Today I published a Review of The New Southern Table on my Cookbook Review site, CookbookAuthority.com. In addition to the review, I provide the full recipe for Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Brown Butter Sauce. The recipe for the Gnocchi comes from Brys Stephen's cookbook, but I actually made up the Sage brown butter sauce myself (I was inspired when I found out we have a sage bush growing in our backyard!)
Sweet Potato Gnocchi
The Gnocchi is chewy, but light with just the right hint of sweetnees. The brown butter sauce is tangy, decadent and delicious! I was a bit intimidated to make gnocchi, but it turns out that it's really easy to make. Stop on over and get the recipe for Sweet Potato Gnocchi. The Mad Scientist, Littlest and I all loved it, and I am definitely going to make it again.
I haven't updated the blog with a new recipe lately because there's been a lot of this going on lately:
The Littlest One is climbing the stairs, and sliding down on his belly!
Not to mention this!
The Mad Scientist is working on doing some extensive home repair! Thankfully, the bathroom is now complete :)
And having to make this...
Yes, that is mold growing in our grout lines, and on our shower floor.
Into this! (Do you require power tools to clean your shower, because we do.)
Okay, so it's not picture perfect, but at least I don't need a shower after my shower.
In the midst of all this craziness, I'm still trying to maintain my sanity, work, and write cookbook reviews! Needless to say, I'm looking for simple, easy, and delicious ideas that will get me from fridge to table a little faster. While a cookbook is great for planning out meals, and trying complex new recipes, I find that winging it gets dinner to the table a little faster. Enter this BBQ Chicken Pasta Bake. This recipe is basically a new spin on Baked Ziti, which was one of the first dishes I learned how to cook without a recipe. It's a super simple recipe if you've got leftover chicken on hand (which I always do lately due to my obsession with beer can chicken.) You've got tender pasta, ooey gooey cheese, virtuous vegetables, juicy flavorful chicken and tangy barbecue sauce. In less than ten minutes of time, you've got dinner in the oven, and you can get back to life- like wiping the boogers off of your son's face.
So, if you need a recipe when life comes knocking, try out this BBQ Chicken Pasta Bake.
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BBQ Chicken Pasta Bake
by Hannah Rounds June-4-2014
Just about the easiest meal you will make this week :) BBQ Chicken, pasta, veggies, cheese sprinkled with cilantro and a dash of love.
Ingredients
12 Oz Penne Pasta
2 Cups Shredded Chicken
1 Cup Bell Peppers Chopped
1/2 Red Onion Chopped
6 oz Grape Tomatoes Diced
4 oz Colby Jack Cheese Shredded
1/2 Cup BBQ Sauce
1/4 Cup Cilantro
Instructions
1. Boil Pasta according to package instructions minus one minute (pasta should be very al dente). Meanwhile pre-heat your oven to 3502. Mix thoroughly Pasta, vegetables, chicken and bbq sauce. You may want to add more or less bbq sauce to suit your tastes.3. Pour pasta mixture into an 8X8 glass baking pan, and top with a generous layer of cheese4. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350 until cheese is just starting to become brown. Pasta will be tender, and everything will be delicious.5. Top with fresh cilantro to serve.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 Servings
Sweet and Mellow vegetables combined with aromatics and heat to create a heavenly lentil curry.
Recently, I learned about "Wonderpot". No, this is not something that you can now legally buy in the Mile High City (pun). Rather, this is a one pot dish that was pioneered by Budget Bytes. Basically, you throw all the ingredients into one large pot, let it simmer and your dinner is magically delicious (much like a bowl of Lucky Charms only, you know, satisfying). Even though I love to cook, easy and satisfying is something that I am for most week nights. These one pot wonders are a serious sanity saver and since they are on the site Budget Bytes, I assume they have low cost per serving too. Since its Indian (or British as the case may be) Food Week here on Crowdsource My Dinner (Did I announce that yesterday? It is.), I've decided to make a "WonderPot" of sweet potato, spinach and lentil curry. Lentils lend themselves really well to wonderpots, because they require simmering which means they have plenty of time to absorb the yumminess from other flavors (such as coconut milk, onions and garlic). This is definitely the easiest recipe that I've created in a long time, and one of the most delicious. The flavor of this wonderpot is out of this world. Creamy sweetness from the coconut milk, tender chew from the lentils, a little bit of acidity from the tomatoes, spicy and herbacious goodness from the aromatics. When I first started throwing ingredients into a pot, I worried about was that this would end up being mushy, but the lentils held their shape and texture really well, and created a distinctly non-mushy texture (the opposite of mushy is crunchy, but this is decidedly not crunchy). Enjoy!
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Sweet Potato, Lentil and Spinach Curry
by Hannah Rounds May-6-2014
This one pot wonder curry is as easy to prepare as it is delicious.
Ingredients
1 Very Large Sweet Potato- Diced
1 Can Full Fat Coconut Milk
1.5 cups Stock (vegetable or chicken)
1 Medium Onion- Diced
3 Cloves Garlic- Minced
1 Can Diced Tomatos
3 Tablespoons Garam Masala
1/2 Teaspoon Tumeric
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Cup Lentils Rinsed
2 Cups Packed Spinach
1/8 Bunch Cilantro
1 Dollop per Bowl Greek Yogurt
Instructions
1. Soak lentils for at least 45 minutes then rinse them.2. Add sweet Potatoes, tomatoes, stock, coconut milk, onion, garlic and spices to a pot and bring it up to a slow simmer for 20 minutes.3. Add lentils and allow pot to simmer 20-30 more minutes.4. Add spinach and allow it to wilt (2-3 minutes)5. Serve curry with yogurt and freshly chopped cilantro (and naan bread or rice are nice side choices)
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 Servings
A few months back, I met a lady named Princess. I like this lady's mama; she had no qualms letting the world know that her daughter would be a complete diva! To be fair, Princess is not a diva in the Kim Kardashian sense of the word, but she is confident and very funny, and we share a mutual love of food. Our first conversation was about kale. She and I had both recently converted to kale, and I mentioned that my favorite method to consume kale was in a kale salad, and she said, "Uh uh... kale is just too chewy for a salad." I worked her through my recipe for delicious kale, but she seemed unconvinced. However, last Sunday in church (the service had already started), I felt a tug on my arm. "I had kale salad," she whispered, "it was good." Double thumbs up. Unlike most people who grew up attending church, I never mastered the just loud enough whisper, so I gave an awkward smile and returned the double thumbs up. Apparently my attempt to communicate my happiness was not sufficient because after the service, Princess sought me out, and said again, "Did you know that now I really love Kale salad. I've eaten it every day this week. I used your recipe!" "Yeah, you told me about thirty minutes ago. That's awesome! I'm glad to have a kale salad buddy." "Okay, I thought you might be mad because your face looked all scrunchy when I told you." ...Awkward pause... "So, frisbee tonight?" Now, while I tell you about this kale salad, I want you to not picture my face. Because I think if you do that, you will be more likely to try it, and you will not regret the decision to eat more kale. The kale is crisp and cool, and covered in a tangy, sweet coleslaw dressing. Then the salad is piled high with sweet crunchy goodies like cucumbers and apples, and little tart but chewy bits of craisins and raisins. Finally the whole thing is topped with zingy red onions and a generous crumble of feta cheese. And since I made it a meal, I threw on a little bit of shredded chicken which launched the whole thing past the outer atmosphere of healthy delicious and into zero gravity delicious. How can you resist it? You cannot, and you should not because you will feel great eating this. I can feel my skin getting clearer already. What's that stop talking and just give me the recipe? Okay, but first, a picture of Littlest who preferred playing with the garden hose to eating even a single element of this salad.
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Kale Salad
by Hannah Rounds April-30-2014
A delicious and healthy entree salad that is loaded with all kinds of salad goodies.
Ingredients
1/4 cup Mayo
2 Teaspoons Red Wine Vinegar
1 Teaspoon Sugar
3 cups Kale- washed and cut into bite size pieces
1 Apple- Diced
1/2 Cucumber- Thinly sliced
1/2 Red Onion- Thinly Sliced
1/2 Tablespoon Raisins
1/2 Tablespoon Craisins
4 Tablespoons Feta Cheese
1 Cup Shredded Chicken
Instructions
1. Whisk together mayo, vinegar and sugar2. Toss dressing and kale3. Add the other ingredients and eat immediately
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 2 Servings
Sweet, aromatic and delicate: three words I never associated with fish. Then I made fish curry.
Are you ready for green curry in a hurry? About 90% of the time when I am rushing to get dinner on the table, I make some sort of stir fry. It's delicious, healthy, filling and has endless variations. I used to think of stir fry as a soy sauce only deal until I read Well Fed, A Paleo Cookbook for People who Love to Eat (link to the author's blog here). In this book, Melissa Joulwan pretty much blows the lid off of traditional stir fries and quick dinners and creates delicious recipes that made me look at the pictures and say "Get in my Mouf." Melissa is a hard core paleo eater (no grains, legumes or dairy), and I'm not; however, I still love learning from her. One of her favorite flavor tricks are coconut milk and fish sauce. This coconut fish curry sauce is a delicious paleo approved version of Thai Green Curry. Before I started working on this recipe, I was a little worried that fish would not work with coconut milk, but I was so wrong. The brininess of the fish actually enhances the sweet decadence of the coconut milk and the two primary components have a truly addictive flavor that you can whip up in just 15 minutes. Nothing will make you feel more virtuous about your healthy eating than consuming a bowl of veggies swimming in omega three fatty acids (double win on the fish and coconut milk). You might even get inspired to start that cross-fit workout you've been meaning to try (or not). Like the Thai Red Curry, this curry sauce uses curry paste (Green this time), coconut milk and fish sauce, but you can change up the vegetables to suit what you have on hand. I've actually done a similar curry using acorn squash so even if you have your doubts about a certain veggie, give it a try. The big technique when it comes to curry or stir fry is to start with the hearty vegetables (Squash, root veggies, cruciferous vegetables) and leave delicate vegetables (leafy greens, snap peas, etc.) to the end. I promise that you will love this recipe. At least this guy did!
Littlest playing with a paint rolling stick. It's one of his top activities these days.
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Coconut Fish Curry
by Hannah Rounds
This green coconut curry is the perfect meal to make when you are in a hurry. Its especially quick if you can prep the veggies ahead of time.
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Fish Sauce
2 Tablespoons Green Curry Paste
3 Cloves Garlic Pressed or Minced
1/2 White Onion diced
3 Whole Carrots Carrots thinly sliced
1-2 Crowns Broccoli diced
2-3 Vegetables Zucchini thinly sliced
4 Tilapia Filets cut into chunks
1 Can Coconut milk
Small Handful Cilantro
Instructions
1. In a large skillet heat olive oil then add garlic, onion, green curry paste and fish sauce. Heat for 1-2 minutes2. Add all vegetables (unless you are using delicate vegetables then reserve those for the end) and heat for 5-7 minutes.3. Add Tilapia and heat for 3-4 minutes (until mostly cooked)4. Add coconut milk and delicate vegetables and keep on heat until coconut milk is quite warm and addictive.5. Serve with cilantro and lime.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 Servings
These pork chops are Jamaican me crave some more Jerk!
My first experience with Jamaica was as an elementary school kid watching Cool Runnings, the story of the Jamaican Bobsled team. The country portrayed in that movie made me want to go so badly, so when the Mad Scientist told me to pick the destination for our honeymoon, I only considered Jamaica (well, Thailand was briefly in the running but I had concerns about the water and limited vacation time).
Jamaica was everything advertised and more. The Mountains of Jamaica seem to rise directly out of the ocean. All the foliage is enormous and beautiful. During our honeymoon, every day we would walk down the mountain to the beach and stop and the Mad Scientist would take about 600 pictures of flowers or insects or goats doing their goat thing (lots of goats in Jamaica, not always tied up either).
The food of Jamaica was actually one of my favorite parts of the vacation although the Mad Scientist and I only ate out a few times while we were there. On the first day of our vacation, we wandered into a Supermarket and I was fascinated by all the ingredients, so much so that we actually bought several days worth of groceries and cooked at home.
One of the foods we bought we thought was Jicama, but when we ate it raw it made our mouths all buzzy and weird feeling, so we started frying that in coconut oil and it was delicious. It may have just been a really large sweet potato.
However, when we did go out to eat, we stopped at a barefoot Jerk meat stand, and ate the traditional barbecue with Red Stripe beer while listening to blasting Reggae (when in Jamaica). Jerk is a fusion of Indian, Carribean, African and Chinese influences and delicious.
This spice rub mimics some of the best flavors that we had while in Jamaica (cooking in coconut oil is an added bonus if you have it). It is slightly sweet, but has a hot kick. The hand rubbed pork chops are finger-licking good and have that addictive sweet and spicy combination combined with juicy, mildly smoky, seared bone-in pork chop. The mango salsa is the perfect complement (although not the most traditional). The chuncky salsa actually plays the role that a chutney plays in Indian cuisine (cools the palate but it makes you crave more spice). Depending on how much of a chili head you are, you can choose to up the Jalapeno amount to meet your own preferences.
Do you need an island vacation? This meal will transport you to the Carribean, but don't forget the Red Stripe (or the Dragon Stout which is the best beer that we discovered in Jamaica).
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Jerk Pork Chops
by Hannah Rounds
This spice rub yields perfectly craveable sweet and spicy qualities of traditional Jamaican Cuisine.
Ingredients
4 Bone In Pork Chops
3 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 Bay Leaves Torn into tiny pieces
2 Teaspoons Oregano
1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1 Teaspoon Hot Paprika
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Thyme
1/2 Teaspoon Coriander
1/2 Teaspoon Allspice
1/2 Teaspoon Tumeric
1/2 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
Instructions
1. Mix all spices and brown sugar together.2. Thoroughly coat and rub thawed pork with spice rub.3. Store in Fridge for at least 8 hours (up to 48 hours)4. Heat oil (coconut oil is best) in a large skillet to medium heat. Cook pork chops 6 minutes on the first side and 3 minutes on the second
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 Pork Chops
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Mango Salsa
by Hannah Rounds
This mango salsa is perfect for serving over meat or on its own
Ingredients
1 Mango Finely Diced
2 Cups Pineapple Diced into small Chuncks
1/2 Bunch Cilantro
1 Jalapeno- deveined and seeded, finely diced
1 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
1. Combine all ingredients2. Allow ingredients to meld with each other for at least 30 minutes or up to three days.
Where did Caeser keep his armies? Up his sleevies!
How could I possibly resist the joke- I am after all talking about Greece and that is probably in my top three jokes of all time. (Interestingly, nobody has told me to quit my day job to go into a comedy career).
All jokes aside, this is one of the best homemade sandwiches that I've ever made. I daresay, it surpasses food truck fare, and you know its getting serious when I say that.
When I cooked the pork I used warmer aromatics like allspice, cinnamon and oregano to highlight the flavor of the pork without overwhelming it with spice. Tomatoes, cucumbers and onions brought a fresh crunch to the party, and the sweet and tangy notes of the tzatziki sauce rounded out the flavor profile to make a rich and satisfying meal. And that's before I've even begun to wax poetic about the virtues of the homemade pita bread.
If you are ever going to make one item from this blog, this is the one I recommend. You can play with the proportions to your liking, but you are not going to regret eating this.
This recipe really started a few years ago, when the newly married Mad Scientis and I went onto a bit of a Greek food kick that started by eating Mousaka from Christos in Minneapolis.
Not taken at Christos, but we look so cute that I couldn't resist.
That Mousaka was the food of the Gods (contrary to popular belief they eat Mousaka not pomegranate and nectar), and I've never been able to recreate it well. It seems like I can never get my proportions of eggplant to beef correct. The Mousaka fail hasn't stopped me from trying a wide range of other Greek favorites like Spanikopita, Baklava, Pastisio and now this pita sandwich (which cannot properly called a Gyro but is close enough to fall into the category of Greek food).
As the Mad Scientist says, this one's a keeper!
Tzatziki Sauce
by Hannah Rounds
Easy Tzatziki sauce gives any sandwich, salad, or plate of meat a Greek flair. A more traditional version would use dill instead of oregano, but I guess I don't own any dill.
Details
Prep time: Yield: 2 Cups
Ingredients
1.5 Cups Greek Yogurt
1 Cucumber- peeled and finely diced
About half a lemon's worth Lemon Zest
One Lemon's worth Lemon Juice
3 Cloves Garlic Pressed
2 Teaspoons Oregano
1 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
To Taste Salt
Instructions
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl.2. Using either a food processor or an immersion blender, blend until mostly smooth.3. Refridgerate for at least one hour prior to use (keeps about a week in fridge)
Greek Pulled Pork Pitas
by Hannah Rounds
Greek food for the masses. This mock gyro is easy to make and delicious.
Details
Prep time: Cook time: Total time: Yield: 4 Sandwiches
Ingredients
2 Homemade Pita sliced in half
1 lb Pre-cooked Pulled Pork
3/4 Cup Stock or broth
1 Teaspoon All Spice
1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
1 Tablespoon Oregano
1 Teaspoon Ground Pepper
1.5 Roma Tomatoes Sliced
1/2 Cucumber Sliced
1/4 White Onion Thinly sliced
To Taste Parsley
6 Tablespoons Tzatziki Sauce
Instructions
1. Infuse pork with Greek flavor by reheating it on low in a crockpot or regular pot with stock and all spices for at least 30 minutes (More than one hour in crockpot)2. Spread Meat onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 450 for ten minutes (to add a crisp texture to the pork)3. Layer sandwich ingredients inside pita bread as desired. Be careful not to tear pita bread. Alternatively, you can make these Gyro style by rolling the filling inside a whole pita bread.
Black Bean Balls! Alliteration makes all food delicious!
Today, I had a rather odd and off topic conversation at work about cheating in school verses "cheating" in the workplace. The biggest hurdle that many of us had to overcome in joining the workforce from our education is that cheating is not only fine, its encouraged. Meaning, you should never write code from scratch if there's already code existing. You should never do a project that's been done before because its a waste of time.
And it struck me, that is why I've started this blog. Because I love to learn and discover and grow, and I want to let my project lead me instead of my deadlines. But there's not time for that at work, because...work. Upon further reflection, I've realized this blog isn't totally original. In every post I have several links to other blogs or recipes, and I'm not totally sure that I'm making something better. I'm okay with this, but it does mean I am not a genius yet, at least not by the talent borrows, genius steals paradox proposed by T.S. Eliot. T.S. Eliot wrote, "One of the surest tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest." Nobody except Picasso ever claimed that they were great from the beginning, and the 10,000 hour rule proposed by Malcolm Gladwell seems to be pretty well accepted as pop-sociology fact, so I hope that someday I will no longer be a blogger who defaces what I borrow, but who steals content only to make it better. In the meantime, I would like to thank all the recipe bloggers and other sources of inspiration for giving me free access to your work and your life. I am really thankful that you enable me to crowdsource my dinner. Thank you all for allowing me to philosophize over this triviality of a blog. And onto the recipe. These black bean "meatballs" are incredibly delicious, I got this inspiration from Foxes Love Lemons. I definitely like them better than any real meatballs that I've ever had. I would compare the texture favorably to falafel, but the flavor is distinctly Italian. Within one bite, the Mad Scientist told me that these were on the keeper list, and Littlest screeched with delight every time I gave him a bite. Its so fun for me be able to feed Littlest the same food as the Mad Scientist and I eat.
Black Bean "Meatballs"
by Hannah Rounds
This meatless main dish is hearty and delicious, and better than any real meatballs that I've ever eaten.
Details
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time: <
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Yield: 10 golf ball sized pieces
Ingredients
1 Cup Dried Black Beans- Soaked overnight and rinsed
1 Tablespoon Garlic Powder
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 Tablespoon Italian Seasoning
1/2 White Onion Chopped
4 Cloves Garlic Minced or Pressed
1 Egg
1/2 Cup Flavored Bread Crumbs
1-2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Instructions
1. Cook beans with 2 cups of water, garlic powder, salt, and italian seasoning in a crockpot for four hours (low heat)2. Drain beans and set 2 cups in a large bowl (this should be most of the beans, but I always manage to have some leftover)3. Combine beans, onion, bread crumbs and egg and mix thoroughly using your hands.4. For balls about the size of a golf ball and set onto a plate. 5. Heat oil, and in small batches of about 3-5 pieces fry the meatballs. Be sure that each side of the meatball gets a nice crisp crust (should be a very dark brown)6. Serve with marinara sauce over pasta.
