Curry Deviled Eggs

Adding a little curry powder to a basic recipe for deviled eggs makes them special.  This is always a staple on my Easter table!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 eggs
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp. curry powder
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
8 small pinches of paprika

Directions:

Cook the eggs

Put the eggs in a saucepan and fill half full with water. Set over medium heat. When the water bubbles gently, reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes.

Let the eggs cool

Remove the saucepan from the heat and place it in the sink. Run cold water over the eggs until both the water and the pan feel cool. Let the eggs cool in the water for 10 minutes.

When the eggs are cool enough to handle, take them out of the water. Roll each egg on the work surface to crack the shell. Carefully peel off the eggshell.

Flavor the yolks

Put the eggs on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut each egg in half lengthwise. Use a soup spoon to scoop the yolks out of the eggs and into a bowl. Put the egg white halves on a serving platter and set aside.

Add the mayonnaise, curry powder and mustard to the bowl with the yolks. Use the spoon to mash them all together into a paste. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Mound the yolks

Carefully spoon a small mound of the yolk mixture back into each egg white half.

For each stuffed egg half, pick up a pinch of paprika and sprinkle it on the yellow part. Serve immediately.


Photo: Williams Sonoma

Almond Macaroon Galette With Strawberries

This is a fantastic and easy dessert  now that fresh strawberries are available everywhere.  If you haven't thought of an Easter dessert, this is it!

Ingredients


Serves 12

3 large egg whites

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest, plus 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1 cup confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 cups sliced blanched almonds, toasted and finely ground in a food processor

Vegetable-oil cooking spray

1 1/2 pints strawberries (about 6 cups), hulls on

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 tablespoon kirsch

3 tablespoons strawberry jam

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 325. Put egg whites into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium speed until soft peaks form. Beat in lemon zest. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until whites are glossy and hold a ribbon on surface. Fold in almonds.

2.Coat the inside of an 8 3/4-inch flan ring with cooking spray, and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spoon batter into mold, and smooth top. Let stand 10 minutes. Place cake in oven; prop door open about 1/2 inch using a wooden spoon. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce oven to 300, and close door completely. Bake until pale golden and set, about 25 minutes. Unmold, and let cool completely on a wire rack.

3.Halve 8 to 10 strawberries lengthwise; set aside. Hull remaining strawberries, and cut each lengthwise into 4 slices. Toss slices with granulated sugar, kirsch, and lemon juice in a medium bowl; let stand at least 30 minutes (up to 2 hours), stirring occasionally.

4.Heat jam in a small saucepan until thin. Brush over top of galette. Arrange reserved strawberry halves around edge, with hulls facing out. Working inward, arrange sliced strawberries in a circular pattern, with bottoms facing out, reserving smallest slices for center. Drizzle liquid from strawberries over top. Serve immediately, or let stand up to 2 hours to allow juices to soak into cake.

From Martha Stewart Living, April 2007

An Easter Lunch At The Lake

Image Williams Sonoma

One of the first menus I posted when I started the blog was the Easter Lunch I make every year, no matter where I am. Since most of you have never seen it, here it is, with a few additions:

To me, Easter is all about deviled eggs,baked ham, asparagus or new baby peas, strawberries and coconut cake. With that in mind, here is what I am going to make this year. The menu is for 12 people

Easter Lunch Menu

Mimosas

Deviled Eggs

Mrs. Adams' Baked Ham

Scalloped Potato Gratin

Asparagus or Petite Peas with Onion
Strawberry Salad Glace
Home Biscuits

Easter Egg Nest Cupcakes

Wines for Easter Lunch

Sensational Shrimp Mold

I saw this recipe yesterday on the Food Channel and knew I had to try it.  It is simply yummy, although I thought it needed some tweaking here and there.  I increased the green onion from 1 chopped to 2 and also added some Old Bay Seasoning. I think you will be most pleased with the results.

You can also serve unmolded as shown above.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings



Ingredients

1 teaspoon salt

1 pound small or medium shrimp

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 green onion, finely chopped, white and green parts

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Dash hot sauce

1/2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning

Dash black pepper

Directions

Bring 2 cups of water and 1 teaspoon salt to a boil in a medium saucepan and add the shrimp. When the water returns to the boil, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and allow the shrimp to sit for 5 minutes. Drain, peel and devein.

Place the shrimp in a food processor and pulse about 8 to 10times, until they are finely chopped but not mushy. Mix together the cream cheese, mayonnaise, green onion, mustard, hot sauce, Old Bay and pepper in a bowl until well combined; stir in the shrimp.

Line a 2-cup mold or glass bowl with plastic wrap, leaving lots of overhang. Place the shrimp mixture into the mold, packing tightly with a spatula. Cover with plastic wrap overhang and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, unwrap the overhang and invert the mold onto a plate. Remove the plastic wrap. Allow to come to room temperature before serving with water crackers or another favorite snack cracker.

Recipe: Paula Deen

College Rowing Teams Flock to Lake Lanier

By Ken Sugiura

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

When Mike Lane became the head women's rowing coach at the University of Pennsylvania four years ago, he knew where he had to take his team to make it great. When spring break arrives at the Ivy League school, Lane points the bus to North Georgia and Lake Lanier.

The Quakers rowing team has become a springtime fixture in Gainesville, bunking down at the Holiday Inn and making the annual pilgrimage to the Monkey Barrel for pizza.

"Everyone's super friendly at the Holiday Inn," team captain Jennifer Drossner said. "It's quite a change from Philly in the way it's hospitable."

Since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, college teams have descended upon Lake Lanier for their spring break training, lured by the chance to row Olympian waters. After a lull in recent years, the area is taking on increasing numbers of visitors. About 750 rowers representing about 15 teams have or will train out of the Lake Lanier Rowing Club for winter or spring training, up about 50 percent from last year. Earlier this month, Penn shared the boathouse with three other teams. Last week, the U.S. Naval Academy and Smith and Ithaca colleges' crews have plied Lanier's placid waters.

"The perfect location is almost impossible to find," said Lane, who worked at the club for about a year shortly after the Olympics. "This is as close to perfect as you'll find."

A variety of amenities recommend Lanier. The lake water is still, protected from wind, and teams can row for miles without having to turn around. The boathouse and docks, constructed for the Olympics and now leased to the club from the city of Gainesville and Hall County, allow teams to store their rowing shells. Access to the water is easy. The weather, compared to the Midwest and East, is mild. Wittenberg's training site was still frozen over, coach Angie Mason said.

Hotel rates in Gainesville are generally less expensive than those in Florida, where many college teams train over spring break.

Mason called Lanier "one of the best spring break training experiences we've had. The facilities, the water, the people, everything has been fabulous."

Club coach and executive director Jim Pickens hopes that Lake Lanier will eventually take on 60 teams and about 3,000 rowers for winter and spring training, which would boost the non-profit club's profile and revenues and turn Gainesville into something like Cancun with oars. The club charges usage fees and rents out launch boats for coaches riding alongside their rowers.

Pickens, 25, came to the club in August 2008, when the facility had been without a director for about two years. Pickens was a coach and rowing equipment salesman, living in Raleigh with his wife Lauren, two rowing devotees who met on their college team in Virginia. Club membership and morale were dropping, club president Joe Kelenfy said.

 "We had been in a sustaining mode, a survival mode," he said. Kelenfy spoke with Pickens to see if he knew of anyone with interest in the job. Said Pickens, "I said, ‘Yeah. I do.' "
Pickens wanted a new challenge and saw one in the club."I guess the thing that really made me take the job is the fact that there's just so much stuff here," he said. "To make this place a fantastic place would require a lot of work, but it would take a lot less than other places."

Membership has picked up, from about 60 at its lowest to about 100. Pickens is trying to build up the youth program and has a vision for local high schools fielding rowing teams.

"Since these two have come, this place has come alive," said Kelenfy, referring to Pickens and his wife, who also works at the club part-time. "There's a whole new energy."

The increase in visiting college teams, responding to some of the hundreds of e-mails Pickens sent to coaches, is part of the revival. Pickens also has applied to host upcoming NCAA championships and youth and masters national championship regattas. He hopes that with some updates to the facility, it can host international rowing events.

After the Olympics, the club hosted the 1998 and 2001 NCAA regattas, among other elite events, but had fallen out of the mix recently. Penn's Lane called it a "prime venue" for an NCAA championship.

For Lane, there'd be one problem about bringing so many teams to Lake Lanier.

Said Lane, "I don't want too many people to find out it."
http://www.lakelanierrowing.org/

Have You Started Your Spring Garden Yet?

Tomatoes

Summer Squash & Peppers

Green Beans

We sure have! just started our tomatoes, beans, yellow quash and peppers! From seed, no less...not because we are frugal, they are just that much better, hardier and fun.

We grow our vegetables in tubs. The soil here is just not great, nor do we have a large enough area in the sun in which to lay out a garden.  As you have seen from our snow pictures our property is quite hilly.

Our pots waiting to be filled!

I do plan to have a whole bunch of herbs this year. Basil, parsley, oregano, mint, chives and rosemary to start with.  I'm sure these will be expanded once we go to the store! These will not be started from seed, they definitely take too long and I want to start enjoying them ASAP. My daughter and I are fighting wether to have lettuce or not.  I love frisee and can never find it, but lettuce is so hard to grow, at least in this area, or so I'm told.  Oh well, maybe I'll sneak some under a tree where she won't notice.

This morning we had snow flurries...can you believe? and yesterday was the first day of Spring.  Strange weather indeed.

Note: the germinating pans above are from Lowe's.

Chewy Butterscotch Bars

This is the original recipe from Nestle's and if you like butterscotch, this is for you.  The only suggestion I have is halve the recipe and bake in a 9 x 11 pan... that is, unless you are baking for a crowd.  Also, you may want to use walnuts, which counterbalances the sweetness of the butterscotch better than other nuts

These are great for picnics and to take on the boat when you are out on the lake!. 

Makes 4 dozen brownies 


Ingredients

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cups brown sugar, firmly packed

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1 (11 ounce) package Nestle Toll House butterscotch-flavored morsels, divided

1 cup nuts, chopped



Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla extract in a large mixer bowl until creamy.

4. Beat in eggs.

5. Gradually beat in flour mixture.

6. Stir in 1 cup morsels, and nuts.

7. Spread into ungreased 13x9-inch baking pan.

8. Sprinkle with remaining morsels.

9. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

10. Cool in pan on wire rack.