When I moved to Germany (by myself at age 18 to be an au pair to 4 children), I had no idea what an incredible culinary journey I was about to embark on.

The most important lesson I learned there was not to waste any food. Leftovers were always used at the end of the week, and turned into some incredibly tasty dishes. [Read more →]

I clearly recall the first time I ate this salad. I had never heard of endive before, much less eaten it. If you had put an endive in front of me, I would have told you it was a baby lettuce heart (or something of that nature. I was only 18 at the time).

But I distinctly recall taking my first bite, and being absolutely consumed by the explosion of flavor in my mouth. I had never had anything so varied in it’s flavorful experience. [Read more →]

This is a very simple recipe that I learned to make when I lived in Germany. The family I was a nanny for was HUGE on clean eating, even though they didn’t know to call it that. So quite a few of my recipes on this site are recipes I learned to cook while I lived with them for almost a year. It was a fabulous time in my life.

Thankfully, I was smart enough to write down all those recipes. And that’s saying something for my teenage years! [Read more →]