This dish started the way many of my favorite recipes do. With a plan, a fridge check, and a small disappointment. I usually reach for goat cheese when roasting beets. It’s the classic pairing, tangy and familiar. But after a thorough and very hopeful search of the fridge, there was no goat cheese to beContinue reading “Roasted Beet & Fresh Mozzarella Stack with Thai Basil and Meyer Lemon”
Tag Archives: foodie
Drops of God
(A Food Guru Review) When a series stops being background noise and becomes a sensory experience I don’t usually watch much TV. And when I do, it’s almost always in the background. Episodic shows humming along while I’m writing, designing living air-plant sculptures, testing a new recipe, or sketching out the shape of a story.Continue reading “Drops of God”
Homemade Toum Garlic Dip (small batch)
Traditional Toum — Small Batch (about ½ cup) Need a bigger batch? Try this recipe. Perfect when you want the real thing without committing to a lifetime supply of garlic breath. ⸻ Ingredients • ¼ cup garlic cloves (about 10–12 cloves), peeled • ½ tsp kosher salt • ½–¾ cup neutral oil (grapeseed preferred) •Continue reading “Homemade Toum Garlic Dip (small batch) “
Homemade Toum Garlic Dip (Large Batch)
I am a huge garlic fan. When I first discovered “Toom” (brand name) at our local Kauai Costco about three years ago, it became an instant kitchen staple. Creamy, sharp, and unapologetically bold, it found its way onto everything from grilled chicken to roasted vegetables. Island life, however, comes with supply chain surprises. Toom wasContinue reading “Homemade Toum Garlic Dip (Large Batch) “
The Kitchens That Made Me
Lessons from Grandma Helen’s Kitchen The Kitchens That Made Me is a collection of stories about the people and places that shaped how I cook, eat, and gather. Each kitchen carries more than recipes. They hold lessons about care, creativity, patience, and love. Grandma Helen, my father’s mother, was the quintessential grandmother. She had theContinue reading “The Kitchens That Made Me”
The Missing Garlic in Milan
Food Guru Travel Note Travel has always been my favorite way to understand a place. Not through museums or monuments first, but through kitchens, markets, and the quiet rules people cook by without thinking about them. In Milan, a city known as much for restraint as for style, a small cooking class taught me somethingContinue reading “The Missing Garlic in Milan”
Rustic Tomato–Hominy Chicken Thigh Stew
with Basil, Mascarpone & Red Wine From The Kitchens That Made Me ⸻ This recipe comes from the kitchen of my grandmother, Nola, who cooked from recipes and trusted them — especially during snowy Santa Fe winters, when she’d make a warming pot of chili or stew after we came home tired and hungry fromContinue reading “Rustic Tomato–Hominy Chicken Thigh Stew”
The Kitchens That Made Me
Before I understood food as flavor or craft, I understood it as place.The kitchens that shaped me were not show kitchens. They were working kitchens—rooms where the outside came in on muddy shoes and sun-warmed hands. Both of my grandmothers were gardeners, and their kitchens reflected that. Counters were places of transition, where something pulledContinue reading “The Kitchens That Made Me”
Why Food Guru Travel Guide?
Food isn’t just about flavor. It’s memory, place, and the lessons we learn along the way. A little reflection on the blog about where Food Guru Travel Guide began.
AI, Suffering, and the Next Human Evolution
Why We Need Both Travel teaches us how to move through unfamiliar places.Food teaches us how to slow down and savor them. And somewhere between hunger and arrival, we learn what matters. Food and travel have always been my way of understanding the world. They pull me into the present moment. They ask me toContinue reading “AI, Suffering, and the Next Human Evolution”
The Food Guru: Food, Travel, Photography = Life 