Strawberries and Blue Cheese with a Balsamic Vinaigrette

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I am generally not a fan of baby showers, but I went to one for a friend last week that was truly delightful.  It was a sit-down dinner at an absolutely beautiful home, and all of the women were so smart and fun to be around that I had a wonderful time.  The best part about the baby shower was that the niece of the hostess is a remarkable chef at the restaurant EVO (www.evopizza.com) in Park Circle in North Charleston.  EVO is a great restaurant- amazing pizza!!  Blake McCormick created the menu for the baby shower, and she did such a marvelous job, so of course, I emailed her to ask for some recipes to share with you all.  The thing I was most impressed with was a passed appetizer she had created using strawberries, blue cheese, and a balsamic vinaigrette sauce on top.  It was so simple, yet so unusual and fantastic.  I am going to actually just post what she responded in her email to me about how to make them.

“I used locally grown Ambrose farm strawberries, washed and trimmed of tops and cut in half long ways (this provides a steady strawberry). I used a firm goat cheese (drunken goat, it’s available at the Harris Teeter, it has a purple rind). Using a vegetable peeler, create small, shaved slices of the cheese.  For the topping, reduce down 1 cup of balsamic vinegar (preferably aged and of good quality) slowly, stirring periodically.  Reduce it down to a syrupy consistency, keeping in mind that as it cools it will thicken even more, so be aware of not taking it too far.  Let cool completely before topping.  Lay strawberries down on the platter top with cheese and drizzle a small amount of balsamic reduction and serve.”

I can’t wait to have a party to try this.  Thank you so much, Blake!  If you haven’t been to EVO, you need to check it out if not for the pizza then for this amazing chef!!  I am now off to Utah to ski at Alta until Sunday, and I couldn’t be more excited!  Will post about it when I get back, hopefully in one piece!

Keegan Filion Farm Fundraiser

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Back in December, there was a devastating fire at Keegan Filion Farm down in Walterboro.  This farm provides a lot of produce and meat to restaurants in the area that support local farmers, and in keeping with that support, many of the restaurants in Charleston held a “barn raiser” yesterday to raise money to help save the farm.  The restaurants included Fish, McCrady’s, Husk, FIG, Luca, Cypress, Fat Hen, Wild Olive, Slight North of Broad, Macintosh, EVO, Glass Onion and on and on.  With this lineup, of course, we went.  The event was at Lowndes Grove Plantation, and the food was amazing.  We took Walker with us mainly because it was free to bring him, but also because, unlike most 8-year-olds, the way to get Walker to try something is to say it is “exotic”.  Walker and his dad go on “bizarre food” trips- they have been to Spain, Italy, France, and Switzerland, and still to this day, Walker says his favorite food is tripe.  Gross- as an 8 year old, there would have been no amount of money that you could have paid me to try the lining of a cow stomach, and to be honest, it might take a lot today.  Walker is an extremely adventurous eater.   His favorite dish yesterday (it was my favorite dish as well) was from FIG.  Mike Lata, I know I have said this before, but is an absolute genius.  FIG had as their station ricotta gnocchi with a lamb ragu sauce.  So delicious.  Some of the other dishes provided by these amazing restaurants were turkey sausage with sweet peppers and beer mustard on a toasted slice of French Bread, Hoppin’ John, Hot Tamales, blue cheese lamb lasagna, braised beef taco with grilled greens and onions, and others that I tried and loved and don’t remember exactly what was in it.  And, I am happy to report that it seemed like they made a lot of money for the farm.  I am so sorry that they had a fire, but I was thrilled to support them in this event as it was just wonderful! If you would like to help out the Keegan-Filion farm, you can mail donations directly to the farm at 1475 Keegan Drive, Walterboro, SC 29488.

Peanut Butter Pie Fail

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I love The Local Palate (www.localpalatemag.com), the new cooking/food magazine in Charleston.  Yesterday, they put up a link to all of their recipes http://www.localpalatemag.com/recipes.html, and I tried the Peanut Butter Pie recipe.  You know those days in the kitchen where everything goes wrong- you drop eggs on the floor, you burn butter, your flour explodes everywhere into a disastrous mess- that was pretty much my experience with trying to make a Peanut Butter Pie.  You know when you have those days, and despite all the mess and frustration, your dish turns out marvelously- well, that didn’t happen.  Ok- here is the recipe from the Local Palate-

Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients:

2 cups peanut butter, smooth or chunky
1 pound cream cheese
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 pint heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
3 large egg yolks
1 Oreo cookie prepared pie shell
4 tablespoons peanuts, toasted
4 ounces shaved bittersweet chocolate

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, whip together peanut butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.

Pour cream into a second mixing bowl or stand mixer. Whip cream with vanilla bean seeds to stiff peaks.

Fill bottom of double boiler with water and place on medium-high heat on the stove. Place egg yolks in top of double boiler and lightly temper egg yolks until slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.

Fold eggs into peanut butter mixture.

Fold in whipped cream with peanut butter mixture. Combine thoroughly.

Pour mixture into prepared Oreo pie shell. Top with peanuts and shaved chocolate. Place in freezer for 2 hours. Use a warm knife to serve.

Now- here is what went wrong.  First of all- I could not find an Oreo pie shell as the store, so no big deal, I got a chocolate pie shell. Next, I decided to use my stand mixer to mix the heavy cream and my hand mixer to mix the peanut butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together.  Bad idea.  Perhaps I might have used too small of a bowl, but mixing cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar is not so easy- but mess aside- got it done.  Now to the heavy cream and the seeds of a vanilla bean.  I got some of the seeds out and the rest all over me, so I added some vanilla extract, but despite the work to get the seeds- my heavy cream did not whip… at all.  It just stayed very milky and spraying everywhere.   A phone call to my mother informed me that even though the recipe said heavy cream, I should have bought heavy whipping cream or just whipping cream and fortunately she had some at her house.  In the mean time, I did not have a double boiler for the egg yolks- it took five attempts to get the three yolks needed.  Not only that, but in my homemade double boiler of two pots on top of each other, are you supposed to have the bottom pot boiling before you put on the eggs- I don’t know, but I did not have the water boiling before I added the eggs, so I am not sure if the eggs turned out correctly.  I took the eggs off of the stove to let them get to room temperature and rode my bike over to my mother’s to get her whipping cream.  She only had 1/2 a pint, but it whipped beautifully, so I then added half of mine that I had been mixing for 15 minutes to no effect.  Well, of course that diluted the whole mixture but I added it and the eggs to the peanut butter mix anyway.  This part all went ok- and I put it in the pie shell and froze it and it looked very pretty.  It really didn’t taste very good, and it wasn’t that it was horrible by any means, but just not great.  I don’t know if it was the eggs or the bad heavy cream or what, but if I was to attempt this again, I would get some good whipping cream, and I would cut the amount of cream cheese in half as it was a very strong flavor and kind of hid the peanut butter flavor, and I would double the amount of powdered sugar to 1/2 a cup.  I think you could do this without messing up the recipe too much as I had a ton of the pie filling left over.  I will say the chocolate pie crust was very tasty, and if you can’t find oreo- this works just as well!  Here’s to feeling like a complete beginner in the kitchen again!!

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts and Backgammon Night

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I work at the Charleston Library Society, which is a pretty special place.  It is the third-oldest library in the United States, and the collection of books, letters, maps, etc., is unbelievably impressive.  This is the main room of the Library- it is beautiful.  And what better use for this amazing room than a backgammon club!  I started the Charleston Library Society Backgammon Club in September, and it has been so much fun.  The best part of Backgammon night is that the Library supplies beer, wine, and light snacks, of which I am in charge.  So, of course, I test recipes on our little group.  I tried out the Prosciutto Cheese Straws, Blue Cheese and Toasted Walnut Crostinis, Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake, and on and on.  Last night at Backgammon, I brought the Pioneer Woman’s Mystery Roll recipe, which I put up in a post when we went out to visit her and Ladd.  Check out the post for the recipe- super easy, and they were a huge hit.

This morning, I started thinking about what I was going to try next time, and then I started thinking about bacon because it is so good and I really love it.  Amazingly, initially, the two thoughts did not have anything to do with each other.  Fortunately, I was awoken from my bacon daydream to Google bacon recipes, and I came across bacon-wrapped water chestnuts.  I haven’t had those in so long, and I love them, and that is what I will be making for the next Backgammon Night!  Here is the recipe from www.allrecipes.com that I will be using- I am pretty excited!

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Ingredients

1 pound sliced bacon

2 (8-ounce) cans whole water chestnuts, drained

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup chili sauce

Directions

Cut bacon strips in half. In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until almost crisp; drain. Wrap each bacon piece around a water chestnut and secure with a toothpick. Place in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.

Combine the brown sugar, mayonnaise and chili sauce; pour over water chestnuts. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

 

 

Skillet Cornbread and Marvelous Meatloaf

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My sweet son Walker finally got home from New York this week, and I have, of course, been spoiling him rotten from missing him so much.  I asked him what he would like for dinner the other night, and he replied meatloaf.  This was a little surprising since I haven’t made meatloaf for him in well over a year, but as Corby and I love meatloaf too- that sounded perfect.  It is such an easy recipe, and the best part is that it includes a lot of cheese which is great!  I also decided to try skillet cornbread to go with it- people served a lot of cornbread at the parties we went to on New Year’s day, and I forget how much I like it.  Here is the recipe for skillet cornbread and meatloaf- so tasty!!

Skillet Cornbread

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups stone ground cornmeal (I used yellow)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 cup flour

1 tsp salt

4 tbsp melted butter

1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  In large bowl, mix cornmeal, baking powder, flour, salt, 2 tablespoons of the butter, and 1 cup of buttermilk.  This should be a pourable consistency- if it is too thick for your liking, you can add more buttermilk.  Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter in a large cast iron skillet, but don’t let the butter burn.  Pour the batter into the very hot skillet and cook for about 3o seconds to 1 minute until it bubbles abound the edges of the batter.  Immediately take skillet from burner and put into preheated over to bake until golden brown- about 20 to 25 minutes.  When done- remove cornbread from skillet with the bottom side up onto a serving dish and enjoy!

Marvelous Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef (you can have more depending on how many people you are feeding- up to 1 1/2 lbs I keep the same amount of the ingredients below)

1 cup bread crumbs (I used the Italian Seasoning breadcrumbs just to add flavor)

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp oregano

1 cup ketchup (I usually use 2/3 cup ketchup and then the rest I use steak sauce)

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325.  In a large mixing bowl, add the ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, oregano, and ketchup.  Mix together- I use my hands- until you form a large ball of the meat mixture.  Put a sheet of tin foil on a baking sheet and roll out the meat mixture until you get a flat rectangle, not too thin, but not too thick either.  Sprinkle most of the grated cheese on top of the rectangle, and then roll up the meat- kind of like a jelly roll with the cheese in the middle.  Bake at 325 for 45 minutes.  At around 40 minutes, I sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the loaf.

It was all so delicious, Walker asked for it again tonight!

A Happy New Year with Hoppin John

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It is a tradition in the South to eat black-eyed peas and collard greens on New Year’s Day to bring you luck for the coming year- the peas are supposed to represent coins and the collards are the color of money, so the dish- called Hoppin’ John- will bring you wealth and luck in the New Year.  I have to be honest, while all of that sounds great, and I would love some luck and fortune in 2012, I really can’t stand collard greens and I am not too fond of black-eyed peas either.  With that being said, here is the recipe for Hoppin’ John that I will be making today. Collards are usually served on the side, but I am not sure I can bring myself to make them- we will have to see.

Hoppin’ John

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups of black-eyed peas
  • 4 cups of water
  • 1 lb ham hocks
  • 1 onion chopped (I like using a white onion the best, but any onion will work fine)
  • 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (because every dish should have some cheese in it- it is just better)

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients except for the rice and cheese into a pot and cover with water and bring to a boil.  Then reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for an hour and a half.  Then remove the ham hock and cut the meat into pieces.  Return the pieces to the pot and add the rice.  Cover the pot and cook until the rice is ready- about 20 to 25 minutes.  Serve with the cheese sprinkled on top.

Here is what it is supposed to look like although I doubt mine will be this pretty.

I am including a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com for collard greens.  Again, I really dislike them, but if I were to make them- this looked pretty yummy.

Ingredients:

  • 2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 3 bunches collard greens – rinsed, stemmed and thinly sliced
  • 4 slices bacon
  • 1/2 onion, diced
  • 1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Directions:

Place potatoes in a large pot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Before the potatoes are finished, add the collards to the pot.

Place bacon in a deep skillet over medium-high heat. Cook until evenly browned, about 10 minutes. Remove bacon to paper towels to drain, and saute the onion in bacon grease until tender. Drain onions of grease, and add to the greens. Crumble in the bacon, and stir in the wine vinegar. Simmer over low heat until greens are tender, about 1 hour.

I hope these bring you luck and fortune, and I am looking forward to all of the fun baking and cooking in 2012.  Happy New Year!!