Cheddar Bread Recipe by Ruth Paget

Cheddar Bread Recipe by Ruth Paget 

Makes 2 loaves 

Ingredients: 

-1 (0.75-ounce) package instant dry yeast 

-1/2 pound shredded, sharp cheddar cheese 

-1 (10.75-ounce) can Campbell’s tomato soup 

-1 (4-ounce) jar diced pimientos with juice 

-1 cup scalded milk 

-1/2 cup butter 

-6 to 7 cups flour 

Steps: 

1-Dissolve yeast in water according to package instructions. 

2-Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl to form a dough. 

3-Place dough in a warm spot and let rise to double its size. 

4-When the dough has risen, punch it down and knead by hand for 15 to 20 minutes. 

5-Let dough rise again in a warm spot.

6-When the dough has risen again, punch it down and knead by hand for 15 to 20 minutes. 

7-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 

8-Form two loaves. Spray Pam in two bread baking pans and bake loaves for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. 

Cheddar bread tastes great toasted with melted butter and a mug of strong black coffee with warmed milk to drink.

(A Rosevale Farm Recipe) 

Source: Winifred Sawle – Arena, Wisconsin 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Top 20 Antioxidant Foods posted by Ruth Paget

Top 20 Antioxidant Foods List

 Top 20 Antioxidant Foods

Reposted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Seafood Food Tourism in Salinas, California Posted by Ruth Paget

Nice round-up article about seafood food tourism in Salinas, California

 Press article about best seafood in Salinas, California 

Note: Most of these restaurants have parking.  

Salinas is also about 2 miles away from Monterey County’s fishing port at Moss Landing.

Posted by Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Vegetarian Singapore Rice Noodles at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Vegetarian Singapore Noodles at Dim Sum Inn in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I chose to order vegetarian Singapore rice noodles at Dim Sum Inn on North Main Street in Salinas, California to try a Hong Kong classic dish that probably refers to a light lunch you can eat in Singapore’s heat using exotic curry powder from India. (Singapore is not in China though most of its inhabitants have Chinese ancestry.) 

Singapore rice noodles usually come with meat or shrimp, but I chose a lacto-ovo vegetarian version that came with scrambled eggs stir-fried into the mix.

I consulted www.recipetineats.com for a Singapore rice noodles recipe. According to this site, to stir-fry Singapore rice noodles, you heat sesame and peanut oil and add fresh ginger, fresh garlic, green onions, hot red chiile peppers, curry powder, and white pepper to the hot oil. 

Once the oil is thoroughly impregnated with those flavors, you add bite-size pieces of the following vegetables:

-baby bok choy (similar to cabbage, but bulb shaped) 

-broccoli 

-celery 

-carrots 

-green peppers 

-green beans 

Once those vegetables are blazing hot you add in the eggs to stir-fry scramble them. The rice noodles come last to be stir-fried. Rice noodles just need to be hydrated in warm water and drained before adding them to the stir-fry. 

This fragrant dish arrived hot on a waiter robot for a Silicon Valley touch at the table. The robot is operated by a waiter, which liberates the waiter’s arms to safely bring additional dishes. 

The Singapore rice noodles are a lunch special at Dim Sum Inn, which come with egg flower soup or hot and sour soup. I drank a strongly perfumed jasmine tea with my meal for the perfect afternoon lunch. 

Dim Sum Inn serves dim sum tea lunch daily in addition to lunch specials except Tuesdays when the restaurant is closed. Dim Sum Inn is in a large shopping center opposite Northridge Mall with lots of parking. The restaurant also has a large banquet room and an equally large menu for planning banquets and dim lunches for private parties in a friendly atmosphere. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Beach Fare at Michael's Taqueriía in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Beach Fare at Michael’s Taquería in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

The La Playa Combo (Beach Combination) at Michael’s Taquería in downtown Salinas, California reminds you that Western America Salinas is only two miles away from the Pacific Ocean on the Monterey Peninsula. 

This generous combination platter has charbroiled shrimp (large enough to be considered gambas), blackened chicken, and a cheese enchilada covered in mild red chile sauce. The sides that come with this dish include refried black beans, Mexican rice, lime-chile sauce, fresh red salsa, and warm tortillas. 

I like to use the warm tortillas to make soft tacos. I make one taco with the charbroiled shrimp, Mexican rice, black beans, and lime-chile sauce. For the other tacos I make with the warm tortillas, I slice up the blackened chicken and add the chicken strips to the tortillas along with the Mexican rice, black beans, and fresh red salsa. 

After eating my little beach tacos, I feel like the cheese enchilada in mild red chile sauce is a dessert. I like the asadero melting cheese made from goat and cow’s milk, which comes from the northwestern Mexican state of Chihuahua. 

I drink Topo-Chico Mexican sparkling water with the La Playa Combo or Negro Modelo beer from Mexico and feel like I am on vacation in Mexico without leaving Salinas, California. 

Note: There is a parking garage by the Steinbeck Center on Main Street by Michael’s Taqueria.

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Blackened Shrimp Quesadilla at Michael's Taquería in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget

Blackened Shrimp Quesadilla at Michael’s Taquería in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

Shrimp taco lovers might enjoy the blackened shrimp quesadilla (pronounced “kay-sa-dee-ya”) combination plate at Michael’s Taquería in downtown Salinas, California. 

A quesadilla is a large flour tortilla that is grilled with fillings inside and turned in half to look like an Italian calzone. 

At Michael’s, they fill their quesadilla combination plate with blackened shrimp, sautéed mushroom slices, green onions cut on the diagonal, and melted asadero cheese. 

The quesadilla comes with a small helping of guacamole, pico de gallo salsa, and red salsa. Pico de gallo salsa is made with chopped peppers, chopped tomatoes, chopped onions, and chopped cilantrao. 

The sides that come with the blackened shrimp are refried black beans with softened asadero melting cheese on top and Mexican rice. 

Asadero is Mexican cheese made of goat and cow’s milk that mostly comes the Mexican state of Chihuahua in northwest Mexico. Mexican rice at its most basic is made from chicken broth and tomato juice, which gives it a beautiful orange-red glow. 

I like to eat Mexican rice with the refried beans that I mix with red salsa. I can use these two items mixed together as a dip for the tortilla chips that come with the meal. 

This delicious blackened shrimp quesadilla combination plate at Michael’s Taquería in downtown Salinas might appeal to shrimp and chicken taco lovers alike.

(Note: There is a parking garage by the Steinbeck Center on Main Street and street parking by Michael’s.) 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Seafood Noodle Phô at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California

Seafood Noodle Phô at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California by Ruth Paget 

I learned to love Vietnamese food when I lived and worked in downtown Chicago (Illinois) and ate at the Mekong House Restaurant after work. I had graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies from the University of Chicago and considered myself to be doing graduate work in Southeast Asian Studies when I ate at the Mekong House. 

I mostly ate deep-fried egg rolls that I wrapped in a fresh mint leaf and tied with a string of fresh carrot before dipping them in sweet-and-sour sauce. The lemongrass chicken stir-fry I ate and loved was a close cousin to the Chinese stir-fries I also loved. 

I did not venture into Vietnamese soups until I moved to Monterey County California and ate them at the Orient Restaurant in Seaside, California. 

I like how phô soup has three layers of food items surrounded by delicious broth: 

-half a bowl of rice noodles or glass noodles 

-half a bowl full of sliced beef, sliced chicken, or seafood 

-garnish toppings such as bean sprouts, fresh basil, lime wedges, and jalapeño slices 

I recently tried seafood noodle soup (phô) at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California and liked the large bowl of rice noodles and seafood ingredients that came with a container of broth that was large enough to fill the bowl twice. 

The flavorful broth tasted like a bone broth that had been boiled with shrimp shells and strained. The soup was full of curled shrimp, scored squid slices, fish dumplings, fish balls, and imitation crab made from fish. 

The soup came with packages of hoisin sauce for salt and sriracha for salt and spice. I like hot, spicy broth so I added sriracha to the soup. 

Flavor and quantity of food in the seafood noodle soup (phô) at Saigon Noodles in Salinas, California make this dish a great deal for an international lunch. 

By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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