After a year away, I am returning to my roots and reviving the blog that helped launch my new life and career. I’ve had every intention of writing in the past year. The 50 posts in my drafts serve as testament to that. I planned to write about new bakeries I tried and food events I went to for work and pleasure. There were some travel eats, and of course my own culinary creations. I even started about five versions of a New Year’s post. However, every time I sat down to write, nothing would come. Well, sometimes I’d get started but lacked the motivation to get to the heart of the piece. I’ve f ..read more

My supervisor says, “People are either born into the seafood industry or they fall into it by accident.” After 8 months in the industry, I can attest to this statement. I am surrounded by people from multi-generation seafood families and then those like myself who happened to be in the right place at the right time when a job opening became available. Admittedly, when I began my job at Wulf’s Fish, I did not have vast knowledge about fish. Sure, I learned a fair amount about cooking seafood during my culinary program but not much about fishing practices, different species, seasonality, etc. Th ..read more

Although I didn’t officially celebrate graduation until May, it has now been one year since I finished the coursework for my gastronomy master’s degree. I am reflecting on what this degree has done for me and whether it was worth it. I won’t sugarcoat things. Grad school is ridiculously expensive. When self-financing a degree, it can be difficult to make ends meet. I did not have a full-time job for the entire duration of my studies, plus I now owe the government a lot of money. Some people in my program did maintain full-time work, but I ended up with a variety of part-time jobs for about tw ..read more

I spent Thanksgiving alone today. By alone, I mean I never left my apartment. I FaceTimed twice with my family but didn’t have a single in-person interaction with another human. I had mixed feelings going into this holiday. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. No, it’s my favorite day of the year. I mean what foodie doesn’t love a day devoted to eating? In my 31 years, I had only ever spent one Thanksgiving away from my family. That was 2020 when the world was upside down, but we ended up having a very small Friendsgiving with a couple classmates of my roommate. I had never spent this day by m ..read more

I’ve been M.I.A. this summer, as I have been settling into my new role as the Customer Success Manager at Wulf’s Fish. On top of customer service and marketing duties, I have been developing some new seafood recipes to put on our website. This one that I worked on earlier this summer I saved for my blog. At Wulf’s, we sell seafood that has been super frozen. The freezing at very low temperatures helps to maintain quality, and even makes it safer to eat, especially for fish prone to parasites. Frozen fish gets a bad reputation, but when handled properly frozen fish can be fresher than a lot of ..read more

I came up with this recipe the week I moved. I had only unpacked my deep sauté pan, so I needed to make a one pot meal. The pasta cooks in the mix of chicken stock and cream. By the time the pasta is done cooking, you will have a thick creamy sauce that beautifully coats the pasta. Ingredients Olive oil 1 small onion, diced 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, causing removed 12 oz kale, washed and roughly chopped 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper Juice of 1 lemon 2 cups chicken stock 2 cups heavy cream or half and half 1 pound box of rigatoni 3/4 cup freshly gra ..read more

I once described Boston as “a city in which I could see myself thriving.” I wrote that in 2019 as I was preparing to move for grad school. Three years, countless hours of work, sleepless nights, and a global pandemic later, I walked across the stage at Boston University this weekend having earned my master’s degree in Gastronomy. There have been so many times in the past couple years that I doubted I could thrive in this city. So much so, I desperately wanted to move back to D.C. I missed my friends, my community. While I wanted to jet out of town a month ago, I am happy to say I am sticking ..read more

Having lived in Maryland for five years, I have had no shortage of crab in my life, but I found myself wanting to try something new. What happens when a time-honored seafood appetizer gets flipped into a hearty, comforting meal? With all the flavors of a classic crab cake, this pasta dish is sure to liven up your dinner table.   This recipe features my Old Bay Ritz cracker crumbs. These crumbs are wickedly crunchy and savory. They give a great salty bite to this pasta dish, but you may find yourself just wanting to snack on these crackers. The most satisfying pasta topper Ingredients 1 ..read more

Valentine’s Day is around the corner. What better way to celebrate than by making ice cream sandwiches with your partner (or your kids), especially if you are like me and still stuck inside due to the cold winter weather. This fun treat is perfect for Valentine’s Day: red velvet ice cream with cream cheese swirl in between red velvet sandwich cookies. While you will have to plan ahead to make these, the effort will absolutely be worth it. Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches Yields: 1 pint of ice cream and about 10 sandwiches (depending on size) Red Velvet Ice Cream Base 8 oz. cream cheese, softene ..read more

Last year, I made the tough decision to skip Thanksgiving with my family. I did not feel comfortable traveling, and I did not want to risk my family’s health. While I truly missed being with my family, I took the opportunity to cook my first ever Thanksgiving meal by myself. Cooking for only 4 people, you could say that this meal was “small” in comparison to what I normally see with my family. However, it was by no means lacking, as I pulled out all the stops for our little Friendsgiving. If you are still looking for inspiration for your Thanksgiving table, may I offer a few suggestions from t ..read more