Fall Color

I am a big fan of sweet potatoes. I am a big fan of balsamic vinegar. This dish, which I made for my BIL's birthday lunch, married the two plus chili to make some yummy roasted sweet potatoes.

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 stick of butter (I later decided 1/2 stick would be just fine)
2 tsp salt (start with one and taste as you go)
1 tsp chili powder
5 large sweet potatoes, cut in cubes roughly the same size


Heat balsamic vinegar and butter over med high until it reaches a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until slightly reduced. Add brown sugar, salt and chili powder (or your favorite spices - we decided rosemary would have been good, as well as cinnamon and cumin).

Peel and cube 5 large sweet potatoes and put in baking dish (the larger the better for optimum caramelization). Pour reduced vinegar/butter mixture over potatoes and roast at 350 degrees for about an hour. Stir occasionally to distribute the tangy goodness.

The result is a tender bite of potato with a subtle tang and warmth from the chili powder.

Enjoy!

Friday Night Lites

Last night I had the time to make a salad I'd been thinking about for a week. Fresh tomato, fresh cucumber, basil and oregano from my yard...and that magical elixir, balsamic vinegar with olive oil. It turned out to be delicious, and when I added the small mozzarella balls (bocconcini, I think they're called, meaning small mouthfulls) it was a perfect Friday night lite meal.

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3-4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1/2 tsp kosher or sea salt

10 fresh basil leaves

5 fresh oregano leaves

3 small fresh cucumbers

2 large beefsteak tomatoes, vine ripened

Optional: red onion, mozzarella

Mince garlic (or take it out of a jar, like I did) and let it stand in the balsamic and red wine vinegars. By the way - I doubled the balsamic vinegar. It makes my skirt fly up.

Wash basil and oregano, roll up leaves and slice into little strips. Chop and put in your best olive oil (extra virgin light is what I used).

Wash and peel cucumbers, slice thinly into 1/4" coins. Remove stem and blossom end from tomatoes (really very little is removed). Cut into wedges being careful not to crush and lose any juice from the tomatoes.

Place the tomatoes and cucumbers in the salad bowl and sprinkle with salt.

Whisk together the vinegars and olive oil and pour over tomatoes and cucumbers. Toss gently and serve.

Note: I added some thinly sliced red onion, less than a quarter of the onion. And I added some mozzarella because I wanted this to be a meal. I added both before tossing with the dressing.

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I loved this salad! I used to make one when I lived in Montgomery that had cucumber, tomato, bow tie pasta (farfalle) oil and vinegar, dill and basil. It's very much like that, but I wanted a version without the pasta. That said, you could add pasta to this and it would probably be wonderful (might have to increase the dressing).

[there's some kind of weird spacing funk going on with this post that I can't fix - sorry!]

Homemade Tartar Sauce

I Know What You're Thinking...you're either thinking ick, or yum. And if you're thinking ick it's because, almost always, you don't like the sweet pickle relish that is in most tartar sauce.

So before taking off for the 4th of July fish fry, I looked up a recipe for home made tartar sauce. And found one with capers - I love capers - but it did call for chopped dill pickle. So it made me think, what if I leave out any pickles? I can substitute dill and cider vinegar. So I did. And I didn't have tarragon so I left that out too. And I didn't have Tabasco, but I did have Jalapeno sauce.


It was a hit. How do I know?

There's none left!

Original Recipe from Epicurious.com

1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped dill pickle (I replaced this with a stem of chopped dill and 1tsp of cider vinegar)
3 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 tablespoon drained capers
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon (I left this out)
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (I used jalapeno sauce)

Whisk all ingredients together, season with salt and pepper, and refrigerate for 1 hour and up to 2 days.

Make Mine Pasta!

I have a favorite pasta recipe that I've made so many times I have committed it to memory. You can have it in the time it takes the pasta to cook, so say 20 minutes or so.

[Yes, Marlene, you can have this pasta - it came from Cooking Light and I've slightly modified it for carb consciousness.]

Now, it was intended for use with fresh tomatoes. Hello, have you met my overtime, and what about year round? So I immediately determined to use diced, canned tomatoes. And, with it's white flour pasta, it's not exactly the carb police's friend----but, but, but if you use whole wheat pasta, another bullet is dodged. And use Splenda instead of the small amount of sugar added to the dish, and the transformation from yummy light dish to yummy light carb conscious dish is, well, I tried, anyway.

Ingredients:

1 3 1/2 or 4 oz. goat cheese log
1 clove of garlic, minced (queen of quick says buy the can of minced and use 1/2 tsp)
1 can diced tomatoes (I can wax long on the search for the best diced canned tomatoes, suffice it to say my winners are pictured below)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar (Splenda)
8 oz. mostaccioli or penne rigata pasta (whatever whole wheat pasta makes your skirt fly up)
1/4 tsp cayenne (or red) pepper (if you like spicy, feel free to turn up the volume)
2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar (now, I lurves me some BV, so just know I dump in an eighth of a cup)

Start your pasta cooking according to the instructions on the pasta box. You might want to let the water have about a 3 minute start getting hot before you start the creamy part.

In a skillet, put 2 Tbsp olive oil and heat over medium heat. When oil is warm, add the minced garlic and reduce heat to low. You want to slowly have the garlic turn golden not quickly get a darker brown because the garlic will be bitter. When the garlic is a nice golden color, add the undrained canned tomatoes. ( I used to drain them, but the sauce seemed too thick that way).

Simmer about 6 minutes. While the tomatoes are simmering, add the balsamic vinegar, cayenne pepper and sugar/Splenda.

When the tomato mixture has cooked down a bit, add the goat cheese. I break it into sections when I add it to help it incorporate in the tomato mixture. Stir it into the tomato mixture until smooth.

Meanwhile, if your pasta is ready, drain it in a colander. Add it to the pasta mixture and turn off the heat under the skillet.

Gently fold pasta into tomato cheese mixture. This serves 2 very heaping generous servings, or 4 servings with a small salad.

Plate and serve with a lovely Chianti, and congratulate yourself for eating in even though you were so tired from a long day!

Fall CousCous

Once upon a time in the land of Buckhead, there was a place called Eatzi's.

And at that Eatzi's one could buy fresh baked bread, wine (with an instant chiller if it were in need of chilling), flowers, fruit, salad greens, cheeses, entrees, custom made sandwiches, deli meats, and items from the big glass cases. Like what, you ask? Like tomato and tortellini salad. Fresh hummus, two varieties at least. Flank steak. Roast beef. Grilled chicken. Grilled or poached salmon. Meatballs, turkey or beef. Caprese salad. And in the latter part of the year, Fall Couscous.

And, at special times of the year, Eatzi's would take your paper or plastic and your list and provide you with a time. You would return at the appointed hour and pick up your Turkey+sweet potatoes+rolls+squash casserole or Lamb+peas+potatoes or Goose+mashed potatoes+green salad or whatever you had requested of them.

You would return home, dish it up in your dishes and add Aunt Ethel's apple pie, or Uncle Ewell's mint juleps or whatever custom touches you preferred and your family ate and was full.

And it was very good.

But Fall Couscous. was. the. best.

One day, the door to Eatzi's would not open. Someone said that Eatzi's in a faraway place had overreached. They were gone, never to return. Along with the Fall couscous.

What to do about Fall Couscous? Google saved the day.

First, assemble the ingredients: butternut squash, parsley, EVOO, pine nuts, cinnamon sticks, ground cinnamon, one onion, golden raisins and preserved lemon. And the couscous.


Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Peel and dice a 1.5 pound butternut squash into 1/4 inch dice. Toss in 1 tbsp olive oil and roast for 15 minutes.

Dice the onion and saute in 1 tbsp olive oil until golden ( I like to let it get a little caramelized).

Toast the pine nuts - 3 minutes in the oven after taking out the squash and turning off the heat usually does just right.

Chop the parsley as finely as you can. I can't, I'm not good at that. But the finer the better. About a cup of chopped parsley.

Make the couscous (1 cup water + 1 cup couscous + 1 tsp EVOO) per the package directions but add 1 stick of cinnamon to the water before boiling.

Squeeze juice of 1 preserved lemon (usually in quarters and costing a fortune but you could make your own, but that's another story) into a small dish. Then chop the lemon peel finely and add to the juice. To this add 1 tsp ground cinnamon. Stir in 2 tbsp EVOO.

Remove the cinnamon stick and fluff couscous. Combine the vegetables, 1/2 cup golden raisins, the couscous, the EVOO/lemon/cinnamon mixture and toss together.

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end.

Quick penne supper

My friend Cindy doesn't like to cook as much as I do.



She does love penne pasta. And broccoli.



Cindy, I read this recipe recently and it had you written all over it. I just can't recall where I read it which is becoming a much too frequent occurrence. I figure you could make this in about 30 minutes start to finish. Serve with some wine and you've got a pretty impressive, quick meal for that someone you entertain.


Cook 1/2 box of Barilla penne pasta (brand is just to help with portions because I didn't measure anything). About 5 minutes before the pasta is al dente (Cindy - the pasta box will tell you how long that it takes to cook to al dente), add broccoli florets (the kind already cut up and ready to go) - I used about a quarter of a pound.







Drain penne and broccoli. Slice a few grape or cherry tomatoes and put in the boiler. Return pasta and broccoli to the boiler (the heat from the pasta and broccoli cooks the tomatoes just a little).




Stin in juice and zest of one lemon, plenty of salt and pepper, extra virgin olive oil and last but not least: plenty of parmesan cheese (I used the shredded blend of parmesan, romano, asiago in the fridge) - say 1/3 to 1/2 cup.


Serve.


Yum. This I know because it's what was for supper last night.




Easy, right? Not much measuring and using stuff she probably has in her fridge and pantry. Okay, except the lemon. She might not have the lemon. But Cindy, you drive by the Fresh Market on the way home and we both live less than a mile from a Publix. A lemon would be easy to get. And surprisingly, it made all the difference. Gave it a lightness and set off the olive oil.

That's it, Cindy. From me to you. And everyone else.

Black Bean Salad

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 small jicama, small dice

1 tomato, diced

1/2 onion, diced

1/8 cup fresh cilantro, chopped*

3 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1/2 tsp cumin

1 clove garlic, diced

2-3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Splenda to taste (1 to 1 1/2 Tbsp)

In a large bowl, combine beans, diced tomato, jicama, onion and cilatro. In a separate bowl, mix the lime juice, garlic, cumin and olive oil. Whisk until well blended. Add Splenda to taste. Pour over bean mixture. Stir. Serve room temperature or chill.

Enjoy!

*or substitute 1-2 Tbsp dried if you don't have fresh, and mix with the dressing.

This is a recipe I found on the South Beach website and modified for my tastes. Everyone who has tried it has loved it. I think you will too. I made this for my lunch today, but ate it before I could remember to take a picture. C'est la vie. Jicama is a mexican root vegetable that is crunchy and slightly sweet. I first had it on the barbecue chicken salad at California Pizza Kitchen.