The ancient Spartans saw food purely as fuel, and both royalty and peasants alike ate black bread with a blood and vinegar soup. The Romans, on the other hand, luxuriated in food as a symbol of wealth, and are famous for their exorbitant banquets of rare ingredients eaten lying down and punctuated by trips to the vomitorium. These are the age-old equivalents of living on a spelt and seaweed diet or dining exclusively on truffles and hand fed lobster. Today some people still run to these extremes, but for me, and many others I suspect, food is not purely fuel or status symbol, but comfort. It is no big secret that comfort food is rarely meaty or green. Starch is king in the land of comfort food: sugary donuts, buttery mashed potatoes, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, pancakes with syrup, cherry pie ala-mode, French fries, fresh bread with sweet butter, tater tots, or my personal favorite: white rice, with anything.  Why doesn’t kale or a chicken leg give you the same buzz? You could argue that sugars and starches cause the brain to release the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is responsible for producing a sense of wellbeing and calm. This is the brain chemical that drugs like Prozac and Paxil work to elevate. You could also argue that when you were a kid, and you fell and scraped your knee, your mom handed you a cookie, and not a plate of steamed spinach to cheer you up. So in the spirit of comfort and good cheer, I give you this recipe for baked ziti, or lazy lasagna.  It all get mixed up in your tummy any way right? BAKED ZITI (Courtesy of Simplyrecipes.com) Ingredients 1 pound ziti (can sub penne) pasta Olive oil 1 pound bulk Italian sausage or ground...

Frankie Says… TRY IT. In the spirit of love and all that crap, I’ll give you a snapshot list of all the things I love in my life right now: I love warm LA days in February. I love my new apartment. I love making eggs with sautéed kale or spinach in the morning and eating it standing up in my kitchen. I love seeing my name in print – one of the many perks of getting published and the biggest rush when you flip to that page. I love Sunday dinners with my family. I love my mom. I love my hair – (I’m blessed with great hair, what can I say?) I love looking at the books on my shelf that I have no time to read. I love checking things off my to-do list. I love boys. I love being confident in being single. I love Starbucks Valentine’s cup (however, I do not love Starbucks.) I love sitting in coffee shops and writing. I love people watching in coffee shops, too. I love new music – anything different and non-mainstream. I love my bed. I love scarves. I love greaser boys – their outfits make me smile. I love finding a new great watering hole and sitting at the bar alone. I love going to the movies alone, and I love that my older sister cries because she thinks it’s so sad that I go to the movies alone. I love movies. I love making movies. I love film festivals. I love dressing up. I love buying new dresses, even if they sit in my closet for months unworn. I love shopping online for shoes, putting them in my basket, and then clicking out of the page. I love making fun...