Lemon-Pistachio Pasta Duet

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Lemon-Pistachio Pasta DuetThis most enjoyable combination of flavors is not only delicious, and that it is, but it can be served as either a salad or as a warm side dish.  The Goddess loves the duality of this delightfully, deliriously delicious dish.  Continue reading

The Little Bleu Dress-ing

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

132Recently, I’ve been thinking about bleu cheese.  This naturally leads me to bleu cheese dressing.  Don’t you love bleu cheese and bleu cheese dressing?  You know, the really chunky kind.  You can certainly buy it, but making your own is fun and you can choose how much bleu cheese you use.  And you’ll want to use a lot.  Continue reading

The Land”scape” of Late Spring

Tags

242It’s Garlic Scape Season!!!  The Goddess loves, loves, loves these little curlicues from heaven that are in season right now, for the next 2-3 weeks.  Scapes, as they are usually simply referred to, are the flower bud and its stem the garlic bulb produces in late spring.  They are removed so the bulb will grow larger for fall harvest.  There’s something about their delicate swan-like necks that culicue around each other…it’s magical, I tell you.  Continue reading

Brazilian Shrimp Cocktail

Tags

, , , ,

Brazilian Shrimp CocktailThis is the perfect hot weather lunch, dinner or first course.  It’s pretty.  It’s served cold.  It taste deliciously sweet and tangy.  You’ll almost want the heat of summer to consume you, just so you can make shrimp cocktail, the Brazilian way.  Continue reading

Caramelized Onion and Dried Fruit “Jam”

Tags

, , , ,

Caramelized Onion and Dried Fruit "Jam"Caramelized onions are for more than French onion soup, which is good…in fact very good, but add dried fruit, in this case mission figs, cranberries, some ruby port and other nice things, to those onions and you’ve created The Little Condiment that Could make dirt taste good!  Since The Goddess has been on a bleu cheese kick recently (we’ll save dirt for another time, okay?), she decided this “jam” was just what she needed for a grilled bleu cheese sandwich.  Life is STILL good.  Continue reading

Basil & Strawberries…Dessert and a Salad!

Tags

, , , , , ,

An Assortment of BasilsBasil, is more than just pesto.  We tend to use it in savory ways, but it’s great used in a sweet, dessert-type way too.  Basil like mint, comes in flavors.  Here we have from the top left corner (clockwise) Purple basil, Thai basil, Lemon basil, Columnar basil, Variegated basil and Genovese basil, the one we’re probably most familiar with.  Continue reading

Russian Dressing

Tags

, , , , ,

052I’ve had this recipe for Russian dressing, given to me by a colleague from my single days, for years.  God, that was decades ago.  Anyway, she made this all the time; this was her go-to dressing and with good reason.  It’s simple and a rather nice change of pace from bottled dressings of this ilk…a little sweet, a little tangy and drop-dead easy!  The perfect summer dressing…. Continue reading

Cucumber-Mint Summer Cooler

Tags

, , ,

Fire in the Pan!It’s hot out today and it will be hot tomorrow.  It’s summer, what can I say?  When it’s hot there is nothing better than a cold beer, right?  It’s icy cold; the bottle is icy cold; it’s exactly what The Goddess always thinks is THE perfect thing to cool her down.  Then, about 10 minutes after she’s downed it, the furnace kicks in.  And she’s wanting to book a one-way ticket to take a dip naked in the polar ice cap!  Continue reading

A Fool for Fruit Fools!

Tags

, , ,

A Fool for Fruit Fools!Fruit Fools are a great dessert to have in your repertoire.  They can be quickly prepared, use the fruits in season, can be very last minute or made ahead of time and are therefore, pretty easy.  All you really need is to have some fresh and heavy cream…you always have heavy cream in the fridge, don’t you?  Continue reading

Strawberry Sauce with Pink Peppercorns

Tags

, , , , ,

Strawberry Sauce with Pink Peppercorns and Ice CreamI’m guessing that you’re thinking The Goddess has plunged deeply off the edge of the earth, which most rational, sane people can make a case for on any given day anyway.  But you really do have to try this.  It is surprising and surprisingly delicious.  With local berries in season, it’s the perfect time of year for this sauce, which is as good drizzled over grilled chicken as it is over good vanilla ice cream.  Continue reading