If you buy just one garden kitchen apparatus this season, let it be a dehydrator. It will pay for itself with just one use when you make your own dried tomatoes in olive oil. You can find the recipe right here on ciaoitalia.com. I use the dehydrator not only for plum tom…

Dragging stuff to the beach or park for a picnic can be a big job but I have a solution; how about summer salad in a jar instead of burgers and dogs for your picnic? Better for you too. Here is how it works: Just fill mason quart jars with salad ingredients; start by addi…

Want the taste of summer well into fall? How about making this quick and delicious tomato dressing when tomatoes are at their peak. Use it on green salads, mix it into potato salad and cobb salads. Give your lobster roll a boost by adding a couple of tablespoons. Cole sla…

All of a sudden, bright shiny domestic eggplant is everywhere! And even though my plants have just gone into the ground and I will not be harvesting the purple beauties until late July and early August, I could not resist buying one. The trick is to get a really fresh on…

Memorial Day is coming and that means bringing out the grill for the season. Wild swordfish was in the market so I decided to grill it and serve it with a tarragon butter sauce laid over a bed of tomato succotash made with cocktail tomatoes grown by my friends at Backyard…