About Cabernet & Chaos 🍷🔥
Cheers!This corner of The Hollow Quill is for the women who cook with garlic measured by the heart, pour wine without checking the ounces, and somehow turn weeknight dinners into full emotional events.
Here you’ll find cozy recipes, chaotic kitchen commentary, wine pairings, family-inspired comfort meals, date-night dishes, holiday spreads, and the kind of food that tastes even better eaten standing over the stove at midnight.
Cabernet & Chaos isn’t about perfection.
It’s about flavor.
Memory.
Indulgence.
Laughter.
And occasionally threatening to throw the wooden spoon across the kitchen while sipping Cabernet.
So pour a glass, loosen the waistband, and stay awhile.
Things are getting deliciously chaotic around here. 🍝🍷
A Bronx Tale Easy Sunday Sauce
This family-style Sunday sauce is slow-simmered, loaded with garlic, and rooted in stories from the town that raised us. Made with Tuttorosso tomatoes and cooked the way Karen taught—with instinct, not measurements—it’s the kind of recipe that turns dinner into something you don’t rush.
A Chicken Fricasse Rooted in Flavor, Tradition, and Intention
“Growing up, my mother didn’t believe in bland food — or quiet kitchens.
Week after week, our home smelled like sofrito hitting hot oil, simmering on low, while the beans bubbled sacredly on the back right burner no one ever uses.
Puerto Rican staples weren’t just meals — they were rituals.
Repeated. Perfected.
Served with a side of you better eat what I serve you, or you go to bed hungry and don’t think about asking for a snack.
What some my friends nervously called “spicy” the first time they tasted her food?
Yeah… no.
They couldn’t quite understand it at first — the depth, the layering, the way every bite hit differently. This wasn’t just spice.”
Toscana Soup ~ Italian Sausage and Kale Soup
“There are meals you cook because you’re hungry…
and then there are meals you cook because life has been loud, the weather has been inconsiderately frigid, and you need something warm enough to convince your nervous system to unclench.
This Italian sausage and kale soup is the latter.“
Gasp, Did She Say… SHRIMP Empanadas??
“Love doesn’t always show up as grand gestures or dramatic declarations. Sometimes it shows up as you standing in your kitchen, hands shaking slightly, folding shrimp into empanada dough while reminding yourself that you’re safe now. That you’re allowed to rewrite the stories that once scared you.”
Caramelized Leek, Mushroom & Feta Quiche (Bacon added for greatness)
Flaky deep-dish crust, crispy bacon, caramelized leeks, mushrooms, and creamy feta come together for the most unapologetically delicious quiche you’ll ever bake. Perfect for brunch, meal prep, or wine nights. Get the recipe + my kitchen must-haves!
Roasted New Jersey Tomatoes & Pappardelle Pasta
“That’s when I thank God (and my poor life choice that led me here) for being back in Jersey. Say what you will about this state, but the produce delivers the kind of comfort Midol could only dream of. You haven’t lived until you’ve sunk your teeth into a Jersey tomoto during the dogs days of summer. The northeast doesn’t just grow vegetables, — it breeds therapy disguised as produce.”