…since the show started, you may have noticed that every season I like to do an episode that highlights a fantastic vacation that Robby and I have taken that year. This week’s episode highlights our trip to France that we took the summer after we got married. It was like a culinary trip to Mecca where we ate our weight in food and fell in love with France.

The best part about this week’s episode is that Robby joins me in the kitchen! He helps me re-create a dish that we shared together in France and even flips a classic Tarte-Tatin out of a skillet with an impressive amount of finesse. He’s usually one to offer to do the dishes rather than get his hands dirty with the cooking, but I loved every second of him being in the kitchen with me.

map credit

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…for the 45th Pillsbury Bake-Off contest. I’ve always wanted to witness the world famous competition for home cooks and the experience didn’t disappoint. This cooking tradition has existed since 1949 and the prize money has worked its way up to 1 million dollars! The Bake-Off is now held every two years and is a dream for any home cook to be selected as one of the 100 finalists from the tens of thousands of entries.

The beginning of the event started off with a grand march where all of the cooks marched to their stations. Each person gets the same cooking equipment and tools to work with. They can’t bring anything into the room/cooking stadium with them, but Pillsbury provides their recipe and all of the ingredients. They have 3 hours to cook and 3 chances to make their dish. One will be used for tasting amongst the judges, the other for presentation, and the last recipe is usually used for tastings. Because they have quite a bit of time, the event is a blast and the competing cooks seemed to be more laid back that I had anticipated. They took pictures, answered questions, and were just extremely friendly. I walked the floor and tasted some fabulous food and even got to meet the Pillsbury Doughboy who gave me that trademark giggle when I poked his tummy!

The winner(s) were announced today and I would highly suggest checking out the recipes. These are the best of the best home cooks in America and for 1 million dollars the overall winning recipe is bound to be delicious!

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Well I sure didn’t and was blown away when I went on a hunt for different urban farms in New York City. The biggest surprise was finding the Riverpark farm in midtown Manhattan. It comes out of nowhere and the entire farm is built out of milk crates. They are stacked two deep and everything from tomatoes to peppers to cinnamon basil is grown there. The coolest thing is that the produce that is grown on the farm is then used in Tom Colicchio’s restaurant on the property. Having a meal where the produce has been grown on the same property as the restaurant is unheard of in Manhattan.

This week’s episode features this amazing urban farm and I go foraging for incredible ingredients to take back to the kitchen and make a few delicious dishes. The recipe I recently made on the Today Show is featured on this episode along with a delicious green goddess dressing and a fiery red pepper jelly. Don’t miss it! The episode airs tomorrow at 2:30 ET.

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Probably more than we would like to admit—and I even like to cook! There is no denying the fact that New York City is one of the greatest cities in the world to eat. It would be a shame if we ignored this fact and did not take advantage of all of these restaurants at our fingertips.

We get asked a lot where we love to eat and for the past year or so, one of our standout favorites is

Ed’s Lobster Bar. We have actually been known to eat there more than once a week and it’s not anywhere near our neighborhood.

We have our signature order and have a hard time getting anything else. We always order the Bibb Salad which in my opinion is the best salad you can find in New York City. The bibb lettuce is always crisp, with fresh tomatoes, french green beans, walnuts, blue cheese, and the most delicious sherry vinaigrette ever. There’s nothing really unique about this salad, other than the fact that it tastes the same every single time and it’s filling. Usually Robby and I will split this salad followed by ordering a lobster roll that we end up sharing as well. The lobster roll is perfectly seasoned and full of lobster meat, but the real secret to the lobster roll is the homemade pickles that they serve on the side. I like the pickles so much that I usually order a pint to go. (not joking!)

They’ve got a few locations in New York City and I can’t recommend the experience enough.

Lobster Art

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and I’m not looking back! Like many, I always look forward to this time of year when the season start to change…especially winter to spring. Even though this winter was abnormally mild, I’m still as ready for spring as ever!

This is such a great time to get in the kitchen and start cooking with ingredients that are bright and fresh. At this point we’ve had one too many baked ziti or roast chicken dinners and it’s time to start making some of my favorites that I always look forward to this time of year.

My lemon curd recipe is one that I have made for years. It usually makes an appearance at any baby shower I’m involved with and it’s the accessory in the world for dessert. Delicious over pound cake, as a filling for a sandwich cookie, or even over ice cream. I also love to use lemon curd as the base for fruit tarts. It’s so pretty and tastes amazing!

The pickled asparagus is one of the best ways to enjoy the pencil thin asparagus that you start seeing in grocery stores this time of year. You can throw it together the night before and it becomes the perfect side dish for dinner the following night. I also love making the asparagus for Easter dinner. It’s become my signature!

Get the lemon curd recipe here and the pickled asparagus recipe here!

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