Spring is here and my herb garden has expanded. My husband went a bit overboard and selected some varieties I wouldn’t have thought of. Besides the stalwarts of basil, parsley, oregano and rosemary, chives and sage, which were saved in the cold frame over winter, I now have dill (for homemade refrigerator pickles), chamomile (for making tea) and lemon-flavored varieties such as lemongrass, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemon thyme plus flat and curly leaf parsley. This should make for a flavorful summer.
 
About a week ago my local ShopRite had Atlantic cod fish on special. I found a delightful recipe on The New York Times cooking app, Cod Baked with Prosciutto, by Nigella Lawson, using just a handful of ingredients. Besides the cod and prosciutto, you’ll need butter, salt and pepper. After reading the cooking notes of other cooks, I used some fresh thyme from my garden.

​My local Foodtown had flank steak on special this week for $7.99/lb. I couldn’t resist picking up a package for supper. While I have several good flank steak recipes in my file, a food blogger is always on the lookout for the next, best recipe.
 
With that in mind, I searched the web for something unique. I came across the website for Taste of Home. In the late 90’s I was given a subscription to this magazine. The magazine uses recipes submitted by home cooks. Once submitted, the Taste of Home test kitchen staff works through each recipe and makes adjustments to ingredients, proportions, to name a few, to ensure consistency with results. Therefore, I felt confident in preparing “Slow-Cooker Mongolian Beef.”

​As I walked through Wegmans last Sunday, I was trying to think of what I could prepare for supper that evening. As I passed through the seafood department I thought Shrimp Risotto would be a great alternative to beef or chicken. This time instead of purchasing wild caught, uncooked shrimp, I opted for something I haven’t seen before in the frozen seafood case, Wegmans Large Raw Shrimp, Peeled and Deveined Tail Off. The shrimp are farm raised in the United States, no chemical or antibiotics with a price of $12.99 for a pound of shrimp. The shrimp are 43 per bag, a bit smaller than the fresh, but considering I was using them for a risotto, I thought the size would be fine.
 
The recipe came from the website Epicurious and is an old recipe from the long-gone magazine, Gourmet from February 1998. For the recipe you’ll need chicken broth, dry white wine, butter, minced garlic, dried crushed red pepper, uncooked shrimp, onion, arborio rice and fresh parsley. I find using my LeCreuset braiser works the best for this task. The enameled cast iron offers good heat distribution and makes clean up a cinch. Also, for this recipe, I used homemade shrimp stock. 

​I can’t believe Easter has passed and now it’s May!  Let me start by telling you what I made for Easter dinner.
 
As our only guests were our son, daughter-in-law and infant grandson, our son suggested a light dinner as they were having Easter brunch earlier in the day. For the holiday, I like to prepare a ham dinner. The New York Times had a write up, “The Most Flavorful Easter Ham Starts on the Stove,” featuring a recipe for Honey Ham. I started with a Wellshire Farms Spiral Cut Ham from Whole Foods. This wonderful recipe begins by steaming the ham with wine, juniper berries, peppercorns, cloves, onion and honey. The ham is heated through on the stove top. Afterward it’s coated with a glaze made from some of the pots cooking liquid, whole-grain Dijon mustard and brown sugar. As it bakes in a 450° oven, it develops a crusty coating, but not too sweet. Oh, my goodness was this fabulous! Everyone loved the ham; it was different and very delicious.