Risotto. . .tender, creamy arborio rice, slow simmered in a flavorful broth, with lots of butter and cheese. It’s so good I could eat just that for dinner and call it a day. My favorite risotto was served to me many years ago at a small, family-run restaurant in Kansas City. I can’t even remember…
Fish & Seafood
Delmonico Fish
Sometimes you find interesting things when you rifle through your grandmother’s old recipe box. I thought I knew about everything in there, but for some reason, never noticed a couple of cards in the ‘Fish’ section, until recently. I don’t even remember her making these dishes, but I knew that if they were in her…
Classic Peel & Eat Shrimp
I sometimes get creative in the kitchen with seafood or produce in an attempt to offer new possibilities using ‘old standards’. But sometimes an ingredient simply begs to be used in a classic dish. When my friends at Left Coast Seafood Company recently offered me some fresh Gulf shrimp, I was SO excited. Those talented…
Swordfish & Olive Pasta
I’ve mentioned before that I love reading food memoirs, and one of my favorites is Judith Jones’ The Tenth Muse. . .My Life in Food. In it, she captures many wonderful stories about her experiences in the culinary literary world, including all the amazing chefs she had the privilege of knowing and working with, including…
An Insider’s View to Stone Crabbing
This article titled Inside Look: Sarasota Stone Crabbing was originally published at Visit Sarasota. Please follow them on their website or through social media! In what seems a lifetime ago, my husband and I owned a marina shipstore in Nokomis — a busy dock on the Intracoastal Waterway that had a long history of serving…
Field Trip Friday – Smoked Mullet Festival
(Field Trip Fridays capture interesting, fun, food-related and/or fishing adventures that I like to share with you!). Florida offers so many big attractions, as well as, small backroads events that sometimes it’s hard to keep up. Figuring out what we’ll do each weekend is a fun project in our house because my husband and…
It’s Stone Crab Season!
October 15 marks the opening day of Florida’s stone crab season! If you’re new to the stone crab world, here are 9 things you might like to know: 1) In Florida, stone crabs are harvested October 15 – May 2. 2) Commercial & recreational harvesters typically use baited traps; each has identifiable floats. 3) Commercial crabbers…
Crab & Wasabi Appetizers
Recently I was asked to bring an appetizer to a get-together and thought I had plenty of time to make something. Unfortunately, my day got away from me and I found myself an hour before the event with no ideas. Ever been there? So I dug through my pantry and came upon a can of…
Olive Oil Poached Cod with Rosemary, Garlic & Lemon
Cooking fish can sometimes be daunting, especially if you don’t do it all the time. Even those of us who cook it regularly can experience it getting away from us, resulting in a dry, tough, or smelly mess. But there’s a foolproof way to achieve moist, flavorful, tender and “velvety” fish. Poaching! You’re probably familiar with…
Halibut with Warm Chourico & Corn Relish
My friend Glenn recently took a trip to Homer Alaska and nabbed huge fish, including Lingcod and Halibut. Here are just some of the big Halibut those anglers caught (they all look pretty happy, especially Glenn on the far left): Luckily for me, he shared some when he got home, and I graciously accepted. This…
Scallop Ceviche
Ceviche is a perfect summer appetizer. It’s light, bright, refreshing, and doesn’t require use of the stove one bit. Even famed food writer MFK Fisher agreed when she wrote in With Bold Knife and Fork that it’s “very good in hot weather.” So I, not being one to disagree with such a refined palette, take…
Bay Scallops Casserole
My friend Karen, along with her family and friends, recently went on a scalloping trip to Crystal River, Florida. During scallop season, a steady stream of folks head there to snorkel and collect as many scallops as they’re allowed to get. Apparently there was a bumper crop this year, ’cause the Johnson clan came home…