Faith, Family, Food and Dogs

It's summer time and the weather is hot. In an effort to keep my electric bill down I am looking for fast and easy recipes that don't generate a lot of heat in my small kitchen. I love this one, Mahi Mahi seasoned, seared, then baked for a few minutes and topped with some fresh fruit. The cast of ingredients, less the milk bones, my cocktail and the zanax for the girls since it is near the 4th of July. First I peeled and then chopped up the mango and set it aside. I mixed together all the ingredients for the rub, the colors as you start to mix it together are pretty neat. Once the rub is all mixed up it is an even color and you can see the granules of Kosher salt in it. I pat the seasoning on both sides of the fish and I put it on fairly heavy. I got the pans prepared. There is some olive oil in the small frying pan and I sprayed the foil lined baking sheet with a non-stick spray. I sear the fish in the olive oil so it gets a nice crust on each side. Once seared...

A few months ago I got an idea, which is not always a good thing. In this instance it was the idea that I should throw my self a birthday luau. Why? Because I can and I wanted to. I threw myself into this and spent a lot of time working on finding and buying decorations, making the menu, creating a guest list and making the invitations. This year it happened to work out that my birthday was on a Saturday, how convenient. A few days before the party I had the dining room converted into two serving areas. One side for the Mai Tai drinks, the tequila shots and other beverages. The other side was the buffet table for dinner. My dining room side board was loaded down with stuff to make the food and the pitcher of Mai Tais, plus the raffle prize. Looking towards the living room I hung spiral things with hibiscus on them and over the TV it reads ALOHA. Silk leis laid out on the sofa for all the guests. I found this to decorate the front door. I had seen some cute signs saying ...

I pride myself on being very, extremely, organized and I live a well planned out life. But I have these "hiccup" days where I don't think ahead about what to thaw out for supper. On those days I pour myself a beverage and start thinking about all the food I have in both freezers and what I have that I can create something out of. This post came out of one of those days. I dug in my pantry area and found a package of Creamy Garlic Alfredo Sauce mix. Ok, cool, I need pasta, wait lets add peas and bacon. Even better, I'll also add some shrimp and scallops to the mix, right after I thaw them out in a bowl of water. I boiled the peas for just a minute to thaw them out as they were frozen also. Next, I chopped up the bacon and started browning the pieces. When the seafood was thawed out I peeled and chopped the shrimp and pulled the little muscle off the scallops. Note here: I only buy "Dry Packed" scallops as they have not been injected with added liqu...

One of the things I love in life are meals that can be made ahead of time and then cooked when the right time arrives. I also love creamed spinach, love it. Once this meal, I call it a meal because it is your meat and your veggies in one gooey, delicious pan, is cooked it will look like this. You start out by baking your boneless, skinless chicken breasts for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees While the chicken cooks, drain 2 cans of chopped spinach. Once some of the water has drained out of the spinach, squeeze the rest out by small handfuls and place the spinach in your greased baking dish. I used a 13x9, the original recipe calls for a 9x9 pan. Once all the spinach is in place, I top it with sliced portabella or white mushrooms. Next up take some garlic and peel it. I used 6 cloves of garlic. I chop, but do not mince my garlic. Once all the garlic is chopped up, it gets sautéed in butter. You eventually add other ingredients to make the sauce. Once the sauce is made yo...

Years ago my mother lived in the Palm Springs area. When I would fly out to visit her, we would always drive into Los Angeles to get stuff for her horse and then go to Sam Woo's to get a Peking Duck and other goodies. As you arrived at the restaurant there would be rows of perfectly roasted Peking ducks hanging in the window. I cannot begin to tell you how fantastic that duck tasted. It was sinfully delicious. I love duck and try to eat it often, at $2.99 a pound it is cheaper than steak. I had great asperations for this duck, I wanted to make a Peking duck. I perused Peking duck recipes in cook books I had and recipes I found on the internet. I finally settled on one. The next time I will try a different one I have in hopes of getting better results. This little quacker came home with me from Decatur after a Mother's Day weekend trip. The first step is to drop the duck into a pot of boiling water. The plan is to render some of the fat out of the skin making it crispe...