Sylvia's Scenario

I have another summer garden recipe but it's not zucchini this time. We also have an abundance of tomatoes.  Depending on what you have in your garden, this recipe also has corn, pototoes, basil, chives, and dill.  But even if you don't have a garden, this is a good summer soup anyway.  The corn-on-the-cob this summer has been amazingly sweet.  When I saw this recipe, the first thing I thought of was "Oh boy! I can buy more corn!"  The other thing I thought of was how I can use some coho salmon that Lauren brought home from Alaska.  She returned last week after a visit there for the first time to spend some time with her boyfriend's family who is from Alaska.  And they did A LOT of fishing.    Her boyfriend's parents have two boats; a working boat and a recreational boat and they went out in both multiple times. They caught so much fish and Lauren caught some, too.  She was thrilled.  I can't believe how much she knows about fishi...

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...

I've made this recipe twice already this month (and there's only been 3 days in May...!) so I thought I better post it. I got it from the Seattle Times last week and decided to try it out and I'm glad I did. It was so good that I invited my sister and her husband over for dinner and made it again the next day.  It's a perfect dish to have with guests over because it will totally impress them and it did.  The funny thing is that my sister saw the recipe in the newspaper, too, so she was delighted to come over and try it out.  This recipe is from a cookbook called The Complete Book of Greek Cooking and was originally called Shrimp Scorpio from the Recipe Club of Saint Paul's Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The book, published in 1990 and still available, is full of dozens of homestyle Greek recipes. This recipe is brimming with nourishing ingredients, too, like spinach and has all at the Mediterranean flavors we love. It really is a true winner. I am slowly getting b...

How is everyone's vegetable garden's doing right now?  We've been eating a lot of tomatoes and cucumbers from our garden lately.  Last night, we had this new dish with our dinner when we invited some of Bruce's golf buddies over for dinner after their day of golf.  One of the wives brought this French Tian dish that went perfectly with our main dish of barbecued teriyaki flank steak ; a family favorite at our house.  Tian is made with eggplant, tomatoes, onions, zucchini, and lots of olive oil to make the most delicious juice from the veggies.  She also brought some crusty French bread to soak up those juices.  Frankly, I could have just eaten this alone as my whole dinner with bread dunked in the juices.  It was so addicting.   It's like a summer version of  ratatouille  that I like in the fall with all the garden veggies.  I am eager to make this Tian now. The recipe is from Dori Greenspan from her cookbook Everyday Dorie ....

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...

Our local grocery store often has specials that include aged top sirloin steak- buy one, get one free. We usually have these in the freezer and Bruce and I will then split one between us for dinner. We took a few of these out of the freezer when we had steak to celebrate Father's Day  this year. Of course, they aren't as great as t he special Waygu beef from Japan that we gave Nick on Father's Day but they were definitely the second best. You can't beat a good quality barbecued steak. However, we've changed it up a bit this summer and I'm trying new recipes with steak for variety and this steak recipe with Chimichurri sauce is a winner. Chimichurri sauce is a sauce that is very popular in Argentina and South America where it is used to accompany steak or used as a condiment for fish, chicken, lamb or even pasta.  You can consider it a lot like how we use  pesto  in our country.   I got this recipe from  Hannah Freese, RD  and the portion said 8 servi...

Friday night is pizza night, right?  I hear this with many families so last night we decided to have "pizza night" via   The Freese Method .  The Freese Method is a diet where you avoid sugar, dirty oils and processed, refined carbs to fix your broken metabolism.  I've been doing it since September and it has gotten easier and easier.  Now, I look forward to finding new ways to incorporate the recipes into my daily life.  Pizza, anybody?  Bruce and I both loved this recipe.  I halved the recipe since there were only two of us but I wouldn't do that again because these were so good, we could have eaten more.  (There are no portion restrictions with this diet plan.)  I was wondering if the grandkids would like these but I think they really like their breads.  This recipe is a lot like my  Tuna Boats  that are a very kid-friendly dish that Nick and Lauren always ate growing up.  Nick wanted me to make them for his kids r...

Are you looking for a red soup to serve for the holidays?  If you like to color-coordinate your holiday menu, I have the soup for you!  We had this one last night and it was so good.  We are in the midst of another self-quarantine so I have lots of time to try new recipes.  We will do the same thing we did for Thanksgiving .  We're having my sister and her husband over for Christmas Eve and then the kids/grandkids will come over on Christmas.  In the meantime, the presents continue to pile up under the tree. This soup recipe is from  Hannah Freese, RD .  I'm now done with her 12-week program so will continue in the alumni group who meet once/month via zoom to keep on track.  I lost 8 pounds and hope to keep going.  Most people in the group lose 1-2 pounds/per week so my weight loss was pretty minimal but I'm thrilled with losing weight instead of gaining weight which is usually the case during this time of year.  Aside from losing w...