Potentially there will be no Saturday Surfing this week. It may actually end up being Sunday Surfing or no surfing at all.  You see, I am busily catering a sit down dinner for 50….or 40….or 35. We aren’t sure.
I wanted to really bless a close friend and she was heading up a luncheon….so I offered to create magic if at all possible. I chose a Southwestern – New England Fusion menu and I will be blogging it over the next week or so.
This is Kyrie creating magic. My daughter Erin took the picture. One of my favorites…

Anyway….
The menu looks like …read more

When Marc and I first got married (in 1980!) he ate a couple of vegetables:corn, green beans, peas, and potatoes. That was it…and I think the green beans were iffy. I, on the other hand, was not a big meat eater but I would eat nearly any vegetable you put in front of me.
Needless to say I did not cook like his mom. I needed to find a way to get the vegetables I loved into our diets without setting off his anti-vegetable meter. What was the answer?

Stir fry! You can chop up nearly anything and put it in a …read more

If you are looking for a relatively quick chicken recipe that is going to make you look like you are ready to compete on Hell’s Kitchen..well look no further. This recipe is so simple, so good, and so quick…it takes less than an hour. The portobellos are sauteed with bacon, onion, and garlic and finished with a bit of balsamic vinegar. They end up with a rich, full flavor and creamy texture that is addictively satisfying.

The chicken breast is covered with a dusting of herbes de provence, to which I added fennel pollen. If you don’t have the fennel pollen …read more

The first time I ordered nachos and got fake orange goop over stale Doritos I was incredulous. Nachos? You might as well slap a piece of colored Styrofoam on a hamburger bun and call it a burger…Oh…wait…
If you are eating that stuff stop it. Stop it now. You will end up glowing in the dark and if we ever get attacked by zombies they will find you first. Reason #106 NOT to eat weird food. Besides, in the same amount of time..or close to it you could be eating this:

These are serious nachos. The real thing. Tex-Mex at its absolute …read more

After Christmas I bought four rosemary trees that had been shaped as Christmas trees and clearanced for 2.00 each. I was excited about it because there is so much that fresh rosemary is wonderful for.  I love smelling it when I am sitting out on the porch…I love using it in cooking and baking.  I love adding springs of it to my drawers or closets.

Another thing I love is chicken and noodles, or Pennsylvania Dutch chicken pot pie.  I thought I had come up with every variation known to man but I was inspired the other day to add rosemary …read more

Sometimes I surprise myself.  This was one of those times.
It seems like pork has been on sale a lot at the local Tom Thumb store.  Translated that means that the Audets have been eating a lot of pork!

I wanted something different and I wasn’t sure what.  I knew that I wanted rosemary potatoes because I bought four rosemary trees after Christmas for a ridiculously low price.  In other words, you can plan on seeing a lot of rosemary dishes.
But for the pork I wanted something..different..something..spicy..but not southwestern.
I was sipping a cup of chai and all of a sudden I felt …read more

This is such an easy dish that it is terrible to even post.
I love pork loin.  It is a tender and flavorful cut of pork that is easy to fix and hard to mess up.  In my book that makes it perfect.
In the jelly section of your grocers there should be, on the top shelf way out of your sight, a jar of red stuff with a label that says something like “Red Pepper Jelly” or “Jalapeno Jelly.”

I made a rolled beef roast the other day and it was so good.  There is something so down to  earth good about old fashioned, plain cooking.  We don’t seem to do it so much anymore, preferring to look to European, Asian, and Noveau cuisines for our special meals.  But set a platter of good roast, some roasted potatoes, buttermilk rolls, salad, and pie down in front of most Americans and they will lick the plate.
It is our roots. Someday maybe I will create a new trend in food and call it Noveau American Gothic.

I am not really sure why I started calling htis quiche recipe Alsatian, only that I did.  It isn’t at all a fancy thing; good stick to your ribs food really.  With having our own chickens, quiche is not only an easy meal, it is a cheap one.
The first time I ever tried quiche I ws 17.  I took my boyfriend’s mom, who I adored, out to shop at a local, upscale mall.  She was from Europe and had not been in the states too long.  We went to a restaurant that I thought she would like and as we …read more

I don’t cook pork nearly enough.  I just don’t think about it for some reason.  Dear God, I am in a foodie rut!
Anyway, I found a package of center cut loin chops on clearance (love those meat clearances!) for 50% off the lowest price…The lowest price was $10.00 and there was 10 of them in the pack. SO, in the cart they went, nestled against a couple of pounds of burger and a roast.