Sunday, December 10, 2006

Surprise in the backyard...

12 new recipes for this week - our favorites had to be the Vermont Apple Cider Donuts with Maple Glaze, Brown Beer Rye Bread, and Turkey Soup With Cheddar Dumplings. I'm not sure how many new recipes we will be making in the coming days, as most of my time will be making Christmas goodies, but I do plan on getting as many as I have already picked out made!

When we got home from grocery shopping this morning, can you believe we spotted this in the backyard?!

If you click on the picture to enlarge it and look down by the feet on the right side, you can even see the head of the snake that the hawk/owl (Jeff thought it was an owl, but we've had a couple comments that it is probably a hawk! Thanks for the info!) decided would be a nice snack today! Wow!

I mentioned earlier in the week that we had a potato side dish to the flank steak recipe we made - Costco had a great deal on fingerling potatoes and I wanted to make a dent in the giant package. The recipe, Fingerling Potato and Prosciutto Salad, has few ingredients, but had both of us wanting more when we finished our portions. The skinny potatoes are halved and boiled just until tender - when they are done, they are splashed with a shot of vinegar and placed in the fridge while you make the dressing. Shallots, parsley, crème fraîche and sage are mixed together with diced prosciutto to form a thin coating on the potatoes. A bit of sourness from the crème fraîche with the generous portion of salty prosciutto brought these firm potatoes over the edge in flavor. I will have to mark this one to have again during the spring and summer seasons for a light and refreshing side dish.

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5 comments:

  1. Donna12/10/2006 11:24:00 PM

    Joe,

    That's not an owl. Take a look for peregrine falcon pictures on Google. Apparently your area of the country is lousy with them. This one looks young, but I'm not a bird person, so take that worth a grain of salt. There are apparently several other types of falcons and hawks in your general area.

    Donna

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  2. PatL12/11/2006 11:06:00 PM

    Hi, Joe,

    It's definitely a hawk, possible a red tailed hawk, not sure. Take a look at this picture. Very nice shot! What a treat, to see such a fierce bird up close like that.

    PatL

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  3. Anonymous12/12/2006 12:00:00 AM

    I also bought the bag of fingerling potatoes at Costco - I have roasted them, boiled them and smashed them. I'm down to the bottom of the bag, I might try your recipe next.

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  4. Cate12/12/2006 11:10:00 PM

    Got the fingerling bag from Costco as well ... thanks for the recipe.

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  5. Joe12/15/2006 08:59:00 PM

    Donna - Thanks! We did some more searching and found pictures too!

    Patl - Thanks for the link!

    Sara - We're down to the bottom too, not sure what to make next!

    Cate - What all have you done with them?

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