Where East Meets West

Our recent San Antonio RV Park Spring Fling BBQ Potluck gave me a stockpile of wonderful recipes to try and test.  My personal favorite is perfect for RV living and traveling because it's so easy and the ingredients are always in my cupboards.  The Napa cabbage is the only ingredient I needed to buy.  Although I love soy sauce and make it a staple even in the RV, ya'll may need to think about getting some for this recipe because it's a must for the dressing but I think you could successfully substitute teryaki sauce if you have it by chance.  


Our thanks go out to Jeanette Z for this addition, Oriental Napa Cabbage Salad, to our potluck.  A true case of eastern cuisine meeting South Texas western BBQ fare.

Ingredients

   Salad:
2 pkg Ramen Noodles (reserve seasoning packet for future use)
1 c. sliced almonds (my preference) or slivered 
1 stick butter or margarine
1 head Napa cabbage
1 bunch green onions

   Dressing:
1/4 c vinegar
1/2 c sugar
3/4 c salad oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce

Directions

1.  Chop cabbage, not too fine but in easy bitesize pieces.  Chop onions.  Set aside
2.  Melt butter; add raw Ramen noodles and almonds, saute until light brown but watch closely as they tend to burn easily.
3.  Put dressing ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil and boil 1 minute only.

Store all three steps in separate containers till ready to serve them combine them.

Note:  Do not refrigerate the dressing as it will crystallize.

This was so crispy and delicious.  Jeanette didn't include this in her ingredients but I distinctly tasted dried cranberries and it was a perfect addition both for the color and the texture of the salad.  Needless to say there was very little left. 

Let us know how you like it and any variations you made.

Sweet But Healthy...Is it Really So?

Is it possible that one recipe can be a breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, snack, AND dessert food?  Just ask Luana who provided just such a dish for our Spring Fling BBQ Potluck.  It was the perfect accompaniment to the heavy brisket and beans main dish and the few leftovers were devoured by my teen daughter, who never eats breakfast, for breakfast.  What is this miracle dish?  Luana calls it Grape Salad, but we call it Sweet, Tart and Crunchy.

Here's Luana's version:

4 pounds of seedless grapes, washed, cut in halves, quarters or whole and dried in a colander.  (I shopped for small sized grapes and left them whole.)

Dressing:
8 oz cream cheese
8 oz sour cream ( I substituted vanilla yogurt)
1/2 c white sugar (with the yogurt I only added the sugar to taste at the end-about 1/8 c)
1 tsp vanilla (I omitted this since I used the vanilla yogurt)

Topping:
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c pecans (or walnuts)

In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla. Add grapes and mix until evenly incorporated. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans, mix again and refrigerate until serving.  Made the day before, the brown sugar makes the sauce taste like caramel. You can use less brown sugar, if you wish.

Spring Fling Creamed Corn

Jackie's Creamed Corn

At our recent "Spring Fling"  we were blessed by several wonderful springtime dishes to ring in the season of warm days and long growing season.  Along with our BBQ brisket and wild hog, this creamed corn was cooked up by our beloved resident, Jackie, who definitely wins the "Martha Stewart" award at Hidden Valley.  Her contribution was a crowd pleaser from first taste.  This is the first in a group of shared recipes from our recent Spring Fling BBQ potluck.

INGREDIENTS
1-32oz bag of frozen corn, thawed
2 cups half and half
1 tsp salt
3tbsp sugar (or more to taste)
pepper to taste
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter

DIRECTIONS
Mix corn, half and half, salt, pepper and sugar.  Bring to a boil, melt butter and mix with flour, add to corn and simmer.  (That's simmer, not boil, dears...hehe)  We kept it warm in a crock pot for a couple hours and it kept it's corny crunch.
Could that be easier?  Be creative, too and add some of your own favorite tastes:  a few dashes of hot sauce, a small jar of pimentos for color, chopped parsley, a little parmesan...you get the idea. 

In the following posts we'll be sharing a grape salad surprise, a crispy oriental napa dish and peach empanada pockets, too.