As I begin the process of planning my menus for our next savory adventure on the Amalfi Coast in May, memories of picking enormous lemons directly from the trees come flooding back to mind.  The memories are so vivid; I actually smell the fresh scent of these lemons as my mouth waters in anticipation of the sweet flavor that they add to anything they come in contact with.  While savoring these sweet memories, reliving time in the kitchen preparing meal after meal, I continue looking at menus from the previous trips and then staring me in the face was a dish which is by far is one of the most loved and easiest dishes to prepare...baked chicken with lemons.  This is a fool-proof recipe for moist, tender and sweetly flavored chicken.  By simply placing whole, pierced lemons in the cavity of a roasting chicken, securing the cavity closed, and slowly roasting the chicken in the oven, it renders moist, tender and sweetly flavored chicken sure to please even the toughest of diners.  So, this is definitely on my list of must dos during our upcoming trip. 

News reporter Grayson Kamm, from  WTSP TV (http://www.tampabays10.com/ ) in Tampa Bay, was doing a story on Clara Canucciari regarding cooking in the Great Depression.  Clara is a marvelous 93-year old woman who has published about a dozen videos on YouTube with recipes and stories from those tough times 75 years ago. 

Grayson reached out through Twitter, looking for a local chef who might want to tie Clara' stories into today's economy.  I volunteered, and 18 hours later was filming for my television debut!  While I only have about 30 seconds on camera, it is an honor to have my debut in a story about such a wonderful woman.  Click here to see it!

Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, I had the pleasure of dining at Disney’s Raglan Road Irish Pub and Restaurant.  Master Chef Kevin Dundon  invited Barry and I as well as about a dozen members of the press, and he prepared a fabulous tasting menu based on recipes from his new cookbook “Great Family Food”.  Chef Kevin is world renown and has a list of clients which include the Queen of England, Bono, as well as President Bush to name just a few.

So, what do you do when you’ve invited friends over for dinner and they happen to be devout Catholics that don’t eat meat on Friday and IT’S FRIDAY and you’ve worked all day and have no time for the grocery store? Quick, to the pantry I go. After making a frantic phone call to my friends to see how strict they are, can I use beef broth or do I need to use vegetable broth? I’m in luck; they will have beef broth no problem. So, instead of the pork medallions with a chanterelle cream sauce and parmesan cheese risotto, we’ll go the route of just risotto with chanterelle mushrooms and parmesan cheese.

So, take a look at what I devised and give it a try yourself Click here to check it out.. …it was delicious and a huge success. Of course the wines we paired with the risotto raised the meal to a whole new level. We started with a Guggenheim Malbec from Australia. This was a great pre-dinner wine which paired beautifully with the risotto. We then ended the dinner with a 2003 Badarina Barolo from Bersano that Barry and I had brought back with us from Piemonte on one of our last trips; words truly can’t describe that glass of heaven.