A few weeks ago, I was in the mood to invent a new classic sandwich. Big task. Grant had a big gig schedule one weekend day- a show down on lower Broadway from 4:00-8:00pm and then had to drive straight up to Kentucky to play another 4 hour show an hour later. I thought it would be easier on him (and kind of fun for me) if I picked him up and had sandwiches packed. I came up with this plan in my head and had days to figure out what to make. It was fun. I wanted a fall/winter sandwich with some meat but that also had lots of veggies. Like a one-pot wonder meal but in the form of a sandwich.
Grant named my new creation, The Lady Smokey Supreme! It went like this…
Lady Smokey Supreme
makes 2 sandwiches
Cowboy (uncured) Hickory or Apple Smoked Bacon (I tried both!)
4 slices Fancy, Artisan Bread (I used Provence Rosemary & Olive Oil.)
2 Portabella Mushroom Caps, sliced in 1” strips
¼ red onion, sliced in thin rounds
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2-3 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
Sea Salt & Black Pepper to taste
Cave-Aged Gruyere Cheese, sliced
Roasted Red Peppers
4 Romaine Leaves, cleaned and dried
Heat oven to 375. Place mushroom and onion slices in a baking dish that has been rubbed with olive oil. Sprinkle with a little more olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Bake in the oven for about half an hour. Meanwhile, cook bacon in an iron skillet. Once done, drain on paper towels. Slice bread and cheese and place cheese on two of the pieces. Once the mushrooms and onions are done, remove from oven and place bread on a baking sheet to toast. Once toasted and cheese melted, remove from oven. Layer the bacon, mushrooms, onions, red pepper, and lettuce. Enjoy!
Provence's Rosemary Olive Oil Bread makes a good sandwich!
Steamed asparagus with a sprinkle of lemon & homemade pickled okra from the garden make perfect accompaniments to any sandwich!
Also, I was asked to teach a gourmet club how to make pie! I took my friend Catherine with me and we had so much fun. She took some great photos. I thought this would be a good place to post them. I am in desperate need of some new pie recipes. New ideas and experiments soon to follow.
Here it is, the exact moment when my personal hobby and my day job decide to co-mingle. I have held strict personal policies about keeping these two parts of my life at a safe distance from one another for quite some time but it is no longer possible. Why, you ask? It is because delicious food, so true to its nature, brought them together. My entire life, food has been one of my very best friends. My Mother often recalls that as a child even, I would always inquire what we were going to eat for the next meal as we were in the middle of the current one. She is a great baker and self-taught cook and at an early age encouraged me to cook and gave me free reign of her kitchen. My childhood friend, Janet, and I would create extravagant experiments with the blender.
Quite possibly because of this early encouragement and exposure to food experimentation, I have always sought ways to combine delicious food with just about every activity in my life. This blog evolved out of an unyielding collection of my own food photographs, a desire to keep up with our recipe experiments, and lots of encouragement from my husband. My job at The Turnip Truck came about when we arrived in Nashville searching for the best available local and organic food while toting an art degree (and thus a job history consisting of food service!), nearly 25 years personal experience in natural food shopping, and an intense love of food. Now, I have been working here for over 5 years. I just so happened to already be experimenting with recipes for the under appreciated root vegetable, the TURNIP, when I was asked to write a blog for The Turnip Truck. It seemed to be more than just a coincidence so, here we are.
* Special Note- all ingredients for the following recipes were purchased at The Turnip Truck! I always use organic and local ingredients whenever possible. *
Turnips are a popular fall and winter cover crop in Tennessee. Of course, you can find the turnip’s green tops on just about every meat-n-three restaurant menu in Nashville but the roots have never been as common. I never ate turnips as a child. They have always been one of those vegetables I never really knew what to do with which presented me with a food challenge! It turns out that turnips are a very low calorie root vegetable and they are a very good source of anti-oxidants, minerals, vitamins and dietary fiber. And if you haven’t noticed, they are quite pretty. The young, small turnips can be eaten raw in salads, much like radishes. The older and bigger ones seem to be good replacements for (or cooked with) potatoes in most recipes. Here are a few recipes I came up with to celebrate my new food friend and the namesake of my current job, the turnip.
I started out my turnip recipe experimentation real simple and boiled a few in with some potatoes and mashed them all up with butter, milk, salt and pepper. They were good and created a slightly different texture than plain mashed potatoes but were really not that exciting. I decided to move on to some more interesting ideas.
I based this first foray into the wonderful world of turnips on an Italian-style recipe from Mario Batali. I loved the use of the poppy seeds.
Pan Roasted Turnips served here with sauteed kale and tomatoes.
Pan Roasted Turnips
2 pounds Turnips, cleaned and quartered
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
4 Tbsp Butter
2 Tbsp Poppy Seeds
1 Tbsp Paprika
4 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
Season turnips with salt and pepper. In a large oven-proof saute pan, heat butter until starting to brown. Add turnips and toss to coat well. Add poppy seeds and saute until light golden brown, about 8 to 9 minutes. Add paprika and toss to coat. Add vinegar and cook until evaporated, 4 to 5 minutes, remove from heat and serve.
I came up with this vinaigrette that was nice with a raw root vegetable salad. I thinly sliced a carrot, a small turnip, and a red beet. I placed all in a bowl with finely chopped romaine leaves and mixed with the vinaigrette to form a spicy root vegetable salad.
Spicy Vinaigrette for Raw Root Vegetable Salad
1/4 cupExtra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Handful of Fresh Flat-Leaf Parsley
1 tsp Fennel Seeds
1/2 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Chili Powder
1 Shallot
1 clove Garlic
3-4 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp Honey, or to taste
Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste
I blended all the ingredients together in a small food processor but if you do not have one, you can just chop all ingredients up finely and mix together well.
I often make Kale Chips and have seen recipes for carrot chips and other vegetables and since turnips are similar to potatoes, I thought Turnip Chips might be a good idea. Here’s how I did it…
Turnip Chips
Turnips, thinly sliced
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Brown Rice Wine Vinegar
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Preheat oven to 375. Place thinly sliced turnip rounds in a bowl. Toss with a little olive oil, a sprinkle of vinegar, salt & pepper. Spread out on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes and then flip chips over and bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until golden around the edges. Remove from oven and let cool.
I thought it might be nice to add some apple in with turnips and potatoes to give it another layer. What goes well with potatoes and apples- CHEESE, of course! I added in a little bacon to this next concoction but you can easily leave that out for a vegetarian version. If you haven’t tried the uncured Cowboy Bacon from The Turnip Truck, I suggest you give it a try! It is delicious!
Turnip Gratin
3 strips uncured Cowboy Bacon
1 Red Onion, sliced in rings
3 Garlic Cloves, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp Butter
1 tsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 medium sized Turnips, washed well and sliced into thin rounds
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored, and cut into thin slices
1-2 Red Potatoes, peeled and sliced into thin rounds
2 Tbsp mix of fresh Thyme and Rosemary, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1½ cups Grated Cheese- blend of Sharp White Cheddar and Cave-Aged Gruyère
1 cup Milk (I used low-fat)
Cook the bacon in a skillet and then set aside on a paper towel to drain and cool. In the bacon grease, saute the red onion on medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the onion is soft, add the butter and garlic and stir. Cook another minute and then remove from heat. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Oil a 2-quart baking dish. Mix the sliced turnips, apples, and potatoes with the onion mixture. Crumble the bacon in and add the herbs and salt and pepper. Pour into greased baking dish. Mix the cheese in (I placed the cheese on top but I think mixing some in and then topping with the remainder is the way to go.) and then pour the milk over top. Bake for an hour, or until potatoes fork done.
I served the Turnip Gratin with some simple sauteed green beans with olive oil, balsamic, and toasted walnuts.
Now, about that CONTEST… All readers living in the Nashville area have a chance to win a $50 Turnip Truck gift card!
All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me your thoughts on turnips and be sure to include a correct email address so I can get in touch with you if you win.
The contest is open until noon Monday, January 30 and the winner will be selected randomly. Thanks and good luck!
The contest is now closed. The winner of the $50 TT gift card is Lacey! Congratulations!!! And everyone, thanks for all your suggestions and comments. Go Turnips!!!
SO, just like most people I know, I am determined to start the new year off with newly revised commitments to myself, grand plans to eat healthier, and ideas of exercising and getting physically fit. I just brought home all these amazing fruits & veggies…
… and cooked a colorful meal filled with powerful antioxidants and Omega-3s!
But before I completely forget about all that delicious food I consumed in 2011, I wanted to post the last (naughty) recipes of the year!
So every Christmas morning at my Mom’s house, we have homemade cinnamon rolls. My Mom can make an amazing cinnamon roll. She usually makes about a dozen pans and shares them with everyone and has a pan or two for us to take home with us. It is a lot of work and she only does it once a year which makes it a cherished treat. When she married my step father, he came with his own set of family traditions. His family always enjoyed sausage pinwheels on Christmas morning. So, for the past twenty-some years, we have indulged every Christmas morning on homemade cinnamon rolls and sausage pinwheels. Those sausage pinwheels are especially enjoyable with some spicy honey mustard.
These aren’t some old family recipe but rather, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls laid out with Jimmy Dean spread thinly on top and then rolled up and sliced to form pinwheels. The last couple years, I always leave Christmas wanting to come up with a homemade version of these delicious but naughty little morning treats. An invitation for a New Year’s Eve gathering and a few days to consider what to make to take with us had me mulling this savory pinwheel idea over in my head. As with any good idea, it has been done many times before. I searched the internet for as many different recipes as I could find. I knew there had to be a homemade substitution for canned crescent rolls. I found lots of Rugelach recipes and decided to adapt a sweet cinnamon recipe into a savory treat. Here is what I came up with…
Mushroom Onion Pinwheels
8 oz cream cheese (I like to use Nancy’s organic version. Unlike most commercial cream cheeses, this one is not bleached.)
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 cups all purpose flour
½ tsp sea salt
olive oil
8 oz. mushrooms, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
big handful of fresh spinach, chopped
fresh herbs (I used thyme, parsley, rosemary)
cave-aged Gruyere, grated (maybe a cup)
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten and whisked up with 1 Tbsp milk
Parmesan Reggiano, finely grated
Mix the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until light. Add the salt. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour and mix until just combined. Dump the dough out onto a well-floured board and roll it into a ball. Cut the ball in quarters, wrap each piece in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
To make the filling, heat 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Saute the onion. Add mushrooms and garlic and cook until done. Remove from heat and mix with chopped spinach, fresh herbs, grated Gruyere, and salt & pepper. Cool completely.
On a well-floured board, roll each ball of dough into a 9-inch circle. Spread the dough with a thin layer of the filling. Press the filling lightly into the dough. (I didn’t quite make enough for all of my dough balls so for the last one, I mixed in some chopped pecans, sharp cheddar cheese and a little more olive oil. It made for quite a decadent little pinwheel but it was simply delicious! This makes me want to come up with millions different mixtures! So many options here…) Roll the dough up and in parchment paper. Place roll in the freezer for about 10 minutes.Remove from the freezer and slice into thin pieces and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush each pinwheel with the egg wash. Sprinkle with the grated Parmesan and more fresh herbs. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.
Since the holidays were a little nutty and we spent a few days right at Christmas visiting family in South Carolina, Grant and I decided to have our own little celebration New Year’s Day. So we exchanged stocking gifties and made a fantastic dinner, had a delicious dessert, and watched a movie. No recipes here as Grant did most of the cooking, I just helped out. But, I didn’t want this meal to go undocumented. It was delicious. (Don’t worry, we got some black-eyed peas in earlier in the day- Thanks Rebekah & Harry!)
Sea scallops and a ruby red grapefruit.
Totally decadent mashed potatoes with caramelized onions, Cowboy bacon, and grated aged Gouda!
Seared Sea Scallops with Browned Butter and Grapefruit Sauce topped with fresh Thyme, Sauteed Spinach in Olive Oil and Garlic, & Fancy Mashed Potatoes.
Yummiest Toasted Almond Ice Cream (Thanks Turnip Truck!) with the most delicious little candy bar cookies (Thanks again Rebekah!).
Happy 2012- Wishing everyone good Health, Happiness, and Hope for the coming year!
Local Hatcher Dairy Egg Nog, George Dickel Whiskey, and homemade cookies!
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays, all of them, whatever your beliefs. May you enjoy some quality time with loved ones, some peaceful reflection, and delicious food!
I have a last minute recipe to post for Holiday Nuts! I got this recipe from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook that a friend gave us years ago. Who doesn’t love nuts- you can make some for yourself and throw some in a jar to share with friends. We love this recipe. It is simple and delicious.
Preheat oven to 350. Toss the nuts together in a bowl and then spread out on a baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine all other ingredients and then thoroughly toss the toasted nuts with the spiced butter to coat. Serve hot or let cool and then store in a glass jar.
I’ve been trying hard this year to keep the holiday stress at a manageable level and find as much time as I can to enjoy the holiday visits, baking and eating, and music (from our Christmas music collection at home to live shows in the ‘hood). Our friend, Allison, and I started the month off right with a Red Barn Round-Up Holiday Extravaganza. Grant put together a stellar Christmas band for us and they had many amazing guest singers! And, the food was over the top! We didn’t make it to any of the fancy country Christmas shows around town but we did partake in the $2 Tuesday 5 Spot Christmas Pageant. I love holiday music! Sadly, it didn’t occur to me until the last possible show, to video tape some of the Christmas music. I did get this one of Grant playing with Derek Hoke at the Family Wash last night. Merry Christmas, Y’all!
With Thanksgiving only a couple weeks behind us, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on leftovers. We had so much feasting with our buddies Lewis & Shirley who spent Thanksgiving week with us. We all love to cook and eat so that is exactly what we did, all week long.
I had two new recipes I came up with this year. One was for a Roasted Cranberry Fig Conserve. We ate the leftovers for days afterwards and it is perfect on sandwiches or as a side to most anything.
Roasted Cranberry Fig Conserve
1 ½ cup chopped dried black mission figs
1 cup port
3 cups fresh cranberries
½ cup raw cane sugar
1 splash balsamic vinegar
½ onion finely chopped
1 splash olive oil
1 tsp dried rosemary
sea salt
Place the figs in a sauce pan with the port. Bring to a boil and then simmer until it gets thick and some of the liquid has been cooked down. Mix with all remaining ingredients and place in a casserole or roasting dish and place in oven on 400 for about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.
Grant and I even made a topping for turkey meatloaf the following week using the last of the this Cranberry Fig Conserve as our base- mixing it with tomatoes and seasonings.
Turkey meatloaf served here with steamed broccoli and roasted sweet potatoes.
Also new this year was our Thanksgiving dessert. I usually stick to pies but Shirley wanted a sweet potato cheese cake so that is exactly what we made, well, sort of… I think I lost my springform pan in the big flood and Shirley left her recipe at home so we decided to make a tart instead. We looked up a bunch of different recipes online and then came up with our own version. We decided on a gingersnap crust but I forgot to get gingersnaps at the market so I decided to make my own. I found a great recipe for them on Smitten Kitchen’s blog here and we made them the night before Thanksgiving along with the corn bread Grant used to make our Cornbread Pecan Bacon Dressing.
Sweet Potato Cream Cheese Tart
Crust:
3 cups crushed gingersnaps
½ cup roasted pecans, chopped finely
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Filling:
1 pound cream cheese, softened
2 sweet potatoes roasted, skin removed (about 1 lb)
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of allspice
1 egg
To make the crust: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. In a mixing bowl, combine the gingersnap crumbs with the melted butter and toss together until the mixture clumps together. Pat the mixture into the base and slightly up the sides of eight 4 1/2inch tart pans. Bake for about 7 minutes, or until crisp.
To make the filling: In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine all the filling ingredients. Pour the filling into the tart pan and return to the oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the center is just firm to the touch. Cool to room temperature, then chill for up to 2 hours or overnight before serving.
Grant smoked our turkey this year and it was the best I have ever had! He basically treated it like pulled pork and it just fell off the bone. He made tomato gravy to accompany it which was so delicious with the smoked flavor of the turkey. We recently read the article in Garden & Gun about the Louisiana tradition of making gumbo from the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers and we could not stop thinking about it, having just returned from a quick trip to New Orleans. It was amazing! The smoked turkey was perfect and I had some okra from the garden that I was frozen so we threw some in. This was a perfect way to eat up leftover turkey!
Another great way to eat up your leftover turkey (or roast chicken as was the case here, a few weeks back) is to make Turkey or Chicken & Dumplings! Just cook up some onions, garlic, celery and the stock made from the chicken or turkey bones. (I like to add in a little creme fraise!) Add the shredded chicken or turkey and make a batch of herbed biscuits and spoon batter on top of broth until the biscuits cook up. Delicious.
One of our most common ways to incorporate leftovers into a brand new meal- and believe me, this works for just about anything- is to make Enchiladas! In this case, I just layered all the ingredients instead of actually rolling the tortillas.
Or an even lazier, condensed version of our Enchilada Casserole is what happened this afternoon. We had leftovers from vegetarian taco night- a sweet potato and pinto mixture, sauteed green peppers and onions, spinach, homemade corn tortillas, and some avocado mixed with Greek yogurt. Grant fried the corn tortilla strips and then made a sort of hash, similar to Chilaquiles, and we topped with the avocado/ yogurt sauce. Instant lunch. Delicious!
And what to do with leftover mashed potatoes? Make potato cakes! And, just so you know, potato cakes make an excellent egg companion for breakfast! The leftover Benton’s Prosciutto (that’s right, those Thanksgiving green beans pictured at top were sporting a little crisped Benton’s Prosciutto on top!) made those scrambled eggs quite decadent.
Not to suggest in any way that Ms. Wanda Jackson is a “left over” but I would most certainly like to mention her and I definitely do mean to say that she was great and is still really great. Jack White produced and supported her in a new album release titled, Party Ain’t Over and friends of ours, Heath Haynes & The Hi-Dollars, have been touring with her as her live back-up band. We saw them recently and she is amazing! The guys were pretty awesome, too. Yay Wanda! You can get a copy of her album here.
Wanda Jackson at Robert's Western World. 10/11
Also once and still great is the amazing Glen Campbell. He has a new album out, Ghost on The Canvas, and is in the middle of his final musical tour, The Good-Bye Tour, which he launched as the news of his Alzheimer’s became public. We had the good fortune of seeing him perform with Jimmy Webb and the Nashville Symphony a couple years back and again, a week ago, at The Ryman Auditorium, one of my very favorite places in the entire world.
Glen Campbell with daughter Ashley at the Ryman. 11/30/11
It was a powerful show. We knew going into it that it would be a little sad so I had mentally prepared myself for that. I couldn’t stop crying when they brought the lights up for the first song, Gentle On My Mind! Incredible! And then Wichita Lineman was amazing! But overall, I had a real sense of happiness about the whole night. I felt such a strong sense of performer/fan bond in the room as if we were all there to support him doing this to the end and him really loving what he does and wanting to say good-bye. His kid’s band was his backing band and they were very patient and helped him through. They offered great support. It was similar to watching an aging and forgetful older relative stumble a bit which some people thought was just sad but I felt it was a powerful and graceful way to end. I guess it partially depends on your outlook towards illness and dying maybe? And I tend to gravitate towards finding a positive way to view things ultimately, so… He was great and seemed so happy to be singing those songs that he loves so much and seemed so appreciative we were all there. He sang and played all of our old favorites and some new songs with great energy. One favorite moment for me was when he was singing Rhinestone Cowboy, he had the entire Ryman Auditorium singing with him and in the middle, he yelled, “I LOVE THIS SONG!” So perfect. If you get the opportunity to say good-bye to Glen Campbell, I suggest you take it.
So, Nashville just finished celebrating the Americana Music Association’s annual hoo-haw. I always enjoy this week in Nashville as many of my favorite bands and musicians are in town and out and about. We were so busy this week that we actually missed most of the festivities. I did make it out to the Station Inn for the celebrated album release of Jon Byrd’s, Down at The Well of Wishes. It’s a damn fine album so be sure to check it out.
Jon Byrd with Eric Brace and with whole band, Station Inn, October 11, 2011.
And, we went to Grimey’s Americanarama party outside, behind the record store! What fun!
Derek Hoke, Nikki Lane, Chris Scruggs, Paul Burch, and Rose!
Americana is a fairly new term in the world of music genres. It seems to include all of those bands I once termed, “Alt. Country” but also welcomes some other roots sub-genres. I understand the ease of having one umbrella label to lump all these tiny categories in together but I’ve noticed many times lately that a favorite new song I love will be labeled Americana but yet is so obviously country. I realize this Americana label probably benefits the artist in that many people who have distanced themselves from “new country” now run screaming from the country label. But, I don’t want to roll over so quickly and relinquish the term “country”. I think it makes more sense to rename all the new country. Let’s just call it, “Suburbia.” Then we can take the term country back.
I missed the awards show this year but apparently, you can hear it all here. There were some great nominees this year, as always. Justin Townes Earl’s song, Harlem River Blues, won Best Song. This performance with Jason Isbell on David Letterman awhile back was pretty awesome.
The weather in Nashville this weekend is perfect right now. Fall is in full swing. It is my favorite time of year.
There’s a light breeze rustling through the slightly turning leaves and the temperatures have dropped to the 50′s and 60′s. All the Fall produce is ripe and beautiful.
I made some pumpkin bread this week. It was nice. I kept wishing I could remember to bring home some cream cheese to smear on top.
Pumpkin Pecan Bread
makes 1 loaf
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
½ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon of salt
1 cup cane sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup melted butter
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (I keep it frozen and then use a microplane to grate)
½ cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a bowl, stir together the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Mix the pumpkin puree, melted butter, eggs, buttermilk, and spices together. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and then stir in the nuts. Pour into a well-buttered 9x5x3 inch loaf pan. Bake 50-60 minutes until the center of the loaf comes out clean when a cake tester (or toothpick) is inserted. Turn the loaf out of the pan and let cool on a rack.
And we roasted up a bunch of pumpkin to make a soup. It was pretty tasty with parmesan croutons! Here’s the recipe I came up with…
Roasted Pumpkin & Caramelized Onion Soup
1 pie medium pumpkin
3-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4-6 cloves garlic (place in oven with pumpkin for last half hour)
2 ½ red or vidalia onions (I had a variety of both), chopped
4 cups stock
1-2 tsp herbs de Provence (I added a little extra fresh rosemary)
seat salt and black pepper to taste
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cut pumpkin into pieces, clean out seeds (You can reserve them and wash them and dust with sea salt and bake on a cookie sheet later to make roasted pumpkin seeds!!!), rub with olive oil and roast in oven for about 45 minutes (until it forks done). Meanwhile, heat olive oil in stock pan. Add onions and a pinch of salt. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until they begin to turn light toasty brown. Once pumpkin is done, cool and scoop out of the skin. Place roasted pumpkin in a blender and add a cup or two of the stock. Blend until smooth. Add the pureed pumpkin and roasted garlic to the onion pot, along with the remaining stock. Add herbs de Provence and salt and pepper to taste.
You could also top with a little creme fraise, grated cheese, or pumpkin seeds. We served this soup with a nice salad of beets, tamari pumpkin seeds, and Rogue River Smoky blue cheese. Yum!
Also, we enjoyed the leftover soup with some chicken Andouille sausages. Grant sauteed the sliced sausage up with some garlic and then added it to the soup!
And, I’ll end with this simple pie recipe that my friend Brad helped me come up with a couple years ago.
Pear Apple Gruyere Pie
2 dough balls (please never use store bought pie dough!) *
mix of 5-7 pears and apples, pealed, and sliced thin
1 cup raw cane sugar
1 Tbsp flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ cup (+ 1 cup for dough balls) cave-aged Gruyere cheese
1 egg white
Roll out dough ball and place in pie plate. Mix pears with sugar, flour, cinnamon and pour into pie shell. Sprinkle the Gruyere on top. Roll out second dough ball and lay on top of pie. Trim edges and use your index fingers and thumb to pinch edge. Cut a few slits in top to let air escape while pie bakes. Brush top of pie with egg white. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes and then lower oven temperature to 350 and bake for another 35 minutes.
*For the pie dough-
(This recipe was given to me by a friend of ours in Seattle who was a pastry chef. They key to a good pie is in the crust!)
Makes a double crust for a ten inch pie, or 2 ten inch tart shells.
2 cups all purpose unbleached flour (I use White Lilly)
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes (I use organic butter)
1 cup finely grated cave-aged Gruyere cheese
1/2 tsp sea salt
6-8 tablespoons ice water
Place flour, butter, and salt in food processor fitted with the steel blade and pulse 24 times. (I just 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.) The largest pieces of butter should be the size of grains of rice. Transfer mixture from food processor to large bowl. Lightly mix in cheese. 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 teaspoonful 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. Balls of dough can be stored in fridge for a week or you can also freeze them.
It seems I’ve fallen behind on my posts. I sometimes run out of time to put all the recipes and photos together. I have also been guest blogging on our good friend, Dolan Geiman’s blog. Dolan is a great artist. Check his site out here and buy some art here! (Art is good for our souls, makes our world a prettier place, supports talented, creative people, and makes awesome gifts!) And, you can read all my guest posts here.
I’ll end this post with this new country song from Pistol Annies. These women have it going on!
I recently had a conversation with another Northwesterner who has relocated to Nashville regarding biscuits. She was talking about how Northwesterners just can’t make biscuits properly, they always turn out more like scones. I began to think about this and it occurred to me that Southerners never seem to make proper scones either. More times than not, Southern scones end up resembling biscuits. I remember when I first moved from the South to Seattle, one of my favorite food discoveries was scones for breakfast. Every coffee shop and bakery had them and they were like nothing I had ever had back home. They were dense and packed full of grains and fruit. It was the perfect accompaniment to a big latte. I had a housemate back then who used to make scones every once in a while and he made them perfectly and effortlessly. I used to bring home scones for my family on my first few visits back which, I think, inspired my Mom to start making scones. Her favorites are apricot oatmeal scones which is a delicious combination in my opinion. I was recently given Molly Wizenberg’s book, A Homemade Life. (Thanks Bray!) I’ve followed her blog, off and on, for awhile now. Her writing is very comforting and easy to read. She is from Oklahoma, spent time in Paris, but now lives in Seattle. She has a recipe in her book for Scottish scones. Once I read it, I immediately craved scones so the next morning, I came up with this variation on her recipe. These remind me of the great Pacific Northwest and are perfect with coffee on a lazy weekend morning.
Berry Scones
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup all purpose flour (I use White Lily)
3 Tbsp cane sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sea salt
1 tsp cinnamon
4 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into ½” pieces
½ cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
a few fresh berries (if unavailable, frozen will do)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Using your hands, slowly and gently mix the butter into the flour mixture, pinching with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal and there are no lumps larger than a pea. Mix the buttermilk with the egg and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir gently to combine. Using your hands, press the dough into a mass. Turn the dough onto a dough board. Gently add berries into the dough. Form dough into a round disk about 2” high. Cut into pieces, like a pie. I like to make 6 larger ones but you could also cut into smaller triangles. Bake 10-14 minutes. Allow a few minutes to cool on a wire rack. Scones are best when eaten right away but if you have some left, store in an airtight container and I would advise reheating before serving leftovers.
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.
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.
Money is tight these days. Our summer “vacations” have been as simple as a nice dinner out, fun with visitors, or country drives. We also managed to get in a couple recent family visits. One such trip to upstate South Carolina to visit my family produced some excellent culinary memories for me. My Sis took me out for an early Birthday celebration at one of the best restaurants the South has to offer, American Grocer, in Greenville, S.C. (recently reviewed in Garden & Gun’s profile on Greenville, too). We had an amazing meal. They source as much local produce and meat as possible. Their menu is well thought out and very seasonal. Each course was paired with a special wine selected especially for us. The service was stellar and the food divine. What a treat- I love this place!
Sadly, the only photos I captured. I was too preoccupied with the food!
The next morning, my brother-in-law took me to the big farmer’s market in the old, newly renovated downtown area of Greenville. He warned me ahead of time, “It isn’t that big really.” Boy was I surprised. This was one of largest local farmer’s markets I have ever seen! True to Greenville’s nature, it seemed well organized, too, with little printed banners for each farmer’s stall. There was a fantastic looking stall with homemade pasta, tons of heirloom tomatoes, corn, artisan cheese, and some of those famous South Carolina peaches- a personal favorite of mine. I also realized Greenville has a couple other weekly farmer’s markets- a “slow food” one and an organic one at the Shi Center for Sustainability at Furman University. Go Greenville!
The next day, I got to help my Mom make one of her famous pound cake recipes! Growing up, we spent many weekends in the mountains of Virginia with my Mom’s family. She would always bake a homemade pound cake to take my Nana. One of my favorites was her brown sugar pound cake with caramel icing! Not being much of a cake baker myself, I thought it was high time for me to start learning all of her secrets so I asked her to let me help her bake one. We had so much fun! And, we decided to serve it that night with some of those S.C. peaches I had brought her from the farmer’s market. Delicious!
Mom's kitchen.
Mom’s Brown Sugar Pound Cake
½ lb butter
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 box and 1 cup brown sugar
5 eggs
1 cup milk
3 ½ cups flour
½ tsp baking powder
1 ¼ tsp vanilla extract
Bake in well greased and floured tube pan at 325 degrees for 1 ½ hours.
(I don’t usually use vegetable shortening but I am not an experienced cake baker and haven’t yet experimented with ways around this… stay tuned for more details or if you have any suggestions, please let me know.)
A week ago, we returned from a trip to the Pacific Northwest.
Old familiar views on the drive over to West Seattle. The Mountain taunted and teased us!
The impetus for our trip was to visit Grant’s ailing parents so the majority of our time was spent with family but we so seldom get to visit the great Pacific Northwest that we managed to get at least short visits in with most of our favorite PNW people. We just so happened to be there the most beautiful week of the entire year which made us even more homesick.
And true to our nature, we somehow managed to cram in many delicious meals…
We were only in Seattle for two whole days really, one on each end of our visit, and I think we spent a good bit of that time sipping coffee and enjoying food with family and friends. Right off the plane, Bray & Kathy whisked me off to Volunteer Park Cafe for a delicious fig, caramelized onion jam, and gorgonzola pizza accompanied by this amazing fennel artichoke salad which was followed by my first visit to Molly Moon’s for ice cream (In case you were wondering, I had the salted caramel which was divine!). Oh how I miss these type of gatherings with these two over food.
Before heading up to Whidbey Island to visit the family the next day, Bray took me to Eltana in Capitol Hill for wood fired bagels with the most delicious spreads! My favorite was the fava bean mint. I grabbed a dozen bagels and a yummy apricot fig compote to take to enjoy with Grant’s family.
A little while later, for a belated anniversary dinner, Grant and I stopped in the International District for some salt & pepper squid, hand-shaved barley green noodles, and the best Chinese green beans at one of our old favorite spots, Shanghai Garden. Grant says this place has been around since he was a kid.
The majority of our visit was spent with family up on Whidbey Island, which was a perfect retreat from our 90-100 degree summer in Nashville. I’ve always loved the Skagit Valley area on the drive from Seattle to Whidbey Island but this trip cemented my love!
Up on Whidbey Island, we shopped at the Coupeville farmer’s market where we bought perfect blueberries and the biggest blackberries we have ever seen! These made the most perfect pies to take to Grant’s parents.
Our niece Adrienne just got accepted to Whitman College in Walla Walla where it is customary to send each incoming freshman a box of Walla Walla sweet onions. My sister-in-law had a field day with these and fried up the most delicious, light onion rings I have ever tasted!
Being back at the ocean, we had lots of delicious fresh seafood!
Those world famous Penn Cove Mussels are from Whidbey Island. I love that area!
One night we went to an art opening at a friend’s gallery in Anacortes and got dinner at Adrift. We had clams and halibut, at last! (We don’t typically ever eat these in middle Tennessee.)
Grant even managed to squeeze in time for a gig with Knut Bell at the Conway Pub. I love Conway! And not only did I get to hear that great big Skagit Valley voice of Knut’s and see Grant tear it up on guitar in his home territory, but I also had fried oysters for the first time. Ohh, they were really good and apparently, Conway Pub’s specialty.
The day before we left to return to Tennessee, we crammed in lunch at a new restaurant all our friends have bragged about- Revel in Fremont. This is a modern take on Korean food and oh, so delicious. This last day was so fun food filled that it was like two vacations in one!
Then later that evening, our friends Lewis & Shirley cooked up a feast for us. First we had an afternoon cocktail. Shirley concocted this refreshing (and slightly decadent) peach cocktail which I think she said was inspired by a feature on a cooking show she had recently seen. She named it, “Kentucky Peach Potion” in honor of her sister who had just recently visited from Kentucky.
Shirley’s Kentucky Peach Potion serves 4
½ can sweetened condensed milk
1 tray sweet tea ice cubes (obviously, make these ahead of time)
2 peaches, pealed and sliced
4 oz (1/4 cup) Maker’s Mark bourbon
4 big mint leaves, chopped + a few more leaves for garnish
1 Tbsp honey or agave
Mix all in a blender and pour into a pretty glass. Top with a mint leaf.
We had one more seafood treat before returning to land-locked Tennessee, locally caught grilled King salmon with an arugula pistachio compound butter that Lew had whipped up. It was beautiful and paired so nicely with the fish. They served it up with simply blanched green cauliflower they had picked up at the farmer’s market and Grant’s favorite smashed potatoes. Lew was kind enough to share his compound butter recipe with us. I believe this recipe was originally from a Sunset Magazine.
Arugula & Pistachio Compound Butter
1/4 cup shelled, roasted unsalted pistachios
1 cup arugula
1/4 cup butter, softened.
Whirl pistachios and arugula in a food processor until minced. Add butter and whirl until smooth, scraping down inside of bowl as needed. He added salt and then formed it into a log and wrapped it in parchment paper.
Lew & Shirley didn’t know what we were going to cook before we all went to one of our favorite grocery stores ever, The Ballard Market, for ingredients that day. At some point along the way, Shirley insisted they make Pavlova for dessert. With the sweetest, kindest, high voice, she kept saying, “PAVLOOOOVAH!” I couldn’t wait to taste this masterpiece. This recipe came from one of their many cookbooks, The Gourmet Cookbook by Ruth Reichl. (I chose to leave the description in from the cookbook because I thought it was so funny!) By the way, this dessert was named after the Russian ballet dancer, Anna Pavlova.
Pavlova
With billows of soft whipped cream, crunchy meringue and smooth fruits, these pavlovas feel like a miracle in the mouth, slipping smoothly from one sensation to another. The vinegar in the meringue makes it crispy outside while it stays chewy within. Although this Australian classic will be welcomed wherever it goes, its ruffly white beauty makes it the perfect production for a bridal shower.
4 large egg whites, left at room temperature for 30 minutes
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cram of tartar
1 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla extract
for whipped topping:
1 1/2 cups very cold heavy cream
2 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar (optional)
Put rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 250 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil. Beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until whites just hold soft peaks. Add the granulated sugar a little at a time, beating at low speed, then beat at high speed until meringue holds stiff, glossy peaks, about 2 minutes. Beat in vinegar, cornstarch and vanilla. With back of a spoon, spread meringue into 3 1/2-inch rounds on baking sheet, making a slight depression in center of each (to hold fruit). Bake until crisp on outside but soft in middle, about 1 hour. (Lewis cooks it until it is slightly brown because he likes the texture better that way and Lew is one smart cookie when it comes to food and coffee so just do it the way he does!) Carefully peel parchment from meringues and cool meringues on a rack for at least 20 minutes. (They let theirs cool and the parchment peeled off just fine.) Beat cream with confectioners’ sugar, if using, in a large bowl until it just holds stiff peas. Serve meringues topped with fruit ad whipped cream. (Shirley likes the fruit cooked down just a bit first. They used blackberries and peaches. It was yummy!)
Ollie helped with the dessert assemblage!
For way more detailed foodie info from the great Pacific Northwest (and beyond!), you must spend some time with one of my very best buddy’s blog- Bray Hayden blog.
And speaking of Greenville… our friend and Greenville native, Nikki Lane has a killer new video out. It’s part cool biker-chic and part Hee-Haw Honey. Check it out!
Plus, we were blessed to have Nikki and the amazing Carey Kotsionis play our little Red Barn Round-Up last month. You can find both of their music here: Nikki Lane Carey Kotsionis
Oh, I so typed way too much here. I think I was just trying to make up for all that time between posts! If you happen to have read all the way to the end you must truly be a good friend. I promise to work on short and simple informative posts from here on out!
Happy vacation, whether you actually get to travel or not.
With the July 4th holiday upon us, I thought it appropriate to talk about truck stops and diners. What’s more American than truck stops and diners? Well, actually, this post is neither about truck stops or diners but rather, truckin’ songs and diner food! And of course it really won’t include any real diner food but rather, my healthier version of what I like to think is diner food.
So, I figured out way back that I am a “Middle Person” which in my definition means, I am a very tee-tiny, infinite percent of the population that does not fit into any specific category in regards to everything. In school, I always had a friend from this group, a friend from that group. In fact I don’t even really like groups so that’s probably why I have never been successful at belonging to any of them. Kind of the Groucho Marx idea of not wanting to belong to any group that would have me as a member… or maybe it just seems way too limiting to get categorized into one group when there are so many with such varying tastes. Maybe it is a commitment issue? Anyway, along with this, I think, comes a skewed vision of what is popular with the general public. For instance, whenever there is an event I am super excited about, I just know it will sell out and I get really worried about not being able to get in for fear it will be too crowded and then the reality of this situation almost always results in the opposite and there is a small handful of other “Middle People” present. I’d say this might also be the case for the way I feel about one particular sub-genre of country music, truckin’ songs. I absolutely LOVE truckin’ songs and for the life of me can’t understand why this tiny sub-genre never made it out of that sub category. And the other day, after listening to truckin’ songs all day, and contemplating this crazy, amazing “sub-genre” (the quotes are really meant to denote some eye-rolling on my part), I was trying to come up with a way to single-handedly bring it back into the country music forefront. I don’t understand why this can’t happen honestly, with the 1980’s ballad sound resurfacing under the disguise of “new country” and all. It seems completely reasonable from this Middle Person’s point-of-view. If we could somehow tap it into the electric car theme or bio-diesel/ Willie Nelson Truck Stop concept and craft some new eco-friendly lyrics or something, I think it might really catch on.
Anyway, back to the topic- truckin’ songs.
For anyone not familiar with truckin’ songs, they are simply songs about truck driving. More important than the topic, to me though, is the amazing group of artists who have had some great songs about trucks! Also what usually catches my attention more than the words about trucks (which are always completely awesome on a ridiculous level) are the amazing guitar riffs and the sound of a truckin’ song.
They’ve been around since the 1930’s but seemed to have their little moment of popularity in the 1960’s and one of the most famous of the truckin’ songs is Dave Dudley’s ”Six Days on the Road’ which came out in 1963 (and features one Mister Buddy Spicher on fiddle!).
Here’s a totally awesome one from The Willis Brothers which is a clip from the 1965 film, “40 Acre Feud.”
Even girls like to sing truckin’ songs. This is a classic from Ms. Kay Adams.
Thanks to the likes of Dale Watson, Chuck Mead and BR549, Junior Brown, Jon Byrd, Knut Bell, truckin’ songs can still be heard!!! Some of these guys are even writing new truckin’ songs. Here’s an original from our friend Knut Bell who is the big country voice of the Pacific NW!
There are plenty of amazing truckin’ song compilation albums- easy to find in old country album collections. There’s also a great record label out of NY called, Diesel Only, that put out a cd box set of truckin’ songs from 1939-1969.
There is a collection of painstakingly ridiculous spoken word songs from 1970’s that were almost like little movies in and of themselves… I find these difficult to hear over and over when listening to my (awesome and amazing) truckin’ song play list Grant made for me but when you get caught off guard by one while driving around town, as I did today when WSM played Red Sovine’s “Teddy Bear,” it can turn a bad day into a glorious day!
To add to my obsession, I’ve been watching lots of Truckin’ movies lately. Netflix has quite a collection (starring the likes of Jerry Reed, Kris Kristofferson, Peter Fonda!). Every good truckin’ movie has plenty of truck stops and diners. Diners make me think of meatloaf.
As a child, my Mom made meatloaf pretty often. It was always delicious. She often served it with corn or succotash. Her best friend, Mary Bauld, always served her meatloaf with fried potatoes which were naughty delicious! Mom and Mary Bauld had a few unspoken cooking competitions going and us kids were the judges. Grant and I don’t eat much beef anymore but sometimes we do need meatloaf so we make turkey meatloaf, using a combination of my Mom’s recipe and Ms. Loretta Lynn’s from her cookbook, You’re Cookin’ it Country. It goes something like this…
Big & Lady Smokey’s Turkey Meatloaf
2 lbs ground turkey
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 slices of whole grain bread, finely crushed
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried basil
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
1 cup ketchup (you could make your own with canned tomatoes, tomato paste, little vinegar, and some molasses)
¼ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp Sriracha hot sauce (or your favorite hot sauce)
Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl mix together the turkey, onion, egg, garlic, bread crumbs, and seasonings. Shape the mixture and place in a loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. In a small bowl combine ketchup, hot sauce, and brown sugar and pour over the meatloaf. Bake for an additional 30 minutes.
Meatloaf served with sauteed fresh corn off the cob; squash, zucchini, and Vidalia onions; and cucumbers and dill from the garden with a little brown rice vinegar, salt and pepper!
And don’t forget that leftover meatloaf makes a great sandwich!
Grant usually makes me Sunday brunch and he just recently mastered frittatas! Dang, he’s good! The other morning he said, “This one has a super secret Southern ingredient!” Here’s the recipe…
Tater Tot Frittata 1 Vidalia onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 small yellow crookneck squash, cut into rounds
2 slices think cut bacon, chopped
5 or 6 mushrooms, sliced
1 cup tater tots, baked in oven
6 eggs
splash of milk
½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
sea salt & black pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 350. Use a good skillet or omelet pan. Heat pan on stove top on medium heat. Cook bacon until mostly crisp. Remove bacon and put to the side. Leave bacon fat in pan. Add onion, garlic, squash, and mushrooms. Saute over medium heat until done. Beat eggs in a bowl with a splash of milk. Add egg mixture to veggies. Cook for about 3 minutes until eggs have partially set. Fold over once. Add bacon crumbles and tater tots. Add cheese to top. Put whole pan in oven. Cook for approximately 5-7 minutes until eggs have fully set. Put broiler on high and continue to bake until top is slightly brown and bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes.
I made a mess of cherry pies recently for our first Red Barn Round-Up of the summer, which coincidentally had many truckin’ songs sung by Jon Byrd and Heath Haynes!!!
Now, though, the fresh summer fruit is rolling on in… Hoping to make many summer fruit pies and finally learn how to can but now, we are enjoying some delicious Pimm’s cups (completely un-American, haha!) with cucumbers from the garden. Happy 4th!
