Christina's blog

Have you ever stood in the kitchen without one solid idea of what to cook? Me, too.

Have you ever lost your inspiration and find yourself cooking the same recipes over and over? Me, too. It doesn’t happen to me often, but I have to be straight with you. I cook and bake so much…and I love it.

But every now and then, I lose my inspiration; throw up my hands and want to order take-out. The problem is, there’s no take-out worth ordering, so I hike up my skirt (as the saying goes) and get into the kitchen and cook.

My husband loves Time Magazine and I love my husband (as evident in this photo of us…and yes, I know; the 80’s called and they want their hair back…but it was the 80’s…).

As the days heat up, we are less and less inclined to light all four burners, the oven and the grill to prepare our meals. Nor should we!

It’s time to step away from the stove a bit and create delicious, lighter fare to sustain us through the summer weather to come.

Salads can be…salads or they can be interesting, exciting, sexy and oh, so satisfying. Main course salads are easy to make, require very little prep time and can be as varied as you’d like.

I taught a cooking class yesterday all about managing weight and one of the questions at the end of class was about making vegan yogurt, specifically about the starter part of the process.

I confess that I have never been one for yogurt, not ever. My mother adored it and when I was a kid, she was always trying to "sell" me on the idea of how delicious it was. I was not buying it, even when she stirred fresh peaches into it (my fave fruit as a kid). She went through her homemade yogurt phase and waxed on about its freshness and goodness...still...no sale for me.

Who doesn’t love a sandwich for lunch? But sometimes the bread and the filling can leave us feeling like we’ve been stuffed like an over-filled pita!

Let’s lighten up our sandwiches so we can continue to enjoy them as the days warm and we want to feel light and fresh! Here are two ideas I just love. How about you?

Roasted Strawberry Toast

In the spring, we all talk about giving our homes a ‘facelift.’ We clean closets, wash windows, de-clutter and get rid of the ‘cobwebs’ of winter.

But what if you could rejuvenate and refresh your very real face with some simple tweaks to your food choices? Can you really get a facelift from what’s in your fridge?

Wait…what? You can…vape…Vitamin B12? Like…vape?

When I first heard about this new product idea, I was…unsure, shall we say. I wondered if it was hype or smoke and mirrors (see what I did there?) or if this was the real deal.

We live in challenging times. Our political system is in upheaval; our food supply is under assault by big business interests who care only for profit, not for quality. Our fragile planet groans under the weight of our excesses. Our healthcare costs are through the roof, leaving many of us feeling unsettled about the quality of care we could receive…if we needed it.

I will admit that I have been on something of a long rant these days as I watch junk food being peddled to us as real food and the accompanying pharmaceutical ads (with their breathy disclaimers of side effects) supposed to ward off the impact of these foods on humans.

If you’ve known me for more than three seconds, you know I love coffee, from the shape of the sexy little beans to the seductive aroma that calls me by name as I walk by coffee shops in the city. It’s my own personal siren song. I’ve learned to control my demon coffee cravings, but when I heard about Caffe di Causa or Coffee for a Cause, being sponsored by my good friend, Anthony Anastasio, owner and genius