I was on idle with a little time to practice when I came up with this dish. Just like a soccer player, the lead trumpet player or whatever else it may be – I have to get my practice in, because game time is game time and nothing else.

And it’s always nice when you have an added incentive to practice. It just so happened that Franco, the captain of a vessel nearby, had a bad case of homesickness. It’s not that the Caribbean isn’t beautiful, but Italy and the Mediterranean Sea is home for Franco and it had my buddy feeling a little blue.

Well, I’m not a magician so the “Med” was out of the question. But what I could do was prepare a little remedy that tends to work on a regular basis – and get my practice in the process.

It’s what I call a win-win situation.

Now for the dish itself, I obtained the knowledge from a colleague years ago and combined that lesson with the resources I had on hand and wanted to use – in this case, my avocado oil.

I took a risk, but it ended up being something both of us really enjoyed. Sometimes it works, sometimes you need to try again, but you’ve got to take risks.Take what you’ve inherited, combine it with your visions and create something nobody’s ever seen before. Innovate.