donna's daily dish

the leaves are changing

10/29/2023

The leaves in our area are beginning to reach their peak color. The last few days have brought a touch of warmer weather to be followed by autumn’s chill. My husband and I are trying some seasonal cocktails that use both apple cider and bourbon. After a weekend reunion with college friends and carb loaded meals, my husband wanted some lighter meals last week. I was able to accommodate him with dinners where white beans made for filling meals, but also offered protein and fiber.

First up this week was Autumn in New England Cocktail from “America’s Test Kitchen.” For the recipe you’ll need 2-4 fresh sage leaves, 1/4-ounce maple syrup, 2 ounces of bourbon, 1 ounce apple cider and 1/4-ounce cider vinegar. I used apple cider from Melick’s Town Farm that was included in last week’s CSA share.

Mother's Day

4/17/2023

Mother’s Day is just four short weeks away, have you started planning yet? I am the mother of two children and grandmother to 3 and I prefer to stay home and not join the throngs of people dining out. In fact, I wouldn’t mind cooking if that meant my entire family would be together at once. I’ll take it a step further and host my children and grandchildren on Saturday. If, however, you prefer to take Mom out, consider other days besides Mother’s Day. Another suggestion would be to cater the dinner and enjoy it at home thus allowing younger children a bit more freedom.

Perhaps you’re sharing the cooking duties with family. I have some wonderful recipes for appetizers. If available by Mother’s Day, Garlic Scape Salad Dressing is decidedly different and delicious on a tossed salad. Marinated Beet Salad with Whipped Goat Cheese is also tasty. If you want to hit wider range of palates, create a charcuterie board using Alexian Pâté. If you’re not sure how to build a charcuterie board, I’ve provided a link to “Better Homes and Garden’s” website for instructions.

a little of this and that

2/27/2023

It’s Monday, time for me to catch up and give you my input on some recipes I recently prepared. I’ll start with the past two Friday’s meals since it is the start of Lent. For the first recipe I made Shrimp Fritters from the “Library at Vendue Inn,” located in Charleston, South Carolina. The recipe is from the book “Signature Tastes of Charleston.” The other is Spaghetti with Red Clam sauce from “The Classic Italian Cook Book,” by Marcella Hazan.

I had such high hopes for the fritter recipe, but it fell short in the taste category. For the recipe you’ll need all-purpose flour, baking powder, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, eggs, milk, olive oil, yellow onion, garlic, shrimp and flat leaf parsley. The recipe calls for one pound of shrimp with the fritter batter consisting of 3-1/4 cups of flour and 1-1/2 cups of milk and three eggs. I thought that sounded excessive and decreased the amounts by half. Also, the recipe called for cooked shrimp. In my opinion, adding cooked shrimp to the batter and then sautéing them in the fritter may overcook the shrimp, so I opted not to cook mine.

I'm back

1/30/2023

Last week my husband and I took our daughter and her family to Disney World. We have two granddaughters, 5 and 2, and we wanted to take them for their first visit to see Mickey and friends. More about our trip in an upcoming post.

We returned late last week and I’ve been finding lots of interesting recipes to share. One of the two recent recipes I was dying to make was Cacio e Pepe pasta. The recipe is from 177 Milk Street, a PBS food show by Christopher Kimball. On this show they demonstrated how to prepare a lump free sauce. Although the process seemed to go against tradition, I decided to give it a try.

quick and easy supper

10/30/2022

As someone who’s up at 5 AM, some days by 4 PM I’m running out of steam. Last Wednesday in the food section of The New York Times, Melissa Clark had a wonderful recipe for One-Pan Shrimp Scampi with Crispy Gnocchi and it takes just 25 minutes to prepare!

I have several recipes from The Times that uses shelf-stable potato gnocchi. I tried Wegman’s store brand; it holds up and works well in recipes. Besides the gnocchi you’ll need extra-virgin olive oil, unsalted butter, fresh garlic, dry white wine, kosher salt (Diamond Crystal), freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes, large or extra-large shrimp, a lemon and fresh parsley.

what was I cooking last week you ask?

10/24/2022

In the Saturday edition of The New York Times, they have a Food page dedicated to “What to Cook Next Week.” Sam Sifton, the founding editor of New York Times cooking encourages you to check your pantry, refrigerator and freezer to see what’s on hand then proceed with your food shopping list.

Last week’s recipes inspired me to prepare:

Skillet Chicken with Tomatoes, Pancetta and Mozzarella
Shrimp Creole
Butternut Squash Pasta with Brown-Butter Bread Crumbs
Salisbury Steak

what's cookin'

10/11/2022

It seems I neglected to blog about a recent supper of Lemon-Dill Chicken Skillet that I prepared last week. I am also going to include two other recipes that came on the heels of this one.
I had some remaining feta cheese from the baked eggs recipe I recently prepared for my friends. I was quite happy to find another recipe utilizing feta cheese. This was found in the May 2022 issue of Southern Living Magazine. The ingredients needed include Yukon gold potatoes, olive oil, bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, freshly ground black pepper, kosher salt, fresh lemon juice, feta cheese and fresh dill fronds. This is a great recipe to keep close at hand as it has a prep time of 25 minutes and completed overall in 40 minutes.

plan b

7/26/2022

As I head out the door for qigong this morning, my husband asks, “What’s for supper?” I reply, “I don’t know.” I have a bunch of recipe clippings sitting in my notebook on the kitchen table. Later on, I peruse a few, review the weekly specials at Whole Foods and decide on Spicy Shrimp and Chickpea Salad. Off to Whole Foods and disappointment. It seems they ran out of the Shell-On White Shrimp 10-15 count over the weekend. The fishmonger said he requested more, but his order wasn’t refilled. This is the second time this has happened to me where specially priced items are not available until the end of the sale week. Lesson learned, don’t wait until the final day of the sale.

is it too hot to cook?

7/23/2022

The inevitable summer dilemma is what to cook when the weather turns unbearable. Whether your house is air conditioned or not, cooking during heat kitchen isn’t very motivating. Let me share with you some recipes that may inspire you and keep your kitchen cool.

Back in May I shared with you a recipe I found at Southern Living Magazine for Sesame Shrimp Stir-Fry. Two Ali Slagle recipes are great one pot meals such as Shrimp Scampi with Orzo or Summer Shrimp Scampi with Tomatoes and Corn. While shrimp requires a short time to cook, so does pork tenderloin. Lidia Bastianich’s recipe for Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Onions. Moving from on from shrimp and pork, how about Quick Jambalaya from Vallery Lomas of The New York Times.

back at it

5/29/2022

In the March 2022 issue of Southern Living Magazine, a recipe was published for Sesame Shrimp Stir-Fry. This quick and easy recipe is a great weeknight meal and can also be prepared ahead and frozen for up to six months. The recipe appealed to me because ingredients were readily available in my local food store and made for a light supper for my husband and I.