Cap’N Crunch Seared Tuna

Yes, you read right. Cap’n Crunch. As in the cereal. I’m just going to post the picture and the recipe and let you know it was really good. It would’ve been better if I hadn’t cooked the tuna a little too much as a result of trying to do 10 things at once while cooking dinner. [...]

Letter to Sam

Dear Sam the Cooking Guy, I’m afraid the honeymoon is over. I am no longer a member of your captive audience. Your shows airing on FitTV are all reruns and because you live in California, I do not have access to your new ones. Your book signings are all in Arizona or California and your interation with fans [...]

p. 36: Asian BBQ Sauce

Picture this: a deep, dark mahogany, sticky, sweet sauce, slathered on a rack of baby back ribs and caramelized ever-so-slightly under the broiler. That’s what we had for dinner tonight. The sauce recipe was Sam’s, but the rib recipe was from Steamy Kitchen. The sauce was simple: 1 c. prepared hoisin sauce 2 T. soy sauce mixed [...]

p. 184: Simple Pasta with Garlic

Lightly brown 4 thinly sliced cloves of garlic in 1/4 c. olive oil. Pour the whole thing over 1 pound of cooked spaghetti and garnish with chopped parsley (I basil because that’s just what I had), grated Parmesan cheese and black pepper. The hardest part about this recipe was slicing the darn cloves of garlic. I’m more of a smash-it-with-the-side-of-your-chef’s-knife [...]

p. 67: Blue Cheese & Bacon-Stuffed Dates

A big thanks goes to my sister for cooking these for me. It was a recipe I wasn’t looking forward to eating but after her review, I might change my mind! I made the bacon-wrapped blue cheese-stuffed dates tonight. Not a great one to photograph but they were certainly yummy. To quote Bob Banner, “These [...]

p. 103: Baby Caprese Salad

Shhhh. I just made this to eat with dinner tonight. I don’t know how much of it is actually going to make it to dinner time, though. It’s SOOO good I can’t stop eating it! It probably tastes better because the tomatoes and basil were from my garden. I am a little sad about using up [...]

p. 53: Corn, Jalapeno & Cheese Biscuits

“Don’t like the jalapeno heat? You could leave them out, but I wouldn’t. I think it’s time to start appreciating new flavors – just try a little less of them.” -Sam Too bad. I left the jalapenos out. Audrey was unsure of them anyway saying “I don’t like corn or cheese” so I knew if [...]

p. 101: Five-Minute Beer Bread

It takes 5 minutes to make…if your beer is already at room temperature, 50 minutes to bake, and about 5 seconds to devour your first warm slice with butter! I’ve had beer bread before from a mix (Pampered Chef or Tastefully Simple…can’t remember) and thought it was okay. This was more bread-like and not as [...]

p. 232: Zamba

I don’t know why this smoothie is called “Zamba.” It says in the book that Sam’s son Zach came up with this and that’s just what he named it. Whatever it’s called, it was pretty good! Ingredients: 1 c. frozen mango chunks 1 c. frozen strawberries 1 banana, peeled & cut into large pieces Equal [...]

p. 46: Wasabi Mayo

Do you really need a picture of a light-green blob of sauce? I didn’t think so. I didn’t have prepared wasabi to add to my mayo but I DID have wasabi powder. I’m thinking this worked out better and that the prepared wasabi might not have dissolved into the mayo so well. I added a [...]