Never Enough Thyme

Apricot-Thyme Galette

2010-07-30T15:43:08Z

One of my favorite cooking magazines is Cooking Light. Over the years, I’ve gotten so many great recipes from them and when I saw this one in the June 2010 issue, I knew immediately that I wanted to make it. It’s visually stunning. But I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Because, well, you see I cannot make a pie crust to save my life. No joke. It’s just one of those things that for some reason I could never master. All my pies use either a frozen crust or one of those fabulous refrigerated ones from the grocery dairy case.

I almost succumbed to temptation and used a purchased crust for this, but I went ahead and gave it my best shot. It certainly wasn’t the prettiest pastry anyone ever produced but I was glad I gave it a try. A couple of things to note, however – the original recipe called for 1/4 cup of almond flour. I looked everywhere for almond flour. I found all kinds of flours, but no almond. At least not within 20 miles of my house. So, I increased the amount of all-purpose flour to compensate. Another thing to note is that the recipe says to use 3 tablespoons of ice water in the pastry dough. I had to add at least another 3 tablespoons to get anything like a dough that would hold together. I read the review of the recipe on the Cooking Light web site and found several others who had the same comment. So, be warned, if you make this recipe you may need to add significantly more water to the dough.

The galette itself is delicious. The tart-sweetness of the apricots with the glaze and thyme is near perfection. It’s not overly sweet, which I really like in a fruit dessert. And it’s pretty enough to impress your dinner party guests.

1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
3 tblsp ice water
1/2 tsp cider vinegar
1/8 tsp. almond extract
1/3 cup raw sugar, divided
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces
1 1/2 tblsp. cornstarch
2 pounds firm, ripe apricots, pitted and cut into quarters
1/4 cup apricot jam
1 tblsp honey
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Lightly spoon 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, ice water, vinegar, and almond extract into a small bowl. Stir with a fork until well blended to form a slurry.

Combine the remaining flour, 2 tablespoons sugar, and salt, stirring with a whisk. Cut in the butter until your mixture resembles coarse meal.

Add the slurry and stir just until moistened. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead lightly 5 times. (Note: This is where I had to add more water to get a dough to form. It wouldn’t hold together enough to knead without the additional water.)

Gently press the dough into a 4-inch circle on heavy-duty plastic wrap or wax paper. Cover with an additional piece of plastic wrap or wax paper.

Carefully roll the dough into a 14-inch circle. Place it in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove the dough from the freezer, remove the top sheet of plastic wrap or wax paper and let stand 1 minute or until pliable.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the dough with the plastic wrap side up onto the baking sheet. Remove the remaining plastic wrap. Combine the cornstarch and 2 tablespoons sugar; sprinkle over dough, leaving a 2-inch border.

Arrange the quartered apricots spokelike on top of the cornstarch mixture, leaving a 2-inch border. Fold the edges of the dough over the apricots (dough will only partially cover apricots).

Combine the apricot jam and honey in a small microwave-safe bowl; microwave on high for 45 seconds. Brush the jam mixture over the apricots and edges of the dough. Sprinkle with remaining sugar.

Bake at 400 for 35 minutes or until the crust browns. Remove from oven; sprinkle with thyme. Cool 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Download a printable copy of Apricot Thyme Galette.

–Original recipe from the June 2010 issue of Cooking Light

Layered Mediterranean Salad

2010-07-28T12:18:30Z

Is it hot outside or what!? Here around Atlanta we’ve had temperatures in the upper 90′s with heat indexes in the 105-110 degree range for the past week. Those high temperatures have sparked some pretty fierce thunderstorms, too. Yesterday afternoon and evening were full of nature’s fireworks lighting up the sky!

On days like this, when it’s just too hot to cook much less eat anything heavy, it’s nice to have a few quick, easy, cool recipes to go to. And this one is a favorite of ours. It’s a layered salad that is light, refreshing and filling all at the same time. And it uses some of my favorite ingredients – those found in many Greek recipes. Even though it does use some packaged items, the tortellini for example, it’s still healthy if you make wise choices in the ones you purchase.

The only heating of the stove involved is cooking a package of tortellini. Surely we can stand to do that even in a heat wave! After that part is done, it’s simply layering ingredients into a pretty bowl.

1 9-oz. package refrigerated cheese tortellini
3 tblsp. light Greek or Italian dressing, divided
1 cup whole cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 1/2 roasted red bell peppers, sliced in thin strips
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil
1 cup sliced cucumber
1/2 can artichoke hearts, quartered
3/4 cup whole black olives
salt
black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Prepare the tortellini according to the package directions. I used Buitoni’s cheese and roasted garlic tortellini this time, but a spinach tortellini works great, too. Rinse the tortellini under cold water and set it aside to drain well. Place the tortellini in a bowl and add 2 tablespoons Greek or Italian dressing and toss gently to coat well. For reference, I used Cardini’s Light Greek Vinaigrette.

Place the halved tomatoes in the bottom of a large glass serving bowl. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the dressing. Next, add the tortellini to the bowl. Layer the remaining ingredients – feta cheese, red onion, roasted red bell pepper, basil, cucumbers, artichoke hearts and black olives.

Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve (at least 1 hour). When ready to serve, add salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese to top.

And that’s all there is to it! This salad easily doubles and can be used for either your entree or as a first course.

Enjoy! And try to stay cool.

Inspired by a recipe originally from Nestle USA

Other layered salad recipes you might enjoy:

The classic Seven-Layer Salad from Deep South Dish
5-Minute Southwest Layered Salad from Kraft Foods
Paula Deen’s Cornucopia Layered Salad
Layered Salad with Roasted Garlic Dressing from Epicurious

Forgotten Cookies

2010-07-22T23:55:39Z

I love cookbooks. I mean I really, really love cookbooks. You may remember that not long ago BeeBop built me some very special bookcases just to hold my cookbooks. Whenever we go to the bookstore, which is pretty often, the cookbook section is where I head first. I read cookbooks like some people read novels. There’s usually one or more by my chair in the living room just waiting for me to find a few minutes to sit down and browse.

Some of my favorite cookbooks are those that are self-published by Junior League organizations. Those junior league girls just have the best recipes! I recently bought several older junior league cookbooks on eBay. One of them was a 1976 edition of “Southern Accents” from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and within its pages I found this absolute gem of a recipe!

The recipe is called Forgotten Cookies, but these little jewels are much more than a cookie. They’re tiny little meringes full of chocolate chips and pecans, each just bursting with flavor. These little morsels have a delightfully crunchy exterior that instantly melts in your mouth followed by that classic combination of chocolate and pecans. What a delight to serve for a light dessert or simply enjoy with a glass of wine or cup of coffee!

2 egg whites
Pinch of salt
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
6 oz. mini chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat egg whites and salt until frothy. Add sugar gradually, while continuing to beat until stiff.

Add the vanilla, chocolate chips and pecans. (Note: I used a clear vanilla extract so that the meringue would stay as white as possible, but you can use whatever you have on hand.) Fold in the chocolate chips and pecans.

Drop by teaspoons on foil covered baking sheets. Place in the preheated oven and then turn the oven off. Leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Do not open the oven door.

The next morning you’ll have 3-4 dozen beautiful little chocolate-pecan meringues to enjoy!

Download a printable copy of Forgotten Cookies.

–Recipe from Southern Accents,
published by Junior League of Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Other great recipes that feature baked meringues:

Meringue Hearts recipe from Joy of Baking
Ina Garten’s Mixed Berry Pavlova
Swiss Meringue Shells from Taste of Home
White Chocolate Mousse in Chocolate Meringue Shells by Emeril Lagasse

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

2010-07-20T14:48:28Z

I’ve been looking for a really good blueberry muffin recipe for a while now. So I was happy when I got an email last week that included a link to this recipe. That email was from my friend Brenda who I worked with for years and who is so lucky to be retired now. She and her husband, Ted, spend about half the year on Lake Blackshear in south Georgia and the other half on Mackinac Island. I’ve never been to Mackinac, but I feel like I’ve experienced it through her blog, Bree’s Mackinac Island Blog. Mackinac Island seems like a magical place in our modern world. A place where no motorized vehicles are allowed and everyone either walks, bikes or rides a horse-drawn carriage. How lovely.

Brenda’s email included a link to the recipe for the Blueberry Lemon Muffins from the Iroquois Hotel on Mackinac. She said that they put these lovely little muffins in their diners’ bread baskets and that she and Ted both love them. Now that I’ve made them I can certainly see why!

These have a lighter texture than the usual muffin and are not overly sweet. I had two with my coffee this morning and I have to say they are one of the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever had. I’m so pleased to add this recipe to my collection and I hope you enjoy it, too.

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tblsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. salt
½ cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup cooking oil
1 ½ cups blueberries
2 tsp. lemon zest, divided
4 tblsp. butter, melted
½ cup sugar

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and grease the cups of a 12-cup muffin tin with butter.

In a mixing bowl, sift the flour and then add the remaining dry ingredients. Stir to combine and set aside. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs lightly. Add the milk and cooking oil and stir together.

Make a well in the flour mixture and pour all of the milk and egg mixture into the well.

Stir as little as possible to moisten the flour. Set the batter aside to rest for a minute.

In another small bowl, combine the blueberries and 1 ½ teaspoons of the lemon zest. A microplane zester makes really quick and easy work of the zesting.

Fold the blueberries and lemon zest into the batter with a large spatula. Stir very gently and only enough to fully mix in the berries.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin. Bake the muffins on a rack in the middle position of the oven for 20 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. Removemuffins from the oven and let them sit while you prepare the topping.

Melt the butter in a small pan. Put the sugar and remaining ½ tsp. lemon zest in a small bowl. Mix the sugar and lemon zest together well.

Run a knife around the edges of each muffin. Remove muffins from the tin one at a time.

Brush the top of each muffin with melted butter and then dip it in the sugar and lemon zest mixture.

Place muffins on a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Download a printable copy of Blueberry Lemon Muffins.

–Recipe adapted from the “Iroquois Hotel Blueberry Lemon Muffins” published by
The Seminal http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/57042

Other great blueberry muffin recipes:

Blueberry Muffins on Simply Recipes
Alton Brown’s Blueberry Muffins on Food Network
Blueberry Muffins from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook
Cinnamon Blueberry Muffins at Epicurious

Ichauway Plantation

2010-07-26T15:29:04Z

Ichauway Bridge. When was the last time you saw a one-lane bridge on a dirt road? Have you ever even seen a dirt road much less a one-lane bridge?

The last time I went to my mother’s house in south Georgia, I stopped off at Ichauway Plantation to see if the old bridge was still in use. It is indeed there and still in use. I watched two trucks cross it while I was taking photos. This bridge spans the Ichauway-Nochauway (pronounced Itch-a-way-Notch-a-way) Creek in south Georgia.

It’s located on what was once the Ichuaway Plantation which was owned by Robert Woodruff, the founder of Coca-Cola. My mother grew up on Ichauway Plantation. Right at the end of that bridge, actually.

At the end of the bridge is this little country grocery store. My grandparents ran the store and they all lived in a house in back of it. My grandfather also worked for the CDC (Communicable Disease Center) at the “experiment station” located on Ichauway. They did malaria research. Perfect area for it since there’s an abundance of mosquitoes. It’s beautiful out there. So quiet. So peaceful.

Today the plantation is home to the the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center. However, all the old buildings are still there and I thank them sincerely for preserving it just the way we’ve always known it.

I’m heading back there for work this week. It’s only about a 4 hour drive from us but a complete world away. It love it there. It is, simply, home.

More about Ichauway from the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Basic Salsa

2010-07-14T15:12:37Z

I’m still on a canning kick here. How can I not be with all the great produce that’s available this time of year?

Today I’m sharing my canning recipe for a good, basic salsa. The tomatoes are still coming in and peppers are ready, too, so it was time to go ahead and put up a few jars of this deliciousness to keep on hand for the winter. It’s so nice to open a jar of homemade salsa when it’s cold out and be able to taste those fresh summer tomatoes once more. Mmmmm. A jar of this in my Salsa Chicken recipe in the middle of winter…well, I have to say it’s just fabulous.

This recipe makes five pints. That’s just about right for our household. If you want to make more, you can double or triple the recipe. Just make sure that you keep the same proportions to guarantee that it’s safe for canning.

3 pounds tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 medium onions, finely chopped
1 1/2 sweet green pepper, chopped
3-9 jalapeno peppers, halved, seeded and chopped
9 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1 1/2 cups white or red wine vinegar
3 tsp. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. pickling salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 bunch Italian parsley, chopped
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

Prepare the jars, lids and rings as usual. You can review how I manage this part of the process in my last post. Fill the canner with water, bring to the boil and hold until ready to fill the jars.

There is a lot of prep work involved in this recipe. It’s not difficult at all, just peeling and chopping. And you begin by preparing your tomatoes.

I prefer Roma tomatoes for salsa and I had a few yellow tomatoes on hand, so I included them as well. You can use any combination of tomatoes you like. To make peeling the tomatoes easy, simply drop them into boiling water for one minute. Then drain them and put them into cold water for a few minutes.

The skins will slip right off. It makes the peeling so simple!

I debated about whether to include all the chopping and mincing photos here for illustration purposes. After thinking it over, I decided that if you cook at all you certainly know how to dice peppers and onions, so I’m sparing you having to scroll past 15 photos of chopped vegetables!

Chop the tomatoes, onions and green pepper and jalapenos. I used three jalapenos for this amount of salsa because we like ours pretty mild. You can add up to nine if you like it hotter. You could also substitute a hotter pepper if you like, but don’t add more than the equivalent of about nine jalapenos so you don’t upset the pH balance of the recipe and make it unsafe for canning!

Finely mince the garlic. Combine all ingredients in a stainless steel or enamel saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat and boil gently, uncovered, for 25 minutes or until desired consistency, stirring frequently. Your house will smell like the most delicious Mexican eatery by the time this finishes cooking!

Carefully remove the hot jars from the canner and ladle in the salsa to within 1/2 inch of rim (head space). Return the filled jars to the canner. Begin timing when the water returns to a boil. Process 20 minutes for half-pint and pint jars.

Makes 5 pints or 10 half pints.

Enjoy!

Download a printable copy of Basic Salsa.

–Based on a recipe in Small Batch Preserving.

Favorite Kosher Dills

2010-07-09T19:22:29Z

I’ve been “puttin’ up” again, y’all! This time it was our favorite kosher dill pickles. And when I say favorite, I really mean these are a favorite. My daughter and grandson almost beg for these pickles every year. As a matter of fact, my recipe notes say that the summer before A was born, I put up 30 quarts of these dills. By the time he was born in September over half of them were gone.

Before I get started with the recipe, I want to take a minute to mention the importance of using proper canning procedures. If you haven’t canned before, or if it’s been a while since your last canning session, please review the process and get all your equipment ready before you start.

One of the best resources for new and seasoned canners alike is the Ball Blue Book. It’s published by the people who make the Ball canning jars. It’s available in lots of locations and on the web at amazon.com.

Some other good online resources are:

National Center for Home Food Preservation (University of Georgia)
Home Food Preservation Site (Pennsylvania State University)
The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning
“Some Canning Do’s and Don’ts” from The New York Times
“Do’s and Don’ts for Successful Canning” from University of California

The National Center for Home Food Preservation even offers a free online course in food preservation. It’s well worth the time for the amount of information you get!

Now, let’s get started making pickles!

Prepare the garlic and dill and set aside.

Prepare the cucumbers by removing 1/16 inch from the blossom end of each. You need to remove that tiny little sliver because there is an enzyme that remains in the blossom end of cucumbers which will cause your pickles to become soft while in storage. Cut into halves or quarters as you wish.

Wash your jars, lids and bands in good, hot soapy water. Rinse them well making sure all traces of soap are removed.

Set the bands aside. Place the lids in barely simmering water and leave them there until they are needed later in the process. Fill the canner with water and and bring it to the boil. I like to put my jars in the canner and let them heat up along with the water. Some people hold them in a 200 degree oven. This just works best for me. You always want to fill hot jars. Putting hot food in a cold jar can cause breakage. Likewise, putting a cold jar of food into boiling water is just asking for all your hard work to end up in the bottom of the canner.

Remember you’re working with lots of boiling water when canning. Always use a jar lifter for removing jars from the hot water to prevent scalding.

The recipe for my favorite kosher dills is simple. Cucumbers, salt, peppercorns, dill, garlic, vinegar and water. Adjust the amounts according to the number of quarts you’re making. I always make these pickles in quart jars so that I can keep the cucumber halves intact. If using pints, you’d need to cut the halves across and use only half the amounts I give for each jar.

Cucumbers, pickling type
Pickling salt
Vinegar, 5% acidity
Water
Dill seed or fresh dill heads
Black peppercorns
Garlic

For each quart of pickles, bring 1 cup water and 1 cup vinegar to the boil.

Meanwhile, in each jar place 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pickling salt, 1 tablespoon dill seed (or 3 heads fresh dill), 6 black peppercorns and 2 halved garlic cloves. Note that each dill head counts as a teaspoon of dill seed. I only had a few heads this time so I used one head of dill and 2 teaspoons of seeds in each jar.

Pack the halved or quartered cucumbers into the hot jars. Using a canning funnel, pour the boiling vinegar and water solution over the jar contents leaving 1/2 inch of headspace (the space between the top of the liquid and the top of the jar).

I realized right before I was about to put the lids and rings on that I had not included the garlic in the jars. Yikes! Just goes to show you that with this recipe it’s never too late to add an ingredient. You could even sneak a hot red pepper in there if you wanted to!

Wipe the top rim of each jar carefully with a dampened paper towel. This is to make sure that there is nothing on there which would prevent the lid from forming a complete seal. Place the lids on top of the jars and screw on the rings until just finger tight. Don’t force the rings or tighten too much. The jars have to be able to expel air during the canning process in order to create the seal.

Place the jars in the canner rack and lower them into the simmering hot water. Place the cover on the pot. Process in simmering hot water (180-185 degrees) for 15 minutes (low temp pasteurization method).

Notes about processing times: Normally, you begin timing at the point that the water has returned to the boil. However, for these pickles I use what is called the low temperature pasteurization method. This method can only be used for high acid recipes and must be monitored carefully to make sure the water remains above 180 degrees for the entire processing time.

Processing time must also be adjusted for altitude. For this recipe, the processing time is 15 minutes for altitudes from sea level to 1,000 feet, 20 minutes for altitudes from 1,001 to 6,000 feet and 25 minutes for altitudes over 6,000 feet.

Remove jars from canner, place on a clean dish towel and allow them to cool completely (24 hours recommended). After jars are completely cooled, you may remove the bands. Be sure to test for a complete seal. Any jars that failed to seal are not shelf stable but may be placed in the refrigerator. You will notice when you remove the jars from the canner that the cucumbers have become a more olive color and there is undissolved salt in the bottom of the jar. That is normal. By the time the jars have cooled overnight all the salt will have dissolved.

Store the jars in a dark, cool place. I recommend six weeks of standing time for the flavors to fully develop.

Enjoy!

Download a printable copy of Kosher Dill Pickles.

Baked Corn Casserole

2010-07-06T19:03:51Z

Summertime in the South comes with a huge variety of fresh produce. Okra, peas of all varieties, butter beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and maybe best of all corn. I’ve had a passion for fresh corn since I was a child. So much so that I can remember stuffing myself with it at the dinner table until my Daddy felt compelled to point out that it is the choice of farmers for fattening pigs.

I did know that but I thanked him for reminding me.

Corn will be ready very soon here in north Georgia. It’s already time for corn down in the southern part of the state. I know because my sister, Miss P, was putting some in the freezer just last week. She and Uncle J went to the corn field after dinner one night to get “a few ears” and by the time they left she had more than she knew what to do with. She worked on it until late into the night and still had a crisper drawer full to process the next day. Lucky girl!

There are loads of recipes for using fresh corn and this casserole is one of our favorites. I would actually call this a savory custard because of the texture it gets from the milk and eggs. You can also vary this recipe by adding some well drained canned chilies and some cheddar cheese. Those are very good additions and give a quite different taste to the dish.

4 cups (6-8 ears) corn, shucked, cut from cob
1 cup milk
4 tblsp. melted butter
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 egg, plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Start by shucking and removing the silks from the corn. Over a large bowl or pan, cut off the top half of the corn kernels. Then go back over the cob with the flat side of a knife and scrape all the milky liquid into the bowl with the kernels. Or you can save yourself the agony pleasure of this step and purchase some of the very fine pre-prepared corn in your grocery’s freezer case.

Combine the corn, milk, melted butter, eggs, salt and pepper. Stir everything together until well mixed.

Pour the mixture into a greased 8×8 pan. Cook for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Download a printable copy of Baked Corn Casserole.

Summer Shrimp Cocktail

2010-06-30T19:50:10Z

What do you think of when you hear the words “shrimp cocktail?” You don’t even need to think about it, do you? I don’t. Those words instantly transport me back in time to the 1970′s and almost every steak house’s appetizer menu. The shrimp cocktail was a classic, wasn’t it? It came to the table in a stemmed glass with seafood cocktail sauce in the bottom, six shrimp (always six) dangling over the edges of the glass and a wedge of lemon. Right?

I always wanted to order a shrimp cocktail before my steak dinner. After all, that was fancy stuff back then. That shrimp cocktail made you feel so grown up and cosmopolitan, didn’t it? And besides, it was really good. Too bad you don’t see it on menus much any more.

Well, I have a shrimp cocktail for you today, but it’s not your 1970′s version. Nope. This one is very much up-to-date and involves not a single dangling shrimp. This one contains bright, fresh flavors with just a hit of jalapeno to make it even more interesting. There’s even a handful of cilantro just for good measure.

1 lb. peeled and deveined medium or large shrimp
3 tomatoes, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 small jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
2 tblsp. Italian style salad dressing

Start by bringing a pot of well salted water to the boil. When the water is boiling, add the peeled and deveined shrimp, place the lid on the pot and remove it from heat.

That’s the way I always cook boiled shrimp. Just let them sit in the water without it continuing to boil. There’s nothing worse than an overcooked shrimp. Really. If they cook too long they get chewy and rubbery. Yuck. You always want your shrimp to be tender and just cooked through.

Set the shrimp aside while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

I had both red and yellow tomatoes on hand so that’s what I used. You can use just red or all yellow. Whatever makes you happy. Combine the chopped tomatoes, chopped green onions, jalapeno, cilantro, ketchup and salad dressing.

Drain the shrimp well and stir them into the vegetable mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Overnight is even better. We still had some of this left after two days and it was just as good then as it was the day I made it. It keeps really well and is one of the first things to go on a buffet!

I served it with some sesame Melba toast this time. It’s also great with any assortment of crackers.

Enjoy!

–Recipe from Kraft Foods First Taste

Download a printable copy of Summer Shrimp Cocktail.

Grilled New Potatoes and a Giveaway

2010-07-03T16:22:03Z

Congratulations to Elaine Prosser, winner of the random drawing for the Lawry’s grilling gift pack. Random.org generated the winning number of 42 out of 71. I only wish I had a gift pack to give away to every single person who entered!

It’s been a long time since I did a giveaway here on Never Enough Thyme. And whenever I do one I try to make it something worthwhile. Something that I enjoy using and believe one of my readers would enjoy as well.

I was recently contacted by the nice folks at MyBlogSpark and asked to try some new marinades from the people at Lawry’s. That was pretty much a no-brainer for me since I like nearly everything else that the Lawry’s company produces. So, I accepted! And before you know it a package arrived at my doorstep containing everything you see below.

There’s a very nice lidded container for marinating, 8 6 (sorry, my error, there are 6 skewers included) metal skewers, some of the famous Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and two bottles of marinade – one Tuscan Sun-Dried Tomato and one Szechuan Sweet & Sour BBQ.

I’ve already tried the Tuscan Sun-Dried Tomato marinade and, as expected, it was quite good. It’s also fat free!

Now the best part of this trial was that the Lawry’s company is providing a second prize pack for one of you! All you have to do to enter the giveaway is to simply leave me a comment below. About anything at all. I’m not going to make you jump through any hoops to enter the contest, just speak up and you’re in!

I’ll leave the comments open through Friday, July 2, and the winner will be announced on the morning of July 3. If you win, your prize pack will be shipped directly to you from Lawry’s. It’s only available to readers in the U.S., though, so if you’re somewhere outside our borders, I apologize and promise to do something open to everyone next time.

Even though the marinade suggested using it on pork, chicken or veggies, I chose to do a pound of flank steak. Guess what – it was fabulous.

And to go along with the steak, I popped a packet of new potatoes on the grill. They were some that I had picked up at a roadside fruit stand a week or so before. Fresh, small new potatoes seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic-infused olive oil. While they were cooking I made a yogurt-sour cream topping to go with them. Add a fresh salad on the side and you have a perfect summer dinner!

Here’s the recipe for the potatoes. You don’t need a recipe for the steak, just follow the directions on the Lawry’s marinade bottle!

1 pound small new potatoes
1 tblsp. garlic-flavored olive oil
salt and pepper
2 tblsp. water
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1/4 cup sour cream
1 scallion, finely chopped

Wash and dry the potatoes. Very small potatoes may be left whole but cut any larger potatoes into halves or quarters.

Place the potatoes on a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle garlic flavored olive oil and water over the potatoes.

Fold up the ends and sides of the foil to make a pouch. Make sure the edges are sealed well.

Place on a hot grill and cook for 30-35 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through.

While the potatoes are cooking, make the topping by combining yogurt, sour cream, salt, pepper and scallion.

Serve hot potatoes immediately with the yogurt-sour cream topping.

A-man said that these potatoes were even better than the ones they make at his school and he thought those were the best ever. Pretty high praise indeed.

Enjoy!

–Recipe inspiration from FamilyFun.com

Disclaimer: The prize pack I received and the prize pack available for the giveaway are both provided by Lawry’s through MyBlog Spark. Thanks Lawry’s and MyBlogSpark!!