Creamed Corn and Okra Cakes

Every now and then I like to remind Patrick he's in the South! This meal is a perfect example--can't get much more Southern than creamed corn and fried okra. He commented during the meal that it was great and that he loves the South!

Creamed Corn
Melt 1 tbsp butter in a pan over medium heat; I used a nonstick skillet. Then add fresh corn kernels (from ~5 ears) and cook for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/2 tbsp sugar and stir constantly for another 2 minutes. Whisk in 1 tbsp cornmeal. I then added some fresh chives. Finally incorporate 1/2 cup cream and cook another 2-3 minutes until soft.

Okra Cakes
20-30 medium okra
1 egg
2 tsp salt
1/4 c sugar
1/2 c flour
1/4 c milk
cooking oil
Wash and slice okra. Mix okra, sugar, salt egg, flour, and milk to make a thick batter. Turn into well oiled frying pan, and cook until underside is browned. Cut into squares and turn until other side is browned.

Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joe time!! Patrick loves these and so do I. Until now sloppy joes had always come out of the can but we saw a quick cooking segment on the local news (straight from Time Warner Cable's News 14 Carolina) featuring homemade sloppy joes and then away I went to the kitchen. I didn't write the recipe down and changed a few things around so my notes are in red.

Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
2-3 Tbs olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced pepper (of any color)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp ground cayenne (or more to taste)--replaced this with a squirt of Sriracha sauce
1/4-1/2 tsp ground cumin--did not use this
1/4 tsp dried thyme--replaced with fresh!
1/2 tsp ground chili powder--did not use this since the Sriracha is so hot!
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1 15-ounce can diced or crushed tomatoes--replaced with peeled, seeded, & chopped fresh tomatoes!
2-3 tsp Worcestershire
2 large or 4 small rolls, halved
Sliced tomatoes as needed
Sliced cheddar cheese as needed





Directions
--Add a splash of olive oil to a large skillet or heavy bottomed pan on the stove top and saute 1/2 cup diced onion, 1/2 cup diced celery, 1/2 cup diced pepper and 2 minced cloves of garlic to soften.
--At that point, add 1 pound ground beef. Break that up, stir it around and cook it until it is browned and cooked all the way through.
--Cook that on high heat so the meat has a chance to brown up.....and then, at that point, add a little sprinkling of cayenne pepper, a little ground cumin, a shake of dried thyme, a sprinkle of chili powder, 1/2 cup barbecue sauce and 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes and stir to combine. I added the fresh tomatoes first and let them break down a little bit for a few minutes. Then added the barbeque sauce, ketchup, fresh thyme, and sriracha sauce.
--Turn the heat way down on that and add a little shake of Worcestershire and then let it simmer along like that for 10 minutes or so.
--Count on half of a large roll, or one whole small roll, per serving and, while the sloppy joe mix is cooking along on the stove top, top each half with sliced tomato and thinly sliced cheddar cheese and place the tray underneath the broiler to melt the cheese.

Top the tomato cheddar melt with the sloppy joe mix to serve.
 So yummy; the tomato and cheddar really adds a lot. This again was something I'd never tried with a sloppy joe.

Handy Cooking Stuff

Right next to the stove you'll find easy access to the items we use the most in cooking--extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and a spoon rest.

Since Patrick and I began cooking we've certainly found trends and items we really like to use. One of these items is extra virgin olive oil. We found this olive oil bottle with dispenser in Chicago so it serves double duty. One as its meant to function and two as a souvenir! As you can see its almost empty because we've been using it so much!

The salt cellar and pepper mill are new additions to the kitchen; of course salt and pepper are not new additions to our cooking! We decided to upgrade the salt and pepper this summer. We opted for a salt cellar rather than a salt mill because we like pinches and dashes of salt rather than grindings. Recently we've been using coarse Kosher salt. We researched the pepper mills and found this small one that had been reviewed highly. It features an adjustable grind size selection and flips over to distribute the pepper so you won't make a big mess on your counter. Both of these items can be found at Crate & Barrel! (link to salt cellar and pepper mill)

And then you can't forget a spoon rest! This one is from a local pottery shop.

Pasta with Roasted Garlic and Eggplant

This week, Whitney and I picked out eggplant and cherry tomatoes for our CSA box, which led us to choose this recipe from our Williams-Sonoma pasta cookbook. The yellow cherry tomatoes were very tasty, and on the whole, this was a delicious, nutritious veggie pasta dish.

2 small eggplants (1.5 lb), cut crosswise into 1/2 in. slices
Olive oil
1 head garlic
1 lb cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup fresh basil
1 lb medium-sized pasta (we used rotini)
3 oz fresh mozzarella, cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cut garlic head in half crosswise and drizzle both halves with olive oil. Place garlic and eggplant slices on baking sheet, making sure eggplant slices are not touching. Roast until eggplant is browned, 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Continue to roast garlic until soft and fragrant, about 20 minutes longer. Cut eggplant slices into small pieces.

"No, this isn't right."

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Squeeze garlic pulp from cloves. In a large serving bowl, combine garlic with 4 tbsp oil, mashing and blending well. Stir in tomatoes, basil, 1/2 tsp salt, and pepper to taste. Meanwhile, add 2 tbsp salt and pasta to the water. Cook until al dente and drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Add pasta to sauce along with eggplant and mozzarella. Toss to combine, and add pasta water as needed to loosen sauce.

We love colorful dishes!

Coffee Cake Muffins by Martha Stewart

Muffins are great for a fast breakfast right? Just grab and go. I enlisted Patrick the Baker to help me make these Martha Stewart coffee cake muffins one evening. I wasn't quite ready to get up at 7am and have freshly baked muffins plus this offered us a great alternative to watching another Law & Order: SVU that night. These muffins are very very tasty. Unfortunately I think Martha called up Paula Deen to help with this one--it has two sticks of butter in it! We'll be making healthy muffins next time. However eat them with a banana and you'll feel better.

Coffee Cake Muffins (makes 12 muffins)

Streusel Topping
1 cup packed dark-brown sugar (we had light in the pantry)
1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Muffins
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs

1. Prepare streusel topping: In a medium bowl, stir together brown sugar, flour, sugar, salt, and cinnamon. With a pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles large coarse crumbs; refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare muffins: Butter and flour a 12-cup muffin tin. In a small bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. With mixer on low, beat flour mixture into butter mixture.
4. Divide half the batter among prepared muffin cups. Top with half the streusel mixture, then remaining batter, and top with streusel. Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Preparing muffins--half way through placing the first streusel mixture on half the batter.

Muffins just out of the oven. They rise a lot!

Stocking up the freezer

A couple of weeks ago I had lots of vegetables--corn, zucchini, and squash--but no time to cook all of it! So I decided to try my first freezing experiment. Usually when people "put up" their vegetables they do a lot at one time. I didn't have bushels of anything but enough that I didn't want to waste. I ended up with two quarts of each vegetable. Seems like enough of each one to see if this simple freezing works and they taste well at the other end; I'm sure there will be an update at some point! There were several methods I found on the internet but what I did is what I found most across different sites.

To start, bring water to a rapid bowl. Add vegetables and return to a boil. Boil for approximately 3 minutes. After 3 minutes plunge immediately into ice cold water.

Let the vegetables cool and then drain very well. Divide the vegetables into quart-size bags. Remove air and seal. Then freeze.

We used an old school method for removing air from the bag. It's called "Patrick and the straw."

Fresh Thyme

 Patrick and I were browsing the blog posts the other night for ideas on supper this week. Farfalle with Sauteed Mushrooms and Thyme caught our eye. We quickly put mushrooms on the grocery list so we could make our first recipe with our very own homegrown thyme! The thyme has taken a long time to mature but it's finally ready and we couldn't be more thrilled. Here it is:

And the pasta dish turned out great. This was the third time we've made it and each time it gets a little better, like most of the recipes we try.