Real spaghetti carbonara

In Virginia, you can find pork jowl bacon in the stores, and this is a great use for it. This has been one of my favorite dishes for years, because I usually have most of the ingredients on hand (although sometimes I cheat and use cooked bacon crumbles, which I keep in the freezer after opening).

If anyone can point me to a source for pork jowl in Sacramento, I'd be most appreciative.

When eggs go south - south of the border, that is

Photograph: treehugger.com

Spending my formative years among artsy people in Texas taught me appreciation for many things that were not part of my childhood, or were a part of it in a twisted way that I couldn't appreciate. For instance, my dad loved Mexican food, but what we got was tamales in a can, Hormel Chili, and El Patio frozen Mexican meals. It's a wonder I ever stepped inside a Mexican restaurant after that experience.

But step I did, at all times of the day and night. As much as I loved Tex-Mex, more authentic Mexican food from different regions was making inroads into Houston in the 1970s, and with those came places that served Mexican breakfasts. I ate it all.

I still love a good Mexican breakfast, so I keep cans of Herdez sauces in the pantry, because I am not awake enough to do any sauce from scratch before 10 a.m. When I saw a Food & Wine recipe in my email for Mexican Eggs in Purgatory, I knew I had to try it. But I also knew that I wouldn't be running to the grocery store to get a pound of tomatillos before breakfast. So again, Herdez to the rescue.

If you have access to fresh tomatillos and want to try the original recipe by Grace Parsi of Food & Wine, here's the link: Mexican Eggs in Purgatory

Lori K's Fast Mexican Eggs in Purgatory
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons crumbled bacon
1 can Herdez salsa verde
2-3 eggs
2 ounces Cotija or feta cheese, crumbled
2 green onion tops, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Warm corn tortillas for serving

Ingredients
Preheat the broiler and position a rack about 8 inches from the heat source.
In a cast iron pan or shallow flame-proof casserole, heat the oil on a stove burner set on low. Add the garlic and the bacon bits, and cook for 5 minutes. Take a paper towel, fold it in half and place it on top of the pan, holding one end. With a wooden spoon, gently press to remove extra grease. Discard.
Add the can of salsa verde to the pan, raise the heat to medium, and cook until it bubbles vigorously, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs gently, far enough apart so they don't touch one another. Add the crumbled cheese over the top of all, avoiding the yolks.
Put the pan in the oven. Set the timer for 3 minutes.
Put 6 corn tortillas in a towel or warmer, and put in the microwave. When there's a minute left on the timer, turn on the microwave for 1 minute.
When the timer goes off, check the eggs. The whites should be set but the yolks runny. If the whites aren't set, keep them under the broiler for another minute.
After you pull them out of the oven, sprinkle with the green onion slices and cilantro, if using. Serve immediately with the warm tortillas.
Good with sliced avocados and refried black beans; for a hardier meal, serve with hash browns or country fried potatoes.

Just the facts? What nutrition labels hide

The old saying - "There's lies, damn lies and statistics" - has some truth to it. And today, I'm here to say Nutrition Facts fall into the statistics category.

I took out the pack of Kirkland Crumbled Bacon from the fridge and heated a tablespoon for an omelet I was making. While I was waiting for it to cook, I got to reading the recipe on the side for Linguine Carbonara and comparing it to how I usually make the dish.

I usually use 2 ounces of uncooked pasta per person, and this recipe called for a pound, so I'm assuming it will feed eight people. The rest of the ingredients are looking pretty good, a pretty nutritious dish, actually - until I saw how much bacon it called for: 1 cup.

For most ingredients and liquids, a cup contains 16 tablespoons. But some things that have a lot of air in them can fluff up and measure out differently. So from my measurement, 8 tablespoons almost filled up a cup, but not quite. So I decided to go by the weight the package said a tablespoon of bacon crumbles was, 7g. Well, according to metric-conversions.org, 56 g (8 x 7g) is approximately 2 ounces. On my kitchen scale, a cup of bacon crumbles weighed in at 6 ounces. If a serving is 7g, then why is Kirkland advocating a recipe that uses three times the amount that is suggested as a serving?

Moreover, I know a lot of families of four eat a pound of pasta at a sitting. Divided by 4, that would be 6 servings of bacon per person in this recipe. That's 12 grams of fat (6 saturated) and 1440 mg of sodium (about 60 percent of the daily value) just from the bacon.

According to Wikipedia, the Nutrition Facts label was mandated for most food products under the provisions of the 1990 Nutrition Labeling and Education Act, per the recommendations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It was one of several controversial actions taken during the tenure of FDA Commissioner Dr. David Kessler. The law required food companies to begin using the new food label on packaged foods beginning May 8, 1994.

The government's attitude is consumer beware: below is fda.gov's suggestion for using the label.

The first place to start when you look at the Nutrition Facts label is the serving size and the number of servings in the package. Serving sizes are standardized to make it easier to compare similar foods; they are provided in familiar units, such as cups or pieces, followed by the metric amount, e.g., the number of grams.
The size of the serving on the food package influences the number of calories and all the nutrient amounts listed on the top part of the label. Pay attention to the serving size, especially how many servings there are in the food package. Then ask yourself, "How many servings am I consuming"? (e.g., 1/2 serving, 1 serving, or more) In the sample label, one serving of macaroni and cheese equals one cup. If you ate the whole package, you would eat two cups. That doubles the calories and other nutrient numbers, including the %Daily Values as shown in the sample label.

If anyone wants the recipe after all this, message me or comment below and I'll input it. Or use the one I published here previously: http://lkcafe.blogspot.com/2009/12/simple-but-satisfying-dinner.html  It doesn't take a cup of bacon crumbles.

Shad roe - a harbinger of spring in the East

While living in California, I came across several shad fishermen, and even saw the fish for sale occasionally at Taylor's Market in Sacramento. But it wasn't until I came to Virginia that I discovered the pleasures of its roe. Shad roe is only available locally for a few weeks in the early spring. So the season begins very early in Florida, moves up to Georgia, then up the coast to Virginia and Maryland, where it is known as Maryland caviar. 

John McPhee, one of my favorite authors for his journalistic style, wrote "The Founding Fish," an entire book that waxes eloquently about shad, and has provided New Yorker magazine readers with many recipes over the years for both the fish and the roe. By the way, the fish is also at its best during spawning season, when it gets fatter and more succulent. 

On the West Coast, shad don't start up the Sacramento River until late spring. They continue on up river, and group for several weeks near Corning in June and early July.

In the fish market, shad roe definitely stands out among the pale fillets - it's bright red and looks vaguely obscene. It comprises two long egg sacs called lobes, joined together by a thin membrane. Each is a meal for one. Since it is better to eat fresh, it's best to share with someone you love... who also loves shad roe, or is willing to try it.

When cooked, it turns the color of liver, with a grainy interior. But it doesn't taste like liver or caviar. It is much milder and takes on the flavors of the ingredients it is cooked with.

Here's a recipe, adapted from DC's Blue Duck Tavern chef Brian McBride, that I cooked last week. I served it with a salad of local lettuces and arugula, dressed with a little olive oil, spices, salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon.

Pan-Fried Shad Roe

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 slices of meaty sliced hog jowl bacon (or any lean, hickory-smoked bacon), 2 slices diced, 2 whole

1 large shallot, or 2 smaller shallots, thinly sliced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 medium-sized set of shad roe (two lobes)

Kosher salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup vegetable demi-glace, made with 1 teaspoon of Better Than Bullion vegetable stock and 1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon stone-ground mustard

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar glaze

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a cast-iron pan over medium heat, sauté diced bacon until the fat renders. Add shallot and garlic. When the onions are caramelized, remove the mixture from the pan and set aside. Wipe the pan and return it to medium heat.

Raw shad roe

Cut along the center membrane to separate the roe lobes. Pat the sacs dry and season them with coarse salt and black pepper. Melt butter in the pan, add the 2 whole pieces of bacon, and gently place the lobes in the pan. Let the roe brown on one side for 3 minutes, basting occasionally with the butter, then flip it, taking care not to tear its membrane. Place the pan in the oven for about 5 minutes. The roe is done when it is lightly caramelized and feels firm, like a medium-rare steak. Set the roe aside.

Drain the fat from the pan and return it to medium heat. Deglaze the pan with the vegetable demi-glace. Return the onion mixture to the pan, with the mustard and balsamic glaze. When it starts to boil, take it off the heat.

Slice the roe on the bias and serve one lobe per person over a mound of the onions with a curled bacon strip and a drizzle of sauce. Serve with a lemony salad and sliced baguette to absorb the sauce. You won't want to waste any of it.

Hot breakfast to go

Sunday mornings are, shall we say, a little rushed in our household. When we just can't face a bowl of cereal, here's one option that's almost as fast.

Egg Tacos
Serves 2
From the files of Lori Korleski Richardson
Ingredients
2 corn tortillas
2 tablespoons crumbled bacon
2 ounces shredded cheese
Spray olive oil
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce (optional)

Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put a cast-iron skillet on the stove and heat on medium low.

Put the tortillas on a cookie sheet. Spread a tablespoon of crumbled bacon and an ounce of shredded cheese on each one. Put the cookie sheet in the oven.

Spray the skillet with olive oil. Crack the eggs into the skillet; after about a minute, break the membrane on the white (where it humps up) and the yolk. Season with salt and pepper. (I like sea salt and freshly ground pepper.) When nearly firm, turn and take off the heat.

The cheese should be melted on the tortillas. Remove from oven, place an egg on each one, add hot sauce if desired.

 The eggs are also good on toast; you can toast the bread in a toaster, put it on a paper towel on a plate, sprinkle on the bacon and cheese, and microwave it just until the cheese melts. Put the egg in between.

Variations
Cooked onions and mushrooms
Fried tomatoes or chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Avocado or guacamole
Diced canned Ortega peppers

Candied bacon - need I say more?

I saw this recipe last week on Jamie Oliver's Facebook page and socked it away for when clementines are back in season (around Christmas). But after watching a food show that featured maple glazed donuts with bacon on top, I dug it out and made the substitution of marmalade for the sugar and clementine juice sauce. I still plan to try the original, but the tartness of the rind in the marmalade (homemade; many thanks to Bettina Blackford for a splendid gift) was a perfect foil to the richness of the bacon.

Lori's candied bacon salad
Adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe
Serves 2

For the creamy dressing:
• 2 tablespoons good-quality extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon nonfat yogurt
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the salad:
• 4 slices of thick bacon or a meaty sliced smoked pork jowl
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 2 heaping tablespoons orange marmalade
• 1 jigger of Meyer's rum
• 2 large handfuls of mixed salad leaves, washed and spun dry
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 seedless clementine or mandarin orange, peeled and sliced horizontally
• a small bunch of fresh mint leaves, optional
• freshly ground black pepper

To make your dressing, put all the ingredients into a large serving bowl, whisk together, and season to taste. You want it to be slightly too acidic, so add a splash more vinegar if you think it needs it. Put to one side.

Get a large frying pan on a medium heat, add the bacon and cook until lightly golden (but not really crispy), turning them every so often. Remove the bacon to a plate and drain all but a tablespoon of the fat. Squash your garlic clove and add it to the pan, then turn the heat up a little. Cook until the clove is golden, remove it, then add the marmalade and rum and whisk until blended. Put the bacon back in, being careful not to touch the syrup. Stir the bacon around until it is coated on all sides and gets sticky. Use tongs to carefully remove the bacon to an oiled plate and let them cool.

Grab your bowl of dressing and add your salad leaves. Add the bell pepper and the orange slices. Add your mint leaves, if using, then use your hands to toss and dress everything thoroughly. Lay your candied bacon on top then pass the bowl around the table and let everyone serve themselves.

Wine suggestion:
Californian Fumé Blanc

Cleanup suggestion:
Pour hot water into the pan with the marmalade drippings and soak the utensils until after dinner. Cleanup will be easier.

Scallops and a touch of bacon = fast dinner

Here's a delicious way to get dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes.

Lori K's scallop-bacon pasta

4 ounces dried whole-wheat spaghetti
1/2 pound scallops
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons cooked bacon bits
1 clove crushed garlic
4 large basil leaves, snipped into ribbons
1 tablespoon snipped parsley
Freshly ground pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil and add the spaghetti. Cook for 12-15 minutes until al dente.
Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and add the bacon bits and garlic. Wash and dry the scallops

You can use the time to prepare a salad: Lettuce, maché, yellow bell pepper, cucumber, radishes, tomatoes, feta.

Stir the bacon bits from time to time.

About 8 minutes after you start the spaghetti, add the scallops to the bacon bits. Cook them until they are just firm, about 4 minutes each side.

Drain the spaghetti; if it looks like it's sticking together, rinse in hot water.

Add the bacon-scallop mixture to the spaghetti and toss. Add the spices and toss again. Serve with salad and bread if you'd like.

Making something healthful unhealthful

California Avocado Commission

Why do restaurant chefs just pile on the calories, after they've created something that sounds right and healthful? Case in point:

CHOPPED SALAD

Recipe Provided By Chef Kevin Gin, Bridges in Danville, CA

Serves: 4

Ingredients

12 ounces grilled chicken breast, diced medium

6 ounces crisp cooked smoked bacon, chopped small

8 ounces fresh avocados, diced medium*

4 petite hearts of romaine, chopped (about 2 cups lightly packed)

8 small tomatoes (2" diameter), cut in quarters

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon mixed herbs

Creamy Basil Dressing (recipe follows)

Instructions

Marinate the cut tomatoes in the olive oil and mixed herbs for about 10 minutes.

Toss the chopped romaine with the Creamy Basil Dressing. Divide the mixture between 4 serving bowls.

Top each bowl with chicken, avocado, bacon, and tomato. Serve.

*A large Fresh California Avocado weighs about 8 oz.

Creamy Basil Dressing

(Yield: 1 1/4 cup)

Ingredients

8 ounces sour cream

1 tablespoon cider vinegar

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

½ ounce fresh basil, chopped

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients together.

Now tell me, how does the dressing make this salad any better than if you added a couple of basil leaves and a squeeze of lemon? Why add cream and sour cream to a basically healthy dish?

A side note: Bridges is a fine restaurant, and if you're ever in Danville, you should check it out. If you don't plan a trip to this East Bay burb anytime soon, you can see the restaurant in the movie "Mrs. Doubtfire."

Bacon and egg salad

The girls are now regularly laying 2-3 eggs a day, so it's time to haul out the egg recipes. Today for lunch, rather than a traditional egg salad, I gave it a little twist.

Lori K's Avocado, Bacon and Egg Salad

Serves 2 (as sandwiches or scooped on a bed of lettuce)

Ingredients
1/2 avocado, mashed
1 tablespoon cooked bacon, crumbled
1 tablespoon capers, drained
2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
Pepper to taste

Instructions
Mash avocado until smooth in bowl. Add bacon and capers. Peel hard-boiled eggs, slice in half, remove yolks and crumble in the bowl, then dice the remaining whites and add to bowl. Stir until blended and serve, as a spread for sandwiches or scooped on a bed of lettuce.

Note: If you don't have or don't like capers, add instead a little lime juice or vinegar and salt.

Bacon&eggs alternative

Big breakfasts aren't so big anymore. As much as I love eggs, I don't eat them every morning: one or two times a week, tops. But if you can't face another bowl of cereal, maybe it's time to get a little creative.

I made these potato bites from a large Yukon Gold potato that I had baked extra for a previous dinner, skinned and refrigerated. Once cool, these potatoes are firm and slice easily (white rose and red potatoes would work, too, but not russets). Low-fat cream cheese tastes fine on these. If you've never bought a bag of real bacon bits, you're missing out. They keep for a long time and have a lot less fat than bacon you cook yourself, then crumble.

Using smaller or fingerling potatoes, these would also make super appetizers.

Potato bites
Serves 1-2

Ingredients
1 large Yukon Gold potato, cooked, cooled and sliced into 1/4-inch rounds
2 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons bacon bits
Minced parsley (optional)

Instructions
Put cold potato slices on a paper-towel covered plate. Top each slice with a teaspoon of cream cheese, made into a little ball, then flattened. Sprinkle with bacon bits. Microwave for a minute or until hot. Sprinkle with minced parsley if desired. Serve.

Sorry I didn't get a good photo of this to post. We ate them too quickly!

Making bacon

Oven-cooked (top) and pan-cooked bacon.

Photos by Lori Korleski Richardson

When it's time to cook a pound or two of bacon for a crowd, oven preparation is the best, hands down. Not only can you cook the quantity that you desire, clean up is easier and you don't have to turn the strips if you put them on a rack set in your pan.

But if you're doing 8 slices or less, a large cast iron skillet on the stove should be your choice. Not only will you shave the preparation time by almost half, you will have some choice bits left in the pan when you cook your eggs.

Here are my notes from a comparison of the cooking methods. I used one pound of Smithfield natural hickory smoked bacon, thick sliced. (Although the nutrition facts on the back said there were 11 one-slice servings in the package, there were actually 14. That would take the calorie count down from 60 calories to 41.25 calories.)

• Seven strips of bacon in a 12" cast iron skillet over low heat took 12 minutes to cook crisply. In order to brown them evenly, I had to cut them in the middle and cook the ends facing the center, and I had to turn them several times.
• Seven strips of bacon on a rack over a jellyroll pan in a 350-degree oven took 20 minutes to cook to a nice brown color, but they were not as crisp. Perhaps cooking them at 375 degrees would produce a crisper strip.

Frankly, the mouthfeel of the pan-fried bacon was more satisfying, but the bacon flavor was more concentrated in the oven-fried version.

A ravioli to rave about

My friend Bambi Nicklin, a fine page designer I worked with in Orange County, California, years ago, likes to post her dinner menu as her status report at least several times a week. And we, her Facebook friends, are better for having such creative ideas plop onto our virtual plates.

She included this recipe (scanty, yes, but enough to get you to experiment), so I'm reposting it here.

Bambi's Butternut Squash Ravioli

Boil salted water. Fry the bacon, remove to dish, dump the grease. Put olive oil in the pan, toast the nuts, remove to same dish. Cook ravioli in the water, drain thoroughly. Heat olive oil and saute ravioli, add fresh spinach and cook just to barely wilt the spinach. Add nuts, bacon and Gorgonzola cheese. Toss and serve.

Cooking-for-a-crowd tips

Staying at the Browns always reminds me of cooking breakfast for at least a dozen people, and if you’ve ever worn yourself to a frazzle trying to cook for more than eight people in the morning, here are some tips to get you through your next big event.

• Toast: Forget the toaster and those fancy racks that we like to refer to as the “toast cooler.” Turn on the oven to 350 degrees. Put slices of real bread (the kind that doesn’t have a lot of preservatives; if you’re using Wonder Bread, you’ll probably need a rack, too) on cookie sheets. When the oven is preheated, slide the sheets into the oven and cook until the tops are light brown or you can smell the toast. Remove and flip the slices. Toast for a little less time than the first side, turn off the oven, remove the toast, put on a pat of butter, and slide back into the oven until the pats melt a little. Serve immediately.
  
• Eggs: Scrambled are great for a crowd, but you always have to use so many eggs per person to make them look like a goodly amount on a plate. Poached look fancier, and my friend Elaine Corn has the easiest way to make them ahead in her cookbook, “365 Ways to Cook Eggs.” But the best way to make eggs for a crowd is to make a strata (kind of a savory bread pudding that, without crusts, looks more like a souffle; click on the word for a recipe) and top with great sauce (my favorite is marchand de vin).
• Bacon: Oven-fried is the only way to go. Line a lipped baking sheet with foil, or make half-inch sides with the foil. Does not need to be quick-release. This will make cleanup easier. Separate bacon slices and put them in a single layer on the foil. Put in a cold oven (DO NOT PREHEAT), then turn it on to 400 degrees. Check the oven 15 minutes later. As soon as the bacon is golden brown, remove it (it will continue to cook as you take it out of the oven). The exact time will depend on the thickness of the bacon slices, but it shouldn't be more than 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and drain on paper towels. Strain the hot grease through cheesecloth if you are saving it for another use, otherwise let it solidify and toss it and the foil together.

Of course, the easiest and healthiest of all is fruit and cereal, but somehow, that just doesn't say "company" to most people.

Recipe: Onion Low Carb-o-nara

From "Happy in the Kitchen (2006)" by Michel Richard

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 ounces sliced applewood-smoked bacon
3 large yellow onions (about 12 ounces each)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling

Instructions
Stack bacon slices, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in freezer to firm. This will make them easier to cut.

To cut onions, using a meat slicer, cut off root end of each onion and discard. Then, cut off other ends. With a paring knife, core each onion by cutting a cone-shaped piece from root end of onion, much as you would remove stem of an apple. Stand each onion on one end and cut a vertical slit from top to bottom, just reaching center. This will result in long strands of onion rather than rings when onion is sliced. Set slicer to cut 1/8-inch-thick slices. Place flat end of onion against blade and slice. To cut by hand, leave root ends intact, cut a slit in each onion as above, then cut across onions to make 1/8-inch-thick slices.

Separate onion slices into strands. Place longer strands in a bowl and reserve shorter ones for another use. You should have about 8 cups loosely packed onions.

Place a steamer basket in a pot over simmering water. Place onion strands in basket, cover, and steam 5 to 6 minutes, or until onions are translucent but still "al dente." Remove basket from pot. (This can be done a few hours before serving.)

Remove bacon from freezer, unwrap, and cut crosswise into 1/8-inch strips. Place in a large nonstick skillet and sauté over medium-high heat, stirring often, about 5 minutes, until crisp and browned. Meanwhile in a small bowl, mix together 1/4 cup cream and egg yolk. Set aside.

Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour out fat, and wipe pan clean with a paper towel. Return pan to burner. Add butter and melt over medium heat. Add bacon and remaining cream and simmer 30 seconds. Add onions and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper, toss, and cook 2 to 3 minutes, or until onions are hot. Remove pan from heat and stir in reserved cream mixture and Parmesan. Taste and add additional seasoning if needed.

With pair of tongs, lift each portion, letting excess sauce drip back into pan, and arrange in small mound on serving plate. Serve sprinkled with additional Parmesan, if desired.

Note: If you'd like to try to download this recipe with the per-serving nutritional information for $2.95 on a credit card, click here.  I tried to access the Bee's archive, but it wouldn't let me complete the transaction, so I can't vouch that the recipe or the nutritional information is actually there.

Shad roe, the harbinger of spring

In Charlottesville, Whole Foods does a nice job with its fish counter, and there's always at least two varieties of fish that meet my criteria: beautifully fresh and good value. (The only reason I don't shop there regularly is that I believe in supporting local businesses, and Charlottesville has an excellent fishmonger on West Main.) 

Yesterday was no exception. The little trouts had bright, shiny eyes, the Scottish salmon was rich and firm, but what were those strange things that looked like elongated, rosy sweetbreads doing there? 

Why, that was the legendary shad roe, which is only available fresh in the spring as the fish migrate up river from the Chesapeake Bay to spawn. It comes in two lobes, which is just enough for a meal for two.

Watching your cholesterol? Skip this dish and go back to the fish counter for a more healthful option.

Lori K's Shad Roe Brunch

Ingredients

1 twin-lobe shad roe

6 ounces butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 tablespoon capers

Arugula

Cooked rice or grits

2 tablespoons bacon crumbles

Fresh crusty bread

Instructions

Poach the roe in gently simmering water for 5 minutes. Be sure the liquid does not boil; the membrane around the roe is sensitive to high heat. Drain and snip between the two lobes to separate. Melt butter in a small skillet and season with salt (if using unsalted butter) and pepper. Add the two pieces of roe. Saute for 3 minutes on each side, or until firm. Remove roe and keep warm. Add the lime juice and capers to the butter in the skillet and cook until well blended. 

To serve, make a bed of arugula around each small plate. Spoon rice or grits into the middle and top with the shad roe. Drizzle the lime-butter-caper sauce over the top and sprinkle the bacon over. Add a couple of slices of bread to the side; they will be useful to sop up the remaining sauce.

Don't mess with seniors

My Uncle Vernon usually sends me a joke or two every day by e-mail... his way, at 84, to let me know he's still here. Most have nothing to do with food, but this one does.

We went to breakfast at a restaurant where the 'seniors' special' was two eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast for $1.99.

'Sounds good,' my wife said. 'But I don't want the eggs.'

'Then, I'll have to charge you $2.49 because you're ordering a la carte,' the waitress warned her.

'You mean I'd have to pay for not taking the eggs?' my wife asked incredulously.

'YES!!' stated the waitress..

'I'll take the special then.' my wife said.

'How do you want your eggs?' the waitress asked.

'Raw and in the shell,' my wife replied.

She took the two eggs home and baked a cake.

DON'T MESS WITH SENIORS!!!

Makin' bacon -- for dessert?

The San Jose Mercury News this week had a little item from Sue Kidd in Tacoma on a bistro there that features bacon in desserts. For anyone who would like to try this at home,  here's a recipe for a bacon candy that the chef uses in some of his creations. And for anyone who loves bacon, check out Joanna Pruess's "Seduced by Bacon." I did a review of  it for The Sacramento Bee when it first came out, including a recipe or two that I tested. If anyone's interested in reading it, I'll repost it here.