When it comes to making something I’ve never made before, I’m pretty fearless. I figure the worst case scenario is it’s inedible, and I have to serve something else. However, this week I’ve been toying around with the idea of adding truffle salt to the mashed potatoes. I love using it on buttered popcorn, but I just couldn’t wrap my head around whether or not it would be tasty in my potatoes. Since mashed potatoes are pretty easy to whip up, I made a quick batch Friday night to see how they tasted. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dinner, Gluten free, Side Dish, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian by Courtney

It’s funny how winter weather just creeps up on you. Here the weather has been staggering between cool, autumn days and sunny, early-summer-like days. Then all of the sudden, yesterday morning, with no warning, I wake up and the house is 63 degrees inside. Brrr! Needless to say, I quickly turned on the heater and downed a cup of cappuccino, attempting to warm myself up.

I’d picked up plenty of food to cook for the weekend, but suddenly spaghetti squash with sea scallops and angel hair pasta with passata didn’t sound so appetizing. I wanted some stick-to-your-ribs, warm-you-to-the-bone fare. I wanted chili. (more…)

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Chili, Comfort food, Dairy free, Dinner, Gluten free, Lunch, Quick and Easy, Soups by Courtney

For the past few months I’ve had a craving for pimento cheese. While I’ve found it in the grocery here in the past, I wanted a homemade pimento cheese, because I remember it being so much better than something out of a plastic tub.

A friend had posted about pimento cheese a while back, so I asked for his recipe. I have to say while it sounded wonderful, it missed on one main note for me — it called for scallions, the green parts. I didn’t remember any green in my pimento cheese, so no matter how tasty (or how may scallions I have in my garden right now), it wouldn’t do. So his recipe was my jumping off point, and I started tasting, adding, and came up with this recipe. (more…)

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Appetizers, Comfort food, Gluten free, Lunch, Quick and Easy, Sandwiches, Southern, Vegetarian by Courtney

My first crop of kale finally came in (from the Red Russian plant) and while I had anticipated making something summery, like the Kale and Ricotta Salata Salad, it’s been so cool and rainy here that I decided to instead do a favorite that I never got around to this past winter (has winter really passed given that it’s been 60 and rainy?). I stumbled upon this recipe for Braised Lacitano Kale with Tomato and Anchovy Soffritto in the A16 cookbook, and it was the first way I ever made kale. I fell in love and didn’t branch out trying other recipes for quite a while.

This is the perfect meal for a chilly night. It feels somewhat healthy, but it’s hearty at the same time and will be sure to fill you up. (more…)

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Comfort food, Dinner, Gluten free, In the Garden, Italian, Vegan, Vegetarian, Wine pairings by Courtney

Yesterday, I decided we were way overdue for a rabbit dinner. Rabbit is one of my favorite meats, probably because I don’t get it very often. Since we’re coming up on the Mardi Gras grand finale, I decided to pull out a Cajun recipe from Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen, Smothered Rabbit. The recipe was très simple – pan fry the rabbit, make a dark rous with the leftover oil and flour, add a bit of celery and onion, and mix it all into a boiling pot of stock. So off to the store I went to pick up the vegetables, along with a little TurboDog and Dixie beers to round out the perfect Cajun meal.

On the way back from the store, I decided instead of serving this with white rice or mashed potatoes as suggested, I would whip up a bit of dirty rice instead, which was out – of – this – world! (more…)

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Cajun & Creole, Comfort food, Dairy free, Dinner, Gourmet by Courtney