Summer dishes should be quick.  Who wants to stand in a hot kitchen when you could be out enjoying the weather or escaping the heat in the pool?  There are other, better uses for your time in the long days of summer than standing in front of a stove. (Unless you happen to be a food geek like me of course.)

Heavy meals and warm weather make for terrible bed fellows. A great warm weather meal should also not weigh you down and make you feel sluggish, it should entice the palate and nourish both body and spirit. I think this dish manages to do all of these things.

This dish mingles the heady flavors of fresh baby bell peppers and tomato with the light texture of gently poached cod and just enough rice to make it a more than substantial dinner or with a bit less rice, a great lunch.  It’s a simple meal to make but tastes like something that has had hours of love and caring poured into it.  It’s definitely something I would be happy serving to friends or family on any given day.

Poaching the fish directly in the sauce brings everything together into one unique whole, but still allows the individual flavors of the ingredients to stand out. If you love fish, peppers and tomatoes, this is one dish you really must try.

This dish was prepared as part of the FoodBuzz Family Bites series, so be sure to go check out what others came up with in their series of family friendly meals.

What’s your favorite fish recipe?  Do you prefer smoked, grilled, poached or fried.  We’d love to hear about it.

Read more…

Popularity: 3% [?]

What do you serve when you have two teenaged nephews over for the weekend in a house already populated by four men?  When you know that the two people visiting are capable of consuming the gross food production of some small island nations all by themselves in a single sitting?  Casserole came to mind, but since both of my nephews are fond of spicy foods there really was only one choice for me.  Curry.

A curry might seem a strange choice for boys raised eating primarily Southern American and Californian cuisines, but on a night of complete chaos and a house filled with 5 boys it seemed about perfect to me.  The rice cooker did all the work on the grain for me and the curry required little monitoring while cooking, which left me free to put out fires in other parts of the house.

About 1/4 of the way through cooking, all of that was a mute point.  The older two boys were hovering in the kitchen by then, with mutterings of “When is dinner” and “That smells Great!”  A definite testament to the power of curry, and to the power of a teenager’s hunger.

In the end, this one was a real winner. There were calls for seconds and thirds from most of the kids and all 6 cups of rice were demolished. (I made more rice to get the photos above.)  This was not a terribly spicy dish, but one packed with a massive amount of flavor that I’m sure your family will enjoy as well.

Read more…

Popularity: 7% [?]

Fried rice is something I’ve covered on this blog on more than one occasion. Fried rice is a passion for both my wife and myself.  It’s a staple meal in our home for its versatility, ease of cooking and its ability to carry the flavors of almost any ingredient added to it, but this post is not about the rice.

Don’t get me wrong,  the rice was wonderful; but in this instance it was eclipsed by the accidental perfection of the marinade used on the pork.  It’s good folks.  Good enough to consider using as cologne.  Good enough to make a full batch on skewers and call it a snack for one person good. Good enough that I almost don’t want to share it with you good.

But I’m just not that cruel. This must be shared. All I ask is that if you put it on a restaurant menu, I get a handy little royalty check and credit for the recipe.  This recipe is a keeper.

The flavors in the marinade are more Middle-Eastern than Asian, but they pair very well with the rice and just a bit of soy sauce. The pork is savory, sweet and spicy at the same time, but so tender you can cut it with a glance.  No knife necessary.

I could rave on about this for hours, but I think I’ll end the suspense and just get to the recipe.

Read more…

Popularity: 5% [?]

Fried Rice is the perfect go-to meal.  As long as you have Rice, eggs and scallions you already have all the basics of fried rice on hand.  Anything and everything else that you happen to have lying about in the fridge or the pantry is fair game for this dish and there’s absolutely no reason not to throw just about anything including the kitchen sink, into the pan.

This particular fried rice incarnation is brought to you by my brand-spanking new smoker/grill. When I bought it I knew I wouldn’t use it all that often as a smoker, but I absolutely had to christen it as such.  To justify the expense of burning three bags of charcoal and two bags of wood chips, I offered up close to 15 pounds of proteins to the gods of the grill and they did not disappoint.

My larder now happily includes 6 pounds of smoked chicken, 5 pounds of smoked brisket, 6 pounds of smoked ribs and 4.5 pounds of smoked pork.  If you’ve got this amount of smoky goodness on hand, you use it.

I was debating between making spring rolls and a simple batch of fried rice.  My wife made up my mind for me and I was off to create something worthy of the time taken in preparing such a wonderful feat of wood infused goodness. I think I’ve managed to do so, but I’ll let you be the judge.

Of course, if you can’t smoke your own pork for 7 hours you can easily recreate the spirit of the dish by cooking a pork roast wrapped in foil with 3 tsp of liquid smoke in the oven at 250 degrees for about 4 hours.  The flavor isn’t exactly the same, but it’s a close second.

Read more…

Popularity: 2% [?]

There are certain recipes you know you just have to try the very first time you hear of them.  You know the ones, don’t you?  It’s that certain something that sticks in your memory once you’ve seen or heard of it.  It won’t leave you alone until you can recreate it or find somewhere that sells it so that you can see what all the hype was about.  You do have those days, don’t you? Don’t You?

For me, Spam Musubi was one of those recipes. Ever since I saw it on some TV show I was watching, I’ve longed to try it for myself, but have put it off.  Then I saw Anthony Bourdain sing it’s praises on an episode of No Reservations and I wanted it even more, but I resisted.  It was my next-door neighbor’s Hawaiian best friend that finally talked me into tying it, and I’ve never been more glad that I set out to make something in my life.

Most American’s regard Spam with the same sort of distaste that is reserved for things such as offal, but the Hawaiians not only love the stuff, they’ve elevated it to a new level.  Spam Musubi has all the subtle flavor combinations you would expect from an Asian dish, but uses the most humble ingredients.  In one bite you’ve go sweet, sour, savory, salty and starchy, all in different intensities with each bite.

You gotta try this!

Read more…

Popularity: 3% [?]

There are few things more comforting than the unassuming soup. There are also very few foods that are as versatile. Whether you’ve got meat, poultry, fish or veggies, you’ve got the makings for a good wholesome meal.  Just about anything can be turned into a soup if you set your mind to it and leftovers are the perfect first choice for a soup-based face lift.

Such is the case with this dish.  After making a huge batch of Spanish rice I realized that we would never finish it off and honestly I just wasn’t in the mood for it anymore.  the logical conclusion was to jazz it up a bit and add a few extra flavors in for fun and a quick soup just sounded really good.  this is what I came up with.  A 100% Cooking by the seat of my Pants original.

Hope Y’All enjoy.

Read more…

Popularity: 4% [?]

The weather has been unseasonably warm in our neck of the woods lately. Temperatures have stayed in the 70′s for over two weeks and I’ve actually been having to run the air conditioner for short periods during the afternoon to keep the house cool.  With the warmer weather comes lighter foods and brighter flavors, sort of a fond farewell to winter, which seems to have left us alone for now.

This dish is a direct reflection of the weather. I made it at the end of a nice warm day with crisp blue skies and the slightest of breezes. A storm had passed to the north of us and the wind carried the scent of water.  The conditions were perfect, and as the sun started sinking over the plains it almost felt like we were near the ocean, not 300 miles away from it. It made me want shrimp and a good margarita.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough tequila in the house to make more than one drink and it would have been rude to have one without my wife.  Facing this truth, I decided to simply combine the flavors.  I marinated the shrimp in the margarita.  A little Spanish rice made from my wife’s grandmother’s family recipe and all was good with the world.  I couldn’t go to the ocean, but the flavors of the ocean came to us.  Perfect.

Read more…

Popularity: 3% [?]

Arroz con Pollo is a simple dish.  I’ve heard it called the “Mac and Cheese or Pot Roast” of the Latin world.  Every family has a recipe and every kid will tell you that their mother’s is the best.  I personally think my wife’s version is the best, but feel free to disagree with me.  I’m sure that if this dish is made in your family, it’s pretty good too. (But my wife’s is still better and you’ll never convince me otherwise!)

My wife’s first husband was Puerto Rican and this dish is made in the Puerto Rican style as taught to my wife from his mother.  It was my first experience with Puerto Rican cooking, but I have to say that now I’m hooked and I get my wife to make any of the foods she learned there whenever possible. (When I’m not hogging the kitchen, that is.)

The combination of chicken, rice, capers, olives and spices in this version is nothing like the Mexican Arroz con Pollo I grew up around.  for one thing, Puerto Rican cooking isn’t all that spicy heat-wise.  In fact most of their condiments are very mild.  The Mexican version will knock your socks off in some cases.  I much prefer this one and I hope you enjoy it, even if your mother’s is better. (And of course it is, it’s Mom’s!)

This recipe has been adapted to use several over-the counter sauces and bases, as we cannot get some of the ingredients called for in this part of the U.S. without ordering them online at a premium.  I’ve linked the ingredients we use to online stores where you can find them if they’re not available in your local area.

Read more…

Popularity: 5% [?]

What if I told you that you could make a dish that would wow your guests with less effort than it takes to order-in?  What if I told you that you don’t need a huge arsenal of cooking skills or prior knowledge to turn out a perfect meal each and every time? What if I told you that all of this can be done with just five or six ingredients that can be found in any big-scary-mega-mart anywhere in the country, for somewhere around $10.00, depending on the price of pork in your area?

It’s all true, every word of it. With just a few minutes of prep time and a few lazy hours spent doing… Well, whatever it is that you’d like to do… You can produce something so sinfully delicious and decadent that everyone who tries it will think you’ve slaved your day away working on the perfect meal. And I’m going to tell you how to do it.

Hey, I won’t tell anyone it was easy. That will be our little secret, O.K?

Read more…

Popularity: 13% [?]

This dish is most commonly known as Country Captain’s Chicken, but in my house it was always called Captain’s Chicken Curry. Since this is my mother’s recipe, I’ll use her name for it here.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I have not managed to get around to sharing some of my all-time favorite chicken recipes. I really don’t know why it has taken me so long to do so.  Maybe it’s that to me these really aren’t anything special in terms of skill or flavor, but rather the things that I grew up begging my mother to make.  At some point these things become something “normal”, and in being such a part of my life, it seems strange that every other person in the world doesn’t already know of this recipe.  This is an oversight I refuse to allow to continue, mostly because it is completely foolish, but also because I have to believe that if I love this dish, someone else will and not sharing it with those who have never tried it would be nothing short of a tragedy.

I don’t remember my mother making this often in my teen years, but as a child it was something that I would ask for whenever a choice was given. My mother, who knew full well that this was the only way she could get her then 7 year old son to eat tomatoes in any sort of solid form, was usually very happy to oblige me.  It didn’t hurt that my father loved it as much as I did either.

So please, enjoy this foray into my childhood.  This dish carries fond memories of chilly autumn evenings, wonderful aromas and the laughter of a family who was quite happy to simply enjoy each other’s company.  I never recall my mom serving this to guests, it was something we enjoyed as a family, so I’m thrilled to have all of you join me as I share this dish with friends for the first time in my memory. I hope you love it as much as I do.

Read more…

Popularity: 3% [?]