This is an interesting way to use your slow-cooker. When I first saw the recipe in Real Simple, I wondered how the brats would get nice and browned when all they do is braise. But to my surprise, they actually turned golden around the edges, although the skins lacked the crunch you’d get from searing them the traditional way. Ah well, this still was surprisingly good and makes your house smell like Oktoberfest.

They recommend serving with dark bread and mustard, but it would even be good piled into a hoagie roll.

Adapted from Real Simple.

Crock Pot Brats, Taters and Kraut

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds red new potatoes, halved or quartered if large
• 2 cups sauerkraut, drained
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1/4 cup dry white wine (or your favorite beer!)
• 1 teaspoon caraway seeds
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds bratwurst links
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• mustard, for serving

You’ll enjoy the kick from mustard with the sausage, potatoes and kraut. Cheers, friends! xoxo

Once you have the perfect roast chicken in your dinner repertoire, you have to start developing unique ways to change it here and there. One new way I’ve started experimenting with is stuffing. Whether it’s a wild-mushroom risotto or rice mixture, I find that a good stuffing can transform our favorite roast chickens.

This recipe is from my mom, so it comes with childhood memories of comfort food. Now that I’m making it myself, I realize the science behind the magic: that tantalizing aroma is from the warm cinnamon and lemon stirred into the rice stuffing, along with the toasted pine nuts, currants and sweet onion.

As a child, I probably wouldn’t have eaten the wild mushrooms that become golden and roasted along with the bird, just swimming in chicken juices, but now they are the perfect flavor addition. I added a few details that make this recipe my own, but I remember its roots.

Roast Chicken with Cinnamon-Currant Rice Stuffing

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion (or equivalent shallots), finely chopped
• 2 T. olive oil
• 2/3 cup uncooked long-grain white rice
• 3 T. pine nuts
• 1 lemon
• 1 1/4 cups chicken broth
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 T. dried currants
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 whole large chicken, at least 4 lbs., washed and patted dry
• 1/2 lb. mushrooms, sliced or quartered
• 1 fennel bulb, sliced
• 1/2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

Preheat oven to 325. Saute onion in oil in heavy saucepan until soft but not brown.  Stir in rice and pine nuts; cook until all are light brown.  Grate lemon rind.  Stir chicken broth, garlic, currants, salt, cinnamon, and lemon rind into rice.  Cook covered over low heat 20 minutes (rice will be slightly chewy).

Fill chicken cavity with rice mixture (make sure you’ve removed the giblets!). Scatter fennel and mushrooms around roasting pan; sprinkle with olive oil and toss to coat. Place chicken, breast side up, in roasting pan, on top of vegetables.  Tie the legs together with chicken twine. Rub chicken skin with olive oil. Drizzle reserved lemon juice over chicken and mushrooms; sprinkle with rosemary.  Season chicken with salt and pepper.

Roast chicken until juices run clear when thigh is pierced, 1 1/2 hours. Let chicken rest 10 minutes, covered in foil, before carving. Meanwhile, scoop rice into bowl, and serve the mushroom mixture along with chicken juices.

Serve sliced chicken along with sides, and a side salad.

Yummy! That rice stuffing is key. Roasting with the chicken, it takes on all those juices and extra flavor – just wonderful. I certainly plan on making it as a side dish, just adding more liquid and cooking it longer.

Enjoy, friends! xoxo

There’s probably a special place in you-know-where for people who throw some pork butt in a slow cooker and call it BBQ. If I’m going, then at least I’ll go licking the remains of this cheater’s pulled pork off my fingers.

I first heard about this recipe from @eleanorpie – she and I both subscribe to Lynn Rossetto Kasper’s newsletter/radio show. Ellie said it was a great fake-out, combining the smokiness and tender bite you expect from good barbecue. I have to agree. All you do is throw some pork butt into your Crock Pot with some spice rub and add a bunch of liquid smoke. Done. And to answer a question my mom had: No, the liquid smoke is not too strong – but I also diluted mine with a little beef stock.

The resulting pork is tender and juicy and just waiting to be piled on a soft bun. But not without some killer BBQ sauce. If you’re going to make pulled pork in a slow-cooker, you better (wo)man up and make your own sauce. Grant had some that a friend made and it was the perfect mustard-based sauce for my taste: Peppery and great with red-cabbage slaw. (And more Texas Pete).

If you try this recipe and still decide to be a BBQ elitist with your highfalutin’ smoker thingy, then fine. But I’ll be over here filing my nails while the Crock Pot does its magic.

Adapted from The Splendid Table.

Ultimate Cheater’s BBQ Pork

Ingredients:

• One 5- to 6-pound boneless Boston butt pork roast or same weight of boneless country-style pork ribs
• 1/4 cup Cheater Basic Dry Rub (recipe follows – I just used some that I had leftover in the cupboard)
• 1 bottle liquid smoke, plus 1/4 c.-1/2 c. beef stock (or chicken stock, or water)
• Barbecue sauce of your choice
• Slaw
• Buns

Cut the pork butt into medium (2- to 3-inch) chunks (the ribs don’t need to be cut up).

Put the pieces in a large slow cooker (at least 5 quarts). Sprinkle the meat with the rub, turning the pieces to coat evenly. Add the bottled smoke and stock.

Cover and cook on high for 5 to 6 hours or on low for 10 to 12 hours, until the meat is pull-apart tender and reaches an internal temperature of 190 F.

Using tongs and a slotted spoon, transfer the meat to a rimmed platter or baking sheet. Let rest until cool enough to handle. Pull the meat into strands. It should shred very easily. (Note: keep the meat submerged in the cooking juices if reserving – this will keep it from drying out – skim off the fat).

Serve the barbecue piled on buns with your favorite barbecue sauce and slaw.

Spice Rub:

Makes about 2/3 cup

Combine:

• 1/4 cup paprika
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard

Enjoy, friends! xoxo

If Julia Child had tried this recipe, she would have thrown her 5-hour, Level Advanced boeuf bourguignon straight out the window. I can’t tell you the number of expletives that slipped through my lips as I bit into my first piece of tender, juicy meat, or licked the remains of a sauce rich with bits of bacon, wild mushrooms, black pepper and good red wine. I literally ran my finger over the plate to get every last bit.

This miraculously chic dish came from the cast-aways of my beef tenderloin extravaganza. That’s right – the more fatty, tissuey ends of the massive beef tenderloin. I sliced them thick and prepared them as Ina Garten would use a filet of beef mignon. The result was culinary magic.

I made a few changes to the recipe – for instance, using frozen pearl onions (who has that kind of time?) and reducing the amount of bacon (I didn’t have enough on hand).

I know that I said beef tenderloin should be a once-a-year kind of thing. But whoa, friends, am I rethinking my resolution.

Updated Beef Bourguignon

Ingredients:

• 1 (3-pound) filet of beef, trimmed, or 3 pounds of beef tenderloin
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning plus 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 3 to 4 tablespoons good olive oil
• 1/4 pound bacon, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 1/2 cups good dry red wine, such as Burgundy or Chianti
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• 1/2 pound frozen pearl onions
• 8 to 10 carrots, cut diagonally into 1-inch-thick slices
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 pound wild mushrooms (I used cremini), sliced 1/4-inch thick

Ever since I cleaned out  my fridge for Thanksgiving, I’ve been obsessive about keeping it neat and orderly. Same with the freezer – I’m committed to using all my leftovers and lost frozen-foods before they go bad. We all waste so much, the least I can do is try…

So that’s why I took a leftover disk of pate sucree out of the freezer to thaw recently. I had made the pate sucree for my pear frangipane tart, so the crust was a bit sweet, but it turned out perfectly with the lemony goat cheese and caramelized onions in my savory tart.

I looked at a few recipes before starting, using lots of cues from Ina Garten (if you have to make your own crust, check out her recipe). Here’s how I did it…

Goat Cheese and Caramelized Onion Tart

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 1 recipe tart crust (most make enough for 2 crusts – you’ll only need one here)
• 8 oz. your favorite goat cheese (plain or herbed)
• 2 T basil, chopped (or any herbs you have on hand)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 c. milk or cream
• S&P
• EVOO
• 1 onion, any color, sliced

Preheat oven to 350 F. Roll dough out to fit your tart pan and pat into place. Place buttered foil on dough surface and fill with pie weights. Bake 10 minutes, then remove weights and prick dough all over with fork. Return to oven and bake another 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Set aside to cool a bit.

Meanwhile, saute onion with a drizzle of EVOO and S&P until browned at the edges. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar, if you have it, and mix to combine. When caramelized to your taste, spoon onion into bottom of tart shell.

In food processor, mix goat cheese, milk, eggs, herbs, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper. Pour mixture over onions in tart shell.

Bake 25-30 min, until custard is set. Cool another 10 minutes, while you make a simple salad of winter greens and more balsamic vinegar.

Slice and serve!

Yummy. This is not only a delicious vegetarian dinner entree, but we enjoyed it for breakfast, too. The crust is so buttery and perfect, even if its first purpose was to hold a decadent confection.

Here’s to tarts made with “real” crust! Enjoy, friends xoxo

Christmas dinner is all about extravagance in my house. Because it was just me and Grant this year – up in the mountains – I didn’t want to do a whole roast, but still wanted red meat. So I made my very first beef tenderloin, which turned out to be the most delicious, tender, juicy and fabulous thing I’ve ever made for Christmas.

I adapted the recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. They spent $1,200 testing the expensive tenderloin cut prepared various ways, so I felt OK spending $50 (on sale!). I bought one massive tenderloin that I had to hand-trim to get the tender mid-section ready for cooking. The center cut of the loin – called “Chateaubriand” – is roughly the middle third of the whole beef loin. The other ends have more fat and connective tissue – all of which I saved to make beef bourguignon later in the week.

Cook’s Illustrated is brilliant for a couple reasons: salting the meat and letting it rest 1 hour before cooking (you can see the salt start to draw out the juices, enhancing the flavor); roasting and THEN browning on the stove top (no “gray line”); and cooking in butter (drool).

This was one of those recipes that I was nervous about the whole way through – thinking I didn’t cook it long enough or did this/that wrong. But it came out perfectly and presented a true value of quality and quantity.

Beef Tenderloin with Shallot Parsley Butter

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 beef tenderloin (2 lbs), center-cut, trimmed of fat and silver skin
• 2 tsp kosher salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 T unsalted butter, softened
• 1 T canola oil

Using kitchen twine, tie roast crosswise at 1 1/2 inch intervals. Sprinkle with salt and let stand at room temperature for around 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 300 with oven rack in middle.

Pat roast dry with paper towels and sprinkle evenly with pepper. Spread butter all over the surface. Transfer to wire rack set in backing sheet. Roast until center of meat registers 125 degrees on your meat thermometer, flipping roast halfway through.

Heat oil in large, heavy skillet over medium-high until smoking. Place roast in and sear until well browned on all sides, 1-2 min. per side. Transfer to carving board and spread 2 T flavored butter (recipe below) over top of roast. Let rest 15 min. Remove twine and cut meat into 1/2 inch slices. Serve with remaining butter.

Shallot and parsley butter

Combine all of the below:

• 4 T unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 shallot, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 T parsley, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

Served simply with a side salad and roasted potatoes…almost too decadent for a quiet dinner for two…oh, who am I kidding?

My own little Santa Grant got me these pretty owl measuring cups and butter dish from West Elm:

Now that the season of giving is over, I’m on to the season of getting: wedding season! Thanks to all who have tweeted or emailed me their must-have registry items. Keep ‘em coming!

xoxo

Merry Christmas! This was the first year that I’ve been away from “home” for Christmas. I visited my family and friends in the Northwest earlier in the month, spending the actual Christmas holiday with Grant and his family. It was really wonderful and an important step in making The South my new homebase…and creating new traditions.

On Christmas Eve, we walked to our neighborhood Moravian church for the Lovefeast ceremony – full of lots of beautiful choir music, Moravian buns (rolls with orange and vanilla), sweet coffee and beeswax candles that everyone holds at the end. Then, we came home and I made a seafood dish in keeping with the Italian tradition of having fish for the holidays.

After dinner, we made hot toddies and walked through the neighborhood, where each street was dotted with flickering luminaries. I don’t know who organizes the luminary thing, but it looks really magical – all those glowing lights trimming the streets, winding around the foothills of Buena Vista. There must have been thousands.

But back to food traditions – seafood at Christmas! I must have red meat on Christmas day, so seafood the night before is a wonderful balance. I made a recipe that I saw in Food Network Magazine from the amazing Lidia Bastianich, who is frequently featured in Bon Appetit and partnered with Mario Batali to create “Eataly” in NYC. I always wanted an Italian grandmother just like Lidia. So I should have known that this recipe would knock my socks off…

Scampi means heavy on the garlic and lemon…and butter. But Lidia’s recipe really goes above and beyond by creating a garlic-shallot paste that you treat much like and Indian curry paste – frying it in the pan until it dries out a little, then adding the liquids and simmering to thicken.

The flavors are aggressive and the seasoning is perfect – Grant about died when he snuck a spoonful of the buttery sauce simmering on the stove. I served mine over capellini, but it would also be good with crusty bread or any other thin pasta.

I have to call this recipe a MUST for anyone who loves Italian food, seafood and/or garlic.

Shrimp Scampi with Capellini

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 3 shallots, peeled and chopped (about 1/2 cup)
• 7 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 cups dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1 tablespoon dry breadcrumbs
• 1/2 lb. dry capellini pasta

Rich and filling, this was just what we wanted on Christmas Eve.

Enjoy, friends! xoxo

I’m always looking for new, healthy ways to eat beef. I don’t particularly care for ground beef: I think Five Guys is horrible, I prefer turkey-sausage meatballs and  I hate Sloppy Joes.

Mixing beef with complex Indian flavors helps me appreciate this cheap form of red meat. Sizzled together and wrapped in lettuce or, as we did, cabbage, it is a quite nice meal (and a nice leftover lunch for myself).

My only regret is that I don’t have some of the ingredients the recipe asks for (curry leaves, brown mustard seeds), so instead I used a little curry powder, cumin seeds and yellow mustard seeds. If you have the luxury of exotic spices, please use them … and share with me!

I adapted this from Spice Goddess.

Indian Beef Lettuce (or Cabbage) Cups

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup dried curry leaves (I substituted 1/2 tsp curry powder)
• 1 tablespoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds (I used yellow)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds
• 1 pound ground beef
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of red pepper flakes
• 6 to 8 green cabbage leaves
• Lemon wedges, for garnish

Enjoy, friends! xoxo

We had a cookie exchange/Secret Santa shindig with the girls at work. Everybody was asked to bring a dozen cookies, preferably something that reminded them of home. I guess I didn’t hear this last part because I went ahead and made cookies my mother never would have made growing up.

But times have changed. Bacon continues to ride the wave of food-trendiness. You won’t see me with a “Keep Calm and Eat Bacon” tee shirt, but I like bacon as much as the next red-blooded American. Leave it to Martha Stewart to turn something as low-country as bacon into a sophisticated cookie that will wow your guests.

The brilliant part is that you POUR THE BACON GREECE INTO THE BATTER. Don’t let your arteries get into a tizzy – this batter has way less butter to account for the bacon fat, so the resulting cookie is chewy and spicy like a ginger cookie, but with something extra – the smoky smell of the hickory-smoked sea salt you sprinkled on top, plus a savory bite that enhances the rest of the flavors.

I was most surprised to find that I couldn’t really taste the bacon. So don’t expect a mouthful of bacon bits. Instead, it’s more of a flavor enhancement…

Smoky Bacon-Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of good, thick-cut smoked bacon cut into 1/4-inch dice (this is not the time for off-brand bacon!)
• 2 1/2 c. flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons, plus 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, softened
• ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1/2 c. raw sugar for rolling
• smoked sea salt for sprinkling (I used hickory smoked sea salt from Williams-Sonoma, you can really smell the hickory!)

Set a large skillet over medium heat. Add bacon and cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon bits are crisp and have released their fat entirely. Reserve the bacon fat (you want about ¾ cup, plus 2 tablespoons) and set aside the crisp bacon (about ¾ cup as well) on a paper towel. Let the bacon and fat cool.

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Mix the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the butter and brown sugar and white sugar until they become fluffy together, about 3 minutes. Add the bacon fat and mix well, about 1 minute. Add the egg and mix until well blended. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour in the molasses and mix. On slow speed, slowly pour in the dry ingredients, mixing until just blended. Gently mix in the bacon bits.

Scoop 1 T of dough out and roll into a 1-inch ball, then roll in the raw sugar to coat entirely. Put the balls of dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Flatten the balls of dough with the palm of your hand, then top with a pinch of the smoked sea salt. Slide the sheet tray into the oven and bake until the edges of each cookie is starting to crisp, the tops start to crack, but the center is still soft, about 8 minutes. (Turn the baking sheet halfway through.) Do not be tempted to over-cook these. I would stick to 8 minutes at least for your first batch. These cookies do well when they are chewy in the middle.

Allow the cookies to cool completely on a rack, about 15 minutes.

Then plate up … with an Elf on a Shelf!

I never heard of the Elf on a Shelf tradition until I moved down here, but I love these little guys, hiding all over the house – Santa’s little snoops.

While I baked these cookies, Grant poured himself some Makers Mark, which goes well with the smoky nibbles.

And we enjoyed a silent night.

Here is the obligatory photo of my cat being forced to wear a reindeer outfit.

Happy Holidays, friends! xoxo