I come from a long line of gardeners and cooks. My mother was an avid gardener with a green thumb and a master in the kitchen. While her cooking leaned Italian, she also learned American, Lithuanian, and Polish dishes from my grandmother—my dad’s mom—who was also an avid gardener and a career cook.
Grandma lived on the banks of the “Little River,” a small brook in Oxford, Connecticut. Her gardens were the kind you’d see on the cover of a magazine—lush, colorful, and alive. She watered them with brook water and fertilized with fish and “fish tea.” Alliums, Egyptian walking onions, and towering sunflowers lined the edges, surrounding a bounty of salad greens, cabbage, beets, scallions, carrots, pole beans, squash, and more.
My mother’s garden was just as bountiful—salad greens, bush and pole beans, peas, squash, Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, potatoes, blueberries, gooseberries, and asparagus. Both gardens were a living example of what a little love and a lot of compost can do.
Mom’s cooking was legendary. Some of my favorites were her potted beef, roast beef, pork roast, beef stew, meatloaf, stuffed potatoes, and pierogis. Her desserts? Blueberry cake, apple cake, apple pie, muffins made from wild berries we picked at our camp in Malone, NY. She even won awards for a chicken and cream of mushroom soup recipe she created.
Grandma’s specialties included Swiss steak, incredible sirloin steak burgers, poppyseed loaf, applesauce, breaded pork chops, and crepes. Both she and Mom put on unforgettable holiday turkey feasts.
During holidays, Mom would gather with the mustached old ladies in our family to recreate Old World Italian dishes and desserts—or their Americanized versions from the family’s Italian restaurant.
Both women shaped me in profound ways. I grew up an only child in Seymour, Connecticut, graduating in 1984—a true child of the ‘70s and ‘80s. Today I live with my partner of thirty-something years, Debbie. Our kids have fur—we’re partial to Ocicats and German Shepherds, but we love all living creatures. I spent over 20 years in New Haven, much of it rescuing cats and any animal in need.
In addition to gardening and cooking, I’m an avid amateur photographer. You’ll see a lot of that here on the site. I’m also into mountain biking, cycling, fishing, classic rock, and listening to vinyl in our small home theater.
In early 2025, we decided to carve out a 25×25 foot section of our yard and convert it into a vegetable garden. This site documents our journey—from the soil to the skillet—including the victories, failures, and lessons along the way.
Like Mom and Grandma, I love to cook. My recipes are often influenced by health challenges I face, including achalasia, diverticulosis, sleep troubles, memory issues, and their complications. But food remains my joy, therapy, and connection to the women who raised me right.