Pork Larb Lettuce Wraps

I've been cooking a lot this past week which means its been relieving my stress...I saw this Thai recipe and thought it looked easy and delicious, so that's what was for dinner tonight.  It was so hot out today, I couldn't think of eating heavy food.  I make lettuce wraps often.  I have a "goto" recipe that I pretty much always use and will post next time I make it. One thing I always use and insist is a MUST for the wraps is "butter lettuce".

Shrimp Saganaki

This was one of my favourite dishes when I visited Mykonos, Greece.  I enjoyed it so much at this one restaurant, I went back and ate it again.  It blew my mind, how simple and delicious it was.  It was heavenly.  This restaurant was family run, the mom cooked and both sons worked "front of house" and they were super easy on the eyes...Below are both dinners.

Bacon, Tomato, Green Onion & Cheddar Quiche

On Sundays I get up early, like 6am early to drive my son to work as transit (skytrain) doesn't operate at this time, on this day.  I got home, was looking at facebook and a memory popped up of mine showing me an "amuse-bouche quiche tart".  So, I decided to make some quiche.  I'm a cheater at this and I always use Pillsbury refrigerated pie dough.  I took it out and let it come to room temperature, about 20 minutes.  I preheated my oven to 375°F.  My ingredients were:

New York Strip Steak in a Cast Iron Fry Pan

I learned this recipe on PBS, probably 20 years ago now.  They were featuring a chef and he told how he liked to make his NY strip steaks.  I have been making it this way ever since, but only with strip loins.  No others worked as good (and I tried a few other steak types),  so I only use this one particular cut when using this cooking method.  This really is a foolproof technique and it is so simple but so wonderful and robust in flavor.  I highly recommend trying it.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken - Part TWO

So, after last night's disaster, I decided I had to do this again.  I brought the leftover chicken to work and let a couple of people try it.  They liked it so I guess this was a matter of "personal taste"...I love paprika (hot, sweet & smoked), so was surprised I disliked the "smoked" paprika sooo much!  My son said it was good too but he wasn't blown away by it either.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE fried chicken - I dream of fried chicken.  I ate it, ordered it everywhere I went in Nashville when I visited.  My dad's last wife made such good fried chicken, I wish I would have got ALL her recipe/tips before she passed on.  She wasn't southern - from Oakland, CA, but she made unreal "soul" food.  She was also the first one I ever saw eat all the "knuckles" off the chicken bones and she taught me about beans and rice with pork hocks - she loved pinto beans, and "collard greens" even though she never made them for me.  Those greens were impossible to find here back then and I still don't see them often...

Mexican Dreamboat Hot Dogs

I saw these made on "The Chew" last week with Pati Jinich, and I actually have her cookbook as I am going to try and make some of her Mexican dishes.  The recipe is here.  She told the story about them on the show which is what she tells in her cookbook "Mexican Today".  She said on the show that the one making the hot dogs was not a "hunk" though.  I've pasted the excerpt because I like the tale...

Greek Moussaka

Moussaka is like lasagna except better for you since it uses eggplant rather than pasta in the layers.  This is my "go-to" recipe.  I generally always make it for company or take it as an entree if I am going to someone's house.  I got this recipe back in the days when PBS was the only t.v. station with cooking shows on weekends and I taped them on my VHS machine. This was from chef Pierre Franey and I hand wrote it out after "taping" his show.  That was probably 25 years ago now.  I have edited this dish over the years (practice makes perfect), but his recipe is what it was based on.  I still use it as my guideline but only in the respect of using all the ingredients as listed.

Black Tiger Shrimp Cobb Salad

I saw these huge black tiger shrimp at Costco (8 - 12 count) and decided I needed to try them to see what they were like.  I decided to make Cobb salad with them, along with my favourite blue cheese dressing that I make for my Wedge salad.   I decided to serve it on the side.  I made the dressing first and put it in the fridge.  After an hour or two, I had my son taste it.  He said, like I always say, it was good enough to eat out the jar with a spoon and nothing else needed.  I couldn't find chives today so used 2 green onions and it worked fine as a replacement.  I used, besides the shrimp, which I sauteed in garlic, butter & lemon:

Tomato Tarte Tatin

I've made this a couple of times before.  This is a really tasty dish and looks like a lot of work, though it really isn't.  Below is a picture of the first time I made it with blue cheese.

Peaches & Cream Trifle

When it becomes peach season, I try and make something with them for my son.  He really likes peaches.  I made cobbler last year and it was terrible because I didn't peel the skin off.  I didn't know you had to!  I came across this recipe and it looked easy - right up my alley, so I decided to try and make a trifle.  I couldn't find a trifle bowl, but then as I was at Homesense, I noticed one that would do that was in the vase section, so I bought it for $7.  It was 6 inches in diameter so a little smaller than the one she used in her recipe which was 7 inches.

Taco Stuffed Zucchini Boats

I've been trying to eat "healthier" lately which to me means with less "carbs".  I saw this recipe and thought it looked good.  I based mine on it, but didn't follow it exactly.  I've made a few of her recipes and they've been very good, so I would have no hesitation in recommending it, even without trying it "her way".