Asparagus Pizza

Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?—Moe Howard

This is an appropriate quote by the leader of the Three Stooges, for Mrs. Big Surf often describes my actions in the kitchen as Three Stooges video with Homer Simpson audio.

As Mrs. BS and I try to transition to the Mediterranean Diet, it is hard to diminish our craving for our favorite foods and one of those foods is pizza. We decided two years ago to learn to fix good pizza. We bought a pizza steel and a pizza peel. We found a great dough recipe in Wolfgang Puck’s Pizza, Pasta, and More cookbook. We use it exclusively.

This asparagus pizza comes from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. We love this pizza.

I never really liked asparagus until I was well into adulthood (my wife is not convinced I am there yet). Now I am eating asparagus on pizza. My pizza experience, until recently, was always accompanied by some kind of meat, now it seems meat is rarely on our pizzas.

This simple pizza recipe has graded parmesan and mozzarella cheeses, shaved asparagus tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and topped with one finely chopped scallion which is added when the pizza comes out of the oven.

I thought my wife had headed “round the bend” when she showed me this recipe. “Who would eat a pizza topped with asparagus?”, I asked. As usual, her intuition was correct. It is delicious…unless you are not an adult like me and don’t like asparagus.

Roasted Sesame Seed-Crusted Tuna with a Balsamic Drizzle

A tuna steak and a salad? Seventy bucks. Welcome to Los Angeles.—Mark Zupan

Well, in eastern Kentucky, you can buy a pack of three frozen tuna steaks at Kroger for $5.99.

I’m no expert but if I can fix two tuna steaks for Mrs. Big Surf and myself for about $4.00 and it tastes as good as any I can get in a restaurant this side of the Sierra Madres, then I am a happy man and I would say to all of you LA diners, “Sorry, Charlie.”

I got the inspiration for this seared tuna by watching a Gordon Ramsay video. He fixed an incredible looking dish by encrusting the tuna in sesame seeds. I didn’t have the time or the stamina on a Wednesday night to try to tackle all he did with his tuna steak meal, so I took a different route.

I started with reducing balsamic vinegar. Then I roasted the sesame seeds. In the meantime, the tuna steaks marinated in some Ponzu sauce. After salting and peppering the tuna steaks, I rolled them in the roasted sesame seeds. I seared them for a few minutes on each side to have a rare cook. I then drizzled the balsamic reduction over the tuna steaks and asparagus to finish the meal. It was soooo simple and soooo cheap and soooo healthy and according to Mark Zupan, I saved about $136.00.

I think this Mediterranean diet may work out after all.

Look who’s the big boy, being fiscally responsible.

Roasted Mushroom, Pepper, and Red Onion Salad

Too many green salads suffer from a lack of imagination—James Beard

I am currently looking out my window at the ice and snow that was dumped on us in the last few days and awaiting for the electrical currents to return from their temporary respite.

In these cold days, most normal folks think of eating something hot such as chili, soups, stews and whatnot. Not me. I am thinking of the delicious salad from last night. I love salads and can eat them at any time.

Since Mrs. Big Surf and I are trying to reform our diets to the warmer winds of the Mediterranean, I am always foraging through Mrs. BS’s many cookbooks, internet, and YouTube. But sometimes a person just wants to do something their own way. This is a constant tete-e-tete with her and I. She cooks really good food from really good recipes and I do way too much experimenting, and I am not a good enough cook to experiment as of yet.

This salad was one of my successes. I sauteed red onions, mushrooms, and a yellow pepper in extra virgin olive oil. After these vegetables cooled, I tossed them with grape tomatoes, scallions, spinach, and feta cheese. I dressed the salad with red wine vinegar, more extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and dried oregano.

I will make this again, maybe tonight if the electric stays on holiday.

Greek Style Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta

Let food by thy medicine and medicine by thy food—Hippocrates

It is hard to overcome a lifetime of bad habits.

Bad habit number 1…I grew up planted in front of the TV watching sports and sitcoms and that continues to this day.

Bad habit number 2…I can’t do number one without stuffing my face with some kind of unhealthy snack.

My wife and I are trying to eat healthier. She equates this with the need for popping more popcorn and I am only eating a half box of Cheez-Its at a setting. It’s hard to overcome bad habits.

As we move through the middle ages of life, we are starting to accumulate more photos of our insides than our outsides. We feel now is the time to eat better. We have started by trying to stay with a Mediterranean Diet.

Last night, I found some frozen shrimp in the freezer. I also found a nice looking recipe in America’s Test Kitchen’s The Complete Mediterranean Cookbook, which was a gift from a friend. This Greek style shrimp with tomatoes and feta was simply delicious. I like this book because it gives some options. We have a well-stocked pantry but no ouzo. This recipe called for ouzo, but said you could sub vodka mixed with anise seed. I have fixed many recipes out of this book and all have been really good.

As we begin our attempt to move from eastern Kentucky to the Mediterranean region in our kitchen, I will keep you abreast of our journey. At least we can travel through our culinary experiences.

Greek-Style Eggplant

When my baby cooks her eggplant, about nineteen different ways, sometimes I just like it raw with mayonnaise—From “Eggplant” by Michael Franks

Mrs. Big Surf and I are contemplating going “full boar” or “whole hog” into the Mediterranean Diet. Oopsie, I guess since pork is not a staple of this diet, please forgive the above phrases.

On our first date, my lovely wife told me she “never dove headlong into something, instead she would stick her big toe in to test the waters.” That has held true for 36+ years. So our foray into the Mediterranean Diet has been a slow one.

I made the above delicious meal with a recipe from http://www.themediterraneandish.com. It is only one way to fix eggplant, now there are only eighteen more ways to go.

I know we will have to give up pizza, French fries, fried potatoes, fried chicken, fried pork chops, sausages, salty snacks, donuts, and anything fried in a mixture of flour and eggs…unless we can get a mapmaker to prove that eastern Kentucky borders the Mediterranean Sea.