Category Archives: Southern Delights

January 20, 2013 · 3:35 pm

Oh Hello January

1-Cranberries

Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, I stock up on bags of fresh cranberries. It seems you can never find them any other time of year so I get so excited and buy three or four bags and freeze some. I start out really good, planning things to make. I usually make a loaf or two of Cranberry Bread but then forget about them until the next Thanksgiving when I bring home excess bags to stockpile in the freezer, only to find last years stash. Yikes. So, when I came across this recipe as I tried to figure out what to cook for dinner the other night, I was delighted! I got the idea from Miss Edna Lewis but altered it significantly. Here is what I came up with. I served it with Roasted Brussels Sprouts & Carrots.

2- pork chops

Smothered Pork Chops with Cranberries
Serves 2

2 Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops
2 Tbsp Butter or Olive Oil
1 onion, sliced
5 cloves garlic quartered
1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen)
¼ cup Maple Syrup
2 tsp fresh Rosemary, chopped
Sea Salt & freshly ground Black Pepper
¼ cup chicken stock
Salt, Pepper, and Flour

Wash and pat dry pork chops, dust with salt, pepper and flour, and set aside at room temperature.  Melt butter in iron skillet over medium high heat and brown the pork chops on each side. Remove chops and set aside. Place onion in pan and cook until translucent, then add garlic, herbs, cranberries, maple syrup and stock. Cook for a few minutes. Then reintroduce the pork chops turn heat to low and simmer until pork chops are done, sauce is reduced and cranberries burst (approximately 10 minutes).

3- cranberry pork chops

I haven’t been making as many soups this winter. Maybe because it hasn’t been as cold yet. I did get a hankering for Chili the other day, though. This has been my basic chili recipe for the last couple of years.  I always just sort of make it up but it almost always ends up this way. This time, I decided to jot it down so it’ll be a little easier the next time.

Turkey Chili with lots of toppin's!

Turkey Chili with lots of toppin’s!

Turkey Chili
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 medium White Onion, chopped
4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Green Bell Pepper, chopped
1 Jalapeno Pepper, finely chopped
1 lb Ground Turkey
3-4 Tbsp Mexican Chili Powder
1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
1 Tbsp Oregano
1 tsp Sea Salt
2 Tbsp Ground Raw Cacao
14 oz can Whole Tomatoes, crushed with your hands
14 oz can Kidney Beans
14 oz can Pinto Beans
2 cups Chicken Stock
Fresh Chopped Cilantro to top
Shredded Cheese (Sharp Cheddar, Jack, or Jalapeno Jack) to top
Plain Greek Yogurt to top

Heat oil in a Dutch oven. Add onion and saute until it begins to soften. Add garlic and peppers. Continue cooking and stirring. Add turkey and chili powder, cumin, oregano, and salt. Stir. Add the ground cacao, tomatoes, and beans. Stir. Cook for a couple minutes and then add the stock. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Serve with cilantro, cheese, and yogurt.

Here’s a quick dinner idea Grant came up with one night before the holidays. It is very southern and quite delicious. Catfish has become our main fish of choice down here in the South. As far as safe sustainable seafood goes, it’s a pretty good choice for this region of the country. There are a couple of places we have found in town that we can get locally, or at least, regionally farmed catfish. (This seafood watch list is a great resource.) And, catfish is tasty! Give it a try.

5- Pecan Catfish
Pecan Crusted Catfish
Serves 2
½ cups roasted Pecans
½ cup flour
1 tsp Paprika or Chili Powder
½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Garlic Powder
1 tsp Sea Salt
½ tsp Ground Black Pepper
2 tsp Fresh Thyme
1 Tbsp Fresh Parsley leaves
2 catfish fillets, cut into 4 pieces each
2 cups Buttermilk
4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Preheat oven to 375. Roast pecans in a skillet or on a cookie sheet until fragrant and lightly toasted. In a little food processor, grind the pecans with the flour, spices and herbs. If you do not have a food processor, you can just chop everything extra-fine and mix together well. Place the buttermilk in a bowl and then soak catfish in buttermilk. Place the ground pecan mixture in a separate bowl. Place olive oil in the bottom of an iron skillet and bring up to medium heat on a stove.  One by one, remove catfish pieces from buttermilk and roll into pecan mixture to coat and fry until golden brown (approx 4-5 mins per side.)  Drain on paper towels for a minute and serve.
6- kale

One of our favorite, easy salads these last few months has been this raw kale salad. It makes me feel so good and totally energized! It is a perfect side salad for winter, too, and goes nicely alongside soups or casseroles.

Winter Kale Salad
1 bunch Kale, washed, center veins cut out, and thinly chopped
1 Apple, cored and chopped
2 Carrots, chopped
¼ cup Currants
small handful of fresh Parsley, chopped
Sea Salt & freshly ground Black Pepper
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
½ cup chopped Toasted Hazelnuts
optional- a small wedge of Blue Cheese

Place the kale in a big bowl. Sprinkle with salt and gently massage the kale a few times. Let sit while you prepare the other ingredients. Mix in the apples, carrots, currants, and parsley. Sprinkle in a small drizzle of vinegar and oil, season with salt and pepper, and then toss the nuts on top. Also nice, is to crumble some blue cheese on top.

I have a few other recipes for favorite greens coming out on Dolan Geiman’s blog later this week. And if you visit, be sure to check out his newest art. 2013 might be a good year to broaden your art collection! He has some amazing pieces.

I am looking forward to all the exciting music adventures 2013 holds in store. One friend of ours who has a new album coming out real soon and whose musical future I am anxiously awaiting to unfold before us is… Sturgill Simpson.

Sturgill Simpson January 2012

Sturgill Simpson January 2012

I was trying to hold off mentioning him in my blog until his new album has been released but dang if I just can’t wait any longer. By golly, he’s the real deal. As he said so well at his last live show I saw, “If you think you don’t like country music then maybe you’ve never heard real country music.”

Sturgill Simpson at The High Watt, Nashville. January 19, 2013.

Sturgill Simpson at The High Watt, Nashville. January 19, 2013.

He is from Kentucky and has this amazing old-school voice that falls somewhere in between Ralph Stanley and maybe Waylon Jennings. It is very unique and powerful. He writes some great songs, too. He’s opened some shows for Jamie Johnson and just recently, he and his band have opened for Dwight Yoakam. His new album will come out in June. I hate that the world has to wait so long to hear it but I’ve heard it and let me tell you, it’s worth the wait. For now, you can check out this song he has on the old youtube. It’s one of my favs.

OK… back to hibernation for the winter.

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August 12, 2012 · 1:35 pm

OKRA, TOMATOES, AND CUKES! OH MY!

We’ve been growing okra every summer since we moved to Nashville. Okra loves the heat which is why it was impossible to grow it up in the Pacific NW when we lived there. Okra is great for sauteing up with tomatoes and corn or cooking it into some gumbo. Our two favorite ways to prepare okra have become pickling it and roasting it which is about as simple as you can get. Roasting it takes away the sometimes unpleasant slimey texture which can be present. It also brings out a great almost nutty and corn flavor. And, it is incredibly easy. All you do it wash it, dry it, lay it out in a roasting dish, sprinkle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and then roast it up. I usually roast it at 400 for about 15-20 minutes. It makes a great side dish to just about everything.

Southern tomatoes are the best in the world and I honestly love them but about this time every summer, I start to feel a bit overwhelmed by them. We can’t eat the raw ones fast enough so I start roasting them up, too! I roast them with onions and fresh herbs and sometimes I add garlic or squash. Once roasted, you can throw them in a jar and in the fridge. I still haven’t started canning and I so admire all my friends who do. I promise I will soon. I used to fear it but now I think I’m just lazy.

We use roasted tomatoes all the time- in risotto, salads, egg dishes, on sandwiches… the possibilities are endless. To make the easiest pasta sauce in the world I just puree the roasted tomatoes and top with cheese. It makes a killer pizza sauce or lasagna, too!

Summer Squash Risotto, Corn Crust Pizza, Veggie Lasagna- all made with roasted tomatoes!

And, my third favorite summer veggie… cucumbers! My favorites are the Kirby pickling cukes. Since I was a child, we have always just had a bowl of them sliced with a little salt on the dinner table to accompany most summer meals.

Grant and I will sometimes throw a splash of vinegar and some sliced onions in and then every once in awhile we get even fancier and make refrigerator pickles in which we slice the cukes and onions and place in a jar. We boil some vinegar and water and throw in some dill, peppercorns, and garlic and then pour over the cukes. These last in the refrigerator for a few weeks. They make the perfect pre-dinner snack.

These lemon cucumbers cut in wedges made pretty pickles!

A favorite side to enjoy with all these summer veggies is always a pan of cornbread! We always have leftovers so often times we will toast a piece with cheese on it for breakfast. The other day, we came up with this Cornbread Strata which was delicious!

Simply cube up the leftover cornbread. Saute some summer veggies in an iron skillet. Pour a bowl of about 7 eggs mixed with some grated cheese on top. Add the cubed cornbread and bake in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes or until eggs are firm and top is slightly golden.

The temperatures have cooled down here in Nashville for a few days so I plan to enjoy my brand new bottle tree from the comfort of our hammock while I dream of all the yummy food to make with the first of the fall harvest to soon arrive!

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June 25, 2012 · 9:50 am

In Case you Didn’t Know- It’s Waylon Appreciation Month!

Last year on June 15th, Grant and I celebrated Waylon’s birthday by making a dinner of all his favorite foods which included chicken fried steak. (Yeah, I’m a proud superfan.) This year, being his 75th Birthday, we celebrated by going to several Waylon Birthday bashes all around town.

It all started for me when my friend Allison and I drove down to our dear friend, Nikki’s restaurant, Normandy River Cafe, which is right near the pristine Duck River and around the corner from The Dickel Distillery. Nikki is one of the most amazing people I have ever met and she has poured so much love into this restaurant. Her brother Mike is the pit master. These two Texans serve up a good meal. They also have live music in the cafe most Saturday nights which is why Allison and I made a special trip a couple weeks ago. We saw members of Waylon’s band in their own band, Waymore’s Outlaws. It was incredible to see Richie Albright right there in front of me pounding out that cut-time beat Waylon’s songs are famous for. Also great were bassman Jerry “Jigger” Bridges and steel guitarist Fred Newell. Tommy Townsend plays lead guitar and sings. He does a good job of delivering Waylon’s songs in his own voice. I swear during one song, I felt Waylon’s presence. He would have been proud. It was a great night of music and delicious food.

Under all that hair, is one Shooter Jennings. I wasn’t in a good spot for photos but you can see more here.

The next week, Shooter hosted a Birthday bash for his Dad at the Greenhouse bar in Green Hills. We heard songs from Leroy Powell, Whitey Morgan, Leroy Virgil of Hellbound Glory, our buddy Sturgill Simpson, Jamey Johnson, and Shooter himself. It was a fun night. All of the musicians played some of Waylon’s hits and a few songs of their own. Then a couple days after his Birthday, on Father’s Day, Robert’s Western World hosted a Waylon Birthday Party and raised money for The Waylon Fund for Diabetes Research. All contributions to the fund went to the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), one of the nation’s premier non-profit biomedical research institutes. Once again, Waymore’s Outlaws played. It was so awesome to see them up there on that stage.

Richie Albright, Jesse Lee Jones (owner Robert’s), Waymore’s Outlaws at Robert’s Western World June 17, 2012.

No Chicken Fried Steak this year however, as usual, we have been cooking many meals listening to our favorite Waylon tunes. Here’s some highlights from last week.

Grilled Asparagus & Peach Salad
1 bunch Asparagus
3 Peaches, peeled and halved
Fresh Chevre
½ cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Brown Sugar
Black pepper
Fresh Basil leaves, chopped

Grill the asparagus and peach halves. Set aside. In a small saucepan, cook vinegar with brown sugar and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer until it begins to get slightly thicker (20-30 minutes). Arrange grilled asparagus and peaches on a plate (I cut both down a little so they would be easier to eat.) and sprinkle with crumbled chevre and basil. Drizzle with vinaigrette.

Another favorite dish of ours from the grill is this recipe for BBQ Cabbage. I believe Grant first got the idea from a Saveur magazine years ago. It goes really nicely with BBQ Chicken and Skillet Beans!

BBQ Cabbage
½ Green Cabbage, cored
4 Tbsp unsalted Butter, softened
1 Tbsp Sea Salt
½ Tbsp Black Pepper
1 Tbsp Chile Powder
1 Tbsp Garlic Powder
3 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
Heavy Duty Foil

Make a compound butter paste by mixing together all the ingredients except the cabbage. Rub about a quarter of the compound butter on the outside of the cabbage and then rub the rest of the mixture onto the top side of the cabbage. Wrap in heavy duty foil and then place on the grill indirectly over the heat and smoke for about 90 minutes with the lid down. The cabbage should be soft when you press it. Let sit for 10 minutes to cool and then unwrap and chop it well. Place in a bowl. Salt and pepper to taste, if needed. It might be good with hot sauce, too!

Grant uses a chimney to start the lump charcoal and then adds soaked hickory chips!

Now go listen to some Waylon and make a donation to The Waylon Fund for Diabetes Research.

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Aside

Summer Potlucks, Sunday Dinner, and Gospel Music

Eating is so fun! I love all the fresh veggies and fruit that is in season right now. I went to a potluck last night. Just look at all those veggies that were on my plate.

Image

Amazing. It is hard not to eat healthy right now. One of our favorite things to do lately is grill lots of vegetables on the weekend and then find all sorts of ways to eat them during the week.

Often, we just put them on top of a big salad. This little salad is so simple that it seems strange to even write it down but we’ve been enjoying it so much and using it as the basis for so many meals lately that I wanted to write it down to remember it and share it. It goes like this…

Kale Salad
Kale
Romaine
1 clove Garlic
1 Carrot
1 small handful of Parsley leaves, chopped
1 slice Lemon
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Sea Salt & Black Pepper to taste

I use a few Kale leaves, deveined, and a few Romaine leaves. It isn’t science, just a few of each. Chop the Kale into strips and chop the garlic. Place both in a bowl and sprinkle with salt and the juice of the lemon slice. Stir or massage the leaves with your fingers. This process helps take any bitterness out of the Kale. Let sit for a few minutes while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. Cut the carrot into matchsticks and add to the bowl. Add the parsley. Chop the Romaine and add. Sprinkle with the vinegar and oil and stir together. You can play around with the amounts, I always make it a little different and it always turns out great!

We roasted these portabellas with a little Balsamic vinegar and laid them on top of a salad with Romaine, grilled asparagus, sliced peppers, cukes, and herbs. I made a homemade vinaigrette to pour on top and sprinkled fresh chevre on top. It was so simple and delicious.

One of my favorite things to do with summer yellow squash, or crookneck as we used to call it growing up, is to saute it with Vidalia onions and tomatoes (add the tomatoes in right at the end so they don’t get too squishy). I realized this was an excellent topping for cheese grits. It made the best breakfast!

Cheese Grits with a Fried Egg on top, Pederson’s Uncured Bacon, & Sauteed Squash with Vidalia Onions, Cherry Tomatoes, and Basil.

Our first veggies from the garden this year were- potatoes that we forgot we planted! Surprise!

I had just brought home a mess of English Peas, too, so I made this yummy Creamed Peas with Potatoes dish I remember my grandmother on my Mom’s side, Nana, make just about every Sunday for dinner in the summer.

I called my Mom to make sure I knew how to prepare it. Simply boil the cut potatoes in a little water. Drain. Set aside. Do the same with the shelled peas. Make a roux with 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp flour. Add in a cup of milk, white pepper and salt. Add the potatoes and peas back in and cook for a few minutes to let the sauce thicken.

A dinner Nana would have approved of- Chicken Fried Chicken, Cucumber Salad, Creamed Peas with Potatoes, and Sauteed Squash and Onions.

Speaking of Sunday dinners… I can’t get enough of this new Gospel album from Elizabeth Cook. She’s knocked it out of the park with this one.

I adore this woman- she is beautiful, sweet as can be, and has the most amazing voice. She embodies the spirit of country music. Real country music. On top of all that beauty and talent, she is super smart and has this amazing courage to do what she wants to do, musically speaking. It’s a bit of a Waylon Jennings spirit and I admire it. Go by this album, Gospel Plow. You’ll love it! And enjoy this clip of her performing one of the songs from the album, which was released last week, on the David Letterman show. Incidentally, Dave also happens to be a big fan of hers.

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June 17, 2012 · 6:06 pm
August 28, 2011 · 11:47 pm

End of the Summer…

I can’t believe how fast this summer has come and (almost) gone. I thought it would be a good idea to post a couple of my favorite new concoctions we came up with this summer.

Grant came up with this one-pot wonder one night as a way to eat up all of our veggies from the garden. This is pure comfort food!

Big Smokey’s Southern Chicken Bog

3-4 chicken thighs, bone and skin on
¼ cup flour
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
sea salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp bacon fat or butter
1 small red, orange or yellow pepper, chopped
½ Vidalia onion, chopped
6-8 okra, cut in slices
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 Tbsp dried chopped rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cup white Basmati rice
3 cups stock

Heat a cast iron skillet on medium. Add bacon fat when pan is hot. While pan is heating, mix flour, spices, salt & pepper together in a bowl. Dredge chicken thighs in flour mixture. (Save flour mixture for use with okra.) Once pan is hot and bacon fat is sizzling, add chicken skin side down. Cook for 5-6 minutes, until skin side is a dark golden brown. Turn chicken over and continue to cook 5 more minutes. Put chicken aside. Add onion and pepper to pan. Dredge okra in remaining flour mixture and add to pan. Cook until onion and pepper is soft and okra is slightly brown. Add chopped tomato, rosemary, bay leaf, and cook for 5 more minutes until tomato starts to break down. Stir in rice. Salt and pepper a little more to taste. Nestle the chicken back into the mixture, skin side up. Add 2 cups of the stock. Reduce the heat to medium low. Let cook 15 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the stock. Stir mixture without turning the chicken. Add the remaining cup of stock and cook for 10 more minutes until rice is done to taste. Optional- last two minutes, turn pan on medium high and cook until a dark brown crust forms on the bottom of the rice (Lady Smokey is especially fond of how this makes a yummy crispy rice crust!). Remove pan from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. One pot wonder or serve with a side salad! Hot sauce is recommended. YUM!

And another meaty dish, this was inspired by our new found love of tomato gravy.


Tomato Smothered Chicken Fried Pork Chops
Serves 3

3 boneless pork chops
2 cups buttermilk
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
dash of cayenne pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
¼ cup grape seed oil
½ cup all purpose flour
dash of cayenne pepper
sea salt and black pepper to taste
2-3 fresh tomatoes, chopped

Heat oven to 400 degrees. You will want to use an iron skillet (or wide, oven proof skillet). Mix buttermilk and spices together in a bowl. Soak pork chops in buttermilk mixture for about an hour. Heat skillet to medium heat. Add grape seed oil (enough to fill your skillet ¼ inch deep). In another bowl, mix flour with another dash of cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Take the pork chops out of the buttermilk soak and place in flour mixture. Coat on both sides and place in skillet. Cook pork chops until golden brown on both sides (about 5 minutes on each side). Move pork chops to sides of pan. Add 2 Tbsp flour to middle of pan and stir in, mixing flour thoroughly to the oil in the pan to form a rue. Once you have a nice rue formed, add 2-3 chopped tomatoes. Place iron skillet in the oven for 10 more minutes to finish the pork and give the tomatoes time to break down. Place pork chop on a plate and spoon the tomato gravy over top.

Tomato Smothered Pork served with asparagus and sauteed corn.

We have so many friends who have new albums out or coming out in the next few weeks. It is very exciting and I look forward to listening to them all. This week, however, we were thrilled to get to see Connie Smith again and pick up a copy of her new album and her first release in 15 years, Long Line of Heartaches.

Connie Smith and guitarist Rick Wright at Grimey's Record Store August 2011.

One of the greatest voices in classic country music, Connie Smith grew up in West Virginia and Ohio. Bill Anderson first heard Connie Smith sing in a talent competition back in 1963 and he invited her to come sing in Nashville. She recorded the classic hits, “Once A Day” and “Cincinnati, Ohio,” and after almost a decade of country music stardom and hit songs, Connie left the spotlight to pursue motherhood and a gospel music career but remained an influential figure in country music. Dolly Parton once said that Connie Smith is the best female country singer. Many would agree. She also seems like a beautiful woman- inside and out. Locally, Connie Smith often performs on The Grand Ole Opry, with her husband of almost 15 years, Marty Stuart, on his  t.v. show on the RFD network, and she occasionally plays with her band, The Sun Downers (featuring the amazing Rick Wright on guitar), at the Station Inn. This month she is the Artist In Residency at the Country Music Hall of Fame.

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June 15, 2011 · 7:45 pm

Happy Birthday Waylon!

I love Waylon Jennings. There, I said it. I am reluctant to blog about my love of Waylon for fear of not appropriately conveying my feelings or somehow coming off sounding like a big cornball super fan but here it goes anyway… Of all the classic old school country musicians, Waylon is the one I most closely connect with. That cut-time drum beat just puts a smile on my face every single time. Any bad day is made better when I put my Nashville Rebel cds on. It started out as the music but now, it is so much more than just the music. After becoming close friends with folks who were near and dear to Waylon, I feel a true sense of kindred spirit.

Waylon grew up in Littlefield, Texas. He started out working in radio and began playing guitar. He became friends with Buddy Holly, played bass for him, and toured with him in the late 1950′s. Lucky for all of us, Waylon was not on that ill-fated plane trip that took Holly’s life. Waylon ended up in Arizona where he became a local celebrity with weekly gigs in a Phoenix bar. It was there that Bobby Bare first heard him and spread word to Nashville of his talents and unique sound.

Waylon moved to Nashville and took the world by storm but Waylon did things the way he wanted to do them, the way he felt was right. This attitude gave him his “outlaw” persona as he paved the way for many others who had their own ideas and didn’t want the cookie-cutter “Nashville Sound.” He used the musicians he wanted to use and gave those deserving a chance. He cared so deeply about those close to him.

Waylon was a really good man with a huge heart who left the world with some amazing music. For this, I am truly thankful. And in honor of what would have been his 74th Birthday, June 15th, I decided to cook up some of his favorite foods.

Beef seems an important ingredient in Texas cooking and Waylon, being a true Texan, loved chicken-fried steak. I happened to be living in Washington when the most recent publicized US (originating from WA) Mad Cow scare hit. I read way too many articles on the subject and decided right then and there that I could no longer support the commercial beef industry. Only in the last few weeks have I found beef in which I trust the source and know to be independently processed. I decided to allow it back in my diet, very minimally and under close scrutiny, and to Grant’s delight! So with this, I decided to cook up Waylon’s favorite dish. It went something like this.

Chicken Fried Steak
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 sirloin steaks
2 cups buttermilk
1 egg
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
dash of cayenne pepper
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
¼ cup grape seed oil
½ cup all purpose flour
dash of cayenne pepper
sea salt and black pepper to taste

Procedure:
Pound the steaks flat. Mix buttermilk, egg, spices together in a bowl. Soak steaks in buttermilk mixture for about an hour. Heat skillet to medium heat. Add grape seed oil (enough to fill your skillet ¼ inch deep). In another bowl, mix flour with another dash of cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Take steak out of buttermilk soak and place in flour mixture. Coat on both sides and place in skillet. Cook steak about 6-7 minutes on both sides. Pull out of skillet and drain on paper towels.

You can then make a milk gravy by adding flour to the leftover oil in skillet. Whisk together to blend, add salt, pepper, and milk and continue to whisk until desired thickness. Delicious over mashed potatoes and if you have any leftover gravy, you can serve with homemade biscuits the next morning!!!

We served the chicken fried steak with buttermilk mashed potatoes, milk gravy and artichokes (just in season and another Waylon favorite!).

And by the way, artichokes are an edible variety of thistle, in the sunflower family. They are shown to improve blood sugar control in diabetics and have been found to benefit heart activity and the gastrointestinal tract. Good thing, considering Grant and I decided after this meal that this definitely needs to be a once a year kind of a meal. In fact, we’ve decided to have this meal every June 15th from here on out! And we toasted the man who inspired it several times with this delicious red wine.

It should also be noted that the doggers LOVE the smell of chicken fried steak!

If Waylon were still with us, I would delight in making him lots and lots of pies. I think he might like Buttermilk Pie. Here’s my latest variation on this classic southern recipe made with Olive & Sinclair chocolate which is handmade in Nashville, minutes from our house.

Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Buttermilk Pie

Ingredients:
1 pie dough ball (Please never used store-bought!)
3 eggs
1½ cup organic cane sugar
½ cup organic unsalted butter
1 heaping tsp vanilla
½ cup buttermilk
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ Olive & Sinclair sea salt chocolate bar

Procedure:
Let the butter get to room temperature. Mix eggs, sugar, and butter together. Add vanilla, cinnamon and buttermilk. Place in uncooked, prepared pie shell. Shave chocolate bar over top. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 and bake for another 40-45 minutes.

Now go listen to some Waylon and give thanks for his contribution to this world! The Ernest Tubb Record Shop has an amazing collection of box sets available. You can also find Waylon merch at this site.

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May 21, 2011 · 4:12 am

SPRINGTASTIC!

I’ve been enjoying the heck out of these 13 year cicadas. They are so entertaining! I have a full photo account of their once- every 13 years- visit here.

We have also been enjoying our first Spring bottle of French Rosé. Nothing ushers in the warm weather better. Those Frenchmen really nailed it with that one. Lots of people shy away from the Rosés because they fear they are too fruity and sweet but the French Rosé is nice and dry. It is the perfect accompaniment to summer meals. Grant picked this one up at our favorite neighborhood shop, Woodland Wine Merchant.

I’ve been trying to get back on track with some healthy eating and with all the summer veggies on their way, it should be fun and easy!

There is tons of local kale available now and I keep trying to find more and more ways to slip it into our meals. Kale chips are one easy and fun way to enjoy kale. You can buy them but they are so expensive and they are so simple to make. I found this great recipe from Smitten Kitchen and pretty much followed her directions. I tossed a little olive oil, sea salt, and nutritional yeast on some organic Red Russian Kale from Delvin Farms, spread it out on a cookie sheet and baked at 300 for 30 minutes. We even crumbled some over popcorn one night. Yum!

We enjoyed this fancy (and chocked full of healthy goodness) slaw with Teriyaki salmon and some sweet brown rice with toasted sesame seeds. This was one of those meals that just made my body feel so clean and energized!

Fancy Tasting Asian Slaw
1 small green cabbage, finely chopped
1 small handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
a few big kale leaves, de-stemmed, chopped finely
1 carrot, grated
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1” fresh fresh ginger, finely grated
1 shallot, finely chopped

for the dressing:
2 tsp Umeboshi paste
2 tsp Nama Shoyu
3 tsp Mirin rice wine
3 Tbsp brown rice vinegar
3 Tbsp grape seed oil

Mix all vegetables together in a big bowl. Mix all dressing ingredients together with a fork or whisk and pour on top of veggies. Stir.

The other day, I overheard my co-worker mention that his wife liked to top turkey burgers with a yellow squash mixture. I didn’t even get the recipe or hear more than that one sentence and I could not stop thinking about it. One of my favorite summer vegetable dishes has always been yellow squash sauteed with Vidalia onions. I had to make it! Another co-worker gave me some garlic scapes today so I incorporated some of those in, too. Scapes are the tender green tops of young garlic. They are milder but really fresh and delicious.

Turkey Burgers with Squash & Onions
serves 3
1 lb ground turkey
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 small Vidalia onion, sliced in rings
1 yellow squash, sliced on an angle
1 zucchini squash, sliced length-wise
garlic scapes, chopped thin
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
whole wheat hamburger buns (we used local Provence)
Aged goat gouda (I used local Noble Springs Dairy Southall Gouda!)
grainy mustard

Saute the onions, squash, scapes in a pan, stirring occasionally. Salt & Pepper to taste. Set aside. Mix the ground turkey with the garlic powder and onion powder, salt & pepper. Grill or cook in a skillet on the stove. Place sliced cheese on bun and warm in oven or on grill. Place turkey burger on bun and top with sauteed veggies. Smear some grainy mustard on the top half of the bun and enjoy!

We enjoyed these burgers with some homemade potato chips!

Hand-Cut Oven Chips
serves 3
2 large Russet potatoes, washed and thinly sliced
1 cup brown rice vinegar
grape seed oil
sea salt freshly ground black pepper

Heat oven to 450. Fill a medium sized bowl with water and then add vinegar and stir. Place sliced potatoes (with skin on) in water and vinegar mixture. Place potatoes in one layer on a baking sheet lined with grape seed oil. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip them over (if they are thin enough, this is not necessary) and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove with a spatula and drain on a plate with paper towels on it. Repeat this process until all potatoes are cooked.

Know what else is totally awesome right now? STRAWBERRIES! All the local, organic ones are in and oh, so delicious.

My friend Meg gave me her Grandmother’s Buttermilk Pie recipe. It is so simple and very delicious. I rarely even eat much pie (yet I make them all the time) but there are a couple varieties that I do really love. This is one of them. I used local eggs and buttermilk, so fresh and delicious. The only thing I really changed about her recipe was the addition of the cinnamon and nutmeg. Then I topped with local, organic strawberries.

Buttermilk Pie with Fresh Strawberries
1 pie dough ball (Please never used store-bought!)
3 eggs
1 ½ cup organic cane sugar
½ cup organic unsalted butter
1 heaping tsp vanilla
½ cup buttermilk
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg

Mix eggs, sugar, and butter together. Add vanilla and buttermilk. Place in uncooked, prepared pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 and bake for another 40-45 minutes. Serve with fresh, sliced strawberries on top or to the side.

I’m still hooked on that NY Times Flat & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I found in Saveur and I wrote about months ago. I keep varying it, though, and my latest variation involved local Olive & Sinclair Sea Salt Chocolate and Coffee Chocolate bars with the special ingredient of fresh mint from the garden! I just chopped it up and threw it in. It was delicious.

Falling behind on my music posts but Allison and I have been busy planning the first Red Barn Round-Up of the season…

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March 4, 2011 · 7:26 am

Hey Y’all and Welcome to Nashville… (updated 02/16/2013)

Sparkly Opry Greeter, Horse, Hank’s suit

I frequently have friends who email to say they have friends or co-workers visiting Nashville and ask me to recommend a few places for them to visit. I LOVE Nashville and this request usually leads to about an hour or more of trying to write down all the things I would take them to see while they are visiting Nashville. I love doing this so much so that it is a little weird and I decided it might be nice to have all this information written up in an easy to view place and on the ready for those moments. So for this post, I veer slightly away from my topic of cooking but there will still be plenty of food and country music involved so hold on to your cowboy hat…

First off, you must turn your radio dial to 650AM. I don’t care if you are traveling by car, a rental, a cabbie, or if a friend picks you up, you must listen to WSM your entire visit with us. There is much more than country music in Nashville but this station tells the history of us. I know, I’ve only lived here for about six years but I now consider myself to be part of Nashville. So, ‘us’ it is.

Hall of Fame dj, Eddie Stubbs is quite a personality.

Eddie Stubbs hosting Music City Roots August 2010

There really is no one quite like him. He is a walking encyclopedia of country music history. His show of good old classics is on week nights and he also hosts the Grand Ole Opry on the weekends. Bill Cody and Charlie Mattos are quite the morning dj team, as well. While you are here you may find yourself wanting more of WSM. There are many ways to have it infiltrate your stay. You can walk by the studio while visiting the Opryland Hotel, go to live WSM events and when you go back home to wherever you came from, you can continue to listen to WSM via the world-wide web.

Let’s get right to the business of music. I suddenly realized a few months back that there is now a quintessential Nashville event for every night of the week. On Sunday nights you can catch a double shot of old school country music.

29- Santas

Santa’s Ice Cold Pickers at Santa’s Pub Sunday nights 7-9pm.

Chris Scruggs & Air Castle All Stars Sundays at The Stone Fox.

Chris Scruggs & Air Castle All Stars Sundays at The Stone Fox.

Start out at Santa’s Pub where you can hear some an awesome bunch of young musicians play classic tunes with different guest singers. They also have one Grant Johnson on guitar and Richard Bailey on banjo. They call themselves Santa’s Ice Cold Pickers. They play 7-9pm. Then head over to The Stone Fox for Chris Scruggs and The Air Castle All-Stars. These are the old-timers and some of the top players in town. These folks are legends (or at least have played with the legends)!

5spot

Famous in Nashville as simply “The Monday Night Dance Party,” KEEP ON MOVIN! is the wildly successful weekly dance party presented by Electric Western Records at The 5 Spot on Monday nights. While not country, it is pretty awesome. DJs Jacob Jones and Reno Bo spin a hand-selected mix of the most dance-able popular and obscure 50’s and 60’s Rock and Roll, Soul, old school R&B, Stax, Motown, Girl Groups, Doo Wop, Funk and Garage. Another one of my very favorite things to do on a Monday is head over to 12th South Tap Room for the trio of Kenny Vaughan, Jeffrey Clemens, and Dave Roe. These are three pros, some of the best in the business and all good people. Mondays are also Western Swing night. The amazingly talented and Grammy-nominated Time Jumpers play at 3rd & Lindsley every Monday night and it frequently sells out so go early. You won’t believe your ears, these folks are some of the best players in the world. The show costs $15. You really must experience this but if you just can’t spend the money, head down to Robert’s Western World for John England & The Western Swingers from 6pm-10pm. John England is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet and he always has some of the top players. Robert’s is a great honky-tonk. Stay for dinner, they have the best veggie burgers in town! In fact, they have a pretty good schedule all the time so whenever you have a few moments to spare, head on down and see who is playing. If you’re lucky, you might catch Grant Johnson playing his sparkly tele. Reminder: Always carry a little cash money. These hard working musicians really do depend on your tips to help pay their bills. This is what they do for a living and they work really hard.

On Tuesdays, The Grand Ole Opry has a show and many different venues around town host a local short sets night with about 5 different musicians or bands playing a few songs each. The Basement calls theirs, New Faces Nite. The Family Wash in East Nashville has $10 Pie (Shepherd’s, that is) and Pint Night with short sets. This is where some of the best sidemen in town come for a pint or pie and they’re likely to end up on stage. Be sure to check out both these places for music schedules all week.

Luke Doucet & Melissa McClelland 2010, Patterson Hood & David Barbe 2010 @ The Basement

Dave Alvin 2010, Family Wash, DB Harris & The Men of Action 2009

Also on Tuesdays, Derek Hoke hosts $2 Tuesdays at The 5 Spot each week with some of the finest up-and-coming rock and Americana bands in town. Sometimes there is even a little bluegrass! It only costs $2 to get in and there are plenty of Yazoo (local) brews on tap for only $2 a pint! You never know who will show up and end up on stage…

Derek Hoke & Band joined by John Ramberg & Peter Buck from Seattle, Grant & Derek, and Caitlin Rose at $2 Tuesdays at The 5 Spot

On Wednesdays you will have some good options. From 2:30-6pm at Robert’s, you can sometimes hear Rachael Hester sing all your favorite old country classics. She always has some of the best players and an amazing voice! She’s the real deal. You can drive out to the Loveless Cafe for dinner and then catch Music City Roots live radio broadcast in the Loveless Barn.

Dale Watson on Music City Roots 2010, Jewly Hight’s book release party at Music City Roots 2011

My very favorite music venue of all time and one of my favorite places in the world, in fact, is the Ryman Auditorium. If you get a chance to go to a show here, please do. If not, at least experience the guided tour. This place breathes history. It is some kind of amazing. I’ve been on multiple tours, shows, backstage a few times when friends (or husband!) were playing, a job interview (no such luck), and I walk past it all the time and I never get used to its magnificent presence. If this building were a person, she’d be my hero.

Grant playing on the stage of the Ryman with Jon Langford & his Fabulous Nashville band. June 2007

Another favorite venue is the legendary Station Inn. This place is the home of Bluegrass music. Everyone has played here and a little bit of history is everywhere you look here. Its one of friendliest places around, too. Be sure to check out their calendar of events and plan accordingly.

station inn 2

Bobby Bare (w/ Gary Kubal on drums and Grant Johnson on guitar) at The Station Inn Dec 2012

Mike Bub & Chris Scruggs and Chatham County Line at The Station Inn

Other venues whose music calendars you should check are: The Stone Fox, The Basement, The 5 Spot, The FooBar, The Mercy Lounge, 3rd & Lindsley, Exit In, 12th & Porter, The Bluebird Cafe, The High Watt, Marathan Music Works, Tennessee Performing Arts Center, The Franklin Theatre, The Nashville Symphony… Pick up weekly rag, The Scene, for complete listings.

Sturgill Simpson at The High Watt, Nashville. January 19, 2013.

Sturgill Simpson at The High Watt, Nashville. January 19, 2013.

Jason Isbel at The Franklin Theatre Jan 2012

DB Harris & The Men of Action and Heath Haynes @ Robert’s Western World

Sarah Gayle Meech and band playing on Lower Broadway June 2011.

Be sure to catch Sarah Gayle Meech on Fridays and Saturday afternoons at Layla’s Bluegrass Inn 4pm-8pm. They play at Robert’s a few times a month, too! You can catch her occasionally at other venues around town, singing her original songs. She’s a lot of fun and they always put on a good show.

Jesse McReynolds, Opry Square Dancers, Marty Stuart & The Fabulous Superlatives @ The Opry

Friday is a great night to catch the Grand Ole Opry! During the winter, the Opry returns to it’s original home at the Ryman Auditorium. And after wards, head on over to Layla’s Bluegrass Inn on Lower Broadway to see Hillbilly Casino at 10pm, when they are in town. These guys are amazing with their high energy rockabilly country goodness.  Always fun and an amazing group of musicians, you must see also Brazilbilly next door to Layla’s at Robert’s Western World 10pm-2am Fridays and Saturdays.

Hillbilly Casino @ Opryland at Christmastime 2008

Brazilbilly at Roberts 10pm-2am Robert's Western World.

Brazilbilly at Roberts 10pm-2am Robert’s Western World.

Saturday is another opportunity to see the Opry but there are always other fun events happening as well… The first Saturday of every month is Art Walk and all the galleries downtown open up their new exhibits from 6pm-8pm. Be sure to walk through the Arcade and pick up a guide to all the other galleries around town. Grab some dinner and maybe some honky-tonkin’ and then head out to Ernest Tubb’s Midnight Jamboree over on Music Valley Drive. They now record the show at 10pm for radio the following week. We’ve seen some amazing performers on stage at the Texas Troubadour Theater for free and the audience is usually made up of lots of old timers and locals so there is sure to be some good people watching and fun times.

Charlie Louvin on the Midnight Jamboree July 2007

Another fun musical adventure to check out on the weekends is the Bluegrass Underground concert series in the cave at Cumberland Caverns in McMinnville, TN. It is truly awe inspiring, one of the most amazing places I have ever been to witness live music.

cave-1

cave-3

The Time Jumpers and Jim Lauderdale performing at Cumberland Caverns.

cave-2

They don’t call it Music City for nothing- Nashville is loaded with history and there are many tours and exhibits all around town to educate you and give you some deeper insight. Our buddy Bill DeMain leads one of the best walking tours ever, Walkin’ Nashville- Music City Legends Tour. For $16, you get a downtown musical history tour filled with many colorful stories. Bill is a real gem.

Other Favorite Tours and Museums: Country Music Hall of Fame, Hatch Show Print (I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!), Ryman Auditorium, United Record Pressing (Amazing!), The Tennessee State Museum, The Frist Art Museum, Opry Museum, Cheekwood Botanical Gardens, Fontanel Mansion, Natchez Trace (beautiful drive!), Dukes of Hazzard Museum (haha!), Nash Trash Tour,, or you can enjoy some classic country music while you float down the Cumberland River on The General Jackson Showboat!

CountryMusicHallofFame

United Record Pressing

United Record Pressing

Hatch Show Print

Hatch Show Print

The Frist Art Museum

Jon Langford & mural, Buddy Miller & Emmylou Harris at special events @ TN State Museum

My friend Kathy modeling beside the General Lee at the Duke’s of Hazzard Museum!

The Natchez Trace, Building in Lieper’s Fork, country drive

The General Jackson

The General Jackson

Favorite Restaurants and Shopping Adventures-

Arnold’s is only open for lunch Monday – Friday!

Miller’s Grocery- make reservations for weekend brunch!

Southern Food: Monells, Arnolds, Jack’s BBQ (on Trinity Lane), Prince’s Hot Chicken, Edley’s BBQ, The Southern, The Loveless Cafe, , Eastside Fish, Puckett’s Grocery in Leiper’s Fork, Miller’s Grocery in Christiana (they have music on the weekends- look for The Howling Brothers, I love these guys!), River Cafe in Normandy (and you can rent a kayak here to take down the Duck River!)

Margot’s in the heart of East Nashville

Nicer, More Expensive, Delicious Food: Margot, City House, Silly Gooose, Eastland Cafe, Lockeland Table, Watermark, Rolf & Daughters, Miel, and The Catbird Seat.

Silly Goose in East Nashville serves delicious, local and seasonal dishes.

City House Restaurant in Germantown

Less Expensive, not Southern, and probably delicious no matter where you are from: Slo-Co has the most delicious seasonal and sustainably sourced sandwiches. The Family Wash, Burger Up, Smiling Elephant Thai, Mas Tacos, The Pharmacy, Far East Nashville, Miss Saigon, The Wild Cow, Mitchell Deli, Sunflower Cafe,  and Korea House are also favorites.

Spring rolls @ Smiling Elephant Thai on 8th Avenue

Watering Holes: Village Pub, 3 Crow, Patterson House, No. 308, The Flying Saucer, The Oak Bar (at The Capitol Grill in the Hermitage Hotel), Bobby’s Idle Hour…

Bang Candy Company serves lunch and delicious sweet treats in a great little cafe.

Bang Candy Company serves lunch and delicious sweet treats in a great little cafe.

Coffee and Yummies: Barista Parlor, Crema, Las Paletas, Sweet 16th Bakery, Bobby’s Dairy Dip, Hot & Cold, Pied Piper Creamery, Jeni’s Ice Cream, Bang Candy Company…

The Turnip Truck in East Nashville on the left and new store in the Gulch on right.

For groceries or a quick and delicious meal, go to The Turnip Truck! There are 2 locations- East Nashville which has deli items, a soup bar, and lots of groceries and supplements and one in The Gulch which has all that and a hot and cold bar. And check out our Farmer’s Markets! We are proud of all our local farmers! There is one big one downtown (eat lunch at Jamaica Way!) and lots of little ones all around town. Also, be sure to check out the Nashville Flea Market!

Jamaica Way is one of my favorite restaurants but be warned- they are closed on Saturdays!

Flea Market Weekend!

Some favorite shopping spots: Imogene & Willie (amazing space, handmade jeans), Katy K’s (western wear, all around great place), Billy Reid, Manuel’s (rhinestone and embroidery legend), Country Music Hall of Fame gift shop, Old Made Good, Antique Archaelogy has a new location in Marathon Village, some amazing handmade boots and bags can be found at Peter Nappi’s studio in Germantown, Ann Patchett’s bookstore Parnassus Books is a must, Grimey’s (awesome shop for cds, albums), Ernest Tubb Record Store, The Grove (East Nashville record shop), Third Man Records (Jack White’s shop), plus there are many vintage (Hip Zipper, Fanny’s, Pre to Post Modern, Local Honey, Boomerang, Flashback Vintage…) and thrift shops (Southern Thrift, Music City Thrift…) all around town!

Collection of cowboy hats, jean patterns, old sign- interior of Imogene & Willie on 12th South

We also have sports- Nashville Rollergirls, Hockey, Football, Minor League Baseball, wrestling… And there are many, many fun things happening all the time. This is simply a little list of some of my favorite things. I will continue to update as I remember things I have forgotten to include or as new and exciting happenings surface. Enjoy your stay in Music City, USA!

Singing & Dancing in Nashville

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February 20, 2011 · 2:50 am

Songs of Spring, Farmer’s Market Dinners, and Channeling the Greek Isles

I have to admit, for a moment there I was worried the climate change was all coming to a head and I feared I would never make it out of winter to feel the warmth of the sun again. OK, that is an exaggeration, I will admit. I know it isn’t THAT cold but it has been rough this winter for us Southerners. This morning as I walked through Shelby Bottoms with the doggers, though, we heard the wild, deafening, mating songs of the toads and now I know that Spring is indeed on the way! That’s southern country singing at its finest! I know that soon all the other crazy summer sounds of the South will fill the air and comfort me.

I can’t help but feel that our recent culinary experimentation- channeling the food of the Greek islands- has had something to do with that. We’ve been real busy day dreaming of warmer climates which has led to many Greek salads and Mediterranean inspired dishes. It all started with those lemon roasted potatoes a few weeks back. Two of my favorite ingredients lately have been these: lemon stuffed olives which we have to order by mail and Tennessee’s own Bonnie Blue Farm marinated goat’s milk feta.

We created this chicken recipe below and ate it with some good crusty bread and a Greek salad made with the aforementioned olives and feta along with some red onion, red pepper, olive oil, lemon, fresh parsley, salt and pepper.

I Wish I Was In The Greek Isles Chicken
serves 2

Ingredients:
2 Springer Mt. Farms chicken breasts
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1½ tsp sea salt
1½ tsp fresh ground black pepper
juice of ½ lemon
3 tsp dried oregano
½ white onion, chopped
1 Tbsp capers
1 cup canned whole tomatoes
1 pinch of sugar

Directions:
Coat the chicken breasts with 2 Tbsp olive oil, garlic cloves, ½ tsp of the salt and pepper, the lemon juice and 1 tsp oregano. Let sit for 1-2 hours. Heat olive oil in an iron skillet on medium high. Add onions and saute until soft but not browned. Add the chicken and marinade into pan. Brown the chicken breasts on one side for about 3-5 minutes. Flip. Add the remaining ingredients, squishing the tomatoes in your hands as you add them to the skillet. Add more lemon, the remaining oregano, salt & pepper to taste. Turn heat down to medium low, cover pan and cook 10-12 minutes until chicken is done and sauce has reduced somewhat.

We ate this yummy dinner the other night just before heading out to FooBar to catch the Hackensaw Boys from Virginia. We heard their first album about seven or eight years ago while living in Seattle and really fell in love with their sound. They are a fun fast mix of old timey hillbilly music and bluegrass. We sort of lost track of them but they’ve had a couple albums out since and were on tour to support a new release called, “The Old Sound of Music Vol.1 ” They put on a fun show and we’ve been enjoying the new album ever since.

Hackensaw Boys at FooBar 02/05/2011

I’ve always heard about the Franklin Farmer’s Market but it happens every Saturday morning and until just recently, I had to work on Saturday mornings. We finally checked it out and were delighted to discover a cart with handmade cinnamon sugar donuts amongst our favorite local farmers such as Delvin Farms, Hatcher Family Dairy, and Noble Springs Dairy goat milk cheese.We had lunch at Gulf Pride Seafood in the Factory… The gumbo and shrimp po boy sandwich were  delicious! Thanks Kristin, for the recommendation! We then came home and made a Farmer’s Market Dinner with all our local finds.

We made fried chicken with local chicken from West Wind Farm, roasted potatoes and turnips from Delvin Farms, and coleslaw with cabbage from Delvin Farms. Grant made a tomato gravy for a complete Southern dinner! We’ve seen several variations for tomato gravy. We opt for the non-Italian version. He simply made a rue with Hatcher Family Dairy homemade butter (this was the key ingredient!) and White Lily flour. He added some tomato paste and hot sauce to the chicken stock that he then added to the rue.

I talk about Shrimp & Grits often and Grant has his favorite way of preparing this classic Southern dish but we keep thinking of new ways to incorporate leftovers and I am starting to think that perhaps all leftovers lead to Shrimp & Grits because that tomato gravy made the perfect base for Shrimp & Grits!

Another new recipe I came up with recently is this one for Cranberry Rosemary Walnut Bread. I love buying extra cranberries at Thanksgiving and freezing them to use later in the year as they aren’t always easy to find during non-Thanksgiving times. So many recipes pair cranberries with citrus but I am not such a big fan of this combination. I was thinking about rosemary and how it is in season all year ’round here and that it might be nice to add a savory characteristic to a classic sweet bread.

(By the way- I got a new ceramic loaf pan. Giada De Laurentiis has a new line of cookware available at Target. You know, the woman with the simple Italian cooking show on the Food Network. She’s beautiful and the whole time you are watching you can’t stop thinking, “How is this woman so skinny? There’s no way she eats her own cooking!” Well, I am super excited about her bakeware. Go check it out!)

Cranberry Walnut Rosemary Bread

makes 1 large loaf

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup White Lily all purpose flour
½ tsp sea salt (I used homemade rosemary salt)
1 ½ tsp baking powder (I used homemade)
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
2 eggs, beaten
¾ cup organic cane sugar
¼ organic brown sugar
¼ cup melted butter, cooled
¾ cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped fresh (or frozen) cranberries

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl,mix together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, nuts, and rosemary.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix eggs and sugar until combined. Add buttermilk, butter, and vanilla.
4. Slowly add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir with a spatula until just combined. Add cranberries.
5. Pour batter into loaf pan and bake for 45-60 minutes or until a toothpick entered into the center of the loaf comes out clean.

I’ll close this post as I usually do, with a pie..

We were invited to a Super Bowl Party. You can’t grow up in the South without knowing at least the basics of football but I don’t really follow it now as an adult. We do, however, have lots of friends now who are all Green Bay Packer fans so I decided to make an Apple Cheddar Pie (green apples and yellow cheese- for Wisconsin and Green Bay color scheme, get it?). I think it helped make up for the fact that we aren’t football fans. It went something like this…

Apple Cheddar Pie

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour (I use White Lily)
2 sticks unsalted organic butter
6-7 Tbsp ice water
1 ½ cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
5 granny smith apples
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
¾ cup organic cane sugar

Pie Dough
(Makes a double crust for a ten inch pie, or 2 ten inch tart shells.)

Place flour, butter, and salt in food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse 24 times. (I use my hands instead of a food processor and it works just fine!  You get a good work out and there’s less to clean up.  If you use your hands, be gentle- your objective is to make the butter into little crumbs or grains, not to mush it all together, do not over mix. Slow down.) The largest pieces of butter should be the size of grains of rice. Transfer mixture from food processor to large bowl. Mix grated cheese in. Sprinkle with 6 T of ice water. Make your hand into a claw as if you are trying to grab a basketball one handed, and using your rigid claw hand, stir dough briefly until the liquid is incorporated. Squeeze a handful of dough in your palm. It should have just enough moisture to stay together. If it seems dry and crumbly, add more water a teaspoon at a time until you can squeeze it into a ball that doesn’t crumble when broken apart. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for at least 15 minutes. Roll out onto floured surface as quickly as you can. Keep the second dough ball in the fridge until you are ready for it.

Pie
Peel the apples. Cut, core, and chop them. Mix them with the lemon juice and sugar and pour into pie shell. Roll second pie dough out and lay over top of the pie. Pinch the edges and cut a few slits in the top with a sharp knife. Using a pastry brush, brush the top with an egg white. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes and then 350 for 35 minutes.

Happy Eating and go support your local music scene!

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November 30, 2010 · 7:58 pm

Thankful for Food!

Thanksgiving 2010

I couldn’t let my memories of Thanksgiving go undocumented! One of my favorite things about the holidays is cooking and eating and Lord knows we did our share this past week. Grant and I have had so many family and friend visits these past few months, we decided to spend this Thanksgiving with each other and spent the entire day cooking and eating in our pjs. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do on Thanksgiving anyway?

Leftovers. Bird's eye view.

We enjoyed a classic NW breakfast consisting of bagels (from our awesome new neighborhood bagel shop, Bagel Face Bakery), cream cheese, and lox while thinking of Grant’s family in the great Pacific Northwest. (Notice Lighthouse Roasters’ coffee mug for added, purely coincidental, effect!)

For a lunch snack, we had the perfect appetizer which has been a tradition in Grant’s family for quite awhile- Texas Tandies! Grant’s Mom got the recipe for these from a family friend in Texas and they quickly became a family favorite. My family likes them now, too!

Texas Tandies

2 cups grated sharp cheddar
1 stick chilled butter
1 cup of flour
pinch of sea salt to taste
pinch of cayenne to taste
½ tsp Tabasco
1 tsp of Worchester
2 Tbsp Water
Pecans

Cut chilled butter into small pieces and mix with flour until grainy. Add cheese, salt, and cayenne.  Mix liquids and sprinkle into mixture until dough just holds together.  Form into two balls and wrap with plastic.  Refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Pre-heat oven to 350 and roll out dough onto a floured surface.  Cut out with a small round cookie cutter and gently press a pecan onto each cookie… Bake at 350 for 12 minutes or so. Let them cool for about ½ an hour (if possible!).
Good with Ice Cold Beer or Bollinger!

Since it was just the two of us, Grant decided to get a turkey breast rather than an entire turkey. He de-boned it and flattened it and then stuffed it with the most amazing dressing ever. Recipe soon to follow…

He first seared the turkey in an iron skillet on the stove and then cooked it in the oven until done. It was super delicious!!!

As is customary in my family, we had way too many side dishes but I just couldn’t narrow it down. I made roasted carrots and parsnips and glazed them with a mixture of butter, honey,  balsamic vinegar, and a little sea salt and black pepper. They were super simple, very pretty and quite delicious.

We also made Brussels Sprouts seasoned with a tiny bit of Spanish chorizo! Grant is a genius for coming up with this!

We tried a completely new idea of a dish for us, too, Braised Leeks. They were interesting and went well with the mashed potatoes and gravy but weren’t the most amazing thing we had ever tasted by any stretch of the imagination. As for those mashed potatoes, I tried to channel my step dad, Larry, who makes the best mashed potatoes, and therefore, did not skimp on the butter! They were delightfully fluffy and a perfect vehicle for the gravy.

Now about that dressing… Grant got this recipe spot on this year. It was the perfect blend of sweet and savory, moist and crispy, nutty and fruity. He used some to stuff the turkey breast and the rest, he cooked in a baking dish and we ate on the side.

Apricot Pecan Dressing

2 tsp butter (or bacon fat)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 cups hearty Artisanal bread (we used a crusty rosemary bread), cut into cubes
1-2 cups chicken stock
2 Tbsp fresh sage, chopped
½ cup pecans, coarsely chopped
¼ cup dried apricots, chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Saute onion, garlic, and celery in butter until soft. Mix bread cubes, sage, pecans, and apricots together in a large bowl. Add the onions, garlic, celery and mix thoroughly. Add stock until mixture is well moistened but not too wet.  Adjust seasoning to taste with salt and pepper. Place mixture in a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes covered and then 30 more minutes uncovered to crisp the top.

Oh, and there was wine. We enjoyed a lovely Oregon Pinot Noir from A to Z and a pumpkin pie with pecan crumble for dessert.

I know there are many pecan pie fans out there and I have a great recipe for it which I adapted from an Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock recipe but I much prefer pumpkin pie. Since there are only two of us, I decided to try to combine the two holiday favorites and created a pumpkin pie with a pecan crumble top. It worked quite well. So well, that I ended up taking one down to Robert’s Western World Thanksgiving night and two more to our last Red Barn Round-Up of the year this past Sunday. What a great Round-Up it was as we were fortunate enough to have the very musically talented and artistically savvy Julie Lee perform as well as Mister Paul Burch. If you haven’t heard their latest albums, the holidays are the perfect time because both would make excellent gifts! And while you are at it, you can also buy some of Julie’s art work! What better time to support local art?

So here is the pumpkin pie recipe. Please remember to make your own crust. You can find my recipe here.

Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Crumble Top

1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp freshly ground ginger
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp arrowroot (or cornstarch)
1 1/2 cups of roasted pumpkin, pureed
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 extra large eggs
1 cup coconut milk

for crumble top:
1 cup pecans, toasted & ground
½ cup flour
½ cup sugar (I use organic cane sugar)
½ cup unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the pumpkin open and into four wedges, clean the seeds out (I roasted them up with a little salt for a yummy snack!), cut the strings out and rub the inside with a little olive oil and place face down in a baking dish. Bake for about an hour, until the pumpkin is tender when forked. Once cooled, scoop out the flesh and mix well in a blender or food processor. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Stir together brown sugar, salt, arrowroot. Add the pumpkin, vanilla, maple syrup, eggs and mix well. Then, add the coconut milk and gently stir. Pour into the unbaked pie shell. Bake for 15 minutes and then turn oven down to 350 degrees for another 40 minutes (set timer for 20 minutes, though, as you will need to add the crumble top!).

Make the crumble top. Grind roasted pecans in a food processor or chop very finely. You can then add the other ingredients to the food processor or mix by hand. Be very careful and open oven door and quickly but gently crumble the topping over the pumpkin pie. Bake for the remainder 20 minutes or until pie is set.

Lots of good music coming up this month so I should have lots to report… I am also super excited about a new cookbook we picked up at McCay’s used books this past weekend. It has recipes of Barcelona! If we can’t visit Spain, at least we can eat like we did.

Enjoy all your holiday baking!

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