The Person Behind the Plate # 2

I suppose I will start at the beginning and tell you about where I come from, and why I am interested in food and cooking. I grew up in Western PA in a pretty rural area. My Mom passed away when I was pretty young so I was raised by my Dad, Grandmas, and some Aunts helped out as well. Nobody in my family was all that adventurous with food. I ate a lot of meat and potatoes, casseroles, spaghetti and regional food like Pierogies and Kielbasa. My Dad rarely cooked for us, he would make only a few things like steak, ribs and chili. He was definitely the person that got me into food, though. He was always eating 'weird' things like herring and crabs. He was so excited when we finally got some bigger grocery stores that could order him seafood. I can still picture him sitting at our kitchen counter with a half dozen crabs in front of him spread out on newspaper. I never was brave enough to try them but I recognized how happy this food made him. At about that time I started watching Yan Can Cook and the Frugal Gourmet on TV and really wanted to start cooking. I then went to college and was living in dorms and eating dining hall food with no access to a kitchen. Finally after I moved to Arizona I got cable, and I got the Food Network. I was hooked, and that is when I really got a passion for food, ingredients, cooking and eating.

My Dad passed away many years ago, and as much as I have learned and branched out since I was a kid, my last meal would definitely be his oven baked BBQ ribs.



Finally here is a photo of me with my older brother and sister, I am the one in the middle looking totally thrilled. I can only imagine someone tried to slip some cilantro in my milk and that face is the result.

I hope you all have a great week!

Michael Symon's Grilled Salmon with Shaved Carrot and Peanut Salad

The weather in AZ the last few weeks has been amazing, sunny and warm most every day. This weekend we might hit triple digits but I really don't mind the heat. I took advantage of the great weather and did a little grilling of my favorite fish, salmon!


This recipe is from The Chew cookbook. If you have not seen The Chew it is a cooking show that airs on ABC and the hosts are Mario Batali, Carla Hall, Daphne Oz, Clinton Kelly, and my favorite, Michael Symon. I have eaten at two of his restaurants and his food is really good so I knew this recipe would probably be a winner. Preheat your grill and lets get cooking.


I must have been so excited to make this that I did not take a picture of all of the ingredients. The first thing you need to do is chop the onion. I bought pre shredded carrots but if you cannot find those go ahead and follow the instructions to shave up some carrots.


Toast your cumin seeds. Anytime you are toasting spices or nuts, keep a close eye on them as they can go from toasty delicious to burnt in seconds.


Toast your peanuts and admire that my stove is actually clean!


Mix together the carrot salad dressing ingredients.


Mix the dressing with the carrots, nuts, cumin, and onion. You were supposed to add mint to this but I wanted Tom to taste it and there is no way he would try it with mint in it.


Season your salmon with salt and pepper and brush or spray with olive oil.


Get it on the grill! My grill might need a little cleaning. On the left you can see Tom's steak that he was having for dinner. He has only started eating steaks within the last year or so, before he would only eat ground beef or fajita style beef. Of course he likes it cooked all the way through, which I find totally a waste of a good steak, but at least he is eating it. Leave your salmon alone for about 2-3 minutes and then give it a flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes depending on how thick the salmon is.


Get it off the grill and you are ready to plate.


Top the salmon with the carrot salad and enjoy. Tom loved the carrot salad and even asked me to make it again. I might have to change the name of this blog soon. I really loved this whole dish, it was colorful, simple, and delicious. Michael Symon comes through again!

Favorite Things #51 - Horseradish

One of the blogs I read often is My Bizzy Kitchen and today she had a lot of horseradish going on in her post. I love horseradish and have since I can remember. Recently I discovered that my favorite chip company from back East, Herr's, can now be found in AZ. I seriously had a moment in the grocery store when I saw them and may have squealed a little.


Of course I snagged this flavor, sorry for the blur but I wanted to include my little stalker in the background. Here is the amazing part, Tom tried these and he LOVED them. I always knew he would like horseradish if he would just try it and these chips were the perfect vehicle.

Are you a fan of horseradish, if so what is your favorite way to eat it?