The cook: Jill DeMario of West Palm Beach
I’m the third of four children, and I’ve lived in Florida all my life. I was born in Vero Beach and moved to Gainesville when I was a toddler because my father went to the University of Florida. I grew up in Gainesville, but I have some deep roots in Palm Beach County.
My grandparents, Robert and Mary Lou Neville, met at Palm Beach High School, and my mom was born at Good Sam. My Grandmother Mary Lou’s dad, Penick Suther, had a grocery store on Clematis Street for many years, and then it was taken over by my great-uncle, Bill Suther, who turned it into a tuxedo store (it is now O’Shea’s Irish Pub). And my great-great-grandfather was one of the first settlers in the Everglades.
I went to Florida State and got a degree in criminology and worked a few years counseling juvenile delinquents in Palm Beach County. Now I am the grants manager for Planned Parenthood of South Florida and the Treasure Coast. I have two sons, Riley, 7, and Reece, 5.
My hobbies include running (I have started to train for my fourth and fifth half-marathons), reading, snorkeling and traveling.
I also am a doula, which is a Greek word for a woman who serves. I support and coach women through childbirth. I do things like massages, talking, aromatherapy, back-rubbing and wiping the mother’s face with a cool cloth. My second son was a home birth, and we used a midwife and it was just me, my husband, Jeff, and the baby, and it was a wonderful experience.
Her cooking story: When I was younger, my mom started exploring cooking as a hobby and I became curious about how things come together in the kitchen.
Until I was in my late teens, I didn’t attempt to cook very much on my own. Going away to college forced me to adopt a few recipes which were staples — hamburger stroganoff, lemon chicken, supper soup.
When I moved to South Florida and moved in with my older brother, he and I liked to shop and cook together. He thought about going to culinary school, so he took the lead in trying different things.
I’m a pretty adventurous eater, but with two small children at home, at times I have to adapt meals to please the majority. I’m not one of those moms who cooks a different meal for everyone at the table. I just may wait to add ingredients after the little ones have gotten their plates.
I occasionally cook with recipes, most often when I’m baking. Usually I’ll try something once with a recipe and then adapt it or make it differently every time.
I enjoy making up recipes and finding new ingredients or changing a recipe I’ve found somewhere or using what’s in my pantry. I get to be more creative that way.
My favorite types of food are Thai and Mexican.
Favorite food from mom’s kitchen: Oven-fried chicken and yellow rice. I love the mix of flavors. It’s just comfort food, and no matter how bad of a day I had at school, when I came home and that was on the table for dinner, I was like, yes!
Funny cooking disaster story: I do have some baking ones, like when my cookies turned out flat because I used baking powder that was too old.
Cooking tool you can’t do without: Food processor. It can completely change a meal. I love to make salsas, and it’s wonderful for that.
Her free cookbook: Sabor! A Passion for Cuban Cuisine by Ana Quincoces Rodriguez (Running Press)
The recipe: Mexican chicken burritos
About the recipe: The recipe is very easy, although a bit messy. My mom used to make this when I came home from college and it’s a definite favorite. I think she discovered it in Bon Appétit magazine about 15 years ago, and people that try it are crazy about the mix of flavors.
If I tell one of my close friends that I’m making chicken burritos, she’s like, “I’ll be right over.” She just loves them.
This recipe is special to me because my mom, Jan Luzins (who is a nurse at Shands HealthCare at the University of Florida), included it in a cookbook, From Our Table to Yours: Cooking for a Cure, which came out in December 2008 and is a collection of recipes from the caretakers at Shands.
One-hundred percent of the profits are donated to the North Florida Chapter of the American Cancer Society.
Category: Main dish
Cuisine type: Mexican
Difficulty: Simple
Key ingredients: Cilantro and vinegar
Prep and cooking time: 20 minutes
Special tools or pans: Large pan and food processor
Mexican Chicken Burritos
Chicken:
2 whole skinless chicken breasts
1 small can of chopped green chilies (Mexican section of the grocery store)
1 tablespoon cumin
Sauce:
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 cup rinsed, packed cilantro
1⁄2 teaspoon oregano
1⁄4 teaspoon dry mustard
1⁄3 cup vinegar
1⁄2 cup canola oil
For the chicken:
Sprinkle chicken with cumin, cover with chilies. Saute chicken meat with the cumin and chilies with a few tablespoons of water until it’s done. It should take about 10 minutes.
Process chicken in food processor until coarsely chopped. Return to pan and saute it a few minutes more until most of the excess broth has cooked off. But save a little broth.
For the sauce:
Mix together all ingredients until they are blended and coarsely chopped. If it appears too dry, add some of the reserved liquid from the chicken.
Use the sauce to season the chicken meat. Serve it in tortillas, taco shells, or on top of greens.
I usually put it in flour tortillas with grated white cheese or some other type of cheese and shredded lettuce.
You can also garnish with extra cilantro and limes. If you want to make it spicy, you can add a dash of cayenne pepper or a tablespoon of chopped chipotle peppers with Adobo sauce.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
