The Favorite

Published in The Sanford Herald November 14, 2012

I have a bizarre favorite food.  While the conventional contenders of chocolate, macaroni and cheese, and a good medium-rare steak are all appealing to me, there is one thing that I crave in all its delicious forms: eggs.  I don’t call them the “incredible, edible egg” because I am confounded that anyone would find an egg to not be incredible, or edible, for that matter.  My egg obsession leads to many a supper of scrambled eggs with peppers, onions and cheese rolled into charred corn tortillas (we Texans call those “taquitos”).  A frittata of eggs, potatoes and thyme is fit to share with royalty.  To be honest, eggs are part of the reason I adore my weekly breakfast meeting with fellow clergy at Cracker Barrel in Sanford.   (Not to diminish the joy of a bunch of clergyfolk lovingly poking fun at each other on a regular basis.)

Though I adore all forms of eggs, my mother’s breakfast casserole outshines them all to become My Favorite Food of All Time.  I’ve had this casserole at countless family gatherings, such as the morning after Thanksgiving when you suddenly realize that you are somehow hungry again.  When I was moving to Northern Ireland to be a mission worker, my brunch send-off included this dish of perfection.  It conjures up memories of flannel pajamas and fragrant coffee, laughing nieces and animated storytelling.  Plus, there is the seemingly magical event that happens when you make it, as four measly eggs feed at least ten people.  It’s nearly akin to the loaves and fishes story in the Bible.  

In essence, this breakfast casserole is “family” in a soul-filling, hearty dish.  That is why it wins the honor of being my absolute favorite.  I’m hoping it becomes a favorite of your family and friends as well.

Favorite Breakfast Casserole

Serves 10-12, unless I’m dining with you.  In that case, it will serve far less.

Ingredients:

2 ¼ c. seasoned croutons

1 ½ lb spicy pork sausage, removed from casing

4 eggs

2 ¼ c. milk (preferably whole milk)

1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup

1 (4 oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained

¾ t. dry mustard

2 c. shredded cheddar cheese

¼ c. fresh chopped parsley, for garnish (if desired)

Spread croutons in a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish; set aside.  Cook sausage on medium high heat in a large skillet, stirring to crumble, until crisp and cooked through.  Drain well on paper towels. Prepare thyself for the glorious smell of sausage wafting through the house.  Stave off hungry hoards.  Sprinkle sausage over croutons.   In a large bowl, whisk together eggs and milk until well blended.  Stir in soup, mushrooms, and mustard.  Pour egg mixture over sausage and croutons and cover.  Refrigerate at least 5 hours or overnight.  Remove from refrigerator; let stand for 30 minutes.  Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  Bake, uncovered, an additional 5 minutes, until cheese melts.  Garnish with fresh parsley if desired.  If possible, show enough restraint to place it on a plate before devouring.

Thanksgiving Sideshow

Published in The Sanford Herald on November 7, 2012.

Prepare thyself: potential heresy ahead.  The Thanksgiving dinner, for me, is about much more than just turkey.  In fact, I find that when incredible sides are present, turkey just becomes the official Wearer of the Gravy, the Companion of the Stuffing.  But the star, it is not.  At least not when you make sides that steal the show like these: rosemary and garlic mashed sweet potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts with a pancetta red wine sauce.  I do realize that, upon uttering that dreaded b-word (brussels), I may have lost several of you.  But I promise you, as a woman of the cloth, that one word will forever change how you feel about this oft-loathed vegetable: bacon.  When those wee cabbage cousins are roasted to crispy delight and tossed with an Italian bacon sauce, rich with red wine, you may just find yourself converted.  You might even begin embracing all those things you were predisposed to despise (spinach, lima beans and daytime talk shows, to name a few).  As for those glorious mashed sweet potatoes: their incredible texture, vibrant color and earthy sweetness will leave that old bird in the dust.  They have the elegance of a fine meal and the ease of a quick preparation, which is a blessing when you have a hungry hoard to feed.  Happy Thanksgiving, y’all.  Let the sideshow begin.

Rosemary and Garlic Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Serves 6 (Can be made a day ahead and re-heated.)

Ingredients:

4-5 large sweet potatoes (preferably North Carolina potatoes), peeled and diced into 1-inch pieces

1 sprig fresh rosemary, de-stemmed and roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

½ cup mascarpone cheese (a soft, slightly sweet Italian cheese)

¼ cup ( ½ a stick) butter, diced

salt and pepper to taste

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil.  Add rosemary, garlic and sweet potatoes and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.  If you’ve never added whole garlic cloves to boil with your potatoes when making mashed potatoes, you’ll be amazed at the deep flavor it adds.  Drain, return to pot and place back on the heat for a couple of minutes.  This allows excess moisture to steam off of the potatoes, ensuring a creamy and not soggy texture.  Mash potatoes, add the butter and mascarpone and season with salt and pepper to taste.  When making any mashed potatoes, I always find the need to be generous with seasoning.  Top with a fresh sprig of rosemary when serving and a pat of butter, if desired.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta Red Wine Sauce

Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 ½ pound of fresh brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and outer layer removed.  Larger sprouts should be halved.

1 medium onion, finely chopped

½ lb pancetta (unsmoked Italian bacon) or regular bacon, diced

1 cup dry red wine

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Toss brussels sprouts with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with 1 teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of freshly grated pepper.   Roast until tender inside and caramelized outside, tossing twice during cooking, about 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, prepare the pancetta sauce.  Heat remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a large saucepan on medium-high heat.  Add onion and pancetta and cook until onion is translucent and pancetta is crisp, about 10 minutes.  Drain off all but about 1 tablespoon of bacon grease.  Return pan to heat, sprinkle the flour over the bacon and onion mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.  Add wine, scraping up bottom of the pan to deglaze it.  Season with pepper.  Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes until the wine has reduced and the sauce has thickened.  Adjust seasoning as needed, only adding salt at this stage (as the sauce reduces and the flavor concentrates, the saltiness of the bacon intensifies as well).  Finish the sauce with the tablespoon of butter.  This will add a luxurious sheen to your sauce.  Add roasted brussels sprouts to the sauce and stir to combine.  Serve immediately.

Easy Enchiladas

Published in The Sanford Herald on October 31, 2012

Having grown up in South Texas, there is no food more comforting or satisfying than Mexican: a big, steaming bowl of homemade pinto beans with cornbread has the same effect on me as a two-hour nap.  Okay, sometimes it induces a two-hour nap, but nonetheless when I am eating Mexican food lovingly prepared, I am at home, wherever I happen to be.  One of my favorite dishes to make is incredibly simple and packed with spicy flavor: roasted tomatillo and chicken enchiladas.  Tomatillos are those mutant-looking green tomatoes that have a papery skin on the outside.  What is said for books can also be said for these little gems: don’t judge by its cover.  Once peeled and roasted with spices, they become sweet, while still retaining their characteristic tang that is just heavenly in an enchilada sauce.  Before you know it, you’ll be intentionally picking up ugly-covered books and cooking Mexican food at home like this lil’ Texan transplant.

Roasted Tomatillo and Chicken Enchiladas

Serves four.

10 corn tortillas

2 bone-in chicken breasts, rubbed with extra-virgin olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and roasted at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or ½ of a cooked rotisserie chicken (give yourself a break), shredded into bite-sized pieces

8-10 tomatillos, peeled of papery skin, rinsed and chopped in fourths

2 cloves garlic, chopped in half

½ a medium onion, chopped largely

1 jalapeno, stem discarded, seeds removed and chopped largely

2 tablespoons of cumin

1 tablespoon of chili powder

1 cup of chicken stock, warmed in microwave

4 tablespoons of canola or other light cooking oil (olive oil has too strong a flavor for this dish)

4 ounces of sharp white cheddar cheese

1 cup sour cream

cilantro, for garnish, if desired

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Toss tomatillos, garlic, onions, cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper with 2 tablespoons of the oil and roast for 20-25 minutes, until completely tender and brown at edges.  (Do not be alarmed if they look, well, slimy.  They’ll puree into spicy sauce perfection, I promise!)  Heat remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a shallow pan on medium-high heat until it begins to ripple.  Working quickly, dip tortillas in oil for a few seconds on each side to soften.  Drain on paper towels if desired.  If you skip this step, they will fall apart when you try to roll them.  Fill each tortilla with 2 tablespoons of chicken and ¼ cup of cheese and roll, placing seam-side down in an oiled 1½ quart baking dish.  Reserve some chicken and cheese to top enchiladas.  Puree roasted tomatillo mixture in a food processor or blender with chicken stock, until smooth, adjusting salt and pepper as needed.  Pour enchilada sauce over filled tortillas, and top with a line of shredded chicken and cheese down the middle.  Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees until bubbling and heated through.  Uncover and cook 5 more minutes to crisp chicken on top.  Top with sour cream.  If you’d like to be fancy (we do eat with our eyes first, y’all) put sour cream in a plastic food storage bag, snip the end off and pipe onto enchiladas in a zig zag pattern.  Top with cilantro if desired.  The combination of spicy, tangy sauce, hearty chicken and cooling sour cream is ¡muy delicioso!

Squash Sonnet

Published in The Sanford Herald October 24, 2012 

While my experience with Shakespeare is almost entirely limited to playing Julie Number Six in the Fifth Grade (we had half a dozen Juliets and Romeos), I am fairly certain that Shakespeare never wrote a sonnet about the beauty of the squash.  I am also certain that very few marriage proposals take place over a fragrant plate of that humble gourd.  However, when leaves crunch beneath my feet and I am delightfully overwhelmed by pumpkin-flavored everything, I begin to crave delicate little cubes of butternut squash, roasted to perfection with sage or rosemary until golden and crispy outside and decadently creamy inside.  Oh, I could write a squash sonnet and a butternut ballad about just how good the squash is in this recipe.  Allow me, with all the solemnity and pomp of Shakespeare to introduce you to my beloved butternut squash and Italian sausage pasta.  Trust me, y’all, it ends far better than Romeo and Juliet.

Butternut Squash and Italian Sausage Penne

Serves four.

Ingredients:

1 small butternut squash, peeled, cored and cut into 1 inch cubes*

½ a medium onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 tablespoons freshly chopped sage or rosemary

1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil

½ lb hot Italian sausage, removed from the casings

¼ cup dry red wine (optional)

½ lb whole grain penne pasta

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (freshly grated: thou shalt not use thy green Parmesan dust canister!)

2 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley

salt and pepper

*Cutting up a butternut squash is not for the faint of heart (or dull of knife).  Here’s the easiest way I’ve found to do this: cut off the top and bottom.  Cut the squash in half widthwise where it begins to broaden.  Placing each section on its now-flat surface, work your knife down the sides along the curve of the squash, removing the tough outer skin.  Cut the bottom portion in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds.  Cut the large portions into fourths lengthwise and then dice into cubes.

Heat oven to 425 degrees.  Toss butternut squash with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, sage or rosemary and salt and pepper on a rimmed baking sheet.  Roast for 30 minutes, tossing once, until beginning to brown and tender.  Meanwhile, prepare the sausage.  Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat in a large saucepan.  Add the sausage, onion and garlic and season with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Cook, crumbling with a wooden spoon, until sausage is browned and onions are tender, about 15 minutes.  Add red wine, if using, and simmer another 5 minutes, scraping up the flavorful bits at the bottom of the pan.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add a generous amount of salt, and cook pasta until al dente (firm to the bite), about 9 minutes.  Reserve 1½ cup of the starchy pasta water.  Take ⅓ of the butternut squash cubes and puree with ½ cup of pasta water in a food processor or blender, until smooth.  Add more pasta water as needed to achieve a sauce consistency.  Add pureed squash to the sausage mixture, along with cooked pasta, Parmesan and parsley.  Toss to combine and serve topped with remaining roasted butternut squash cubes.  Creamy butternut squash sauce meeting spicy Italian sausage might just be a match made in heaven.

Diving Dining

Hi, chickadees!

It's been a while hasn't it?  I assure you I've eaten quite well lately.  In fact, I have a delicious new endeavor: I write a lil' weekly food column for a local newspaper, The Sanford Herald.  My column is called Divine Dining.  I'm going to post those articles once they're published in The Herald.  Some of the recipes are ones I've already cooked here, so you might see some old goodies mixed in with new creations.  I hope you enjoy them!  And please, for the sake of a busy preacher gal, share recipes with me here!

Bon appétit!
Lilrevchef

a match made in foodie heaven

Parmesan pasta with balsamic roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli

Oh, y'all.  There are things I dearly love: pasta with parmesan and butter, roasted sweet potatoes and broccoli and balsamic vinegar.  Put those together and you wind up with this glorious gastronomic goodness.  And it is so easy.  Have I told you how I discovered my love of roasted vegetables?  My "cooker" as they call them in Belfast was, er, antique and persnickety.  Basically the oven only heated from the top, so baking or cooking meat thoroughly was tricky.  But, heating from the top, that ol' cooker roasted beautifully.  And it turns out that roasted veggies is the nicest way to treat them: the flavors intensify and caramelize until they're divine.  Let's get started on this hearty supper (this makes enough for 2).

       

Peel one large sweet potato.  I find using a knife to be the easiest way to peel things.  Cut your tater in half, place flat side down and work a sharp knife along the curve of that spud.  Easy.  Cut the sweet potato into small cubes (about 1/2" size).  

Make a quick balsamic glaze: in a small saucepan simmer together 2 T of butter, 1 T of balsamic vinegar, 1 T of dark brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a fair amount of pepper.  Simmer for about 5 minutes on medium until it begins to thicken.

Cut or break half a head of broccoli into small florets.  Toss the sweet potato and broccoli in the balsamic glaze until well coated.  Spread evenly on a baking sheet and roast (yipee) for about 20 minutes at 400ºF/204ºC, giving it a stir halfway through.  They're done when caramelized and the sweet potatoes are tender.

In the meantime, make your pasta.  I actually used the same saucepan I used for the glaze, just boiling water in it and keeping all that balsamic flavor there.  I realize Ina would tell me it is way to small a saucepan to be cooking pasta in.  Ina, dahhling, feel free to mail me a hand-crafted copper pasta pot hammered by French nuns!  It worked fine, and before I drained my al dente pasta, I saved 1/4 cup of the starchy pasta cooking water.  It's amazing what that cloudy water will do for a sauce!  Drain pasta, put empty saucepan back on the heat, add 1 T of butter (Julia would approve), that cooking water and simmer for a few minutes.  Add in the cooked pasta, season with a bit of salt and pepper and 1/3 cup (or as much as you please) of freshly-grated parmesan.  Toss together and there you have the easiest, most flavorful pasta to go with your roasted veggies.

Normally, when making pasta, I mix the pasta and veggies/sauce together and let them get to know each other for the last few minutes of cooking.  But, if you do that here, you wind up making those delightfully crunchy vegetables mushy.  So, don't mix 'em together, just let them hang out next to each other.  Top with a few shavings of parm and there you have it!  Tangy and sweet with the balsamic glaze, peppery from the pasta, creamy from the parmesan and butter and crunchy  with hearty vegetables, it's just so good.

Bon appetit!
Lilrevchef

what's corny and cheesy and delicious all over?

There are many blessings found in living in a small town.  This week, that blessing was fresh-picked-from-the-garden corn.  Last night, I used some of it in a simple pasta with shrimp, tomatoes and white wine.  Tonight, I decided to take those same veggies and make something entirely different: roasted veggie enchiladas!  I think this is because it was raining.  We Texans like to make enchiladas when it's rainy (or sunny, for that matter).

                      Get ready for a sensational seasonal supper, y'all!

Cut the corn off of two cobs (trying not to let those kernels fly all over the kitchen like confetti).  Then chop two roma tomatoes (sans seeds), 3 cloves of garlic (chopped large) and a large shallot or half an onion.  Drizzle with vegetable oil (not evoo: it has too strong a flavor for this) and season liberally with 1 T cumin, 1 t chili powder, salt and pepper to taste.

 Roast at 400ºF/204ºC for about 15 minutes.

 While those veggies are roasting, get going on your enchilada sauce.  Add enough oil (vegetable again) just to cover the bottom of a small pan (about 3 T) and go a bit crazy with the cumin.  Also add a bit of chili powder and enough flour to soak up all of the oil.

The French call this sort of sauce base a roux.  But we're making Mexican, we'll just call it deliciosa.

Add in about 1 T of tomato paste, which gives it a rich color and depth of flavor.

Then add about 1 1/2 cups chicken stock.  When my family makes enchilada sauce, they just use water, which tastes great too once it thickens.  I must've been thinking of this as I made my sauce, because I seasoned it with salt and pepper without tasting it, thus making it waay too salty.  Like Atlantic Ocean salty.  *Must remember how salty chicken stock can be!*  If at first you don't succeed...

 ...try and try again.  Much better.

 Grate some cheese as that sauce thickens (again).  I just used colby jack because it's what I had, but pepper jack would add a nice kick.

Now, get your corn tortillas ready to fill with those spicy roasted veggies and mild cheese.  Unless you never outgrew that "eating paste" phase from kindergarden and like all your food to be paste-ish, only use corn tortillas.  Very fresh corn tortillas will probably roll up without tearing, but mine have been hanging in the fridge for a few weeks (they last a good long while) and so they needed a quick dip in hot oil to soften them so they wouldn't tear.

Fill each tortilla (I made eight enchiladas) with a tablespoon or so of filling and cheese.  Roll up.

Cover with that delightful sauce.  I actually strained mine through a sieve, just to be sure I got a nice smooth sauce.  Top with a bit more cheese and a sprinkling of chili powder.  If you have any filling leftover, put that across the top as well.

Cover with foil so they don't dry out, and bake for 15 minutes at 400ºF/176ºC.  Uncover and cook 5 minutes more.

Here you have it!  Top with cilantro, or if cilantro is as appealing to you as kindergarten paste, chopped scallions will do.

 Absolutely deliciosa.  Full of flavor and very satisfying.

Poor Hayden didn't even get one bite.

Bon appetit!
Lilrevchef