Most people only think of lemons as something to add to their drinks. But lemons can also be used in cooking such meats as fish, shrimp, turkey and chicken and even with fruits.

Lemon juice can neutralize the fish’s natural smell and taste. I find it best to let fish marinate in lemon juice for no more than 10-15 minutes before throwing it on the skillet. You shouldn’t worry about the strong taste and scent of the lemon juice overpowering the flavor of the cooked meat. As the meat cooks, the juices seep inside and leave a faint aroma and flavor that can actually improve a fish meal. Shrimp can also be marinated in lemon juice for about 5-10 minutes before cooking it.

Lemons can serve as a tasty meat tenderizer when cooking turkey or chicken, and they are especially effective at tenderizing thighs and breasts. Cut a lemon in half and squeeze it over your meat in a separate bowl before cooking it. Tenderizing loosens the muscles in the meat and allows it to cook faster and makes it easier to cut and chew.

I don’t like using that super-salty powdered meat tenderizer (most of these are like 75 to 90 percent sodium!) that people shake on their steaks, and I’m a bit too lazy to pummel my beef with that little spiky iron mallet. I find lemons to be a much tastier, healthier and easier alternative to others methods of tenderizing meat.

Everyone knows that fruit oxidizes, or turns brown, immediately after you slice it open. But a little dash of freshly squeezed lemon juice on fruit will help slow down that process. This is especially helpful when the fruit being sliced or exposed to the air is for a recipe (like a fruit salad or sangria, which I call “fruit salad for alcoholics”) and not going to be eaten right away. A squeezed lemon will produce more juice if you microwave it for about a minute.

Ironically, my earliest memories of lemons actually have nothing to do with cooking. As a little girl, my family would go to my uncle’s home for dinner every Sunday and I would smell a wonderful aroma throughout the living room during the winter. The aroma was actually lemon and orange peels that he had placed on his radiator with some water in an empty coffee can. The heat piping out of the radiator not only amplified the aroma from the peels but the air pushing out of the radiator spread the wonderful scent around the apartment.

* * * Trivia Time * * *

Most experts agree that the lemon originated in India and was introduced to southern Italy around 200 A.D. It was a very popular crop in the Arab world and the Mediterranean. In fact, the word lemon is derived from the Arabic limun and the Old Italian limone. The Egyptians were the first ones to make lemonade, although I’m not sure who was the first to make it pink. Small pox and gunpowder weren’t the only things Europeans brought to the New World, as Columbus’ ships were full of lemons to feed the sailors.

Lemons are a great source of Vitamin C and have been found to have antioxidant and anti-cancer properties. Smokers should take note that lemons can also wipe away some of the carcinogens created by cigarettes. Just like fish, lemon juice is added to many household cleaners to neutralize the pungent odor most of these chemicals emit. The citric acid in lemon juice actually makes lemons useful as tiny batteries. You remember all those elementary and junior high school science fairs? There was always that one kid who hooked up electrodes and a tiny light bulb to a lemon. The Japanese even discovered that the scent of lemons reduce stress in mice, which may explain all those peaceful, happy dinners at my uncle’s.

So next time you’re walking by a fruit stand or by the produce section in your supermarket, don’t just pass by the lemons. Pick up a few and brighten the rest of your day. They’re cheap, they’re useful, they smell great and they’ve been enjoyed for thousands of years.

Missy tips, vegetarian

Serves 6 to 8

Brighten up your holiday spirit with a yummy little snack for you and your family. This recipe is great to sneak in some iron and vitamins for kids. Sometimes children turn down vegetables. Pete is a name I came up with for this dish. I grew up in Morris Park, a neighborhood in the Bronx with a large Albanian community and in Albanian pete means “spun dough”. This recipe will keep your kids asking for more just in the matter of time. The cheese can also be substituted with tofu for vegans or those who are lactose intolerant. Sliced pete makes for a great hors devour guaranteed to be the hit of any party.

You will need:

• 1 large mixing bowl

• 1 hand or kitchen towel

• 1 pizza pan or cookie sheet

• 1 plastic container (large enough to hold 1 lb. of pizza dough)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. of frozen or refrigerated pizza dough

• 5-8 oz. of frozen or canned spinach

• 4 oz. of crumbled feta cheese

• 8 oz. of cream cheese

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 10 oz. of shredded mozzarella whole or skin milk

• 1 medium-sized onion

• 3 tablespoons of any oil (olive, corn, canola, vegetable, peanut, etc.)

• 22 oz. of tofu (if you are substituting cheese)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start by defrosting the spinach and if necessary, the pizza dough. Once defrosted, place the pizza dough in a plastic container with the olive oil poured inside the container. Let the dough sit in the oil for about a half hour flipping it over to make sure both sides are coated with the oil. Take the spinach and wrap it in a kitchen or hand towel and squeeze all of the water out of the spinach. This technique works well because the towel gets almost all of the moisture out and soaks it up so you don’t get spinach water on your hands or clothes.

In a large mixing bowl combine the feta, mozzarella, and cream cheese. Reserve about 3 oz. of mozzarella cheese on the side for the top of your pete. Chop the onion and garlic finely and place it into the bowl. Add the drained spinach into the bowl and cover the bowl with clear wrap and leave it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes or until chilled. By now your spinach/cheese compound should look like this.

Remove the now oil-soaked dough from the container and smooth it out over the cookie sheet, spreading it out into a flat circle as if you were making a pizza. It doesn’t have to be a perfect circle, so don’t go nuts trying to get it right. Scoop out the cheese/spinach mixture from the bowl and place it in the center of the dough. Spread the mixture out so that it covers all of the dough except for the edges of the circle. Then roll the dough up as if you were rolling up a jelly roll or a burrito. It should look like this.

After rolling the pete up into a very long tube shape, tuck the ends together to make the pete form into a ring. It should look like a big doughnut or a bunt cake. Make sure the height is even all around to prevent one side of the pete from cooking faster than the other. Again, we’re not aiming for complete perfection, so it just needs to be even enough. Glaze the top of the pete with oil and lightly sprinkle 1/4 cup of mozzarella on top of the pete as a garnish. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Pete is best served when warm and can be sliced up like a cake.

Serving suggestions: Don’t let that hole in the middle of the pete go to waste! You can fill that empty space with baby tomatoes, like I did in the picture. Another cool idea could be placing some parsley for presentation, a small bowl of ranch dressing with a teaspoon to scoop it up and pour over individual pete pieces.

If you try this recipe, drop me a comment a let me know how it worked for you. Also, let me know how you served the pete. The limit is literally bound by your own imagination.

Missy Italian, cheesy, hors devours, lactose-free, vegan, vegetarian

Hi, my name is Melissa and this is my ItaliaRican Kitchen. The name comes from my Italian (Sicilian to be exact) and Puerto Rican heritage, which is reflected in my cooking. Those who are familiar with Italians and Puerto Ricans know that they both come from very family-oriented cultures. So it should be no surprise that helping with family meals was how I discovered my love for cooking as a child. My mother, aunts and cousins would enlist me to pour this and mix that, stir this and measure that until the meal was fully prepared to be enjoyed by everyone.

It was in the kitchen with my family, not a cookbook where I learned and came up with so many recipes for delicious meals. My family also taught me that that cooking is not cooking unless you get your hands dirty. Growing up in the Bronx, we didn’t always money to buy all sorts of different ingredients, so I had to use my imagination to come up with creative ways to prepare meals, especially meals without meat or other expensive ingredients.

Cooking is also like therapy for me. It soothes me after a stressful day and allows me to be in total control in a world where so many of us feel out of control. It also pleases me to watch others enjoying what I’ve created. Anyone who’s ever eaten my cooking asks me, “Can you give me the recipe?” or “Can you make this for my party?” There’s nothing like a cascade of compliments to make a girl feel better.

My Sicilian mother and her family taught me all the delicious sauces, gravies and pasta recipes which graced their dining table. With the large Puerto Rican and Dominican communities in the Bronx, my neighbors and friends shared their recipes and culinary traditions with me over the years. My father, a Puerto Rican Jew, was not really into cooking and therefore did not share any recipes from either aspect of his own heritage. But I can whip up a mean latke and matzo ball soup.

I want to make this blog an encyclopedia of my best recipes, ideas and tips. People are also surprised how inexpensive and quick my cooking is to make. Once in a while I’ll throw in a cooking anecdote from my past, little experiences which have contributed to my wisdom in the kitchen.

My motto is “cooking with courage” because I believe too many people are afraid of cooking. They’re too scared of what might happen if they turn on the stove and put together a few ingredients. I don’t believe you’re really cooking unless you get your hands dirty. No one should be afraid to cook, and more important, no one should be afraid to get their hands dirty. Whether you get your hands greasy, sticky, or gooey, just remember two things: (1) soap and water will always wash anything off your hands and (2) it’s just FOOD!! It’s going to be eaten eventually so how horrible could it possibly be to get on your hands?

With that said, let’s get cooking!

Missy personal, philosophy