Category Archives: My Stuff

My Stuff, Recipes

Recipe – Anti-pasta platters

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I love to make anti-pasta platters. I have a Sicilian background and when it came to the holidays we always had a anti-pasta platter. For those who do not know a anti-pasta platter is traditionally something you would put out like a salad, it usually always consists of cured meats, like salami, pepperoni, and prosciutto. It usually always has some kind of cheeses like mozzarella and provolone, and then there are usually a hand full of accompaniments like olives, tomatoes and dips.

My favorite item on the platter is the eggplant capponata. it is chunks of eggplant made with tomato sauce, herbs and raisins, and makes for a excellent bread spread. There is so much you can do with these platters and items and get so many different presentations out of them. You can fold, roll, or slice the meats, dress the extras up however you like and put in all kind of dishes to give great depth to the platter, and you can cut the cheeses however you would like to give it that last little oomph. One of the things I like to do is tossed artichoke hearts in pesto, toss the olives in oils and pickled red onions, and marinade in oils and herbs grape tomatoes.

As always have fun and be extremely creative.

My Stuff, Recipes

Recipe – Fruit Platter

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Wanted to show of some of my recent fruit platters. When making a fruit platter it is essential to have one dominant focal point as the garnish and then to build up from there. There is many different cuts and directions that you can go with the fruit, so never allow your creativity to be subdued. Of course the bigger the platter then the more room you have to come up with fancy garnishes, as you can see in my third picture where I made a basket out of a honey dew and then filled it with berries. Pineapple tops make for great focus points because they are cheap and easy to use. I usually take a pair of shears and cut the edges down a little to try to even it out and get rid of any bad leaves you find.

The most common fruit you will find on a platter is honey dew, cantaloupe, and pineapple. Oranges and grapefruits make for great garnishes, but short of doing slices, don’t usually hold up well to the display time of the platters. If in season I really like to get some papayas, kiwis, and star fruits, unfortunately since they are not a necessity and don’t always get eaten they are not used very often except for VIP events.

Just like cheese platters I like to use the berries to give it that extra level of pizazz, and they can also be used to keep the focus off any cuts that do not look ideal to the rest. As with all platters though make sure to be really creative and have a lot of fun.

chef, My Stuff, Recipes

Recipe – Cheese Platters

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I decided to go ahead and put up a few cheese platters that I have recently done. The key to a good cheese platter is to make sure to have a array of various flavored cheeses, but to also get creative with the design and direction that you want the cheese platter to go. Always remember to have fun when building platters and to get creative as possible, as you can see when we had one platter for a Christmas party and I made the snowman out of goat cheese and a Christmas tree out of a pineapple top.

The big thing is to make sure to utilize all of the various colors and shapes that the cheese gives you to work with, and then use your fruits and berries to give it that next level of pizazz.

foodie, My Stuff, Uncategorized

Just a Good Old Fashion Fish Fry

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So my roommate headed up to Alaska recently to spend some time with a uncle he had up there and a cousin that was meeting him up there. I knew it was going to be a outdoorsy type of trip, but I didn’t know his return was going to come with a fantastic surprise. He text-ed me a few days before he was getting back and all it said

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was he was coming back with 90 lbs of fish, some halibut and some salmon.

Now if you are like me and watch the meat prices like investors watch the DOW, then you know how expensive halibut is and based on my current pay-scale I don’t get to play with it to often at the home. Halibut is my favorite fish and there is a whole lot in my freezer. But anyway, long and behold when he gets home I find out it is 45 lbs of red and silver salmon and 45 lbs of halibut. Well Tom’s dad is a old Vermont man and asked to have a fish fry that Saturday after, and of course I took the reigns when it came to the cooking.

When I was figuring out the menu though I knew that I didn’t just want to fry some fish and throw it on a plate. I decided to stick southern and build a dinner around it. In doing so I came up wish a fish fry two ways. There was braised collard and kale, habenaro red bliss mash potatoes, jalapeno and honey cornbread, a roasted garlic and honey whipped butter, homemade tartar sauce, and the star of the dish Halibut. Now what I did to the halibut was where the real magic happened because I did some of it in a traditional corn meal dusting and then I did some in a amber beer batter. Then to top it off I did a peanut and canola oil mix.

Everything came out perfect, everything was seasoned to perfection and even the presentation plate came out really nice. Oh I almost forgot, we finished the evening with a Whiskey Apple Berry cobbler that I must say for my first time making cobbler from scratch with all fresh fruit, I was extremely happy with the results. I am just sorry I don’t have any leftovers to try 🙂