Shrimp and Grits on Steroids

Tonight was my turn to cook dinner and I had shrimp and frozen tilapia pieces. i was going to do a Ciapinno but changed my mind. What ended up as dinner needs to become a recipe. I sometimes do recipes that are mostly adhoc. Tonight was no exception. I did a batch of grits for two and added about a teaspoon of cilantro and two squirts of sriracha.  I took 10 shrimp (with shells) and (1) tilapia frozen piece (cut up into pieces) and sauted it in olive oil with garlic (about 1 tsp) and then added about 1/4 cup of dry sherry. I then turned it off and when the grits were ready put the grits on a plate, i added some of my fish/shrimp mixture on top and tried not to make a fool of myself eating it.

Spring Greens – gotta love ’em

Now that I live in a place that has seasons I love it when I have greens or vegetables that overwinter. I had a batch of Collards that were sitting in the dirt, just waiting, slowly doing their thing. Then, bang, Spring shows up and they bolt. Which means i now have greens to harvest and cook.

In my family we cooked greens southern style. But a dear friend of mine showed how to take them up a notch and make them “soul food” style. I haven’t looked back since.

The following pictures show this current batch.  I picked the greens, hand sliced them off their middle ribs. I sauted onions and red bell peppers (along with something not in my friends recipe – chopped garlic).

Next the greens were added and they sauted  bit.  In a pot of water i had some smoked duck boiling. My friend used smoked turkey. i had the duck so I used it.  This water will be incorporated into the greens.

After the greens had sauted a bit, I added in seasoned salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and apple cider vinegar.  I also added some chicken stock.

Next i stirred everything and added in the water with the smoked duck.  Now it just takes some time to get the greens nice and soft.  The photos below show the steps with the finished product at the start.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat – What I didn’t know

Once again I realize 1)I’m either working too hard or 2)I’ve been living under a rock. A Facebook post by Bon Appetit Magazine talked about an article about Samin Nosrat and her book. Salt, Fat, Acid and Heat, which came out in 2017. She also has a documentary show on Netflix. This weekend I have been binge watching the episodes. After reading the article, I immediately purchased a Kindle version of the book. I have been entranced ever since.

Her concepts make so much sense.

The book is not just about recipes, but about techniques and why these four elements are so important to cooking and food. It takes us back to basics, something I believe in fully.

There are all these fancy new cooking techniques that several of my friends swear by, like Sous vide. Yes, it is supposed to really enhance the flavor of the food in a short amount of time. And don’t get me wrong. I love my Instant Pot. But for some things, a long slow cook in the oven in my cassoulet can’t be matched. And maybe the reason people need Sous vide is because they have forgotten the basic rules – make sure you’ve added enough salt, or acid, or the right fat, or cooked it at the right heat.

What is so fascinating about this book is the ideas seem so simple and yet I think many of us don’t take our cooking down to the bare understanding of why something tastes good or for that matter, tastes horrible or bland.

It is inspiring me to continue with my thoughts about blog posts on spices. When you look at recipes around the world, there are basic ingredients, just like Samin’s book about basic underlying elements. The proteins tend to be the same. The vegetables may differ a bit. But how you cook them, which spices you add is what makes the dish special to that region. Lamb in New Zealand is cooked differently than Lamb in India. It’s all down to technique and spices. And in the case of Samin’s book – acid, heat and fat.

Get a good understanding of how it all fits together and you become an extraordinary cook, even with simple, basic ingredients. Add in a love for the effort, and you are golden.

Check out Samin’s show on Netflix and her book on Amazon. She’s on Instagram at #saltfatacidheat as well.

Cleaning your mattress – a Southern Frugalness Tip

Part of my southern heritage is frugalness – or maybe it is the Scotch side. Not sure,but I know that I always will error on the side of “spend less, not more.”

This weekend I was in the middle of changing the sheets on the bed and realized the mattress, now 20+ years old had some sweat stains that were starting to look, well, just plain awful.

And here is where my frugal bit went wonky. I am totally not ready to buy another king size mattress. With our 25th wedding anniversary coming up next year and a big trip overseas planned, all my extra monies are going in to the trip fund. No mattress is on the plan.

And then it hit me. Why not go Google “clean freshen mattresses” and see what shows up. And of course there are dozens of equally frugal people out there in internet land that know what to do and will gladly show you in a variety of Youtube videos. I watched several, some of which were amazingly informative and helpful and some were just plain fun to watch. They were so bad I had to pull myself away from the keyboard or I would have spent the rest of the day in utter amazement. Chuckle.

However, let’s get back to the point of this blog. There was a common theme to the majority of the videos. They all pretty much used the sames steps and ingredients and here is what they were.

1. Remove all bedding -this is kind of a “duh” but you never know so it’s wise to say do this.

2. Vacuum the mattress. Twice. You are going to be totally grossed out at what comes off what “appears” to be a mostly clean mattress. Yuk. Dead skin. Left over thingys from socks. In our case, cat hair. Lots of cat hair (and I have a mattress cover – so how does it get through that?)

3. Prepare the magic cleaning solution – 8 oz of Hydrogen Peroxide, 3 tablespoons of baking soda, 1 drop (yes only one drop) Dawn dish soap. You can also add in Lavender essential oils – about 10 to 20 drops. Make sure to stir this solution often and use immediately as the peroxide starts to lose its power in the light (that’s why the bottles are brown – to keep out light – who knew.)

4. You can either try to put this in a sprayer but that just didn’t work for me – it kept clogging the spray tube. I used a small brush and dipped it in the solution liberally and scrubbed the stain. If it gets too wet stop and dry it up with a small towel.

5. Wait – probably the hardest thing for me to do. – about 20 minutes to see if you need to apply another dose.

6. Now, take baking soda (for a king bed it took two small boxes) and sprinkle it all over the bed – getting in to those nooks and grannies. You want it all over the bed. You can also apply a few drops of the essential oils as well – just be careful as a little goes a long way.

7. It’s best to have it sit on the bed for 24 hours – so you might either want to do this one weekend you are going to be out of town – or try out that guest bed for yourself to see if it is indeed as comfortable as you tell your guests.

8. After the resting time, vacuum off the baking soda. You’ll want to pass over the mattress at least twice. You’ll be amazed at the smells that come out with the baking soda. As a bonus the baking soda will freshen up your vacuum cleaner as well.

From what I read it is a good idea to do this every few years. Since I had never done it at all, I think it will be in 5 years and not the 20. You may also want to wash your pillows at the same time. Ok, fess up – how many of you have ever washed your pillows. Yep me either. They turn out almost new. But that’s for another blog.

My recommendation is to go Google the terms I showed above and also for cleaning pillows. Hope you find some of the “good” ones as well -it was most entertaining.

That’s it for awhile, y’all. Happy restful sleep on your newly freshened mattress.

Make herbs and borders while the sun shines

I’m taking liberties today with an old expression about Hay.  Make hay while the sun shines means to take advantage of something, which is what this article is all about today.

Second to cooking, I love gardening. But… I hate weeding. So anything I can plant that replaces weeds and fills my attempt at a cottage garden is goodness.

Another thing I love to grow is herbs which compliments my cooking habit. Herbs love to grow and love it when you prune them.  The more you prune, the more you get.  And they fill in the spots weeds take.

Watching a Barefoot Contessa show, i saw she used chives as a border for her garden. Whoa – what a great idea.  Immediately (well about 2 weeks later) I went and bought a bunch of chives and planted a border.  The photo to the right is now 3 years into this and they are still growing strong and are lovely. Who knew chives made such pretty flowers – which are also edible.

Along with chives, I have cilantro that doesn’t think it’s supposed to die in the winter. It reseeds itself and pops up in the spring along with my asparagus.  Spring is not just about tulips and daffodils – it’s also herbs and food too.

My mission now is to fill in all the spots in my garden, not with annuals, but rather with herb perennials.  Which I can go cut any time. And they are not weeds.

Yay!

P.S. be careful if you decide to do this with mint. Unless you really like mint. A lot. I mean a lot.

Instant Pot Yogurt – my newest passion

A year ago a good friend gave us an Instant Pot and we’ve been using it for cooking things quickly or making them tender. However, all the forums I watch kept talking about making yogurt. Being a skeptical sort, I thought it’d be too much work.

However, necessity is the mother of invention and I was down to my last bit of yogurt and by mistake I had bought another gallon of milk not knowing there was one in the fridge. Hm, what to do with so much milk. I didn’t want to create something fattening like custards, so I decided to give yogurt making a try.

Well, I haven’t looked back. Now, every Sunday I make a batch of yogurt. I use the “boil” method since I’m not using the fancy expensive milks that people recommend. It only adds an additional hour but saves me big dollars.

Half of it I keep “regular” style for my mom and half I strain to make really amazing Greek style yogurt. It is so creamy it doesn’t even need sugar or seasoning. I then get creative all week long looking for ways to use my yogurt.

The left over whey from straining the yogurt gets frozen in an ice cube tray, removed, placed in a freezer bag and then used in recipes that call for milk or buttermilk.

I always reserve a 1/4 cup of the yogurt to use as my starter for the next batch. All I need to do is buy milk but I am no longer buying yogurt of any kind. Kind of cool and I know what goes into my yogurt now.

You can add any additional flavoring you want “after” it has been made. Sometimes I’ll add Agave (instead of sugar) or homemade fruit jams – this batch has blueberries from my last year’s crop. My mom likes it better with vanilla or fruit.

You can search for various recipes on Google for Instant Pot Yogurt but even though they say use special milk, I just use regular whole milk.

My initial starter was some good Greek yogurt that wasn’t too old. I have yet to have it fail. Plus I have a pot that does so much more.

Addendum.

Several people asked me to add my recipe/instructions so here you go.

1/2 gallon whole milk
3 tablespoons fresh greek yogurt

Add milk to Instant Pot.
Click Yogurt button
Click Adjust button to boil
When boil turns off and converts to yogurt, remove inner pot
Cool until temperature of milk is 110 degrees
Add in yogurt and stir until completely incorporated – NOTE (this is your starter – after you make your first batch freeze 3 tablespoons for the next batch)
Reinsert into Instant Pot
Make sure it still says Yogurt – if it doesn’t click the Yogurt button
Click the adjust button – it may say 24 hours – click it again until it says 8 then click the + button and move it to 10 hours. I like 10 hours because it makes the yogurt tangy. Keep it at 8 if you don’t like tangy.

After 10 hours, remove the inner pot and put in the refrigerator for 6 hours. This “sets” the yogurt.  After that you can strain it like I showed above to make “the best creamy, Greek style yogurt” you’ve ever tasted. Really!

Enjoy

Ever feel like the world is against you? Stand in line.

My poor blog has reached out and said “feed me, Patty.” Well, blog, here you go. Most of my posts have been on hobbies and cooking. This one will be a bit different.

My life has taken on a lot of additional stress. There is increased new business which is good but is generating a lot of work. There are elderly mothers who seem to grow ever more needy. Sometimes it feels like all I do is work – for someone else, not myself. Which is interesting as I own my own business.

Being the rainmaker and key decision maker in both my business and my home means being stressed all the time. My family and business associates suffer because of this. It’s not my intention to be overly grumpy but at times there is no way around it.

The biggest issue for me is not having adequate support to shore me up when I feel especially downtrodden. A friend that I had hoped would be that support is more critical than helpful. My belief is they have their own demons and there is no room for me and my problems.

My family has their own issues and I, as the matriarch, should be giving support rather than asking for it.

That’s when it hit me – I am the maker of my own destiny and therefore should be the provider of my own support. I need to focus on handling the stress and finding ways to manage it rather than hoping the support will come from elsewhere.

Over the last year I have fallen in love with yoga and meditation. Looking back, I realize that when I am my most content and relaxed is during those times. That means I need to remember those feelings at the moments when I feel the most overwhelmed. Sit back. Close my eyes. Breathe. Chuckle – right.

Writing these words now is actually helping. It is up to me to manage the stress and how I handle it. People around me have their own stressful lives and are struggling to manage their own issues. If someone is overly critical or negative, I need to listen, but not absorb that negativity. I also need to make sure I am not the reason for the negativity – I need to channel my stress elsewhere.

Life is challenging. We live in a stressful world. That’s not going to change. What has to change is my reactions to them. And when a person is over stressed, trying to deal with things outside of our control is hard. However, that is the key thing – they are outside of our control. It’s our own inner peace that will rule the day.

Norman Vincent Peale said “The life of inner peace, being harmonious and without stress, is the easiest type of existence”. Now I just need to figure out how to live that life.

Weekends in the kitchen are my salvation

It’s the weekend.  The weekend before Thanksgiving.  That means braving the crowds in the markets to get ingredients for the coming Thursday dinner.

Walking down the aisles, gathering all my ingredients also means I get to see what’s fresh and different in the vegetables.  Today it was gorgeous leeks and butternut squash.  I immediately thought of a Butternut squash, leek, coconut and ginger soup to start the week off right.

We opted for a fresh turkey this year and it’s a nice small one.  I always prefer smaller turkeys.  They typically are moister.  If you have a large crowd coming, just buy two.  You won’t regret it.

Tonight I had some french lentils so I made the wonderful Warm French Lentil recipe by Ina Garten.  It’s got some unusual ingredients – you cook the lentils with an onion stuck with cloves and a turnip.  There is something about that combination that gives the lentils a lovely flavor.

A container of fresh Greek Yogurt came home as well and it inspired Greek Grilled Chicken with Dill and Yogurt sauce.  That will go great with the lentils.

Finally, I made the cranberry and orange relish along with a traditional cranberry sauce.  This will give them both time to age nicely in the fridge.

Helping me in the kitchen is a glass of Silk from Menage a Trois.  This is the first time we tried it and it won’t be the last.  It’s luscious and smooth. The name fits it.

After a tough week dealing with all kinds of crisis situations, the kitchen is my savior.  The smells are amazing. I already feel better.  Now, if only my sons could be here for the holidays all would be good in the world.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  Take the time to enjoy good food, family and hug everyone you can while you can.

The Dinner Stars were in Alignment

Tonight my husband and I had a wonderful dinner. While traveling. That we cooked ourselves. And we sat back and realized that this dinner was part of a wonderful food journey we’ve been on now for several years.

My husband came from a long line of old fashioned, meat and potatoes cooks. I came from a family of amazing cooks. He has said I have dragged him into a new world of food adventures. I don’t think any dragging occurred at all. What happened is he discovered flavors. He discovered food passion. He found out it is possible to be utterly amazed at the smallest thing in the food world.

Tonight was an example. We are out of town staying at a timeshare while we work and learn. It has a nice kitchen and I always bring my “vacation cooking bag” with essential spices (in little packages that I learned to make from my friend Lindsay Garrison), olive oil, vinegar, etc.

When we went shopping for items to make lunches and a couple of dinners is when the fun began. Meat is so expensive any more that it was really fun to find some nice little lamb chops at a really reasonable price.

Then he and I walked around planning out the menu based on what nice fresh ingredients we found.

I passed the fresh pasta area and saw Roasted Mushroom Ravioli which looked simple and sounded like a good match for the lamb.

Garlic jumped in the cart – well because it was garlic.

A lovely French red wine joined the party because it looked nice enough to stand up to a nice piece of lamb.

I needed some fruit and there were fresh slices of watermelon. For me now, watermelon is not just the fruit – it’s also the the rind, which I turn into Chutney. And that also sounded like a good foil for the lamb.

Ok, fast forward to dinner. With the chutney now made and in the fridge, it was time to start the dinner.

We love to watch food TV shows and as I browned the lamb chops I thought of a show by Alton Brown where he pontificated about the Maillard Reaction – which to old cooks like me meant what happens when you brown meat. There is a fine line between browned to perfection (where you get the wonderful sugars and caramelization) and burnt. This lamb along with the four cloves of crushed garlic were close to that perfection.

While the lamb was in the oven to finish them off to a nice medium rare, I put on the ravioli and deglazed the pan drippings from the lamb browning with the lovely French wine we found for dinner.

Once it was all done, we sat down to eat and we both stopped after a few bites and realized we had created a perfect dinner. Everything went together. There was harmony in the tastes. Each bite demanded more.

We stopped. We looked at each other. And started smiling and laughing. It was a perfect moment. Just the two of us. A perfect dinner we created together. Amazing flavors that blended so well as to give you goosebumps.

There are several good lessons here. 1.You can create an amazing dinner anywhere. 2. Half the fun of cooking is sharing it with someone who loves it as much as you. 3. Sometimes the high price of one ingredient pushes you to another which turns out to be magnificent.

It was so perfect I had to blog about it.

Watermelon rind – I may never throw it away again

When I was growing up in the south, we used to visit our cousins in Alabama and when we ate watermelon, we threw it into the pasture for the cows to eat. I actually never heard of watermelon rind pickles until I was a grown woman.  It appears to be a southern thing.

Last week we got a nice small watermelon and I decided I wanted to try to make the pickles. But it meant soaking them in brine over night and patience is not one of my virtues so I started poking around for other recipes for the rind.

The Chinese and Japanese use them quite a bit and like them very crunchy.  Since I love foods from both cultures, I headed in the direction on Google searching for the right recipe.  In my travels, I discovered one for Chutney – which I love almost as much as Oriental cuisine.

This is the recipe I found and except for adding a bit more heat – in the form of more pepper corns and some little green chilies from my garden,  I pretty much followed it to the T.

Watermelon Rind Chutney

1. 5 cups watermelon rind, tough green skin removed and cut into small pieces – or grated.
2. 1 cup Coconut Sugar. (I used plain sugar)
3. ½ cup Apple Cider Vinegar. (I used plain white vinegar)
4. 2 inch ginger, minced or grated.
5. 4 cloves garlic, minced or grated. (I used 6 cloves – there are vampires you know)
6. ½ serrano pepper, remove seeds, minced. (I used two small ones from my garden)
7. ½ tsp Fine Sea Salt.
8. This wasn’t in the recipe, but I added a tablespoon of peppercorns.

Put all the ingredients together,  bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook until the rinds are soft – about 2 to 3 hours.

Put up in jars and can, or keep in the refrigerator for several weeks.  The jar I put in the fridge didn’t make it to one week. Just ‘sayin.

Enjoy!

Recipe source: http://myheartbeets.com/watermelon-rind-chutney/