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Sherry

Side dish

Shooked Potatoes

I’m all shook up!

Remember these these famous lines of Elvis’ song “I’m All Shook Up”

♫I’m in love

I’m all shook up

Mm mm mm mm, ya, ya, ya,♫

Well, you will be going mmm, mmm, after eating these potatoes; and they are all shooked up.

My mother use to make two types of potatoes that we really liked as kids. One was these “shooked” potatoes and the other potato recipe (no recipe at all) was called “stewed” potatoes.

Let me tell you about the Stewed Potatoes first. First, you have to be making some home made cornbread in order to make these potatoes (no boxed, sweet cornbread either). So, my mother would have some peeled, quartered potatoes cooking in water. She would have her cornbread ready to go in the oven and before putting the bowl in the sink to be washed, she would add a little water (maybe 1/2 cup or so) to the bowl and swish it around and then she would pour this into the cooked potatoes and cook for about 5-10 minutes longer and this watery mushy stuff would thicken the water and then she would add some salt, pepper and butter and they were ready to serve up. Very good and I think about her every time I make them.

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Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Sandwiches

Deviled Egg Salad and Asparagus Tartines

A favorite food into a sandwich.

Don’t you just love finger foods? And, especially those little finger sandwiches. Whether it’s the softness of the bread that holds your toppings or the crunch of toasted, crustless bread slices topped with some savory concoction, you want to try them on first sight and you will probably go back for another one.

Little sandwiches/savories/sweets makes me want to make a pot of tea. I’ve been buying tea from The Tea Embassy in Austin for about 10 years and it’s the only place I’m going to place an online order. I will pick up specialty teas when I travel because I like to try different teas but I always go back to my Almond Cookie Green Tea from the Tea Embassy as one of my favorites or the Green Walnut tea is also a favorite of mine. And a pot of tea is just what I wanted when I made these little sandwiches. Or, if not in the mood for a cup of tea how about a bottle of champagne.

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Bread/ Morning Foods/ Scones

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Scones

Peanut butter and chocolate!

Don’t you just love a good scone to go with a cup of tea. I’ve been experimenting with different flavors of scones over the years. Some of my favorites are still my Black Walnut Scone and I absolutely love the Orange and Golden Raisin scones I just posted about a couple of weeks ago. 

What is it about a scone anyway that seems to take you away to foreign places? Maybe it’s the hot pot of tea you made to go along with it or maybe its the Devonshire cream and the strawberry jam (fresh made even better) that you are going to slather on the scone that takes you to that place. When I’m having a pot of tea I usually think of tea at the Fairmont in Victoria, afternoon tea once in Jamaica at our resort, tea at the St. Regis in Houston or even my own house with some nice scones coming right out of the oven.

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Salads

Asian Salad with Chicken

Thanks to BJ Brewhouse for this recipe.

I don’t know about you but I expect certain things in an Asian Salad; cabbage (red and savoy or Napa), Mandarin oranges, almonds, green onions just to name a few.

BJ Brewhouse use to have to best Asian salad but for some reason they changed their cabbages to lettuce and that does not work in an Asian salad for me so I no longer order it. Recently I ordered an Asian salad from Pei Wei (owned by Pf Changs). Not good and I told them about it (not in person of course; I do not have that much nerve). Their salad was made of lettuce, and tomatoes. I’ve never had an Asian salad with tomatoes and it didn’t even have an Asian salad tase. It was more like a “house” salad that they threw in some fried wonton strips and called it a day. No longer will we be going to that restaurant either. I’m really not that picky I don’t think.

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Appetizers/ Beverages/ Cocktails/ Drinks

Blackberry Thyme Champagne Cocktail

What would afternoon tea be without a cocktail.

Our afternoon tea a couple week ago started with this blackberry thyme champagne cocktail and of course our committee had to sample it before the tea to make sure it was just right. Some of the ladies helping decided they liked it a little sweeter so we added more than the one teaspoon of blackberry syrup the recipe. One teaspoon of the syrup will give you a nice glass of pinkish champagne or prosecco. 

Don’t you just love the bubbles of champagne and when you add this blackberry syrup to the glass it makes for a perfect cocktail and the sprig of fresh thyme and a blackberry for garnish.

At the tea we served this cocktail with some blue cheese stuffed dates wrapped with prosciutto before the ladies sat down to an afternoon of tea with sandwiches, sweets and scones.

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Bread/ Morning Foods/ Scones

Orange and Golden Raisin Scones

What would a tea party be without some good scones!

I love parties, especially tea parties. I love tea, I love tea sandwiches, and most of all I love a good scone, slathered with devonshire cream (or clotted) and some strawberry jam.

These were recently served at a tea party that was auctioned off by our craft circle. Twenty ladies for the afternoon enjoying tea, sandwiches, savories, desserts and these delicious scones.

Over the years I have experimented with so many different recipes for scones; Black Walnut, Almond Coconut, Chocolate Cherry, Pumpkin Chocolate and one of my favorite has been my Walnut Lavender Scones. I’m sure I’ve made orange scones before maybe with raisins but for this one I decided to use golden raisins and then brush the tops with cream and add some of my hail sugar. 

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Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Sandwiches

Goldenrod Finger Sandwiches

Apricot and Pimento Cheese, Yum!

My craft circle auctioned off another tea this past November and it was so much fun putting together the menu for 20 ladies to enjoy.

I love tea foods; savories, sweets, the scones, the jam and clotted cream and of course the different kinds of teas I like to try. For this tea we served Georgian Village and Versailles Blend. One of my favorites is a Green Walnut tea and an Almond Cookie tea both of which I buy from the Tea Embassy in Austin (online). We gave those teas as part of their favors they picked up on their way home. I like to add in a little Amuse Bouche for an opener. In case you didn’t know an Amuse Bouche is a little bite that is meant to show the chef’s style. A little mouth amuser. I first had one in NYC and before that I had never heard the term. This made the perfect little bite to go with the Blackberry Thyme Champagne Cocktail we served.

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Bread/ Dessert/ Morning Foods/ Muffins

Peanut Butter and Toffee Muffins

Want a good muffin to go with your pot of tea?

I love baking and I don’t care what it is. There’s nothing better than a hot loaf of Italian or French bread right out of the oven slathered with some room temperature butter. That makes me want to get out my yeast and start some bread. Sweet breads and muffins are another one of my favorite things to bake. 

Several years ago I made this Lemon Scented Pull Apart Bread. In fact it was back in 2011 when my daughter was home her wedding shower and her future mother-in-law and my sister were here; and everyone loved the bread. But, I was on some kind of diet at the time and I didn’t even eat it. This bread is on the top of my list to make again. 

We’re having another cold spell here in Texas this week. Just a few days ago I was complaining it was hot again when it got up to 80’s. But like always, wait around a few days and the weather will change. So, when it drops back down in the 60’s (my kind of weather) I’m thinking about what I can bake. Don’t you just love the aroma of something baking in the oven whether it is a sweet or savory item.

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Appetizers/ Entree/ Game/ HotApp

Jalapeno Quail Legs

Tiny little quail legs made fantastic appetizer.

Sometime last year I was visiting my daughter, Alexis, in Austin and one day her mother-in-law, Kittie took us to Jack Allen’s Kitchen for lunch. We ordered some quail legs for an appetizer and they were so delicious I knew I had to try and recreate the recipe. (Thanks for lunch Kittie.)

At Christmas we rented a house on Lake Travis and it was a nice big house where we enjoyed five nights of being together, playing our favorite game, Catan, and of course cooking. The kitchen wasn’t as well stocked with equipment as I would have liked but we made do with what we had. My son, Paul, and I are pretty hard to please when it comes to the way a kitchen is equipped; but we managed to do some Escargot and these quail legs for appetizers while there.

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Bars/ Cookies/Bars/ Dessert

Nutty Toffee Peanut Butter Bars

Leftover candy put to use.

I have to admit that my first thought for a name of this bar was “leftovers” or “trash” but they are too good to be called leftover anything. I had candy left over from Christmas baking projects, Valentine’s Day projects and a ton off bags of candy I bought at “after Christmas” sale at the grocery. “Trash” because I should have thrown my candy away so I wouldn’t eat it; but who does that?

So with bags some Heath Chocolate bits, some mixed salted nuts and dark chocolate chips I just had to improve upon a basic Blondie Bar recipe. I thought i would start with a bag of mini Reeces Peanut Butter cups but they disappeared from my pantry, so I substituted 1/4 cup of peanut butter for part of the butter.

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Appetizers/ HotApp

Escargot in Parsley-Garlic Butter

Escargot for Christmas. 

Oh, no! not snails. Not those little slimy things that wiggle on the sidewalk that we use to pour salt on when we were kids. Ahh, yes.

Well, they are similar. The ones we prepared for Christmas dinner were Helix snails from France and were nice fat/plump ones.  The ones that use to get salted are common brown garden snails and probably not enough meat to even get stuck between your teeth but still edible. Snails are low in fat except, of course, for all the butter you put on them before baking in the oven. This is only my third time making escargot and I think they get better each time I make them. (Don’t use jumbo ones though, that wasn’t my favorite.) I like them garlicky, buttery (of course) and the best crunchy bread I can find.

I first had escargot on a cruise years ago and I remember after eating them one night we ordered 2 orders each every meal for the rest of the cruise. I found my escargot on Amazon because they were much cheaper than the $7.50/can/dozen at my HEB market (and those were the jumbo ones). And I have already reordered them so I would have on hand for a last minute appetizer. They were $16 for 48 snails.

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Candy/ Cookies/ Dessert

Key Lime Crunch Snack Mix

Tropical Puppy Chow, ooh so good.

Have you ever wanted a recipe so bad you’d do almost anything to get it. Well, I was watching an episode of Top Chef on Bravo and one of the challenges was a Kentucky Derby party and one of the contestants, Kelsey Barnard Clark, made her Puppy Chow Key Lime Crunch. 

So, before the show was even over I was in bed trolling the internet fo find the recipe. I guess everyone else who watched that show was doing the same thing. Finally KBC put a recipe (kind of) on her facebook pages with ingredients but she was using 5 pounds of white chocolate and I knew I was going to have to scale down and I changed a few of the ingredients. Then I came across on on Ritzymom.com and made my own adjustments to her recipe.

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