Side dish – Rosemary and the Goat

Crispy Rice Salad with Pork Belly

Another “saved” Instagram recipe!

How many “saved” recipes do you have on either Instagram or Pinterest? I have hundreds. I’ve probably tried more from Pinterest than Instagram. This Crispy Rice Salad was sent to me by my daughter and it sounded so good I had to give it a try AND with only a few additions.

I just happened to have some English cucumber, and frozen edamame in the refrigerator/freezer and had leftover rice from making some chicken chow mein the night before so why not make this for dinner tonight because with a UT football game on my HUB wasn’t going anywhere.

My additions were to add some crispy pork belly to top to go with the crispy rice. The pork belly came from Trader Joes and even though it is around $6 for a small 12 oz. package, it was already cooked so I just had to cube it and brown in a skillet. This recipe was posted as a salad but I didn’t want to make a main dish so the pork belly saved the day. I also added some sliced avocado to the finished bowl of crispy/crunchy goodness and a little squeeze of lime never hurt anything.

February 1, 2025 By Sherry

Side dish

Dijon and Bacon Mashed Potatoes

I like mustard and I cannot lie!

I’m sure everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving feast and probably mashed potatoes of any kind is the last thing you want to think about. BUT, this is such a simple recipe and it goes well with fish, beef, pork or chicken.

I eat mustard on almost anything. As a kid, my sister and I would make mustard sandwiches on really soft white bread (light bread we called it) and smash it before eating it. Don’t ask me why because our mother always had plenty of food made for us to eat.

I have some weird eating habits when it comes to mustard though. I’ve only ever dipped French fries in mustard. I have never used ketchup on a fry, never. I love to put a little mustard on the edge of my bowl of white beans and ham and with each bite drag a little into the spoonful of beans and ham. Doesn’t that just make your mouth water and especially if you think of a nice piece of cornbread to go with that bowl of beans. I love fried pork belly sandwiches on some nice soft white bread and lots of yellow mustard.

So when I was cruising the internet, not looking for mashed potatoes, I came across several recipes for mustard mashed potatoes. I added cream instead of milk and topped with some crispy bacon bits and green onion slices and have to say they were quite good to go with our oven baked catfish and then I used the leftovers with our steak and cowboy butter the next night. Recipe for cowboy butter coming soon.

November 24, 2023 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Corn and Tomatillo Relish

Summer time corn!

For the last few months I have been driving by this field of corn outside Roundtop. Watching it grow from tiny stalks to larger stalks, then with ears of corn and wanting to find out who owns this field so I can go beggin’ for a few ears to make my mother’s fried corn.

Well the corn kept growing and growing and then started turning brown and my chance of finding the owner was gone. Of course this corn didn’t die before it got into the markets, it was a field of “field corn” or “cow corn” that is grown especially for cow feed. But this kind of corn makes the best fried corn but better than the sweet corn sold in the groceries.

July 22, 2023 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Charred Broccoli with Blue Cheese Dressing and Spicy Rice

What do you do after a hard day’s work?

I’ve always loved cooking, taking cooking classes, watching cooking competitions, talking food, recreating a dish that I have enjoyed from a restaurant and teaching someone how to make something special. So, even today, in my old age (ha) after helping out in the kitchen at our son and D-I-L’s brewery for 6-8 hours I’ll come home and watch a good “food movie” or some of my new favorite food shows on Magnolia network or even sit down and search the internet for some new recipes.

One of my favorite things to do is to look at menus from restaurants where friends or family have dined. You can’t imagine how many ideas I have gotten from reading menus and unless it is an over the top restaurant with like super complicated foods and techniques, it’s pretty easy to come up with a recipe.

This particular recipe is from Stephanie Izard (The Girl and the Goat Restaurant in Chicago). She won Top Chef competition in their fourth season and now has four restaurants. (Her green bean recipe is still one of my all time favorite green bean recipes.) My son, Scott, is always sending me new things to try. I would have to say that he is a lot more adventurous than I am. I have not tried his tahini brownies and probably won’t but I will try almost anything else he recommends. When he showed me this recipe I think he had already made it twice so I knew it must be good.

July 26, 2022 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Smashed Brussel Sprouts with Pistachios

No chasing these little spheres around the plate!

Seems like Brussel sprouts have always gotten a bad rap in the green vegetable category. Ever wonder why? Well, after some searching I found that it is in your DNA. Either you have the “sprout gene” (PTC) or you don’t. This gene comes in 2 forms – bitter and non-bitter tasting. If you are really interested in why you may be a BS hater, read on here.

The BS’s, for me, have become less bitter and I think that is the way I prepare them these days. A little sweetness from balsamic or adding dates or golden raisins can’t help to elevate this little vegetable to a better place in our vegetable choices. My mother never prepared Brussel sprouts and that’s probably because my dad didn’t like them and back then she cooked vegetables like cabbage and even green beans long past their “done” stage making things a drab color and mushy. In later years all of my mother’s and dad’s cooking changed and green beans were cooked to a vibrant green or cabbage not cooked to death. I personally like my cabbage cut into small pieces and sautéed very quick so it still has a little bite to it and the color resembles more of what it looked like when cut from the garden.

May 16, 2022 By Sherry

Side dish

Eggplant, Potatoes and Peppers

Like eggplant? Try this recipe.

Several months ago our neighbor, Mark, gave me this eggplant from his garden and as usual when I see an eggplant I want to make eggplant parmesan. This time, however, I decided to try something different to go with some steelhead trout we were grilling for dinner.

Over the years I have bought several types of eggplants. The miniature ones I have used for my Baby Eggplant with Pine Nut Salsa which made a cute and tasty little appetizer or side dish. I’ve prepared the graffiti, globe, Japanese, and white ones. I’ve cut very thin, fried and served with a drizzle of honey like we had in Spain, I’ve done stir fries with them, made caponata and of course eggplant parmesan. Aloo Baisan (eggplant and potato) is a recipe I posted by in 2012; this recipe is a different take on an eggplant/potato side dish.

March 22, 2022 By Sherry

Side dish

Potatoes, Broccoli and Cheese

Potatoes, Broccoli and Cheese OH MY!

Who doesn’t love potatoes? Whether they are whipped (not really suppose to whip potatoes though), French Fried, American Fried, hashed, smashed, paved, loaded, twice baked or AuGratined (the list goes on and on and on) there is no wrong way to prepare a potato. I use to eat them raw with salt when I was a kid. Have not done that in at least 60 years. Not sure why not, just never took the time to single out a few freshly cut potato sticks and salt and crunch away for a pre-dinner snack.

Take a look when you have a minute or two at my “side dish” section of this blog at some of my favorite potato dishes. I love my Potatoes Pave, beautiful to look at and fun to eat. One night I was looking for a side dish to go with some steelhead trout we were grilling; I should say GA was grilling. I’m not sure I could even light the grill or start the Kamado Joe smoker. I happened to have a bunch of potatoes left over from Christmas that weren’t used because our holiday was cut short (what a bummer), there was half a bag of broccoli left from a salad I had made on pizza night at the Brewery over Christmas and several packages of cheese that would eventually get used up.

January 24, 2022 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Roasted Cabbage Steaks

New Year’s Cabbage, Pork, and Black-eyed Peas and Friends.

So It’s been 11 days since New Year’s Day and I’m still waiting for my good luck/money/prosperity. Well, it will come but I will have to wait awhile I guess.

It’s been a busy few weeks with kids coming from Chicago and Austin for Christmas and all six little grandsons able to play together for first time in 2 years. And, a little covid to bring things to a close earlier than expected. But as I told our son, Scott, we at least got together for Christmas, had a great steak dinner for his Christmas Birthday, a fish fry and lots of new games we got to play. Things will get better and I’m looking forward to at least a couple of trips to Chicago this year. We also did a pizza night on Sunday after Christmas after the brewery closed. Paul made all the crust, I got together the toppings and GA grilled them on the Big Green Egg at the brewery.

On top of holiday fun/blues/COVID, my Mac computer died and it had to live at Best Buy for a week just uploading all my thousands of pictures. So, blogging hasn’t been on top of my list of things to pick from everyday to keep me busy. Of course, I’ve been busy helping in the kitchen at the brewery and that is always fun to see what new menu items Paul is going to come up with for the weekend. This past week it was a country pate to go along with his chicken liver pate. They look and taste wonderful.

January 11, 2022 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Roasted Rainbow Carrots and Green Beans

Love those rainbow vegetables!

Anytime I see any rainbow colored vegetables they end up in my shopping basket. The last time I was at Central Market I snatched up some rainbow radishes; shades of purple, pink, reds and whites (and even black) were just waiting for me when I cruised the produce section. These beautiful rainbow carrots yelled out at me while walking through Whole Foods in Austin one weekend when we were there visiting our daughter and her family. At the time, I did not have any idea for these other than slicing them up in a salad and how boring would that have been.

So Thanksgiving eve morning I’m cruising the internet and came across this beautiful recipe from grilledcheesesocial.com and knew MacKenzie Smith’s (2 time Food Network Champ) recipe would be a hit at our Thanksgiving meal. Thank you MacKenzie for sharing this recipe. I will definitely be “lurking” your blog for more yummy ideas. (Note: it took my green beans forever to even get close to being tender and if I ever did these again I would probably blanch for 6-7 minutes before roasting.) Good dish but the green beans just tasted too undercooked. I decided that my green beans might have been about a week too old to use and I should have used fresher ones or even frozen.

December 7, 2021 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

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

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