So Jimmy Buffet has set a course for the beautiful Mother Ocean in the sky where it’s always five o’clock, the tourists aren’t bothering anybody, the margaritas are always made from scratch, and salt shakers are plentiful and perpetually close at hand. James William...
Coconut Rice
I’ve recommended (and explained) Coconut Rice as an accompaniment to other dishes before, but I wanted y’all to be able to go straight to the recipe when you need it. You’ll only need it once though, it’s so easy to remember. In addition to being delicious, coconut...
Sheet Pan Pork Teriyaki Skewers
**Lazy Chef Edition** So there I was planning this grilled-pork-teriyaki-satay-situation-with-peanut-sauce-and-everything to share with all of you. But I was totally dragging my feet and it wasn’t getting done. Y’all know I’m a charcoal grill girl, and that’s a whole...
My Big Fat Italian Salad
Gambino’s is an Italian restaurant down the street, and I’ve eaten there regularly since I was a kid. My kids have eaten there since they were small children, too. My buddy Burton loves the Veal Marsala. Princess Persnickety is a die-hard Chicken Alfredo fan. My...
Gulf Coast Shrimp Roast with Creole Butter
Call it Low Country Boil, Frogmore Stew, or whatever else you want, we all know it and enjoy it. And no wonder; with corn, potatoes, sausage, and shrimp it’s pretty hard to go wrong. I love the idea of tossing everything in a 20 gallon stockpot outside and ending up...
Chicken Caesar Salad
Have you ever wondered why Caesar Salad is called “Caesar Salad”? I looked it up. It turns out that the original Caesar Salad was invented by an Italian immigrant chef, Caesar Cardini, who had restaurants in San Diego and Tijuana in the 1920s. The story is that, like...
Cheese Enchiladas
These Cheese Enchiladas were our very best seller at the shop, month in and month out. Prep Cook Extraordinaire Todd would come in in the morning, assess the Cheese Enchilada situation in the coolers out front, and get to work. I don’t know exactly how many Cheese...
Restaurant-Style Salsa
It’s so easy to grab a jar of salsa at the store. I used to do it all the time. That is, until the day I came home from the grocery store without it. By the time I realized my error I had enchiladas in the oven, rice on the stove, and I was setting the table for...
Black Bean Salsa
Black Bean Salsa is one of those recipes we make all the time at my house. I could live on it--and often do--especially in the summer. Black Bean Salsa uses mostly pantry ingredients, and the hardest part is opening the cans. I usually have fresh limes around, but in...
Mediterranean Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta
Mediterranean Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta is based on a classic Greek dish, Shrimp Saganaki. In Greece it’s predominantly served as an appetizer, often as part of a mezze (i.e., appetizer) platter. The word “saganaki” refers to the two handled-pan typically used to...
Tomato and Artichoke Galette
Everybody I know loves a tomato pie. It’s summertime right now and no one will shut up about it. Tomato pie this, tomato pie that, etc, etc, and then they look at me, and I’m all like . . . What??? I don’t make that kind of tomato pie. Those of you who have been...
Roasted Eggplant Parmesan
Just because a dish has been around for a couple of hundred years, doesn’t mean I can’t fiddle with it, right? The modern version of what we call Eggplant Parmesan appeared in the Italian aristocrat/gourmand Ippolito Cavalcanti's cookbook, Cucina Teorico-Pratica,...