Foodie Friday -- April 4th

 Welcome to Foodie Friday, where great cooks share their recipes.

This morning, when I was walking the Yorkies, I was lost in my thoughts. Then I noticed that my pansies had bounced back after the bitter winter, and I couldn't resist picking a few blossoms. I stepped inside and made a salad. Pansies are my favorite edible flower. Their velvety texture melts on the tongue, and the taste is fresh and subtle, almost oniony, but not quite. They will never overpower a recipe. 

 William Shakespeare probably wasn't handy in the kitchen, but he had the lowdown on edible flowers. Tucked away in Hamlet, you'll find this quote: 

"Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, that's for thoughts."

 Pansy-Pistachio Salad with a Raspberry Vinaigrette

Fresh greens
Raspberries (or your favorite berry)

Organic pansies

Chopped chives

Chopped green onions

Chopped pistachios

Bottled or homemade raspberry vinaigrette

Assemble, drizzle the vinaigrette over everything, and enjoy. This salad pairs well with a roasted spring chicken or grilled salmon; but it's delicious by itself for a light lunch.
Printable Recipe

Let's take a look at Last Week's Most-Viewed Recipes.

#1 Easy Braided Breakfast Pastry

If you are looking for a flaky, easy breakfast pastry, you'll love this recipe by Will Cook for Smiles.

Will Cook for Smiles

#2 Recipes with Bob's Red Mill 
Cathy has made some divine recipes with Bob's Red Mill products--almond lace wafers; pear frangipani galette, and PB and J macaroons. 

Wives with Knives

#3  Three Ingredient Scones
Who can resist a scone recipe that calls for three ingredients? Don't the scones
look delicious?

Life in My Empty Nest

Note: You are cordially invited to join the Novel Bakers for Beatrix Potter Week. It kicks off Monday, April 7th at Home Is Where the Boat Is and ...a quiet life. Jain, Mary Mc, and I will
share recipes and Many Bunniful Things. Hope you'll stop by for a visit.
. . .
If you are contributing a recipe to this week's Foodie Friday, locate the blue Inlinkz icon in the lower, left-hand portion of this post. Click on the icon and follow the directions. After you complete the process, you will see a red "x" beside your name. This allows you to delete your link if you made an error; the red "x" is visible to you only.

You can read a complete guide to this linky party HERE.  It's pretty simple. You don't need to "like" our Facebook page or be a follower of this blog to participate. Nor do you need to include a backlink or Foodie Friday button in your post. Add as many recipes as you wish, old or new. If you love food, we love you.

Pretty please do not pin images from the FF thumbnails. Visit the source blogs.

   

If you'd like to share your food photos--or photos of other FF participants on Pinterest, join the Pinterest foodie board, Consuming Passions. Leave a message on the most recent "pin" if you'd like your name added to the list.

Every Friday, we are joined at this big, virtual table--thank you for stopping by today. I'm grateful to all of you who spend your days cooking. I'm grateful to old and new friends who contribute recipes every week. I'm grateful to friends who leave a comment. I'm grateful for the silent folks, because you are brought here by your love of all things culinary. We are food people. And that's a marvelous thing. 

Until next time,

Have a great day!

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Foodie Friday



Welcome to Foodie Friday.

Are your Thanksgiving preparations underway? Will you be cooking at home, cooking with a group, or eating out? Are you trying a new recipe?

 

This week I'm bringing two potato recipes. The first, Simple Rustic Potato soup, is quick and filling, the perfect "one pot meal" for the busy days ahead. The hardest part is microwaving three bags of frozen russet potatoes, and that's not difficult, so you can just imagine the ease of this recipe.

 

 

Simple Rustic Potato Soup

Printable Recipe

                                             Serves 8

Ingredients

3 24 oz packages Ore-Ida Steam n Mash Cut Russet Potatoes

1 32-oz box College Inn Chicken Broth

1 or 2 14-oz cans College Inn Chicken Broth

8 strips bacon

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup chopped white (or yellow) onion

3/4 cup chopped celery

1 c. shredded mild cheddar cheese

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

Cook 1 24-oz package Ore-Ida potatoes in microwave according to directions (ten minutes) and set aside. In a large, non-stick Dutch oven, fry 8 slices of bacon (medium high flame). Crumble bacon and set aside. Add chopped onions and celery to pot and sautee until clear and tender. Add 1 32-oz box chicken broth and cook 10 minutes over medium low flame, stirring now and then. Meanwhile, continue to microwave two remaining packages of frozen potatoes.  Add all three packages of potatoes to Dutch oven. Mash potatoes with a large whisk or metal masher. [I like a rough, "rustic" texture. If you prefer smooth, skip this step and place the cooked potatoes into a Cuisinart or blender, then add to Dutch oven.]

 

Salt and pepper to taste.

 

Cook another 10 minutes. At this point, the soup is thick, and I always add one 14-oz can of chicken stock (if you like a thinner soup, add a second can of stock). Stir. Lower the flame and simmer soup for five minutes. Slowly add 1 cup cream and blend thoroughly. Add more salt and pepper, if necessary. Cover pot and remove from flame.

 

Pour soup into bowls and garnish with crumbled bacon and shredded cheese.

The second recipe is Warm Potato Salad.

It's sassy and comforting, perfect with leftover turkey sandwiches.

Side dishes have always fascinated me.

I come from a long line of Southern women who believe that side dishes are a blend of nutrition and art. My mother will never serve corn and fried apples at the same meal, unless she balances the yellows with green beans or asparagus. She plays matchmaker with "sides," as she calls them, aiming for complimentary companions.

Entrees are easy, but I worry and worry about side dishes. I've been known to fall into a broccoli rut. My mother always tries to repeat flavors. If she marinates a chicken with lime juice, she will serve a key lime pie for dessert.  A Granny Smith smothered pork roast will be paired with an apple raisin salad or apple tarts. And so on and so forth. A warm potato salad with a bacon vinaigrette is the perfect accompaniment for roasted chicken.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe in Potatoes: A Country Garden Cookbook.

Warm Potato Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette

Serves 4 4 potatoes, cut into 1/8" slices 2 cups chicken broth 4-6 strips of bacon, fried and crumbled 1/4 cup green onions, chopped 2 Tablespoons bacon drippings 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 Tablespoons champagne vinegar 2 Tablespoons country style Dijon mustard sea salt to taste freshly ground pepper to taste fresh thyme and Italian parsley roasted red bell pepper (optional) Fry bacon and onions. Set aside and reserve 2 tablespoons of drippings. Slice potatoes (unpeeled for a rustic salad) and place in a saucepan. Add 2 cups chicken broth. Cook potatoes 15 minutes over a low flame. Drain potatoes and place in a bowl. Reserve 1/4 cup chicken broth. Into a clean bowl, add broth, olive oil, mustard, vinegar, and bacon drippings. Whisk and pour vinaigrette over potatoes. Sprinkle with bacon and chopped herbs. Cover potatoes (I use a large dinner plate) and steep 15 minutes. Remove plate (or lid) and stir potatoes carefully, making sure you distribute the vinaigrette. For perky color, add a sliced roasted red bell pepper.   If you are participating in Foodie Friday, locate the blue Inlinkz icon in the lower, left-hand portion of this post. Click on the icon and follow the directions. After you complete the process, you will see a red "x" beside your name. This allows you to delete your link if you made an error; the red "x" is visible to you only. For a complete guide to this linky party, click HERE.     ** Would you like to add your recipes to the "Consuming Passions" group board at Pinterest? It can be found HERE.  Foodie Friday folks and pinners are always welcome to "pin" with us and chat about food. Just leave a comment on one of my recent "pins," so I'll be sure to see it, and I will send you an invitation. Or you can email me.  Thanks for stopping by the party. Have a great weekend.   

Foodie Friday: Day 3 of Gathering in the Garden

 

 Welcome to Foodie Friday

and

Day 3 of the Novel Bakers' Garden Party Week.

 

Jain, Mari, Mary, and I have been blending books and food again. This week, we've presented a darling book, Gathering in the Garden by Shelley Snow and Elaine Husband, two Nashville artists and authors.

Their recipes and party ideas have enchanted the four of us, and we hope you will enjoy

our interpretation of this charmer. It's 139 pages, small enough to tuck into your pocketbook when you dash off to the market or the beach. The pages are crammed with idea after idea. Many are illustrated, making your imagination soar.

 

For our third and final post, I made up my own party: Moving-Into-Autumn picnic

celebrating the color purple.

 

Our special guests include the Fabulous Ducks of Rattlebridge . . .

 

 

 . . . and the fashion forward scarecrow, Minnie Pause.

Today, Minnie just stepped off the runway, sporting a Kravet boucle jacket, Burberry dress with a ruched bodice, and tartan Wellingtons.

Her hair was styled at the Farm Fresh Salon.

I just finished photographing a little while ago--I've been running behind all summer!

I've been under the weather with tick bites and West Nile, so Bandwidth pitched in and helped

lift the heavy furniture--he also made biscuits and did a little Duck Whispering.
Thank you, Bandy!

 

On the menu:

Fried Chicken (from the Publix deli--we love it)

Ham and Creamy Biscuits (Bandwidth's recipe)

Green Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing (from the book)

Oatmeal Cookies (Slice 'n Bake)

 

 

 

Bandwidth's Buttermilk Biscuits

 

2 cups self-rising flour, sifted

1/4 cup unsalted butter (chilled)

1 tablespoon shortening (Crisco)

2/3 cups buttermilk

 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

Sift flour. Cut butter and shortening into the flour with a pastry cutter.

Turn out onto a lightly floured board. Knead pastry three times.

Roll out (gently) and cut out biscuits.

Spray PAM  on a cookie sheet.

Now place biscuits on the sheet.

Bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven and add slices of fried country ham.

 

 

Green Fruit Salad with Honey Lime Dressing

 

For each individual salad you need:
1 salad plate

1 curly lettuce leaf

3 slices kiwi, peeled

1 cluster green grapes

5 scoops honeydew

4 slices green pear

4 slices green apple

fresh mint
green cherries (optional)

 

I added culinary lavender and chopped pecans.
Arrange the fruit on a lettuce leaf. In addition to using a melon baller on the honeydew, I used leaf cookie cutters to hopefully evoke the changing season.

 

Drizzle fruit with:

 

Honey Lime Dressing

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup lime juice

Whisk honey and juice. Drizzle over salad.

 

This is ambrosial, sweet and fresh, perfectly balanced. I added green

coconut on one salad, and it looked strange, so I ate it. (Of course!)

Even with the green coconut, this dressing is sublime.

I hope you'll try this salad!

 

 

 

Thank goodness we have a Publix grocery.

 

 

 

 

Slice 'n Bake Oatmeal Raisin cookies were cooled and slipped into purple organza pouches.

 

 

The Rattlebridge Duck gang stayed with us the whole afternoon,

drinking water, eating bread, and grooming.

 

We made spice cookies, too. They're in the kitchen...come on inside and let's visit.

 

Three days this week, the Novel Bakers have cooked their way through the delightful book,

Gathering in the Garden.

 

Monday, September 2nd

Today, Wednesday, September 4th

Foodie Friday, September 6th
 

 Catch up with the marvelous Mari, Mary, and Jain:

 Once Upon a Plate

Home Is Where the Boat Is

a quiet life

 

Resources: 

Gathering in the Garden



 

 

If you are participating in Foodie Friday, please take a moment to read the guidelines.

To add a link to your post, locate the blue Inlinkz icon in the lower, left-hand portion of this post. Click on the icon and follow the directions. After you complete the process, you will see a red "x"
beside your name. This allows you to delete your link if you made an error; the red "x" is visible to you only.

For a complete guide to this linky party, click HERE. If you have still have questions, click HERE
for a detailed Foodie Friday tutorial. Rattlebridge Farm reserves the right to delete any entry
that is inappropriate or violates the guidelines.

** By adding your link to Foodie Friday, you are granting us permission to include a photo of your FF recipe in a feature story. Submissions that lack a backlink will not be promoted on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, or "Picks of the Week."

**No linky parties or promotion of linky parties.

**If you are visiting from Pinterest, please do not pin the thumbnails in the linky area from my blog. These images belong to other bloggers. Visit the participating blogs for pinning inspiration.

**It's okay to promote a giveaway or an Etsy project if it's food-related (aprons, dinnerware, tabletop items, cupcake boxes, goodie bags, etc.)


** Would you like to add your recipes to the "Consuming Passions" group board at Pinterest?
It can be found HERE. We're a small, sociable group; Foodie Friday folks are always welcome to "pin" with us and chat about food. Just leave a comment on one of my recent"pins," so I'll be sure to see it, and I will send you an invitation. Or you can email me.

 Thanks for visitin'!

 

Now tell us all about your recipe.

 

 



 



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Foodie Friday -- July 26th

 Welcome to the July 26th Foodie Friday,

where good food is always on the menu.

 

I've been playing with The Novel Bakers every day, celebrating Lavender Week.

 

 

 

 

 

We read The Lavender Cookbook by Sharon Shipley,
looking up enticing recipes, dreaming of festivals and gardens, 
inventing a few dishes along the way.

 

You can catch up with all of the Novel Bakers' lavender marvelous, magical posts
by clicking on the links. Everything is in one place for your convenience.

 

home is where the boat is
once upon a plate
rattlebridge farm
sidewalk shoes
a quiet life

Look for more NB lavender posts on Saturday and Sunday!

 

Here's a quick recap of Lavender Week at Rattlebridge. Just click on the links for the recipes.

 

Day 1: Baby Spinach-Peach-Blueberry-Walnut Salad with Lavender-Ginger-Lemon Vinaigrette

Day 2: Lavender Granola

 

 

Day 3: Lavender Honey Crab Cakes

 

Day 4: Tablescape and Dessert



 

 

Day 5 (Foodie Friday) : Pickled Lavender Carrots and Lavender Vinegar
 

Pickled Lavender Carrots are sweet and savory. They are perfect for

appetizers--even more perfect as "nibbles" with a salty margarita.

 

 Also, they were quite easy. I parboiled the carrots so I

didn't have to dust off my pressure cooker!

I love easy!

 

These carrots are swoon-worthy, if you like that sort of thing.

Pickled Lavender Carrots

                   

Carrots

fresh lavender sprigs or dry culinary buds

2 cups white wine vinegar

1 cup white sugar

 

Prepare your Ball jars, lids, and seals. Boil lids/seals.

Run the jars through the dishwasher.

 

Cut carrots to fit Ball jars. Then place carrots in a

deep pan and fill with salted water. Cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

Drain and set aside.

 

In a separate saucepan, boil vinegar and sugar, adding a pinch of sea salt.

 

Lay jar on its side and add carrots, one at a time. Tuck in lavender sprigs.

Pour hot vinegar/sugar mixture into each jar, leaving 1" headroom.

Seal jars. Chill. Discard after 14 days.

(Adapted from a recipe in Discover Cooking with Lavender by Kathy Gehrt.)

 

 

The next recipe, lavender vinegar, has many uses, from culinary (vinaigrette; marinades) to

homekeeping (cleaning floors).  It makes a beautiful gift for your favorite cook, too.

 

Note: test a sample on your flooring before

applying diluted vinegar water.



Lavender Vinegar

 

White wine vinegar

lavender sprigs

decorative jar

 

This isn't a recipe, just a hand-me-down procedure. I used white wine/lemon vinegar. My lavender sprigs were past their prime, so I steeped culinary buds in the vinegar, then strained it before adding

the liquid to the sterilized jar.

 

Click HERE for a simple guide to making herbal vinegars.

Would you like to see a luscious, profusion of lavender?

You'll have fun visiting Mary (Home Is Where the Boat Is), Mari (Once Upon a Plate), Jain (A Quiet Life), and special guest baker Pam (Sidewalk Shoes). 

home is where the boat is

once upon a plate

rattlebridge farm

sidewalk shoes

a quiet life

Lavender Week
July 22 - July 28 

 Several Bakers will have posts for you on Saturday and Sunday.

 

Thanks for sharing in our joy this week!

 

 

If you are participating in Foodie Friday,

please take a moment to read the guidelines.

To participate in Foodie Friday, locate the blue Inlinkz icon and follow the directions. The red "x"
will allow you to delete your link if you made an error; the "x" is visible to you only.

For a complete guide to this linky party, click HERE. If you have still have questions, click HERE
for a detailed Foodie Friday tutorial.

** By adding your link to Foodie Friday, you are granting us permission to include a photo of your FF recipe in a feature story.

** Would you like to add your recipes to the "Consuming Passions" group board at Pinterest?
It can be found HERE. We're a small, sociable group; Foodie Friday folks are always welcome to "pin" with us and chat about food. Just leave a comment on one of my recent"pins," so I'll be sure to see it, and I will send you an invitation. Or you can email me.

**I would like to ask pretty please if Pinners will visit the host blogs to pin photographs.

 

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