Recipes – Page 4 – Fervent Foodie

5 Healthified Southern Dishes plus HAM!

January 1, 2015 1 Comment

Last month, I spent a good bit of time working on five healthified southern recipes for Our State Magazine’s online food blog. For me, recipe development starts with research. I look at recipes online, brainstorm, bookmark, flip through cookbooks, and talk to my foodie friends, all the while scribbling down notes and ideas. Then comes the testing. I lay out the ingredients and get to work, jotting down notes (usually on the back of some random envelope from the recycle bin) as I go, tasting and adjusting continuously.

Obviously, one of the perks of developing recipes is eating the wares. Well, after you’ve snapped approximately 3,000 photos of each dish, that is. Normally, I incorporate whatever recipe I’m working on into my weekly meal plan. No sense in wasting food! But, at the time of this healthy southern recipes project, I also happened to have a a whole ham to cook for the North Carolina Pork Council.

Want to throw a successful holiday party? Just add ham.

Recipes

Barbecue Pulled Pork Tacos {recipe}

October 31, 2014 1 Comment

Ladies and gentlemen. I gots the fever.

Barbecue pulled pork.

Can’t stop.

Won’t stop.

I blame it on Midwood Smokehouse, my favorite barbecue spot in town, which I frequent at LEAST once a week. I bounce back and forth between the pork cuban (authentic Cuban bread, hickory smoked pork, thinly sliced ham, Swiss cheese, and dill pickles… I die!) and the pork and brisket tacos. And when I’m lucky enough to have some meat leftover, I make barbecue pulled pork omelets the next morning.

Recipes

Crazy Easy Crustless Quiche with Arugula Salad {as seen on WBTV}

October 14, 2014 6 Comments

Now that fall is finally here, it’s time to bust out some comforting cool-weather breakfast recipes. I’m a self-declared morning person, but when I wake up with a grumbling tummy, the less hands-on time required of a breakfast recipe, the better. That’s why I love baking eggs in the oven. Call it a casserole or a crustless quiche (or a frittata if you start the cooking process on the stove top). The method is simple: eggs are whisked with a little milk (or half-and-half or cream, whatever you have on hand) and then combined with one to two cups of the fillings of your choice—sausage, leftover veggies, cheese, whatever sounds good–and baked for 30 minutes. Breakfast done.

To take the dish up a notch, top it with a simple arugula salad tossed with an olive oil and lemon dressing. Not only does the arugula salad add extra veggies, but the tartness offers a nice contrast the richness of the eggs. Plus, look how fancy!

Recipes

Chinese Baby Back Ribs {recipe}

October 5, 2014 No Comments

When I think of ribs, I think of my dad. My dear ole dad. Grilling has always been HIS THING. Even if it meant standing in the driveway with a golf umbrella during a tornado warning with occasional hail (yeah, that happened). Even in the middle of those brutally long Ohio winters when temperatures dropped so low the inside of your nose would most literally freeze. Even after that one time he got a little carried away with the lighter fluid and singed off half his beard, even then, dad was out there grilling.

When dad makes ribs, he slathers them in barbecue sauce, tucks them tightly in foil packets, throws them on his Texas-style offset smoker, and lets them hang out for HOURS . It’s a simple, straightforward technique, but it’s pretty much impossible to replicate this sort of perfection in a tiny apartment kitchen with nary a smoker to be found. Remember that first time I made mussels and they were an embarrassing abomination? Well, true to form, my first attempt at making ribs was a complete and utter failure. When I lifted the crockpot lid after ten hours of slow cooking, I found the meat had shriveled so much I could see more bone than brown. I was irrationally optimistic as I pulled a bit of meat off with a fork and sampled the day’s wares. It was, undoubtedly, the dryest meat I’ve ever laid tongue on. Ten hours in the crockpot and a little liquid smoke seemed too good to be true. This just in: it was.

Recipes

French Silk Pie with Lemon Fennel Cracker Crust {IFBC 2014}

September 29, 2014 1 Comment

Last week, at the International Food Bloggers Conference in Seattle, hundreds of food bloggers from around the globe (yes, it really does have international reach) gathered in Seattle to talk blog. There were sessions on the creative aspects of blogging (story writing, recipe development, and wine pairing) and the technical aspects (like Google+ and SEO—that’s search engine optimization, totally nerdy, totally cool), plus plenty of opportunities to network with other bloggers and with national brands. I was one of the lucky few who sat down with Lesley Stowe, creator of Raincoast Crips, to talk about her career path and how her Raincoast Crisps, which started as a minute part of her business, grew to become her company’s main (incredibly delicious) product.

At the IFBC, Lesley announced their newest product, the Lesley Stowe Raincoast Flats, which come in two varieties: Lemon & Fennel and Kale & Walnut. Both the Raincoast Crisps and the Raincoast Flats are no-brainers for cheese plates and dips (check out my Cheese Plate 101 post for cheespiration), but the lemon-fennel combination immediately had me craving chocolate. I don’t know why. I’ve learned not to questions these sorts of things.

Earlier in the summer, I made Food 52’s (now infamous) Atlantic Beach Pie, which uses a combination of crushed saltine crackers, sugar, and butter as a crust. I used this same technique here with the Raincoast Lemon Fennel Flats, which resulted in a crispy, flavorful crust, the perfect base for the light and silky chocolate topping.

{beautiful turquoise platter by jmnpottery}

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