Southwest Sweet Potato Salad

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, October 30, 2017

This recipe is wonderful.  It’s so good for you and it’s simple to make and even better the next day.  It’s a new staple in my kitchen.  It’s that good!

Makes 12 (1/2-cup) servings


4-6 cups peeled sweet potatoes, cut into small dice

Salt and pepper to taste

1.5 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper

1/2 cup chopped red onion

2/3 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 15 oz. can  black beans, drained well and rinsed

3 tablespoons lime juice

2 teaspoons minced garlic

2 tablespoon jarred jalapeno slices


1. Preheat oven 425°F. Coat foil lined baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray.

2. On prepared pan, toss together sweet potatoes, salt and pepper and spray with cooking spray. Roast about 20-25 minutes or until potatoes are crisp and cool.

3.In a large bowl, combine sweet potatoes, red bell pepper, red onion, corn, and black beans

4. In blender, puree lime juice, garlic, jalapeno and remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil.  I used an immersion blender for this step, so much easier

Toss all together, let marinate a few hours and serve


*Nutritional information per serving: Calories 113 Calories from fat 28% Fat 4g Saturated Fat 0g Cholesterol 0mg Sodium 99mg Carbohydrate 19g Dietary Fiber 3g Sugars 4g Protein 2g Dietary Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 1/2 fat

*Nutritional Information is approximate, always double check to be certain of calorie count

Apple Upside Down Pie...

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, October 28, 2017

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Ingredients

 

1
cup chopped pecans
1/2
cup packed brown sugar
1/3
cup butter, melted
1
box Pillsbury™ refrigerated pie crusts, softened as directed on box
4
medium Granny Smith apples (about 1 3/4 lb), peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
2
large Jonagold apples (about 1 1/4 lb), peeled, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/4
cup granulated sugar 
2
tablespoons all-purpose flour
1
teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2
teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

  • Heat oven to 375°F. In medium bowl, mix pecans, brown sugar and butter. Spread in bottom of 9-inch glass pie plate. Place 1 pie crust over pecan mixture, allowing excess crust to hang over sides. In large bowl, toss apples, granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Spoon apple mixture onto crust, packing tightly and mounding in center. Unroll second pie crust over filling; press edges together, fold under and crimp. Cut slits in several places
  • Place pie on cookie sheet on lower oven rack. Bake 50 minutes. If necessary, cover crust edge with strips of foil to prevent excessive browning; bake 10 to 15 minutes longer or until juices are bubbly and crust is golden brown. Cool on cooling rack 10 minutes. Invert pie plate onto heatproof serving plate. Remove pie plate; replace any pecans in pie plate onto top of pie. Cool completely.

The chili of my childhood...

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, September 02, 2017


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It wasn't until after I was grown that I realized not everyone ate pickles with their chili.  It was a staple at our house, and looking back, it was probably mother using what she had.  We always had sweet pickles and dill pickles with chili, no peanut butter sandwiches, no cornbread, just pickles and crackers and always in the fall apple pie.

I loved it then, and I love it now.  I make really good chili, you want to know how I do it?  Okay, here goes...

First of all, I’m a slow cooker kinda girl, it’s easy, you set it and forget it.  But if you don’t use a slow cooker, I’m a fan of putting it in a big pot, adding the lid and baking it in the oven.  You don’t have to watch it or stir it to make sure it doesn’t stick like you do if you cook it on top of the stove, I’m all about easy in my old(er) age.

2 lbs. ground chuck browned with a large chopped onion, two onions if yours aren’t really big, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 can of Brooks Chili Mix with Beans

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Thought you might like a picture, so you can see what it looks like.  If you can’t find this, just substitute a couple of cans of chili beans with sauce 

Now back to the recipe...

1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1 small can of tomato paste
2 or 3 cans of light red kidney beans, drained
sometimes I use 2 cans of light red kidney beans and 1 can of chili beans with sauce, I don’t drain the chili beans with sauce
1 can of Rotel tomatoes
1-2 teaspoons of sugar to cut the acidity
1 dry packet of chili seasoning mix - I like Brooks best, it’s hard to find, but any dry mix will do 

Brown the ground beef and onions, stir into chili mixture and cook on high in your slow for 4 hours or low for 8 hours.  If you bake it in the oven, cook it at 350-375 degrees for an hour.

If you like more heat, add a dash or two of cayenne pepper to the ground beef as you are browning it.  Then taste it after it cooks to see if you need additional chili powder.

The Hoosier way of eating chili is to stir in macaroni.  I don’t do this at first but a day or so later, I cook jumbo elbow macaroni, put it in the bowls and ladle chili over it like I did in the picture above.  I never chili mac as a kid, it’s strictly an Indiana thing, but it is good.

Mother didn’t make her chili like this, she just used hamburger, onions, a quart of her home canned tomatoes and added cans of chili beans.  Hers wasn’t highly seasoned, but the pickles took it over the top.

Oh, the pickles - the best pickles EVER, EVER, EVER are these - 

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Oh my, I can’t say enough about Famous Dave’s Signature Spicy Pickle Chips.  They are absolutely wonderful, just the right combo of sweet and hot, they are YUMMY!  We buy these at Costo in big jars, I add them to so many things. tuna salad, macaroni salad and sandwiches and they are gone before our next trip back.  Amazing pickles, if you’ve never tried them, look for them in your market, they are delicious!  If you can’t find them, of course Amazon has them, Amazon has everything... 

 

 

Super Flaky Pie Crust

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, August 16, 2017

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This recipe from Stella Parks sounds too good to be true.  It’s pie crust like we’ve never made it before, but this lady knows what she’s doing and this looks like it just might be a winner.

I haven’t tried this yet, but it intrigues me.

Read about it here, it just might intrigue you, too.  ~ Jan

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