welcome to my food blog
Hi, I'm Alyssa!
Since October 2013, My Sequined Life has been my excuse for cooking and baking my heart out. Here you can find a variety of food and drink recipes, running the gamut from better-for-you main dishes to holiday fare, and from lighter bites to serious desserts. With the occasional cocktail recipe thrown in for good measure, too.
Get Ready For...
- Italian American flavors...and a lot of them. They're what I grew up with and love even more each day.
- My take on Southern recipes. Though I'm a Northeast girl through and through, I've lived in the South for over 10 years now. In that time I've developed my own versions of Southern staples like Instant Pot collard greens and dairy-free banana pudding. You'll find them sprinkled in.
- Family favorites, new and old. From classic Italian Christmas cookies to new takes on standards (air fryer eggplant! chicken parm gnocchi!), you can find the tried and true alongside modern eats.
- Lots of (relevant) detail. I can't help it! My background as a CPA (inactive) means I am in every detail when I get into something. Here that means testing recipes as many times as it takes to share them with precision so that you can replicate what makes them so special with success. As of September 2025 I have my ServSafe Food Handler certification to better answer questions regarding food safety and storage.
- No-agita recipes. Because I don't want to buy a ton of specialty ingredients for one dish and wash every pot and utensil in the house, and I know you don't want to either.
- Reasonable prep times. Recipes that call for ten minutes of total prep while you have to wash/chop/dice/mince the entirety of your produce drawer? Not happening here! I'm a home cook like you and prep like one, too.
More About Me
As a 20-something who traded in her public accounting job for one in corporate accounting, I suddenly found myself with a lot (!) of free time on nights and weekends. I had enjoyed reading blogs for years but never considered starting my own - until then.
Since being in the kitchen is my form of relaxation, I soon landed on sharing food-related rambles and uploading poorly- and fluorescent-lit recipe photos to the internet as my new hobby.
Now 11-plus years later, I like to think that I ramble less and take better photos, but with the same dedication to and interest in sharing what I make with the world.
My Food Philosophy
In real life I don't follow any particular diet or meal plan, which reflects in the recipes I share on My Sequined Life. I try to eat mostly healthy and enjoy whatever treats I'm feeling like in moderation. I don't do restriction, assign foods a "good" or "bad" label, label something "guilt-free" (...so that assumes you should feel guilt for eating some foods in the first place?), etc.
"Everything in moderation" my grandma would say, as she tucked into a Dunkin Donuts jelly stick the size of her head. And without fail comment that there wasn't enough jelly in the filling for her liking.
That said I have friends and family with allergies and food sensitivities so there will be some dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan call outs in the recipe archives on occasion. I really don't know what fits into keto or how many macros are in something or if there's a cross-contamination risk in certain ingredients, so if something is very important to your way of eating, please evaluate or calculate the information yourself. I'm sure my best estimate would not be satisfactory for your needs.
My Favorite Recipes
With nearly 600 recipes published in 11+ years, these are my deep-cut favorites I have on repeat in my own kitchen.
Food Facts About Me
- Like I would ever turn down ricotta pancakes, but deep-down my favorite breakfast is last night’s dinner leftovers.
- I love sour beers - the tarter, the better. Visiting The Funkatorium in Asheville, NC was more fabulous than words.
- We’re a taylor ham/sauce/hero-or-sub house. (Not a pork roll/gravy/grinder-or-hoagie).
- I watched the entire Great British Baking Show body of work during my maternity leave and half started to believe I wanted to get into choux pastry before I snapped out of it. With what time? lol
- Forget fajitas, my kind of table-side excitement is pasta alla ruota, pasta tossed in a flaming wheel of cheese. I mean, come on.
- Strega Nona has been my favorite book since I was a kid, and I don’t think I’ve stopped thinking about her magical pasta pot since. Reading it to my daughter for the first time was so, so special.
- I believe a trip to a diner is good for what ails you.
- My favorite topping for (nearly) everything - freshly grated Pecorino Romano. It’s all but law on minestrone soup and pesto.
What's with your blog name? It doesn't scream 'food'.
Ya, I know. Back in 2013 I had no plans for this blog to turn into a business or anything. It was strictly an after-work extracurricular activity. Sprinkled throughout recipes I made some random posts about what song I liked on the radio, a headband I knit, and other totally non-food topics.
Since I didn't really have a plan for what I was doing, I didn't want to box myself in with a foodie name. And lo and behold, no one wanted to read about a song I liked (big surprise there!) and I didn't like writing an online diary, either.
So the short answer: My favorite color is sequined. I dress pretty casually most of the time but damn if I don't daydream about having a wardrobe full of sequined pretty little things. And a social calendar to match!
The long(er) answer: Beyond the glitz, I like to think of a "sequined" life as one full of little shiny, bright moments. For me, these moments often come in the form of cooking or baking something with love and seeing the joy it brings people. In my family we love people with food. Bringing a meal to someone going through a rough time, sending cookies (or struffoli at Christmastime) to let a far-away friend you're thinking of them, preparing just the right menu for a family member's birthday dinner and dessert. I love sharing the happiness cooking and baking brings me with others.