Thank you for stopping by my NJ kitchen! I would love to help you cook with my easy recipes and cooking tips. Let's get started!
I am a wife, mom and cookbook author that loves spending time in my kitchen. I put together no stress meals and want to HELP YOU feed your family with quick and easy recipes. While I like to cook all kinds of foods, week night dinner recipes are my specialty.
I always accept the challenge of getting dinner on the table in 30 minutes and want to help you do that too. Check out some of my favorite last minute dinner ideas! They include easy recipes for meat, chicken, seafood and vegetarian entrees.
I also love to entertain with lots of snacks and appetizers. Nothing makes me happy than having friends and family over to hang out in my kitchen.
I came from a large ethnic family with Italian and Croatian influences. Food was always a big part of our family celebrations. While growing up, money was tight in our family but there was always good food on the table. A meal doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive to be delicious. Whether you’re with family or friends, a meal is a great way to bring people together.
I love creating my own recipes and have been doing so ever since I can remember. Instead of following recipes, I like to read cookbooks and get ideas to eventually make things my own. I have written two cookbooks, The Super Easy Cookbook for Beginners and The 5-Ingredient Dutch Oven Cookbook. Both can be purchased on Amazon.
I have no formal chef's training but I have been cooking since I was a pre teen. Over the years, I have entered hundreds of cooking contests and have even won some including the 2007 National Oyster Cook-Off in Maryland.
Much of my cooking experience came from cooking for my family. When my children were younger, I used to play this game every night at about 5 pm. It's called "Let's see what mom can defrost, prepare and cook in twenty minutes." There were rules to this game. The meal has to be healthy, only available pantry items can be used, and sometimes it has to be a handheld item that can be eaten while riding to soccer practice.
Obviously, this wasn't always easy to do especially when I had a picky preteen boy in the house. My son would end up eating foods like chicken cutlet sandwiches, grilled cheese and quesadillas. And food was never a priority of his. It was more important for him to get to soccer practice on time than what he was eating for dinner. Some nights, a peanut butter sandwich was on the menu with fruit. But there are others in the household that had to eat too. And a peanut butter sandwich is just not acceptable as my dinner.
All this forced me to become a spontaneous home cook and I experimented with lots of different foods. Now my children are adults (well almost) and their eating habits have changed over the years. It is fun to have their friends over to cook a nice big meal. Having a crowd over for dinner always makes me happy.
About the Blog
The Jersey Girl Cooks food blog was started in 2008. At the time, I was a stay at home mom that had left the corporate world a few years before. I realized I needed to do something for myself and I also wanted to start recording my recipes. This turned out to be a great vessel to do both. Since then, this blog has opened up a whole new world for me and it has become my full time job.
If you need easy recipes, you can get them here. From appetizers and snacks to entrees and sides to desserts, I have something for every meal of the day. If there is something you want, but can't find, please email me and I can get you a recipe. Even if it was not created by me, I have plenty of sources to get a good recipe in your hands.
My love for food does not stop in my kitchen. I also like to try different restaurants, attend food festivals, visit farmers markets and explore food in different cities. I hope you will follow along in my journey through the kitchen and beyond.
I love getting feedback, suggestions or questions from my readers. You can always email me at jerseygirlcooks@comcast.net. I would love to hear from you!