Cabbage Wraps with Garlic-Peanut Sauce

If this looks like a rabbit meal, it is. My friend has to eat like one for health reasons, and so any time I happen to think of a meal that's not salad with chicken and that stays within the strictly meat and green veggie realm, I get excited and tend to cook up the meal ASAP.

Voila, Cabbage Wraps, served with Coconut Rice.

(As I type this, I can't believe I am just now blogging about about sweet, nutty Coconut Rice, pretty much the best form of white starch ever).

The serving line looked like a Thai taco bar, with more veggies and no cheese. Carrots added crunch, and the Garlicky Peanut Sauce a strong kick of spice and nuttiness.

Savoy  Cabbage looked like the prettiest wrapper to me because of its rippled texture and curly edges. It was also super sturdy, and my cabbage washing assistant discovered it can hold water, no leaks, like a cup.


If I were to make it again, I would...

• thin out the sauce with some water so it spreads its punch more evenly over the chicken.
• add another bell pepper and maybe some mushrooms and other veggies.
• double it for leftovers, and for the love of Coconut Rice.

Ham Party Sandwiches with Roasted Red Pepper

Party ‘wiches is in the house tonight
Everybody just have a hammm time
And they gonna make you lose your mind
Everybody just have a cheeese time

In the midst of writing this post, I realized just how trashy pop lyrics are. And I couldn’t go on writing my awfully horribly terribly cheesy version of “Party ‘Wiches,” fifth grade change-the-lyrics-for-a-project style. LMFAO like doesn’t even use real words half the time: gonna, drank (as a noun), reppin’ (whatever that is?), zeppelin (like Led Zeppelin?), shufflin’—what?

If I still have your attention after all that blabbering about nothing, these sandwiches will wow a party. They are served hot 'n toasty. They are cheesy. They have a touch of sweetness. There's butter involved. I don't even really like ham, and I find the taste a treasure-filled delight.

It's one of those recipes that has circled potluck circuits millions of times, so I added some roasted red pepper (they are so funky to roast!) to do something unique for the blogosphere and add a touch of pretty to my picture. But the pepper really didn't add that much to the taste, so don't bother with it unless you just feel like it.

One last round of horrible lyric editing just came out below. You don't have to read it, unless you just want all the more fodder for poking fun at me.

One more ‘wich for us, another round
Please fill up my plate, don't mess around
We just wanna see you eat it now
Now you wanna be, you're hungry now

Enchiladas [with Scratch-Made Sauce]

Dear Saveur, Thank you for styling your enchiladas with onion rings so that my enchiladas could be purdy too. Dear Cooking Light, props on setting the precedent with a recipe for from-scratch enchilada sauce that was much simpler than Saveur's uber authentic one. Dear cream cheese and cheddar cheese, You make everything better. Queen of examples: extra proportions on casseroles.

Dear Teacher Friend C., Even though you were tired and recovering from lingering sickness, you came for Blonder Than She Pays to Be on Monday. You said you came "for the food" after I sent my menu email. That makes my (prideful) heart happy.
Dear Joy the Baker, Your Orange and Avocado Salad paired perfectly with my enchiladas for wintertime. Thanks for your recipe brilliance.

Dear creative inspiration, why do you come so late at night as I type this post? I want to be a better morning person! Dear Today's Letters, I love the honest intentionality with which you express yourself in the blogosphere and with which you seem to live your life. Hopefully you will be okay that I copycatted your style in this post.

Southwestern Chicken Mac and Cheese

Y'all, nothing says comfort like

cheese

cheese

cheese!

And cheese is only made better by

chicken, 

Mexicany things,

(like peppers and onions and cumin and chile powder)

and

pasta!

Here's the math I did to get this pot of gold*:

Southern Living King Ranch Chicken Mac and Cheese Idea

-Some butter

-Cream of Chicken Soup Yuck

-Velveeta Double Yuck

+Cooking Light Mac and Cheese No-White-Sauce Method

+Lighter Dairy

+More (Not Light) Cheese

______________________________________

Creamy Comfort with Flair and Just Enough Richness

Worth Making Once for Monday Night Girls with Leftovers for Roommates

And then again for Family with Twin Newborns

With Enough for Weeknight Surprise for My Parents

*I really think most Southern Living recipes need to be lighted up and rid of processed junk Cooking Light style and most Cooking Light recipes need to simplified and given a little more sinfuless Southern Living style so that you end up with beauties like this.

Ratatouille: A last summer veggie hoorah

According to Slate, the movie had it wrong. Ratatouille is not fancy French fare but rather a stew that originated with peasants who were trying to get a less-work meal out of as many late summer veggies as possible.

And indeed it was quite doable and, better yet, delivered delish summer freshness in a warm hint-of-fall package, all the more glorious when shared with crusty bread on a late summer evening filled with crisply cool air. Even my friend on a quirky diet for health reasons could fully enjoy it in all its strictly vegetableness. And we topped it with some chicken and Parmesan for a little added flair and protein,

So what was the ratatouille inspiration? None other than result number four of a Google search for "eggplant zucchini tomato" (my local food booty for the week). 

Slate also noted that the key to the dish is that all the veggies have to cook for different amounts of time, so I made sure to study up on some recipes and their order.

Bonus: Buy Ratatouille ingredients, plus grab pizza dough (love me some Publix bakery!) and mozzarella (and goat if you like) cheese, and you can have this pizza. I topped the dough with (in this order) olive oil, chopped garlic, sliced fresh mozzarella, a sprinkling of crumbled goat cheese, tomato and zucchini slices, a drizzle of olive oil and dried basil.

Shrimp and Avocado Salad with Greek Yogurt Remoulade

Inspiration: Fancy French lunch of Shrimp and Avocado Salad and warm bread and butter at Chez Fon Fon in Five Points.

Adaption: Greek yogurt as the only source of creaminess (no mayo!) plus freshly shucked corn, because it grabbed my eye in its husks at the store. Also, serving with warm grainy bread and freshly picked berries from Witt Farm in Hayden with whipped cream (as in whipped whipping cream, the real deal).

Setting: Adirondack chairs on the front porch while the air chilled as the sun went down, a ladies' luncheon in the eveningtime because we ladies have jobs. Being real with one another. Bliss.

Variation: We ate this with grilled chicken with Cajun seasonings instead of shrimp for Easter lunch.

Sausage, Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole (The Real Way)

While there's still a tiny bit of winter left, let's talk about comfort food: creamy casserole yumyum.

My grandmother and mom rocked many a dinner party with company-special Sausage and Wild Rice Casserole. But when I made their recipe with creamed soup a few years ago, my increasing cook-from-scratch snobbery overtook me and made me shelve it with other childhood favorites that had lost their luster like Chicken Sour Cream. To the majority of the world who loves boiled chicken mixed with sour cream and cream of chicken soup, and who actually has to put dinner for more than one person on the table in limited time, not to mention making it kid-friendly, power to you, and my apologizes for any snobbish hating in this post.

All that is to say that I tried my hand at the creamy, mushroomy, sausage and chicken and wild rice-filled casserole, no canned goods allowed. It comforted with its creamy, hearty goodness without that so-rich intensity that leaves you feeling a little like you drank a cup of cream and butter, sprinkled with buttery crackers.

The secrets to a from-scratch creamy casserole:
1. Start with lots of veggies.

2. Add 'shrooms, meat and wine.
3. Add flour and low-fat milk to make a cream sauce, and then some cheese and sour cream.
4. Stand over the stove for forever while it all cooks down, before you pour it on top of rice to bake.
5. Add salt. Because there ain't none in there unless you add it.

Disclaimer: This project is only worth undertaking if:
1. You have several hours on a weekend where you just feel like cooking, and by cooking, I mean chopping lots of veggies and meat, cooking meat, cooking veggies, cooking sauce, cooking rice, assembling it all and cleaning many dishes (phew).

2. You have lots of people to feed. Out of this batch, I got (1) meal to encourage friends healing from/caretaking after surgery, (1) homemade dinner gift for my parents, and (2) meals for yours truly.

3. You value (a) the art of casserole comfort and (b) making things from scratch.

Oh, I forgot my favorite part: the (optional) almond topper. That and parsley make a brown casserole more purdy.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Things that make me happy:
1. Celebrations involving food
2. Getting introduced to local restaurants
3. Menu items that make me say, "Wow!"

More specifically:
1. My friend Katie's bachelorette party
2. Cabana in Nashville, which was full of Southern food with a twist
3. Tennessee Sliders: mini sweet potato biscuits with peach preserves and fried chicken

 My attempt at replication:
1. Lunch/life catch-up session with Hannah
2. My house
3. Biscuits ala Paula Deen stuffed with fried chicken from Publix and some peach preserves, served with an arugula salad

Good, but but quite as good as the original three.

Also on the list to replicate from this restaurant:
1. Lemon poppyseed bread pudding
2. Sweet potato ravioli with spiced pecans, prosciutto, mustard greens and sorghum sage butter, ohmygoodness
3. Gathering of a particularly wonderful cohort of college friends. Good news: already on the calendar for the next one in line to become an Mrs. Jackson, Mississippi, here we come; you'd better have some places worthy of celebrating a bride of this par.

(This post officially proves the strength of my love of lists, just to self proclaim my nerdiness.)

Autumn Pasta with Butternut Squash, Greens, Bacon, and Brown Butter

Tastes-like-fall butternut squash pairs well in pasta dishes, as I learned last year at this time thanks to some fancy food dinners around Birmingham.

There was the herbed goat cheese ravioli with butternut squash, onions, bacon, shaved parmigiano-reggiano, sage, brown butter and sauteed mustard greens at Satterfield's.  And then a similar butternut-bacon-greens pasta at Bottega Cafe. Both were obvious choices in my order-something-unique-while-I'm-eating-out menu quest and more than pleased my palate.

Butternut squash and mustard greens came home with me from the farmer's market a few weeks ago, and while pondering what to do with my attempts to eat like fall, I remembered how badly I wanted to make my own version of the butternut pasta delight. Delish.

Chicken Pasta Salad: Updated Church Potluck Edition

This creamy pasta salad with a kick got passed around on the official  ladies' luncheon circuit in the church where I grew up. Last year my friends and I discovered why it was so popular and started making it for picnics and such in the summer. The creamy oil-and-vinegar dressing  melds with finely chopped onion and bell pepper, parsley and veggies for a uniquely delicious and refreshing main dish.

To lighten and enhance the original potluck recipe with its tons of mayo and oil, I subbed Greek yogurt for some of the mayo, stepped the vinegar up to red wine vinegar, make the oil olive oil, and cut it the oil quantity. You can take the basic recipe and make it your own; I just recommend you don't leave out the Creole seasoning and dill.

This photo op was at a picnic shower a friend and I threw for a baby whose arrival we are anticipating any day now and her lovely mother. The great thing about pasta salad is that you can make it ahead of time, and it's all ready to go at party time. The recipe makes a ton and requires a giant bowl to toss, so be forewarned. Leftovers only get better...until the chicken gets old that is.

Veal Marsala

(For those of you who don’t eat veal for ethical reasons, my apologies for my cruel, carnivorous tendencies. Please ignore this post.)

Somewhere in the maturation of my taste buds, my dad’s most requested special occasion dinner became my own: tender, flour-coated veal cutlets topped with a mushroom-marsala wine sauce. I was lucky to inherit his good taste in food, be it by nature or nurture.

I’ve tried the dish in many a restaurant that makes it taste good but never on par with my mom’s recipe, which is funny now that I have learned how (relatively) simple it is to make: dredge veal in flour, cook in butter, add wine, cook wine with mushrooms and beef broth for a while, the end.

So for Father’s Day last week guess what I made for dinner, for the first time by myself? I am happy to report that I proved the taste of my mom’s veal is replicable, so it will certainly be on my own special occasion menus to come, even if I have to make up special occasions.

 The veal marsala tasted fancy and, together with pasta with marinara sauce, Italian salad and garlic bread, took just about an hour, with some breaks for present opening in between. Win and win.

Note: I used cooking marsala. It’s cheap, and you can buy it on Sundays in counties that are Sabbath-day dry like ours. Real marsala wine would have been nice for drinking too though.

Indian Butter Chicken

The name makes this wonderfully aromatic tomato cream sauce sounds scarily fatty, but fear not. I cut back on butter and used yogurt (yogurt idea stolen from Life's Ambrosia) instead of cream, and I believe the dish was all the better for it. When you've got ginger and garam marsala and cardamom and garlic and chili powder, why do you need extra butter and cream?

I'm pretty sure the recipes I based it off of had to be somewhat Americanized because my not-always-adventurous fellow eaters were called it "delicious" and "different." Generously adding the right spices kept it from being bland like my one other attempt at Indian cuisine, hopefully getting the final product somewhere closer to authenticity. It was also pretty quick prep for weeknight dinner.

I just need a Trader Joe's nearby (please, Trader Joe's powers that be) next time I make it so I can grab some naan. (Naan is an Indian flat bread sort of like pita bread but better.) Or I need to stop by an Indian restaurant. Or something so I can complete the full sauce-rice-naan Indian food trifecta.

Three Things: Better-than-Leftovers Salads

Sometime between high school and semi-adulthood, leftovers evolved from reheated food I dreaded to a delicious meal that required no work and no payment. A meal on round two earns all the better name for itself with a bit of reinvention. What's easier than throwing leftovers into a salad, especially when their taste triumphs their original incarnation? (Note: this idea might not work as well for meatloaf.)

Salty Salmon and Potato Salad

The Leftovers: salmon, roasted potatoes
The Additions: salad greens
The Dressing: capers, dill, red wine vinegar, olive oil

Crunchy Chicken Couscous Salad

The Leftovers: Chicken and couscous (or rice)
The Additions: chopped green pepper, green onion, shredded carrot, dried cranberries, sliced almonds
The Dressing: olive oil and red wine vinegar

Barbecue Salad

The Leftovers: barbecue pork (or chicken)
The Additions: tomatoes, corn, black beans, tortilla chips (all from the pantry!)
The Dressing: the avocado vinaigrette that inspired the salad

Chicken, Sausage, and Shrimp Gumbo

I realize the party that is Mardis Gras is pretty much over, but all the Cajun food buzz on Twitter the past few days finally convinced me to try my hand at gumbo. Filled with three meats, lots of veggies, and a spicy kick, it was a delighful meal for a dreary, rainy Tuesday night.

Between the gumbo and the green, purple, and yellow sugar crystals on some banana cupcakes (gotta dessert-ify brown bananas), we had our own little bit of Mardis Gras in my kitchen tonight. And it was all in time to splurge before Lent, except it wasn't really a splurge because the gumbo and cupcakes were technically light—but delicious nonetheless—recipes.

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

There's something about transforming pantry and fridge staples into foods you could easily buy pre-made (not-so-pronounceable ingredients included) that's so very wholesomely satisfying (and delicious). Mold some ground beef, onion, egg, and seasonings into balls then bake, and you've got meatballs. Stir some vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, and ginger in a pot, and it magically caramelizes into sweet and sour sauce. 

This dish melds meaty comfort food with standard Asian restaurant fare. My taste barometer was my father, who came out of his not-always-expressive shell to rave about their taste and go back for seconds.

Dinner: Wild Rice and Chicken Soup

The South is taking too many cues from Northern winters and forgetting that people like me choose to live here for a reason. I do not approve of winter temperatures hovering significantly under 50 degrees (I'm spoiled, I know), except that it makes soup taste extra soul-warming.  

I tend to stereotype chicken soups as being somewhat bland. However, if you cook up some fresh veggies first and throw in a bit of half and half at the end for this one, it won't disappoint fans of fresh-tasting, flavorful soups. 

Necessity: Warm, crusty bread.
Bonus: Bakery cranberry bread a very nice person brought home for me.

The wild rice adds a nutty flavor to this thick (not very broth-y) concoction, but the other ingredients keep it from being too overpowering.

Tell me, friends, what are you making to warm you up on dreary winter days? (Yes, this is a comment request, pretty please.)

Dinner: Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Blackberry Sauce

The roasted pork tenderloin I grew up on was easy and tasty but a bit ordinary. This sweet, slightly tangy sauce makes a weeknight pork meal taste like a fancy dinner out. I have fond food memories of eating chef creations of blackberry sauce on beef medallions and elk tenderloin, and this easy dish ranks with those.

Rum, orange zest, dijon mustard, and ginger add zesty flavor to simple fruity preserves. Best all, the sauce only requires dumping five ingredients in a pot and letting it cook 5 minutes-- doable, right?

We ate it with wild rice and acorn squash because it's winter, but I want to try it in the spring with a fruit-filled green salad.

Ultimate Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

This week it's cold enough to flurry in the deep South and produce enough snow to collapse a dome in the Midwest, so everyone is in need of this body-and soul-warming comforting food.

Grilled Cheddar-Apple-Bacon Sandwich

This version of gooey melted cheese between slices of toasted bread takes a childhood favorite to whole new level. Sharp cheddar cheese combines flavor forces with salty bacon and crisp, sweet apple slices.

Tomato-Basil Soup

You might not be able to get decent fresh tomatoes this time of year, but cooking down canned whole tomatoes gets so much closer a out-of-the-garden taste than canned tomato soup. It makes for a medium-thick consistency. Fresh basil, still available for a price at the grocery store, completes the essence of summer-meets-winter soup.

Tilapia with Walnut Pesto

You might be thinking that all I do is bake sugary things. This is not true. Last week I made fish. It had no sugar. It did bake in an oven though.

White fish officially has no flavor, so that's why you allow a crisp mixture of nuts and garlic and lemon to bring it to life. It cooks in white wine, too, which gives you an excuse to drink wine while you cook and eat.

The recipe came from a German cooking demonstration, but I don't know what makes it German. It was the "bonus" recipe that didn't come with a recipe card. Maybe I was too busy writing down the steps to hear any explanation.

Dinner: West African Soup

It's a little bit funky. However, if you like the principal ingredient, the sweet potato, you'll like this hearty, nutty soup. I made it for a vegetarian friend, but it's so fiber-packed that it left me more full than many meat dishes. We ate it with crusty, grainy bread.

I'm not sure how authentic to West Africa this recipe really is. Google research told me sweet potatoes and ground nuts are common in traditional African cuisine, so that's something.

Also, beyond chopping the sweet potatoes and onions, the recipe is simple. Just dump ingredients, and simmer.

Is anyone else as excited for soup season as me? I'm all about the ease of comfort food and yields of enough to easily freeze for a second meal.