A Ham and Cheese Dual Toad in the Hole with Roasted Red Bell Peppers and a Lime/Dill Creama

Sometimes when I lie awake at 3 AM due to my bi-phasic sleep pattern, I think of what I will make for breakfast. This creation is a direct result of that. Cut two holes in a large slice of sourdough bread. Save the resulting bread circles! I use an olive jar. Blend some robust olive oil with garlic powder and Pink Himalayan Sea Salt. Brush it onto the bread. Cut a few slices of ham, I used Toi Black Forest Ham. Break an egg into a bowl and then slide it into place. Repeat. Crush on fresh black pepper sprinkle with parsley and a hint of Mexican Tajin seasoning. Apply some finely shredded Mexican Co-Jack cheese and top with roasted red bell pepper strips. Air-fry at 370° for 10 minutes, keep the door closed and let it sit for 2 minutes. Top with a crema made from...

Harissa Fish Tacos

To end our Harissa week…we give you blackened Harissa Fish Tacos. Again, thanks to my friend Chip Gorman who introduced me to this seasoning. The blackened seasoning for the fish was a mix of fresh ground black pepper, harissa seasoning, Flat Iron Grill peppers, Habanero sea salts and Kevin’s Creole seasoning. All these were dusted, then pressed into two halibut fillets, but any fish would do. For the base, we had avocado oil heated up, then diced onions added. When they were cooking we added turmeric and cumin and black pepper. Diced garlic was added when the spices came to peak, and then a can of drained low sodium black beans. These simmered while the fish cooked. On the Blackstone griddle (best birthday present ever) we cooked the first half of...

Harissa Air Fried Chick Peas

This uses a fiery hot spice from North Africa. If you want something tamer, you could use just paprika. Big thanks to my life-long buddy Chip Gorman whose comment on my earlier air-fried chick pea snack led to the discovery of Harissa, which has become the basis of so many great meals. I get mine on Amazon. Simple recipe. I drain, rinse and clean (remove the skins) two cans of chick peas. I roll them out on a kitchen towel to dry and remove the rest of the skins. I throw these into a bowl with a little olive or avocado oil and coat them with the Harissa Seasoning. These go into the air fryer for 20 minutes, then I rotate the trays and do a few more minutes, or until they are crunchy all the way through. No mushy-ness. Place these in a bowl, add some more...

Pasta Salad

On a HOT Summer day there is only one perfect cool meal…Pasta Salad! In a perfect world I would use my grill’s side burner to boil the water for the pasta…but it was too hot outside to do even that. The area was knocking on 100°· So I cooked it indoors. Key here is to cook the pasta WAY before dinner so it can get cool. I boiled mine before dog-park time, iced it down, washed it with cool water, applied some olive oil, tossed it and put it into the fridge. At this time, put EVERYTHING into the fridge, including canned items like black olives and fresh items like onions and bell peppers. I used Farfalle (bow tie pasta) but normally I use tri-color Rotini. I just wanted to do something new. Ingredients: 1 diced red bell pepper1 diced red onion1...

Surf N’ Turf Smash-burger

A first for us. This just came out of the desire to have a Smashburger, but to do something different. We had some leftover cooked shrimp and Guac from Peggy’s Pier, and leftover rolls from our Harissa Chicken, so we came up with this. And it was delightful! We started with a classic Oklahoma Smash-burger, pressing the 80/20 grass-fed beef into thin sliced onions, seasoned with only salt and pepper. On the right side of the griddle we sauteed a whole onion and orange bell pepper. Once done we tossed a pile of shredded potatoes on top. With the burgers half cooked, we tossed 8 cooked shrimp, marinaded in lemon juice, olive oil and Italian seasoning. At the same time we toasted two sliced rustic buns, using avocado oil. Construction was simple, bun bottom,...