Grandmother's Best Stuffing ~ page 83

Our family celebrated Thanksgiving last Saturday, November 13th. I know that sounds early--but it was the only time that all the family could be together until several days after Thanksgiving day. (Deer hunting was our problem....) So of course, I had to make Grandmother's Best Stuffing from our cookbook (after all, I am the grandmother of all these kids)...

Yes, there are 8 of them, all under 5 years of age!  And that baby I am holding is only ONE day old--I am serious! Julia home-birthed this 9 pound 3 ounce beautiful boy the day before, but she and baby Pace still made it to our Thanksgiving lunch!

Okay, back to the stuffing...I have been saving up leftover cornbread in my freezer for a couple months just for this recipe. I use about 2/3 cornbread, and 1/3 or so quality white bread. I think it is important to use good bread--not the cheap stuff. Cube the bread and cornbread and dry it out for a few days on the counter, or in a low oven.

Now saute the vegetables until soft.

Mix everything in a large bowl. I add a handful of raisins and some dried cranberries to the mix because my husband likes it that way. Feel free to add more broth than what is called for if you want a moister dressing. I make it a little on the dry side so I can add lots of turkey gravy on top! Happy early Thanksgiving to all our cooking friends!

Avocado Quesadillas ~ page 90

I made these for a light lunch just before Carissa's baby was born 11 days ago...and have not made much from the cookbook since! But I am ready to get cooking again. So thanks for waiting to hear from us. This is a cool, light, tasty supper when the heat index is 112 degrees...goodness, too hot for much cooking!

These tasty quesadillas make 4 side dishes or appetizer servings, or 2 servings if you want it as a main dish.

The avacado filling and the spicy sauce mix up quickly. Instead of sour cream in my sauce, I used plain yogurt, because that is what I had on hand.

I wanted to use some new uncooked corn tortillas that I found. I cooked them on a griddle instead of under the broiler.

After the tortillas crisp up just a bit, the cheese is added.  When cheese is melted, with a spatula, put cheesy tortillas on your serving plate, then add your avocado filling.

Now you are ready for the top...

Add the extra cooked tortillas to the top, then serve with a scoop of the spicy dipping sauce. When this recipe is made with flour tortillas, like the recipe calls for, they will cut up neatly into wedges. I found that my corn tortillas did not cut as nicely, but we sure did love the taste! ~Janice

Brown Rice and Broccoli with Mushrooms ~ page 92

This is a fresh, light tasting version of the old classic broccoli and cheese casserole. I (Janice) have been making this for 35 years. The recipe calls for frozen broccoli, but we eat fresh broccoli so often at my house, that I just steam extra the day before I want to put together this recipe. Over the years, I changed the grated sharp cheddar cheese to 1/4-inch cubes of cheese instead.

Here is the assembled casserole just before baking.  The reason for the cubes of cheese, is that they stay partially intact, so you get a nice bite of cheese with each forkful, but the other ingredients stay a little bit separate from the cheese, which makes their flavors stand out more. This is a wonderful healthy dish for enjoying brown rice.

Cheesy Scalloped Potato Sticks ~ page 93

I fixed this cheesy potato side dish tonight for my two little grandsons, Gabe and Elias (I am taking care of them for a week while their parents are on a trip). Let me tell you--this is a VERY kid friendly dish. They loved it! Both boys gobbled it up and asked for seconds. (I did make them eat their steamed broccoli before they got more of this yummy dish though.)

The raw potatoes are cut into French fry-size pieces.

Just barely cover with water, bring to a boil and simmer just 3 minutes.

I like to drain the potatoes in a colander and shake them to dry--this will help the creamy sauce to cling to them.

A white sauce flavored with dry mustard is poured over the blanched potatoes, then a sprinkling of sharp cheddar cheese...and just 30 minutes in the oven, and this dish is ready for the dinner table. ~Janice

Spinach and Onion Couscous ~ page 104

As I mentioned in my previous post, this was one of the side dishes I prepared to accompany the citrus (roasted) pork tenderloin. It's definitely super-fast, and it actually makes quite a lot, so you'll have a great side dish for at least a few meals! ~Cathy

Squash Dressing ~ page 105

I should call this Southern Squash Dressing--it just taste like something good from the South! This is filling, delicious, and quick and easy. Besides yellow squash, the main ingredient is cornbread crumbs. Some cheese and eggs holds it all together. I always use leftover cornbread that I stick in the freezer just for this recipe.

I steam my squash in this electric steamer--it is a wonderful appliance. Be sure to undercook the squash though. It will get more cooking in the oven.

If your leftover cornbread is frozen in a zipper-top baggie, just squeeze around on the bag till it is all in crumbs. Mince the onion so it will cook fast.

Saute the onion just a bit, then dump in all the ingredients and stir everything together.

Press the mixture into a baking dish and send it off to the oven to set up.

This squash dish serves up in neat pieces. Once again, here is my vegetarian meal with Squash Dressing and Spinach and Onion Couscous. The zucchini sticks is the first zucchini picked from my garden today--just had to show that off...

Spinach and Onion Couscous ~ page 104

I just started using couscous a few years ago--I don't know if it has been around forever, and I just didn't notice, or why I didn't know about it. Not sure. But it is my new quickie side dish. I especially like it in the summer, when I don't want to heat the kitchen up, but I don't want cold salad either.

Here are two kinds of couscous that comes in a box. Carissa just recently told me about the one on the right--called giant pasta pearls. I found it at the health food store. (Couscous is just pasta--tiny balls of it that don't have to cook, they just kind of rehydrate in hot liquid for 5 minutes.) Carissa's sister-in-law, Holly, made this recipe with the giant couscous for a crowd of probably 50 or more people for her brother Andrew's rehearsal dinner. I dropped by and got to taste it, and it was great! I really liked the large size of the couscous. One nice thing about this recipe, is that it can sit out for a long time, and is still very good at room temperature--which makes it wonderful for a buffet dish or pot luck. But today, I used the regular size couscous for this recipe. (The large size does need to cook longer, so that needs to be factored into this recipe...)

You can do this whole recipe in a skillet. I sautéed the onion and garlic, then piled in my fresh spinach. I cooked the spinach for about a minute till it wasn't overflowing the pan...

Then just dump in the dry couscous and the hot chicken broth (which I made with boiling water and granular chicken bouillon) and cover the pan and remove from heat. After 5 minutes, fluff with a fork and stir in the lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper. You probably wont need extra salt because chicken broth is always very salty on its own. Pretty fast, huh?

Here is a vegetarian meal with Spinach and Onion Couscous along with Squash Dressing, just one page over in the cookbook. If my garden tomatoes were ripe (they will be in about 1 week!) I would have just served this recipe along with a plate a fresh sliced tomatoes, and called it a light summer meal.

Asparagus Fettuccine ~ page 89

We had this yummy side dish with crab cakes, and I thought it was a great pairing. The crab cakes and the pasta both tasted really good with fresh lemon squeezed over the top. Almost made me wonder if we should add some lemon juice to the recipe since there is zest in there already. The only thing I changed was I wanted it a little heavier on the asparagus, so I only used 3/4 pound of pasta instead of the one pound that it calls for. My asparagus was pretty thick, so I think a pound of thick stalks doesn't look like the same quantity as 1 pound of the thins stalks even though I know it really is. So depending on your asparagus size, you may want to adjust your pasta amount. I know alot of you complain about recipes that say " salt to taste", saying you don't know how much that means. It is hard to say, because I think I added 1/4 teaspoon to the recipe, then at the table Adam added almost another 1/4 teaspoon just to his serving! So, it is so different for everyone. Just start with a small amount. You can always add more later.

Oh, you know I did change one other thing...I tried it with 3 Tablespoons of butter instead of the 4 it calls for since I knew my crab cakes weren't low fat. The result....no difference, so feel free to "lighten" it up a bit if you want to! I got this recipe from the Williams Sonoma website years ago, I think they originally had the cheese just passed at the table, but I like having it tossed with the really hot pasta and butter & wine sauce. Next time I might try adding in another veggie...not sure what though, any suggestions? Maybe mushrooms? --Carissa

Penne Pasta with Roasted Veggies ~ page 100

This is a yummy dish to keep in the fridge and eat on for several days. I didn't have asparagus, so I followed the recipe exactly except for that. I kinda missed the asparagus, so next time I will make sure I have it. Below is a picture of my veggies pre-roast. I just mixed the tomatoes in and cooked them the same as the other veggies, they were really soft, but I didn't mind.

The recipe has a missed step...it forgets to tell you to chop up the veggies after you roast them into bite sized pieces. But I bet you could have figured that one out. Any of you that order a cookbook from our next batch which will be in 2 weeks, will get a corrected copy. We are correcting recipes as we find things that need to be changed, so make sure and let us know if you have found any!
Below is a picture of how I used some of the leftovers...in a salad! I didn't have to cut up any salad veggies, I already had them in the pasta! A great and FAST vegetarian dinner if you have this in the fridge already! --Carissa

Roasted New Potatoes with Rosemary, Garlic, & Olive Oil ~ page 102

These were great, I just did them on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat, but foil would work fine. There is a misprint in the ingredients, it says to use 1/4 teaspoon of salt...it should say 1 1/4 teaspoons of salt. 1/4 teaspoon is just not enough to flavor that many potatoes. I cooked mine the full 40 minutes, then added an extra 5 minutes on to it. That might have been because I had bigger potatoes, although I did cut them in quarters, not just in half. The recipe says to use 18 small potatoes, I used 9 medium ones...worked fine, just had to cook a touch longer. -Carissa

Twice Baked Potatoes ~ page 107

These are the perfect make ahead side dish, that is probably why I make them so often. These pics were taken the night I was making them, I didn't actually heat them up and serve them till the next day. Guests are always surprised that they aren't loaded with butter. I use low fat sour cream, so they really aren't bad for you. Below is a picture of a hollowed out potato. I use a grapefruit spoon to really clean out the insides good.

For ease in filling the potatoes I put the filling in a large zipper-top baggie and cut a corner off one of the bottom corners. Squeeze the mashed potatoes into each potato skin without alot of mess. Works great. Enjoy! -Carissa

Spanish Rice ~ page 103

I made this rice to go with the Beefed Up King Ranch Casserole.  It is a perfect accompaniment. The vegetables are first sautéed along with the spices, then everything poured into your rice cooker (or a pot on your stove), and that is it! Just let it cook like you do for plain rice--and you have perfect Spanish rice!

This rice is also a good choice to go with Carissa's Chicken Enchiladas on page 122.