Saturday, May 23, 2009

Herbs that Wow!


There can't be a better way way to spend a beautiful spring day than sharing lunch with friends when Lisa is cooking! Bonus to be outside to enjoy the amazing weather!  Lisa treated us to a delicious salad with spring greens, grilled chicken, pinenuts and an amazing tarragon dressing - Dean's favorite herb scones and a melt-in-your mouth white chocolate berry parfait! Simply divine.  (Recipes will magically appear here in the very near future!) We missed Linda who is adjusting to her new job and working full-time now.

Below you can see her beautiful centerpiece that included 
a gift for each of us ~ a potted herb.
Thank you, Lisa, for being such a sweet hostess!  

Miss Izzy, the celeb graced us with her presence while 
poor Kenya and her bottled up energy had to wait in the garage.   :(  
 Izzy has the longest eyelashes that just blew in the gentle breezes.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Jill's Yummy Recipes

A couple of weeks ago we had our lunch gathering at Jills. I always love going to her beautiful home and seeing what she is going to serve. I have no idea how she keeps her teenage figure when she can cook such great food! She promised to give us recipes and I am helping her keep that promise...

Celery Slaw with Shrimp (yum!)

1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup unfiltered cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 clove garlic, chopped

2 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon mild Spanish smoked paprika
coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 lb. apple wood-smoked bacon slices
1/2 head green cabbage, cored and shredded
5 celery stalks, thinly sliced
6 green onions, including tender green tops, chopped
1 bunch red radishes, trimmed and thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

To make vinaigrette, combine the mayo, buttermilk, olive oil, vinegar, mustard and garlic in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Set aside. (Can be made up to 1 day in advance covered tightly, and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before using.)

In a large bowl, toss together the shrimp, olive oil, paprika, and a little salt and pepper. Preheat a large, nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half of the shrimp and saute until they turn pink and are opaque throughout, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl and repeat with the remaining shrimp. Set aside to cool.

Rinse the frying pan, wipe dry, and return to medium heat. Add the bacon slices and fry, turning as needed, until crisp, about 6 minutes. Using a slotted spatula, transfer to paper towels to drain. Let cool, then crumble and set aside.

To assemble the slaw, add the cabbage, celery, green onions, radished, parsley, and vinaigrette to the shrimp and toss to coat all the ingredients evenly. Season to taste with salt and pepper and toss again.

Transfer the slaw to a serving bowl or deep platter. Sprinkle the crumbled bacon and the blue cheese, if using, over the top. Serve at once.

Serves 8

OK, I'll publish this and add the lemon souffles a little later. That was a long recipe!!

We have a winner...

A great big congratulations goes out to Kris for the completion of her Baltimore Album Quilt. It is absolutely amazing and incredibly beautiful. Remember when we started these? I think it must have been around 3 years ago. What an accomplishment. Kris's quilt was voted as the guild's favorite quilt yesterday at Spring Social! Yea!! And now Kris you are an award winning quilt maker. You go girl!

Marie at Red Rooster provided beautiful machine quilting.

Here is a close-up of Aileene Carmignani's yo-yo quilt.

I thought this would be a fun quilt to
hang in a sewing room.
An overview of the event. What a fun day!

Debi and Jill seem to be involved in a great story
about something.

Some of Our Creations...