Fresh Greens for Supper Tonight

 A knock at the kitchen door after breakfast this morning turned out to be our neighbor bringing us fresh cut greens from his garden.

I filled up my largest bowl four times and washed the greens four times each bowl. 

This box was overflowing with greens.

There were collards and chard and kale and mustard greens.

They smelled so good and were so fresh that it was a pleasure to prepare them. I do cut out the largest stems and I pile stacks of greens on my cutting board and slice everything about two inches wide. 

I use an old Gourmet magazine recipe for collard greens so decided all of these greens would get cooked together using this recipe.

Cook some bacon til crisp and save to crumble into greens. In a few tablespoons of the bacon grease cook red onions, chopped. Add chicken broth--I use a box of chicken bone broth because I save my homemade broth for soups--and 1/4 cup of cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon dark brown sugar, 1/2 teaspoon dried hot pepper flakes. Add greens and toss until wilted, simmer covered, one hour or till tender. Salt and stir in bacon.

And of course I'll set out a jar of my own hot pepper sauce to go with the greens!

 

The greens do wilt down a lot but they'll be so good with our leftover supper tonight. We had salmon patties last night, and yes, I've tried making them with leftover fresh salmon but they just weren't my mother's salmon patties that I grew up on. But I do use the best red salmon I can find and I do keep the bones in it because that's where the calcium is. I remove the dark skin and fatty bits and throw away the little spinal cord that runs beside the bones--if you're squeamish, that probably got to you! 

And I have leftover cornbread from last night and leftover black-eyed peas with spinach. And remember, some dried beans can be done by the quick method but it makes a world of difference when you soak black-eyed peas the night before--and put them in the fridge overnight instead of sitting out on the counter.

And tomorrow night we might add a big baked sweet potato each (also from our neighbor's garden). 

No, these meals are not what I would serve company but who has company now? 

Our neighbor also brought us some more of his last banana peppers and that means I'll have to make one more small jar of pickled peppers.

I'm so thankful for such a good neighbor! And I'm just a little bit thankful that his garden is coming to an end for the season because when he brings me vegetables I simply have to fix them, no matter what my other plans for the day were. Our own pepper plants are still producing a few along but I expect they'll stop soon.

October's almost over but my favorite month of all comes next. Pretty soon there won't even be these KnockOut roses for the table and I'm okay with that, even ready for that. We might not even cover anything outside with old sheets when the next frost is predicted.

 

I'm feeling ready for a Black Frost. Then it will be time to make a big pot of chili.

Pickling's Done

 

This is my last jar of pickling for the season. I've felt pickled out but wanted to finish up the banana peppers our neighbor brought and decided to make sweet banana peppers this time. 

I found the basic recipe here but decided to spice it up a little extra. 

Basic recipe: 2 cups white vinegar, 2/3 cup white sugar, 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, 1/2 teaspoon celery seed. I doubled that and added: 1 bay leaf, 1 teaspoon tumeric, 1/2 teaspoon celery salt, 1/2 teaspoon Trader Joe's Onion Salt. Heated to a boil and poured over sliced peppers. I refrigerate all my pickled peppers in our extra fridge since I don't make a lot of jars.

There's no way of knowing if these are any good until we try them, around Christmas time. But here's a recipe that I can guarantee is delicious.

 

I tore this picture out of the British Ideal Home, November 2015 issue. The only problem is, I forgot to tear out the recipe! But with finding a basic recipe on Epicurious and then fiddling around with it myself I came up with a dish we love.

Butternut Squash:

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Wash and split squash and scoop out seeds. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, spread with softened butter, sprinkle with brown sugar and grate a little fresh nutmeg on top. Squeeze lime juice on and 1/2 teaspoon coriander and 1 teaspoon garam masala. 

Bake until tender, about 45 minutes.

While squash is cooking:

Saute one small red onion, thinly sliced and one clove garlic, minced. Add a little fresh spinach chiffonade and 3 tablespoons breadcrumbs, cook 3-4 minutes.

Stir in 1 tablespoon thyme leaves, salt & pepper. You can add 2 tablespoons pine nuts but I didn't. I don't use them unless I can get ones from Italy. 

Fill hollow of squash when out of oven, sprinkle with some feta cheese, crumbled and return to oven and cook 15 minutes more.!

Garnish with basil leaves and top with sauteed salted pecans. 

It is incredible! I do admit to avoiding the feta pieces, just cannot learn to like it. I even bought the best I found at the store but still just do not like feta.

 

 Here's mine the second time I made it. I keep trying to get it to look as pretty as the picture without much success but I doubt it tasted any better than mine. 

I'm getting excited about all the fall cooking that lies ahead between now and Decembe when the really fun cooking begins. So enough pickling, that is unless it's pickled peaches for the Thanksgiving table like my mother always had. Come to think about it, she bought hers and I will too. We've already sampled one jar from a Texas company and they were wonderful. I'll post a picture of them soon.

Pickling's done and thoughts turn to mincemeat.

                      Hal Borland

 

Oh, yes, I'm one of those people who love mincemeat! 

 

 
 

 

You Say Potato, I Say Potato...Salad

There is no such thing as really bad potato salad. So long as the potatoes are not undercooked, it all tastes pretty good to me.

Laurie Colwin in Home Cooking

   
I love good potato salad. Do you?

Everyone has their own favorite recipe for potato salad so the only reason I presume to give a recipe for it here is that my gal Nathalie Dupree's recipe has been our family favorite for two decades, and her technique in making it is different from most. 

 Here's her recipe with a few of my own additions.

Boil new potatoes until tender and drain on tea towel. I agree with Laurie Colwin about undercooked potatoes so I err on the side of overcooked.

While potatoes are cooking chop 6-8 ribs of celery and one large onion. Lots of nice fresh celery leaves chopped is a plus.

[If you love celery leaves as much as I do, this really helps to keep them pretty longer: before putting celery in the fridge after buying it, cut off the tops that have nice leaves and plop them in a bowl of cold water while you're putting other groceries up. Change the water a few times, dry well with a tea towel, wrap in paper towel and put in plastic bag or covered bowl in fridge to use as needed.]

Peel potatoes while still hot and put on top of the chopped onion and celery. I crosswise slice them with a knife while still warm in the bowl and then pour over equal amounts of a good apple cider vinegar and olive oil, about a 1/3 cup of each. 

Season with salt and pepper and chill in fridge overnight or at least 2-4 hours. 
 
Stir in 1 cup of mayonnaise and refrigerate another two hours. [I also then add hard boiled eggs, cubed, and sliced olives, and extra mayonnaise if needed.]

Just before serving stir in a few tablespoons of sour cream. Dust with paprika if you like it as much as I do. Delicious!

And how about some Caesar-crusted Crispy Chicken Strips on lettuce to go with it?

 Combine 1/2 cup of Caesar dressing with 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Add 2 pounds of chicken strips and toss to coat.

Combine 1 cup Japanese panko, 1/2 cup flour, and 2 tablespoons dried parsley. 

Dredge chicken in breadcrumb mixture, pressing crumbs in gently. Place on baking sheet. Chill at least 30 minutes in fridge.

Cook chicken in batches in coconut oil, not crowding, 3-4 minutes on each side till golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Serve warm with Caesar dressing on Romaine leaves. [My favorite container for mixing a vinaigrette or dressing is a jam jar with handle from a thrift store!]

Comfort food! 

Another really good recipe for chicken strips I tried recently was from Half-Baked Harvest's Spicy Honey Mustard Pretzel Crusted Chicken Fingers. Recipe here. 

How are you doing this week? Anyone else feeling kind of jittery lately? When I realized it had been 39 days since I'd left our property, I asked RH to take me for a drive in the country. 

That helped and I took some pictures of pretty dogwoods in bloom and cows and horses grazing.

A post like this seems trivial, so much of social media does now. Next week some non-essential businesses here in Tennessee are set to reopen in Phase I. How about in your state? 

How are you feeling?

A Dumb New Year's Day Question

Whoa! This ad from a 1928 magazine made me do a double take. I flipped back to the page several times.

How many years older will I be next New Year's Day?

Well, God willing and the creek don't rise, I'll be another year older, right? And you will be too?

Of course I get it--if I drink Postum instead of coffee then I'll be younger than otherwise, that's what the ad is trying to say. 

If I give up this and give up that, I'll age more slowly. If I do this and don't do that, ditto.

But, in January? The month that follows Christmas?

As Abbie Graham says in Time Off and On, "I am not wholly committed to January. I do not entirely trust it as a month." Can I at least wait until Easter's carrot cake is made, frosted with cream cheese, and nibbled, savoring each bite?

But I'm willing to approach this question from another tack. How many wonderful healthy things can I cook in January? 

Lots of things, beginning with the traditional New Year's Day dish of Collards!

  
Say you don't like collards? Maybe you'll like my recipe that is an old Gourmet magazine one:

 
I skip the bacon now and jump straight to cooking chopped onions, any color. Then I stir a tablespoon of brown sugar into the onions and caramelize them a little, stir in a good sprinkle of dried hot red pepper flakes--have you tried this brand?

 I get them from Amazon and they are amazing!

Then I add a little apple cider vinegar and a box of good chicken broth. You've already washed your collards, of course. Triple washed them because who wants to get any grit in their collards?

 Cut the toughest part of the stems out, bunch and slice them and add to the hot pot and toss and wilt and slow cook all afternoon, add salt and pepper and you have one fine mess of greens and pot liquor that will put strength and vigor in your body. 

 Don't believe me, just read here!

Just don't be like Fred Sanford and eat them when they're eight days old. They don't last that long in our house.

On New Year's Day we'll have a pork loin roast with sauerkraut (sharing an extra one with family), black-eyed peas, and Pioneer Woman's Stuffed Baked Potatoes, and some Cranberry Jalapeno Relish. And collards, naturally, with a spoonful of my hot pepper vinegar over them.

What are you having for New Year's Day?

Blessings in 2020, dear friends and family! And all kidding aside, I wish for all of us to be as young as healthily possible next New Year's Day.