Sherry – Page 29 – Rosemary and the Goat

Pasta and Arugula Salad and Herb Dressing

What to do with these ingredients.

With all of these ingredients left over from the weekend I had an idea to use my pasta and arugula in a salad but didn’t know what type of dressing. So I “googled” and believe it or not there were a lot of people that had already beaten me to this salad idea. So I took Food and Wine’s recipe and added a couple of things.

Like I was saying in another post, I always buy too much food when my kids come home, in fact, when anyone comes over. A few weekends ago when my daughter came I had bought some cute pasta to use in a pasta salad and never got around to using it, I also had bought some frozen petite peas that I was going to use to make my pasta pesto saladthat I had made for our garden club luncheon last year. That was the easiest salad ever. But along with those two ingredients I had a whole box of baby arugula and some very pretty colored cherry tomatoes in orange, purple, red and yellow.

I have a weakness for “cute” pastas. This particular one was a trottole pasta (looks like spinning tops (that’s a toy if you didn’t know what a “top” was)) and who could resist Orechetti (little ears), or little O’s, ABC’s, coral shapes and I’ve even bought Maple leaf shaped pasta when we visited Canada, and of course I have bought Texas shaped pasta.

June 16, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Spicy Sesame Tuna Bowl

Not everything served in a bowl is soup.

A bowl serves a good purpose when you’re serving a food that you don’t want to chase all over the plate. I love pasta in a bowl because the rim of the bowl gives you a way to pin down your squirmy pasta pieces. Breakfast in a bowl makes sense too because you have layers of your favorite breakfast items all stacked up.

Now, I guess everything mingled in a bowl isn’t for everyone. I remember one of my kid’s friends not liking anything touching on a plate and all the food had to have its own space. I’m guilty of putting beans or peas in a small bowl on my plate because I don’t want all the juice running around the other foods and getting them soggy.

One Friday night we went to Bonefish Grill and as always I checked out their menu before going and I knew exactly what I was going to order because it looked so pretty in the picture I knew I would be making it because my mouth was watering just looking at the picture.

June 11, 2016 By Sherry

Morning Foods/ Side dish

Bacon and Tomato Cheese Grits

Kiss my grits! (As Flo would say)

In case you don’t know who Flo is she was a waitress in the sitcom “Alice” many, many years ago. Can’t say that was a favorite show of mine but I can’t forget her telling people to “kiss my grits”.

Back in April I took a trip to Savannah with my twin sister and two friends from high school, Pauletta and Judy. We had such a great time and can’t wait to get together again. Funny, one of Pauletta’s walking friends asked her what she was going to talk to friends about that she had not seen for 40 years. Well, we never quit talking. It was fun reliving the past, hearing about everyone’s grandkids, and what the future holds for all of us.

Did we ever eat some good food while there! What is it about a “Southern” menu that you will always find shrimp and grits, fried green tomatoes and some good pimento cheese in with all your menu items making it even harder to decide what to order. I can’t pass up grits, I can’t pass up pimento cheese and I certainly can’t pass up trying someone’s fried green tomatoes. I had a great stack of tomatoes on our last day there that I can’t wait to try to recreate.

When we toured the Mercer House we heard stories about when Jim Williams lived there (remember the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and he was accused of murder) and the parties he would give and one of his favorite things his caterer Lucille Wright (the most sought after caterer in Savannah) would make was shrimp and grits and pumpkin cornbread. I may be giving that pumpkin cornbread a try in the Fall so keep a lookout for it.

June 6, 2016 By Sherry

Cake/ Dessert/ Morning Foods

Raspberry Applesauce Cake

The kids are all gone!🙁

What do you do with all that special “grandkid” friendly food after they leave?

My refrigerator and pantry are always packed with things like applesauce, some good yogurt, some organic meat of some sort, lots of fruit, string cheese of course and lots of other things that I may not be eating if it is left over. As always, I buy way too much. But who wants to run out of food or goodies when the kids are visiting. I usually love the non-so-good-for-you-foods like Goldfish, popsicles, ice cream cups with about 6 kinds of sprinkles, and drink boxes (organic juice of course).

So recently my daughter was home for the weekend; and they had friends and kids at our house, so that meant stock up on some “stuff” for them to eat since they may not want to be eating the paella that we made one night.

On Monday, when the house was all empty except for the two of us, I decided to take on the bulging refrigerator. First, I threw all the fruit into my dehydrator, peeled and individually wrapped my bananas (they are like eating banana popsicles), threw some sweet stuff away. But, then there are the cartons of applesauce staring at me and I don’t even like applesauce.

June 1, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Pasta

Shrimp and Crab Stuffed Pasta Shells

Stuffed shells perfect for summer get together.

Do you cook more shrimp in the summer or are you like me and cook it year round when you get them on sale. This dish would be great with some lobster thrown in to the mix.

I love shrimp in just about any recipe. I’ve pickled them, corn dogged them, skewered them, coconut fried them, Bang Banged them, and like Bubba Gump I could go on and on listing the ways I like shrimp.

This recipe just happens to have crab meat in it along with the shrimp. After making this dish I decided that maybe the next time around instead of stuffing the shells this would be great just mixed in with a penne or rigatoni pasta; saves some time stuffing and the taste is going to be just the same.

Sour cream was supposed to go in this dish but my carton container something other than that when I opened it and I was in luck since grandson Thomas had just been for a visit and left behind a carton of plain yogurt. I like the yogurt and would probably use that the next time instead of the sour cream.

May 27, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Fiesta Catfish with Guacamole

I had to convince my husband to try this combination.

Sometime back in May with Cinco de Mayo behind us I was thinking about Mexican flavors and how they would fit into a catfish recipe.

Growing up the only way we ate catfish was fried. In my opinion, that is the best way to eat catfish. Although, lately I have been coating it and baking it in the oven and I have to say it is almost as good as deep-fried. Still crunchy like fried but not nearly as many calories since it isn’t swimming in oil.

My first thoughts were to put in some Mexican seasonings like cumin and chili powder then I got carried away and added some garlic powder, cayenne and paprika. Very tasty. There were also a few avocados lying around just waiting to be made into some good guacamole so after it’s made and the fish is done I added some to the tops of the crunchy, out of the oven catfish filets along with a sliver of tomato.

May 21, 2016 By Sherry

Dessert/ Pies/Tarts

Chocolate Tacos

A big hit with my bunco group.

Since our May bunco fell the day before Cinco de Mayo we were asked to bring a Mexican themed food. So I did, in dessert form.

Everyone loves tacos, right? We were married when my husband was in his last year of college and I remember we would go and buy tacos for 25 cents each. Were they ever good! And I always served tacos to my kids when they were still at home. What’s not to love — crunchy shell, spicy ground beef filling, some shredded lettuce, tomato and cheese with a spicy taco sauce drizzled over the top.

Have things ever changed. My first fish taco was in LaJolla, CA at a place called George’s at the Cove and since then I have become a taco aficionado. Experimenting with all kinds of fillings, I have made a Pork Belly Taco, Pulled Pork Taco, Fish Tacos, and one of my favorites, Grilled Salmon Tacos with Schirarch Cream. So, you see I have been experimenting with a lot of things other than ground beef; so why not a dessert version.

A few years ago a friend told me about this bed and breakfast she went to in California, the Oak Knoll Inn in Napa (Looks like the Inn has been sold, shucks, we never made it there.) and how beautiful the food was and the owner had a Chocolate for Breakfast Cookbook by Barbara Passino. The book is full of wonderful breakfast items and many, many chocolate recipes. I fell in love with a chocolate taco picture (is that possible?) of a taco full of fruit and topped with a pansy and a big scoop of raspberry sorbet.

May 15, 2016 By Sherry

Side dish

Tipsy Beans

You may know these as “drunken” beans.

These beans were a fitting side dish for a going away party that we did for our neighbors, Maria and Ricky, one weekend in April and a perfect day for using our outdoor kitchen. Pulled pork sandwiches with cabbage topping, truffled parmesan fries, tipsy beans, coleslaw, and some appetizers

People have been doing drunken beans for years I guess. We grew up eating those baked beans that are loaded with bacon and brown sugar, mustard, ketchup and baked a long time in the oven.

Most recipes for drunken beans just call for pintos but I’ve started using a mixture of beans even in my chili. For these beans I used kidney, black and pinto beans combined. I used a dark beer but any kind of beer will work. The one thing I did wrong in this recipe was to not brown my bacon. Don’t ask me why I didn’t do it. I have always browned the bacon in baked beans or any kind of dish that calls for bacon. I got in a hurry and just threw it in the pan with the onions and it never browned.

May 9, 2016 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Elote Dip

If you like Mexican corn on the cob, you’ll love this dip.

Coming up blank for an idea for your next cookout? Sometimes I have problems putting together a menu; don’t know why because I have an endless supply of recipes I want to try or to recreate from places I have been or ideas that friends have told me about. Corn of some type is almost always on our menu as a side dish when we bbq.

Corn isn’t actually a vegetable, it’s a grain but I always called it a vegetable because it was one of the few so-called vegetables my kids would eat when they were young; green beans – sometimes, fried okra – of course, no on salads, no on broccoli, spinach etc. So I had to call corn a vegetable so I would feel like I was half-way getting my kids to eat healthy. Of course, now, they eat everything.

Elote Cafe in Sedona is famous for their Elote (corn) appetizer. A friend of mine went there a few years ago and loved the cafe so much they ate there three times.

Elote corn is sold by street food vendors in Mexico. Usually it will be cook in the husk, the husk will be pulled back and used for a handle to hold on to the corn and the corn will be smeared with butter, mayonnaise, lime juice, chili powder (I add some cayenne too when I make it this way), and sprinkled with some cojita cheese. It is delicious for any summer cookout and if you like that then make some Elote dip. All the same ingredients but cut off the cob and put in a bowl and baked for you to enjoy with some really good tortilla chips.

My favorite corn is yellow corn or even the peaches and cream variety which is yellow and while. The weekend I made this Elote Dip I could only find white corn. If you have a choice go with the yellow variety because it makes a prettier dip and I personally like the taste better.

May 4, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork/ Salads

Grilled Pork Chop and Roasted Apple Salad

Eat those greens!

Do you love your greens and vegetables? Did your parent always say “eat your vegetables”. I feel like I’m saying that to my husband these days as he just informed me, after almost 47 years of marriage, that he doesn’t really like most vegetables. He just eats them because I make them and if he doesn’t I guess there isn’t much left to eat other than meat. He does like salads though so I get to experiment a lot with recipes.

I love greens whether it is cooked cabbage, kale, chards, baby bok choy, spinach, lettuces, you name it I like greens. Have to admit, though, that I have never cooked collard greens. We have even grilled romaine lettuce and that’s delicious when you turn it into a chopped Caesar salad. I’ve mixed kale with mashed cauliflower, I’ve put it in turkey kale soup and I’m sure there are a lot of other recipes out there using greens in recipe that I haven’t even come across yet.

I love looking at menus and trying to recreate dishes. A friend of mine was in New Orleans last year and dined at K-Paul’s so I went to their website to see what she might be eating (weird huh). This salad sounded so interesting and there really isn’t a need for a recipe. After thinking about making this salad I decided to turn it into a main dish salad by adding the grilled pork chops that I glazed with some more of the red apple balsamic vinegar, then cut the chops into strips to put on top of the salad. I love pork and apples together and this way I did not have to come up with a meat to go with the salad. My daughter asked me if I had ever put pork on a salad and I thought “why not”, we put shrimp, chicken, steak, tuna, and even bbq on top of some shredded cabbage so why not a pork chop.

April 29, 2016 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Avocado Lime Shrimp Cups

Beautiful, spicy, crunchy little appetizer for your next get together OR just because you want to make something new.

If you look at my appetizer index you will see that appetizers are probably my favorite things to cook/bake/make. I love little tidbits of food. You can graze on a table of appetizer and not feel overly stuffed. Plus, they are usually cute and interesting little pieces of food. And, I love anything made with shrimp.

Cocktail parties were always my favorite type of party to cater and I always prepared some of my all-time favorites. My Parmesan Bacon Wraps (we always referred to as a “heart attack” on a cracker) were sooo good and everyone loved them. Once someone referred to my Parmesan Shrimp Toast as sex on a cracker (have no idea how he came up with that description). Over 11,000 people have looked at that recipe. This little Avocado Bacon Sandwich is one of my favorite tea sandwiches and is perfect with a pot of Walnut Green tea.

I feel like my taste have changed over the years. I haven’t done those bacon wraps in a couple of years and I love appetizers that are a little more on the fussy side rather than making a big batch of dip or something I just dump in a pan. Back in the 70’s I had a friend (still a friend – hi Sally) who said she didn’t like sharing a particular appetizer recipe because she didn’t want to see it at someone else’s dinner party. After we moved away from each other, she did share the recipe. I never shared recipes when I catered for the same reason; but when I quit catering that was the point of this blog and that was (is) to share some of my favorite old and new recipes.

April 24, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Chicken Chow Mein

Thanks Mema for teaching me how to make this.

I can’t tell you how many years I have been making this; oh, I guess I can, and that would be since I’ve been married which is going on 47 years.

I started dating my husband in high school when I was 15 and the rest is history. He use to hang around our house and ate many a meal there and I would go to his house for dinner. One night his mom was making chicken chow mein which I had never heard of let alone tried. So this one night that I had dinner at his house, I remember like it was yesterday, he put the chow mien on my plate and told me I would really like it. My initial thought was it looked like a lot of little worms. Maybe so, but it was delicious.

April 19, 2016 By Sherry

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