Ginger Salmon

Growing up on Florida's Gulf Coast, I ate a lot of seafood - shrimp, crabs, red snapper, mullet, scallops, sheephead, just about any fish the Gulf of Mexico provided!  Seldom, if ever, do I remember eating salmon.  This is a simple and tasty main course.  Enjoy!

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 pound salmon fillets

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a small bowl, blend olive oil, honey, Dijon mustard and ginger.
Brush the salmon fillets evenly with the olive oil mixture.  Place in a medium baking dish.  Bake 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Quick Roasted Vegetables with Chicken

Roasted Vegetables with Chicken

This could easily be a complete vegetarian meal by omitting the chicken.

Start with a variety of vegetables suitable for roasting, such as bell pepper, eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash, baby red potatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts.

Chop vegetables and a chicken breast into bite size pieces.  Put these ingredients in a large bowl.  Pour enough olive oil over to coat.  Sprinkle with paprika.  Thoroughly mix everything.

Lay out on a baking sheet with sides, lined with foil.  Bake in a 350 oven for 15 minutes.

Great Summer Salads

These three salad recipes are favorites of mine that I've made dozens of times.  I know you will love them too.

Macaroni-Pepperoni Salad

2 cups uncooked pasta
2 cups chopped celery
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup diced green pepper
1 cup sliced pepperoni
4 tablespoons pickle relish
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
2 cups grated cheddar

Cook and drain the macaroni pasta.
Mix all ingredients together except for the cheese.
Top with the cheese.  Make ahead and chill for best flavor.


Blueberry Salad

2  3 oz. packages of blackberry jello mix
2 cups boiling water
1  8 oz. can crushed pineapple
1 can blueberries (not blueberry pie filling)

1  8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup or more chopped nuts

Dissolve the two packages of jello in the water.  Mix in the pineapple and blueberries and chill till solid.
Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla extract and spread over the blueberry mixture.  Toss chopped nuts over it.



Swiss Chard and Cabbage Salad

4 cups thinly sliced swiss chard leaves
1 cup chopped swiss chard stems
2 cups shredded green cabbage
1 cup shredded red cabbage
7 or 8 chopped scallion
1 can drained and rinsed garbanzo beans
1  16 oz. cottage cheese
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Combine swiss chard leaves, swiss chard stems, green and red cabbage, scallions, and garbanzo beans in a large bowl.  Add cottage cheese and mix well.  Add vinegar and stir to combine.  Sprinkle with onion and garlic powders and mix well.  Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Paradise Chicken

Welcome to the new version of Sherry's Place!  Here you will find recipes and all things food/kitchen related.  All the recipes are ones I have made in my kitchen or backyard and friends and family have rated excellent. 

I hope you enjoy the new theme of my blog.

Quick story about Paradise Chicken.  When I was newly married, I was not a good cook at all.  My mother was a miserable cook.  During my growing up years, we had probably less than a dozen different meals and they were never anything to brag about.  As I got older, I really wanted to be a good cook and learn a lot of different ways to cook.

I found this recipe in a magazine in the early 70's.  It had won a cooking contest.  I soon found that it was a hit with everyone I served it to and most everyone wanted the recipe.  Let me know what you think.

1 cup flour
salt
1 chicken cut into pieces (bone in)
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 green bell pepper, cut into strips
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 cup water
2 tablespoons vinegar
1 large can sliced pineapple, reserve juice
3 tablespoons cornstarch

Coat chicken with salt and flour and brown in oil.  Remove chicken to baking pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute pepper and onion in the same skillet as you browned the chicken for about 2 minutes.  Add water and vinegar.

Cut sliced pineapple into quarters.  Mix cornstarch and reserved juice, stir into vegetable mixture in the skillet.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils one minute.

Stir in pineapple.

Pour this over the chicken and continue baking another 20 minutes.

Serve over rice.

A new focus for Sherry's Place

I've been writing this blog since 2009.  I have a handful of regular followers (at least that I know about!).  These are mostly family and friends plus a few good friends I have met through this blog.

Lately, I've been thinking about how I could "energize" the posts or take a different approach.  When I look at my life, there are so many things that are part of who I am.  Cooking/baking, paddling, my dogs, family and friends, firearms, target shooting, day hiking in scenic places. . . I guess you could call my life a patchwork quilt!!!  Then I thought about the internet searches I do most often and it became very clear - recipes and cooking!

So that will be the emphasis for Sherry's Place going forward.  I get excited to find a new recipe that is a real winner.  Often I have mentioned here or on facebook about a new recipe I tried and liked and someone will say, "Put it on your blog."

Plans are still on the drawing board so give me a few days or couple of weeks and I'll be back!  Initial ideas are to feature great recipes, cookbooks that I find especially good, and maybe even kitchen tools that I like best.  These will be ones I have tried and really like, not a quick plop down of something I found on the internet or a magazine without preparing them first and labeling them a "Blue Ribbon!"

I have disabled comments on the blog due to some unpleasant comments from undesirable people.  But I still welcome your comments through e-mail, text messaging, or phone.

So stay tuned.  The best is yet to come!

Super new cookbook for BBQ and smoking meat

I know, every time I get a new cookbook, I say "it is the best!"  What can I say?  I'm hooked on all kinds of cooking, whether it be baking a pie or BBQ or smoking meat.

But the Southern Living Ultimate book of BBQ IS fantastic. . . really!

The South is known for it's "barbecue joints", usually little hole in the wall places run by a family and serving up some of the best BBQ you can imagine. This cookbook starts out with a primer on "what is BBQ?" It covers smoking meat and the parts of each animal - beef, poultry, lamb, and pork.

THEN it gets into recipes!  I could go on and on about those!

If you are into BBQ and smoking meat, you need this cookbook!  I've learned a lot in the last few years since I got excited about smoking meat, but even I learned a thing or two!

Little things mean a lot. . .

This year I have been truly blessed to reconnect with two people from my distant past.  Both are friends from my high school days.

In March, when I made my annual trek down to Alabama for a cousins reunion - our 9th consecutive year! - Elizabeth Champion drove a short distance from her home to meet up with me in the rural town where we have our annual reunion.  While I like to say that I hadn't seen her in "50 years", she reminded me, "it is actually more than 50 years!"  Oh, come on. . . I'm not THAT old!

I was amazed that after all these years, we picked up right where we left off!  The conversation flowed nonstop and neither of us were at a loss for words!!!  She said her husband asked her, "She's not a liberal, is she?"  PERISH THAT THOUGHT!  Not everyone in New York State subscribes to that  _________ (expletive deleted!)

Just last week, another long time friend who I hadn't seen in decades, Sandy Graves, and her husband made a special trip to Rochester from Philadelphia to see me.  Talk about an ego boost!  I was in their wedding 49 years ago this summer.

Sandy and Elizabeth were in Rainbow Girls with me back in the early 60's.  The Rainbow organization is a branch of the Masonic Order for girls.

You know, life can throw you curve balls and things don't always go the way you plan.  But there is nothing like an old friend that makes a special effort to catch up with you.  Kinda reminds me of the old Brownie Scout song I sang so many years ago:

Make new friends,
But keep the old.
One is silver
and the other is gold.

Sandy and Elizabeth, you will never know how yor brightened my life.  THANKS!

I'm removing comments section of my blog

Sadly, I am no longer allowing comments to my posts.  In the past weeks, I have had dozens of unwanted comments, some that were just plain vulgar.  Because I had comments moderation, these were all denied before you, my readers, saw them.

Most of you know how to contact me by e-mail or text messaging.  I welcome legitimate comments from friends and family and even those I don't know - but keep it positive and reasonable.