Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

Palma chose ginger for us this week. While doing research I realized that many recipes using ginger are Asian in style, flavor and nature. When I found this one for baby spareribs with a ginger-orange sauce, I knew I wanted to make them. It was a two step, two day recipe - one afternoon I simmered the ribs and chilled them over night. Today I finished them off with the sauce, glazing them in a large frying pan. They were delicious. Thanks, Palma, lots of good nibbling ahead.

Continue reading "Sunday Small Bites #11 - Ginger" »

Again late to the posting, even though I made this one before we left town for the weekend. I love stuffed mushrooms, but decided to look for another mushroom treatment since there would be no one around to eat the stuffed ones. When I found this recipe for marinated garlic mushrooms, it seemed ideal, in part because it is a very California recipe, and in part because it has given me a large container that I can use for a Thanksgiving small bite. Always thinking ahead, or at least I like to think I am.

This is a recipe from a contest at the Gilroy Garlic Festival held annually in the town of Gilroy, in north central California, which is the Garlic Capitol of the World, or so they claim. It was the winner of the 1979 contest.

Gilroy Marinated Garlic Mushrooms

Continue reading "Sunday Small Bites #10 - Mushrooms" »

As you all know by now, I am totally about the simple (but kudos to those of you who have done olives in multiple ways this week). And when I saw olives, I thought about a really simple small bite that one of our faculty members, Sr. Harriett, brought to an office potluck last holiday season. These were so tasty, a combination of rich and salty, that I asked her for the recipe. I have to admit I was not totally surprised when she brought me a copy of a page from the Betty Crocker Cookbook, yes that very one with the red cover and binder rings. When I looked in my own copy, circa my 1975 wedding, there it was, in a section called "Nibbles". And indeed that is what these are, nibbles, think martinis, think rumaki, think 1962.

Olive Cheese Balls

Continue reading "Sunday Small Bites #9 - Olives" »

Deborah picked a fall classic flavor for this week and while I love pumpkin, I realized when looking at the recipe spectrum, how many of my favorite fall recipes using pumpkin were sweet, not savory. So finding a small bite, an appetizer, was the challenge. When I saw this recipe for Pumpkin Hummus, and realized that I also needed an appetizer for a party on the weekend, I knew this was going to be the one. The only thing I changed in this recipe from a November 2005 issue of Cooking Light was to add a can of garbanzo beans (chick peas) because it just seemed to call out for the taste and texture.

Continue reading "Sunday Small Bites #8 - Pumpkin" »

I was better about getting this week's challenge done and posted to Slow Travel than I was about doing the blog entry; I will plead guilty to having had a really nice weekend up north in the Santa Cruz area.

I had some fun again reading pecan recipes and sorting through a few; my first choice was to stuff mushrooms with pecans, bread crumbs and cheese, but then I ran across this recipe for a savory cookie on the web page of the Georgia Pecan Commission. I had done something similar a few years back and recalled it was a hit for the holidays. So, after baking part of the recipe, I have frozen the remaining rolls of dough and plan to use them for Thanksgiving nibbles.
While waiting for the dough to chill, I decided to make a batch of curried pecans with the rest of the large bag that I actually had in my nut drawer. I brought both cookies and nuts to Santa Cruz to share with Rachel, Addison and their roommates, so they join me in thanking you, Sheri, for the ingredient of the week.

Continue reading "Sunday Small Bites #7 - Pecans" »