Sherry – Page 40 – Rosemary and the Goat

Peach Tart with Raspberry Sauce

So what are you doing with those fresh peaches from the farmer’s market this summer?

(I’m off in Seattle/Vancouver/Victoria right now and hope to have lots of new ideas to cook up when I get back.)

I missed getting my Fredricksburg peaches last year and this year so I was in search for the best peach I could find. On my way back from Austin one weekend I stopped at Buckee’s Truck Stop (or gas station, or mega everything store). At the checkout, there was a bushel of home grown peaches and they were the most beautiful peaches I have seen in years. The touch was great, the smell was like just picked freshness off some farmer’s tree so I bought a few for this recipe.

You never know what you are going to get in a peach. I have picked up beautiful peaches at the grocery, liked the feel of it in my hand when I gently pressed on it, loved the smell of the peach when I took a big sniff but then when I got home with it, chilled it, got out a big bowl to cut my peach in, only to find when I cut it open it is a mealy, tastless peach. Short of asking for a sample before buying a peach, and I’m likely to do that at a farm stand, I know no other way of finding a perfect peach.

So the sad end to those fresh Buckee’s Truck stop peaches is that I kept putting off making this dessert because I did need someone to eat it. I looked at the peaches each day and the first few days they were smiling back and me saying “we’re ready”. Then I waited, and waited, and waited and when I decided it was time to make it the peaches were in no mood to be made into this nice dessert. They had puckered skin and way beyond looking pretty in their pink skins. So I ate them.

July 29, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Ginger Glazed Mahi Mahi

A fisherman’s tale. (by George)

Since this dish would not be possible without the fish my husband caught I decided maybe he should be the one to write his fisherman’s tale.

NOTE: My Corn Dog Shrimp recipe just got picked up by Delish.com. They linked back to my website. Hopefully that will give me more traffic.

A fisherman’s tale — by George.

My recent fishing trip topped off a year of fishing than has run the gamut from remote wild river salmon fishing and off-shore halibut trips in Alaska to white bass fishing in Texas and now most recently going off-shore for yellow fin tuna near Venice as in Louisiana (not to be confused with Italy). Venice is about an hour or so south of New Orleans on the peninsula that forms the tip of the Louisiana boot and the mouth of the Mississippi river. It’s literally the last town at the very end of the last road that follows the western side of the river deep into the thick Louisiana marshland to the river’s end, the Mississippi River delta. It’s not a fancy resort type area like you would find along the Florida coast but it has world class fishing and it is a major staging area for off-shore drilling companies and on-shore natural gas processing (which I used to know a little about)

We were hoping to get into some yellow fin tuna as more are caught here than anywhere but after catching our live bait near a nat gas platform and then a 40 mile ride out to the deep blue gulf waters (around 1500 feet plus) and hours of very hard fishing we gave up and starting trolling for Mahi Mahi. The highlight was when 3 of them all hit at exactly the same time. The reels seemed to spin out of control and we learned first hand how fast and strong these fish really are. It’s hard to describe how vibrant their colors are in the water. Unfortunately for us that was all we would land for the rest of the day. We blamed it on the weather – what else?

Most people think you only catch them in Hawaii but Mahi Mahi is a type of saltwater fish commonly found in warm coastal waters around the world, including Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and even some parts of Australia and yes – the Gulf of Mexico.

July 24, 2014 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Salads

Avocado Melon Salsa

Love those summer melons!

I came across this recipe when I was looking for a side dish for some Mahi Mahi my husband caught back in June. (His fisherman’s tale to come soon.)

I turned to the internet and with just a few seconds came up with this from Epicurous’ website. I love cantaloupe, especially in the summer when smell of the fresh melons catch you when passing them in the market; and there’s nothing better than a juicy sweet watermelon.

You have probably made mango salsa many times and if you have tried a fruit salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips, that should be on your list of easy summer sweet endings to your meal. I’ve never really thought of using watermelon or cantaloupe in a salsa but why not; and I think avocado goes well with any fruit salsas. At first I was going to just try the cantaloupe but I had some beautiful watermelon left from the 4th so I thought the more the merrier and decided to use both the melons in this fruity salsa.

This Salsa makes a great side dish with fish or just about anything you might want to do on the grill. I mentioned fruit salsa above and I think this salsa would also be good with a bowlful of chips, but maybe a salty tortilla chips because who doesn’t salt their melons?

Hope you enjoy this.

July 19, 2014 By Sherry

Salads

Marinated Slaw

A Mamaw recipe.

I have posted plenty of slaw recipes here. Cole Slaw and just Slaw. We’ve had that discussion before about whether something is a cole slaw or just plain old slaw.

Mamaw was my sister’s husband, Gary’s, grandmother. I remember meeting her maybe just once but I have been cooking some of recipes for 45 years now. Wow, that really says something about those old recipes that get passed down in families. The only recipe for Banana Bread that I will ever make is Mamaw’s. I’m not even related to Mamaw’s but I can imagine the dinners she use to cook for all her family.

I think slaws can go with just about any type of meal. I made this Marinated Slaw one night with bar-b-q pork steaks that my husband does; and he does the best ones ever. We have them cut over 1″ thick and he smokes them on the Kamoto Joe Smoker. I did baked sweet potato slices with a rosemary butter drizzled over top, and of course, deviled eggs. We can never have bbq without deviled eggs.

The best thing about this slaw other than the sweet/sour taste and the crunch is the fact that it will last over a month in the refrigerator. Now you don’t have to throw out all those other coleslaw/slaws the next day because they are soggy.

July 14, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Garlic Lime Pork Tenderloin

I’ve made this four times now.

I’m sure you have all prepared pork tenderloin some way. We prefer pork tenderloin over a pork loin roast because it is so juicy and tender and quick to cook.

One of the easiest ways I have prepared it is to cut into about 1 1/2″ pieces, wrap with bacon, marinade and throw on a grill for a quick cook. But after trying this recipe when were in Austin for Thomas’ birth, I don’t think I will ever do pork tenderloin any other way. Since that weekend, I have made this 3 other times.

Cook’s Illustrated gave three versions of the marinade. I have tried two, this one and the orange garlic lime. I like them both and I will give you the orange marinade at the end of this post.

I don’t know if you have ever bought a Cook’s Illustrated magazine but if you haven’t you should. They try and try a recipe until they get it just right and they focus a lot on the techniques of cooking which makes it easier to cook great food with their detailed instructions. The paper copy of the magazine always has black and white sketches of the foods but my digital copy on my iPad starts black and white it it slowly changes to a beautiful colored photograph of the food they have just prepared.

According to CI the shape of the pork tenderloin does have much surface area for browning. Pounding the meat into a flat steaks gives more surfaces for the meat to touch the grill leave more flavor into every bite.

I hope you will try this recipe and if you have a favorite pork tenderloin recipe, please leave in “comment” section at the bottom of the post. That’s below the three little pictures at bottom.

July 9, 2014 By Sherry

Salads

Heirloom Tomato Salad

Happy 4th of July everyone!

I love browsing farmer’s markets and while in Austin or Chicago we always visit their local markets. I have a hard time finding one around me that I feel is a real farmer’s market where they bring in their own foods.

Don’t you just love picking up fresh tomatoes at a farmer’s market or road side stand and smelling them. I do, and there’s nothing better than a tomato you pick from your own vines.

It’s hard to believe there are so many varieties of tomatoes and the colors are almost rainbow like. My favorite tomato would have to be a fried green tomato with a crunchy cornmeal coating. Remember when cherry tomatoes were first around and they were so cute to put in things. Then came the grape tomato that is so sweet you feel like you are eating candy; and now you can find all shapes and colors.

I happened to pick up these little heirloom tomatoes one day at the store and loved being able to eat the green ones along with the other colors and what a pretty salad they made.

This would make a great salad/side dish for any summer get together and I just bet you used some kind of tomato in your 4th side dishes.

July 4, 2014 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Jalapeño Popper Spread

Hot and spicy and good with a cracker or a chip!

We all love looking at Pinterest and the beautiful foods that people post there. Before I was hooked on Pinterest I was hooked on trying to get a picture of a recipe posted at Foodgawker and Tastespotting. I was lucky enough to get 3 out of 80+ (pitiful) posted there. And having a picture posted on Foodgawker or Tastespotting almost guaranteed a blog a lot of traffic from people wanting to find the recipe behind such a beautiful picture. I guess I didn’t take that many “beautiful” pictures. (My husband even has a Pinterest account now.)

Looking at my recipes that were on Foodgawker, Coconut Oatmeal Pie (3,244 view), Salted Caramel Ice Cream (3,983 views) and Quick and Easy Banana Pudding (10,607 views) it seemed like I got more traffic but then I take my old stand by favorite cookie, Peanut Butter Shadow cookies, and it has had 29,416 views. That’s a ridiculous number of view and I really don’t know how that many people found the recipe without knowing the name and searching for “peanut butter shadow cookies“. I’ve had that recipe since the 70’s and has always been my favorite peanut butter cookie.

Long story short is I finally realized that I don’t have to keep trying to get my pictures posted at those two sites when I can simply “pin it” at Pinterest and eventually a lot of people get around to looking at it. Now if I can just figure out how to make money on the blog, then I’d be satisfied but until I do, it’s fun to make and blog new recipes.

I gave up also on trying to make a Jalapeño Popper like you get in restaurants. Never could figure out how to get the breading to stick to the outside for a fresh jalapeño. This recipe for Jalapeño Popper Spread literally popped off the page the day I was looking at Pinterest. It reminds me of a cold dip that a friend always finds at Sam’s around the holidays. Sam’s is kind of a cold version of this recipe but with some artichokes thrown in; so I did a little changing around of some of the ingredients and thank you to All Recipes for giving me the start of something wonderful and lip smacking good.

June 29, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Pork Belly Taco

Ok, ok, enough with the pork belly.

You all are probably sick to death of hearing about pork belly. For years I have talked about things I have had in restaurants made with the delicious meat and the sandwiches and items I have seen on menus while visiting in Chicago.

I finally got around to making the Braised Pork Belly and then made several other items using the meat. I think this is the last of the pork belly recipes (at least for a while, or I may run you all off; oh, I forgot I did an Eggs Benedict Scramble with pork belly I will probably save until the Fall).

Take a look at Big Star’s menu. They use roasted pork, the pork belly, roasted chicken and tilapia, potatoes and chihuahua cheese in a lot of their dishes. All their menu items are so different from all the Tex-Mex we find here in Texas hence the reason I’m always talking about their menu. Read their “about” section of how they got started — interesting.

Who doesn’t like tacos of any kind? Typically, I’m going to want a crispy shell that falls apart with your first bite and dribbles sauce and lettuce/tomato all over your once clean top; but this time I’m using some homemade corn tortillas (not by me but by someone making fresh corn/flour tortillas in the grocery)

This is a pretty simple straight forward taco — a corn tortilla shells, crispy pork belly pieces that you crisp up from the braised pork belly you made, lots of crumbled queso fresco, cilantro, some chopped sweet onion and some green sauce. Since I didn’t want to come up with their recipe for their sauce, I simply bought a jar of sauce called “That Green Sauce”. It’s made with jalapeños, poblanos, green tomatoes and a bunch of ingredients I can’t pronounce. So any green (or red) sauce will work fine.

June 24, 2014 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Spicy Honey Glazed Chicken Thighs

Boneless delight!

Looking for something different to throw on the grill. This recipe can be cooked inside or outside. I think this would also be good served at room temperature for any summer gathering.

Normally I always say anything cooked with a bone is better than boneless. For this recipe I had bone-in, skin on chicken thighs in the freezer and didn’t have time to bone them (or I didn’t want to). Nutmeg Nanny (where I got this recipe) used boneless skinless chicken. Now for this recipe I totally agree with her. You want the spices to soak into the chicken and not lose the spiciness when you pull of the skin (that’s if you don’t eat the skin).

When doing this recipe again, I will double the spices, buy boneless thighs, and remove the skin. I used all the juices that flowed from the cooking of the thighs and poured that over the plated chicken like a sauce.

Doing this chicken boneless also speeds up the cooking time. So when you are in a pinch for time, give this a try.

I normally change up recipe but this one sounded so easy I wanted to make it as stated the first time. Now that I’ve made it I really wouldn’t change anything about the recipe.

June 19, 2014 By Sherry

Food Stories/ Salads

Sweet Corn Salad with Buttermilk Dressing

And the corn is raw.

I subscribe to a lot of blogs and occasionally come across a recipe that I can’t wait to try but this recipe had to wait until those sweet ears of corn made their appearance at the summer farmer’s markets. Then I would know they were fresh picked.

When we were traveling by car to Chicago last summer we saw fields of corn along the way. Seeing row after row of corn always bring back memories of living in Iowa and the corn festivals where you knew you were going to get the best, sweetest, corn on earth. These road trips to Chicago, seeing masses of yellow ears always makes me want to jump out and grab a few, but, of course, I never do. I can’t run that fast.

As we are already several weeks into summer and looking for those great side dishes to go with your grilled meats, lets don’t forget about all that sweet fresh corn that is starting to show up in our produce sections. Corn dishes make a great side dish with any summer meal whether it is served hot, cold or room temperature.

It’s funny how recipe evolve into newer, healthier versions of what we use to prepare or just a version of something you imagined in your head. I have always wanted to try a raw corn salad so what better recipe to use to try it out on. Food52 suggest passing the dressing but I opted to stir some of the dressing into the salad. You can see the picture below with the buttermilk dressing perched on top. I don’t think it blends as well with the salad and besides then you have to stir it once it’s on your plate. We did pass extra dressing incase someone wanted more.

June 14, 2014 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp/ Side dish

Cheesy Mashed Potato Pancakes

These are fantastic!

Why is it that when we are served something made by a man that it taste so special? I don’t mean a male chef but someone in your family. My son Paul is a wonderful chef and I know anything he serves me will be wonderful and most likely something he grew in his garden or even eggs from his chickens. My son, Scott makes the best “24 hour no knead bread” and you would think it came from some artisinal bakery.

When we were in Austin a while back staying with my daughter and her husband after the birth of little Thomas I did a lot of cooking. But, one night Toby (new dad) had some left over garlic mashed potatoes that he had made over the weekend and he turned them into the most delicious potato pancakes. We sitting and watching the baby and he presented us each with a plate with one large potato pancake with a dollop of sour cream; crisp to perfection; and one night I was doing a Tortilla soup and he prepped the extra vegetables and I have to say they were a perfect 1/4″ dice. I could not have done better myself.

I remember my mother and grandmother both making potato pancakes but they never tasted like these pancakes. Maybe it was the roasted garlic or the green onions, or the cheese that make them so mouth watering good. He fried them just right; crisp on the outside, soft and smooth on the inside; and the best part of all was the dollop of sour cream on the side. There was just something about the hot crispy potato pancake with the cold sour cream that had me thinking when I was going to make them for someone.

Our friends Peggy and Gordon were getting ready to go to Hawaii to celebrate their 30th anniversary and we had them over for dinner one Sunday night. I served these just as my son-in-law did, on a small plate with a big dollop of sour cream on the side sprinkled with some freshly snipped chives. The rest of the meal was a grilled pork tenderloin steak which I will be posting soon and some baby bok choy and also a “raw” corn salad.

This recipe came from justataste.com blog. A note about frying them — I fried about 30 minutes in advance and put on cooling rack and put in oven. I should have fried after they arrived and served them right from the skillet. Mine got a little soft but were still delicious, just not as delicious as Toby’s.

June 9, 2014 By Sherry

Cake/ Dessert

Lemon Raspberry Pound Cake

Lemony, raspberry pound cake; what more could you want?

As I have said before, a rainy day is one of my favorite days. The day I made this cake it had been raining for two days and I still wasn’t tired of seeing the stuff come down. I love the long thundering sounds that accompany the rain. So what should one do on a rainy day but bake!

This cake recipe is a recipe of my nephew’s wife. Now is she my nephew’s wife or is she my niece-in-law; I just call her Julie and be done with it. In my searching the internet on the proper title I did find out that my nephew’s daughter, Statyn, is my niece once removed. I have always wanted to know what once removed meant; now I know.

My sister has been talking about this pound cake for a few years now and I had it in my head it was a lemon pound cake — wrong. By the time I realized it wasn’t I already knew I was making a lemon raspberry pound cake. So if you want to make her original pound cake, just leave out the lemon zest, juice and raspberries and you have Julie’s Pound Cake recipe.

For the last year when I’ve made something new that I knew would be dangerous to leave around the house I have been taking it to craft circle on Tuesday mornings. This particular morning the cake was gone before the lunch break. Guess someone enjoyed it. Of course I had to sneak a piece before I took it so I could get a couple of pictures.

Continue Reading…

June 5, 2014 By Sherry

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