A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Easy Peasy Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker for a Crowd

 When it comes to cooking for a crowd, the slow cooker or Crock-pot is my best friend and favorite kitchen appliance.  Nothing is easier to cook in as long as you plan ahead of time and have everything ready to go that morning.  Even better, many dishes can be made a day or two ahead of time so that when I'm entertaining I can finish up cooking the day of the party without spending all day long and all of my energy just cooking.  I've spent too many years being exhausted before company even got to my house to even enjoy them but years ago I figured out I could still cook nice home-made meals without making myself tired, cranky, and crazy.

This recipe for slow cooker pulled pork is great for a crowd of 12-16, depending on how hearty the appetites are, and it goes together in a snap, can be made ahead, and leaves one less thing to have to think about before company shows up. 

Thanksgiving Sides: Ozarks-style Slow Cooker Dressing/Stuffing

 

One of my favorite Thanksgiving tricks is to throw the dressing/stuffing into the crockpot.  It saves room in the stove, you can fix it and not worry about it, and it cooks up deliciously. Is it "dressing" or is it "stuffing" at your house?  I live in and was raised in southwest Missouri and while we use both terms, my family tends to stick with the southern version:  "dressing" while most of the rest of the country, it's my understanding, usually calls it "stuffing." Either way, it's yummy carb-licious.

Speaking of delicious, my favorite dressing has a couple of extras: chopped sweet apples and Missouri black walnuts in a southern cornbread base. English walnuts are a great option too but black walnuts are native to our American Midwest and more than 65% of those are grown in Missouri, with the largest black walnut processor, Hammons Nut, residing in Stockton, Missouri, just a rock skip from Springfield, Black walnuts are a treat we've grown up having plenty of and loving.  For the uninitiated, like the differnece between cream cheese and goat cheese, black walnuts have all the creaminess of an English walnut but with a little more zip.  One of my dearest memories of my mother was how she would hand-shell bushels of black walnuts through the fall that we kids had scavenged from the woods around our house, and then use them in Christmas cookies and candies.  As a child I took it for granted, as an adult I admire her tenacity.  Hand-shelling nuts is not the most fun job in the world but we loved the final result, for sure!

 
Mrs. Cubbison's Stuffing mix is spiced in a way that goes particularly well with the apple/black walnut combination, I've found. It's slightly sweet and very savory which highlights both the sweetness and savoriness of the fruit and nuts, which seems to me to be the quintessential tastes of fall.

Mrs. Cubbison's, a true American success story, was started by Mrs. Cubbison in 1890's as a bread bakery, then moved to crackers, and eventually to stuffing (dressing).

For tons of Thanksgiving recipes, decorating ideas, and table setting ideas, please go to www.thanksgivingtips.com for photos, recipes, and videos.

 Mrs Cubbison's:  Facebook Page

 

Summer Porridge aka Yogurt Oats

 

When I first saw this recipe, called "summer porridge", "yogurt oats", or "overnight oatmeal", I honestly thought it sounded gross but so many people were enthusiastic on Pinterest and other places on the web that I knew I had to give it a chance. It's not like I'm not an adventurous eater anyway, and with these ingredients I knew that at the very least it would be very good for me. (I just needed to check it out to see if it was "good" in the concept of "good & good for you".)

Guess what? It's my favorite way to make oatmeal now.  Hot oatmeal in the winter is filling and somehow defines cold weather for me, but the summer? Not so much.  Now I have a summer oatmeal to enjoy and start off the day with a nice healthy meal that keeps me going.  And more than just breakfast, it's now included in my lunchbox almost every time I go to work as my go-to healthy mid-night snack that keeps me going until 0700.

This healthy habit plays off another of my new favorite healthy habits:  Sangria Water, where I fill a pitcher with filtered water and fruit of all kinds and let it soak overnight, giving me great fruit-tasting water to drink all day and then the fruit to put on my oatmeal for the next day. So the Sangria Water  I made yesterday, with peaches and blueberries, became the peaches and blueberries that topped my yogurt oats this morning for breakfast. It's a win-win, for sure.

 

Give Peas a Chance: Split Pea & Sausage Soup

 

Brain:  "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

Pinky:  "I think so, Brain, but if we give peas a chance, won't the carrots get jealous?"

 

I've always thought that split pea soup couldn't be split pea soup without chunks of ham in it until the other day when I had no ham in the freezer but did have a roll of light country (sage) sausage.  I may never use ham again!  The sausage and all of its seasonings added a depth of well-roundedness to the soup that the ham just doesn't quite make.  Viva la sausage!

 

Mexican Villa Fake-out: Home-made Burrito Enchilada-Style

 

Let's start with a HUGE Thank You to Jamie D who read my original post about our hometown Mexican Villa and sent me a taste-alike recipe from the 'net for The Villa's enchilada sauce. Like Springfield-style Cashew Chicken, The Villa is a Springfield original, it's ours, and we're wild about it!

Using Jamie's sauce I created our own Burritos Enchilada-Style last night and we loved them. In a private email Jamie had said "When the chili seasoning hits the sauce your nose will know it's The Villa."  Yup, sooooooooo true!  Not that we won't be ordering from the restaurant itself anymore but it is a nice home-style meal as well that I got a huge kick out of creating. It will be fun to make it for friends or family sometime and see if I can fake them out.

Sweet Potato Colcannon: St. Pat's Meets the Deep South

 
 

As much as I LOVE colcannon, mashed potatoes with Kale, or any of its "subsidiaries" mashed potatoes with cabbage or spinach or green onions or all of the above, I find this to be a colorful and tasty change of colcannon pace:  SWEET potatos mixed with cooked spinach and green onions. Good AND good for you!

Blueberry & Olive Oil Cake

I'm falling in love with this Olive Oil Cake recipe.   The blueberries, fresh and local from ourCSA are a wonderful additon ot the mix and 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.

Who Needs Jamie Oliver? The Eureka Springs Arkansas School District has had their own Food Revolution for Years

Chicken noodle soup.  Photo courtesy of Eureka Cool School Cafe
 

Much attention has been brought to school lunch programs lately through the efforts of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  His goals are admirable even if parts of the mini-series are at times too reminiscent of reality TV stunts-for-the-drama for my taste (but I also realize that there are others above Jamie controlling that part of the show's content.) His message is this: 

"I believe that every child in America has the right to fresh, nutritious school meals, and that every family deserves real, honest, wholesome food. Too many people are being affected by what they eat. It's time for a national revolution. America needs to stand up for better food!"  --Jamie Oliver

Happy Birthday to Aunti: War Eagle Mill Artisan Bread Class

 

Edit:  War Eagle Mill's head baker, Faith Brockoff, has graciously allowed me to reprint her bread recipe here on the blog.  To view, click HERE. Thank you Faith!

The story of our War Eagle Mill's Artisan Bread class is one of mystery and intrigue.  At least for Aunti Susan it was.  Being on the mill's email newsletter list, a few weeks ago I saw notice of a special artisan bread class being given by their head baker, who turned out to be a lovely woman named Faith. Knowing the class was going to be hands-on and quite small, I shot off an email asking for them to reserve three places and that I would get back to them by the end of the day.  I immediately called Ann and asked "Any chance you have Friday and Saturday, April 23rd & 24th off so we can take Aunt Susan to War Eagle for a bread class?"  Sharp intake of her breath "Yes! I think...let me check...oh I hope so...YES!!!"

And with that, it was pretty much set. We didn't give Susan much of a choice, we just emailed her and told her she was being kidnapped for her birthday on those days and to be sure and pack a casual overnight bag.  Always being up for fun, her response was "Okey dokey."  Being a good little kidnappee, she asked no questions.