Posts from — January 2011

Guess what that big pile of citrus that I showed you last week, looks like now? Exactly the same as it did then, except it has a blanket covering it. It’s all still overflowing in the crates, still sitting on the back patio, right outside the French doors, staring through the windows at me. Mocking me and saying, “Hey, you there – stop what you’re doing and get to the work at hand; zesting and squeezing us!”

But I continue to turn a deaf ear and a blind eye to that pile and TRY and keep motivated enough to get all the Christmas stuff taken down and put away. 

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I have an excellent excuse for not posting yesterday and delivering with the promised seafood crepe recipe. I was on a “special, highly covert, high-security assignment” revolving around THIS, for the Food section of our newspaper, The Arizona Republic.

OK, it wasn’t exactly “all that”! But I was developing recipes for the cover story of the Food section for an upcoming issue. So, I was busy! And the story/recipes really do revolve around THAT.

As bizarre as it certainly sounds, I will fill you in on the details after the story runs in the newspaper, it’s quite amusing, (Let’s just say that THAT had never ever crossed the threshold of my home before this task was handed to me – and all of my friends and family were in a state of shock to see it sitting on our kitchen counter!) so stay tuned.

Now the promised, exceedingly sought-after, and highly anticipated “special occasion” crepe recipe…

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Sometimes the best recipe is no recipe at all. Our tradition on New Year’s Eve is to stay home, watch movies, and cook something fancy together. Sometimes the kids are involved in this, sometimes not.  This year, it was just Dave and me. We made an elegant lobster pasta dish and this antipasto platter. Honestly, I enjoyed the platter more than the pasta.  Don’t get me wrong, the pasta was delicious and decadent, but the platter was more fun and much less work. I marinated sliced bell peppers and radish halves in olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper and served it along with the usual assorted meats, olives, cheeses, and crackers. One of our favorite go-to dishes is the marinated blue cheese mushrooms. This time, I added substituted feta for the blue and added cherry tomatoes, still outstanding!

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