Sherry – Page 25 – Rosemary and the Goat

Egg Flower Soup

This is such a delicate soup and so pretty.

I’ve told you before how food memories stick in my head and I can recall them years later even decades later. Well, that is the case for this recipe

Back when the kids were all still at home we went skiing in Park City, Utah one year. I don’t know about you but when we have gone skiing everyone is so exhausted when they get off the slopes no one wants to go any place for dinner. After falling my first time out back in the late 80’s and I ended up having to have knee surgery, I gave up on the sport. So I was the bring-along chef on all of our ski trips. I would even pack stuff to make homemade cookies and snow cream for everyone to enjoy. But one night in Park City we decided to go out for Chinese food and we went to this little restaurant and the soup I ordered was called Egg Flower Soup. (Amazing, I just Googled it and the restaurant Park City Chinese and Thai is still in business and serves Egg Flower Soup.)

Over the years I’ve change the recipe I came up with because their soup only had the corn. I added some fresh spinach and carrot threads for color and some finely chopped chicken for added flavor but the thing that makes this soup so cute (if you can possibly call a soup cute) is the sliced baby corn and when they float in the soup they looked like a field of tiny flowers. (I have left out the chicken in this recipe because I like it plain and simple and I think the chicken muddles it up a little too much.)

January 9, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Sichuan Pork Ragu

Quick and easy stir-fry.

This Momofuku inspired recipe comes from Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes cookbook, by way of www.foodgal.com by way of my son, Scott.

I’m always getting interesting recipes from Scott to try. Like the 6 day plus salt cured egg yolk or his 24 no knead bread recipe. This particular recipe sounded really interesting to me though because I have follow Momofuku restaurants and David Chang for years. I just love that name and the way it rolls off your tongue — mo – mo- fu- ku. Now how could their food not be interesting and delicious.

The Lucky Beach cookbook has simplified a dish that David Chang serves in his Momofuku Ssam Bar. I always though of a ragu as being Italian and a heavy, hearty meal. The Italian versions of a ragu is a pasta sauce made with ground or minced meat, vegetables and tomatoes and the French style is more like a stew that is made of meat, fish and vegetables. You can eat either on its own or with a starch like a noodle or polenta.

January 4, 2017 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Cooked Cabbage with Sausage

You can teach an old dog new tricks.

I’m not sure about teaching an old DOG a new trick but I certainly can learn to do things a new way. I’m almost embarrassed that I have never cooked cabbage this way. I’m sure everyone will be making (or made) some type of cabbage dish for New Years day. We always have pork belly (fried, or hog jowl), black eyed peas and some kind of cabbage. The green cabbage is for “money” in the new year and good luck.

There are so many ways to eat cabbage, ie. in slaws/coleslaws, mixed in with salads (red and green), cabbage rolls, my egg rolls have cabbage, potatoes colcannon, add it to soups, corn beef and cabbage and of course just a big pot of cooked cabbage.

I’ve always cooked cabbage like my mother and grandmother did; quarter it up, put it in a pot with some water and bacon and boil it to death. Back in the Fall we had dinner at a friend’s house and my friend, Linda, cooked the best cabbage ever. I found out that she never cooks it in water but simply sautés it for 30-40 minutes in a skillet with some onion and then adds in some fried bacon at the end. It was delicious and I could have eaten the whole dish by myself but I had to share.

So, one Sunday night I decided I was going to do a whole head of cabbage and eat it all week long. Instead of bacon, I decided to add some of this Alabama sausage that we buy, brown it first, then add it in at the end. I did flavor the cabbage and onion with some bacon fat that I had left over from making my bacon and eggs post and added a little crushed red pepper even though the sausage was “spicy”.

December 30, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Pork

Sheet Pan Dinner

How much easier can a recipe get?

Isn’t everyone looking for easy, fast recipes that give them a little more time with their families; and it’s Christmas eve and who has time to cook now or even wants to cook days after Christmas. All we want to do is still down and relax and enjoy the holidays with our families and friends.

Merry Christmas to everyone and have the merriest times with your love ones.

Whether it’s a nice piece of fish and some vegetables or potatoes or all vegetables. You will love how quick this is to throw together. Some great combinations to consider when you are wanting to make a sheet pan dinner are chicken breast and some broccoli and onions(coat your chicken with either Panko or parmesan cheese, chicken with some nice squash/zucchini, salmon with baby bok choy, maybe even some pork chops with potatoes, carrots, and apples.

If you are making chicken, why not top the breast with a little pasta sauce and mozzarella and then add some vegetables around the chicken. Try encrusting your salmon with some parmesan cheese and add some broccoli and asparagus to the sheet pan. Once you try doing a whole dinner on a sheet pan you will be sold on the idea for a quick, easy, no mess meal. I want to try a stir-fry sort of meal with some shrimp, broccoli, onions, carrots and throw in some water chestnuts and maybe a little fish sauce and soy for spicing it up. I recently saw one recipe where the chicken was covered with chimichurri sauce and on the sheet pan with some potatoes and onions.

December 24, 2016 By Sherry

Salads

Brussel Sprout Salad with Pumpkin Seeds and Cranberries

A beautiful Christmas salad to go with just about anything.

A few weekends ago I was looking for a side dish to go with some burgers we were doing one night when my daughter came for the weekend. What started off as a sautéed Brussels with cranberries and pumpkin seeds and parmesan cheese turned into a crunchy salad with a citrus vinaigrette.

At first this salad was going to have pistachios in it because I had a bag full in my freezer then I thought pumpkin seeds sounds so much fitting for this time of the year and go great with cranberries.

Brussels sprouts are a little bitter I think and the addition of the dried cranberries and the citrus dressing balance the flavors perfectly. I tweaked the dressing after making it the first time because I thought it needed a little garlic and some Dijon mustard.

If you don’t care for the cranberries, try adding some dried figs and I loved adding the shaved parmesan cheese as a garnish.

December 19, 2016 By Sherry

Egg Dishes/ Morning Foods

Ham, Mushroom, and Grits Breakfast Casserole

This is one good breakfast casserole and another grits recipe.

I love grits and I really love stone ground grits. The grits in this recipe are Charleston stone ground white grits. I thought I was ordering the mixed (yellow and white) grits but clicked a little too fast on Amazon. To me, stone ground grits are the best and if not stone ground then regular grits, not the instant variety.

The weekend we were getting our kitchen back together after the paint job, I decided to make something nice for breakfast. We had been eating out every meal for over a week even though the painting only took four days, we had a mountain of pans and dishes and stuff to go through before my kitchen was back in operation. Just getting my pantries (food & pan) back together was so great because I didn’t have that “hoarder” feeling any longer. I don’t think I could have looked at all those piles of pans, gadgets one day longer.

Were you raised eating grits for breakfast? We weren’t, in fact, I don’t think I even ate grits until I was older and my mother started making cheese grits to go with bbq. I remember when we were living in Overland Park, KS and one of my back neighbors was from Atlanta and I told her I had never eaten a bowl of plain grits with just butter and salt and pepper. I knew I loved cheese grits but not sure about the plain ones that looked like a bowl of gruel. Well, one morning she showed up at my back door with a bowl of hot buttered grits. We had no fences in this neighborhood so you could just walk over and visit with someone without having to go to front door or gates to get in. Those grits were so good. I don’t remember the girl’s name but I do remember her grits.

December 13, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Poultry

Chicken Marbella

You will be smacking your lips by the time you get this in the refrigerator.

So, what are you feeding your family and friends during the holidays this year? Back when we were kids it seemed like we would have turkey and dressing for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, maybe throw in some ham and probably had the save side dishes. Over the years of being married (now 47) we started doing something beef — either prime rib, beef tenderloin and this year we are doing steak and I have ordered a “M” branding iron that we will use to brand each steak. I’m calling this our cowboy Christmas. We are renting a house over in Wimberly, TX and all three kids and spouses and 5 3/4 grandsons are all coming.

I’m trying to come up with some old fashioned games and plenty of Christmas crafts the kids can make for table decorations or place cards. Cowboy acrylic hat to use for chips and dip or ice buckets, bandanas for napkins and anything else I can come up to have a Texas themed “cowboy” Christmas. Our house (Wimberly) has a huge outdoor kitchen with even a pizza oven and a porch so long with rocking chairs to over look the hills of Wimberly.

December 7, 2016 By Sherry

Entree/ Salads

Asian Ramen Crusted Chicken Salad

Ramen noodles not just for soup.

With one major holiday behind us and another one speeding toward us like an out of control train, who’s not looking for some easy to make. I’m spending most of my time online shopping (as usual) and last night during cyber Monday I was up clicking away at the last minute at 11:00.

I use to buy Ramen noodles by the case when I catered because one of my favorite salads “Crunchy Romaine Toss” (aka Emerald Green Salad) used these as a topping. Toasted in butter either in a skillet or in the oven they add a buttery taste to any salad or even a pretty good snack.

I came across this recipe in Southern Living magazine and the had the chicken one side of the plate and the salad on the other. I added several ingredients to the salad and decided I wanted my chicken chopped up on top of the salad. One thing that I did not do enough was to crush the Ramen noodles. SL recipe said to put it in a food processor; that’s the best way to get a fine crush. I put mine in a plastic bag and beat it to death; but they did not get smallenough.

December 1, 2016 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Garnish

Smoked Cured Egg Yolk

A new culinary adventure!

Ok, so this isn’t much of an adventure but more of a “what else do I have to do with my time anyway” now that Thanksgiving is over and you are sick of looking at food.

My son, Scott, is always sending me some interesting food recipes to try; like his 24 hour No Knead Breadb or gravlax and now these cured egg yolks.

Like Scott, I didn’t want to waste a bunch of eggs the first time I tried making this yellow ball that looks like a dried apricot when you are done with it at the end of a long week. So at the end of this week, I had only one yolk to show for my 168 hours of watching and waiting and I grated it carefully not wanting to waste one speck of this yolk over some smoked salmon and sour cream that I put on top of my Herbed pizzelle. I can’t say that I thought it tasted any different than an egg but it was so pretty grated; like a big puffy pile of yellow.

Salt curing is the oldest method of food preservation that simply involves covering food with mixture of sugar and salt to draw out the moisture of the food. This method changes the egg yolk to a firm little flatten yolk that has the consistency of parmesan cheese; put it on your veggies (I tried some roasted asparagus), salads or spaghetti carbonara. Maybe put the grated yolk in your compound butter or wouldn’t it be wonderful on top of some avocado toast.

November 25, 2016 By Sherry

Cookies/Bars/ Dessert

Pumpkin Biscotti with Chocolate and Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin and Chocolate were made for each other.

Don’t you just love Thanksgiving and all the special dishes that you, your mother, or even your grandmother make each year.

We all have our favorites. Just give me turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, and cranberry sauce (even the canned variety will satisfy me) and I’m good.

My friend Peggy has to make her husbands favorite cranberry salad every year or he would be boycotting dinner. My friend Linda has to do turkey whether they are at home or at a campsite and they spent Thanksgiving one year camping in freezing temperatures. And, my friend Janet reminded me of one of my favorites which I always forget — pimento cheese stuffed celery.

I’m not a fan of pumpkin pie but I love my Chocolate Pumpkin Muffins or my Pumpkin Bread Pudding and if you are looking for a breakfast treat over the Thanksgiving holidays, please try my pumpkin biscotti.

November 19, 2016 By Sherry

Egg Dishes/ Morning Foods

Grits, Greens, and Egg

Get your greens early in the day.

Do you get enough greens everyday? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. With this recipe you can get some greens with your breakfast.

Originally I had planned on using fresh baby kale and sautéing it and putting that around my grits. But, the morning I made this I went to the refrig to grab my bag of greens and it wasn’t there. I forgot I used it a couple nights earlier to make my pork and kale dish. Luckily I had a bag of frozen spinach in my freezer.

I’m probably the only person reading this post that actually likes canned spinach. I always have a few cans in my pantry and always have some in the freezer and still buy fresh spinach when I want it in a salad.

This recipe turned out really good and looks oh so good in a bowl or plate. I love dishes like this one that combines a lot of flavor and fits neatly in a bowl. The bacon adds the saltiness you want, creamy cheese grits go so well with the spinach and the perfectly fried egg I did in my little pan I brought back from France makes the perfectly composed plate. And you’ll notice the grated yellow stuff on top of the egg. Well, that’s my cured egg yolk that took me 6 days to make. (More on that in another post.)

November 14, 2016 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Calico Shrimp Dip

Add this to Bubba’a list of shrimp things.

Bubba from Forrest Gump has nothing on me; how he can rattle off his list of ways to cook shrimp and eat it. Well, I can bake it, broil it, stir-fry it, sauté it, sushi it and fry it. I can serve you shrimp gumbo, a shrimp and corn chowder, a shrimp taco wrap a shrimp pintxos (tapas), stuffed into a pasta shell or an avocado cup. How about a Red Chard and Shrimp Artichoke Stir-fry or maybe coconut shrimp wontons or even some Crispy Salt and Pepper shrimp where you can eat the shells. Ya can get by without looking at my Honey Walnut Shrimp or my Shrimp Mussels Clams and Linguini; those are some of my best.

I had bought these beautiful jumbo (really huge jumbos) shrimp on sale one week and was waiting to use them for a simple shrimp cocktail and the more I looked at these I was trying to talk myself out of chopping them up for this dip just because they were at least a 3 bite shrimp and it seemed a shame to turn them into a dip. But company was coming and I wanted to make a few appetizers for the evening.

November 9, 2016 By Sherry

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