Category Archives: sides

Pimento macaroni and cheese

kids, lunch, sides, supper 6 Comments

I love the simplicity of this one-pot macaroni and cheese; however, after 20 hours in the car with Kiddo (who, by the way, was a car-traveling champ) in the last four days I wasn’t really feeling the urge to watch the pot as closely as I would need to in order to avoid a boiled-over-milk scene on the stove.

I also had some pimentos that had ripened in the garden while Kiddo and I were gone.

So I crossed my fingers and totally made up tried this — and it worked!

Pimento macaroni and cheese

Ingredients

  • 3 Tbsp. all purpose flour
  • 3 Tbsp. butter
  • 2 cups milk
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. dijon mustard (optional)
  • 1.5 cups dry pasta
  • 2 cups shredded cheese
  • 3 fresh pimentos, peeled (like this, only tiny), seeded and minced

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 375F
  2. In a heavy, oven-safe sauce pot melt butter till foam subsides, then add flour and whisk until fully combined; add milk while whisking and turn off stovetop heat
  3. Stir in salt, mustard, dry pasta, cheese, and pimentos; cover pot and place in oven
  4. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through; top with additional cheese and uncover for the last few minutes if you so desire

That’s it!

Southern style green beans

sides 4 Comments

When I was 14 and babysitting for a family in town the mother called home around 4:00 in the afternoon and asked me to cook some fresh green beans for supper. I immediately called my mother and asked her exactly how to cook them. “For today?” she replied incredulously.

Fast forward ten years (or so… ahem) to the first trip The Yankee and I made together to his homeland of the frozen tundra Detroit area where I ordered green beans at a restaurant. What arrived on my plate was something bright green and very crunchy. They were, er, not my favorite part of the meal. Mine start cooking by noon for supper that night. 😉

Southern style green beans

Ingredients

  • Green beans from last year’s garden (they’d been frozen; I try to avoid the BPA in canned ones)
  • A slice or two of bacon or pork jowels
  • Olive oil
  • Chicken broth from the freezer
  • Garlic
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Pick a heavy-bottomed pot and pour in enough olive oil to cover the bottom; use that to fry a couple strips of bacon or pork jowls
  2. When the bacon is cooked through toss in a couple handfuls of fresh green beans, a clove of garlic, a sprinkling of salt and enough chicken broth to cover the beans; cover pot with lid and gently simmer… for a long time

Ingredients

  • Green beans from last year’s garden (they’d been frozen; I try to avoid the BPA in canned ones)
  • A slice or two of bacon or pork jowels
  • Olive oil
  • Chicken broth from the freezer
  • Garlic
  • Salt

Instructions

  1. Pick a heavy-bottomed pot and pour in enough olive oil to cover the bottom; use that to fry a couple strips of bacon or pork jowls
  2. When the bacon is cooked through toss in a couple handfuls of fresh green beans, a clove of garlic, a sprinkling of salt and enough chicken broth to cover the beans; cover pot with lid and gently simmer… for a long time

– See more at: https://oneparticularkitchen.com/2010/08/13/southern-style-green-beans/#sthash.82WD34zf.dpuf

You can also add some red pepper flakes and or some Worcestershire sauce into this if you’re so inclined. It’s pretty fabulous.

This is easy, right? And of course you can control exactly how cooked they are this way.

Now if only I could get the Yankee to try them….

Fire-Roasted Tomato Salsa (Salsa de Molcajete)

sides, snacks 9 Comments

The salsa roja recipe is popular. Ridiculously popular. But we had some company in town and I needed salsa fast — nigh onto immediately. Rick Bayless recipe to the rescue! This is quick and easy, and simple to tweak:

You’ll need:

  • 1 to 2 fresh jalapeño chiles (my late-season ones from the garden weren’t that hot so I used 5)
  • 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice, preferably fire roasted
  • 1/4 cup (loosely packed) chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • Salt

Easy steps to yum:

  1. Heat an ungreased skillet over medium heat and roast the chiles and garlic, turning often until they’re splotchy and brown and soft — this takes about 10 minutes for the chiles, and 15 minutes for the garlic
  2. Cool until you can handle them, then roughly chop the chiles, discarding caps, and drop into food processor
  3. Peel the garlic and scoop the softened cloves into a food processor; pulse until very finely chopped
  4. Add the tomatoes with their juice to the food processor then pulse until puree is coarse
  5. Pour into serving dish and stir in cilantro and lime juice, and salt to taste — about 1/2-3/4 teaspoon
  6. Serve and enjoy!

Mashed black beans

sides 6 Comments

I recently came across this Rick Bayless recipe for simple mashed black beans. Can you ever go wrong with a Rick Bayless recipe? I’m saying no. With a little tweaking for what I had on hand and what sounded good, I ended up with this:

  • 2 Tbsp. bacon drippings (I always have some in the fridge)
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • Salt

In the time it took The Yankee too cook up our fajitas (more on that later), I had these done like so:

  1. Put a dry skillet over medium heat and drop in three unpeeled garlic cloves; keep turning them till the skin is nice and browned and the garlic inside is soft; set aside to cool enough to handle, then remove skins
  2. While the garlic is roasting, drain and rinse a can of black beans
  3. Remove the pan from the heat for just a minute and drop in 2 Tbsp. bacon fat; let it melt (it will do this quickly and will also smoke quickly, thus the part about removing the pan from the heat), then drop in softened garlic and crush the cloves with a potato masher
  4. Pour in can of beans and give it all a good stir to incorporate the garlic
  5. After everything is heated through, use a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon to mash the beans; you’re not looking for ice-cream texture here, just smush them up a bit
  6. Take the pan off the heat and add in as much water (probably 2-3 Tbsp) as is needed to be able to easily spread or spoon the beans
  7. Season with salt to taste — 1/2 teaspoon or so

These are fantastic eaten as is, sprinkled with cheese, on nachos, with fajitas, with burritos… use your imagination!

Oven fries

kids, sides 8 Comments

McWho? These are great! Can you believe they’re not fried?

Here’s how to satisfy your french fry craving without gobbling trans fats:

All-oven method:

  1. Slice a potato (or two — that above is actually just a half a potato) and let the slices soak in hot tap water for at least 20 minutes — just like the oven roasted potatoes
  2. Lay them out on paper towels to dry and preheat your oven to 400F with the cookie sheet in the oven
  3. When the oven is preheated, scatter the fries on the hot cookie sheet, spritz with a little nonstick spray and sprinkle with salt (or you can toss with oil and salt before they go in the oven)
  4. Bake until crispy and cooked through, about 30 minutes. Preheating the cookie sheet means that it starts crisping the underside of your fries immediately, and meant that I didn’t need to turn them halfway through cooking. Bonus! Try it and see if you like the results

Par-boiling method:

  1. Slice a potato or two and let the slices soak in hot tap water for at least 20 minutes — just like the oven roasted potatoes
  2. Now boil the slices until just starting to soften — it took mine about five minutes
  3. Spread on paper towels to dry while your oven is preheating to 400F with the cookie sheet in the oven
  4. When the oven is preheated, scatter the fries on the hot cookie sheet, spritz with a little nonstick spray and sprinkle with salt (or you can toss with oil and salt before they go in the oven)
  5. Bake until crispy, about 15-20 minutes

The bonus of the par-boiling method for me is that I can boil up a bunch of fries and freeze them (flash freeze in a single layer, then move to a zip top bag so they don’t become a giant clump of frozen potatoes). When The Kiddo wants fries with lunch I can pull some out to thaw while the oven preheats, then toss with olive oil and bake. He thinks he’s getting away with eating french fries; I’m getting potatoes and healthy olive oil in his tummy. It’s a win-win!

Take a look at the Rookie Chef’s version too — I love that there are so many different variations on these!