Vegan Baked Banana Bread Oatmeal

I've had a couple requests for this recipe, so I thought I'd dust off the blog for a minute and post it. I've been pretty in love with baked oatmeals for years, but for some reason I've never posted one of my recipes. Or if I have, it was so long ago, I don't remember it. Anyways, let's talk about the recipe.

This recipe is a descendant in some ways of Thug Kitchen's Quinoa Oatmeal. I like their recipes, but they always tend to leave out one step that breaks the recipe. For this one, it's cooking the oats and quinoa in water instead of the milk. That just gives you bland, flavorless oatmeal. Cook in the milk instead of adding it later. Gah.  The other issue with stovetop oatmeal is you have to stand there and stir it or it sticks to the pan. It's kind of a pain. That's honestly why I like baked oatmeals. It's so very low maintenance. The other key to this recipe is toasting the oats before cooking. Every time I try to skip this step, I dislike the results. I'll frequently do this step the night before and even assemble the whole thing before I go to bed, just so I can be lazier in the morning.


1 cup steel cut oats
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed (optional)
1 tablespoon oil
1 can low fat coconut milk
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 very rip bananas, smashed
2 tablespoons brown sugar (optional)
chopped walnuts


In a small pan, heat up the oil. Toast the oats in the oil until fragrant. Combine oats, coconut milk, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt, and bananas. If you are adding quinoa, you may need an extra half cup of water. I think mine is plenty sweet without the extra sugar, but if you want to add some brown sugar, go far it. Combine everything well in a casserole dish with a lid and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until all the liquid is absorbed. Top with walnuts, which can also be toasted.

I'm fuzzy on the exact time in the oven because I usually go back to bed while it's cooking. Hey, mornings are cold and husbands are warm.

Beans and Greens with Bacon

Brr! The winter weather is pretty bad lately. Not as bad as last year, when we all got stuck in our cars for hours and ate frozen pizza for dinner. (I spent five hours in mine, but made it home safely.) But still it's been bad enough to have a few school closures or late starts. I'm taking advantage of today's day off to do the things that make me happy, like baking and sleeping in.

The other thing making me happy right now is soup. Gallons upon gallons of delicious, warming healthy (and sometimes not...) soup. I've got a regular rotation right now between loaded baked potato, vegan minestrone, chili and this wonderful bean soup I've been dying for a chance to post about.

There's two ways to make this one. One is the lazy shortcut way, which still produces a delicious soup. The other is slightly harder and still produces a delicious soup. Hear that? No matter what, you will be eating delicious soup. The lazy way is to use canned beans. The harder way is to use dried and soak them before using. Which one you do is up to you. It's not difficult for me to leave a bowl of beans soaking on my counter before I leave for work, but other people may not have that luxury. I just like working with dried beans and they are cheaper to play with.

This soup uses some of my favorite ingredients, bacon and kale. It also benefits from my current obsession with chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I've taken to keeping these on hand to slide into soups, chilis and casseroles for extra flavor and warmth. They come in a can, but I only use one or two peppers at a time. The extras keep very well in a container in the fridge and make a very convent flavoring for whatever you are having. This soup is easy to make, if not very quick and makes delicious leftovers. I looked at several other recipes for pinto bean soups, but couldn't find one that incorporated much in the way of vegetables, so I had to make my own. They were mostly just slow cooked beans decorated with bacon or ham. I wanted more than that. This is especially delicious with a square of your favorite cornbread recipe.


2 cups dried pinto beans, soaked for eight hours OR two cans pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 slices bacon
2 cups carrots, sliced
1 medium onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
About 3 cups of curly leafed kale, sliced thin
Vegetable broth (I make mine using Better than Bullion)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
salt to taste

If you are using dried beans, you want them to soak for at least six hours before using. I measure mine into a mixing bowl, then cover with cold water and leave them be while I am at work. If you decide to use canned beans, just rinse and drain them before using.

Cook the bacon until brown and crisp. Remove from pot and set aside. Add carrots, onion, celery and garlic to the pot. Cook over medium heat in the bacon grease until softened. Add beans and chipotle pepper. Cover with water or broth and salt heavily if using dried beans. Bring it up to a boil, then drop it back down to a simmer. Times get tetchy here, because it can take up to an hour for dried beans to cook. If using canned, expect about twenty minutes. When the beans are soft, add the sliced kale, reserved bacon and black pepper. Salt it again.  Seriously. It needs salt. When the greens are tender, your soup is done!

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Really Good Gumbo

I've been promising/threatening for years to post my gumbo recipe. By my standards, it's a long, complicated recipe. This is not a quick meal. But if you've got a Saturday to spend stirring roux, there's worse things you do with your time.

I usually make gumbo in the summer, when I'm off from school and the okra is fresh at the markets. But if you are craving a memory of summer, this is the soup to get you through the winter months. My version is heavy on veggies and lighter than most recipes. It's not quite broth based, because there is a roux, but just enough to give body and flavor. Because we need to watch carbs at our house, we skip the traditional rice that usually accompanies it. But if you don't have that problem, it goes great poured over white or brown rice.

The part that will tax your patience is the roux. Roux is a paste of cooked flour and fat. Cooked lightly, it's great for sauces. Cooked until brown, it's a base for gravy. Cooked until dark, it's base for gumbo. I'm a bit timid with my roux, since the dividing line between "perfect" and "horribly, horribly burned" is a thin one that jumps quickly. So I cook mine to a nice golden brown.


1 pound spicy sausage links (my preference is hot Italian turkey from Publix, but you can use whatever you prefer)
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/4 flour
1 cup onion, diced small
1 cup bell pepper, seeded and diced small
1 cup celery, diced small
1 pound okra, cleaned and sliced
1 14 ounce can of dice tomatoes
7 cups chicken broth
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1-2 teaspoons file powder
1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Lightly coat the bottom of your pot with oil. Fry the sausages until brown, then remove. With a rubber scrapper, dig up all those little brown bits. Leave them in the pot, because they will make everything tasty. Over medium heat, add 1/4 cup of oil and 1/4 cup of flour. Stir together to remove lumps and continue stirring. Keep stirring. And stirring. How long you stir depends on your patience and willingness to take things to the edge. I keep mine going until it's a rich caramel color. When you've had enough, add the onion, peppers and celery and keep stirring. When those veggies are soft, add the okra, tomatoes and chicken broth. Simmer until the veggies are cooked through. Make sure to add salt.

While your soup is simmering, take a skillet. In about a a tablespoon of oil, sauté your shrimp. Give them a good shake of salt and the smoked paprika. I like to cook the shrimp separately so it doesn't overcook.

After the okra s cooked through, add the file powder and sliced sausage. Simmer another minute or two. Check for salt.

Serve gumbo poured over rice, or not and topped with the shrimp.

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My Thanksgiving Menu

Oh man. I've been so bad about posting here lately. I'm the Google Apps for Education coordinator at work this year. If you don't know what that means, just know this. Google is my kung fu. And it is strong. But yeah, doing computer stuff all day means I'm pretty sick of looking at one when I get home. So I haven't been around here as much as I'd like. But I'd be remiss if I didn't make at least one post about the Foodie High Holiday of Thanksgiving.

No knead rolls

Typically, I don't have much to say about cooking for Thanksgiving. I do have some recipes you are welcome to try, but usually I'm enjoying my in laws cooking in far off and distant Texas this time of year. But this year we aren't able to make the trip, so instead I'm cooking at home with my parents and siblings coming over.

It's an interesting mix to cook for. The big potential pitfalls are that my dad and husband are both Type II diabetics. And my youngest sister is a vegetarian. So in a large, argumentative family of picky eaters, those are really the only ones I'm going to attempt to please. So I put together a menu that's... well, not healthy. It is a holiday, after all. But it's heavy on vegetables and low on processed carbs and sugars. No sodium hangovers this year.

I've provided links to recipes when I have it. I'm digging out some of my old stand by, as well as introducing some new favorites.

Appetizers (Because I need you to get out from under my feet)

• Hot Crab Dip and crackers
• Hummus and raw veggies
• Cheese tray from Roswell Provisions

Main Event

• Smoked turkey (Ordering a smoked turkey from Greenberg's is a Liang family tradition that's grown on me. Picture this: A perfectly cooked, flavorful turkey that isn't taking up half your oven for five hours. It being delicious seems almost secondary.)
• Small roasted turkey breast, with butter and herbs tucked under the skin.
• Curry Roasted Acorn Squash (recipe here)

• 

  Curry roasted acorn squash

• Roasted brussel sprouts (done simply with oil, salt and pepper)
• Cauliflower cheese (recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)
• Slow cooker green beans with bell pepper and tomato (Oddly enough, I've never blogged this staple recipe. I'll have to fix that.)
• Chili Lime sweet potato wedges (Recipe here)
• No Knead rolls (recipe here)
• Salad (I had three heads of lettuce in my CSA this weekend. We are eating salad. Everyone is eating salad. Forever.)

Dessert

• Sour cream pumpkin pudding (recipe courtesy of Smitten Kitchen)
• Apple crisp (The recipe I posted here several years ago is seriously out of date. I promise you a better one someday.)

The big appeal of many of these recipes is that I can do much of the prep work ahead of time. The sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts and acorn squash can be prepped ahead of time and kept in the fridge. The rolls are better if mixed a day or two ahead of time. The desserts can be made the morning of, with the apple crisp just needing to be popped into a warm oven to reheat while we eat dinner. The green beans will cook happily in my giant crockpot and not take up a burner or space in my oven at all. 

Anyways, thats my Thanksgiving plan. What's yours?

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Curry Roasted Acorn Squash

Fall is finally here, which means I no longer have to feel guilty about turning on my oven. I love fall in north Georgia. It's the prettiest time of year and it has all of my favorite foods.

Big Trees Forrest Preserve in Sandy Springs

Look how pretty that is! And it's not hot and sticky outside anymore and all the mosquitoes are gone! This is my favorite time to be outside in nature. 

Thanks to Georgia's long growing season, the best foods are being harvested now. Crisp apples, savory winter squashes, fresh kale... The list goes on and on. 

And oh those winter squashes. Look, I've tried with summer squash. I've had them all, zucchini, yellow crookneck, patty pan. I've tried them grilled, fried, baked, sautéed and more. The only way I've been able to enjoy them is in zucchini bread. And if you have to chop it up really small and hide it inside a cake, you aren't really enjoying that vegetable, are you? 

But winter squash... savory, sweet. Blended into a soup or roasted in the oven. I was ridiculously excited to see the first acorn squash of the season in the Roswell farmer's market last Saturday. I was less excited when the farmer suggested I drench it in butter and brown sugar to eat it. I mean, yeah sure, butter and brown sugar make everything taste better. But there are just some things that just don't need it. 

My version of roasted acorn squash forgoes extra sugar and fats in favor of a hearty dusting of curry powder and drizzle of olive oil.  Curry powder goes amazingly with winter squash. Trust me. You'll like it better than sugar. It's simple enough to have any night of the week, but looks fancy enough to sneak onto the Thanksgiving table. And don't tell the carnivores, but it's actually vegan, so your hippy friends will love you. This is worth waiting for winter squash season. 

Curry Roasted Acorn Squash

2 acorn squash, sliced in half long ways and seeds removed

Extra virgin olive oil

Curry powder

Kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Slice your squash, carefully, because those suckers are tough and scoop out the seeds. Brush with olive oil, then sprinkle generously with curry powder and salt. Place on a cookie sheet and roast for about 20-30 minutes, or fork tender. To eat them, fluff up the insides like a baked potato and scoop it out with your fork. Makes a great side dish and fantastic leftovers. 

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Recipe Free Cooking: Easy Vegetarian Curry

This will all be food soon.

People ask me all the time where I get my recipes for the blog. I think some of them think I'm cooking my way through a book, similar to the Julie/Julia project everyone saw in that stupid movie. And while I do frequently consult recipe books and cooking blogs for inspiration, I'm just as likely to walk into the kitchen, quickly scan the fridge and then start making something. I learned how to cook pretty young, so I'm very comfortable in the kitchen. My mom taught me to cook dinner with her, and I saw her modifying and adapting recipes on the fly to suit our family's tastes and so I picked up the idea that a recipe is just a guideline. 

Recipe free cooking makes you so much more flexible and versatile in the kitchen. Once you are familiar with your ingredients and confident in your skills, you will be doing it all the time. Instead of just knowing a few recipes, you know a couple of methods for creating a meal. And that's what makes a good cook. You'll get there with practice. 

There's a couple things that really lend themselves to recipe free, improvisational cooking. Soups, curries, and stir fries are my go to meals when I have a hodge poge of ingredients and desperate need to eat dinner. They all incorporate large amounts of healthy vegetables and are easy to prepare. They are flexible enough to include anything you've got on hand, and rely on easy to store pantry staples, like chicken broth, canned beans and brown rice. 

Check out the picture. All the things in this picture will combine together to make a delicious vegetarian meal. It's easy. I heat up a little oil in my pan, brown some onion, garlic and ginger if I've got it. No worries if I don't. Then I add a generous spoonful of curry powder. I don't measure. Stir everything around to make a paste, then add the peeled, chopped carrots, cauliflower, mushrooms and kale. Add a big pinch of kosher salt. Stir some more and add a can of rinsed and drained chickpeas, and a can of tomatoes if you've got it. If you don't, no one will die. Add the coconut milk, turn the heat down and let the whole thing simmer on low until the vegetables are tender. Serve over brown rice and enjoy. 

What else can you add? Broccoli is good. So are potatoes or kohlrabi. Any kind of winter green works.  Green beans are probably okay. Just throw something in! If you need meat to be happy, throw some leftover roast chicken or pork in at the end.  Skip the chickpeas if you don't like them, or swap out another bean. Use chicken or vegetable broth instead of the coconut milk. Use tomato sauce instead of the canned tomatoes. Pour it over quinoa instead of rice. Really, I don't care. You won't hurt my feelings any. Make yourself  happy. Improvise. Experiment. Enjoy. 

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Easy Tofu and Broccoli Stir Fry

Chinese New Year started on Friday, and I married into a Chinese family, so of course we are having fun eating our traditional foods like noodles for long life and a whole fish for prosperity. Even if you aren't celebrating Chinese New Year, stir fries are a great way to eat more vegetables. You can stir fry almost any vegetable and lean protein together. I have a beautifully seasoned wok now, but for years I made my stir fries in a regular skillet. As long as you can cook quickly, over high heat, you can make delicious stir fries at home. The great thing about stir fries is that they are endlessly customizable. You can do any combination of veggies and protein. 

The trick to a good stir fry is to cook everything very fast. You need to chop everything in small, even pieces, get your pan extremely hot and just keep it moving. Stir fries are the only thing where I make sure all my vegetables are chopped before I turn on the stove, Usually, I chop as I go. If you try that while stir frying, something will burn. So make it easy on yourself and chop everything first. You can even cook your rice before getting started. It's one less thing to worry about.

For a tough, woody vegetable like broccoli, it needs more than just touching the wok to cook through. I always give it a quick stir fry to brown it, then blanch it very quickly in the wok before cooking anything else. The tofu needs some prep work too. It needs to be pressed and drained before cooking and I like to give it a swirl of soy sauce and sesame oil before cooking.


Tofu and Broccoli Stir Fry

2 crowns brocoli, separated into florets
2 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 small onion, cut into strips
1 block tofu, rinsed, drained and cubed (I like to marinade mine with one tablespoon soy sauce and one teaspoon sesame seed oil. It adds flavor to the tofu and it keeps it from sticking.)
1/2 teaspoon of ginger, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Get your skillet or wok extremely hot. I test mine by flicking drops of water at it. If it sizzles immediately, its good. Give it a good glug of canola oil, or something else that can take the heat and swirl pan to ensure coverage. Add broccoli to pan and move it around to keep it from burning. Add about a quarter cup of water, then cover with a tight fitting lid. Let broccoli cook until bright green and tender, about three minutes. Remove immediately and rinse out wok. Heat it back up, add more oil.

Add carrots and onion, stir it around for about a minute. Add tofu, continue to stir. Add minced garlic and ginger, then add broccoli back to the wok. Stir it again. Combine cornstarch with enough water to make a slurry, plus the leftover soy sauce. Add to wok, stir to make sure vegetables and tofu are covered. Serve immediately.

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Chicken and Biscuits for a Wintery Day

Not my car, thankfully.

Tuesday afternoon, when Snowpocalypse 2014 struck Atlanta, I spent five hours on Roswell road between Sandy Springs and Roswell. And I was one of the lucky ones. I drive a Prius, which was designed for stop and go traffic and has a computerized system that prevents your tires from spinning out. I slid a few times on Glenridge and Riverside, but never for more than a few seconds and I never lost control of my vehicle. And I still had a full tank of gas when I was finally safe in my driveway. I feel incredibly lucky.

Five hours in the car gives you lots of time to think. When I wasn't contemplating which gas stations would be a good zombie apocalypse shelter, I made a recipe in my head, because that's what I do. I wasn't able to make it that night, because my nerves were shot after that long behind the wheel. (I am a nervous driver and prone to panic attacks. I am a super exciting person to be in a car with.) But I did make this the next day. Cold weather makes me crave soups, stews and hot breads pulled freshly from the oven. In my head, as I navigated the icy conditions, I planned out a meal that included the best of all these things: Chicken and biscuits.

As with many of my recipes, I try to lighten things up a bit. So instead of a heavy cream sauce, or cream of condensed soup, this uses a light chicken broth thicken with corn starch. I loaded it up on veggies, including the super trendy kale that I always seem to have around these days. Skinless chicken thighs provide the protein.

Why chicken thighs? First, they hold up to stewing better than breast meat. I've never made a chicken stew with breast meat that wasn't tough and stringy. But thighs? They become melt in your mouth delicious when braised slowly at low temperatures. Thighs get a bad rap for being fatty, but pull the skin off and ounce for ounce, they are nearly indistinguishable from breasts. Plus, they just taste more…chickeny than breast meat. Trust me on this one. Do this with thighs.

The biscuits are where I don't try to be healthy. I use Michael Ruhlman's Chicago biscuit recipe to top this stew. Someone less lazy would roll these biscuits out and cut them properly before laying them down, but I think drop biscuits taste just as good and don't make such a mess of my countertops. The combination of tender, puffy biscuits and savory chicken and vegetables is really quite magical. Take the extra time to make your own biscuits.

Chicken and Biscuits

For the stew…

1 pack skinless, bone in chicken thighs
3 ribs celery, rinsed and chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped roughly
2-3 small, waxy potatoes, chopped
1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
2 cups leafy kale
6 cups chicken stock (I use Better than Bullion)
2 tablespoons cornstarch

For the biscuits…

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 ounces butter, chilled
6 ounces milk


In dutch oven, brown chicken thighs. Remove and set aside. Add chopped carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Once those are soft, add potatoes, mushrooms and kale. Add chicken back to the pot and cover with chicken broth. Place in a low oven (mine goes down to 270 degrees) and cover with heavy lid. Cook for two hours, or until chicken shreds easily with a fork and vegetables are tender. Mix cornstarch with enough water to make a slurry and add it to the pot. This will thicken your sauce.

For the biscuits, sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in chilled butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Slowly beat in milk until mixture is pliable. I do all this in a food processor, so it's really fast. If you are rolling and cutting, let your biscuit dough chill for at least twenty minutes before rolling out. I'll do another post just on biscuits some day, but the secret here is keeping everything cold.

Top with generous spoonfuls of biscuit dough and and bake at 350 until brown. Serve immediately.

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Low Carb Cauliflower Puree

Cauliflower puree topped with
 steak & mushrooms

There are two schools of thought on cauliflower puree, the popular, low carb substitute for mashed potatoes. The first is to pretend your cauliflower really is mashed potatoes and drown it with butter and cream. The second is to man up, admit you are eating a vegetable, and prepare your cauliflower simply and lightly with just a little vegetable broth. I've done it both ways and yes, I prefer the second version. Cauliflower has a natural sweetness to it and it doesn't need much embellishment to be delicious. Besides, the idea of cauliflower puree is to eat healthy. It's silly to load it up with lots of saturated fats when you've got something so good for you. It soaks up your gravy or pan sauce just as well without the extras. I don't miss mashed potatoes when I make this at all.

I cook my cauliflower in vegetable broth to add extra flavor. You could use chicken if you prefer, or just plan salted water. I like to do my puree in my food processor, but I think a blender would work too.  I've tried mashing it with a fork, which works okay, but you aren't going to get a really smooth puree. It'll be mashed cauliflower chunks. I usually make this when I know I'll have a gravy or sauce to go with it, so I leave it plain. But if you want to experiment, I think roasted garlic, a handful of grated parmesan cheese or chopped fresh herbs would be amazing.

Cauliflower Puree 

1 head cauliflower, chopped (You can include the stems, along with the flowerettes.)
Enough vegetable broth to cover your cauliflower (About three cups)
Salt to taste


Chop cauliflower into smallish pieces. The smaller the pieces, the faster they will cook and the easier it will be to fit them in your food processor. But don't make yourself crazy over this step. Bring your broth to a simmer and add the cauliflower. Simmer until it's soft enough to break apart with a fork. With a slotted spoon, remove cauliflower and add to food processor. Pulse until it reaches your desired level of smoothness. I like mine with a few chunks still in it. If needed, use the remaining broth to thin out your puree. Sometimes it needs a little extra to get things moving. Serve immediately.  

Next up, I'm going to share how I did that steak with bourbon mushroom pan sauce.

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Four Easy Soup Recipes

Soup is one of my favorite winter time meals. It can be light and healthy, but still fill you up and feel indulgent on a cold day. I usually make a big pot of a vegetable heavy soup at the beginning of the week and take the leftovers to work for lunch along with a piece of fruit or a small salad. I have something like several dozen soup recipes in my rotation. The favorites have been blogged here, but going through my archives I can't believe I've never posted the chicken and rice soup I make when one of us is sick, or the black bean and vegetable soup that uses up all the summer time veggies. Clearly, I need to blog more.

In the meantime, here are four easy soup recipes to tide you over.

You can be super healthy with this vegetarian Tofu and Bok Choy Soup. Not only does it use up the ridiculous amount of bok choy we get in our CSA this time of year, but it's a filling soup with lots of nutrition and very few calories. Perfect for balancing out the holiday excess.

Kale and Sausage Soup is another tasty way to use up winter greens. This soup is really fast and easy to prepare and one of my favorites for leftovers.

Curry Butternut Squash Soup is a delicious and healthier alternative to the traditional cream based version. It's easy to make this one vegetarian by simply swapping the chicken broth for vegetable.

We love a good beef stew here and this one is our favorite version. Beef and Cremini Mushroom stew works equally well in your dutch oven or slow cooker. Its a great cold weather meal alongside a batch of No-Knead Dinner Rolls.

Vegetarian Tofu and Bok Choi Soup

If you are like me, after the excesses of the holidays, you need a nice, light soup to balance all those cookies, pies and turkeys you devoured. While I'm not a vegetarian, I do enjoy having many vegetarian recipes in my repertoire. Not only is it healthy, but it means I never have to worry about what I'm going to feed the many vegetarians and vegans in my life.

This soup is very simple and fast to assemble, but it does require a little pre-planning to drain the tofu properly. See, tofu is basically a big sponge. It'll absorb whatever flavors you want. And like any sponge, it needs to be wringed before it can absorb anything. The easiest way I've learned to do this is to cut my block of tofu into thick slabs, layer them between cleans towels and press between two cutting boards. To really squeeze out the packing water, I pile some heavy cans or pots on top. 30 minutes is enough to get most of the liquid out, but longer is fine.


Tofu and Bok Choi Soup

6 cups vegetable broth (chicken is fine if that's what you have and don't care if you're eating vegetarian)
2 slices raw ginger
1 clove garlic
2 dried chili peppers
1 medium sized onion, chopped
1 head bok choi, chopped
1 carrot, shredded or julienned
1 red bell pepper, shredded or julienned
1 block tofu, rinsed and drained, then cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Heat six cups of broth until simmering. Add ginger, garlic, chili peppers and onion.  Let those steep in the broth for about fifteen minutes. Add bok choi, carrots, peppers and tofu and stir until tofu is heated through and vegetables are bright colored. Serve immediately.

Chili Lime Sweet Potatoes

I think I've mentioned my disdain for "traditional" sweet potato recipes, drenched in butter, sugar and marshmallows. Sweet potatoes are naturally flavorful, needing only a little salt and oil and a good roasting in a hot oven to bring them to life. That's not to say that they don't pair well with other flavors, but I'm definitely a "less is more" kinda gal when it comes to this vegetable.

I don't recall where I found this recipe, but it's been part of my repertoire for a couple years now. It's an easy side dish for the holidays, or a nice pairing with a couple pan fried pork chops and turnip greens during the week. Really, the possibilities are endless on this one. You've got the sweetness of the potatoes, the smoky chili powder and a hint of acid from the lime cutting through all of it. It's a lighter take on sweet potatoes, but still full of flavor.

The easiest way I've discovered to prepare this is with the help of a zip top bag. The diced, raw sweet potatoes go in, along with your chili powder, salt and some cooking oil. Squish everything around a bit and pour it out on a cookie sheet to roast. You can even do that step a day before, if you decide to make this for Thanksgiving, and keep the bag in the fridge until you are ready to roast.


Chili Lime Sweet Potatoes

3-4 peeled and diced sweet potatoes, enough to make about three cups
2 tablespoons chili powder (we like the Medium blend from Penzey's, but whatever chili powder you like is fine.)
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons cooking oil
juice of one lime

Peel and dice sweet potatoes. In a zip top bag or large bowl combine with chili powder, salt and cooking oil until potatoes are evenly coated. Spread on a cookie sheet and roast at 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes, until sweet potatoes are soft and the edges are crispy. Remove from oven and squeeze lime juice over the potatoes. Serve.

Basic Banana Bread (With Three Easy Variations)

I love banana bread. Not only is it a fun way of using up those black bananas sitting on your counter, but there are endless variations on it. This simple recipe from my vintage Joy of Cooking book is easy to adapt and personalize. Want something more tropical? Add a handful of shredded coconut. Want nuts? Chop up some pecans or walnuts and throw 'em in the batter. Feeling like Elvis today? Stir in some peanut butter and reap the health benefits of those healthy fats. Add chocolate chips to EVERYTHING.  Swap a half cup of whole wheat flour for the white. You take this banana bread recipe and you own it. Make it yours. A nice, simple banana bread recipe is the foundation of so many fancier sounding treats. Be creative and you'll soon have a recipe everyone will be begging for.

I've included my favorite variations here, but feel free to experiment on your own. 

Basic Banana Bread (Adapted from The Joy of Cooking, sixth edition)

1 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3-4 very ripe bananas

Sift together flour, salt and baking soda. Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and banana, then gradually mix in the flour. Pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

As black as a middle school
teacher's heart

For Peanut Butter Banana Bread: Add 1/3 cup peanut butter to butter sugar mix. Continue recipe as directed. 

For Banana Pecan/Walnut Bread: Add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts before pouring. Or add both. I won't tell.

For Coconut Banana Bread: Add 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg while sifting dry ingredients. Before pouring, add 1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut flakes and 1/3 cup dark chocolate chips. 

I cannot stress enough how much abuse this recipe can take. I've already changed it from the original by using butter instead of shortening (What was Erma Rombauer's obsession with flavorless transfats anyways? Half her baked goods have it.) and swapping brown sugar in for white. Just keep the proportions of ingredients the same and enjoy eating your glorious missteps. 

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Healthy Kale and Sausage Soup (Caldo Verde revised)

A friend asked me a few days ago for one of my soup recipes that I knew I had blogged. But when I looked it over before sending her the link, I realized that how I cook this soup has changed a bit in the last few years. So since I had to rewrite the recipe for her, I decided now is a good time to repost it here.

This recipe is inspired by Caldo Verde, a traditional Portuguese soup made with very thinly shredded kale and european style smoked chorizo. My version is heavily Americanized  to the point that I'm sure someone's little old Portuguese grandma is going to slap me some day. No matter. My version uses easy to find ingredients, such as the mountains of kale we get in our CSA box this time of year, and spicy italian sausage. Unlike some other americanized versions, my soup doesn't add heavy cream or butter. 

It's a nice, light vegetable soup, perfect for cold weather.  You don't even have to use the super trendy kale. The version in the picture actually used collard greens and turnip greens. Feel free to use whatever combo of greens you have on hand. We lighten it up even more by using turkey sausage instead of pork, but that's not necessary. It's great for dinner, but is even better for leftovers at lunch the next day. 

Kale and Sausage Soup

1 bunch kale (or collard greens), chopped 
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound spicy italian link sausage (we like turkey, but whatever you like)
2 cups sliced potatoes
6 cups chicken or vegetable broth

Brown sausage in soup pot. Remove. Add a tablespoon of oil, if necessary. Brown potatoes, onions and garlic. Add chopped kale, cover with broth and simmer until vegetables are tender. Chop reserved sausage into bite sized pieces and add back to pot. Serve with crusty bread. 

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Easy Braised Eggplant in Garlic Sauce

I realize that I haven't posted much Asian food lately. Which makes me sad, because my Asian recipes are some of our favorites.  Here's one that uses the late season japanese eggplants that are still popping up in our CSA box every week. It's a little sweet and as spicy as you want it to be. It's pretty easy, because it doesn't require any special stir frying skills or equipment like a wok. All you need is an oven, a casserole dish and a knife to chop with. It's a great side dish for grilled meats or part of a larger Asian inspired meal. I actually served it along side some tofu and veggie soup earlier this week as part of a vegetarian meal. Here's how to do it.


Easy Braised Eggplant in Garlic Sauce


2 japanese eggplants, cut into one inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced fine
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
Chili-garlic hot sauce to your liking (We prefer Sriracha)

Combine ingredients in casserole dish. Add about a tablespoon of water, then cover with lid. Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for twenty minutes, or until eggplant is tender.

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Best Thanksgiving Recipes

I don't have many Thanksgiving recipes. I usually spend this holiday in east Texas with my in laws and they do all the cooking. That suits me just fine. Thanksgiving cooking is less about meal prep and more performance art, so it's nice to not have the pressure. But here are some recipes you might consider adding to your own table this year.  Several of them were already featured in my Fall Recipe feature last month, so feel free to peruse that for even more seasonal inspiration.

Pie is usually how most of us enjoy our pumpkin during the fall. But for those who can't get enough pumpkin flavored baked goods, here's a recipe for pumpkin muffins featuring rye flour.  Pumpkin Curry Soup would make a delicious, yet slightly untraditional starter course for the big meal.
Sweet potatoes are an important part of Thanksgiving. Here's a casserole combining sweet potatoes and orange juice for a treat that's delicious, but not as a heavy and gooey as the traditional one with the marshmallows.

Apple crisp is an easy, but still seasonal alternative to pumpkin pie for dessert. And it tastes good with ice cream.
That doesn't seem like very many recipes, does it? Looks like I have some work to do this month.

UPDATE: True to my word, I've written up more of my Thanksgiving appropriate recipes for your eating enjoyment.  It's still not a huge amount, but I'm feeling more respectable now.

If you are looking for a non-traditional take on sweet potatoes, try these Chili Lime Roasted Sweet Potatoes. I guarantee you won't miss the butter and marshmallows.  For a bread course, check out these No Knead Dinner rolls. They are so easy, I make them for weeknight dinners. And if you need an easy to prepare, but super fancy looking appetizer, you definitely want to use my Holiday Baked Brie. It uses spicy pepper jelly for a surprising twist on a traditional appetizer.

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Beef and Crimini Mushroom Stew

Well, it looks like fall is well and truly here. I'm still wearing sandals outside, but they are with jeans instead of capris. In fact, I'm starting to wonder where I put all my work pants. It's going to be a little chilly standing on the playground tomorrow...

Yesterday was one of those wonderfully drizzly, gray days. It wasn't a bad enough storm that I worried about a dead branch busting up my fence again, but it was enough to make me want to burrow under a blanket on the couch and drink something warm. My husband calls it "Soup weather" and is demanding I make him some nearly every night this week. That might be excessive, considering all my recipes make roughly a gallon or so. There's only so many bowls of soup I can take for lunch every week. 

Last night's soup was Beef with Crimini Mushroom Stew, a really nice riff on the classic beef stew recipe I grew on. It's extra seasonal since this is Atlanta Beer Week, and this stew features some German beer whose name has fifteen syllables, bought at Ale Yeah! in Roswell. (I am not a beer person.)

I may not be a beer drinker, but I do love cooking with it. I think it's especially good for braising beef and I use it for stews and pot roasts all the time. 

Crimini mushrooms are probably my favorite mushroom and I look for excuses to add them to things. They sell at grocery stores as "Baby Bellas", because they are just a smaller version of the portabello mushroom. They are a nice, meaty mushroom that's easy to clean and always in stock at the grocery store. As you can imagine, they pair really well with beef. I add them to stews and frequently put them over steaks. 

This stew would work well in a crockpot. In fact, that's how I usually cook it. But I'm in love with my big, porcelain glazed, cast iron, dutch oven right now.  I made this stew in that and let it cook in my oven at a low temperature for several hours. Either method works just as well. One just looks prettier on the table. 

Beef and Cremini Mushroom Stew

1 pound beef stew meat, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 cups chopped and peeled carrots

2 cups chopped potatoes (I like a waxy red potato)

1 cup cremini mushrooms, stemmed and sliced

2 cloves of garlic, smashed

1 small can tomato sauce

2 cups (16 ounces) of a medium body beer you like

1 table spoon "Better than Bullion" OR 1 and 1/2 cubes of bullion, beef flavor

1 table spoon cornstarch

In bottom of dutch oven, heat up a couple table spoons of canola oil. In batches, brown stew meat.  Salt it really well. Reserve. Add chopped veggies, add meat back. Salt everything. Add tomato sauce, beer and one cup of water. Cover and place in pre-heated 250 degree oven. Braise for at least three hours, checking periodically to see if more water is needed. When ready to serve, remove from oven and add bullion. Make a slurry of the cornstarch and add to stew. Stir until dissolved. Check for salt and serve. 

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Easy Pumpkin Rye Muffins

I made these delicious muffins for the tailgating party I went to on Saturday. There's something about fall that makes us crave pumpkin. It's sweet, but not cloying and tastes wonderful in baked goods. I actually think pie is the least of the possible applications for pumpkin in your kitchen. Muffins, quick breads and soups are far superior to plain old pie as a pumpkin treat. Most recipes add so much sugar that it drowns the natural, nuanced sweetness of the pumpkin. It's unnecessary.

I adapted this recipe from my old reliable baking cookbook: The Joy of Cooking, sixth edition (1975). This cookbook was passed to me from my mother after I was married and I started getting interested in cooking again. She had the newer edition and didn't need this one cluttering up her kitchen anymore. It's a really solid cookbook, the best I've ever owned and I turn to it almost every time I bake.

There's a couple things I find superior about it. First, the recipes have less sugar than modern recipes. Seriously, it's amazing how much our palates have changed. But before you think these are "healthier" recipes, the second big difference is the amount of butter. There's considerably more.

But the final big change is the serving sizes. "Joy's" chocolate chip cookie recipe is supposed to make 2 dozen cookies. I feel lucky if I squeeze more than a dozen out of that bowl. Why? Because my idea of what the proper size for a cookie is is vastly different than Irma Rombauer's. I make them too big.

Anyways, this recipe came from that book, with a couple changes. The first was substituting a portion of the white flour for rye. Since my husband was diagnosed as a Type II diabetic, I've both cut down on the amount of baking I do and started experimenting with lower glycemic flours. I've been having good results with rye slipped into cookies and hearty quick breads recently, so hopefully there will be posts with more rye flour recipes. The rye is unnoticeable, except as an extra layer of heartiness to the muffin. The second big change was that I didn't think there was quite enough pumpkin in the recipe as is. So I simply replaced the liquids in this with more pumpkin, bringing it up to a full 15 ounces, or one can's worth. It makes the recipe really burst with pumpkin flavor and simplifies the directions by giving one less thing to measure. I further tweaked things by cutting the sugar back, because it was just too sweet and swapped half the white sugar for brown. The flavorless shortening is replaced by an equal amount of butter.

The result is a complex, hearty pumpkin muffin for grownups. Not too sweet and lightly spiced, it cries out for a pat of butter when it's warm from then oven, but stands on it's own as a dessert or breakfast treat. It's a pumpkin muffin that actually tastes like pumpkin. Next time I make this, I'll probably add some mix ins like dark chocolate chips or chopped pecans. Someone who is less picky about cooked fruit might like raisins.

Easy Pumpkin Rye Bread

1 1/4 cups white flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 brown sugar (I prefer the dark kind, but light brown is okay, I guess)
1/2 (one stick) cup of butter, softened
2 eggs
15 oz. (1 can) of plain pumpkin puree

Sift together flours, spices and reactants. Beat until light and fluffy the butter and sugar (this is when my stand mixer gets a work out).  Add the eggs one at a time, pausing the scrape down and ensure they are mixed in well. Add the can of pumpkin, scrape down and ensure everything is beaten together. Remove bowl from mixer and add 1/3 of flour mixture. Fold in gently, then repeat until flour is just barely mixed in. Over mixing will result in tunneling, which still tastes good, but looks silly. Portion out with an ice cream scoop into lined muffin tins. Bake at 350 degrees until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, or about 12-15 minutes. Or, if you want pumpkin bread, pour into greased loaf pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes.

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Apple Picking in Elijay, Georgia

Have I mentioned that fall is my favorite season? Well, it is. I think it's living in north Georgia that tipped me over the edge into a fall lover, because I don't remember being this excited for September and October before I lived in Roswell. Part of the appeal of fall is all the outdoor activities I can partake in now that summer's sweltering, sticky heat is done. Cool autumnal days feel wonderful after sweating your way through July and August and my allergies don't bother as much as they do during the spring pollen-stravaganza.

One of my favorite fall activities is getting apples in Elijay. You want to hear this story? You definitely want the story. So one year, me and a friend went to the Elijay Apple Festival. If you haven't been, it's next weekend. You should go. It's a fun mountain arts and crafts festival with a fall, apple theme. And you can buy fresh, local apples by the bushel. But bushels are heavy. There are only so many two tiny women can carry on their own. So the next year, we really sold it hard to our husbands and made it sound like the trip of a life time. So we get there and the guys look around and realize the planned activities for the day include looking at apple shaped candles we don't intend to buy and carrying things for us. My husband walked over to the nearest corn dog stand, angrily ate one, and then announced that he had done everything worth doing there and we were getting in the car to go to Oktoberfest in Helen.

But he still carried an extra bushel of apples for me.

Anyways, the next year I wanted to do something fun and fall themed in the mountains again. Jimmy agreed to go apple picking instead of the Apple Festival. And you know what? We both liked it enough we did it again today.

There's several u-pick orchards in Elijay, several of them clustered together on GA 52. We like BJ Reece Apple House, but I think you'll have a good time at any of them. BJ Reece also features a petting zoo, tractor ride and apple cannon in addition to the apple trees. For $14, we were able to wandered the orchard, full of dwarf varieties of various apple varietals (how's THAT for alliteration?) and pick what we wanted off the trees. We bought the full peck bag, which you just fill until you can't cram any more into it. Not the cheapest apples you'll buy, but they are right off the tree and so tasty.

BJ Reece also has a farm store that sells already picked apples, vegetables, local honey and baked goods. The apple fried pies smelled amazing today, but my husband's glucose has been running high lately, so we skipped it.


Do I recommend BJ Reece? Absolutely. They have a great variety and the orchard is big and easy to navigate. I plan to be back next fall to make my husband carry more apples for me.

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Fall Recipes Round Up

I noticed my old recipes featuring fall ingredients have been getting lots of hits off Google recently. It's that time of year, I suppose. So to make it easier for you to find my best fall recipes, I've gone ahead and rounded them up into one post for you.

Greens are definitely a fall/winter vegetable in my head. Here's my recipe for easy sautéed turnip greens  with poached eggs. This is a really easy week night dinner. Poached eggs would also go well with this recipe for perfect collard greens.

I haven't made this baked applesauce oatmeal in a long time. I should really dust this one off and make it again soon. But it's a great make ahead breakfast for any day of the week. I used to pack in small glass containers to eat at my desk at work. I've also got a great recipe for gluten free applesauce oatmeal muffins that's worth trying even if you don't an issue with gluten.

If your tomato plants are still producing, you can try your hand at a traditional southern favorite: fried green tomatoes.

We're going apple picking in north Georgia tomorrow, so I'll definitely be using this recipe for apple crisp soon. Fruit crisps are always an easy dessert.

It's pumpkin season! You should totally make this delicious pumpkin curry soup. It also goes well with butternut squash... If you're really adventurous, you can make your own pumpkin puree! Or you can buy a can and just make the pumpkin bread recipe in that link. I won't mind.

I hope these fall recipes inspire you to cook more with fresh, seasonal produce right now. Fall is probably my favorite time of year and the delicious fall treats certainly help with the love. Enjoy!

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