One of North Jersey’s top eight

NorthJersey.com spent the summer asking North Jersey who it actually watches. Nearly 2,000 names came in. They cut it to eight. One of them is me, which I found out in the school pickup line with a car full of kids and a cooler of leftover antipasto.

The list is not all food people, which is the part I like. There are dogs on road trips and tie dye and people who are very funny about living here. I make dinner and talk about it, and somehow that counts.

Seventeen years on the Rachael Ray Show taught me how to feed a room and how to make it look easy on camera, and neither of those skills is worth much if you are not cooking for anyone. So now I cook for my neighbors on Mondays, build boards for people’s parties, and put the rest of it on the internet.

Thank you to everyone who nominated, voted, or has quietly watched me drop a whole tray of meatballs. I am not going anywhere.