Soaking it all in

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...