A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Weekend Herb Blogging #80

To Kalyn, thanks for letting me host weekend blogging. This has been fun getting to personally email with everyone participating.  I also have a new found respect for all of you who host, especially large, blogging events. Whew! That's a lot of work.  Fun, but time-consuming.  So thanks to everyone in the blogging community who do go to the trouble of hosting these happy little parties.

Our herbally rife round-up for this week includes:

Y with Lemonpi tells us a lot about cranberries, more than I had a clue and it was very interesting. I’ll be more appreciative of my fresh cranberries next fall. She also makes cous cous cakes that are going on my to-to list.

Nick, from The Tracing Paper, educates us on the food beauty that is St. Georges Mushrooms and gives tips on finding them.  He made me very hungry for that asparagus/mushroom omelet he mentions.

Katarina, with Daily Unadventures in Cooking channels Julia Child by way of Marcella  Hazan’s  book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, and gives us an inviting zucchine gratine with the herb marjoram.  She also gives a very interesting treatise on the difference between oregano and marjoram. 

Charise, with More Bread and Cheese, Please! grills up some juicy looking Thai Turkey burgers with lemongrass and cilantro. She admits the lemongrass didn’t thrill her at first but from the moment she sliced into it and the scent rose up to please her nose, she was hooked.

Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook features a beautiful roasting of cipolline onions that made my mouth water.  Onions have always my favorite roasted veggies. The sugars that are brought out by that cooking method compare to nothing as far as I’m concerned and Susan’s recipe just adds to the goodness.

Zorra at  1x umruehren bitte aka kochtopf roasts a chicken and veggies using pimenton (smoked chili powder) that looks so good you can practically catch the scent from the photos.  I’m very jealous of her crock baker too. I just bought a new one but it’s not nearly as pretty. 

Sher at What Did You Eat?  cooks up a scrumptious looking dish of Thai Chicken with Basil, Mushrooms, Green Beans, and Baby Corn. Check out her memory of meeting up with baby corn as a teen.

Kalyn, at Kalyn’s Kitchen and founder of Weekend Herb Blogging chops up a gorgeous Mango Salsa with Red Bell Pepper.  Seriously you have to see the colors in this.  I feel healthier and happier just looking at the photo. She also gives links to info aobut mangoes and a couple of great recipes:  Crockpot Chicken Fajitas and Grilled Chicken Fusion.

Helene at  Neues aus der kueche (News from the Kitchen) shares pictures of her growing mint and a recipe for Bulgar with Mint.  She also gives a little mint tip to help adjust the volume, so to speak for your particular tastes.  Check out her post to get that tip.

Anna at Morsels & Musings features shallots in her trio of sashimi recipes before she leaves on a two week international business trip: Kingfish with lime, Olive oil, and Pink Peppercorns; Salmon with Ponzu; and Kingfish with Soy, Mustard, and Shallots. Good luck on your trip, Anna!

Myriam at Once Upon A Tart cooked with sage this week.  Sage, apple, pecorino, taleggio, and honey pizza.  Mmmmm…doesn’t that sound good?  Way to go, Myriam!

Katie from Thyme for Cooking, also tackles the “Is it Marjoram or is it Oregano questions, complete with a short tour of her oregano/marjoram beds in her garden. She ends with a lovely pork chop dinner with white bean and both oregano and marjoram salad.

Amy at Nook and Pantry bring us green onions in Green Onion Pancake.  Her recipe makes a chewy flatbread great for breakfast or snacking that reminds me a little of the Navajo fry bread we used to eat all the time when I lived out west. Can’t wait to try this one.

Chris at Mele Cotte has a wonderfully insightful conversation with her students about tomato and whether their a fruit or vegetable, gives us lots of tips about storing and using them, and bakes a delicious looking focaccia.

Emily at Superspark highlights kumquats in her Moroccan Chicken with Kumquats and Prunes this week.   You have to read her entry just to see how her husband, Dylan, describes the taste of kumquats.

Cate from Sweetnicks hit the jackpot when asking for recipes while at Disneyworld and they did give/email them to her.  She made their peanut satay sauce garlic and spinach artichoke dip, loving the results, and also put together a lovely salad with parsley and some interesting waffle croutons.

Haalo at Cook Almost Anything takes a thorough look at bell peppers and prepares a dish, peperonata that she’s been cooking since childhood.

Ulrike from Küchenlatein whips up a lovely batch of ramsom-almond pesto and ready now for that pasta dish she’ll be making at her son’s request next week.

Astrid of Paulchen’s Food Blog uses basil and thyme in her Tagliatelle with porcini, basil, and thyme as an easy lunch that looks very elegant and inviting.

Kate with Veggie Friendly spotlights dill this week in a creamy Hungarian dish Mushrooms Paprika served over mashed potatoes.  Let’s see…mushrooms…paprika…dill…mashed potatoes…I think that’s how you spell delicious, isn’t it?

Brigitte from Küchendunst aus Singapur makes several nice recipes after putting together a lovely cress-walnut pesto from cress she grew herself. 

The Chocolate Lady at In Mol Araan looks at pineapple sage, one of my personal favorites for it’s lightness in the savory category.  She makes Sagacious Strawberries from the herb.

Andrea with Buy Organic steeps a warm and aroma-therapeutic cup of rosemary herb tea.  With mild analgesic properties, rosemary tea is an herbal remedy for headaches and other mild body aches.  (No photo)

Rinku of Cooking in Westchester serves up a delicious looking pan fried halibut with the always popular cilantro.  She says fish is her go-to dinner choice for when she’s needs quick, easy, and tasty.

And my contribution to WHB this week was my Nannie’s White Cornbread with Bacon and Jalapeno.

Next weekend, Herb Blogging will be back at home in Salt Lake City, hosted by its creator Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen.

Thanks for all of your entries, everyone!

Southern Corn Bread

After all the moaning and whining I've done about southern versus northern cornbread, I thought it was time to put up or shut up.  So for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging, which I'm hosting this week, I'm making Southern Cornbread with Bacon and Jalapeno.  Technically, my herb is jalapeno but technically Kalyn says WHB is about featuring any herb, spice, or plant.  And since jalapenos are basically a seasoning or condiment...right?  Of course, when I was growing up, bacon could also be considered a seasoning or condiment.  Like Emeril says, pork fat does indeed rule.  At our house it did, anyway.

My loyalty to white cornbread is from memories.  At my grandmother's, "Nannie" to me, there was always always always an omelet pan of white cornbread.  Always white. Always an omelet pan. Always on the table.  Always at "dinner time".  Instead of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, my Nannie ate breakfast, dinner, and supper.  Dinner,  lunch to us, when company came, was a table groaning under platters of Coca-cola BBQ chicken, mashed potatoes,  fried green tomatoes and fresh sliced juicy red tomatoes both from the garden, home-made pickles, and tall glasses of iced tea, although we did not/do not drink our tea sweet. Supper to Nannie, more days than not, was a glass of milk with the crumbled leftovers of the cornbread, eaten with a spoon.

This is me and my Nannie at her birthday party just a year or two ago.

Nannie "baked" cornbread on top of the stove. I have no idea where she got this trick but she's been doing it all of my life that I remember.  She poured the cornbread mix into a greased omelet pan and baked it on the stove over a low flame, flipping it when the first side was about 2/3 done.  No measurements. No timing. It was all done from habit and sight. To this day, that crescent-shaped white cornbread symoblizes my family's love for Nannie more than any other dish you can put on the table.

Sushi: Take Two

Okay, kids, this is my second attempt at making my own sushi with all those lovely big girl kitchen toys Aunt Miranda gave me for Christmas. It was just as fun the second time around.  I'm still getting my feet wet so I haven't traveled off the California roll beaten path yet but give me time. I'll get there.  Last time I used vegetables only, just to see if I could roll them. This time I stepped up to shrimp, cream cheese, cucumbers, and avocado in a couple of different variations. For dipping, I had soy sauce and a shrimp sauce that's very close to the seafood sauce at the Japanese grill restaurants, a recipe Aunt Miranda gave me. The red swirlies on top is chinese red pepper hot sauce.  Mmmmm...just enough of a bite to complement the wasabi.

For my first post on making sushi that shows step by step photos, click HERE.

The first time I made sushi, Gene was out of town. That was fine with me because it took the pressure off. This time he was home and I was afraid he would be a hard sell.  He loves seafood but the whole concept just isn't his he-man macho food style but you know what? He was very game and he ate a whole roll all by himself. Then he devoured a pound of naked shrimp. Then he asked where dinner was.  I'm kidding. He didn't ask, he just got up and made himself a grilled cheese sandwich, well I think it was actually two, to finish filling that skinny hollow leg.

For the shrimp sauce recipe, click below:

Krispy Kreme Glazed Donut Bread Pudding

When Sher over at What Did You Eat? made Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding, I couldn't get it out of my mind.  Gene loves donuts. Gene loves bread pudding.  What better treat could I make him for Easter dinner than to combine his two favorites? 

You can definitely taste the donuts in a very rich, decadent, delicous way.  Gene has hoarded the rest of the pudding to eat for breakfast with a cup of coffee.  This is one of those recipes you have to try at least once just to say you did it. At my house, I have a feeling, as much as Gene liked it, it's going to become the bread pudding of choice.

In Vegas, I'm not sure what was more Alien: the Klingons or Emeril serving me Yankee cornbread

Geeky, I know but I loved it!  So much I bought it for myself.  Am home from Vegas with a handful of pictures and a lot of good memories. Also with several thousand words towards completing my novel but I don't have an exact count until I get it all put in the ocmputer.

Let's take a little scenic food tour of Vegas, shall we?

I admit I spent several meal times in the Star Trek restaurant at the Hilton. One, because I love Trek in all it's forms, two, because I was hanging out writing and it had the most conducive space, and three, it's the only good food inside the Las Vegas Hilton these days.  I found out my second day or so that the Qark's is leased space. Ahh, the mystery is explained.  Their management, chefs, and everything else is completely separate from the Hilton.  Makes sense now.  Quark's=good food; Hilton=expensive terrible food.

Maybe this isn't food but let's start with my favorite Klingon. This guy said to me during one of my afternoon Hemingway Writing Tours "Female, what are you constantly taking notes about?"  I said "I'm working on my novel. I'm channeling the spirit of the great creator, Gene Roddenberry."  He said "Seeking inspiration from the Creator is a good thing. What have you written?"  I said "I haven't published any books before, only magazines.  He said "What magazines are you in?"  I said "My most recent will be Chicken Soup for the Soul."  He said "Earther, you must slit your wrists now."  I said "Embarrassing, I know, but their check cashes just the same as everyone else's."  He said "Excellent. Spoken like a true Ferengi."

When told to smile for the photo, he said "I am smiling."

The Star Trek food tour goes a little like this:

    Chili (forget the Star Trek name) and chips, with a Shuttle Salad and bleu cheese dressing. Simple but very well done, nice and crisp.  And to wash it down, a Warp Core Breach.  Lots of dry ice to make it flow over into the exotic.  Great drink too. Several kinds of rum and...after several kinds of rum I've forgotten what else.

         

Again, can't remember the special name, cardassian something, I think but to us Earthers: apple crisp:

I thought I had more Star Trek food photos than I actually ended up with. Amazing what you forget to photograph when you're having fun.

And then there was Emeril's in the MGM Grand. It was the best meal of the trip.