Habitat: Not the Typical Hotel Restaurant

It could have been in any premium hotel in any downtown metropolis – great location, an acclaimed chef and countless press accolades. However, Habitat strives to break away from the typical hotel restaurant experience by offering a highly seasonal menu with ingredients sourced locally in an atmosphere that is comfortable and easy to enjoy. We [...]

Pickled Daikon Radish & Carrot Slaw

Daikon is a long, white, root vegetable that translates literally to “large root” in Japanese. My first introduction to these lovely radishes was through a community cooking demonstration I attended several months ago. We watched for nearly an hour as our instructor prepared each ingredient with focused precision. It was as if the small cleaver, [...]

Mini Cinnamon Rolls

My sister Rosita was the first person to introduce me to Pinterest nearly six months ago. And I have been hooked ever since. It is the latest online darling to hit the social media scene that is quickly earning its place next to Facebook and Twitter. For me, the site is a wonderful way to [...]

Exploring the Charming Flavors of Brookline, PA

Brookline, located just south of downtown Pittsburgh, is known as the city’s second-biggest neighborhood. The area has experienced an emergence of new independent businesses, particularly food shops, over the past few years. It was through an invitation to join a walking food tour from Sylvia McCoy, owner of ‘Burgh Bits and Bites, I was able [...]

Chocolate Beet Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

After several weeks of unusually warm weather, winter has finally arrived in Pittsburgh. That means it’s time to gear up for some much needed baking. The warmth of the oven offers a sense of comfort that can only be appreciated when a dusting of snow swirls across my front lawn. I had a couple of [...]

How to Roast Beets in 5 Easy Steps

My appreciation for the mighty beet grew around the time they started to appear in my winter CSA box. Before I found them awkwardly interesting and, frankly, annoying at the same time. They are a pain to clean, they stained my hands several shades of magenta and would take hours to transform into anything edible. [...]

Baked Egg Nog French Toast

I’ve come to realize there are two reasons why my mom enjoys my visits to northern Michigan. The first is to provide the opportunity to see her ridiculously clumsy son do something that’s uncontrollably laughable. Like the time I collided into a tree that mysteriously jumped in front of me while walking on the sidewalk. [...]

Arugula Salad with Blue Cheese & Apples

Living on potato chips and Red Bull for the past two weeks was a real challenge. Balanced between my usual hectic holiday activities, I worked hard, and well into the late night hours, to finish projects for three graduate classes this semester. Now that everything is completed and grades are officially posted, preparing real food [...]

Blue Cheese Ranch Dip with Fresh Vegetables

The keys to potluck success I’ve learned over the years are to keep the food simple for transportation purposes and serve familiar favorites with my own twist to add interest. I reviewed my calendar recently and realized I had 6 potluck parties to attend in December! That’s a lot of Crockpot fare in my very [...]

Harvest Broccoli Salad

An entire bookshelf in my tiny home office is filled with spiral-bound cookbooks. These aren’t just any kind of cookbooks. They were assembled by local community organizations in the hopes of raising funds for an assorted list of causes. Two books in particular were produced as fundraisers for the local senior center in my hometown [...]

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