There are good reasons to covet pie fillings without the fuss of crust. The making of a good, flaky pie crust is time consuming and, if you’re like me, you may find premade pie crusts lacking in quality and flavor. Lots of folks are foregoing extra carbs in grains, making a homemade grain free crust (made with ground nuts) attractive, but also time consuming.
Comfort has always been a pot of beans simmering on the stove. It’s a favorite childhood memory – my mom’s white beans cooked simply, with or without meat for seasoning. Gloriously overcooked so that beans and broth melded into a creamy slurry of bean goodness, and accompanied by a biscuit fresh from the oven.
Misconception number one regarding slow cookers : cooking aromas will not waft through the house as they do with food simmering in the conventional manner. Continue reading
Southerners know how to ring in the New Year with culinary good luck talismans : hoppin’ john ( a dish of stewed black eyed peas), greens and cornbread. The black eyed peas are said to symbolize coins, the greens represent paper money and the cornbread makes a good stand-in for gold. Lest you think we only care for financial stability while ringing in the new, congratulate us also on our good taste, as these dishes are delicious, filling and perfect for company and good cheer.
Visitors bearing homemade treats are always welcome at my home during the holidays. A gift of handcrafted limoncello made by friends a few years back was sipped with extra pleasure, illustrating that gifts handmade with care are treasured all the more by the lucky recipients.
At Thanksgiving many of us take the literal approach to preparing sweet potatoes by making them even more sweet. Candied yams, sweet potato casserole topped with marshmallows…nothing inherently wrong with these dishes, except that some folks simply do not care for treacly sweetness alongside their savory foods.
fresh Bombolini gluten free shells with kale apricot pesto
What I love about greens : kissed by the first frost of autumn, they are tender and flavorful; picked in springtime, they are equally tender and just as flavorful. Something else to love about greens ? Their versatility in the art of cooking.
herbed mushroom spread with Bonnyclabber Cheese‘s “Cendre” grapevine ash coated fresh goat cheese, caper berry and pink peppercorn
When I have a taste for snacks, I think spreads, dips and what Sheila Lukins, the late, great cookbook author of The Silver Palate series, refers to as “slathers”, as in something savory you can generously slather onto flatbread, croutons or thin slices of English cucumber.
Pity the poor rutabaga. Mislabeled, misunderstood, underused and unappreciated. Somewhat hesitant to list rutabaga as a solo agent on the menus of The Good Eats Company, I include it in, for examples, a creamy colorful root vegetable soup, and white balsamic glazed root vegetables. Folks ask me what rutabaga tastes like, and I answer, for lack of better comparison, that it tastes like a cross between carrot and turnip. But dear rutabaga is so much more than this simplistic description! Carrot haters and turnip despisers may remember childhood battles at the dinner table, bargains struck with parents offering vegetables in earnest, and rejection in the form of a tiny mouth set in a grim line and the Word : “NO”. And so my answer seems less than adequate.
One of the best attributes of soup is that unexpected and disparate ingredients join together in gastronomic harmony. Summer and fall menus for The Good Eats Company personal chef service feature ” farmer’s market vegetable soup”. List all the ingredients in this soup , call it a vegetable side and the dish may seem busy; simmer and marry together and all seems well and good. Continue reading