Giant Dinner Salads: if you know, you know. When the mood strikes, they can be your one-way ticket to total satisfaction, in a leafy-green kind of way. (Looking at you Charred Corn Salad and Steak and Apple Salad😘.) If you’re familiar with this blog at all though, you’re aware there will be more than just greens in this salad bowl. In my on-going saga of “more is always more”, we’re adding farro, cheese (Parmesan is good but manchego is great), smoked almonds, sliced pears, and dried cranberries to this towering pile of good-for-you greens. Also, this Giant Dinner Salad features thinly sliced chicken breast. But, you are welcome to leave that out for a meat-free situation and things will still be delicious.
Continue reading “Giant Dinner Salad”Beef and Beer Stew with Cheddar Dill Scones
Here’s the thing. I’m all about healthy food and vegetables. And, I can even get behind using up all the odds, ends, and scraps of your plant-based delights in the interest of maximizing nutrients and such. But, I’m also veeeeery into super-cozy comfort food, and that’s what we’re dealing with today. This Beef and Beer Stew with Cheddar-Dill Scones is semi-quick-cooking (when compared to traditional beef stew, anyway), super-flavorful thanks to a beer-infused beef stock, and the whole shebang is topped with flaky, cheesy, herby scones. Yes, yes, and yes.
Squash and Country Ham Hand Pies
Listen up, friends – it’s fall! Ok, it’s been fall ever since this epically delicious mac and cheese found its way into our mouths and hearts. But in this moment, fall means cozy, savory hand pies stuffed with an earthy butternut squash and salty country ham filling. And did I mention the pastry is loaded with toasted pecans? Yup. Fully channeling autumnal North Carolina goodness here.
Brown Butter Gingersnap Rice Krispie Treats
Rice Krispie Treats are back on this blog again… for many reasons. First, they are a no-bake dessert (read: perfect for lazy people, like me). Second, they are undeniably good. And third, they are an excellent vehicle for other yummy things, like brown butter and gingersnapssssss! Yuh. Oh, and I’ve thrown a big scoop of white chocolate chips in the mix, too, because, why not?
Sweet Potato Collard Green Fritters
I want to say I pulled this recipe out today because I was just trying to use up some last bits of veg in my house. But, the truth is, I have a long-standing, undying love for vegetable fritters. Sometimes, a fizzy batter and a shallow fry in a skillet is the best treatment you can give a vegetable. That’s the case today with these sweet potatoes and collard greens.
Caramelized Onion and Bacon Mac and Cheese
Every once in a while a meal is created that you just want to curl up in bed and snuggle with. This is that meal. Macaroni and cheese already falls squarely in the comfort food category but when you add sweet caramelized onions and salty, smoky bacon to it… It’s a real situation. You might be thinking, “Nah, that sounds too rich for me,” to which I would say, “Get real. It definitely is not.”
Continue reading “Caramelized Onion and Bacon Mac and Cheese”Brown Sugar Peach Crumble
I don’t know how else to say goodbye to summer other than by posting a peach crumble recipe full of rich, brown sugar flavor and lots of struesel-y crumble topping. It’s an overripe, fruity ode to sunshine and warm breezes that I’ll be sorry to see go away. But also, not that sorry because FALL is almost here. Yeeesss, right? Well, this crumble is the perfect transition dessert to carry you from juicy-fruit summer into sugar and spice fall.
Homemade Sweet Corn and Jalapeno Ravioli
Ok, are you all familiar with the amazingness that is homemade pasta? It’s in its own category of greatness, especially when you stuff it with ricotta, goat cheese, basil, and little pops of fresh sweet corn and spicy jalapeno. Come on – sweet, spicy, herby, and creamy? These are words I live my life by. And honestly, the texture of homemade pasta is just unbeatable. Once you try it, you’ll never look back. (Except when you feel lazy and just want a bowl of buttery spaghetti out of a box. I feel you.)
Rosemary Onion Donuts
Well friends, this is a very special day! It’s donut day! But not sugary sweet, cake-like donuts. Nope, these are savory, herby Rosemary Onion Donuts that you dip in a salty, chivey butter and then you close your eyes and are like, “Wow, where have savory donuts been all my life?” That’s right – this is the 21st century and donuts do not always have to be sweet! Besides, a Rosemary Onion Donut with Chive Butter is kind of an ideal appetizer. It’s like bread and butter, only a bazillion times better. And, hello – party food? 100 percent.
Coffee-Rubbed Smoked Pork Butt
In northeastern North Carolina, and several other parts of the country, summer really isn’t summer without smoked pork. That said, neither is fall, winter, or spring. This kind of cooking is a ritual and usually carries some subtext of a super relaxed afternoon, day-drinking, and some good company. The day before we made this Coffee-Rubbed Smoked Pork Butt, I’d been writing an article for Mashed about adding coffee to your steak rub. I couldn’t get the dang idea out of my mind, except I wanted to test it out on pork. So after some thought, I added ground coffee to Bon Appetit’s very basic 4-3-2-1 Spice Rub. Immediately, I knew it was all my luscious little pork butt needed. The rich, roasty, slightly bitter flavor of the coffee married perfectly with paprika, salt, sugar, and cayenne. The only thing left to add was a little smoke.
