Sherry – Page 23 – Rosemary and the Goat

Vegetable Noodles with Cedar Plank Salmon

Do you want something cool for dinner on a hot summer night?

I cook all the time it seems like whether it is summer, fall, winter or spring. Soups are not as appealing in the summer months as the other three seasons and I don’t like eating a lot of cold foods in the cooler months when all you want is some good comfort food. But, when it is 100° outside with the “feels like” temperature even higher than that I do occasionally go for something easier and cold for dinner.

The day I bought this salmon, it wasn’t even on my grocery list. But, when I happened by the seafood section and saw this beautifully arranged salmon fillets, I had to buy some. We are lucky here in our part of Texas to have a great assortment of seafood year round. This salmon was a beautiful orange and was a wild caught fish which makes it even better.

The recipe I came across for the marinade for this dish used soba noodles. I decided to make it “pasta” free and make my noodles from zucchini, cucumber, carrot and onion. Remember, I don’t want to call this zucchini pasta because it isn’t fooling anyone saying that. I wouldn’t want my tastebuds set for some good pasta and get a mouth full of vegetables but, if you know in advance that this is a very healthy dish, you will not mind at all that it’s carb free.

August 3, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Beefy Roasted Red Pepper Spread

Reincarnated recipe from the past.

Back in May I was at my sister’s house in Missouri and one night she made a cheese ball. Ohhh, cheese balls, I use to love them. A couple of months ago I bought a ready made one at the grocery and thought it was awful and maybe that’s why I quit making them.

But the cheese ball my sister made was so tasty, creamy and one of those food things you can’t just take one bite. Even my grandson, Thomas, ate it and wanted more. This cheese ball (spread) is a recipe I’m sure we all made back in the 70’s maybe even before than that with the dried beef that comes in the little jar and the ACCENT that we were all told was not good for us. I’ve read that there is no proof not that MSG does any harm to humans. Read this article for more information on MSG. I don’t think this cheese spread would taste nearly as good without the Accent and it’s not like you are going to use the whole container anyway.

July 28, 2017 By Sherry

Dessert/ Ice Cream

Blueberry Lavender Ice Cream

Gotta try at least one new ice cream recipe this summer.

Have you ever seen fields of lavender? When we were in France several years ago I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see fields of purple; but we were there too early in the year. I have seen fields of lavender in Texas at Becker Vineyards and also at Matanza Creek in Santa Rosa, California which were both breathtaking. Since purple is one of my favorite colors I wanted to try some using some culinary lavender I had bought in Austin awhile back.

I was taught years ago in school that you don’t use artificial coloring in food (I think the exception has to be decorated cookies and cakes). Green should never be used in Key Lime Pie. You know that PURPLE is my favorite color (have I said this before???). So how am I making my purple ice cream then if I can’t use that little bottle of purple food coloring I have that I use for cookie frosting — blueberries, of course.

July 22, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Entree

Tuna Tartare Nachos

Delicious, down to the last bite!

On our way to our grand-nephews wedding in Alabama back in June we decided to break up the almost 800 mile drive by spending the night in Meridian, Mississippi. As usually, I’m online searching for a restaurant that we want to try and this little gem of a restaurant caught my attention — Harvest Grill. It has a relaxed, casual feel and an inventive menu, just our type of place.

The restaurant was having some sort of brew event on the patio when we got there but we decided to get out of the heat and sit inside. We sometimes like to order from the appetizer menu so we can try several things and save room for dessert; which we did this night and tried their creole bread pudding with caramel and white chocolate shavings with scoops of ice cream between the four small squares of bread pudding — fantastic.

Now back to some of their appetizers. My husband ordered oysters on the half shell then another order of Black and Blue Oysters (steak and blue cheese). I knew when we were still 100 miles away I would be trying their Tartare Nachos — Ahi tuna over Asian slaw with avocado edamame and a habanero peach glaze and wasabi aioli; I loved the crunch of the wonton crisp, the heat from the wasabi and the peach glaze and the sesame flavor of the slaw. All my favorite ingredients and now I was going to have to come up with a recipe to make this exciting, tasteful dish.

July 16, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Crab Cakes with Red Pepper Yogurt Sauce

Great use of leftover crab meat.

My son and his family were here recently and he made a wonderful Grilled Redfish on Half shell with Crab Macque Choux (corn) and a Carrot Habanero Burre Blanc Sauce. It was delicious and even though I could not begin to top his dish (see below) I did have 1/2 pound of crabmeat leftover from his Macque Choux .

So, one night we had some friends over and I decided to make a tuna tartare appetizer (recipe coming soon) we had tried at the Harvest Grill in Meridian, Mississippi when on our way to a family wedding in Alabama. And I wanted to come up with a crab dish to use that left over crab. I debated over either a crab spread (hot or cold) or crab salad but when I found this crab cake recipe I decided to try it because it used some avocado on the plate as a resting place for the crab cake and a red pepper sauce smeared on the plate. Visually, it just jumped off the page and I think I actually had all the ingredients to make it.

July 10, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Salads

Shrimp and Avocado Salad

Love at first site!

My sister, her daughter-in-law, her 2 grandsons and son and two of our grandsons from Austin came to visit and even though I’ve had a couple of months to plan my menus I get down to the wire on what I want to have for the week — burgers (✓), BBQ (✓), teppanyaki steak on my new grill top bought for outdoor kitchen (✓), homemade pizza on our Kamoto Jo smoker (✓), and maybe some mussels for lunch one day (✓ didn’t get around to) and cook those in a new contraption we have for the grill (a basket you can either fry in, steam in or boil in and it will be perfect for mussels. (Will do the mussels another time this summer.)

I needed just one more dinner and when I was browsing Pinch of Yum’s blog this shrimp avocado bowl just jumped off the computer and I immediately knew what I was going to add to the mix — some oranges, some roasted walnuts, toasted sesame seeds and some cilantro and green onions for garnish. The miso dressing was so good on this salad.

July 3, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Sichuan Red Chili Chicken

Some like it HOT!

Back in May we were in Austin to babysit the new grandson, Frankie and his brother, Thomas, while his parents went to a Derby party one night and a wedding the next night. It easy taking care of a two month old because he couldn’t crawl and get into stuff or get up and run all over the house with Gran tailing him to make sure he didn’t get hurt. All Frankie did was lay there and look cute while his big brother did all the other stuff.

One night we ordered Chinese and our SIL told us about one of his favorites from this restaurant which was fried chicken (a lot smaller than I made mine), breaded, fried and then covered with these fried hot pepper pieces. He warned us that it was almost 50/50 ratio of chicken vs hot peppers. The pepper wasn’t crushed red pepper but the whole dried peppers you buy in the produce section and then broken up into small chunks. At first we thought we were just eating chicken skin because the pieces were so tiny but soon realized that it was indeed chicken pieces with skin cut into tiny pieces maybe 1/2″ thin pieces and fried until crisp and then heaped high with hot peppers.

June 19, 2017 By Sherry

Beef/Veal/ Entree

Beef Tenderloin Steaks with French Onion Sauce

Not the prettiest picture but oh, so good!

If you’re thinking of cooking steaks any time soon and want something just a little different, try my beef tenderloin steaks with French Onion Sauce. The sauce smells like French onion soup while it’s cook. Top a toasted piece of French bread with your cooked steak and the sauce and you will be delighted with the surprise.

I did these steaks recently when friends came over. My steaks were on the small size (6 oz.) but by the time we added it to the bread and sauce it was almost more than we could finish. If you aren’t a big meat eater, try 4 oz. steaks for the ladies and maybe 6 oz. for the guys.

June 12, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Lemon Chicken with Red Pepper

Another chicken recipe!

How many more recipes can there possibly be for chicken? I would guess there are more ways to cook chicken than any other protein that we all eat.

We love lemon and chicken and to put these both together in a recipe inspired by Aspicyperspective.com made a delicious recipe after I tweaked it some. I wasn’t interested in doing her Paleo version so I used regular soy sauce and regular flour (although I did try some with the coconut flour). I also looked at some comments and decided to add in some five spice powder, and Szechuan peppercorns. I wanted the recipe to have more Asian flavors and those spices did the trick.

I also thought the chicken could use a little more color and I just happened to have a red bell pepper and after cutting it into slivers, gave it a quick fry after finishing up the chicken and to top with some crushed red pepper made this a delicious meal.

June 6, 2017 By Sherry

Salads

Crunchy Napa Cabbage Salad

Slaw or Salad?

Slaw or salad? We’ve had that discussion before (or I’ve had with myself). I’ve always thought of cabbage as a slaw or coleslaw before but on the other hand I always put some finely shredded red cabbage into salads to add more color. This salad will make a great side dish for any summer gathering.

I came across this salad at aspicyperspective.com webpage when I was looking at her Lemon Chicken recipe I’ll be making in a couple of days. I’m not sure if I will use the coconut flour (I have it) or not. Recently I tried a Chicken and Red Peppers (that’s 50% chicken and about as much broken dried chili peppers) and the chicken was coated with potato flour and I wasn’t crazy over the results of that type of flour. So, what I may do is try one small piece of chicken in the coconut flour and one in regular all-purpose flour before I tell you what to use. When it comes to fried chicken, you can’t beat just regular flour.

May 30, 2017 By Sherry

Side dish

Lemon Parsley Rice

Is it rice or cauliflower?

Is it rice or cauliflower? That is the $64,000 question. Cauliflower rice is so popular right now. At Trader Joe’s you can even buy it already cut like rice. Now who would possibly buy it that way when you can grate it yourself and save a few pennies or nickels and I have a problem with buying things already prepared, how much trouble is it to grate anyway?

I didn’t think I would ever like saying I’m 60; and I sure don’t think I’m going to like saying I’m 70 come November. I’ve decided that 70 is too old to give up anything you like. Why do I want to eat cauliflower rice instead of real rice and why shouldn’t I eat WHITE rice if I want that instead of brown rice. Don’t get me started on white bread. White bread is a must for certain things like a bologna sandwich. (I know, ya say that bologna isn’t good for you — but remember I’m almost 70 and I’m not giving up anything I really want.) Don’t get me wrong, we do eat a lot of healthy things; brown rice most of the time, good bakery French breads and baguettes (white) and we do eat lots of fish and vegetables.

May 18, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Crispy Chicken Cutlets with Avocado

Let’s hear it for WHITE BREAD!

Recently I had to go on a low-fiber diet for two weeks. Ok, so all I had to do was think of all the things you should not eat like white bread, and white rice was at the top of my list of things that I can happily eat and not feel guilty about.

Peanut butter sandwich (yes) with white bread, bologna sandwich can’t be beat on white bread. How I love white rice; yes, we normally eat brown rice but I like the texture of white rice the best. I’ve got to hurry so I can squeeze in some good cucumber sandwiches on soft white bread before the clock runs out and we return to our somewhat healthy way of eating. The Panko crumbs and cornflakes in this recipe barely have any fiber in them so this was the perfect recipe to fill in one of my 14 days of low-fiber meals.

This was one of Southern Livings recipes in their April magazine I jazzed it up with some sliced avocado and also added some Italian seasoning to the crumb mixture. I think it was delicious and my husband did too; he thought it needed more cheese in the sauce, but you can decide for yourself if you want to add more.

May 12, 2017 By Sherry

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