Side Dishes

Italian Bean Salad

Lauragolightly — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:20:20 GMT

2 T olive oil
2 T minced garlic
1 t taragon or oregano
1 t parsley (optional)
2 cups edamame (blanched and shelled-find in the freezer section)
1 can white beans (drained)
1/2 c pecorino romano cheese (grated)

Heat olive oil in pan over med heat until warm. Place garlic in pan and cook stirring constantly until frangrant (about 10 seconds). Remove pan from heat and add the taragon or oregano. In a medium bowl add edamame, white beans, garlic mixture, and cheese. Stir until all beans are coated. Sprinkle with parsley if desired. Delicious!!!! (Even better the second day)

Dumbbell Biscuits

Lauragolightly — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:29:28 GMT

Dumbell Biscuits
"Judy Vaughn says any dumbell should be able to figure out how to make
biscuits."

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup shortening
2/3 cup milk (buttermilk or 1T lemon and then fill the measuring cup to 2/3 with milk *Regular milk works just fine but I like the biscuits best with the lemon/milk combo)

Mix in order of ingredients. Mix well. Roll out onto floured surface
1/2 inch thick. Cut into circles (or hearts or other shapes). Bake on
ungreased cookie sheet or put on top of chicken pot pie.

450 degrees for 10-12 minutes (Watch them! Sometimes it doesn't seem to take that long.)

Egg Gribiche

Lauragolightly — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:57:25 GMT

I can't pronounce it but we LOVED it! I made this sauce this weekend and poured it over boiled and halved red potatoes. It made an incredible french-style potato salad but I can't wait to try it on fish. When it was gone we licked our plates :) I didn't have the fresh herbs they suggested so I just tossed in some dried stuff (tarragon, herbs de provence) and it was fine.

Zuni Café’s Four-Minute Egg Gribiche
Adapted from The Zuni Café Cookbook

This version is essentially a mayonnaise, and it’s particularly important to use a very mild-tasting olive oil. If your oil is at all bitter, or if you’re unsure, use a mixture of it and a more neutral-tasting oil, like canola.

2 medium shallots, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
Salt
1 cup mild-tasting olive oil
2 tsp. thinly sliced chives
2 tsp. finely chopped parsley
2 tsp. finely chopped chervil
½ tsp. finely chopped dill
2 Tbsp. capers, rinsed and dried, coarsely chopped

Combine the shallots and the vinegar in a small bowl, and set aside to macerate while you prepare the rest of the sauce.

Put the egg in a small saucepan of barely simmering water, and bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat and simmer for about 4 minutes. Drain, and put the egg in a bowl of ice water to cool completely (about 5 minutes).

When the egg is cool, crack and scrape it into a medium bowl. Add the mustard and a pinch or two of salt. Mash it all together, and then begin whisking in the oil, just a few drops at first, then gradually increasing the flow to a thin stream. Stop adding oil when the mixture is satiny and has lots of body, like – and I love that Judy Rodgers describes it this way – a hot fudge sauce. Stir in the herbs and capers. Add the vinegar and shallots, and adjust with salt to taste.

Serve with grilled fish or poultry, fried seafood, roasted potatoes, boiled shrimp, or asparagus, or - my personal preference - as the dressing for a fantastic potato salad.

Brown Rice & Spinach

cicconettiadmin — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:41:20 GMT

I know brown rice is much better for you and it's mostly what we eat, but it's kind of something I eat out of a sense of duty rather than love... This is really easy, quick (15 minutes), healthy and actually good though.

Use instant brown rice and cook it in a skillet with broth instead of water, or at least water and a bouillon cube (which I guess is broth...). When it's cooked five minutes, fluff it, and let it sit for five minutes. Then in the same pan add in some minced garlic, some olive oil, a little bit of water and a couple handfuls of baby spinach. Stir it around pretty diligently for a few minutes until the spinach is all wilted and tiny. Then serve.

This really is good. Andrew and I usually eye the leftovers and say, "Are you going to eat the rest of that?" "Why? Did you want more?" "Well, maybe a little.." In fact, he took our leftovers today for lunch (apparently) because I was looking for them for my lunch and they're gone...

Chunky Applesauce

tobo — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:39:48 GMT

I usually make and pressure can loads of "non-chunky" applesauce in the fall with Diane and her daughter and another lady from their church. It's fun to do and nice to do it with them because they have all the stuff and the people-power to make it in bulk. Hopefully we will do that again this year.

However, my true applesauce love is the chunky kind. I have a wonderful little recipe that you just make in one saucepan and it serves our family nice sized bowls for dinner. I love to make this in the fall. It smells so good and tastes so yummy warm and my boys love it! Last year I tried all kinds of different apples...batches of all one kind of apple and batches of mixed varieties. Unfortunately, I never wrote down our favorites, so I'm going to try to do better with that this year. I haven't made any yet (the 90 degree weather this first week of September is really not putting me in a fall-ish frame of mind yet) but I am really looking forward to it. I will post my recipe if anyone is interested, and I can also report back on the flavor combinations that we prefer.

This is delicious!

Lauragolightly — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:49:48 GMT

I know it isn't going to sound good and that's why I didn't put the title of the recipe in the subject heading. I make this for us all the time because it is so good and so healthy and so fast. I made it for our friends once and now they make it all the time and I made it for Jamey and Andrew last fall and they liked it, too.

SAUTEED CABBAGE

2 bags pre-shredded white cabbge
1 lg onion halved and sliced
2 Tb olive oil (sesame oil is good, too)

-Place 1 Tb olive oil in a saute pan over med heat
-When the pan is warm enough (it sizzles gently when you test it with a slice of onion) place all onions in pan and saute until tender
-Add cabbage and second Tb of oil
-Saute until cabbage is very reduced in size and tender. The color of the cabbage will intensify and look much more green. This is a good sign that it will be done soon.
-Season to taste with salt and pepper.