Cauliflower Poppers

For some unexplainable reason I have always like cauliflower.  However, no one else even in my extended family even remotely agrees with this like.  But I saw on Pinterest a pin for Cauliflower Poppers and it looked like they were dipping them in ketchup, so I thought that this might be a sneaky way to get Charlotte to eat her veggies.

Delighted Momma's recipe (which I followed) calls for 1 teaspoon pepper and two heads of cauliflower.  I ended up only making them with one head of cauliflower but didn't think to cut the pepper.  This resulted in very spicy poppers.  Charlotte tried one but said they were too spicy and I didn't blame her, they were almost too spicy for me!  But aside from the spice they tasted great!  I'll definitely be making these as a more common side dish in our family but will probably limit the pepper by quite a bit.

Raw cauliflower that's been coated with olive oil, salt, and pepper

Baked Cauliflower Poppers

James' First Birthday Dinner Menu

I often have a hard time coming up with complete menu's.  So I thought I'd share our menu for James' birthday dinner.  We had around 20 family members and ended up with just enough food.  Next time I'll make more because I would much rather have too much than not enough!

James' First Birthday Dinner

Two recipes of Crock Pot Barbecue

(with buns -- both slider size and regular size)
(I accidentally got beef instead of pork but Jason claimed that it tasted fine.  I would make sure that you get close to 5 lb roasts if possible, because mine were closer to 4 and we didn't have quite enough.)

Large bowl of cut fruit

One recipe of Broccoli Salad

One recipe of Mrs. Kelly's Baked Beans

One recipe of Corn Casserole

(So, so, so good! Should have had at least two recipes of this!)

One recipe of Slim Potato Casserole

(this was a little bland but at the same time too peppery -- it could have used a lot more cheese!)

One recipe of Arkansas Green Beans

(Jason said that these were the best green beans that he's ever had.  I would have to agree.  They were out of this world!)

Strawberry Birthday Cake

Fried Okra and Fried Green Tomatoes

We have been loving our Grow Alabama boxes this summer. It has provided us with very fresh, varied produce that is all organically grown in Alabama and the surrounding states. A few weeks ago we got some green tomatoes and one of Jason's co-workers brought some fresh okra into work to share so we took the challenge and fried up our first ever batch of fried okra and fried green tomatoes! I went to my trusted recipe source of Tasty Kitchen and found two recipes and went with them.

The okra was pretty good. We should have added a little more spice into the breading because we added salt and pepper afterwards but we were scared to go too spicy with our first batch. In the future we'll know. This was a traditional southern recipe and it did taste like the fried okra that you get at the local country restaurants.

The fried green tomatoes were really good. This recipe is NOT the traditional southern recipe. The parmesan cheese gave it a different kick that was really good once you realized you shouldn't expect the typical tomato fare.

Overall, both great recipes that we will try again. It might be next summer before I have the desire to make that mess again, but we will try it again eventually!

Southern Fried Okra
Serves 2
1 lb fresh okra pods
2 whole eggs, beaten
1/4 c Buttermilk
1 c All-purpose flour
1 c Cornmeal
2 t Baking Powder
1 t Salt
1 dash Black Pepper
3 c Oil for frying
1. Wash and slice okra; pat dry with paper towels.
2. Combine eggs and buttermilk; add okra, and let stand for 10 minutes.
3. Combine flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and pepper.
4. Drain okra, small portions at a time, using a slotted spoon.
5. Dredge okra in flour mixture.
6. Pour oil to depth of 2-4 inches in a Dutch oven or fryer and heat to 375 degrees F.
7. Fry okra until golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.
Panko-Parmesan Crusted Fried Green Tomatoes
Serves 6

2 whole green tomatoes
1 cup Buttermilk
1/2 c All-purpose flour
1/3 c Panko Bread Crumbs
1/3 c Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs
5 T shredded Parmesan Cheese
1 t Kosher Salt
1/2 t Ground Pepper

1. Slice the tomatoes into about 1/2 inch thick slices. Place in a bowl and cover with buttermilk while you combine the other ingredients.
2. Place flour in a shallow container and season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Combine panko bread crumbs, Italian bread crumbs, and parmesan in a shallow container. Season well and also season with salt and pepper.
4. Bring about 1 inch of oil up to 350-375 degrees F in a cast iron skillet or dutch oven.
5. Dredge the buttermilk-soaked tomato slices through the flour, back into the buttermilk, then into the bread crumb mixture. Fry until golden brown, turning once and being careful not to knock off the breading.

Charlotte's Corn

I've been working hard to deplete my canned food stores in my pantry since a family of 10 could probably live a year on the cans that I have in there! I'm the worst about planning a week of meals, buying what I need, and then not completing the whole week of meals and having items left over and just making a whole new list of meals for the next week. So, when I checked we had like 8 cans of corn in the pantry so I went looking for a corn recipe. I love the Cotton Country Baked Corn with Sour Cream (it's my favorite corn dish of all time!) but it takes a little while and I was looking to try something different. While I was on my search I found a recipe that I knew I had to try... Charlotte's Corn! It is a local Delta Zeta alumnae chapter cookbook and so I modified the original recipe by using canned corn instead of frozen but kept the amount the same. No pictures (I'm a slacker, sorry!) but it was pretty good.


Charlotte's Corn
3 boxes of frozen corn
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 pint Whipping Cream
1 tablespoon flour
Mix whipping cream and flour with melted butter. Add corn. Pour into casserole dish and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Stir once half way through baking.
Variations that were given included substituting creamed corn for some of the corn so I did use a can of creamed corn in mine.

Summer Squash Casserole

Until last week I had never made a vegetable casserole. But with Grow Alabama providing us with veggies like squash and cucumbers pretty much weekly I had to come up with something new to use the veggies in. So I went to my trusty Arab Mother's Club cookbook that Jason's grandmother gave us when we got married and found a Summer Squash Casserole that turned out to be divine. Even Charlotte loved it which I guess means that she's like her mother in that if you put mayo and cheese on it she'll eat just about anything! So this will now be my go-to recipe for Squash when we're tired of onion squash. I hope you enjoy it also!
Summer Squash Casserole
Yields: 6 servings

2 lbs summer squash, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup grated Cheddar Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
3/4 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix

Boil squash and onion in water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and mix with mayonnaise, cheese, salt, and pepper. Turn into buttered 1 1/2 quart casserole and sprinkle with stuffing mix. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Pork with Veggies

Since we started participating with Grow Alabama in January we have been eating a lot more vegetables because we are getting them weekly. The past two weeks we have gotten squash and root vegetables and so I decided to come up with a recipe to use them. This recipe is my creation....it was very good and very, very simple. The beautiful thing is that if you don't like the seasonings that I used you can vary them to suit your tastes. This would also be a great recipe with chicken instead of pork or if you wanted to eliminate the meat and just cook this as a side it would be wonderful. I will list the recipe as I made it but feel free to substitute out veggies for ones that you like. Although, I will say, turnips are the forgotten vegetable! They taste very similar to potatoes and are very good!
Pork with Veggies
One container thin sliced pork chops (mine had 5 small chops in it)
5-6 Small to medium sized Squash
2 large Turnips
6-8 medium sized carrots
Olive Oil
One small box of chicken broth
Onion Seasoning Packet
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Powder
1. Trim fat from pork and lay on the bottom of the slow cooker. Season meat with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder (lightly coat tops of meat).
2. Cut vegetables into bite sized pieces (peel turnips and carrots first if fresh). Throw veggies in plastic bag as you are cutting them.
3. Mix 1/2 cup olive oil with packet of onion seasoning.
4. Pour onion mix over vegetables and move around in plastic bag to coat all of them evenly.
5. Pour veggies over meat in slow cooker.
6. Add chicken broth until meat and veggies are covered.
7. Cook on high for 3 hours (or low for approximately 6 hours).