Franci

The 2 yellow tail snappers we got today. Happy.

We got fish again! Yellow tail snapper, simply roasted with steamed potatoes and green beans, plus salad.

Maryland blue after long long time 😃

Just because we were in the mood for it. Kids didn’t get the proper training like us and they get annoyed cleaning crabs, so it means we have to clean for them, taking away a lot of the pleasure 😁. Some of the crabs were emty

Good, I think we might do that with Casablanca if we have a feeling it will be busier...weekends. Thanks!

Thanks @weinoo, Mala market was on my list already. . I have a friend in Brooklyn, do you know him? Peter Shelsky (of Shelsky of Brooklyn and Bagels?). He is the one giving me all the tips about chinese ingredients to try 😁 Mala and Fly by Jing were on his list. I will keep Alaska sea food in mind, although Casablanca is very close to my location compared to Captain Jim, and today we saw that it was not bad, I think the trick is going Tuesday or Wednesday at early ours in the afternoon, no much people. And my husband felt comfortable

So, the husband got back, with a red snapper and 2 sea breams. In the first place, outdoor restaurant and fish place close to little Haiti. The restaurant full and nobody wearing a mask. Indoor, in the fish market, people wearing the mask under their nose but so, so crowed. Second fish place, our usual, Casablanca. There was a person at the door, letting in only 3 customers at a time, you pick your fish an go outside to wait for the fish and the bill. Two different realities. Choice much less than normal but we got fish and we’ll go back. Yeah!

Nice! I want to place an order too. I’ve been waiting from my order from Fly by Jing for about 2 months I believe. I missed your previous order. What have you liked so far? We have been thinking about fresh fish from a while, today my husband went to a new fish market. He just call me, his exact words were: now I get why Florida is so bad, I stepped one second into the place and I was out! No way I’ll buy there. He is driving to our usual market, if the situation is the same, I guess we’ll keep eating frozen fish 😒

Husband was tempted to go to buy some fresh fish but found closed the place he had in mind. Som frozen fish again. The octopus is decent

My son made for himself some miso soup as he was not feeling too hungry, husband is cutting alcohol, which is not making him wanting to eat much too. So me and the girl shared a piece of salmon and shrimps with salad.

In the last trip I bought also another brand. El Navarrico. Definitely Hida has more sugar. 4g of added sugar in a jar of 12.4oz. But El Navarrico between being very smooth and having more ingredients didn’t taste just tomatoes like the Hida. It is a small jar and they say to use within 5 days of opening. Today I used just 2 tablespoons to color my pasta sauce.

I opened this jar I bought from the spanish store. I really really like it, it has tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, sugar and salt as ingredients, that’s it. It’s a little chunky, sweetness of good tomatoes (I hope it’s not the sugar in there, but I doubt), definitely going to buy more.

Yesterday night the kids had duck and I made some sauté escarole with some ‘nduja and giant beans. I will not buy the ‘nduja again, doesn’t even come close to the good stuff from Spilinga. I will just go with the spanish sobresada from Fermin even if it’s not spicy. I like it much better.

I gained back points with my daughter 😁 She approved tonight’s pasta with tuna 😅

In my area, in Puglia, even being South, people are not used to chilies at all. My parents and extended family tolerance to chilies is to the point that I barely feel it. Some people like it but it’s a personal preference. Chilies usage is scattered, depending from the area food traditions (Calabria, Campania). I really enjoyed the video, they have nice ones 😁 Yes, I think you are correct, Italians are a little like the Japanese in the sense that they want the quality and freshness of the ingredients to speak and you cannot “cover” the flavor of good ingredients overwhelming them with unnecessary spices. Definitely some part of Italy will use more garlic, but if you read 90% of the recipes, they will use the whole garlic and remove from the oil after it takes some color. I realize that even me, after many years out, I am not doing things the Italian way anymore. Sometimes I use too much soffritto in my ragù, Italians would use much much less than a foreigner will do, or onion to start a risotto, it’s barely there.

Definitely my base of soffritto is onion, carrot and celery. Italians are garlophobic, the garlic is only whole and when has a little bit of color you take it out. Sometimes my soffritto has a little pancetta in it. My other trinities are: butter, sage and pancetta if I want to dress pasta my northerner grandmother style. Garlic, oil and peperoncino Southern style (I never chop the garlic 😁 so we can discard it) Oil, garlic and anchovies is my other scallion, ginger and chillies too

@Duvel, looks wonderful. As soon as I saw this, I thought about the “baciata”, I’ve never made it but it’s going to be soon on my list. Here, Bonci, linking from here that already has subtitles

I remove it, I don’t like the taste of it. When I had the luck to have my own flowers, I’d remove it when the flowers just opened. Did not post the last dinners, really boring guys, zero creativity or wanting to cook btw. Tonight super simple too, vegetables roasted in the oven, tomato salad, I cooked some of the giant beans that I bought at the Spanish store, the only beans I really eat (some leftover for the next few days to add to salad) and a hanger steak on the cast iron grill. Some home bread and that was it.

Thank you, @mgaretz, definitely an option Thank you, @Barrytm, all very good points. I don’t think I can handle more than a pizza at a time 😅 honestly, wood cooking is going to be a learning curve, we are going to have my husband bbq with wood, coal, if I want to I could use a cover like this for some experimenting.

It faces west, I think I will be doing my cooking more at night, during the day, shade, no shade, it’s really hot. But where I want to put it there will be a minimal protection in case of rain at least. I don’t know yet how much I will be able to spend, we have some construction work inside to be done. Definitely I want raised beds on the perimeter and/or some use of the fences to grow something. This time we are going to hire someone to design it and to start the garden. We are already inexperienced and growing in Florida is an extra challenge. I want to set it right. Edit to add: I love the idea of cooking outside, a lot! It will be mainly later in the day when it’s not that hot and especially for the family. I see myself eating out all year long if it’s not raining.

Every time I go back home, this is the place I go. It’s just a food shack on the rocks, they barely cook their fish. Oasi del Riccio, in Savelletri, Puglia. Riccio means sea urchin, you can order a tray of 50 sea urchins for 35 euros, link to the menu in English here. Once you are used to this, all the rest is a pale comparison 😒

Thanks, @jedovaty, those are always in my freezer, like the cod from Costco and their scallops are the only frozen scallops I’d buy. I guess I need to wait for one more year to go to Spain or Italy for the kind of seafood I have in mind 😅

So, here I am with a couple pictures of the outside. I want to create a small and functional outside kitchen. I was thinking of installing a sink, a stainless steel table that will function as prepping station an support for a portable induction cooktop and a portable pizza oven being Ooni or Zio Ciro mini. Of course, I want to go under the shade, being partially covered by the upstairs balcony but water is on the opposite corner. I guess that is not a big deal. I am also thinking of using the sides of the patio to grow some vegetables and actually using the fence as vertical garden if possible. What do you guys think?

I think I am in desperate need of good fish, that tastes like the sea, if possible 😊 My daughter why didn’t you make spaghetti with tuna underoil 🤣 I guess she was totally right.

This was a big, big flop 🤣🤣🤣 Never again I will buy the mixed frozen seafood. It was just bad.