A Cook & Garden, Together In The Pacific Northwest
Cherry season is here! I can shove handfuls of them into my mouth nonstop for the entire season, but even I occasionally need a break from the fresh ones. And here you have it: A sweet, slightly boozy (I used Cognac because I couldn’t reach the Brandy on the shelf, but you can use whatever you want) concoction, layered with super thick and slightly sweetened Greek yogurt. Come on along and I’ll show you how easy it is to make…
…
Crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside, brimming with Oregon Bay Shrimp, fresh vegetables, sour cream and spicy mustard. Have I convinced you to try these yet?
…
I would be lying if I said I did not stuff myself while putting this blog post together. It is imperative to do this to make sure one’s readers have the best possible recipe. That is my story and I’m sticking to it. These bars have it all and then some. Sweet, salty, creamy, and crunchy all rolled into one bite. I could not stop myself and hope you feel the same. The other plus is that they are a cinch to make. Come on along and I’ll prove it.
…
After spending a week in Santa Fe, I’m in a chili frame of mind and just have to share some of what I learned while stuffing myself all week. Believe me when I say: This is gonna be good. But enough talk already – let’s get that grill fired up and make a quick Tomatillo and Green Chili Salsa…
…and while the salsa is going on about it’s own business and its’ flavors are getting acquainted with each other we’ll be whipping up an easy, cheesy, Chili Relleno Bake.
…
It’s been wild, to say the least. I have been cooking my brains out for the last few weeks due to a new baby in the family (YAY!!!), a good friends’ hip replacement (also YAY that she is doing so well), and last but not least, my mother, otherwise known as Neeners, has been sick with the flu and related ailments and I have been trying to feed her back to health. Never fear – she is better now, but it was a trying three weeks. Neeners is 85 years old, strong as an ox, and is on the go all day. She has no sympathy for anyone who is injured or otherwise under the weather, and her usual admonishment to them is “Get up – you aren’t that sick/hurt”. Needless to say she was a horrible patient, and I’m guessing her doctor armed herself with a whip and a chair on each of Neener’s visits. Here is a small excerpt from one appointment while was on the road to recovery, but not progressing as quickly as she expected. Neeners walks into her doctors office…”PUT ME IN THE HOSPITAL!! NOW!!!” The doctor was stunned, because she was under the correct assumption that Neeners, being 85 and all, was just taking awhile to get back on her feet. So she asked, “Why do you think you need to be hospitalized?” Neeners replied “JUST LOOK AT ME!! I want you to admit me to the hospital immediately and give me an energy shot!!!” As my brother later reported, the doctor sent her home with Pepto Bismol and told her to drink some Ensure until her stomach settled down. And now she is nearly 100% recovered – but she is still driving me to drink, which is situation normal. This brings us back around to the topic at hand – here are a couple of tarts you can throw together in no time, and are just the thing for cocktail hour, or any other hour for that matter. Rich, cheesy, crisp, and satisfying. I expect to make a delivery of these to Neeners tomorrow in celebration of her return to the land of the living. One is Mushroom, the other Asparagus. Take your pick or make both – speaking from personal experience, they go down easy..
.
…
This new creation is a gooey, krispy, chocolatey, salty, sweet, and campfirey. Think Smores meets Rice Krispy Squares in a dark alley. The inspiration from this comes from my friend Rhonda, who took me to Portland for lunch one day. After a delightful lunch, she said ‘How about some coffee and dessert? I know just the place!” I will never turn down coffee, and Rhonda has excellent taste in both coffee and dessert, so off we went. She took me to a wonderful little place called Dragonfly, and while we were waiting for our coffees, she pointed out these huge puffed brown rice bars, filled with lots and lots of chocolate. We quickly devoured one and then tried to figure out the recipe. Dragonfly used brown rice syrup, which I promptly went out and bought. Unfortunately, when I started to make these I had misplaced the syrup so went back to my roots with marshmallows. Then I got in the mood for Smores. One thing led to another, and here we are.
Couldn’t be easier or quicker. Just make sure you don’t set them on fire like I did the first time I tried them out. As mentioned earlier, let’s use Brown Rice Puffs – they are a whole grain so we will feel quite proud of ourselves and very self righteous while eating them.
…
It seems to me that one of the best ways to celebrate Easter is a carrot cake – this is because I love to eat them and look for any excuse to do so. Here you have not just any ordinary carrot cake – it is my mother’s, otherwise known as Neeners. I think it’s the best carrot cake I’ve ever eaten. Don’t tell her that – I’ll never hear the end of it. She has had this recipe since time began, and so I had to attempt to decipher it from her well worn, hand written copy. This was not easy. So I had to call her…”Neeners, your recipe says ‘one half of a medium sized can of pineapple’. What is a medium sized can? Is it the size of, oh, let’s say a can of chili beans you would buy at the store?” …..silence…. And then “Go for it. I don’t think it’s possible to kill this cake”. Lucky, it worked. And if you know me well enough by now, you will also know that it is impossible for me to leave a recipe alone – I have to fiddle with it. In this case, I left the cake alone, but added some caramelized fresh pineapple to top things off. This whole business is super easy to make, so how about you take a walk with me and we get this thing done?
You’ll want to grate about 2 cups of carrots, and haul a can of crushed pineapple in juice out of your pantry. While you’re in there, grab some walnuts – you’ll want to rough chop one cup. If you are not a nut person, just omit them from the recipe. I generally can take them or leave them, but think they add a needed crunch to this recipe. Your call, however.
…
I cannot decide which season to deal with. Do I hang on to winter? (not really interested in that) Or do I spring forward and go roll around in the lawn? (maybe a tad bit too early for that endeavor). Since I can’t make up my mind, and since it has been raining cats and dogs for days on end, I have settled on a little bit of both. The soup part is because nothing tastes better on a dreary day, and the asparagus part because it is one of those vegetables that hollers SPRING at the top of its lungs. Besides, it’s pretty easy to make so you have plenty of left over time to curl up by the fire, pour a few glasses of wine, and just go with it.
…
It has been quite the spell of sweets and overindulgences in our household. Let’s see…Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Super Bowl, and Valentine’s Day. Feeling the need for a little equilibrium straightening? Me too. Let’s have salad. But not just any salad – we do not want to go cold turkey and have some sort of episode. Let’s make sure this baby is not only so good for us we can barely stand it, but that it tastes so good you won’t even miss your Aunt Bessie’s pumpkin pie — too much. 
…
Valentine’s Day falls on Sunday this year, so I thought you might like an idea if you are dining in. Creamy Cauliflower is one of my favorite soups; creamy, cheesy and pretty much guilt free if you are into that food guilt stuff. Every time I’m in the mood for macaroni and cheese I make Cauliflower soup and it usually does the trick. I said usually. Anyhow, here’s my take a putting valentines into soup -it’s fun and easy. There are a couple of ways you can go about this decorating thing: The swirl with heart cut-outs (Thank you Sharon Maasdam for that great idea)….
…