Crabs from the Fisherman's Warf in San Francisco

Each day at Fisherman's Warf, these babies wind up in a boiling pot and are served with a side of drawn butter. I know it's kind of known as the touristy area of San Francisco, but damnit...the flavor is still in my memory. Don't pretend like you don't want this!

Greek lemon soup: Avgolemono

Opa!!! We are headed to Greece today!...well...in our mouths...and in our crockpots...

I love soups, and who doesn't? I always get a sort of rustic feeling when I am tending to a big pot full of vegetables and meat bubbling away. This soup has been a tradition in Greek culture for MANY years, and it is called Avgolemono. I never had the opportunity to cook it before, so this is exciting. The inspiration came because I caught a terrible drawn out flu just a couple of weeks ago. It started with a sore throat, then losing my voice, then coughing my brains out for a couple weeks. Thank goodness it's gone now, but during that time I had Greek lemon soup from a little hole in the wall restaurant down the street. One bite and my throat instantly started to feel better. Grandmothers everywhere have established that chicken broth and citrus are good for the flu! SO whether you are sick or you just want to try something a little Greek today, I recommend this recipe.

After scouring the internet for variations of this recipe, I personally prefer this method. It creates a creamy, thick soup...without using cream!

The ingredients:

1 small size whole chicken
3-4 cups chicken broth
1 cup water
2 carrots chopped into small chunks
2 celery stalks, chopped in small chunks
1 small yellow onion, sliced
2 bay leaves
1 TBSP peppercorns
salt
3 eggs
2 big lemons
1- 1 1/4 cup orzo pasta (whatever you like)
fresh cracked pepper
parsley ( dried flakes or fresh)

The procedure:

1. Place whole chicken into a crockpot, breast-side up
2. Pour in chicken broth and water. The liquid should not cover the chicken entirely.
3. Add carrots, celery, onions, peppercorns, bay leaves, and a little salt to the pot.
4. Put on high for about 4 hours until the chicken is completely cooked through. I turn the chicken once to make sure everything cooks thoroughly. After approx: 4 hours, you have a delicious stock.
5. Take orzo, and boil in a pot of salty water over the stove until AL DENTE ( a little chewy). Strain and set aside
6. Remove the chicken carefully and place on a cutting board. Shred meat and set aside..
7. Pour the contents of crockpot through a strainer into a another wide bottom pot. (Discard the veggies and such). You should be left with just stock.
8. Bring your pot of stock to a simmer over the stove
9. In a medium bowl, crack the eggs in and squeeze the lemons. Whisk together thoroughly
10. When the stock on the stove is hot BUT NOT BOILING, take a ladle of the stock and put it into the bowl with the lemon and eggs. You DON'T want scrambled eggs. Whisk together. Add one more ladle and whisk again.
11. Now, add the entire lemon/egg/stock mixture to the pot of stock and stir together. Season with salt and cracked pepper as well as the parsley (fresh or dried).
12. Finally, add cooked orzo and some of the shredded chicken
13. Opa!!! Eat and enjoy. Tastes fantastic the day after as well.

*Note: You can leave out shredded chicken from soup if you wish and just use the shredded meat for other dishes later.

The Yummy House

I know that some of you readers probably don't live in Gainesville, FL, but this is my time to get on my soap box about Chinese restaurants. We all have our Chinese restaurants and Chinese takeout restaurants. What's funny is that no matter how bad they are, we keep ordering from there... don't we? Why? We all want to experience that delicious far east taste but for some of us, that means ordering spaghetti lomein and questionable fried chicken balls. And yet, we stick them like we are married to them because we love it. For those living in the Gainesville area, I suggest taking a trip to a real Chinese restaurant...sit down style...with a menu that reflects authenticity mixed with "new york style" Chinese. This is Yummy House. It is so simple and yet everything works so well. The sauces are scrumptious. Laced with crack? Could be. But I think it's just amazing recipes passed down through the restaurant's family for generations. I have gone there a few times since they opened, and every single time is like eating cake for the first time and I act like I am an overly excited 6 year old. I have had a few of their dishes which are as follows:

•  Mongolian Beef - so tender and in a sweet, sticky and slightly spicy brown sauce tossed with golden onions, chili peppers for look and crunchy scallions
•  Black Bean Chicken- NOT SPANISH TASTING by any means, but a shiny brown sauce sprinkled with black beans and a tinge of far east curry flavor mixed with red peppers, onions, and celery slices.
• Egg Rolls- more like spring rolls with savory egg roll filling, crispy and hot with sweet chili dipping sauce
•  Spicy Yummy Chicken- fried, spicy, yummy, what more can I say?
•  Sesame Chicken- fried white meat chicken in a honey sesame brown sauce
• Honey Walnut shrimp- an absolute MOUTHGASM that will stop you in mid-chew. Jumbo shrimp, lightly fried and covered in creamy sauce, tossed with candied walnuts coated in honey and sesame seeds. To die for. 
•  Hot and Sour Soup- if you order the soup for one here, you get soup for six. Delicious. 
•  Schezuan Chicken- a work of art with a spicy kick, but again, has that sweet spicy brown sauce mixed with vegetables. 
• Lomein- not in anyway spaghetti noodles. Delicious and lightly flavored so you can mix the noodles in with those tempting sauces from other meat dishes. 
• Hot oolong tea- they bring you a whole pot so you can keep drinking all night. 

 AND...its BYOB.  Can more restaurants adopt this trend please? 

Granted the parking is very limited and there may be a wait because..well...people call it the Yummy House for a reason. But you won't wait long and you will be treated with the utmost kindness and respect as one of their guests. 

In your town, find your own Yummy House, whether it is a new place you were scared to try, or something else on the menu at your good ol' takeout place around the corner. Expand expand expand....and long live Yummy House!

Poached Pears in Mulled Red Wine

Poached Pears...how classic. So this is a boozy, yet delicious dessert that reaches back to MEDIEVAL TIMES. As people drank wine constantly for the lack of clean water and pears were a sign of fertility and nobility, this was eaten often at large banquets. I can also imagine feeding this blood-red dessert to the king's soldiers before a battle, getting them into the mindset to fight and slaughter! For those of you spending the night watching Game of Thrones, or you just want to try something different for dessert, then this one is for you!

How do you make it? Read the recipe as follows.

POACHED PEARS IN MULLED RED WINE (serves 3-4)

The Ingredients
3-4 pears (I like red pears) peeled with stems still intact
2 1/2 cups dry red wine, preferably Cabernet Sauvignon
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoon mulling spices ( cinnamon stick pieces, cloves, all spice)
zest of a small orange


The recipe
1. After peeling the pears, cut a small slice off the bottom of each so that they can sit flat on the cutting board.
2. Add wine, sugar and mulling spices to a pot with a large wide bottom.
3. Bring the wine mixture to a boil, then reduce to simmer. As Anne Burrell says in her shows, BTB and RTS.
4. Place pears in the wine mixture so that they sit up.
5. Simmer the pears for 45 minutes or until very tender, turning every 15 minutes or so.
6. After 45 minutes or so, take the pears out.
7. Bring the simmered wine mixture to a low boil and let reduce until thick and syrupy. What you are left with is a blood-red deliciously dreamy and thick sauce to pour over the pears.
8. Place pears in serving bowls or on a platter and pour the sumptuous sauce over the pears so that they look red and glistening.
9. Serve immediately and hog all the pears for yourself.