American Melting Pot: Pasta e Fagioli

Big Night, starring Stanley Tucci and Tony Shaloub


One of the things that this pandemic quarantine has taught me is how much food waste we had become accustomed to and not noticed in our day to day rush to get from one sports practice and school event to another.  Being forced to slow down our perpetual motion lifestyle at the same time we are trying to minimize our trips out to the store has resulted in some creative recipe overhauls.

During the school year, our slow cooker gets a lot of use.  For ease, you can't beat being able to toss ingredients in the slow cooker first thing in the morning, rush out the door to work, run to a sports practice, and walk in the door to a fully cooked, delicious meal.  It's a lifesaver for me, and something I've been using with a lot of success for years -- all the way back to my hectic legal trial practice days, when we likely would not have eaten anything other than drive-thru crapola otherwise.

Last night, after doing a short inventory of what we had in the produce drawers in our fridge, I realized we had several bits and pieces that needed to be used up before we lost them.  Let's play pandemic fridge remnant bingo, shall we?

Since we've been shopping as infrequently as possible to minimize contacts, I find that once every couple of weeks we have to do an inventory to round up the assorted random bits and pieces, and then I play a game called "what in the world can I make with this?"  Sometimes, I just type in ingredients in the New York Times cooking website and see if I find something that sounds yummy, but more often than not I'm rummaging around my cookbook collection or trying to get creative in a less scary version of Pandemic Chopped.

Usually, it means I'm tossing together some sort of soup or stew, where I can get my vegetable hating family to eat their veggies and love every minute of it.  My people will eat anything that includes either Tex-Mex spices or Italian flavors, and you'd be amazed how many veggies you can cram in a single soup or stew with the right amount of crushed tomatoes poured in to hide them.

Seriously.  Not kidding.

Today's entry in the America's Melting Pot recipes is a hybrid of two wonderful recipes in one of my favorite all-time cookbooks:  Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.

Thanksgiving Planning, Redux

It occurred to me this morning that planning for a Thanksgiving dinner can be overwhelming when you haven't had to plan things out before.  Especially when it is the first major holiday meal you've ever had to make for your family.

I remember that overwhelmed feeling very well the first year I cooked the bulk of the meal.

What I've learned through the years is that there is no substitute for planning.  And that dishes you can make in advance are your very best friends.

To that end, I thought I'd throw together some links and some information for folks, as well as an idea of how I line out my week on a day by day basis:

-- Here's my cooking schedule for the rest of the week:

Monday:  The Peanut and I will finish decorating and cleaning the house.  I've started cooking 3 days ahead, but that's really too early.  So use this day to get last minute groceries, get the rest of the house fairly clean for guests, and make certain you have plenty of extra napkins and such.  If you are going to the store this week, do it as early in the morning as possible, or as late at night as you can - fewer crowds means a saner shopping experience.

Tuesday:  This is where things start cooking this week.  I'll start by making my turkey stock as early as possible today, that way it can simmer in the crockpot for most of the day and all that glorious flavor develops.  It really and truly is the best turkey stock ever from your crockpot, and your stuffing recipe and gravy-making will thank you for the boost in amazing flavor.

I'll also make Granny's cranberry orange salad, so it has time for the flavors to really meld together (and so I can sneak bites of it for the next two days -- woot!).

I also make an herb butter that gets placed between the skin and the breast of the turkey to baste the meat as the turkey bakes.  To start, place a stick of butter into a ziploc freezer baggie, seal it completely and leave it out on the counter for a while to soften, usually this takes an hour or two.  Then, when the butter is softened, I finely chop the following:  some fresh parsley, thyme, chives, sage and a little but of rosemary.  I add some minced garlic and a little Penzey's poultry seasoning as well.   Open the baggie, pour in the herbs and garlic, then reseal completely; mush it altogether to combine well, then pop the butter baggie into the fridge.  As it cools a bit, try to get all the butter into a "log" so it's pretty much altogether in an easy-to-slice cylinder.  

Hot Mulled Cider From The Slow Cooker

It's that time of year when the mornings are crisp, and the night is cold and dark, our fireplace gets a workout, and I begin to crave hot mulled cider by the gallon.  Any hot drink on a cold day can be a good thing, but cider is a special favorite in the fall.

A lot of times, we'll just make it by the mug by adding a pinch of pumpkin pie spice to a mug of cider and heating it a bit in the microwave.  (1 1/2 to 2 minutes ought to do it on HIGH).

The best way, though, is to make a steaming crockpot full of deliciousness, so we can sip all day.  This is especially great if you have company coming over:  your house is perfumed with the wafting scent of apples, spices, and a hint of citrus.  It is absolute heaven.

The key to good slow cooker mulled cider is to have your spices in a make-shift cheesecloth bag or tea ball that can be removed once full spice level has been reached.  If you leave the spices in past the time that your cider begins to taste yummy, it will get bitter and too strong with cinnamon, which is not where you want to go.

This is how we do ours:

Are You Ready For Some Football Tailgate Recipes?

At our house, we take our football seriously.  Even more so, as the chef de cuisine of Casa Smith, I take my game day food planning just as seriously.

For me, ease of preparation and taste are the big concerns when I'm planning the weekend sports-watching menu.  That generally ends up meaning two little words:  slow cooker.  Through the years, I have managed to put together some yummy game day munchies that can be mostly done in the crockpot and that frees me up to do what I really want to do -- watch the game.

Pre-made salads, pasta salads and sandwiches can also be great for the same reasons:  ease of preparation and hands-off self-serving during the game for everyone you happen to be feeding.

This weekend, for the kick-off of the Mountaineer football season, I'm thinking a taco bar may be in our future.  I'll brown some ground turkey and onions in a skillet, spice it up, add a bit of salsa and pop it in the slow cooker to allow the flavors to meld together for an hour or two.  While that is cooking, I'll get the toppings and fixings together:  tortilla chips, taco shells, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sliced olives, sliced jalapeños, salad fixings, guacamole and salsa.  Then we can decide if we want nachos (chips, cheese, taco meat, fixings), taco salad (large pile of lettuce, meat, cheese and some crushed tortilla chips), or tacos (shredded lettuce, meat and cheese with salsa and guac).

There are a lot of other options, though, several of which can be made healthier with just a few simple substitutions -- lower fat cheeses, more veggies and less bread, leaner meat choices.   Here are some recipes ideas and my tweaks on making them healthier in parenthases beside the links and ideas:

Easy Tailgating, Pot Luck And Super Bowl Recipes For Your Slow Cooker

This year's Super Bowl is fast approaching.  No matter what team you may cheer for, one thing is certain:  good food makes for a great game.

Especially when that good food can be easy to make and left for your slow cooker to do all the work.  Because we are so busy but want to eat healthfully, our slow cookers get a work-out every single week at our house.

Using your crock-pot for a giant part of the meal or for snacks makes a huge difference in stress and time for the cook.  If you want to be able to enjoy the game, not miss it entirely because you are chained to the stove, then a slow cooker meal can be a huge help.

Especially if you plan on feeding a crowd at a party or a big tailgate.

Here are some of my favorite ideas from easy tailgating and slow cooker meals from your crockpot that are perfect for a big game day feast:

Thanksgiving Basics: Turkey Stock, Cranberry Salad and More

Every year at our house, I go into a bit of a frenzy trying to wrangle the entire house into shape, get Christmas decorations up and prep for the holiday food-palooza that is Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Part of that prep time generally gets eaten up in cookie planning, but not this year:  we are going to be out of town and on a desperately needed vacation during part of December, and so no cookies will be made in giant abundance for gift trays or otherwise.  While I will miss their deliciousness, I have to say that it is incredibly freeing to think about life as being free from the insanity of cookie-o-rama this year.

It also leaves a bit more mental thought process for Thanksgiving planning, and I'm finding that wonderful.  A couple of years ago, I posted a scheduling routine that I've been using for years to prep for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year, I finally tried a fresh turkey instead of getting a frozen one that had to thaw for an eternity, and you know what?  It was awesome.  Especially only having to pick it up the day before Thanksgiving, so I had time and room in my fridge for a couple of days prior to prep everything else.  That completely rocked and I am doing it again this year as a result.  You can order a fresh turkey at the butcher counter at most nicer grocery stores -- I managed to get a free range, no hormones or antibiotics one just like last year, and I won't have to pick it up until Wednesday afternoon.  Boo yah!

By then, I'll already have the cranberry salad made, the stuffing put together up to the baking time, the mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes mostly ready to go, the cranberry salad chilling, and at least one loaf of bread already made.

The joy really is in advance planning with this.  I learned that lesson the hard way the year I had melanoma surgery, but it has served me so well ever since:  plan ahead and Thanksgiving morning is so much better for it.

Here are some tips on turkey prep and baking.  One thing that I tried last year and loved was a dry brine from Williams-Sonoma:  I put it on my turkey the night before, rinsed it off a bit the next morning, placed sliced compound butter under the skin of the breast really gently and then stuffed it with cut-up lemons and onions and herbs just like I always do.  I use a covered roaster and I swear last year's turkey was the best one I have ever tasted.

I'll be repeating that again this year.  Yummy.

Make-ahead recipes are also a life saver.  I do my stuffing ahead, so all I have to do is pop it in the over to bake along with the turkey.

An essential part of that stuffing?  Rich turkey stock:  I make mine in my crockpot a day ahead, and it is delicious and perfect for stuffing and gravy.  Make enough for both and you'll be hooked, too.

My Granny's cranberry salad recipe?  An absolute must.  No holiday meal is complete without it.

That's a start on Thanksgiving help anyway.  There will be more to come.

Easy Tailgating, Game Day and Pot Luck Recipes

All hail the slow cooker.  Because when it comes to easy meal prep, my crockpots are my best friends.  That is especially true for game day eating at our house.

It has also been true all the way through my battle with breast cancer:  being able to toss ingredients in the slow cooker in the morning, and come back home to a meal for my family after chemo was incredibly comforting.  Even better was the fact that I usually made enough for leftovers the next day.

But I cannot stand bland food.  Even when I was in the throes of chemo and my taste buds had sworn off pepper in the worst way, I still needed to have some spices in what we were eating.  Bland just does not cut it for me.

That is especially true with slow cooker food that far too often tastes like it was made with a couple of bricks of cream cheese in a blender.  No thank you.  That sort of creamy sauced morass of bland is not for me.

The Peanut likes to quote Remy from Ratatouille, and says that I get "fancy with the spices."  It is absolutely true, and the layered flavor we get in our meals reflects my love of a well-seasoned dish.

One of the easiest game day foods in my book is anything made with rotisserie chickens.  One of our favorites is a Tex-Mex gem.  For some easy tacos, tostadas or nachos, do this:

Easy Super Bowl Food And Mardi Gras Recipes

On February 3rd, this year's Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans which is also the home of some seriously awesome food.

Mr. ReddHedd and I have enjoyed eating our way around the Big Easy on any number of trips, and there are some easy ways to bring home the taste of New Orleans for an easy and delicious Super Bowl party buffet spread as well.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are so many iconic and fabulous New Orleans foods that would work so well as an easy buffet or nibbles spread for the Super Bowl or even just a small Mardi Gras party.  It occurred to me that folks might enjoy some ideas of things they could make easily -- especially foods that could be made in the slow cooker that wouldn't require a lot of constant watching or stuff that could be easily made ahead before the big game.

Anything that allows you to actually enjoy watching the crazy commercials between downs is a plus in my book.  That's especially true when what you want is to enjoy the whole game rather than feel like you have to constantly cook and serve and never get to sit and enjoy.

An easy New Orleans-style nosh could really make the whole experience easy and fun for someone hosting a Super Bowl party.

In terms of sources, you can't go wrong with Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans. This compilation of great recipes from locals, restaurants and the recipe section of the Times-Picayune is essential reading, and was put together after Katrina to help folks recover favorite family recipes lost in the flood waters. It is wonderful stuff, and full of fun stories about Cajun and Creole traditions, too. Marcelle Bienvenue is a treasure all by herself.  And don't overlook the recipe section of the Times-Picayune -- some wonderful recipes in their searchable database, too.

Here are a few ideas for your easy and yummy New Orleans style super bowl feast:

Super Slow Cooker Soups

Having spent the last two days teaching, running errands and desperately trying to catch up on laundry, only to find that I've somehow managed to catch a nasty cold, what I want from life is something easy, healthy and soothing for meals the next few days.

Enter my quest for some yummy, hot, comforty goodness in the form of soup.

If I can make it in my slow cooker, so that all I have to do is chop and throw in the ingredients and then spend the rest of the day back in bed while things simmer away without burning?  So much the better.

This time of year, when the mornings are cool and the air has that early crispness, I naturally start to crave a comforting bowl of soup anyway.  But when you add in a stuffy nose and a bit of a fever, it becomes a much more urgent longing.

Here are a few recipes I've come up with for relatively easy soups that will cook up nicely in your crockpot:

A Taste Of The Exotic

When I get stressed or overly tired, dreams of traveling to some exotic, mystical place begin to creep into my subconscious.  It is serious fun.

Picture yourself at a table on the Left Bank in Paris, sipping an espresso and nibbling at a pastry after a wonderful meal, drinking in the sights and sounds around you, wondering if Hemingway sat at your same table jotting down character notes from the conversations, sights and smells around him. 

Or walking along the still-visible trail of an old Silk Road trading path toward a long-forgotten caravanserai, crumbling in the distance, while smelling the wonderful scent of grilling, spiced food from a local hole-in-the-wall restaurant along the road ahead.

From marketplace to meadow and everywhere in between, the mental pictures are fun to imagine.  But even more fun is finding recipes that I can make from here that bring the exotic to where I am at the moment. 

I've been craving a taste of the exotic lately, and thought I'd share some of the recipes I've been perusing with all of you.  After glancing through these, it is clear that I'm in a mood to spice things up a bit:

Easy Dinner: Chicken Taco Salad

The rain is pouring down outside.  We got home late after going to see Young Frankenstein last night, and my rear end is dragging this morning.

It's one of those "not enough coffee in the whole world to wake me up" sorts of mornings.

Despite the running around like crazy people frenzy in which we've been living our lives these days, we've managed to stay on the healthy eating train for the most part for the last three weeks.  I can feel it, and not just in the loosening of my waistbands on my jeans.

On a day like this when I'm tired, though?  Eating healthy can be a challenge.  Who has the energy to plan something super healthy or cook everything from scratch to serve up for dinner?

What I do is keep a few easier to prepare meal ideas on hand for just such an occasion, so there are no excuses when dinner time rolls around to call for a fatty, processed food pizza or nasty drive-thru crapola.  Thinking some of you may be trying to make healthier choices as well, I'm going to share my new favorite quickie dinner idea.

Easy Crockpot Chicken Tacos

A little Muppet Show amusement -- from Season 2 --  for your Friday entertainment. Chickens sing "Baby Face," and hilarity ensues. Enjoy!

As crazy busy as most people that I know are these days, we're all searching for healthy yet easy ideas for family meals. 

Yesterday evening, I stumbled onto a real winner.  And it took me literally minutes to throw together for the whole family. 

For dinner last night, I put together a chicken taco bar using a couple of rotisserie chickens, some jarred salsa, a couple of avocados, some cilantro, a fresh lime and a few corn tortillas.  The hands-on prep time was literally only a few minutes, but the taste payoff was huge -- this was an absolutely delicious meal that everyone loved.

Here's what I did:

Slow Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage

It wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day at our house without some corned beef and cabbage.

I make mine the truly easy way -- in my crockpot!

I wish that I could say this is some secret old family recipe from the Auld Sod.  I could give you the recipe I inherited from my relatives, but I doubt you'd want it.  In my family growing up, corned beef and cabbage meant boiling the heck out of the meat, potatoes, cabbage and carrots in a large pot on the stove and then serving up the overly wilted mass with as much grainy, brown mustard as any of us could smear over it to cover the taste of the overly cooked cabbage.

These days?  I try to leave a little life in my cabbage -- less wilty, more tasty, in my book.

Usually as a side dish with my corned beef, I make some boxty -- a mashed potato casserole with sharp cheddar, cream cheese, chopped green onions, diced caramelized yellow onions, and steamed kale.  I mash all of this together, pour it into a casserole dish and then bake it up in a 350 F oven until the cheese gets melty and gooey and everything else melds together into an unctuous, creamy whole.  Top with a few little dots of butter, and watch your family drool.  Seriously. 

This year, though, I'm going to try something a little different and make some oven-baked diced red-skinned potatoes and diced sweet potatoes, baked at a high heat (about 425 F) with some diced onions and a little Balti seasoning, salt and pepper.  (Yes, I know the Balti is a type of Pakistani curry, but it is amazing on potatoes.   I will not let our pantry run low, it is that good!)

In any case, here is my corned beef brisket recipe.  It's a sort of blend of recipes I've seen in magazines through the years for on-the-stove cooking and how my own tastes have evolved through the years for my own cooking.  Here's what I do:

Mardi Gras Recipe: Slow Cooker Red Beans And Rice

It's red beans and rice season.

With Mardi Gras fast approaching, I'm craving New Orleans comfort food at its finest.  And so?  We've got a pot of red beans spiced and cooking in the crock pot this morning, and the house smells like heaven.

My old recipe, which I love dearly, was snagged from the food section of the Times-Picayune, and is one that I've made a bazillion times in my crockpot.  But the amount of butter called for is no longer one I'm willing to use, so I've searched for something with good flavor that won't be so unhealthy for my system.

So I've taken cues from another recipe that I found in the Times-Picayune and from a Paul Prudhomme recipe from his wonderful cookbook "A Fork In The Road."

Here's the recipe I've used:

Easy and Healthy Super Bowl Food

The last few days, I've been digging around for some easy yet also healthy Superbowl food ideas.

It has to taste good, right?  No one wants to be watching a football game eating something that tastes like old cardboard with high fiber cereal mixed in for a little crunch.  Blergh!

But feeling like you are going to barf about an hour into the game from eating all that grease and fat is no fun either.  And that is exactly how I start to feel when I eat unhealthy crapola while waiting for the next round of commercials.

So this year, I'm really trying hard to not make that mistake.

I've put together some ideas on what we'll be eating, as well as found some links to other foods that folks might enjoy that turn out to be both healthy and yummy.  Thought everyone might enjoy the perusal.

Nothing is set in stone just yet -- it's still definitely a work in progress.  But because a lot of this can be made from staples already in my pantry and fridge, I can make it happen on the fly this weekend as my taste buds dictate.  Here's what I'm thinking:

The Best Turkey Stock Ever...From Your Crockpot!

The thing that can make or break a holiday meal for me is a really delicious gravy that is full of flavor and hints of herbs and spices along with the rich, hearty undertones of roasted turkey.

You can't get that out of a jar, I don't care who says it.  And you certainly can't get that with a bland, out of a can chicken stock.

But often, you find that at the end of the roasting process, the turkey hasn't left you nearly enough drippings, either.  So you end up making do by adding a little extra bland, canned broth or, worse, thinning out the good stuff with some water...thereby making the good stuff thin and bland.

Ugh.

So what's a cook to do?  Make your own, homemade stock in a larger quantity a couple of days before the feast.  Then you have plenty for basting and making stuffing along with making your own gravy.  Trust me -- this makes for a much, much better meal, and a much happier cook, too.

Slow Cooker Pork Carnitas

I found a recipe for slow cooker carnitas on the Times-Picayune website when I was looking for some Cajun slow cooker recipe conversions.

While carnitas is decidedly not Cajun food, it is a bit of an obsession of mine.  Scratch that -- it is a big obsession of mine.  But I wasn't quite satisfied with the initial recipe from the newspaper, so I tweaked it a little.

It was awesome.  And just what I wanted.

After having a fresh pork carnitas burrito from Chipotle when I was pregnant with The Peanut years ago, my cravings were insane.  The problem?  The Chipotle restaurant in question was in Tucson, AZ, and I was clear across the country in WV.

Since then, I've tried a lot of recipes for carnitas, but none have measured up.

Until now.

It was so good that I'm sharing it with everyone.  We had pork carnitas soft tacos with corn tortillas last night for dinner, and they were heaven.  And the pork leftovers taste even better today -- so much so that I can't wait for dinner and have been in the fridge nibbling at least three times already today.

Here's the recipe:

Slow Cooker Red Beans And Rice

The WVU Mountaineers play the LSU Tigers this evening in what promises to be a rip-roaring football game.  (At least we Mountaineer fans hope so anyway.  Cross yer fingers, kids.)

I've laid in a supply of tasty beer and some healthier snacks -- think hummus with veggies and you'll see where I'm going.  After my latest breast lump scare, I'm really trying hard to revamp our diet, but I'm not willing to go completely whole hog and be an utter and complete food nazi just yet.

But when it came to figuring out a game day menu, all I wanted was red beans and rice.  I've been craving some New Orleans lately -- it really is a fantastic place to go and relax and have fun and blow off whatever is troubling you.  But since my schedule won't really work for a long weekend at the moment, I thought I'd bring the New Orleans to us.

Sure, I'm going against tradition by serving it on a Saturday instead of the traditional Monday, when home cooks in New Orleans used to use the bone from the Sunday dinner ham to flavor the beans as they cooked slowly on the back of the stove at a simmer all day on Monday.  Waste not, want not, right?  Especially when it is wash day and you needed a dish that could cook without you having to watch it constantly.

But serving something this yummy on a nontraditional day is not really a worry.  My dilemma?

My old recipe, which I love dearly, was snagged from the food section of the Times-Picayune, and is one that I've made a bazillion times in my crockpot.  But the amount of butter called for is no longer one I'm willing to use, so I've searched for something with good flavor that won't be so unhealthy for my system.

So I've taken cues from another recipe that I found in the Times-Picayune and from a Paul Prudhomme recipe from his wonderful cookbook "A Fork In The Road."

Here's the recipe I've used:

Is It Slow Cooker Season Yet? You Bet!

Given how busy the library work has made me just in the last few weeks, I think our slow cookers will most likely be getting a workout this year.

I have no desire to spend the whole year eating overly processed, super salty and fat laden take-out food if we can help it.  But when you get home after working for several hours in a really hot room?  The last thing you want is to stand in a kitchen in front of a similarly warm stove for another hour mincing, chopping, sauteing and stirring.

Say it with me:  the crockpot is my friend.

As I have said previously, at our house the crockpot already gets a lot of use.  I've got a number of cookbooks that I love (several of which are reviewed here) with great recipes in them.  But I'm always on the lookout for healthier recipes that we can all enjoy -- having a picky 8 year old in the house can be somewhat limiting, although we have been working very hard -- and somewhat successfully -- to expand her culinary horizons over the last couple of years, so there is hope.

Some folks only seem to pull out their slow cookers when the weather turns cold and blustery.  Not at our house.  Ours are used pretty much year round.

I love the fact that it can cook for hours for me and not heat up my kitchen.  They are also much more energy efficient, using only a fraction of what our large oven would for the same dish -- and that makes me really happy.

Since I've spent a little time this weekend perusing potential healthy slow cooker recipes to try, I thought I'd share some of my finds with all of you.  The busy folks out there can thank me later when they have a little free time (ha!  I know, I kid...).  Some of these recipes sound seriously yummy, so take a look:

Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce

It's been a crazy day at our house -- lots of errands to run, a sympathy card to mail, a visit to the funeral home on deck for this afternoon, presents for grandma's birthday to buy, you name it.  So I hadn't had time to really think about dinner until I got home after school pick-up and more errands...and realized I had nothing cooking.

Eeeeeep.

This is where having a few staples in my pantry comes in really handy.  And after about 15 minutes of prep time?  I've got some seriously yummy spaghetti sauce simmering in the crockpot, that will keep until we all finally make it back home.

I make a meat sauce -- because The Peanut loooooves meatballs and meat sauce -- but I make it with lean ground turkey because I want a lower fat content for my family.  I up the flavor with spices and one beef bouillion cube, and it ends up tasting like a rich and decadent meat sauce.

Here's the recipe: