Better Than Anything in a Box (Except Diamonds)

A few months ago, one of my Facebook friends posted, "Nothing beats Kraft macaroni and cheese for dinner sometimes!" and it prompted a fury of agreeing comments from all of her friends.

Er, I stand to disagree - the one major dish that beats Kraft macaroni and cheese (or macaroni 'n cheese, I should say) is real, homemade macaroni and cheese. Y'all agree?

I'm not totally against processed foods for convenience or even for familiarity's sake; after all, most recipes I loved while growing up began as a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. I don't make a habit of using these ingredients, mostly because it's often cheaper to make them at home.

I don't know why people don't make food at home anymore, or why they don't do it more often. It is so. much. better. than its storebought counterpart.

It's true for mac 'n cheese, and it's true for chocolate pudding. This homemade chocolate pudding comes together in 10 minutes on the stovetop, and even though the directions say to eat it cold, I prefer to let it sit in the fridge only until it cools to room temperature, or I eat it warm for the ultimate delicious, easy and fast comfort dessert. It's creamy, light and indulgent. In a word, it's perfect.

Chocolate Pudding
Ingredients:
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
* 1/8 teaspoon salt
* 1 cup good-quality chocolate milk, 2% or whole
* 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
* 1 1/2 teaspoons butter
* 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 tablespoons chocolate chips, optional

Directions:
In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, flour and salt. Gradually stir in chocolate milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat.

Stir a small amount of hot filling into egg yolk; return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat. Gently stir in butter and vanilla.

Cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to dessert dishes and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Serves 2.

Photo Credit: iStockPhoto:sallyjshintaffer

It's Picadillo, Yo

Never in my life would I have thought the combination of ground beef, raisins and green olives would be so delicious... until I met my friend Barbara, who introduced me to picadillo, which is kind of like the Cuban version of spaghetti (except it doesn't have noodles).

Her version calls for sofrito, a speciality mix of herbs, garlic, onions and green peppers, that she brought back from her trips to Orlando or Miami. The enormous bucket of it would last forever in its brightly green glory in my refrigerator... until once when my mother thought it was that green color from mold, and then threw it away.

Harumph.

So, since the grocery store version of sofrito is red and more acidic - and since I can't travel to Orlando every time I want to make picadillo - a simple saute' of onions, garlic, green bell peppers and a splash of olive brine or white wine vinegar will do. You could use Recaita, the green stuff found next to the Sofrito on the grocery store shelf, but I prefer the fresh mix as opposed to the jarred version.

I am still surprised that no store in Atlanta carries this mixture, but I keep looking for it. If anyone knows of a farmers market that does carry it, please let me know. In the meantime, enjoy the delightful mix of savory and sweet in picadillo, which you can throw together in less than half an hour. I serve it over white rice, but you could easily use it as a filling for tacos, empanadas, enchiladas, bell peppers or over crusty bread.

Picadillo

Ingredients:
- 1 lb. ground beef, 80-90 percent lean
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 seeded and diced green bell pepper
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large russet potato, peeled and diced into small pieces (optional)
- 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce
- Olive brine to taste
- 1 bay leaf
- 10-15 pimento-stuffed green olives, cut in half
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 1 tsp. dried oregano or 1 Tbsp. fresh oregano
- Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a skillet over medium heat, brown the ground beef, onion, green pepper and garlic. Drain off excess fat and add potatoes, if using. Toss to combine. Add tomato sauce, olive brine, bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Add olives, raisins and oregano. Cover and simmer over medium low heat for 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve over steamed white rice. If you are using the mixture as an empanada, enchilada or bell pepper stuffing, continue to simmer over medium low heat until most the of the liquid has evaporated.

Chicken Cattiatore, or What to Do With All of Those Other White Beans

I'm humoring myself and assuming that maybe one of you cooked the entire pound of white beans as suggested in the previous blog entry and didn't just resort to using canned, rinsed white beans (though that certainly will do). Like I said before, the big pot o' white beans is just a more economical approach to stocking your pantry with multiple cans of white beans. And now you - that one person - are wondering what in the world you will do with another half-pound of frozen white beans.

The answer, dear faithful sole follower, is in my variation of Nigella Lawson's Chicken Cattiatore. (I have to look up how to spell that word every time I write it.) It is simply "chicken cooked in the hunter's way," for you, that means it's a one-pot meal that could potentially be cooked over a campfire. Don't worry; it's stovetop-friendly, too.

Here at Will Blog for Food, I'm a big fan of one-pot meals, and well, so is my husband. Few things make him happier than facing only one pot to wash after a delicious dinner. And oh, how I love me some Nigella Lawson! She speaks food poetry, lyrical recipes, even, with her usage of words such as "jewel-toned vegetables," and "Let it come to a bubble" instead of "Let it boil." Lovely! My words won't sound as fancy (that's "faincy" if I was saying it out loud) as hers do, but I'll try.
I discovered Nigella's recipe after seeing her show "Nigella Express" (Love it! Please bring it back, FN!) on the Food Network, and maybe some measurements are lost in the metric system conversion, but somehow, each time I made it, the dish seemed more like soup instead of the thickened dish seen on the Food Network. After some experiments and tweaking, I figured out the answer: Cut the chicken into smaller pieces, add a little thickener and let it cook with the lid off.

On another thrifty note, chicken thighs are more flavorful and less expensive than chicken breasts, though for the sake of time, I do recommend spending a bit more on the boneless, skinless chicken thighs. This meal comes together in 20-25 minutes, especially if you snip the bacon and green onions with kitchen shears right over the pot, instead of dragging out the knife and cutting board.

One last plug: I made this for my mom once when she was visiting for the weekend, and she immediately demanded the recipe. Economical, one dish and healthy, with a dose of fiber from the white beans, this Chicken Cattiatore is all that a one-pot meal should be.

Chicken Cattiatore

Ingredients:
- 1 T. olive oil
- 4 slices bacon, chopped, preferably center-cut
- 6 green onions or 1/2 c. chopped white onions
- 2 T. minced garlic (about three large cloves)
- 1/2 tsp. dried rosemary, slightly crumbled between your fingers
- 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 T. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
- 1/2 c. dry white wine
- 1 14-ounce can diced tomatoes
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 lb. thawed white beans (cannellini), or two cans drained, rinsed white beans

Directions:
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan, and add the bacon and onions. Fry until the bacon renders its fat, 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and rosemary and stir. Add the chicken pieces to the pan and sprinkle the flour and Old Bay over. Toss everything together. Pour in the wine next, then add the tomatoes (undrained), bay leaves and sugar. Stir everything and let simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Stir in the white beans at the end and serve. Serves 4.

Southerners and casseroles are like peas and carrots... and mayonnaise

I so am from the South. It's not only in my head; it's in my blood. I'm a fourth-generation native Georgian, the daughter and granddaughter of Georgia peanut farmers. And I love that fact. Where else is college football a religion, pearls a requirement and meat a necessary ingredient in vegetables?

The meat-and-vegetable comment brings me to my latest subject, casseroles. Casseroles and Southern go together like wine and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, like cabbage and mayonnaise.

Wait... what?

Yes, cabbage and mayonnaise. Though this particular blog won't delve into the cabbage-and-mayo casserole recipe that was given to me at one of my bridal showers, I will explain this: Southerners can take any perfectly healthy vegetable, add some butter, mayonnaise, cheese and bread crumbs, bake it at 325 degrees, and it's a casserole. (Man, doesn't that sound good right now? Mmm...)

This particular casserole is brought to you by my favorite cookbook, "A Standing Invitation," the Dawson United Methodist ladies' collection. Yes, it's a church ladies' cookbook, so you can thereby rest assured that whatever is going to come out of it is going to be good, 'cause y'all, church ladies know how to cook. But don't just take my word for it: This cookbook is so fantastic that it was first printed in 1990 and is still regularly printed throughout the South, nearly 20 years after its initial printing. I have managed to acquire three copies of it throughout my lifetime, one that's autographed by the original editor, Lynette Cowart, who was part of a story I wrote for The Albany Herald at my first job out of college. She wrote a nice note to me inside the front cover, where she spoke about how much she loved my grandmother and mother.

Don't just look at the ingredients list and sigh --- the combination of these flavors is sheer magic that only tried-and-true Southern church ladies can create. The following is my quick-cooking variation on Mrs. Homer (Ruby) McDaniel's lovely recipe. It's important to note that in no way do I ever measure the vegetable ingredients; I just add how ever much I feel like on that day. Please feel free to do the same.

Sausage Casserole

Ingredients:
-1 pound bulk sausage (I switch between my local farmers' market's homemade turkey sausage and Jimmy Dean's reduced-fat pork sausage, even though the latter is 12 oz. instead of a pound)
- 4 1/2 cups water
- 2 packages dry chicken noodle soup mix (soup with chicken broth)
- 1/2 cup uncooked brown Minute rice
- 1/2 cup green pepper, chopped
- 1 cup celery, chopped
- 1 cup onion, chopped

Directions:
Brown sausage and drain. Mix water, soup and rice together and boil for seven minutes. Mix in sausage, pepper, celery and onions. Place in a long baking dish. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

If Vietnam and France had a baby...

Wait a minute. No one ever told me (not until last week, actually) that Vietnam and France -- arguably my two favorite countries of culinary origin -- got together and birthed their own cuisine, a street food named bánh mì! Look for it in Atlanta at Quoc Huong, 5150 Buford Hwy. NE, Doraville, in the quite-crowded Asian Square.

Mind, consider yourself officially blown.

I won't go into why two seemingly polar opposite countries - a proud, Western European nation and an equally proud, war-torn Asian nation - had a gastronomical baby, but I'm grateful they did. Instead, I'll explain what makes each cuisine so distinct and wonderful.

Words that make me think of French food: Rich, heavy, cream, classic, wine, butter, cheese, thick, flaky, pastry, indulgent... Outside of creme brulee', French fries and escargot, think of mealy, crispy, thin potatoes fried in duck fat, medium-rare steaks drizzled with a transparent, light buerre blanc (butter sauce) and chives, and tiny pots of luxurious chicken liver pate' topped with a contrastingly sharp, tangy apple jelly. Think of my favorite dessert, chocolate mousse, and all of the beauty in the masterful manipulation of its three simple ingredients: cream, the best melted chocolate and eggs.

I'd describe Vietnamese food with words such as fresh, light, vegetables, basil, pickled, cilantro, fish sauce, noodles, rice paper, quick, charcoal, spring, satisfying, varied... So many separate, contrasting flavors can be found in one dish. My favorite dish, bún chả, has crisp, cool lettuce, cilantro, julienned carrots and cucumber underneath room-temperature vermicelli noodles, charcoal-cooked pork tenderloin, tiny, crispy fried onions and chopped peanuts, with spicy, sweet fish sauce to pour over all. Each forkful produces a slightly different flavor.

Then there's the Vietnamese-French lovechild, bánh mì, a rice-and-wheat flour baguette sandwich filled with pickled vegetables, jalapenos, and that charcoal-cooked, thinly sliced pork tenderloin. The sauce is pate' and mayonnaise, or pate' and bright yellow butter, with a choice of additional sauces, ranging from kinda-spicy to melt-your-face-off, to pour over. The combination and juxtaposition of the two culinary worlds is divine and everything you could hope for: Light and heavy, fresh and rich, sharp and luxurious, herbs and meat, summer and winter.

Since the baguette is made with rice flour and wheat flour, it's lighter than most. In other words, it won't bog down the flavors of the sandwich, this delightful street food, and, ahem, it also won't cut the roof of your mouth. (One of my college roommates seriously injured herself on a French baguette once in a certain well-known sandwich and soup place. No, seriously, the upper piece of that hard bread went in between her gum and tooth... it was not pretty.)

And did I mention the sandwich is only $2.00? Yes, you read that right - two small bucks for one amazing 8" piece o'heaven. So you should go... and witness the birth of what might be the world's most perfect food! That reminds me, it's lunch time...