Fried Green Tomatoes

Sweet Grass is a new restaurant that opened up down the street. We of course had to pop in and try it out. We ordered fried green tomatoes for an appetizer and was blown away. I immediately had to come home and try to recreate this dish. Here is what I came up with. All I can say is OMG. Not to toot my own horn, but this is a dish I can get behind. Delish.


I did not measure anything in this dish. This is a rough guess as to how much of each ingredient I used.

3 medium green tomatoes sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup flour with
1 teaspoon cayenne powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
minced garlic for sprinkling after frying
2 eggs beaten with a splash of milk
1 container of Buttermilk dressing.
a few Basil leaves chopped

Dredge the tomato slices in the flour mixture, then into the egg mixture then into the Panko bread crumbs. Fry on med to med high four a couple minutes on each side until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle with the minced garlic while they are hot. Dress with corn salsa and serve with Buttermilk Basil dressing. I just threw chopped basil into the store bought buttermilk dressing.


Corn salsa garnish
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley chopped
2 ears of corn cut from the cob
1/2 of a large red pepper, or maybe 1 small red pepper diced
1 small red tomato seeded and diced
1 to 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
A few Basil leaves diced

I wanted fresh corn, but the store did not have any so i used the prepackaged mini cobs. I just kept them in the package and nuked them for a couple minutes. In the future I will use fresh like I wanted to and roast the corn first. Anyhow mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and let stand while you prepare the tomatoes.

Can you say GARLIC

5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 garlic bulb (I know that sounds crazy)
salt and pepper to taste
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 pound linguine
1 medium sized onion
1/4 cup asiago cheese
A couple basil leaves torn

I love garlic and I can easily put it in about every dish I make. Roasted garlic is simply the best of the best. This is one of those dishes that I just threw together because I needed something I did not need to babysit. I cut 5 chicken breast in half to cut the baking time down. I put a slit in each piece of chicken and stuffed a garlic clove in the slits. I added some salt and pepper to the chicken. I put a little diced tomato on the bottom of a grease baking dish, placed in the chicken and poured the remainder diced tomatoes over the chicken. I then threw in a few garlic cloves in fear I might not have enough garlic. I baked for about 40 minutes @ 375 degrees. After I got the dish thrown in the oven and baking for a few, I started some water for pasta. Linguine. Just a note, I always salt the pasta water when it comes up to a boil and then put in a drizzle of olive oil to help prevent the pasta from sticking together. I then pureed an onion and yes, some more garlic. I softened the onion and garlic in saute pan on a low heat while I smoked a cigarette. About 7 minutes for non smokers. lol Then I turned up the heat and hit the pan with some chicken stock and let it come up to a simmer and cook off just a touch. I then tossed the onion with drained linguine and served the chicken up on top. Garnish with fresh basil. Delish. By the way, this basil was grown from seed and is the first of my fresh basil for the season.

Not Pork Chops and Mashed Potatoes

I was going to make a RR meal, and for the most part I did, but I drifted. RR meal, now for my take on the meal. I didn't have the ingredients for the pork chops so I marinated mine in Spicy Mango Hawaiian marinade. I did not smash up the peas as she did, I just sauteed some shallots, threw in the peas let them cook for a few then threw in the mint and some salt and pepper. viola. I have to say about the sweet potato hash. OMG I loved this dish. I didn't have the Smoked Paprika, however I did have a dash of liquid smoke. I also let my potatoes cook a little longer than she did. If you think you might not like these potatoes, make them anyway, you might be surprised.

Chicken Lasagne

2 cans Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1 lb roasted garlic chicken
1 jar any spaghetti sauce (I was a little lazy)
1 handful Sun dried Tomatoes reconstituted
Ricotta cheese
6 oz chopped Spinach drained
Spinach Lasagna noodles Mario Batali recipe
Bechamel Sauce
One 8 oz shredded Mozzarella
Oregano
Garlic
Salt
Pepper

These were the ingredients that I used for the lasagne. I loved it, however, my honey wished I had not put the chicken in it. So next time I will leave it out. You gotta please the honey. lol

Christmas cookies and candy 2008

My Christmas cookies and candies are a group effort. Thanks to Paula Dean for her Monster cookies. I added a few more secret ingredients to the monster cookies. Its a secret for now. But when Christmas rolls around I'll add them to the blog. Thanks to Ina Garten for her Outrageous Brownies and her Rugelach. Thanks to a magazine recipe and my twist for the coconut macaroons.
Thanks to my Dad and a couple aunts for the inspiration for the peanut butter fudge.
This upcoming Christmas season I am going to use a couple of my mothers cookie recipes she made this past year.
And as for the lemon cookies, well lets just say, take a good look. You won't be seeing them again.

I know this is not an appropriate time for this particular post. But persaonally I can eat these sweets any time of the year. I hope you enjoy them whenever you make them. I will post the fudge and the macaroons and moms cookie recipes later.

Birthday cake

I made this cake for my cousin and my friends birthday. Its just a basic cake mix for a half sheet cake plus basic cake mix for the two coffins. The icing is my aunts recipe.

I used the green to represent grass plus it was Christmas time so I needed some red and green. You can use your own cake mix or icing, this is not a recipe but an idea. Hope it inspires someone. lol

Buche de Noel

I saw this recipe on Sara's Secrets. I was going to make this on Christmas 2007, but got very busy and ran out of time. So I knew that I was going to make it Christmas 2008. This cake took me some time. A lot of time. Did I mention how long it took to make this cake? LOL Seriously it did take me some time but I will do it again. It is going to be a new tradition. I do have to make some changes. I haven't completely decided on what changes, but here is my thought at the moment. For starters I will not make the buttercream icing. Sorry Sara, I love ya gal, but I either really screwed it up or your recipe calls for way to much butter. I love some butter but this was like putting a spoon in a tub of butter. But lets just pretend I messed this recipe completely up. It is entirely possible if not probable. lol I enjoyed the cake itself, and it was very reminisent of my Moms pumpkin roll cake. Which got me thinking hmmmm. So next time I will use moms pumpkin roll recipe with a different icing. But I am going to keep the look of the cake. It will still be a process, but given thought to some planned prep work, it won't be bad. Last time I did the entire cake in one day instead of breaking it up. I will not make that mistake again.

I loved the chocolate ganache. I thank Sara for her technique of painting the ganache on the cake. I will invest into a holly leaf cookie cutter. That was a little time consuming.

The powdered sugar really sets it off in my opinion. I can't wait to make the new version. I hope I didn't discourage anyone from attempting this cake. It is totally worth it. I did not make Sara proud with this cake stay tuned for my own recipe.