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...

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...

This is a French recipe that I got from the Seattle Times developed by Chef Jim Drohman who worked at Cafe Presse, a very popular Seattle French restaurant.  Cafe Presse was one of Lauren's favorite neighborhood spots and one that we would all go to frequently.  So, needless to say everyone was devastated when it closed (after the pandemic).  Seattle has lots of French restaurants but Cafe Presse was the darling of them all.  Last year, the memory of Cafe Presse came up when Bruce and I went to the Bite of Seattle.   One of our favorite dishes was at a Spanish booth called Maripili where they were making paella to sample.  We had just returned from visiting Spain and we were still into all things Spanish so this turned out to be our favorite of the Bite.   We told them we loved their paella and wanted to come to their restaurant but guess where they were?  In the same spot where Cafe Presse was!  When the cook told me that, I didn't say a wor...

I am ready to start eating "clean" again and get back on my plan with   Hannah Freese, RD .    I am actually craving salads right now after so much Christmas celebrating.  We had family gatherings on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas so it was non-stop there for awhile. Plus, we had the grandkids sleepover at our house beginning the 21st thru the 26th so I made a point of having everything ready for the family gatherings before that. That was a good thing because we had horrendous weather including an ice storm so we couldn't go out much at all. We woke up on the 23rd covered with ice! Needless to say, it caused major havoc with Christmas traveling since our airport was basically shut down.  But it did not effect us.  The grandkids are happy playing nonstop at our house especially after going to the Nutcracker.  They made up all kinds of Nutcracker games.  We had so much good food during all the celebrations, of course. ...

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...