Collards

I love greens. Greens in every form, in every way. Almost everything is done in the garden right now, but the collards carry on. A little promise of spring to come and a reminder that even when it looks like nothing is happening, growth still continues. (as an aside...man, I love that garden and its glimpse into life. not so much the work involved...but I can really appreciate the beauty and lessons that I find there)

So, anyway.. This is my favorite way to cook collards. It will work for almost anything else you get your hands on, too. Chard, bok choy, spinach, escarole, you name it. The only thing I don't like this way are turnips and mustard. But collards are definitely my favorite.

Heat olive oil in a large shallow skillet. Add whole garlic cloves and crushed red pepper flakes to taste (I usually do 4-5 cloves and 2 tsp red pepper flakes). Add chopped collard greens until the skillet is overflowing. Then just quickly stir-fry until they are done. If you like them more done, add 3 T water and cover the skillet for a few minutes. But they are good just stir-fried.

We eat this as a side dish, as a filler for burritos, as a main dish underneath a piece of meat (like a steak or chicken breast). You name it--you'll find a use for these collards.

Premium Leftovers

In our house, if you declare something "premium leftovers", then it's understood that they should be shared. Not scarfed down in the middle of the night (!) or first thing while you let your very tired wife sleep in on Saturday mornings. Not that that has ever happened. But just in case.

This dish is one of my favorites and very worthy of the premium leftover designation. It will last for a couple of days, but it never makes it that long in our house. If there is any left over, it is eaten by lunch time the next day. I've been known to eat it for breakfast. So good!

Pea/Corn Salad
3 T red wine vinegar
4 T oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 cups cooked peas (these were pink eye, but anything will work; even frozen)
1 cup corn, cut from the cob (about 2 ears)
1/2 cup chopped basil (to taste)
1/2 onion, diced
1 jalapeno, diced (seeded if desired)

Mix vinaigrette in a medium bowl, whisking until combined (vinegar through sugar). Add peas, corn, onion, jalapeno, and basil. Mix to coat with the dressing. Allow to sit for 30 minutes at room temperature for flavors to mingle. Taste and correct for seasonings if needed. Enjoy!

Homemade Woodstock dressing

In my quest for new salad dressings, I came across this one. (again with thanks to my friend Tammy!) It reminded me of a dressing that I used to buy, Annies Natural Woodstock dressing. My local store stopped carrying it, so I got out of the habit of buying it, but I always loved that dressing. So, when I saw the recipe from daily garnish, I had to try it.

So good! This one sounds a little crazy, but it's good, in a very rich, earthy, sort of way. If you like the deep flavor of beets, nuts, and parmesan cheese (yes, I realize those are very different), then you'll like this dressing.

Woodstock dressing
3 T nutritional yeast
2 T soy sauce
2 T oil (I used canola)
1.5 T whole grain mustard
4 T water

Place all ingredients in a jar or cruet, shake well to mix, and enjoy!

I'm linked to Tasty Tuesday over at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. Lots of great ideas over there!

French salad dressing

For the last few years (!), I've been stuck on one salad dressing. Yes, folks, the redneck in me loves some ranch salad dressing. So good, so creamy, so delicious. And so full of dairy.

So, with the dairy free diet, I've been experimenting with some different dressings. My husband and all 3 boys love Good Seasons Italian, almost to the exclusion of all others. And, it's okay, but it's not something I want to eat everyday. So, on the quest for something new and different, I reverted back to an old, retro favorite. Just as good as I remembered.

French dressing
1/3 cup oil (something light--I used canola)
1/3 cup vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water

Place all the ingredients in a jar or cruet, shake to mix, and enjoy.

Butter beans and artichoke hearts

Several years ago, one of my friends shared this recipe, and I've made it off and on since then. She spent the year after college in Spain, falling in love with the cuisine, and when she moved back to Texas, she was all over recreating those flavors. (She's really good at it, too, and now owns a bakery and specialty food purveyor--Christine rocks!). Anyway....because of all that back story, we get to enjoy these delicious beans, inspired by Christine, but remade with what I had available.

It starts with the humble lima. These go on sale for 50% off at Publix all winter long, making this a pretty frugal meal, too.

And like almost all good recipes, this started with a sauteed onion.

This recipe also includes chopped tomato. In the summer, when the tomatoes are insane, I just freeze them whole if we can't eat them. When it is time to use them, I just sit them out and let them thaw for about 5 minutes. After that, you can put them under running water, and the skin will just slip off. Chop and use as normal. They are very handy to have in the freezer if you just need a few tomatoes.

After adding the onion, garlic, tomato, and deglazing with a little wine, add the baby limas and artichoke hearts. Season with cumin, salt, pepper, and saffron (I used turmeric in this recipe, which is totally not the same, but good nonetheless). Let that simmer for about 30 minutes, until the beans are cooked, and the flavors are melded.

This is excellent as a main dish, with eggs poached right in the cooking liquid. This night, however, we ate it as a side dish, which is equally delicious.

Enjoy this fabulous recipe!

Butter beans and Artichoke Hearts
inspired by Christine

1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, pressed
3 small tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup white wine
1 lb frozen baby lima beans
1-15 oz can artichoke hearts, packed in water
1 T cumin
a couple of threads of saffron or 1 t turmeric
salt to taste
1 t pepper

Saute onion, garlic, and tomatoes in olive oil. Add wine to deglaze pan. Add lima beans and artichoke hearts with enough water to barely cover. Season with cumin, turmeric, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes, until beans are done. Serve as is, or poach eggs in cooking liquid. Serve with crusty bread to dip up all those delicious juices.

I'm linked to Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam. There are always lots of great new ideas over there. Check it out!

Date Night

Part of our commitment to having an at-home date night means ignoring the rest of the house. I don't know about you, but there is always something to be done. Another project, another email to read, another blog to lose myself in, another magazine to flip through. For Mike, it's a (yet another) podcast on his Blackberry, some raking to do, or some TV to mindlessly flip through.

But, on Saturday nights, we do our best to ignore all those other distractions. Sometimes (okay, a lot of times) we end up watching a movie or a TV show, but we watch it together, both paying attention, not distracted by anything else. We'll pause it a million times to talk about something that it brings up, and it's really a fun night.

I share all this, cause it cracks me up that there are laundry baskets in the background of this picture. But, I ignored them on Saturday night, and you know what? They were still there on Sunday morning!! Amazing.. LOL. And, as is the constant in my house, there were more on Monday and Tuesday as well. We are more important than folded laundry, and the laundry will always keep. I like talking to Mike a whole lot more.

We had these fun retro wedge salads with blue cheese dressing. I'm slowly easing dairy out of my diet (I think my little one is a bit sensitive to it), so this was the end of some goodies in the fridge.

These great steaks.

And fabulous onion casserole leftover from Thanksgiving.

We finished the night with a movie that had good reviews, but we just didn't get. At least, we didn't get it together, right? Here's to a happy date night with your beloved!

Onion Casserole

For Thanksgiving this year, I volunteered to make this onion casserole that I found reading one of my Silver Palate cookbooks. It looked rich and decadent, perfect for the holidays.

You can see the layers of red onions, white onions, and leeks here. It sounds like it might be too many onions, but the cheeses all meld together to make a most excellent marriage.

We ate the leftovers with a steak for our Saturday date night.

This recipe is a little bit more expensive than my usual fare (okay, a lot), but it is. so. worth. it! Every once in a while, at least. And, thanks to my generous mom, I don't really contribute much to the holiday meal, so it wasn't a big stretch to bring a really great dish for everyone to share.

Three Onion Casserole
from the Silver Palate Good Times cookbook

2 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
4 medium leeks, well rinsed, dried and thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups havarti cheese, grated
2 (5 ounce) packages Boursin cheese (I used one 8 oz package that was on sale)
1 1/2 cups gruyere, grated
1/2 cup dry white wine

Preheat oven to 350. Make a layer of onions, using a third each of red onions, white onions, and leeks. Sprinkle with havarti. Make another layer, using another third of onions. Top with the Boursin. Make a third layer, using the last of the onions. Sprinkle the top with the gruyere. Pour the wine over the top. Bake for one hour, covering with foil if the top gets too brown.

The recipe said to serve immediately, but this worked fine to cook at home for 45 minutes, travel an hour and a half, then reheat for 15 minutes in a hot oven at my mom's house. It was perfect.

**it also made so much that it wouldn't fit in one dish, so I used my regular 9x13 dish for Thanksgiving, then had a small (6x8) dish that we had for leftovers. The small dish I baked for 30 minutes, then refrigerated. When it was time for us to eat it, I reheated for about 30 minutes at 350. Both ways worked great, with no loss of texture or flavor.

Definitely try this one. Most first time dishes at Thanksgiving are "one timers", but this one will definitely make a repeat performance. And it was really good with beef, so it would be perfect with Christmas prime rib. You'll love it, too!

Corn salad

Sometimes, it's the simple things. This salad was an easy side dish recently that combines two favorite flavors of summer--corn and basil.

Fresh corn, cut off the cob (I used 3 ears for our small family)
1/2 onion, diced small
1 jalapeno, diced small
basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Olive oil
Rice wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and allow to sit for 15 minutes for flavors to combine. Enjoy! (and try not to fight over the left-overs)

This post is linked to Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday. So many good ideas over there! Take your time, browse the links, and find a new favorite.

Squash casserole

I love squash casserole. I am from Georgia, and I grew up in the church. I've eaten my share of casseroles. It comes in lots of variations (most of which I like--especially the Mexican cornbread and the Pepperidge Farm stuffing ones). But, my favorite starts with a pure throw-away.

Cracker crumbs.

I store my crackers (chiefly saltines and Ritz) in this jar all year. Crumbs accumulate in the bottom, and I save them for squash season. Whoa to the man who tries to help me "clean" by tossing my cracker crumbs. Those things are precious! They also mean that, while you could substitute smushed whole crackers, I usually don't, and this casserole is a once a year treat.

I also add cheese. About 4 ounces. Squash and cheese is a marriage made in heaven.

All casseroles need something to bind them. I opted for sour cream, but a white sauce, mayonnaise, heavy cream, or even a can of soup would work, too. I also added a couple of eggs to tie everything together.

Then, add the cooked squash and onions. Mine has tiny bits of green in it. I was out of onions, so I had to use the (usually leftover) onions I had frozen. Some of them had cilantro mixed in. We couldn't really taste it, but, hey, it might be a good addition to add even more!

I season liberally with pepper and Tony Cachere's cajun seasoning mix (in place of salt). Mix well, then bake for about 30 minutes.

Squash casserole! Yum. A little taste of summer on the plate.

This post is linked to Balancing Beauty and Bedlam's Tasty Tuesday (and since, having a 3rd newborn around means a bit of bedlam right now....this post is on Friday instead of Tuesday). It's also linked to The Grocery Cart Challenge's Recipe Swap. There are lots of great dishes in both spots. Check it out!!

Eating from the pantry

A couple of weeks ago, I read a blog that had a passing mention of curried fruit. And, man, that sounded gooooood. I grew up with the dish, and I hadn't had it in years. Literally years. It's not a big fancy Indian curry. No, this is good south Georgia curry. Mild and tasty. Similar to the curry found in chicken salad or country captain. It was usually a side dish to ham or poultry. Sometimes, my mom would take it to covered dish.

And, then, yesterday, I spent the day with my wonderful mom, and she mentioned that she had made curried fruit recently. But, she took it up a notch. She served it as dessert, with ice cream! That did it. I had to have it. Absolutely, no questions about it.

So, I dived into the pantry to see what I could find.

The freezer held this ice cream that was missing just a small amount. I don't even think I want to know how that happened, but I was happy to see it.

I was able to unearth a can of peaches and a can of crushed pineapple. That would do.

Delicious!!

Hot Curried Fruit
adapted from First Baptist and Friends Sharing our Best, Dawson, GA

Canned fruit (I used 2 cans, but you can use up to 4 or 5, including pears, apricots, cherries, peaches, pineapple, etc)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp curry powder (nothing fancy here...just grocery store McCormick is best)

Melt butter in glass dish in the oven at 350. When melted, stir in sugar and curry powder until well mixed. Add fruit, well drained, and mix. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes.