Ridiculously good

food.

Voila! Stuffed green peppers.

:)

OMG

too good...

w-a-a-a-y too good.

:) 

Christmas...

                                                                                                                                                      pasta.

Another of my husband's culinary adventures: Jade noodles (or Christmas Pasta) 

made with spinach, leek, scallions, chives and basil...

yum yum yum yum

(The) Colors of...

Christmas. :)

Easy winter comfort

 Chicken Pot Pie

food.

(A classic.)

lg

:-)

Standard Fare

Thyme Polenta with Butter Grilled Chivey Shrimp, Garden Fresh Petite Stuffed Tomato, and Ginger Curd and Butter Gourmet Baby Carrots (compliments of the Sheboygan, WI farmer's market, 2016)  

Oh my! This is 'standard dinner fare' around here! 

We visited the Sheboygan (WI) farmer's market this weekend 

and were delighted to find row after row of fresh vegetables and many flowers 

to choose from, as well...

We procured these delightful tiny gourmet colored carrots there for this dish. 

I apologize for the (kind of light) photograph as it was taken with a flash 

after daylight hours! I was desperate to photograph it and used what 

little light I had! I'm hoping the vivid colors, textures and my kind 

of 'gleaming surfaces...' will suffice to entice your taste palate 

and fuel your culinary passions! 

Eat with your eyes! Eat to enjoy!

                                           Lake Michigan, Sheboygan, WI 2016

lg

:-)

Ridiculous.

 Tonight's fare: Rare Cedarburg,WI jalapeño cheddar brat paired with a specially made bun and vegetable paella (short grain rice dish.)

Vegetable paella made in a (large) cast iron skillet; Paella recipe (we made a purely vegetable variation) found on page 9 of art culinaire; fall issue; volume 70.

Rare siting: A 12 inch Cedarburg, WI jalapeño cheddar brat browned in a pan with Black Boss Porter (by way of Poland.)  

(...I like gleaming surfaces.) 

My kind.

lg :-)

Today's Breakfast

Purple Eggs and Ham

O.K.

So here is my 'purple egg' breakfast that I thought you might like. I'll admit to being terribly 'spoiled.' With my 'husband who cooks' I have access to what I call "The World's Best" leftovers (almost daily.)
Here is one of his best standbys, a pickled purple egg (I do believe his Grandmother Louise made them often.)

So...to go with any meal, add plenty of seasonings (that would be salt and pepper; and of course, it goes without saying...to your liking.)

Please note the vintage salt shakers (needful to display for a good meal and a good photo shot.) :-)

However, I do not use these as they came from the 'Kolden' side (of my family; that would be my Dad's side) and the silvery gilding-type thin paint is peeling off.

I love them (nonetheless!) But they are too fragile to use!

Blessings and a good weekend to you all!

Karen ;-)

Irish Soda Bread

This is an ‘easy’ bread to make; probably a ‘beginners’ bread. It was a ‘meager’ Valentine’s Day Sunday brunch offering to both my husband and my daughter.

The cool thing about Irish Soda Bread that makes it easier to make than other homemade bread recipes is that it does not need to be punched down and left to rise (repeatedly.) It is an ‘easy’ fast alternative to other breads you might make…You can make it to add to your meal a few hours (even an hour and 1/2-which is how long it took me…) before you eat!

The bread in these photos is a variation of a recipe of one of the truly good cooks whose television series I follow, Ina Garten (of Food Network.) I always seem to (really) want to cook at least one recipe from each of her shows!

Ina shared this recipe on her program ‘Barefoot Contessa’ this past week. I enjoy her down to earth approach to cooking (and most if not all of her food choices.)

The recipe is as follows (please note that I could not find dried currants so I used finely chopped dried cherries instead. I also added 2 1/4 tablespoons of dried chives for my version to deliver on the savory note.)

***

Irish Soda Bread

Yield:1 loaf

Ingredients:

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for currants

4 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 3/4 cups cold buttermilk, shaken

1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon grated orange zest

1 cup dried currants

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (I do not have a fancy mixer so I combined the ingredients with a large fork and with mixing by hand.) Add the butter and mix on low speed until the butter is mixed into the flour.

With a fork, lightly beat the buttermilk, egg, and orange zest together in a measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture. Combine the currants with 1 tablespoon of flour and mix into the dough. It will be very wet.

Dump the dough onto a well-floured board and knead it a few times into a round loaf. Place the loaf on the prepared sheet pan and lightly cut an X into the top of the bread with a serrated knife. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. When you tap the loaf, it will have a hollow sound. Cool on a baking rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

***

One more tip: as Ina stated on her show, this is a wet (and sticky) bread dough. Liberally flour both your hands (repeatedly) and your cutting board to turn out and gently knead this dough! I had a sticky mess on my hands and had to try and get more flour on the board to work with this dough!

It came out great!

It has a savory, slightly sweet flavor (the cherries, as a change to Ina’s recipe, are absolutely delish…) with a huge amount of texture (and even fluffiness inside.) One of the best parts to this bread is its very crunchy, thick crust!

Make sure that you brown the top. Eat with butter or with a smidgen of your favorite jelly or jam! (I used a small amount of ginger jam which I had never tried before.) The parchment paper recommended in the recipe makes any clean up a breeze.

I hope you try it! Enjoy!

Eat with your eyes!😉

Karen

A Heavenly Coffee Cake...

This is my husband's latest take on a recipe straight from the 

'cake place called heaven!' We have a lot of Kuri squash 

(and various squashes here, right now, in the High Country...) 

Accordingly, then, this is a Kuri squash  and homemade 

applesauce coffee cake with a BIG butter crumble 

and sugary glaze on the top! 

My...oh, my. 

Need I paste a smiley face??! 

(I should have taken a side view shot of the slice 

itself but I couldn't wait to eat it! 

...Sorry about that!)

lg

Kuri Risotto

With fall coming soon upon us here, the 
High Country stupendous squash will be back!  
North Carolina grows delicious squash of all kinds 
of varieties, more than I was aware of ever existed! 
Featured here (last night's super supper; "Yum yum!") 
Roasted Kuri (squash) Risotto (with shallots, onion 
and white wine; Parmesan cheese on top too....) 
This was a truly mouth-watering savory experience 
if I don't say so myself! (I wish I had the aroma 
add-on pak for my pc for you!!!!!!!)
:-)
lg

Delicioso

Friday Night Thai Curry Soup

We 'nailed it' this past Friday night with this
beautiful dish. The Thai Curry Soup (for me)
contained fresh roasted shrimp. On the bottom
of the coconut curry soup are rice noodles. Hum
hum good! (I thought that it photographed well also.)
I regret to say that, the next night, we had Pad Thai
(chicken and pork) with home-made tamarind
sauce that I neglected to photograph.
Oy vay! :-)
Maybe next time...

Lusciously

delicious!
Here was our almost 22 pound butterball turkey
we made for Thanksgiving day! It was a toasted and a
crispy-delicious golden brown...Did I say delicious??!

As our 'sides' we had raisin/cranberry and
pecan stuffing, roasted hubbard squash casserole
(the blue one in our previous photo; goodbye!)
roasted poblano and garlic mashed potatoes (a real
'killer' recipe here,) corn casserole, classic green
bean casserole (for our son; his favorite meal,)
home-made turkey gravy, a cranberry chutney,
pumpkin bars and pumpkin pie (which I haven't
yet even had...) What a truly amazing array
of American Thanksgiving food classics!

Our 'left-overs' have been first class for days.
It leaves me wishing we would eat like
this, well, at least one time per month!

What a great day, as we had part of our immediate
family from California visiting us for the entire week.

A 'shout out' to Jake and Jasper!!!

And !congratulations! on your new marriage
(kids!) We have snow coming on Tuesday of
this week, but the Thanksgiving week
here in the Carolina's was unusually warm,
with a high of almost 60. (Do) tell us how
your holiday week was celebrated!
I hope that it was very groovy.
lg

Spetzle!

Last night's dinner:

This is a dish that would

do my Mom proud (as she's 100% German!)

Excuse me as I digress

to the food channel here...

:-)

Zucchini Boats, Bread and Top of the Morning to you!

Top-A Departure:
My husband made these stuffed zucchini boats the other evening.
They were filled with a tomato/panko breadcrumb and lima bean based stuffing. He put in a heaping amount of this said same stuffing and they were extremely tasty!
Yum. Yum. And yum-- like
totally. He's the dude in my book when it comes to creative vegetivity.
:)
Thus far we have (also) had: 1. Zucchini thinly sliced in salad, 2. a cold pasta, zucchini and vegetable dish, 3. Zucchini cake (absolutely scrumptious I might add. It was a HIT and even with my kids...amazing-- for sure!)
Hey wee garden...keep them coming!!
Middle: Yesterday, I am so proud to announce, I made my first homemade bread completely and utterly by hand. I do have a bread maker, but the loaves come out oddly shaped and sometimes they just don't fully rise. Voila!!
:) Won't you join us?!
Bottom: The sunrise yesterday here with a light morning misting in the Appalachians...
:) Enjoy!!