We were in Paris last week and I was reminded by how the French prepare vegetables that are simple and beautiful.  These vibrant and opinionated people (whom I love by the way) seem  to effortlessly throw raw or cooked veggies on a plate with a bit of a sauce and voila!  Lunch or dinner is served!   These radishes looked so rich and crispy on the produce shelf that I whisked them up right away to create a French style roasted sa...

I am crazy about dark chocolate, nuts and coconuts.  So why not put them all together?  My local Whole Foods makes chocolate covered clusters that you can buy in bulk for about $18.99 a pound.  I know it's expensive but this is because the mix includes sprouted nuts, raisins, blueberries, coconut bits and chocolate.   I figured why not try to make my own home version with a good dark unsweetened chocolate and about two cups of w...

Lucuma ice cream was my  favorite as a child living in Peru.  And mango everything was everyone's favorite.  I was shopping at a different Whole Foods in the suburbs of Boston last week and I came across lucuma powder.  I was skeptical at first but I bought it anyways.  It was pricey at about $14 a bag but I couldn't resist hoping for a taste of my childhood.  Thankfully I wasn't disappointed.  Lucuma is a tropical fruit nat...

I have always loved polenta and in the most traditionally cooked ways.  Polenta is popular in Italy and Latin America where many times it is served with a red sauce on top.  Sometimes I make it in this way too but it is a heavier dish and better left for the winter time.  These polenta rounds are made in a more contemporary way and are lighter as well as easy to make since you can buy a tube of pre-cooked polenta and just cut sli...

There are few ingredients that I love more than chocolate.  And anything with pure cocoa powder just gives me sweet chills.  My life is filled with cravings for different tastes and today I was anxious for this healthy yet rich raw chocolate tart.  I saw a recipe at my local Whole Foods made by one of their recipe specialists and I couldn't resist. Best part about this recipe is that it is naturally sweetened with dates.  The wal...

When I lived in Buenos Aires I ate palmito (hearts of palm) salad all the time.  I loved it and ordered it in restaurants whenever I could find it.  I hadn't eaten palmitos in a while and then recently I was at a Brazilian restaurant and they had it on the menu!  It was so delicious that I have brought back palmitos into my cooking for the Spring.  You can buy palmitos canned at most local super markets. Palmitos on t...

Spring appears to be committedly here now and I get the fever for all things fruit.  These Bartlett pears were looking pretty and almost ripe at the produce section of the super market and all I could think was about grilling something. That something would be pears.  Grilled pears are great on their own since the cooking process brings out their sweetness. But wouldn't a chilled dill mayo just totally balance out the sweet and...

It was one of those days where I was struggling on the elliptical half listening and watching E!, flipping through gossip magazines and where every minute felt like ten.  Starving and climbing speedily for the last five minutes as if it would push time forward magically, I bumped into a recipe for Cacio e Pepe (cheese & pepper).   Ding, ding, lunch! I thought about ripping the recipe page from the gym's magazine but I a...

What to do with blueberries when they are about to expire?  Exactly. Make blueberry muffins.  And the same goes for apples. Just mix it all in a batter, bake and voila! And where can a girl get a to die for melt in your mouth muffin or cupcake that is both vegan and gluten-free?   I strive for my kitchen to be one of those places, although sometimes I really want someone else to bake for me.   Erin McKenna's bakery BabyCakes ...

The last few days of winter are with us and I am craving a savory tart brimming with olives and onions.  I have a massive sweet tooth but when I want savory and salty I need to have it right away.  My husband, the Francophile, remembers eating these types of tarts while living in Paris and he was overjoyed when he saw me making them.  Reading through a Living Without issue I found a sweet tart recipe that I made savory instead, a...