me, one of the best cures for winter's tediousness is...

Got the date circled, friends and family invited, snacks laid out and the beer on ice? All we need now is a spectacular win by our favorite Super Bowl team.

Well, that's not all we need. We don't want our snacks to be the same-old, same-old. Here are two easy...

Winter can drag us down in so many ways. From the endless cold and snow to that cooped-up feeling of boredom. That's why January is the perfect time to check out your pantry for some great winter eating ideas. Here are 12 pantry staples that can see you through the...

Now that we are well into the first phase of 2011, all sorts of predictions are on the forefront about what is in and what is out. In the world of food, the predictions are pretty, well, predictable from year to year. Healthy foods always make the list of what's...