My Fall Food Favorites

It's Fall Y'all <-- haha, I think it is sooo funny to say that.

Anyway, with the changing of the seasons, there are always new seasonal foods to try out! Here are a few of my new favorites! I am including the recipes of a few, here! Try them out and let me know what you think!

1. Oktoberfest stew - tastes like all of the best German foods, in one dish *recipe below
2. Homemade sparkling apple cider - so deliciously delightful *recipe below
3. Pumpkin cake with cinnamon cream cheese icing - double yum
4. Apple Cider Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Icing
5. Salty Addictive Nuts - y'all you cannot stop eating these!!! And let me just note, these are not just for the fall but I just happened to try them this fall :) *recipe below
6. Pumpkin snickerdoodles - like a pumpkiny version of a chewy spice cookie
7. Chicken Pot Pie - comforting flavors without the heaviness; this one is light and full of flavor

Oktoberfest Stew

1 T olive oil

1 package of smoked sausage, sliced into bite size pieces (we used Oscar Mayer uncured turkey sausage)

1 large onion, cut in 1/2 and sliced thin

1/2 of a cabbage, cored and sliced thin

1/2 t fresh ground pepper

1/4 t caraway seeds

2 garlic cloves

1 c Oktoberfest lager

2 russet potatoes, peeled and cubed to bite size pieces

2 1/2 c hot chicken broth

1 1/2 T apple cider vinegar (use 2 T if you like more vinegar like me)

• Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pot; once the oil is hot, add in the sliced smoked sausage, and allow the slices to caramelize and brown in the oil, for about 4-5 minutes.
• Add in the sliced onions, stir, and allow the onions to caramelize with the sausage for another few minutes, until the onions are golden-brown and softened.
• Add in the sliced cabbage, stir to combine, and allow the cabbage to soften and take on the flavors of the sausage and onions for a few minutes.
• Add in the black pepper, ground caraway seeds and the pinch of salt, and stir to combine; next, stir in the garlic.
• When the garlic becomes aromatic, add in the cup of lager, and stir the mixture to combine; allow the beer to slightly reduce for about 3 minutes or so.
• Add in the cubed potatoes and the hot chicken stock, stir, and allow the mixture to come to the boil.
• Place a lid, slightly askew to allow just a little steam to escape, and reduce the heat to low to gently simmer the stew for about 40 minutes.
• Turn the heat off, and finish the stew by stirring in the apple cider vinegar.

Homemade Sparkling Cider Recipe

1 Liter of sparkling water per

1 can frozen apple juice/apple cider from concentrate

• Apple slices for pretty-ness (optional)
• Mix together and serve chilled or over ice in fun cups. 

Salty Addictive Nuts!

4 cups pecan halves

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (double of you like spicy!)

• Preheat oven to 325.
• Toss together melted butter & pecans. Spread in thin layer on jelly roll pan. Toast about 25 min, or until fragrant and toasted, stirring halfway through (I really watch them in the last few minutes, as they go from toasted to burnt very quickly.)
• Remove from oven, sprinkle with salt and cayenne, tossing to coat. Cool completely. Will keep for up to 1 week.

Paella - Oven Style

Paella can be an intimidating dish to make because a) it's something we are typically unfamiliar with because it's not served in many restaurants b) it has quite a few unfamiliar spices (saffron) and c) it can take some time (stirring rice as it slowly cooks does not quite qualify as fun to me).

All of that being said, I have a paella pan and maybe make the dish 1 time per year. Which is a bummer because Cory & I LOVE to eat it!

Each week, I receive email notifications from Conde Nast. They sent out the recipes that are trending across various food websites. As I was scrolling through this past week's, I found a recipe for Sheet-Pan Paella. I have read recipes (Ina Garten's) about doing risotto in the oven instead of stove-top but had not tried it yet. I quickly added it to our menu for the week and Monday night was Paella night!

It turned out beautifully and I recommend you try this at home. The original recipe can be found on epicurious at this link but I have made some alterations to it :) The ingredient list looks long but it is very simple. I have divided the ingredient list into sections, by step.

Sheet Pan Paella with Sausage, Shrimp and Mussels

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350
Step 2: Spray large rimmed baking sheet with cooking spray then spread the rice on the sheet. Toast the rice for about 5 minutes.

• Nonstick vegetable cooking spray
• 1 c short-grain rice (such as Arborio) - you can find this in stores like Walmart now

Step 3: In a medium sauce pan, combine the following ingredients and warm over medium heat. Bring to a low boil then remove from the heat. 

• 2 1/4 c low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 t freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 t smoked paprika
• 1/2 t rosemary 
• 1 t sea salt

Step 4: After the rice has been toasted, pour the liquid mixture over the rice and add the diced tomatoes and sliced onions to the mixture. Stir well. Cover the baking sheet with another baking sheet or foil, then put back into the oven for 20 minutes. 

• 1/2 c white onion, thinly sliced
• 1 c diced tomatoes

Step 5: Toss shrimp with 1/2 t salt and set aside. 

• 4 oz medium shrimp, uncooked, peeled, deveined, tails left intact
• 1/2 t kosher salt, divided

Step 6: As the rice is cooking, prep the rest of your ingredients in a bowl:

• 1 smoked sausage (recommend an original flavor or something with spice if you like that) - sliced into 1/2 inch rounds (you can slice thinner if you desire)
• 1/2 c sliced roasted red peppers (jarred)
• 1/4 c green olives, pitted, sliced
• 1 lb mussels, recommend you buy the precooked mussels at the store
• 1 can of cannellini beans, drained

Step 7: After the rice mixture has cooked for 20 minutes, remove from the oven and stir it well. Bake for 5 more minutes, uncovered. If the rice looks a little dry to you, add a little bit more water. 

Step 8: After the rice has cooked for 5 more minutes. Add remaining ingredients to the pan & stir (shrimp & sausage/veggie mixture). Heat for 8 - 10 minutes more, covered, until the shrimp is cooked through. 

I also recommend buying a lemon or two to serve on the side, to squeeze over the seafood. 

Bon appetit!

Additional ideas to customize your paella - if you don't like seafood, you can substitute chicken in place of the shrimp and mussels. Dice about 1/2 - 1 pound of chicken and after the rice has cooked about 10 minutes of the 20, toss the chicken into the mixture to cook. 

Red Beans and Rice with Layers of Flavor

The other day, my mom asked me to make a recipe of Red Beans and Rice to take to a friend. She is a full time professor at a local university and so I was happy to help her out with this request!

The thing was, I had never made red beans and rice. Upon reflection of eating Red Beans and Rice, I realized I had never really eaten any good recipe of it before either. Mom's friend from Louisiana who had tried this recipe, told her it was bona fide. I was excited to test it and see for my self.

OOOO-wheee! This puppy was sooooo good! It has layers and layers of flavor. It's satisfyingly filling but not too heavy.

One other detail that made this dish so good was the type of sausage I used. I do not recommend buying the Hillshire Farms, Eckrich type sausage that are mass produced. Instead, I recommend buying a local sausage. We used Conecuh, a sausage made in Alabama. It really made a significant difference in adding flavor.

Now...drumroll please...for the recipe!

Emeril Lagasse's Red Beans & Rice

1 pound dried red beans, rinsed & sorted
2 T oil (olive oil or vegetable oil)
1 pound chopped ham pieces (you can get the inexpensive package in the meat aisle)
1.5 c chopped yellow onions
3/4 c chopped celery
3/4 c chopped bell peppers (I used the multi colored baby bells)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
Pince cayenne
3 bay leaves
2 T parsley
2 t thyme
1/2 pound smoked sausage, sliced into round circle pieces
3 T chopped garlic
10 c chicken broth
4 c cooked rice (I used brown)

OVERNIGHT: place beans in a large bowl and cover with water by 2 inches. Let soak 8 hours or overnight. After soaking, let drain and set aside.

• In a large pot, heat the 2 T of oil. Add the onions, celery and peppers and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the salt, pepper and cayenne and cook, stirring until the vegetables are soft, about 4 more minutes. 
• Add the bay leaves, parsley, thyme, sausage and the ham pieces, cook about 4 minutes. 
• Add the garlic and cook another minute. 
• Add the beans & chicken broth to the pot and stir well
• Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally until the beans are tender and starting to thicken. This takes about 2 hours. 
• Note: Should the beans become too thick during this, add some more chicken broth.  
• After cooking a couple of hours, and with the back of a wooden spoon, mash about 1/4 - 1/2 of the beans against the side of the pan. 
• Continue to cook the dish until the beans are tender and creamy, another 30 minutes to 1 hour. 
• Remove from heat and remove the bay leaves. 
• The finished consistency should be closer to a chili than a soup

Serve hot over cooked rice and enjoy!!! This recipe is just as delicious re-warrmed, it would be a great dish to serve a large crowd during the winter time and you could make it ahead!

A Summer WOW Recipe

Every now and then, there is a recipe using seasonal ingredients that hits your taste buds with such a KA-POW of flavor, that you start craving it immediately after you finish it. We experienced that tonight when we made Food & Wine's Cucumber Salad with Buttermilk Dressing and Pickled Onion.

This one features crisp cucumbers and a divine, homemade dressing oh, most importantly pickled onions that you make yourself! I've made pickles from cucumbers before, but I have not pickled onions and boy, were they delicious in this recipe! The dressing uses fresh herbs too, which were so fun to snip from my plants outside and incorporate into this recipe.

Even if you have finished your grocery shopping for the week, stop by a farmers market or your local grocery store to pick up the ingredients to enjoy this asap!

This recipe is not hard but it does have quite a few steps to it. Also, having a mandolin was incredibly helpful in thinly slicing the onions and later, the cucumber. If you do not have one, you can make thin slices work with your favorite, sharp knife.

Becca Edits: I decided to make this at the last minute, here are a few things to note:

• you need about 45 minutes before eating time, to make the pickled onions and give them time to actually pickle
• I did not have several of the ingredients but had suitable substitutes:
• tarragon (fresh or dried) at my house, so I didn't use it. The dressing was still great. 
• creme fraiche either, instead, I used plain greek yogurt. Again, the dressing was great. 
• sunflower seeds - I chopped up slivered almonds instead 
• Your breath will be hot and heavy with onions after you eat this, so grab some gum or make sure your partner eats this salad too! :)

Cucumber Salad with Buttermilk Dressing and Pickled Onion Recipe (link to recipe here)

Pickled Onion

• 1 c red wine vinegar
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1/4 c water
• 1/4 t sea salt
• 1 red onion, thinly sliced

Make the pickled onion...in a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, sugar, water & salt just to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat; add the onion. Let cool, then refrigerate until chilled. 

Dressing

• 1/2 c creme fraiche (or I used plain Greek yogurt)
• 1/4 c buttermilk
• 1/4 c mayonnaise
• 2 T fresh lemon juice
• 1 T minced tarragon
• 1 T minced chives
• 1 T minced parsley

In a small bowl, whisk all of the ingredients above, together. Season with salt & pepper. 

Cucumber Salad

• 6 cucumbers (I used mini pickling cucumbers)
• 2 T olive oil, plus more for drizzling
• It calls for more red wine vinegar here, but I don't think you need it & didn't include it. If you do want to include it: use 2 T red wine vinegar, to toss in the bowl with the cucumbers and olive oil

In a medium bowl, toss the cucumbers with the olive oil. Season with a little salt and fresh ground pepper. Let sit for about 5 minutes. 

Assembling the salad:

• Spoon the dressing onto shallow bowls or plates with a lip. Top with the cucumbers. Drain teh onion & scatter over the salad. Garnish with chopped slivered almonds or whatever nuts you like & have on hand that are mild (the original recipe recommends sunflower seeds) and you can also top with sunflower sprouts!

Seasonal Recipe: Corn Fritters with Lime Aioli

Several of my friends asked me to share a recipe with them of some veggie cakes I had made for my son. It's an easy way to get vegetables into a tasty cake! The original recipe has quite elevated flavors and is a perfect seasonal dish to highlight corn but I have found a couple of ways to simplify the recipe:

1. Bake them in muffin tins instead of pan frying (this saves you some fat calories too!)
2. You do not have to serve them with the "extras" for them to taste good (extras include arugula, roasted tomatoes and prosciutto)
3. You can include more veggies than corn, in this recipe! I put some baby carrots in the food processor and ground them up very fine. You can also do the same thing with yellow squash and it blends with the color of the corn. I would just make sure that the veggie amounts don't exceed 2 cups, because you still want the batter to taste good.

A few things I have learned in baking them for kiddos:

1. Don't use muffin cups because they absorb the moisture from the cakes. Having them baked directly in the cups also gives them a nice crispness they need, since they're not being fried.
2. Don't eliminate the "flavor givers" from the recipe, they really give the cake its additional flavor (flavor givers: green onions, salt)
3. You can also use lowfat buttermilk if you want instead of lowfat milk

Corn Fritters with Roasted Tomatoes and Lime Aioli from Cooking Light - I'm listing this recipe in 3 steps, so you can easily make the pieces you want to! Here is the link to the original recipe: Cooking Light Link.

Corn Fritter Ingredients:

• 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1/4 t black pepper
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/3 c milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 ears of fresh corn kernels (about 1 1/2 c)
• 1/3 c finely chopped green onions
• 1/4 t salt

If you are baking in a muffin tin, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your muffin tins (either regular size or minis) by coating them well with cooking spray.

Combine flour & baking powder in a medium bowl. Add milk & egg, stir until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients. 

Equally distribute batter in each tin & bake for about 12 - 15 minutes for the minis or about 15 - 20 minutes for the regular size cakes, until they look golden brown on top. Let cool and remove from tins. 

If you are going to cook them in oil: heat 1/2 t of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop batter by level tablespoons full into the pan. Cook about 2 minutes or until the tops are covered with bubbles and edges are golden. Carefully turn the fritters and cook about 2 more minutes. Repeat with the remaining batter. I like to place my completed fritters on a plate layered with paper towels to absorb the grease. 

Lime Aioli Recipe:

• 3 T mayonnaise
• 2 T fresh lime juice
• 1/2 garlic clove minced
• 1 t cold water

Combine all ingredients with a whisk.

Roasted Tomatoes:

• 4 ripe tomatoes, halved (about 1 #)
• 1 t olive oil

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 

Arrange tomato halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil (the acidic juice from tomatoes is a bear to clean up!). Drizzle tomatoes with 1 t olive oil & sprinkle with 1/4 t pepper. Bake for 1 hour & 30 minutes, until the tomatoes are soft and have lost a lot of their moisture.

To serve the FULL recipe:

You'll also need:

• 4 c loosely packed arugula
• 4 slices of prosciutto

Step 1: place 1 fritter on each of the 4 plates

Step 2: top each with 1 tomato half and 1/2 c arugula

Step 3: repeat layers, ending with fritters. 

Step 4: Top each serving with 1 prosciutto slice. 

Step 5: Drizzle with the aoili. 

Image of the original recipe:

What Do the Foxes Eat? - 2015 Food Story

I thought it would be fun to document our food for 2015. Not just the exciting stuff, but the humdrum stuff too. I have done a decent job of capturing the majority of our meals (and half of Cory's torso LOL) throughout the year. What I haven't done is post them! Since July is 1/2-way through the year, I figured, there's no better time to start, than now!

As I've gone back through our food photos, it's been really cool to not only remember cooking each one but also, to remember who we shared them with! Entertaining is definitely a hobby our family is passionate about and we look forward to many more good times with our friends this 2nd half of the year!

Let's begin. I only posted the 1st 9 days of the year here. The rest will be captured in an album on Facebook.

1/1

New Year's Day morning - coconut waffles yummmm, topped with a dash of whipped cream and toasted coconut. This has to be my hands-down favorite waffle recipe.

New Year's Eve Day was our traditional meal - spiral sliced ham, black eyed peas, colcannon potatoes, collard greens and cornbread, of course. Our friends Jessica & Blake joined us for our festive feast. They brought two delicious appetizers, bacon wrapped dates stuffed with goat cheese and spinach artichoke dip!

1/2
Fresh pizza topped with a new topping: olive oil, homemade ricotta & roasted grapes and olives.

1/3
Crab legs with french bread.

1/4
Homemade chili with from-scratch cornbread.

1/5
Homemade spaghetti sauce with whole wheat pasta. Homemade Farm Bread made with whole wheat flour.

1/6
In St. Louis for dinner...Cory had interviews with Purina on 1/7. We ate at the Budweiser brew house & it was delish! Plus, it had a very fun atmosphere. We ate beer cheese dip & pretzels, spicy lobster tacos & fish-n-chips.

1/7
In St. Louis for dinner...Cory had interviews today with Purina. We ate lunch at Blues Street Deli & I'm underestimating when I say they were the most delicious sandwiches we'd ever had. I ordered the Aporkalypse (garlic roasted pork sliced then, boom boom sauce, cheese, pickle & bacon!!!). If you're ever in town, please go there!

For dinner, we ordered in Imo's pizza to the hotel.

1/8

Homemade dinner of: coconut crusted mahi mahi from Fresh Market, homemade whole wheat farm bread, salad with bacon tomatoes & feta, wild rice and baked sweet potato casserole (in red pots). 

1/9

Wild rice soup for lunch

Calzone for dinner!

Am I really a clean freak now?!

Pre-baby, I didn't really care if my house was super clean. Tidy mattered but not clean. I had a house cleaner come once a month with my intention being to do "filler" cleaning in between...which other than vacuuming, almost never occurred! 

Fast forward to me today, I can't sit down and do something I want to do, before the house is clean. WHAT?!?!?! It literally just dawned on me yesterday that this change has occurred and as of today, I've started to stage an intervention for myself.

Why am I doing this? 

My myth: Probably because I think there are certain "expectations" of clean house perfection since I am a stay at home mom 

What should be my reality: stay tidy like you used to but for heaven's sake, don't let some dirty dishes bother you! 

I'm declaring to myself that it's not healthy for me, for every bit of my naptime-time to be fully taken over by clean the house activities. Instead, I should work on having my house look presentable but also, allow some free time for myself as well. It sounds silly and simple but that's my new goal!

I do miss my cleaning lady though!!!