I’m a firm believer that food, security and love are entwined in the meals we cook and serve our family and friends. Having grown-up in a big Italian family on my dad’s side, it was hard not to be psyched about food; my mom, Rose, always cooked simple, fresh food for our family of six and it wasn’t until I had to start doing it myself that I appreciated it. My love for cooking started early with our family meals and blossomed into a career at the age of sixteen as a prep cook, and on to chef, cooking teacher, caterer, food editor, author and food writer.

I am the author of five cookbooks (available here and where other fine books are sold), and appear regularly on QVC with an awesome multi-purpose line of kitchenware. Being the erstwhile Senior Vice President, Executive Editorial Director of Food and Entertaining at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and the host of my own television show Mad Hungry: Bringing Back the Family Meal, and cohosting Everyday Food on PBS for six years, has kept me overly busy for too many years.

I live in a cozy (i.e. small) New York City apartment where miraculously three baby boys grew into tall men, who, after all this time observing me in the kitchen, now challenge with me over how to best make the Thanksgiving turkey that I have cooked for them for the last 25 years. And there’s nothing that brings me more satisfaction to share my love of the family meal with my sons.

I continue my journey as a mom on a mission to pay forward what I’ve learned feeding my family through the years. Mad Hungry is the culmination of this journey: The headquarters for home cooks looking for proven recipes, strategies, and inspiration done affordably, easily, accessibly, and, most of all, with joy and love.

Comfortable and full of swagger, RJQ aka Richie aka Dickie aka Tony aka DDB, is a one-of-a-kind original and follower of none. With a larger than life personality, and fierce appetites—there’s no greater appreciator of a really good meal. He’s the melange-king, meaning that his favorite thing to cook for himself is a ground beef, onion, green pepper, cumin and olive mash-up. It’s some kind of past life thing, a favorite dish not shared by his wife Lucinda. Fiercely protective of his privacy—that’s about all we can say except that he’d like it to be publicly known that he is the responsible for naming Lucinda’s third book (which until that moment had a working title “The Man Book”—yep, we agree, definitely needed work): When he noticed a random utterance from one son, while hanging off the door of an open fridge, that he was “mad hungry and looking for something to eat,” Richie told his wife, “there’s the name of your book.”

Calder believes burning garlic is a cardinal sin and that there are few things that aren’t improved with a layer of grated parmesan. Likes include cartography, the Knicks, dogs (big and small, he doesn’t discriminate), and getting lost (and finding his way) in a foreign locale. He would never turn down an omakase marathon, but is just as happy with a plate of rice, beans, and chicharron de pollo. And, if at gun point, he was forced to choose one thing to drink for the rest of his life it would be ice cold stella, er, or maybe rioja, a full bodied rioja, actually scratch that, it would be Appletons, yep definitely Appletons with ice and lime (but would never turn down a Jameson).

Miles was never much for school. So the ritual, repetition, and military precision of a professional kitchen was his education. At age 16 Miles dove head first into a full-time apprentice cooking job in one of NYC’s top 3-star Michelin restaurants. Aside from mad cooking skills, he learned French, Spanish, math, and science, so I guess you could say that he graduated from the school of hard knocks. Miles is handy to have around when you’re low on dough, only have a few groceries, many friends to feed, and no idea what to eat. He’s famous at home for consuming large glasses of homemade citrus-honey water, using a lot of butter (although we’re never mad at him for that), and whipping up handmade Chinese noodles at a moment’s notice. When he was little, his brothers followed the directions when building legos, yet he’d dump the box out and create something entirely new. That’s life according to Miles

Luca likes to work. After a youth devoted to athletic discipline, and sneaker dealing, he’s held jobs in fashion, food, and focus groups (ok—those are one offs for pure cash). Currently a college student, Luca cooks his dinner at home and snap chats about it at madhungryeats. He loves a well made salad (and always has), even while chowing down on a giant pork chop. Luca will never miss a chance to invite his friends over to eat..and drink…and hang out…repeat. He likes making his own flavored vodka, to give away as gifts but finds it hard to resist first tasting it himself. Arsenal football club has his heart, and also the skin on his lower left rib cage with a tattoo of their motto “Victoria Concordia Crescit.” Currently, he’s saving his money to get back to the Emirates stadium in North London for a match and a proper English breakfast.

Everyone calls her Rose, even the family, which might seem strange, except that you want to say “Rose” because she has all the beauty attendant with that name. She married Lucinda’s dad, an Italian-American, three times (don’t ask, we’ll let her tell it some day) and also had three sons, Jim, David, and Peter. With no family roots of her own in Italy, she managed to out-Italian the Italian cooks in her husband’s family by making everything better, smarter, and more delicious. Why individually stuff 25 artichokes when you can buy artichoke hearts, toss them with the stuffing, and bake multiple trays at a time like this recipe? If everyone loves the meatballs so much, then why not make them into little mini sandwiches, and serve them as snacks and appetizers…a lot of them. At a time when 1950’s America was foisting processed food on American housewives, Rose stuck to her guns and cooked simple, fresh food every day for her family of six. Her salad dressing alone made enthusiastic salad eaters of the whole family. She gave the kids daily jobs, including setting out all the morning breakfast supplies (plates, bowls, forks, napkins, cereal, fruit etc) as the last job before going to bed. Give her a reason to laugh and she’ll crack up harder than anyone. Without judgement, or rancor, it’s natural for her to find the positive in any difficult situation. She is a true artistic soul, having attended art school at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit in the 40’s, with a wild and diverse crowd, with whom she was known to skip out to see Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong at a local club. Rose inspires us all to stay in the moment, and find the everyday beauty life has to offer. And no-one, NO-ONE makes a tuna sandwich like her.

Steve Quinn is six years old. He’s our third family dog. We found him chilling out at the Cape Ann Animal shelter. Unlike the rest of the orphaned dogs, he was completely relaxed and slumped over a small trampoline as if utterly confident someone would notice how cool he is. The rest of his litter was gone but he looked happy. Georgia is his home state, and while he looks like a Lab, he’s probably more Coonhound than anything given his penchant for tracking city squirrels like it’s his job. He joined our pure-bred, food-obsessed 10 year-old chocolate Lab KoKo (RIP), and breathed a few more years of life into her. This boy dog is almost human and we all adore him. Over the years he’s acted as companion, nurse, therapist, nanny, protector, cast-iron pan cleaner and champion bone eater. About once a month he gets a foot long raw hide bone. After being handed it, he struts up and down the living room carpet—as if on a runway of a fashion show—preening and prancing with pride. For everyone who enters the house during that time, he finds his bone and walks the walk, head held high. It takes about a week to fully decimate it. Even when chomping on the last little knob, he’ll do the strut for you. It’s the small things that makes Steve happy.