PARTY THEME! Indoor Picnic

Who says a picnic has to be outdoors? Some days its just too hot & humid, or too rainy. But you can still have an indoor picnic! With a little creativity, its a fun and easy party theme! Here is a sample menu:

Platter with Cheese, Crackers & Salami for Easy Appetizer

"Hard" Lemonade & Summer Brews for Cocktails

Regular Lemonade & Sweet Tea

(Use Mason Jars as drinking glasses & Checkered tablecloths)

Buttermilk Oven Fried Chicken

Fresh Corn on the Cob

Garden Salad

Potato Salad

Baked Beans with Bacon

FOR DESSERT:

Friendly's Wattamelon Roll and Fruit Salad Basket !!!

HOW FUN IS ALL THAT?? And of course, this can be an outdoor menu as well!! If time is your enemy, many of these items can be store bought instead of homemade. (We won't tell 'em...) If you haven't tried the Friendly's Wattamelon Roll, you are in for a treat. Plus it is available at many grocery stores. (the little "seeds" are actually chocolate chips!)  GOTTA LOVE SUMMER.....

Mohonk Mountain House's Heirloom Berry Buckle

                                                  Renny Northrop 1943-2012

This post is dedicated to a very dear friend, Renny Northrop. She lost an 18 month battle with cancer this past March. I have known Renny and her family since my childhood. Renny was a unique and wonderful person, with many friends and lots of good qualities. She is very sorely missed.

Amongst many other things she enjoyed, she loved desserts! Yet somehow she always managed to keep her girlish figure. She also loved Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY. It was one of her favorite places to visit. (http://www.mohonk.com/) She brought this recipe home with her after one of her visits to Mohonk.

Please enjoy this recipe in her honor!

 And always remember to show the people in your lives how much you love them.

Heirloom Berry Buckle

2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
4 tsp. baking powder
2 cups sugar
4 cups fresh berries -any combo of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, or strawberries. (Frozen berries may be used, but must be heated first.)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9 x 9 inch pan. Cream butter and 1 cup of sugar. Add dry ingredients and milk alternately.

Mix berries and remaining sugar, then pour on top of cake batter. Bake for about 40 minutes. When cooked, some berries will be on the bottom. Serve as is, or with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Please share this post with anyone who knew and loved Renny. Or that might love the Berry Buckle!!

Paulie's Zuppa di Pesce

PAULIE'S ZUPPA DE PESCE

This is an amazing recipe from our friend Paul Brusaschi. He is technically from Australia....but between his last name and the way he cooks, he definitely has to be part Italian as far as I am concerned. After eating this "fa boo" meal at his house, he texted me this recipe while waiting for a bus in NYC. He knows the recipe by heart?? Now that is a real chef!!


  
                                                          
Rather than the usual format, I am going to share it with you the way he texted it to me....

"Brown 2 onions, shallots, chopped celery & garlic in olive oil. Then add one large "tin" (that's "can" to us Americans) of crushed tomatoes, some dry sherry, and 3 cups of stock, fish stock if possible. Then add thyme, oregano, 1/2 tsp. saffron, salt and pepper to taste. Then add small red "spuds" (potatoes) cut into quarters, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add seafood (Paul used a white fish cut into small pieces, mussels, and shrimp). Then cook for 10 minutes. Garnish with parsley, and serve with a good, crusty white bread. Done!"

Well, before blogging about it,I had to go ahead and try making it myself. Here goes!

                        Ahh, the kitchen had already begun to smell AMAZING.

I knew I was on the right track. I did not have fish stock, so I used organic chicken stock. I found a medley of small gourmet potatoes at Costco. They were red, white and a beautiful purple. As far as the seafood goes, I used calamari rings, shrimp, scallops, and mussels. My shrimp were on the small side; next time I will use larger shrimp, like Paul did,  for more "wow" factor.

The parsley was an amazing finishing touch. So if you want to cook something fairly easy that tastes like it came from a restaurant, This is a perfect dish for guests! I made enough for 8 people with leftovers. It even tastes good the next day.Serve it with a loaf of crusty bread (for mopping up the juices!) and a nice bottle of white wine.

Also. keep an empty bowl on the table for the mussel shells, and the shrimp tails if you left them on. If you desire to enjoy the full seafood experience, then order some plastic lobster bibs on the Internet. Fabulous!!

 You will see what I made for dessert in my next post!

Ciao for now...

Dee-Licious Sri Lankan Dinner!

Hello Foodie Friends! I know you have been waiting very long for this special post! Thank you for your patience. A dear friend of mine, Dee Gunawaithe, is from the lovely and amazing Land of Sri Lanka. Dee is an absolutely fabulous cook! She loves to cook, and make people happy with her delicious concoctions.

She came to my house one day recently, and taught a group of our friends how to cook several Sri Lankan dishes. She works so fast in the kitchen that it was hard to keep up with everything she was doing!! We took notes as best we could, and today I am going to share 2 of her recipes with you. Dee, like any professional cook, does not use exact measurements, so I have tried to give you an idea of how much she used of each ingredient. You can add more or less of anything depending on your taste. Give these recipes a try. You wont be sorry!

Chicken Curry (so tender and yummy)

6 lbs of chicken, cut into cutlet pieces

½ onion, sliced

½ inch thick slice of ginger, minced

3 small hot peppers, sliced down the side to open but left whole

7-8 cloves of garlic, minced

7 tablespoons veg. oil

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin powder

6 oz tomato paste

Less than one tablespoon tamarind

Salt, to taste (Dee uses lots!)

1 ½ cans coconut milk

Water

Directions-

Mix onion, ginger, pepper, garlic in large saucepan and saute with the vegetable oil on high.

Add chicken into spices, turn to low.

After evenly covered, add chili powder, cumin, tomato paste, tamarind, salt and coconut oil. Also refill the empty can 1 ½  times with water, getting the coconut off the edges of the can and pour that in too. Mix evenly and leave on high for about 2-5 minutes..

Switch to low, cover and let it cook for about 20 minutes.. garnish with parsley and serve.

                                                                   

                                            What a magnificent main course!

Sri Lankan Rice  (this is no ordinary rice, let me tell you)

10 cups white basmati rice

½ onion, in long slivers

6 cinnamon sticks

7-8 cardamom (nuggets?) cracked open with the handle of a knife

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

14 cups cold water

Directions-

Rinse rice in strainer

Saute the onion slivers, cardamom, and cinnamon sticks in the vegetable oil in a large saucepan on high for about 5-7 mins..

After sauteed, put all ten uncooked cups of rice in sauce pan with mixture. cook that way for a few minutes.

Then, pour all of the cold water into the rice and spices. Bring to boil on high.

Turn to low after boiling.

Turn and stir periodically until water is absorbed.

Dee cooked so many different things that night! It was fabulous.

Hopefully Dee will teach me more Sri Lankan cooking techniques soon. Thank you Dee, for an amazing meal!

Quick Bites: Mom's Icebox Cake

There are certain foods that just instantly bring back fond memories of being a kid, aren't there? For me, my Mom's Icebox Cake is definitely one of them.


 I am thinking it was called Icebox Cake because instead of baking it, you let it sit in the refrigerator to set. Then it is ready to serve. I asked my Mom to make it so I could take a picture of it and share the recipe with you, my foodie friends! It's fast, easy, and delicious!

MOM'S ICEBOX CAKE
One box of graham crackers (Mom uses plain)
Two boxes of cooked (or instant) pudding, prepared as directed (Mom uses butterscotch)

Then just cover the bottom of a 9"x13" Pyrex baking dish with a thin layer of pudding. Then cover the pudding with a tightly fit layer of graham crackers. Continue alternating layers of pudding and graham crackers until there are 3 layers of pudding and 2 layers of graham crackers (pudding on top and bottom). Then let it sit in the fridge for a few hours, slice into squares, and serve with whipped cream.

Mmm, now that is good!

NEXT POST: Dee-Licious Sri Lankan Dinner!!!!