Torianna's Corner

“Tastes from the Irish” continue with (as the title of this post suggests) the first Irish recipe I ever made, and that recipe is for Colcannon, “a classic Irish recipe for potatoes with the addition of milk, butter, and greens like kale, cabbage, leeks, green onion, or chives.”

I first heard about this recipe when a co-teacher of mine (Thanks, Cuca!) made it as part of a St. Patrick’s Day feast that we served to our (primarily Hispanic) students and their families to celebrate this holiday. When I found out exactly what it was, I wasn’t too sure about it since I really don’t like mashed potatoes, but I gave it a try. Much to my surprise, I really liked it, so I’ve been serving Colcannon as part of my St. Patrick’s Day feast ever since!

As with the first of my “Tastes from the Irish” posts, this recipe is from the Web site called theviewfromgreatisland.comm, and here’s some of what the author had to say about this recipe:

“Colcannon Flavor Variations to Try

Though not traditional, I added a bit of horseradish to my Colcannon for an extra flavor boost. I love the flavor of horseradish in my mashed potatoes, it gives a great little subtle kick. But you can definitely leave it out, or adjust the amount to your taste. Here are some more ideas for adding a layer of flavor to your Colcannon.

• mustard, either creamy or grainy
• garliic, fresh or dried
• crummbled bacon (!)
• sour cream
• fresh herbs like thyme, parsley or rosemary

Other Veggies to Use in Colcannon

While kale and cabbage are traditional, there are so many other greens you might use if you want to get creative!

• spinach
• watercress
• chives
• leeks
• chard
• raddicchio
• shaved Brussels sprouts
• other types of cabbage such as red cabbage, Savoy, or Napa

The Best Way to Mash Potatoes

How do you mash your potatoes? I’m partial to an old-fashioned potato-masher. They make quick work of well-boiled potatoes, and allow you a little more control over the final texture. I don’t like my mashed potatoes to be perfectly smooth, in fact, I usually don’t even bother to peel my potatoes (although I did for this recipe.)

If you do like a perfectly smooth texture, you can use electric beaters, just be careful not to over beat them, over beating can cause your mashed potatoes to become ‘gluey’. Not a good thing.

How to Make Colcannon Ahead

Colcannon can be made up to a few days ahead to time. To reheat, cover with foil and heat in a 350F oven, or in the slow cooker. You may need to add additional liquid and butter to loosen them up. You’ll want to stir a few times while reheating so they heat evenly.”

And now… without further ado, here is this week’s featured “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe:

Colcannon (Mashed Potatoes With Kale)

This authentic Irish dish teams up creamy mashed potatoes with vibrant and healthy kale for an unbeatable side dish!

Equipment

Potato masher

Ingredients

3 lbs russet potatoes (the best for mashing), peeled and chopped

5 Tablespoons butter, divided, plus more for serving if desired

8 cups chopped kale, about 1 large bunch (remove the tough stems first)

1 cup half-and-half or buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste

4 teaspoons horseradish sauce [optional]

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, add the chopped potatoes, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are very tender. (The tip of a sharp knife should slide in easily.)
2. Drain the potatoes and set them aside.
3. In the same pot, melt 2 Tablespoons of butter, and sautee the chopped kale over low-medium heat for 5-10 minutes until soft.
4. Take off the heat, add the potatoes back to the pot along with the rest of the butter, half-and-half, salt, and horseradish sauce. Mash together with a potato masher until all the ingredients are fully incorporated.
5. Adjust seasonings to taste, and serve with more butter if desired.

So, there you have it: the recipe for Sue Moran’s Authentic Colcannon. I hope you’ll give it a try and then let me know what you thought about it.

Hello! Welcome to the first “Tasty Tuesdays” post of March! In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, this month’s theme will be “Traditional Irish Farmhouse Recipes, and they’ll feature four recipes from “the view from great island” Web site. Hope you enjoy this month’s “tastes from the Irish”.

At the saying goes, “Life is short, so eat dessert first.” In keeping with this sentiment, I’m beginning this month’s worth of “Tasty Tuesdays” posts with… you guessed it… a DESSERT recipe: “Authentic Irish Apple Cake”. According to Sue Moran, the Web site’s author, “This is an authentic old fashioned Irish apple cake, the kind that would be made throughout the apple harvest season all over Ireland, where every farmhouse has its own prized version of the recipe. It’s delicious with or without the traditional custard sauce!”

Here’s what else Sue has to say about this recipe for “Authentic Irish Apple Cake”:

“A CLASSIC APPLE CAKE FILLED WITH JUICY APPLES AND WARM SPICES

This easy apple cake recipe speaks to another era and another continent. But nothing beats a kitchen filled with the warm scent of apples and cinnamon, no matter what your particular spot in the baking universe. The cake is mildly spiced, with an inner core of thinly sliced tart apples, topped with a crumbly oat streusel. Tradition dictates serving it with some thick cream, or a luscious custard sauce. Choose to respect or flaunt tradition: you’re in charge.

BEST APPLES FOR AN APPLE CAKE

I used Granny Smith apples for this apple cake — they’re nice and tart and don’t get mushy in the oven.

Another good choice would be Honeycrisp apples. You can aloways experiment with other types, if you want, yoou can’t go too wrong here. (pickyourown.org has a pretty comprehensive guide to apple varieties.) You’ll need about 3 good sized apples for this recipe, that’s the bottom line. Peel them, and slice them thinly. If you’re making them more than a few minutes ahead, be sure to toss them with a little lemon juuice to prevent browning.

THE CRUMBLE TOPPING MAKES THIS CAKE ESPECIALLY APPROPRIATE FOR BREAKFAST< BRUNCH< OR AFTERNOON TEA

This is a not-too-sweet kind of cake in the European tradition. It’s pretty perfect with a cup of coffee or tea in the morning or mid afternoon, though still definitely special enough to serve as dessert, especially with the custard. The custard sauce keeps well in the fridge, and can be served either warm or cold. The cake, however, is especially fabulous and fragrant warm from the oven.”

And now… without further ado, here is this week’s featured “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe:

Irish Apple Cake

An authentic Irish Farmhouse Apple Cake — delicious with or without the traditional custard sauce!

Equipment

• 9-inch springform pan

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 3 Tablespoons whole milk or cream

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• about 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled and thinly sliced. Mine weighed a little over a pound after slicing.
• confectioner’s (powdered) sugar for dusting

STREUSEL TOPPING

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats

6 Tablespoons unsalted cold butter, cut in small pieces

1/2 cup granulated sugar

CUSTARD SAUCE

6 large egg yolks

6 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups whole milk — you can also use half and half or cream

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease a 9-inch springform pan.
2. Make the custard sauce ahead of time. Bring the milk to a simmer over medium heal. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks and sugar until well combined. Drizzle a little of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking all the time. Drizzle a little more, then transfer that back into the pan of hot milk and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Do this slowly, over medium heat, and I like to use a silicone spoon or spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan as it heats. The mixture will become velvety and thickened, but it will not be as thick as pudding. It will continue to thicken as it cools, so don’t overcook or it can curdle. Stir in the vanilla.
3. Pour the custard through a sieve (to catch any stray lumps) into a heat proof jar or bowl and place a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface so it won’t form a skin as it cools. Put in the refrigerator until completely chilled.
4. To make the streusel topping,, blend the bits of butter into the flour, sugar, and oats until the butter is incorporated and the mixture has a coarse crumbly texture. Put in the refrigerator.
5. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
6. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture, along with the milk or cream.
7. Spoon the batter into your prepared pan, and smooth out evenly. Top with the sliced apples, and then the streusel. Note: no need to arrange the apples perfectly, but try to get them in an even layer.
8. Bake for about 50 minutes to an hour, until the top is lightly browned and a toothpick comes out without wet batter clinging to it.
9. Let cool a bit in the pan before removing. Dust with confectioner’s (powdered) sugar before serving.

So, there you have it: the recipe for Sue Moran’s Authentic Irish Apple Cake.

Even though autumn yielded to winter (and spring is just around the corner), I’m going to be making this Irish Cake this weekend since I’ve got a bag of apples that have been staring at me from the counter, just begging to be used. So, I’m (finally) answering their call. I’m hoping that regular 9-inch baking pans can be used instead of the springform pan since I don’t have one of those fancy pans! Only time will tell…

I hope you’ll heed the adage about life being short and give this recipe a try. (Personally, I like to think that life is LONG, but I’ll take whatever “reason” I can get to enjoy dessert first.) If you do — or you have a favorite recipe for apple cake that you’d like to share — please leave a comment below. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts about March’s first “Tasty Tuesdays” featured recipe: Authentic Irish Apple Cake.

Rather than being another pie recipe (since February’s theme was “the great American pie”), the recipe I’m going to feature in today’s “Tasty Tuesdays” post is actually yet another “Tasty Tuesdays” First. It is the FIRST recipe that was AI-generated! This evening, my “sweet thing” was messing around with AI on his computer, and he asked the AI something about “eating birds trapped in a car”. The AI told him that eating a bird trapped in a car was NOT a good idea (and I totally agreed!), but it did suggest a few recipes for birds, specifically chickens. So… I selected one of the recipes and then had him print it out for me since I had some chicken sitting in the fridge that I wasn’t sure how to cook. After he asked the AI for a printable version of the recipe I’d selected, he used that to print me a copy of the selected recipe, so I could make it for dinner. Because it turned out to be YUMMY, I decided to feature it as the last “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe of February 2025. Without further ado, here’s the recipe that “sweet thing” got from his chat with AI:

15-Minute Honey Garlic Chicken

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (or canola oil)

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small cubes (about 1/2 inch)

1/2 cup honey

1/4 cup soy sauce

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon cornstarch (optional, for thickening)

1 Tablespoon water (optional, for thickening)

Salt and pepper to taste

Chopped green onions for garnish (optional)

Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Chicken: Season the cubed chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the Oil: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
3. Cook the Chicken: Add the chicken cubes to the skillet and cook for about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink in the center.
4. Make the Sauce: While the chicken is cooking, in a small bowl, whisk together the honey, soy sauce, and minced garlic. If you want a thicker sauce, mix the cornstarch with water in another small bowl and add it to the honey mixture.
5. Combine: Once the chicken is cooked, pour the honey garlic sauce over the chicken in the skillet. Stir well to coat the chicken evenly. Cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, allowing the sauce to thicken slightly.
6. Serve: Remove from heat and garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds if desired. Serve hot over rice or with your favorite side dishes.

Cooking Tips:

• For an extra kick, you can add a pinch of red pepper flakes to the sauce.
• Serve with steamed vegetables for a complete meal!

So, there you have it: the AI-suggested recipe for “15-Minute Honey Garlic Chicken”. This was the first recipe that I’d ever gotten from AI, and although it was a funny experience, I think I’ll be sticking to my tried-and-true cookbooks like my beloved (and well-worn) Betty Crocker cookbook and my newly discovered tome from Mrs. Beeton.

However, I would love to hear about any experiences you’ve had with AI and, of course, what you thought of this recipe should you give it a try, which I highly recommend since it’s going to be a “keeper” for me — something I’ll be having again on one of my “Asian-inspired” days of the week. Looking forward to hearing from you, so please take a moment to leave a comment below.

To round out this month’s exploration of soup in honor of January being National Soup month, I will be featuring “Groentesoep met balletjes“, meaning “Vegetable Soup with Meatballs” in Dutch. Without further ado, here’s the last “Tasty Tuesdays” post for this month, which features a post/recipe from “The Dutch Table”, a Web site which I encourage you to explore if you’ve been enjoying the Dutch recipes I’ve been posting and/or are curious about what people in/from the Netherlands eat.

“Holland’s cuisine knows many soups, from the sturdy think split pea soup to a brothy, light, appetite-arousing groentesoep or vegetable soup, like today’s recipe. A standard item in groentesoep are, besides the vegetables, these so-called soup balls, or soepballetjes. Not the big softball-size meatballs, or gehaktballen, that the Dutch serve for dinner, but bitesize balletjes the size of marbles.

The meat used for these fleshy globes is “half-om-half“, half pork and half beef. The fattiness of the pork makes sure that the meatballs stay juicy and tender, and the beef ads body and flavor. Omas, or grandmas, usually had a “pannetje soep” on the back of the stove, simmering, and many of us associate soup with Sunday afternoon visits to grandma’s house. Soup is still a favorite starter for an evening meal or a Sunday lunch, and an easy and affordable dish to feed a family with.

Practically any kind of soup will benefit from these soepballetjes, whether they’re stock-based or thick, pureed soups. You may consider rolling enough to freeze so you can have them at hand at any moment. Just a thought!

Today’s soup is a simple vegetable soup: use either store-bought bouillon cubes to make the eight cups of stock, or make your own. Select a variety of chopped vegetables (typical Dutch soup vegetables are leeks, cauliflower, carrots and celery) or, if you’re in a pinch, even a bag of frozen stir-fry vegetables will do.

Groentesoep met ballejes

8 oz (500 grams) ground pork

8 oz (500 grams) ground beef

1 tablespoon panko or breadcrumbs

1/4 teaspoon nutmet

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

8 cups (2 liters) bouillon or stock

2 cups (depends) vegetables

Mix the meats with the breadcrumbs, the salt, pepper and nutmeg until well blended. Roll small meatballs the size of a marble

In the meantime, heat the bouillon stock to a slow boil. Add the fresh vegetables and simmer for a good twenty minutes. Put several soepballetjes at a time in the bouillon, wait ten seconds, then add some more, until they’re all in the soup. The meatballs are done when they start too float, within a minute or two.

Taste the soup, adjust seasonings as needed and serve warm. This is one of those soups that improves with time, so feel free to make a large pot!”

So, there you have it: Groentesoep met ballejes (Vegetable Soup with Meatballs), the last soup recipe in honor of 2025’s National Soup Month. Hope you like it! I’m going to follow the suggestion presented in the recipe by making a big batch of the soepballetjes to freeze and have on hand to use later. As always, I’m looking forward to hearing from you, so please take a moment to leave a message below!

In keeping with this month’s theme of “Soups”, this week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” featured recipe will be “Barley Soup”, and it is a “first” because it is the first recipe that I am featuring from “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management: The 1861 Classic with Advice on Cooking, Cleaning, Childrearing, Entertaining, and More” by Isabella Beeton”.

Because I often write historical romances, especially those set during the Victorian era (my favourite historical time period), I purchased this book for research purposes — to make sure the small details in my stories were historically accurate. With my love of cookbooks, I was delighted to read (in the foreward by Sarah A. Chrisman) that this book (“Beeton’s work”) is primarily remembered as a cookbook”. Consequently, I thought it was a fitting addition to the main categories from which I choose these “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe posts.

And now, without further ado, here is Mrs. Beeton’s featured recipe:

Barley Soup

Ingredients

2 lbs. of shin of beef

1/4 lb. of pearl barley

a large bunch of parsley

4 onions

6 potatoes

salt and pepper

4 quarts of water

Mode — Put in all the ingredients, and simmer gently for 3 hours.

Time — 3 hours Average cost, 2-1/2d. per quart.

Seasonable all the year, but more suitable for winter.

Barley– This, in the order of cereal grasses, is, in Britain, the next plant to wheat in point of value, and exhibits several species and varieties. From what country it comes originally, is not known, but it was cultivated in the earliest ages of antiquity, as the Egyptians were afflicted with the loss of it in the ear, in the time of Moses. It was a favourite grain with the Athenians, but it was esteemed as an ignominious food by the Romans. Notwithstanding this, however, it was much used by them, as it was in former times by the English, and still is, in the Border counties, in Cornwall, and also in Wales. In other parts of England, it is used mostly for malting purposes. It is less nutritive than wheat; and in 100 parts, has of starch 79, gluten 6, saccharine matter 7, husk 8. It is, however, a lighter and less stimulating food than wheat, which renders a decoction of it well adapted for invalids whose digestion is weak.

So… There you have it: Mrs. Beeton’s recipe for Barley Soup as well as an interesting description of the history of barley! What I realized as I was transcribing the last part of the section about barley was that this was probably the first historical example of the “Nutrition Facts” that are found on virtually all modern-day processed food that I’ve ever see! In addition to Mrs. Beeton’s “nutrition facts” for this recipe, I also liked her inclusion of the “Average cost” with the recipe — though I have no idea what “2-1/2d” means! I know of schilling and pence, but not whatever begins with “d”, so if you’re more up on British currency, please enlighten me as to what kind of coin/currency Mrs. Beeton was referring to in this recipe.

By the way, if you don’t happen to have “shin of beef” in your freezer or refrigerator (or even know what kind of cut it is), you may substitute any of the following cuts for the “shin of beef”:

• oxtails (though, if you’re like me, you probably won’t have any of these, either),
• chuck,
• bottom round,
• skirt (or skirt steak, as I’ve heard this particular cut referred),
• braising steak, or
• beef shank.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts about this recipe as well as any experience you might have with Mrs. Beeton. Looking forward to hearing from you.

For this week’s recipe, I am going to feature a recipe that my Amish characters might enjoy on a frigid day in January, and that recipe is Vegetable Soup. I found this recipe in “The Essential Amish Cookbook: Everyday Recipes From Farm and Pantry” by Lovina Eicher.

As you may (or may not) know), I collect cookbooks of all kinds, and I enjoy flipping through their pages — always looking for interesting recipes to try (even though I’m usually the only one who eats what I cook). Because the theme for this month’s “Tasty Tuesdays” posts is “Soups”, I perused the chapter in Lovina’s cookbook called “Soups and Salads”, and I found this recipe at the end of the chapter. Here’s what Lovina had to say about this recipe:

“Our children always called this Grandma’s soup. My mother would make it a lot and they really loved it. It is an easy soup to make. I like to make a big batch of it, then put it in quart jars and process it. On busy days you can just open a few jars and heat it up and have a quick meal. Our family likes to eat Colby cheese and saltine crackers with this soup. It is also easy to put in lunches for school or work.”

Like I said at the beginning of this entry, I’m sure my Amish might enjoy this soup, and I hope you will, too. And now… Without further ado, here is this week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” featured recipe:

Vegetable Soup

1 pint canned beef chunks or any raw beef roast or stew meat, cut into small pieces

1 medium yellow onion, cleaned but whole, stem removed

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

1 cup carrots, diced

2 cups corn kernels

2 cups peas

4 cups tomato juice

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground pepper

Brown the beef in a large skillet over medium heat. Put the beef and the whole onion in a large pot and add the remaining ingredients. Add enough water to cover the vegetables. Cook over medium heat for 45-50 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Remove onion and serve.

Judging by the list of ingredients, it sounds as though this soup is often made in big batches during the summer when the vegetables (carrots, green beans, corn, and peas) can be picked straight from the garden and then processed (probably by pressure canning, if I were to hazard a guess) to “put up” lots of jars of this soup that can then be enjoyed on those frigid January nights. I really like the idea of “putting up” this soup to have on hand during the winter, but… I still need to learn how to process food by pressure canning since I haven’t yet attempted this skill — possibly because of a childhood experience in which a pressure cooker that my dad was using blew up!

If you try to make this soup and/or process it via canning, I would love to hear what you thought of the recipe. I’d also appreciate any helpful tips you’d care to share about pressure canning. Looking forward to hearing from you!

By the way… If you like this recipe from Lovina Eicher, I would encourage you to purchase this cookbook because it’s chock full of lots of recipes for hearty and healthy food!

Hello! I’m presenting the last throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe with a VERY SAD heart as this is the day that I discovered I’d lost TWENTY-SIX days of my NaNoWriMo writing, including everything I’d written about what was my current work-in-progress! Such a devastating loss, but there’s nothing that can be done about an inadvertent combination of keyboard strokes. So… I’m trying to move forward by distracting myself — first with a UK Men’s Basketball game and then with this final “Tasty Tuesdays” post of “NaNo-vember” 2024.

As I’ve done for the past three weeks, I am featuring a recipe that was first published in my LiveJournal. This week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe is for “Homemade Refrigerator Pickles”, and it was published on the 31st of January 2017. And now, without further ado, here is that post in its entirety:

Tasty Tuesdays: Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

Location: my office

mood: 🙁 hungry

music: UK pre-game show on WLAP (Go, Cats!)

“Tasty Tuesdays” are back! I know… I know… I’ve said this before (even in the previous entry!), so we’ll see if I’m able to keep it up. I’m striving for more consistency when it comes to posting “Tasty Tuesdays” recipes in 2017.

While going through the produce drawers in my refrigerator, I came across some cucumbers. Unfortunately, a couple of ’em had gone bad while sitting there — forgotten and lonely. BUT a couple of them were still good! This discovery reminded me that today is “Tasty Tuesday Day”. This reminder led me to the decision to post the recipe why all of those cucumbers were in my produce drawers: Homemade Refrigerator Pickles !!

I love pickles, but NOT the price of ’em in the grocery store! So… I decided to make my own. After scouring the Internet, I came across one that sounded easy at the allrecipes.com Web site. I tried it once and loved it. Consequently, it has become my “go to” recipe for pickles. Hopefully, it’ll become your “go to” pickle recipe. (If it isn’t, I’d love to see your “go to” pickle recipe, so please leave it in the comments below.)

Without further ado, here’s today’s “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe:

Homemade Refrigerator Pickles

Ingredients

1 cup distilled white vinegar

1 tablespoon salt

2 cups white sugar

6 cups sliced cucumbers

1 cup sliced onions

1 cup sliced green or red bell peppers

Optional:

2 tablespoons mustard seed

1 tablespoon celery seed

Directions

1. Place the cucumbers, onions, and bell peppers in a large bowl, adding the optional ingredients if desired. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring vinegar, salt and sugar to a boil. Boil until the sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes.
3. Pour the vinegar mixture over the vegetables. Transfer to sterile containers and store in the refrigerator.

Personal Notes:

• The moment when the sugar finally dissolves is almost magical! This is my favorite part of making these pickles, and it usually happens right when I’m about to give up on this batch of pickles.
• I generally use a couple of quart-size Mason jars. At this point, this is the extent of my “canning” skills. One of these days, this will change, but until then, I’ll continue “canning” my own pickles, using this recipe.

So, there you have it: a quick and easy way to “can” pickles! Unfortunately, my canning skills haven’t improved much since this post was originally published back in 2017. Since then, I managed to can some apple and grape jelly (from fruit I picked from a neighbor’s apple trees and grape vines), but I haven’t been able to harvest enough cucumbers to attempt canning a batch of pickles. So, yeah… I continue using this recipe for homemade refrigerator pickles. In fact, I think I’ve got a couple of jars of these pickles that need to be eaten soon!

As always, please take a moment to leave me a comment about your experiences canning/making homemade pickles. Looking forward to hearing from you!

P.S. UK Men’s Basketball won their game tonight against Western Kentucky University with a final score of 87-68! Go, Cats!

“NaNo-vember” continues, and so do the throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” recipes this month. In today’s post, I’m going to be featuring a recipe that was originally published in my LiveJournal on January 5, 2016.

Hmmm… I just a bit of quick figurin’, and I discovered that the recipe I’m going to feature in this week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” post was published exactly TWO weeks after I originally published last week’s throwback “Tasty Tuesdays”. I suppose I could make you wait two weeks for this recipe, but that would mess up my original plan for publishing these posts: every year since 2014. Consequently, I decided that I wouldn’t do that!

So… Without further ado, here is this week’s throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe — and my 2016 post in its entirety:

Jan. 5th, 2016

A tasty way to start a new year!

location: In my office

mood: A bit frustrated

music: The hum of a dishwasher and country music in the other room

Since my old New Year’s Eve/Day traditions just wouldn’t work (for a variety of reasons that I won’t go into right now) this year, I’ve started searching (the Internet, of course) for some new traditions that would work! One of the traditions that I kept coming across was to eat “prosperous foods” — like the traditional Southern dish called “Hoppin’ John”. So, I decided to try it ON New Year’s Day!

The trouble was that I hadn’t decided soon enough. Consequently, I needed to find a recipe that used ingredients that I already had on hand. I thought I had the main ingredient — some black-eyed peas — on hand, and I was pretty sure I had the rest of the ingredients in the pantry as well. So… I wasn’t too worried, especially when I found a simple recipe that utilized one of my favorite kitchen appliances: my Crock Pot.

After a simple New Year’s Eve celebration (with another new tradition), I got up the next morning and set about assembling “Slow Cooker Hoppin’ John”, the recipe that I’ll be sharing with you for the first “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe of 2016. I wanted it to be ready upon my return from a third new tradition, my “First Day Adventure”, a hike at a local park that I visited once two summers ago and vowed to visit again.

Well… I didn’t get too far. When I went to retrieve the main ingredient, I COULD NOT find the bag of black-eyed peas that I thought I had in the pantry. After searching high and low for it AND doing a bit of thinking on the matter, I realized that I had probably tossed it because I wasn’t sure how long I’d had it. Probably not a problem given the fact that we’re talking about dried beans, but that decision left me without the main ingredient for my “prosperous food”!

Not willing to give up so quickly, I scanned the recipe’s list of ingredients and was relieved to find that I had every other ingredient for the “Slow Cooker Hoppin’ John”, except for the crushed red pepper which I wasn’t going to add, anyway, since my tummy doesn’t do spicy! Some quick calculations proved that I could start the “Hoppin’ John” once I got back from a quick trip to the grocery story AND my “First Day Adventure”.

So… Off I went! I decided to stop at the grocery store BEFORE I went on my hike because I figured that I might be too tired and/or forget to get the main ingredient — the black-eyed peas. Went to my local grocery store and purchased a bag of dried black-eyed peas since that’s what I had thrown away.

It wasn’t until I was taking a break midway through my hike that I realized cans of black-eyed peas might make the cooking of my “prosperous food” go faster, even though the original recipe called for dried black-eyed peas. With this thought in mind, I finished the hike (feet dragging as I neared the end of the trail) and then stopped at the first grocery store I saw on the way home. Well… I left empty-handed. The store didn’t have any cans of black-eyed peas. Hmmm… I have to take that back. They DID have cans of black-eyed peas — for $1.99 per can!

With canned black-eyed peas on my brain, I quickly grabbed two cans, and then I examined the shelf tags more carefully. The store brand was only $0.87, and the name brand was more than twice as much! At that point, the frugal side of me kicked in: “You’re going to pay THAT much for each can of beans? Are you crazy?! You’ve got the dried beans that the recipe called for in the car!” So… I put back the expensive brand-name cans of black-eyed peas.

However, I wasn’t ready to give up just yet! On my way back to the house, I decided to stop at my local grocery store, the place where I had purchased the bag of dried black-eyed peas before my hike. Since I hadn’t thought to check for cans of the main ingredient earlier, I wanted to see if that store had any cans of the store’s brand of black-eyed peas. Once there, I discovered the same situation, but because they were on the top shelf, I asked one of the employees if they had any.

He must not have heard me say “cans” because he went straight to the dried beans section. He was amazed, too. He said that he had a three-tier display of the bags of black-eyed peas, but they were all gone! (Guess I made the right decision to stop at the grocery store BEFORE the hike!) After that, I had him confirm that they didn’t have any more cans of the store brand (which were even cheaper at this store). They didn’t.

So… I went back to the house and got started on the recipe I’m about to share with you. Let me tell you, it smelled really good while it was cooking. After working up an appetite, I couldn’t wait for it to be ready to eat!

An now, without further ado, here is this week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe for “Slow Cooker Hoppin’ John”:

Slow Cooker Hoppin’ John

Ingredients

4 strips thick-cut bacon, diced (I sacrificed the flavor a bit by using olive oil instead.)

1 small onion

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (As I mentioned earlier, I omitted this ingredient.)

1 cup dried black-eyed peas, rinsed and picked over

1 (15-oz) can diced tomatoes, drained (Hmmm… I think I might have forgotten to drain the ‘matoes.)

1 1/2 cups long-grain rice (I believe I used brown rice instead.)

1 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. Place bacon in a saucepan and cook over medium heat until just beginning to crisp. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape bacon, bacon fat and onion into slow cooker. Add crushed red pepper, peas and 4 cups water (I used vegetable broth to give it a bit more flavor since I didn’t use the bacon.) and stir to combine. Cover and cook Low until peas are nearly tender, 3 to 4 hours. (I cooked ’em on High for 2 hours since time was of the essence).
2. Stir in tomatoes, rice and salt. Cover and continue to cook just until rice is tender and has absorbed all liquid, 1 to 1 1/2 hour. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Serves 6

So, there you have it: “Slow Cooker Hoppin’ John” AND the story behind it. I’m happy to report that it was delicious. The only trouble is that I’ve STILL got some Hoppin’ John left… four days later. Between New Year’s Day and now, I’ve had Hoppin’ John every which way, including Hoppin’ John burritos and Hoppin’ John quesadillas! I’d better have a VERY prosperous 2016 with the amount of Hoppin’ John I had for just little ol’ me!

I can’t remember how prosperous 2016 was for me, but I hope you enjoyed this throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe for “Slow Cooker Hoppin’ John” AND the (rather long-winded) story behind it. If you know the recipes for other “prosperous foods”, please leave me a comment below. I’d love to see ’em!

As I mentioned in the first “Tasty Tuesdays” post of November, I’m going to be busy with NaNoWriMo, so I’m going back to the past for inspiration when it comes to these posts. In the previous “Tasty Tuesdays” post, I featured my first such post — one that was originally published back in 2014. For this second throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” post, I’m going to feature one that was first published in my LiveJournal on 22 December 2015. Here is that post in its entirety:

12/22/15

Food for a “winter picnic”

location: In my office

mood: goofy

Last week, I had made arrangements to get together with a family member, and it wasn’t too long before the topic of food arose. Tired of the usual fast food, I decided to indulge my love of picnics — even though it was almost winter!

So I promptly did some research (Thanks, Google!) to find out what kind of food would be appropriate for a “winter picnic” — and what wasn’t. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I needed to serve something hot. The trouble was I don’t have a Thermos, something most of the sites I visited recommended for serving hot food. Well… I decided to go for what I thought was the next best thing: a Crock Pot, especially since the one I’ve got has a locking lid AND my vehicle has an electrical outlet in it!

Once I’d decided to use a Crock Pot to keep the food warm, I then searched for an appropriate recipe. First, I checked my cookbook collection, but didn’t find anything that I though my picnic companion would like. At that point, I did another Google search. Thankfully, I found quite a few potential recipes, so the next step was to narrow down the choices. To do this, I looked at the lists of ingredients and selected the one for which I had virtually all of the ingredients in the pantry. And this recipe was…

Wait for it…

Betty Crocker’s Slow-Cooker Vegetable Minestrone!

Without further ado, here is this week’s “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe:

Ingredients

4 cups vegetable broth (which I used) or Progresso chicken broth (from 32-oz carton)

4 cups tomato juice

1 tablespoon dried basil leaves

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 medium carrots, sliced (1 cup)

2 medium celery stalks, chopped (1 cup)

1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (3 oz)

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 can (28 oz) Muir Glen organic diced tomatoes, undrained (I used 2 14-oz cans of diced tomatoes that I already had in the pantry.)

1 1/2 cups uncooked rotini pasta (4 1/2 oz)

Shredded Parmesan cheese, if desired

Directions

1. In 4- to 5-quart slow cooker, mix all ingredients except pasta and cheese.
2. Cover; cook on Low heat setting 7 to 8 hours.
3. Stir in pasta. Increase heat setting to High; cover and cook 15 to 20 minutes longer or until pasta is tender. Sprinkle each serving with cheese.

Note: This recipe was tested in slow cookers with heating elements in the side and bottom of the cooker, not in cookers that stand only on a heated base. For slow cookers with just a heated base, follow the manufacturer’s directions for layering ingredients and choosing a temperature.

My Notes:

Although I wasn’t entirely sure what kind of slow cooker I’ve got, I just dumped in all of the ingredients (except the pasta and cheese, as directed) and mixed ’em all up rather than digging out the manufacturer’s instructions to figure out how to layer the ingredients.

As I was typing this post, I realized that I forgot to bring the cheese with me when I left the house, so I couldn’t “sprinkle each serving with cheese”. Good thing the cheese was “if desired”!

Regarding the pasta… I followed the directions by stirring in the pasta, increasing the heat setting and cooking for an additional 15 to 20 minutes longer. Had I been serving the soup right away, these instructions would have been fine. The trouble was I ended up not being able to serve the soup until almost six hours later!

At the end of the additional cooking time, I set my slow cooker to “Warm”, loaded it into my vehicle, picked up my picnic companions and finally arrived at a suitable park. When I took off the lid to unveil the main course of our picnic, I was dismayed to find that my Vegetable Minestrone looked more like a stew than the soup I was expecting to see! The pasta had absorbed most of the liquid, leaving very fat spirals and chunks of vegetables. It still tasted fine, but… The next time I make it (especially for a picnic), I’m going to pre-cook the pasta before I leave, pack it in a separate container, and then add it to the soup just before serving. I’m pretty sure that should alleviate the “very fat spirals” problem I encountered the first time I made this recipe.

In addition to the Vegetable Minestrone, I served grilled cheese san’iches (wrapped in foil to keep ’em warm), fresh fruit (apples and pears) with a caramel dip (Pears and caramel = an awesome combination!), and some frosted sugar cookies since we were getting together to do some holiday shopping. I’m please to report that my picnic companions enjoyed the food that was served. The only trouble was the weather… It’s hard to enjoy the food when there’s a cold wind blowing!!

As always, I’d love to hear how this “Tasty Tuesdays” recipe turned out for you. Please take a moment to leave me a comment about your experience with this recipe — or even a similar one, for that matter.

I hope that you’re enjoying these throwback “Tasty Tuesdays” recipes! Looking forward to hearing what you think about (1) my idea of going back to the past for inspiration and (2) this particular recipe, so please leave me a comment below.