Comfort Foods and Indulgences

My friend Jo (Mylastbite) came over for lunch last week. Jo is the ULTIMATE foodie and has eaten in every restaurant across the globe. In addition, she rubs elbows with 90% of the top Los Angeles chefs and confidently calls them her friends!

I wasn’t going to serve Jo a “sissy” salad. Jo likes to eat and I wanted something that was going to stick to her ribs. I have been coveting a recipe for Bacon Tomato Hash.

After reading the ingredients (the best kind, 6 ingredients), I was reminded of one of my favorite sandwiches; a BLT with Avocado!

The end result was perfection. The “BLT bruschetta” was a huge hit. Not only with Jo, but with my boys.

This recipe, with or without the avocado, is a keeper!

Wings are a major part of any Super Bowl party. For many people, they're just as important as the game. I mean, can you imagine watching the game without a wing in one hand and a beer in the other? I don't think so! Buffalo wings are simply the classic football appetizer, but there's more to good wings than just a coating of hot sauce.

Sweet and spicy is my favorite combination of tastes. When a recipe has both, I'm immediately in love. So to come up with my recipe for chicken wings, I chose the sweet and spicy route. And the thing I like about this recipe most is that at first taste, the sweetness tricks your taste buds into thinking it isn't hot, but then the sriracha kicks in. Surprise!

If I were to describe the flavor of these wings, I'd say they're a cross between buffalo wings and the Chinese takeout favorite, orange chicken. The best part is they're incredibly easy to make. The recipe starts off with a spice rub, which gives the wings a great foundation of flavor. While the wings bake, prepare the sweet and tangy kumquat glaze. Feel free to adapt the level of spiciness to suit your heat tolerance. These wings will surely have everyone fighting for more.

I keep seeing all these different versions of burgers in the summer issues of magazines. I want to try them all! This particular recipe stood out because I love the idea of the ingredients together…hoisin and Sriracha. I love them both but had never incorporated them into the same meal.

The original recipe had things a little differently, and I changed them for a couple of different reasons.  First of all, I believe the cucumbers were added to this burger to give it a textural change while eating, soft burger-crunchy cucumber. However, when I thought about it, I knew that placing a hot burger on top of cucumbers would equal a mushy-cucumber result. The recipe also called for grilled scallions in 4″ slices as a topping.  

What I did instead was make a relish with the Sriracha mayo, cucumber and grilled scallions.  I knew this would give a more crunchy result, and I still added more thinly sliced cucumbers to the ensemble, just for fun and looks.  One of the key flavor ingredients was using sesame oil to brush onto the scallions while grilling. This flavor really carried over nicely to the mayo-relish combo, so don’t leave this out.

When I growing up my Dad often had a bag of Keebler’s Pecan Sandies stashed away in an upper cupboard, reserved for when he was craving a crunchy cookie with a hot cup of coffee.

Unfortunately for him, the kids usually managed to find the bag and polish off what was left with some tall glasses of cold milk.

Keebler is still making their famous cookie, but this homemade version is a much better choice. Melt in your mouth nutty shortbread cookies that are incredibly flavorful, making it impossible to eat just one.