Now, every time I make a martini or chicken broth -- I'll daydream and wonder if the same pot made soup for Jackie Gleason, or if the same shaker made a martini for Cary Grant? You never know... 
Cooking the bird "upside down" ... it's not as pretty a presentation - but it makes for much tastier white meat!
Does the chicken in this pot look odd at all? It's because it's upside down. Breast side down instead of the way we're used to seeing it - breast side up. My mom always did this with the holiday turkeys, so why not do it with chicken. 
1 Whole chicken - drop it into an oven safe dish that you have a lid for. Add a generous amount of salt and pepper. You could stop there and add only a bit of olive oil, but I also like to add a good sprinkling of onion powder & garlic powder, a little paprika, and a little dried oregano. Drizzle a good amount of olive oil over it, then rub it all in real good. 
OK, so here is what happens. The breast meat is sitting at the bottom of the pot, drenched in all the juices and fat and it just drinks it up. Like I said, not as pretty - but so much tastier. 
Taken right out of the pot - juicy and moist. If you cut this piece of breast meat in half, you'll see the gorgeous caramel colored juice in-between each and every fiber. Go ahead, click on the picture to supersize it... you know you want to.
So, let's take a poll: Is there anyone here who doesn't like fatty, melt in your mouth pork? 
Pork belly is basically unsmoked bacon. I got mine at the Asian market. It's not salty, not cured at all. And, it had the rind. You can take the rind off, but why would you want to? It cooks up so crispy it'll rattle your brain when you eat it. "Cracklins" is what they call it in the south. Soooo yummy!
With all this fat, this is best as an appetizer type dish, rather than a main dish, so I cut it in smaller pieces, each serving is about 2 ounces. Salt each side generously and place into a 325 oven. I like to use a grill pan so the fat has somewhere to go, and the pork doesn't confit in it's own fat. You're looking for tender ... not crispy. Well, the rind can be crispy, but that should be the only part.
If your rind is on, you need to score it before cooking because it contracts quite a bit, and it will totally jack-up the look of your piece of pork belly. And do this the way you want to cut it, because after it cooks, you can not cut through it.
Other than my blender and my food processor, I have never used a kitchen gadget as much as I've used this ice cream maker. You can make ice cream out of anything! Sorbet is actually my preference, and it's a great way to use up overripe fruit! The other day I picked up a bag of frozen strawberries, thawed them and then put them in the blender with some simple syrup and a little bit of water. So fresh tasting and such a strong and amazing strawberry flavor! You can take any juice and make a quick sorbet - fresh squeezed orange juice, or lemonade. Toss in some yogurt to make frozen yogurt. It's endless.
15 minutes later.... 
When I was a kid, this was one of my most favorite things! We called them potato tacos. It is my Dad's recipe, and I believe the story was that he got the idea from a street vendor in Mexico. No one I have ever talked to has ever heard of tacos with potatoes mixed in - including the many Mexican-Americans I have asked. So, maybe it didn't come from Mexico. Or, maybe it did, but it was just that one street vendor's special recipe? Everyone who has tried them loves them. It's different, but familiar at the same time. You gotta try it!
1 can tomato paste. A good splash of olive oil. A little salt & pepper. A pinch of dried oregano -- I don't have fresh oregano. The snails always eat it. The only thing I can grow here is rosemary. Anyway, I also added a clove of chopped garlic.
You can make your own crust, if you're into that sort of thing. I am not into making crust by scratch, so don't come to me for a dough recipe. I use store-bought pizza dough.
Add the sauce, the cheese, and if you like, other stuff. Bake it at 450 until golden and bubbly and not too burnt on the bottom because toddlers don't like things too "dark." 
Last week we went to the beach. The water is nice and warm this time of year here in southern California, and the tourists are now gone, so we can finally enjoy our beach again! 
While out in the surf, I wasn't exactly looking for food, I was just looking for seashells for my daughter to play with. It's funny though, because we were just talking about clamming and wondering if you can just find clams on any beach, or if they were more fond of certain conditions, like say colder water or whatever. We don't know. We just buy them. But this day I found one! Guess that answers the question of whether you can just find them anywhere. I found one in Newport Beach. It looked healthy, definitely looked alive... he was closed tightly. And I'm not sure what type of clam it was - but the shell was quite thick and strong. Not what you typically see in the stores. It was buried in the sand, but the surf uncovered it, and I picked him up!
So, there he is. Cute little clam. I don't even like clams, but hubby does, and he didn't hesitate for one second when I asked him if he wanted to take it home and cook it, "Absolutely!" he said. 
I was sauteing some diced peppers and garlic for our dinner, so I tossed the clam into the pan. And then added some white wine. And then we waited for the clam to open. 
He wasn't giving up without a fight. That thick shell I guess just takes longer to heat up, because it took a while to open! I thought it was probably dead. But then all of a sudden... 
If you have any leftover baguette bread, cut it into small cubes and put on a cookie sheet - drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and cook on 350 until golden brown. If you don't want to make your own, that's fine... just use croutons!
