Don’s clam fiesta
We had a hankering for clams today, so Don worked up this off-the-cuff recipe and it was a feast! Some of the ingredients were just things we had around and could be dropped out if needed. Less than half an hour from start to finish. You can prep stuff while the first items go into the skillet and then keep it moving. This will work with little necks, top necks and mussels as well. We just like middle necks for cooking. While it was a fantastic dish, Don’s only thought was that he wished he had some red bell pepper in here, some nice long slices for flavor, color and contrast. They would have gone in with the sausage. Key thing to make this work is remember, it’s all about the clams. Once they go in… you have 7 minutes and all your pasta and...
Gyro Burgers
We love the Gyro Burgers ( pronounced “your-row-burgers”). This may help you safe face some day, but don’t enter a Greek restaurant and ask for a “Gee-Ey-Roe.” They will cook you one. Because they know what you mean. It’s pronounced “YOUR-ROW” Anyway, we love gyro’s. But we don’t cook a lot of lamb. So with the help of Rachael Ray, we found this recipe and altered it a bit. We love the flavor and grill it up about once a month. Ingredients Olive oil Onion (we like sweet onion or Videalia) minced. box of frozen spinach or fresh, if available oregano 1/4 lb of crumbled feta cheese 1 package of ground chicken or turkey (we like chicken better) 1 tbs grill seasoning, we like McCormic’s Chicken 1/3...
Asparagus-Mushroom Risotto
This is pretty much a meal onto itself because the mushroom tends to be pretty ‘meaty’ on its own. We eat a lot of fish, so this is a good companion dish with a nice chunk of grouper, mahi or cobia. Thanks to Food Network’s robin Miller, who’s recipe this is based on. Ingredients 2 teaspoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, we used minced jarred garlic, so about a tablespoon of that. Handful of minced onion (we like Videllias) Pint container of shitake mushrooms, cleaned, stems removed and sliced 1 tsp died thyme 2 cups Arboria rice, cooked (this is important…cook your rice first!) 1 cup low sodium beef broth 2 cups or so of chopped fresh asparagus spears…frozen if you can’t find fresh. I use about 2 or 3 inches of the tops....
Don’s Monte Cristo
This is loosely based off something I caught while watching Rachael Ray the other day. I cooked up my version today and it was fantastic. I’ve tried Monte Cristo’s before, but haven’t been happy with the results. This recipe rocks. We generally have all these ingredients around the house, so it’s not a stretch to make it. When it comes to the ‘amount’ of the ingredients, I’m not going to get to particular, so in this case, amount of some of the ingredients will be covered in the instructions. Ingredients Dijon mustard Black pepper Butter Flour Milk Bread (we like Italian 5-grain) Cheese slices (we like colby-jack, swiss is good, Rachael uses Gruyere)…anything but American Sandwich sliced ham (we like tavern ham,...
Easter Morning
Sunrise, Easter morning. We traditionally join the Catholic Mass on Cocoa Beach. Then our family, and our extended family joins us at our house. Menu: Toasted bagels Cream cheese Thin sliced lox (smoked salmon) Onion (diced bermuda) Minced egg Capers And whatever else anyone brings. The goal is to toast the bagel, put on some cream cheese, top it off with the salmon and your topping of choice. To get it right, you really need everything. We then sit around our deck and pool and chat…and drink coffee until we are awake, then everyone goes home to get some sleep. It’s a great...
Don’s ‘Fidel’ Sandwich
OK, normally this would be “A Cuban” But Don’s ‘take’ on the Cuban is so far off mark, it needs to be called something else. So, of course, it needed to be something left of a Cuban (1950s) , and that would be Fidel. While we love Cuban sandwiches, Don is not big on the hard, pressed cuban bread. No sandwich should physically hurt to eat it. Thus the he created the “Fidel”. The recipe below is not based on volume. Just what you need for a single sandwich. We usually cook two sandwiches at a time in a large skillet. Two sandwiches takes about 10 minutes. Ingredients 2 pieces of Italian 5 grain bread. This is a sturdy five grain bread with texture and taste. You could pull this off with a whole grain bread as well. But...