Recipes – Page 9 – Thimbleanna

Recipe O’ Rain

47 Comments / August 29, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Recipes

Well, how’s the weekend going? It’s slow and lovely here. I was off of work yesterday and it Rained. All. Day. It was a beautiful, steady downpour — just perfect for quilting or knitting. I spent the day holed up in the dungeon sewing and came up for air long enough to take a few pictures of the raindrops on our pretty Rose of Sharon.

It seems to be slow out there in blogland too. I’m sad to see more blogs being lost to twitter and facebook, which are just too busy for me. I’m much happier with the slower pace of blogs. Oh well, it’s good to have so many choices, right?

Since my sewing wasn’t productive enough to have any show and tell, it’s time for a recipe. My little recipe section provides me with a repository of recipes I don’t want to lose. I have a stack of recipe clippings that need to be cleaned out (which pales by comparison to MeMum’s I might add), and it’s much easier to find them if they’re on the internet. More than once, I’ve been in the kitchen and pulled up a recipe on my blackberry — very convenient! So — here’s a recipe for Corn and Blueberry Salsa. MyDadLovesMeBestSister brought it to our last family get-together and we all loved it.

Corn and Blueberry Salsa

1 1/2 c. cooked and cooled fresh or frozen yellow corn kernels
1/3 cup chopped red sweet pepper
1/4 cup snipped fresh chives or thinly sliced green onions
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh basil
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Combine corn, sweet pepper, chives, basil, maple, syrup, lemon juice and salt. Add blueberries and toss gently to combine.

Easy Peasy. We enjoyed this salsa over grilled salmon (apologies to you non-fish lovers), but I’m sure there are many other ways you might like it. Happy Weekend!

XOXO,
Anna

The Weather and Such

51 Comments / August 9, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Around the House, Recipes

Oh Dear, I’ve committed a blogging faux pas. In my last post, I said “when you start talking about the weather, you’ve run out of things to say” and several of you rather eloquently proved me wrong! I take it back. I’ve really enjoyed reading your weather posts and I look forward to many more!

Maybe it’s just that our weather has been rather, well, boring this year. Beautiful, but boring. Well, until this weekend — now we’re back to our regularly scheduled summer weather. Hot and Humid. Hot. Humid. Ick. I mowed the lawn this weekend in the heat and humidity.

You can just see the humidity in the air. That’s me on the mower — see how straight and stringy the humidity makes my hair? And sweat. You just have to walk outdoors and you’ll start sweating. That’s why I’m a mere shadow of my former self there on the lawnmower — I’ve sweat myself into peoplestickdom.

Ewwww. See? Weather-talk just doesn’t work very well here, at the moment. I’m pretty sure you didn’t tune in to read about sweat. I’ll try to make up for it by giving you one of our favorite summer on-the-grill recipes. It’s fast. It’s easy. And there’s no clean-up, other than your dinner plates.

Kielbasa and Vegetable Packets

1 ring (1 lb.) fully cooked kielbasa sausage, cut into pieces
12 new potatoes, cut in half
1 green bell pepper, cut into pieces
1 medium onion, chopped into wedges
2 medium zucchini or yellow squash, cut into pieces

Seasonings (add what you like):
Cajun seasoning
Garlic salt
Salt
Pepper

1. Tear off four approximately 18 x 12 inch size pieces of aluminum foil.
2. Place 1/4 of each of the sausage and vegetable groups onto each square of foil.
3. Drizzle each packet with a little bit of olive oil and some of your choice of seasonings.
4. Fold foil over kielbasa and vegetables and seal to make square foil packages. Leave a bit of room for heat circulation and expansion.
5. Place packets on medium-hot grill and cook for 30 – 40 minutes. When done, open up packets and serve.
::Makes 4 servings.

You can make these no matter what kind of weather you’re experiencing. Well, ok, it might be a little difficult in Jody’s hail — I hope your weather this weekend is less exciting that that!

XOXO,
Anna

Broccoli Salad

48 Comments / June 30, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Recipes

Thanks for all the Grandma-Shirt Love. You guys are all so sweet! I wore that shirt all day on Saturday and it sure is comfortable. I just try not to look in the mirror! ;-) I don’t have much else to report this week. My boss came in to my office at noon today and asked if I could make a quick trip to NJ for a meeting tomorrow, so I’m leaving in 15 minutes to go hop on an airplane. I thought my NJ trips were over for awhile, but I guess not. No time to plan a quickie visit into NYC this time {sigh}.

In the meantime, how about a quick summer recipe for broccoli salad? You probably have a favorite recipe of your own, but just in case, here’s one that I like:

Broccoli Salad

Salad:
2 bunches of broccoli
10 slices bacon (cooked and crumbled)
2/3 cup raisins
1/4 – 1/3 cup purple onion, chopped

Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sugar
2 T. red wine vinegar

1. Wash and cut broccoli into bite-sized pieces.
2. Combine broccoli, bacon, raisins, and onion in a large bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mix mayonnaise, sugar, and vinegar. Pour over salad and toss.
4. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving, tossing occasionally.

Easy Peasy. This makes a great salad to take to a 4th of July cookout!

XOXO,
Anna

Distracted

52 Comments / June 23, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Books, Chat, Recipes

Well, I’m a little late with a weekend report, but I have a good excuse. I’ve had my nose buried in The Help. I completely avoided the computer last night and sat out on the patio reading until dark, enjoying the last of my peonies and savoring every word.

I couldn’t help myself. I loved this book and haven’t been as excited about a book group book in a long time. I finally finished it today on my lunch break. Fortunately, no one came into my cube to see the tears in my eyes. Yvette commented on my last post about how sad she was to see the book end and I couldn’t have said it better. Except maybe to use PKM’s favorite phrase — it was super delicious. More than super delicious!

Not much else to report from the weekend. Just a teeny little bit of sewing happened, but mostly yard and housework. And we had a Father’s Day cookout on Sunday. The weather was beautiful.

We even had blueberry ice cream using this recipe. Yum Yum! When TheSecondChild was 11 or 12, he wanted an ice cream maker for his birthday, so we gave him one. We’ve hardly ever used it, but making this ice cream was so easy and fast, it won’t be another 10 years before we use it again.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m way behind on blog reading. Hope you’re having a good week!

XOXO,
Anna

The Weekend Report

53 Comments / May 18, 2009 February 22, 2011 / Family, Recipes

Thanks for all your happy wishes for our moving weekend. The newlyweds are all settled into their cute new apartment. They’ve managed to accumulate quite a bit during their first year, so there was plenty of work for all of the volunteer movers. We had a great time though — many hands make light work.

I packed a picnic lunch for all of us. I even tucked my panini grill into my picnic basket because I knew their kitchen goods would still be packed. We worked right through lunch and didn’t manage to eat our sandwiches until dinner time. Hunger made them taste pretty darn good though! We also had chips (have you tried Lays Kettle Cooked Salt and Cracked Pepper chips yet? (I tried to find a picture for you, but they’re not even on their website yet) — they’re my new addiction!), pasta salad, grapes, bananas, and cookies. I made two kinds of cookies — oatmeal raisin and these lemon cookies.

(Hello Moda Butter Polka Dots and Happy Zombie!) The lemon cookies were really good, but it was a very humid, rainy day, so they got a bit sticky. They’re also a heavy cake-like cookie — very dense because of the ricotta cheese in them. Very lemony and yummy though.

So, now, on to a new week. We’re finally promised some pretty weather — unbelievably, we had frost last night. I’ll be spending my week making plans for the upcoming 4-day weekend — yipee. I hope you have a good week planned too!

XOXO,
Anna