A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Cheesy Vegetable & New Potato Soup

 

I had a scratchy throat last night, no big deal, just allergies I think, but I craved something soft and creamy for dinner like potato soup.  I wanted veggies in it but I was also feeling too cranky to chop to I ended up creating this little gem that I'll be making again and again. 

Southern Green Beans: More Than Just Bacon

I know it sounds like a misnomer but southern-style green beans really don't have to turn out like gray lumpy mush.  You can actually have green beans prepared in the southern style that are still recognizable and full of flavor.

I've taken a few tips from the cooks in my family along with my own twist to come up with a good southern-style green bean recipe that compliments other southern standards like meatloaf, ham, fried chicken, etc., that at the same time do not break the calorie bank or clog arteries with bacon grease.  It's like having one of my childhood memories in an adult form and with no bacon guilt.

Night Shift Birthday Party: Jessica's Cucumber Sandwiches

 

One of the great side effects of work birthday parties is getting to taste new recipes like these pretty open-faced cucumber sandwiches our friend Jessica brought in.  Easy to make, they were delicious, so good Carrianne and I ate almost a container of them by ourselves (luckily, there were three containers so others could indulge too).

By the way, I'm going to start adding Cook's notes to recipes with "use this...or that..." and I've set up a new category to reflect recipes that take substitutions well.   So many times recipes can be equally good using several different ingredients and it can all depend on what you have in the pantry or what you need to use up from the garden.  Not all cooks are adept at making those substitutions the way I was taught growing up in my mother's kitchen.  Quite frankly, we were very poor and running to the grocery store for a $5.00 ingredient was rarely an option so my mother became extremely proficient at still trying new recipes while also still using her pantry items on hand.  For example, most recipes that call for asparagus taste just as great substituting broccoli when asparagus is out of season, zucchini for eggplant, or in this recipe Cavender's Greek Seasoning is a great substitute for fresh dill when you don't happen to have fresh from the garden on hand.

Crockpot Chili Stew

I was looking for a crockpot meal yesterday so I wouldn't have to spend much time in the kitchen and was trying to use up some ground beef and vegetables from the fridge, and beans and seasoning packets from the pantry when I came up with this idea, sort of a cross between chili and stew using ground beef, pinto beans, our CSA veggies, and a few potatoes.  Seasoned like chili it was a little "lighter" than chili but a little "heavier" than vegetable soup.  Gene and I both liked it; we'll be making it again, more often as cooler weather moves in. 

I Heart Summer: Fresh Green Beans

 

In the south, we are traditionally horrible about overcooking our vegetables, particularly our green beans but with summer's fresh produce I've found that there really can be a nice middle between my love of my Nannie's beans with bacon and onion, and a nice tender-crisp bean with lots of color and taste.

This recipe bridges the gap between the love of bacon flavor without all the saturated fat and also between a torturous cooking time and on-the-spot dinner.  I also throw in some walnut pieces for extra crunch and flavor that enhances the bacony goodness.

Blueberry & Olive Oil Cake: Good for You Snacking

I'm falling in love with this Olive Oil Cake recipe.  Originally I made it with the 50/50 whole wheat/all purpose flour mix and Cutie's clementines. Since then I've tried a few different variations for mixed results.  For one, I have found that I need a 2:1 or 1:1 mix of whole wheat and all purpose flour or it comes out much heavier than I like or the opposite is true too. I made it for friends using all all-purpose flour and didn't care for that texture either.  One cup of whole white wheat flour and 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour seems to make for a moist, rich fruited cake without being overwhelmed by the fruit or too heavy.  The blueberries, fresh and local from ourCSA are a wonderful additon ot the mixand the sweetness allows the honey to be decreased to 1/3 cup.  

I love the rich taste, the weighty texture, and the purpley stain the berries leave on the napkin and my fingers (who can take time to get a plate down when you have something this delicious sitting there on the cabinet wanting you?)

Chilled and Dilled: Cucumber & Fresh Corn Soup

 

The perfect soup for a perfectly hot and humid day here in the Ozarks.  My inspiration was the fresh dill that came with our CSA this week and the heat.  Something about long hot days makes me crave cucumbers. They're like the Tylenol of the vegetable world--they'll reduce that summer day feverishness quickly.

Wilted Lettuce: A Healthy Update to a Classic Salad

I think of this salad as "The Nannie" salad. Not Fran Drescher, but MY Nannie, my grandmother. I don't remember my mom making it very often but I remember my grandmother making it all the time.  As a kid I thought it was pretty good, you know, for something that was supposed to be good for me. I loved the bite of the vinegar, the sweet of the sugar, and trying to hog (I know, bad pun) all the crunchy, salty bacon pieces out of it. Now I love it for all those reasons plus the emotion that it is one of the defining salads of spring, not to mention that by the time you wilt a bucketful of lettuce I feel so good about myself for eating that huge vegetable serving without even realizing it had I not been the one to wilt it.

However, for all the healthy goodness of the fresh lettuces, the big no-no to this salad is the half pound of bacon my grandmother fried to use the grease to make it.  Last night at dinner, after watching me prepare this with olive oil as a base, Gene commented "My grandmother used bacon grease for this."  I said "So did mine but our grandmothers didn't have your heart disease and they didn't know better."  He laughed and said "It was just an observation" and he left nary a leaf in his bowl when he was done so I guess olive oil works just fine.

I admit I love the bacon too but there has to be a better, healthier way.  There is. It's easy if you substitute olive oil for the bacon grease and use Hormel or Oscar Meyer real bacon pieces for the crunch and flavor.  The packaged cooked bacon pieces are real, just the lean parts of the bacon and they only have 25 calories and 1 gram of fat per tablespoon.  It's a substitute I can definitely live better with.

Strawberry Shortcake from Lovely Local Berries

 

Last week at our CSA I brought home strawberries that we ate au naturale but this week when we also got a bagful of berries I remembered Gene wanting strawberry shortcake.  That's something I rarely make because the grocery store strawberries are awful. I never even buy them anymore.  But these local berries are smaller, sweeter, softer, and heavenly--perfect for old fashioned short cake made from scratch with the individual cakes baked in mini bumdt pans and topped with real whipped cream. Nothing shouts summer quite as well as this treat.

Lemon Cream Dressing

 

A friend who is on a low oxalate diet for kidney stones gave me this salad dressing recipe to try out and it's a winner. I like that it has the richness of a creamy dressing without being heavy and the brightness of a vinaigrette, which makes it perfect over the wonderful assorted greens I brought home from the CSA Tuesday.

Click for the Honey-Mustard Curry Chicken recipe, one of Gene's all-time favorites.