Sherry – Page 3 – Rosemary and the Goat

Rosemary Roasted Vegetables

Thanksgiving day roasted vegetables.

Can’t you just smell fall in the air, looking at these roasted vegetables. This is the time of the year in Texas that I start feeling like it is fall. Some of the leaves are falling, a few trees may be changing colors, and the temperatures have gotten out of the 80’s and 90’s, and these wonderful vegetables can be found very proudly sitting in the produce isle just begging you to buy them.

Some graffiti eggplant, golden beets, red beets, miniature onions, maroon carrots, a few potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

I do roasted vegetables just about any time during the year but for some reason it seems like they are perfect for the fall season. All the beautiful colors and shapes that you find in your produce section just makes you want to gather up a bunch and take home to roast for dinner.

Recently, I was at gourmet grocery waiting to take a class in their Viking Cooking School. I had some time to kill and I love walking around in this store so I was looking for some vegetables to cook for dinner.

November 20, 2010 By Sherry

Food Stories

Gastronomic Tour de New Orleans

This appetizer was from Lilette and it was a White Truffle Parmigiano Toast with Wild Mushrooms, marrow and veal glaze. We ordered two orders and shared. Very rich and amazingly delicious.

Have you ever been just SICK of eating?

Have you ever been just sick of eating and you could not possibly take another bite of food and then you wake up the next day, still in New Orleans, and you know that you just can’t pass up that next wonderful meal in a city that your have been told has the most wonderful food in the world?

Recently, I went on a mother/daughter trip to New Orleans with my daughter, my twin sister and her son. We had a fantastic time together as we always do and all this food and drink was such a temptation for 4 days.

Roasted Muscovy duck breast with Tuscan kale, butternut squash, sage and satsuma coriander jus. Now how could that not delight your taste buds.

We planned this trip for months and had a huge list of “must eat at” restaurants from friends. We double booked some nights knowing that we were going to have to cancel one of those reservations because we could not possibly eat 6 meals a day.

November 17, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp

Pepperoni Olive Kebab

Move over stuffed olives!

I have made stuffed black olives for years and have catered parties where I have had to hand pipe 200+ black olives with a cheese filling. Recently, I saw this cheese and pepperoni stuffed olive at www.finedinings.com and decided to give it a try at our block party back in October. I used wooden paddle picks on mine and also tried a couple of these little tidbits with rosemary skewers. I like them both ways but most of my Rosemary had new stems and they were a little limp.

While in Madrid we visited Mercado San Miguel https://www.spottedbylocals.com/madrid/mercado-de-san-miguel/and they had everything you could possibly imagine (see some of the photos at the bottom — one item looked like turtle LEGS but I found out they are barnacles). This store had every kind of olive you could possibly imagine, olives as big as golf balls, olives stuffed with sardines, ham, cheese, stuffed with roasted red peppers and mussels and artichokes. You name it, they had it. We bought several and I proceeded to pick them apart to see what was on the inside. What a nice little snack and wee had a lot of snacks all day long and like I said before I was lucky I did not gain more than 2 pounds on this trip.

So, I think the point is if you like olives, find something to stuff them with and serve them as a tapas for your next party.

November 12, 2010 By Sherry

Cake/ Dessert

Dreamsicle Cupcakes

Didn’t you love those dreamsicle ice cream bars when you were a kid!

We were visiting our new grandson, Oliver, in Chicago a couple of weeks ago. He’s now 3 months old and boy, how time flies. Seems like it was just yesterday that we went up to Chicago to meet the new Michie baby boy. And, it seems like just yesterday I was a little kid eating cho cho ice cream malt cups and those dreamy dreamsicle ice cream bars.

I love mixing orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream together in a parfait class because it reminds me of dreamsicles that use to drip down my arm on those hot summer days in Missouri and I still love that flavor of orange and vanilla mixed together.

There’s a bakery in Lincoln Park (Chicago), Sweet Mandy B’s, that has the best baked items ever, and we went there after lunch at Longman & Eagle one day. Of course, we had to come home with some molasses frosted cookies that my son loves and some 7 layer bars, chocolate cookies, a macaroon and this wonderful little Dreamsicle Cupcake.

I was staring at this lone beautiful cupcake sitting in the box along with all the other cookies and really wanted to gobble it up all by myself. After all, I was the one thinking of dreamsicles and having all these childhood memories, but I shared the cupcake because I wanted everyone else to see how delicious it was. I KNEW I could make this cupcake.

November 9, 2010 By Sherry

Bread

Double Quick Dinner Rolls

Can a dinner roll tell a story?

I recently saw this question in an ad for King Arthur Flour. Of course, I had a story about a dinner roll.

Who doesn’t have some kind of story about a beloved food favorite. Even as a teenager in high school, I loved smelling the aroma of freshly baked rolls waifing from the cafeteria. We could hardly wait until lunch in the cafeteria to have a couple of these rolls and they were not out of the freezer but where freshly made each day by these wonderful ladies in the cafeteria’s kitchen.

Back in the early 70’s we lived in Louisville, Kentucky for six great years. We had friends (Judy and Boots) who took us to our first Kentucky Derby and I was photographed by one of the local newspapers standing on a ladder in the infield at Churchill Downs (see photo below) trying desperately to see a horse. If you go to the infield on Derby day you know you are going to be sitting on the ground (or on a ladder or sitting on someone’s shoulders), drinking mint juleps and enjoying lots of food.

My old friend Judy and her husband Boots (isn’t that a cool name) had us over for dinner one night. I can’t remember what the dinner was but I will never forget her homemade dinner rolls because her daughter, Stephanie, loved the rolls, and they would never let her eat them until she finished her meal. That was her dessert! She said her daughter still loves the rolls, and I wonder if she makes them as often as I do. Thank you Judy for this favorite recipe from years ago.

November 3, 2010 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Rainbow Slaw with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

There are probably eight million recipes for slaw and this is just one of them.

Ok, this is really dating myself (again). But, back in the 50’s there was a TV show called the Naked City and the tag line for the show was “There are eight million stories in the naked city, and this is has been one of them”.

Happy Halloween everyone. I should be posting a pumpkin recipe I guess but this recipe with roasted, salted pumpkin seeds is as close as I’m getting to a pumpkin today.

Ya know, there are probably a million recipe for slaw/coleslaw out there in the universe just circulating through the Internet and I can’t believe I have never posted a slaw recipe because I probably have at least a gazillion in my recipe files. This recipe for Rainbow Coleslaw with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds is a beautiful slaw with colors of the rainbow. The purple and green cabbage along with the orange carrots and green onions make this a very attractive addition to any plate of food.

Growing up my mother would make several types of slaw. One I remember was called freezer slaw (or really a refrigerator slaw). That particular recipe had shredded cabbage, onion, green onions and green peppers and the dressing was a boiled dressing of sugar and vinegar and a few spices. The dressing would get poured over the slaw and you could keep it refrigerated for at least a month and it would stay crunchy and fresh.

There is also a hot slaw I make that is cooked shredded cabbage with tomatoes, onions and green peppers and lots of black pepper. Now, don’t ask me why it is called “slaw” since it is cooked, but that is the name of the recipe. My mother-in-law always had a special type of slaw she made when she cooked fish for us — a mustard slaw. Her recipe had a little mustard, mayo and a little sugar to sweeten the slaw a tiny bit. For BBQ dinners I like a slaw that doesn’t have mayonnaise in it. And, who doesn’t love KFC coleslaw. I have learned the secret to the thin dressing is adding some milk to the mayonnaise. One of my favorite slaw recipes is one I’m sure everyone has made that has Ramen noodles and sunflower seeds. A friend of mine always makes that when I ask her to bring slaw and it is delicious with the toasted nuts and noodles added in right before serving.

October 31, 2010 By Sherry

Cookies/Bars

Espresso Almond Meringues

Meringues like you have never tasted!

Our hotel in Barcelona (The Hotel Continental) was right on Las Ramblas. In fact, our room was facing the street and one of the nights we were there was Barcelona’s Independence Day, so the partying in the streets down below went on until 6:00 a.m. This was a really cool little hotel with a nice courtyard with table and chairs and the best part was that there was beer and wine on tap 24/7. So, needless to say, there was a lot of beer and wine drinking going on while we there.

I bought this fan from a street vendor the night I purchased my almond meringue. The meringue I bought didn’t have the espresso powder added, but I decided to add it to my recipe, and glad I did. When I saw this fan, I knew I needed it to shoot my meringue cookies picture. We saw fans all over Spain. I bought a beautiful one from Van Gough’s Museum in Amsterdam and we saw a whole shop of them in Barcelona (see picture at bottom of post). I paid 2 euros for the above one but we saw fans for over 100 euros at a shop in Pablo Espanol Village.

October 28, 2010 By Sherry

Food Stories

My Kind of Hardware Store

I was whining all week until we found our way back to this store.

(More from our trip to Spain.)

I think it was when we were taking our cab ride from he$$ that I saw this little store. First, the cab ride was something like out of the movies. We had taken a plane from Barcelona to Sevilla and upon arriving there we had to catch the last bus out for the day and believe me it was the last bus because by the time we reach the end of the line the driver yelled “get off”. From there we had to get 4 cabs for the twelve of us. None of the cab drivers knew where they were going because this little hotel “Amadeus” was in this very narrow alley tucked in the middle of the city. Amadeus was a wonderful little hotel that was within walking distance of everything.

The little streets were so narrow around the hotel that if a car came you had to jump on this little curb (not sidewalk), pull your stomach in, not breathe, and just say a little prayer that the side mirrors did not knock you off on your butt. We had some close calls but really got use to the sound of a scooter or car coming so we knew to jump out of the way.

Back to the hardware store. On taking the cab ride into Seville I remember seeing a store with paella pans in the window. Now, I have a paella pan but I wanted some miniature ones to use to serve tapas in. So, for the four days we were in Seville, we searched and searched for this little place until the last day we happened up on it, BUT it was 2:00 and they were closed for siesta. Seems like all the stores close between 2-5 or 6:00 for siesta. Guess it is just too hot for people to shop so everyone goes home. We took that as an opportunity to walk back to the hotel, shower, nap a little and then head back out to make my purchases.

October 25, 2010 By Sherry

Bread/ Morning Foods

Pumpkin Muffins with Chocolate Chips

A can of pumpkin met a bag of chocolate chips and fell in love.

I love seeing pumpkins growing in a field and it always reminds me of school field trips with my kids when they were in kindergarten and everyone got to pick out a pumpkin to take home for carving.

Pumpkin pie has never been one of my favorite fall desserts. Seems like I always make one at Thanksgiving and 3/4 of the pie is still left by the time we are throwing out left overs. I do love pumpkin bread and pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce and when I found this recipe for the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins years ago, my initial thoughts were that chocolate and pumpkin was a weird combination. But, I was wrong, and found out they are delicious together.

I hope you will pick up a pumpkin or even a can of pumpkin and do something exciting with it this weekend.

Another strange pumpkin recipe I ran across years ago from a little restaurant in Mendocina, CA is a Pumpkin Tomato Soup. If you love tomato soup, you will really enjoy this version that has pumpkin added. The pumpkin adds a little sweetness and cuts some of the acidity of the tomatoes. Topped with some creme fraiche and it is a great little soup to have in the fall. If you decide to try the soup, don’t make the mistake I did once and buy pumpkin PIE FILLING instead of canned pumpkin.

Back to the muffins. They freeze beautifully, so you can make these before thanksgiving and have them ready when your company comes for the holidays. A few seconds in the microwave and you have melting chocolate chips and pumpkin ready to be devoured by your guests.

October 22, 2010 By Sherry

Dessert

Candied Orange Quarters

One of my husband’s favorite candy is orange slices.

And he doesn’t care if they are Brach’s or some store brand of orange slices, whether they cost $3.00 a package, or 99¢ a package. He likes them all. While in Madrid, on our last part of our Spain trip, we happened upon several confection shops. There were all kinds of cookies and sweets. (See some of the below candy pictures). We had just finished a really nice lunch of gazpacho and a huge plate of paella and we were really wanting something sweet. Or, should I say, I was wanting something sweet so we started window shopping for something that would satisfy our sweet tooth and I’m sure we were drooling all over ourselves by the time we found these oranges.

These beautiful orange sections were staring at us from the window saying “come get us, you will love us”. So, we didn’t want to disappoint the people who worked so hard making all of these delicious treats. I have to say that these were the most delicious, juicy candied oranges I have ever put in my mouth. In Brugge we saw some candies orange slices dipped in chocolate but I have seen those before, but, I have never seen quartered candied oranges before that you could eat the whole thing, peeling and all. And, the only disappointment was when we swallowed the last bite we knew it was –“all gone” as my grandson, Milo would say.

Plate of goodies we purchased. I almost think these oranges were drizzled with honey because they were really juice and almost a little gooey. I love the way they put your treats on the little gold paper plate and this was “to go” and they wrapped the tray with paper and tied with string.

So, before our plane had even taken off for the US, I was already Googling how to make these delicious treats. I found a recipe on Food and Wine’s website and set out trying to make these for my husband. They were a delightful surprise.

October 19, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ HotApp

Fried Eggplant Chips with Honey Drizzle

Another tapas recipe from Spain.

I’ve talked on and on about all the wonderful tapas we had on our trip to Spain and here is yet another recipe that I have tried.

I love tapas and you can turn just about any appetizer into a tapas. Make small portions and serve on small plates and you have a tapas. This tapas just happens to be made from eggplant and is drizzled with honey and will definitely be a favorite of your guests.

I’m not sure when I actually first had eggplant but I know it wasn’t anytime before I was about 40 years old. It’s hard to believe I had never eaten eggplant and it wasn’t a vegetable my dad ever grew in his garden (and he grew just about everything). Probably the first recipe I tasted using this dark purple, night shade vegetable was Eggplant Parmesan at some Italian restaurant and I now make Eggplant Caponata, PF Chang’s recipe for spicy eggplant and several other recipes.

One night at a tapas bar in Seville (our favorite bar) we kept ordering tapas that we saw other people ordering. Since we couldn’t read or speak any Spanish we just went by how something looked and said “we’ll have that”. I really thought this dish was zucchini chips but when I looked up the word later that night, I found out that it was eggplant and that the drizzle was honey.

October 15, 2010 By Sherry

Dessert

Chocolate Malted Ice Cream

Anyone remember a 25¢ malted shake?

I ran across some Ovatine classic malt today and boy did that bring back memories of chocolate malt shakes. So I thought I would give malted ice cream a try.

My grandparents lived next door to us all our lives until my twin sister and our brother moved away and started our own lives. When were were about 4 years old, our grandparents tried to buy a house around the corner from where our parents and us lived, that didn’t last long because my sister and I tried to walk to their house one day (which was only about a block away) and they just couldn’t stand the idea of us getting hurt so they sold that house and built another house and we moved next door to them. So, most of our lives we were going between our house and our grandparents house. I wish my kids had the opportunity to live closer to their grandparents and now that we are grandparents of two grandsons, one in Austin and one in Chicago, we plan on seeing them as much as they can stand us.

October 12, 2010 By Sherry

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