I was recently the recipient of two gorgeous bunches of organic Lacinato kale from SunCoast Organics.  You might know it as dinosaur kale, Tuscan kale or cavolo nero.  It’s the kind that has long, dark, embossed, plume-like leaves as opposed to its curly-leafed cousins.  Lacinato kale has a slightly sweeter and more delicate taste than curly kale, and is lovely in soups, stews or even salads.

One of my favorite ways to enjoy kale is in Caldo Verde, a Portuguese soup made with greens, potatoes and smoky chouriço sausage.  It’s a hearty, rustic dish that I make often.  But for this kale, I wanted to try something new.  I found the perfect recipe on Molly’s site, and I ran with it.

Boiled Kale with a Fried Egg and Toast is the simplest of simple dishes, yet it is so incredibly delicious.  It’s just kale, simmered in chicken stock with onions, and served on toast with a luscious, gooey, runny fried egg on top. If you’re feeling really daring like I was, you can also fry up some bacon to toss in the mix.  No fancy bells and whistles here.  Yet, once I began thinking about this guileless little dish, I couldn’t stop!

The first thing you have to do is prepare the kale, by trimming off the tough stems, rinsing it like crazy and cutting it into ribbons.

Next, you sauté some onions and wilt the kale.   Then, add chicken or vegetable stock and simmer it all, slowly, until the kale is soft and tender.  I forgot to take a picture of this part.  I guess I was too excited about the impending bacon fry.

Everything’s better with bacon – especially fried eggs.  They’ve been going steady for years.

Where there’s bacon, there’s bacon fat.  Slide a few farm fresh eggs right down into some.  If you don’t use bacon, just fry the eggs in good old olive oil.

Plop a nice, thick slice of toasted bread in a bowl, ladle on some kale, toss on a little bacon and top with one of those pretty fried eggs – or two.  I sprinkled some shredded Parmesan on top of mine too.

Oh, baby! It just doesn’t get much better than this, people!  Come on – be honest. Could you resist this?

Enjoy!

Have you ever watched the Food Network show, Throwdown with Bobby Flay?  I love that show!  It’s fun to see regular old people duking it out with Iron Chef Bobby over their tried and true special dishes.  I always root for the underdog too.  Not that I don’t like Bobby Flay, because I do like him a lot. I’ll bet he’d be blast to throw back a few with at Happy Hour!  I just figure he’s already got his share of fame and fortune.  It’s nice to see someone else have their day in the sun.

A few months ago I watched a Throwdown episode featuring popular Southern cookbook authors, Matt and Ted Lee, aka The Lee Brothers.  The dish they were competing with was called Country Captain.  I’d never heard of it before, but it didn’t take me long to become intrigued by it.

Country Captain is a chicken dish which is stewed in a sauce of tomatoes, onion, garlic, and curry powder. At the end, dried currants or raisins are added. The dish is served over rice and topped with toasted almonds.  Nobody is quite sure exactly where the name or recipe for Country Captain came from, but many believe that the dish originated in Savannah, Georgia, a major shipping port for the spice trade in the 19th century.   It is thought that the dish was brought to Georgia by a British sea captain who had been stationed in India who shared the recipe with friends in Savannah. It is also thought that the dish was named for the officers in India called “Country Captains.”  Wherever the dish came from, once I saw the Lee brothers make it, I knew I had to try it too.

However, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, and the busier I got, the quicker I forgot about Country Captain.  Then last week, the episode aired again…and again…and again.  I think it was the cosmic culinary universe trying to tell me something.  So, I printed out the recipe and finally made the the dish.

There are several steps to making Matt and Ted Lee’s version of Country Captain, but none are particularly difficult.  It just takes a little time.  But, the result is well worth it.  The chicken is moist and succulent, and the curry-infused sauce is zesty and robust.  It is hearty, southern comfort food. My family and I loved this dish!  And, I think you will too.

Country Captain
adapted from The Lee Brothers

Ingredients:

1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup dried currants or raisins
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
1/4 pound slab bacon or fatty country ham, chopped
12 chicken thighs, skin on, trimmed of excess skin and fat
1 large flavorful dried chile, such as guajillo or pasilla, split, seeds removed
2 1/3 cups peeled and sliced carrots (1/4-inch thick rounds), about 1 1/4 pound bunch weighed with tops
2 cups diced yellow bell peppers, about 2 peppers
2 cups diced yellow onions, about 2 medium onions
3 cloves garlic, unpeeled
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, with juice
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
4 cups cooked white rice
2/3 cup slivered toasted almonds, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Pour the broth into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat. Put the currants in a small bowl and pour enough broth over them to cover. Set aside. In another small bowl, combine the curry powder, garam masala, salt, and black pepper and reserve.

3. Scatter the bacon in a 4 to 6 quart enameled cast-iron pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Stir the pieces around occasionally until the bacon is firm and just golden brown, about 5 minutes. With the slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a small bowl and reserve.

4. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the pot, reserving the excess fat in a small bowl. Brown the chicken thighs in batches over medium-high heat, taking care not to crowd them in the pot, until they are golden brown, about 5 minutes per side. Add the reserved bacon fat, 1 teaspoon at a time, if the pot becomes too dry. Remove the chicken and reserve in a medium bowl.

5. Add 2 teaspoons reserved bacon fat to the pot (if there is none left, use 2 teaspoons canola or vegetable oil). Add the chile and toast the chile in the fat, about 30 seconds per side, until very fragrant.

6. Add the carrots, bell peppers, onions, and garlic and cook until slightly softened, about 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes, spice mixture, ginger, and the currants and their broth. Reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the tomatoes have cooked down to a puree and the sauce has thickened around the vegetables, about 8 minutes.

7. Nest the chicken thighs gently in the vegetable sauce so that the skin side faces up and is above the surface of the gravy. Tent the pot loosely with foil and transfer to the middle rack of the oven. Bake until the country captain resembles a roiling stew around the chicken thighs, about 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the sauce has thickened further and the chicken skin is just beginning to crisp, about 15 minutes more.

8. Remove from the oven, skim any excess fat from the surface, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Discard the chile. With tongs, transfer 3 thighs to each of 4 wide, deep bowls filled with 1 cup hot white rice. Spoon the sauce over the chicken and the rice and garnish with the reserved bacon, almonds, and parsley.

Enjoy!

I’ve always considered myself to to be a hip and trendy kind of girl, especially when I was in my twenties.  As you get older, though, it gets a little harder to pull it off.  Still, I try to keep up with the times.  Having a sixteen year old daughter around to keep me informed doesn’t hurt either!

I’m a pretty adventurous “foodie” type person as well, both in restaurants and in my own kitchen.   Never one to shy away from trying new things, I’ve eaten a lot of foods that many would run from. (Although, I do draw the line at bugs and things that are still moving! But, I think you get my drift.)

One recent food trend that I’ve had a hard time wrapping my taste buds around, however, is the gratuitous pairing of bacon with various dessert foods. Don’t get me wrong.  I really like bacon – on a cheeseburger or lying next to some scrambled eggs.  But, bacon cupcakes?  Huh!  How about some bacon ice cream? Um…I don’t think so.   So, while I continued to read rapturous accounts of the love affair among bacon, butter, flour and sugar,  I still remained unmotivated to jump on the crowded bacon desserts bandwagon. Until this past Super Bowl Sunday, that is.

Mr. SGCC and I were invited to a Super Bowl Party, and of course I couldn’t show up empty handed.  I wanted to come up with something that a bunch of beer guzzling, chili eating sports fans would go for.  I also wanted something that wouldn’t drip, run or spill. (All that beer guzzling makes you sloppy.)  I could have just baked some regular old chocolate chip cookies, but anyone could do that.  I’m the Queen of SGCC-Land!  I had to step it up a little. People expect more from me! (Oh, the pressure!)

I was scrambling for ideas, and then I thought, “What about bacon?”.

BACON! In chocolate chip cookies?  Hmmm.  Why not?  It could work.  And, it did.

I found a recipe for Candied Bacon on David Lebovitz’s site that looked like a good place to start. I used thick cut bacon slices, smothered them in brown sugar and baked them until they were all gooey and caramelized.  I could have just slapped that bacon on a plate and stopped there.  It was THAT good!  In fact, I had a hard time keeping Mr. and Mini SGCC from eating the whole batch while I prepared the cookie dough.

(It’s okay. They’re really not burned.)

The original recipe for the cookies, minus the bacon, comes from David’s, Great Book of Chocolate.   It’s one of my favorite recipes for chocolate chips cookies, turning out lovely thin cookies that are perfectly crisp around the edges and nice and chewy in the middle.   I don’t think these would be nearly as successful with a thicker, cakier cookie.  But, that’s just me.

Making these Candied Bacon-Chocolate Chunk Cookies was no more difficult than making any other kind of chocolate chip cookies, which isn’t difficult at all, except that you have to make the candied bacon first.  Here’s how you do it:

Once you have your candied bacon cooled and chopped into bits, you’re ready to make the cookies, themselves.

Oh, lordy, lordy, lordy!  Were these cookies ever good!  I never in a million years thought I would like them so much, but I did.  So did everyone else, too.  They were the perfect combination of smoky/salty/sweet all wrapped up in a neat little package.    The bacon flavor was subtle.  When you took a bite, you knew there was something different and interesting in that cookie, but you just couldn’t quite put your finger on what it was.  The other guests at the party devoured them, and were incredulous when I told them what was in them.

“Bacon?  Are you serious?  No way!” (Yes, way.)

I handed out more cards that day than ever before.  People wanted those cookies!

If you’re still a little leery of using bacon in sweets, don’t be.  It isn’t as scary as it seems.  Just go for it!  Your taste buds will thank you.

Wedding Crashers is on the marquee this month at Dinner and a Movie. This romantic comedy is about Washington, D.C. divorce mediators John and Jeremy, business partners and lifelong friends, who share a unique hobby – crashing weddings! Their plan is to charm their way into any wedding – and into the hearts of every bridesmaid – for just one night. But, at the biggest social event of the year, John breaks the rules and falls for Claire, the daughter of the U.S. Secretary of Treasury, while Jeremy is left at the mercy of her “stage-five-clinger” sex-crazed sister Gloria! John and Jeremy are later able to finagle to a weekend party at the sisters’ family estate, where hilarity ensues and they both learn a few lessons about love.

Okay, I’ll admit that Wedding Crashers is not my idea of great cinema. If my co-host, Marc from No Recipes hadn’t chosen it for this month’s DaaM, I probably would never have given it a chance. But, I did really enjoy watching it. This film had a lot more going for it than the trailers gave it credit for.

Who doesn’t love a great wedding? I know I do! And, I’ve certainly been to my share of them. But, let’s face it. Aside from celebrating some happy couple’s undying love, blah, blah, blah, beginning their new life together, blah, blah, blah, the main reasons most people attend weddings are for the food, and hopefully, an open bar! A visit to the open bar before one heads over to the buffet is often recommended, because unfortunately, the food is sometimes also blah, blah, blah.

If you attend enough weddings, you eventually come to recognize “standard wedding fare”. These are the items that seem to pop up at every reception, as though there was some universal wedding menu checklist that every bride had to choose from. Those mini quiches, shrimp cocktails and Swedish meatballs never fail to make the cut.

For my submission this month, I’ve made for you the King of the Cocktail Hour: Rumaki! I don’t think I attended one wedding during the 80′s that didn’t have this little gem on buffet line.

Rumaki is a Polynesian-style hors d’oeuvre. It was invented by Victor Jules Bergeron, Jr, known as “Trader” Vic. Its ingredients and method of preparation vary, but usually it consists of water chestnuts and nuggets of chicken liver marinated in soy sauce, ginger and brown sugar which is wrapped in bacon and and broiled. Rumaki was a hugely popular wedding and cocktail party nosh in the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s.

While traditional Rumaki does feature chicken livers, there are also many other versions using different proteins for those who are “liveraphobes”. Happily, I am not one of them! For those who are, I have also prepared a variation made with sea scallops and pineapple. I wouldn’t want anyone to feel left out!

Rumaki isn’t difficult to prepare, as it doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. Rolling them up can be a little tricky, though. I’ve used a recipe adapted from Gourmet Magazine from as the basis for both versions.

Previously, on Dinner and a Movie:

Moonstruck, featuring Pasta Norma

Chocolat, featuring Chocolate Truffles

Whether you just stepped off a boat from Dublin or don’t have an ounce or Irish blood in you, you’ll most likely be doing some kind of celebrating when St. Patrick’s Day rolls around next week. I’m not much into the whole green beer thing, but I must confess that this Italian girl loves a good corned beef and cabbage feast. But, as you probably already know, I can rarely leave a good thing be. So, I’ve put together a tricked out version of the original for you adventurous souls out there.

It all starts with the slow cooker. I gathered together all of the ingredients for a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner and prepared it in my crock pot. After that, I separated the components and made three separate dishes with them. My corned beef was baked with a delicious apricot-spicy mustard glaze. With some of the cabbage, onion and potatoes, I made Colcannon augmented by the judicious use of some nice, thick bacon. Then, I used the rest of the cabbage and sauteed it with onion, cider vinegar and yes, MORE BACON!

Just look at these beautiful little cabbages! Aren’t they gorgeous? These beauties came out of the last harvest from my Uncle Sal’s garden. They were the tenderest, sweetest cabbages I’d ever tasted. Cooking with them was definitely a bittersweet experience, but I think he would have approved of the end result.

The great thing about this dinner is that most of the ingredients are already cooked in the slow cooker once, so preparing the individual dishes hardly takes any time at all. You can even do it all in advance and refrigerate until you’re ready to make the individual recipes. Also, you can cook all of the bacon for the Cabbage Saute and the Colcannon at once and divide it for each dish, like I did.

Please don’t let the quality of my photographs deter you from trying any of these recipes. In the first place, mashed potatoes and cabbage are not the most photogenic foods around. In the second place, that corned beef turned out so incredibly tender, that it just fell apart as I tried to slice it. In the third place, I had to work reeeeeallllly fast because my hungry natives were getting restless! All three of these dishes were absolutely scrumptious!

Tricked Out St. Patrick’s Day Dinner
(Printable Recipes)

Apricot-Mustard Glazed Corned Beef

Ingredients:

1 large sweet onion, cut into quarters
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 cups water
garlic cloves, minced
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 (3 pound) corned beef brisket with spice packet
1 large or 2 small heads of cabbage, cut into wedges

For the Glaze:

1 cup apricot preserves
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons spicy deli mustard
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons kumquat or orange syrup (optional)

Directions:

Place the onion and potatoes in a 5-qt. slow cooker. Combine broth, water, garlic, bay leaf, sugar, vinegar, and contents of spice packet; pour over vegetables. Top with brisket and cabbage. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until meat and vegetables are tender.

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

Carefully remove corned beef from the slow cooker and place in a shallow roasting pan.

Mix all glaze ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over corned beef. Bake 30-40 minutes, until glaze is nice and bubbly.

Remove corned beef to a platter, slice on the diagonal and serve.

Sauteed Cabbage

4-5 slices thick cut bacon
1/2 of the reserved cabbage from slow cooker, sliced into strips
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Place bacon in a large skillet and cook over medium high heat until evenly browned. Place on a plate lined with paper towels and cut up into small pieces. Set aside.

In about 2 tablespoons of the reserved bacon drippings, (Save the rest for later.), saute the onion until very soft. Add cabbage and the rest of the ingredients and saute until liquid is absorbed and all is heated through.

Serve.

Colcannon

Ingredients:

Reserved potatoes from slow cooker
1/2 of the reserved cabbage, cut into small chunks
4 strips bacon
1 large sweet onion, sliced
1/4 cup half and half
Salt and pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons butter (preferably Irish)

Directions:

Place potatoes in a large bowl. Smash them up a bit and set aside.

Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, reserving drippings, crumble and set aside. In the reserved drippings, saute onion until very soft. Add the cabbage for the last few minutes and continue to saute so that the cabbage absorbs some bacon flavor.

Mix the half and half into the potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Fold in the bacon, cabbage, and onions, then transfer the mixture to a large serving bowl. Make a well in the center, and top with butter.

Serve immediately.

Today is the Autumnal Equinox. An equinox is “either of two points on the celestial sphere where the ecliptic and the celestial equator intersect.” For the rest of us, it’s one of two times each year when the Sun crosses the equator, and the day and night are the same length. Today, at 11:44:18 a.m. EDT, the Sun will have crossed the celestial equator, from north to south, marking the beginning of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere.

In most other parts of the world, there would be obvious signs hinting of this day; a crispness in the air, touches of yellows and orange at the tops of the trees, a kiss of morning mist. But in the South, Autumn sneaks in on tiptoes. An early morning 75 degrees this past few days has felt distinctly different from the early morning 75 degrees two weeks ago. And the air looks just the merest touch clearer – the curves and angles of the landscape ever so slightly sharper. The change is barely perceptible, but I know it’s there. I can see it. I can feel it too.

And then there’s the moon. That magnificent harvest moon that makes an appearance around the same time each year! A few nights ago, as I was driving home from a meeting, I saw it. A giant, red-tinged golden orb in the sky, gilding everything below it with its warm, shimmering light.

Another harbinger of Autumn’s arrival is seen in our gardens and our markets. A profusion of Fall fruits and vegetables have been popping up all over. Crisp apples, juicy pears, grapes, butternut squash and pumpkins, among others, are beginning to line the shelves in the produce department, waiting to be transformed into pies, tarts, soups and the like.

I found some vibrant and very fresh Brussels sprouts the other day. Since they are one of Mr. SGCC’s favorite vegetables, I decided to pick some up and see what I could create with them. I came up with this dish, which is a variation on one that I usually make for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of cooking the sprouts whole, I sliced them very thinly and sauteed them with chopped pecans, champagne grapes and…..bacon.

Let me tell you, they were outstanding! Slicing the Brussels sprouts enabled the other flavors in the dish to really permeate them. Each bite had the perfect balance of smoky bacon, crunchy pecans and sweet baby grapes that just popped in our mouths. If you can’t find champagne grapes, you could also use seedless red grapes in this dish. I really urge you to try this one, even if you don’t love Brussels sprouts. I swear, you’ll never look at them the same way again!

Enjoy!

Here are some other great ways to use Brussels sprouts:

Golden Crusted Brussels Sprouts from 101 Cookbooks

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Balsamic, Parmesan, and Pine Nuts from Kalyn’s Kitchen

Hashed Brussels Sprouts with Lemon from Simply Recipes

Curried Brussels Sprouts from White on Rice Couple

Cream Braised Brussels Sprouts from Orangette