• 1 – 15 1/2 oz. can pink salmon, bones and skin picked out (unless you like these)
• 2 packages cream cheese, softened
• 1-2 tsp. liquid smoke

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and spread on toasted bagels.

Here are some additional ingredients that I have added over the years, which I think enhance the experience:

• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• 1 tbsp. minced capers
• 1/2 c. grated or finely diced red onion OR diced green onion
• 2 tbsp. minced fresh or 1 tbsp. dried parsley
• salt and black pepper (freshly ground) to taste

Of course,  if you want to make a non-ghetto version, use a small fillet of natural smoked salmon.

Es gezunterhayt! (Yiddish for “bon appétit”)

• 6 cups crumbled cornbread (to be cooked prior to this)
• 4 apples (cooking apples)
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 2 sprigs sage
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 large yellow onion (2 small onions will work)
• 3/4 cup Half and Half
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 5 links Colosimo’s red wine sausage
• 8 tablespoons butter (this is a whole stick)
• 4 cloves garlic

Melt one stick of butter in a frying pan and soften your peeled cored diced apples and place these aside.

The purpose of the sausage is to help make a base for the stuffing. We can do this by slicing each sausage in half, then scraping the meat from the casing. Discard the case.  Brown the sausage like you would with ground beef. After the sausage is browned, add the sliced celery and onion. Cook until slightly tender.

Using your fingers, scrape the leaves from your sprigs of herbs and chop them finely before adding to the mixture.

Take your crumbled cornbread and mix with the apples. Blend the eggs with half and half then add to the cornbread mixture. Knead gently. Once this is all blended, mix with the sausage mixture by hand.  Make sure that things are moist enough to form into balls.

Roll into balls slightly smaller than your fist. You’ll only get one shot at shaping these correctly. Place into muffin cups in a muffin tin and bake at 375 for 20 – 30 minutes. For extra pizazz you can garnish each serving with a pecan or parsley or whatever you think would be good.

I may or may not edit this post in the near future for better readability.

Prep time on this is, like, five minutes. Slice your tomato, arrange on three leaves of rinsed romaine lettuce, sprinkle generously with salt and sprinkle with garlic. Sprinkle some capers, whole. Top with fine parsley and then drizzle with oil then a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar.

My guest was so antsy to eat tomatoes tonight that he kept peeking over my shoulder. He only ate maybe two hours before hand and he ate almost the whole plate and then asked for seconds.

A variation could include some lime juice in place of the balsamic with just a pinch of lime zest. Or you could sprinkle some hard boiled egg yolks on top with a pinch of cayenne. You could even dash some a hard cheese such as parmesan on there if you wanted. Let me know how the variations taste because I think they sound awesome. Rock on.

This was just an appetizer for our Tony’s pizza. We had some pictures to share, but my dinner guest didn’t know how to save the pictures to his phone. Just now we went up to pick up my Community Supported Agriculture produce from East Farms here in Utah. I’ll have to tell you all about the loot that I got. Some good stuff including rhubarb and fresh celery. I’m quite excited to tell you about it. Oh how I wish I had pictures to share.

• 4 radishes
• 2 hard boiled eggs
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Paprika
• Leftover ranch sauce from Wendy’s

The reason this snack was simple is because I always have a stock of boiled eggs in the fridge from with which to snack upon.

Have you ever noticed that people will actually choose snacks like this over junk food from the gas station if they are presented with a choice yet isn’t it funny how when scanning their minds for food items to snack on, we don’t naturally come to rest on simple items that are already in our fridge?

What do a good portion of individuals do? They hop in their cars when they get hungry and allow the maze of advertising laden streets to direct their stomachs and control their diets as they wander through the city-scape in a hunger induced dream state. Why does this even make sense to them?

So, despite my rant, this snack was still delicious. Peel your eggs. Slice in half. Cover a plate or shallow bowl with a sprinkling of salt. Lightly top your four egg halves with a bit more. Slice your radishes into thirds after rinsing them thoroughly because they are fresh from the dirt, we got these from the CSA farm which I will have to remind you about later, I eat according to what is given to me. Place your radishes face down on the same plate.

Sprinkle some paprika on your egg yolks and then dash some pepper over the whole ordeal. Dip your radishes in the ranch and enjoy. Don’t forget to eat your eggs, too.

I guess I could have garnished this all with some parsley since I had some left that needs to be used soon. Parsley goes good with eggs and radishes. Top it off with a glass of green tea with honey and ginseng and you’ve got yourself quite a decent snack.

I’ll get around to writing about my adventures in stocking my pantry so you can understand the process of how I make these decisions.

• 1 part olive oil
• 3/4 part red wine vinegar
• Pinch of salt
• Dash of dried basil leaves
• Pinch of black pepper
• Drops of sesame seed oil
• Pinch of garlic powder

With the oil in a bowl, add your dry ingredients first and allow a few minutes for the oil to infuse. Add the pure sesame seed oil and then whisk in the red wine vinegar with a fork until the color is uniform.

June Salad:

• 1 part chard
• 1 part romaine lettuce
• 4 radishes
• Sprigs of parsley
• Capers
• Dash of paprika

Rinse the vegetables well. Pull apart, by hand, the chard, lettuce and parsley. Layer in your bowl if you are only serving one and wish to skip the tossing stage. Slice the radishes and arrange on top of the salad. Top with capers, drizzle vinaigrette and sprinkle with paprika.

Eat.

• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped parsley
• zest from 2 small lemons or one large
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons coarsely chopped capers
• dash of salt
• olive oil (enough to just barely cover the whole mixture)

This doesn’t require much preparation other than letting the mixture sit for a few moments before serving. Chilling it in the fridge before serving definitely helps with the flavor.

Just chop everything up coarsely, and mix together. That’s about it. I borrowed this recipe from Alice Waters once again except she makes hers slightly different. I just eyeball the recipe and above are the approximate amounts for how much I use when I make this.

1. Cucumbers with Cream and Mint
2. Vermouth Seared Scallops topped with Salsa Verde
3. Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

The first item, Cucumbers with Cream and Mint I copied out of The Art of Simple Food. This was actually the last item I chose for dinner. Sometimes I work my menu backwards, choosing the main course first.

Cucumbers w/ Cream & Mint

• 2 cucumbers
• 3 or 4 sprigs of mint
• 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 juiced lemon
• splash or two of olive oil
• sprinkling of sea salt
• dash of cumin

I am just estimating the ingredients I used for the Cucumbers with Cream and Mint. Slice the cucumbers into 1/8″ slices and sprinkle with sea salt. In a separate container mix the cream, olive oil, mint, lemon juice (this reacts with the milk and gives it some body after stirring vigorously), and cumin. All that needs to be done once the sauce is ready is toss in a bowl. I can tell you that the cumin added quite an interesting and delicious dimension to this dish.

• 2 lbs squid
• 2 lbs leeks
• 2 or 3 sprigs of dried thyme
• 3 or 4 pinches of dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 cloves of garlic (I was lazy and used minced garlic)
• 2 healthy pours of red wine
• several small pulls of water
• healthy dash of cayenne
• splash of lemon juice
• parsley for garnishment

Five pounds of food

I cribbed this recipe from the Amateur Gourmet’s Squid & Leeks in Red Wine who in turn cribbed it from Richard Olney’s Simple French Food. I had been wanting to try squid for a while and I was impressed. If you know how to clean your own squid, you can pick it up for ninety-nine cents per pound.

Clean your leeks, there will be dirt in them. I like to cut them in half to separate the green and the white then I cut each of those halves in half lengthwise and then in half crosswise once more. I clean them after cutting lengthwise to allow the water better access to rinsing the insides. While you are playing with the leeks you will want to warm the oil. All of it. After the leeks are rinsed and ready, give them a good turn in the oil and some salt for a few minutes, five or so will do.

While the leeks are softening we want to slice the squid into 1/4″ slices. I kept the little squiggly parts, I wasn’t afraid to eat them. The next step is somewhat of a juggling act but juggling in the kitchen is one of my favorite passtimes. Place the leeks somewhere safe and start cooking the squid. This may take a while because we are going to cook them until all the water has evaporated. This is where I diverged from the previous two incarnations of this recipe. I didn’t have any flour and I did not salt the squid while cooking.

At this point I added the oregano and thyme. After a couple quick stirs I added the garlic and let things sit just long enough for the garlic to start sweating. Here I started pouring in the wine, just a little bit at a time allowing the liquid to come to a simmer before adding more. In between pours of wine I splashed some water in with the ingredients and dropped a couple of bay leaves into the mixture. I was feeling adventurous this night and I felt that a lot of cayenne was in order. I am so glad that I used a generous amount of cayenne here. During the meal it didn’t quite overpower the other flavors and left quite a warm after taste that was somehow pleasantly mellow.

Wait until the liquid is simmering, I took heed from the Amateur Gourmet and used a very low heat, then add the leeks back into the pot. Adam cooked his for an hour and a half longer, my cook time after this point was probably just shy of an hour. This made over four pounds of food and everyone got seconds. At the very end of the cook time I added a splash of lemon juice. Since I didn’t have any croutons I reduced the rest of the liquid to a yummy syrupy sauce that I drizzled over the squid and leeks, then topped with parsley.

• 1/4 cup vermouth
• 1 lb scallops
• olive oil
• sea salt

The scallops are pretty simple. It’s the Salsa Verde that took more effort but I will have to post that recipe tomorrow.

Heat the oil until you can hold your hand over the pan for no more than a few seconds. You only need enough to just barely cover the bottom of the pan. Salt the scallops lightly just before placing them in the pan. 1 lb of scallops fit into my frying pan just fine. Let them sear on one side for six or seven minutes, this will pretty much cook them all the way through. Flip the scallops over, at this time there should not be any liquid left in the pan. The direct heat will add just a bit of color to the other side so quickly pour the vermouth into the pan. After a few moments  most of the vermouth should be gone and you can pull them off the heat.

Top the scallops with some Salsa Verde and enjoy. I will post the recipe for that soon.

We had three items:

• Brazilian Baked Trout
• Macaroni and Cheese
• Creamy Celery

The recipe for the trout was taken from a cook book called Cooking With Wine from the editors of Sunset Magazine and Sunset Books. It was delicious. I’m sure the recipe called for skin-off, but I really enjoy cooking fish with skin and all.

Macaroni and Cheese was from the same. Just some shells tossed with cheese melted with Chablis. The best part was crumbling the Cheddar Beer Kettle Chips on top.

Creamy Celery was found in my Google Reader through my Amateur Gourmet feed. This consisted of thinly sliced celery softened in butter, tossed in flour, gradually added milk and then peppered and dashed with a bit of brandy as a substitute for sherry.

*update-got the pics figured out. Now I need to get the borders right.

–More details to come as soon as I figure out how to share the pictures.