Journey down any Cuban residential street at mealtime and one distinctive, hunger-inducing aroma lifts you up and carries you to the table: garlic.

This is not a one-clove-in-a-dish kind of place. Got a bulb of garlic? Use it. Please, don’t get me wrong; Cuban cooks know how to incorporate garlic into a recipe so it doesn’t smack you around. They know how to coax garlic into releasing it’s pungent flavor without asaulting the rest of the dish.

Toasting, roasting, sautéing and even frying, bring out garlic’s various nuances. Don’t forget: you want garlic’s flavor, but not the bite… like in this easy-to-prepare garlic shrimp recipe. A splash of vinegar, or lemon, brightens the dish just a bit.

Like visiting Cuba, this is a journey worth taking.

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Cuban Garlic Shrimp
(Camarones al Ajillo Cubanos)

prep: 10 minutes
cook:10 minutes

you’ll need…
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup minced onion
8 garlic cloves, finely minced or pushed through a garlic press
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves

let’s get to it…
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes.
Add the onion and cook for 1 minute. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes until softened but not brown.
Lower heat to medium low and add the shrimp. Sauté shrimp for 3 to 4 minutes or until barely pink.
Stir in the vinegar and cook for 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Remove from heat and sprinkle with parsley. Serve immediately.

Camarones al Ajillo at El Templete Restaurant in Havana

Have you seen how many different kinds of granola you can buy? 

A lot of the granola you see in grocery stores is loaded with too much sugar and sodium… definitely not something you want if you’re trying to eat healthy (and Granola started off as a health food, remember).

Here’s a better idea… make your own. This is a very easy gluten-free, vegan recipe that shows you how to make the best granola ever. I’ve used brown sugar and maple syrup to give it a subtle sweetness and added just a pinch of salt. The almonds and tart cherries bump up the excitement!

Find the printable recipe below the image!

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What’s the difference between a crisp and a crumble? 

Heck if I know.

I spent most of the morning researching this question and came to only one conclusion: they both have deliciously baked seasonal fruit buried under a warm, sweet and buttery streusel-like blanket.

Some recipes say crisps have oats, while others argue that only crumbles have oats. The name “crumble” originated in England, but that’s about the only historic tidbit I could find (which actually isn’t very helpful, but interesting if you’re like me and love trivia). I confess, don’t know where the word “crisp” came from.

This recipe for crisp is not only gluten-free, it’s super easy to make. I used Honeycrisp apples because they’re my favorite and they don’t dry out like other apples (I’m looking at you, Red Delicious).

Any seasonal fruit will work. Fresh berries give you a jammy and juicy compote, while peaches and pears are more pie-like. Don’t use frozen fruit or you’ll wind up with a dessert that won’t be a crisp or a crumble, just a soggy mess!

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I forgot how deliciously rewarding it is to prepare and eat a Chef’s Salad.   You get your protein. You get your cheese. You get your veggies. You get your crunchy little croutons. You get a healthy, easy-to-make meal that is tied together with a bouncy light vinaigrette.

Traditionally a Chef’s Salad is made with smoked ox tongue, fresh roasted ham and chicken or turkey cut off the bone and carefully sliced “julienne” style. I’m fine with the ham and chicken or turkey, but the smoked ox tongue is definitely NOT happening in my salad bowl. You go right ahead, and thank you very much.

But what do you do if you don’t have a roasted ham or chicken or turkey hanging out in your refrigerator? You follow my recipe for Super Easy Chef’s Salad. Buy the meat and cheese at the supermarket deli and ask (nicely) for them to cut into ¼-inch thick slices.

You’ll still need to cut the meat and cheese into strips, aka julienne, but that doesn’t take much time. Just stack the slices and cut them all at once. Boiled eggs are easy (and you may already have some in your fridge).

You can use romaine lettuce, but I like to mix it up with iceberg and whatever other leaf lettuce looks good. In this recipe, I used only cucumbers and tomatoes, but you can add whatever veggies you like because, after all, this is a CHEF’S Salad… and you’re the CHEF!

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