Mess of Greens

full bellies | warm welcomes

appetizer

Mess of Greens Dip

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2017 was a bittersweet year for me. I lost my mama, but gained a new little boy. I’m looking forward to New Year’s Day as a way to move forward and look for the good in the world.

New Year’s Day (when there’s no hangover involved) has always one of my favorite days of the year. Everything seems new, full of possibilities, everyone sticks close to home, hanging by a fire, watching football, and eating greens, cornbread, and black eyed peas….it’s basically the perfect day for cold icy weather (which the south is getting in spades tonight).

The thing is, I know that not everybody is crazy about the New year’s Day tradition of eating greens for money and black eyed peas for luck.Maybe you’re the kind of person who loves a warm bowl of chili instead while you watch the game. Well, lucky for you, I AM crazy about it, and always try to find new ways to eat my greens & peas. My aunt passed along a version of this recipe to me last year and after seeing how fast it disappeared at my little get together last year, it’s going to be a STAPLE every time. It’s basically spinach-artichoke dip all southerned-up. Once you’ve tasted it, it’ll be on your table every year, too….

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Sweet and Savory Fig Toasts

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Fig week 2k17 continues folks!

So I never really understood the “Toast” phenomenon. I mean, WHOLE restaurants dedicated to what is basically an open-faced sandwich?

But you know, I DO get that sometimes two pieces of bread is too much for your sandwich ingredients and other times the food is just too pretty to cover up. My Pregnant lady brunch (prunch?)– which is basically an extra meal between breakfast and lunch since my belly is waaaaaay too big for regular sized meals these days– the other day was both of those things. Pretty AND light. Two pieces of toast would have overwhelmed it all. What I loved about this (beyond how yummy honey, figs, burrata, and a sprinkle of kosher salt was) was that the only real cooking involved was toasting the french bread, so this could be a fancy breakfast, a light lunch, or a killer appetizer.


Sweet and Savory Fig Toasts
 
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Recipe type: Appetizer
Serves: 6-10
What You Need
  • ¼ or ½ loaf of French Bread, sliced into rounds
  • 4-8 Figs, sliced in half
  • 1-3 Pouches Burrata cheese, cut open
  • 2-4 basil leaves, Chiffonade (or cut into ribbons)
  • 3 Tablespoons (or more!) Honey
  • Kosher Salt or Sea Salt
What to Do
  1. Toast the French Bread rounds until crispy.
  2. Spread with creamy Burrata cheese.
  3. Top with sliced ripe figs and place on the cheese.
  4. Sprinkle Basil ribbons.
  5. Drizzle honey. Season with kosher salt or sea salt and devour!

Easy, Crispy Fried Green Tomatoes

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“Remember if people talk behind your back, it only means you are two steps ahead.” -Fannie Flagg, from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Chefs and Food people get super excited about things like squash blossoms and green tomatoes, but honestly, it’s really hard for me to pick something from my own garden before it’s totally ripe. ESPECIALLY homegrown summer tomatoes. I just can’t stand the thought of not getting to enjoy them all fully ripened and sweet and juicy.

BUT, sometime around late August, it becomes harder and harder to get fruit from my vines that haven’t been sucked by bugs or withered by heat. That’s when I start picking them early and making relishes and salads, and fried green tomatoes. I’ve tried LOTS of recipes, but my dad’s really easy, super crispy take is the best one I’ve come across. Pair it with Comeback sauce, and well, you’ve got a truly excellent dish that you’ll want to share.

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Crawfish Elegante’

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I’ve shared so many of my Grandmother’s recipes here that I’m a bit worries my cousins are going to hunt me down for giving away family secrets. Well, I would be worried except that my cousins and I all feel the same way about our Grandmother… that she was the warmest, kindest, most loving woman on the planet and that if we can be just a little bit like her in our lives, we’ll be doing things right.

Somehow she made all of her children and her grandchildren believe that we were her absolute most favorite (and, you know what, I bet we ALL were.) She was forever sewing something for a friend, or cooking something delicious for one of us, or making up something fun for us to do together.

My cousin, Amy, gave us the most wonderful Christmas gift a couple of years ago…she painstakingly typed up and bound all of Grandmother’s recipes into a cookbook of sorts.I use it every week at least once, and I’d bet they do, too (if they haven’t memorized the recipes yet.) Grandmother has some Louisiana roots, which is why a bunch of her best recipes have a creole/New Orleans flair.

Her recipe for Crawfish Elegante’ is a super delicious, very versatile dish that can be made ahead, frozen, and eaten in a variety of ways. It’s perfect for spring when crawfish are in season, but also pretty great whenever as you can get frozen peeled crawfish at the store. Here, I’m sharing it as a dip with toasted New Orleans French Bread, but it’s also great over rice as a main dish OR as a filling for puff pastries. We also had it as a catfish topping this same night, and as my cousin Virginia would say “it didn’t suck.” 😉

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Delta BBQ’d Pecans

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When I was in high school, this cute little gift boutique gave me a holiday job wrapping presents. I think I spent most of the money I earned buying these crazy expensive praline pecans that we sold there so I could stuff my face while I worked… typical.But on the upside, I was REALLY able to sell the you-know-what out of those pecans to just about everyone who walked in.

I’m not going to try to do that to you, but I will tell you that these BBQ pecans are mighty fine as a happy hour snack, afternoon pick me up, party-food, or a little nibble between the hours of midnight and the next night at 11pm. They’re just the right amount of salty, crunchy, roasty, and spicy and turn just the most lovely brown color, and also go super well with a robust craft beer or bourbon cocktail.

Plus, they are SUPER easy.

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new years day pickled peas!

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 southerners have a tradition of eating lucky foods on new year’s day to set us up for success in the coming months. there are lots of different kinds of lucky foods, but the most common in the south is black eyed peas in some form or fashion. turnip greens or cabbage are also pretty standard in the south since they look like money, which means you’ll have better finances in the new year.
so it turns out that boone (my honey) doesn’t really like the flavor of black eyed peas, but there is no way someone married to me is going to start off a brand new year on the wrong foot, so i insist that he eats at least one little pea.
lots of people like hoppin’ john, a recipe from south carolina or texas or something. our first NYday as a married couple we made it with black eyed pea and turnip green soup, which i liked just fine, but boone thought the peas tasted like an ashtray. ew.
last year, i made pickled peas or what my mom calls “redneck caviar” (see above) and it was a big hit because it was tart, juicy, and really so delishy. so much so that i made it again this year to take with us to austin, tx… and i just thought i’d share the recipe because i just can’t stand the thought that YOU might not have luck next year without it. 🙂 happy new year! ps: please remember that i’m absolutely not a professional photographer. keep this in mind if you feel compelled to judge my snapshots.

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