About Anita

Small Batch Chow Chow

 

 

What a great recipe to make with those pintos! Start both recipes from scratch and they’ll be ready to serve together. What do you do when the garden begins to slow down? You throw a collections of vegetables together and make Chow Chow! I just didn’t have enough green tomatoes to follow my cousin Margaret Costa’s recipe. So I pulled together what I had in my garden to fill in. And because I wanted it today I changed the process a bit.

What you can do with Chow Chow is endless. Mix in with rice, add to deviled eggs or chicken salad, serve over meats, beans, black eyed peas, potatoes; or the way I like it …. over scrambled eggs. Just about anything!

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Sandwich Filling for a Crowd

Original Recipe and My Revised Recipe

Looking back, so many of the prepared foods eaten when I was a child are no longer considered a healthy choice. The main ingredient of this sandwich filling is a processed meat you can’t seem to find any longer in the grocer’s deli. Grandma’s recipe did incorporate cooked chicken if you preferred but it was the original that I loved. For a special treat I do go the bologna and pork loaf but cut the recipe way back from the 6 loaves of bread, etc, to a 4 serving proportion … Just enough for a treat but not for a full on wedding reception. Now I have to say my Grandmother was well known for this recipe by her family & friends. And I feel pretty lucky to have found it written down by her niece many years ago. Problem is Grandma was a change up artist. What she had in the pantry might find its way into the mix. My Mother too had a way of changing her Mother-in-law’s recipes. Mom made it tuna. It can even go just eggs. Or how about turning this into a salad instead. It all can be done with this recipe. Have you ever heard, ‘no one can make it like Grandma?’ Need I say more!

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Marinated Reds and Cucumbers

Easy salad goes perfectly with that New York Strip steak! At least that’s the way I had it years ago. It’s amazingly good and the prep is so quick and easy. If you’re into onions, cucumbers and tomatoes this is the salad for you.

 

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Tangy Roasted Vegetables

Lovin’ all these summer vegetables and a few quarters of red potato roasted in a sweet & sour herb marinade. For me this is a main dish when sprinkled with small dollops of cream cheese. This is one of the best tastes in roasted vegetables, guaranteed.

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Guacamole Spread

Just made these amazing Vegetarian Burritos. Yes, they go Vegan easily! With all these veggies in my garden I was thinking Vegetarian at least for the summer.  The burritos can hold their own without this spread but it’s a great option. Why call it a spread? Well, I added a bit of vegenaise, and more spice than the usual guacamole (another recipe here). Leave off the vegenaise, or substitute sour cream or mayonnaise instead. Anyway you try this, you will be hooked. It’s just plain good!

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Vegetarian Burritos

Garden vegetables and the perfect spice combination make this a great meal. A warm flour tortilla slathered with Guacamole Spread and filled with al dente veggies is just a delicious summertime or anytime meal. I’m thinking next time no carrots, maybe add chayote, and fresh roasted poblano & a little fresh diced jalapeño in place of canned green chilies … but this has enough heat as is for most. Not a heavy meal but guaranteed to satisfy the most avid carnivore. And can go totally vegan too!

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Old Fashioned Buttermilk Pie

A recipe gone a little bit wrong! It wasn’t the Buttermilk Pie recipe or even the Gingersnap Crust recipe … It was in the baking! The crust lifted into the filling during baking! The taste was amazing but I hadn’t intended the crust to become a topper. Didn’t I press the gingersnap crust into the pie plate firmly enough? That’s a possibility because after my failure or success, depending how you look at it, I did a search for buttermilk pie with crumb crust. It does work! The crumb crust seemed more inviting with this pie … Gingersnaps because of the spice … And who likes a soggy crust? Conventional crusts tend to get soggy with this pie filling as with custard pies. Would I try this combination again? Possibly! But the next fallback is my cheesecake crust instead. And while I’m talking about cheesecake this pie has a similar taste, tangy sweet. The texture is a little different but not by too much.

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Penuche Frosting & Buttermilk Cake

This is what you make for family dessert when the buttermilk is about to expire! This gal isn’t into drinking it straight up as Martha’s daughter said her mother secretly is, right from the carton. Buttermilk makes for a deliciously moist cake, one that doesn’t dry out a day later. I baked this cake in one 8 inch by 3 inch round but I really don’t recommend it. It was easier to frost but took extra time in baking leaving the edges a bit thick and firm. I recommend a 9 inch square or two eight inch rounds. As for the frosting, interestingly, it is believed penuche originated in Portugal and found its way to New England, right where my Grandmother Rose was raised. This butterscotch maple flavored frosting is just perfect with this cake. My Grandmother taught her new daughter-in-law by doing in the kitchen. This is another recipe Mother picked up, and we loved and still do!

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Goulash American Style

 

More about using garden tomatoes. Actually, lots was going on here not excluding real hunger! Wanted to use up the tomatoes and bells from my garden. Wanted comfort and cozy. And wanted to revisit a recipe from the distant past. I took an old recipe I cooked as a child and made it a little differently. Yes, the fresh Roma tomatoes made a difference because Romas are just sweeter and make a great creamy-like sauce.

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Spinach Salad Filipino Style

Not sure how or why but a friend and I got to talking about food. Ha. While eating and drinking last night Roselyn mentioned a salad (& the recipe) she frequently ate as a child. It sounded so simple and good I had to try it. She was absolutely right about this side salad! It’s delicious. Don’t tell her but I used pre-washed fresh spinach. She said it wouldn’t be the same without fresh bunches of spinach … not pre-washed. This was pretty darn good, Roselyn! Check out a few of her other recipes she has shared, here and here.

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