: About Me

Hello, and thank you for taking a few moments to meet me.

I've been a writer and editor for ten years. After an early brush with food, wine and travel writing, I saw my calling and went for it. Women Chefs and Restaurateurs acknowledged my newborn passion with a scholarship to attend the Institute of Culinary Education in New York, from which I graduated with honors. After several years of cooking in restaurants, I returned to writing and editing at Art Culinaire Magazine, where I eventually became executive editor. I recently chose to become a full-time freelancer. Food writing and creative writing, which often has a lot to do with food,are my two main interests.

Why food? I wish I knew. That's a question I would love to hear the answer to myself. Maybe if I write about it long enough, I'll figure it out. In the meantime I'm happy to enjoy all the pleasures it brings.

In the days before food turned the tables and began consuming me, I earned a BA in English Literature from Bryn Mawr College and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Arizona. Both areas of study continue to enrich my life and inform my writing.

Most recently, as the mother of a young son, I've been making more conscious choices about food based on seasonality, organics and sustainability while trying to decide what exactly I believe about them. I'm also bound and determined to understand what my own personal idea of cooking is,what my cuisine is and just how much tradition, technology and expedience are a part of it. The jury is going to be out for a while.

Of course it isn't always about food. My experiences along the way have given me plenty to write about, which I hope you will see from my contributions to this site.

Food & Drink > Cooking (Other) Creative cheap meals for busy parents

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For time-pressed cooks, one-dish meals like soups, stews and casseroles are often the perfect solution. One of the quickest to prepare is chili, an economical crowd-pleaser with enough versatility to keep things interesting for the whole family. The foundation of a basic chili is freshly chopped garlic and onions, chili powder and canned crushed tomatoes, plus a little bit of vegetable oil for sauteing; they're ingredients that can always be at hand in the pantry. If there's no time to chop, you can always use bottled chopped garlic and freshly chopped onions from the produce section of yo...

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