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

I suppose you could call this polenta but I made it with grits so grits it shall be.
Polenta and grits are similar products, both made from corn. Grits are normally served as a side dish for breakfast, much as you would serve cream of wheat. In recent years they have become more popular and taken on the role of a side dish.
Grits are creamy, somewhat bland, and soothing but they will take on the flavor of almost any ingredient you put into them. They are cheap and filling and those two attributes make them a favorite ingredient at my house.

These …read more

My family’s ability to consume vast amounts of potatoes should allow us to be featured in the Guinness Book of World Records.
It isn’t so much that the family gets bored with the same old potatoes day after day.. I do. I hate cooking the same thing more than once. In fact I am pretty sure that I did not repeat a meal for at least the first ten years of my marriage. After that I got lazy.

I was always taught to eat the whole potato, including skins. This is great IF you are buying organic, but if you aren’t you …read more

I had my thyroid biopsy this morning so I don’t feel like talking much. Wow. I was expecting the procedure to hurt but it was a piece of cake. It is afterward, with the swelling and bruising that makes you feel like you were hit by a mack truck carrying Sumo-wrestling elephants.
I wanted to get this recipe up in time for you to consider it for Fourth of July though.  I know, I know, you always have the same potato salad and it is tradition…well yeah! Me too, but you have to try this because it is addictive. Have I …read more

This is not your traditional pasta dish. You might have noticed that I have been on a Southwestern food kick. So has everyone else. Something about hot weather that gives me a taste for the spicy foods; the tangy, warm, earthy flavors of the Southwest.

This dish really does need a strong pasta to handle it. I recommend whole wheat because it has a firmer texture and the nutty flavor is perfect. The rich sauce is tangy but it cools the heat of the peppers.The cumin’s warm, earthiness pulls it all together into creamy, spicy perfection. Normally I would not serve …read more

 
So, honestly, I always run late for events but I do eventually get them done.  Tomorrow is the third Wednesday of the month and the date for the monthly exaltation of the humble, yet lovable, potato.  The Potato Ho Down.
Sonnets could be written.  Operas could be sung.  Why aren’t they, you ask?

Yes, I know that slow cooking in a crock pot isn’t exactly baking. You could slow cook this in the oven at 225 if you wanted to though.
Cool, crisp days call for hot, steamy soups. There is not much that speaks of home and all things cozy than a creamy bowl of some sort of chowder. Such a simple meal, paired with a read and a salad, with a perfectly ripe pear for dessert- well that is the beginning to a great evening!
This is a southwestern style corn chowder, rich and creamy but also slightly spicy …read more

I know I have mentioned before how much I like salad dinners in the summer.  They are quick, easy, and refreshing. An added bonus is that the kitchen doesn’t  heat up!  Lately, with Marc having spent so much time in the hospital and various costs money has been tight so I am revisiting my vegetarian youth. Blessedly my kids are not fussy eaters!
 
This salad is great but do not substitute or remove the fresh cilantro. It’s fresh, earthy, warmth is necessary to the success of these flavors. Don’t be focused in on exact amounts…This is a handful of this …read more