• Phyllis KiriginNeighbor

  • Ossining-Croton-On-Hudson, NY

This is a blog about food, recipes mainly, that I find blogworthy.  I pass them on, not because they’re good, but because they’re really good.   Every recipe is well tested.  Most of them I have prepared again and again for my family and friends.  I love to take a recipe and figure out how to make it better.   I know they work and I hope you’ll try them out yourself.

I am a home cook who is nuts about cooking.  I will be sharing my versions of dishes I’ve learned from my mentors and teachers.  I love Indian cuisine having learned a lot about selecting, roasting and grinding my own spices from Madhur Jaffrey.  I do a lot of Chinese cooking having been inspired by former teachers Grace Chu and Virginia Lee.  Diana Kennedy taught me what authentic Mexican cooking is.  American and continental dishes I learned from James Beard, Peter Kump and Bert Greene.  Scott Woolley taught me basic cake decorating.  My favorite endeavor—baking—pies, tarts, cakes and cookies-- was nurtured by John Clancy.  Most recently, I studied Moroccan cooking at the Institute of Culinary Education. 

I like to use the best ingredients and prepare them well.  Simple as that.  I look for local produce as much as possible.  I like simple straightforward presentations.  Food should look like what it is.  It should not be handled to death. The person who said, “Avoid products that your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food” makes a good point.

I’m not one to take short cuts or substitute less expensive ingredients if the quality of the final product is jeopardized.  I like real food, not “plastic,” no fat free cheese, no non-dairy whipped topping, no “redi-made” anything with a lengthy list of ingredients, i.e., corn syrups, preservatives, chemicals. None of those tasteless black California olives or bottled dressings or jarred salsa.    Again, I believe in taking real food and preparing it to its best advantage.  I like the way Julia Child sums it up: You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.

I have the good fortune to be working with Bill Brady, food photographer extraordinaire. He has combined his passion for food and photography to become a highly accomplished food and drink photographer.  I can’t remember how I stumbled upon his beautiful blog, but I spotted his request for a collaborator with “only the absolute best recipes”.  I was bewitched by his exquisite photography and realized what a challenge it would be to work with him. We hit it off and decided to collaborate to enhance both our blogs.  Hope you enjoy his work and mine.

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