Honey-Mustard Dipping Sauce for Shrimp Cocktail

By Paul Briand

I've been assigned an appetizer for our Christmas Day dinner and am bringing the shrimp cocktail.

But instead of the usual cocktail sauce, which I'll also bring, I wanted to offer an alternative dipping sauce.

Here's one I found at Cooks.com:

The yield for this recipe is about a half cup of dipping sauce, which is probably enough for a dozen shrimp. So make adjustments as necessary depending on how many shrimp you intend to serve.

Ingredients
2 teaspoons chopped scallions
2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey

Directions
1. In a small saucepan over medium heat combine the ingredients and heat through, stirring with a fork until warm;
2. Transfer to a small serving bowl.

Sloppy Joes

By Paul Briand

Every family should have a Sloppy Joe recipe on hand, and we as a society can do oh so much better than the canned stuff we find on the store shelf.

I like this recipe because it takes all of 15 minutes and can feed a small horde.

It comes courtesy of the Food Network.

A couple of points: This recipe seeks to be more healthful by calling for low-salt or no-salt ingredients, and there are comments attached to the online recipe that the lack of salt failed to bring out some of the flavor. So, the saltiness aspect is a jump ball -- trade a healthier recipe for something that might not be as dynamic for the taste buds.

And be advised on the jalapenos -- their heat is not to everyone's taste. Lastly, I had some leftover corn and threw it into the mix. It's not in the original recipe but I liked the little sparkle of color.

Ingredients
1 pound extra-lean ground beef
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 red pepper, diced
1 can small red beans or pinto beans, preferably low sodium drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups no-salt-added tomato sauce
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon mustard powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
8 whole-wheat burger buns

Directions
1. Brown the meat and the onion in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat for 5 minutes, breaking up the meat into crumbles as it cooks;
2. Pour the drippings out of the pan and discard;
3. Add the garlic, jalapeno, and red pepper and cook 5 minutes more, stirring occasionally;
4. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes more;
5. Place a half-cup scoop of the mixture onto each bun and serve.

Bourbon-Glazed Salmon

By Paul Briand

I like bourbon. My wife Jane likes salmon. Marry the two and you've got a great-tasting, easy-to-make meal.

The recipe is basically for a marinade that ultimately becomes the glaze for the salmon.

I came upon the recipe in a round-about way. It originated from Cooking Light magazine and was posted on MyRecipes.com. I saw a reference to it on one of the Twitter postings for someone I follow as part of my Baby Boomer writing for Examiner.com. Yes, it's a tangled web we weave, so to speak.

For the record, I used Jack Daniels, which is technically a whiskey, not a bourbon. But the effect is the same. Once the bourbon cooks down in the marinade/glaze you're left with a sweetness that's enhanced by the brown sugar.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons bourbon
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 (6-ounce) skinless salmon fillets
Cooking spray
1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted

Directions
1. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag;
2. Add fish to bag, seal, and marinate in refrigerator 1 1/2 hours, turning occasionally;
3. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat and coat pan with cooking spray;
4. Add fish and marinade to pan; cook fish 4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness;
5. Place 1 fillet on each of 4 plates and drizzle each serving with about 2 teaspoons sauce;
6. Sprinkle each serving with 1 tablespoon green onions and 3/4 teaspoon sesame seeds.

Turkey Tetrazzini

By Paul Briand

If you have turkey still leftover in the freezer from Thanksgiving. And if you want another take on a turkey tetrazini recipe for those leftovers, here's the one that's been in our family forever.

Come to think of it, I think the Pilgrims themselves used this recipe after their feast with Massasoit.

My take on this recipe includes more cheese than originally called for, I use half and half instead of cream, plus I use large shells instead of spaghetti.

This recipe, by the way, works equally as well with chicken and you don't need leftovers from Thanksgiving to pull it off. Most markets that offer roasted chickens these days also offer roasted turkey breasts, which provides plenty of meat for the recipe.

Ingredients
2 cups of turkey
1/2 pound of mushrooms
1 cup chicken broth
Flour
1 cup cream (substitute half and half)
Butter
Sherry (to taste)
Black pepper
16 ounces of cooked think spaghetti (substitute shells or your favorite paste)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (substitute 2 cups, add some different cheese to the mix)

Directions
1. In a large skillet over medium high heat melt a half stick of butter and sautee mushrooms;
2. As they start to shrink add flour to make a rue;
3. Add the broth, cream and sherry, stirring until the sauce thickens;
4. (At this point, I diverge from my family recipe and also add a cup of cheese);
5. Add some black pepper;
6. Stir in the turkey and heat through;
7. In a bowl, combine the turkey mixture with the the cooked pasta;
8. Pour the mixture into a baking dish;
9. Top with rest of cheese (You could also add a sprinkling of bread crumbs here, too, as an option);
10. Bake in oven preheated to 350 degrees covered for 15 minutes until the cheese melts and the top starts to brown;
11. Serve with cranberry sauce.

Taco Lasagna

By Paul Briand

Here's a simple fusion recipe for you: The taste of tacos fused with the heartiness of lasagna.

Getting this lasagna onto the table first requires the assembling of a variety of ingredients from the market and deciding what garnishes you want to add to the dish.

Ingredients
1 pound of ground beef
1 package of taco seasoning mix
1 bottle of beer (or a cup of water)
4 soft tortillas that fit into a 9-inch pie plate
Fresh mozzarella cheese, about 8 ounces
1 package of shredded cheddar cheese
Salsa

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees;
2. In a skillet heated to medium high cook the ground beef, add taco seasoning mix and beer (or water) and continue to stir until the mixture starts to bind up. Remove from heat and set aside;
3. Place a tortilla into ungreased glass or metal pie plate;
4. Layer in one third of the meat mixture, strips of mozzarella cheese, and a third of the cheddar;
5. Add another tortilla and another layer of meat, mozzarella and cheddar;
6. Add third tortilla and another layer of meat and cheese;
7. Top with last tortilla;
8. Bake for about 15 minutes;
9. Remove and top with your favorite garnishes.

The lasagna yields six pie-like slices. My choice of garnishes included guacamole, salsa, and jalapeno peppers. Other choices could include black olives, more cheddar cheese, sour cream, and nacho cheese sauce.

Tourtiere

By Paul Briand

Growing up, my Mom frequently exposed our family to some of the food from the Eastern Europe branches of her family tree, especially around Easter, when she would make paska, a traditional Polish egg bread.

But we never explored the culinary side of my Dad's French-Canadian upbringing. So I was pleased to find in a recent issue of the American Automobile Association magazine a recipe for Tourtiere, a traditional French-Canadian meat pie dish normally served around the holidays.

There are any number of varieties of a Toutiere. Though considered a meat pie, you can play with combinations of ground beef, pork, turkey, chicken or veal. You can add some chopped up vegetables. I used ground beef and veal, and chopped onions and mushrooms.

It's not a complicated dish, by any means, but what sets it aside is a blend of spices -- particularly cloves -- that you might otherwise associate with mulling cider or wine. I'll play with this recipe in the future. I'd like it to stand up better once I cut into it, which means I need something to hold the ingredients together as they bake in the pie crust.

Ingredients
1 pound of ground beef
1 pound of ground veal
1 onion, diced
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground sage
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
Pastry for double-crust 9-inch pie
A little milk

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees;
2. Add the beef and veal to a large skillet over medium high heat;
3. Add the onion, mushrooms, garlic, chicken stock and spices and bring to boil;
4. Simmer on low, uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally;
5. Drain off excess fat;
6. Line a pie pan with half of the pastry and spoon the meat filling into the shell;
7. Top with the remaining pastry, crimping the edges together;
8. Cut slits in the top crust and brush with a little milk;
9. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until the crust is brown;
10. If crust browns too quickly, reduce heat to 350 degrees or cover crust edges with foil;
11. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Roasted Pork Loin with Apples and Cinnamon

By Paul Briand

This recipe came from a visit my wife Jane made to New York state for a girls' weekend with her three daughters. One of the daughters, Reilly, is a student at Ithaca College, so Jane, daughter Kelsey and daughter Eileen made arrangements to travel to Ithaca for a weekend of touring wineries and sightseeing and visiting.

Jane picked up a little brochure with information about apples, in particular apples native to New York state, such as the Empire and Cortland.

The brochure contained information about various apples and various recipes that use apples, including one for Roasted Pork Loin with Apples and Cinnamon.

I made the recipe recently for a big family Sunday dinner and it was a big hit with only a moderate amount of preparation involved.

The idea here is to create a rub for the pork using olive oil, pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Also, the recipe called for two apples, I used three. And, since we couldn't find a 2-pound pork loin, we bought two loins of about a pound each.

Ingredients
2 pounds boneless pork loin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground ginger, divided
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, divided
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3 Cortland apples, cored, peeled and sliced into wedges

Directions
1. Rub pork loins with a mixture of the olive oil, pepper and a 1/2 teaspoon each of the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon;
2. Roast pork in a shallow pan in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes to an hour, until the interior of the meat reads at least 155 degrees;
3. While the pork is roasting, mix together in a small bowl the rest of the ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon along with the wine, honey and lemon juice;
4. Place mixture in a medium sauce pan and add apples, then simmer until the apples break down into the sauce;
5. When the pork is done, let sit for 10 minutes before slicing and add pork roast juices to the mixture in the sauce pan;
6. Serve sliced pork topped with the apple sauce.