Sherry – Rosemary and the Goat

Smoked Sausage with Roasted Vegetables

Lots of veggies in this dish!

One day I was thinking of my mother’s backbone or country style ribs with kraut and next thing I knew I had the idea of baking smoked sausage and instead of using kraut use cabbage and then as I dove deeper, getting lost in the internet, I came across a couple of sites that had sheet pan dinners and one that caught my eye was from Chelsea’s Messy Apron blog. I did change a few things when I added some of our garden ripe tomatoes and some purple kale to go along with the cabbage, carrots, onions and the Kielbasa sausage.

Back to my mother’s kraut and ribs. I’m sure all of you can envision certain things your mother (or dads) made and I think my memories or best when it comes to food. I can smell her kraut, ribs, mashed potatoes just thinking about them. And, I knew the cornbread going with that dinner was going to be the best cornbread I ever ate. I can think about foods we have on trips or dinner parties and all those menus trigger things about the trip/restaurant/dinners that I might not remember otherwise. I can tell you almost every restaurant we have eaten at on trips because I journal them and if it is from a restaurant, I guarantee you that I will try to get the recipe from the chef and several times I’ve succeeded. Continue Reading…

July 1, 2025 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Pork/ Poultry

Chicken Pad Thai

Fresh, spicy and somewhat easy!

I’ve been making Asian dishes since I’ve been married (56 years this August). Early marriage I made lo mein, chow mein (which is American recipe), Chop Suey (Chinese), Somasos (Indian), and Sushi (Japanese). I’m sure there are many others I have forgotten about.

Back when we were dating in high school, GA asked me to dinner at his house. His mother had made chicken chow mein, which I had never eaten before, and it was delicious. To this day everytime I make chow mein, I think of that dinner at his house and him filling my plate and saying “you are really going to like this”. I don’t know why she served rye bread, with butter, with the chow mein BUT I can’t have chow mein without having a loaf of rye bread and some really soft butter.

I made a few changes in this recipe I found somewhere on the internet (I can’t find exact site even though I printed off). Anyway, I had lo mein noodles (the long flat kind, not ramen, recipe called for rice noodles), I had bought ground chicken for another recipe and decided to use that instead of chicken breast. (See note if you want to use breast or thigh meat). The recipe called for 1/4 cup of brown sugar which we though a little sweet; next time I would use two tablespoons.

June 18, 2025 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Rainbow Cauliflower Salad

Cool salad for a hot summer day.

Life in a small town has really been nice. We moved to Round Top five years ago and I know some wonder what is there to do in a town of 87. Well there is mahjong twice a week; once at local library in the Rummel Haus (built in 1872), once at Busted Oak Cellars and sometimes a third time at our son and daughter-in-laws brewery (Round Top Brewing). There’s coffee shop with the ladies on Thursday mornings, RT Lunch Bunch, Sister Squad (out to lunch), and Herb Society of America. Throwing tea parties (Round Top Tea Time) is also something I like to host. We have the Fall and Spring Antique shows and a Winter and Summer one as well. Last year was our first Round Top Film Festival. Can’t forget the wine walk, art walks, chili cook-off and a lot of fundraisers.

There’s still time to jump in the pool to cool off before deciding what to do for dinner. I don’t really jump in but it’s a nice place to do some “cool” exercises.

When the temperatures start to get above 90° here in Texas I start looking for recipes that are easy and this salad is not only easy but beautiful. Papa G is always eager to throw something on the grill and I usually come up with the “extras”.

June 10, 2025 By Sherry

Appetizers/ Beef/ Beef/Veal/ Desserts/ Fish/Seafood/ Game/ Lamb/ Legumes/ Pork/ Poultry/ Salads/ Soup

Michie’s Family Feast

The history of our Michie Feast!

In case you aren’t familiar with my blog or our family who loves to cook, this post will show you a little of how it all started — our love for food and family. So take a minute to look at one or two of our “family feast” dinners and if you get a chance look under “stories” for some “it’s not always about the food” stories/dinners.

So, our Michie feast started one Thanksgiving (before all the grandsons (6) ). This was the first year my husband started frying our turkeys. After buying something like 3 gallon of oil, we wanted to use that oil again before the kids all went back home.

Our first Michie Feast would have, of course, been a fish fry with my dads famous hushpuppies (see blog for recipe). Then the next family feast came the oysters (fried, smoked, Rockafellow, and raw of course). After that it didn’t matter that we had all that oil to find a use for; we just wanted to make a special meal together where everyone cooked a dish, presented it to the group (whoever was in town for Thanksgiving), pairing it with wine/cocktail of their choice. Friends of ours would be there every other year and occasionally one of the kids brought some extra guests.

June 3, 2025 By Sherry

Pasta/ Salads

Summertime Spaghetti Salad

Are you ready for a easy summertime salad?

This spaghetti salad is one of the easiest salads you can throw together on a hot summer day for a backyard bbq, pool party, lunch, or dinner with added protein (or not).

I made this salad decades ago when I catered in The Woodlands and I just rediscovered the recipe and took to our Round Top Lunch Bunch today. Several people ask for the recipe and since I always take pictures of food I make incase I want to blog it, here’s the recipe for anyone who use to make it and forgot how nice of a salad it is or someone just tasting it for the first time.

I was surprised McCormick still made their Salad Supreme seasoning and our local HEB carried it. You can add just about anything to this salad. I had spaghetti which I broke in half. Next time I would probably break the pasta into thirds. My add-ins were black olives, roma tomatoes, broccoli, the little miniature peppers that are different colors, sunflower seeds, red onion, cucumber and julienned carrots. If you don’t like cucumber zucchini is a good substitute. I’ve also used yellow squash and I think a good crumble of feta cheese would be great or some parmesan.

April 28, 2025 By Sherry

Morning Foods/ Salads

Melon Salad with Goat Cheese and Lime Mint Salad

Brunch or lunch, delicious!

The past three weekends the Round Top Antique Show has been going on and we’ve had company three times. I made this salad twice during that time and liked it better each time I made it.

Life has kind of gotten in the way of me posting lately. Back in the Fall I started playing mahjong and now play twice a week and have withdrawal if I don’t play. I’ve learned to play by myself for practice so that helps until I can play again.

When we first moved to Round Top almost 5 years ago it was hard to imagine what our lives would be like. RT is the smallest town we have ever lived in with population of 87. I knew my HUB (aka Papa G around the brewery) would be smokin’ meat but after our house was finished and I was no longer in the kitchen helping Paul then I started getting involved with all these other activities that were available for me to get involved in like RT Lunch Bunch, Coffee Shop morning, Herb Society once a month which also has a culinary group I attend, mahjong at Busted Oak Cellars and again at RT Family Library and then all the events that pop up throughout the year definitely keeps us as busy as we want to be.

April 4, 2025 By Sherry

Pork/ Side dish

Crispy Rice Salad with Pork Belly

Another “saved” Instagram recipe!

How many “saved” recipes do you have on either Instagram or Pinterest? I have hundreds. I’ve probably tried more from Pinterest than Instagram. This Crispy Rice Salad was sent to me by my daughter and it sounded so good I had to give it a try AND with only a few additions.

I just happened to have some English cucumber, and frozen edamame in the refrigerator/freezer and had leftover rice from making some chicken chow mein the night before so why not make this for dinner tonight because with a UT football game on my HUB wasn’t going anywhere.

My additions were to add some crispy pork belly to top to go with the crispy rice. The pork belly came from Trader Joes and even though it is around $6 for a small 12 oz. package, it was already cooked so I just had to cube it and brown in a skillet. This recipe was posted as a salad but I didn’t want to make a main dish so the pork belly saved the day. I also added some sliced avocado to the finished bowl of crispy/crunchy goodness and a little squeeze of lime never hurt anything.

February 1, 2025 By Sherry

Beef/ Beef/Veal/ Pasta/ Pork

Mazetti AKA Johnny Marzetti

This recipe bring back memories of my adventure into cooking.

One of the first things I was looking for in our new home, (fast forward to 2024) was a special place to put all my cookbooks. The day I wanted to make some choux puffs (cream puff shells) to use for a tea sandwich I knew where to look; not on the internet but the same book I have gone back to for almost 55 years for making cream puffs or a savory shell to use for a tea party and that was my Good Housekeeping cookbook.

Now, the book. Upon opening it, I thought I would start sneezing, and I did. Not only had it been in storage for 4 years, it has been around my house for 55 so it has a really musty smell. There are so many recipes I want to revisit and try to update from this book and the Mazetti (aka Marietta) recipe is one of them. The GH version calls for canned tomato soup and that is something I never liked anyway so this version is a little old and a little new and perfect for a weekend dinner for the family.

December 21, 2024 By Sherry

Fish/Seafood/ Soup

My Favorite Gumbo

What more is there to say than — GUMBO

I did not grow up eating gumbo. In fact, the only gumbo I ever heard of was Campbell’s Chicken GUMBO soup that my mother used to make her Sloppy Joes. (recipe)

There are so many different kinds of gumbo with different ingredients and ways of preparing it. I like a really dark roux which I make in the microwave. Some use a lighter roux. Some use tomatoes (I do) which is creole version and no tomatoes would be cajun recipes. I love okra in my gumbo and I still use a little file powder at the end of cooking.

Do you put your rice on top or on the bottom? I personally like a shallow pasta type bowl with the rice in the middle and ladle the hot steaming gumbo around the rice. Do you like cornbread (me)? Or, do you like French bread? If it were homemade French bread I’d go for that but not the soft tasteless French breads from the grocery. I don’t think you can beat a good cornbread.

November 20, 2024 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Smoked Ham with Spiced Apricot Glaze

So delicious you will not want to wait until Easter to make it.

I have to give all the credit of this recipe to my husband, (Papa G, GA, or papagsmokinroundtop (instagram). He has honed his bar-b-quing skills since he was a teenager and he watched my dad bbq. Along the way of our 55 years of marriage he has picked up many skills in the culinary world.

Growing up, and that has taken a very long time, we always had ham for Easter dinner (or lunch). The ham was always baked the same way. My mother would cut criss crosses in the fat of ham and insert whole cloves and then toothpick pineapple slices all over the ham. The glaze was pineapple juice mixed with brown sugar and some mustard. Always delicious not matter who made it for Easter. And, of course we had to have deviled eggs and usually potato salad and I knew just about anything my mother made would be delicious.

October 19, 2024 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Pasta

Chili Crisp Shrimp Scampi

Another pasta dish for the cooler months to come.

Nothing says you can’t eat pasta in hot weather but this was such a homey dish that I started thinking of the cooler days to come. I think this dish would also be great served cold or even room temperature. It would be great to have it made and in the refrigerator and just pull it out a couple of hours before you are ready for dinner.

So one morning when I’m sitting at my computer planning some upcoming menus which I have done for the last 55 years of married life and I received the link to this recipe from our son Scott (Chicago) and after reading through the recipe I had everything need to make it for dinner that night. I was at the bottom of my chili crisp jar but had just enough to make this dish.

October 4, 2024 By Sherry

Bread

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Focaccia

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme…a true love of mine.

Simon and Garfunkel had it right with these herbs. I have no idea why they used this in a song (read here for the symbolism of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme) but these are my favorite combinations of herbs. In fact, I use to work for a catering company in Kansas City while in culinary school and the chefs there use to make a beef tenderloin or prime rib and they would tie parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme to the meat. So, years later if I want to remember what herbs they used all I have to do is think of Simon and Garfunkel’s song.

I have made focaccia bread for years; mostly for catering jobs I use to do years ago. I loved it because I could make in advance, cut, freeze and then take it out and use to make sandwiches. I’ve made a fougasse a few years ago and think it is similar to focaccia. Maybe it is just the shape that makes fougasse what it is — leaf shaped bread.

September 30, 2024 By Sherry

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