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Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Parsley Fingerling Potatoes

How about an all vegetable dinner?

My kids were never big vegetable fans; fried okra, mashed potatoes, green beans were about the only vegetables they would touch. Potatoes were on the table for many dinners; whether they were French fries, American pan fries, mashed, baked, or these stewed potatoes (I made this recipe with fingerling potatoes); I knew they would be eaten.

How things have changed now that they have families of their own. They love (one son) growing their own vegetables, shopping the farmer’s markets for the freshest of everything and even joining a vegetable co-op (Johnson’s Backyard Gardens) where a basket of fresh vegetables is delivered to your doorstep once a month. In the last few years I have added new vegetables like baby bok choy, Swiss chard, and kale to my vegetable repertoire. I’m sure there are a few vegetables out there I have never tried and  I am game to try anything new.

I have mentioned in a previous post how my mother use to make what we called stewed potatoes and how she would add the last bits of cornbread batter clinging from the mixing bowl to the potato liquid of cooked cubed potatoes. This would thicken the water and make almost a sauce like liquid around the potatoes. Add a little parsley, butter and salt and pepper and yum, yum, yum.

I decided to have a meatless meal (which we don’t do often) after finding all these other veggies in my refrigerator. So, how does cooked Yellow Squash and Friends, red chard with pine nuts and these cute little fingerling potatoes sound to you? (Those other recipes coming soon.)

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Side dish

Yellow Squash & Friends

Summer is over but summer squash is still around.

I love yellow squash but my husband is not a fan of that little crooked yellow vegetable. Even though he voices his opinion about certain things I may be experimenting with, he’s a really good sport about trying everything I make.

I was a our farmer’s market a few weeks ago. I am disappointed that I missed this market all summer long, but at least I got there before it was gone for the year and bought some wonderful looking yellow squash, some beautiful okra (no brown spots at all) and some artisan bread. Don’t know why I bought the bread because I love bread baking and this bread was pretty hard by the next day and met an untimely death — trashed.

As usual, I started searching the Internet for squash recipes and came up with some great ideas. This dish has a lot of friends joining the recipe. I still had some of the okra left over after using some in my Confetti Maux Choux and had some of those great little sweet grape tomatoes an some mini bell peppers so I decided to do a really quick, hot saute of vegetables, top with some Panko bread crumbs and a little cheese and finish in the oven for a quick melt/brown.

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Side dish

Stephanie’s Magic Beans

These beans must have come from Jack’s beanstalk.

So, we were visiting Chicago and our newest grandson a few months ago.  I have mentioned before what wonderful restaurants there are in the city. We have been trying to get reservations at The Girl and the Goat for almost a year now. Every time we are there, I call only to find out that there are no tables available.

The Girl and the Goat is owned by Stephanie Izard, Top Chef winner of Fourth Season. She now has her own restaurant. To make a long story short when I was googling around, I found everyone mentioning her Magic Beans that are served in the restaurant. Lo and behold there’s a recipe staring me in the face from Rosie O’Donnell’s show and there is Stephanie, in person, looking at me and asking me personally to come to her restaurant; and I’m thinking “if you want me there, why can I never get a table”. Well, it wasn’t quite like that but she was making the recipe for her magic green beans with an aioli drizzled over the top.

So what am I to do but rush out to the nearest store, get all the ingredients and make them for dinner to go with our steel-head trout — I did and they were just as wonderful as everyone said. I don’t think my green beans were as fresh as they could have been and the next time I would use haricot vert (tiny French green beans) or at least make sure my green beans were as fresh as they could possibly be.

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Entree/ Sandwiches

English Muffin BLT Sandwich

BLT with a Twist on a homemade English muffin.

(I had second knee replacement done on Monday, 1st. and before that I was busy trying to get some things made while I’m recouping on the couch/bed. Hope you enjoy the things coming up in the next few weeks. See below for what’s coming.)

I love making bread and I have made everything from naan to French bread, but have never made an English muffin. So, when I was thinking about making this sandwich, I thought, why not make the English muffins from scratch.  I think they were a success and hope you will try them soon.

The days of pbj’s and grilled cheeses have long been gone from our house and we don’t often eat sandwiches unless of course they are pulled pork sandwiches, which I do have to repeat, for the gazillionth time, my husband makes the best.

I do on occasion have to omit that I crave a bologna sandwich with either mustard or mayo and a pile of potato chips crushed into the sandwich (that is the way my sister likes to make a sandwich — and it does add a nice crunch) or a liver cheese or brunsweigher sandwich on white bread and mustard. I know those are probably two of the worst kinds of lunch meat and bread available to mankind but what can I say, I like them AND it isn’t a sandwich that I would eat often. Just don’t tell me I can never have one.

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Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Salads

Tomato Crab Amuse Bouche

Amuse your guest with this crab salad

When I made crab cakes recently I decided to save some crab and the next day I made this delicious crab salad. What I did with the salad was make a cute little amuse bouche. Last year on several occasions I bought crab and was so disappointed with my finished recipe I did not think I would ever buy it again. I’m glad I did and I just love this little stuffed tomato.

A while back I was looking at a catering magazine and saw a little stuffed tomato that someone made and it was stuffed with some type of risotto. There was no recipe so I had to come up with my own version of what to fill the tomato with. What I really like about the look of this appetizer is that the tomato is blanched and peeled. I used campari tomatoes, blanched for about 3-4 seconds and then plunged into ice water and then slipped the peeling off. The crab salad was a perfect light filling. This little blanched, peeled tomato would make the perfect vessel for any type of salad you may want to put in it, just put up something at the market for a filling and you have a gorgeous appetizer.

This may have to be a knife and fork appetizer but would make a good first course to any meal if made bigger. I added a grilled shrimp to the top of each. In fact, I cut the shrimp in half because it was too big for the tomato.

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Side dish/ Vegetables

Asparagus Squared

Asparagus Salad Squared and I’m not even good at math.

I watch a lot of tv I have to admit, but most of it is food related shows (almost). I perched myself in front of the TV nursing sore knees while in Chicago a few months ago (before knee surgery). We were watching “Check Please” on PBS where they have three people on a panel and they recommend their favorite restaurants; and then the others on the panel go to the restaurant and check it out themselves. Now that is a job I could do and not even get paid to do it.

So, this one guest’s restaurant was the Pasta D’Arte. I’m not even sure what this group of people sampled from the restaurant but after looking at the restaurant’s website I found a salad that was so interesting looking I just had to try and make it. Only thing is that you really need small asparagus because each salad takes 8 spears and that’s a lot of asparagus for anyone to eat even if you love asparagus.

I’m probably the only person alive that likes canned asparagus. Of course, I would take fresh over canned anytime but there’s just something about the soft mushy asparagus that comes in a can that makes me think of a cheesy asparagus casserole my sister and I use to make when we were both newly weds. But, this recipe would only look beautiful made with fresh thin asparagus.

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Side dish

Confetti Maux Choux

Beautiful confetti colors.

Love the okra in this dish.

When it comes to corn my mother’s was always the best. We had fried corn which some might call cream style corn but it was nothing like the canned variety of sweet, runny corn that you might buy to put in a Mexican corn bread recipe and our corn certainly was not sweet.

I never care for some of the corn you buy in the store that is called super sweet. Who wants corn that taste like dessert. I want corn that taste like what I grew up on. Our fried corn always started with big ears of field corn and we would barely cut off the tops of the corn with a knife and then use the blade to scrape down the cob releasing all the milky creaminess that was left behind on the cob, all the while splattering all over yor hands and the counter. It was well worth the mess because after frying up a few pieces of bacon the corn would be added to the fat in the skillet (cast iron of course) and cooked until it was reduced to a thick corn dish which only needed a little salt and pepper.

Several years ago a neighbor of mine was sitting out in her front yard shucking corn. I asked her what she was making with so much corn and she replied Maux Choux and when she described the technique I knew it sound like like our Southern fried corn but with a Louisiana twist. I have been wanting to try Maux Choux for years but just never got around to it.

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Appetizers/ ColdApp

Pickled Shrimp in a Jar

Another recipe for a jar.

Have you ever been in a pickle for something to put out at a party or what to take to someones’s house when they say bring one of your favorite appetizers. Are you always looking for something other than a piece of cheese to put on a cracker like I am.

Have you had pickle thoughts, or looked at someone with a sour face and thought he must have been weaned on a pickle, or ever thought pickles are cucumbers that sold out because they were tired of laying around with nothing else to do. Or, if you are like me, I want to find some other things to pickle than that long green cucumber that makes the most yummy cucumber spread for sandwiches. Why ruin it pickling it.

Over the years I have pickled okra, yellow squash, beets, cucumbers, pickled vegetables and even slaw but I have never pickled a shrimp before so I’m really hoping this is going to become a favorite — a little recipe you can throw together in the morning, put it in some cute jars, buy some fancy crackers and pack it up and take it to a party and sit back and watch everyone enjoy themselves.

As usual I started looking at one recipe and ended up with three recipes with what I thought were pretty interesting spices for the shrimp so they all merged into this Pickled Shrimp in a Jar.

We we out on the lake recently with some friends who have a pontoon boat.  We always go out around 5:00 in the evening, find a little cove, throw out some noodles and get in the water and float for an hour or so all the time sipping on some wine or beer. We all always bring food to eat and my husband had made a smoked brisket and we had a wonderful corn dish and some yummy ramen slaw. I had made this jar of shrimp early in the day and we pulled it out for a nice little appetizer to snack on while Hub sliced up the brisket. It was great.

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Dessert/ Ice Cream

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Peanut Butter and Chocolate, what a combination!

Look over your shoulder.  What do you see?  I see summer gone in a flash. Where did it go? My knee rehab took most of my summer hours. I really missed getting in the pool for about 8 weeks and by the time I could get in the pool I was doing knee exercises. Now, I have to say that is not the way I want to enjoy the summer and the pool.

My idea of pool time is floating on a noodle or chair with a glass of wine in hand. Except what I was actually drinking when I did finally get in the pool was glass after glass of Pau d’arco tea that was suppose to be cleansing glands etc. and reducing swelling in the knee. I don’t know how anything made from the inner bark of a tree from South America could be the least bit refreshing. Well, I can just dream of next summer, a float, some wine or margaritas and maybe on a beach instead of a pool.

I seem to post most of my ice cream recipes in the summer and since I did make this a few weeks ago I want to post it even though fall is here and everyone is probably thinking of apple and pumpkin pie. It’s never the wrong time of the year to make ice cream.

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Salads

Chicken Salad Avocado Boats

I love anything stuffed into an avocado.

Over my 20 years of catering I have made so many types of chicken salad. One of my favorites (I lifted from a tea room and then made better by smoking my own chicken rather than using deli turkey) is a smoked chicken salad that has fresh spinach leaves chopped up and hard boiled eggs along with mayo and chicken that I smoked on the smoker. You would not believe what difference the chicken makes in this salad when it is smoked.

I have done chicken salads with grapes, oranges, some have an Asian flair (which are some of my favorites). Some of my recipes have melted butter and curry added to the dressings, and some even have fried chicken skin as a garnish. I really need to pick out some of my favorites and post them.

It’s nice to have some left over chicken from dinner that you can turn into a whole NEW meal the next day. We are not huge leftover fans in this house. If I freeze leftovers then I can pull out later for a meal; but to eat the same thing later in the week has never gone over that well with us.

What makes the chicken in this recipe so special is that one night my husband cooked a chicken on our rotisserie grill. He picked some fresh herbs out of our herb garden and used some dried ones also. He stuffed them inside the chicken and oiled and rubbed some of the herbs along with a little sugar on the outside and produced a crispy skinned chicken with a tiny bit of sweetness to go along with all the other seasonings. He is turning out to be quite a good cook. My dad would be so proud of his grilling techniques. They use to always compare notes when it came to cooking things on the grill.

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Entree/ Poultry

Chicken Fingers from Mitzi’s

Who doesn’t love chicken fingers and with a dipping sauce –  just incredible.

So you want to know who Mitzi is. Well I have no idea but I came across a recipe in Saveur magazine not long ago and it was from Mitzi’s Restaurant in Winnipeg, Canada. Now I might just have to go up there sometime and try these in person.

Don’t you just love it when a restaurant has a favorite menu item that all the locals and visiting tourist rave about and then they ACTUALLY share that recipe. I can’t say I was into sharing recipes when I catered because I really didn’t want anyone being able to make some of the things I did for parties. BUT, I have a new lease on things and that is, why not share them and then people may pass my blog on to other friends and family members .

Mitzi’s is a 33 year old Chinese restaurant and I read that they added the chicken fingers to the menu in 1988 for the kids. Do you remember the chicken nuggets we use to buy for our kids. I’ve seen dinosaurs shaped, stars, teddy bears, and even one nugget shaped liked George Washington that went for $8,100 in an auction (came from a McDonald’s). I don’t know about you but anything that has a shape to it must have all kinds of stuff in it that we do not want to eat. I would bet any chicken fingers on a menu is going to be made of whole chicken and no fillers or anything in there that we can’t pronounce. I really don’t think that can be said for any “nuggets” on the market.

If you want to recreate the excitement of eating a chicken nugget or fingers or even want a good finger licking piece of chicken, try this recipe and then thank Mitzi’s for sharing it.

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Salads/ Side dish/ Vegetables

Potato and Green Bean Salad

No mayonnaise in this potato salad.

What would a picnic be without some type of potato salad. It’s a given we will probably have some ants, flies, and a few mosquitoes; and I’m just as sure that there will be someone bringing potato salad. I mean, who doesn’t like the creamy stuff and this would would be great for a Labor Day cookout.

I’m sure everyone has had their favorite potato salad recipe that they have prepared for years. Seems like you never go to a backyard bbq that there does appear at least 2 varieties of potato salad and most of which will probably have mayonnaise as one of the main ingredients.

I love this recipe because it actually has a good healthy green vegetable in it — green beans; and along with a few other ingredients this is a very light tasting cousin of the old traditional mayonnaise/mustard based potato dish.

The next time I make this dish I plan on baking some potatoes scooping out the pulp and then filling the shell with this potato salad. I think it will look so cool that the potato salad has it’s own little container.

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