Breakfast with the "Cooking Club"

One of our regular members was unable to participate in our "cooking club" last week, so there were just three of us to enjoy a wonderful breakfast prepared by Jen.  She brought a perfectly ripe pear, and I had a carton of peach yogurt, so as a starter we had the yogurt topped with slices of pear and frozen blueberries with orange juice on the side.  Yum!

The bacon and perfectly scrambled eggs were delicious.  Jen is known for her perfectly scrambled eggs. We chose to forego bread of any kind. Fresh basil from my garden provided a flavorful garnish for the eggs.

I sent Assunta and Jen each home with a beautiful bouquet of hydrangeas from my garden. 

For our next get-together in August, it will be my turn to cook, and it has been decided that we will have a vegetarian lunch (or maybe vegan).  I have to do my research and decide on a menu.

Spaghetti Squash with Shrimp and Tomato Sauce

For our Cooking Club in April, Assunta prepared a dish that I absolutely love, spaghetti squash with a shrimp and tomato sauce.  I think this is a recipe that she developed.  She arrived with all of the ingredients: olive oil,  a spaghetti squash, one onion, fresh garlic, fresh Roma tomatoes, about 2 lbs of shrimp, feta cheese, fresh parsley, and fresh thyme.

The ingredients. 

I had set the table.

The table is ready. 

She cut the squash in half and cooked it in the microwave until it was soft. Maybe 20 minutes.

Cut squash in half. 

Cook in the microwave until soft. 

The onion was diced and sauteed in olive oil, the tomatoes were cut into chunks and added to the tomatoes and cooked until they were softened and three or four cloves of garlic were sliced and added.  Lastly, the shrimp were added and cooked until they just turned pink.

Tomato sauce. 

Add shrimp to sauce. 

Cook just until shrimp turn pink.  

The "spaghetti" was scraped out of the cooked squash with a fork.

Just before the sauce was served, feta cheese, parsley, and tyme were stirred in.

The four of us, Assunta, Boguska, Jeanette and I, enjoyed our delicious lunch. Boguska doesn't eat shrimp so some of the tomato sauce and feta were left on the side for her. 

Ready to serve. 

Ready to eat. 

A New Twist to Chicken Salad

I poached 4 chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on) until the internal temperature on an instant thermometer registered 165 F.  I removed the skin and bone and sliced the chicken.  Trying to use some ingredients I had on hand, I toasted about a cup of walnuts and sliced 1/2 cup of dried plums (also known as prunes) and added these to the chicken.

Toasting the walnuts. 

The plums. 

The sliced chicken. 

Chicken with walnuts and dried plums. 

For the dressing, I used about 1/2 cup of sour cream, about 3 tablespoons of Duke's mayonnaise, several grinds of fresh pepper, 2 tablespoons of curry powder, and to thin the dressing I added a splash of balsamic vinegar.  After tasting I added a bit more curry powder.  As you can see, I really don't have a strict recipe for this because I didn't really measure most of the things but just added until I had the taste I wanted and the consistency I wanted. 

Adding more curry powder to the dressing. 

Served on a bed of lettuce from my garden. 

I've been following Chef Mohr's Cooking Classes online, and I am becoming more willing to experiment and in some cases not follow a recipe but use what I have and develop my own recipe for a dish.  I'm having fun!