liv bites

Making risotto from scratch is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, so I was excited to try it out on a Saturday night in. Since I won’t pretend to know anything about risotto-making, I used this recipe from Bon Appetit as a base for what I wanted to do, then added my own tweaks. [...]

I’m not a vegetarian, but sometimes I just don’t eat meat. While I love a filet mignon out at a nice restaurant — not to mention the occasional In-N-Out burger — I don’t believe in just throwing meat into otherwise veggie-ful meals with abandon. Example: I love Caesar salads, but I’ll never order them with [...]

Tonight I made my very first pie. In fact, pie-making was previously so far off my radar that I had to go out and buy a pie pan at my trusty 24-hour grocery store in which to make my pie. But I suspect it will be the first of many. Here’s how it all started. [...]

As I’ve mentioned, my mother’s dinner parties are something you definitely want to score an invitation to. She sets the table at least six hours in advance with her prettiest chargers, wine glasses and ornate napkin rings, and guests always rave about the meal in a very genuine, non-patronizing way. Perhaps one of the reasons [...]

Every year when I was in high school in Mississippi, my mom would conspire with other involved mothers to organize a Christmas Tea for all of the young ladies in my class. There were only about 30 of us, so parents would offer up their living rooms and kitchens for an afternoon to slave away [...]