Sweet plantains and lots of shrimp and pork give this fried rice dish a unique flavor! For me, it’s all about the habanero hot sauce. The kick from the hot sauce combined with the lime juice in this recipe to give the whole thing a bright and fresh flavor! The inspiration for this recipe I have been on a real plantain kick lately. I always love them, but the past few months or so I have been eating them a ton! That is why I thought that they would be nice mixed into fried rice, so I tried to think what else would be good in the mix. I was thinking about chimichurri, but instead of making chimi ..read more

A potato salad with all the flavors of a bacon cheeseburger? Sign me up! I love thousand island dressing on a burger, but honestly I love it on anything. We all know that is pretty much what “secret sauce” is right? This potato salad was my excuse to drench some potatoes with thousand island and call it a day. The inspiration for this recipe I was thinking about making some new twists on potato salad with the long weekend coming up because that is what people want this time of the year. And by people I mean me! When I thought of doing a bacon cheeseburger potato salad, I was worried it was goi ..read more

A heaping pile of egg salad on top of a burger with bacon, cheese, pickles, and potato chips! Is anyone obsessed with egg salad like I am right now? I can’t tell if it is having a moment or if it’s just me imagining it. It’s like eating deviled eggs with a spoon and I can’t get enough. The inspiration for this recipe Because of this egg salad obsession of mine, of course I started thinking, where can I put egg salad? Me being me, my first thought was on a burger! I didn’t want to do a smash burger for this one, I just made a typical medium sized patty and topped it with other things I like on ..read more

Just think, a big block of crispy cheese on your plate, and when you dig into it, creamy mac and cheese comes oozing out. That is what you get with this crispy mac! Think like a calzone, but instead of bread you get crispy salty chewy cheese! Its cheese on cheese on cheese and that’s just how I like it. The idea for this recipe I have had the idea to put mac and cheese in a crispy cheese shell for a while but I couldn’t really visualize how I would do it. One idea was to make a sheet of the crispy cheese in a pan, then form it into a mold and add the pasta inside. Another was to make the crisp ..read more

Garlic French toast is here to save you from all the overly sweet french toasts that turned you off from the dish. This recipe is loaded with raw and roasted garlic to make a super savory delicious twist on the classic! I couldn’t just use maple syrup on this french toast though, so I topped it with a chive butter and hot honey to amp up the sweet and savory magic! The inspiration for this recipe Last week I posted a garlic bread with 7 different kinds of garlic in it. When I shared it on instagram, someone mentioned that I should make a garlic french toast version, so I did! I dialed back the ..read more

I set out the make the most garlicky garlic bread possible, and decided if I added seven types of garlics to the bread it would be enough to put it into garlic overdrive! Pickled garlic, roasted garlic, raw garlic, garlic powder, black garlic, and toom garlic spread are the toppings. That is only 6 garlics you might be saying. Well guess what, the bread is garlic sourdough! The inspiration for this recipe I came up with this idea when I was making some janky garlic bread to go on the side with pasta. It was just slices of bread with some butter and garlic powder. Then I added a little raw garl ..read more

Deviled eggs and good Southern style potato salad share a lot of ingredients, so it really makes sense to combine them! When you take a bite of these deviled eggs, it tastes so familiar but it’s hard to put your finger on it. It tastes like a deviled egg but something is different. When it hits you that the flavor is potato salad, it’s like a lightbulb going on in your head and you reach out to grab another! The inspiration for this recipe I wish I could say I came up with this idea but it was actually my wife Georgina who suggested it! I was talking about how I sometimes use potato flakes to ..read more

Chicken satay is often an appetizer, but I wanted to serve it over bucatini and fry the chicken nice and crispy to transform it into a full on meal. The satay sauce actually makes a fantastic pasta sauce for these bucatini noodles. Because bucatini is thick and substantial, the intensely flavored sauce does not overpower things. Using crispy fried chicken with satay totally changes up the vibe in a great way! The inspiration for crispy chicken satay bucatini The jumping off point for this idea was “what if chicken satay and chicken parmesan were combined?” After I developed the recipe a bit, I ..read more

All the flavors you love from an Italian sandwich, shoved tight into a rice paper summer roll! Chewy, crunchy, and deeply flavorful, these “summer” rolls are great all year long! It’s a unique way to get the full flavors of an Italian sub in a perfect little appetizer. It also happens to be gluten free so everyone can enjoy it without worrying! The idea for Italian Sandwich Summer Rolls Summer rolls and Italian sandwiches are two of my favorite foods to mash-up with other things, so I am actually surprised I haven’t put them together until now! I recently saw my friend The Vulgar Chef do an It ..read more

I apologize to the entire state of Pennsylvania and parts of Southern New Jersey but when I had the idea for a cheesesteak inspired by a Philly sushi roll I couldn’t stop thinking about it until I made it. And now that I made it, you have to see it too. The “philly philly” is a cheesesteak that has elements of the philadelphia sushi roll mixed into the sandwich. Cream cheese and smoked salmon inside, and some nori, scallions, and sesame seeds on top. It may seem crazy but it works! The inspiration for this recipe I had the idea for a philly roll cheesesteak a while ago but as you could imagine ..read more