My maternal grandmother, Lourdes called the fridge clean out night Sambumbia. Spanish slang for a hodgepodge or concoction. Sambumbia represents everything I love about cooking: using imagination to create something tasty, doing the best with what you’ve got, and finding joy in the simple things in life.

As one of three girls, my mother always had the challenge of feeding me, my sisters, and all of the hungry friends we brought home. Amongst our engagements and commitments, not to mention during her own, my mother would find fun ways to keep us fed. “Sambumbia” night was one such routine. Sambumbia was a fridge cleaning; it was a meal of all the delicious leftovers accumulated through the week, or a creative reimagining of random ingredients found on the back of fridge shelves. In short, a buffet. An array. A smorgasbord.

Serving Up Sambumbia is a place where I can share things I love with the world. Here you’ll find delicious food, approachable recipes, cooking tips, questionable music taste, strong drink, jokes at the expense of my husband, self-deprecation and other sambumbia. I hope you follow along and enjoy.