Food I Make

Blackberry Peach Cobbler

Fried Tacos with Chicken

Velveeta Ultimate Cheeseburger Macaroni

Skip it.  That's right you're better off with the old standby, Hamburger Helper.  This new addition to the Velveeta line of shelf stable products is not good.  Prep starts out like Hamburger Helper, brown a pound of ground beef, drain, add pasta, seasoning packet and water.  The difference is that you let the water virtually cook off and then you add the Velveeta cheese sauce.  While it looked ok, the taste was oddly metallic.  The taste of the cheese sauce was almost non-existent and it also effected the taste of the salad I served alongside of it.  I definitely will be sticking to the tried and true in this case.  Better taste and less money.

Easy Chicken Cacciatore

Busy weeknights call for recipes that get dinner on the table quick!  Here's one for a super simple, yet super delicious Chicken Cacciatore. 

Easy Chicken Cacciatore

4 bone in skinless or skin on chicken thighs (I used skin on since the fat adds more flavor)
1 package of whole mushrooms, washed and rough chopped
2-3 carrots, peeled and diced
1 medium sized onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 jar of spaghetti sauce (I used Prego)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of red wine

Prepare the vegetables, while heating a tablespoon of olive oil dutch oven on the stove top.  After rinsing the chicken and patting it dry, season it with salt and pepper and add to the hot oil.  Brown chicken and then remove from pot.  Add the vegetables and saute until they soften.  Deglaze the pot with the red wine and reduce for 5 minutes.  Place the chicken and any juices back into pot and then add the spaghetti sauce.  Mix well and simmer for 30 minutes or until chicken is done.  Serve with spaghetti, your favorite pasta or rice and enjoy! 

Grandma's Magic Pork Roast

This post is dedicated to my Grandmother, Bernice Mizell Peek (December 21, 1920-February13, 2013)  After suffering a heart attack in January 2013, she spent the next month shuffling between hospitals and finally hospice.  It was during this time my family and I shared memories and laughs about our wonderfully frank, nurturing Grandmother.

A common theme was her love of cooking with each of us remembering a special meal or dish that she prepared.  She always opted for the freshest ingredients, weekly grocery shopping was unheard of.  She "went to market" everyday!  Savory collards, incredible tasting neck bones and rice, homemade cornbread, fried fish, grits, country fried steak, all hallmarks of her take on southern cooking.

I remember my Mother telling me about this pork roast my Grandmother made on the stove top, with nothing but sliced onions and garlic.  She added no liquid and instead by cooking low and slow, allowed the meat to cook in it's own juices, yielding a delicious, fork tender roast.  It's been years since I first tested this recipe, just to prove to myself it could be done and it's still as good now as it was then.  I love making this on a slow Sunday, just hanging around the house.  I did so this past Sunday, fondly thinking about my Grandmother and how she infused "magic" into every meal.

Grandma's Magic Pork Roast

1 3-4lb Pork Butt
1 Large Sweet Onion, sliced
6 Cloves of Garlic, smashed

In a large dutch oven, prepare pan by coating with non-stick spray.  Add sliced onions and garlic and arrange evenly on the bottom of the pot.  Season pork roast with your favorite seasonings, I used Lawry's seasoning salt and black pepper.  Place roast on top of onions and garlic and cover with pot lid.  Cook on low-medium low heat for approximately 3 hours.  Cooking times will vary according to cooking source.  Roast is done when it is fork tender. 

Tassili's Raw Reality

Tassili's Raw Reality is a dining experience located in the historic West End of Atlanta, that raw enthusiasts and those curious about raw eating should try.  Spurred on by an expiring Scout Mob offer, my vegan friend Sara and ventured there this past Friday for a memorable meal.

After doing my research and reading all the praise for Tassili's spicy kale "wrawp", I was pretty much sold on it.  I also wanted to try a Nori Roll, a concoction of sunflower and pumpkin seed, wakame seaweed and scotch bonnet peppers which sounded most intriguing.  The restaurant is located in an old yellow two story duplex on Ralph David Abernathy Road, which you might pass by if you were not looking for it, since Tassili's signage is very subtle.  A small dining room leads to an even smaller room with a display case, cooler and counter where you place your order.  Service is dine in or take out.

We were good to go on the Spicy Kale Wrawps but I was informed that Nori Rolls had not been prepared yet, so I opted for the Sweet Coconut Corn, instead.  Sara went with the edemame medley as her side.
Settling in the small dining area, me nursing a bottle of spring water, we waited for our meals to be prepared.   Let me just warn you to be prepared for a wait.  The staff is small and the restaurant gets crowded.  On a Friday at noon we waited approximately 35 minutes for our lunch.  When our order was finally up we dug in.

Sara and I decided to each get half of a Wrawp and the woman taking our order was gracious enough to inform us that it would be cheaper to order a whole Wrawp and split it which we did.  Our whole wheat Wrawps were stuffed with kale, red onion, sun dried tomatoes, all dressed in a soy mayo. Fresh tomatoes and avocado rounded everything out.  I was truly impressed with the flavors that Tassili coxes out of plain, old, ordinary kale and that bright burst of heat at the end of every bite was mesmerizing.  I also enjoyed my Sweet Coconut Corn which was bathed in sweet coconut milk and dotted with scallions and peppers. It was like a sweet dessert soup.  The corn was amazingly plump, fresh and sweet.  Sara enjoyed her edemame, which included carrots, spinach, snow peas and broccoli in a soy sauce with her only complaint being that it was a bit too salty.

All in all we were very pleased and the bountiful menu had a few selections we mentally made note of for our next visit.  I will note for all the omnivores out there myself included, raw "cooking" takes some getting use to.  Within a few hours of consuming the Kale Wrawp, I experienced some rather painful gas which was relived by an OTC remedy,  however I did some sleuthing on the Internet and read that my reaction is not unusual.  It seems humans do not have the enzyme needed to digest raw foods like Kale which is a brassica- a genus of plants in the mustard family. The members of the genus are collectively known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, or mustards.  So buyer beware or opt for some of the other yummy options that Tassili makes available. 
                  

Italian Sausage Subs

These are simple and so delish.  You need some good quality Italian sausages, any flavor, but I used the hot and these came from Publix.  They make their own Italian sausages in house and they are always perfect.  I sliced up some green and red peppers and sweet onions (I used Vidalias) and scattered them on a cookie sheet around the sausages and drizzled everything with olive oil.  Although next time, I think I'll start roasting the sausages first and then add the veggies during the last 15 minutes of cooking since they roast up extra fast and you have to remove them in the middle of roasting if you start them together.  Alternatively you could saute them with some olive oil but I love the way roasting caramelizes the vegetables.  The flavor is amazing!

While roasting the sausages and veggies at 375 degrees, prepare the bread and marinara sauce.  I used hoagie rolls which I split and lightly toasted.  The marinara sauce just needs a quick heat up. I added a splash of red wine, a pinch of red pepper flakes and a little sugar. 

When everything is done, assemble the sandwiches by adding the sausage to the roll, topping with the peppers and onions, I also added some pickled cherry peppers and topped everything with the marinara sauce and mozerella cheese.  5 minutes under the broiler and this is what you get.  Definitely a keeper.

Easy Guacamole

Here's a quick and easy guacamole recipe....

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1/2 of a lime
• 2 tablespoons of your favorite salsa (red or green)
• 2 dashes (or more according to taste) of Tabasco's green jalapeno sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mash the avocado to desired consistency.  Mix in salsa, Tabasco sauce and juice of 1/2 a lime.  Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!