Cannellini Bean Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 4
Ingredients:
-1 (15-ounce) can cooked cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
-1 tomato, chopped
-1 (5-ounce) can tuna packed in water, drained
-1/4 cup chopped red onion or spring onion
-8 cubes feta cheese
-oil and vinegar dressing
Steps:
1-Mix everything together and place in a salad bowl for serving.
Source: Ruth Paget – California 2023
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Tuna Starter Salad Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 4
Ingredients:
-1 romaine lettuce head cut into ½-inch strips
-2 tomatoes, chopped
-1 (5-ounce) can tuna packed in water, drained
-1/4 cup chopped red onion or green onion
-1/2 cup feta cheese cubes
-8 pitted black olives (optional)
-oil and vinegar dressing
Steps:
1-Place romaine lettuce strips on a round serving dish.
2-Mix tomatoes, tuna, onions, and cheese cubes together. Place mixture on top of the romaine leaves.
3-Decorate salad with olives, if using.
4-Serve with dressing on the side.
Source: Ruth Paget – California 2023
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Potato Soup Recipe by Ruth Paget
Serves 4
Ingredients:
For Mirepoix:
-5 baby carrots, minced
-3 celery sticks, minced
-1 large onion, minced
-2 russet potatoes, cubed
-32 ounces chicken stock
-4 cups water
-2 tablespoons dry basil
Steps:
1-Sauté carrots, celery, and onion in a pot for 5 minutes.
2-Add potatoes, chicken stock, water, and dry basil to the mirepoix.
3-Bring soup to a boil and let boil for 30 minutes.
4-Remove pot from heat. Purée soup with an immersion blender.
Taste soup before adding salt. Celery has some natural salt.
Source: Ruth Paget – California
By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Dijon: The Mustard Society Game by Ruth Paget
Number of Players:
Unlimited as long as the mustard lasts
Materials Needed: All the materials you need for this game can be ordered from the Mustard Museum in Wisconsin (mustardmuseum.com).
-3 different kinds of mustard
-pretzel sticks Game
Preparation:
-On a sheet of paper, note the name of the three different mustards with a line after it where players will note a number of a matching mystery mustard. Make copies of this game sheet for the number of guests coming to your game
-Put out a dish with many pretzels so people dip once to avoid double dipping and germ spreading -cover the jars with paper so you cannot see the labels. Number them 1 – 3.
Game Play:
-Each guest will use one pretzel stick per mustard jar to scoop out a taste. -Guests will discuss mustards and note on their game sheet what mustard they think the mystery mustards are.
-Take the white paper of each jar to reveal the mystery mustard.
Everyone is a winner if you set all the mustards out to go with brats, hot dogs, or kielbasa and potato salad, coleslaw, and chips.
People who got everything right can take a jar of mustard home, if there is any left.
Mustards you can order from the Mustard Museum in Wisconsin include:
-Colman’s Original English
-Bornier Original Dijon
-De Echte Zaanse Mustard
-Löwensenf Bavarian
-Lakeshore Wholegrain with Irish Whiskey
-Bacik Spicy Horseradish and Honey
-Amora
-Clovis Herbes de Provence
-Edmond Fallon Honey
-Delicious Gourmet Big Easy Cajun
-Pommery Moutarde de Meaux
-Inglehoffer Sriracha
-Kocsiusko Spicy Brown Mustard
-Australian Outback Mustard
-Baumgarten Horseradish Mustard
-Löwensenf Extra Hot
-Sierra Nevada Stout and Stone Ground
The Mustard Museum has an online catalog that you can request to make unique parties with society games.
Happy Gaming!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Arkansas Appetizer Lunch by Ruth Paget
The heat and humidity in places like Arkansas where it is already in the 80s at 7 am make cooks rise early to get baking and cooking done for light lunches on screened-in porches to keep mosquitoes out and lunches untouched by flies. Pitchers of icy sun tea to drink keep you from dehydration.
Main dishes in Arkansas mostly feature rice, duck, and chicken according to Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley, the editors of Best of the Best from Arkansas Cookbook. Rice is the major cash crop of this state that lies along the Mississippi River.
There are recipes for many chicken dishes and casseroles in this cookbook, but I love mixing appetizers and muffins to make light lunches. (This is a habit I learned from eating appetizer platters at Middle Eastern restaurants as a child in Detroit, Michigan.)
I thought the following the following recipes make a very healthy appetizer table with items that you can prepare ahead of time:
-dilly garden dip made with blended cottage cheese, lemon juice, carrots, green onions, parsley, and dill
-cheese and bacon spread made with cheddar cheese, cooked bacon, green onions, almonds, and mayonnaise
-homemade Boursin made with blended butter, cream cheese, garlic, basil, chives, dill, marjoram, thyme, and pepper. Very easy to make if you have an herb garden
-Monterey cubes – baked eggs, Monterey Jack cheese, flour, cottage cheese, and mild green chilies that are cut into cubes after bakin
-spinach cheese squares – baked onion, cheese, spinach, eggs, flour, and milk that is cut into squares into squares after baking
-marinated whole mushrooms
-crabmeat mold – a refrigerated gelatin spread made with crabmeat, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, onion, and celery
-Mexican corn bread made with green chilies, corn meal, creamed corn, skim milk, cheddar cheese, and egg whites
-peach muffins – made with peaches and almonds -blueberry oatmeal muffins
-applesauce muffins
-apple muffins made with raw apples
-black cherry almond coffee cake -sour cream coffee cake – I lived on this in high school
-spicy pineapple zucchini bread made with walnuts, raisins, cinnamon, and nutmeg
-turkey cranberry sandwiches - taste great with sun tea
-watermelon rind preserves – a delicious no-food-waste item
Cooks interested in using garden fresh ingredients and orchard fresh fruit will find many useful recipes in Best of the Best from Arkansas Cookbook edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Florida’s Tropical French Food by Ruth Paget
Florida’s tropical French food comes in two forms either as Creole or Cajun dishes as part of cultural influence from New Orleans or as French food that uses seafood and fish in place of beef and chicken in dishes. Sauces are often piquant with the addition of Vitamin C rich tropical fruits to go with grilled or seared fish and seafood.
The 400 recipes from The Special Taste of Florida by G. Dean Foster come from elite resorts and restaurants and record the food of Floridians, who love glamorous well-coiffed hairdos, tailored linen suits, deluxe Italian cars, and Fort Knox condominiums. People who liked watching the television series Miami Vice will find much to love in this cookbook.
The following recipes from The Special Taste of Florida illustrate the French connection with the state:
-rouille sauce used in bouillabaisse made with egg yolks, garlic, roasted red pepper, lemon juice, Tabasco sauce, and bread crumbs. Mixed in a blender and stirred into the famous Marseilles soup transplanted to the Americas
-country ham tapenade spread for roasted or grilled vegetables. This traditional black olive spread has chopped Virginia ham or prosciutto added to it for a flavor and big protein boost for the tropics
-roasted red pepper coulis for grilled fish like swordfish made with roasted and peeled red peppers, olive oil, and white wine
-Kiss Yo Mama Soup made with corn, poblano chiles, onion, butter, sour cream, goat cheese, Louisian crawfish tails, and chives. Moms who make this are loved for peeling crawfish tails and chopping them up.
-shrimp and crab phyllo pies with béchamel sauce
-pistachio crusted tuna with tropical fruit beurre blanc. The tropical fruit beurre blanc is made with mango, kiwi fruit, pineapple, key lime juice, shallots, white wine, and butter.
-Florida pompano with orange mango beurre blanc. The orange mango beurre blance is made with shallots, white wine, fish stock, orange juice, and mango purée
-broiled snapper with mango melon sauce – the sauce is made with cantaloupe, mangoes, chile peppers, onions, brown sugar, butter, orange juice concentrate, and heavy cream
-shrimp and salmon cakes made with fruit salsa. The fruit salsa has mango, papaya, rice vinegar, honey, and lemon
-grilled grouper with mango beurre blanc. The mango beurre blanc is made with mangoes, Chablis, cream, shallots, and butter.
-pork Boursin with Boursin sauce made with heavy cream, bouillon, roux, and Boursin cheese -caramelized pineapple soufflé
-seared sea scallops with citrus vinaigrette. The citrus vinaigrette is made with walnut oil, orange juice and zest, lime juice, lemon juice, and grapefruit juice.
Chefs interested in being part of Florida’s tropical French food culture will enjoy making the recipes in The Special Taste of Florida by G. Dean Foster.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Missouri’s Crossroads Cuisine by Ruth Paget
Missouri’s position in the center of the United States next to the Mississippi River has made it a crossroads of commerce and exploration of the American West, commemorated by the towering Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
The Pony Express was started in Missouri and connected the state via pony relays with the Pacific. Cosmopolitan traders worked in St. Louis and their cuisine seems to influence Missouri to this day with many very good dishes to prepare ahead and serve immediately to satisfy hunger with the exception of meat dishes that take a little longer to cook.
The following recipes in Best of the Best from Missouri edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley might interest readers who would like to prepare some deli and bakery items at home in addition to main dishes:
-saganaki – Greek Kasseri or Kefalotiti cheese ignited with brandy and doused with lemon juice when the flames die make this a sour and savory appetizer. I ate saganaki all the time as teen in Detroit, Michigan’s Greektown. It was a popular appetizer and blackened the ceilings over customers’ tables. Everyone in the restaurant yelled, “Opa!” when the saganaki came out.
-Missouri pâté – made with butter, mushrooms, shallots, bourbon, liverwurst, cream cheese, and dill -smoked fish pâté – made with salmon or trout, scallions, cream cheese, and mayonnaise
-Armenian white bread
-Jewish challah bread – egg bread made with poppy seeds -pimiento cheese bread
-wild rice soup made with milk and cheddar cheese
-Clamato aspic salad – lemon jello made with oyster and tomato flavored Clamato juice, chopped artichoke hearts, green pepper, and avocado
-pasta with vodka sauce and sun-dried tomatoes -rice and noodle casserole made with chestnuts and mushrooms
-horseradish mousse made with cottage cheese and onion
-Clinton County pork chops with sour cream sauce
-pork medallions with mustard cream sauce – I ate these in Germany to win instant acceptance at weinstubs like Trollinger in Stuttgart, Germany
-mustard mousse made with heavy cream – very welcome on dish on hot summer days Travelers might also like to sample the multicultural fare described in Best of the Best from Missouri edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
