Carrot Souffle

Okay, this holiday season I wanted to try a few new recipes.  This was one of them. Highly recommended by a friend.  Now, I must highly, highly recommend this to you!  The whole family loved it.  I can not wait to make this again!

- 1 lb carrots

- 1 stick butter

- 1/2 cup sugar

- 3 eggs

- 3 tbsp flour

- 1 tsp baking powder

- 1 tbsp vanilla

- 1 tsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Clean, peel, and cook carrots til tender.

In a food processor, blend carrots and butter until smooth.  Add sugar, then eggs one at a time.  Add rest of ingredients.

Pour mixture into (1 qt) buttered souffle dish.

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for 50 minutes or until set.

Serves 6.  Doubles well for large groups.

My only complaint with this recipe was that I shared it!  It was seriously so good!  One of the critiques was:  "I don't really enjoy carrots, and I loved this!"

Carottes Vichy (Glazed Carrots)

This wonderfully rustic, buttery, bright side dish was one I used when I wanted to impress some new dinner guests.  It was a great choice!  I decided to make boeuf bourguignonne and needed something equally rustic and wonderful to go along with it.  These carrots were delicious, easy, and beautiful!  See those bites that have the pretty caramel color, oh yum!  Caramelized carrots, yes, please!

- 1 lb of carrots, scraped and sliced into bias-cut rounds about 1/4 inch thick

- 3 tbsp butter, divided

- 1 1/2 tsp sugar

- salt

- a little (maybe a tbsp) parsley, finely chopped

Put carrots into a heavy pan with 2 tablespoons of butter, a pinch of salt, the sugar, and 1 cup of water.  (If increasing recipe, it is 1 cup of water per one pound of carrots.)  Cook uncovered for 20 to 25 minutes until nearly all the water has evaporated and the carrots are tender.  Add another lump of butter (about 1 tbsp) and shake the pan so the carrots do not stick.  You can also add a teaspoon of sugar with that final lump of butter, letting this cook until it has formed a thick syrup which coats the carrots.  

Add a little finely chopped parsley before serving.

(Enough for four people)

Rustic and wonderful!

Spicy Asian Cucumbers

Anna-Kate is loving cucumbers right now!  I love cold cucumbers, but Will really only wants them if they are dipped in Ranch.  I tried this recipe to make the cucumbers more exciting for Will, and, well, who wouldn't love some yummy [slightly] spicy Asian dressing!

- 1 English cucumber, chopped

- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt

Sprinkle chopped cucumbers with salt.  Let sit for ten minutes.  

- 1 tbsp rice vinegar

- 2 tsp sugar

- 2 tsp soy sauce

- 1/2 tsp sesame oil

- 2 sliced scallions (I didn't have these, still wonderful)

- 1 minced garlic clove

- pinch of red pepper flakes

Whisk together the above ingredients.  Drain the cucumbers.  Toss with the dressing.  Season with salt (if desired).  Top with chopped cilantro.

Such a simple, delicious side! 

Green Bean Casserole (from scratch)

This recipe is one I tried because green bean casserole is a staple holiday recipe, but not at all safe for my son with the severe dairy-allergy.  This green bean casserole is totally dairy-free, totally from scratch, and was really tasty! 

I modified an Alton Brown recipe I found to create this one.  I enjoyed it so much at Thanksgiving that I made it again at Christmas.  I think my only commentary is after adding the broth, make sure to adjust seasonings to taste so that it won't be under-seasoned.  (That was the mistake I made the first time.)

For the topping:

- 2 medium onions, thinly sliced

- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour.

- 2 tbsp panko breadcrumbs

- 1 tsp kosher salt

- non stick cooking spray

For the beans and sauce:

- 2 tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt

- 1 pound green beans, rinsed, trimmed and halved

*- 2 tbsp unsalted butter OR, to be dairy free, 2 tbsp non-dairy butter (I use Earth Balance)

- 12 oz mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

- 1/2 tsp black pepper

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 1/4 tsp nutmeg

- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour

- 2 cups chicken broth 

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

Combine the onions, flour, bread crumbs, and salt in a mixing bowl.  Toss to combine.  Coat a cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray and evenly spread the onions on the pan.  Place the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes.  Toss the onions 2 or 3 times during cooking.  Once done, remove from oven and set aside until ready to use.  

Reduce heat on oven to 400 degrees.

While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans.  Bring a gallon of water and 2 tbsp salt to boil.  Add the beans and blanch for 5 minutes.  Drain in a colander and immediately plunge in ice cold water to stop the cooking.  Drain and set aside.  (Admission, I always just run cold water over them for a minute.)

Melt the butter or non-dairy butter in a 12-in skillet over med-high heat.  Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally until the mushrooms start to release some of their liquid, about 4-5 minutes.  Add the garlic and nutmeg, and continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes.  Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine.  Cook for one minute.  Add the broth and simmer for one minute.  (Here is a great time to check and adjust seasonings.)  Cook until the mixture thickens, stirring occasionally, about 6-8 minutes.

Remove from the heat.  Stir in 1/4 of the onions and all of the green beans.  Top with the remaining onions.  Place into the oven and bake until bubbly, approx 15 minutes.  Remove and serve!

This was so tasty!  Hope you enjoy!

Sneaky Mashed Potatoes, Number 3

Sneaky mashed potatoes, roasted broccoli, roasted okra (a favorite!!), and roasted acorn squash

I try to have a meatless meal once a week.  I like vegetables, so no problem here!  Sometimes soup.  Sometimes pasta.  And, sometimes a nice Southern vegetable meal!  Last Monday, this was our supper plate.  Typically, for a Southern veggie meal, I make a starch, beans, and two veggies.  Well, my dear 4 year old (un-named for her innocence) has decided she does not want to eat any beans.  And, my best friend from college and just in life, is doing more meatless meals but she doesn't like beans.  In honor of two of my favorite girls, who just don't like beans, I created these mashed potatoes!

- skin-on small yellow potatoes

- 1 can Northern beans

- milk

- butter

- salt, pepper, garlic powder

Pretty much make your mashed potatoes to your taste.  Just cut back on the potatoes and add a can of beans!  Boil.  Drain.  Add milk, butter, seasonings.  Mash.

These protein and fiber packed potatoes were great!  Keeping the skin-on the gold potatoes was smart because it only added to hiding the beans.  I thought both in texture and in taste these sneaky potatoes were the most sneaky!  The beans really were hidden by the potatoes!  Worth a try if you have non-bean-eaters like me!  (Check out my other two sneaky potatoes here and here.)

French Onion Asparagus

This meal was wonderful!

Marinated beef tips (bought these already marinated, can't take credit for their yumminess), with Squash and Tomato Spiral, and these French Onion Asparagus.  The whole meal was delicious!  One of our new neighbors has gone out of his way to be kind, so we prepared this as a thank you meal to share with him.  Definitely worthy of a thank you meal!

This recipe was inspired by Pinterest as well.  My sister-in-law made French Onion Asparagus Pasta, a recipe from Pinterest.  I made this side dish inspired by the pasta dish she made.  Here is the recipe as I made it:

- 2 tbsp butter, 1/2 tbsp oil

- 2 onions, sliced

- tsp salt

- 1/4 tsp sugar

- 1 1/4 beef broth (or 1 cup beef broth and 1/4 cup red wine)

- 1 bunch asparagus, chopped in half or thirds

- salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter and oil.  Add onions.  Cover onions and cook for about 20 minutes on medium heat, stirring often.  Uncover.  Add salt and sugar (sugar helps with the caramelizing process).  Continue to cook onions for about 20 minutes, stirring constantly.

When onions have caramelized, add broth.  Bring broth to a boil.  (Add wine if using.)  Add asparagus, salt and pepper.  Reduce heat to simmer.  Cook to desired asparagus tenderness, 4 minutes to 30 minutes.

This was wonderful!!  And, the pictures...

...because the onions are too pretty not to share!

As the onions are starting to brown

Aaah, now the onions are caramelized, so pretty and so yummy!

The finished dish

Squash and Tomato Spiral

This was a pinterest idea gone right!  I didn't do everything exactly as suggested, but definitely a great idea!  We will have this again!  Here is the recipe as I did it:

- diced onion (maybe a quarter to a third of an onion)
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced

- 2 squash, sliced
- cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

- seasonings and a little Parmesan cheese (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Heat about 1 tbsp of olive oil in a saute pan.  Add onions and garlic, cooking until translucent, about 6-8 minutes, stirring often to prevent garlic from burning.

Put sauteed garlic and onion in bottom of baking dish.  Place sliced squash in a spiral around edge of dish.  Add tomatoes to the middle of the spiral.  Drizzle top with olive oil.  Sprinkle with seasoning (I used Jane's Crazy Salt, but salt and pepper would be great as well) and Parmesan cheese if using.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until vegetables are soft.

Yummy!  Serves 4

Butternut Squash Casserole

Have you ever tried William Sonoma's Butternut Squash Casserole?  My sister-in-law introduced it to my family her first Thanksgiving with us.  It was so yummy!!  But, I will admit, I struggle to pay that much money for one casserole.  So, I have been trying to figure out a way to imitate it.  With that yumminess as my inspiration, this is what I have come up with.  (In case you are curious, this was the third attempt.  The first two only mediocre.)

- butternut squash, cubed

- chicken broth

- 3 cloves garlic, whole

- 1/4 onion

- salt, pepper, thyme

- 1/4 - 1/3 cup milk

- 1 egg

-1 or 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 4 or 2 tbsp flour

- 4 or 2 tbsp butter, melted

- cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg

Put squash in a pot with enough broth to just about cover.  Add onion, garlic, and seasonings.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Cook until squash is tender.

Transfer squash to a blender.  Discard onion and garlic.  Add 1-2 tbsp seasoned broth to blender, along with milk and egg.  Puree.  Pour into casserole dish.

(For a 9x9 or other larger casserole dishes, use large amounts.  For small casserole dish, use half amounts.)  Mix the brown sugar, flour, and melted butter with cinnamon and nutmeg.  Place by dollops on the butternut squash puree.  

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  Stir to swirl the brown sugar throughout the dish.  Serve and enjoy!

Okay, this recipe does not have the brown sugar crust (by accident).  The brown sugar mixture sunk into the squash puree.  To deal with my accident, I swirled the brown sugar throughout.  It turned into brilliance.  The squash puree is quite savory, so the swirled brown sugar is the perfect sweet complement! 

As with any recipe I create, I would LOVE to know if you cook it.  Or if you cook an inspired version.  Do you try any of my creations?  do you trust my measurements?  did you take my recipe and improve it?  Would love to hear about it!  

Kale 3 Ways

Last Monday was rainy and dreary.  I packed up the three kids (two mine, one nannied) and we headed on a great outing...to B.J.'s!  It is odd, but I am an impulse buyer at grocery stores, even B.J.'s!  That particular day my impulse purchase was Kale!  A one-pound bag of chopped fresh kale for only $1.99.  Not a bad impulse buy!  I needed a green that night to go with our supper, and kale has been on my too-try list for months.  

A pound of kale goes a long way with only 3 eating it.  It took us one week and three recipes, but we ate it all!  Here are those three ways:

Kale Chips

I include this picture as proof that my 3 year old ate kale.  This first picture, no surprise, was her favorite (but she ate it all 3 ways!).  Random side note:  you can also see one of my tricks when I serve her casseroles; I separate the big chunks of vegetables from the rice so that it looks like rice with a side of vegetables.

Toss kale with a little olive oil and salt.  Spread on cookie sheet in a single layer (this was reinforced over and over again in the recipes I studied).  Bake at 250 - 275 for 20-25 minutes.  Eat up!  Truly soooo yummy!

Add to Soup

Because Kale is a pretty rigid green, it holds up well to being added to soups.  

I added a little bit of the kale to the soup; let it simmer with the other vegetables and then pureed as normal.

Sweet and Savory Kale

This was really yummy!!  The end product is similar to collard greens.  (Confession:  this picture is of the thumbs down preparation.  I tried the recipe that will follow but added apples...not a good idea.  Too sweet!    The recipe included is yummy!  I just wanted to included how the kale looks at the beginning and what the end product looks like.)

- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 1 garlic clove, pressed or minced
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar
- kale (about 6 oz) I just used as much that filled my pot
- "splash" of craisins
- salt and pepper to taste

In pot, add stock, onion, and garlic.  Heat over medium heat, allowing onions to soften, about 5 minutes.  Stir in Dijon mustard and cider vinegar.  Add kale and then splash with craisins!  Cover with lid.  (I periodically stirred; I don't know if that was necessary or would be better to just let cook down on its own.)  

Do you like kale?  What is your favorite way to enjoy it?  This was a new green to me, but it will definitely be added to the rotation!  

Jicama and Mango Salad

Jicama?  What's that?  Will and I watch Chopped, obsessively watch Chopped.  Jicama has shown up often enough that it stands out in my mind.  I remember that they describe it as "a potato-like starch commonly used in Latin cuisine."  I wanted to try it.  

Jicamas are huge!  So, I used ~3/4 of my jicama in this salad and then roasted the rest of it the next night, in order to try it both ways.  Roasted was so good! just roast it enough to overcome the supremely crunchy nature of it, which is what made it so good in this salad.  I actually describe jicama as a starchy root vegetable with some juicy, citrus notes.  

If you like Mexican food, if you want to try something new, if you like fresh and crispy, then this is definitely worth trying!

- 1 medium jicama, about 1 lb.
- 2 small cucumbers
- 3 medium mangoes
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 2 limes, juiced
- kosher salt

Peel and cut the jicama into long thin strips.  Slice the cucumbers in half, scoop out the seeds, and cut into strips approximately the same size as the jicama.  Peel the mangoes, cut the cheeks off, and then slice into wedges.  Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl with the cilantro, chili powder, and lime juice.  Just before serving, garnish with a little salt and a few sprigs of cilantro.

 Notes of interest:  Anna-Kate ate this!  She enjoyed the jicama most when roasted but she ate the salad!  That means this will be repeated in our house!  I found this by searching "jicama" at foodnetwork.com.  Thank you to Tyler Florence for this one!  (According to him, this recipe serves 6.)

Sneaky Mashed Potatoes

This idea is not new and not mine, but I am so glad I finally tried it!! Last night I made my mom's country-style steak recipe (to come on the blog as soon as I perfect it like she has), which meant I had to have mashed potatoes. My family-oriented goal: get more vegetables into my toddler. My actual, selfish goal: allow me to eat a generous scoop of mashed potatoes but not regret the amount of carbs I ingested.

I finally made mashed potatoes where they were actually half potatoes, half cauliflower. I, knowing the cauliflower was in there, didn't taste it. My husband, swearing he always knows when I try to make something more healthy, said he wouldn't have known to ask if something was different this time. And, my toddler ate mashed potatoes for the first time in the last 3 times of making them. That is a true, good endorsement!

- about 5-7 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced for boiling (or however many you need to feed your family)
- one small head of cauliflower, cut in small pieces
- milk, to your desired thinness (the way you always would in your own mashed potatoes)
- butter, 1/4 cup or more :)
- salt, pepper to taste

Boil potatoes and cauliflower in same pot. When tender, drain water. Add milk, butter, salt, pepper. Mash. I like mine halfway between chunky and smooth. I have found the key to good mashed potatoes is taste them. Make sure they are salt/peppered well. Add if needed.

**Basically make the mashed potatoes you like, just cut the potatoes in half and sub in cauliflower!

I mean it, try this!!! Not only do you get out of peeling so many potatoes, you get to eat more with less guilt!

Mom's Crockpot Mac 'N Cheese

I love this recipe of mac 'n cheese! Easy, yummy, and a crowd pleaser!

- 1 (8 oz) box macaroni noodles
- (16 oz) shredded cheese
- 1 (12 oz) can evaporated milk
- 2 cups milk
- 1 tsp milk
- 1 stick melted margarine
- 2 eggs beaten

Cook and drain noodles. Grease crockpot with butter or Pam. Add macaroni to crockpot. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with salt. Add evaporated milk, milk, and melted margarine to egg and salt mixture. Mix well. Add mixture and shredded cheese to crock pot. Stir until well mixed. Cook on low for 3 hours. (High for one hour, low for one hour works if in a hurry.)

Black Bean Salad

I stole this from my sister-in-law who stole it from Skinny Taste. It is so yummy! It really needs no other description.

- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 9 oz. frozen corn, thawed
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 1/4 cup red onion, chopped
- 1 scallion, chopped

- juice of one lime

- 3 tbsp evoo

- 1 tbsp cilantro

- salt and pepper

- 1 avocado, diced

Combine beans, corn, tomato, red onion, scallion, cilantro, salt and pepper. Mix with olive oil and lime juice. Marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Add avocado just before serving.

I served the salad with a Mexican-flavored pizza. Quite yummy! I could see serving it with this favorite chicken of mine, or really an Mexican-style dish!

Grandma Harrill's Candied Sweet Potatoes

These are the yummiest sweet potatoes you have ever tasted. They are super sweet (notice 3:1 sugar:water ratio), but you really can't beat them. My Grandma Harrill made these for us until she was 92. How did she cut those sweet potatoes?!

- 1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 2-3 tsp
- 1/2 cup water
- dash of salt
- 3-4 medium sweet potatoes
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1/8 tsp vanilla

Mix sugar, water, salt. Stir until sugar is almost dissolved. Place on stove on high.

Peel and slice sweet potatoes. Drop in water/sugar mixture. Cook on high for approx. ten minutes and then on medium heat for approx 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender.

Cook uncovered. Juice will boil down and thicken. Don't stir potatoes!!!!

Add butter and when syrup has cooked down about half, add vanilla. Pour into shallow baking dish. Sprinkle 2-3 tsp of sugar (cinnamon good too) over potatoes. Cook in oven for 5-10 minutes.