Sesame Fire Noodles

I would imagine, throughout my lifetime, I’ve tasted about 11,937 noodle based dishes. This includes salads, casseroles, mac & cheeses, soups and of course pastas from picnics, bar-b-cues, church basement pot-lucks, receptions, buffets, dinners at home and elsewhere, travels here and abroad and of course college dorm days. (Although I have not included the tally from a couple of years of roaming the Italian North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco which is more or less kind of a blur.)

Fierce Garlic Prawns with Red Pepper Aioli

True Prawns have a few subtle variances that distinguish them from jumbo shrimp – different gills, more pincers and longer legs. But for our purposes here, i.e. eating good food, those differences are really moot because we’re going for big.

Popcorn Soup (Roasted Corn Chowder)

This is not the Popcorn Soup of my childhood; that was made with canned corns, both whole kernel and creamed varieties, plenty of processed cheese and no other vegetables that I can recall. What made that meal a special event at home was the simple addition of a big bowl of Popcorn right in the middle of the table. You just grabbed a handful, let it fall into your soup and ate it up before all the Popcorn melted away into cheesy, corny goodness. Don’t fret, it was the 60’s and we all washed our hands before coming to the table – or else!

Sweet and Crunchy Sautéed Haricots Verts

Haricots Verts are thin, mostly straight, French Green Beans. Not to be confused with the French cut Green Bean. The French Cut is done to make the thicker Green Bean resemble the slimmer Haricot Vert.

Chili con dos Carnes

 Everyone has a favorite Chili recipe. Some like it savory, some sweet; with or without beans; red, white or brown and varying degrees of heat from mild to “I will never be able to taste again!” There are also those truly fearsome Chili aficionados with their set of rules that govern what is or is not real chili. Good for them, everyone needs a cause to fight for!

Seventy Five Feet of Heaven

I just came across these photos from our 2011 Caribbean Valentine Cruise and I wanted to share these wonderful creations. The pastry chefs were very busy judging by the magnitude of this magnificent spread that was literally 75' long! In addition to gallons of chocolate, there was a very large assortment of pastries, fruit and candies in many unique and tasty forms.

Mom’s Meatloaf (was never like this!)

It’s the rare American who is not passionate, in one way or another, about meatloaf. The pro-meatloaf contingency may speak fondly of meatloaf “every night when we were first starting out”, or stuffed with this or that or smothered in this or that or “the best part is the sandwiches”. Conversely, the anti-meatloaf camp will probably drone on about meatloaf “every night when we were first starting out”, or stuffed with this or that or smothered in this or that or “the best part is the sandwiches”. While the reasons to either love or hate the lowly loaf are many, and so very similar, I believe that most haters have just been exposed to too many bad attempts.