Mess of Greens

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venison tenderloin with whiskey and wine sauce…

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every southern gal worth her salt has a stand-by recipe for game… i mean, when you think of deer or duck hunting you think of the south, right? my honey and i  aren’t hunters, but when we’re good little girls and boys neighbors, uncles, or friends bring us a tenderloin, backstrap or a 1/2 dozen birds to lust over. my favorite venison recipe is so good you’ll almost think you’re eating filet minon. true story.
1 Tbs olive oil
Soy sauce
course ground black pepper
1 C beef or veal stock
1 shallot
2 Tbs soft green peppercorns
2 Tbs chopped fresh thyme or 1Tbs ground dried thyme
2 Tbs cranberry sauce
prepare the venison 1 hour before.
1 Tbs butter
cornstarch (if necessary)
ok, so start by thoroughly removing all the fat, sinew, muscle casing and leave the meat ONLY. seriously, friends. this makes a huge difference.
cut the filets 1.5″ or more thick.
brush the meat with oil and soy sauce, then coat both sides of the filets with course ground black pepper. let the meat rest (covered) to come to room temperature.
while you wait, assemble and prepare the ingredients for the sauce.
heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in saute pan to almost, but not smoking. place the filets in oil and brown for 3 to 4 minutes on each side to have a crisp surface and rare interior. Remove meat when done and put aside on warm plate. keep warm.
place one table spoons of olive oil in pan and add 1 very finely chopped shallot.
Add 1/2 cup whiskey, deglaze the pan, then reduce by 1/2.
Add 1 cup veal or beef stock,
2 table spoons soft green peppercorns
2 table spoons chopped fresh thyme or 1 table spoon ground thyme.
and juice draining from meat now in meat plate, if there is any juice.

 

when the above is boiling, add 2 tablespoons of fresh or canned cranberries or add 1″ thick slice of warm jellied cranberry sauce which must be incorporated slowly by mashing.
reduce, then add a pat of butter or more until thickened. if needed, add small amount of cornstarch for thickening.
arrange meat, then spoon sauce over the meat and serve.

 

 let me know if you try it and love it!

the king of cakes…

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so tomorrow is ash wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent. i’m not sure what’s gotten into me, but i’ve decided to give up sweets for all forty days. God help me.

in my own “last hurrah” to all things delicious (and as a tip of my hat to one of my favorite southern cities, new orleans), i decided to make two giant king cakes this weekend for our church’s mardi gras celebration. this way, i could use up my excess butter/sugar/eggs AND store up as many calories as possible. good idea? i think so. anyway, this is absolutely the most authentic recipe i’ve found (and growing up so close to new orleans, i know my king cake) so it’s totally worth the time and caloric intake. it’s just perfect.


well, it’s perfect if you think that using nearly a pound of butter and enough sugar to give anyone diabetes is ok…


i wish you could taste this over the interweb…


if you like what you see, leave a comment and i’ll email you my new recipe plus a few tweaks I added from other king cake versions i’ve tried. It’s sooo good..the dough has a lovely depth of flavor and stays moist for a relatively long time.

can you read this? I think if you click on it and open it in another window it should get bigger…
if not, leave me your email address below and I’ll send a bigger file to you! it’s so long and involved that it would take days to type out.
also, make a note to add lemon zest to the dough (1 1/2 tablespoons) and use brown sugar instead of white sugar in the filling to make it extra delicious. In case you’re wondering where i got it, I think this came from USA Today or something like it…enjoy friends!

a little koolickle…

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so, my folks’ came up to the delta for a visit last weekend but it’s been so crazy i’ve hardly had time to breathe, much less blog… anyway, probably the highlight of the weekend was when we went fun driving around these teeny delta towns looking for local potter’s studios, antique stores, and delicious regional delicacies.

all the pottery studios were closed, but we did find a delicious new restaurant by the ms river and i introduced everyone to the “koolickle.” it’s a pickle steeped in kool-aid until it turns a bright color and tastes like a combination of dill and grape (or dill and cherry). when i first moved to the delta as a teacher 5 years ago, my friends and i were welcomed with little sandwich bags of koolickles… and then a year later, john edge wrote a story about them in the NYT. anyway, it seemed only fitting that while on a delta adventure everyone try a famous delta treat. so they did…

boone HATED it..but he also thinks dill pickles are the most disgusting things in the world, so i should have expected it. my parents said they were “interesting” and “really unique.” i don’t think that means they want another one anytime soon, but at least now they can say they tried one!

i took the photos above of my dad in the Great River Road state park, but here’s a photo from the professionals…

delta delight

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had a GREAT time with the “ins” this weekend…we ate our way around the delta (tamales, doughnuts, catfish, lusco’s, mennonite bakery chess pie…we really did eat everything) and shopping all the antique stores we could find. SO FUN. plus toured the great river road state park and ran into morgan freeman around lunchtime at ground zero. I thought boone’s mom was going to faint–she was that excited.
if you’ve never been to lusco’s or you don’t know what joy eating a delta tamale can be…and if you were pretty sure that the only Ground Zero was in NYC,  then here’s something for you…

ground zero…and one of the owners:

lusco’s..yes, those are curtain rooms where you have dinner in utter privacy!

and some delta tamales…this isn’t you’re ordinary southwestern/mexican dish…oh no. it’s MUCH better. (i.e. greasier)

all that is to say…we had an excellent time together, want tem to come back soon, and hope YOU’LL come visit us too!

photos from  ground zero website, southern foodways alliance, and southern living.

frozen sweet tea cocktail.

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have y’all TRIED this firefly sweet tea vodka? as a southern gal who loves sweet tea i had been a little skeptical about it. also, i didn’t actually believe that you wouldn’t be able to taste it if mixed with regular sweet tea. but i was wrong. dead wrong.

now, this is dangerous, here friends… if you can’t taste your liquor, you might just drink waaaay too much. but it also is the best darn tailgating cocktail i’ve ever had. i started with the junior league of jackson, ms cookbook come on in‘s recipe for frozen sweet tea that is FINE.. then i mixed in a little firefly. delish. even if you don’t make this into a cocktail, the frozen sweet tea recipe is worth trying… trust me.

frozen sweet tea
2 lemons
1 orange

photo from martha stewart.

Big Bad Baked Beans

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We had my favorite baked beans in the entire world with our pulled pork and ribs (because BBQ and beans they go together like peas and carrots, honestly)…

I’m not sure why, but this recipe from my mom is just better than other recipes… and they’re definitely a ton better than pouring some out of a can and heating them up. Some people are a little unsure about them at first glance but once tasted, they’re believers. I think this is probably the recipe I get asked for most often… so I’m going to share it with you! (but ONLY if you’ll remember that I already told you I’m not a professional photographer.) The name comes from the fact that this recipe uses bacon, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, and caramalized onions to really deepen the flavor… they’re so GOOD that they’re big and bad if you ask me!

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pulled pork.

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*
this week boone and i made plans to have some friends over for dinner. awhile back there had been an incredible deal at the groc… pork shoulders for .99/lb! i got a 5lb monster and had been saving it for a dinner party. honestly, when you buy that much meat you either need to be feeding a football team or a giant posse of pals. the thing is, i’m kind of skittish about cooking beef or pork… i will do it, but it’s so intimidating. luckily, my dad sent us this easy peasy recipe and boone was really into it.

since it was still warm out and we had this easy recipe we went with mississippi/memphis style pulled pork, baked beans, coleslaw and sweet tea vodka. what’s better than eating bbq on the patio, i ask you? nothing. we’ll start with boone’s BBQ and move on to the sides later.

the good news about this recipe is that you can do it in a smoker overnight, or in your over in 3 1/2 hours and you can make it in advance and freeze it if need be.

Pulled Pork
*5(ish) lb pork shoulder (makes approx. 12 sandwiches)
*2 med. onions
*4-6 cloves of garlic, minced
*1 bottle dark beer
*3 tablespoons Olive oil,
*3 teaspoons cumin, garlic powder
*salt & pepper
preheat your oven to 275 and then put about 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a dutch oven or really large, oven-safe pot. place this dutch oven on the stove on medium heat until hot. while the oil is heating up, sprinkle your shoulder generously with salt and pepper then rub it with 3 teaspoons of cumin and the same amount of garlic powder. once the oil is hot, brown your meat on all sides. (it works best if you don’t move the meat until it picks up easily and doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.) once the meat is brown, then take it out and set it aside.

add your onions and garlic to the pot and saute’ until they’re limp then add the entire beer and then put your meat back in the pot. you may need to add some water at this point because you want at least 1/2 inch of liquid in the bottom of the pot, but the beer may be enough. you’ll want to check this, just in case.
cover it and place the entire pot into the oven and let cook for 3 1/2 hours, or until the meat falls easily off the bone (it will smell like heaven!) Once finished cooking, you can take the meat out of the pot and let it cool, then pull/shred the pork like this
. If you want to use the liquid in the bottom of the pot as part of your sauce (and I highly recommend this) then you’ll want to skim the fat off the liquid in the pot. Once you’ve gotten all of the fat, return the pulled pork to the pot. Warm the meat back up, cover in your favorite BBQ sauce and serve with warm hamburger buns.

*the first photo isn’t mine. i was stupid and forgot to take a photo of the actual sandwich.. but the rest are!

The Flying Biscuit’s Vegetable Cobbler

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everyone in Atlanta loves the Flying Biscuit… the food and feel of the place in Candler park is somewhere in the mix of a hippie meeting somebody’s grandma. very new-south. 😉

anyway, since it’s fall i’m going to start with southern cool weather staples. it turns out that i really like this place’s vegetarian take on the southern classic “pot pie” recipe. it’s warm, filling, and super cheap to make. basically this recipe is same as the one from FB, but i leave out the turnip and add more carrots. Also, you can use store-bought pie crust if you’re in a rush.

For filling: 3 Tbs butter, divided
1 lg onion
2 stalks celery
1 1/2 lbs red potatoes cut in half
3 lg carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 cups frozen peas
8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup chives
3/4 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
salt
1 cup water
1 cup whipping cream
1 Tbs all purpose-flour
In a heavy stock pot, melt 2 Tbs butter over med. heat. Add onion and celery and saute until tender and golden. Add potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, chives and seasonings. Stir well. Add vegetable broth and water and bring to a strong simmer. cover and cook until everything is tender (15 minutes or so). Stir in cream and add peas.
Mix remaining butter and flour into a small bowl and blend. stir into stew and simmer until it thickens slightly. Ladle stew into ramekins or large corningware dish.

For Cobbler crust:
2 cups flour
1 Tbs double acting baking powder
1 tsp salt
6 Tbs chilled butter cut into 1/2″ pieces
2 lg eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
preheat oven to 425 degrees. sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. add butter and rub it in with fingertips until mixture resembles a course meal. Add eggs and milk and stir until soft moint dough forms.
Turn dough out onto generously floured surface. knead gently just to combine. Place an equal amount on top of each of your containers with the vegetable mixture and press down. Bake until topping is golden (18-25 minutes).

note: ugh. not my image but i can’t remember where i got it.

Come on in!

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Southerners can’t stand to eat alone. If we’re going to cook a mess of greens we want to eat them with a mess of people.”
–Julia Reed

i’m a mississippi girl and my partner was raised in the mountains of north carolina. between us, we can make just about anything that tastes like you should be eating it while rocking on a front porch and listening to acoustic blues music.

i love the way food tastes, but really, i just love the smell of food and the way it reminds me of being at home in my grandmother’s kitchen or helping clear the table from my parents’ dinner party. Especially i love how the taste (and smell) of southern food can make you feel warm and homey and sometimes like you need to put on your going-out-dress and drink too much.

hmm…what’s not to love about creole, country, soul, and all the newer variations of food from below the mason-dixon line? so it turns out that i’m not a photographer or a trained chef, but every night when my honey and I cook together it seems like 7 out of 10 times we make something that has it’s roots in the culture, history, or agriculture of this place… and usually it turns out pretty delish.

so there are an awful lot of other southern food blogs out there (but it doesn’t seem to be HALF as many as there could be considering how much we all love to eat.)but i’d still like to share the recipes of what we’re making with you. but trust me, this one is more than a catalogue of random “southern” recipes pulled from various junior league cookbooks or the largest number of jello-cassaroles known to man. messofgreens is about being full, satisfied, and hospitable. if you like the way that sounds, come on in!

photo from here.