2009
Parmesan Garlic Herb Potatoes
I went to the grocery store planning to pick up some sweet potatoes to try out this maple sweet potato fry recipe I saw. Doesn’t that just sound delicious? Since I had the kids with me, and there were a couple people around the sweet potatoes, I just sort of reached around the corner and put three in my bag.
So yesterday when I got them out to wash/peel/slice them, when my plan was foiled by the fact that I had bought baking russet potatoes, not sweet potatoes. I needed a plan, and quick. And here’s what I came up with. It was definitely the most delicious impromptu recipe I’ve ever come up with.
Parmesan Garlic Herb Potatoes
3 baking potatoes (or 5 regular-sized russets)
2 T. butter
1 clove garlic
1/3 – 1/2 C. shredded Parmesan cheese
1 T. dried herbs (I just used oregano, but try basil, parsley, whatever you want)
Salt & Pepper to taste.
First, slice the potatoes in 1/4 inch rounds. Put a layer of them in the bottom of a 8×8″ baking dish. Mince garlic, and slice the butter into small chunks. Alternatively layer 1/3 of the cheese, garlic, butter and herbs with the potatoes. Top with cheese, salt and pepper. (Note: I’m a chronic under-salter, and even so, you don’t need as much salt as you’d think. The Parmesan and butter already have salt added.)
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes. Enjoy!
2009
Almost Healthy Trail Mix
This is the third or fourth time I’ve made a batch of this trail mix, and I have yet to meet a person who doesn’t love it. This is adapted from a recipe courtesy of the fabulous Paula Deen. It’s… sort of healthy. You start with granola, nuts, wheat germ, cinnamon. The good stuff.
Then you go and ruin its virtue by adding a small bit of oil and nearly a can of sweetened condensed milk.
But it’s totally worth it. Besides – it has wheat germ. It HAS to be good for you, right?
Almost Healthy Trail Mix
2 C. granola
1 C. + chopped nuts (I prefer slivered almonds, but pecans or walnuts would work great, too. Add more if you love ‘em)
1/2 t. almond extract
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 C. vegetable oil
2 C. dried fruit of your choice
Preheat oven to 300 degrees. In a large bowl, add granola, wheat germ, nuts, extract, cinnamon, salt and oil. Add in about 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk and stir. Continue to add milk until the mixture is thoroughly coated. (While the original recipe calls for a whole can, I find that the mix comes out too wet this way. I generally us 2/3 to 3/4 of a can, so use your judgement). Spread on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil (I LOVE Reynolds non-stick wrap, FYI). Bake 45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes. Mixture should come out chewy, but not wet, and will begin to brown, but of course not burn.
Let cool for five minutes, then stir in fruit. Cool completely, and store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Enjoy!
2009
Zucchini Bread
My Aunt Allyn is like the Martha Stewart of Logan County, WV. So when she stopped by last week to drop off a few bags of produce picked straight from her garden, I was, of course, thankful. She brought one very large zucchini for me to “make zucchini bread with,” and reminded me that I had her recipe in the family cookbook we put together as Christmas gifts for the family this past year. How’s that for helpful!
I actually put together all the dry ingedients the night before, and grated my zucchini and put it in the fridge. That way all I had to do was mix and bake in the morning. Delicious!
Aunt Allyn’s Zucchini Bread
2 eggs
2 C. sugar
1 C. oil
2 t. vanilla
3 C flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg (I HIGHLY recommend freshly ground)
2 C. grated zucchini
1 C. chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs, then add sugar, oil and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together remaining dry ingredients. Combine with wet mixture. Finally, stir in zucchini and nuts. Bake in two greased loaf pans for 45 min. – 1 hour (until a toothpick comes out clean). Cool for at least 5 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely. Enjoy.
Note: The batter will be thick. Really, really thick. Do not be alarmed at the thickness of the batter. 
Rustic Cherry Pie
I have this great cookbook called, simply, Baking
Rolled-Crust Cherry Pie
Crust:
1/3 C. butter
1 1/2 C. all-purpose flour
1-3 T. water
1 egg white
sugar for sprinkling
Filling:
1 1/2 lb. cherries, pitted
1/3 C. brown sugar
1/2 t. almond extract
For the filling: Rinse and pit 1 1/2 lbs. of fresh cherries. (Note: I left mine whole, but recommend cutting them in half. They were big bites!). Add sugar and almond extract, stir to combine.
For the crust: cut the butter into small pieces and place in a bowl. Add flour. Using your fingers (or a pastry blender, if you have one), combine until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Then add water 1 tablespoon at a time, until you have a soft dough. (You may not need all the water). Place covered in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes. Roll out until 14-15″ in diameter. Place on a greased baking sheet.
Pile filling inside.
Then fold over the edges of the crust to form a bowl.
Try to seal any holes in the outer edge to prevent juices from running out of the pie. Brush crust with egg yolk and sprinkle generously with sugar.
Bake in a 400 degree over for 30-35 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. Enjoy.
2009
Southern Style Green Beans
I was probably 20 years old before I realized that there was more than one way to make green beans. That is not even the slightest of exaggerations. In my family – and nearly every family around here, not to mention south of the Mason Dixon line cooks green beans similarly. With four main ingredients for several hours until nearly every last speck of vitamin and nutrient is leached right out of the poor thing, but we still feel good because we’re eating vegetables, and green ones at that!
The four necessary items:
Green beans – Fat, skinny, long, short. It doesn’t matter, really.
Onion – You can dice it up finely, or if you don’t like bits of onion in your beans, just plop a whole onion in for flavor and remove just before serving.
Salt – My husband always says to add as much as you think you need and then add a little more. This holds true for the beans.
Pig – Whether you prefer bacon, ham, ham hock or bacon grease, you gotta add some pig. My family was particularly fond of the bacon grease method.
Here’s how I made mine last night.
Southern Style Green Beans
Wash, string, and snap your beans into 1″ lengths. Place in large pot. I had about a pound and a half of beans.
Dice one small onion and add on top of the beans.
Throw in two slices of bacon .
Cover with water.
Cook. Cook some more. Cook a little more.
Add salt throughout until it tastes right.
Feel good about yourself for eating your veggies.
2009
Green Apple Salsa
In Morgantown (home of WVU) there’s this funky little restaurant, Black Bear. They serve delicious burritos, wraps, salads – using lots of local and seasonal ingredients. It just so happens that the two times I’ve eaten there have been in April, and the seasonal salsa was green apple. I didn’t get to stop in during my whirlwind trip to Morgantown this past week, but it was a reminder that I needed to make the salsa immediately.
I knew the main ingredients were green apples, cilantro and onion, so I looked through a few green apple salsas online to confirm my suspicions and see what else might be lurking in there. Here’s what I came up with. I’m not sure it’s as good as Black Bear’s – but it’s close enough that if I don’t make it up in April next year, I won’t have to lock myself in my room to cry.
Green Apple Salsa
3 Granny Smith apples
1/3 C. cilantro
1/2 red onion (Note: Black Bear and several other recipes I saw use white onion or sweet onion. The red onion just gives an otherwise green-and-white salsa some nice color)
Zest and juice of one lime
2 T. honey
1/8 t. cumin
Salt to taste
Peel and dice apples, chip cilantro and onion finely, and combine in a bowl. Add honey, lime, cumin and salt. Stir to combine. Refrigerate for several hours, and serve with tortilla chips. You can thank me later. Enjoy!
2009
Puff Pastry Piggies
Mmm. Puff Pastry Dough. I have come to believe it makes just about everything better.
This past Christmas, my mom brought some cocktail weiners to our family get together. She had ordered them off of QVC. True story. Some were wrapped in pretzel dough (delicious), some in bagel dough (also delicious), some in puff pastry (equally delicious). Now, I’m not going to pay $40 for cocktail wieners. Sorry. But I sure did enjoy them.
About a month ago, we had some friends over for a game night, and I found this easy recipe on Food Netork for some puff pastry ham sandwiches. They were a huge hit, even with my hard-to-please husband. A couple weeks later at the store, I noticed a box of puff pastry cocktail weiners in the frozen section. Mmm. I got all nostalgic thinking of Christmas and almost picked them up. Until I saw the price and quantity. $3.50 for 6 wieners. Um…. no. They were good, but not that good. So I marched right over and picked up a pack of cocktail wieners, and over to the freezer section for a box of puff pastry dough, and made them myself – about 24 for $5. Not bad, comparatively. The kids loved them. I’m sure you could make your own dough for even less, but I was looking for a quick lunch, not a weekend baking project.
Puff Pastry Piggies
1 pkg cocktail weiners
1 pkg frozen puff pastry dough
brown mustard
First, lay out your puff pastry dough. You don’t even have to wait for it to thaw – just break it into the three pieces as it’s folded. Once it’s thawed a bit, cut it into about 1″ strips with a sharp knife or pizza cutter.
Put a line of mustard on one of the strips and wrap around the weiner. Place on a baking sheet and bake according to the package directions of the puff pastry dough box.
This day, I had some left over (I was using the leftover wieners from my last batch) – so I put some turkey, bacon and mustard in the pastry dough, folded it over, and made finger sandwiches.
I’m telling you – almost anything tastes fantastic wrapped in puff pastry. And people think you’re a fabulous cook. You can’t go wrong with it.
Make some today. You can thank me later.
2009
From Ramen to Ratatouille
When I think of family gatherings, I think of food. Whether it’s a table full of fresh vegetables that just came from my aunt’s garden (or my grandparent’s and great-grandparent’s when I was younger), or picturing my dad hovering over a giant pot of homemade spaghetti sauce, when my family gets together, it usually involves massive amounts of food.
This isn’t that unusual – particularly for someone who grew up in the (relative) South. But for my college years through the first…oh… six years of my marriage, I feel solidly in the “I don’t cook, but I do like to bake occasionally,” camp. If I was expected to bring a dish, I volunteered for the bread or dessert category. That was easy, and sweet, and I had been baking with my grandparents and mother since I was probably an infant.
Then in 2005 I went to Arkansas with my mother-in-law for a week to visit her family. They spend alot of time in the kitchen, and alot of time watching television, which was where I was introduced to Food Network. I watched Paula Deen because I thought she was hilarious and cooked like my grandmother. I watched Giada deLaurentis because she came on after Paula Deen, and I like the cinematography of the show. True story. I brought my interest in these two shows home and continued to watch them nearly every day. This was before I had children and had the time to do something frivolous like watch television regularly.
Then in 2007 I had my son. Anyone who has had a child might remember the first few weeks as a blur of exhaustion and overwhelmed emotional mush. My husband and I adjusted by watching copious amounts of Food Network. For the most part, it stayed on. all.`1 day. We decided our new favorite show was Good Eats, as Alton Brown might possibly be the smartest and funniest person in the food universe. (This fact holds true, even after we’ve cancelled cable. I readily admit the only thing I miss is Food Network and The Closer. But that’s another post.)
All of the sudden, I was learning stuff about food. What ingredients play well with others. Techniques for chopping, roasting, stuffing, slicing. It looked…fun! Not to mention delicious.
I should also mention around this time we started, with a small group of friends, the church that meets in our living room. We had decided that an important part of our getting together would be sharing a meal. So that meant every Sunday afternoon, we had to plan, prepare, and serve something real for dinner. It started as a bit of a chore, and slowly became the thing I looked forward to every weekend. Spending an entire afternoon in the kitchen, preparing something (hopefully) delicious for the people I care about.
This past Sunday I tackled Ratatouille’s Ratatouille, compliments of Smitten Kitchen. Not the most technically difficult dish ever, but certainly a huge amount of effort for what is essentially a side dish. But gosh, isn’t it beautiful! (And delicious, by the way).
I brought over the dish to show The Husband before I put it in the oven. He simply said, “Well…. look at you!” and lamented that he’s a bit disappointed that he’s no longer The Cook of the family. I’m not disappointed at all – in fact, a bit pleased that I’ve been able to take something necessary (food) and turn it into something sublime.
2009
Whipped Cream Wins
Listen, folks – I grew up eating Cool Whip (or, whipped topping for the non-brand-specific term). You know, would lick the bottom of the tub, eat it off a spoon kind of kid. I didn’t eat an entire tub – I didn’t like it that much – but it was the basis of many desserts, and I honestly can’t recall having real whipped cream, although I’m sure I did on occasion.
Then I became an adult. I’m pretty sure my whipped cream conversion started at Cheesecake Factory, where (forgive me for this confession) I was far more taken by the whipped cream on top of the cheesecake than the cake itself. How do they get it so thick, I ask you? This was around the time my interest in food was becoming more about the knowledge and experimentation and less about the necessity. So one day I looked at a tub of Cool Whip and was shocked at what was inside. High fructose corn syrup? (Ok – that’s in almost everything so I can’t fault it for succumbing to peer pressure) But hydrogenated vegetable oil? Seriously? There’s just no excuse. And where is the milk? The cream? The sugar? Nope. Nowhere to be found.
Now, if you are in a hurry the whipped cream in an aerosol can is ok. But listen, making homemade whipped cream is like the easiest thing ever, particularly if you have a stand mixer. It goes something like this:
Heavy (whipping) cream
Sugar
Vanilla (or your choice of) flavoring
Combine, mix to soft peaks, eat. For every cup of cream, add one teaspoon of flavoring and two tablespoons of sugar. Soft peaks are when you lift up the beater and the cream stays on, but folds over a bit.
My apologies to my sister-in-law Jenny who thinks Cool Whip is the greatest thing ever. We’ll just have to call a truce on this one.
Mini Blueberry Pie
An older lady I know was celebrating her birthday this week, and she had casually mentioned that pie was her favorite dessert. “What kind?” I asked. “Oh…any kind,” she replied.
Since I had about a half gallon of blueberries in the refrigerator, blueberry pie it was. And I thought it would be fun to make mini pies, so I found mini pie pans (about 3″) at the little kitchen store. 
Using my pie crust recipe from yesterday, I got started. Note: This recipe makes three mini pies. If you want to make one large pie, double the pie crust recipe and adjust to 4 C. blueberries and 1/2 C. plus 2 T. sugar.
Mini Blueberry Pies
Single Oil Pastry Crust, split to form three tops and three bottoms for the mini pie pans.
2 1/2 C. fresh blueberries
1/3 C. sugar
2 T. flour
dash cinnamon
dash nutmeg (freshly ground, if available)
Line bottom of pie pans with crust. In a separate bowl, combine blueberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg until berries are well coated. Spoon 3/4 C. mixture into pie pan. In top crust, use a cookie cutter or knife to vent, the place on top of pie. Look at those berries peeking through. Mmmm.
Using your thumb, forefinger and middle finger, pinch the edges to form a scallop. It’s easy! One hand. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect. This isn’t culinary school, and I think a rustic edge adds to the homemade charm. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.
Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes, until crust is golden and the insides are bubbling.
Enjoy!
