Category: Side Dish

Recipes for side dishes.

Categories
Main Dish Side Dish

For dinner tonight, choose to go with the grain

Hibachi-style fried rice is easy to create and simple to alter, depending on what's sitting in your refrigerator.
Hibachi-style fried rice is easy to create and simple to alter, depending on what’s sitting in your refrigerator.

Over the years, I have to confess that I have tended to order off of the side dishes part of the menu for a lot of my meals.

Particularly at Chinese restaurants, I’ve been known to just buy an order of fried rice for lunch and skip over the entrees completely. It’s one of my favorite things.

According to an article by Rhonda Parkinson, the recipe for fried rice literally goes back centuries in China and likely came about sometime during the Sui Dynasty, which lasted from 589 to 618 A.D.

The “proper” way to make it is the subject of a lot of debate online if you want to jump into the fray. People differ on the seasonings, the vegetables, what meats are or are not added, and even at what point in the process an egg should be added.

So when I made fried rice to go along with dinner recently, I just chose a recipe that sounded good to try and went with it, fully recognizing that I probably wasn’t accomplishing something “authentic.” But in the grand scheme of things, it was delicious, so I wasn’t too worried if someone in the Sui Dynasty would have recognized my concoction as close to their own.

The recipe I tried comes from the blog “Kitchen Swagger” by Shawn Williams. You can find the original post at https://kitchenswagger.com/hibachi-style-fried-rice-recipe/. I added extra garlic powder to my version, and I realized after starting that I was out of peas, so those ended up being left out by necessity (they’ll definitely get added next time). I also updated the directions a bit.

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Hibachi-Style Fried Rice

Hibachi-style fried rice is easy to create and simple to alter, depending on what's sitting in your refrigerator.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Chinese
Keyword fried rice, Hibachi, rice, takeout

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
  • 1/4 cup carrots diced
  • 1/4 cup peas
  • 1/2 cup onion diced (I used yellow)
  • 2 cups white rice prepared
  • 2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • 3 tablespoons butter or margarine
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1 egg beaten

Instructions

  • In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the carrots, peas and onion. Saute them for several minutes or until the vegetables are to your desired tenderness.
  • Add the rice to the skillet and stir to combine. Then add the soy sauce, butter, garlic powder and salt and pepper to the skillet and keep stirring so everything is well combined and the butter fully melts.
  • For the last step, slide the rice out of the way and dump in your beaten egg, stirring constantly for a couple minutes until it’s cooked through, and stir it into the rest of the rice mixture.
  • Serve.

We really enjoyed this, and I even made it fancy by packing the rice into a small ramekin and then upturning it onto the plates to make uniform mounds of yummy fried rice on our plates.

I also did technically pick a side on the egg debate. I once listened to a chef who said the egg should be added last, because that keeps it from getting too dry and overcooked, and I thought that made enough sense to make it my practice.

The best part about the history of fried rice, in my opinion, is that it’s really just an excuse to use up whatever you still have laying around your kitchen, so adding other veggies or even some protein is completely within the realm of possibility. In fact, a lot of people argue that day-old rice is the only way to make fried rice taste perfect.

Also, if you want to speed up this process, grab a bag of frozen peas and carrots and use that instead of having to cut up your own veggies.

And if you don’t want to make an entree to go with your fried rice, go ahead and eat it as your main dish for dinner. After doing enough research, I can tell you that the only rule with fried rice is that there really aren’t any rules.

This piece first appeared in print on May 14, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

Try to get ahead with German red cabbage

German red cabbage is served warm and is a great side dish for traditional German sausage.
German red cabbage is served warm and is a great side dish for traditional German sausage.

Despite all the craziness at the grocery store lately, I decided to head out to our local spot to get supplies for a new recipe I wanted to try.

We were going to have some specialty German sausage for dinner, graciously shared with us by a friend, and I wanted to get something traditional to go with it.

After searching online, I determined I would make a warm German potato salad and some German red cabbage.

When I got to my produce section, that plan had to quickly change. There wasn’t a single potato in sight. Not a Russet or a fingerling or a Yukon gold. Nothing. I’ve never seen such a thing in my life.

Realizing I was out of luck for potato salad, I turned my attention to the cabbage area. Leaves were strewn about, and there were no green heads left. I was afraid I was going to have to come up with a new plan, but I finally spied two very small heads of red cabbage hidden in the back of the display. I decided to scoop them up for our dinner, figuring two small heads equaled one medium one.

So, while I’m sharing this recipe with you this week, I can’t promise you’ll be able to find the ingredients for a bit, but save it, because this turned out great and was an especially delicious side dish to German sausage.

This recipe comes from the website “Quick German Recipes” and is by Oma Gerhild Fulson. (“Oma” is German for “Grandma.”) I recommend checking out her site. She has lots of traditional recipes and even has a cookbook out. You can find the original post at https://www.quick-german-recipes.com/recipe-for-red-cabbage.html. I left the sugar out of my version.

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Oma’s Red Cabbage

German red cabbage is served warm and is a great side dish for traditional German sausage.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine German
Keyword red cabbage

Ingredients

  • 1 medium head red cabbage shredded
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 large onion diced
  • 3 Granny Smith apples peeled, cored and shredded
  • 1/2 cup sweet red wine I used a cabernet savignon
  • 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 1/2 rounded teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 rounded teaspoon cloves
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch

Instructions

  • In a deep pot or very large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and saute the onion until lightly browned.
  • Add the shredded cabbage and apples and saute for a few minutes, stirring regularly to incorporate the ingredients.
  • Mix in one cup of water along with the red wine, cider vinegar, salt and pepper, nutmeg, cloves, lemon juice and corn starch.
  • Cover the pan and let it simmer for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, depending on how tender you want your cabbage. Check and stir every five minutes or so.
  • Once the cabbage is to your desired tenderness, taste test it to see if you need to add any more spices, and add more cornstarch if you want to thicken up the juice a bit more.
  • Serve hot.

This had some really nice flavor combinations going on—a little tartness from the apples and vinegar, sweetness from the wine, and warmth from the spices. Plus, it was absolutely gorgeous.

Two words of warning, though. One, it will make your whole house smell like cabbage, which I can tell you was not a plus in Joey’s book. Two, red cabbage likes to stain your fingers, so be ready for a little pop of color on your palms from handling it.

I was glad to be able to find just enough ingredients to make my German red cabbage this week, and it gave me a huge appreciation for our local grocers and those who work in that industry. I bet these are exhausting times, and it’s a good reminder of how lucky I am that fresh produce and an abundance of food is normally always at my fingertips.

Hopefully, our grocery stores—and our communities—will be back to normal in no time.

This piece first appeared in print on March 19, 2020, amid the COVID-19 quarantine.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

A quick Cajun dish will do ‘rice’ly

Cajun rice comes together easily and is a flavorful side dish.
Cajun rice comes together easily and is a flavorful side dish.

During a recent lazy weekend, we were getting a meal ready to eat in front of the television to watch a basketball game. As is often the case, Joey and I decided to share duties in the kitchen to get our meal prepared. Joey was going to cook a rack of ribs, and I told him I’d take care of the side.

He was making some Cajun ribs, so I decided a nice side of Cajun rice would be perfect, already tasting the sweet red peppers and warm seasoning in my mouth.

Except he wasn’t making Cajun ribs. He was making chipotle ribs.

I have no doubt that he told me the right flavor profile. In fact, I’m sure he told me exactly what he had planned, and I think my brain just filled in what it really wanted to hear.

So, this week I’m sharing a recipe for some Cajun rice with you, despite us not eating anything else even remotely Louisiana-related with it.

This comes from the blog “The Mountain Kitchen” by David and Debbie Spivey. You can find their original post at https://www.themountainkitchen.com/easy-cajun-rice/. I changed up the amounts of some items in my version.

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Cajun Rice

Cajun rice comes together easily and is a flavorful side dish.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Cajun
Keyword bell pepper, rice

Ingredients

  • 1 cup white rice cooked to package directions
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large red bell pepper diced
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Cajun or Creole seasoning
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add the peppers and saute until they reach your desired tenderness.
  • Add the garlic and saute until it just starts to brown. Stir in the tomato paste and let cook for about one more minute.
  • Add in the rice, lemon juice and seasonings, stirring to combine everything and making sure the rice is heated through. Serve.

On the plus side, I can tell you from experience that this rice does, indeed, pair well with chipotle-seasoned meats, so if you want an adventure, go for it.

Also, if you want to make this a meal by itself, season some peeled shrimp with some of your Cajun seasoning and saute it in a little butter or olive oil over medium heat. Add it to the rice, and it’s a great meal.

I’m glad I have an understanding husband who just rolled his eyes at me and dished up a large scoop of rice alongside his ribs.

I suppose if you’re going to be a bad listener, the least you can do is apologize with something delicious.

This piece first appeared in print on Jan. 16, 2020.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

You’ll be sweet on these roasted potatoes

Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.
Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.

Despite it being the week before Christmas, I have yet to make my normal pile of sweets.

I generally bake at least a double batch of peppernuts, and there’s often something that requires melting almond bark in my double boiler and spreading waxed paper on every open counter space.

I actually have a variety of baking chips and some nuts already sitting out, ready to be mixed into some delicious treats, but I just haven’t gotten into my Christmas baking spirit yet.

But I did have some nice sweet potatoes sitting on my counter that I decided needed to be part of dinner this past week, which I suppose loosely counts as holiday cooking.

I wanted to make them as a side dish, and while I was a little nervous that the brown sugar in the recipe I chose would produce something more dessert-like, I was pleasantly surprised. It had just enough sweetness to highlight the flavor of the potatoes but not enough to make you feel like adding some whipped cream on top.

I found this recipe on the blog “Wine and Glue.” It’s by Lisa Longley. You can find it at https://www.wineandglue.com/brown-sugar-roasted-sweet-potatoes. This was such a simple, straight-forward recipe that I didn’t change it from her original. Also, don’t let the cayenne pepper make you nervous, it just enhances the flavors rather than making the overall dish spicy.

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Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Roasted sweet potatoes have just the right amount of sweetness to be a nice addition to dinner.
Course Side Dish
Keyword brown sugar, cayenne, cinnamon, roasted, sweet potatoes

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons butter or margarine melted
  • 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • salt to taste
  • 2 large sweet potatoes peeled and cut in half-inch cubes

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 450 and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleanup.
  • Dump the cubed potatoes and all the ingredients onto the pan and mix together with a spoon or your hands until the potatoes are evenly coated.
  • Spread the potatoes out evenly and bake about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until the potatoes are fork tender.

The caramelization on these sweet potatoes was really pretty, and while I rarely peel any kind of potatoes for recipes, I think that was a good step in this case.

We ate these alongside some perfectly cooked steaks, and it was a fantastic dinner. There were also leftovers that reheated well out of the fridge for a later meal.

I’m sure I’ll find myself mixing up plenty of sugar-filled treats sometime in the next few days, filling my plastic containers with all kinds of goodies to share.

The smell of anise, cloves and cinnamon filling the house is one of my favorite parts of the holidays. I wish you luck with your own holiday baking (and eating) and a very, merry Christmas.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 19, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Dessert Salad Side Dish

Recipe traditions can provide a ‘berry’ Christmas

This simple combination of ingredients is a beautiful addition to the family table for the holidays.
This simple combination of ingredients is a beautiful addition to the family table for the holidays.

This is the first year of major holidays our family will celebrate without my maternal grandparents. Thanksgiving was a tough transition to the new normal, and I know Christmas will be even more difficult.

When my paternal grandmother passed away several years ago, I began taking solace in using her pie pans every holiday season. Bringing them out of my cupboard always makes me feel close to her.

I employed the same strategy this Thanksgiving, baking pies in her pans, and then pulling out the handwritten recipe for cranberry sauce I asked my maternal grandma for only a year before.

In typical Grandma fashion, there were no measurements—although, to her credit, she wrote it down for me from memory while we sat chatting after dinner—but as I tentatively walked the aisles of my grocery store, wondering if I’d be able to decipher what she meant by a “tuna-sized” can of crushed pineapple, I discovered that her instructions were perfect.

She had given me just what I needed to recreate the cranberry sauce that graced her Thanksgiving and Christmas tables alike throughout my childhood.

So I wanted to share it with you this week. I added the measurements for the ingredients now that I have them figured out.

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Lola’s Cranberry Sauce

This simple combination of ingredients is a beautiful addition to the family table for the holidays.
Course Dessert, Salad, Side Dish
Keyword Christmas, cranberry, pineapple, Thanksgiving

Ingredients

  • 6- ounce package cherry gelatin
  • 8 ounces crushed pineapple
  • 14 ounces jellied cranberry
  • 1 cup diced celery

Instructions

  • Prepare the cherry gelatin according to package instructions. Once it is set up, proceed with the next step.
  • Drain the crushed pineapple well.
  • In a serving bowl, stir together all the ingredients. (It’s kind of fun to mess up a whole batch of perfectly set gelatin.)
  • Once everything is well-combined, serve or refrigerate covered overnight.

This has always been one of my favorite side dishes at our family get togethers. It’s certainly nothing fancy, and I don’t think it would win any culinary awards, unlike many of my grandma’s other recipes, but it tastes like the holidays to me.

My favorite way to eat it growing up (and I confess I may still employ this strategy), was to put a spoonful into the middle of a dinner roll and enjoy it like jelly.

I will warn you that the gelatin and jellied cranberry break down pretty quickly if you leave this sitting in the refrigerator for a few days, so it’s best to either stir it up the same day you plan to enjoy it or the night before.

I chopped my celery and mixed up the gelatin the night before so it was simple to throw together right before our meal.

And if you get some especially green celery, you’ll get perfect Christmas colors to add to the holiday table.

I’m still working on perfecting recipes from both of my grandmothers without the benefit of their help these days. It always makes me feel connected to them, even if I’m not always the best at recreating each dish.

Celebrating the holidays without loved ones is tough, but just like my grandma’s handwritten notes for cranberry sauce, the people we’ve lost often give us just what we need to keep going—whether we realize it or not.

This piece first appeared in print on Dec. 12, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

Sometimes speed is what cooking is all a’sprout’

Caramelized sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts are a flavorful and colorful side dish.
Caramelized sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts are a flavorful and colorful side dish.

I recently found myself going on a whirlwind trip through the grocery store, quickly grabbing something to make for dinner on my way home from work.

Joey and I were all geared up to watch a basketball game, and I (of course) ended up getting caught in the office far later than I wanted. And (of course) I’d already volunteered to be the chef for the night.

I started in the meat section and found some amazing, thick pork chops, and then I hurried over to the produce area to try to come up with a side dish.

I normally avoid already prepared vegetables—mostly because I’m cheap, but I took a look anyway since I was in a hurry. I found a marked-down bag of already-washed Brussels sprouts and already-cubed sweet potatoes.

I pulled out my phone and quickly searched online for a “Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes” side dish and was thankful that the Internet is always at my fingertips, making it easy for me to know that a recipe was readily available when I got home.

The one I found came from the website “My Recipes” and was written by Robert Wiedmaier. You can find it at https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/caramelized-sweet-potatoes-brussels-sprouts. I added more garlic and changed up the instructions a bit.

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Caramelized Sweet Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts

Caramelized sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts are a flavorful and colorful side dish.
Course Side Dish
Keyword Brussels sprouts, garlic, sweet potatoes

Ingredients

  • 2 sweet potatoes peeled and diced
  • 1 pound Brussels sprouts halved
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 tablespoons melted butter
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy clean up.
  • Combine all the ingredients on the baking sheet and mix with your hands to fully coat the vegetables in oil, butter and seasonings. Spread the vegetables out into as much of a single layer as you can.
  • Place in the oven for 25 minutes (or until they reach your preferred level of tenderness), stirring the vegetables halfway through.
  • Serve right away.

My vegetables ended up staying in the oven for about 10 minutes longer than the listed time, just because I tend to really like tender sprouts, but it was such an easy side dish to just toss in the oven while I was cooking my pork chops.

The original recipe calls for spreading them out on two rimmed sheets, which would probably make the cooking go a bit more quickly, but they weren’t very crowded on my single pan, so I didn’t bother with a second.

And I did end up not getting to see a bit of the first half of basketball while I was in the kitchen, but thanks to some quick, prepared veggies, I didn’t have to miss much, our guys sealed the victory, and we had a great dinner.

I’d call that a win.

This piece first appeared in print on Nov. 28, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Appetizer Main Dish Side Dish

Mushrooms are easy ‘caprese’ for dinner

Caprese portabella mushrooms take the flavors of a caprese salad and presents them in a warm, pretty side dish.
Caprese portabella mushrooms take the flavors of a caprese salad and presents them in a warm, pretty side dish.

On our honeymoon, Joey and I visited a great Italian restaurant in New York City. It was the most expensive meal of our vacation, with us spending a generous gift from a family member that was earmarked for just that purpose.

The place wasn’t all that fancy to look at, but when your waiter is so quintessentially Italian that he’s singing along with the opera music playing in the background, you know you’re about to experience something authentic.

We ordered a bottle of wine, and our waiter suggested an appetizer of some fresh mozzarella that was flown in from Italy the day before, so we decided to go for it.

He plopped a plate in front of us with a giant mound of mozzarella, garnished with fresh basil and tomatoes—and we had no idea how to eat it.

This week, we again enjoyed that flavor combination with a slightly less intimidating side dish, and it was delicious. I will admit this is on the pricier end of recipes from what I normally suggest, but if you’re looking for something special—or you find a good sale—keep this one in your recipe box.

This recipe comes from the blog “Fat Girl Happy.” You can find it at https://www.fatgirlhappy.com/caprese-portabella-mushroom-recipe/. The only difference we made was leaving out the suggestion of balsamic vinegar, and I put amounts to the ingredients.

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Caprese Portabella Mushrooms

Caprese portabella mushrooms take the flavors of a caprese salad and presents them in a warm, pretty side dish.
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine Italian
Keyword basil, caprese, mozzarella, mushrooms, portabella, tomatoes

Ingredients

  • 5-6 portabella mushroom caps about two-inches in diameter
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 8 ounces fresh whole-milk mozzarella
  • about 5 ounces grape tomatoes
  • about 1/2-ounce fresh basil leaves

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • Line a rimmed sheet pan with aluminum foil for easy cleanup and lightly spray it with cooking spray.
  • Scoop out the insides of each mushroom cap and arrange them, with the insides facing up, on the cooking sheet.
  • Lightly drizzle the mushroom caps with olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper.
  • Slice the mozzarella into equal slices—one slice for each mushroom cap—and place one slice into each.
  • Slice the grape tomatoes in half and place four to five halves on top of the cheese.
  • Bake for 15 minutes. (You may want to drain the sheet pan if there’s too much liquid on the pan, but we didn’t bother draining ours, and they were fine.)
  • Turn the broiler on high for one to three minutes or until the cheese starts to brown slightly.
  • Remove from the oven and top with the fresh basil and a little more olive oil and salt and pepper and serve while they’re nice and hot.

These were heavenly. We ate them as a side dish to some expertly prepared chicken breasts Joey made for us. It was a great dinner.

As for our Italian meal in New York, Joey and I discreetly glanced around at neighboring tables to see how we should dig into our mozzarella appetizer. Everyone else had opted to dive in with forks, so we did, too.

It was really good, although it was way more fresh cheese than the two of us could handle in one sitting, with entrees on the way as well.

That restaurant was one of the highlights of our trip, and we reminisced about it while we enjoyed our portabellas the other night. We’re no substitute for an Italian chef, but we certainly didn’t go hungry.

This piece first appeared in print on Oct. 24, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Side Dish

Don’t leave dinner ‘scalloped’ to chance

Scalloped potatoes are relatively easy to put together and customize, depending on your mood and crowd.
Scalloped potatoes are relatively easy to put together and customize, depending on your mood and crowd.

I have apparently been misinformed about the difference between scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin for my entire life.

I always thought they both had cheese involved. But after I decided recently to make scalloped potatoes, I discovered that the dish has no cheese at all, and it led me down a rabbit hole of food research.

I discovered that although I’ve always thought “au gratin” just meant “with cheese,” it actually just refers to “the verb ‘to gratinée,’ [which] as used today, means simply to give a dish a golden brown top,” as I read in an article on the site “Culinary Lore.”

The article also argues that an “au gratin” dish may really just refer to the type of vessel you cook it in and nothing to do with the ingredients at all.

So then I wondered what made something “scalloped,” and I found an article from “Cook’s Info” that has a couple possible explanations, from taking the word from a French cooking technique where oysters were cooked in scallop shells to an English dish referred to as “collops,” which “meant, among other things, slices of meat.”

So I went from thinking they were both cheesy dishes to finding out that cheese isn’t a requirement for either one. Nonetheless, I did find a recipe on the blog “Spend with Pennies” that I decided I wanted to try—despite its lack of cheese. You can find it at https://www.spendwithpennies.com/scalloped-potatoes-recipe/. I added extra garlic in my version.

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Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are relatively easy to put together and customize, depending on your mood and crowd.
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Keyword garlic, scalloped potatoes

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 onion diced
  • 6 cloves garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 2 cups milk I used skim
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 3 pounds potatoes sliced thinly
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the onions. Saute until the onions are soft and then add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to brown slightly, add the flour and stir it around for about one minute.
  • Turn the heat to low and whisk in the milk and broth. Turn the heat to medium high heat and continue whisking until the sauce thickens. Add in the salt and pepper to taste.
  • While the sauce cooks, spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray and layer in about one-third of the sliced potatoes into the bottom of the dish.
  • Season them with salt and pepper (I also added some red pepper flakes for mine.)
  • Pour one-third of the sauce over the top and then repeat the layers, ending with the rest of the sauce and some more salt and pepper.
  • Cover the pan with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and the potatoes are done through.
  • Turn the broiler on high to get a little color on the top of the potatoes. Leave them under the broiler for about three minutes.
  • Let the potatoes cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

If you are in a mood for cheese, you could easily sprinkle some between the layers on this dish. I think a grated parmesan would be especially nice.

And after all of my research, I’m now aware that almost no one knows what the true difference between scalloped potatoes and potatoes au gratin is, since almost every region where those dishes exist has a different recipe for each.

I’d like to set the blame on the shoulders of the French and their cooking techniques, but I suspect that it probably goes back to the English speakers in our past who just wanted to sound fancy. In reality, there’s not much fancy about scalloped potatoes, but boy, do they still taste good.

This piece first appeared in print on Aug. 1, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Main Dish Microwave Side Dish

It’s tough to see one more empty seat at the table

Scalloped broccoli won't heat up your kitchen with the oven and makes for a good side dish for a big family meal.
Scalloped broccoli won’t heat up your kitchen with the oven and makes for a good side dish for a big family meal.

A couple weeks ago, our family gathered around my maternal grandmother’s table, enjoying a meal with her along with all of the cousins and their children and spouses present.

It was sometimes a bit loud and boisterous, and there was plenty of laughter as we all ate way too much while telling stories and catching up. It was a rare moment when everyone was able to come.

This past weekend, we were all there again, minus one very noticeable presence: Grandma.

After losing my grandpa in March, she went to join him last week. She was ready; we were not.

Grandma’s table expanded several times over the years as grandchildren, significant others and great grandchildren continued to join our family, and although it seemed like there were always more places set every time we gathered, the amount of leftovers seemed to stay constant. She taught us all to cook for an army, and as she often said, if you left hungry, that was your own fault.

When we were younger, Grandma made us all elaborately decorated birthday cakes every year. I almost always requested a spice cake, and when she asked what dishes we’d like to see for our family dinner together to celebrate, I requested her scalloped broccoli.

The broccoli casserole was a favorite amongst all the grandkids, which I suspect had less to do with the broccoli and more to do with the fact that it had plenty of cheese in it.

I decided that making that dish was the perfect way for me to honor her memory and all of those elaborate meals over the years, so I opened the handwritten cookbook she gave me for my 16th birthday, following the directions written in her beautiful cursive.

I’m not sure if anyone has ever shed nostalgic tears over broccoli before, but I definitely did.

So this week, my recipe comes from the kitchen of Lola Franklin—one of the best cooks I’ve ever known.

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Scalloped Broccoli

Scalloped broccoli won't heat up your kitchen with the oven and makes for a good side dish for a big family meal.
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Keyword broccoli, casserole, cheese, cream of mushroom, rice

Ingredients

  • 32 ounces frozen broccoli
  • 1 pound American cheese cut into chunks
  • 2 cups minute rice
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2, 10.5- ounce cans cream of mushroom soup
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

  • In a large pot, add the frozen broccoli along with three cups of water. Put it over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is cooked through.
  • While the broccoli is cooking, add the cheese (Grandma used to either get the loaves of sliced American cheese to use or would request it from the deli counter), rice, milk and soup to a large, microwave-safe casserole dish with a lid.
  • Drain the broccoli and stir it into the other ingredients.
  • Microwave on high, with the lid on, until the cheese is melted and the rice is cooked through (somewhere between five and 10 minutes, depending on the strength of your microwave).
  • Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

This is a great dish for leftovers, which I can attest to after being sent home with many Tupperware containers of it over the years.

After mixing up my batch of broccoli, I have to admit it didn’t taste as great at Grandma’s. I doubt I’ll ever be fully satisfied with my version of it, though, since I won’t be enjoying it with one of the most influential women in my life.

Over the years, she taught me much more than just cooking skills around her dinner table. As she loaded up our plates, she also demonstrated how to be resilient, to be caring, to love unconditionally, and to always put others first.

As we spent our last family meal together, Grandma watched my mom, her daughter, bustling around the table, her own plate still empty as she made sure that everyone else was getting their fill and each dish was making its way around.

She looked across at me and said, “I’d be shocked if she ever actually sat down and ate.”

“I wonder where she got that from,” I responded.

“Hey, now,” she said, a gleam in her eye and a wry smile on her face.

I’ll miss sharing those meals with her as we all try to move forward, but she’ll most certainly always be with us at our family dinner tables and other gatherings we host with friends through the years.

If nothing else, Grandma taught me that life can always use an extra large scoop—of love and, of course, of ice cream.

This piece first appeared in print on July 18, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

Categories
Side Dish

I finally found the cooking method I’ve ‘bean’ looking for

Fresh green beans are a beautiful and delicious addition to the summer dinner table.
Fresh green beans are a beautiful and delicious addition to the summer dinner table.

I absolutely adore green beans. They’ve been near the top of my favorite veggies list since I was little.

My normal ways of preparing them is to open a can, dump them in a microwave-safe container with some salt and pepper and heat them up or to fry up some bits of bacon in a pot and then add the canned beans and seasonings.

But despite my pedestrian preparation of green beans, I am always drawn to fresh ones in the produce aisle when they show up each year. Unfortunately for me (and probably because of my years of canned bean consumption), I’m not a huge fan of crunchy cooked green beans and I seem to struggle to cook them in such a way that they don’t get mushy and overdone.

I still grabbed a big bag of them recently, though, vowing to finally conquer fresh green beans once and for all.

And I totally accomplished it.

So, I thought I would share my green bean process with anyone else who struggles with the perfect line between crispy and mushy fresh beans every summer. I don’t have a specific source for this one, as it’s a product of lots of trial and error over the years, although I’m sure I’m not the first one to try such a preparation.

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Fresh Green Beans

Fresh green beans are a beautiful and delicious addition to the summer dinner table.
Course Side Dish
Keyword garlic, green beans, vegetables

Ingredients

  • 1-2 pounds fresh green beans
  • About 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
  • 6-8 cloves garlic minced
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • red pepper flakes to taste optional

Instructions

  • Cut or snap the stem end of each bean off (I also snapped the longer ones in half so they’d fit in my pot more easily.) and wash them thoroughly.
  • Put the beans in a large pot and cover them with cold water.
  • Bring the pot to a boil and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes or until they’re just fork tender.
  • When the beans are almost done boiling, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the beans are done, drain them well and then add them to the skillet, stirring to coat them in oil.
  • Add in the garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and stir again, letting the beans sit for a couple minutes on each side before stirring them around. Your goal is to get just a little bit of char on the beans and brown the garlic.
  • When the garlic is browned, remove the beans from heat and serve immediately.

These also reheated as leftovers really well, which was nice, because I made way more green beans than we could eat in one meal.

And they turned out just how I like them: a beautiful bright green, plenty of flavor and no crunch when biting into them.

I know a lot of people will argue with me about crunchy beans, but if you’re like me and would rather not have that crisp texture, I’d recommend giving this method a try.

And, of course, there’s always the canned variety, but who wants to get out the can opener during the time of year that gardens are overflowing with fresh veggies?

This piece first appeared in print on July 11, 2019.

Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.

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