Welcome to Chicky’s Kitchen!
My name is Teresa lovingly nicknamed “Chicky” by my husband when we first met. Hence, the evolution of Chicky’s Kitchen! I’ve been in the kitchen since I was a teenager. While in high school, I was fortunate enough to participate in a cooking class that allowed students to plan, shop, cook, and serve faculty every week.
I am passionate about feeding people and sharing food. Especially with my husband Dino, our three children, Natale, Henry, and Rocco. Plus, our crazy dog, Uno who is always waiting for a crumb to drop.
When I’m not in the kitchen, I’m spending time with my family, neighbors, friends and working full time (Go Hornets!). My favorite part of the day are those times spent around the table with great food and the amazing people in my life. At my table, everyone is equal. Everyone is respected and appreciated. Everyone has a chance to be seen and heard.
"You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together." Anthony Bourdain
For years when people would ask me for recipes, I would cringe. As much as I LOVE reading cookbooks, and watching cooking shows, most of my food wasn't coming from following a recipe. I spent years feeding a family of six breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert seven days a week and loved every minute of that time in the kitchen and around the table with my family. The idea of finding more time in my already hectic day to figure out measurements and write down ingredients for each meal did not sound like a good time to me. I loved the creativity of cooking and baking, not the logistics of documenting the process.
In 2017, we packed up the family and moved out of state. I turned 50 in a new house, in a new state, and was missing everything about "home." In the blink of an eye, my two oldest children were adults, living their own lives. It suddenly became important to me to document and preserve memories for my family. The best way that I knew how to do that was through food.
Dino requests the same dinner every year on his birthday. Natale eats her favorite chocolate cake for breakfast. Henry will not eat any green vegetables but loves zucchini bread. Rocco - will eat everything, but most likely would say Spaghetti and meatballs are his favorite meal. Who else would remember all these quirky things about my favorite people on the planet? For my family and so many others, memories and traditions often revolve around food. This blog, these stories, and recipes are simply my love letters to my family.
If you try one of my recipes and love it (or even if you don’t), let me know. Also, feel free to share any of my recipes, posts, or photos, but be sure to credit my blog and mention that you found it here first. I do my best to give credit to my sources as well. It’s just good food karma! Developing and writing recipes is hard work. Be kind and thoughtful on social media. People are brave to put themselves out there and share with all of us!
Follow me on social media to get a link to each new blog post. I’ll also occasionally add content on social media that won’t make it on the blog. I also post lots of food photos and stories on Instagram.
More than anything, I want to say thank you so much for being here, and I hope that this site can play some small part in making your days a little brighter and tastier!
Go make some memories in your kitchen!