Sylvia's Scenario

I mentioned before about a new cookbook I received from our guests who came this summer from Chicago called   Cheers to the Publican, Repast and Present .   I'm still making recipes out of it and this is one of them.  Although, I've changed it a lot and now I'm only using the salad dressing recipe with my own version of the salad.  The original recipe was for an asparagus salad but it was too large with too many unusual ingredients that got lost in the final product.  Bruce and Nick both said they couldn't taste the this or couldn't taste the that so I knew I needed to make some adjustments.  But it looked  gorgeous. I thought it would be a great spring recipe for Easter with the asparagus and I don't have many asparagus recipes so I do plan to keep it and play around with it.  In the meantime, the dressing is FABULOUS.  I kept it in a jar and used it up immediately.   I made this Asian-themed green salad twice with the dressing a...

We harvested our tomatoes the other day and I decided to try this recipe.  I wanted to make it while our guests were here but then we picked blackberries and I decided to use my time to make blackberry bread, crisp and coffee cake. (Our guests were happy about that decision if I judge by how fast it was all  eaten).  So, my tomatoes were piling up.  They gave me a new cookbook as a gift for hosting them and I was eager to try some recipes from it.  I spotted this one immediately.  The cookbook is entitled  Cheers to the Publican, Repast and Present Recipes and Ramblings from an American Beer Hall  by Paul Kahan, Chef Cosmo Goss and Rachel Holtzman.   The Publican is a popular restaurant in Chicago where our guests live.  It's described as a big American beer hall with massive communal tables.  I love those kind of restaurants.  There are lots of stories with the recipes in the book which makes the cookbook fun to read. The stor...

Ever since we went to the Masters in 2010  with my sister and her husband, we have gotten together on Masters Sunday for a southern food feast and watch the final day of the historic golf tournament.  This year was exciting since one of our favorite golfers won, Rory Mcllroy, in a sudden-death playoff.  That was exciting.  My sister invited her childhood girlfriend and her husband who are also avid golfers to the Masters Sunday feast this year.  The more the merrier is our motto.  And we really had a feast, too.  The main entree this year was shrimp & grits, recipe from the NY Times that my sister made.  It was made with a flavorful tomato base with jumbo shrimp and she served it in bowls on top of cheese grits.  So good! This really could have been a meal on its own, it was so good.  But we had to include all the fixin's, mostly out of our notorious  Mrs. Wilkes Cookbook .  We both bought her cookbook after we ate at her d...

Happy New Year and here I go again with my first post being a salad. We’ve had a lot of over-indulging during  the holidays, as most people have,  so I am definitely focusing on salads now.  Our first over-indulgent event was my neighbor’s holiday party that I wrote about  here .  And then at the last minute, we decided to go to Boise for Bruce's office party there.  It's been awhile since we've traveled for Christmas parties because of the pandemic plus last year we were in Spain so I was a little eager to go this year. We stayed at my brother's house and had good visits with he and his wife.  Two of my other siblings were also in town so it was really nice for all of us and our spouses to be together.  We also had great visits with so many of the  Bratney Company  employees who I hadn't seen in years and various friends from when we lived in Idaho from 1998-2015. It was a very festive time to be in town and the weather was gorgeous u...

We are getting our hot weather now - welcome summer!  We actually have no rain in the forecast for the coming 10 days.  Really?  After that, everything will get back to our Seattle normal.  In the meantime, I am going to enjoy our summer weather.  I am posting this new recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD  that is my new favorite summer salad recipe.  I made it last weekend and it actually tasted better during the week after it sat for awhile when all the flavors had time to blend together.  So, be sure and make the whole recipe because it tastes really good leftover.  I've been eating beans everyday as part of Hannah's eating program and now this recipe is my new go-to bean dish.  Before, I was eating homemade refried beans everyday.  I buy the pinto beans in bulk and put a cup or two in salted water on the stove to cook in the morning. I use enough water to cover the beans to about 2-3 inches.  They cook about 3 hours until so...

Summer has finally arrived in Seattle and we've been enjoying lots of my summer salad recipes.  This is a new one I made last night and I will definitely be making it again.  It is a whole meal in itself, made with chicken breast and lots of chopped veggies.  Bruce and I both loved it.  It is from  Hannah Freese, RD  who continues to send us recipes every month since I am an alumni member of her eating program.   I joined her program during my knee replacemen t rehab because my first knee replacement was a brutal experience so I decided to change my diet to a more "anti- inflammatory diet".  Her plan did wonders for me and I noticed changes right away.  I also like that she is a dietitian, just like me so I can relate to her.  She is up on all the latest research and I totally trust everything that she says. Since I am retired now, she is my little connection to the world of nutrition and she is a very good connection. Most of my recipe...