Soaking it all in

I miss being young and scaring my family during summer vacations. Oh and I miss the foods we ate during our outings. Our favorite destination was a place in Marathon Key called the Salty Dog Motel. This place looked like something right out of the 1950s. We used to go there often during the early 1970s. The motel sign was this huge motley looking mutt wearing a sailors’ cap and an eye-patch covering one eye. Every room was an efficiency suite, meaning it had a mini kitchen and living area in addition to the bedrooms and bath. AND IT WAS CHEAP! The best thing however was the Olympic sized pool, complete with a 33 foot tall diving tower. I loved swimming. My dad used to call me his little frog because I was always in the pool. There was one time, I was maybe 7 or 8 years old, when my brother Frank started showing off his diving skills. He started off at the diving board on the lowest point of the tower. He bounced once, twice, and then flew in the air and splashed perfectly into the...

Hey folks, I’ve missed sharing some foodie fun with you these past few weeks. It’s been a whirlwind merry-go-round around here. My recent promotion was a humbling experience and also a blessing. It is also a new chapter and a welcomed challenge in my life which I look forward to. After receiving the promotion, I did what any true foodie would do and SPLURGED. I treated myself and cooked a true surf and turf dinner - a Rib-eye steak and lobster tail. It was a massive and decadent. I savored every bite, after all I earned it baby! I went shopping too. Of course I had to buy a few new outfits as well as get my nails done. Why not? It’s what managers do right? Heck I was on cloud nine. It felt great to be recognized and appreciated after years of hard work. And it’s great to work at a place you enjoy being at and the people you’re surrounded by. But just as I was savoring a new highlight in my life, something happened that shook me and every foodie I know to the core. Famous ...

Picking up right where I left off last time, we are still in National Barbecue month. Light up the grill and pop open a brewsky! My whole family enjoys cooking on grills. My brother practically grills dinner every night. Not sure if he REALLY loves grilling or hasn’t figured out how to use an oven yet, tsk, tsk. We used to have huge family get-togethers that centered on a barbecue grill or pit. Tall tales were passed along by our elders as they downed tall brews. Seemed the more beers they drank the bigger that one fish, crab or hog (fill in the blank) was that got away. Back in the day, my dad and uncle were cigarette smokers. They would be busy prepping the pig, rib or beef. They took special care in mixing the rub and massaging it into the meat. All while a cigarette hung from their lips, ash dangling from the cigarette. I would stare at them, hoping the ash didn’t fall in the food, and wondered how long the ash would get before it fell. Thankfully, the ash didn’t hit the ...

May is upon us. It means the colder weather will soon be behind us (Are you listening Mother Nature, because lately you’ve been flipping the hot and cold switch far too often). It also means Cinco de Mayo is around the corner and, better yet, it is NATIONAL BARBECUE MONTH!! Heck yeah! Likely two of my all-time favorite things food-wise (well besides my love of Latin food and sushi and just about everything else), Mexican food cooked on an outdoor grilling and served with a tall tequila-laden margarita. I plan to make the most of this weekend’s Cinco de Mayo by grilling some skirt steak and a pork shoulder so I can make enchiladas, burritos and tacos, for like days and weeks to come. Because: I CAN AND I WANT TO. I marinate the steak and pork the day before grilling so they can soak up some Mexican flavors. I typically use a taco seasoning pack, some mojo, lime juice, cilantro paste, a dash of apple cider vinegar, minced garlic, ground cumin and a spicy barbecue sauce that ha...

“On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese “I lost my poor meatball, when somebody sneezed….” Ah, all the old and mostly lost (thank goodness) nursery rhyme songs about food from my youth. That one was a classic and I can still recall all the lyrics even today. If you listen to the rest of the song the meatball rolled on the floor, out the door, into a bush and turned into mush that the songwriter apparently TASTED. The rest of the meatball eventually grew into a tree the next summer all covered with beautiful moss and spewing forth big meatballs and tomato sauce. It sounds like this song writer might have tasted a few magic mushrooms, if you ask me. But a huge bowl of spaghetti with meatballs all covered in Parmesan cheese would really hit the spot right now. The music industry has a long history of songs inspired by food or about food that people may not realize. Many food songs are geared toward children. Growing up I can recall a ton of children’s songs that were used ...

I’ve been craving a perfectly fried hogfish sandwich, the one you can only get from the Hogfish Bar and Grill in Stock Island, Florida. You’ve never heard of hogfish? You’ve never been to the Hogfish Bar and Grill? You are truly missing out! Listen, this place is worth a weekend trip just for the ambiance, but when you add in the fresh seafood, it is a must do destination if you’re planning a trip to Key West. Stock Island is a strip of land that serves as an entry-way to Key West and hosts some of the last commercial fishing fleets on Safe Harbor. The seafood at the Hogfish is literally hook-to-cooked, and outside patio dining allows you to take in the breathtaking scenery and sunshine. The hogfish is a funky looking sea creature with a long “pig-like” snout. It uses this snout to root up crustaceans from the ocean’s sediment. Crustacean is the hogfish’s main diet. Because of its funky snout it is rare to hook a hogfish on a regular fishing line. Most hogfish are caught by spe...

Let’s talk about the diversity of a potato. I mean there are red potatoes, Yukon gold (fancy term for yellow), russets, white and even purple varieties. Literally there are thousands of varieties. And just think of all the possible yummy foods you make with potatoes. French fries, mashed, scalloped, twice baked, hash brown, potato salad and even soup recipes come to mind when contemplating how to plate up tubers. And let’s not forget how vital potatoes are in making vodka and other alcoholic beverages. Cheers to that! But did you know spuds are used in a variety of other ways? According to the International Potato Center (yep a real organization with a website), potato starch is used by the pharmaceutical, textile, wood and paper industries as an adhesive, binder, texture agent and filler. Some of these companies make wood products containing potato by-products. That gives new meaning to the term home-fries doesn’t it? Those potato peels we often discard are biodegradabl...

Some of the best foods come in wraps. We typically call them burritos, but don’t limit your thoughts to merely Mexican food. Although that is my favorite one-handed grab-and-go meal; tangy and spicy beef, chicken or bean (or a combo with all three) beautifully wrapped in a flour tortilla, a perfectly bundled package of yumminess. But the wonderful thing about a burrito is that you can turn just about anything into one. It’s all about the wrap. Whether it’s a flour, wheat, spinach or corn tortilla, once you place food in the middle and fold, you’ve got a burrito. There are hundreds of possibilities. I love making scrambled eggs with spinach, hash brown potatoes and crispy bacon for breakfast. You lightly heat the tortilla on a flat skillet, fill with all the breakfast goodies, fold and eat. Lightly heat a tortilla on one side. Once warm turn to heat the other side while sprinkling the top with a little cinnamon and sugar. Remove the tortilla from the heat. Add sliced pieces of pr...

The first time I heard of beer-can chicken, I thought, “Why in the world would you sacrifice a can of beer in that manner?” I mean, it’s bad enough you’re wasting precious beer but shoving the can up the bird’s innards too, jeepers! Well a few years later and a bit wiser when it comes to food, I must confess that if you’re going to sacrifice a brew, this is likely the best thing to use it for. And if you don’t feel comfortable sticking an aluminum can up the bird, they now have cooking kits you can use. I’m a purist though. Just give me a good can of beer and that will do. No fancy equipment required. Beer-can chicken is actually easy to make. You marinate the chicken however you wish. Open a can of beer and pour 1/3 of it into the roasting pan. Place the open can in the center of the roasting pan and slide the chicken on top of the can. I like roasting my chicken anywhere between 375-400 degrees and usually 90 minutes does the trick (it depends on the size of the bird). If yo...

Super Bowl Sunday came and went and with it so did tons of chips and salsa, chicken wings, nachos and any semblance of a proper diet. My team wasn’t in the game (forever a Dallas Cowboys fan…get over it) and I don’t like the New England Patriots (does anyone?) so the only reason in watching it was to have an excuse to eat and drink beer. Well that and root for the Eagles. Things started off on the right foot during the first half. I served up a nice plate of spinach and vegetable salad. I nibbled on a few dill pickle spears and drank water. During the second quarter as the game intensified and the score remained close, I chomped on chips and salsa. As the game progressed I steadily found myself yelling at the TV screen more often. “Curse you Tom Brady,” I’d yell and then grab a Dorito. “Someone tackle him please.” Watching Brady drop a pass after a trick play, actually had me laughing out loud. I celebrated with a spicy chicken wing and a beer. As much as I like Justin Timberl...

I love visiting my parents. Each time we get together we reminisce about family outings throughout the years. I love listening to them talk about their childhood in Cuba. My dad often talks about having to wake up real early and take care of the farm and cattle before getting dressed and walking to school. I learned that my aunt was an educator before leaving Cuba for the United States. She used to ride her horse every day to teach third grade. I thought that was pretty cool and beat all those stories you hear about having to walk 5 miles in the snow, uphill, to get to and from school. But for this foodie nothing beats watching mom create heavenly tasting holiday meals. I spent Christmas and New Year’s at mom and dad’s house. Mom showed me the technique to roast the perfect pork shoulder, cooked just right, so you end up with a crunchy, crispy pork rind. One of the most basic sauces used in many Cuban, Puerto Rican and Caribbean dishes is called a sofrito. It is the tangy, somet...

I had this I-want-something-Cuban craving the other day (strange right?). I looked around my kitchen and it was slim pickings (because I don’t like the cold weather. And it’s been cold, so I was too lazy to go shopping because IT’S COLD). But I had the items I needed and ended up creating what is likely to be a new regular dish on my list of meals to make. Using some leftover roasted pork, a sweet onion and a green plantain, I created my own plantain pork sliders. THEY WERE THE BOMB! You don’t need the whole onion, just enough slices that you’ll caramelize in olive oil on the stove top. Enough for about 2-3 sliders Peel the green plantain and cut it into one inch chunks. I happen to have a deep fryer. If you don’t, you can fry the plantain chunks in oil on the stove top. Fry them for 3-5 minutes, making sure both sides get cooked in the oil. While the onions and plantains are cooking, I tossed some shredded roasted pork into a small bowl with some minced garlic and mojo. Just...