Taste & Tell Tuesday
“Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all.” – Harriet Van Horne
My mom was never much of a cook when I was a kid- family dinners fell to my dad when I was growing up- but she has always been an excellent baker and she is the one who made the kitchen feel like the heart of our home. In addition to making perfect m&m cookies, she would make sure no one ever went hungry in our house. As soon as someone stepped through the door she was pulling food out of the fridge and preparing a plate. My love of cooking, and feeding the people I love, stems from her spirit of hospitality in the kitchen.
The first time I went with Derek to visit his family in New York, in a quiet little town where his grandparents live on a farm, we walked thru the door and I was greeted with a glass of wine and a full spread of leftovers. His Aunt Mary is the northern version of my mom and I quickly realized Italian culture and southern culture are nearly one in the same when it comes to the spirit of hospitality surrounding food and the overwhelming need to feed the people we love.
The other thing about Italian families is that they tend to be big and when I married Derek I married into a beautiful family full of friends who feel like family including Ashley Davis, an aspiring chef who draws her inspiration from her Italian grandmother. She creates her own original recipes, has worked with Food Network, and does awesome work with No Kid Hungry because she is passionate about fighting childhood hunger in the United States.
She has a wonderful food blog and has kindly agreed to share some of her favorite dishes with all of you!
Just click on the following photos to see the complete recipe for each dish:
Pumpkin Pie Poptarts
Spicy Italian Sausage White Bean Soup
Militello Pasta Sauce
Grilled Shrimp Summer Faro Salad
Salted Smore Truffles
You can check out her blog here: Taste & Tell
Her facebook here: Ashley Davis
And for daily food inspiration, follow her on instagram at: tasteandtellblog
(Warning: don’t scroll through her Instagram feed if you’re hungry!)
When you make some of these yourself, snap a picture (try to remember before eating it all like I did- oops) and then tag us in it to let us know how it turned out! But more importantly, share what you make with the people you love.
Do it all with love.
