In the kitchen with Kelley: Oyster-stuffed tomato bites

The year was 1999. I had two children at the time, ages 3 and 1. The older one went to preschool at a nearby church. I worked part-time at the local newspaper, mostly evenings. Because of my work schedule, I was able to take my son to preschool and pick him up each day. Usually, I played children’s songs in the car to entertain my youngsters. But my daughter often fell asleep when we went to pick up my son. And that’s when I would switch to talk radio just to hear an adult voice while I waited in the pick-up line at the preschool.

That adult voice belonged to Glenn Beck. And in the latter months of 1999, what Beck talked about almost incessantly was Y2K. You may recall that Y2K was essentially a computer programming snafu that reportedly had the potential to bring the world to its knees. The concern was that computers worldwide would cease working, thus bringing pretty much everything to a standstill. What you may not know is that Beck is a Mormon, and Mormons believe in being well prepared in case of an emergency. So Beck hammered home that his listeners should stock up on supplies just in case Y2K panned out the way the experts predicted.

I figured better safe than sorry. So a few days before Dec. 31, 1999, I went shopping and stocked up on some supplies. I believe it was the first time I bought bottled water. I know it was the first time I bought cans of smoked oysters.

Y2K came and went with not a glitch, which was a good thing. But I was left with tons of canned food, including those oysters. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. A friend suggested eating them on a cracker, so I did and I was hooked. I ate them that way for years as an occasional snack.

These days, however, I avoid crackers because of the gluten. So I hadn’t had smoked oysters in a while. But then I read that they are a good source of Omega-3 fatty acids. And from Dr. Cutler I learned that oysters are one of the best sources of zinc, which is a mineral in short supply these days, but can really help your brain stay sharp.

I decided I wanted to return oysters to my diet. I found this old-fashioned recipe that allows me to enjoy smoked oysters guilt-free.