Category: Side

A dish that isn’t quite up to standing on it’s own. Still good, though.

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Spanakopita

Are you looking for a good go-to recipe for a potluck? Something that’s easy to make up, but seems a bit special? Why not consider spanakopita? It’s really easy to make, especially since you don’t make the phyllo dough, travels well, and tastes good even when it’s just lukewarm. It’s surprising that potluck dinners don’t end up with a dozen batches of spanakopita. Not a bad thing to happen, mind you.

We modified a recipe from the Southern Living Cookbook for Two, by Audrey P. Stehle, primarily to make it a better size for a potluck dinner. Try it for your next potluck and see if it doesn’t get rave reviews. And, sorry about the photos; we were in a rush to get to an actual potluck. Continue reading “Spanakopita”

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Fennel Gratin

fennel gratin

When we first joined the CSA about six years ago — while we knew it was the right thing — we were sometimes daunted by the produce. As we found out, you get a lot of produce that you might not buy at the store, or that we weren’t buying, at any rate. One such example is fennel. Sure, we’d seen it at the store, but we didn’t know what to do with it, so why buy it? With the CSA, you get fennel sometimes. Sure you can trade, but we toughed it out and figured, hey, people eat this, let’s learn how. At first we’d use it along with a bunch of roasted vegetables, or maybe dice finely into a tomato sauce to give it a fennelly flavor, but it never got to the point of actually looking forward to fennel. Continue reading “Fennel Gratin”

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Best-Ever Biscuits

freshly made biscuits

Some people say that making good buttermilk biscuits is an art, and so they pick up those poppin’ cans of “dough,” and think that those are good biscuits. While it’s not necessarily an art to make light flaky biscuits, there are a few things you must keep in mind when you’re making the dough. First, work the dough quickly, gently, and knead it only a few times. Second, when you work in the butter, it must be cold (freeze for 15 minutes, if you want), and don’t try to get the butter mixed in uniformly. With these two things in mind, let’s bake! Continue reading “Best-Ever Biscuits”

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Scratched Hummus

hummus

You and I both know people who buy hummus. And while that may work for a quick little snack (it’s difficult to make just a small batch of hummus), when you’re going to need enough for a few dozen people you’ll want to scratch it up yourself. Fortunately, it’s easy. Continue reading “Scratched Hummus”

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Slow-Cooked Greens

During the winter months, we get quite a lot of greens: turnip greens, mustard greens, collard greens, you name it, if it’s green we’ll get it. And, for a long time, basically, we just sautéed or steamed them as a side, which used up the greens but didn’t really make them stand out. Sure, they were nutritious, but not necessarily delicious. Okay, yes, but delicious, no. In particular, collard greens seemed to stand out as one that was just (barely) okay. In fact, we kind of dreaded getting a bunch of collards in our weekly share. As it turns out, we just didn’t know how to cook them.

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Black Beans

While we provide this recipe for black beans, it works for any kind of dried beans. And served up with rice, these black beans will make a really great main or a nice side. Today, it seems as though most people prefer to buy canned beans, and we do buy them occasionally, but for the most part, we make them from scratch. Why? They really do taste better. They are less mushy. And it is significantly cheaper to scratch out a pot of beans. Besides, it really isn’t difficult. Sure, it takes some time, but very little of that time is yours, mostly the beans are simmering.

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Potatoes Gratin

This recipe will make you into the rock star of the kitchen. It is that good; we think it’s the best Potatoes Gratin recipe on the planet. Most people think they need to add cheese to make a gratin dish; this recipe shows them that they are wrong, way wrong. The cream with the slight bay flavor pairs just perfectly with the potatoes, and the thyme is just enough to add that little something. We really wish that we could give credit where credit is due, but, unfortunately, we’ve forgotten where we found this recipe.

Dec 5: This recipe came from In the Green Kitchen by Alice Waters.

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