About Abra/ Abra’s Kitchen

Hey there!

Welcome to Abra's Kitchen, a healthy food blog focused on seasonal nourishing recipes and the stories, travels, and wellness wisdom that goes along with them.

I'm Abra and I'm so glad you found yourself here on my little corner of the internet. 

A little bit about me: I moved from the Upper West Side of New York City to a 110-year-old house in the Catskill mountains in 2022 after a long 24 year residency as an NYC girl.

I am learning how to grow my own food, slow down, and live without take-out. My favorite things in life are my pup Penelope pancake, good books, and traveling the world. 

My Food Philosophy:

I am a licensed nutritionist with a master's degree in functional medicine and nutrition. I have been known to geek out about the healing properties of food, but really I am mostly obsessed with the concept of nourishment and how that can transform your life. 

I spent many years as a personal chef which I used as the perfect opportunity to hone my culinary voice, test a crazy amount of recipes, and learn how to execute fantastic healthy food in a limited amount of time. I love sharing those tricks and any nugget of wisdom I learn along the way.

Food is our most powerful medicine, but strict dietary dogmas don't really do it for me. I have a very flexible philosophy around food and health:

• Eat food as close to its natural state as possible (I much prefer a tomato over a tomato flavored potato chip)
• Plants are awesome, the kind you put in the ground and the kind you eat.
• Eat local. Eat what's in season.
• Animal protein is a great side dish and veggies are a great main course
• Share your food with loved ones
• Slow down, find pleasure in cooking and eating.
• Play in the kitchen, make mistakes and move on
• Sing while you cook and maybe throw in a jazz hand from time to time
• and always – always – always leave room for chocolate. Because…chocolate.

I come from a long line of culinary wizards. My great-great-grandma was a chef for royalty in Hungary and my other side of the family is Italian, which makes for quite the culinary cocktail. I like to think that I have a commitment to good food encoded in my DNA.

Other Random Stuff:

I love, love, love to travel and will literally jump on a plane to anywhere in the world if the opportunity presents itself, and I make sure that the “opportunity presents itself” a few times per year 🙂

Although I don't sing or dance professionally anymore I do my best cooking while blasting show tunes.

If you are interested in learning more about my nutrition practice feel free to head on over to www.abrapappa.com for all the deets.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out in my kitchen. If you have any questions/comments/ or just want to drop me a line you can do so here.

Penelope Pancake signing off 😉