Delicious Dishes

DELICIOUS DISHES TO BRING THE MAGIC OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON

Combining food & tradition with Ashley Presciutti of Wishes and Dishes

The holidays are a flurry of activity, from wrapping that perfect last-minute gift, finding yourself “up to your ears in flour” in the kitchen, and melding new traditions with old as we embrace the season. It’s a symphony of all our senses: heady scents, illustrious sights and sounds, warm touches, and perhaps most important: delectable tastes!

For Ashley Presciutti, the holidays are a special time of year. Having

run her food and travel blog, Wishes and Dishes, since September 2011, she has spent the past decade developing recipes, creating content, and perfecting her skills as a food photographer, posting “primarily family-friendly recipes that are accessible for any level of cook.”

Though her interest in cooking wasn’t sparked until her mid-20s as she married, Ashley grew up with an Italian father who taught her to appreciate the love of making Italian food. She says she’s had remarkable growth since that first dish she made with dad, his famous spaghetti sauce and meatballs, and her love of family is evident in every recipe she shares. “I started Wishes and Dishes merely as a hobby, and

it turned into a successful business once I started gaining followers on my blog and social media channels,” Ashley says. “Blogging my recipes gives me that extra push in the kitchen to keep innovating, experimenting, and challenging myself.”

She was first inspired to take up cooking by her husband, Nick, who often serves as her guinea pig and “official (sometimes brutally honest)” taste-tester, offering nothing but encouragement—and his graphic design skills—on her journey.

“I absolutely love what I do in that I can be my own boss, work from home, and be with my 5-year-old daughter every day,” she says. Her

daughter, Eliza, enjoys cooking and baking with mom. Ashley says, “Involving her takes extra time, but it is totally worth it to see her excitement over the feeling she helped cook dinner or bake a special dessert.”

Ashley admits that trying out new recipes requires a lot of patience, one of the hardest parts of the job. She tests most recipes at least 2-3 times, and while there are some delicious dishes that made it out of the kitchen, there are also some that… have not.

“I am pretty much a completely self-taught home cook, and I learn most things by trial and error,” Ashley says, still learning something new every week in her kitchen twelve years in. Her biggest piece of advice for any novice, or anyone who just wants to cook, is “to keep trying and persevere if you’re trying to perfect a particular recipe! Massive kitchen fails make me want to melt into a puddle of tears on occasion, but I can’t let mistakes like that stop me in the future. Cooking is not always perfect!”

As for many, the holidays are a special time of year and carry a sense of magic for Ashley and her family. She likens herself to a little kid and admits that she’s been known to sometimes even start decorating for Christmas and have her tree up in October. While the decorations are always nice, she also says one of her favorite things about the season is being surrounded by family—and the food!

“THE HOLIDAYS ARE SERIOUSLY MAGICAL AFTER HAVING A CHILD. IT’S LIKE LIVING MY CHILDHOOD ALL OVER AGAIN, SOMETHING I DIDN’T KNOW HOW MUCH I’D ENJOY,” SHE SAYS.

Having started a family of her own, the holidays are even more meaningful now—even if there are still times when she’s “stressed to the max or running around like a lunatic,” but who isn’t? She has carried on traditions she followed as a child, along with starting some of her own with her husband to leave their own indelible mark on the Christmas season.

“Two things I continue to do now that I have my own family are taking long nighttime drives to see all the beautiful lights, and baking my mom’s famous cut-out cookies,” she shares, along with a delicious sugar cookie recipe featured on her blog, declaring she won’t let the magic die.

With her husband and daughter, though, “I also love the new tradition we’ve started of a cozy breakfast of warm cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, slowly opening our gifts, and lying around with Christmas music in the background.”

Find more delicious dishes on WishesandDishes.com, and shake up your holiday season with some of her recipes! Find even more of her recipes featured just for Home on thehomepublications.com