Easter Side Dishes

April 12, 2022, noon


Easter is April 17 and I thought I would share a couple of recipes that I always serve on Easter Sunday. It is our tradition to serve ham at Easter, but these dishes would go with any meat. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Deviled Eggs – hard-boil as many eggs as you choose. Peel and cut in half lengthwise. Take out the yolks and put in a bowl. Mash with a fork.
You will need mayonnaise, mustard, pickle relish (we like dill), salt and pepper. The amounts of each of these will depend on how many eggs you used.
Add a little mustard, as much pickle relish as your family would like, some salt and pepper. Stir and then add some mayonnaise. I don't like mine too runny so I'm careful about the mayonnaise. You use what you like.
At this point I use a ziplock bag as a piping bag. I put the mixture in the bag, cut the tip and pipe the mixture onto the egg halves. Sprinkle with paprika and you're done!

Potato Salad ...


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Easy Weeknight Meals - Seafood Edition

March 8, 2022, noon


Here are three more easy meals that can be made in 30 minutes or less.

Vietnamese Crispy Fish with Cilantro
from Hook, Line and Supper by Hank Shaw
serves 6


This dish will come together in about the same time it takes to make the steamed rice that goes along with it.


2 pounds of lean white fish, cut into 2-inch chunks
sea salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, about 3 cups, thinly sliced from root to end
1 piece ginger, about the size of your thumb, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon sugar
3 to 5 jalapenos or other hot chiles, seeded and thinly sliced
4 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons water
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
juice of two limes


Sprinkle salt over the fish. Heat the oil in a large saute pan or wok and add the fish. Sear the fish in the oil so one side gets a nice, golden brown crust. Don't flip the fish; you'll finish cooking ...


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Jelly Roll

Feb. 22, 2022, noon


This is an old-fashioned dessert that my mother made many times when I was a child. I made them for my children and my grandchildren get very excited when I make them for family dinner. I hope you will give it a try!
This is a basic recipe for vanilla cake and a jelly or jam. You can vary the flavor of the cake and the filling. There are thousands of recipes on the internet.


Jelly Roll
4 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons water
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
a pinch of salt
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2/3 cup jam or jelly
powdered sugar


Heat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a jelly roll pan (sheet pan) with parchment or waxed paper. Grease the paper generously.
Beat the egg yolks and water together until smooth.
Add sugar, vanilla and salt and beat well.
Add flour and baking powder and beat until batter is smooth.
Beat egg whites until fluffy and fold into batter.Read More...

How To Cook Dried Beans

Feb. 15, 2022, noon


Dried beans are not used often enough! They are cheap, store for long periods of time, are nutritious, and are very easy to cook. There are hundreds of ways to use them and you can freeze them.
The key to cooking a successful pot of beans depends on two things: the age of your beans and knowing when to salt them. We will talk more about this later.
This simple stovetop method can be used for small, medium, or large beans such as the following:
Chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
Navy beans
Black-eyed peas
Black beans
Pinto beans
Great Northern beans
Lima beans
Red beans
Cannellini beans
This method will not work for lentils or split peas, which are not really beans, but are still in the legume family. Lentils cook much quicker than beans and don’t require pre-soaking.
Help! I've cooked these beans forever and they won't get soft!
The culprit probably isn’t the recipe or your cooking technique, but rather ...


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