Patchs Tavern’s soup of the day is a Maryland Crab soup. This recipe turned out perfectly and will be the highlight of your next dinner party or family gathering.  It's a great soup and easy to make! This is a hearty soup with lots of vegetables and very adaptable. This soup is an excellent blend of flavors at an affordable price. Feel free to add whatever veggies you choose. You can add shrimp and fish and make it more like a chowder if you want. Happy cooking and eating! Ingredients 4 cups water 2 cups beef broth 3 carrots, peeled and chopped 3 garlic cloves 1 medium boiling potato, peeled …

Join us at Patch, as we continues our count down for 10 great salads. This is salad number 9. The weather is expected to get colder this week. For me, cold days bring on the desire to have hearty soups and stews, and even seasonal salads. This salad will make a great addition as a side dish to your Thanksgiving dinner or holiday party. I have made this salad several times and love it. I plan on making it to complement our Thanksgiving dinner. This recipe is refreshing, quick and delicious. Instead of spinach, you can use endives or arugula. If you’re not a blue cheese fan, you can use the …

Welcome back to Patch’s Tavern, as we continue our count down with 10 Great Salads. This salad is wonderful and would be great for a dinner party. I have made this salad a couple of times now, and it does not disappoint! Creamy goat cheese and a vinaigrette dressing on greens have a natural affinity for each other. Both the taste and presentation of this salad makes it very versatile that works perfectly as a first course, side dish or entrée for entertaining at a dinner party, or a great salad for lunch. This salad is a great template for creativity by mixing and matching different fruits (…

It’s the end of summer and peach season. This is a perfect salad for this time of year, plus it’s sweet, salty, and crunchy. You will want to make this salad over and over again while it's peach season. I made this salad last week for a pot luck dinner. This salad went perfectly with a barbeque. The goat cheese with the grilled peaches created a rich and wonderful taste. I grilled the peaches in advance, as I did not want to put something warm on the greens and melt the cheese. I added pecans to the original recipe because I love salads with a crunch. If you do not like pecans substitute with…

This is an excellent recipe if you enjoy salmon and asparagus. This dish tasted like something you'd get in a restaurant. It was absolutely fabulous. I give it five stars and I hope you will too. There are so many wonderful things about salmon that it’s really so hard to know where to start. It's great to grill, taste great bought fresh or frozen and can be cooked in many different ways. Wild salmon can be eaten without fear of excess contaminants or mercury, and it has a very high nutrient profile, including the highly-prized omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fats seem primarily work through …

This is a great recipe and you will love it! Stuffed cabbage is the epitome of comfort food. For this satisfying dish, cabbage leaves are stuffed with a seasoned mixture of rice and ground beef. Stuffed cabbage, also known as cabbage rolls, is a dish consisting of cooked cabbage leaves wrapped around a variety of fillings. This dish is common to the ethnic cuisines of the Balkans and parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East as well as Finland and Sweden where it's known as kaalikääryle. The recipe varies from country to country, region to region, and family to family.  In Poland they call …

This tortellini salad is our 6th in a series of “Patch's 10 Great Salads." It offers a nice twist from regular pasta salads. Tortellini salad is a delicious cold pasta salad that tastes like an Italian antipasto platter, with cheese tortellini, olives and salami. Tortellini is originally from the Italian region of Emilia, in particular Bologna and Modena.  This salad could be served as a light summertime meal or as a side dish. It has a great combination of flavors and is very quick to prepare. If you can’t find tri-colored tortellini, use regular tortellini, fresh, frozen or dried in the box…

If you are looking for great tasting corn chowder, then you have found the right recipe. Not only was this chowder delicious, it was very easy to prepare. Corn chowder is the king of farmhouse chowders. Hundreds of recipes for it have been published through out the years, but since corn and salt pork were staples of the American farm, it is likely that corn chowder was being made and enjoyed long before any recipe was ever printed in the United States. Corn chowder is similar to New England clam chowder, with corn substituted for clams. I enjoy soup all year round and now it's corn season ,…

I'm going to share my friend Annette’s recipe, and it is my favorite baked beans dish. I have tried other recipes, and they didn't come close. This dish is sure to be the hit at your next gathering or potluck. Baked Beans are believed to be based on a Native American dish in which beans were cooked with fat and maple syrup. European settlers are thought to have adapted the recipe using pork and molasses.   This recipe makes a great side dish for any summer barbeque. It is simple to prepare and absolutely delicious. You might want to double the recipe when you make it. It goes very fast! Happy…

Our 10 great salad countdown continues with salad No. 5 - Grilled Salmon Caesar Salad. This salad is hearty enough for a main course for dinner or lunch. It’s easy and quick to prepare and a great way to get in those healthy omega 3s.  A Caesar salad is a salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese. The salad's creation is generally attributed to restaurateur Caesar Cardinii, who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States, when in 1924, a fourth rush depleted the kitchen's supplies. A number of Cardini's staff have also have taken the credit to have invented …

Did someone call for Chinese take-out? Moo Shu Pork is a great dish I always order and a perennial take-out favorite. This was my second time making this recipe and it is amazing and authentic tasting. I love Moo Shu and this really hit the spot for me. I grew up on Long Island, N.Y., where my appreciation for good Chinese food started. We are so passionate about our Chinese food there that a debate still continues to this day, whether Gam Wah or Mr. Wongs had the best Chinese food. Mind you, both restaurants have been gone for many, many years. Moo Shu Pork (also spelled Mu Shu, Moo Shi) is …

This is our fourth in a series of “Patch's 10 Great Salads.” This salad is a great mid-week dinner that takes less than 30 minutes to make. Serve it on a hot summer night for a refreshing dinner. Filet Mignon is French for “cute filet” or “dainty filet.”  It is a steak cut taken from the smaller end of the tenderloin of the beef. The tenderloin is the most tender cut of beef and generally the most expensive. Filet Mignon, when found on a menu in France, generally refers to pork rather than beef. This salad is very easy to create and perfect for all of your summer gatherings. If Filet Mignon …

Fish Tacos is a great recipe for a summer night. This recipe is delicious, simple and fast to prepare. The cumin gives it great flavor. The coleslaw brings out the flavor in the fish. You will love the crunch of the slaw. There is anthropological evidence that the indigenous people living in the lake region of the Valley of Mexico traditionally ate tacos filled with small fish. While the original fish taco may not sound that appealing to more modern tastes, this fish taco recipe is made with tilapia that is quite delicious. Tilapia is quick cooking, flaky and versatile. I first heard about …

I’ve been looking for new fish recipes and this tilapia recipe caught my eye. It's a delicious, tasty, moist dish that is tangy and flavorful. The common name tilapia is based on the name of thecichlid genus. Tilapia, which is itself a Latinization of thiape, the Tswana word for "fish.” Tilapia is a farm-raised fish that has very low levels of mercury. The good thing about tilapia is that it is not fishy smelling, is very light and has an impressive flavor and texture. If tilapia is not your favorite fish, you can also use cod or swordfish.  I paired the tilapia with tri-color quinoa (…

Memorial Day weekend is finally here. It’s the official kick-off of summer, pool season, picnics and of course grilling season. Of course, Memorial Day is the time to honor our service men and women past and present, fly the flag, and gather with friends and family.  So, fire up your grills and welcome the season of summer. This delicious recipe is a summer must and a great dish to break out of a grilling recipe rut. Scallops are a quick cooking shellfish that makes a marvelous meal. The scallops are marinated in sweet teriyaki sauce, skewered and then grilled to perfection. The pineapple and…

Welcome back to Patch's Tavern. This week’s delicious recipe, Kielbasa Pasta, is perfect for a quick meal for those busy weeknights. The recipe is simple and savory. Kiełbasa is sausage from Poland. Though in Polish “kielbasa” simply means “sausage,” in English, kielbasa refers to a particular genre of Polish sausage. Kielbasa comes in pork, beef, turkey and lower-calorie varieties that normally are sold in U-shaped lengths, or half-rings, which somewhat resemble large, thick hot dogs. Several types of fully cooked kielbasa are available at local markets, such as Whole Foods and Giant. I was …

This is the third in a series of “Patch's 10 Great Salads.” It’s another salad from Patch that takes less than 30 minutes to make. The Hollywood Brown Derby closed its doors many years ago, but the classic Cobb salad, invented in 1937 by Robert (Bob) H. Cobb, the restaurant’s owner lives on.  Cobb salad, one of the most famous dishes in American culinary history was created on the spur of the moment. Legend has it that Bob Cobb prowled hungrily in his restaurant's kitchen for a snack. Opening the huge refrigerator, he pulled out this and that: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, …

This is a favorite weeknight supper during tomato season, which is simple to put together and very good. I would give this recipe six stars out of five, if I could. It's an amazing, quick, easy pasta dish that packs plenty of flavor. Goat cheese and pine nuts go together well with the combination of the sweet tomatoes.  A splash of balsamic vinegar offsets the tangy, creamy goat cheese perfectly. The recipe is a refreshingly light, simple, elegant dish and wonderful for spring and summer dinners. The whole family will love it. Be sure to allow the pasta to cool slightly, as the goat …

This is the second in a series of “Patch's 10 Great Salads.” If you’re looking for a wonderful spinach strawberry salad, this definitely is the one. It’s easy to make, healthy, flavorful, elegant and perfect for a spring or summer side dish or as a meal. Recently, I made this salad for a brunch and it was a smashing success. Everyone complimented it and asked for this recipe. It’s a delicious salad that takes less than 30 minutes to make with just a few ingredients. Doubling the salad for a large group is easy. Strawberries are plentiful this time of year at local farmer's markets and …

Salad season is upon us again! Salad does matter, especially when the months get warmer.  Summer may not be the best time to cook, but it’s certainly among the best times to eat. Salads can be as fun as you want to make them, just toss some ingredients you have available and make a salad that’s delicious, fast and healthy. That’s the idea behind 10 Great Salads. In the coming weeks and months, Patch will post salad ideas to tide you over until the weather cools down. Each salad will take 30 minutes or less. The salads will minimize work at the stove and use seasonal veggies, when juicy …