SHRIMP FRITTERS There are always shrimp in my freezer. I buy peeled and deveined shrimp, and prefer 23 – 25 count for their versatility – work well in pasta dishes, nice size for frying and good size for cocktail shrimp (unless you’re making appetizer course cocktails or bloody marys, then you want U12 or larger)…
WHO DON’T LIKE LEMON? Lemon is a universal flavor. I have never met anyone who doesn’t like lemon. The secret to a great Lemon Square is fresh lemon – peel and juice. I’ve made these with bottled juice and they’re just not the same. Not as tart, not as….lemony. I found with bottled juice the…
Sometimes I need me some chocolate. I am a bit of a chocolate snob. In a pinch I will use a grocery store brand like Ghirardelli, but these cookies deserve a good dark chocolate chunk like Callebaut or Valrhona. I am sure they can be made with a milk chocolate as well, though I never…
When I was a kid pot pies were a go to dinner for nights that Mom worked late. Mom’s go to recipe was…Swanson. We always had a few in the freezer – turkey pot pies and beef pot pies. Pot pies are a comfort food; basically stew wrapped in pie crust. (Personal note: for me,…
My mom’s a good cook, though cooking to her was more of a chore than a labor of love. She worked full-time, yet she somehow managed to put a home cooked meal on the table most nights. We rarely ate at restaurants, other than our regular pizza nights (fast food was a relatively new thing…
Blackberries, strawberries, raspberries….oh my. Summertime. I grew up in a small town along the Hudson River in New York’s Hudson Valley. Mom was born and raised in Brooklyn; Dad in the Bronx. They were city folk, but didn’t want to bring up a family in the city. As my mother’s mother, Grandma Rose put it,…
Even the best magician can’t produce something out of thin air. That’s an illusion. You need “something up you sleeve”, or in your hat. For a good cook (especially one with a busy life) you need a good back up of “basics” in your fridge and pantry, so when you decide on a recipe,…
“Nobody gets in to see The Wizard. No nobody. Not no how!” Noel Langley, The Wizard of Oz That quote hangs in my kitchen, and it has hung in the offices and kitchens I’ve worked in most of my career. No, it is not because I consider myself to be a wizard. To…
This is a classic Southern Italian dish. The name means “shoemaker’s chicken”. I’ve read a couple of back stories to the name, but suffice it to say, a lot gets lost in translation. In it’s original concept it is what some refer to as a “peasant dish”, in that the ingredients are fairly simple and…
A conversation with my sister, Patty One of the things I look forward to every Christmas holiday season is a visit with my sister. Patty lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and with me living in Massachusetts we don’t get to visit often. But, I make an annual pilgrimage to Florida to see my…