Fresh Crab Salad

So this weekend I prepared the belated Valentine’s Day meal for Babe and her main man. It was very lovely. We had old school Santana playing, candles burning, lovely cocktails (mock for the kid) and the meal was delicious. I am so not saying that because I prepared it either. It was really very tasty! I love that my family happily indulges my whimsy.

The meal started with this Fresh Crab Salad w/Ginger Lime Dressing. See it was supposed to be a tower of vegetables and fruit topped with fresh crab meat but my tower tumbled as soon as I took it out of the mold! While the tower would have made for a great presentation, the simplicity and deliciousness of this dish made up for any presentation worries!

Mixed greens under tomatoes, cucumbers, mangoes, red onions, avocado tossed in fresh lime juice (so they wouldn’t turn brown) and crab that I steamed the night before in Cajun seasonings. Prior to serving I drizzled with the dressing I made the night before also. As an aside, I could have drunk this dressing by the tablespoon. Simple, fresh ingredients make the best meals.

Fresh Crab Salad
Adapted from http://justataste.com/2010/07/11/la-jolla-crab-stack/

What You Need:

For the Ginger Lime Dressing:
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Creole or Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1 tsp dry ginger
Zest of an entire lime
Juice of an entire lime
3 tablespoons olive oil

For the salad:
2 cups salad greens (1 cup per serving; I used a spring mix)
1 cup each diced tomatoes, diced cucumbers, diced mangoes
½ cup each diced red onion, diced avocado (tossed in lime juice, discard used lime juice)
1 ½ cup fresh, cooked crab meat

What To Do:
Mix all of the salad dressing ingredients together, except the olive oil, until combined
While vigorously whisking the dressing, slowly add the olive oil until it comes together
In a medium bowl toss the vegetables and fruit together
Plate the salad then pile a heaping of crab on top
Drizzle with Ginger Lime Dressing

Cook.EAT.Repeat.

Correction: The Ginger Lime Dressing is my personal recipe but the salad is adapted from the site listed.

Squash and Onions

Between my grandmothers and my mom, someone always had a garden going.  I rarely remember us buying vegetables from a store because we could always count on someone growing what we ate! I remember going with my great-grandmother to her garden helping her pick okra, tomatoes, purple peas, greens, etc. Let me tell yall how country we were, we ate tomatoes like apples!  When we took a break from picking, we'd take a couple those tomatoes we'd just picked, wipe it off with a towel, sprinkle with salt and pepper and chow down!  Store bought tomatoes, and vegetables in general, ain't got nothing on home grown vegetable goodness!

Yellow squash and green onions were no exception.  This side takes minimal time in the kitchen to prep and packs tons of flavor. The final product didnt last long as we ate it out of the pan...#Greedy

What you need:

• 1-2 yellow squashes, sliced
• 1 bunch green onions, diced
• 1 Tbs olive oil OR butter
• Salt and pepper to taste (I leave the salt out...we gotta watch our intake round these parts)

What to do:

• Place the oil in a medium sautee pan over medium high heat
• Place squash in oil. Season with spices and let it cook for 3-5 minutes.
• Add the diced green onions, stir then cover pan for about 2 minutes to finish cooking the vegetables by steaming them.

 Cook.Eat.Repeat.

Potato Crusted Quiche

This is another one of my tried and true recipes from Cuisine At Home...love that mag! 

The filling can be adjusted to just about anything and it doesnt take long to come together.  I've also made this quiche semi-vegan with just roasted vegetables and cheese.  The thing that I love about this recipe is that it doesnt use a pie crust; I don't like pie crust with my quiche! WIN!

Potato Crusted Quiche

Adapted from Cuisine At Home Magazine

What you need:

• 3T butter, divided
• 1/2 lb bulk Italian sausage (I've used regular breakfast sausage)
• 1/2 cup onion, chopped
• A clove or two of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup jarred roasted red bell pepper, drained and chopped
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 pkg (1 lb, 4 oz) fresh hash brown potato shreds
• 1 1/2 cups fontina or Swiss cheese, shredded (I've used various cheese mixtures)
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 dashes hot sauce (or to taste)
• 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, (or whatever cheese mixture you like)

What to do:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Melt 1 T butter in a 10" oven proof nonstick skillet over medium high heat. Add sausage to brown for 3 minutes. Stir in onion and garlic and saute 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl with the bell pepper, stir to combine
• Return skillet to the burner and add 1 T butter and the oil.  Arrange hash browns in pan, pressing and spreading them up the sides to form a crust. Season with salt and pepper, then dot with 1 T butter
• Cook 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown 
• Sprinkle fontina or Swiss cheese over potato shell. Spoon sausage mixture over cheese.
• Whisk eggs, cream, hot sauce, salt and pepper to taste, pour over the sausage and cheese.
• Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. 
• Bake for 30 minutes or until center is firm and the tip of a knife comes out clean.
• Let stand 5 minutes, then run spatula around the rim to loosen the quiche. Slide it onto a serving dish and cut into wedges.



Crispy Fried Okra

I own my countriness!

When I was little I hated okra; likely because we picked our fair share of it AND ate our fair share of it! While at a Friday night dinner over the summer with Babe we ordered some. She'd never had it and I realized I'd never fried any as an adult....well I bought the frozen kind for my gumbo but it's not the same!

Babe loved them and requested that we (meaning I) get on frying some for the next day!  Enter our favorite farmers market (which has since closed).  They had the freshest local okra and all summer we bought as much as we could!

The recipe is simple: cornmeal seasoned with salt and pepper,  a little flour and enough oil to deep fry them! We were popping these things like okra flavored jellybeans!!

Buttermilk Dipped Onions

I never quite had an appreciation for onion rings until I made these babies.  Heck anything double dipped in buttermilk and fried can't be that bad.  After making these you will never ever ever want that minced onion madness you get in the freezer section.

This can get a bit messy but the end result is pure, fried goodness.  The only change I made was that I added a bit more cayenne and I have cooked these without soaking them. Soaking them in water dilutes the sulfur in the onions. IMO it also allows the batter to adhere to the onions better so that when you bite into them you don't bite the onion out of the fried batter. Also, it is a good idea to have the onion rings all ready for the oil because the double dipped process can be messy and the onions will cook quickly!

Buttermilk Dipped Onions
Adapted heavily from: http://www.cuisineathome.com/extras/063/recipe/double-dipped-onion-rings/

What you need:

• 2 large yellow onions, soaked in cold water for at least 30 minutes but up to an hour
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 T. salt
• 1 T. black pepper
• 1 T. paprika
• 1 T. cayenne
• 3 cups buttermilk
• Enough vegetable oil for deep frying

What to do:

• Drain onions
• Combine flour and seasonings in a large plastic bag
• Pour buttermilk into a shallow dish
• Dip onion rings in the buttermilk, then transfer a few at a time to the flour using a skewer (or your hands!) for easy maneuvering
• Dip rings a second time into the buttermilk and flour using the skewers.
• Set the coated, skewered rings over a bowl while coating the remaining onions.
• Heat oil in a pot over medium-high to 365°. Fry half the onions in the oil until golden, 3–4 minutes. Don't overcrowd!
• Remove from the oil using skewers, then rest over a bowl to drain. Fry remaining onions in the same way.

Cook. Eat. Repeat.

Sausage Onions Peppers

This is a total Weeknight Winner! This can be served over pasta or rice, stuffed inside a roll or eaten plain Jane out of the skillet on a plate. It takes more time to slice the vegetables!

What you need:

• 1-2 Tbl olive oil
• Medium onion, slice
• Medium bell pepper, sliced
• Tsp EACH, thyme, oregano, dill (or any herb combination you like)
• 1lb of your favorite smoked sausage, cut into 1/2 inch slices (I use a skinless brand)

What to do:

• In a medium skillet over medium heat place olive oil, onions and peppers. Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally until they begin to brown up a bit
• Add herbs to onions and peppers and stir to coat
• Add sausage and cook for another 10 minutes or until sausage are browned and cooked through

Roasted Balsamic Carrots

On Saturday we had a Girl’s Night In! One of my favorite people was in town and I had a chance to cook for her! Her only request was for me to bake her some Chocolate Kaluha Brownies (which can be found on this site!). Well, not only did I make her the brownies, but we had vanilla bean ice cream, passion fruit sorbet, laid-out roasted chickens, carrots with balsamic, fresh garlic spinach and pan fried potatoes! PLUS, wine and liquor and friends a plenty!



Great fun...my face is still sore from all of the laughter and smiling that went on. I’m going to have to do better about taking pictures when there is a get together at the house...everybody has pictures but me! LOL...if you are my FB ‘friend’ you’ve already seen all of the pictures!

On to this week’s recipe!

A well roasted vegetable can do no wrong in my world. A little salt, a little pepper and a bit of olive oil and I am yours! These roasted carrots were no different. A note about how I choose carrots: I never by bagged carrots. I always choose carrots with bright, green tops and a little dirt about the vegetable. In my mind it is fresher *shrug* I’m extra that way! LOL This shouldn’t even count as a recipe because it is so easy but here goes:

Roasted Balsamic Carrots

What you need:
1-2 Bunches of carrots peeled and cut on the diagonal about a half inch to an inch thick
½ teaspoon each salt and pepper (or to taste)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

What to do:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Place carrots in a medium sized bowl
Add salt, pepper, olive oil. Stir to coat
Pour carrots onto foil lined cookie sheet
Roast for 15-20 minutes or until edges of carrots begin to slightly brown
Remove carrots from roasting pan and into a serving dish and drizzle with balsamic and gently toss to coat


That’s it. Seriously, that is all!

Cook.Eat.Repeat.

What To Do?

Yet another Big Lots find.  I have never cooked with a fresh artichoke.  It looks intimidating.  However, marinated chokes have found their way in many of my salads (I LOVE a great salad!).  Anywho, these artichokes will soon be part of a fish dish!

Roasted Butternut Squash

  

Butternut squash season is almost over. I LOVE this delicious gourd. My recipe is really really simple because I don't t take the skin off which can be a daunting task.  I seed it, chop it and roast!  I also only season it with olive oil because I use it in sweet and savory dishes! The taste to me is similar to a sweet potato but milder.  Butternut with a drizzle of honey and cinnamon creme fraiche? *FAINT*

Roasted Butternut Squash

What You Will Need:

• 1 Butternut squash (size of your choice)
• Enough olive oil to coat the diced squash
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

 
What To Do:

• Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees
• Clean the skin of the squash thoroughly
• With a good sharp knife, cut the top and bottom of the squash and discard (I usually save mine to make vegetable broth)
• Cut the squash down the center length wise
• With a spoon scoop out the seeds and stringy parts, discard
• Cut squash into large strips then into chunks
• Place in a bowl with olive oil and toss to coat
• Place squash on a baking sheet and roast for 15 - 20 minutes. Adjust time and temp according to chunk sizes