Sauteed Turnip Greens with Bacon

Turnip greens made their way onto my last grocery list with the intent of making a warm turnip green dip. Plans changed when I couldn't demonstrate self control and ate an entire box of Triscuit crackers and all of the Smoked Salmon Cardamom Spread within a day and a half. That spread was the best smoked salmon spread I have ever had. Now what was I to do with a 32 oz bag of turnip greens?

When it comes to leafy veggies I think of one of my favorite "hole-in-the-wall" joints for eating indulgent comfort food for cheap. We have a soul food place here in Houston, Texas called My Food's All That and they serve up some collard greens that I rave over but Mr. Sideline Chef on the other hand isn't much for green leafy veggies. He also doesn't like sauteed spinach. It's not like me to make a dish knowing that he doesn't like it. These are turnip greens. I have never cooked turnip greens before so I figured I give it a shot and maybe change his mind. If all else fails he can just stuff himself off of the honey yeast rolls I made to go with dinner.

Yes. I had to search the Internet for a "how to" on turnip greens. Even the bag they came in just said bring to a boil and simmer until tender. I need a roundabout time. After reading a handful of recipes I decided to just wing it and add bacon. You can never go wrong with bacon. Mr. Sideline Chef is on a bacon kick right now so it only seemed right.

I brought 16 oz of the turnip greens to a boil and then simmered for about 30 minutes. Nice and tender. After they drained I figured what better to do next then decrease their nutritional value? That's right! Sauteed in bacon drippings with the crumbled bacon. Isn't this what any good Southern home cook would do?

Mr. Sideline Chef wasn't persuaded by the crumbled bacon and after one bite my veggie serving became two. Okay. I now know he doesn't like spinach, collard greens, and turnip greens. Mustard greens! Maybe he'll like those.

Smoked Salmon Cardamom Spread

It is absolutely amazing that this Smoked Salmon Cardamom Spread is a Cooking Light recipe! It tastes creamy but only has light sour cream in it and because the amount of sour cream added isn't an excessive amount the taste of the smoked salmon really is the star, which is what I would expect. Ground cardamom offers a unique twist on the standard smoked salmon spread and the flavor profile is a winner.

I served this for the first set of NFL playoff games and offered Triscuit crackers to go with it. I am looking forward to spreading this over a toasted bagel or toast points since I ate damn near the entire box of crackers and still had an abundance of the dip left. This makes a lot of servings. Great for a party or just a quick snack.

All of the ingredients are thrown into the food processor and this spread is ready for serving within 5 minutes. This is a definite must try! Easy, no cook, and can be made up to a day ahead of time. Valentine's Day is right around the corner and this would make for a great appetizer for a romantic dinner or even a fun Single Ladies party!

Smoked Salmon Cardamom Spread

MyRecipes.com and Cooking Light, July 2006

Makes 20 Servings (Serving size = 2 tbsp)



Stars of the Show:

• 1 lb hot-smoked (kippered) boneless salmon fillet - I used cold-smoked (lox) since that is what they had available at the store. Hot-smoked is great for savory dishes. I recommend using the hot-smoked if it is available where you shop. Better yet, smoke your own!
• 3/4 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
• Garnish: chopped fresh chives (optional)

And Action:

Place all ingredients into the food processor, excluding the chopped fresh chives for garnish, and process until smooth. Transfer into a serving bowl. Cover and chill. Garnish with the chopped fresh chives if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 39 (48% from fat)

Fat: 2.1g (sat 0.9g,mono 0.8g,poly 0.3g)

Protein: 4.4g

Carbohydrate: 0.5g

Fiber: 0.0g

Cholesterol: 9mg

Iron: 0.2mg

Sodium: 182mg

Calcium: 13mg

I'm linking this recipe to:

January 2011 Culinary Smackdown - Battle Salmon! - Head over to Brenda's Canadian Kitchen and get in on the kitchen action. There's already a handful of competitors and some very tasty looking salmon dishes.

Peach Iced Tea

Iced tea in the middle of winter? Not quite winter weather here in Houston, Texas. I walked out of the house this morning with a jacket on and ended up in a t-shirt. While searching for a new scalloped potato recipe to try for Mr. Sideline Chef I came across this recipe and knew I had to add the ingredients to my shopping list. Lately Mr. Sideline Chef has been requesting beverages other than water to drink and wanting to keep him happy I figured I better turn to this rather than him resorting to beer. Don't drink kids. Being sotally tober is the way to be!

It's a recipe from Southern Living and if there's anything I've learned from experience with living in the South is that everything comes deep fried, buttered, or sugared. Not only does each can of peach nectar used contain 39g of sugar (3 cans total are used) but the recipe calls for an additional cup of sugar! Holy blood sugar level spike Batman! Maybe put that sugar rush to use and get that sidewalk shoveled and salted for those of you up to your heads in snow. Wouldn't want you getting off to a rocky start in the second week of those resolutions to lose weight or make healthier choices.

For this warm weather we are experiencing it was nice to have a refreshing drink with a sweet taste from the peach nectar and a tang from the lemon juice. This would be a great addition to your summer barbecue spread next week if you're in Houston or 6 months from now if you live elsewhere. Sorry snow birds. Bookmark this page now and prepare it when you can.

Peach Iced Tea

MyRecipes.com and Southern Living, August 2002

Makes 3/4 Gallon

Stars of the Show:

• 3 (11.5 oz) cans peach nectar
• 2 quarts brewed tea - I used an orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea.
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice

And Action:

Stir together all ingredients and chill. Make sure it's nice and cold before serving.

Cumin Carrot Fries

Carrot fries how I love thee. I started making carrot fries when my itty bitty started on finger foods. He loved carrots and he loved french fries so I figured why not prepare carrots the same method I would for french fries. It went over without a hitch. To this day my itty bitty still loves his carrot fries with his meals or even on their own as a snack. It's nice not having to use trickery to get more veggies into his diet. Mind you, he is a toddler and getting him to eat any new items or just in general has become a battle of wills. Making a batch of carrot fries is a great go to option in our household.

Normally I would just toss the carrot sticks in olive oil and some salt but this recipe called for the addition of ground cumin. Brought back memories of the Sweet Carrot Salad I had made at the beginning of December 2010. It was my first time using ground cumin to flavor carrots and the recipe was a success so I figured this would go over just as well.

Sure enough they were delicious and itty bitty's seal of approval came with it. It's nice to add a new flavor combo to the rotation. With a quick roasting time these make a great snack or side dish. Give them a try!

Cumin Carrot Fries
MyRecipes.com and Real Simple, November 2002

Makes 4 Servings

Stars of the Show:

• 1 1/2 lb peeled carrots, sliced into 3 inch sticks
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt

And Action:

Combine the olive oil, ground cumin, and salt in a bowl. Add the carrot sticks and toss to coat. Lay the carrot sticks onto a baking sheet in an even layer and roast in a 400° oven for 10 minutes. Stir the carrot sticks around and continue roasting to your desired color of doneness. Mine were in for 15 minutes. I recommend setting the timer in 5 minute increments after the initial 10 minute roast time.

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 88 (0% from fat)
Fat: 5g (sat 1g)
Protein: 1mg
Carbohydrate: 11g
Fiber: 3g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Iron: 0mg
Sodium: 271mg
Calcium: 40mg

Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese

I had yet again another Pretend Chef moment tonight when preparing Mr. Sideline Chef's request for scalloped potatoes. I had the oven preheating while the milk was boiling. The potatoes and cheese were layered in the baking dish and ready for the milk to be poured over. After pouring the milk over the potatoes and sliding the baking dish into the oven I set the timer on the microwave for 20 minutes.

Ding. Ding. Ding. The timer went off and I raced over to the oven to pull them out to check to see if the potatoes were fork tender yet. Nope. So back into the oven for another 20 minutes. The recipe had stated 40 minutes for the bake time but since I cut the recipe in half I figured 20 minutes would be enough.

Ding. Ding. Ding. The timer went off again and I raced over to the oven to pull them out once again hoping that was the magic number. Nope. What the hell? My potatoes were turning black and the fork still didn't pierce through easily. "I don't think this is going to turn out," I said to Mr. Sideline Chef in desperation. "Should I just pitch this since it's not working out?" He wanted me to try to salvage it.

My head smacking moment came when I realized that the oven had been turned off at the same time I turned the burner off from my milk being boiled. "This is why I call myself the Pretend Chef because I only pretend I know what the hell I'm doing." It's a good thing Mr. Sideline Chef had patience a big lunch to hold him over. It's also a good thing that once the oven was preheated the scalloped potatoes only took 20 minutes to cook since I ended up having to scrape off the top layer of potatoes to remove the blackened ones.

I am not and have never been a scalloped potato fan. I want to be really. I like all of the ingredients in the dish but together they don't play nice with my taste buds. They came out of the oven beautifully. I had high hopes that this would be the time I'd love scalloped potatoes. Nope. Mr. Sideline Chef on the other hand L-O-V-E-D them even though he wanted to see a full fat version on his plate next time and not a light recipe. Understandable. Comfort food generally isn't low fat or low calorie.

Nonetheless this dish is one that will stay at the top of my remakes for Mr. Sideline Chef until I come across that "engagement" scalloped potato recipe.

 Scalloped Potatoes with Cheese

Makes 4 servings (Serving size = 1 cup)



Stars of the Show:

• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• cooking spray
• 3 peeled red potatoes, sliced thin
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup milk

And Action:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Coat an 8x8-inch baking dish with the cooking spray. Layer half the potatoes into the bottom of the dish. Add the garlic around the potatoes. Drizzle half the butter and sprinkle with half the salt and pepper. Top with half the cheese. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, butter, salt, and pepper. Boil milk over low and then pour over the mix. Bake for 20 minutes or until tender.

Baked Whole Chicken

Growing up I mostly remember my mama preparing whole chickens for dinner. We'd come home from school to open the door and have the aroma fill our nostrils. The window on the oven made it even worse having to wait the two hours before we were sitting down to eat and being tortured with the looks of it's golden brown skin. The crispy skin is my favorite part. With trying to eat healthier it is as close to that fried chicken taste as I can get with less fat. I don't feel guilty indulging on it.

I love baking whole chickens. I love chicken. Mr. Sideline Chef and itty bitty are not meat eaters unless it comes in cheeseburger form. Mr. Sideline Chef tolerates chicken. I love chicken not only for the versatility but also for the grocery budget factor. It is so economical to cook the whole chicken rather than buying the chicken pieces.

The process is really quite easy (except getting over the gagging when pulling out the neck, which to me looks like an anal tract, and the giblets) and you can easily feed a family of four off of one whole chicken (that is depending on the pounds).

I don't know what it is when it comes time to putting the chicken away after I've already ate dinner but I stand like a savage hovered over the bird tearing pieces off and dunking them into the pan juices. The juices drip down to my elbows and before I know it I've devoured another section of the chicken before snapping out of my craze and reminding myself of all the uses for leftovers. The taste is just that good.

Baked Whole Chicken

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Rinse the chicken and remove the neck and giblets from the inside cavity. After the bird is rinsed, pat it dry with paper towels. I like to use butter on and under the skin and then season my chicken. I normally just open the spice cabinets and just start pulling whatever I see first that sounds good together at the moment. For this bird I used salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and onion powder. After seasoning the chicken I place it breast side up in a roasting pan (my mother always cooked hers breast side down to make the breast meat more moist and then she'd flip it the last 15 minutes and brown it uncovered). I added my veggies around the chicken and then added about a 1/4" of water to the bottom of my roasting pan. I covered the roasting pan with foil and baked the chicken for 20 minutes per pound plus an additional 15 minutes for browning. When browning I uncovered the chicken and raised the heat to 400 degrees. My bird had the little red popper thermometer inserted into the chicken breast and once it popped up I pulled it from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving. If your chicken does not have the popper inserted into it make sure that your meat thermometer reads 180 degrees into the breast before eating. Fall off the bone meat, pan juices, and vegetables makes for a delicious dinner that requires very little prep work and ease. Baking a whole chicken is great for any weeknight and get togethers.

Mr. Sideline Chef comfortably stuffed from dinner cuddling our Jack Russells, Samson (4 years old) and Maximus (1 1/2 years old).

Cream of Cilantro Soup

Guess who made the "nice" list for Christmas? That's right! The Pretend Chef, that's who! Santa must have been listening to all of my whining requests for a food processor. He must have hired Mr. Sideline Chef's mother to do his Christmas shopping because the last gift I opened was my food processor. "Is it big enough?" his mom asks me. It has a 12 cup capacity. Plenty big enough... if I am feeding the U.S. Marines, haha!

The worst part about being on vacation and receiving gifts is that I have to wait to get home to try them out. Our last week of vacation went by surprisingly fast and before I knew it I was at home pulling my food processor out of the box and putting the thing together.

I am not the assembly pro in our household. Mr. Sideline Chef holds that title and for good reason. I sat down in the chair next to him and attempted to pull the damn thing out of the box. Already needing assistance with that task I knew it was going to be a headache. After I unwrapped all of the parts and laid them out I figured it couldn't be that hard to put it together since there were only a handful of pieces and one page of directions for assembly. It all looked foreign to me. Thankfully Mr. Sideline Chef could hear his damsel in distress and came to my rescue. He put it together and even gave me a demo on the workings. What a guy!

My next issue was when it came time to adding the ingredients into it. I'm 4'11" and the countertops in our apartment come up to the top of my belly button and the food processor stood at the same height as me. This meant I had to lift the measuring cup with my chicken broth above my head to place it in the food chute. Me and messes go hand in hand and I suffer from little person syndrome with not wanting to have to admit that I need to use a stool when cooking. Poor Mr. Sideline Chef... when we build our first home he's going to have a bad back since he'll have to bend down when using the countertops that I demand be built to my liking.

If you don't own a food processor I would highly recommend that you start doing good deeds the month before Santa's arrival to ensure one of these gadgets makes it's way into your possession. I didn't have to chop a thing! Whipping up some soup was incredibly easy and even more enjoyable and got dinner on the table in a fraction of the time.

Onto the soup... Cream of Cilantro Soup. Absolutely delicious and so simple to make. The name of the soup says it all. It has a subtle kick from the ground red pepper and is a solid base for adding more ingredients if desired. I added a can of black beans to make it more hearty for Mr. Sideline Chef and he said that without the black beans it would have not been as satisfying to quell his hunger. We came up with other variations of what to add next time, some chicken, cheese, tortilla strips, avocado... any Mexican flavors would be a great addition.

This soup is so delicious that I regretted cutting the recipe in half because Mr. Sideline Chef and I had a moment of, "No you eat the last serving." "No you." We went back and forth before I declared that the biggest compliment to me after preparing a meal is someone heading back for seconds. It was settled and we were both left satisfied.

Cream of Cilantro Soup

MyRecipes.com and Southern Living, October 2000

Makes 6 cups (Serving size = 1 cup)

Stars of the Show:

• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, stems removed and coarsely chopped
• 1 (32 oz) package reduced sodium fat free chicken broth, divided
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 (8 oz) package fat free cream cheese
• 1 (8 oz) container light sour cream
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground red pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin

And Action:

Process cilantro and 1 cup chicken broth in food processor until blended.

Melt butter in a dutch oven over medium heat and whisk in flour. Gradually add the remaining 3 1/2 cups of chicken broth, whisking constantly until smooth. Boil for 1 minute. Stir in the cilantro mixture, cream cheese, and remaining ingredients. Simmer soup for 15 minutes. Garnish if desired.

Nutritional Information:

Calories: 156 (50% from fat)

Fat: 8.6g (sat 5.2g,mono 2.5g,poly 0.4g)

Protein: 7.9g

Carbohydrate: 9.3g

Fiber: 1g

Cholesterol: 31mg

Iron: 1.6mg

Sodium: 393mg

Calcium: 177mg