Recipe Wednesday

Recipe #20

My wife found this chimichurri sauce recipe in the newspaper one fine summer day.  I don't remember exactly why she keeps searching for a Chimichurri Sauce recipe, but she mentioned this to me when she saw it.  I determined then that we should try the recipe and I could post it to my blog.  You may want to follow the link to see the original article in the Recipes column of the Flavor section of the Houston Chronicle Chron.com .

Summer Herb Chimichurri

3 cloves garlic, peeled
½ large shallot, peeled
1½ cups packed parsley leaves
1½ cups packed basil leaves
¾ cup packed mint leaves
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ small red onion, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper



Using the blade attachment of a food processor, chop the garlic, shallot, herbs, vinegar and lemon juice until well combined and slightly chunky. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil through the tube in a steady stream until the sauce is well blended and the herbs are finely chopped. Transfer to a bowl, stir in the red onion, and season to taste with salt and pepper. 

Serve immediately, or transfer to a covered container and press plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the sauce. Cover and refrigerate up to 1 week.



This recipe was printed in the Houston Chronicle of Wednesday, September 8, 2010 along with suggestions to try it on grilled and sliced flank or skirt steak.  Mixing with mayonnaise to spread on sandwiches or burgers was also offered as a suggestion.  Salmon might be rubbed and slow roasted in the oven.  It could also be whisked with a little extra olive oil and tossed with seasonal greens for a herb tinged salad.

Please try it.  You will like it!

Recipe Wednesday #18

Do you ever brew a pot of coffee and have a bit of coffee left in the pot when all have had enough coffee to drink? It always seemed so wasteful to pour all that coffee down the drain. I recently decided I would start pouring that coffee up into a pitcher after cooling. I stored this excess coffee in the refrigerator and continued to add the excess coffee when I didn't finish the pot. After a few days I had enough cold coffee to start combining and experimenting with a few ingredients to concoct an iced coffee drink like you might get at one of those popular coffee shops. Here follows my resulting

Iced Cocoa Frappucinno

2/3 cup brewed coffee, cold
1/3 cup ice cubes (5 or 6 cubes)
1/3 cup non fat dry milk
1 tsp. instant hot cocoa mix
1 pkg. artificial sweetener 1 tsp. sugar

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend for 30 - 40 seconds or until the ice is completely crushed. Pour into a couple of tall glasses and enjoy with a friend some summer evening. You may try a variety of additions and/or substitutions to make this your own favorite iced coffee drink to enjoy with a friend. Try a shot (1 oz.) of hazelnut or caramel syrup in addition to/or in place of the cocoa mix. Try your own flavors to suit your own tastes. Enjoy!

Incidentally, there is also a story behind the use of the 'non fat dry milk' instead of cream or milk in this recipe. That is another item I found which was a 'leftover' item for which I was trying to find a use instead of throwing it away. Suffice it to say for now that it was another item I had in excess and I needed to find a use for it instead of throwing it out. I'll tell that story on another day in another blog post.

Recipe Wednesday #16

I found this recipe in one of those coupon inserts for the Sunday newspaper, you know, one of those things with all the coupons printed up. This recipe was printed with a popular, name brand steak sauce. As usual I do take some liberties with most of my recipes. In this one I don't necessarily use the name brand steak sauce. So here follows the recipe for this week . . .

Sauce Glazed Steak & Chicken

1 bottle(10 oz.) of your favorite steak sauce
1/4 cup honey
4 boneless beef strip steaks approximately 1 inch thickness
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

In a medium sized bowl mix thoroughly the sauce and honey

Grill steaks and chicken over medium heat for 4 - 6 minutes. Brush steaks and chicken on both sides with the sauce. be sure to be liberal with the sauce! Turn over and grill for 4 - 6 more minutes or until cooked to the doneness you require.

6 - 8 servings / 3 minutes preparation time / 8 - 12 minutes cooking time

This recipe is great for a family and friends get together or for a summertime grill fest. Enjoy!

Recipe Wednesday #15

I was looking through Pam's recipes for this week. I found an old loose leaf type notebook with pages for copying recipes, tabs for separating the meal types, and envelopes for cutting and inserting recipes from magazines or newspapers. Here follows one of the recipes I found copied in Pam's handwriting onto one of the loose leaf pages in the recipe book:


Cool Tuna Noodle Salad


Ingredients:

1 Can Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 Cup mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. chopped pimento stuffed olives
2 Tbsp. grated onion
8 Oz. corkscrew macaroni, cooked
1 Can tuna (6 oz.)
1 Pkg. frozen mixed vegetables (10 oz.)

Directions:

Mix first 5 ingredients
Add macaroni
Add tuna and vegetables
Mix, cover, and refrigerate


She confirms that it is written in her handwriting, but she does not remember where she got the recipe. Try it out and enjoy! This sounds like a great spring or summer time salad or perhaps even a light dinner or supper meal.

Summer Time Blues

No, I'm not referring to the "Summertime Blues" (1958), a 12-bar blues standard song by Eddie Cochran and Jerry Capehart about the trials and tribulations of teenage life in America. (Song and artist information is from Wikipedia.)


I'm referring to the beautiful blue water in the swimming pool.

Janna has been inviting all of us over to her apartment to swim in the pool.

Kira has been going for 'Water Babbies' lessons at a local swimming pool. Do we have a potential olympic swimmer?

Independence Day!

Waiting for our neighborhood 4th of July Parade.

Start of the Parade.

Houston Mayor, Bill White.

The end of the parade.

Have a Great 4th of July!

Picture Frenzy

My wife, Pam, recently went into a picture taking frenzy. Several years ago I gave her a digital camera for Christmas. Of course there was a liberal dose of Christmas pictures that year. Then as special occasions came up we would have a new set of birthday pictures and an occasional picture for Mother's Day, Father's Day, a set of vacation pictures, or whatever the occasion might be. Then the camera seemed to go dormant for a while. It came out ocassionaly and was shoved into my hands to snap a few pictures. Recently I got my own digital camera as well as a one of those inexpensive HD video cameras. Pam's camera seemed to have disappeared for a while. Then, with the Grandaughter, Kira, growing and changing so fast the camera has recently been resurrected from the closet. Here follows some of Pam's recent photographic endeavors:

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Here is a really good picture of Kira taken recently.

. .

Next is a picture of Kira with . . . ?

. . .


Kira with . . . ?














. . . .


Wait a minute! What happened to the grandbaby? These are pictures of clouds.












.
I'm looking through pictures from Pam's camera and all of the sudden I come across a whole set of pictures of clouds. It seems Pam has a particular fascination with clouds. One recent afternoon, just before sunset Pam went out and saw these clouds. She came back in for her camera and went out taking pictures of every cloud in sight. She tells me these are Mammatus Clouds and are usually seen after a severe thunderstorm has passed. Earlier that day we had experienced a set of passing thunderstorms, which is a usual weather occurence for this part of Texas at this time of year. For more information on Mammatus Clouds you may follow the links to the Department of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

More Than a Day, More Than a Dollar!

Well the Father's Day Off ended up being a little more than a day. Hey, it's summer, what can I say? I will soon fill in for the missing Recipe and Family news items. I have been extremely busy with a few of those "Honey Do" projects helping Pam around the house and in the yard. Janna and I have been busy with some "summer training" for school and for some personal interests which we are trying to develop. I've also been online attempting to plan a brief summer vacation and to do research into some of our "developing interests". Sometimes when online I may get sidetracked and spend more time with the interesting and funny things found online. I'm not sure what category the following web site would fall into. You can decide for yourself. The following website is one designed by a young man attempting to use the internet to become a millionaire. I think he may have done it! Take a look for yourself at what is reportedly a Million Dollar Website!

$ $ $ Million Dollar Website $ $ $

Father's Day Off!

To all you dads out there, Happy Father's Day!

Enjoy your day.

Recipe Wednesday

New Feature!

Recipe Wednesday: I was looking through an old recipe book and I got the idea for a regular feature for my HORST ONLINE Blog. Every Wednesday I will endeavor to share a recipe from one of my numerous recipe sources with my Blog readers. The first recipe I share with you comes from 'Creative Cooking' a recipe booklet published by the West University Baptist Young Women. This was a social group at the Church my sister, Michal, attended when she first moved to Houston and after she was married. I will share several recipes by family and friends from this book and I will have more information about the recipe book in later blog posts. Let's get started with the recipe for now. The following recipe was submitted to the book by my mother, Bobbie Horst. I don't really ever remember her making this recipe, but I did find it in the recipe book. It sounds like it might be a good recipe for summer. Here we go with:

PICKLE SCRAMBLE
Bobbie Horst

1 (16 oz. ) bottle whole dill pickles
1 (16 oz. ) bottle whole sweet pickles
1 (16 oz. ) bottle whole sour pickles
1 cup brown sugar

Reserving juice from each jar, slice all pickles into strips. combine juice from each jar and add sugar. Stir well. Mix pickles together and add pickle liquid and sugar. Let stand in a large jar (or return mixed pickles to indivudual jars) for 12 hours or more. The longer their their flavors mix together, the better and crisper they are. For those who like pickles, this is a super recipe.



Please note: I have not personally tried this recipe as I just recently found it in the book. I do hope to try it soon. As already mentioned I don't remember my mother making Pickle Scramble for our family. If any of you Horst family members remember this recipe please leave me a comment to let me know. You are all invited to try it out and enjoy! Please come back for more recipes in future posts.

Day Trips!

Day Trips! Pam and I like to take day trips in and around Houston. We love to visit a number of places, but one of our favorite places is Brazos Bend State Park. I would like to invite you to share with us on one of our trips to Brazos Bend. Please come with us on a Day Trip! This trip was one we took in July of 2004. Here are a selection of photos from that trip.

Alligators at Brazos Bend

Remember you can also visit through the link to the right in Favorite Places on the blog page or you may use this link Brazos Bend S.P.

Bittern at Brazos Bend

Thanks for visiting. Come back soon!