Give me Galvanized!

I love the country look of galvanized metal and I've been using it in the sunroom and on the deck for several seasons, but this year I decided to bring it into the kitchen! This buffet section of my kitchen is used just as that -- but when I'm not serving food or drinks from it -- it serves as a cute space to decorate! The most important member of my family, Miss Phoebe, recently created the hanging pages as demonstrations of art lessons for me. They will be used in Christmas presents ... she says!

This particular vignette started with this pretty red bean pot that my daughter gave me for Christmas. It is the perfect size for scaled down casseroles and stews for my empty nest! Then I found a couple matching pitchers. Here's a look at other elements of the clutter!

You cannot possibly have a galvanized theme without a tiered tray!

I coveted other bloggers' tiered trays and finally bought one this spring so I could use it to display lots of cute little things! This tiered tray came from Sam's Club.

The flat trays and the beverage dispenser came from Walmart.

Take a look at all these cuties!

The nested patriotic star shaped bowls are Temptations from QVC. My life is incomplete without pigs, so you'll see them in much of what I do!

Hope you enjoyed my afternoon of country fun! I'll be sharing with a couple parties listed in my sidebar, but stick around my home page before moving on. You might find a recipe you'd like to try!

Carrot Tops!

Carrot tops are so good! If you don't already know that, you'd better try them! One of the things I enjoy using them for is filling in an omelet or frittata. The flavor of carrot tops/greens is a little like parsley, a little like cilantro and a little like dill! Sure! The flavor is earthy and nutty and when you saute them with the onions for this quick omelet, they are delicious.

That's all I did ... fried a little bacon and sauteed onion slivers and chopped carrot tops in the bacon grease. Then I filled my omelet with all that and added a little cheddar cheese.  All done!  So good!

If you'd like to see a newspaper cooking column I wrote a few years ago about the use of carrot tops, click RIGHT HERE!

I'll be sharing this with a couple blog parties!  Make sure you check them out.

Grandma's Cottage Noodles

The old folks have been hanging around lately! You know what I mean? ... the folks that are long gone, but remain in our memories and dreams? I've been thinking a lot about my German grandmother ... my mother's mother. She always had something cooking in the dutch oven that was a part of her big stove. My grandparents lived just a block away from my family, so I nearly made daily trips to visit! I always enjoyed sitting in the porch swing and hearing the stories that I have been thinking about lately!

Grandma made her own cottage cheese. Her sister had a dairy farm and I didn't realize it then, but think now ... that they always had fresh milk right off the farm. Grandma also made everything else from scratch. There would never have been a box mix of any kind in her cupboard, and the noodles in this recipe would have been more like dumplings ... homemade!

The thought of making Grandma's Cottage Noodles & Cabbage began with this little Savoy Cabbage that came with my CSA produce! It was the perfect small, tender size for a couple servings.

I'm sure there are recipes online for this dish, but you don't really need accurate measurements. All you do is fry a couple pieces of bacon and remove it from the pan when it is done. Add the sliced cabbage and pan fry it until it caramelizes a little. Add a couple cups of cooked egg noodles and let them reheat in the skillet. Crumble the bacon on top and the very last thing you do is add 1 to 2 cups of creamed cottage cheese. Stir it all around. The cottage cheese will melt a little and create a really nice creamy sauce for the noodles and cabbage. You can add a little butter if you'd like, but the bacon grease is perfect seasoning for it. Salt and pepper and it is all done!

I'll be sharing this recipe with a few of the blog parties listed in my sidebar. Make sure you stick around my home page, though. You might find other recipes you like!  Enjoy this old ... and easy suppertime favorite!

Duck Tea Time!

When I first saw the invitation to participate in the Mad Tea Party at a Fanciful Twist, I knew I had to focus on one of my favorite teas! A few years ago, I attended the spectacular afternoon tea at the Memphis Peabody Hotel and the experience was only outdone by the duck parade that followed it!  Yes, if you don't know about the fantastic Memphis Peabody Hotel duck parade, you really must click through and read the details.

I emailed a whimsical invitation to a couple guests who were happy to participate!

As I started preparations, I retrieved three of my favorite ducks from my husband's collection and set a table for the ducks!

The perfect china to use for a duck tea party is Johnson Brothers' Brookshire. Brookshire features a variety of feathers and game birds and it is perfect for any masculine tablescape ... and more perfect to celebrate ducks!

Just look at some of the pretty birds!

Our menu featured some fresh produce. Wonderful cream soup made with yellow crooked neck summer squash, cucumber sandwiches with a just picked cucumber and herbs from Phoebe's little chair garden, fresh peaches added to the scones and some of the season's first blueberries in tiny tarts.

I served Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Gold tea, which was introduced to me by a friend from England at a tea she hosted a couple months ago.  My daughter found the tea on a big city shopping trip and I had a nice box of it in my Mother's Day gifts!

I've hosted many teas in my career of entertaining friends! I've learned that the longer you drag out the 'serving' of courses, the more fun you have!  I've also learned that it is important to set places with flatware. Too often, tea party-goers are expected to pick up things with their fingers ... and I hate that! I always want a knife, fork and spoon when I am actually eating real food! The Brookshire pattern has all kinds of extras ... the cream soup bowls are favorites of mine!

I used my faux stag handled flatware and served spritzy spa water in these pretty stemmed glasses.  The 9-inch luncheon plates were perfect for this setting and, of course, I had to use my ceramic duck napkin rings!

My tablescapes frequently include baskets, because I have zillions of them! The ducks greeted my guests cheerfully and everybody had a great time nibbling, sipping and gabbing!

I'll be sharing this post with the Mad Tea Party blog party. Just click through to visit all the other party participants!  

If you'd like to see a couple of my past tea party posts ... visit  Royal Wedding Tea Party Supper and the Music of Tea.

Paper Flowers and Baskets!

I've been using my Cricut to make paper flowers and put this wreath together just to see how cute they are! I have both the flower garden dies, and I'm primarily using them to embellish the fronts of mini scrapbooks. I saved that pretty pink ribbon from the package my sister-in-law gave me for my birthday last January! She makes the best bows!

I've also been picking up little baskets as we've jaunted from junk store to junk store this spring and summer and decided to display them on the ladder in my kitchen. I have scads of baskets and don't need another one, but I can't resist the little ones!

I may share this post with a couple of the parties in my sidebar, so make  sure you click through to visit other folks ... but stick around my home page, first!

You might find something you would enjoy.

Red Cippolini

I have been savoring a beautiful red cippolini onion that came in my CSA bag last week. It is so sweet ... and I'm going to caramelize half of it ... but I've been nibbling away at the other half. Normally cippolinis are small onions, cooked whole ... but this one was a little larger and delicious nonetheless!

I used part of my special onion in roasted cauliflower salad. Clean the cauliflower and separate into flowerettes. Drizzle them with olive oil and toss them so they are coated. Drizzle a little more olive oil in a baking pan and spread the flowerettes out in a single layer.  Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. The size and the texture you desire ... could change the amount of time required ... so check them about fifteen minutes into baking. After the cauliflower has cooled to room temperature, add chopped onion, chopped olives, chopped rosemary and oregano ... salt and pepper ... about a teaspoon of garlic paste and the juice of a lemon. I also zest the lemon for my salad and add a little more oil if it needs it.  Serve it at room temperature, but refrigerate left overs.

I might share this recipe with some of the blog parties listed in my sidebar, but make sure you stick around my home page for a little while. You might find something else that you like!

Cheesecake with Splenda

Isn't this a beauty? I'll be posting several recipes in upcoming weeks that include Splenda instead of sugar. Nobody is paying me to do this ... I'm just wanting to experiment with some conversions. This sweet little cheesecake is just 7 inches, so don't try to make it and put it in a big spring form pan.  If you have a 9 or 11 inch pan, you can double the recipe, though.  Baking time is about the same.

The ingredients are simple. 
To make the crust, crush enough cookies or graham crackers to have about 1 1/2 cups of crumbs. Blend that together with 2 Tablespoons soft margarine or butter and press it into the bottom of a 7-inch spring form pan.

For the filling, use 2 
8-ounce blocks of cream cheese, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoon of almond extract and 1/2 cup of Splenda. Whip it all together until it is smooth. I use my food processor.  Pour it into the crust and bake it at 350 degrees. It will take about an hour and the top will puff up ... but calms down as it cools!  Cool it on a wire rack ... completely cool ... before you remove it from the pan.

The blueberry topping is also made with Splenda. I cooked 2 cups of fresh berries with 1/2 cup of water and a Tablespoon of cornstarch ... and 1/4 cup of Splenda. My berries were extra sweet. If your berries are tart, it could take a half cup to make a good topping.

I'll be sharing this recipe with some of the parties listed in my sidebar, so click through to see all the other participants!

Red Bean Hummus

I love hummus, but I don't love garbanzo beans, so I make my hummus with red or white kidney beans. The recipe sure is easy and makes a great snack with vegetables, pita bread or crackers.

Use your food processor or your blender. Drain a can of red kidney beans and pour them in the food processor. Add the juice of 1/2 lemon ... and some of the zest if you like lemon! Add 1/2   cup of Tahini,
1 teaspoon garlic paste and about a dozen big leaves of fresh basil. Blend it all together and enjoy!

I'll be sharing this with a few of the parties listed in my sidebar, but make sure you hang around my home page for a little while! You might find something else you like!

Stir- Fry Shrimp

I'm cooking each day with foods from our CSA and enjoying every bite of it! This stir-fry recipe is about a simple as it gets and takes just minutes to prepare. I love the flavors of vegetables, so I frequently prepare stir-fry without any kind of sauce. This is one of those times!

I drizzled the shrimp, mushrooms and squash with sesame oil ... tossed them around it it ... and let it sit on the counter for about 30 minutes to absorb a little of the oil. Then I dropped those ingredients into a hot skillet and seared in the flavors, stirring and turning until the shrimp were pink. I added a big handful of greens right on top of the other ingredients ... turned off the burner ... then continued to toss things around until the greens were wilted.  That's it!  All done!

ZOODLES!

It doesn't take much to entertain me! I'm crazy for kitchen gadgets and probably have more "used it once" things buried in my kitchen drawers than most people! The zoodle maker will not be one of those things, however! Nobody is paying me to blog about this little gem, but it is worth a little focus. I've looked at all the recipes for preparing the long strands of squash on Pinterest for the past couple years, but just decided I would join in with the ZOODLE crowd last week. I ordered my zoodle slicer and used it immediately the day it arrived!



My recipe was about as simple as it gets.  I sauteed my zoodles in a couple Tablespoons of pesto and it only took about 4 minutes to have beautiful zoodles. You probably already know that zucchini will take on any flavor that you put with it. You can make mock apple pies using zucchini and you'll never know you aren't eating apples!
It is simple to use the tool. Slice the top and bottom off the end of the squash and twist it in the little slicer. There are two sizes of blades and you can choose the one you like best. There is also an end cap to use to protect your fingers from the last few twists. Use it! A couple summers ago, I taught over 1,000 students how to cook using locally grown produce and most of those students were kids.  I think this tool is safe enough for children to use.  You can also use it to slice carrots and potatoes and I'll be trying that soon!

I'll share this post with a couple of the parties listed on my sidebar, but before you venture off to visit the other party-goers, stick around my home page. You might find something else that you like!

Fried Chicken Secret Spices!

It is very common to find copycat recipes online these days, and there are scores of posts that say they have the "exact" recipe for that famous Colonel's fried chicken. I doubt that, especially since the ingredients vary from post to post! Don't believe everything you read!

I've had a fried chicken spice recipe for many years and the originator claimed it was the "real thing" from the Colonel. I'm sure it isn't but it sure is a good one! I  combine these spices: 

A teaspoon of each:

Poultry seasoning

Pepper

Salt

Onion powder

Garlic powder

Cinnamon

Celery salt

2 Tablespoons:

Paprika

Accent

I store these combined spices in a jar and when I'm oven frying or pan frying chicken, I use a teaspoon of the spices to every half cup of flour. You can sprinkle more on each piece of chicken before you bake it or after you remove it from your skillet.  I soak my chicken pieces in buttermilk for about 30 minutes, then dredge the pieces in the seasoned flour.  I prefer to oven fry chicken these days, so I place each piece in a shallow pan that has about 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of canola oil in it. If you want more seasoning, sprinkle it on at this point. Bake the chicken at 350 degrees for about an hour. Turn the pieces over after 30 minutes, so both sides brown. You can turn the pieces more frequently, if you want to brown it all the way around (like the legs).  It is possible that it will take a little longer than an hour to finish the chicken, especially if the pieces are larger. I cut chicken breasts into 4 pieces, but the thighs might take a few more minutes to get done.

My mother made oven fried chicken and we call it "Boyfriend Chicken" because she made it as a special meal with our boyfriends or girlfriends came to visit! Mother turned her chicken every 15 minutes and sprinkled each piece with Lawry's Seasoning Salt. Instead of using oil, she melted a stick of butter in her baking pan. I still make this, too ... and it is delicious, too!

Greens with Outlander!

It seems fitting that I'm reading the Outlander books this summer ... and experiencing all kinds of recipes with greens! Every time I try a new recipe, I think of Claire and all her medicinal concoctions using herbs and greens and things that she foraged. I'm loving the books and since my daughter is way ahead of me in reading them, occasionally I can get her to give me hints about what will be happening!  

This week's greens from the CSA are sorrel. It isn't often that I say I haven't eaten something, but until today, I had never knowingly tasted sorrel. I say 'knowingly' because my grandparents and a pair of elderly neighbors used to cook all kinds of pots of greens ... so it is possible that I've eaten them in childhood!

I am delighted by the flavor. They taste like a combination of Granny Smith tart apples, lemons and limes. The leaves that I cooked were about four inches long and I chopped the stems right with the leaf. After a little study, I found that folks love them in salads, cooked as pot greens and used in sauces. Because of the tart flavor, they are especially good served in sauces made with butter and cream and accompanying fatty fish like salmon. The tart flavor cuts the richness of the fatty ingredients. I also found that sorrel with ripen and burst a boil if you make the leaves into a poultice!

I might try that, but tonight I had my sorrel in a cream sauce over pasta, and here it is!

This recipe is enough for two servings of pasta or four side servings of pasta.

In 2 Tablespoons of butter, saute 2 Tablespoons of finely chopped sweet onion. When the onions are beginning to soften, add 2 cups of loosely packed sorrel leaves cut in a chiffonade style. As soon as the greens wilt, add 1/2 cup of dry white wine, 1 cup of half and half and 1/2 cup dry parmesan cheese. Add a dash of salt and a grind of black pepper and let this simmer until the sauce thickens ... about 4 - 6 minutes. When the sauce is done, add 1/2 cup chopped tomato (no juice or seeds) and stir it into the sauce.

I served this over penne pasta ... so the sauce would seep into the center of the noodles!  Loved it! 

This sauce resembles a Florentine sauce, but the flavor is different ... not so "icky" rich because the sorrel indeed cuts that out. It will be delicious served over any kind of meat, used as a sauce for crepes or stacked in a flour tortilla casserole with shredded chicken. 

I'll be sharing this with a few of the parties listed in my sidebar, but I hope you'll hang around my home page to see my other posts!