Spicy Shrimp and Cheddar Grits

“He can never leave well enough alone.” I heard this pretty much constantly throughout my childhood. (They were talking about me!) I love shrimp! I love grits! Shrimp and grits? Of course, but sometimes in its most basic traditional form it’s not really boring but maybe a canvas to be... adorned.  

The Ultimate Stacked Southwest Spicy n’ Sweet Burger

This is our favorite “at home” burger. Actually it’s our favorite burger period! What makes it “Ultimate” and “Stacked”? The outstanding components that go together to make up this burger are each a taste treat in themselves, but put them together and you get a burger the likes of which you’ve never experienced before!

Fettuccini and Prawns with Roasted Garlic Cream Sauce

Way back before the turn of the century while living in San Francisco, one of our favorite restaurants was Caffe Sport, whose specialty is Italian seafood. This dish is inspired by one of their most popular menu items, “Scampi al’ Antonio”, created by Chef and founder Antonio La Tona.

Cannellini and Escarole Soup

Whether you prepare Consommé, Bisque, Chowder or just Soup, you’re making something that just about everyone loves. 
Some soups, especially intense and clarified consommés or rich and creamy bisques are usually served as one of several courses in a meal. Others are equally appropriate occupying the “soup course” or as the star of the meal. 


Baked Scampi

Here’s a dish that is so easy to prepare you’ll feel guilty when your dinner companion raves about it. The flavor combination of tarragon, garlic and lemon are a natural with just about any mild seafood. We use them all sparingly to avoid overpowering the distinctive but delicate taste of the shrimp.

Broiled Shrimp Cocktail

Served as an appetizer, fish course, main course or mounded on a buffet, ice cold shrimp with a spicy seafood cocktail sauce is loved by everyone. My apologies to those with shellfish allergies, but then those poor souls are probably not reading this recipe.

Sweet and Sassy Chicken

Sweet is a nice word. It makes you think of nice things. Sour is not as nice a word. It makes you want to clench your jaw and pucker. And sassy is a kind of naughty word. It makes you giggle.

Black Bean Maque Choux with Cajun Chicken

Maque Choux, pronounced “mock shoe”, is traditionally thought to have come to us through the courtesy of the original French Acadians who migrated from Canada to Louisiana and the Caddo Nation Native Americans who introduced them to corn. I’m just grateful that someone had the good sense to invent this dish!

Coconut Curry Chicken

Sometimes, when developing a recipe, I’ll begin with the idea of what I would like the dish to become. In this case I knew I wanted the essences of curry and coconut. Now comes the fun part; I get to smell all kinds of wonderful things! I started by sniffing some shredded coconut that I keep on hand for making granola.

Chicken Puff Pie

When I was growing up, chicken and other pot pies were not a homemade meal. Instead they came from companies like Swanson® and Banquet® to be served when mom didn’t have time to make dinner. But somehow, since that time, pot pies moved out of the frozen dinner category and into the realm of comfort food.

Parmesan Crunch Chicken Breast

Boneless, skinless chicken is convenient, healthy, fast cooking and adaptable to a wide variety of uses. The problem is that much of the chicken character is missing because the bone and skin are well, “less”. So, when we prepare these healthier alternatives to their intact relatives, we have to add some sparkle and pizzazz.

Spicy Drunken Shrimp

 
There is a little place tucked away in Homosassa, Florida named The Freezer Tiki Bar. This recipe was inspired by their most popular menu item that keeps locals, and visitors who are lucky enough to find out about the place, coming back again and again.

Split Pea Soup with Roasted Vegetables

Soup can be made two ways. You can throw everything in a kettle and let it simmer for hours with very little supervision or you can finesse it into life in about an hour. This is one of the latter – you’ll be tending this most of the way through as you layer it with good things, some which just might surprise you.

Garlicky Garlic Meatloaf

Meatloaves are simple to make, quick to assemble, unpretentious to serve and everyone loves them! The simplicity comes from the choice of ingredients – just about anything you would serve with a meatloaf can go inside a meatloaf or you can keep it modest and let the flavor come from herbs and spices or simply your choice of meats.

Chicken Cutlets with Mushroom Sauce and Wilted Spinach

Chicken simply seasoned, lightly floured and sautéed until crisp? Heaven! Anything with mushrooms, seriously, I love that! I grew up watching Popeye the Sailor and always ate my spinach and still do – as often as I can!

Roman Roll

This is a perfect casual main course to serve friends on a cold winter night. The aromas coming from your kitchen will have your guests anticipating great things and when you sit down to eat they will not be disappointed! Make sure your guests are all good friends – there’s a lot of garlic in this dish!

Roasted Pork Chops with Apple Chutney

The pork chops we ate when I was growing up were prepared one of two ways; either fried or baked. When fried they were served with pan gravy and when baked they were always accompanied by applesauce. This recipe is an updated version of the baked pork chops with applesauce I ate as a child. Sweet and tart fruits are the perfect complement to pork. You’ll find fruit stuffed inside and on top of chops, roasts and tenderloins in just about every cook’s repertoire.

Hearts and Sole

Just down 63rd street from Midway Airport in Chicago, the French Kitchen (now just a memory) served a dish called Sole en Sack. It doesn’t take a degree in the romantic languages to translate that, does it? There was nothing complex about the cooking method, seasoning or the presentation. When it was brought to your table, you tore open the paper lunch bag and ate the delicately steamed, lemon scented fish.

Beef and Bean Enchurritos

Mexican influenced cuisine was never part of our family fare when I was growing up in suburban Chicago. The first time we experienced anything close was during a vacation trip to Los Angeles in the very early 1960’s when my older brother begged my parents to try something he had heard about called a Taco. The fact is that most of what is referred to, here in the U.S., as Mexican food is actually only a bunch of really distant cousins to the cuisine of our southern neighbors. (This is not all that different from our westernized versions of any other culture’s foods!)

365 BBQ Ribs

One of the best things about cooking barbeque is being outdoors. However, when the temperature outside is colder than the beer I don’t do a lot of prolonged grill work. But that doesn’t mean that I give up enjoying BBQ’d food.