Let there be WHITE event...

Today I am joining my friend, Kathleen, in a Let There Be White event. When she first told us about it several weeks ago this is what she said: "Summer arrives June 21st...get out your summer whites! So many of us have WHITE dishes, I was wondering if you would be interested in a WHITE event..white tablesettings, flowers and foods.. Hey, vanilla ice cream is white, and lots of other things too...anything having to do with food or tables to show us your whites."

Of course I told her I would join the fun but I think I read her description too fast and thought I could just show some of the white flowers blooming in my garden on my garden blog. Oops, a closer look revealed it had to involve food or tables and I knew I was in trouble! When a peek outside your door looks like this from November through March...
you crave color! Since, I don't own an all white plate in my whole collection and this week is extremely busy for me - I almost decided to back out. But never wanting to let down a friend (or miss a Party!) I made an effort to pull off a little white and try to "wing" my way through this event First, the flowers - my last Japanese iris blossom.Shasta Daisy
Clematis, 'Huldine'
Sweet Alyssum - all the white cobweb looking stuff is cotton from the cottonwood trees - in a few weeks I will be pulling 1000's of seedlings from the garden.
Peony
Yarrow
Snow on the Mountain
Petunia
Some of those could have been picked for my centerpiece but it would have been too messy for what I had planned. On to the tablesetting - first the tablecloth. Plastic, $2 at the local grocery store.
A nice bakery box for the centerpiece.
The box is filled with white sugar cookies and I added a white bowl of white glace icing and my frosting recipe printed on white paper.
Soon after the table was covered with 6 doz white wedding cakes - they will have the addition of painted colors after the icing fully dries which could take forever in this humidty we are experiencing. (I'll try to show the finished project tomorrow).
All that glacing and I was ready for lunch...I actually went out and bought some new white dinnerware for the event...you can read the manufacturer on this shot.
There was just enough room left on the table for my tablesetting - vintage white styrofoam (I can't even remember how long they been in the pantry), new white paper plates and plastic silverware, and my white "in His Hands" candy dish. Lunch was white croissants with white mayo and white deli chicken breast.
Dessert was Lindt white chocolate truffles.
Thank you Kathleen for hosting this wonderful event - I hope I didn't disappoint you, but you know my schedule this week ;) Head on over to her blog, Cuisine Kathleen, to see all the other's participating in the fun event! I haven't had time to view them all yet, but from what I have seen so far - I might be adding some "real" white dinnerware after all!

Honey Grilled Sweet Potatoes...

A second night of grilling for us - this time simple and easy. One of our favorite ways to have chicken is the beer can method. Pop open a can of beer, pour out about 1/4 of it and put the 3/4 can of beer in a chicken can holder or you can balance the chicken on the can directly on the grill. Grill on indirect heat for 1 1/2 hrs for and extremely moist and tender chicken. We like several versions of it - sometimes I push fresh rosemary springs under the skin and put lemon slices in the chicken cavity and sometimes I use a spice rub, other times we take the super easy route and buy a preseasoned chicken. Our favorite is a MN brand Gold n' Plump Mesquite. It is sold in a bag you can bake it in but I have never tried that - the can & the grill is the only way to go on this one.

Tonight it is the real life tablesetting, no placemats or nice arranged setting - carry out the dishes and fill with good food ;) I grill...J carves, no desserts or wine...simple good food.
Grilled sweet potatoes are made often here. Usually cut in large chunks and tossed with olive oil, minced garlic, pepper and seasoned salt and then grilled for a sweet & savory taste. This time I tried a new recipe from about.com and it was good for change of taste. I'd definitely make them again but still prefer the old method.

Honey Grilled Sweet Potatoes from about.com
Ingredients:
1 pound sweet potatoes
1/4 cup honey
1/4 butter
Preparation:
Preheat grill. Clean sweet potatoes, cutting off any bad spots. Cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place on medium hot grill and cook for about 8-10 minutes on one side. Soften butter and mix with honey. Spread mixture over slices and turn. Continue grilling about 6-8 minutes. Turn and spread on more honey butter. Continue grilling until honey butter gets all bubbly.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

Kickoff to Summer BBQ...

My friend, Debbie at Mountain Breaths, is hosting a Kickoff to Summer two day BBQ event this weekend. Check out her blog at the link above all weekend as other's join in to see many great BBQ posts and recipes.
We eat outdoors almost every night in the summer except the days when it is raining or the heat and humidity force us indoors to central air conditioning.
I usually don't take the time to try and set a pretty table but for Debbie's BBQ party, I picked a fresh centerpiece of peonies and did my best with our "everyday" summer dishes. The plates are what my mother called melmac - unbreakable and durable as well as the glasses and flatware, which are rounded out with paper napkins. Summer's are all about easy living here. Usually I do my best Rachel Ray imitation and see how much I can pile on my handy tray and carry out at one time. Weeknight dinner's such as last night's BBQ are all about quick cooking - I never know when J is coming home and dinner is served anytime between 6:30 and 10 pm.
We enjoy being outside watching the birds and listening to wren songs and the sound of the rock fountain as we eat.
I wish you could smell the peonies...one of my very favorite scents and I have been enjoying smelling it while working in the garden all week.
Oops, since this is a BBQ event, I better head over to the grill. Our menu was veggie kabobs and cedar planked salmon. We love salmon and usually use an old standby recipe which I just noticed is my previous post (sorry about that) so I thought I would try a cedar planked version from allrecipices.com.

Cedar Planked Salmon from Allrecipes.com
INGREDIENTS
• 3 (12 inch) untreated cedar planks
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 (2 pound) salmon fillets, skin removed
DIRECTIONS
1. Soak the cedar planks for at least 1 hour in warm water. Soak longer if you have time.
2. In a shallow dish, stir together the vegetable oil, rice vinegar, sesame oil, soy sauce, green onions, ginger, and garlic. Place the salmon fillets in the marinade and turn to coat. Cover and marinate for at least 15 minutes, or up to one hour.
3. Preheat an outdoor grill for medium heat. Place the planks on the grate. The boards are ready when they start to smoke and crackle just a little.
4. Place the salmon fillets onto the planks and discard the marinade. Cover, and grill for about 20 minutes. Fish is done when you can flake it with a fork. It will continue to cook after you remove it from the grill.

My notes: I only used one fillet and one board but the same amount of marinade. This is a great recipe, the salmon was so moist and flavorful!

While we waited for the food to cook, we enjoyed a glass of wine. This is the only part of our everyday grilling post that isn't everyday ;) but hey, this is a BBQ party so I brought out a bottle. I picked a bottle to match the plastic flamingo (flamenco) glasses purchased at one of the wineries we stopped at on the Texas wine trail on our recent riding vacation in Texas.
The photo doesn't do the food justice - it was excellent. Veggie Kabobs were made with baby portabellos, mini sweet peppers, chunks of vidalia onions and fresh zuchinni tossed with olive oil, pepper, seasoned salt and minced garlic.
After the great meal, we just relaxed and enjoyed the garden and company as we watched Hershey being entertained by fish swimming under the bridge.
An hour later we figured we could tackle dessert before heading inside. Summer dessert at our house is usually smores or the lower calorie version of freshly toasted marshmallow, pulled off the fork and a hershey's almond kiss stuffed into the bottom which melts from the heat of the marshmallow...yummy. Grilling dessert was new for me so I did some online browsing. I decided on Grilled Banana Sundaes from the bhg.com website.
The matching pink bowls are huge but we were good and only used two scoops of ice cream.

Grilled Banana Sundaes from bhg.com
• 3 large firm bananas
• 1 tablespoon margarine or butter
• 2 teaspoons lime juice or orange juice
• 1/2 cup caramel ice-cream topping
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream
• Toasted coconut or toasted sliced almonds (optional)

Directions
1. Cut bananas in half lengthwise, then cut each piece in half crosswise. (You should have 12 pieces.) Stir together margarine or butter and 1 teaspoon of the lime or orange juice. Brush mixture on all sides of banana pieces.
2. Place bananas directly on the grill rack over medium-hot coals. Grill, uncovered, for 2 minutes; turn over and grill for 2 minutes more or until heated through.
3. Meanwhile, in a heavy, medium skillet or saucepan combine the caramel topping and the remaining 1 teaspoon lime or orange juice. Heat on the grill rack alongside bananas directly over the coals, or on a stovetop, until bubbly, stirring frequently. Stir in cinnamon. Add bananas and stir gently to coat.
4. To serve, scoop ice cream into 4 dessert dishes. Spoon sauce and bananas atop ice cream. Sprinkle with the coconut and/or almonds, if desired. Makes 4 servings

My Notes: I used orange juice instead of lime juice and at my first read thru I didn't see where to add the 1/4 of a tsp of cinnamon listed in the ingredients. So I added it to the caramel sauce. Then I thought I bet it was to flavor the bananas so I added another 1/8 tsp to the melted butter sauce too - our end result was wonderful. The combo of a warm caramel sauce with cinnamon, a hint of citrus and warm banana with ice cream was so good we will add grilled desserts to our next party. We also used cashews as our topping of choice. I honestly didn't read the cinnamon part in the recipe until this morning when I saw it was to be added to the butter sauce. It was great in the caramel too so next time I'll do 1/4 tsp in the butter to coat the bananas and 1/8 tsp in the caramel.
If I didn't have a tight dress (how do they shrink hanging in the closet anyways?) to squeeze into in 2 weeks, I think I could have eaten a whole bowlful ;) No more desserts, grilled or otherwise, until after June 27th for me and lots of fish & chicken rather than ribeyes as well.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

The next event to be hosted by one of my blogging buddies is Kathleen's "show your whites" white tablesetting event.
This is a quote from her blog telling a little bit more about it.

*******Summer arrives June 21st...get out your summer whites! So many of us have WHITE dishes, I was wondering if you would be interested in a WHITE event..white tablesettings, flowers and foods.. Hey, vanilla ice cream is white, and lots of other things too...anything having to do with food or tables to show us your whites.
Carol, no, your whitening toothpaste won't do!

So plan to join in and head over to Cuisine Kathleen on June 21st to a white-out of fun!

Grilled Salmon...

Tonight, we had grilled salmon for dinner in the garden...
it was a good meal to serve on my new bluebird dishes.
Aren't they cute? Since I can't attract them to my yard, I can at least have them on my table.
Dinner was salmon using a recipe we have used many times this winter on the broiler but it works great on the grill as well.
Broiled Salmon with Rosemary (from Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes)

Salmon is high in protein and has heart-protective benefits associated with omega-3 fatty acids found in their fish oil. It is suggested that we eat fatty fish twice a week.

Servings: 4 servings Time: 10 minutes Points: 6 ww points
• 4 (5 oz.) pieces of salmon
• olive oil spray
• 2 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp fresh, chopped rosemary
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and fresh pepper to taste
Combine lemon juice, rosemary, salt, pepper and garlic. Brush mixture onto fish.

Spray the rack of a broiler pan with olive oil cooking spray and arrange the fish on it. Broil 4" from the heat until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork (approx. 4-6 minutes per 1/2" of thickness. If fish is more than 1" thick, gently turn it halfway through broiling).

My notes: We usually only make two pieces of salmon but I still use the same amount of lemon juice & rosemary but only one lg clove of garlic. For tonight's grilling I brushed the grill with olive oil as well as the filets to prevent sticking. Worked great and will be a summer staple as well.
I can't wait until we will be dining surrounded by blossoms...

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

Mother's Day Tribute

In honor of my mother this Mother's Day, I am joining Barb (Foley's Follies) and many other bloggers in tributes to our Moms. Please click on the link above to visit Barb's blog and see the others participating.
This is my mother, Alma, on her wedding day in 1943. A bride during wartime there wasn't a fancy wedding but a new wedding suit and a ceremony in the pastor's parsonage. Below, is the one and only photo I have of just me and my mom (the others include siblings and dad). We were on a camping vacation in northern MN and notice she is wearing a dress. I don't think I saw my mom wear anything besides dresses until I was in high school and those polyester pantsuits came in style during the early 70's. She was a fantastic seamstress and sewed all of her clothes as well as most of ours.
This is the last "nice" photo I have of her taken at my wedding, she was fighting for her life battling with cancer but still looking beautiful! Within a year she was gone...breast cancer took her away from us at age 54. How I wish she could have seen me grow as a woman and to meet my wonderful children...I always hope I have done a good enough job of instilling in them my memories of her...I am honored to have her good dishes and I too save them for special occasions.
The pattern is Tea Rose by Knowles...I used one of her sets of earrings for napkin rings.
When I store these dishes in the cabinet I even keep the cups in the bowl like she always did...Mother's know best.
We grew up a "meat and potatoes" farm family and mom always had a large vegetable garden. Many hours were spent freezing and canning vegetables and we bought fresh fruit by the case when in season and mom canned all of our own peaches, pears, cherries and plums.
She was a wonderful cook and we always had great meals and I decided to some of my favorites for my tribute meal. First off is the salad...orange jello with grated carrots and sometimes my favorite way to have it included crushed pineapple. Then scalloped potatoes which was always served with meatloaf at home (which I also love) but for this meal I chose country style pork ribs. Our vegetable is probably my very favorite...carmelized butternut squash.
The centerpiece of our table was also dessert...Mom's Mile High pie. This was a favorite of our childhood and in her last months when I was her caregiver and we would go through her recipes so I could copy my favorites I found out it had uncooked egg whites in it. I haven't had it since and it has been over 33 years. I have often wondered if it tasted as good as I remembered it and now with pastuerized egg whites I thought it would be "safe" to make. Note to my sisters/brothers...it was all I remembered and more...delicious!
These photos don't do it justice...it had started to melt while sitting pretty as our centerpiece.

Mom's Recipes

Salad - grate homegrown carrots into orange jello.
Scalloped potatoes - her version involved cream of mushroom soup...mine is simply cream, onions, salt and pepper.
Squash - peel and cube a butternut squash. Bake with a generous amount of brown sugar and a few pats of butter. Stir occassionally to carmelize.

Country Style Pork ribs
Brown the meat on all sides. Mix together
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vinegar
2 TB ketchup
2 TB brown sugar
1 TB dry mustard
Pour over meat and continue to cook at med heat until the pork is done and the sauce evaporates down to a thick bbq sauce.

Mile High Pie
1 10oz pkg of frozen strawberries
1 cup sugar
2 egg whites (I used Eggbeaters pastuerized egg whites from a carton)
1/8 tsp salt
1 TB lemon juice
1/2 pint whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
Baked 9 inche pie shell
Place partially thawed strawberries, sugar, egg whites, salt and lemon juice in the mixer bowl and beat at medium speed 15 minutes or until mixture holds it's shape. In a separate bowl, whip the cream and add the vanilla. Fold into the strawberry mixture. Put lightly into the pre-baked pie shell and freeze two hours or overnight.

Some of the other mementos I treasure of my mom are pieces of her jewelry, an enameled compact given to her by my dad and a tube of her lipstick.

The Great Cooking Magazine Challenge..

My friend, Suzy (Kitchen Bouquet), started The Great Cooking Magazine Challenge back in March. Sometimes, life just gets hectic and I have yet to participate in a challenge because most of my magazines don't get read for months. Yesterday was an exception, I received my latest issue of Food Network Magazine while laid up with a bad knee so I sat down to read it. I came across a healthy recipe for fish tacos that looked worth trying. I immediately wrote down the ingredients I needed as I had planned on grocery shopping today. We had them for dinner and they were delicious...but I really had to laugh at my inaugural effort in this challenge. The tasty recipe I found for Tilapia Soft Tacos with Chipotle Cream wasn't found in an article with a famous food network star chef, it was in an advertisement for Mission Tortillas.
I haven't gotten the patio dining set out of storage yet, so we ate under the satellite gazebo. It was a beautiful spring evening still warm enough to eat outside at 8 pm. I had my taco with water, and brought out a beer for my dining partner but he opted to go back inside for a glass of milk.

This is why I love those tulip dishes...the garden tulips are really starting to open.

Tilapia Soft Tacos with Chipotle Cream
recipe from FN magazine Mission tortilla advertisement and also on http://missionmenus.com/


4 Mission® 8 inch Soft Taco Carb Balance Flour Tortillas
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper
4 cloves Garlic minced
3 tablespoons Fresh Cilantro chopped
1 pound Tilapia Fillets
2 tablespoons Lime Juice

2 cups Mixed Greens

Chipotle Cream Sauce:
2 canned Chipotle Chilies in Adobo minced and seeded
1 cup Fat Free Sour Cream
1/4 teaspoon Salt

Recipe Instructions:
1. Mix the Chipotle Cream Sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2. In a skillet set at medium-high heat, add the seven ingredients from the olive oil through the cilantro. Sauté those ingredients for 5 minutes.
3. After the 5 minutes, add the tilapia and cover and cook for 3 minutes or until fish is fully cooked. Then add in lime juice and let cook for 1 additional minute.
4. Heat the tortillas according to the package instructions. Lay each of the warmed tortillas on a cutting board and place one-quarter of both the field greens and fish on the center of each tortilla. Then top each with equal amounts of the Chipotle Cream Sauce.
5. Fold the tortillas over to form tacos and serve.

My Notes: I used the Mission Plus "Heart Healthy" tortillas and light sour cream. I also cut and pasted this recipe from the website but the magazine version was for grilling the fish so that is what I did. Grilled on med-low temp after spraying the grill surface with cooking spray.

Marsha - Thumbs Up
Jeff - Thumbs Up

I have been looking at old photos, mementos and recipes of my mom's this week to join in the Mother's Day event hosted by Barb, Foley's Follies. Here is a quote from her describing the event "All our welcome to join in with the participants linked through Mr. Linky. Another reminder of the Mothers Day Tribute the weekend of May 8th. Please stop in and post photos and recipes or special heirloom items from your Mother, Grandmother, Mother-in-Law or anyone who is important to you on this day! Mr. Linky will be up and running!"

Please come back this weekend to see my tribute to my mom and also head over to Barb's to see all the other's joining in.