Sherry – Page 25 – Rosemary and the Goat

Crawfish Hushpuppies

My contribution to a cajun or Mardi Gras dinner.

Mardi Gras is almost here. I’ve never been to a Mardi Gras and I guess I don’t care if I ever go to one but I do love cajun cuisine. When we were in New Orleans last summer we had all kinds of cajun food and a few things I made after I got home.

I picked up these decorations/props at my craft circle. There’s a room bigger than my whole house (maybe twice over) full of supplies that we can go back and get for any project our group is working on. The little jester, mask and beads came from the floral department. And, since they weren’t using them for a few days, I thought I would borrow a few things and use for props. Just look at that little girl with her hand out, just waiting for a hushpuppy.

My local HEB had a guy out front last week with a big contraption that he was cooking crawfish in; so I decided to buy them and not fool with cooking such a small amount. I only bought a pound which didn’t make nearly enough meat. I’m putting 1 – 1 1/2 cups of crawfish tails in the recipe because that’s what it is going to take to make these delicious. At $5.99 a lb, and I bought only a pound and got 3/4 cup of meat, I’d go for the ones you cook yourself next time because they are going to be about $2.00 a pound, maybe less depending on where you live or you can buy crawfish tails in the freezer section.

February 21, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Walnut, Fig and Goat Cheese Phyllo Rolls

Crunchy and delicious!

I love just about every kind of sushi and even unagi which is freshwater eel. So, what does eel have to do with this recipe? Well, for years of watching cooking shows and hearing the word Umami I’ve been hearing “unagi” and thinking where’s the eel.

Over the last few years I’ve discovered how wrong I was and that the chefs are actually saying “umami” which is the fifth taste. We all know sweet, salty, bitter and sour but did you know there was a fifth taste called “umami” and it wasn’t a recent discovery.

I seems like a hundred years after Escoffier wrote his cookbook (where he identified this new flavor) scientist finally agreed with him on a new flavor “savory” or umami. Read this article called “Sweet,Sour, Salty, bitter and Umami” and you will find out everything you need to know about this new/old taste. There’s an article in The New Yorker you might be interested in reading; I don’t want to just copy what they said so go to their website and have a good read if you’re interested.

So, the umami part of this recipe would be the prosciutto which is a smoked meat and falls into the foods that have a lot of umami flavor. I’ve read also that if you crush up some dried seaweed (chips) into your hamburgers you will get a great tasting burger. Continue Reading…

February 15, 2017 By Sherry

Beef/Veal/ Entree/ Morning Foods/ Pizza

Parmesan Naan Breakfast Pizza

Steak and eggs, what could be better for breakfast?

Are you one of those people that take home leftovers from a restaurant because you couldn’t possibly have eaten another bite off your plate? Sometimes I ask for a box when they bring my food just so I’m not tempted to eat the whole thing.

My husband is always bringing home something from Mexican restaurants and sometimes they actually make it into the refrigerator. Once I went to get in my car to go someplace and the most horrific smell hit me in the face. Guess what, it was HIS Mexican food in the back seat. I’ve gotten where I order everything a la carte from Mexican restaurants because I can get exactly what I want and not so much that I’m not finishing it because I have eaten too many chips and bowl(s) of salsa.

Well, if you happen to have left over steak, I’m sure it will make it into the house. There probably won’t be enough to make a meal out of it but you can make this breakfast pizza that is made with naan for the crust. You can really add whatever ingredients you want; I didn’t add a lot of cheese (just parmesan) because it was for breakfast and I just didn’t want a real cheesy pizza.

February 10, 2017 By Sherry

Cookies/ Dessert

Linzer Heart Cookies

Sweets for your sweetie.

Don’t you just love Valentine’s Day. For some it is a good excuse to go out to dinner or to give someone special a gift, some red roses, or box of candy. For me it is a challenge to cook a new recipe and come up with a very nice dessert.

Back in the day when schools allowed parties for all occasions plus birthday parties, there were room moms just waiting to sign up to bring homemade treats. Valentine’s Day was my favorite holiday when I was a kid and when I volunteered as a room mom for my kids.

In our younger years we (seem to always refer to myself as “we” since I have a twin sister) made valentine boxes to put our valentines in that we would be getting from fellow classmates. I particularly remember one year my mother helping me make ruffles of pink and red crepe paper to glue to my shoe box with a hole cut in the top. I’m sure for the party we had red punch, lots of candy and there were always cupcakes and more than likely we were all wired from all the sugar before we got home; but guess what, we survived.

February 5, 2017 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Hot Spinach Dip with Tomatoes

Not your ordinary spinach dip. No Artichokes in this one and one of my favorites.

How many dips can you name from your years of cooking. Onion dip was on top of my list and way back when I used Lipton Onion Soup mix to make it. I can only imagine what a homemade version would taste like; will have to give that a try. Mexican Cheese Dip was always a favorite also. Adventurous wasn’t in my vocabulary back then. I knew onion and cheese dip, that’s about it.

Then one day someone tried putting spinach and artichokes together; who would have ever thought of that back in the day. Aren’t you tired of spinach artichoke dip? You will see it on just about every restaurant menu, but my Hot Spinach Dip with Tomatoes has a little different twist to it with jalapenos and some fresh chopped tomatoes; and I love the homemade pita chips made with butter, lemon pepper and cumin, baked until nice and crunchy.

January 31, 2017 By Sherry

Salads

Almond Slaw with Edamame

Crunchy vegetables and nuts, how easy is that.

Have you made any New Years resolutions yet? or I guess the question is DID you make any New Year’s resolutions and have you broken them yet?

Guess I could resolve not to go to so many movies a week, but why would I do that, I’m over 60 so why not go as often as I want (at least twice a week) until I run out of movies to watch. I could resolve to exercise more but I have to start doing that anyway because my sciatica problem is into its fifth month so why not try a little more moving around to see if it will get better.

I have not really made any other promises to myself than to try and simplify our meal times a little. I don’t mean make easy recipes with 2 or 3 ingredients; but I think I would like to start trying to make some kind of meat dish, or fish or chicken, probably on the grill since I won’t have to do that and make one side dish to go along with the main dish. How easy would dinner be every night if I were to simply make meat and a salad of some sort or throw a vegetable on the grill with the meat.

January 26, 2017 By Sherry

Soup

Lobster and Shrimp Bisque

Creamy and delicious with lobster and shrimp.

Don’t you just love creamy soups? I do and until I really started cooking my favorite soup was “canned” Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup. Believe it or not I still eat that soup; and one day I’m going to make some homemade cream of mushroom soup and may never eat it from a can again.

I don’t know why some recipes refer to a creamy soup as a bisque instead of just a cream soup because the definition of a bisque is that it’s a smooth, creamy, highly seasoned soup of French origin, classically based on a strained broth of crustaceans.

My friend, Peggy, has been trying to get me to try this recipe for a few years. She got the recipe from her daughter who found it at asweetpeachef.com. I can’t believe it took me so long to try it. I didn’t have the three lobster tails it called for so I used some shrimp in place of the third tail.

January 20, 2017 By Sherry

Side dish

Lemon Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Sesame Seeds and Raisins

We have a new woman in our bedroom!

So, let’s talk about this new woman. My husband got her for Christmas and she quickly took up residence in our bedroom. Her name is Alexa and she is the voice that powers the Echo device from Amazon.

When he first got the “new woman” in his life I could hear him talking to her. Sweet nothings like … “Hey, Alexa, What’s up and she would come up with something witty to say, or “Hey Alexa, what’s the weather for tomorrow” and even “Hey Alexa, can you wake me up in the morning”. Ya know, you can even say “Alexa, shut up” and she doesn’t get offended.

Alexa can find you a restaurant or a movie playing near by, she can do math, she can spell, she can give you the results of a sporting event and she can even purchase things off of Amazon for you. What she can’t do is fetch that cup of coffee.

So one day, I decided to give her a try and said “Hey Alexa, what’s for dinner tonight”. This was just a few days after the new year and I guess she was already in the dieting frame of mind and she said, let’s do something healthy tonight.

January 14, 2017 By Sherry

Soup

Egg Flower Soup

This is such a delicate soup and so pretty.

I’ve told you before how food memories stick in my head and I can recall them years later even decades later. Well, that is the case for this recipe

Back when the kids were all still at home we went skiing in Park City, Utah one year. I don’t know about you but when we have gone skiing everyone is so exhausted when they get off the slopes no one wants to go any place for dinner. After falling my first time out back in the late 80’s and I ended up having to have knee surgery, I gave up on the sport. So I was the bring-along chef on all of our ski trips. I would even pack stuff to make homemade cookies and snow cream for everyone to enjoy. But one night in Park City we decided to go out for Chinese food and we went to this little restaurant and the soup I ordered was called Egg Flower Soup. (Amazing, I just Googled it and the restaurant Park City Chinese and Thai is still in business and serves Egg Flower Soup.)

Over the years I’ve change the recipe I came up with because their soup only had the corn. I added some fresh spinach and carrot threads for color and some finely chopped chicken for added flavor but the thing that makes this soup so cute (if you can possibly call a soup cute) is the sliced baby corn and when they float in the soup they looked like a field of tiny flowers. (I have left out the chicken in this recipe because I like it plain and simple and I think the chicken muddles it up a little too much.)

January 9, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Sichuan Pork Ragu

Quick and easy stir-fry.

This Momofuku inspired recipe comes from Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes cookbook, by way of www.foodgal.com by way of my son, Scott.

I’m always getting interesting recipes from Scott to try. Like the 6 day plus salt cured egg yolk or his 24 no knead bread recipe. This particular recipe sounded really interesting to me though because I have follow Momofuku restaurants and David Chang for years. I just love that name and the way it rolls off your tongue — mo – mo- fu- ku. Now how could their food not be interesting and delicious.

The Lucky Beach cookbook has simplified a dish that David Chang serves in his Momofuku Ssam Bar. I always though of a ragu as being Italian and a heavy, hearty meal. The Italian versions of a ragu is a pasta sauce made with ground or minced meat, vegetables and tomatoes and the French style is more like a stew that is made of meat, fish and vegetables. You can eat either on its own or with a starch like a noodle or polenta.

January 4, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Cooked Cabbage with Sausage

You can teach an old dog new tricks.

I’m not sure about teaching an old DOG a new trick but I certainly can learn to do things a new way. I’m almost embarrassed that I have never cooked cabbage this way. I’m sure everyone will be making (or made) some type of cabbage dish for New Years day. We always have pork belly (fried, or hog jowl), black eyed peas and some kind of cabbage. The green cabbage is for “money” in the new year and good luck.

There are so many ways to eat cabbage, ie. in slaws/coleslaws, mixed in with salads (red and green), cabbage rolls, my egg rolls have cabbage, potatoes colcannon, add it to soups, corn beef and cabbage and of course just a big pot of cooked cabbage.

I’ve always cooked cabbage like my mother and grandmother did; quarter it up, put it in a pot with some water and bacon and boil it to death. Back in the Fall we had dinner at a friend’s house and my friend, Linda, cooked the best cabbage ever. I found out that she never cooks it in water but simply sautés it for 30-40 minutes in a skillet with some onion and then adds in some fried bacon at the end. It was delicious and I could have eaten the whole dish by myself but I had to share.

So, one Sunday night I decided I was going to do a whole head of cabbage and eat it all week long. Instead of bacon, I decided to add some of this Alabama sausage that we buy, brown it first, then add it in at the end. I did flavor the cabbage and onion with some bacon fat that I had left over from making my bacon and eggs post and added a little crushed red pepper even though the sausage was “spicy”.

December 30, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Sheet Pan Dinner

How much easier can a recipe get?

Isn’t everyone looking for easy, fast recipes that give them a little more time with their families; and it’s Christmas eve and who has time to cook now or even wants to cook days after Christmas. All we want to do is still down and relax and enjoy the holidays with our families and friends.

Merry Christmas to everyone and have the merriest times with your love ones.

Whether it’s a nice piece of fish and some vegetables or potatoes or all vegetables. You will love how quick this is to throw together. Some great combinations to consider when you are wanting to make a sheet pan dinner are chicken breast and some broccoli and onions(coat your chicken with either Panko or parmesan cheese, chicken with some nice squash/zucchini, salmon with baby bok choy, maybe even some pork chops with potatoes, carrots, and apples.

If you are making chicken, why not top the breast with a little pasta sauce and mozzarella and then add some vegetables around the chicken. Try encrusting your salmon with some parmesan cheese and add some broccoli and asparagus to the sheet pan. Once you try doing a whole dinner on a sheet pan you will be sold on the idea for a quick, easy, no mess meal. I want to try a stir-fry sort of meal with some shrimp, broccoli, onions, carrots and throw in some water chestnuts and maybe a little fish sauce and soy for spicing it up. I recently saw one recipe where the chicken was covered with chimichurri sauce and on the sheet pan with some potatoes and onions.

December 24, 2016 By Sherry

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