Sherry – Page 18 – Rosemary and the Goat

Pasta Salad with Asparagus and Shrimp

Who says a pasta salad can’t be fun.

I picked up this interesting package of pasta on my Sante Fe trip last September and I’m just now getting around to doing something with it. The pasta is called Organic Leftovers Colored. All kinds of interesting shapes from Castles to bow ties, tubes, wheels, Viking helmets and shields. I knew this was going to be a fun pasta to eat. Here is one from Amazon that even looks prettier than the one I bought.

I really like all the different shapes in one package. When my sister and I were kids we use to eat Campbels Alphabet Soup. We would pick though it and try to spell out things with the pasta letters. Maybe I’ll pick through this pasta and pull out all the castles, horses and wine glasses and set up a little Games of Thrones Salad.

June 24, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Egg Salad Baguette

Not your ordinary egg salad sandwich!

Doesn’t everyone love egg salad sandwiches? I do. Take the egg salad that you normally make for lunch and serve it for any party you may have this summer.

Usually I make a chunky version for sandwiches and sometimes even add avocado like I did in this Egg/Avocado on Baguette appetizer. But last February when I was making a little sandwich for our craft circle tea that was auctioned off I decided I didn’t want any ordinary egg salad sandwich. Even though I love any kind of egg salad on a good white bread or pumpernickel, I wanted a little something different for the tea.

June 12, 2018 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Fish/Seafood

Mignonette Sauce for the Oysters

Weekend with the Michies..

Oysters have never been high on my list for seafood and “raw” seafood for sure. But, this past weekend our son Paul with Brooke, Milo, Donovan and little Ellie (dog) came to visit Gran and Papa G for the weekend and their friends the Hatleys came also with their daughters.

So, what was the plan for food? Well the guys went to the seafood market and came back with blue crab, shrimp, corn, potatoes, mushrooms (all for crab/shrimp boil) and Paul had some fresh oysters. Since I was out of horseradish (I had a tiny bit) Paul suggested a mignonette sauce and I had all the ingredients for making up some pretty quickly.

June 6, 2018 By Sherry

Dessert/ Fruit Dishes

Roasted Pecan Dip with Fruit

Fruit made even better with this dip.

Seems like I’m posting a lot of dessert recipes lately but this dip is perfect for summer get-togethers and so easy to make.

What’s your favorite fruit? Mine is any kind of berry; strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. If it ends in “berry” I like it. Or, on the other hand, I love mandarin oranges (the canned ones) mixed with bananas. My least favorite fruits would be pears and apples or grapes that are as big as golf balls; I won’t buy grapes when they are huge and I haven’t seen a small grape in years; I guess they are all pumped up with hormones or something. My husband is the grape buyer because he knows I won’t buy them when they go over $3/lb. This recipe comes just in time for all those summer fruits you will be seeing at the market.

When we are at any of our kids houses their refrigerators are full or organic fruits like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries and of course they all eat bananas. My son, Paul would not touch fruit when he was a kid and my husband would try bribing him with money to get him to even try a strawberries.

You have never had a fruit dessert like this and a dip so easy; and never a recipe from me with only four ingredients.

Back in my catering days (and that seems a lifetime ago) I catered a party for this lady and she wanted a fruit tray but she had her own recipe for her favorite dip so she gave me the recipe and ask me to make it for her. I made the recipe and I loved it and the best part of it (other than the Eagle Brand milk taste) is the roasted pecans.

May 31, 2018 By Sherry

Cookies/Bars/ Dessert

Sable Cookies with Flowers

A beautiful floral tasting cookie.

These should have been handed out at “the wedding” last weekend as favors.

Don’t these cookies look like I robbed the little flower girls’ baskets at the royal wedding last weekend? Well I didn’t; they came from my yard.

My alarm was not set for 4:00 a.m. but my recorder was and once I was awake I turned it on and did a pretty quick catch up to the main event.

All of these flowers came from my yard except for the little in bachelor button flowers which were actually from some Bachelor Button tea I had bought at Central Market in Austin a couple of years ago.

May 25, 2018 By Sherry

Cake/ Coffee Cakes/ Dessert/ Morning Foods

Blueberry Lemon Cake

Lemon and blueberry, great combination.

Blueberries and Lemon go hand in hand for a great flavor combination.

I’ve done a blueberry coffee cake before but I can’t say that this is a coffee cake. Put a big dollop of whipped cream beside it and it makes a great dessert. Serve it for brunch, lunch or dinner; you will enjoy it.

The only thing I did wrong with this cake was to over bake it. And, that’s my fault. I kept testing it and even though the recipe called to still have a few moist crumbs sticking to the cake tester I continued to bake it. I must have had a brain freeze for a moment or two.

I love making one layer cakes because there’s never a lot left over to tempt you to keep going back for more. Some cakes I have made live on in my freezer for a couple of months. They get cut into thin slices and wrapped for my husband’s sweet cravings.

May 19, 2018 By Sherry

Bread/ Muffins

Savory Zucchini Muffin

Savory muffin loaded with zucchini and cheese.

I’ve never tried so hard to get a recipe right.

Our garden club May luncheon is coming up and I’m doing the food. Tortellini Salad, Strawberry Dill Spinach Salad, and a Chicken Salad with orange maralade/mayo dressing. So, I wanted a savory muffin to go in the center of the plate in one of those cute little flower petal type muffin papers.

Finding a savory muffin was harder than I thought. My first zucchini muffin was awful and then I realized it was a “healthy” version of what should have been a good muffin – lo-fat cheese, no fat in the batter etc. My second attempt was a Bisquick version and even though it had 1 cup of Bisquick it had four eggs. I don’t know why that didn’t ring a bell in my head or in my ears anyway that are constantly ringing. Anyway, long story short that turned out more like one of those egg cups people make and mine was way too salty and that was probably because I added salt not thinking that the Bisquick had salt in it and then the cheese had a good amount of salty taste too.

May 13, 2018 By Sherry

Side dish

Refried Beans

So, what’s so good about these refried beans?

What’s so good about these refried beans? Well, they are homemade.

When I was on a girl’s trip last September we had lunch one day at Rancho De Chimayo in Chimayo, NM. This restaurant won a James Beard award in 2016 so I knew when I read that and we were going to Chimayo we had to eat there.

We had lunch before visiting the historic village of chimayo which dates back to 17th century and that’s where I first bought blue corn cornmeal that I made these Blue Corn Muffins. I also picked up some freshly ground Hatch green chili powder and green chili flakes which I had never seen in our stores.

Rancho De Chimayo, pueblo-style, restaurant has dining rooms throughout the house. Some of the rooms have exposed adobe walls and since 1965 they have been serving delicious authentic Mexican food. They also have outside dinging in courtyard like setting with flowers around. It was beautiful when we were there. We sat on the glassed in porch and it was a very nice lunch to enjoy with forever friends.

May 7, 2018 By Sherry

Cookies/Bars/ Dessert

Tropical Key Lime Cheesecake Sticks

Cute as cute can be!

How do I describe these little cookies — crunchy, cheesecakey, coconutty, crispy, citrusy, and creamy. Hey, those are all “c” words; and to top it off they are “cute”. Buy the cookie then whip up this cheesecake filling and you have a great add-on dessert to serve with some coconut ice cream or lime sorbet.

I love the flavor of key lime and you know when you make key lime desserts you are not suppose to add green food coloring. If you ever get key lime pie in a restaurant you do not want it to be green — that’s a big no-no in using key limes. I’m adding a lot of lime zest to add little specks of green through the filling.

May 1, 2018 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Green Pea Pasta with Vegetables

Green and gluten-free!

While in Hot Springs a couple of months ago going to the horse races I found this gluten-free green pea pasta at one of the shops down town and since my son and family were visiting the next week I wanted something new gluten free to make for my daughter-in-law.

I purchased a red lentil pasta and this green pea pasta. My first thought was a pea pasta salad with green peas and some other green ingredients. I just happened to have one potato so I cut it into small cubes and boiled and added to the pasta salad.

There are so many gluten-free pasta out there now and once you add all your other ingredients you would never know it was GF. I was never a fan of gluten-free recipes (especially sweets/pastries) when they were starting to appear all over the internet. Seems like they were all made from just almond flour and to me everything tasted like almonds. I like all the new blends of flours and especially the pastas made with vegetables like this green pea pasta. This one comes from Abruzzo, Italy and you can buy it here or find it in a specialty shop.

April 25, 2018 By Sherry

Cake/ Dessert

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Who doesn’t love a good chocolate cake?

I attempted to make what was suppose to be a wonderful chocolate bundt cake for my friend’s, (Gordon) birthday. It was from a Paris blog that I have followed for years but I have to say the results were disappointing and in fact the driest chocolate cake I have ever made.

What had attracted me to this recipe was the shape of the bundt pan. Did I need another pan in my pantry, heck no. But, do I want one? Of course.

When I mention chocolate cake to my son Paul, we always get a laugh. Seems like because my grandfather loved chocolate cake with canned syrupy peaches on the side my grandmother got it in her head that was Paul’s favorite dessert and anytime we went back to Missouri for a visit she always had a chocolate cake waiting for him and even though he didn’t even touch any kind of fruit back then (especially canned peaches) she had canned peaches chilled in the refrigerator. Believe it or not the peaches were good with the cake. These days if I could get my hands on a good fresh peach I’d be eating it besides my chocolate cake.

April 19, 2018 By Sherry

Salads

Sensation Salad with Avocado

Sensational salad!

I first had a sensation salad with my friend, Janice, at Magnolia Cafe in St. Francisville, LA. My first thought was boy is this a simple salad — lettuce and dressing and some cheese. Simple is good sometimes when you want a salad to go with say, pizza and don’t want to fuss about a lot of ingredients.

From my search, I found almost all recipes were the same. Most recipes tore up the greens but what I remembered about my sensation(al) salad was that the lettuce was kind of shredded like you would for tacos but maybe not as thin. Of course, I just had to mess with the original and I thought that some fresh avocado would be great with the salad and the dressing and of course the pizza that we were doing on our Kamodo Joe smoker. Ok, so I couldn’t quit thinking of what else to add to this salad. With all this shredded iceberg lettuce that is traditional, why not add another shade of green by adding some shredded romaine; and why stop there? I threw in some good blue cheese with the Romano. And, next time I might throw in some tomato and fried bacon bits. Maybe that wouldn’t still be called a Sensation Salad but it would taste SENSATIONAL!

April 13, 2018 By Sherry

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