Escargot
Escargot – Snails. You love ’em or hate ’em. I find that most haters have never tried them. That’s their mistake because who doesn’t like butter, garlic, cheese and fresh bread?
Amazing Potato Salad
Potato salad. Is there a more iconic picnic dish on the planet? I can’t remember my first taste. Like gravity, potato salad has been here since… the beginning of time.
Blue Cheese Ice Cream
The mere concept of Blue Cheese Ice Cream was too much for some in our party, and it blew their mind. I got their portion!
Coq Au Vin
My first taste of Coq Au Vin was at a restaurant called, what else, Le Coq. They closed a few years ago and I wept because it was a favorite dish.
King Cut Steak Au Poivre
Chicago is renowned for great steak and my mouth began to water when I spied King Cut Prime Steak Au Poivre on the menu.
Blackened Fish Tacos with Avocado Honey Sauce
Paul Prudhomme made blackened redfish famous at his restaurant in the French Quarter, but all the redfish I caught last year in the Louisiana Delta was gone.
Cacio e Pepe
The late Anthony Bourdain’s favorite pasta was cacio e pepe. Its simplicity belies its buttery savory flavor, punctuated by the occasional sharp bite of pepper
Fried Squash
Fried squash is a family heirloom recipe from my late mother-in-law. It’s simplicity is it’s strength. Nothing fancy and only a handful of ingredients. If you could only have squash one way for the rest of your life, this is it.
Home-Made Guacamole
Mexico City is an amazing place with 23 million inhabitants – one of the largest cities in the world. While there, I had the opportunity to taste and compare their guacamole to mine.
Baked Beans with Sausage
I jumped into the DeLorean and turned back the clock, waaay back to July 4th, 1975. Fleetwood Mac was hot, Bill Gates and Paul Allen had just founded Microsoft and American troops had just been evacuated during the fall of Saigon.
Crawfish Cardinal
Spell it Cardinal or Cardinale. Either way, this dish gets it’s name from the beautiful bird and it’s color from tomato in the sauce.
Banana Crepes
Palermo Viejo, a favorite Argentinian restaurant in my hometown closed a few years ago. Their meats were fantastic but they also served outstanding desserts and this was one of them. My thanks to Federico Erbl for his recipe, which he intended to be a low-fat treat. I managed to fatten it up for my version.