Stagger Lee and The Lee Bros. Red Rice

"For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice."
- T.S. Eliot

 

 

 

Sunday ushered in the new year, and my 2012 is looking most promising right out of the gate. 

• I joined a gym
• We'll see how long that lasts
• My darling sister-in-law is moving to Nashville this week to attend pastry school here! 
• I can't wait to have her in town...did I mention she's going to pastry school? It's not like I plan to live vicariously through her schooling or anything. Right?
• I made a most delicious meal - my first for 2012
• See most delicious meal and recipe below
• And WE'RE GOING TO EUROPE in a month!
• Vienna and Prague for a week. Must remember not to spend all my money on fashion statements before the trip to Europe, where I will inevitably spend more money once I get there.

I had a wonderful holiday. Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and the new year could not have been more perfect. All were spent with family and closest friends. There were many fond memories to treasure this season, not to mention the food was great (see reference to gym membership above). Needless to say I was the one doing all of the eating, not the cooking, this year. Which consequently means I have but one gem of a recipe in my back pocket to show for this holiday season. But oh what a gem it is.

I revisited the Lee Brother's cookbook tonight to make their red rice recipe. Red rice is a childhood favorite of mine, and the Lee Bros. recipe did not disappoint. In fact, I had a mother moment. You know how people will often say that you can tell what a girl will look/act like when she's older by looking at her mother? Well, it happened to me. After taking my first bite of this red rice, I turned to my husband, chuckled and complimented myself on what a good cook I was! Granted my mother has reason to boast about her cooking; she's the best cook I know. But my goodness was this rice not amazing.
It will give any home cook major bragging rights.

Matt and Ted Lee are originally from Charleston, SC. And myself, born in Georgetown, SC, thought it only appropriate to feature "Stagger Lee" as the beat to this eat. It's one of my favorite beach music tunes and reminds me of summers on the Carolina coast.

Here's to  a most prosperous and healthy new year!

Julia






Lee Bros. Red Rice
Makes 5 Cups; enough for 4 people

3 oz. slab bacon or 2 slices thick-cut bacon cut into small dice
1 1/2 Cups diced yellow onion (about 1 large onion)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 Cups long-grain rice
2-2 1/2 Cups chicken broth
One 28 oz. can whole Italian tomatoes, drained
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp. Spanish smoked paprika
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper




1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

2. In a 12 inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat, fry the bacon until firm and barely crisp, about 4 min. Using a slotted spoon, transfer  to a sma

Happy Birthday to Me

This time tomorrow, I will officially be in my late 20’s. Therefore I bid farewell to my mid-twenties and hold my head up high with a healthy mix of enthusiasm and trepidation upon the anniversary of my birth. I love birthdays. It’s a day all about you! However, turning 27 proves to be a sign of my ever evolving maturity because I’m excited to be celebrating alongside my darling brother in-law who will graduate from college tomorrow! So I’m happy to say December 10, 2011, is all about me AND Taylor ; ) We’ll be in Michigan this weekend for the festivities.


And the new digital camera I got for my birthday will capture all of the happy faces this weekend and over the holidays!

I’m going to pull a birthday girl “get out of jail free” card right now as I don’t have a new recipe to post. BUT with all the traveling I’ve been doing over the past month, I was bound to come across a new favorite place to eat!

Feast your eyes and stomachs on Hendrickx in downtown Chicago. This brings me back to younger days growing up in Belgium. And who better to tell me about this place than one of my best friends, whom I met in Belgium when I was 7. She now lives in Chicago and knows a good Belgian bakery when she tastes one. You could get anything here, and I bet it will be amazing. But my personal favorite is the Belgian liege waffle. I saw a recipe for liege waffles in a recent issue of Food & Wine magazine, and I need to try it out soon!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/hendrickx-belgian-bread-crafter-chicago

My beat for today is one I’ve been listening to ALL week! I love Florence and the Machine's "Shake it Out". Brilliant.

One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since.

- Beverly Cleary

I love this quote. I love Beverly Cleary, and I love an occasional rainy day in the fall. It puts a slight chill in your bones as your body craves the warmth of a crackling fire and your mind relishes in the delight of reading a good book.

I chose a quote from Beverly Cleary because National Write a Novel in a Month as well as Blogher’s National Blog Posting Month take place in November. And Beverly Cleary, alongside Judy Blume, was one of my favorite authors growing up. Did anyone else adore Ramona Quimby as much as I did? “Beezus and Ramona” and “Ramona Quimby, Age 8” were two of my beloved books as a kid.

A more than eventful traveling schedule in November created too big a barrier for me to participate in either one of these writing exercises this month. Memphis, South Bend, Chicago and Kentwood, MI, will occupy my time over the next three weeks. And I knew the likelihood of writing a 50,000 word novel or posting to my blog every day for a month was doomed to fail. So, I’ve added this to my list of goals in 2012. If I were to write a novel, as terrible as it might turn out, what would my story line be? Who would be my main character? Kind of fun to think about.

But while I’m still at home, I continue to cook. And this time I’m letting the side dishes bask in the blog limelight. Here are two simple and tasty recipes for roasted honey sweet potatoes and squash casserole. Both dishes require very little time or talent to produce, and they’re both rich in flavor. The sweet potato recipe comes from Ellie Krieger. And the squash casserole is how my mom used to make it during the holidays when I was growing up. It’s cheesy, creamy goodness.

Honey roasted sweet potatoes and melted cheddar cheese over squash casserole need an equally sweet, soulful and charismatic voice. Enter Cee Lo Green’s “Fool for You”, featuring Melanie Fiona.



Enjoy!
Julia

Click here for Ellie's Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes recipe. 

Mama's Squash Casserole
Ingredients:
2 lbs squash, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 can of cream of chicken soup
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Recipe:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Combine chopped onion and squash into a bowl, and season with salt and pepper.
Steam squash and onion mixture for about 10 minutes.
Drain the mixture and transfer into baking dish.
Mix the cream of chicken soup in with the vegetables and bake for about 20 minutes, until bubbly
Top casserole with cheddar cheese and continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes.
Serve hot and enjoy!

Fall Put A Spell On Me

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."
- George Eliot

The fall season is finally upon us in Nashville, and it is bewitching. The bright leaves of red and orange, the bountiful pumpkin displays, the smell of apple cider lingering in the crisp autumn air, candy corn, and the excitement around Halloween costumes and Thanksgiving pies make me euphoric.  Even the opportunity to wear scarves and boots again tickles my fashionable fancy. This is my happy place.

This past weekend was the first in three weeks that I have been home. And I've never been more content to answer "absolutely nothing" when asked if I had any plans for the last two days. But I did know of one familiar place where I wanted to spend some time this weekend: my kitchen. I've had it in my head to make a pot roast for about a week. And Saturday presented the perfect opportunity to do so. Because this recipe called for a good 5 hours of my time, I needed a lazy weekend to enjoy the process from shopping for the ingredients to serving it on the plate. 

From our apartment, you can see a snippet of the downtown skyline. So I opened the door to our balcony, letting the brisk air fill the room, and began to prepare a traditional Yankee pot roast. About an hour into cooking, Nina Simone's "I Put a Spell on You" started to play on Pandora. And I thought
 this song was the perfect compliment to my dish.

A hearty meal that could leave you with a week's worth of leftovers is a great choice for the fall. The flavor is good. The level of difficulty in making this dish is easy. And the pot roast comes out wonderfully tender. You could serve it over brown rice, or we chose to simply eat it as is - soaking up any leftover broth with a crusty fresh loaf of bread.

Bon Appétit!

Julia

Traditional Yankee Pot Roast

Ingredients

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 (4-pound) boneless chuck roast, trimmed
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
2 cups coarsely chopped onion
2 cups low-salt beef broth
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 cup chopped plum tomato
1 1/4 pounds small red potatoes
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Preparation

* Preheat oven to 300°.
* Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sprinkle roast with salt and pepper. Add roast to pan, browning on all sides (about 8 minutes). Remove from pan. Add onion to pan; sauté 8 minutes or until browned. Return roast to pan. Combine broth, ketchup, and Worcestershire; pour over roast. Add tomato; bring to a simmer.
* Cover and bake at 300° for 2 1/2 hours or until tender. Add potatoes and carrots; cover and bake an additional 30 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in lemon juice. Garnish with parsley, if desired.

A Texas Sized Appetite

Quand l'appetit va, tout va.
- Obelix

 

 

Upon leaving rise, a quaint French restaurant in Dallas, the hostess hands you a small piece of paper with a unique quote printed on the inside. Written in French, my quote read: "When the appetite goes, everything goes." And here I am, writing this post 5 months after my last entry. It's funny how a seemingly insignificant piece of paper, a random luck of the draw, spoke straight to the core of me.

This past week, I had random encounters with three of my lifelong loves: French food, the French language, and friends (best friends). And so my appetite kicked in to reconnect with each. This past weekend marked the third annual girls' weekend. Each fall, my closest girl friends from college get together for a long weekend. And this year we traveled to my girlfriend's hometown of Dallas, TX. The Big D was awesome! I would also like to take this opportunity to thank her boyfriend who endured sharing one bathroom with 4 women as we paraded and primped in front of the mirror for hours before going out each night.

Girls' weekend is similar to the holidays for me. You're surrounded by people you love; there's always a lot of commotion, and I indefinitely gain a few lbs from the amount of food and alcohol I consume. And so the word appetite takes on a more literal tone as it relates to how much I managed to eat and drink in one weekend. And it was all worth it. But you better believe it's gonna be soup and salads for the remainder of the week.

Of all the wonderful restaurants we sampled this past weekend in Tejas, my favorite was rise. Hedda Gioia Dowd, a Memphis native (my home girl!), is co-owner and creative genius behind this charming salon de souffle. Known for their souffles, rise specializes in both the savory and sweet versions of this classic French food. I had the ever so scrumptious raspberry souffle. French music softly plays in the background. Fresh coffee is served in a French Press. All the dishware is unique pieces of pottery. And your water for the table is contained in recycled wine bottles - great idea for the home might I add. It just doesn't get cuter than this place.

Of course rise has a cookbook (Rise to the Occasion). And, of course, I had to have it. I feel the need to make a souffle of my very own in the near future! My copy was signed by the Chef and co-owner, Cherif Brahmi. He writes: "Le bonheur est dans la cuisine..." Happiness is in the kitchen. Well said monsieur.

Keeping in theme with all things French, I had to choose a song from Edith Piaf. I love her. And if you ever have any interest in learning more about this cultural icon, I highly recommend the film "La Vie en Rose" with Marion Cotillard. Excellent. Quite a depressing life Edith lived. But it's an amazing one at that. 



Julia