Recipes

We don’t always eat out; sometimes we stay at home and cook. The results range from insanely edible to incendiary. Um, maybe we’ll come over to your place to cook next time.

By Michael • January 18th, 2010

Tonight Nicole asked me to slice a watermelon for her and, thinking of the mysterious peeled watermelon on the street carts, I decided to have some fun.  Should be easy to peel a watermelon, right?  Right! Well, mostly right.

When winter comes around I start to crave beverages that will warm me up; coffee, hot chocolate, cider.  All this time, I never considered tequila!

I’ve always been a fan of Iron Chef.  It’s one of those shows that exposes the art and passion that goes into the craft of creating really good food.  I always wondered what it would be like to take the stage in Kitchen Stadium, face my opponent, discover the secret ingredient, and hear the chairman yell “Allez cuisine!”.

That day has finally come.  Well, sort of.

For me, the sweetness of grilled peaches and the minty lime of mojitos go hand in hand with summer time.  Certain foods and flavors go perfectly with summer and these two are usual suspects.

Shrimp and grits is truly a satisfying meal at any time of the day!  You can’t go wrong with creamy grits topped with a succulent mixture of shrimp that’s been flavored with bacon and spices.

Sweet potatoes are the best.  They can be used in sweet or savory dishes; they count as a vegetable; and like their cousin the regular potato, they make great comfort foods.

My mom always does a great job of taking leftovers and creating something new.  I’ve seen her do it several times, turning left over chicken into chicken salad.  I figured it was about time I came up with my own recipe!

There’s nothing better than having your favorite street food at home!  With this dinner, I brought one of my favorite “meals from a cart” from the streets to the dinner table.

For those of us that yearn to have just a few more peaches in the fruit salad, this is vindication;  a salad that emphasizes fruit with the focus on peaches and nectarines.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

I love watching food television.  Food Network is perhaps my fave with all the shows they have to offer including the iconic Iron Chef series.  Its rare though, if ever, that I will want to use a recipe that I’ve seen on a TV show.  I’m inspired by the chefs and yeah, I’ll use tricks that I’ve picked up from shows, but I can’t recall the last time I made a point to recreate a recipe that I saw on TV.  An episode of Easy Entertaining With Michael Chiarello changed that.

Who comes up with these crazy “themes of the month” anyway?  Better yet, who cares!?
I made it just under the wire for National Grilled Cheese month.  Foodies across the states have been celebrating all month.  There’s even a Grilled Cheese Invitational where sandwich makers and chefs vie for the title of the best [...]

My mom used to cook apples on the stove top all the time, usually as a side for a breakfast meal of ham, rice, and biscuits.  It added the perfect sweetness to the meal…in addition to the jam or syrup we put on the biscuits!  I came up with my own version of her recipe.

I’ve always been a fan of squash. My Mom, who can crank out a gourmet sqaush dish with next to no effort, inspires me to eat and cook them. Eat them? Yes. Cook them? No so much. When I do, I’m disappointed with the results of my attempts to cook squash compared to hers. But I will Keep trying.

This is a very simple recipe I came across earlier this fall (its winter now) and wanted to try. Here goes nothing!