Sherry – Page 37 – Rosemary and the Goat

Bacon Cheddar Green Chili Grits

Braggadocio grits with bacon.

Last time we were back home my sister’s cousin-in-law, Kaye (McKaskle Family Farms) gave me some of their new products. I have tried their popcorn cornmeal and popcorn, and their rices, but now they have their very own mill to grind their polenta and grits. I’m always excited to try new products and products made by someone I know makes it even more special.

I didn’t get to see the mill on this visit but will the next time we are up that way.

I’m going to do another give away for a bag of their polenta, and popcorn corn meal (I used all my grits, so sorry about that). All you have to do is leave any kind of note below in the “comments” section and at the end of two weeks I will draw a name and will mail you the products to try. The first thing you have to try is to make my popcorn cornmeal muffins. They are great.

January 31, 2015 By Sherry

Soup

White Bean Soup with Ham

Don’t you love having a leftover ham bone to cook!

Ya, know what I love about buying a ham, baking it, glazing it, slicing it and eating it? Well, it’s the bone that is left over.

A couple of weeks ago we had dinner at a friend’s house and she made a great white bean soup. That got me thinking about a bean soup I use to make years ago; so I decided to dig out my old recipe, dust it off and use that ham bone for something other than just a pot of beans. For my recipe I use to add chopped fresh tomatoes but this time I added a can of Rotel and we really liked the results.

After any “ham holiday” I always wrap my bone (I leave a lot of meat on it) and throw it in the freezer. Then one day when I’m cleaning out my freezer I find this wonderful gift wrapped piece of meat.

Normally a ham bone always meant a pot of beans. But, many years ago I took a class where we made bean soup. Wow, I thought, something added to that pot of beans makes a delicious soup and this has become my favorite soup to make with a ham bone and I really think I like it better than just a plain old pot of beans.

I guess you could always throw a ham bone in a pot of split peas, lentils or even black eyed peas; but then you just have a pot of peas. What do you do with your leftover ham bone? And, I hope you don’t say I buy boneless.

January 26, 2015 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Zucchini White Chicken Lasagna

I love anything with a creamy béchamel sauce.

Fifteen Spatulas gets all the credit for this recipe and if it weren’t for all the hours I spend looking around on the computer I would have never come across this blog. This is a blog that I bookmarked a couple of years ago because I liked her recipes and food pictures.

No pasta noodles in this lasagna; it’s full of grilled zucchini strips. I upped the garlic (of course) and added some nutmeg to the sauce.

I have to say it seems like it took me a long time to make this dish but in reality probably not. I had just come in from the store with a car full of groceries and my greens and fresh carrots I had bought at the farmer’s market. I didn’t even get the groceries put away before I started cleaning the carrots, then the beet greens and then I made the sautéed beet greens and at the same time started the sauce for this recipe, and trying to grill the zucchini at the same time. Sometimes, I do cause my own problems.

I would say if you want to try this recipe, start with a clean kitchen, maybe slice and grill the zucchini the day before; I did have my chicken already baked and thawing from when I froze it last month. The recipe seems to be quick to throw together if you have everything done in stages.

January 20, 2015 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ HotApp

Savory Pecans

Great with cocktails and a few other things.

When my parents were still living I always knew when we visited in the fall I would be taking home pecans; 200# was the most I ever took home. I would have them cracked while there and knew it would take me a couple of months of shelling them before I was done for the year and we would have a freezer full to last me through all the catering events. One year, I waited a little too long to finish shelling and the pecans were in plastic bags and not a breathable mess bag so I had to dump them outside. There were so many pecans that it took the squirrels about 2 months to take them away. Guess by the time they were finished they claimed me as a friend for life. Now, why do I still like those pesky little critters.

I will always remember when we were visiting at the right time of the year, with a yard full of pecans (they had about 6 trees), we would walk around the yard with my mother or dad picking up pecans. Now, to me, that is the most relaxing times I can remember. Picking up pecans are like searching for those hidden Easter eggs we looked for as kids. Walk, talk, stoop, pick up, talk, walk and it was a great way of finding out things going on in their lives. Way before, I’m sure, someone invented a pecan picker-upper. My dad took a pole and attached a “slinky” to it and he would push it down on the pecan and the slinky would pick it up and when the slinky was full enough it would get dumped in a bucket. I really miss those moments and I cannot look at a pecan in a shell and not think of their place in Tennessee. We always thought our dad was a renaissance man and one day I’m posting all the remarkable things I remember about him.

I no longer get those pecans so when I do have some given to me by my sister, I hoard them and use sparingly.

There are a lot of savory nut recipes out there and one of my favorites is The Best Bar Nuts in NYC that was printed in a Union Square Cookbook. I love those but the recipe below I use only pecans when making it and they are so easy to make. These can be eaten as is or chop and put in a salad. The original recipe I started with did not have the sugar; I decided to add it to add a little sweetness to use in my salad.

January 15, 2015 By Sherry

Side dish

Sauteed Cabbage and Kale

Start the New Year off with a lot of greens.

Did you start your New Year off with black eyed peas and cabbage? And, did you add in some hog jowl. I love Southern traditions and I would never think of NOT eating those foods on New Years day. I need all the luck I can get.

The black eyed peas are eaten for luck and I have read that if you want to have good luck every day, you must eat at least 365 peas. Not sure if I got that many peas into my mouth, but I tried. The cabbage greens represent money and who wouldn’t want more money in the new years. The truth about the cabbage or other greens is probably the fact that they are late garden crops and may have been the last thing left in the garden at the end of the year to put on the table.

Friends came over for New Years day and she brought the BEP and cabbage so I had some in the refrigerator that had not been cooked. I had the intentions on New Years day of adding in some baby kale and instead of boiling my cabbage I was going to sauté it. So, by Monday I was ready to cook my peas and cabbage and knew that we were going to the movie and even though we always eat popcorn, we are always hungry when we get home. What better to rewarm than a pot of peas and some sautéed cabbage.

My secret ingredient to this recipe is Bangkok Blend spice from Penzeys Spices that a friend gave me for Xmas. I did maybe 1/4 teaspoon of the blend and it really transformed the cabbage dish to something a little more special. Maybe that means I will get a little more money than normal this year. Oh, I forgot, I do get 1.5% increase on my social security check. I will try not to spend it all in one place.

If, you have not tried sautéing cabbage (instead of boiling it), give it a try, it’s quicker and retains more of the green color and for this recipe the kale just barely cooks.

Here is what is in the Penzey Spice Bangkok Blend in case you can’t find it –ancho chili pepper,garlic, ginger, Tellicherry black pepper, galangal, crushed red pepper, lemon grass, cayenne, paprika, basil and cilantro. Wow, that’s a lot of stuff in one little jar.

January 10, 2015 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta

Southwest Pasta with Black Beans and Cotija Cheese

You can never have too many pasta recipes.

Doesn’t it seem like when we are invited to a dinner or potluck it’s hard to come up with something different to make. I know I have a problem and I’ve been cooking for a very long time. I’m always in search for something unusual that someone else might not show up with. And, when it comes to pasta dishes it seems like you see the same ingredients — tomatoes, peppers, onions etc. I really like the idea of the enchilada sauce in this recipe mixed with the yogurt or sour cream and then the addition of the Cotija cheese and green olives.

This is a great room temperature pasta main dish, side dish, or I guess it could pass for a pasta salad. Either way, it’s delicious.

The colors from this pasta blend from Pappardelle’s come from blue corn flour, red chili peppers, green jalapeño, dried spinach, paprika, grape skins extract and some turmeric. I really wanted the pasta to retain the beautiful colors even though it might be covered up with the enchilada sauce mixture; but it did not.

In our area this pasta is sold at Berings hardware in Houston, but they also sell in farmer’s markets across the US. So check out your state to see if you have one of their vendors close to you selling in a farmer’s market or store.

January 5, 2015 By Sherry

Dessert/ Desserts

Chocolate Grand Marnier Pots dè Creme

Not like any Jello pudding you grew up eating!

Christmas is over and now you are thinking of starting some kind of diet BUT we still have the New Years parties to get through so why not try this quick delicious little dessert to bring in the New Year. You could change it up and put peppermint extract instead of the Grand Marnier and top with crushed peppermint if you wanted to make it a little more festive looking.

Pots de Creme is so similar to a homemade chocolate pudding you’ll wonder why you never made this dessert. Just the name itself always makes me want to order it when I see it on a menu. For years I called this “pots” de cream not knowing it is really pronounced “po” de creme. Whatever you choose to call it, it’s easy and delicious.

Don’t you love the taste of coffee and chocolate together; and the taste of chocolate with orange is even better. So, I decided to turn just a run of the mill pots de creme into a chocolate, orange, espresso pots de creme and I baked them in these cute little espresso cups.

I served this one night for my Girls Night Out group along with my Pumpkin Tomato Salad and my Wedge Salad (on a different angle) and also tried the Brazilian Cheese Puffs for the first time. The small espresso cups were the perfect size for just a few bites of dessert to finish off the evening.

December 31, 2014 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Bread/ HotApp

Cornbread Jalapeño Poppers

Great little poppers.

Only four days before Christmas and if you’re planning on doing a big pot of soup for Christmas Eve this will be a great little “go with” to serve.

Can you believe Christmas is here already. I’m so excited this year (excited every year) because all the kids will be together in Austin for Christmas and their Mema will be here with us too. And, I can’t imagine how exciting it is going to see all 5 little boys running around playing with each other. Of course, Thomas (almost 8 months old) will only be watching this year, but I know he will be wondering when he’s going to be chasing them around.

I made these little poppers a couple of years ago and took these pictures (which are not that great) and then forgot about posting about them. I found this recipe at Oh Bite It blog and one day when I was making my Mexican Cornbread recipe I decided to try filling some of the jalapeño peppers with the batter.

I have never been a fan of the Jiffy type cornbread mix because my mother always made homemade and for me to do anything but homemade seems like I’m cheating. After stuffing the peppers with my Mexican Cornbread mixture that has meat in it I decided that they would be much easier to follow her recipe and maybe the sweetness from her Honey variety of cornbread mix would counter the hotness from the peppers. You can really add whatever you want to these. You can throw in some cooked ground beef if you have it on hand.

My dad was always trying to figure out how to get the coating to stick to a jalapeño like the ones you get in a restaurant or from the frozen section of the grocery. He tried all sorts of things and then decided that maybe the peppers needed to be steamed to soften them up a little before doing the flour, egg, bread crumb coating that went on the outside of a traditional jalapeño popper. After researching this I found most popper recipes call for double dipping; do egg, crumbs, then egg, crumbs again to get a thick coating. I think he wold have liked these peppers for sure.

December 21, 2014 By Sherry

Salads

Rainbow Chicken Apple Slaw

Crunchy and full of color.

I was searching around for some new recipes for a dinner I was planning and came upon this beautiful slaw. Tattooed Martha did it as a sandwich and grilled the marinated chicken breast then topped with the slaw but I immediately thought of mixing everything together for a nice little salad.

And, as usual I thought of trying this out on my bunco ladies. I only made one mistake, sorry girls, but the night I took the salad, I had everything ready and was going to toss the dressing right before going out the door. I guess my mind was on rolling the dice that night anticipating that I would bring home “big” money, which I did not bring home not even one dollar and I forgot to julienne and add the apples. So what was eaten that night could have been improved greatly by the addition of apples.

I use to be a great multi-tasker when I catered. I could have things in the oven, the mixer going, something sautéing on the stove top and keep everything straight in my head; but not this day.

Luckily I still had some of the undressed slaw mixture and some chicken I had not eaten yet and one apple that was miraculously still in my refrigerator; so I mixed up another batch of the slaw and then talked my husband into eating it so I could have an opinion of the slaw the way it was suppose to taste. He added more salt and said it was good. I have a problem with the apples disappearing from refrigerator too; along with bananas that I was saving for banana bread. I need to have a his and her crisper drawer in our refrigerator so he knows what he can eat and things not meant for him.

December 16, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Salmon with Mustard Sauce

And an extra mustard sauce recipe to boot!

If you are looking for something quick and delicious to make during this busy Christmas season, this should definitely be on your list of “must” try recipes.

There are still a few packages of Alaskan salmon in our freezer that my husband caught a year ago and I am getting a little reluctant to cook it because once I do it will be gone and I will be back to buying it from the grocery.

While in Austin after the birth of number 5 grandson last May, (wow that was 8 months ago) his Grandmommy took GA and I to lunch downtown. We had a great lunch at a little Italian restaurant close to her work. I, of course, had eggplant parmesan which is hard for me to ever pass up. She had a salmon topped with a mustard sauce which looked so good. I could just taste the tartness of the mustard with little twinges in my cheeks. After being offered a taste a couple of times I finally did taste it and the sauce was bold and creamy. They called the sauce a Mostarda sauce but a Mostarda sauce has fruit and mustard; and this had no fruit so I turned to the Internet for a mustard sauce for salmon.

December 11, 2014 By Sherry

Dessert/ Desserts/ Fruit Dishes

Wine Poached Pears with Almond Cream

And it has wine jelly leaves.

I had to give you this recipe in time for Christmas. Maybe you want to do a light dessert during the holidays. Wouldn’t this be a beautiful Christmas dessert; I’d cut the wine jelly into little stars instead of leaves.

Isn’t it amazing how many food blogs are out there and I’m amazed at how many I follow. Recently I was looking for a dessert recipe for our Fall dinner and came across this poached pear recipe at allthatcooking.com. It had such a beautiful presentation that I knew I had to look no further. All That Cooking is a co-authored blog and this recipe belongs to Óli who is from Iceland but lives in Sweden and has been a professional chef for the last 30 years.

I never liked can pears as a kid and when my mother, for some reason, would use a can of fruit cocktail as a starter for her homemade fruit salad, I always picked out the pears and left them behind on the plate. Over the years, I learned to appreciate the juiciness of a fresh pear and started trying all the different varieties. I love the Asian pear but for this dish it doesn’t have the shape I wanted.

This recipe was followed as written except for the cutting of the jelly cubes. I have some tiny aspic cutters and a few fall leaf cutters we are trying. and the way his dessert is described –Firm pears, poached to a jewel toned crimson, surrounded by a just rich enough almond cream with flecks of butter toasted almonds is a dessert to please anyone’s palate — now doesn’t that make you want to try it.

December 6, 2014 By Sherry

Bread/ Breads/Biscuits/ Morning Foods

Banana Nut Bread

There’s banana nut bread then there is this banana nut bread.

I’m sure you have been making banana nut bread about as long as I have. You may have your favorite recipe that was your mother’s, grandmother’s or your favorite aunt’s. But, I’m hoping you will try my recipe; or I should say my sister’s recipe from her husband’s Mamaw.

All recipes are made better with over ripe bananas. In our house it is hard to get an over ripe banana because my husband loves them any way and the darker the better. Over ripe bananas aren’t sold at my favorite market anymore because the produce guy told me the bakery gets them. I’m sure the bakery’s bread is not nearly as good as this recipe.

Recently, I planned on making banana nut bread for a friend (Janet) who had just had a knee replacement. So, I buy six perfect bananas and put them on the counter so they can ripen and then can be used to make the most delicious banana bread I have ever tasted. The next morning one banana mysteriously disappeared. I had forgotten to tell my husband not to touch them or put a DO NOT EAT sign on the bunch. The next day, again, one banana gone missing and they were just starting to get to the really dark stage I like for a banana intended for bread and then another banana gone. Finally I was left with three bananas to make a recipe that called for six bananas.

What’s a girl to do other than make 1/2 the recipe. Luckily for me and for my friend (one recipe normally makes 2 large loaves) I got 4 small pans from the half recipe. I kept one and gave my friend the other three. This bread is the best right out of the oven, warm with some room temperature salted butter smeared on it but is just as good cool or warmed in the microwave.

December 1, 2014 By Sherry

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