recipephile

Roasted Radicchio

On my very last evening in Fire Island this summer I had a great group of friends over for a little dinner party. The theme was Italian and instead of planning the meal and heading to the store, I headed to the store to plan the meal.

There it sat in front of me. Having just been spritzed by the veggie spritzer that big round and red piece of radicchio was staring at me. It was glistening from its misting and begging to be placed into my cart. Reluctantly I picked it up not knowing what I would do to this bitter creature.

My mind went in a million different directions until I settled on something sweet to offset the bitter flavor. Hmmm... how about brown sugar, butter and balsamic vinegar and then roasted in the oven? Having settled on a flavor combination I dropped the bitter lettuce into my cart and went home to prepare.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

My first job out of college had me working as a manager for a chain of Mexican restaurants called Cantina del Rio. All of the new managers had to train in each and every position at the restaurant. For a week at a time I worked as a dish washer, cook, waiter, prep-chef, bus boy, janitor, bartender and more. By the end of the training the owners wanted to make sure that you knew the restaurant inside and out. My favorite position, besides pouring drinks behind the bar, was the prep-chef position. We had to make every item on the menu and since mostly everything was prepared from scratch it gave me the chance to see how every item was prepared from start to finish.

Torta Frita Margarita

I am a bad blogger. The summer got away from me and it has certainly been a while since I've written. You'll start to see more from me in the coming weeks. Here is my first blog after a long hiatus.

When I was a child my Grandmother would have me over each and every weekend to stay the night with her and help out with her daily errands. We would watch TV, listen to her stereo and ride the bus into town. For me the fun was endless and I looked forward to my visits with her. One of my favorite things to do was to make Torta Frita (literally fried dough) with "Gram" (this is what we affectionately called her). On Saturday morning we would wake up early, gather the ingredients and prepare the dough for rising. Then we would head out for a few hours, do some errands, have some lunch and then come home to prepare for dinner.