What Sauce Should You Have with Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Gnocchi?

When it comes to pumpkin pasta everyone automatically goes sage and brown butter. But I have to admit, I don't really like butter as a sauce. I like it to enrich other sauces, but not just on its own. So for Trader Joe's Pumpkin Gnocchi, I went with inspiration from an unexpected place. An…

ByMichelleSeptember 19, 20220Comments

Product Review

Trader Joe’s Spinach and Cashew Ravioli is Vegan & Tasty

When it comes to Trader Joe's Spinach and Cashew Ravioli, call me surprised and call me a fan! As someone who does eat eggs and cheese, I did miss a little of the egginess of standard pasta dough. But the pasta is actually thin and delicate and pretty dang good for a packaged pasta! …

ByMichelleApril 28, 20220Comments

Product Review Recipes

Trader Joe’s Roasted Cauliflower and Cheese Ravioli w/ Kale Pesto

I'm starting to think I've been missing out when it comes to Trader Joe's refrigerated pastas. I love the Ricotta and Lemon Zest one and I usually buy the cheese tortellini if I'm making soup, but I haven't really explored the rest. I can now tell you, the Roasted Cauliflower and Cheese ravioli is very…

ByMichelleMarch 10, 20200Comments

Pasta Recipes

Summer Pasta Solution #2 – Spaghetti with No-Cook Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti with No-Cook Tomato Sauce is an oldie but goodie that's perfect for the hottest days of summer. When you can only bear to turn on the stove for a few minutes, you'll only need to boil the pasta. The rest happens in a food processor. Adapted from a Giada de Laurentiis recipe, I think of…

ByMichelleJuly 31, 20180Comments

Main Course Recipes

BUTTERNUT SQUASH PASTA BAKE — IT’S BETTER THAN MAC N CHEESE

I love a good mac and cheese, frozen, from the box, on the stove top version, baked in the oven, any which way, I'll take it. But sometimes, it's too much of a good thing. So people have been resorting to sneaking in vegetables to try and lighten up their mac and cheese. Orange cauliflower…

ByMichelleOctober 30, 20170Comments

Recipes

5 DELICIOUS WAYS TO EAT KALE

There's a lot of eyerolling and sighing when someone mentions kale. But the fact is, we eat a lot of it in the fall and winter. Already, we had a kale salad last night with a tahini yogurt dressing. I made crostini last week with red Russian kale and delicata squash. If you stop worrying about…

ByMichelleOctober 13, 20170Comments

Book Reviews

Chris Bianco Demystifies Pizza & More in BIANCO: Pizza, Pasta and Other Food I Like

James Beard award winning chef Chris Bianco's new cookbook, BIANCO, demystifies the pizza fundamentals that made him a big papa of artisanal pizza, and delivers simple, straightforward recipes in which the ingredients are as important as the intention. ****************** A few years ago we visited Phoenix for a wedding. Other than the nuptials, Pizzeria Bianco was on…

ByMichelleJuly 25, 20170Comments

Book Reviews Recipes

Kale Malfatti with Brown Butter & Pumpkin

Kale Malfatti with Brown Butter and Pumpkin from Chef Jenn Louis' next cookbook, Book of Greens. The Book of Greens from Portland Chef Jenn Louis comes out in April, but I’m not going to be able to wait that long to talk about the kale malfatti with brown butter and pumpkin.By then, we’ll be at the very…

ByMichelleJanuary 10, 20170Comments

Cooking Main Course Recipes

I Love the 80s: American Goulash

It's a little surprising that the wave of nostalgia that’s overtaking books and tv and toys in the last few years hasn’t made it’s way to food. Stranger Things and Strawberry Shortcake dolls and totally misguided live action remakes of 80s cartoons like Jem and the Holograms have captured our collective imagination (more or less), but that longing…

ByMichelleAugust 13, 20161Comment

Cooking Main Course Pasta Recipes

Summer Pasta Solution #1 – Penne with Zucchini, Ricotta & Chickpeas

Summer is officially here! And along with the beach parties, cookouts and s'mores, it's time to complain about zucchini! Get ready, overzealous gardeners every where are about to start leaving crazy amounts of zucchini on your doorstep. I've never been lucky enough to live next door to someone whose zucchini crop gets out of control every…

ByMichelleJune 20, 20160Comments

What Sauce Should You Have with Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Gnocchi?

Trader Joe’s Spinach and Cashew Ravioli is Vegan & Tasty

Trader Joe’s Roasted Cauliflower and Cheese Ravioli w/ Kale Pesto

Summer Pasta Solution #2 – Spaghetti with No-Cook Tomato Sauce

BUTTERNUT SQUASH PASTA BAKE — IT’S BETTER THAN MAC N CHEESE

5 DELICIOUS WAYS TO EAT KALE

Chris Bianco Demystifies Pizza & More in BIANCO: Pizza, Pasta and Other Food I Like

Kale Malfatti with Brown Butter & Pumpkin

I Love the 80s: American Goulash

Summer Pasta Solution #1 – Penne with Zucchini, Ricotta & Chickpeas

Book Review: A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna Raybourn

The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang

26 New Asian and Pacific Islander Books for your 2026 TBR