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March 2009 Archive

March 31, 2009

Kiss My Grits

Last week I made mention of my love of southern food. Before living in the Washington, DC area (I was raised in the “north”) and meeting my husband, I had never tried grits. The first time I tried them, they were plain and unseasoned, and I declared, “they taste like wallpaper paste.”

Here is my formal apology to grits: I am sorry I so rashly and harshly judged you and your flavor. Please forgive me. [more]

March 30, 2009

Texas Style Coleslaw

I received an email from my friend Jenn with the wonderful coleslaw recipe that we had tasted in Houston during our visit a couple weeks ago. I was thrilled to receive the recipe, but started to read the ingredient which included 3/4 cup of oil and gobs of sugar.

I seldom alter a recipe the first time I try it, but since I had experience with altering a similar dressing recipe for my mom’s 3 Bean Salad, I made a few healthful changes that, as far as I could remember, didn’t seem to affect the taste. [more]

March 27, 2009

Emergency Response

So you’re cooking dinner, hoping to get a good meal to the table for you or your family and you realize you don’t have one of the ingredients.

What’s a cook to do?

Well, you can certainly call a friendly neighbor and hope they have what you need…but here is a quick last-minute substitution list of ingredients…

Need? 1 tablespoon fresh herbs
Use…1 teaspoon dried herbs

Need? 1 cup buttermilk
Use…1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice or white vinegar and enough milk to make 1 full cup, let sit for 10 minutes before using. [more]

March 26, 2009

Banana Pudding Breakfast

I love southern food. Even more, I love re-creating southern foods with a healthy twist, since many of the best southern foods taste amazing, but aren’t the healthiest things to eat.

I was inspired by Stonyfield’s Banilla Yogurt (banana-vanilla flavored yogurt) to try and create a healthy breakfast that would taste similar to banana pudding. [more]

March 25, 2009

It's the Little Things

When eating a meal, you may often praise yourself for including things like blueberries, red bell pepper, sweet potato or any of the other well-known healthy foods. But would you stop to pat yourself on the back for adding cinnamon? Or garlic? [more]

March 24, 2009

Good, Cheap Eats

A week ago we had our traditional (and I am guessing, many, many others too) St. Patrick Day’s meal of Corned Beef and Cabbage. I used my slow cooker this year to cook the corned beef and couldn’t have been happier with the results. [more]

March 23, 2009

Food Processor Love

If I had to choose my favorite piece of kitchen equipment, it wouldn’t be anything fancy, just my workhorse food processor. I used it here and there before children, but with the beginning of making my own baby food when R was an infant, I have sung its praises continuously. We use it for hummus, dough, salsa, soups and for lack of a better culinary term, hiding things. [more]

March 20, 2009

Making Local Foods Easier to Spot

We’re huge advocates of “eating local” in the Sweet Pea family. Our milk (which I promise you, tastes way better than mass-produced regular milk) comes from Snowville Creamery, a local dairy farm that produces some of the best tasting milk I have ever had. We love our local farmers’ markets and visit them weekly during the growing season. One of the first places we take out-of-town visitors is the local North Market, which features butchers, farmers and food producers from central Ohio. [more]

March 19, 2009

Cuban Quesadillas

One of my go-to quick-fix meal standbys for our family are quesadillas. I we do our fair share of traditional bean and cheese quesadillas, but I also like to think outside the box. Like the recipe I share a couple months ago, this quesadilla recipe is one of our favorites, and perhaps the most quick to prepare.

Got 5-10 minutes? You can make this recipe. [more]

March 18, 2009

One Week, Two Milestones

We’ve hit two milestones in one week, both of which have thrilled me to the core, yet quite different.

The first may not mean that much to you (especially you southerners), but Monday we fired up the grill. Not a “try-and-use-it-quick-because-we’re-desperate-for-something-grilled” grill that we’ve been known to do in a slightly-mild winter weather; but a real grill, a grill when the boys play in our backyard and I cherish being out of the kitchen and cooking under the sky. [more]

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