Something beautiful from the beach

This cheery platter is one of my favorites, and it came from a favorite spot.  I bought it six or seven years ago at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center on General Booth Boulevard in Virginia Beach, Va.

The aquarium is famous for its diverse sea life, and it was a regular fun spot for my children to visit.  Typically I avoid museum gift shops -- the offerings are often overpriced or cheesy, but in this case I wanted to support the aquarium and I couldn't take my eyes off the platter.  The circular fish pattern in green, blue and red is still one of my favorites -- a go-to addition for any special gathering.  Happy Wednesday, friends!

They had the skills to pay the bills

Simply put, the Beastie Boys are one of my all-time favorite groups, and I have been torn up over the death last week  of Adam Yauch (MCA, at right above). I remember the rush of excitement my friends and I felt over the "Ill Communication" album (1986) and dancing to Brass Monkey at one of the first big, high school parties my parents let me attend. I can’t begin to name a favorite song – I love them all and can probably sing or rap the lines to any of them. Sabotage; Hey Ladies; Paul Revere, Hold it now, hit it; Shake your rump; No Sleep Til Brooklyn; Girls; Sure Shot, Body Movin’…. The list goes on and on. The Beasties were funny and smart, a fact that always set them apart to me. (Remember Boomin' Granny?)

If you are a fan, you will love this: http://shop.beastieboys.com/accessories/

Yes, along with T-shirts, albums, mugs and stickers, you can buy a set of poseable dolls of the group. Sure, the price is steep ($750) but the money goes to charity. Looking at photos and listening to various songs has made me smile – this post about the dolls literally made me laugh out loud. This group’s music has always made me feel happy -- when I was 16 and today, as a mother of two teens!

Here is a great take on Yauch's life from Rolling Stone: It explains how the band evolved, their lifetime friendship, efforts to raise awareness about social problems, and all the fun they had along the way.

Spinach: The incredible shrinking vegetable

I grew up watching Popeye fight with Bluto, romance Olive Oyl, and (YUCK) eat spinach from a can. Don’t get me wrong – I love spinach, but canned spinach is a crime against vegetables. How canned spinach gave Popeye such pep is beyond me. The best spinach is always fresh; in a pinch (or a cooked recipe) frozen spinach will do. I would have to be starving to death to eat the canned stuff.

On Easter, I brought home an enormous bag of fresh spinach from my parents’ garden. My dad picked the leaves on Sunday morning in Norfolk and I was putting the bag in our fridge in Bristol by dinnertime. We have had spinach salad and sautéed spinach all week. Spinach is high in fiber, a terrific source of iron, and contains antioxidants that protect eyes from cataracts and macular degeneration. Spinach commonly contains pesticides -- bugs, moths and other critters love it, too. Eat spinach you have grown yourself or that you know was not treated with pesticides.

Wash spinach is a large basin with plenty of water. The leaves tend to be sandy, so wash in at least two changes of water. If you have a salad spinner, this is a great contraption for drying the leaves. Spinach shrinks dramatically when cooked, so be sure to prep plenty. An interesting fact: Spinach is native to central and southwestern Asia.

Here is a simple and delicious method I love that make great use of fresh spinach.

Sautéed spinach
1 teaspoon oil or butter
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
Salt and pepper
2 quarts fresh spinach, washed and torn in pieces

Heat the oil or butter over medium heat, in a large sauté pan. Add the chopped garlic. Once the pan is hot, add the spinach. If there is more spinach than pan, wait a minute or two until the spinach wilts and add more. You don’t have to cook spinach to death. Just warm it until it wilts, add salt and pepper and serve. Serves 3-4 (or one hungry husband who loves spinach!)

Best ever: London broil you will love

Nearly a year ago I posted a recipe for this delectable marinade – the ultimate go-to marinade recipe my family has used for more than 40 years. It is named for my brother’s godfather and a longtime friend of my parents. Don Farris came up with this marinade after years of dining out with my parents and having a similar beef dish in a Norfolk restaurant. He would order the dish then experiment at home.

I love to use this marinade on chicken, but it was designed for a London broil cut of beef. That is a tougher, muscular cut that benefits from a prolonged bath in the marinade; three days is ideal. My youngest son claimed he didn’t like beef or steak (what?) until he tried this version.

The original recipe is:

Don Farris marinade

1/3 cup corn oil
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons brown sugar

Blend all ingredients and use it to marinate a London broil beef roast for about three days. Grill the meat over direct heat. Cook about 7 minutes per side, for medium rare. Slice thinly on the bias.

Blue crabs in Bristol?

Greene’s Seafood in Bristol
is advertising live blue crabs for sale, $35 a dozen. Many years ago, I bought a half-bushel of crabs in Norfolk and drove them back to Wise County for a crab feast in the mountains. It was a fun event and memorable for everyone – many folks had never eaten blue crabs or seen the process to cook and pick them.

The Greene’s Seafood offer is intriguing enough that I will stop in soon, at least to check out the crabs. The thought of a crab cookin’ for Labor Day makes me happy.

I have had local friends ask me how my dad cooks crabs. He is as much of an expert as you will find, with about 45 years of experience. For about 15 years, he and my mother have lived on the Lafayette River in Norfolk, where they can put about a dozen pots off their dock.

My dad always puts the caught crabs in a large bucket, then covers them with fresh water. Crabs are muddy scavengers and it helps to get them as clean as possible before cooking.

He steams them with cider vinegar, salt, black pepper, a tiny bit of red pepper and a liberal sprinkling of Old Bay. Taste it once, love it forever is the Old Bay slogan -- and anyone who has tried this delicious spice blends knows that is true!

When I was a child, my dad would cook the crabs on the stovetop indoors. Today he cooks them outdoors, using a gas-powered trivet. Less mess and less heat indoors.

The more I write and think on this, the more eager I am to get down to Greene’s and take a look. Happy cooking, friends!