I can’t help but smile when I think of my grandfather.

My grandfather was a tall man who loved airplanes and motorcycles (though an accident in his youth left his leg permanently injured). He owned a small prop plane for years and flew whenever he could. And he was dedicated to work and family.

He grew up in a German-American family in the New York area. My grandfather didn’t always like to speak of his family, but when he did he used to tell me stories about his childhood, his family and where they came from. He would sit on his slate blue couch, which had a scratchy woven fabric that I can best liken to burlap — though I know it wasn’t and he and my grandmother had chosen it specially. I would sit in an armchair near his rotary phone, directly across from him.

I wish I spent more time in that seat when I got older . . .

One story in particular that I remember him telling me late in his life was about how our last name came to be so Americanized. Honestly, you would never know we were German from hearing it. Apparently when my German great-great grandfather went through Ellis Island, the customs people couldn’t understand the heavy German name and simply changed it to a much simpler name. There was a vague relation between the German name that began with a V and the eventual W-name — very vague. Read the rest of this entry…

I was never a fan of baked potatoes. But last year, I suddenly developed a taste for them. Perhaps it was just that until last year I had never had a baked potato with toppings or fillings. Growing up, it was always bake, squeeze, pop on plate. Sometimes there would be a pat of butter thrown on top and perhaps some salt, but never any exciting toppings like cheese or bacon.

These days, baked potatoes are a staple in our home. They are filling and help us eat smaller portions of protein — definitely a good thing. Potatoes are also inexpensive. But, be sure to eat the skin too – that’s where all the nutrients are.

I made these with delicious, golden-fleshed Yukon Gold potatoes, which are fantastic for mashing (and that is kind of what you do with the filling).

This is another toddler approved meal component. Will loved “finding” the hidden bits of bacon and cheese and ate nearly his whole (small) potato. And they aren’t that bad for you — all in all, they are about 380 calories or so (this is an estimate based on my calculation on SparkRecipes.com). So, if you serve them with a bit of veggies and a small hunk of lean protein, this can still be a pretty fit meal.

Cheddar Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes
serves 4

4 large Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed
1/3 cup milk (I use 1%)
salt and pepper
3/4 cup grated low-fat cheddar cheese, plus 1 tbsp
4 slices uncooked bacon, chopped

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prick each potato a couple of times with a fork. Place on the rack in the oven and cook for an hour. Let cool for 10-15 minutes before handling.

Cook the bacon and discard any fat drippings.

Slice a thin strip off the top of each potato. Scoop out insides into a medium bowl. Add milk, salt and pepper to the bowl. Using a potato masher, mash well.

Stir in 3/4 cup of the cheddar and bacon. Scoop the potato mixture back into the potato shells. Divide the remaining tablespoon of cheddar among the potatoes. Return to oven and cook for an additional 15 minutes.

Let cool for 5 minutes, then serve.

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I thought this would be a great recipe to share for Eating Leeds’ Potato blogging event. Did you know that this is the International Year of the Potato?

Advice for New Bloggers is a new regular feature here at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Inspired by Dine and Dish’s Adopt-A-Blogger event, and written with my adoptee in mind (Hi, Rachel! Click here to check out Fairy Cake Heaven), it appears every Tuesday.

I was stumped about what to talk about next. Fortunately Cate from Sweetnicks came to the rescue with a great idea: photos.

So, you are just starting out and trying to figure out this whole blogging thing, right? Figuring out what to post about and when to post and what to say is hard enough, but you need to take pictures too? Come on!

No, you really do need photos, particularly if you are a food blogger. People want to see your food. And they want to know what to expect when they make it. And, if nothing else, there are a lot of us out there who love food porn (heads out of the gutters, please. That means tasty looking pictures of food. Geez.).

It’s no secret that I am still learning the ropes of food photography myself. I’ve learned the hard way that the best photos happen during the day in natural sunlight and that at night, it’s very important to make sure you have enough lighting. Keeping the camera still helps, and the darker it is, the more important that becomes.

Do you need a fancy camera? No. It helps, but you don’t have to have one. The first trick is to learn to use the camera you have. No matter how many pixels it is, figure out how to take the best photos with the equipment you have. (And it’s a good idea to read that pesky manual. It actually does help.) And when you are ready, upgrade.

So what do I shoot with? I have a very handy and tiny Sony Cybershot that is great for taking inconspicuous photos (like in public). Until recently though, my main camera was an 8 megapixel Canon ProShot Pro1. Although it isn’t made anymore, the PowerShot Pro1 is a powerful camera that takes great pictures when used correctly. It was really great for getting the hang of taking still life photos.

For Christmas this year, I upgraded. I was ready for more. And gosh, I love my new camera. It’s a (squeak of excitement) 10 megapixel Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Talk about power. But this is a camera that you need to spend time learning how to use right (thank you, Sonja, for helping me!). When used properly, the photos come out in exquisite detail (see above). There are better camera bodies, but this is right for me now. It’s like learning to ride a bike – you don’t go from training wheels on a Huffy to a giant Harley, so why would you do that with your camera?

If you are really serious about taking great photos, you may also want to invest in a Photo Studio in a Box. This handy, dandy box and lighting helps to make your photos look more professional with the perfect amount of shadow and highlights and a non-competing background. Cate tells me that they fold nice and flat so it won’t overtake a room in your house or anything. (This is next on my upgrade list.)

For photo editing, I used to use Microsoft Picture It! Premium 10, but really it wasn’t powerful enough for my needs. These days I have upgraded to Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, which is plenty powerful enough for beginner to intermediate photographers.

Need some more advice? Here are some good resources:

• The Food Photo 101 series from Nika’s Culinaria
• Still Life With …’s 2007 Guide to Food Photography Gear
• Matt Bites’ Notes About Photography

The latest issue of Bon Appetit came in the mail on the same day that I happened to buy a bottle of POM (you know, that pomegranate juice that everyone seemed to be talking about and using, um, yesterday — yes, I am a little behind on that trend). So anyway, it just seemed like fate when I flipped open the magazine and the first thing I saw was a recipe for Pom-Ade, or Pomegranate Lemonade. Totally freaky.

Both of those things happened a few weeks ago. But I didn’t end up cracking open the POM or trying the lemonade until my old partner in crime, Sonja, came to visit recently for lunch. (You’ve already read about several other things on the lunch menu – the delicious sandwich with sun-dried tomato pesto and the yummy baby spinach salad with candied almonds.) This seemed like it would be a tasty mocktail for our lunch . . . and it was.

So, we sipped at this delicious, slightly bubbly and antioxidant rich drink (perfect for Sweetnicks‘ ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays) while we caught up on life and career (did I mention that we met while working together at a newspaper and bonded over a horse assignment? It’s quite the story – but I’ll leave you guessing).

I will however share the drink recipe. Enjoy! Read the rest of this entry…

I’ve seen the links elsewhere around the blogosphere and at first I thought, “Nah, I don’t have time to enter that.” But then I realized I didn’t need to create sometime new — I could use a post I created weeks ago. So, I did it folks. I entered Culinate’s Death by Chocolate contest.

Here’s the details:

The Culinate Death by Chocolate Contest sends one reader, and one food blogger, on a trip for two Napa Valley to attend the Copia Center’s annual Death by Chocolate Festival on Feburary 23, 2008, featuring a day of chocolate and wine tasting, demonstrations by pastry chefs, and other sessions with chocolate aficionados and experts.

So, go here to VOTE FOR ME!!!! (Oops, I should tell you what I entered, right? It was my delicious Deconstructed Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies  — SO tasty.)

Oh, and the blog entries are being judged by the several esteemed people: pastry chef/blogger David Lebovitz, baking expert/blogger Dorie Greenspan, blogger Deb of Smitten Kitchen (winner of Culinate’s GrillMe contest in 2007), Chuck Siegel of Charles Chocolates, and members of the Copia and Culinate staffs).

Monday: Pomegranate Lemonade

Tuesday: Advice for New Bloggers

Wednesday: Cheddar Bacon Twice Baked Potatoes

Thursday: Sweet and Sour Red Cabbage

Friday: Fish for Friday

Okay, okay. I said I would post this yesterday and I didn’t. Instead, my site went down for a bit so that it could be moved to a new server and my (I’m so excited about this) new look could finally debut. I can’t tell you how much I love the new look. And I promise, this is it for awhile.

Anyway, back to the food. I’ve been on such a spinach kick lately. What’s not to love? It’s high in iron, versatile and tasty when cooked just right . . . Read the rest of this entry…