Vegetables

delicious smashed potatoes.

July 18, 2020 by Becky Spoon

These smashed potatoes taste just like the best loaded baked potato. They are absolutely delicious! Butter, sour cream, bacon, green onions and Monterrey Jack cheese make these the best. I saw Ree Drummond make them on her show and had to try them! Glad I did! I’ve actually made these many times and seeing Ree make them just reminded me to do so!

I made Chicken Fried Pork Cube Steaks the other day and I made these potatoes as a side dish. They were perfect! And, the cream gravy I served alongside was to die for! Here’s the link for the Chicken Fried Pork Cube Steaks: https://the2spoons.com/the-best-chicken-fried-pork-steak-with-cream-gravy/

You have to make those! They are delicious!

delicious smashed potatoes.

I used red potatoes. They weren’t the really small ones, they were medium size. You leave the skin on and boil them whole in a large pot of water until they are fork tender. Then you add all the other ingredients and just like they say you smash them with a potato masher and add the other ingredients. Did I mention how easy they are? They are so easy.

You can also make these in the Instant Pot, even faster. Pierce the potatoes, add a cup of water and secure the lid. Set for 12 minutes, and allow the pressure to release on it’s on. Voila! All done! Here’s the Instant Pot I have: https://amzn.to/2ZBWW3e

delicious smashed potatoes.

Here’s the recipe! Enjoy!

Smashed potatoes

Print Recipe

Servings: 4 servings

Course: easy side dish, easy side dish, vegetable

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

6-7 medium red potatoes, whole and skin on
1 stick butter, softened
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup heavy cream
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 green onions, thinly sliced
3/4 cup Monterey Jack or Cheddar Cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Method

Put the potatoes in a pan and cover with cold water. Place over medium heat and bring to the boil. Simmer until fork-tender, 20 to 25 minutes, then drain.
If in the instant pot, pierce the potatoes and add along with a cup of water to the Instant Pot. Secure the lid and set on 12 minutes. After the time is up allow the pressure to release naturally.
Smash the potatoes with a potato smasher for a minute or so to break them down a little. Add the butter, sour cream and heavy cream, then mix thoroughly. Stir in the bacon, green onions and grated cheese. Season to taste. Serve hot, topped with some extra green onions for garnish.

best okra and fresh summer tomatoes.

July 18, 2020 by Becky Spoon

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This okra and fresh summer tomatoes is the best. Do ya’ll like okra & tomatoes? I love it! Canned tomatoes are most used but I had fresh summer tomatoes I needed to use and they worked so well. I didn’t peel them, just diced them and tossed them in and cooked them until broken up and a sauce formed.

Okra, bacon, onions, jalapeno, garlic, tomatoes are some of the ingredients. How can you go wrong? Some don’t like okra because of the slime. I’m one of those folks. To get rid of the slime in this recipe, I fry the okra first. Yes. I fry the okra until a little crisp. I then remove it from the pan and set aside. Then I make the stewed tomatoes, adding the okra back in at the every end.

best okra and fresh summer tomatoes.

I cooked this in a cast iron skillet. I love my cast iron skillets. If you don’t have one already, they are well worth the purchase! Here’s a link: https://amzn.to/3fzVAvk

Want another recipe with okra? https://the2spoons.com/shrimp-okra-andouille-smoked-sausage-gumbo/

Shrimp, Okra and Andouille Smoked Sausage Gumbo

This is a delicious dish using okra! And, southern fried okra is always in our home during okra season: https://the2spoons.com/southern-fried-okra-with-creamy-buttermilk-dip/

Here’s the new recipe! Enjoy!

Okra and Fresh Summer Tomatoes

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Servings: 4 servings

Course: easy side dish, easy side dish, vegetable

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups trimmed fresh okra cut into 1 inch pieces
4 slices bacon, shopped
1 tbsp reserved bacon fat
1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 jalapeno stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3-4 cups diced fresh tomatoes
pinch of sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
red pepper flakes (optional)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock

Method

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
Add the okra and sauté for 5 to 8 minutes until the okra starts to slightly brown and most of the 'slime' has disappeared. Set aside.
In a medium skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Remove and set aside. Remove all but a tablespoon or so of the bacon fat. Add the onion, jalapeno, and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, a pinch of sugar, salt, pepper, bay leaves, red pepper flakes, and vinegar.
Cook for 10 minutes, until the tomatoes start to break down and start forming something like a paste.
Add the stock and simmer for 15 minutes longer over low heat.
Stir the okra into the tomato sauce, raise the heat to medium, and simmer for another 10 minutes.
Taste, and adjust seasonings, as needed. Remove bay leaves and serve at once.
Add the crumbled bacon to the top.

easy cheesy scalloped potatoes

March 8, 2020 by Becky Spoon

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These cheesy scalloped potatoes were the perfect side dish for my Harissa Chicken. I wanted a side dish that could soak up with the juices from the chicken and wow, the potatoes were the perfect side dish. They are so tender and have amazing flavors from garlic, thyme and of course the cheese!

easy cheesy scalloped potatoes

I love scalloped potatoes. My mother would make them growing up and all she did was layer potatoes with onions, added lots of butter and salt and pepper, then poured whole milk over them to cover. She would bake them until they were golden on top and the potatoes were fork tender.

I used Yukon gold for this recipe. I love the Yukon gold potato. They have such a creamy texture and so buttery making them perfect for sopping up the chicken juices.

I used just a regular Parmesan cheese in this recipe. I like to use parmigiana-reggiano most times, but for this recipe it is not necessary. I purchased shredded or grated Parmesan that comes in a container. Here’s a link for what I used: https://amzn.to/2TAnNK5. You can find the grated or shredded in your local store.

Here’s the link for the Harissa Chicken: https://the2spoons.com/so-good-simple-harissa-chicken/

Here’s the recipe for these delicious potatoes! Enjoy!!

Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes

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Servings: 6 servings

Course: easy side dish, Side Dish, Vegetable

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

3 tbsp butter
1 small onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup milk, half and half or heavy cream
1 1/1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, divided
4 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, sliced into 1/8 inch rounds
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish.
Melt butter in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté for 4-5 minutes until soft and translucent. Add garlic and sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Stir in the flour until it is evenly combined, and cook for 1 more minute. Gradually pour in the stock, and whisk until combined. Add in the milk, salt, pepper, and 1 teaspoon thyme, and whisk until combined. Continue cooking for an additional 1-2 minutes until the sauce just barely begins to simmer around the edges of the pan and thickens. Then remove from heat and set aside.
Spread half of the sliced potatoes in an even layer on the bottom of the pan. Top evenly with half of the cream sauce. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup of the shredded Parmesan cheese. Top evenly with the remaining sliced potatoes, the other half of the cream sauce, and the remaining 1/c cup of cheddar cheese.
Cover the pan with a lid or foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.
When the potatoes are tender and if you want the dish a little more brown on top, turn the broiler on, watching at all times and brown just a little. Sprinkle with fresh thyme. Enjoy!

Best Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes

October 29, 2019 by Becky Spoon

I made these Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes as a side dish for my Beer Can Cornish Hen because I though how good they’d bee to sop up all those yummy juices from the sauce on the hens and I was right. The hens had a beautiful spice rub that made an even more beautiful sauce and the gruyere cheese I used in this dish just all went together so well. Here’s the link for my Beer Can Cornish Hen that you have to try! https://the2spoons.com/so-yummy-simple-beer-can-cornish-hen/.

I used gruyere which alway works well because it melts beautifully. You can use cheddar or another good melting cheese of your choice. These are really simple. I cook my potatoes first to the point of “almost done”. I drain them and add them to some sautéed onions, Then I butter a baking dish and stack the potatoes a few at a time. When all the potatoes are in the dish, I pour the sauce over and add just a little more cheese to the top. I then bake them until browned and bubbly.

Best Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes

What’s the difference between Scalloped Potatoes and Au Gratin Potatoes? Here’s a little explanation for you: “Au gratin, by definition, means “covered with breadcrumbs or cheese and then baked until brown,” while scalloped potatoes refers to tubers that have been baked in a creamy sauce and covered with seasoned bread or cracker crumbs. The big difference between the two, then, is the cheese component.” Here’s the link for this reference: http://www.leaf.tv/articles/the-difference-between-potatoes-au-gratin-and-scalloped-potatoes/.

Here’s the delicious recipe! Enjoy!

Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes

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Servings: 6 servings

Course: easy side dish, Side Dish, Vegetable

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

4 medium russet potatoes, medium sliced I used a mandolin and used the largest slice
chicken stock for cooking the potatoes
salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup cooking broth from the potatoes
1 cup heavy cream
1 fresh sage leaf (optional)
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste
3 oz gruyere cheese

Method

Slice the potatoes in a medium sliced round. I used a mandolin set on the largest cut. Place the potatoes in a sauce pan and cover with chicken stock. Season with a little salt. Bring to a boil and cook about 6 or 7 minutes. Remove the potatoes to a bowl with a slotted spoon reserving the cooking liquid.
While the potatoes are cooking add the butter and olive oil to a skillet and add the sliced onions. Cook until the onions are a beginning to brown. Remove them and add them to the bowl with the potatoes reserving the oil in your skillet. Gently distribute or combine the potatoes and onions, being careful to not break up the potato slices. If you break some, no worries, but you do want to keep them whole if possible.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Butter the dish and start stacking the potatoes in the dish until all have been used. Use a dish that will just hold those potatoes, not too big.
To make the sauce: In the butter and olive oil skillet that you cooked the onions and reserved, heat and add 2 tablespoons flour and cook for a minute or so until it starts to brown a lilttle. Add the 1 1/2 cup of the cooking broth and whisk to prevent lumps. When the sauce has thickened, add the heavy cream and all of the cheese except just a small portion that you'll add to the top before baking. Cook until heated throgh. Check for salt and pepper and adjusst. Pour the sauce over the potatoes and bake until golden brown. If you want a little extra browning, place them under the broiler for just a few minutes watching closely until your desired browness. Remove from the oven and serve immediately. They can be brought to room temperature and re-heated later.

Beer Can Cornish Hen
Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes

Delicious! Zucchini Crudo Salad with Fresh Dill

September 3, 2019 by Becky Spoon

Zucchini Crudo Salad with Fresh Dill is one of my favorite salad’s. Zucchini and yellow squash or thinly sliced on a mandoline, placed in a colander, salted and left to hang out for about 15 minutes.

Delicious! Zucchini Crudo Salad with Fresh Dill

I found this recipe in Michael Symon’s cookbook “Live to Cook” https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Symons-Live-Cook-Techniques/dp/0307453650. This is what he says about the recipe: “This is a version of A salad Jonathan Waxman is known for that I fell in love with when I first tasted it. Who’d have thought, after decades of cooking, that zucchini could be an epiphany. But it was. I simply never thought of eating it raw. Seriously, it was a jaw-dropping surprise. I think he dressed it only with salt, lemon, and olive oil. I’ve added some garlic and shallots—building the dressing on top of these raw aromatics—along with dill, because I love dill, and with almonds for crunch and nuttiness.

It’s important to salt the zucchini ten to fifteen minutes before serving it; this will leach out the right amount of water but leave some crunch. Put the salt on too early and you can lose that texture. If you need to prepare the dish ahead, the vinaigrette can be made up to a few hours in advance and you can slice the zucchini up to an hour before salting it if you cover it with a damp towel and leave it at room temperature “.

I too love fresh dill and the dill combined with lemon juice in the vinaigrette is amazing! A similar salad with fresh dill on my blog is the Spinach and Berries Salad: https://the2spoons.com/colorful-spinach-and-berries-salad-with-dill/. It is a beautiful salad!

Delicious! Zucchini Crudo Salad with Fresh Dill

You have to make this recipe soon! Luckily Squash is available all year so this is great anytime of the year! Serve it with just some French bread or as a salad with a pasta dish! This would be a wonderful side with salmon. Substitute the salad in this salmon dish for the zucchini Crudo! It will be perfect! https://the2spoons.com/lemon-parmesan-salmon/.

Enjoy!

Zucchini Crudo

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Course: easy side dish, easy side dish, vegetable, Salad

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

2 Zucchini, thinly Sliced
2 yellow summer squash, thinly sliced
1 tbsp. plus 1/4 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely sliced
grated zest and juice of 3 lemons, or to taste
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cups slivered or sliced almonds, toasted
1/3 cup chopped fresh dill.

Method

Combine the zucchini and yellow squash in a colander in the sink and sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the salt over it. Toss to coat, and set aside for 10 to 15 minutes, no longer. In a large bowl, combine the garlic and shallot, sprinkle with the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt, and whisk in the lemon zest and juice. Whisk in the olive oil in a steady stream, then the almonds and dill. Taste for seasoning and acidity (it should be nicely acidic). Add the zucchini and squash to the dressing, toss, and serve immediately.

Zucchini Crudo Salad with Fresh Dill
Lemon Parmesan Salmon with Corn, Tomato and Avocado Salad

Delicious! Grilled Mexican Street Corn

July 11, 2019 by Becky Spoon

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I love Mexican Street Corn and it is so easy!! Fresh corn on the cob grilled slathered with mayonnaise, Cotija Cheese or Feta Cheese , lime juice, fresh cilantro, chile powder or tajin as I like to use……what’s not to love?

If you haven’t been to Mexico or seen the street carts selling Elote, or familiar with the dish, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about Mexican Street Corn ” Elote, or corn on the cob is a popular street food in Mexico, although it is frequently served at home prepared in the same way. It is customarily consumed on a stick, or by grasping the husk of the cob that has been pulled down to form a “handle”. Condiments such as salt, chile powder, butter, cotija, lemon juice or lime juice, and mayonnaise are usually added to the elote.” There you go! Good Stuff!!

Delicious! Grilled Mexican Street Corn

I’ve made this will the husk still on, but this time I removed the husk then I par boiled the corn, then placed on a hot grill. This cuts down on the cooking time. If you don’t have a grill, lodge makes a great cast iron grill/griddle that works great and I use a lot! Here’s a link for that grill/griddle that you can use for so many things. https://amzn.to/3guuqpA

This reversible Lodge grill/griddle is great!

Here’s a photo of Mexican street corn I’ve made before grilling in the husk and in that case I used feta cheese:

I used cotija cheese this time. Traditionally, Cotija cheese was made with raw milk aged for three to twelve months. But the commercial productions add an enzyme to speed up the ripening process. This need for acceleration gives the commercial produce a slight change in flavor compared to the artisanal variety.

Since, Cotija cheese is very salty, strongly flavoured, firm and does not actually melt, it is used for grating on salads, soups, casseroles, tacos, tostadas and chilli. In Mexico, it is also widely used to enhance the flavour of many savoury dishes by mixing directly into the casserole or recipe. In the U.S. it is increasingly popular on pasta. It is typically shredded onto cooked foods, also in salads and with fruit.” https://cheese.com/cotija

Here’s the brand of cotija I used, but there are various brands available. https://amzn.to/2C7I2Iu

Delicious! Grilled Mexican Street Corn

I made this the other night as a side dish for my barbecue chicken. Here’s the link for the chicken. https://the2spoons.com/best-summer-barbecue-chicken-on-the-grill-with-my-1-go-to-sauce/. The grilled corn was perfect while I already had the grill going.

Here’s the recipe for the corn! Enjoy!

Mexican Street Corn

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Servings: 4 servings

Course: easy side dish, easy side dish, vegetable, mexican, Side Dish, Vegetable

Cuisine: Mexican

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

enough mayonnaise to brush on each ear of corn
cotija cheese or feta cheese, crumbled
1 -2 limes
Chili powder or tajin, which I used
cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper

Method

Par cook your corn. My simple way is to place the ears of the corn, still in their husk into the microwave and hit the fresh vegetable button. When complete, they are perfectly cooked and they peel so easy! If you don’t have a microwave, remove the husks and silks and cook in a pot of boiling water until tender, about 8 minutes. For presentation purposes I prefer the microwave method, because you can peel the husk to the bottom and tie with a piece of husk, and just remove the silk.
Remove the corn and completely dry. Either start your outside grill or your inside grill pan works great. This corn is already cooked, so you just want to add some flavor and char.
Liberally oil each piece with some canola oil and lightly salt. The cheese is salty so don’t add too much. Grill until nicely charred on all sides.
Remove from the grill plan, and place on a platter for serving. Brush mayonnaise on all sides of the corn. Sprinkle with the crumbled cheese on all sides. Sprinkle with chile powder and squeeze lime juice over the corn. Top with chopped cilantro.