The holidays are the time to enjoy good food and wine with family and friends.  It is also a great opportunity to expand our palettes and give new ingredients a chance!  This came into play Friday evening when I was grocery shopping for a seafood feast I wanted to prepare for my boyfriend's family.  I spotted a box of squid in the seafood aisle and knew instantly that Italian fried calamari would make a delicious appetizer to my seafood brodetto!

Upon opening the frozen box, I realized they were whole and needed to be completely cleaned!  I seized the opportunity to pull my man in the kitchen and pretended I was Alex Guarnaschelli on The Cooking Loft teaching my student how to clean and fix the thawed squid.  It was so much fun and after he got over initial texture, I think he enjoyed it!

Needless to say the simple recipe of tossing the clean ringlets in flour, lightly frying in EVOO and finishing off with fresh lemon zest and parsley was a hit!  They were gone in minutes and I think I earned about 5 brownie points.