Shrimp and Corn Fandango Salad

Shrimp & Corn Fandango Salad

Love the spicy dressing, it adds a nice kick.

Tastes & Treasures cookbook has a Green Salad with Shrimp recipe on page 174 but it is a little heavy. My favorite is to combine ingredients from both of these and make it your own special dish.


Ingredients:
3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 cup dry coleslaw mix
1/2 cup chopped tomato
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/3 cup chopped red onion
2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbsp. seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 tbsp. lime juice
1 tsp. Mexican hot sauce
1/2 cup frozen yellow corn (or grill some of that wonderful fresh corn on the cob)
3 oz. cooked and chilled ready-to-eat shrimp (since you have the grill on, roast some shrimp for an even better flavor)

Directions:
Combine lettuce and slaw mix in a large bowl. Top with tomato, cucumber, onion, and cilantro. Set aside.

To make the dressing, combine vinegar, lime juice, and hot sauce in a small bowl, and mix thoroughly. Set aside.

Bring a skillet sprayed with nonstick spray to high heat on the stove. Add corn and cook until thawed and slightly blackened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to the large bowl.

Add shrimp to the large bowl and drizzle dressing over the salad.

MAKES 1 SERVING

PER SERVING (1 salad, entire recipe): 260 calories, 2g fat, 622mg sodium, 39g carbs, 8g fiber, 15g sugars, 24g protein

Yummy additional ingredient: Toss 1/4 cup chopped avocado onto this dish. (Adds 320 calories, 7.5g fat, and 10.5g fiber). Recipe from www.hungry-girl.com.

What to do with left-over salmon?

Who likes left-over salmon? . . . but I hate to throw it away. This recipe on page 166 of Tastes & Treasures is delicious and impressive for company. Just remember to make ahead of time to chill 6-8 hours. The flavors blend and it tastes so much better.

The recipe is a little rich for our tastes so we modified it to be a little more health conscious. Try it both ways. It's good . . .

Smoked Salmon Pate

Ingredients:

2 (7 ounce) cans smoked salmon, or 1 pound hot smoked salmon (We used the left-over salmon and cut it up fine. The potato masher worked really well to produce a fine consistency.)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, melted (We used about 2 tablespoons butter, melted.)

1 cup sour cream (We used Chobani low-fat sour cream.)

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 teaspoon dried dill weed

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:Combine the salmon, butter, sour cream, lemon juice, dill weed, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and beat until combined. Chill, covered, for 8 to 10 hours. Bring to room temperature and garnish with lemon slices. Serve with seasoned crackers. You may store, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Bread bowl dip with fresh vegies

Fast and quick, this dip was made with Knorr dry seasoning vegetable soup mix and low-fat sour cream. The presentation is fun when you scoop out the sour dough bread and fill it with the dip.


Dip ingredients: 4 ounces goat cheese crumbles
2 cup low-fat sour cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 small tomato chopped

Directions: Mix well and chill. Makes 2 1/2 cup dip.

Cut the bread into cubes for dipping. Add lots of fresh bite size carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, cherry tomatoes, yellow, red and orange peppers. Healthy and delicious.

Since the Historical League loves history, I had to research the beginnings of this German company. www.knorr.com. Wonder if Barry Goldwater's mother ever used this seasoning in her recipe page 142 Tastes & Treasures cookbook, Jo Jo's Black Walnut Stew?


Carl Heinrich Knorr is born on May 15, at Meerdorf near Braunschweig, Germany, the son of a schoolteacher. In school, he studies commerce and afterwards he becomes a wholesaler of agricultural produce.

C. H. Knorr builds a factory in Heilbronn for the purpose of drying and grinding chicory for the coffee trade.
With the spread of industrialization, C. H. Knorr realizes the need for a quickly prepared and nutritious meal among factory workers.
He starts experimenting with drying vegetables and flavourful seasonings. In cooperation with nutritional experts, he develops a preservation process to maintain the natural values of the ingredients and their flavours and also reduce their cooking times. This knowledge is the basis for the development of the dried soups.

The KNORR Company begins packaging and selling soup mixes in food shops. Founder Carl Heinrich Knorr dies in Germany two years later.

The KNORR Company introduces the "Erbswurst", another convenience product. It is seasoned pea soup concentrate packed in a sausage casing, which can be eaten dry or, more likely, added to boiling water to make soup.
This product became very popular due to its light weight and easy preparation. By 1900, this product is available in 40 varieties.

Everything but the Kitchen Sink in this Salad. . .

Garland's Oak Creek Lodge has a refreshing Mixed Salad with Celery Seed Vinaigrette on page 43 of Tastes & Treasures cookbook.

We like salads that are creative so we often add additional ingredients. Perfect for summer meals.
Try grilled chicken breast, roasted asparagus, candied pecans sprinkled with cinnamon, blueberries, yellow baby pear tomatoes, sliced apples. What is your favorite combination for a summer salad?

Mixed Greens with Pears, Roquefort and Pecans with Celery Seed Vinaigrette from Garland’s Oak Creek Lodge page 43

Celery Seed Vinaigrette

1/3 cup raspberry white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon chopped yellow onion
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup walnut oil
1/3 cup canola oil
½ teaspoon celery seeds

Salad

1 cup pecans, chopped
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
4 large red Bartlett pears or Anjou pears
4 quarts mixed salad greens, rinsed and spun dry
1 cup crumbled Roquefort cheese

For the Vinaigrette, combine the vinegar, sugar, dry mustard, onion, salt, walnut oil, canola oil and celery seeds in a 2-cup glass measure and blend until smooth. Use a hand-held blender, if desired.

For the salad, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Toss the pecans with the olive oil and salt in a bowl and spread on baking sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted. Pour 1/3 cup of the vinaigrette into a 1-quart bowl. Quarter and core one pear at a time and slice each quarter lengthwise into ¼-inch wedges into the vinaigrette. Cover and chill until ready to serve. Place the mixed salad greens in a large bowl and toss with the remaining vinaigrette. Divide among eight salad plates. Sprinkle the cheese around the salad greens. Arrange five pear wedges on each salad and sprinkle with the toasted pecans.

Key Lime Pie Frozen Sandwiches

Margarita Pie from historic Rancho de la Osa on page 196 in Tastes & Treasures cookbook is a big hit with us. This recipe from Hungry Girl is very similar but with lower calorie and some different flavors. Try them both.

Key Lime Pie Frozen Sandwiches

Ingredients: 


1/2 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt 

1 1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar 

1 tbsp. lime juice (key lime, if available) 

2 sheets (8 crackers) low-fat cinnamon graham crackers, broken into 4 squares



Directions:

To make the filling, combine yogurt, sugar, and lime juice in a bowl. Mix thoroughly. Cover and place in the freezer for 25 - 30 minutes, until it reaches a soft-serve-like consistency (very thick but soft enough to stir.)


Place two graham cracker squares on a plate with the cinnamon-covered sides down. Give filling a stir and evenly distribute between the two graham cracker squares, about 1/4 cup each. Gently place another graham cracker square over each filling-topped square, cinnamon-covered sides up.



Place in the freezer until filling is firm, at least 1 hour.

MAKES 2 SERVINGS

PER SERVING (1/2 of recipe, 1 sandwich): 128 calories, 1g fat, 105mg sodium, 24g carbs, 0.5g
fiber, 16g sugars, 7g protein

Family Reunion at the Farm

Since they grow the corn, it can't get any fresher. Folks in Indiana have lots of ways to cook corn but this is the favorite . . . grilling right in the husk.

Just pull back the outer leaves, remove the silk, replace the leaves and soak in a big tub for 4-8 hours. Then place directly on the grill. Yummmm.

The cooler worked great to store the cooked corn for the large group at the reunion.

Any left over corn is wonderful for Corn Salsa, page 33 in Tastes & Treasures cookbook.

Corn Salsa

Ingredients:
1 or 2 jalapeno chiles, seeded and minced
1 ½ cups roasted corn (about 2 large ears)
¼ cup finely chopped green bell pepper
¼ cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
½ red onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
½ cup vegetable juice cocktail
1 tablespoon lime juice
salt to taste

Directions:
Combine the jalapeno chiles, corn, bell peppers, cilantro, onion, tomato, sugar, vegetable juice cocktail, lime juice and salt in a large bowl and toss to mix.

Makes 3 ½ cups

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate

Is there anything better? The Truffle Hill Chocolates in Excelsior, MN is a charming cottage with all handmade chocolates and sweet treats. Phoenix visitor Kathy Holcombe was delighted with the choices.

For your own home made delights, try the Chocolate Peanut Treats on page 162 Tastes & Treasures Cookbook. Margaret Baker made them for a Historical League meeting and they are every bit as good as sweets from Truffle Hill.

Chocolate Peanut Treats page 162

Ingredients

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
2 cups (12 ounces) butterscotch chips
1 (18-ounce) jar creamy peanut butter
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 (5-ounce) can evaporated milk
¼ cup vanilla pudding and pie filling mix
2 (1-pound) packages confectioners’ sugar
1 pound salted peanuts

Directions

Combine the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips in a double boiler over simmering water. Cook until blended, stirring frequently. Add the peanut butter and stir until smooth. Spread half the chocolate chip mixture in a greased 10X15-inch baking pan. Chill until firm.

Bring the butter, evaporated milk and pudding mix to a boil in a saucepan. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and beat in the confectioners’ sugar until smooth. Spread over the chilled layer. Stir the peanuts into the remaining chocolate chip mixture and spread over the prepared layers. Chill until firm and cut into 2-inch squares.

Makes 30 (2-inch square) pieces