I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa holiday. I’m late with this post, however, I feel with New Year’s Eve on the heel of Christmas these two recipes will be great for the upcoming weekend.
 
After baking numerous batches of Christmas cookies, I had the desire to try a recipe that I’ve had in my possession for years from the Penzeys Spice catalogue, Crispy Cheese Crackers. I wasn’t in charge of Christmas dinner, but my son-in-law requested that I bring appetizers and a salad. I thought these crackers would be a wonderful to nibble on.​

​In all things fall, it’s time to enjoy the bounty that the fall harvest brings. In the November 2021 issue of “Southern Living Magazine” a recipe for Sausage-Stuffed Squash caught my eye. Had I prepared my shopping list better i.e., title of the recipe, followed by the list of ingredients, I would have purchased the correct type of squash for this dish, but I didn’t.  For the recipe you’ll need delicata squash, olive oil, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, hot Italian pork sausage, red onion, fresh garlic, fresh oregano leaves, rainbow chard, water or chicken stock, day old cornbread, toasted and chopped pecans and pecorino Romano cheese.
 
As this was my dinner plan, for that evening, I decided to use the spaghetti squash I purchased for another recipe. The delicata squash is a much smaller vegetable than the spaghetti squash, sweeter and you can eat its skin. Despite my error, I plunged ahead and roasted the squash until it was tender.

​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. 

In a previous blog, I wrote about our dining experience at the Poached Pear Bistro in Point Pleasant, New Jersey and the wonderful Jersey Corn Bisque. Recently in the New York Times, David Tanis had a recipe for Creamy Corn Soup with Basil that is to die for! As for ingredients, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, sweet corn, onions, water and, as an option, squash blossoms are needed. 

Over the past several years, my husband and I have reduced the amount of red meat that we eat and have substituted eating a lot of chicken and turkey. With ground turkey, I’ve made turkey meatballs and wide variety turkey meatloaves.
 
As the weather is still quite warm and humid, I opted for a recipe that I found on the Food Network website for Turkey Burger Patty Melts, a recipe by Guy Fieri. Back when I was growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, diners were plentiful in New Jersey.  In Little Falls, New Jersey on Route 46E there was West’s Diner, which later became the Primrose Diner. I recall my late mother ordering a patty melt. It was a beef patty that was served on toasted rye bread smothered with cheese and onions.  ​

I had a friend call me the other evening to make sure my husband and I were okay. She hadn’t seen posts from me in awhile and she grew concerned. I assured her that all was well and the reason for the gap was we’ve had our daughter and granddaughters visiting us each week for a few days each week since July. My goal was to have quick suppers on Thursday evenings after my granddaughter’s swim lesson and for the other days, you prepare what’s appealing to a one- and four-year-old.
 
Here’s a review of what’s been going on in our culinary life.