A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Blueberry Thunder Muffins from Persimmon Hill Berry Farm

  For those of us lucky enough to live in the southwest Missouri Ozarks, yes I am prejudiced!, we have access to great berry places like the Persimmon Hill Berry, Fruit, and Mushroom Farm.  And I was lucky enough to have an Auntie who shared with me a baggy of blueberries, a couple of wonderful muffins, and the fabulous recipe from the farm.

I seem to be on a bundt cake kick this year, she said chuckling.  Well, in my defense...Okay, I have no defense but I really like bundt cakes. They look pretty and taste yummy without being high maintenance like layer cakes.  They're the cake friend you invite over for dinner who doesn't need to be impressed because they love you just they way you are and you know you love them.  You know what I mean? 

Check out Persimmon Hill's web site for directions, picking seasons, gourmet products, and additional recipes.

Greek Salad with Easy Homemade Greek Vinaigrette Salad Dressing

In keeping with James' birthday dinner of Ina Garten's Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna) and Greek Do Nothing Pineapple Coconut Cake, I made a large Greek Dinner Salad with Easy Homemade Greek Vinaigrette to go with the pasta at dinner.

Quick and easy, it's a matter of chopping a few fresh vegetables from the crisper, tossing over some creamy feta, and whisking together a few clean-eating pantry ingredients to dress the salad just before serving--and not having to dig through the fridge for clunky, who-knows-how-old bottled dressings!  

 

Ina Garten's Pastitsio (Greek Lasagna)

Greek Do Nothing Pineapple Coconut Cake

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

 

Last Minute Pantry Pasta Salad with Vidalia Onion Dressing

One of the great things about summer cooking, of course, are all the fresh vegetables for salads of all kinds, including pasta salads.  However, in my own experience, there are times when I don't have the time to shop and chop, or I've simply run out of time and need a quick pot luck salad that tastes so good people don't necessarily notice the missing fresh cucumbers that are de riguer in summer pasta salads.

I think of this as one of my tricks or cheats and smile as I simply say "thank you" to the compliments anytime I show up with this dish.  All it takes is a few ingredients hanging out in the pantry as my "Oh crap, I forgot I needed to make something for work!" saviors.

Most of the pasta salad recipes I've seen and made call for either bottled Italian or Creamy Italian dressing or a home-made version.  My personal quirk is to use a wonderful dressing made here in the Ozarks by Ott's, originally born as a small cafe in Carthage, Missouri on Historic Route 66.  The restaurant went out of business but the Mr. Ott began bottling his famous dressing, named appropriately Original Dressing (a red, sweet vinaigrette unlike anything else!) and now bottle more than 34 dressings along with a line of BBQ sauces for Branson, Missouri's Silver Dollar City theme park. 

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.

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

 

Nothing says summer like tomatoes off the vine...and I couldn't wait so I actually pay way too much for vine-ripened tomatoes at the grocery but they were worth it!

Blood Orange & Lavender Olive Oil Muffins

 

My sweet tooth has been acting up a bit lately. No matter how much I try to feed it broccoli, it screams for sugar. I hate it when it gets cranky, but I will persevere. I'm a firm believer that I can eat healthy AND still satisfy my sugar cravings. My sweet tooth demanded orange: Orange martinis?  Orange jelly candies?  Orange Cake?  What we compromised on, my sweet tooth and I, was a batch of these delicious and good-for-you blood orange and lavender olive oil muffins.  Sweet, but not too sweet, and a treat without being empty calories.  With the addition of the whole wheat pastry flour, these muffins are a little heavier, a little more toothsome than so-called muffins that are really fluffly cupcakes masquerading as breakfast food.  More than breakfast, these are a fruity, flower-scented snack, that also contain a serving of good daily fat, for tea time or any time of the day I need a pretty little pick-me-up. 

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