About Peg

I love cooking...basic southern style to sophisticated and modern cuisine, especially when my daughters and son in law are in the kitchen with me. Then it becomes a bit more festive! Traveling is something that I am passionate about. I achieved one of my loftiest goals a couple of years ago when we were in Vietnam. I spent days just photographing people. It was a blast; and the book i made brings me delight daily. Cheers!

Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Peg

Goodness Gracious, as my maternal grandmother, “Mama” used to say! I literally have neva in my life seen anything like this place. Istanbul was the first stop on this magical mystery tour with my fab fam of five (six counting Liam, but he was with his amazing MA grands)! Second day in, we ventured into this place. Grand Bazaar. I’m sorry…3 THOUSAND shops in one market. Stop it! Met a fine merchant five minutes into the place. Offered us tea. TD was skeptical, but the rest of us accepted. Marvelous. Ventured back to Spice Market the next day to secure this jewel for stocking stuffers…oops, just blew that surprise; they’ll be more than happy anyway! And this was just 2 hours of a 12 day adventure. More to come. Recipes for the holidays in the next couple of days, I promise. Remember the collards! Make ahead and freeze. Just thaw and consider it “done”…i can’t stand that word! Off to Boston for the Pink concert. Have a happy weekend.

Fall Back?

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Peg

Here’s hoping that your Thanksgiving will be glorious all of you dear ‘Mericans, (as Liam says); and to all of you other wonderful folks, I hope you relax and are thankful as well! I received an email this week reminding me to “fall back”; Ponder I did, as we’ve already tricked the clock once this autumn. Turns out, her message was “set your SCALES back”! (thanks Jef!) So set ’em back, dig in, and gobble up this weekend; there’s always the option to counteract the indulgence afterwards, ’cause you know what’s around the corner…I mean, I’ve already seen Mommy kissing Santa Claus!

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Peg

Toss out Pretension! This is just as down to earth as it gets. I’m prepping for winter, and there’s nothing more comforting to me on a frigid day than an old fashioned pot pie. These freeze beautifully, two per quart sized freezer Ziploc. If you freeze these little jewels, thaw and make certain the ramekins are room temp prior to placing in oven…Right, you know what happens if you don’t! **Dig this**…Works GRAND with left over turkey. Gobble Gobble Baby!

1/2 package Fillo Dough, thawed
1/2 stick butter, melted (for Fillo)

1/2 stick butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup flour
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups whole milk
Breast meat from 1 rotisserie chicken, cut into chunks
2 cups frozen peas and carrots, thawed
1 t fresh rosemary, minced
1/8 t garlic powder
1/8 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Preheat oven to 350°.
Melt stick butter in pan over medium heat.
Add onion and cook 5 minutes, until soft and translucent.
Whisk in flour, and cook 2 minutes.
Add broth and whisk until smooth.
Add milk.
Bring to rapid simmer.
Cook 5 minutes, whisking often.
Stir in chicken, peas and carrots, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Divide mixture among 6 8-oz ramekins.
Place ramekins on baking sheet.

Separate Fillo sheets into 2 piles.
Brush melted butter across alternating sheets of Fillo.
Cut into small squares that will rest on top of ramekin, but not cover it.
Cook 20 minutes, until heated through and crust is lightly browned.

Look at that little garden pea peeking out!

Atlanta

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Peg

Well just pack my suitcase, again! Lucky me…the don took me along to Atlanta this past weekend with a few members from his office staff. In hind-site I believe my purpose there was to provide the comic relief following their long days at the dental conference. Doesn’t bother me. I delivered the comedy AND roamed around Atlanta! Atlanta ~ Fabulous and Southern are only two of the two thousand adjectives that one could use to describe this charming (oops, another one!) city. Tall buildings, hotels galore, traffic … and it still feels warm and friendly (two more!). Did I mention the gorgeous homes along the tree-lined residential streets that seem to have sprung naturally from the land? No noise or heavy traffic there! You can’t even believe that just around the corner is the hustle and bustle of commercial and business life. And the entire time as I ambled through and around Lenox I kept thinking of my friend Frances Schultz’s swellegant book Atlanta at Table. It’s not a stretch to imagine her inspiration to pen this one! Style and Southern Know How leap off the pages; and the recipes are all top notch, from Gingered Asparagus, to Grilled Pork Tenderloin, to Brandied Crème Anglaise. Atlanta was Frances‘ home when the book was published in 1996; trust me, both the book and Frances have retained their beauty, exquisite taste, and relevance. Hurry to this link and snag a copy. It will become your manual for entertaining with flair and confidence. Ready.Set.Go!

Curried Shrimp

Posted on November 14, 2013 by Peg

Yesiree, we just returned from Istanbul “not Constantinople”. (More on the trip coming soon; this is just to whet that appetite!) The Spice Market was spectacular. It was extremely difficult not to just pack up an entire kiosk and run away with everything. The curries were particularly beautiful…proof is in the pics! Consumed quite a bit of that Asian influence spice while we were there, and talked the chef at Tugra Palace into sharing this one with me, best I could understand his heavily accented English that is. But hey, I don’t speak ANY Turkish!

1 lb cleaned shrimp
3 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/4 t salt
Dash paprika
Dash cayenne pepper
1 Tbs curry powder
3 t ketchup
1/4 cup sherry

In a large skillet make a sauce over low heat whisking together the butter, flour and milk for approximately 3 minutes.

Stir in salt, paprika, pepper, and curry and continue to cook, stirring constantly until mixture is thick and smooth.
Add ketchup, sherry and shrimp.
Turn heat to medium and continue to cook with lid on until shrimp is cooked, approximately 4 to 5 minutes, turning often.

To serve:
Place a mound of rice on each of 4 plates.
Spoon shrimp and sauce on top of rice.
Garnish with parsley.

S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y!

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Peg

It is S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y…Get your monkey mode on! I did recently. My family of five (including moi!) just returned stateside from a two week “monkeying around” holiday through Istanbul, Dubai, and Santorini. Here’s proof! I know. This is a gorilla, perhaps King Kong; but you appreciate the expression, right! More on this trip in the weeks to come, including very fab recipes and photos of divine food! Can’t wait to share. p to the s…did i mention that this was snapped at 5:30am waiting for transport to Dubai airport? too peppy?

Mmmm Rum Cake

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Peg

Well, “Bless Pat”, as the old time Southerners used to say! Webb Simpson won a big one a couple of weeks back. So this is in honor of Webb’s triumph at TPC Summerlin (Shriners Hospital for Children Open) in Las Vegas, and his dear grandmother Nell, who has made these rum cakes renown, by baking them weekly (by the dozens it seems) to share with friends for as long as this here gal can remember. Yep that was one run on sentence, now wasn’t it! Go Webb! Go Nell! PS. As Nell’s recipe is a family held secret, this is my attempt at imitation!

Cake:
4 whole eggs
1/2 cup Bacardi gold rum
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup canola oil
1 (18.25oz) box Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe yellow cake mix
1 (1 oz) box Jell-O sugar-free instant vanilla pudding mix

Preheat oven to 350°.
Grease Bundt pan with cooking spray.
Pour all ingredients into bowl of mixer.
Mix gently 2 minutes to 2 1/2 minutes until smooth.
Pour batter into prepared 10” Bundt pan, or 2 small 7” Bundt pans.
Bake 50 to 60 minutes for large size pan, and 30 to 35 for smaller sizes, until cooked throughout.
(Insert a knife into center of cake to test readiness.
If it comes out clean, cake is cooked.)
Allow cake to cool completely in pan.
When cooled, remove from pan.

Glaze:
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup water
Place all ingredients in small saucepan.
Bring to a boil.
Boil 3 minutes.
When cake is cool, gently prick holes into the cake (while still in pan) with a knife.
Slowly pour half of the glaze over the cake, making sure to fill in all the holes.
Once the cake has soaked up the glaze, turn cake over, removing pan, and place on serving platter.
Gently prick more holes on this side and slowly pour other half of glaze over cake.

*Author’s Note: For chocolate rum cake substitute 1 pkg chocolate cake mix and 3 1/4 oz pkg chocolate pudding mix for the yellow cake mix and vanilla pudding above.

Big Ice!

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Peg

So The Don enjoys a nice bourbon, and while he drinks it “neat” quite often, occasionally he prefers a chilled sip. And when you pour that nice Blantons over the normal size ice cubes, you have yourself a quick melt and just as quickly, a watered down mess. Kinda makes TD an unhappy camper. So I snagged this over-sized ice tray and guess what? Mission Accomplished. You use one cube, that’s it AND It takes hours for it to melt. Savoring the flavor here in ENC!

Umm Hmm. Tasty Sipping!

BOO!

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Peg

Duck for cover! No more “Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my” . . . this is more like Ghosts, and goblins, and ghouls, oh my! I mean, seriously these creatures, plus a few more are front and center in the historical Georgetown neighborhood of DC. Honestly they take preparing for Halloween to a whole new level kiddos! TD and I did a little lolly gagging waiting for a flight recently and captured these creations!

My Bro, Will

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Peg

Uh Huh … I am SOOOOO proud! My brother Will is always AMAZING and this week he added another medal to his lapel. He climbed the CN Tower, the damn tallest tower and longest flight of stairs IN THE WORLD. Yep … you read it properly … IN THE WORLD. He is currently my number one hero! Upon completion his email was titled “Mission Impossible Completed”. The concrete staircase is composed of 1776 steps, and then you get to venture on to an observation deck and catch your breath! Well Yes Maaml He Earned It! P to the S … He is currently consulting with yet another pharmaceutical manufacturing company, hence his time in Toronto!

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