Category Archives: Short Time

One-pots, Recipes, Seafood, Short Time, Soup, Uncategorized

The Wonder Of Store-Bought Crackers

I have a deep affinity for crackers.  Not gourmet varieties, or even homemade, but good old plain Jane everyday crackers, be it Captain’s wafers, or saltines, and especially any kind that comes two-to-a-pack.  

I don’t think anyone needs a reason to like crackers  but my fondness, I am certain, begins with my childhood memory of inexpensive family restaurants and sit down pizza joints that bring cracker baskets to the table instead of bread.   I love the cracker basket and who in their right mind doesn’t?  They hold something for everyone after all.  Remember those crunchy breadsticky thingys, the sesame rounds, or the oblong townhouse crackers shaped like flattened capsules all wrapped up, by twos,  in cellophane.

Wandering along my merry way as we do in life,  I eat crackers.  I eat crackers without much thought.  I eat Club crackers wrapped in thinly sliced bacon and then baked, I learn it is okay to drink a martini with saltines topped with pickled bologna and American cheese because they are a match made in heaven,  I will never forget having Georgia cracker salad and realizing it is nothing more than a tomato, mayo, whitebread sandwich on steroids, and my favorite, I use all kinds of crushed crackers as croutons for my salad.  To this day every time I walk past a stick of butter I can’t help but want to drag a saltine down the length of the stick before popping it into my mouth, the perforations at the edges of the cracker leaving the soft butter to look like a perfectly raked zen garden. Continue reading →

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Fancy, Foraging, Moderate, Short Time, Side Dishes, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Morels with Asparagus & Five Reason to Eschew Recipes

Mushroom Hunting

There was a time when my father and I would have walked the distance up the hill to Gordon’s Rocky Top. We would have crossed the creek, stepping gingerly across the slick rocks like seasoned hopscotch players, hiked to the fork in the path, taken the trail on the left, and then quietly ascended the long, wooded hill. On our way, we would have walked past the pond, and if we were lucky, we might have spooked an owl or happened upon some white tail deer. Continue reading →

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Dinner, dog-eared, Easy, Main Dishes, Seafood, Short Time

Greek Style Shrimp in Tomato Sauce (+ 10 Tips to Better Sautéing)

Greek Style Shrimp There is something wonderful about a one-pan sauté. Sure, a quick dinner and easy clean-up would be enough to pass muster for most, but what I love is how wonderfully delicious dinner becomes as you build flavors in the pan. Starting at the bottom of the pan, there is an order to how things go; it is not a dump-it-and-go process. Continue reading →

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Appetizers/Starters, Seafood, Short Time

The Best, 5-Minute Smoked Salmon Appetizer

Smoked Salmon

Last summer, my mother asked me to make cupcakes for the June birthdays. We have several in June and, in order to make it easy, we celebrate them all at once. Nevertheless, I forgot to make the cupcakes and I was on my way to the party when I remembered. “Oops,” or as Vivian, my daughter who never misses an opportunity to repeat a cuss word, noted from the back seat, “Oops” was more like a cuss word or three. Continue reading →

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Desserts, Desserts/Sweets, Easy, Fruit, Gluten-free, Grill, Grilling, Short Time, Vegetarian

Grilled Bananas with Buttered Maple Sauce and English Toffee

Grilled Bananas

I quit eating bananas years ago because I would buy them and not eat them. They would sit in the fruit bowl idling away, eventually passing through the different stages of ripeness. I would watch, like a gambler calling another’s bluff, knowing that I had until they turned black to do something with them. It was then that I would convince myself I needed to make banana bread. I even froze them for future use and had a stack of them in the freezer, until one day they fell out onto my wife’s toe and broke it.
Continue reading →

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Chicken and Poultry, Easy, Recipes, Short Time

Turkey Burgers with Lemon Parsley Butter

These burgers are great bun or no.  The key here, at least for me, is not to use breast only ground turkey which really dries out but a combination of ground thigh and breast. Read the labels  on the packages carefully.

Lemon parsley butter is a natural for these.  While you make more butter then you need,  through out the week you can easily use it up.  Simply use the compound butter in all sorts of things like sauteed green beans, broccoli or Brussels sprouts.  It is delicious way to finish off veggies and all you have to do is add it at the end of the cooking time, stir it around to just melt it, and voilà,  an extra punch at the table.

Cost to make the burgers:

  • Ground turkey $4.29
  • Curley leaf parsley .69 cents
  • Dried herbs and lemon $1.50
  • Butter $2.99 per pound or 1 stick @.75 cents

Total cost: $7.23

Makes 4 six ounce patties

For the patties:

1 pound 3 ounces ground turkey, a mix of breast and thigh

2 teaspoons curly leaf parsley

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

a heavy 1/2 teaspoon salt

canola oil for sautéing

For the butter:

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 tablespoon curly leaf parsley, minced

two finger pinch of salt

1. Combine all the patty ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Using your hands need it all together until it is well mixed.  Let the mixture sit, refrigerated for at least an hour.

2. While the turkey is melding, combine all the butter ingredients and mix well.  Set aside.

3. Form 4 patties of equal size.

4. Heat a heavy bottomed pan over medium high heat.  Add a glug of oil to coat the bottom of the pan.  Add the patties and brown them on each side.  Adjust the heat as necessary so you can brown them but also cook them through without burning them.  Serve topped with a dollop of lemon parsley butter.

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