Sherry – Rosemary and the Goat

Field Pea Salad with Tomatoes and Feta

Love those field peas!

How time flies. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted anything and that is because I’ve been baking/cooking at our son and DIL’s Lollitop Sweet Shop and now opened Round Top Brewing. I usually go in Thursday-Sunday and bake at sweet shop and help with breakfast tacos/biscuit sandwiches etc and when done walk a few steps and UP 20 steps to upstairs kitchen at the brewery. Both or fun but I have to say the “food” part of the brewery is my favorite. It’s nice to work with Paul on his ideas and creations and I do not mind one bit taking directions from him and doing things his way.

I’m always looking for new salad or cold side dishes to prepare because it takes the pressure off of having everything hot and ready to go at dinner time.

November 17, 2021 By Sherry

Side dish

Creamed Red Potatoes with Snap Peas

Don’t you just love the crispness of a sugar snap pea?

(Note on what I’ve been doing instead of posting here–Baking at Lollitop Sweet shop four days a week and the kids Round Top Brewing just opened the first day of Round Top’s Fall Antique Show. So 10-12 hour days of baking and cooking for other to enjoy. Fun to do but too tired to cook my own food. Now that the show is over, time to get back to cooking up some new recipes.)

Here’s another recipe from Southern Living magazine I received a few months ago with a twist or two. When I first saw this recipe I thought it was going to be like my mother’s “Shooked Potatoes” that she use to make. But a closer look and I realized that these had a cream sauce. I just posted a potato and turnip dish but with Fall here (It’s about time!) I’m always thinking of different ways to prepare potatoes.

There was a package of very fresh sugar snap peas in my refrigerator and I knew these potatoes needed a little freshening up so after blanching the peas a minute or two and then plunging the cute little things in an ice bath they were the last addition to the potatoes and cream sauce. Oh, I almost forgot – I also added 1/4″ parmesan cheese to the cream cheese and some really nice black sea salt to dress them up before serving.

November 2, 2021 By Sherry

Side dish

Potatoes and Turnip Au Gratin

Potatoes with what you say !

Can’t say I have always loved turnips; my taste has changed over the years (decades) since I was a kid and would ask my mother or grandmother what the smelly stuff was cooking away on the stove.

I’ve done some different things with a turnip other than cooking them. Take a look at my Turnip Rose garnish I use to make as a platter garnish for parties I would cater. ( I love playing around with vegetables.) I would say it takes me less than 10 minutes to make one. I love cooked turnips but my hub does not but he liked this dish. Who wouldn’t with a cheesy sauce and browned to perfection. Mix just about anything with potatoes and you have a delicious side dish.

October 11, 2021 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork/ Salads

Grilled Pork and Peach Salad

Southern Living recipe with some tweaking.

I have always loved Southern Living’s recipes. Back in the 70’s I submitted and had accepted about 5 recipes for the SL magazine. For having a recipe published in the magazine I received the yearly annual SL cookbook and also 50 recipe cards with “my recipe that appeared in SL magazine”. I actually still have a few of those cards somewhere in boxes in storage.

When I first saw this recipe and made it I could still buy good “cling free” peaches. This salad would be just as delicious for a Fall dinner using roasted apples. Pork and apples make the perfect combo.

The recipe begged (I think) for some charred corn and definitely some avocado. Wished I’d had some cilantro and I would have given it a good sprinkling. The bread slices are so crusty and oily and when it mixes with the greens and pork make for the perfect bite of food.

September 18, 2021 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Crab and Shrimp Endive Appetizer

Cool appetizer for these hot summer days.

I always thought of Fall starting when school starts back. I remember when we (twin and I and I’m always saying WE instead of me or I) couldn’t wait to get a package from our local JC Penney’s, Sears, or Montgomery Wards catalog department with a new dress. Yes, we actually wore dresses back then and seems like the ones I remember that came in those little brown packages were plaids and then maybe madras and then paisley prints.

Well, fall doesn’t officially start until September 22 so I still have time to get another summery appetizer in before I start thinking of heartier things to make and serve with my cocktails.

September 12, 2021 By Sherry

Side dish

Mashed Potatoes with Mushrooms

Who doesn’t like a good mashed potato dish?

Ok, I’m back in my cooking mode and even though we still are eating out 2-3 times a week, I’ve decided to get back to doing what I have loved doing all my married life, (52 years) and that is cooking and trying new recipes.

I remember as a new bride (and this is way before it’s time) ordering computerized menu plans with recipes and preparing some good and some not so good. I have to say the worst was a Tuna Noodle Rosey; to this day I cannot stand hot tuna casserole type dishes. Another thing I did back in the early 70’s was to order my groceries over the phone using a catalog and talking to “Rosie the robot”, or that was what she sounded like. The groceries were delivered and for an extra charge they would even put them away. I never took advantage of that service since all I had to do was take care of a baby.

August 31, 2021 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Roasted Brussel Sprouts Green Beans and Dates

Vegetables with dates? Yum!

Since moving to Round Top in July 2020 I have not been cooking as much as I use to and I guess that’s because I’m baking at Lollitop Sweet Shop (Paul and Brooke’s place) four days a week. There aren’t a lot of places to eat around here especially on Monday-Wednesday and one would think I would be cooking more at home, but I’m not.

I’ve always enjoyed cooking my own meals and having friends over for dinner more than going out to eat. Recently (and this is the second time I have tried this service) I joined Martha Stewart and Marley Spoon’s meal boxes or whatever those plans are called where they send you all the food and you cook it. Maybe those are meant for people who don’t want to shop for their groceries or don’t have access to a big grocery market. Well, that would be me, (now) but this service lasted three weeks before I cancelled. I would have to say I wasn’t happy with some of the meals I chose (tough meat or flavors a little off for me.)

August 19, 2021 By Sherry

Dessert/ Desserts/ Pies/Tarts

Oatmeal Peach and Blackberry Cobbler

Yum, and with ice cream, DOUBLE YUM!

We moved from The Woodlands about 8 weeks ago to Round Top, Texas. Our son, Paul, and daughter-in-law, Brooke are opening Round Top Brewing and Lollitop Sweet shop (right next door to the brewery). Eventually we will start working on house plans but right now we are helping them do whatever we can to get the two places open.

So, on weekends we have been driving around to some of the wineries in the area and enjoying some local wines. The hardest part of this move has been not really seeing people’s faces. If I go into the local mercantile and talk to someone, I’m not going to remember them because I haven’t seen the face on the other side of the mask. The winery outings have been nice because the people that are there are social distancing and you can at least see some friendly faces.

I’ve been experiment with so many things that they might offer in the sweet shop. The focus will be on candy with some yummy baked goods made by me. There are so many recipes I’m experimenting with like sugar cookies shaped like donuts and covered with icing and sprinkles, cookies, bars, coffee cakes and today I was trying out my new krumkake electric baker; just haven’t decided what I might want to fill these with.

July 30, 2021 By Sherry

Entree/ Pasta

Bucatini with Spinach, Bacon and Creamy Parmesan Sauce

Who doesn’t love a good pasta dish?

While in Chicago a few weeks ago I made this Bucatini pasta dish. I love bucatini. It’s spaghetti on steroids with a hole through the middle. There are so many interesting shapes and sizes of pasta it is always hard for me to make up my mind what to try next. And I buy pasta wherever I go. I’ve bought chocolate pasta at Pike’s Market in Seattle and brought back some cool shapes of pasta from Italy and France.

The night I made this recipe we served it with seared scallops on top. I made it again after returning home to Round Top and used sliced grilled chicken thighs on top. Both ways were delicious; when I do again I’ll choose the grilled chicken thighs.

This recipe is fairly quick to make with or without the scallops. The only change I made to juliasalbum.com’s recipe was to add sun-dried tomatoes the second time I made this dish. (Note: the sun-dried tomatoes were great)

July 17, 2021 By Sherry

Side dish

Bok Choy and Peas

Trip to farmer’s market always fun.

It’s hard to believe that it had been 18 months since we saw our son, Scott and his family (Missy, Oliver and Charlie). With a 3 hour delay going (an hour delay coming back and terminal change) we finally arrived to hugs and kisses. It’s hard when you can only face time your grand kids and can’t give them a hug in person. But, we got plenty of those while there and as always we did a lot of cooking and eating.

One day while everyone was working and the kids in a summer school program we went to a local farmer’s market. I have been to farmer’s markets all over the world and am always excited to see local produce and products for sale and I never walk away without buying something. This particular day I found some bok choy, spring onions, heirloom tomatoes, peas and some tapenades.

While there we managed a trip to Top Golf and dinner at Longitud315. Another day we visited the Chicago Botanic Garden and Frida Kahlo exhibit in Glen Ellyn. So, even with mask wearing still required in a lot of these places we still managed to have a very good trip.

June 28, 2021 By Sherry

Beef/Veal/ Beef/Veal/ Entree

Stuffed Bell Peppers with Cauliflower Rice

Stuffed Peppers for dinner!

Don’t you love bell peppers, and to stuff them with something healthy and delicious makes them even better.

I have some pepper planted outside this year. We’ll see what they produce. I’ve also planted some shishito peppers and I’m really hoping they produce big time; also trying some okra, and cherry tomatoes in our tiny back yard garden at our tiny house here in Round Top.

My mother always made stuffed peppers with cooked rice mixed with the hamburger meat on the inside and I loved them that way and still make them occasionally. Sometimes I can shut my eyes and see her cooking in the kitchen and smell the food I remember her cooking. There’s this one song, “The Wayward Wind”, I still remember playing in the background from a transistor radio while she is cooking. Do you have memories like this?

May 26, 2021 By Sherry

Entree/ Fish/Seafood

Blackened Red Fish with Lots of Butter

Redfish with lots of butter!

I guess by now you know if you don’t want to read a bunch of text you can simply scroll through this “no ads” food blog and find the recipe. I, too, get tired of scrolling forever trying to find a recipe and seeing an ad every other paragraph. I have no ads for two reasons, first, I could never figure out how to get them on the blog and secondly I do this purely as a hobby. When, I’m not baking at Lollitop Sweet Shop with son, Paul I may actually find time to fire up some new dishes at home.

This recipe I found while searching for New Orleans fish recipes (nola.com). I love looking at different city’s newspapers that I can find on line for their regional cuisine recipes. I usually pick cities like Louisville (lived there), San Francisco (been there), NYC (been there too) and southern cities like Savannah, Charleston, New Orleans. It’s also fun to come across really good restaurants and I will pick through their menu to find something I might want to recreate. I still have an idea for a dish we had in Aux Baux France in 2012 at Le Varietes (and it is still on the menu; must be a favorite) for Poulet Sauce Tapenade Verte. It was a beautiful chicken dish with stacks of green and black tapenade and served with a tower of red rice (which I have).

May 10, 2021 By Sherry

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