Baked Sweet Potato Roses with Fresh Thyme

If you’re run out of ideas for sweet potato appetizers/snacks/side dishes, these potato roses are a very pretty and easy to make. It takes only 25 minutes to cook it and just few ingredients.

Tuna & Potato Fishcakes

These fishcakes are delicious, no matter how many you are going to make they will disappear in front of your eyes. Usually I have a few photographs for a recipe, but today I have only two photos for you, you know why? I have started eating the cakes from my photo shoot-)) They are great for a party, your friends are going to love it. You can make the tuna cakes few hours before the meal, but before serving put them in the oven preheated to 375F for about 10-15 minutes. The fishcakes will be hot and crispy, and ready to be eaten-)) Serve them with tartar sauce or Country Rémoulade sauce.

Country Chicken with Garlic Sauce

Here, chicken thighs and drumsticks are slowly cooked in a flavorful garlic sauce with a white wine, thyme and spices to create a comforting meal. To make a one-dish meal before putting the chicken in a oven add some mushrooms, potatoes or butternut squash. Delicious!!

Lamb Soup with Garbanzo Beans & Garlic

This Russian soup made with lamb, and it's substantial and warming - just perfect for taking the edge off a hearty appetite on a cold winter's day. Lamb and garbanzo beans go together so well, they seem to have been made for one another. Thick slices of warm rustic bread would make the perfect accompaniment.

Braised Artichokes with Onions & Bacon

Artichokes make a delicious addition to vegetable dinners and company lunches. Globe Artichokes - sometimes called the French Artichokes is in reality the bud of a thistle-like flower which is as decorative as the bud is palatable. A choice artichoke should have bright green leaves rather closely packed. Rusty spots or widely separated leaves indicate age or injury. The very small artichokes may be trimmed for artichoke hearts or used as small cups to hold hors d'oeuvres or hot food.

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque with Almonds

Roasted Butternut Squash Bisque with Almonds is a fragrant, creamy and delicately flavored soup. I hope you will enjoy this soup as well as we are.

Avocado-Egg Salad & Poached Salmon Sandwich

Succulent poached salmon and eggs combined with creamy avocado, sautéed onions and fresh basil makes a substantial sandwich. The ingredients all blend together perfectly to create a gourmet-tasting experience. This sandwich takes a little work to prepare, but is not short on taste. It can be served warm or chilled.

Flounder with Grapes, Raisins & Marsala Wine

The inspiration for this recipe came from South African cuisine, where they tent to marry fish with fruit a lot. The sweetness of the fruit is offset by sharpness of the balsamic vinegar. This is a really light, well-balanced dish, which tastes particularly fine when served with an arugula salad.

Pan-fried Lemon Bluefish with Caper-Tomato Salsa

Pan-fried Lemon Bluefish with Caper-Tomato Salsa & Thyme - a simple, yet colorful presented recipe with enough acidity of lemon juice and white wine, to cut the richness and enhance the flavor of the bluefish.

Radish Salad with Greens From Our Garden

This is the first year when I can proudly say I am a gardener. Everything you see on this plate comes from my backyard veggie garden. Sweet peas and beautiful radish are fully ripened. Carrots are still very small but there are plenty of herbs. There is no real recipe for this salad. It is just whatever you desire to put on a plate, sprinkle it with lemon juice, add oil and a pinch of salt. My lunch today was very simple and healthy at the same time. Today I did not feel like cooking anything complicated, it was “take it easy” day. I wish you to have an adventurous weekend - spend more time outside, go to a park, bike, garden. The summer is here and weather is beautiful!

BBQ Roast Chicken with Carrot Puree

Creamed carrot puree is scarcely an inspired choice for any meal, and the eternal combination of carrots and peas is, to my taste, better forgotten. Serve puree with butter or with herb butter. Parsley, chives, chervil, and oregano will enhance the flavor.

Osso Buco Lamb with Sun-dried Tomatoes

Perfect for a chilly spring night, this hearty dish is very delicious. The flavors are amazing. The lamb is fragrant with wine, rosemary, thyme and garlic, and falling-apart tender. My husband loved it and would be worthy of repeating.

Watermelon Salad with Radish and Sage

Watermelons in great variety are one of the most refreshing of fruits. Serve them well chilled, in combination with other fruits and vegetables, for example - radishes. And why not? Use other herbs if you like - fresh dill, cilantro. Everyone seems to have different tastes about the proper seasoning.

Shiitake Mushroom Quiche with Gluten-Free Crust

Shiitake Mushroom Quiche with Herbed Gluten-Free Crust recipe is ideal for brunches, lunches, light afternoon meals or picnics. Shiitake mushrooms give a special and wonderful flavor. The wine and sage are counterpointed by the earthy mushrooms in this preparation. This quiche is adequate for six people as a starter or for four as a luncheon main course. Best served with a salads like tomato, cucumber and radishes or steamed fresh asparagus.

Orange Herb Oven-Baked Rutabaga Fries

Oven-baked fries are always good, but potatoes are not in my diet now, so I’m trying to cut back a bit. However, these oven fries made with rutabaga are a surprisingly delicious and healthy alternative. Rutabaga is a root vegetable. It has got less than a third of carbs and half the calories as well as more vitamins and minerals comparing to your regular potatoes. Just look at them - can you find the difference with regular fries?

Chicken Aspic with Green Peas & Egg

Although a Chicken Aspic is nothing more then a jellied and glorified cooked chicken, it is an elegant dish, at home on the most sumptuous buffet. It pairs well with several dozen other cold offerings that come to mind, including salads of shrimp or crab or lobster in mayonnaise, tomato salads, cucumber salads. Or cold, sliced baked ham. Or Dill-Cured Salmon. And it is also the kind of dish that goes with fine dry wine, white or red. Not to mention brut champagne. This aspic is traditionally served with mustard or horseradish sauce.

Wild Mushroom Beef Stew

Here is a beef stew with the added complexity of wild mushrooms to give it some extra body and flavor. Neither the type of meat nor the choice of vegetables is vitally important, because this dish is very flexible. Add some celery if you like or potatoes, or other vegetables of your choice.

Beef and Vegetable Pie

Comforting and substantial main-course pies are always welcome. Winter chills are warded of with classic Beef and Vegetables Pie. At Christmas either Chicken and Red Currant Pie or Beef and Guinness Pie with Chanterelle Mushrooms would make a stunning centerpiece. Beneath a crust of crisp pastry, a tasty, rich stew of tender beef and soft vegetables is ideal antidote to winter colds.

French Pot Roast - Boeuf à la Mode

NUTMEG and MACE are Sister Spices.

Mace resembles nutmeg, but is more pungent. It is the traditional spice for pound cake, but is also enhances the taste of cherry pie, chocolate dishes, and whipped cream. It is very good, indeed, in seafood and fish sauces, or in chicken fricassees, or French pot roast. But since it is on the potent side start - as with all spices - with a pinch when experimenting, adding more if a fuller flavor is desired.

Hearty Beef Stew with Lingonberries

Stews are ideal foods for party service - informal parties, of course - because continued cooking doesn't seem to hurt them. Use any of the less tender cuts for stew, but you will find that if you use very fat, gristly cuts you may have a less pleasing result than if you use good cuts of less tender parts. Chuck, round, rump, and shin all are good stewing cuts, and one should remember not to have too much fat on the meat. Three pounds of beef will serve six people amply and should leave some for the next day.

About 40 minutes before the stew is ready for the table, the vegetables can be added and allowed to cook with the meat. Almost any combination of vegetables may be added. Small onions, celery, peas, green beans, lima beans, potatoes, salsify - practically any vegetable is good.

Many people like dumplings with stew. Some prefer boiled rice, other noodles. I hope you like my recipe for this holiday beef stew with lingonberries.

Bon Appétit!