Home At Last! with Patty Gironda

To celebrate Fat Tuesday at our house I cooked up some simple Louisiana fare! Oysters and shrimp. Simple, but, oh so good.  The oysters were consumed so quickly there was no time to snap a photo!  I cleaned and deveined a pound of shrimp, tossed them in a flour, cornmeal and cornstarch mixture for tempting taste of Louisiana! and a successful close to another Mardi Gras season all around the state!

Who knew that cleaning out the fridge could result in a fabulous pizza rich with flavor and great textures. First: The dough-a bright, warm sunny day resulted in a perfectly tender crust with just the right amount of crunch! Second: Food in the fridge that needed to be used up or thrown out. I know . . .but it's a weekend with guests on the way and I need the space. So, So, in to the pot the ingredients flew-fresh tomatoes, pork sausage, black olives, fresh baby yellow peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and on and on it went-including a few tablespoons of leftover penne pasta with similar ingredients! The Results: A fabulous crunchy pan pizza drizzled with the perfect helping of garlic oil and ripe flavor from goat cheese and a young shredded asiago cheese!

I absolutely adore this time of the spring. The first fruit crops are being harvested and gracious friends share their bounty! I've cleaned and prepped two batches of early peaches and a boatload of blueberries. The blueberries are incorporated into our wildly popular homemade waffles and the peaches are in everything from "Hard Peach Punch" to our new breakfast dish, a vegan-friendly bread pudding with almond and coconut milks with fresh peaches. www.GirondasCasaBella.com

It's an old story. . . I send hubby out with a shopping list filled with specific items to make a simple meal of vegetable soup and biscuits. He's a good shopper and I have no worries that he will return with every item on my list. But! for some unknown reason he was feeling very independent and returned with a completely different bag of mixed vegetables , thinking I might prefer those instead! He bought a small bag of potatos, carrots and celery. That's it. Fortunately, (for him), I had a leftover roasted turkey carcass, ears of corn on the cob, fresh spinach and lots of tomatoes. I felt confident I could turn this into a worthwhile dinner. What I ended up with was one of those lucky "mistakes". I made a Mexican vegetable soup with plenty of fresh spinach, tomato, and corn-and a tasty broth made from the turkey carcass and corn cobs. Cumin, chili powder and chives made for a smoky, flavorful contrast to the sweet broth. I fried strips of flour tortilla ...

I spent yesterday evening floating around the pool in the company of a friend, Trixie. Happily, Trixie and her son, Frederick were passing through Newnan on their return trip to Atlanta after helping Trixie's stepdaughter settle in her new dorm room. After righting the world, swapping stories on our favorite photo editing software-our conversation turned to food. Trixie shared an easy bread recipe that she favors-a beer batter bread. It sounded so easy . . . there was nothing to even write down. Three simple ingredients! I baked a loaf of the beer batter bread today and loved the ease of the recipe. I added a few of my own embellishments and popped in the oven for a quick 45 minutes at 375 degrees. My intent was to see if it might make a nice breakfast toast served with our popular Black Raspberry Preserves for guests of our bed and breakfast! I was not disappointed. The texture was dense, the yeasty flavor enhanced with a scant 1/8 cup of mixed grated cheese and topp...

       

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