Supreme Salmon Patties and Matthew and Coco

First off:  for those of you who have asked about our adorable grandson Matthew, I thank you so much for thinking of him!

 

Matthew is 4 weeks old now, weighing in at 8 pounds, 6 ounces and is a sweet delight.  That’s Daddy holding him in the picture and his babysitter Coco supervising. 

Kathy brought 2 adorable Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers along with her when she married our son Matt.  Coco, the younger one, is amazing with the baby!  She leaves Matthew’s side only for the essentials and tries her best to get her licks in every chance she gets.  When we hold Matthew, the look on her face begs us, “Please let me have him ~ I know I could do better!”  I know Matthew and Coco will be best friends as Matthew grows up, and Bella also, who leaves the babysitting to Coco most of the time. 

Now for a great dish I hope you all will enjoy:

I guarantee you’ll like these salmon patties if you adore salmon the way I do!

This recipe is from an old friend and it is chocked full of flavorful ingredients to go with the canned salmon ~ corn kernels, Dijon mustard and paprika, for starters.  Mom used to make them but just added eggs, cracker crumbs and onion.  This is not my mom’s salmon patties!

The corn adds a crispy sweetness with the Dijon mustard and lemon juice adding zesty flavors.   I used “pink” salmon.  Refrigerating the patties for an hour ensures that they will not crumble when fried.  These are simple and easy to make for fast dinner.  Just flip them carefully when frying!

I really like salmon straight out of the can!  Do you?

Supreme Salmon Patties

Ingredients:

2 cans (7.5 oz. each) salmon, drained

½ cup finely-diced onion

½ cup corn kernels, canned or frozen

Pepper, to taste

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

2 dashes hot sauce

½ teaspoon paprika

1 egg

½ cup crushed saltine crackers

1 cup panko bread crumbs

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method:

Place salmon in a large bowl and combine with onion, corn and pepper.

In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard, lemon juice, Worcestershire and hot sauces and paprika.

Gently fold into salmon mixture.

Lightly beat the egg.

Fold into the salmon mixture along with ½ cup of the cracker crumbs.

Place remaining crumbs on large plate.

Form the salmon mixture into 8 patties.

Coat them with the panko bread crumbs carefully.

Refrigerate, loosely covered, for one hour.

Melt butter/oil in a skillet over medium heat.

Cook the patties 3-4 minutes per side, pressing down on them slightly with the spatula.

Add more oil or butter if necessary.

Remove and drain on paper towel.

Serve with lemon wedges or tartar sauce.

They’re tasty ~ scrumptiously good!!!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes and cookbook giveaway! 

Update- Bella passed away March, 2017, 12 years old.

Our Great Valentine Gift ~ 4 Days Early and Appalachian Stack Pie!

I am thrilled to say that I have been a Grandma and Bill a Grandpa since 4:25 a.m. Thursday, February 10^th!  This is our first grandchild and we are looking forward to many years of loving and spoiling him. 

 

Our younger son Matt, and his wife, Kathy, are the proud parents of Matthew, who weighed in at 6 pounds, 6 ounces and is 19 inches long.  He’s tiny, adorable and perfect. 

Mom and baby, and Dad also, are doing great and I know Matt and Kathy will be wonderful loving parents.  The world is already a better place now that Matthew has arrived!

 

He is the absolute best Valentine’s Day gift ever!  And speaking of Valentine’s Day, I have a great recipe for a Valentine’s Day treat!

Maybe you’ve heard of or even enjoyed Appalachian stack cake.  It’s usually filled with dried apples and lots of spices.  With wedding cakes being so expensive, the legend goes that stack cake was a community-baked wedding cake.  The dough for the cake was rolled into 9-inch very thin layers and baked in cast-iron skillets.  Each family attending an Appalachian wedding baked one of the 6-12 cake layers and carried it to the wedding.  The bride’s family was in charge of cooking the apple filling and assembling all the layers into the finished cake.  It is a practical wedding cake that supposedly took 3 hours or more to make.

A modernized version of it was in the Chicago Tribune the other day.  It’s made with pie crust dough, resulting in 3-inch miniature Appalachian stack pies, instead of stack cakes.  Practical, delicious and easier to make!

The filling takes about 30-60 minutes to cook, so it could be made the night before you want to serve the dessert.  The rest is easy as it uses one roll-and-bake pie crust from the refrigerated section of the market.  Cut a dozen 3-inch pastry circles; it’s enough for 4 sweet pie stacks that look pretty also!  Serve them immediately after stacking them or the crisp pastry rounds will get soggy and your stack will topple.

Appalachian Spiced Apple Stack Pie

Pie circles:

1 roll-and-bake ready-made pie crust

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Filling:

1 package (6-ounces) dried apples

2½ cups water

1 cup frozen apple juice concentrate, thawed

½ teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon allspice

Pinch each: sea salt and ground nutmeg

½ cup cream, whipped, optional

Method:

For pie circles: 

Heat oven to 450 degrees.

Roll out crust and cut into 12 three-inch circles.

Place on parchment lined baking sheet.

Prick each circle several times with a fork.

Mix sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and sprinkle a little on each pastry circle.

Bake until golden, about 5 minutes.

Remove sheet to cooling rack.

For apple filling:

Place dried apples in microwave-safe bowl with 1 cup of the water and ½ cup of the apple juice concentrate.

Cover bowl and microwave 10 minutes.

Pour apple mixture into a saucepan, cook over medium heat, gradually adding remaining 1½ cups of the water and ½ cup of the apple juice concentrate as liquids reduce.

Cook until apples are soft and the liquid has reduced, about 40 minutes.

Add the spices and salt; cook stirring often, until liquid has reduced to a small amount of syrup, 10 minutes.

Remove spiced apples from heat.

Place a round of pastry on each of 4 plates.

Spoon some of the apple filling onto each round.

Top each with another round of pastry.

Spoon on more apple filling.

Top with third pastry round.

Spoon a small dollop of whipped cream on top.

These little pies are perfect ~ however you stack ‘em!

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all!

Welcome to the world and our family, darling baby Matthew!

Herb Crusted Tilapia and a Baby Shower

Aside from the 15 degree temperature and VERY windy, snowy weather here yesterday, it was a fantastic fun day for Bill and me!  If you follow my blog, you may recall that I am going to be a grandmother for the first time. 

Kathy’s baby shower was held yesterday and what great amazing gifts she and Matt received for their baby boy who is expected the middle of February.  I had no idea there are so wonderful things for a baby! 

I’m hoping the little guy will like fish as he grows up as baked fish is a great choice for any meal and healthy too!  Tilapia is popular and noted for its capability for absorbing other flavors, especially herbs; dried and fresh. 

This recipe is easy and tasty.  It has a kick of flavor from the light coating of Dijon mustard along with herbs and horseradish.  Panko bread crumbs makes a delicious crunching topping for the tender flaky tilapia.    I’m crazy about baked tilapia!

Herb Crusted Tilapia

Ingredients:

2 pounds tilapia filets

3 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon horseradish

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon dried parsley

½ teaspoon thyme

½ cup Panko bread crumbs

Olive oil

Method:

Pat dry tilapia with a paper towel.

Mix mustard, horseradish, onion powder, parsley and thyme in a small bowl.

Spread mixture over filets.

Scatter bread crumbs over top.

Drizzle over all with olive oil.

Bake 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes until fish is fork tender and golden.

Enjoy!!!

Be sure to enter my Tate’s Bake Shop giveaway that was posted on December 3^rd!

Also, check out my friend, Linda’s blog, at My Kind of Cooking.  She is also hosting a Tate’s Bake Shop giveaway!

It’s Baby News Today!

For those of you who follow my blog, you will know that our first grandchild is on the way and due in February.  We just learned over the weekend that…

IT’S A BOY!

We are elated and so happy for Matt and Kathy!!!  We know that they will be great loving parents and we can hardly wait to welcome God’s special gift into our family.  Bill’s now planning on another Green Bay Packers fan in the family!

Here’s wishing you all a wonderful Monday!

I’m Too Excited to Cook Today!

I’m too excited to be cooking today, which is a rarity for me!

We had quite an amazing, surprising weekend ~ to say the least!  We had a garage sale over the weekend, the first one in many years and the last one!  And we also celebrated Bill’s birthday, which was Saturday.  Thankfully, he is once again my age.

To top all of that, our son, Matt, and his wife, Kathy, arrived carrying a basket.  Matt said he would like to put the items in the sale but wanted us to look at it all first and voice our opinions.  I thought that was a little strange; then he insisted his Dad and I look at it together.

I removed the paper and saw a bib on top that read, “I love Grandpa.”  Now I thought it was REALLY strange and wondered if they were now in the business of selling bibs.    I’m a little slow!  I lifted the bib and underneath laid a framed photo of a ultrasound.  I screamed and yelled over to the next county!  I got it!

I’m going to be a grandmother for the first time!

It was a birthday Bill will never forget and one of the best days of my life!

All we have to do is wait now and in the meantime I will be doing some shopping for baby “goodies” as I have been waiting for this for years!

Congratulations to you both, Kathy and Matt!  We are proud and ecstatic beyond words. 

Congratulations, Matt and Kathy!

Congratulations, to the new bride and groom! 

It was a wonderful day, even with the 2” of snow!  We all had a fabulous time and have many good memories of it now.

We are so happy for you, Kathy and Matt! We wish you many, many years of love and happiness with a dose of humor and heaps of romance.  You are truly a couple that is a perfect match for each other!

 Time for the reception!

Their gorgeous cake!

One more dance!

Love and blessings!

A Wonderful Thing is Happening Tomorrow! And an Award!

I am ecstatic and overjoyed!!!  I will not be posting for the next couple of days as we have a great event happening in our family, Matt and Kathy are getting married tomorrow!  This is the first wedding in our family.

They have been going together for 2½ years and I have patiently (Bill probably doesn’t agree) been waiting for this day and am beside myself with excitement now and can hardly contain it. 

I have never attended a wedding where I didn’t have tears in my eyes when the bride walked down the aisle so I think I should have taken lessons in self-control before this.  I will probably fall to pieces when I see beautiful Kathy walk down the aisle and then be sobbing as I turn around toward the altar and see Matt and Bubba standing there!  Bubba sent an email this morning about his little speech at the reception when toasting the bride and groom.  My eyes were glassy just reading it….

Before I close here, I would like to tell you about an award I received:

A wonderful, formerly Midwest lady, was gracious enough to give me this lovely Happiness Award.  She has a great attitude and tells interesting stories along with gorgeous photos of her life in England now.  She makes you feel like you are there!  Thank you, Jane @ midwesttomidlands, for thinking of me and sending the award my way!

Here are the rules:

1.       When you have received this award you must thank the person that awarded it to you.

2.      Name the 10 things that make you happy.

3.      Pass this award onto 10 other bloggers and inform the winners.

TEN THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

Obviously my family, our 2 cats and friends make me happiest so I will not place them on the list.  They are my rock and at least one of them makes me laugh every day.  So, here is the rest of what makes me happy:

1. That first cup of freshly brewed coffee in the early morning along with the quiet.

2. The chaos in the kitchen with the family at holiday time and the anticipation of a delicious meal forthcoming.

3. A good belly laugh.

4. Listening to music or reading a good book, cookbooks included.

5. The smell of fresh cut grass.

6. Playing golf with the league, and others too.

7. Freshly laundered sheets and hopefully ironed also!

8. Sitting on the deck with Bill on a warm summer evening enjoying a cocktail or two.

9. A loaf of home-made bread just out of the oven.

10.  A thunderstorm, just as long as it is not severe!

 I could go on and on but, lucky for you, I will stop here.  I hope you all out there are thinking of those things that really make you happy!!!

Now, here are the 10 bloggers I would like to pass the award to:

Coralie @ charmsofdays

Joni @redcouchrecipes

Jake and Addie’s mom @ corginews

Kim @ theungourmet

Ally @ sweetandsavoryfood

Karen @ ohboykarencooks

Annalisa @ atthehob

Zia Elle @ incucinaconziaelle

Mia @ mimis-kitchen

Kathleen @ gonnawantseconds

I’m looking forward to reading your lists and seeing what makes you happy!

Have a great weekend and…..

See ya! Monday!!!