I made this dish for dinner one night, but it’s also perfect as an appetizer since it is definitely finger food. The recipe is very easy.

You need 1/2 piece of prosciutto for each stalk of asparagus. Cut the prosciutto the long way. Lay the strip of prosciutto down and spread a small amount of goat cheese on it (see my photo): you don’ t need much. Then wrap the prosciutto around the stalk in a spiral, so it goes from bottom to top. Place the stalk seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Bake on the top rack at 400 degrees until the asparagus is tender and the prosciutto is browned (about 20 minutes), turning the stalks over once halfway through.

The end result gives you tender asparagus, crunchy prosciutto, and a gentle tang from the goat cheese. Truly fabulous.

I made this dish for dinner one night, but it’s also perfect as an appetizer since it is definitely finger food. The recipe is very easy. You need 1/2 piece of prosciutto for each stalk of asparagus. Cut the prosciutto the long way. Lay the strip of prosciutto down and spread a small amount of … Read more →

This simple method of cooking carrots produces silky, sweet carrots without any effort. Here’s the drill. Place your carrots in a small pot – it doesn’t matter if you use baby carrots or carrots you’ve peeled. Put enough water in the pot to come up about halfway up the carrots. Then add some butter. 1/2 tablespoon was what I used for enough carrots for 4 people (add as much butter as you would put on the carrots when serving). Simmer the carrots until the water evaporates and the carrots are shiny and glazed. Stir in some freshly cut herbs (such as chives, mint, or thyme) and season with salt and pepper.

This simple method of cooking carrots produces silky, sweet carrots without any effort. Here’s the drill. Place your carrots in a small pot – it doesn’t matter if you use baby carrots or carrots you’ve peeled. Put enough water in the pot to come up about halfway up the carrots. Then add some butter. 1/2 … Read more →

I did a meatless Monday recently and used Portabella mushrooms for our main course. This recipe is super simple and you can make it in the oven or on the grill. Rub your mushrooms with oil (I had a wild mushroom and sage oil I used that was wonderful) and season with salt and pepper. Grill them or bake them until they are tender.  Place a slice of fresh mozzarella on each mushroom, 2 leaves of fresh basil and 1-2 tomato slices (depending on the size of your tomato). Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and return to the oven or grill to melt the cheese.

I did a meatless Monday recently and used Portabella mushrooms for our main course. This recipe is super simple and you can make it in the oven or on the grill. Rub your mushrooms with oil (I had a wild mushroom and sage oil I used that was wonderful) and season with salt and pepper. … Read more →

Have you heard about Crack Pie? It’s a dessert served at Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC. If you want to buy one, it’s $44 a pie. It’s called crack pie because it’s supposed to be so good, it’s addictive like crack.  I’d heard raves about this pie and decided it was time to try it myself. It’s a complicated process. First you make the cookie. Then you crumble it up with butter and sugar to make the cookie crust. Then you make the filling and bake it. I used a recipe for this I cut out of our local newspaper. It’s identical to the recipe I’ve linked to, except for the baking times. The recipe I used said to bake this for 15 min then reduce the heat and bake another 10 — the recipe in Bon Appetit has DOUBLE the baking time: 30 min then 20 min. Can I tell you how disgusted and annoyed I am? I baked mine an additional 10 minutes in addition to what the newspaper recipe said because it wasn’t setting, but it wasn’t long enough. When we ate it, it was complete goo. But the recipe said it should be gooey. I don’t think it should be soupy though. Sigh.

So, despite this complete disaster I will tell you that the crust for this is fantastic. Crunchy and amazing. I would totally make that crust again and fill it with something else. It would be fantastic with chocolate pudding. Or for an ice cream pie. The filling was super, super, sickly sweet. We have a complete divide in my family about this however. 2 people said we could not eat it, it was so sweet, and 2 people said it was really, really good. So, I guess it depends on what kind of sweet tooth you have. It wasn’t something I loved by any means.

And if you make this, use the Bon Appetit recipe I linked to.  I’m just disgusted our newspaper got this so wrong.

Have you heard about Crack Pie? It’s a dessert served at Momofuku Milk Bar in NYC. If you want to buy one, it’s $44 a pie. It’s called crack pie because it’s supposed to be so good, it’s addictive like crack.  I’d heard raves about this pie and decided it was time to try it … Read more →

When I was a child, I had a charm bracelet. It was so fun to add charms to the bracelet. My parents gave me charms for special occasions or as gifts. I loved it. It hibernated in the bottom of my jewelry case when I got older. When I had a daughter, I contemplated giving it to her, but the charms would have no meaning for her. She ended up with her own bracelet and her own charms. I still loved mine, although it’s not something I would wear as an adult. I still thought it was pretty. I decided to display the charms inside a frame. I removed the glass and used fishing line to sew them onto the backing. The frame is in a curio cabinet in my bedroom.

The top center is a lobster we bought in Maine. Next to it is my initial. The dog is a golden retriever, which is the breed we’ve always had. The one in the center is my birthstone. The Christmas tree was a Christmas gift. The horseshoe and shamrock were for luck. The bottom right is a pelican we bought in Florida. Its mouth opens and there is a fish inside.

Do you have any great ideas for re-using a collection that has outlived its original purpose?

When I was a child, I had a charm bracelet. It was so fun to add charms to the bracelet. My parents gave me charms for special occasions or as gifts. I loved it. It hibernated in the bottom of my jewelry case when I got older. When I had a daughter, I contemplated giving … Read more →

I’m starting a new feature here at Putting It All on the Table. Occasionally I will feature an item I have collected and share something about it.  In a way, collections are like memories made 3D for me. I have so many stories and memories with everything I’ve collected. It’s time to start sharing them.

For my first item, I want to share the item that started one of my favorite collections. I have a flock of sheep. I like to buy sheep when we travel and I love to find them in different colors, materials, and poses. One thing I don’t much care for when it comes to sheep is faces. I’m generally not a lover of sheep with big googly eyes or human expressions.

My first sheep came from Maine – Boothbay Harbor, to be exact. My family vacationed on the Penobscot Bay every summer when I was kid. We always stopped at Boothbay Harbor for a day to shop. This little sheep is from one of the shops we visited. I must have been about 6 years old when we bought it. It sat on my bookcase all the years I lived at home with my parents. When I got married, it moved with the bookcase. When we had our first child, it stayed on the bookcase which ended up in her bedroom. That sheep has always reminded me of the shallow, still harbor at Boothbay, with the long pedestrian bridge that crosses it. The summer of 1976, the bicentennial, we spent the night in Boothbay in a waterfront motel and saw the fireworks over the harbor on that memorable 4th of July.

My husband and I went back to Maine for our honeymoon and stayed in a little cottage at a B&B there for a few nights. We loved the quiet little cottage, even if there were ants in the bathroom and grapefruit every morning for breakfast (a person can only eat so much grapefruit). One of the best meals I’ve ever had was lobster in the rough, at the edge of a dock, served with an ear of corn that was boiled in the lobster water, and a bag of potato chips.

Years later, we were visiting Montreal with our kids and I saw this ceramic sheep (which I always think of as the spaghetti sheep) in a shop in Vieux Montreal. Suddenly, I knew that I needed to have a sheep collection. I actually didn’t buy the spaghetti sheep the day we saw it. I thought about it for a few days and as we were leaving the city, my husband detoured and followed along behind me in the minivan with the kids, as I tried to retrace our steps and find the shop with the sheep. I did find it and brought it home and I also took back the original sheep from my daughter’s room (she was not attached to it) and my sheep collection was born.

The spaghetti sheep reminds me of the old streets of Montreal, the fireworks we saw at night, and the 4 person bicycle we, not very successfully, pedaled around the waterfront.  It also reminds me of my husband’s patient and giving nature. He encouraged me to buy this at a time when we had very little money because he could tell it was something that meant a lot to me. He drove back into the city and up and down the old streets, helping me find the one shop out of so many where we had seen it.

These two sheep were the beginnings of my flock.

I’m starting a new feature here at Putting It All on the Table. Occasionally I will feature an item I have collected and share something about it.  In a way, collections are like memories made 3D for me. I have so many stories and memories with everything I’ve collected. It’s time to start sharing them. … Read more →

This is a fun go-to when you simply can’t face another green salad and you don’t want to cook a vegetable for dinner! I like to use whole carrots for this when I have them, not baby carrots because I think they have more flavor.  When I made this recently though all I had were bagged baby carrots – I used about 3/4 of the bag in this recipe. If you use whole carrots, use one bunch.

Peel the carrots (if using whole) and grate them (I used the food processor to do this job). Put them in a bowl. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil over the carrots – maybe 1 1/2 tablespoons. Season with salt and pepper. Add about 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon sugar (you’ll want to taste it to adjust it to your sweetness factor). One capful of bottled lemon juice (use fresh if you want – about 1 tsp). Then chop up about 2 tbsp fresh mint. Toss it all together. Allow the salad to sit for about an hour to get the most flavor. That’s it!

This is a fun go-to when you simply can’t face another green salad and you don’t want to cook a vegetable for dinner! I like to use whole carrots for this when I have them, not baby carrots because I think they have more flavor.  When I made this recently though all I had were … Read more →

Every summer my mom and I visit a shop called Crossroads Country Antiques, in Lima, New York, at the western edge of the Finger Lakes. It’s an old church that’s being used as a shop. It’s divided up into little cubbies or sections for different sellers. The place is filled with just about everything you can imagine – dishes, clothes, hats, photos, jewelry, linens, utensils, furniture, baskets, toys, purses, holiday decorations, collectibles –  things you would find at an estate sale or garage sale and more. In theory, everything is an “antique” but in practice, most of it is just vintage (meaning old, but not old enough to be an antique) and some of it is just stuff that’s sort of recent but you couldn’t find it in a store today. The biggest kick I get out of this place is running across things my mom had when I was a kid and seeing what they’re worth (I’m always asking her “Do you still have this? Well it’s worth $12!”). My mom loves it because not only are the prices pretty decent, but the vendors seem to have rotating sales, where everything in one cubby is 25% and another one might be 30% off, so it’s even cheaper than you think.

Every time we go, the merchandise is different and you never know what you will stumble upon. It’s like a treasure hunt. My mom is always looking for vases and containers to put plants in. I’m usually keeping an eye out for antique glass, but have brought home vases, napkins, tablecloths (the one in these pictures is actually from there), an area rug, and more. My college age daughter has bought some really cute old purses (one decorated with ostrich feathers) and vintage costume jewelry and can’t stop herself from trying on every single hat in the store.

At this visit, I came home with a set of 8 celadon dessert plates (more than I normally pay for stuff here at $22 but I just loved them), a set of 5 blue and white napkin rings for $3 (I figure I will mix and match if I have more than 5 people at the table), a teal glass serving bowl for $5, and a set of 8 blue and green water goblets for $18.

It’s all about the thrill of the hunt for me and the joy of discovering something beautiful hidden among the junk. Do you like to go to junk shops like this?

Every summer my mom and I visit a shop called Crossroads Country Antiques, in Lima, New York, at the western edge of the Finger Lakes. It’s an old church that’s being used as a shop. It’s divided up into little cubbies or sections for different sellers. The place is filled with just about everything you … Read more →

I like to grill shrimp, but I don’t enjoy threading them onto skewers, so I usually end up tossing the shrimp onto a grill pan so they won’t fall through the grates. On a recent night, I doctored my shrimp up to make it into a delicious Italian dish.

Italian Shrimp on the Grill

 

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Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb shrimp, peeled, deveined
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp Italian herbs
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 clamshell cherry tomatoes

Instructions

1. Toss all ingredients together in a bowl and allow to marinate at least one hour, up to four.
2. Cook on a grill pan over a hot grill, until the shrimp are cooked through and the tomatoes start to break.

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I like to grill shrimp, but I don’t enjoy threading them onto skewers, so I usually end up tossing the shrimp onto a grill pan so they won’t fall through the grates. On a recent night, I doctored my shrimp up to make it into a delicious Italian dish. Italian Shrimp on the Grill   … Read more →

By the deck

Once a year we have a gardening weekend, when the beds get cleaned up, mulched and each year I plant some new things. I have about a 75% success rate it seems, but I keep trying. The butterfly bush I planted last year didn’t make it. Some flowers didn’t make it and the deer were after my tulips. The good news was the peonies we transplanted made it and some came up from the spot we moved them from, so we’ve moved those too. The apple trees were my biggest success from last year – both made it.

You may notice in the photos that the side of the house is a mess – we’re in the middle of having it re-sided.

I’ll post photos later in the season once everything is flowering.

The herb garden has some new additions this year. I planted lemon grass and watercress (I am doubtful that will make it, but I’m trying). I didn’t have to buy parsley this year – it came up itself. My oregano has always come up on its own, but not this year, so I had to buy some.

I’ve still got some problem areas. We had a bush in front of our front porch die so there’s a big gaping hole I need to fill and we’re slowly trying to fill in a giant oval shaped garden at the side of our front yard. It’s so big and the deer eat a lot from it.  We have a problem area along one line of our property where it was just horrible overgrown shrubs. We cleaned it out last year and this year planted two things there so maybe it will start to look decent soon.

Apple tree garden

Trumpet vine garden

Shed garden

Driveway garden

Apple tree garden part 2

Big bed we slowly add to each year

Herb garden

Once a year we have a gardening weekend, when the beds get cleaned up, mulched and each year I plant some new things. I have about a 75% success rate it seems, but I keep trying. The butterfly bush I planted last year didn’t make it. Some flowers didn’t make it and the deer were … Read more →