recipe

Cabbage and Cannellini One-Dish Meal

/ Shane / 3 Comments

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

Okay, I have to admit that a cabbage-based dish didn’t sound all that appealing to me. I mean, cabbage is just…cabbage, you know? Please don’t let that stop you from trying this, because if you do you will be missing out on something that is awesome.

The Journey:

This is so easy to make, which means it’s one that we can keep in our regular rotation. We’re always looking for easy meals for weekday preparation. I’d say we probably eat it at least once every other week.

Even though the cabbage and cannellini are what make this unique, it’s mostly really a fried potato recipe. And come on, who doesn’t like fried potatoes?

The Verdict:

The fried potatoes give it a sort of breakfasty feel, but we eat if for supper. So what, you never heard of brinner?

I’m telling you, when we have this, I can’t shovel it in my mouth fast enough. And the best part? It costs like $3 to feed the four of us!

The Recipe:

Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut into tiny cubes
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 a head of very finely shredded green cabbage
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  1. Dice the potatoes and cut up shallot
  2. The cabbage has to be shredded. I suppose you could buy shredded cabbage, but we prefer to shred our own in the vitamix.
  3. Fry the potatoes in oil turning as needed ~10 min (add shallot and salt after about 5) or until golden brown
  4. Add the cannellini beans and continue to cook ~3 minutes
  5. Add cabbage and cook until wilted, ~2 – 3 minutes
  6. Top with parmesan

Simple Potato Soup

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

Now that it is starting to be fall, it is starting to be “soup season”. Sara kind of thinks soup season extends year round, so she has quite a lot of soup recipes in her arsenal, but this one is by far my favorite.

The Journey:

Let me start by saying, I am very anti-creamy soups. I like thin soups, like chicken noodle, french onion, etc. And this soup is as thick as it gets. The next day you can practically cut it with a knife. And yet, I love it.

Maybe it is not coincidental that it has bacon in it, which certainly doesn’t hurt.

The Verdict:

Sooo yummy. It’s in the crock pot, so it’s not too difficult to make, but you do have to do a lot of potato chopping first which takes a long time. However, it makes a lot, so you get multiple meals out of it, making the effort more than worth it. It works fine to freeze it.

It is a very hearty soup. I recommend serving it with some fresh baked bread.

The Recipe:

Recipe from Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook

  • 5 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1 stick of butter
  • 1 cup half-and-half (or whole milk)
  • 1/2 cup sour cream (we use our homemade plain yogurt instead)
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 ounces bacon, cooked, drained, and crumbled
  • 6 green onions, sliced
  1. Put the potatoes in the slow cooker and add water to cover. Cover and cook on high until the potatoes are cooked and falling apart, about 5 hours.
  2. Turn the cooker to low, add the butter, half-and-half, and sour cream, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and cook until hot, about 20 minutes.
  3. Stir in the crumbled bacon and green onions. Serve immediately or keep warm on low, adding water or milk to thin if necessary.

Kale with Bacon and Cannellini Beans

/ Shane / 5 Comments

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

This recipe actually came from Sara’s mom, who made it for dinner one night at our house, but the reason we really picked it up and ran with it was because of all the delicious kale we have growing in our garden this year.

In fact, the best part about this recipe is that we usually have everything we need to make it on hand at any given moment. There have been many a night where we say, “We have nothing to make for supper,” and then we remember this recipe and go from having absolutely nothing to eat, to having a fantastic gourmet meal.

And if you need another reason why you should make this delicious, yet vegetable-filled dish, I present Exhibit A:

(Stock bacon photo…you’d be surprised at how many of these I have)

The Journey:

It’s hard to say whether this is a hard or easy dish to make. It’s pretty simple, but at the same time it’s sort of a pain to remove all the stems from the kale. Also, we usually make the bacon ahead of time (you’d be amazed at what you can do when you have pre-cooked bacon easily at hand). So if you already have cooked bacon and you have a sous chef to de-stem the kale, it’s a piece of cake!

I should also mention that, while you can eat it by itself, we usually serve it over rice, pasta, or quinoa. It’s plenty flavorful, and the addition lets it stretch far enough to have some leftovers for lunch the next day.

The Verdict:

You know, when I originally put a section for “the verdict” I kind of imagined I would use these First Friday Food posts to try new things. Instead, I usually select from our cadre of favorite recipes. So I always just end up saying, “Yeah, the verdict was it’s awesome!” because otherwise I wouldn’t have put that recipe up there.

So, the verdict is, it’s awesome.

I am well on record saying I do not enjoy the combination of salty and sweet, and yet that is exactly what this is. What can I say, I am a man of many inconsistencies. The sugar combines with the balsamic vinegar, which combines with the saltiness of the bacon and makes something totally new and delicious.

I think this is the best recipe we have for kale, I like it even better than kale chips. If you have kale lying around, like we do, then this is the perfect way to use it (says me — the kids mostly just try to pick out the beans and bacon — oh well, what are you gonna do).

The Recipe:

Recipe from Weight Watchers.

  • 3 slices uncooked bacon
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 cup onion, diced
  • 1 pound uncooked kale, stemmed, roughly chopped
  • 1 cup canned chicken or beef broth
  • 15 oz canned cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp sugar, in the raw
  1. Set a large, heavy pot or skillet over medium heat; add bacon and cook to desired crispness. Remove bacon from pot and set aside; leave bacon drippings in pot.
  2. Add onion and red pepper flakes to bacon drippings; cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 10 minutes.
  3. Add garlic; cook, stirring, until garlic becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds to 1 minute.
  4. Add kale; cook, stirring occasionally, until it starts to wilt, about 5 to 7 minutes.
  5. Add broth; cover and simmer over low heat until kale is just tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.
  6. Add beans; simmer, uncovered, until liquid is almost evaporated, about 5 to 7 minutes.
  7. Stir in salt, vinegar and sugar; sprinkle with crumbled bacon and serve immediately.

Honey Wheat Bread

/ Shane / 1 Comment

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

I set out on a mission to find a good, spongy, soft, 100% whole wheat bread. We only use white whole wheat flour, but a lot of the bread recipes we try end up very tough or dense. This was creating a bit of a problem, because bread from the store is increasingly disgusting (i.e. high fructose corn syrup flavored foam bricks with ingredients lists that are inexplicably longer than my arm), but I couldn’t find a good substitute. So I began trying various recipes until I finally found one that was everything I ever wanted, and more.

The Journey:

The reason this recipe is “the one” is because it has a lot of sugar in it. That’s both the good and the bad, but it is a necessary evil because it’s what makes the bread light and fluffy. That sugar is yeast food, and it makes the dough rise like crazy. In fact, with a little extra rising time, you can actually split the loaf in half and make two loaves for the price of one. Lately I have been experimenting with cutting out a tablespoon of brown sugar. So far I haven’t noticed a difference.

I make the bread on the dough cycle of our bread machine, but you could conceivably do it by hand. I’ve just found from experience that I don’t mix it it enough when I do it by hand. Besides, why even have a bread machine if you’re not going to use it? (And believe me, we get a lot of use out of ours)

After the bread has been mixing for awhile in the bread maker, I open it up and scrape down the sides with a spatula to make sure everything is mixing well, and also add a tiny bit of water if it seems necessarily. I like wet dough, because it tends to rise better. Basically, every bread recipe I’ve ever tried for whole wheat flour has required me to add water to it. I don’t know if people just consistently underestimate the amount of water they need, if the recipes are really for bread flour and whole wheat needs more water, or if there’s just something about my baking environment that requires more water. But anyway, feel free to play with the recipe if it’s not coming out quite right.

The Verdict:

For artisan breads I rely on Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day (perhaps there’ll be a post on that someday), but this recipe cannot be beat for a sandwich loaf. I don’t think it’s out of line to say this is the best whole wheat bread I have ever made. We don’t buy bread anymore, we only make it. In fact, I have even used this recipe to make some very excellent hamburger and even brat buns!

The Recipe:

The original recipe was from the Internet, but I can’t find it anymore.

  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • sprinkle of ginger (I sprinkle *very* liberally with the ginger, because I like ginger)
  • 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
  • 3 cups white whole wheat flour
  • 2 teaspoons yeast
  1. Mix in the dough cycle of the bread machine (or by hand if you want, but I get better results in the bread machine)
  2. Deflate the dough and put it in a greased loaf pan, or shape into buns
  3. Cover with a towel and let rise. If you’re in a hurry, let it rise on the oven while it preheats.
  4. Bake at 365 for 30 minutes

Whole Wheat Bacon-Fig Scones

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

Baconfest.

The Journey:

Okay, so I haven’t actually made this, which is a first for First Friday Food. So I can’t speak for how difficult it is to make, but I can speak for how awesome it is to eat!

The Verdict:

In a day of a lot of really good recipes, this one stood out to me as the best. The bacon really added something; it was neither extraneous nor overpowering. It is sweet, but not too sweet, and it goes perfect for breakfast. There wasn’t anybody who didn’t like this (even Evie!), in fact, I don’t think there was anybody who didn’t take seconds (or thirds, or in some cases fourths).

The Recipe:

Adapted from Smittenkitchen.com

Scones

  • 1 cup Whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Tbsp. baking powder
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup dried figs (rehydrated)
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup (10 slices) cooked bacon (apple wood smoked)
  • 3/4 cup whole milk ricotta
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream

Glaze

  • 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup

Scones:

  1. Cook bacon until crispy. Chop into small pieces.
  2. Prepare figs by chopping them into small pieces (roughly the same size as your bacon pieces). Place the pieces into the bottom of a medium bowl . Cover the fig pieces in boiling water and allow to sit for 10 minutes. Strain fig pieces.
  3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  4. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. In the bottom of a large bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, sugar, and salt together.
  6. Cut the butter into small pieces with a knife and work the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
  7. Toss in the figs and bacon and mix.
  8. Add the ricotta and heavy cream together and stir them in to form a dough with a flexible spatula. Using your hands, gently knead dough into and even mass at the bottom of the bowl.
  9. Transfer the dough to a slightly floured counter. Lightly flour the top of the dough and pat it into a circle (about 7 in. in diameter) about 1 inch thick. With a large knife, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Transfer the scones to the prepared baking sheet with a spatula.
  10. Bake the scones for 15 mins, until lightly golden at the edges. Cool in a pan for a minute then transfer to a wire rack. Allow them to cool about 5 minutes before glazing.

Maple glaze:

  1. Combine the maple syrup and brown sugar. Lightly brushed over the baked scones.

Scones are best the day they are baked. However, if you wish to get a lead on  them, you can make them, arrange them on the parchment-lined sheet and freeze them. If you are prepping just one day in advance, cover the tray with plastic wrap and bake them the day you need them. If you are prepping them more than one day in advance, once the scones are frozen, transfer the scones to a freezer bag or container. Bring them back to a parchment lined sheet when you are ready to bake them. Do not defrost, just throw the frozen scones in the oven and add 2-3 mins to the baking time.