dip

Mess of Greens Dip

December 31, 2017 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com 1 Comment

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….

Crawfish Elegante’

March 8, 2016 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com 3 Comments

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.”

…

new years day pickled peas!

December 28, 2011 by biz.w.harris@gmail.com Leave a Comment

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.

…

dip

Footer