Here is a fun appetizer or an amazing amuse-bouche. We served this to our dinner guests recently as a lovely amuse-bouche and we’ve also served trays of them at a cocktail party. This is a true crowd pleaser! trèschic!!!
Give this a try and let us know what you think!
For a quick demonstration of how easy this is to prepare, check out our video of Harris preparing this crowd pleaser.
Eggplant & Feta with Pine Nuts & Basil
Appetizer or Amuse-Bouche
Makes 1 dozen
Ingredients:
1 Italian or 2 Japanese Eggplant(s), cut lengthwise ¼ inch thick slices
¼ cup toasted pine nuts
¼ pound feta cheese, cut into ½ inch cubes
1 dozen tender basil leaves
Extra virgin olive oil
Kosher salt & pepper
Directions:
Brush slices of eggplant with olive oil and season with salt & pepper.
On high heat, sauté eggplant until golden brown on both sides.
Remove eggplant from pan and set on plate to cool.
On work surface, lay out the eggplant and place cube of feta cheese about 2 inches from the end. Sprinkle with 4 or 5 toasted pine nuts and place one basil leaf on top of the feta cheese.
Roll the eggplant around the cheese, keeping the pine nuts and basil inside the roll-up and skewer with a large decorative tooth pick.
If you love Shrimp Scampi, you must try this recipe. It’s super easy to make and takes very little time from start to finish! Serve this dish up to your family or guest and they will think you’re a professional chef!
What makes it Gluten Free? Simple, we use no flour to thicken the sauce and we serve it on Gluten Free pasta! Our choice is Barilla but there are many options available.
In this short instructional video, Dave demonstrates just how easy this dish is to make!
We hope you enjoy!!!
Shrimp Scampi
Ingredients:
2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined – tails left on
Season the shrimp thoroughly with salt and pepper.
Heat a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add enough oil to lightly coat the pan. Add the shrimp and quickly sauté until just starting to turn pink, but not cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the onions and sauté just until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. If adding red pepper flakes, add them at this time as well.
Add the lemon juice, white wine, and stock, and reduce by 2/3, about 5 minutes.
Add the shrimp back to the pan and swirl in the butter. Check for seasoning and adjust as necessary.
Serve over al dente pasta. Note: If using Gluten Free pasta, be certain to keep stirring the pasta while boiling to ensure it doesn’t clump and stick together. After you drain the pasta water, we also find it best if you toss the pasta with a little olive oil to also prevent sticking.
After plated, sprinkle with fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and the fresh parsley. Garnish the plate with lemon slices and serve!
Love this recipe? Follow us and share it with your friends! Let us know how it came out and send us some pictures! Questions? Ask The Dads in the comments or e-mail: HarrisandDave@gmail.com
Add this amazing recipe to your repertoire and impress your friends; great for a dinner party!!!
This is very similar to the French version, bouillabaisse, only this doesn’t have saffron and the base is tomato. Staying true to Harris’ Italian roots was his goal when creating this dish.
The star ingredient is the calamari! If you’ve not cooked calamari before now, don’t be afraid. Most fear cooking calamari any way other than breaded and deep-fried but fear not. You will be surprised how tender and flavorful it is in this dish. If you watch our video, you will also see how much liquid is released from the calamari as it simmers. While I do believe in substitutions, we strongly recommend not replacing the star ingredient; you’re going to love it!!!
We recommend serving with garlic rubbed crostinis or a rustic bread as you’ll definitely want something to soak up the delicious broth while eating the shell fish!
Enjoy!!!
(Sorry, there wasn’t a photo of this dish once plated. with everyone sitting at the table waiting to be served we got distracted!!)
Here in the video, Harris demonstrates how to cook our very special Cioppino! See below for the recipe!
Cioppino
(Tomato based Seafood Stew)
This recipe will serve 8 or possibly 10
Ingredients:
½ cup olive oil
1 large fennel bulb – chopped fine
1 large white onion – chopped fine
3 ribs celery – chopped fine
1 ½ tablespoon dried oregano
¼ or ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 ½ pound fresh squid, tentacles cut in thirds, bodies cut into ½ inch rings
2 lemons (zest only) – 1 peeled in strips and 1 finely grated
2 ½ cups water
2 bottles clam juice (2 cups)
2 lbs. fresh mussels
2 lbs. Cherry Stone clams
1 lb. Rock fish, skinned and cut into 2 inch pieces
1 lb. large shrimp, peeled & deveined
2 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Kosher Salt and Pepper to taste
The dish requires a very large Dutch oven or clam pot.
Place fresh clams and mussels in a large bowl of very cold water with ice to flush out any sand in the shells. Before adding clams and mussels inspect to be certain all are tightly closed. If any of the shells are open or cracked, discard, as they are dead and not edible. Also trim beard of mussels if needed.
Directions:
Place Dutch oven over medium heat and add the olive oil. When oil is hot, add the fennel, onion, celery, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Season with Kosher salt to sweat the onions. Cook until translucent, about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Reduce heat to medium-low and add squid. Cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The squid will release their juices, which is amazing and will become very tender.
Raise heat to medium-high and add white wine. Cook until reduced, about 20 minutes.
Reduced heat to low and add tomato and lemon strips and cook until very thick, about 45 minutes. Remove lemon strips, add salt and pepper to taste.
Raise heat to medium-high, add water and clam juice and bring to boil. Add clams, mussels, and shrimp, cover and cook until most of the shells have opened, about 5 minutes. Add rock fish and cook another 2 minutes until the fish is opaque.
In a small bowl, combine chopped parsley and grated lemon to make Gremolata.
Serve in individual large bowls, placing seafood in the bottom of bowl, ladling over the seafood the broth. Sprinkle with the gremolata and serve.
Knock your socks off Amazing Italian Seafood Stew!
Love this recipe? Follow us and share it with your friends! Let us know how it came out and send us some pictures! Questions? Ask The Dads in the comments or e-mail: HarrisandDave@gmail.com
How have your gardens come together this spring? Harris shares with you some of his ideas for easy to care for English style gardens!
For inspiration, use of Hostas adds for gentle borders or a dramatic effect! Coralbells sport airy flower spikes on wiry stems above low-growing, often dramatic foliage. For us, we feel the use of topiaries is especially wonderful in our historic home, as the art of topiary gardens date back to Roman times.
We feel that our gardens are a reflection of us as yours should be of you. Bottom line, design and plant what makes you happy! But now’s the time to get it done so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor all summer!
Our children and friends have been begging us to share our tips on gardening. As we do LOVE to garden!
Since Melissa lives in NYC, her garden is on the roof. So in this video, Harris shows you how to start an herb garden that is perfect for any rooftop, small garden and outdoor windowsill planters. Of course, if you have a large garden, this works too!
Harris had actually just picked up his new herbs when he received this special request. So the timing couldn’t have been any better!
Here he pots, Rosemary, Basil, Oregano, Thyme, and Parsley.
Watch our video for The Dads’ special gardening tips!
If you love our video or have more tips, please share in the comments section! We’d love to hear from you!
Father’s Day is this Sunday and what better way to show Dad you care than by preparing a family dinner with a traditional Roasted Chicken with a twist. Our Garlic Rosemary Chicken, lovingly stuffed with rosemary and 15 cloves of garlic, is major flavor! It would be heaven with some roasted vegetables and a simple salad. In fact, check out our recipes for sides and dressing!
When our children were growing up, we always insisted that everyone gather around the table for dinner. With teenagers who were busy and sometimes temperamental, this was not the easiest of tasks some days, but we believed it was important to share our meals as a family. These days, our children have grown and left the house, so family meals are precious. This Father’s Day, we will be celebrating by visiting Leah and Sean at their home for dinner. And who knows, maybe Leah will serve us up our own recipes!
So don’t forget to thank the Dads in your life for all of their hard work, and let them know that you love them this Sunday. And serve up some Garlic Rosemary Chicken, because It isn’t always easy being a Dad. And maybe some pie? Because, us Dads, we’re worth it!
Here in the video, Dave demonstrates how to cook our very special Garlic Rosemary Chicken! See below for the recipe!
Ingredients:
¼ Cup Olive Oil
15 cloves of Garlic
1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, chopped
1 tablespoon Kosher Salt
1 Teaspoon Black pepper
1 four pound Chicken
3 Cups Chicken stock
3 TBS fresh Lemon juice
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a food processor, combine the olive oil, garlic, rosemary, kosher salt and black pepper. Process to the consistence of a pesto/paste. Rub the garlic mixture under and over the skin of the chicken and in the cavity. Set chicken on rack in roasting pan and roast for 45 minutes.
Remove the rack with the chicken and discard fat from the pan. Add the chicken stock and lemon juice to the pan and bring to a boil over moderately high heat, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Place the rack with the chicken back in pan and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, basting often, until the juices run clear.
Transfer chicken to a carving board and cover lightly with foil to allow the chicken to rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Love this recipe? Follow us and share it with your friends! Let us know how it came out and send us some pictures! Questions? Ask The Dads in the comments or e-mail: HarrisandDave@gmail.com
This week, The Dads want to encourage you to make your own sauces! Why buy store bought when you can make homemade quick & easy for less money? Bonus: The taste is so much better!
We made a Remoulade Sauce this morning since our friends will be coming for dinner tonight. The first course that we will be serving is an avocado sliced on the plate, topped with jumbo lump crab meat that has been tossed in this fantastic Remoulade Sauce!
When you make your own sauces, do you follow the recipe or add your own twists? What’s your favorite to make?
Watch The Dads video below for our tips and tricks!
One of our favorite followers, Chris from Key West, has asked us to show him how we make our Pasta Carbonara! The thing is… that he actually asked us this a couple of months ago! We feel awful that it took so long to get up here, but truthfully this is not a dish for the diet conscious! So we waited to make it for when we had guests over to share the indulgence!
Here in the video, Harris shows you how to make a perfect Pasta Carbonara! See below for the recipe!
While our recipe calls for Hog Jowl, aka Guanciale at the Italian market, you can use Pancetta or a quality bacon.
Ingredients
(Serves four)
3 – tablespoons Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
8 ounces Guanciale (which is cured pork jowl) or Pancetta or good Bacon
The Dads Tip: Guanciale is our first choice, but it may be difficult to find. Try your local pork butcher. Also, adding half the olive oil at the end adds that fresh olive oil flavor!
Bring 6 quarts of water to boil in a large pot and add 2 Tablespoons salt to the pasta water. Cook the spaghetti/pasta in the boiling water until just al dente.
Meanwhile, combine half the olive oil and bacon/pancetta in a 12- to 14-inch skillet on medium heat.Cook until the bacon/pancetta has rendered its fat and is crispy and golden.Place cooked pork on paper towels to drain, set aside.Retain about half of the dripping for coating the cooked pasta.
In a bowl, mix together the cheese, eggs, and pepper until smooth. We like to add just a little bit of the hot pasta water to help temper the egg mixture.This will prevent the eggs from cooking when added to the hot pasta.
When the pasta is done, reserve a cup of the pasta water.Drain the pasta and place it in a bowl or back into the pot.While the pasta is still really hot, slowly drizzle in the egg mixture, stirring the pasta the whole time.The sauce will become very creamy as it coats the pasta.If you need to loosen it up a bit, you can add some of the reserved pasta water.
Now add the peas (optional) and crispy bacon to the mixture.
Serve immediately and sprinkle the top with remaining Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese!
Love this recipe? Follow us and share it with your friends! Let us know how it came out and send us some pictures! Questions? Ask The Dads in the comments or e-mail: HarrisandDave@gmail.com
So, The Dads finally threw their epic outdoor BBQ party! Sure it was thrown on Memorial Day weekend, but really their party was also a launch of their extensive home additions!
Needless to say, it was amazing! Their phones and emails were flooded the following days with praise of how great of a job they did and how much fun everyone had!
First of all they added a new outdoor kitchen… Look at the Weber Summit grill with a Viking cooktop!
They added lots of new outdoor furniture… I love the green!
They added columns, fans and a new railing to the back porch…
And a new outdoor bar… Look at that stock!
(The tags on the chairs were cut of course, post photo.)
They had a special cocktail menu… My favorite was the Coconut Tree Martini! The Dads toasted the shredded coconut right before the party began, and it made it impossible to not want more! It was actually a cocktail designed by my step-sister, Casey (from my mother’s side). She made it for my 21st birthday and The Dads thought it would be a nice personal touch. They also hired their favorite bartender, Megan from City Cafe in Baltimore and her fiancé Tommy, who were super sweet!
They hired their contractor’s brother for the catering called N&M in Pennsylvania. The Dads hired the caters to cook for 70% of the party and The Dads took care of the remainder 30%. They had expected up to 80 guests, so this was not an easy feat!
The food needless to say was divinity. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the passed ahi tuna from the caters, but the highlight for me was their crab fondue! I’m making you salivate, right?
Their friend George was kind enough to bring in a huge amount of seasoned shrimp! I couldn’t stop eating them with my cousin, Stephanie!
The indoor table landscape was designed by their dear friend Leslie…
Of course, Dave’s sister Carol was a huge help!
Did I mention they had 300 pounds of ice?!!!
Well there’s a taste of what a party at The Dads is like!
Want tips on how to throw your next upcoming shindig? Leave your questions in our comments! Or email harrisanddave@gmail.com!
Dave’s daughter, Melissa, here! I know… It seems like it has been forever since The Dads have posted something on the blog! For that, we apologize for appearing to have abandoned the ship and leave you all hanging!
Well, what can we say? The Dads haven’t been able to blog so much because they have been busy partying! Actually, more like, getting the party ready. You see, The Dads have been planning to have an EPIC BBQ party at their house this Sunday for Memorial Day weekend in celebration of their latest home edition… An outdoor kitchen!
Oh man, can you picture it now? The beautiful cooking videos that will be coming your way?! The background sounds of their waterfall, the birds, the frogs, Jacques running around like a wild animal chasing after chipmunks? The koi fish pond, the vegetable garden and sunshine glaring so brightly that The Dads will be sporting their latest sunglass fashion?
I know I personally can’t wait!
It has been a labor of love. Dave’s brother Don has been the architect extraordinaire designing the additional space. He truly is a genius artist! He has even worked on homes with Frank Lloyd Wright! So you know we are all in for a very special treat!
I won’t tease you anymore with these exciting details… and surely, I don’t want to give away the specifics! You’ll have to just wait and see, post party for the photos!
What are your plans for the 3 day weekend? What dishes are you cooking up? We want to know!
Also, on a side note, you may have been noticing some aesthetic changes to our blog. We are currently testing new layouts to try to make everything easier for you to find. So, drop us a line in the comments or email The Dads at harrisanddave@gmail.com to let us know what you think or what you’d like to see changed!
And hey, if you see me at the party, don’t be afraid to slip me some of your honest feedback about the blog! I’ll be taking notes because you, the reader, matters most to us!
Party on my friends. Party on!
PS Remember that this 3 Memorial Day weekend is meant to be a reflection and remembrance of those who have fallen in the war. If you know anyone who is suffering from the loss of a loved one, please give them an extra hug, nod and/or acknowledgement of the sacrifice their beloved has made for us to be able to enjoy our freedom.
