To Cook Is To Heal

For Christmas dinner my wife suggested that we grille the petite lobster tails that we had bought and frozen about a month ago. These are tiny (2-4 oz) tails, and were only $4 each. A great way to enjoy one of the priciery seafood delights. Alongside, we  had bought a couple of pounds of Stone crab claws to accompany the lobster.  The lobster was grilled on our Yakatori charcoal grille on top of fresh picked Meyer's Lemon tree leaves (thanks Guy).  The crab claws were steamed in a classic style with Old Bay, cappers, lemon, garlic and S&P. Both were served with (melted) butter, garlic butter, or seasoned salt butter. Sides were; homemade classic KFC coleslaw, Poppy's Asian cucumber salad, and fresh baby spinach cooked in EVOO, butter, balsamic vinegar and S&P. Wonderful way to enjoy a precious holiday. Laying the leaves down Meyer's Lemon Leaves All done Stone Crab Claws Wonderful meal, though the crab claws are hard to deal with, I actually br...

Months ago our local fishmonger suggested that we try Lionfish, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lionfish-facts.html  when and if they caught some. Evelyn, (our fishmonger)  Evelyn came through this week on our "gone fishin' Wednesday". She set aside a nice sized Lionfish for us, knowing that we would want to give it a go.  Lionfish Even the owner of the store smiled when we talked about our purchase, he said we would enjoy the fish. It was only about 1 1/2 pounds' total, so we had it filleted and added some nice local Monkfish to our purchase to provide enough fish for a nice meal. On the menu tonight was seared (in Black garlic EVOO, S&P) Lionfish fillets, accompanied by a small portion of Monkfish. Once cooked; drizzled with Brown butter, shallot, Balsamic vinegar sauce, served with dill carrots and coconut Jasmine rice with sauteed green onions.  Worked pretty well and yes the Lionfish was remarkable, one that we will be on th...

What one other word can cause salivating, fond memories, stomach growling and heart attacks? Usually, there are two camps for cooking this irresistible flavorful delight. The time honored bacon cooking style is in a skillet on a stove top, or you might use one of your favorite cast iron skillets from your stable, or maybe a trusted   griddle .  The second camp prefers to roast it in the oven on a sheet pan. For over 40 years I have been a camp one bacon cook. Only using my favorite cast iron skillet with my trusty cast iron bacon presses. I always cooked the bacon low and slow, providing a wonderful crispy finish. Biggest draw back for me was the amount of time, energy and cleanup associated with this cooking style. Finally, one day I decided to go over to the dark side, or camp two, the oven roasted cooking method. Surprise surprise, I actually liked the results better. Mainly due to the fact that it took far less effort/cleanup and the flavor and crispnes...