Sherry – Page 19 – Rosemary and the Goat

Sable Cookies with Flowers

A beautiful floral tasting cookie.

These should have been handed out at “the wedding” last weekend as favors.

Don’t these cookies look like I robbed the little flower girls’ baskets at the royal wedding last weekend? Well I didn’t; they came from my yard.

My alarm was not set for 4:00 a.m. but my recorder was and once I was awake I turned it on and did a pretty quick catch up to the main event.

All of these flowers came from my yard except for the little in bachelor button flowers which were actually from some Bachelor Button tea I had bought at Central Market in Austin a couple of years ago.

May 25, 2018 By Sherry

Cake/ Coffee Cakes/ Dessert/ Morning Foods

Blueberry Lemon Cake

Lemon and blueberry, great combination.

Blueberries and Lemon go hand in hand for a great flavor combination.

I’ve done a blueberry coffee cake before but I can’t say that this is a coffee cake. Put a big dollop of whipped cream beside it and it makes a great dessert. Serve it for brunch, lunch or dinner; you will enjoy it.

The only thing I did wrong with this cake was to over bake it. And, that’s my fault. I kept testing it and even though the recipe called to still have a few moist crumbs sticking to the cake tester I continued to bake it. I must have had a brain freeze for a moment or two.

I love making one layer cakes because there’s never a lot left over to tempt you to keep going back for more. Some cakes I have made live on in my freezer for a couple of months. They get cut into thin slices and wrapped for my husband’s sweet cravings.

May 19, 2018 By Sherry

Bread/ Muffins

Savory Zucchini Muffin

Savory muffin loaded with zucchini and cheese.

I’ve never tried so hard to get a recipe right.

Our garden club May luncheon is coming up and I’m doing the food. Tortellini Salad, Strawberry Dill Spinach Salad, and a Chicken Salad with orange maralade/mayo dressing. So, I wanted a savory muffin to go in the center of the plate in one of those cute little flower petal type muffin papers.

Finding a savory muffin was harder than I thought. My first zucchini muffin was awful and then I realized it was a “healthy” version of what should have been a good muffin – lo-fat cheese, no fat in the batter etc. My second attempt was a Bisquick version and even though it had 1 cup of Bisquick it had four eggs. I don’t know why that didn’t ring a bell in my head or in my ears anyway that are constantly ringing. Anyway, long story short that turned out more like one of those egg cups people make and mine was way too salty and that was probably because I added salt not thinking that the Bisquick had salt in it and then the cheese had a good amount of salty taste too.

May 13, 2018 By Sherry

Side dish

Refried Beans

So, what’s so good about these refried beans?

What’s so good about these refried beans? Well, they are homemade.

When I was on a girl’s trip last September we had lunch one day at Rancho De Chimayo in Chimayo, NM. This restaurant won a James Beard award in 2016 so I knew when I read that and we were going to Chimayo we had to eat there.

We had lunch before visiting the historic village of chimayo which dates back to 17th century and that’s where I first bought blue corn cornmeal that I made these Blue Corn Muffins. I also picked up some freshly ground Hatch green chili powder and green chili flakes which I had never seen in our stores.

Rancho De Chimayo, pueblo-style, restaurant has dining rooms throughout the house. Some of the rooms have exposed adobe walls and since 1965 they have been serving delicious authentic Mexican food. They also have outside dinging in courtyard like setting with flowers around. It was beautiful when we were there. We sat on the glassed in porch and it was a very nice lunch to enjoy with forever friends.

May 7, 2018 By Sherry

Cookies/Bars/ Dessert

Tropical Key Lime Cheesecake Sticks

Cute as cute can be!

How do I describe these little cookies — crunchy, cheesecakey, coconutty, crispy, citrusy, and creamy. Hey, those are all “c” words; and to top it off they are “cute”. Buy the cookie then whip up this cheesecake filling and you have a great add-on dessert to serve with some coconut ice cream or lime sorbet.

I love the flavor of key lime and you know when you make key lime desserts you are not suppose to add green food coloring. If you ever get key lime pie in a restaurant you do not want it to be green — that’s a big no-no in using key limes. I’m adding a lot of lime zest to add little specks of green through the filling.

May 1, 2018 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Green Pea Pasta with Vegetables

Green and gluten-free!

While in Hot Springs a couple of months ago going to the horse races I found this gluten-free green pea pasta at one of the shops down town and since my son and family were visiting the next week I wanted something new gluten free to make for my daughter-in-law.

I purchased a red lentil pasta and this green pea pasta. My first thought was a pea pasta salad with green peas and some other green ingredients. I just happened to have one potato so I cut it into small cubes and boiled and added to the pasta salad.

There are so many gluten-free pasta out there now and once you add all your other ingredients you would never know it was GF. I was never a fan of gluten-free recipes (especially sweets/pastries) when they were starting to appear all over the internet. Seems like they were all made from just almond flour and to me everything tasted like almonds. I like all the new blends of flours and especially the pastas made with vegetables like this green pea pasta. This one comes from Abruzzo, Italy and you can buy it here or find it in a specialty shop.

April 25, 2018 By Sherry

Cake/ Dessert

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Who doesn’t love a good chocolate cake?

I attempted to make what was suppose to be a wonderful chocolate bundt cake for my friend’s, (Gordon) birthday. It was from a Paris blog that I have followed for years but I have to say the results were disappointing and in fact the driest chocolate cake I have ever made.

What had attracted me to this recipe was the shape of the bundt pan. Did I need another pan in my pantry, heck no. But, do I want one? Of course.

When I mention chocolate cake to my son Paul, we always get a laugh. Seems like because my grandfather loved chocolate cake with canned syrupy peaches on the side my grandmother got it in her head that was Paul’s favorite dessert and anytime we went back to Missouri for a visit she always had a chocolate cake waiting for him and even though he didn’t even touch any kind of fruit back then (especially canned peaches) she had canned peaches chilled in the refrigerator. Believe it or not the peaches were good with the cake. These days if I could get my hands on a good fresh peach I’d be eating it besides my chocolate cake.

April 19, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Sensation Salad with Avocado

Sensational salad!

I first had a sensation salad with my friend, Janice, at Magnolia Cafe in St. Francisville, LA. My first thought was boy is this a simple salad — lettuce and dressing and some cheese. Simple is good sometimes when you want a salad to go with say, pizza and don’t want to fuss about a lot of ingredients.

From my search, I found almost all recipes were the same. Most recipes tore up the greens but what I remembered about my sensation(al) salad was that the lettuce was kind of shredded like you would for tacos but maybe not as thin. Of course, I just had to mess with the original and I thought that some fresh avocado would be great with the salad and the dressing and of course the pizza that we were doing on our Kamodo Joe smoker. Ok, so I couldn’t quit thinking of what else to add to this salad. With all this shredded iceberg lettuce that is traditional, why not add another shade of green by adding some shredded romaine; and why stop there? I threw in some good blue cheese with the Romano. And, next time I might throw in some tomato and fried bacon bits. Maybe that wouldn’t still be called a Sensation Salad but it would taste SENSATIONAL!

April 13, 2018 By Sherry

Cake/ Dessert/ Desserts

Snowball Cake

Winter might be over, but….

Winter may be over but this Snowball Cake can be served at any Spring or Summer dinner. No, it isn’t made from snow but looks like a big pan of soft fluffy ingredients and you won’t get “brain freeze” like we use to from eating snow cream.

This dessert was one of my mother’s favorites that she would make for us. I guess it is named “snowball” because of the color of the cake. I don’t remember if she made the angel food cake from scratch or from a box but it’s great no matter what kind of angel food cake you use.

Put angel food cake in any dessert and it lightens the calories by half. (That’s what I’m guessing and that’s probably not true.) I didn’t use the Dream Whip that my mother’s recipe called for but opted for whipping cream. When I make a dessert I want it to be delicious and luscious and have you wanting more, Dream Whip doesn’t do that for me, ya just gotta use the real stuff.

My sister and I had changed my mother’s Dream Whip in this dessert to Cool Whip which is better than Dream Whip but then neither is as good as a carton of rich cream, sweetened a little and whipped up into a light fluffy cloud of goodness.

April 7, 2018 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Orange Chicken with Veggies

Beautiful chicken dish.

I love cooking and eating Asian foods and one of my New Year’s resolutions was to cook it more often.

My favorite dinner party would be to make my homemade egg rolls, maybe some type of dumping with dipping sauces for an appetizer and then a small bowl of my Egg Flower Soup, followed by some Teriyaki Flank Steak, Fried Rice (or lo mein) and a Bitter Greens Salad with Yuzu Dressing Oh, and of course to go with the main dish, my Shrimp Foo Yung.

I’ve never tried any Asian desserts I have liked that much. Almond cookies or ok but that’s not dessert. Maybe my Bananas in Creme Fraiche rolled in Coconut on top of some raspberry puree would make a tasty dessert and my Nutella Cherry Dumplings along side the banana rolls for a little added crunch.

April 1, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Garnish

Pickled Mustard Seed

You say, what am I to do with these pickled mustard seeds?

Don’t you love mustard? I do. At this moment I have nine different kinds of mustard in my refrigerator.

I love it on burgers, on bologna sandwiches with pile of chips on top and then crushed by the top slice of bread. I love mustard on French Fries (I’ve never eaten catsup on a fry.) and get this, I like a little dab of yellow mustard beside my white beans. A little chow chow, a little mustard and the beans are fantastic. And, you can’t forget about hot dogs and pretzels when it comes to a good smear of mustard. How about on top of some fried green tomatoes or a good grilled cheese sandwich with some bacon and pickled mustard seed on the inside. Let me know if you make them and if you do something really different with them.

This post is making my cheeks pucker just thinking about all the things I like mustard on. When my sister and I were kids we loved making mustard sandwiches with white bread and mustard; no meat, just mustard and bread. These mustard seeds can be used in salads, dressings or dips. These little orbs explode in your mouth.

March 26, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Dessert/ Food Stories/ Morning Foods/ Sauces/ Scones

Devonshire Cream and the Proper Way to Eat a Scone

Too good to be a “Mock” anything.

I use to call my recipe for Devonshire Cream “Mock Devonshire Cream”, but this is too good to be a “mock” anything and I’m sure is better than anything you buy ready made in a jar.

Unless you have a cow out in your back yard where you can go milk her and take the unpasteurized milk and allow it to sit for 12-24 hours and then slowly heat it and then leave it to cool for another 12-24 hours you may want to make your own before going out and buying that cow just to get an authentic bowl of clotted cream to put on top of your scone to follow with jam. Devonshire cream is produced in Devon England.

March 20, 2018 By Sherry

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