My good friend Rich had a snowboarding “incident” about a week ago. His Dr. told him to stay on the couch for awhile. I headed over during the week to hang out, play video games, and watch episodes of The Wire with him. I also cooked a meal for him with his favorite protien; duck! This simple duck ragu was somehow light and rich at the same time. Complex flavors with not that many ingredients, just quality food with attention paid to it. The kind of comfort food that will make you forget about your back pain!

What makes this “Stuffed Pizza” and not a calzone? I am not really sure, but my Great Aunt and Grandmother sure had a very specific definition. Let me start at the beginning. I was out to lunch with my Great Aunt Nancy, and I was having pizza. She asked if I ever had stuffed pizza. “Like a calzone?” I asked. “No, it’s thin and flat like a pizza, and has caramelized onions, your great grandmother used to make them for me and your grandmother when we were younger.” I told her I liked to mix caramelized onions with ricotta and pepperoni. “But then that would be a calzone.” she replied. I was confused, so I invited her and my grandmother over to make some stuffed pizzas to hopefully clear things up.

A few weeks ago, I was approached by a marketer for US Wellness Meats. She said they would send me a bunch of meat, and all I had to do was talk about it on my website! Where do I sign up? A few days later, a cooler came in the mail with 15 lbs of meat, all individually sealed and frozen. I was skeptical about how frozen/mailed meat would taste, but after cooking with it for the first time last night, I was super impressed. These were some of the best short ribs I have ever cooked with! And I have made short ribs a lot. But knowing my site, did you guys think that I would just make some generic recipes for this awesome meat? Nahhh, I had to do it justice. Ever since I cooked pasta in coffee, I have been wanting to braise something in coffee, and these ribs were just the thing. Even though I like my coffee black, most others don’t, so I threw in a side of super creamy potatoes.

Normally I am not the type of blogger who does things ahead of time. I tend to cook as things happen and post them after the fact. Most of my blogger friends cook Thanksgiving dinner a few weeks before Thanksgiving so they can post the recipes. My style is more, “This is what I made, make it next year or something, deal with it”. Well guess what? I was a good blogger this week and made some Valentine stuff just in time to show you guys early! I have been wanting to make fortune cookies for awhile, and I thought Valentine’s Day would be a perfect time. Without a job or a “special someone” myself, I didn’t really have any reason to make them! I recruited my sister and mom to take some to school and work. I also made a few for a get together this Friday night.

In Bermuda I used to always get a macadamia crusted fish at a restaurant called Blu. I have been wanting to do a nut crusted fish, but hadn’t really gotten around to it, wondering what to serve it with. The idea came to me to do a peanut crusted fish watching Iron Chef one night. I thought it would be good paired with a tamarind pasta sort of giving the whole thing a pad Thai effect. I overcooked the fish, but the meal was still amazing and something I would recreate for a classy dinner.

Alternate titles for this post were “Chicken Wellingzel” or “Chicken Pretzington” because it is basically a play on beef wellington, but with chicken instead of beef, and pretzel dough instead of puff pastry. This idea came to me out of nowhere, I have seen people crust chicken with the crumbs from the pretzel bag, but never seen anything like this. I really wanted a super delicious honey mustard to go with the pretzington, so I opted to make it myself, sort of following an Alton Brown mustard recipe. My friend John recently went to Poland to visit family(more on this in the future), and his relatives over there have a bee farm! He was able to smuggle in some fresh honey for me to use in this recipe.

I made this polenta recipe in the infancy of my website. That was back when my site was just jumbled posts that didn’t really explain anything well (things haven’t changed!) Passing beets at the store the other day, I was thinking it would taste nice with pork. It is actually really easy to make, and looks classy because of the redness. I cooked the pork and polenta with a simple roast brussel sprout and parsnip side. I actually whipped the veggies together catering a 90th birthday this past weekend, but didn’t get a taste! I had to make it again this week to see how it was.

On my third attempt making arepas, I finally felt like they were perfect. The first try was a complete failure. The second was tasty but the arepas were a little too thick. I suppose the third time is a charm cliche is true because making these was quick and effortless, the whole lunch taking only 25 minutes. I had this filling at caracas arepa bar (if you refresh a few times, its actually on the landing page) and was very interested in the idea of a chicken salad with avocado instead of mayo. I do it all the time with tuna salad, but previously hadn’t thought of it with chicken. I have extra everything, and can’t wait to have another for lunch today!

This was the last dish I made during my 2 week stay in Manhattan. Nick had two of his cousins up visiting and they drove me home the next morning. Thanks for the ride guys! I have never really heard of a Chinese casserole, but recently Chow has linked me on a thread complaining about the fact that casseroles are crap, so I feel the need to keep making new and innovative ones! This dish would NOT been as good if it was not in a casserole form. Take that food snobs!