my favorite potato salad

 I love the word "salad"; it can cover a multitude of sins. Especially in the South, where salads usually involve something creamy--mayonnaise, cream cheese, even cool whip--they are often much less healthy than they sound. I won't say I'm above such mayo-laden delicacies as grape or broccoli salad, but sometimes I want something a little more complex and a little less heart-stopping. Earlier this summer my mom asked me to make some potato salad for dinner at the beach, and based on a recipe I liked and what we had in the fridge, I came up with the recipe below. It's creamy, yes, and I don't know that I would call it health food, but it's more than potatoes+mayo+celery, and it is absolutely delicious warm or cold.

my favorite potato salad
adapted from food52
serves 4-6

ingredients:
10 or so medium red-skinned potatoes (about 1 1/2 lbs), cut in half
Olive oil and kosher salt, for roasting
1/2 c Greek yogurt
1/4 c mayo
2 tbsp sweet pickle relish
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1 green onion or 1/4 large onion, diced
2 ribs celery, diced
A few shakes Tabasco
1/2 tsp Creole seasoning

instructions:
Preheat oven to 400. Toss potatoes with olive oil and kosher salt, and roast until cooked through and golden brown on the bottom (40-45 minutes). Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl to make the dressing. When potatoes are done and you're ready to serve the salad, cut them into bite-sized pieces and toss with the dressing. Don't do this until you're ready to serve the salad (warm or cold is fine), since the potatoes soak up the dressing pretty quickly.

P.S. - I made a much larger batch of this for a meal we served this week at The Nashville Food Project, alongside pulled pork, maque choux, and banana blueberry cake. It's not up yet, but in the next few days they will have the recipe for maque choux on their website feature Cook for a Crowd. Check it out!

blueberry-basil breakfast bowl

I promise these berries are of the blue variety.

Although recently my blog posts have been few and far between, I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. I'm the summer kitchen intern (or Kitchen Intern, if I'm feeling self-important) at this great organization called The Nashville Food Project, and although that means I'm working with food all day most days, I still usually want to cook for myself when I come home. I try to get all my cooking done at night, dinner first, then breakfast and lunch to take with me for the next day. This isn't any different from my school-year routine, but because I have more free time now I'm trying more new recipes than usual, including the one you're about to read!

Most of the time "new" recipes that attract me remind me of something I already like. This is a perfect example. Oatmeal is my default breakfast, but when it's 100+ degrees outside it's hard to get excited about a hot bowl of anything. When I saw The Kitchn's recipe for a breakfast blueberry and grain salad, I knew I had to make it. (This epiphany might have had something to do with the 8 pints of blueberries I had just bought on sale at Whole Foods.) So I did, and I ate it every day for breakfast last week. Tonight I decided to make another batch, but I changed a few things: more berries, fewer nuts, basil instead of nutmeg. I think my version is an improvement on the original, humility be damned.

I know the name I gave this recipe has a lot of "b"s--I was always a sucker for alliteration. And blueberries. And, as you probably already know if you know me, breakfast. This hits all three. You can substitute almost any grains, fruits, spices or herbs, and nuts or seeds you want, but make sure you come up with an equally snappy title for your new version, please.

blueberry-basil breakfast bowl
adapted from the kitchn
makes about 8 servings

ingredients:
1 c steel-cut oats
1 c quinoa
1/2 c millet
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
4 1/2 c water
3/4 tsp salt
2 lemons, zest and juice
1/3 c basil, chopped
1/2 c maple syrup
1 c Greek yogurt
1/2 c pecans, toasted and chopped
3 c blueberries

instructions:
Mix the oats, quinoa, and millet in a fine mesh strainer and rinse for about a minute under running water. Set aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the rinsed grains and cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until they begin smelling toasted. Pour in 4 1/2 cups water and stir in 3/4 teaspoon salt and the zest of 1 lemon.

Bring to boil, cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes, then remove the lid and fluff with a fork. Spread hot grains on a large baking sheet and let cool for at least half an hour.

Spoon the cooled grains into a large bowl. Stir in the basil and the zest of the second lemon.

In a medium bowl whisk the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil with the juice of both lemons until emulsified. Whisk in the maple syrup and yogurt. Pour this into the grains and stir until well-coated. Stir in the toasted pecans and blueberries. Taste and season with additional salt, if necessary.

Refrigerate overnight (or as long as you can stand it). This will keep in the fridge for several days and also freezes well, if you can't eat it all up in a week.

grandma's pickles

About six months ago, I bought a dozen pint-sized jars with the intention of canning something. I made three jars of preserved lemons to give as Christmas gifts and promptly relegated the three-quarters-full box of jars to the back of my pantry, along with my cake decorating supplies and three bags of leftover potato chips from Jason's Deli.

But it's summer now, and high time for preserving any and everything this season has to offer. I thought about making strawberry jam just a little bit too long, and the season passed me by. Cucumbers are starting to come in, though, so I decided to make the cucumber lime pickles my Grandma used to put up. She also made strawberry jam, and peach, too, although the peach often ended up crystallizing in the back of our refrigerator (sorry, Grandma!).

These pickles, though...wow! Besides tasting like my childhood, they are the highlight of any sandwich--sweet and vinegary, crunchy and sharp and stickily delicious. They take some time, 2 or 3 days, but I promise they're worth it. Make them. Make them now.

P.S. - I have nine jars, lids, and tops left and am itching to make some kind of jam or preserves, even though it's too late for strawberry. If you have a good canning recipe for an in-season (or soon to be) fruit or vegetable, please share!

"old south" cucumber lime pickles

cukes, pre-pickling

from Mrs. Wages
makes 12-14 pint-sized jars

ingredients:
7 lbs pickling cucumbers, sliced
1 c Mrs. Wages pickling lime
2 gal water
8 c distilled white vinegar, 5% acidity 
8 c sugar
1 tbsp salt (optional)
2 tsp mixed pickling spices (Ball and Mrs. Wages both make these)

special equipment:
sterilized canning jars, lids, and screw-on tops (sterilize the jars and tops by running them through the dishwasher; instructions for the lids to follow)
boiling water bath canner (I just bought this inexpensive one)

instructions:
Stir together pickling lime and water in canner (without rack; that comes much later). Add cucumbers; cover and let soak for at least two hours or overnight.

Remove cucumbers from lime water; discard lime water. Rinse cucumbers three times under running water. Wash canner and put cucumbers back in it; cover with ice water and let soak for three hours.

Remove cucumbers from water; discard water. Combine vinegar, sugar, salt, and pickling spices in canner. Bring to a low boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Remove syrup from heat and add cucumbers. Soak 5-6 hours or overnight.

Bring cucumbers and syrup to boil in canner and let boil for 35 minutes. Meanwhile, take out sterilized jars and tops, and boil a small pan of water. Once water boils, place lids in it to sterilize them and turn the heat off. After cucumbers and syrup have boiled for 35 minutes, fill jars with cucumbers and syrup, leaving 1/2-inch headspace (you may have to make more syrup to fill the jars). Remove lids from small pot of water, and top and cap each jar.

Place rack in canner and fill with water. Bring water to a boil, then place jars on the canner rack, making sure the jars are completely covered with water. Bring water back to a boil and leave jars in boiling water for 10 minutes (this step is called processing). Remove jars from water and let sit until cool. If done correctly the jars should seal, and when you press down on the lids they should not pop back up. If they do pop up, try turning them upside-down, pushing the lid in, and letting them sit that way for awhile; sometimes this will seal them. Still no dice? Sorry, you'll need to refrigerate those jars. If the lids don't pop back up, though (yay!), the unrefrigerated pickles will keep indefinitely, probably until next cucumber season. Store in a cool, dry, place, and refrigerate before serving. If you want someone to like you, give them a jar.

a trick grandma taught me