Great Eats With Patti

Simple Treats for Your Memorial Day Barbeque

These make-ahead desserts keep the oven off and the cook out of the kitchen.

Sometimes the best food does not come from a recipe, but rather from an inspiration. Sometimes the most memorable food is the most simple. Sometimes, the cook just wants to get out of the kitchen with the least amount of mess. This Memorial Day, forgo the typical pies, brownies and cakes. Forget turning on the oven. Forget any last minute preparation. The following recipes are for simple, single serve items certain to put a smile on every face, young and old. Variations of S’more on a Stick recipes can be found everywhere on the internet, but the premise is the same. Toast a marshmallow. Dip it into melted chocolate. Roll in graham cracker crumbs. A slight twist on the S’more on a Stick concept is to replace the graham crackers with …

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Great Eats With Patti

Fresh, Local Strawberries in St. Peters

Fresh, local strawberries are showing up early in local produce stands. While not quite as sweet as our June strawberries, they are welcomed after a long winter of produced flown into the area.

This time of year, I start yearning for fresh, local produce. I was surprised to find locally-grown strawberries already at Orlando’s Produce on Mexico Road. The berries just started arriving a few days ago from southern Illinois, I was told. While not as sweet as June strawberries from Lakeview Farms in St. Peters, my family still declared them the best they have had in months. They are juicy, soft and red throughout—not hard like the berries trucked in from California that we have had all winter long. We ate an entire pound at dinner time. They were that good. Strawberry salsa is a great way to showcase fresh berries. The salsa is great with tortilla chips, but it also turns grilled chicken breast or fish into something special. Grill or…

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Patti Baratta

11:12 am on Monday, May 16, 2011

I make all types of fruit salsas. Pineapple and peach salsas are also favorites. I may just have to run a month of fruit salsa recipes!   more ›

How to Make the Most Out of All that Leftover Ham

Leftover Easter ham can turn into a variety of menu items instead of the basic ham and cheese sandwich.

In many homes, ham is an Easter staple. Ham is top dog, it is the main event. But typically, there are leftovers and frugal people everywhere will be eating ham sandwiches for lunch for the next week. My family looked at me as if I were nuts when, on Tuesday night, our Costco-purchased Easter ham came out of the oven for dinner. Because I write this column, I had to have ham leftovers before today. My understanding family sighed then dug right in. They love ham. While we did have ham sandwiches on Wednesday, we also had ham in a myriad of other dishes. And just for the record, there is no ham for the Baratta family today—we are grilling filets for Easter dinner. I purchased a spiral sliced ham from Costco, so removing the meat from the …

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Great Eats With Patti

Single Serve Ice Cream Pies Are Easy and Fun to Make

Oberweis ice cream serves as a delicious base for a variety of mix-ins and flavors. Scoop the mixed ice cream into mini pie shells for a fun treat.

Ice cream pie is easy to make, easy to customize and a great alternative to a plain scoop of vanilla. For a change, try using individual pre-made pie crusts instead of one big pie crust. The mini crusts offer an attractive presentation, not to mention built in portion control. The Oberweis Dairy store on Mexico Road offers great inspiration for your ice cream pie base. I prefer to start out with plain vanilla or chocolate ice cream and mix in our favorites. Get creative or use some of my ideas below. For the following, I started with Oberweis vanilla ice cream. All other ingredients are found in the aisles of Schnucks or Dierbergs. The Almond Accents can be tricky to find, but most times they are available near the salad dressing. The …

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Holly Hunt

12:26 pm on Sunday, February 20, 2011

What a fun activity for our whole family! We can make our favorite flavors and then share...or keep it all to ourselves!   more ›

Great Eats With Patti

Super Sweets For Your Sweetie

Candy making is not difficult and can be great fun with the right ingredients and tools. Let your inner creativity shine this Valentine's Day and whip up something to tempt any sweet tooth/

Stepping into My Son’s Cake & Candy Supply in old town St. Peters is inspirational for even the amateur baker and candy maker.  The walls are covered in candy and cake making supplies and various cake pans hang from the ceiling. I was greeted by Lori, the manager, when I walked into the store.  I explained that I wanted to coat things in chocolate. I had tried traditional tempering methods before, using real dark chocolate and my results were always hit or miss. I wanted “easy” this time, since I was introducing my daughter to the joys of candy making. Lori directed me toward the candy discs. They are small, nickel-sized pieces of candy coating, sold by the pound and designed to melt easily. The melted discs can be poured into molds to …

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Great Eats With Patti

Snow Days Mean Snow Ice Cream

An old fashioned treat takes on contemporary ease with a short list of ingredients.

I warn you, the following words may be a bit controversial: Snow ice cream. My mother is going to read this and scold me. During my entire childhood, snow play was preceded by the statement, “Don’t eat the snow!” I ate snow anyway. Now she knows. Standing in line at Schnucks the day before last week’s snow storm I started chatting with the woman behind me. She was not getting bread and milk, but excitedly displayed the sweetened condensed milk and powdered drink mix in her cart. She explained that her grandkids were coming and she was going to have some fun making snow ice cream. My mother's words echoed in my head as I did my research. There appear to be two opinions on the topic of eating snow. Most people say there is no issue with …

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Great Eats With Patti

Pizza, All Grown Up

Pizza doesn't have to be slathered in sauce or oozing with cheese to be great.

Hailing from Chicago, I would like to think of myself as a bit of a pizza connoisseur.  Add to that, having a grandfather who came to the United States from Italy in his late thirties, I know that I know a thing or two about pizza. Pizza does not have to be the gooey, over-the-top, cheesy stuff that most Americans think of when the pizza guy rings the doorbell. Pizza today can be as sophisticated or as simple as you would like it to be. Of course, every time I get homesick, I whip up a deep-dish, Chicago classic, but that is for another column. This week, I stepped into Valenti’s Market on Mexico Road. My goal was simple! I needed pizza crust. I normally make pizza crust from scratch, but I was running out of time that day. Valenti’s had …

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Holly Hunt

10:33 am on Monday, January 17, 2011

I'm a sucker for pesto! These sound yummy- sure beats boring old pepperoni!   more ›