Was lucky enough in my career to get sent to Hawaii for some business trips and was able to enjoy authentic Hawaiian Macaroni Salad, including one that actually hybridized it with potato salad at the same time! Took some trial and error, but I have managed to successfully recreate it. Now if I could just get my Kalua pork recipe to be perfect too…

If you do a crab boil and happen to have leftover crab, here is what you can use all that leftover crab meat for. Honestly I prefer crab dip at restaurants; all the succulent flavor of crab, but without the hassle of cracking the shells.

Another incidence of me striving to perfect one of my favorite sandwiches at home. A bit more effort required compared to just using some roast beef from the deli counter, but it’s well worth the effort.

Visited some relatives and the restaurant next to the hotel was Moroccan, which introduced me to the deliciousness that is tagine, a slow cooked tomato stew served with flat bread to scoop up the sauce. My version uses my dad’s microwave meatball method to ensure they are uniformly cooked, but still fluffy. Cannot recommend this dish enough. (You don’t need a tagine pot to make this, but they are REALLY cool, they basically self-baste anything you cook in it due to the conical design).

I took a cooking class to learn how to make Beef Wellington. Very informative! But also thought I could make it better. To that end, I give you the Marsala Wellington, a way to stretch 2 lbs of filet mignon into a beef wellington style dinner for 6, but with the ingredients of Veal Marsala giving it a much more complex flavor profile.