Thursday, July 21, 2022

Liz's White Bean & Sausage Soup (Vegan)


A few months ago my friend Liz had me taste a soup she made at home and brought to work. It was amazing! I asked her for the recipe and she jotted down the cutest notes (with prompts such as, "Add greens cause we all need to eat them!"). I found the recipe today and made it - and it knocked my socks off. Thanks, Liz! Another winning recipe from that culinary genius brain you have.


1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 links Sweet Italian Beyond Meat Vegan Sausage, already grilled and sliced thin
Spice Blend:
        1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
        1/2 teaspoon ground corriander
        1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
        1 teaspoon smoked paprika
        1 teaspoon dried oregano
        1 teaspoon dried basil
4 cups veg stock
1 can small white beans, drained and rinsed
3 tablespoons pastina or ditalini (or other small soup pasta)
1 cup finely chopped spinach or other mild greens
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 scallions, sliced thin

  1. Melt butter over medium heat in a Dutch oven with the extra virgin olive oil.
  2. Add onion and a pinch of salt and pepper and sweat over medium-low heat until translucent, about 5-7 minutes.
  3. Add carrot and celery and sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for another 5 minutes.
  4. Add all the spices, stir and bloom for 30 seconds.
  5. Add the veg stock, beans, and pasta. Bring to simmer and cook until pasta is done, about 5 minutes. Add spinach and simmer for another minute.
  6. Off heat add lemon and scallions.
ENJOY!

Monday, May 9, 2022

Smothered RevFish

for the fish

  • 2 redfish fillets
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 tablespoon pieces

for the sauce

  • 1/4 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup canned artichoke hearts
  • 1 cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon green onion
  • 1/4 teaspoon garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon shallot, minced
  • 1.5 tablespoons capers, rinsed
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 tablespoon pieces

  1. Whisk together the flour, salt, and white pepper in a bowl. Put the fish in flour, then the eggs, then back into flour and shake off any extra.
  2. Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Sauté the fish for 3 minutes a side. Remove and put them on a clean plate. (Don't fuck with the fist when it's cooking. Let it alone. Please and thank you.)
  3. Add the wine to the now empty pan and whisk in any fond from cooking the fish. Reduce the wine by more than half. Lower the heat to medium and add the artichokes, mushrooms, green onion, garlic, shallot, caper and lemon juice. Cook for about 6 or 7 minutes - until the mushroom are softened.
  4. Reduce heat to low and add the 4 tablespoons of butter, a half a tablespoon at a time. Gently stir in each piece until it combines for a nice sauce.
Serve with rice and a salad.

Friday, June 19, 2020

Seed Crusted Salmon


Serves 2, Prep time 10 minutes, cook time 8 minutes

1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp marjoram
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tablespoons panko
2 tablespoons mustard (any kind but yellow, I like Sir Kensington)
4 tablespoons honey, used two tablespoons at a time

1 tablespoon hot sauce (vinegar based like Crystal, do not use Sriracha)
2 8oz salmon fillets (skin on or off, but NO bones)


  1. Preheat broiler and place over rack about 6-8 inches from heat.
  2. Using a mortar and pestle crush the seeds (coriander, cumin, mustard).  Add the marjoram, fresh black pepper and panko.  Stir to combine
  3. In a small bowl combine the mustard and 2 tablespoons of the honey. Brush the tops of the fillets with the mixture.
  4. Coat the where you just brushed with the dry mixture from step 2 and place on broiler safe pan/tray.
  5. Cook salmon for 6 minutes (cook less time if pieces are thin), turn off broiler and leave in oven for another 2 minutes to fully cook (you want to turn off broiler just before the bread crumbs burn).
  6. In a small bowl combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of honey with the hot sauce.  Pour over hot salmon fresh from oven.
Serve over a salad or with your favorite side dish(es). I served mine with collard greens and sauvignon blanc!

Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Black Lives Matter

Recently I have sat down a few times to try and write this post but I keep deleting it because I am either already too emotional or another event is brought to public light that pushes me past the point of sounding as coherent as I intended... But here goes...
If you told me when I was ten years old that in thirty years people would put signs on their lawn letting the public know they weren't racists I would have called shenanigans.  If you told me when I was thirty years old that in ten years the President who took office after our first Black President would publicly support self-proclaimed Nazis I would have laughed at you.  If - at any point of my adult life - you told me that a black youth holding a bag of Skittles is more likely to be killed by police than a white youth who shoots up a church I would have assumed you were talking about the plot of an episode of Law and Order or a Spike Lee joint. 
For almost two decades I have paid my rent and bills by learning, embracing and sharing Black American Music to any ears that will listen.  While I was not born with this culture in my blood it has become one of the most important parts of what makes me who I am as an artist, as an adult and as a citizen.  So while I am happy to see so many others who are not persons-of-color joining the fight to tear down and rebuild a system that has been devolving faster and faster I am sickened by so many comments of hatred, intolerance and (what comes off as) sarcastically feigned ignorance that continue to pop up everywhere I look.  So when a few dozen of you notice that my personal page has blocked you: think back to what you said or posted.  If you notice I no longer patronize your business with friends and family: just remember a few months ago when I asked you directly why your bartender had a problem with a black man in a suit looking for matches/lighter but was fine with the homeless white person looking for a handout.
We are in a very bizarre times with this pandemic and quarantine and I have been lucky enough to have been receiving self-employed artist assistance in addition to donations from so many of you who have taken part in my live-stream performances.  So I am asking everyone reading this to join me in donating every extra cent you have to the many causes and groups established to help this battle.  Make sure you research where you are donating so that the money goes directly to pay the bail, cover expenses of families affected, et al because there are profit driven groups that don't put all your money to work for the cause.  And if someone posts a critique of #BLM cut them off social media and inform them why to their face so you can look directly into their Godless eyes.  They either don't want to attempt to understand or aren't able to understand because as a fetus they didn't get enough oxygen.
No white person breathing has the right to criticize the reaction of a community when that community has been abused, ignored and MURDERED in ways that, in the 21st Century, should be unfathomable - but the proof it is happening is right in front of us.  Being blind to actions against our neighbors, friends and family means you are no different from the diseased individuals who have stripped the future from an innocent life.
As I write this I hear laughter outside.  I look out my front window and see five children zooming up and down my Mt. Airy street.  Two on bikes, two on scooters and one running alongside with a squirt-gun.  They are different ages and they are different colors and they are laughing together.  I realize that for the first time since I started writing this, over an hour ago, the tears in my eyes are not caused by hatred I see, but these tears are because I see love.  I see the reason we must not stop fighting.

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Review of Pizzeria Nonna

I've only thrown pizza into the trash twice in my life. Both times were from Pizzeria Nonna. I gave it a chance. Twice I gave it a chance... twice! I live in the neighborhood and I never want ANY business near my house to fail. I go out of my way to order all my vinyls and CDs from the independent shop a mile away even though I spend twice as much as an Amazon Prime member would – a friend routinely points this out.

I also love pizza. I love making pizza. I have about a half dozen different recipes for pizza dough that each provide two pies and I make a batch of one of those recipes every six weeks or so. When I need a quick lunch between double gigs I search to find the closest slice that is consistently appreciated by users of various apps. I will even resort to grabbing a slice from the “sub-par” place half a block from my apartment if I really have to because: how bad can pizza be? Seriously: even bad pizza is – at worst – okay pizza... Right?

Wrong.

Pizzeria Nonna is how bad pizza can be.

Did I mention that I PUT PIZZA INTO THE TRASH INSTEAD OF EATING IT?!?!?! TWICE?!? Both times I resorted to this self-inflicted torment was because (1) it was a Sunday and (2) I had just worked a double and still needed to walk the dog and (3) I had ZERO food in the house and (4) got home after 9:30pm. The two visits were separated by 4 months so this isn't a “one time mistake by an ex employee” situation. The second time I didn't throw the remainder of the pie away immediately like I did the first time. I waited until the next day and reheated a slice using the “Cooks Illustrated” method that, on a previous occasion, actually made a slice mediocre left-over pizza slightly better. (Here's how: Add one or two slices to a non-stick skillet with a tablespoon of water. Cover and cook on medium-high for 6 or  7minutes.)

Once reheated the cheese finally melted and the center of the pie discovered what being not raw felt like. Reheating also enhanced the cardboard blandness that was gag-worthy fresh (when the bottom of pizza was warm and moist) and made it boringly crunchy. The sauce was reminiscent of unseasoned porridge that had been treated with red food coloring. They do have nice sturdy boxes for what they pass off as a sell-able product. They obviously get their pizza ingredients from DollarTree so they have to be using their line of business credit somewhere.

I mentioned my sour experience to a friend who works at a shop nearby Nonna's. He says he ordered a “large pepperoni” and received a pizza covered with sweet peppers. His receipt said “Pepperoni” and was told by the person working at the counter that the “chef must have read it wrong”. I'm no expert on pizza ordering demographics and I'm just guessing that orders for pepperoni pizza are 17 times more common that orders for “pizza with sweet peppers” are. So my questions is: How does that misunderstanding even happen?

The best pizza I have had – and this even beats any of my home made ones – is from the food truck Ramble Pizza. Every type of pie/slice I have ever had from Ramble has been kick-ass. Find them on Instagram @ramblepizza. 

The next best option for me locally is Earth Bread and Brewery, which has excellent beer and an eclectic selection of flat breads. Earth is very good but it isn't pizza (nor do they claim to be) in the classic sense.

So in conclusion: Next time I am looking for classic mouth-watering slice of pizza (and Ramble is too far or not open) I'm going back to Evo. They have never been bad - they have never been great either.  But they are just three blocks away and deliver – or I could get off my fat-pizza-loving-ass and walk down there. The best part of my Pizzeria Nonna experience, both times, was walking with my dog to pick up the pie.  I do love that dog.

PS – on Friday nights Ramble Pizza is at Weavers Way at their Mt. Airy location. I work 49 Friday nights a year so I miss out. But you don't have to!