crab mac 'n cheese.

You can't reeeally go wrong with an Ina Garten recipe. Especially one that involves pasta, creamy gruyere, breadcrumbs and lobster a crustacean.

My mom and I call this recipe adaptation The Poor Man's Lobster Mac 'n Cheese. And let me tell you, if this name is true, I don't ever need to be rich.

spaghetti with crispy zucchini.

So I may have found a new favourite pasta. 

enchilada spaghetti.

Have you ever discovered a blog that feels like it was written just for you? One where every single recipe or picture posted is an instant 'bookmark' and every joke made has you chuckling along with the writer  as if you'd known them personally for years?  

shrimp scampi.

Generally, my boyfriend and I disagree about meals. We rarely come to a full and happy agreement about what to cook, and we could probably never do the "order two meals and go halvsies" thing at a restaurant. He's a big seafood guy and prefers lighter, tomato, oil or pesto-based sauces with his pastas and meats - my palate is yawning as I type - whereas I'll rarely turn down anything rich, cheesy, creamy or fried (yup, guess who's never given a thought to their weight and who's best fashion-friend is leggings and the ever-forgiving black?) Basically, if we were to try and order calamari at a restaurant, he'd be gunning for the grilled variety with tomato olive salsa, whereas I'd be throwing a hissy fit about the deep fried with extra garlic-lemon mayo. So we just don't really share stuff.

poolside pasta.

Some of the best meals, luckily for those of us who don't love to spend hours in the kitchen, are the simple ones prepared with good ingredients. The Spaghetti Aglio e Olio my mom regularly cooks (from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook How Easy Is That? that I recently purchased for myself!) is one of the above. A bit of garlic, good olive oil, kosher salt, red pepper flakes, parsley and freshly grated parmesan and you have yourself a pasta that feels straight-outta-Italy in it's "I'm not trying hard but I still taste amazing" vibe. Don't mistake the simple preparation for simple flavour; meek, this pasta is not.

My parents recently had family friends over and served this poolside on a warm summer night. Our friend Sally brought a gorgeous salad of grilled seasonal veggies (heirloom tomatoes so sweet and flavourful I finally understood why they're classified as a fruit!) with balsamic, feta and paprika-dusted crème fraîche to complete the perfect al fresco meal - light, effortless, divine. Obviously, don't forget the wine!

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio recipe can be found here!

capellini with shrimp and creamy tomato sauce.

While I've been crazy about good food for as long as I've been eating, I just recently started to put an effort into cooking (maybe when I came to the sad realization that eating out for every single meal while living on my own in Toronto wasn't an option unless I was planning on camping in McDs.) I don't have a lot of time to cook, but I'm obviously not going to waste that precious time making crap to mindlessly shovel in my mouth in front of the t.v.


Enter this pasta recipe that my boyfriend and I discovered while browsing the ten-minute-mains on gourmet.com (thank god for ten-minute-mains good enough for gourmet to put its name behind!)


Over time we've tweaked it perfectly to our liking by tripling the garlic (it was a little bland for me with the dose the original recipe calls for, just don't sit too close to me) and using canned, fire-roasted tomatoes for a bit more of a complex flavor. 


Recently, I jazzed it up a bit for my parents with fresh basil and shaved parmesan for a simple al fresco meal. My dad, who's currently attempting a "diet" and initially requested a miniscule portion could be seen scraping the empty pan it was cooked in with a spoon and proclaiming that had he been served the exact same dish at the Union Square Cafe in New York, he would be thrilled silly.


For those who don't know my father and his love for that restaurant, this is a huge compliment. Make this!