Category Archives: Beverages

ASIAN BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND CARROT SLAW

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My Thanksgiving is going to be different this year.  My friend and I are hosting our 8th Thanksgiving Day Luncheon for our little community’s senior citizens (with half-hearted participation from our sons’ Boy Scout Troop) for the last time.  We’ve enjoyed it, but it’s time to pass the torch — hopefully someone will accept it and carry on this fine tradition.  Here’s a few photos from a prior luncheon:

My little family is scattered this year — there will just be three of us for dinner later in the day, and that’s OK.  I think we’re looking forward to a relaxed holiday meal, for once.  Although I’m not getting out my collection of turkeys and Thanksgiving decorations, I did make a turkey wreath for my front door:

I know your inboxes are overflowing with Thanksgiving recipes, so forgive me for adding yet  another nontraditional recipe to the noise.  But I love this recipe.  Its seasonal colors will add vibrancy to your Thanksgiving table, and it is deliciously different.  It would also be excellent to bring a some excitement to leftover turkey sandwiches.

 

Gorgeous, right?  Happy Thanksgiving!

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ASIAN BUTTERNUT SQUASH AND CARROT SLAW
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Ingredients
  • For dressing:
  • 1 cup water
  • ¼ cup champagne vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
  • ¼ cup Asian fish sauce
  • 1 small garlic clove, minced
  • 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

  • For slaw:
  • 4 cups julienned butternut squash
  • 2 cups julienned carrot
  • 1 small red jalapeno, very thinly sliced into rings
  • ¼ cup coarsely chopped cilantro, plus additional sprigs for garnish
  • ½ cup coarsely chopped glazed pecans, plus additional for garnish
Instructions
  1. To prepare dressing, place water, vinegar, brown sugar, and fish sauce in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in garlic, lime juice, and crushed red pepper. Set aside to cool until ready to use.
  2. Place squash, carrot, jalapeno, cilantro, and pecans in medium bowl and toss to combine . Just before serving, pour ½ cup dressing over slaw, and toss until combined. (Reserve additional dressing in covered container in refrigerator for another use.). Mound slaw on serving dish and garnish as desired with cilantro sprigs and whole pecans.

Knock knock

Who’s there?

Norma Lee

Norma Lee who?

Norma Lee I don’t eat this much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

FROZEN MARGARITAS

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It’ll be a long time, maybe never, before Texans forget this past week.  Snowmageddon,  Snovid-19, whatever you want to call it, it shut down the state and left millions in the icy darkness of an epic electric grid failure.

We woke up Monday morning to a winter wonderland of sorts, at least for Houston.

Overnight, snow had fallen — enough to blanket roads and landscapes:

Jasper and Maisy had the rare opportunity to be the first to step on fresh snow, and it was so fun watching them race around in it:

Over in San Antonio, Izze couldn’t get enough of the snow:

One unexpected sight was the scores of cedar waxwings huddling in the trees with their feathers puffed up to keep them warm:

After the novelty of snow in Houston quickly wore off, and Texas’s electric grid famously failed, the 42 hours we went without electricity in below-freezing weather kinda sucked.  We were fortunate — no busted pipes, and we have a gas stove and fireplace, so we were able to cook and huddle by the fireplace for some warmth.  But it was cold.  Really cold.

These “unprecedented” Houston weather events are getting old — the unprecedented heat and accompanying drought in 2011, the unprecedented rainfall (up to 51 inches) and catastrophic flooding of Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and this past week’s unprecedented snowstorms.  The next “unprecedented” weather event we see here better be springlike weather stretching from June 1 to September 30.

When it came to recipe inspiration, all I could think of were frozen things (brain freeze, perhaps?).  But they seemed so seasonally inappropriate.  But wait — today is National Margarita Day! And so, inspired by a miserable, surreal, freezing cold week, I bring you our favorite recipe for Frozen Margaritas, to enjoy whatever the weather.

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FROZEN MARGARITAS
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Ingredients
  • Kosher salt, for rimming glasses
  • Lime wedges for rimming glasses
  • 6-ounce can frozen limeade
  • 9 ounces tequila
  • 2 to 3 ounces triple sec
  • Juice of 1 small lime
  • Lime slices, for garnish
Instructions
  1. To rim glasses: Pour the salt onto a small dish. The salt pile should be about a quarter of an inch high and wider than the rim of the glass you're using. Run a lime wedge along the outer edge of the glass. Place a glass upside-down into the dish of salt, and then twist the glass gently to coat the entire rim. Turn glass upright and shake off any loose salt.
  2. Place limeade, tequila, triple sec, and juice of 1 small lime in a blender. Fill with ice and blend until smooth. Pour into the center of the prepared glasses, taking care to avoid splashing the salt rim. Garnish with a lime slice and serve.

Frozen!