testkitchenette

testkitchenette is a personal chef, healthy eating counselor and writer living on Long Island. Having studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, she considers herself a part-time vegan but also makes room for experimenting with her grandmother's brisket recipe and coming up with dreamy uses for dairy like Turkish Cheese & Date Syrup Quesadillas. But even dedicated omnivores couldn't find fault in her fun, expertly crafted vegan recipes, like her versatile Roasted Butternut Squash Coconut Curry Puree/Soup and Black Bean Burger Buns Stuffed with Avocado Mango Salsa. We also love her instincts in updating her Grandma Ruth's Fudgy Chocolate Cake by deepening the chocolate, trimming the sugar and subbing in strong chai for coffee. Much of her passion and creativity in the kitchen stems from her mother, a former General Foods recipe tester who re-uses black bean cans to mold homemade cranberry sauce into the familiar shape of the store-bought jellied variety, which we think qualifies her as both a genius post-modern artist and a really good mom. Clearly, her talent and delight in playing with food has been passed down to testkitchenette. Check out her profile page and fan her here.

Read testkitchenette's profile Q&A below:

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  Almost everything that I ate at a traditional Chinese wedding (some delish others I guess I would've had to grow up eating them).
• What do you cook when home alone?
  Everything!
• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  My Kitchen-Aid
• Your ideal meal:
  Fresh grilled seafood, seasonal veggies, key lime pie, and a Frangelico
• Something you'd like a chance to eat or cook:
  Chocolate (from the bean to bar).
• The number of bottles of wine you own:
  Including champagne? 5.
• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  Whoever shows up!
• Kitchen pet peeve:
  Messy counters and a sink full of dirty dishes.
• Your favorite cookbook:
  Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and Nigel Slater's Appetite