Hello my friends!
My name is Joe and I am a retired Firefighter from South Florida. I spent 30 years being the primary cook at the Firehouse and at home and I am the primary voice, creator and author of The Firehouse Skillet, its recipes and content.
Along with my wife Sondra, who has spent years working for a busy law firm, somehow honed her craft as a home baker and perfecting her recipes for amazing desserts for our family and friends. We started thinking since I’m a sports nut and love to cook and she is an arts and crafts enthusiast, as well as home baker, that our one common hobby and joy is cooking. Nothing gets us more excited than knowing we have an upcoming family gathering, a dinner party with friends, holiday feasts or for me, home tailgate parties! For us, any reason is a reason to have people over. We both break out our recipes and start planning and making our grocery lists. Whether it be for a couple of close friends or a large family and friends gathering the fun starts way before the event!
My food journey
I was born and raised in a heavily influenced Italian household in Queens, New York. Later moving to Long Island not far from Queens to a heavily Italian neighborhood. As a child, my grandmother who was born in Bari, Italy was the cook in the house. I remember waking up on weekends to the smell of the day's food being prepared and cooked. My Mother and Aunt took over the cooking when Grandma left us but not before passing along her cooking knowledge to them. I ate very well and was always curious about how the food was created. My most vivid memory was watching my grandmother fill the dining room table with freshly made macaroni left to dry and for me to sneak from under the table and eat a few pieces of the dough when she wasn’t looking.
My main love was participating in sports and, I excelled, so it was my life. However, what my friends didn't know about me was my love of watching cooking shows! I would wait all week for Graham Kerr's The Galloping gourmet or Julia Child’s The French Chef to come on TV. So I guess I have always had an interest in cooking.
My life of cooking started when I joined the US Army and was stationed in Hawaii. Being stationed off post and attached to a hospital as a combat medic I lived a somewhat civilian life where there were no mess halls. I had to start cooking for myself. I was terrible. I mean who puts garlic in scrambled eggs! but I was trying. Again my love of cooking shows restarted, I bought cookbooks, and I started getting better. I left the service and moved back to New York. Fast forward a couple of years and to my move to South Florida where my first thought was to go to Culinary school but getting married and starting a family I needed secure work. I opted to become a Firefighter/Paramedic staying in medicine and was hired onto the Fire Department.
As the rookie, I kept quiet, but I noticed things. I realized the same guys were always cooking at various stations houses I worked in. I also noticed a few things the advantage the Firehouse cook had. They shopped. So dinner was what the cook felt like eating that night and the most important part was the cook didn't do the dishes! That job was left to the crew.
BINGO! Since I hate doing dishes I started offering to cook and I cooked the basic meals I knew from growing up. Italian food. The crews seemed happy and I quickly became the station cook. So, 30 years later with self study of culinary skills, cooking every night, my love of cooking shows and researching the world of food I have honed myself into a self taught home chef focused on lots of flavor and easy to make meals to serve my family and friends and nothing is better than hearing the kids after a meal say “Dad! make this every night!”
The Firehouse Skillet is born!
As my wife and I are now recent empty-nesters we have 5 children and 3 amazing grandchildren. With all their busy lives we looked at each other and said “Now what do we do?” We tried to keep busy and since most of our friends still work, it was just us. I seemed to have a lot of extra time on my hands. I thought about possibly getting into the food truck business or opening a small breakfast/brunch place for something to do. At my age, it didn't appeal to me to go back to being up at 3 am again every day. So with my love of food and cooking I found myself reading Pinterest recipes and saying to myself “I can make that better” Then I realized that I found my new hobby. I’m going to be a Food Blogger! I approached my wife with the idea of starting a food blog. She stood by me and readily agreed and we immediately got excited at the thought of other home cooks and bakers all around the country making our meals and desserts. Suddenly, I felt energized like I had a job again.
The Focus
When cooking at the firehouse, the focus was always on quick easy meals that fit in between the frequent emergency calls, and forever it seemed I had to keep it under $5 a person. That is not easy. So I had to learn to cut corners. I took advantage of bogo’s, I bought in bulk to cut down cost, I vacuum sealed the foods I could use the next cook and as a time saver used prepackaged ingredients such as mashed potatoes to a recipe that closely mimicked freshly made and it seemed the crew never knew the difference. This helped to keep it quick and affordable.
Now that I have all the time in the world I still take the time to look for those bogo's. I look for sales and at times still cut corners but, I do also look forward to making those freshly made, all day, time consuming dishes for those special family occasions. However, on a daily basis, I still want to keep meals easy, quick and affordable.
As for my wife. I don’t know how she does what she does, but suddenly cookies, cakes, brownies and some things I have no clue how she suddenly comes up with appear but, that would be her story. When family and friends see her desserts on display for the post dinner I wonder “How is my dinner gonna top this!”
So, in the Firehouse skillet you will see an array of recipes I have made. Many with 3 to 5 simple ingredients such as Crispy Roasted potatoes or Biscuits and Gravy to spending all day making fresh handmade pasta with homemade marinara, meatballs and braciole for a Sunday dinner like grandma used to make. All made as affordable as I can and possibly using some of my shortcuts!. Like most of you, if I see 35 ingredients in a recipe, you lost me. And just a hint, don't miss my wife’s holiday dessert recipes. The holidays are where she comes alive. I can hardly get room in the kitchen. Her decorating skills amaze me and she makes my favorites, her Oreo Truffles and her Pignoli cookies, better than my Italian Grandma made. This is where she shines.
The Home cook
Let's face it. We are home cooks. In a home kitchen, relying on Grocery store ingredients and home grade appliances. We do not have the advantages of cooking in a restaurant kitchen with industrial grade equipment, food distributors delivering upgraded ingredients, Higher grade meats and the benefit of a staff. We shop, we chop, we dice, we stir, we saute and worst of all, we have to do the dishes! I will try to offer all the tips and tricks for you to think about as you go through our recipes that I have learned over 30 years to make dishes with minimal effort and at times offering advice on items for your kitchen that have become invaluable in my kitchen besides the pots, pans, knives and spoons that I use to make cooking great food less of a chore and more delicious! Just a note, I am not a professional food photographer so my pictures may not have that Food Network 3D look but, what’s on the plate tastes great. What you look at once you’ve cooked my recipes is the real deal presentation and will be delicious. Very inviting and your dish will be packed with flavors as good as what you see on the plate. I hope you enjoy our recipes, and at times, my humorous interjections, keeping it real so to speak.
As I post our recipes for you to read, cook and enjoy, please make cooking fun and not a chore! From my family to yours, Welcome to the firehouse Skillet!