Recently we had my family over for an open house. We have been in our new place for a while now and not everyone had been here to see it. So we decided to do a luncheon. I had two ideas going into this party – I wanted to make something rustic and old-school hearkening back to the times that Italians stopped what they were doing to enjoy a nice lunch spread together out in the fields, on a big slab of wood turned into a table. Also along this theme, I really wanted to make something using ingredients that we already had at home.

Too many times when preparing for a party, I decide on a menu and then go and buy all the ingredients. This time, I wanted to challenge myself more and use what was around. We had been to the Farmer’s market the day before and had gotten our staples: potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, onions and beautiful bread. We also had a bag of frozen mussels in the freezer. So I decided to make a regional dish from Puglia, called Tiella di Cozze or Mussel Casserole – it is said to have descended from Spanish Paella. Since we were having a crowd, I also added some shrimp to the dish, which was topped off with a delicious bread crumb and parmesan topping! It was wonderful.

We served it with a nice green salad,Garlic-Rosemary Foccacia from Maria, the bread lady at the Farmer’s Market and finished with a

Yogurt Carrot Cake with Toasted Hazelnuts . Keep reading for the recipes.

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Okay guys, I am giving away secrets here. I use yogurt in a lot of my cooking. It is one of my culinary secrets. When a dish needs a little extra tang or some creaminess, I dig out the ubiquitous carton of plain yogurt in my fridge. I prefer the Greek style yogurt, as many of you know, but sometimes it is not available, so I just go for the all natural, organic plain stuff. No one can ever guess that it is in there, but it really adds a wonderful element to some of the best dishes I have made.

My Dad and Step mom were here this weekend visiting us. I wanted them to see the things about St. Augustine that we love so much, so on Saturday AM, bright and early we took a trip to the Farmer’s Market. We picked up some beautiful fresh local shrimp. We got some more of those huge Meyer lemons. I had pasta at home already and standing there at the market with fresh shrimp, lemons and beautiful green spring onions a plan began to form. This is the kind of cooking I love – being inspired by the best products you can find. The recipe is almost secondary.

After the market we took them to the the beach where we are going to get married in April. As you can see it was REALLY cold here this weekend. I am so glad I brought my parka with me from New England! We had a really great time. Roberto was the best sous chef ever and we had a great time cooking together in the kitchen while Dad and Kayzie relaxed in the living room with a glass of wine (did I mention that Kayzie is a wine distributor and they brought their own wine on their trip?! - lucky us!) The pasta was delicious by the way…

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It is not very often that I feature recipes of celebrity chefs on this blog. Of course, I watch cooking shows, frequently and I have my favorites, but mostly they give me ideas and inspiration for creating my own recipes. I will learn a new technique and I will want to try it out – not necessarily in the same way as it was laid out on TV. However, it just so happened that I fell in love with two recipes done by everyone’s favorite Italian chef – Giada De Laurentiis ( I will post the second recipe at a later date). This dish, is a pasta dish where the sauce is made from squash. I love squash and I am always looking for new and interesting ways to cook this, and I was just enamored by this dish. So for once, I followed a recipe exactly how it was written. There are of course a few changes I would make in the future, which I will note at the end of this post, but all in all it was a delicious and unique dish! It is perfect to stock away for the fall season when many of you will have gardens or farm shares overflowing with squash. You will appreciate this recipe then!

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I hate to say it, but it is past the middle of August and so we all must face the reality that for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is coming to an end. Even though I live in Florida where it is always summer I can feel the change at an instinctual level. I have started craving heartier meals, with autumnal ingredients, like squash and herbs like sage and there has been this urge in me to drink hot chocolate. I have even been having dreams about snow and our old house in Vermont…So even though the temperatures are still hot and humid, there is something about the air that is changing and it is creating in me the need to use up the summer surplus – do something with all those eggplants, peppers and tomatoes. Preserve them from rotting in my fridge now that my taste buds have shifted.

I have made a lot of grilled vegetable dishes over the summer and for me it is essential to have them – they are great for sandwiches and wraps, wonderful stirred in pasta and perfect just as is. The grilling of the vegetables brings out the natural sweetness in the vegetables and the marinade adds tang. It is best to prepare the vegetables a day ahead so they have time to marinate overnight. Leftover grilled vegetables go great in a wrap with a dressing made of Tahini, Greek Yogurt, Olive Oil and Sumac, which has become my condiment of choice this season! I use it in place of mayo.

This recipe is a wonderful Tunisian dish which is served alongside of hard-boiled eggs, anchovies, olive oil packed tuna and green olives. It is great as a meal served with warm pita bread.

I featured it in my Mediterranean Cooking Class that I taught last week. It was perfect as we had some vegetarians in the group and they could still eat this dish, by passing on a few of the garnishes! They loved it! So this dish is also very versatile.

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This is a wonderful and easy dish to prepare. It can be served hot as a main dish or you can chill it and serve it as a salad. It is a wonderful and refreshing dish that is easy to make variations of depending on what you have on hand and is the perfect dish to make with leftover shrimp!

Enjoy!

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Recipe: Grilled Tilapia with Grapefruit and Fennel Salsa, A Take on Giada’s Bikini Ready Menu

So the other week I was watching Everyday Italian, Giada De Laurentiis’ show on the Food Network. Her theme was a bikini ready menu. Now I am always looking for fennel recipes, because Roberto loves it so much. So when I saw her begin to prepare a grapefruit and fennel salsa for fish I was intrigued. For some reason I have been on a huge grapefruit kick and I have been experimenting with it a little bit this summer – putting vanilla yogurt on it for breakfast, sautéing it and drizzling honey on it for dessert, etc. So this looked like the perfect match up! But then she lost me. She used halibut steaks, which to me is one of the most bland, most uninspired fishes. I am into the fattier (good fat – omega-3 fat ) fishes like salmon, mackerel, swordfish (that I wish I could eat if it weren’t chock full o’ mercury and endangered), etc. So halibut just makes me want to cry, in a bad way. Plus Giada’s recipes involving fish always kind of put me off – she generally uses bland fish and then pairs them with weird stuff like
roasted cod with lima beans, so they look to be the most bland and boring thing I could ever imagine eating, which is weird for me, because generally I like her food. So instead of just turning away from this recipe, I used it as a guideline - which is what I do with most recipes - and decided to make a few adjustments.

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Here is a wonderful dish prepared by one of my travel blog buddies, Lucinate! If you are into world travel, you should definately check out her blog, it is full of travel details all around the world. She just recently returned from a scuba adventure in Thailand. Her cooking is inspired by her many trips! Speaking of Thai, this is a Thai-Inspired Salmon with Cous Cous! Looks incredible!

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Summer is on its way and with summer comes grilling! Kabobs are a great way to get all your veggies and meat in one! Not only do they look beautiful but they taste great. You can do kabobs any way you like and with any meats or veggies that you have – classic kabob meats like beef, chicken, lamb or shrimp can be coupled with vegetables like onions, pepper, squash and even garlic. I like grilled fish and vegetable kabobs with a tangy lime marinade – they are light, fresh and healthy!

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