Sufferin' Succotash - Fresh and Delicious

When our youngest son was about 5 years old, I made lima beans for dinner.  He sort of came unglued and asked why we were having June bugs for dinner.  He was NOT interested in eating them for any reason.  I had to explain they were not June bugs, but lima beans and he was fine with that.  Quite relieved, actually.

We are from Indiana, and what we call June bugs are green beetle type bugs that appear in the summer.  We tied thread to them and you could fly them around for entertainment.  They were shaped like a lima bean and sort of the same color.  Hence, Tyler's consternation with what we were having for dinner.

You may or may not like lima beans.  I have always liked them.  Growing up, we ate what my mother put on the table, or we went hungry.   There were a few things I didn't like, so I didn't eat them.  After becoming an adult, I discovered that is was more the way the item was prepared than the item itself.  Squash was in that category.  My mom boiled it and it looked like scrambled eggs in the bowl.  I love it now, because I fix it a different way than my mother did.

We were at the farmer's market on Saturday, and one of the vendors had fresh lima beans - already shelled!  Yes!  I had already purchased lots of other fresh vegetables - corn, green beans, cucumbers, tomatoes - and I wanted a new and interesting way to fix the lima beans.  I found this recipe on Epicurious for succotash made in a slightly different way than what we had growing up.  Our succotash was corn and lima beans, nothing outstanding.  This recipe is REALLY good.  Here is what you need:

2 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
salt
1 large garlic clove, minced
3 cups chopped fresh tomatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs)
2 1/4 cups corn kernels cut from 4-5 ears of fresh corn
2 cups fresh lima beans or 10-12 ounce box frozen lima beans
3 TBSP thinly sliced fresh basil

I added some freshly grated parmesan cheese.  YUM!

First, heat the oil in a large skilled over medium heat.  Add the chopped onion and sprinkle with salt.  Saute' until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the minced garlic, stir until fragrant - about 1 minute.  Add the tomatoes, corn, and lima beans.  *This recipe called for no liquid, but I added enough to cover the bottom of the pan about 1/2 way up the vegetables.  The other vegetables didn't produce enough liquid to cook the beans.*  Reduce the heat to medium low, cover, simmer until the lima beans are tender, about 20 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the sliced basil.

I added some freshly grated parmesan cheese to each serving.  This is DELICIOUS!  There are so many layers of flavor rather than just boiled corn and lima beans.  Food is so much more interesting than when we were growing up.  Gotta love it!

You might want to give this a try for different and wonderful summer fare.  I think you could add some browned sausage or ground beef and you would have a fabulous one dish meal!  We all loved this recipe.  Hope you give it a try.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Succotash is a very southern staple, but originated with Native Americans.  Just a little FYI.  donna

Chile and Cheese Rice - Delicious!

Mmmmm, cheese, rice, green chile's, fresh corn, sour cream, I mean what's not to like?  This is chile and cheese rice which is so delicious I can't even begin to tell you.  My family also loved it so that is confirmation that this is one good recipe.

Rice is one of the most adaptable and creative ingredients you can put on  your table.  I can't even begin to imagine how many hundreds or even thousands of recipes there are that use rice.  You can eat rice for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.  It makes great desserts and can be a tasty snack.  Most kids love rice too which is a BIG bonus.  Therefore, rice is surely one of the most universally accepted grains on the face of the planet.

I just had to know, so I looked up how much rice is grown world wide.  Care to take a guess?  In 2009 there were 678 million tons of rice grown in the world.  Now that's a lot of rice.

You know I'm a big fan of the Food Network.  Watching chefs and cooks on the network have given me so much confidence in my cooking ability and has allowed be to branch out and be creative in the things I make.  This recipe inspiration came from a show on Food Network called Mexican Made Easy.  When I watch Marcella Valladolid whip up her amazing recipes, I want to rush to the kitchen and try every one of them.  Why?  Because Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine are my favorite and her recipes are fantastic.  I like other ethnic foods, but if I had to choose it would always be Mexican.

Don't you get tired of making the same old tacos and rice over and over?  Well, here's a new recipe for you to try and I can say with much confidence that you will really, really love it.  Here is what you need.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 large white onion, minced
1 cup long grain white rice
2 cups water
2 ears fresh corn kernels removed from the cob (or 2 cups frozen corn)
1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
1/4 cup sour cream or crema
1/2 cup Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
2 poblano peppers charred, peeled and chopped*
*I used one can chopped green chiles, works just great if you don't want to go to all the trouble of charring peppers.

Heat oil in medium sized skillet.  Add onion and saute until translucent - about 5 minutes.  Add rice and cook until opaque (stir so it doesn't burn) - about 10 minutes.  Stir in water and corn.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low.  Cover.  Simmer until rice is tender - about 15 minutes.

Preheat broiler.  Fluff rice with fork, stir in chiles.  Transfer to 7x10 baking dish.  Drizzle with sour cream (or crema), sprinkle cheese on top.  Broil until brown in spots and cheese has melted - about 5-8 minutes.

Serve.  Yum.  All I have to say.

Next time you are looking for a different way to serve rice with taco or enchilada night, give this recipe a try.  It is absolutely outstanding.  Makes me want to whip up a batch right now.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

“Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook”

Chinese Proverbs quotes

Comfort Food

It's Sunday evening, you've had a long week and you are hungry, but you don't want to cook a huge meal.  You want comfort food, something that makes you feel good and doesn't take all evening to prepare.  What do I turn to?  Potato soup - my ultimate comfort food.  The soup mom always fixed for us when we were not feeling well.  She made hers quite a bit differently, but I always loved it.   I fix it when I'm tired and want an easy meal that's quick and tastes wonderful.  It's got potatoes, cheese and bacon.  What can I say?

Now I have to confess, I have never met a potato I didn't like.  Guess you could call me an addict.  I could eat potatoes every meal.  This soup is easy to prepare and tastes so good.  I actually took this soup up a notch by turning it into a corn and potato chowder.  Even better.  Here is what you do.

Ingredients:

8 cups diced potatoes, peeled

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

4 Tbsp. butter

1 box chicken stock (4 cups)

3 ears corn, scrape kernels from cob

1/2 cup sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:

2 Tbsp chopped fresh dill

1/2 pound bacon, fried extra crisp

grated cheddar cheese

To make soup, peel and dice potatoes until you have 8 cups.  Chop 1 large onion.

Take 5 qt dutch oven or large pan that you can cover, add 4 TBSP butter, melt over low heat.

Add chopped onions and minced garlic, sweat onions until softened, stirring so garlic does not burn.  Add potatoes and chicken stock.  If stock does not cover potatoes, add enough water to cover.  Place lid on pan and cook until potatoes are soft.  About 20 minutes.  While potatoes are cooking, cut corn from the cob.

Potatoes will take about 20 minutes or so to soften.  Just as they are fork tender, add corn.   Corn cooks quickly in the hot soup.  Add salt and pepper at this point.  Potatoes absorb a lot of salt.  It is better to add salt toward the end of cook time so as not to over salt.  Add fresh cracked pepper.  Let cook about 8-10 minutes and add 1/2 cup sour cream.  Stir to blend, turn off heat, add the chopped dill and replace lid.   Let sit a few minutes to allow the flavors to blend.    The starch from the corn will thicken the soup.  

While the soup is cooking, fry bacon extra crisp.  Drain on paper towels, crumble in a bowl.  Place grated cheddar cheese in bowl.   Serve the potato corn soup in individual bowls, allowing everyone to add as much bacon and cheese as they like.

You may want to serve a sandwich or salad with the soup.  We like to eat just the soup!  This is so good and it is not like wall paper paste which is something I do not like about the potato soup served in most restaurants.  There are actually potatoes in the soup which is another plus.  And, you can control the amount of cheese.  It melts quickly into the hot soup.  Many restaurant potato soups are too cheesy for my liking.  

For me, this is a quick and easy meal that is so comforting, filling, and super delicious.  Give it a try.  You are going to like it I know!  It is the ultimate comfort food.

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

The quieter you become, the more you can hear. – Baba Ram Dass