A Taste of the South

We based our dinner last Monday around a single item from our CSA box: collard greens. We had never cooked them before (and I think I've only tasted them once or twice), so we thought we'd make them with other proper southern food: fried (Cooking Light style) chicken and grits.

Here is the Cooking Light recipe we used for the chicken. We used all drumsticks--no breasts and thighs. We cheated a bit, since we didn't read the recipe before hand, and there was no way we were going to wait the 2 hours it suggests for chilling and letting the chicken sit. I would imagine the chicken would be better if we had done that. It was OK. I don't think we'll make it again. I guess real, fried chicken is always going to be better. We also rarely make chicken drumsticks, and I think we really prefer chicken breasts.

To make the collard greens, I sliced them very thin and sauteed them with a bit of water for about 15 minutes. Then I added some garlic powder and olive oil. I thought they were good (Nate wasn't a big fan), but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to make them again. We also had some asparagus on the side, since we got some with the CSA box. It was such a different bunch this time--very thick and purple! It turned green when it was cooked.

We made the grits from a box--just grits and water, then I added some garlic powder, salt, butter, Parmesan cheese and a bit of Frank's Red Hot. There's not much too them, but they're pretty good.

Greek Burgers + Some Extras

We're still using up the feta and tzatziki I keep mentioning, so we decided to make Greek turkey burgers Sunday night. They were pretty darn tasty, but really, to us, anything Greek is tasty!

We had about 12 oz. of ground turkey in the freezer, so we made that into two patties. Nate seasoned them with garlic, pepper, salt, fresh oregano, rosemary and thyme, and grilled them. We added some feta to the burgers while they were still on the grill, and later topped the patties with tzatziki, tomatoes, red onions and spinach. They were huge! And delicious. We had a salad on the side.

Also, two random mini posts:

On Saturday, to use up some random ingredients we had in the fridge, I made a tasty veggie pita sandwich. I split a piece of pita bread, and stuffed it with some of my homemade hummus, tomatoes, red peppers, lettuce and spinach, artichokes and emmental cheese.

Last week, I bought a Whirley Pop popcorn maker. I've been wanting one for a while, because I want to get away from making microwave popcorn. Not that we make popcorn a lot, but it's a tasty and fairly healthy snack to have.

We finally busted it out on Sunday for an afternoon snack. We made two batches since the "partial" batch only made about two handfuls. It was pretty good--a little chewy, but that may have had something to do with the kernels we bought. As a topping, we tried some seasonings (I think what we have is Parmesan ranch and another is a Spice House creation of some sort).

Guest Brunch Review

I had the opportunity to do a guest review and blog post for another local food blog, Milwaukee Brunch Reviews (find it on Twitter: @mke_brunch). It's a great blog that frequently reviews, you guessed it, brunch in the Milwaukee area.

So on Sunday, after the Miller Lite Ride for the Arts, Nate and our friends Leah and Emily went to Chez Jacques in the Fifth Ward/Walker's Point for brunch. It was a fantastic experience. Read all about it here and check out the other brunch reviews.

Greek Eggs

Since we've been getting so much fresh spinach in our CSA box, I've been trying to think of different ways to use it.

One of my favorite things to do with spinach is saute it and add it to scrambled eggs. Since we also had leftover feta and tzatziki from our souvlaki sandwiches, I thought I'd add it all together. I just sauteed the spinach in a tiny bit of water for a few minutes.

When it was done, I took the spinach out and make regular scrambled eggs, with salt, pepper and garlic powder. When they were close to being done, I added the spinach and some fresh oregano (also from the CSA box), plus the feta. After it was done, I added a dollop of tzatziki to the top.

I must say ... it was delicious! I could eat this every day.

Artichoke, Fennel and Olives over Penne

This was the second recipe we tried in Clean Foods, a cookbook I got for Christmas. The other recipe we made from the book was very good--a root vegetable soup last winter. The cookbook is divided into four sections, based on the seasons. Everything is vegan.

I picked this recipe because we had kalamata olives and arugula to use up. Unfortunately, by the time we got to making the recipe, the arugula was pretty wilted and not so good anymore, but we still used it.

The recipe was good, but it needed a little something more--some type of protein (maybe chickpeas or tofu, to keep it vegetarian) would be good. When I had the leftovers for lunch, I added a bit of hot sauce and that was pretty darn good.

Here is the recipe for Artichoke, Fennel and Olives over Penne

-1 pound penne (we used a combination of penne and rigatoni, because we wanted to use it up. I think we ended up using about 12 oz. because it's all we had--it was more than enough!)

-2 tbs. olive oil

-1 onion, diced

-2 garlic cloves, minced (Nate was in charge of cutting garlic--I'm sure he added two or three extra cloves)

-1 cup canned artichoke hearts, quartered

-1/2 cup kalamata olives, pitted

-1 fennel bulb, halved, cored and thinly sliced

-1 bunch arugula

-1 cup chopped tomatoes or canned (we used canned)

-1/4 cup chopped parsley

-1 tbs. fresh lemon juice

-salt, pepper to taste

Cook penne according to directions on package. Drain, rinse and return to pot. Drizzle with 1 tbs. olive oil and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a large pot over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in 2 tbs. olive oil until soft (about 3 minutes). Add artichokes, olives, fennel and arugula. Saute until heated through (about 5 minutes). Add tomatoes and saute another 2 minutes. Add parsley and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and serve over pasta.

The book says it makes four servings, but our batch--even with less pasta--make six huge servings.

Fish and Veggies

We still have a couple bags of "Up North" fish (lake perch and bluegills, mostly) in the freezer that we need to eat up. Last week, Nate found this recipe on his phone (can't remember the program he uses) and we thought it sounded good.

Turns out, it was pretty good! The veggies go really well with the fish and the small amount of breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese keep the good fish flavor present.

Here is the recipe we used. It's kind of funny that there are no measurements given, but it's nice to be able to do your own thing, too. If I remember correctly, we used 1 tomato, 1/2 green pepper and 1/2 onion. We sprinkled just a bit of regular bread crumbs on top as well as the typical, grated Parmesan cheese.

We served the fish with asparagus (courtesy of our CSA) and leftover orzo salad.

Souvlaki, Round Two

So I was going to go on and on about this great thing we make at home that reminds us of our Greek honeymoon. Then, I discovered I already wrote about it in an earlier blog post! So here is the condensed version.

Last Monday we made chicken souvlaki sandwiches with a Greek salad on the side.

Of course, we had to make a trip to the Greek grocery store on 91st and Greenfield to pick up tzatziki and fresh, imported sheep's milk feta.

We did pretty much what we did in March, but I didn't even think to marinate the chicken. We just cooked it on the stove top with herbs and spices.

As usual, the sandwiches were very good, even though they're a bit hard to eat.