Autumn Harvest Stew (a tasty, easy vegan meal)

Autumn Harvest Stew (or Winter Harvest Stew these days)

This slow-cooker/crockpot recipe was adapted from a Publix Greenwise recipe from last fall. I added a couple of bitter vegetables because using only sweet ones made a very sweet meal the same day, and it made leftovers that were nearly unbearably sweet. Depending on how mild or spiced you like your meals, you may want to slighty decrease or increase the spices. There's no heat in these spices, though--I don't mean to imply that there is.

2 chopped sweet potatoes
2 medium chopped, peeled parsnips
2 medium chopped, peeled carrots
2 small chopped, peeled apples
1 chopped, peeled turnip
1 chopped, peeled rutabaga
1 chopped onion
2 pckgs. regular seitan (28 oz.? or so--it's strange how similar to meat this stuff can seem; just look at the photo!)
1 tsp. crushed, dried thyme
1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary
1 tsp. salt
few grinds of salt
1 1/2-2 c. veggie broth
1 c. organic apple juice

In a 3.5-4 q. slow cooker place your veggies and seitan. Sprinkle with the seasonings. (You can also use ~three times as much fresh seasonings, tie them together with twine, and tuck them in the food. That's how I originally made this dish.)

Pour broth and apple juice over all.

Cover and cook on low heat for 7-8 hours or on high heat for 3.5-4 hours. (I've always used low heat.)

I serve the stew over couscous. As you can see in the photo, I like to serve it with sauteed, tender-crisp garlicky green beans as a foil to the sweetness of the stew.

Roasted Winter Vegetable Pesto Pizza

When I roasted winter vegetables (onion, turnip, rutabaga, and sweet potaotes, I think) with apple chunks and herbes de provence last week, I roasted wayyyy too many veggies/apples total. So I had my husband, who cleans up after dinner since I plan and make dinner, put the leftover roasted veggies in a baggie in the freezer.

Two nights ago when we were hungry and in a hurry, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees F while I defrosted the veggies/apples and defrosted an already-made & baked whole-grain pizza crust. I spread pesto on the pizza crust, then tossed sundried tomatoes (which I always have in the fridge, stored in oil) on top. I sprinkled on a little leftover mozzarella on there with a few pine nuts for good protein. Then I dumped on the roasted veggies and chopped up some soft goat cheese into bits to fling here and there on the pizza. I love goat cheese bits on pizza because they provide a very rich flavor without the pizza being entirely coated in cheese.

I baked the pizza for about seven minutes, and we were ready to eat!

We loved the end result of the slightly bitter veggies with the sweet apples and sweet potatoes, the savory flavor of the cheeses, onion, and pine nuts, and the intensely rich, sweet bits of sun-dried tomato.

It’s a meal too high in fat and calories to eat regularly, but a meal similar to this is a great occasional treat. I used to make us personal-pan style pizzas, but I realized we eat less if we are slicing pieces off of a large pizza than we do when we eat have a “mini” pizza of our own.

A Dinner-Worthy Salad

Ha. If only my former-chef ex-fiance could see me now. I guess he could, actually; I know he’s visited my other blog before. (Ahh, the power of statcounter.)

But that’s not really my point. My point is that my cooking has come a lonnng way since he and I were together. Then, I was the occasional baker, and he was the experimental cook. I even once found a tape of him interviewing someone for the local newspaper–for a column he briefly wrote–and telling her that I couldn’t really cook but that I was a great baker.

Of course, I’m still not skilled like he was, practically speaking. I don’t chop my vegetables efficiently and perfectly or anything like that. But I do have good kitchen utensils (I told him he couldn’t take the cats; I should have added he couldn’t take the expensive knives I paid for), and I’m willing and ready to experiment. I’m a lot more comfortable trying things out now than I used to be.

A few nights ago, I was planning on us having a big salad and some refrigerated soup from Whole Foods. It turned out the soup was sour–the 5th (FIFTH!) thing I’ve gotten from Whole Foods that’s turned out to be bad/rotten/moldy in the last couple of months. (Whole Foods, I am always recommending you guys, but I have a bone to pick with you. Seriously. Update: I actually just sent Whole Foods an email to complain.) So our salad had to get more elaborate–with some protein thrown in–to accommodate being the only food in the meal.

I chopped and threw together a mix of winter vegetables–a turnip, a rutabaga, some sweet potatoes, an onion–with a couple of peeled and chopped apples. I tossed those with a little high-quality fruity-tasting olive oil, some herbes de provence, and a smidge of salt. I roasted that mix at 400 for about 40 minutes, tossing them twice during cooking. It wouldn’t have hurt some of the veggies to roast a little longer.

I tore up some butter lettuce from our weekly CSA load and tossed it with my usual-these-days lemon salad dressing: shaken together well in a lidded jar–the juice of one Meyer lemon; three times as much olive oil as lemon juice; Mrs. Dash garlic-and-herbs seasoning; a bit of Lawry’s seasoning salt; and a teaspoon or so of honey.

I toasted a handful of walnut pieces in a dry pan on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, tossing them once. I set them aside.

Then I sliced a small log of goat cheese into ~1/2″ rounds. I beat an egg in a small bowl, and I poured some Italian-seasoned bread crumbs in another bowl. I covered a plate with waxed paper. I dipped the goat cheese slices in the egg wash and then in the bread crumbs to thoroughly coat them. I put the breaded goat cheese slices on the covered plate and put them in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Then I heated up a small amount of olive oil on medium heat using the same pan I’d used for the walnuts, and I pan-fried the goat cheese for about 30-45 seconds on each side. I tossed the goat cheese on the salad, and we sat down to eat!

The salad was fantastic. The winter vegetables were slightly bitter and very aromatic from the herbes de provence. The apple bits provided small notes of sweetness. The goat cheese was easy to slice into warm gooey pieces, and the savory flavor of the cheese cut the bitterness of the vegetables. The slightly sweet, slightly sour flavor of the salad and dressing, and the saltiness of the toasted walnuts, were a nice foil to the rest. Delicious–and healthy.

Vegetarian shepherd's pie & dijon avocado salad (yum!)

I like my Vegetarian Times magazine because it gives me good ideas for what foods I can use for tasty vegetarian dishes. However, I often feel that the magazine limits recipes to a short ingredient list (and sometimes skimps on the spices that are in the ingredients) so that the recipes do not reach their full potential for flavor. Last night I altered a V.T. recipe for vegan shepherd's pie to create a heartier, richer flavor. My version isn't vegan but could easily be reconverted to a vegan recipe. My friend Lesley ate it with me and my husband, and we all thought it was a pretty wonderful, bone-warming dish.

If you usually cook with meat at home, I encourage you to try the soy crumbles. The consistency isn't exactly the same as ground beef but the flavor is very similar. Except for missing the gristly tiny bits that beef has, I don't think I would realize the soy bits in this dish weren't beef. (And soy is so cheap to buy, too!)

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into small cubes

2 medium russet potatoes, cut into small cubes

salt for potatoes

1 T olive oil

2 shallots, chopped

1 yellow onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

12 oz. package soy crumbles (looks like ground beef--buy the regular kind)

0.65 oz. vegetarian dark brown gravy mix

1 2/3 c. water

2 c. frozen peas and carrot pieces (or use fresh and chop the carrots finely)

2/3 c. 2% milk (use soymilk for vegan)

4 tsp. butter

1/2 tsp. garlic powder or garlic Mrs. Dash

salt and pepper

Chop everything you'll need chopped and set out the appropriate amounts of what you'll need for the dish.

Cut your sweet and reg. potatoes, placing them in a large pot as you go. Add about 1 tsp. of salt to the potatoes. Cover the potatoes with about 2" of water. Turn the heat to high and bring the dish to a boil. When the water is boiling, turn the heat to medium. Let it simmer 15 min. or until potatoes are tender.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat oil in a large skillet over med. heat. Add shallots and onion, and cook 4-5 minutes--until onion and shallots begin to be translucent. Add garlic; cook one minute. Add soy crumbles, and cook three minutes or until crumbles are heated through.

Sprinkle gravy mix into the skillet, and stir it all together. Pour in water, stir, and bring to a simmer. Add carrots and peas, and allow mixture to simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Drain potatoes, and mash with milk and butter. (I put them back into the same pot and mixed with an immersion blender, leaving a few small chunks of potatoes.) Season with garlic seasoning, salt, and pepper to taste.

Spread vegetable mixture into a deep casserole dish. Top with mashed potatoes. Bake 25-35 minutes, or until vegetable layer gray bubbles around the edges of the mashed potatoes.

With the shepherd's pie I served a simple but tasty salad topped with a dijon dressing.

Dijon Dressing

2 T. grainy dijon mustard

4 T. olive or canola oil

1 tsp. honey

(Add other ingredients as you deem necessary.)

Combine ingredients in a jar. Put the lid on the jar, and shake it well. Let the dressing sit in the fridge for an hour or more for the flavors to meld. You will want to toss the dressing with your salad well so that the grains of mustard are spread out in the salad.

I served a salad of butter lettuce, freshly shaved Parmesan Reggiano, toasted walnut halves, and avocado. Lesley and I think finely sliced apples or tangerine sections would make a nice addition. But it was also very tasty as it was.

Another solid, easy winter recipe

One of my friends emailed me this recipe; we tried it a few nights ago and really enjoyed it. It smells heavenly when it's cooking from the garlic and onion, and it tastes like a fairly light Italian appetizer soup. To make it heartier for a full meal, next time we might add carrots, potatoes, peppers, or other vegetables. This is a simple, tasty meal.

Kale and White Bean Soup

1 small bunch kale

2 tsp olive oil

1 large onion, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

one 15-oz can cannellini beans, drained

5 cups vegetable broth

1/2 tsp dried oregano

salt and freshly ground pepper

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Wash kale well. Remove leaves from stems and discard center ribs. Tear into bite-sized pieces.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy stockpot over medium-low heat and saute the onion, stirring occasionally, until it begins to caramelize, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute the mixture another minute.

Add the beans, broth, and oregano, and bring to a simmer.

Add the kale and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until kale is tender, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle each serving with parm.

NOTES

My friend says: Just read in my new Prevention mag that if you chop/mince garlic and let it stand 15 minutes before heating it retains the health benefits. Evidently putting it in a hot pan right away doesn't allow the chemical things to do their positive health thingies.

Another incidentally vegan soup for dinner

I was looking for a way to use butternut squash and coconut milk together, after we had them as such a fabulous combination in a curry at a dinner party recently. I realize that I am using winter squash so often in my recipes that readers may be wondering whether I am secretly working for the butternut ad council, but here's the thing: butternut and other winter squash tastes fabulous--rich and slightly sweet; it's low in calories; and it's local to Georgia in the winter. My husband and I are trying to eat locally sourced, organic foods when possible, and winter squash is one of the times it's very possible right now!

But back to my search a few days ago: I came across this recipe and, given its high ratings, I decided to give it a go with a few changes.



Red Lentil Thai-ish Soup

1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp. dried ginger
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pinch ground fenugreek seeds (I'd never heard of these, but there they were in the spice aisle!)
1 cup dry red lentils
1 cup butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed (I used left-over, pre-cooked African squash--it's much easier to cube butternut squash after it's cooked)
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
3 c. vegetable broth
1 (14 ounce) can light coconut milk
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch ground nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat, and cook the onion, ginger, garlic, and fenugreek 5 min., or until onion is tender.

Mix the lentils, squash, and cilantro into the pot. Stir in the broth, coconut milk, and tomato paste. Season with curry powder, cayenne pepper, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, or until lentils and squash are tender.

The verdict: my husband, who loves lentil soup, was very taken with this dish; he wants me to make it again. It was sorta like a Thai version of lentil soup. My best friend (who was over so that she and I could go for a walk) and I are not huge lentil soup fans; we thought the dish was good but not great. The consistency was more like a stew than a soup. It was definitely a hearty vegetarian dish. At around 300 calories and 15g of fat per serving, it's a very reasonable meal for people being careful of such things, so if you dig lentil soup, check it out.

To serve with it, I toasted 1 whole piece of whole-wheat pita bread with two teaspoons of butter patted on it. The butter melted and left the pita tasting more like Indian flatbread than pita bread; it was great. We cut the pita into thirds to share.

Sneakin' in the veggies

It's like the middle school crush you couldn't stop thinking about: I daydream of unique ways to incorporate winter squash into my life. I can imagine adding it to almost anything . . . including macaroni and cheese, which is what I did tonight. If you are the kind of person who loves mac & cheese with a top layer that's a bit crunchy, this is for you. If you are a mom, I would suggest serving this to your kids when they haven't watched you make it. While your kids gobble it up, they'll never know that the orangeness is from a vegetable and not from some fake Kraft cheese powder, and you'll be getting a nice dose of beta carotene into their diets--much more pleasant than an argument over steamed carrots.


I altered this from a recipe I found on another blog. This is not a low-fat dish, but if you eat a reasonable portion with a healthy side dish, it's not ridiculous, either.

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese, Take 2
Serves 6-8 as a primary (but not the only) dish

1 1b. twisty, whole-wheat pasta
salt for pasta water
1 1b. of organic butternut squash, halved, roasted (with or without additional herbs, though I would not add honey or butter), peeled, and scraped out--or (as I was using in my ravenous state tonight) a 12- or 16-oz. box of frozen organic winter squash (pureed or cubed)
1 T organic butter
1 organic yellow onion
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp. dried sage
3 T. whole-wheat flour
1/4-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
2 c. 2% organic milk (or try skim and see if it works)
2 oz. soft goat cheese
3/4 c. cheese (I used mozzarella, fontina, and parmesan reggiano)
salt and pepper
1/4 c. reduced-fat cheddar (or another grated cheese, but separate from the rest)
1/4 c. bread crumbs mixed with Italian seasonings
oil spray

If you are using fresh butternut squash, prepare it. Otherwise, defrost your frozen butternut squash.

Get out the ingredients you'll use.

Chop your onion. If you are mincing the garlic, do that. (I just use a garlic press to crush mine into the pan.)

Grate the cheeses.

Put water on to boil for your pasta. Add some salt to the water. When the water is boiling well, put the pasta in and boil it for the minimum time listed on the package. Then drain in a collander.

In the meantime, in a very large, pref. non-stick, pot, heat 1 T of butter in a med-high. Add onion, sage, and garlic. Stir around. Cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Add the flour to the onion mixture, and stir around. Let cook another minute.

Add the nutmeg, cayenne, and milk. Stir. Bring to a boil, and let boil 2-3 minutes--until it starts to thicken.

Add the cheese (except the last cheese in the ingredient list), and whisk it in.

Add salt and pepper to taste, and turn off the burner.

Dump the noodles into the sauce, and stir it all together.

Spray a large casserole dish with cooking spray.

Dump the mac & cheese into the casserole dish.

Sprinkle the last 1/4 c. of cheese on top.

Sprinkle the Italian bread crumbs on top of the cheese.

Give the top a light spray with the cooking spray.

Bake 25 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.

Mmm, delicious. We ate it with a side of steamed spinach mixed with a little Bragg's (like soy sauce) and some herbs.


(To reiterate a point from an earlier post, we tend to eat off salad plates; our portions stay more reasonable that way.)

I think you could also toss fresh or frozen-but-defrosted spinach into the mac'n'cheese before baking for a one-dish meal.

Enjoy!

Weekend-only veggie pot pie

This is a recipe I’ve been tinkering with. We’re pretty satisfied with it now, though I'd love to get a healthier (and still tasty) biscuit topping. Sunday after I had put it in the oven, I told my husband, “This recipe is a labor of love, so you better appreciate it.” The recipe is not advanced in nature but requires a lot of work, nonetheless. It is really tasty in the end, though–I’ll make it again (on another weekend, or on a holiday).

Winter Veggie Pot Pie with biscuit topping

(Makes 6-8 main-dish servings)

Interior:

3 medium sweet potatoes (about 3 c.)

2 turnips

1 rutabaga

3 parsnips

1 bunch of organic carrots (smaller than conventional)

2 c. kale (no stems, just leaves)

3 T olive oil

1 tsp. dried ginger

7 cloves of garlic

1 tsp. coarse sea salt

2/3 c. sherry (I have been using cream sherry)

1 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary

1 1/2 tsp. dried sage

2 T. Bragg’s amino acids (or soy sauce)

2 T. arrowroot powder (for thickening)

1 c. water

2 c. cooked white beans, black-eyed peas or field peas

Topping:

1 1/2 c. whole-wheat flour

1/2 c. white flour (using only whole-wheat will make it too dense)

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. white sugar

2 tsp. Mrs. Dash garlic-and-herbs mix, OR, to take it another direction, 2 tsp. honey stirred into the buttermilk

1/2 c. butter

3/4 c. buttermilk

a little extra flour

To make the interior:

Peel your vegetables, and chop them into 1/2-bite size pieces. (The idea is that you would pick up two vegetable pieces or so per bite.) Yes, you will be getting quite a work-out. No, the chopping mechanism on the Cuisinart doesn’t work for this, unless you have a kind I can’t find! As you chop the vegetables, put them in a very large, pref. non-stick pot. (I use the biggest pot I have.)

Once your veggies are chopped and your arm is worn out, add the oil through the sage to the veggies. Turn the burner on med. heat and stir it all together a few times.

As that heats up, mix together the Bragg’s, arrowroot, and water with a fork in a small bowl (or the measuring cup). Pour that into the veggie mix and stir around some more.

Cook on med., uncovered, for about 30 min., stirring regularly to keep from sticking on the bottom. Add more water if needed.

While that is cooking, grease a deep casserole dish. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Then thoroughly sift or stir together the whole-wheat flour through the Mrs. Dash in a medium bowl. Soften your butter in the microwave (don’t melt it!), and cut the butter into the flour mixture with a fork until you have a crumb-like mixture.

Add the buttermilk and stir until just barely mixed. (Too much stirring or kneading of biscuits activates the gluten strands in the wheat and makes the biscuits tough.)

Put some flour out on a flat surface, and put your biscuit mix on it. Knead and flip it a few times–no more than 10–to get it mixed together well. Put flour on a rolling pin and roll out the mixture to a size that will just cover the casserole dish you are using.

When the veggies have cooked about half an hour, stir the beans or peas you are using into the mix. Dump the whole mixture into the sprayed casserole dish. Lay the biscuit topping on top, and slash through the biscuit mix in a pizza-cutting, spokes-style pattern.

Bake for 25-30 minutes–until the biscuit topping is golden-brown and cooked through. (Its moist underside touching the pot pie will take the longest to bake.) Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Enjoy your tasty pot pie. This pot pie truly comes together as more than the sum of its parts.

Note: If you are someone who is tempted to eat more than one serving of something when it has a tasty bread topping, I suggest you eat a salad or a side dish of veggies to make sure your plate is too full for that.

Oh, and if you’re like us, you most likely won’t be serving 6-8 people. To prevent wasting the tasty pie (and your effort to make it), dole out the remaining servings into individual, freezer-safe dishes, and put tags on the lids to tell you what you’re saving and when you made it.

A Southern Veggie Meal

Monday, my husband and I went out to dinner. I ordered a curried chicken salad sandwich, and it came with freshly made potato chips. I ate almost all of them. The next day, I suddenly craved fried foods all day. Coincidence? I think not.

I am trying to get back into the habit of having our meals be approximately 2/3 vegetables at dinner. I am normally very perfectionistic about many things in my life, but with this, I keep reminding myself that being on a path to a good place is better than trying to leap instantly to that place, failing, and giving up. For the same reason, when my hubby asked me if I wanted him to start calculating how long we are walking on our walks through the park that we take about every other day, I told him no. “Walking through the park at all is better than sitting at home thinking how I should be running three miles through the park,” I told him. “And if I get discouraged about not making big enough measurable strides, I’ll just quit doing it.” It’s a big divergence from my usual take on life–it’s being easier on myself–and I’m hoping it will help me. I want to feel nurtured by taking care of myself, not ordered and punished as I sometimes feel.

This was our meal last night: mixed whole grain pilaf and garlic tossed with black beans, vegetarian collard greens; African winter squash with a small amount of butter and brown sugar and lots of cinnamon; fried green tomatoes with feta cheese (pan-fried was the idea, though I put too much oil in the pan and they were closer to deep-fried); and rolls, though neither of us ate the rolls–we were too full from the rest!

I had held dinner until my husband got home from an event at 8 p.m.; we usually eat about 6 p.m., so we were too ravenous to try to get a particularly good photo of dinner. Those are salad plate in the photo, so it’s not as much food as it may appear to be.

Several friends and family members have told me lately they are surprised by how often I cook collard greens (one type of braising greens), as their experiences with collard greens have been entirely negative. I never liked collard greens–which are a Southern tradition–as a child, but I realized when I tried them a couple of years ago that they have grown on me. Plus, they are full of antioxidants, and they are a winter staple in Georgia produce. The trick, for me, has been figuring out a way to cook them that doesn’t involve loads of pork fat but still cuts the natural bitterness of the greens. (I realize some Southern cooks will tell you that you can’t make collards without pork fat, but I would like to live to see my grandchildren.)

Here is the recipe I’ve developed for collard greens. My husband liked it so much he didn’t realize it was the same food I’ve fed him several times before, just with some different seasoning. Ha.

Tasty Vegetarian Collard Greens

(Our particular batch had about five servings.)

1 large bunch fresh collard greens (they cook WAY down)–you could also use turnip greens or other braising greens

1 onion

2 T olive oil

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. Bragg’s amino acids (it’s unfermented soy sauce, a version I can eat–I’m pretty sure soy sauce would work fine)

1 T molasses

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 bottle of dark beer

2-4 c. of vegetable broth

Clean the collard greens thoroughly; they take much more washing than you would expect. Any dirt you miss will be very gritty in the final product. Some people say to put them in a bowl of water and swish the dirt off, dump that water out, and then repeat that several times. I’m always surprised by how dirt clings to them so stubbornly. I honestly might have given up on making them (or at least would have relegated them to a weekend-only food) if we hadn’t been able to start getting pre-washed collard greens at our farmer’s market on Saturdays.

Chop your greens into smaller pieces.

Chop the onion.

Put the olive oil in the bottom of a very large, preferably non-stick pot. (I use our biggest pot, because the greens take up so much space before they are cooked.) Heat on medium-high heat until the oil is hot; then cook the onion pieces in the oil until they soften some. Turn the heat down to medium.

Toss in the chili powder, Bragg’s, Worcestershire sauce, and molasses, and stir around. Pour in the dark beer, and stir it all together. Stir the collard greens into the pot, and then add broth until the greens are just barely (or even mostly) covered. Turn the heat down to medium-low and let them simmer, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Note: Collard greens have to cook at least 30 minutes to be digestible. Undercooked greens are very tough to chew–like eating leaves, which I guess they actually are! Some people cook collard greens for hours–until they are really mushy–but I prefer to leave them more firm than that.\n

Most restaurants serve collard greens with vinegar added to them. I obviously can’t eat them that way. The other common accoutrement is hot pepper sauce, which we also don’t use, though I think Dan would like them with that.

Note: Collard greens have to cook at least 30 minutes to be digestible. Undercooked greens are very tough to chew–like eating leaves, which I guess they actually are! Some people cook collard greens for hours–until they are really mushy–but I prefer to leave them more firm than that.Most restaurants serve collard greens with vinegar added to them. I obviously can’t eat them that way. The other common accoutrement is hot pepper sauce, which we also don’t use, though I think Dan would like them with that.

The other truly Southern food on the menu was the fried green tomatoes, but I'm not posting that recipe here as--given the fat the tomatoes absorb--it's not a recipe I need to be making very often!