From the City That Never Sleeps to the Kitchen That Never Stops

In my twenties, I moved to New York City to pursue my love of acting. I was your typical twenty something actress living in NYC — auditioning during the day and waitressing and bartending at night. I worked in all kinds of restaurants, from the high end Jean Georges where I was introduced to my husband, to a typical sports bar slinging beers on the Upper West Side. I was always surrounded by all sorts of food that I couldn't and wouldn't eat — but I loved every minute of it!

New York has a way of teaching you things. And one of the things it taught me was that food is about so much more than what is on your plate. It is about the people sitting across from you. The conversations that stretch long after the dishes are cleared. The effort that goes into making someone feel loved and cared for through what you put in front of them.

When I married my husband — a committed meat eater — and started cooking for him, family and friends, I became excited to try new recipes that they would love. I remember making a pork tenderloin with a mustard tarragon sauce for his family one of the first times we had them over. I was so nervous to cook such a special meal and had absolutely no idea if it was good because I couldn't taste it! I did make sure to pour plenty of wine that night!

That pretty much became my thing — cooking elaborate dinners for people with food I didn't eat, but always making sure there were plenty of sides I could enjoy too. Cooking food became my way of showing people I cared.

And I still feel that way every single night when I stand at my stove — or my grill! — cooking for my family.

The only thing I will not cook is bacon. I have my limits! In fact my wonderful husband — knowing how much I hated the smell of it — would cook it at 3am in our NYC apartment while I was asleep. He would shut the bedroom door and put a rolled up towel underneath so the smell wouldn't seep in.

Now that we are in New Hampshire, he has graduated to cooking it outside on the grill. Some things never change! It is one of the only things I still will not cook to this day.

Talk about true love.