Its a freakin breeze being a green bean casserole.

NUMMY! I like the reflection in the pan. I'm so artsy. :)

Lady's and Gents, this is one of my all time favorite things. I don't mean favorite foods, I mean favorite THINGS. I LOOOOOOOUUUUUUVVVVVE green bean casserole, really I would eat it every day. Creamy mushroom sauce, tender green beans, finished off with crispy onions, that's a mouth full of happy right there. I'm sure people exist who don't enjoy the GBC but I choose not to believe that. I've heard rumor of people that don't enjoy chocolate, which just HAS to be a lie. What's next, people who don't like good sex or laughing?

Green bean casserole takes me back to a time I hated all vegetables. Wouldn't touch them unless enticed by some fried chicken finger and/or nugget. Yet every Thanksgiving I welcomed a heaping scoop of green bean casserole on my plate. Sure it was mostly cream of mushroom soup and french's onions, but still I took immense pride that on Thanksgiving, the holiday of gluttony, my favorite indulgence actually had vegetables in it. It was only when I went to college I learned green bean casserole was a southern dish and not a staple on every Thanksgiving menu. I quickly introduced the wonder that is the cheap and easy green bean casserole to my friends still not knowing how incredible REAL made from scratch green bean casserole tasted. First I switched to fresh green beans, and will never pick up a can of green beans again. (I mean I might, but I'm trying to make a point here.) Then I figured out the sauce, but was still relying on those french's crunchy onion rings, which seem to be mostly batter. I know they are delicious, and lets just say I've eaten more than one can sitting in front of the TV watching Buffy or something equally awesome, but they are nothing but junk. Making your own onions is surprisingly easy and just, if not more, crunchy and tasty.

My point sweet readers, is this is a traditional southern dish, that EVERYONE should try. And if you are going to make it, best make it from scratch. No canned green beans or french fried onions here. Nope fresh vegetables, flour and cream make this dish heavenly, without adding icky chemicals to your body. This is often a side dish as it uses a cup of half and half, so is fairly rich. Using fresh green beans, onions and mushrooms increases the nutritional value of this dish, but it's not what I would call healthy. I would call it an instant hit at potlucks and the way to a person's heart. Or stomach at the very least. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Onions coated with flour

Onions baked and crispy. No eating yet!

Mushrooms sautéing

Simmering in broth

Getting creamy in half and half

Bring all your ingredients together, bake and serve!

Green Bean Casserole

Based on Alton Brown's No your mommas green bean casserole.

This time, Im not dreaming. It's really here!

The Goods: Serves 4-6 as a side dish

Topping: 

2 meduim onions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 tablespoons panko bread crumbs

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Non stick spray

The Sauce: 

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices

1 cup vegetable broth

1 cup half and half

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

The Green Beans: 

1 pound green beans, rinsed and trimmed

1 gallon of water

2 tablespoons kosher salt. 

The Deal: 

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Combine onions, panko flour, and salt in a large bowl and toss to combine. Coat a sheet pan with non stick spray and evenly spread out onions. Bake until golden brown, tossing every 10 minutes, for approximately 30 minutes. Once done, remove from oven and set aside until ready to use. Once you remove the onions turn the oven temperature down to 400 degrees. 

2. While the onions are cooking, prepare the beans. Fill a bowl with ice and water aka make an ice bath. Bring a gallon of water to a boil with two tablespoons of salt. Blanch aka boil the green beans for 5 minutes. Drain in a colander and immediately put beans in the ice bath to stop cooking. Once cool, drain and set aside.

3. Now to make your sauce! Melt the butter in a large saute pan (that can also be used in the oven) over medium high heat. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give off their liquid, 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for one minute. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute. Add the half and half, stir and cook until the mixture thickens, around 6 to 8 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and stir in the green beans and 1/4 of the onions. Top with remaining onions. Bake in saute pan at 400 degrees until bubbly, 15-20 minutes. Serve immediately. 

Sofrito. So-do-it-o.

How can there be so much delicious food in the world? I don't understand, shouldn't there be a limit? There are just so many ways to combine tomatoes and onions. You add one spice, cook one thing differently and WHAM, entirely new flavor combinations to amuse your pallete. I know it's obvious, but I am so amazed at how many different ways there are to use the same ingredients. I want to know them ALL. But of course that takes time, blah blah. This recipe comes from Jose Andres, or Mr. Tapas, as I refer to him. He is a super famous chef who has restaurants, cookbooks, and nice belly, you know the usuals for a good chef. Sofrito is a classic spanish tomato sauce that has a ton of variations. The ingredients are simple, so there are plenty of ways to try your own spin on this classic sauce. Do not use traditional paprika here, the spanish smoked paprika is essential in creating the smoky flavor.

The onions part 1: Cooking

The onions part 2: Caramelized and ready for maters!

Sofrito

Based on Jose Andres recipe

Just remove bay leaves and serve! Or store for later.

The Goods: Makes about 2 cups
1 (28 oz) can whole plum tomatoes
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
4 small onions, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt, more to taste
1 teaspoon spanish smoked paprika
2 to 3 bay leaves

The Deal: 
1. Heat oil and butter on medium heat in a large saute pan. Add onions, sugar, and salt and stir to evenly mix ingredients. Heat onions until browned and caramelized, about 40-45 minutes. Stir occasionally and reduce the heat if the onions begin to burn.

2. While the onions are cooking drain the plum tomatoes. Place whole tomoatoes in a food processor and blend until chunky, about 10 pulses. This is a very up to you step, puree more if you want a smoother sauce, blend less if you like a chuncky sauce.

3. When your onions are caramelized add tomato puree, paprika and bay leaves. Stir and heat about another 20 minutes. Add additonal salt if needed. Remove bay leaves before serving or storing.

Edie Beets Salad

Hello Everyone! I'm Lissa's cousin Dorothy, and I'm doing a little guest spot on her food glorious food blog for your viewing (and cooking?) pleasure today. I've been thinking of starting my own foodie blog and my sweet cous' generously donated her space for me test the waters, so here we go!

Today we are making "Edie Beets Salad," which is named in honor of my parents' cat Edie Beats, the Small, Mean Thing. The reason its not "Easy Beet Salad" is because, while it is easy, there are a lot of little steps, and is a wee bit time consuming so I like to make a big batch of everything and store it in the fridge so I can easily assemble it throughout the week.

Beet salads are especially abundant in the summer and fall on Martha's Vineyard, MA, where I'm originally from, and I spent a lot of time in my early(er) 20s during and after college working in several cafes and restaurants that served them, all different varieties. This recipe takes a little something from the best and leaves out things I'm not wild about like... lettuce or raw baby spinach - don't get me wrong I adore almost all fruits and vegetables, but for some reason salad greens I could take or leave. I've been known to order greek salad on a bed of baby sprouts instead of its traditional Romaine. So we're leaving salad greens out of this, but by all means, add 'em if you want 'em! Beets are nature's candy, and they are one of the most nutritious vegetables you can put in your body. They are especially good for cleansing your blood and detoxifying your liver, which makes this the perfect dish to kick-start any new years resolutions to lose any excess holiday wobble (which I personally need to do - I'm tall and fine-boned and that means any extra weight hangs on my frame in all the unflattering places and its worn out its welcome thankyouverymuch. But I digress. This salad is healthy, filling, and satisfyingly sweet and savory. All food should be this good).

The goods: makes approximately 4-5 servings as an entree and twice that as a side salad:

2 bunches of beets (12-13 small to medium or 7-8 large beets) steamed, peeled, and cubed

1 small bunch of chives, chopped

1 pickled red onion (recipe follows)

sweet red onion vinegarette (ditto)

1 can of mandarin oranges, drained

sweet and spicy candied walnuts (recipe follows, or you could just use regular walnuts, almonds, whatever you have, i bet sunflower seeds would be good in this too. Use your imagination!)

goat cheese (or feta, gorganzola, bleu... any crumbled cheese would work, they're all good and you won't be using more than a tablespoon at a time)

freshly ground black pepper to taste

the first deal:

Rinse and trim any greens and tails from the beets (don't peel them yet! you'll do this when they're done steaming, you don't want to lose the nutrients from the skins). Place in a large pot and fill with water 3/4s of the way up the beets:

Bring water to a boil, then simmer until beets are soft when gently poked with a fork, 45 minutes to an hour, depending on size. check the water level occasionally to make sure it hasn't all boiled off (this happens quicker than you might think!). Add water as needed.

While the beets are steaming, make your pickled red onion:

more goods: adapted from a Bobby Flay recipe for Creamy Potato Salad with Pickled Red Onions on foodnetwork.com

1 red onion

1 bottle of Red Star red wine vinegar (save the bottle, you'll use it as a vessel to hold the dressing)

1 tablespoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon ground mustard, or mustard seeds

2 tablespoons olive oil

the second deal:

Quarter and slice the onion 1/4 inch thick slices

combine vinegar, salt, sugar, and mustard together in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, about 1 minute until sugar and salt are completely dissolved. Remove from heat. Add onion slices, submerge, cover, and put in the fridge for an hour (or put it outside on a cold winter's day - I should point out that I'm writing this from upstate NY, where we are having a rather Southern, mild winter this year).

At the end of the hour, remove the onion slices to their own container, and reserve the liquid in the vinegar bottle, adding 2 tablespoons of olive oil. This will be your dressing for the salad.

While the onions are pickling, check on water level for the beets, and then make the sweet and spicy walnuts:

even more goods: makes 2 cups of candied nuts

2 cups walnuts

1 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

the third deal:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blanch the walnuts in boiling water 1-2 minutes. While nuts are blanching combine sugar, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper in a medium sized bowl. Drain the nuts and immediately combine with sugar mixture until fully coated. Evenly spread on a cookie sheet lightly coated in cooking spray:

...and bake for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until nuts are golden brown. Be careful near the end, powdered sugar can burn quickly! Remove from oven:

...stir the nuts to prevent sticking, cool, and store in an air tight container.

the final deal: assembling the fruits of your labor :)

Check the beets with a fork to test tenderness. When the tines of the fork slide in the beet gently, without any effort, they are done:

Reserve the beet juice if you like (I'm still trying to figure out what to do with it, its just too gorgeous to pour down the drain! side note: I'm thinking of making beet juice ice cubes for summertime lemonade) Rinse with cool water, and peel the beets - the skin will slide off easily with the slightest pressure from your fingertips, you probably won't need to use a veggie peeler (unless you've used organic beets which have a slightly tougher skin. Don't let this deter you from organic, its worth breaking out the peeler if need be, they tend to be a little smaller and sweeter than the average grocery store variety).

Cube the beets, and store in an air tight container:

time to assemble!

for 1 entree

throw a handful or so of beets in a bowl:

top with 1-2 tablespoons of chives:

add the pickled onion:

and mandarin oranges:

dress with sweet red onion vinegarette and toss together:

top with 1 tablespoon of goat cheese:

sprinkle with candied nuts and season with freshly ground black pepper:

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading, and Thank you, Lissa for letting me in on your wonderful blog! I'm off to start my own!

Happy New Year!

xoxoxox

Dorothy

Better than cheese straws

A plate of delicious

Ah, the holidays. A time to make indulgent treats that you wouldn't allow yourself otherwise. Also in general there are more people around to eat said treats stopping any temptation to devour all your delicious goodies yourself while watching 30 rock for the 90 billionth time. These crackers are easy to make, look elegant, and most importantly taste delicious. I love all forms of cheese crackers, from straws to coins, cheez-its to goldfish, I LOVE salty cheezy crunchy treats. Problem is they are not know for their abundance in nutrients. They are known for making your ass more abundant, which aint what I'm currently looking for. These are far tastier than store bought crackers, and are not full of chemicals. Simple easy ingredients are always better than chemical junkfood, but keep in mind you only make about 22 crackers and use a stick of butter in this recipe. So again, make these for friends or a partay in which you are sure to go home with an empty plate. I also suggest making a little sign to let people know they are crackers, I put them out at a holiday party and people thought they were cookies.
Because the ingredients are so simple be sure to to use high quality ingredients. Fresh thyme and freshly grated parmesan are essential if you want this dish to impress.

Butter and cheese

After you add flour, here is your dough!

Roll it into a log and refrigerate

Slice your cold dough

Lay, bake and enjoy!

Parmesan and Thyme Crackers

The Goods: Makes 22 crackers
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
4 ounces (1 cupish) freshly grated parmesan cheese (grated in a food processor)
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, minced

The Deal: 
1. Place butter in the bowl of a electric mixer with the paddle attachment and mix until creamy, about one minute. With the mixer on low speed, add parmesan, thyme, salt and pepper and combine. Keep the mixer on low and add the flour and combine until the mixture is in large crumbles, about one minute. If the dough it too dry, add 1 teaspoon water.

2. Dump the dough onto a floured surface and press into a ball, then roll into a 9 inch log. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

At this point you can refrigerate the dough up to four days.


3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut the log into 3/8-inch-thick rounds with a small sharp knife and place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 22 minutes until very lightly browned. Rotate the pan once during baking. Cool and serve at room temperature.

These will keep in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

My favorite salad right now

This dish is so quick and easy, I've made it two nights in a row this week and have no plans of stopping.  I think anyone knows how unbelievably healthy spinach is for you. Basically this vegetable can do no wrong. It's tasty raw, great cooked, and is one of the most common vegetables available at the market. Do note that it's one of the Dirty Dozen so buy organic spinach if possible. There are several different types, most common is baby spinach, especially for salads. Curly leaf spinach is popular to cook with, but not great in salads. As far as vitamins go, spinach has it all: Vitamin K, C, A, B12 and B6. Its got calcium, potassium, magenese, and folate. You can click on the link above to get more info, but spinach is always a good choice nutritionally speaking.

This dish was one I discovered on my birthday at an AWESOME tapas restaurant in town, called Curate. It has a lot of traditional spanish dishes, and we did our best to try them all. I will likely be blogging several spanish recipes soon because I can't stop thinking about that delicious meal.
What appealed to me about this salad was how quick you can prepare it, and how the sweetness of the fruit helps balance the overpowering flavor of cooked spinach. As I've stated I have a hard time eating cooked leafy greens, such as kale, spinach and collards, but this dish slid down my gullet like butter. This is a great way to use a ton of spinach, especially if it's close to going bad. So make this as soon as you can, it may become your new favorite salad too!

Spinach, Catalan-Style

Not the best picture, but trust me this Salad is AMAZING. 

In the picture above I slightly overcooked the spinach, so be VERY careful when cooking your spinach. It really only takes 1-2 minutes to wilt, and do not stop stirring once the spinach it added. Be sure ALL your ingredients are prepped and ready because once you start the dish it only takes about 5 minutes to cook. The key to getting this salad right is timing, so move quickly. Seconds make a different in this salad. 
The Goods: Serves 3-4 as a side dish
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 golden delicious apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4 inch cubes
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup golden raisins
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt, more to taste
10 ounces baby spinach

The Deal: 
1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium high heat. Add garlic and saute. Once oil is very hot, add apples and cook until lightly browned, 1-2 minutes. Add pine nuts and cook until browned, 20-30 seconds. Stir constantly during this process to prevent burning. Add the raisins and salt and combine ingredients throughly. Immediately add the spinach, mix and saute quickly until it starts to wilt, 1-2 minutes tops. The spinach will continue to wilt off heat, so take it off heat JUST as it begins to wilt. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve immediately.

Easiest Gift Ever

Making gifts is a wondeful idea. Though sometimes after hours and hours of prepping, cooking, resting dough, and actually looking at cost, making gifts becomes WAY more expensive and time consuming then just buying one. Now I'm all about the spirit of giving something you put your heart and hands into, but not when it comes at the expense of your sanity. 

Thats where chocolate bark comes in. It's everything I want in a gift, it looks nice and expensive, while being cheap and easy. Now this is one of a billion variations, though I really loved the combination of flavors. I would be careful using ginger because while I could eat ginger all the times, not everyone feels the same way. Ginger is a strong flavor, and even in this decadent dish, the ginger is one of the stronger flavors, so be sure the person you are gifting this too likes ginger. You could sub it for another dried fruit or nut, or just omit it all together.
The only bad thing about this stuff is how addictive it is. It will behoove you to make it for someone else, avoiding any all night chocolate binges that have been known to happen. Not to me of course, but other people. Oh. And me. I know all our big holidays are behind us now, but this is a perfect New Years treat to bring to a festive partay. Enjoy!

Draw a rectangle

Melt that Choc-co-lat. mmmmmmm.

Pour in rectangle, doing a better job than I did. 

Sprinkle on delicious goodies

French Chocolate Bark
Based On Barefoot Contessa's French Chocolate Bark

The Goods: Makes 20-24 pieces
8 ounces good semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
8 ounces good bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup roasted almonds, toasted and roughly chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup dried apricots, 1/2 inch diced
1/2 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup candied ginger, 1/2 inch diced

The Deal: 
1. Place a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and draw a 9-inch by 10 inch rectangle on the paper. Flip the paper over.

2. Place all the semi-sweet chocolate and half of the bittersweet chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, stir and continue to microwave until all the chocolate has JUST melted, checking every 20 seconds, stirring with each check. Once fully melted, immediately add the rest of the bittersweet chocolate and stir vigorously until the chocolate is completely smooth.

3. Pour the chocolate mixture onto the draw rectangle, doing your best to distribute the chocolate evenly. Use a spatula to get all the chocolate out of the bowl and evenly spread it on the paper. Then top the chocolate in this order: ginger, almonds, cherries, apricots, and raisins. Set aside until firm, about 2 hours. Once firm, but into squares and serve at room temperature.
This will keep for about a week served in a air tight container.

It's Chili Yall.

With the weather dropping, sorta depending where you live, I think most of us want something warm and simple to come home to. And if you are like me, with all this holiday insanity, you need something that doesn't take a lot of time. Soups and Chili are the perfect fix. With only a little chopping you throw everything into a pot and cook it until the flavors meld, which gives you just enough time to open the wine and snuggle up to a book. 

This recipe is a meld of a few different vegetarian chili dishes I found. You can add all sort of other vegetables such as zucchini, sweet potatoes, peppers, etc but I was looking for something with almost no chopping needed. My kitchen had been usurped by my roommate all day so it was 9pm before I could start dinner. Given the circumstance, I needed dinner to be quick so did not add a ton of vegetables. As I said, there a million variations, but this is a great basic chili to add on as you see fit. The flavors are rich and it's healthy to boot! You could also play with beans, using pinto or white northern beans, along with the classic black bean for a variation. As I said chili is fairly versatile, but knowing what spices to use helps your chili stand out.
Most of us will be eating fairly gourmet this weekend, but next week I urge you to make this simple, healthy chili. Make it on Monday and have lunch for the rest of the week :)

Vegetarian Chili
Based on "Vegetarian Pleasures" Black Bean Chili

The Goods: Makes a big ole pot of Chili, serves 4-6

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil 

2 medium onions, diced

6 large cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/2 pounds portobello mushrooms, stemmed, wiped clean and cubed

2 cups fresh corn kernels (frozen is fine) 

1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes in their juices

3 cups cooked black beans, drained and rinsed

2 cups vegetable stock or water

2 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon cayenne (more if you want a spicy chili)

Suggested toppings: 

Sour cream and chives

Sliced Avocado

Shredded Cheddar

Fresh Cilantro

The Deal: 

1. Heat oil on medium high heat in a large stock pot. Add onions and garlic, cooking until soft, about 3 minutes. Add corn and mushrooms and cook until soft and browned around the edges, about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add chili powder, soy sauce, cumin, oregano, ginger, cinnamon, salt and cayenne, stirring constantly and cooking until fragrant about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, black beans, and vegetable stock and mix well while bringing to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, keeping a good simmer until thickened, but not pasty, about 30 minutes. Taste and add seasonings if desired. 

Serve warm over brown rice. This also reheats beautifully, add a bit of water if too thick when reheating in a pot.