Tennessee Locavore

Wordless Wednesday

Muhammara - A Treat for a Birthday Girl!

A couples of years ago on the Fourth of July, I made tons of Middle Eastern food for our celebration - hummus, tandoori chicken, pita bread, baba ghanoush and muhammara.  July 4th always consists of some kind of grilling, some kind of boozy beverage and watching the fireworks in downtown Knox Vegas from our upper porch, usually with a group of friends.  Whenever I know that my best friend, Dani is going to be eating with us, I make a conscious effort to tone down the hotness.  I love the girl but when it comes to spicy foods, she's a wimp.  Everything we ate that night had been toned down, except for the Muhammara.  And wouldn't you know - that was her favorite thing! 

She's asked me several times for the recipe but not only did I not copy the recipe down, I forgot what cookbook it came from.  I did a search for the recipe online but all of the muhammara recipes I could find icluded roasted red peppers as an ingredient.  I love them but when they're out of season, they're expensive.  I looked and looked and could never find the right recipe so I gave it up for lost.

I need to explain how important Dani is to me.  This is my fellow crazy cat lady.  This is the wonderful lady that kept me sane last year in the months counting down to our wedding.  She went wedding dress shopping with me.  She planned a bridal shower.  She planned a crazy night out at a drag queen show for my bachelorette party.  She kept me from killing my mom.  And seriously, how could you not love a girl that gives you a bottle of Big Black Dick rum and doesn't make you wear penises out in public to celebrate your upcoming nuptials?

Dani had a birthday last week.  So...needless to say, I wanted to make muhammara for her.  And I wanted to make the recipe that I made that July Fourth that she loved.  So I headed down to the library, praying that they'd have the book in stock and that I'd still recognize the cover.  I knew it was blue and written by a woman. That's it. I headed back into the stacks, found the section where most of the books on Middle Eastern food were shelved and started looking.  About twenty minutes into my search, I hit the jackpot.  It's in a wonderful book called The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden.  I'm really excited to have found it again.

Muhammara is wonderful with pita chips - especially if you're serving hummus.  It contrasts nicely with the smooth, sedate creaminess of the hummus.  It's quick to make and leftovers are great on sandwiches.

 

Love this girl!

Muhammara

Adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

Here are the ingredients you'll need to make this dish
1 1/4 cups shelled walnuts
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 slices whole wheat bread, lightly toasted (the recipe calls for one slice but my bread is smaller than usual)
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (I like to use Aleppo pepper from Penzeys)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons sugar (I like to use brown sugar, lightly packed)
Salt to taste

Toast the walnuts in a pan over medium heat for around five minutes.  Make sure to stir them.  Taste them and take them off the stove and place in a bowl to cool when they taste good to you.  I usually put extra in the pan for "tasting purposes".  Watch them carefully so they don't burn. 

While the walnuts are toasting, cut the crusts off your bread, cut into large pieces and add to food processor.  You can use a blender but just make sure not to get it blended too well.  You want a rough paste.

Add two tablespoons of tomato paste to your food processor/blender:

Add a half cup of olive oil to the food processor:

Add 2 tablespoons of pomegranate molasses to the food processor:

Keep your cat who thinks she's being sneaky away from the bread crusts.  Because that's their natural food in the wild or something like that.

Add the red pepper flakes (if you're less wimpy than Dani!), the cumin and brown sugar.  Then add your walnuts (I usually let them cool down for a minute or two).

Blend to a rough paste:

If the mixture seems a little oily, add in another piece of bread and re-blend. Now eat!  This goes especially well with copious amounts of Rhubarbaritas (recipe coming soon).  Just be sure to drink lots of water and take some advil before going to bed!

Click here to see a printable copy of the recipe

One Local Summer - Week 8

I don't think we've had a meal this week that hasn't included some kind of local produce.  When the bulk of your grocery bill is spent at the farmer's market, it's difficult to get too esoteric with your cooking.  Sure, I made muhammara that included pomegranate molasses.  But that same dish contained leftover bread from a local baker, roasted peppers from my garden and tomato paste canned last year.  However, I think my favorite meals this week have been the two or three where the majority of the ingredients traveled less than 50 feet.

Salt boiled new potatoes dressed with a little butter made from Cruze farm milk.  Nothing tastes better than the sweet mealiness of new potatoes that 20 minutes earlier were lurking in the dirt of your garden bed.  Sliced Burgundy Traveler tomatoes dressed with a little red wine vinegar and olive oil glisten on the plate.  And I've recently discovered a new passion - roasted green beans.  I type that with some trepidation because I don't want anyone to think that I'm a freaky health nut that would turn down peach cobbler to nibble on some kale.  However, I think I could eat my weight in roasted green beans.  The olive oil caramelizes them and turns them into a crispy snack food with the slightest hint of vegetable flavor.  I would eat these as a snack, at 2am in the morning when I was drunk and have lost whatever compunction I might have about gorging on high calorie snack chips.  That's how much I like them.  Peach Brown Butter Bars have become a favorite new discovery and I've made them several times.  But my favorite meals are simple meals like we had last night.  Eating local is a wonderful thing. Eating out of your back yard?  Even better.

It's Caturday - A New Simon's Cat video

Love his films!

Barbecued Raspberry-Hoisin Chicken - Finger licking good!

Raspberries are my favorite fruit in the whole world.  As a girl growing up in Wisconsin, we had a patch of wild ones in the back yard and come raspberry season, I stuffed myself with abandon.  My love affair with the fruit has not abated.  I was almost reduced to tears this year when my fall bearing raspberry order got cancelled.  There are no places close by where you can pick them and raspberries have such a short shelf life that it's best to buy them locally and use them up in the next day or two.  I was able to pick up some raspberries from a farmer's market but I can't wait until we have our own to pick.  I'll be able to go out to the backyard and graze for breakfast.  If you have a lot of berries, they do freeze well.  In fact, if you want to get the most juice out of them, freezing them helps you out.

There are thousands of delectable sounding recipes out there for raspberries, but the majority of them seem to be focused on baking.  Baking is an admirable end for a raspberry but there's only so many miles I can face on my rowing machine in an effort to fit into my clothes so I wanted to find another way to use them. 

It's been gorgeous here - in the low 80s which is unheard of in July.  It should be at least 90 with the humidity high enough to make my hair resemble a bad junior high perm.  We're taking advantage of the cool temps while we can and grilling seems so right when the evening are as lovely as they are.  I've always loved Eating Well magazine.  It seems to really place an emphasis on using seasonal produce and the recipes usually don't contain too many processed ingredients.  I glanced through some old issues and found a recipe for an asian-style marinade.

The recipe suggests that you use boneless chicken thighs and after making it, I'd have to agree.  The level of sugar in the sauce (from the raspberries and hoisin sauce) is too high to allow for long periods of grilling.  We're trying to eat down the contents of our freezer so I used a whole chicken instead and cut up one of the breasts to make chicken tenders.  It was still very tasty but very finicky on the grill because of the length of time it took.  It was prone to getting too brown.  The chicken tenders were done quickly but I think using the thighs would be a better option because the chicken would cook quickly enough not to burn but stay juicy.

If berry seeds drive you to distraction, make sure to use frozen berries and put them through a sieve to strain the seeds out.  I'd probably use a little more than a cup as well.  

Make sure to check the ingredients in your hoisin sauce.  I'm trying to cut out all artificial colors and what do you know, there it was lurking in our hoisin sauce.  Next time I buy it, I'll be on the lookout for a different brand.

Barbecued Raspberry-Hoisin Chicken
Adapted from Eating Well

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
3/4 cup hoisin sauce3 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
1 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed, each cut into 3 crosswise strips

Place the raspberries in the blender.

If they're frozen, let them defrost a bit in there.  Add your hoisin sauce.  If you like, you can call it hoser sauce like we do.  Because we're twelve.

Get your choppables ready.

Chop your garlic, orange zest and ginger.  Try to ignore your husband offering you tips on how to improve your chopping techniques.  It's all going to end up in the blender anyway.

Add the rice vinegar, garlic, orange zest, ginger, pepper and red pepper to the raspberries and hoisin sauce in a blender or food processor. 

 

Blend until smooth.  Set 1/4 cup aside to use as a dipping sauce. Transfer the rest of the sauce to a ziploc bag and add chicken.  Make sure the chicken is coated.  Lick the spatula.

 

Let that marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 24 hours.  We marinated ours for six hours.

Heat your grill up to a medium heat.  Remove the chicken from marinade and thread onto four skewers(if you're using boneless thighs), distributing as evenly as possible.  Put the skewers on the grill.  You need to keep a close eye on these on the grill to make sure they don't burn.  

If you notice them getting too brown, pull them over to a cooler part of the grill.  They should take about 4-5 minutes a side.  You can always cut into one to see if it's done.  We use a thermometer, especially when we grill chicken that isn't boneless but you can also grill until you notice the chicken is firm to the touch.  This is something that takes a little practice.

Serve chicken with dipping sauce on the side.  Try not to gross out your loved ones by licking your fingers too enthusiastically.

We really enjoyed this chicken.  The ginger gives it a nice kick and the fruitiness is perfect for a summer evening.  I served it with some leftover rice I tried to jazz up (and I failed miserably at this) and sauteed some grated summer squash and onion with tamari.  The leftovers re-heated beautifully for lunch today. 

I think this is a great way to use raspberries, although there was also a delectable raspberry tart in the same issue that's calling my name.  I think my rowing machine is going to get a work out this summer.

For a printable recipe, click here

Still 1.5 hours left for my Wordless Wednesday Picture!

Really Inauthentic Okonomiyaki

When you've spent several hours in the garden in ninety degree weather, the last thing you're going to worry about is whether or not the recipe you're making is "true" to a particular cuisine.  You want something quick to make, something that uses up a decent amount of produce, something reasonably healthy and something that tastes great.

Heidi Swanson's Japanese Pizza recipe fits the bill perfectly.  No - it's not a traditional recipe for okonomiyaki but it's quick and really tasty.  It's also perfect for using up odds and ends of vegetables from the garden.  I've subbed in kohlrabi, turnip, beets and zucchini and it's all been tasty.  We've gotten in the habit of eating this at least once a week and we've yet to get tired of it.

Japanese Pizza (Inspired by 101Cookbooks recipe)

Serves 1-2

2 cups shredded vegetables, (I used 1 3/4 cup cabbage and 1/4 cup grated carrot)

1 cup leeks, chopped (wash these suckers well)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2/3 cup white whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon tamari

2 eggs, beaten

1 tablespoon olive oil

Dipping Sauce - mix together:

1 tablespoon siracha (this makes a very spice sauce so add to taste)

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

 

Combine the vegetables in a bowl. Toss the vegetables with the flour until they're all covered with a dusting of flour.  Add salt and tamari to the egg and stir the egg mixture into the vegetables.  Mix until everything is evenly coated.  

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat and add olive oil.  Spoon the cabbage mixture into the pan and using a spatula, press it into a round pancake shape, making it as flat as you can.  Cook 5 to 7 minutes - you want it to turn a nice brown color.  To flip, slide out onto a plate.  Put another plate on top of that plate and flip over.  Add a little more oil to pan, let heat for 20-30 seconds and slide the pancake back into the skillet.  Let cook another 5-7 minutes.  Cut into wedges and serve hot with dipping sauce.

The only non-local ingredients in the above meal is the tamari, the siracha, the flour and olive oil.  The mayo was actually made with olive oil and local eggs.  This week has once again been full of local eating.  Last night, we had a group of friends over and we all shared pizza made with local tomatoes and vegetables, heirloom tomato salad and brown sugar peach ice cream made with local milk and eggs and local peaches.  Breakfasts are usually local eggs made some way and a bowl of local fruit, usually peaches.  Lunches are either leftovers or salads made from leftover bread, tomatoes and whatever local produce needs to be used.  To be honest, I can't imagine not using local ingredients this time of year.  Not only do you get to support your neighbors, but it's just good food. 

Two sticks of butter in one 8X8 pan = heaven!

When I read the recipe for Cherry Brown Butter Bars by Deb at Smitten Kitchen, I fell in love with her blog all over again.  Deb posts some of the most delicious recipes, especially when it comes to baked goods. Last month, a new Earthfare opened near us and they had a fantastic special on organic cherries.  Since our local cherry harvest was so poor, Marcus and I treated ourselves and bought a few pounds to snack on. Brown butter is very trendy right now but it's a trend that I love. The combination of brown butter and cherries?  There was no way I could not make this recipe.

It certainly lived up to its billing. The shortbread crust combines winningly with the egg-y custard brown butter layer.  Deb compares it to a clafouti and the comparison is spot on.  I've made it three four times now and the after the third batch,  I was running low on cherries.  As much as it pains me to say it, the recipe is almost too rich (or at least it is when you're making four pans of it) and the fruit helps to cut through and lighten it a little.  So I wondered how I would taste with sliced peaches instead.  Peaches are in season here and I thought I could add more fruit if I used peaches instead - the cherries are a bit difficult to split between bars.  So I added a thin layer of peaches for the second batch of bars and I liked these even better than the cherries.  I tried thick slices of peaches and several thin layers of peaches.  I think it's really a matter of personal preference because both taste great to me and to my tasters.

Just a warning - watch the butter carefully. It will start to brown in a matter of seconds and you don't want it to burn.

Peach Brown Butter Bars

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Crust:

7 tablespoons butter, melted

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour

Pinch of salt

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

pinch of salt

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup butter (equal to one stick)

4 Peaches, peeled and sliced

To make Crust:

 Preheat over to 375°F. Deb has instructions at her site for faking a tart pan.  I used a nonstick cake pan and although I made the first batch using parchment, the other three I didn't bother using it.  Make sure to grease your pan using a little butter.  Using a rubber spatula or fork, mix the melted butter,vanilla and sugar in a bowl.  Then add the flour and salt.  Stir until all of the flour is mixed into the butter and transfer the dough to your 8X8 pan.  Using your fingertips, press the dough so that it's distributed evenly across the bottom of the pan. 

Bake the crust until golden. This takes me about 15 minutes but Deb's instructions say 18 minutes.  Just keep an eye on it.You don't want it too done because you're going to bake it again.  Put pan on a rack and cool slightly.  Keep the oven at 375°F.

Make the filling: 

Melt the butter in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat.  You want to cook it until it's a deep brown.  One thing I noticed is that the milk solids will cook faster than the butter.  I cooked it until those were a dark brown and then poured it into a ramekin to cool.  This took about five minutes.

Whisk eggs, sugar, salt and vanilla in a bowl to blend.  Add flour and whisk until smooth.  Add a small amount of brown butter and whisk.  Gradually add the rest of the butter and whisk until smooth and well blended. 

Arrange peach slices on crust.  If using thick slices, arrange like I have in picture.

  

 

If using thin slices, arrange a layer and then alternate another layer in a criss-cross fashion. Pour brown butter mixture carefully over the fruit.

 Bake bars until filling is golden and puffed.  This took around 40 minutes for me.  Cool bars completely on rack.  Cut into squares and serve.  If made more than a day ahead, store in fridge.

The next time I make these, I think I'm going to cut the peaches into thin slices and do about three layers, all criss-crossed over the previous layer of peaches.  I would have tried this again so I could have gotten pictures of it but there's only so many sticks of butter I can eat in a single week.  My friends all love them but have made me promise not to bring them any more of these because they can't say no to them.  Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a rowing machine!

Wordless Wednesday

Summer in a bowl

 You know it's summer when you've done both of the following things.  The first is picking a tomato off the vine and biting into it while the juice runs down your arm and drips off your elbow.  The second is having to go get the floss after dinner because you've got bits of corn from corn on the cob stuck between your teeth.  Only then are you in the full flow of summer!

Sweet corn is an ephemeral thing.  Of course you can get it only in summer, but good sweet corn is still somewhat difficult to find.  If you grow it yourself, you can quickly find out how fast raccoons and groundhogs can find it.  If you buy it from a farmer, it often isn't the best it can be.  Good old fashioned sweet corn is best cooked this way.  One - start a pot of water boiling.  Two - pick the corn and eat.  When you're dealing with sweet corn brought to market, you can't do that so you need to go by taste.  A lot of times the corn will either be super sweet but rather insipid without a lot of good corn taste.  This is the result of newer varieties of corn that have been developed to appeal to our country's infatuation with sugar.  I like my corn sweet but I also want it to taste like corn.  Or if the farmer's grown a really old fashioned variety, it sometimes isn't sweet enough.  Whenever I hit the farmer's market, I buy an ear and walk around the corner from the farmer, open that husk up and try it out.  If it's got a good corn taste and it's sweet, I go back and buy a couple of dozen of ears.  As soon as I get home, I start a pot of water boiling or fire up the grill.  Cooked corn will hold beautifully in the fridge for several days and you can actually freeze cooked corn on the cob and you'd be surprised at how fresh it tastes a few months later.  

Tonight, I wanted to make a corn chowder that focused on the corn but also had a little smokiness and body to it.  I love Sungold cherry tomatoes in this soup because they are so sweet and tropical tasting.  This is an easy soup to mess around with.  I think it would be great with basil added and grilled corn would be fantastic in it, especially if you served it with toast topped with smoked mozzarella. 

Summer in a Bowl Sweet Corn Chowder:

6 ears steamed corn on the cob

3 strips bacon (cook another strip or two if you're like me and sneak bits out while cooking)

1 large onion, diced into 1/4 inch pieces

2 medium potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch cubes

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

10-12 SunGold or SunSugar cherry tomatoes, quartered (you can use other tomatoes, stick with the sweeter, golden kinds)

1 cup whole milk

Cut each corncob in half cross-ways and stand each half on the flat end and using a knife, cut the corn away from the cob.  I usually run the blunt end of the knife down the cob to get as much of the juices and corn out as possible.  Save all of this in a bowl and put the corncobs in a 1.5 quart pot and fill with cold water.  Bring to a boil and let boil for 2-3 minutes.  Reduce the heat and simmer while you prepare the rest of the soup.  

Cut the bacon into small pieces and cook over medium heat in a non-stick skillet.  After the bacon begins to brown a bit and some of the fat is rendered, add the potato and onion.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook for about seven minutes, until the onion begins to soften a bit.

Strain the water the corncobs have been cooking in into a larger saucepan.  Add the onions, bacon and potatoes to this liquid.  Bring to a boil and the reduce the heat so the soup is simmering.  Cook for about 15 minutes until the potatoes are tender.

Add tomatoes to soup and cook for two minutes.  Add milk and corn to soup and heat through.  Taste and add salt to your liking.  Serve.

This was my official One Local Summer meal for this week.  Everything except for the salt and pepper was local.  We've had a lot of local meals this week.  The blackberries and the peaches are in full swing around here and the first, really good heirloom tomatoes are getting ripe.  We've been grilling out a lot and whenever we do that, we grill extra summer squash for meals later in the week.  We made another pizza with homemade sourdough and topped it with leftover grilled zucchini, homemade mozzarella and basil from the garden.  We made an americanized version of Okonomiyaki which quickly used up a head of local cabbage and local leeks that were getting a little old. And we've made several local meals of homemade bread, tomatoes and basil from the backyard and homemade mozzarella made from local milk.  Local eating is anything but a hardship this time of year.

Ridiculously easy way to slay the zucchini monsters

There are many inexplicable mysteries in gardening.  Why is that one year your potatoes do so poorly even though you've done everything "right" and the next year when you plant them too late, they flourish?  Why is that the birds ignore the delightful array of seeds and various birdbaths you put out for them yet pick at every tomato you have before it's ripe?  Why is that you can spend what seems like an inordinate amount of time picking every single zucchini on your plant, yet go out the next day and find a boat of a zucchini waiting for you?

You can't win against the zucchini monsters and there's only so much zucchini bread one person can eat.  And it's not like most zucchini breads are very healthy to begin with and who wants to bake when it's 90 degrees out?  I also rarely have time to cook anything complicated when I've got 20 pounds of squash to put up for winter.  This is where the following recipe will help you out.  It seems so simple that it must be boring but it's one of my favorite summer meals.  More importantly, it gets rid of monster zucchinis fast.  You can even grate zucchini, throw it in a freezer bag and make this dish in the winter when the scary monster zucchinis are but a haunting summer memory.

Killer Zucchini Orzo

1 cup cooked orzo

2 cups grated zucchini(half of a monster zucchini)

1/2 medium onion

1/2 to 1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons Pecorino Romano

Kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon combination of herbs to suit you - see note below.

Heat oil in nonstick pan over medium heat. Add zucchini and onion and saute until it begins to brown.  Mix in herbs with a pinch of salt.  Stir in cheese and add cooked orzo.  Stir until heated through and serve.  You can more grated cheese when serving if you like.  You can serve this hot or at room temperature.

Note:  My favorite combination of herbs is a blend from Penzeys called Italian Herb Mix or a mixture of thyme and oregano or marjoram.

This is a very flexible meal.  I've added chopped tomatoes or quartered cherry tomatoes to it and that's a nice variation.  Sometimes I add garlic with the onion and zucchini.  I plan on experimenting with other vegetable this year.  I think grated winter squash sauteed with butter and sage would be fantastic.

There is nothing...I repeat, nothing more awesome than Neil Diamond.

My love for Neil Diamond knows no bounds.  In my younger, much cooler days, I used to be horrified by the musical selections of my father.  He had a deep and abiding love for Irish folk music and James Taylor.  And Dad - seriously, could you turn down the Carly Simon?!!  Now that I fully embrace my dorkdom, I'm free to love whatever music entertains me.  Which is why Neil Diamond's "America" will always have a place on my July 4th playlist, along with The Bruce's "Born in the USA" and 2 Live Crew's "Banned in the USA".

Unlike the merry band of corporate shills at The Center For "Consumer Freedom", I celebrated my freedom by eating my way through a day where as many foods as possible were produced by local food producers.  We kicked off the day by heading to our local farmer's market where we stuffed ourselves with locally produced baked goods.  I even convinced myself that the carrot cake I had for breakfast had to be healthy because it lacked cream cheese icing.  

For lunch, we had leftovers from the day before - grilled local lamb and onions, flatbread made with my sourdough and tomato salad made from tomatoes and herbs in our back yard.

For a snack, we had grilled local corn.  It was the first corn of the season.  I think the splotches on the porch floor made by butter dripping off our elbows might wear off by summer's end.

We managed to make it to about 3pm before imbibing any booze and when I got a taste of the Basil Peach White Wine Sangria made with local peaches, I wish we had started drinking earlier.  The basil we picked from our garden made this drink - it kept it from being too sweet and cloying.

For a late dinner, we made our traditional 4th meal - smoked turkey legs.  For some medieval reason, I really love turkey legs.  They really bring out the T-Rex in me.  We served it with homemade baked beans made with local honey, local tomato sauce, frozen local shelley beans and local bacon.  We served it with one of the best potato salads I've ever had(made with local potatoes and herbs from our garden of course!).  

I don't hate potato salad but the majority of them are too heavy for me and I always feel like the potatoes in those salads are just the excuse for mainlining as much mayonnaise as possible.  Smitten Kitchen's Horseradish Potato Salad is just what I've been looking for.   The focus is on the potatoes but the sour cream dressing makes this dish sing.  I've always been a fan of the sinus tingling properties of horseradish and when you combine it with the chives, dill and onion in this dish, well - I'm just glad no one but my husband saw me scraping the plate with my finger.

Horseradish Potato Salad (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

3 pounds small (2-inch) potatoes
1/4 cup red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon white-wine vinegar
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons fresh dill, finely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Boil potatoes until they're fork tender.  Cool them room temperature and quarter. Mix remaining ingredients and fold the potatoes into this mixture.

After we finished eating, we waddled upstairs onto our upper porch where we had one of the best views in Knoxville of the downtown fireworks.  There are times where I wonder why we bought this ramshackle old house but every time we get to relax, away from crowds and get such a great view of the fireworks, my faith in our decision is restored.

I hope you all had a great 4th and you all got down with your bad old selves!  Let Freedom (and 2 Live Crew) Reign!

Whoo-hoo! Food Inc. is coming to Knoxville!

July 10th at the Downtown West as a matter of fact! This is the documentary that's got agribusiness all up in arms and foodies are buzzing about it everywhere.

Behind the food industry's iron curtain

Yes, You have to see Food Inc. - Atlantic

It's Caturday!

Please don't forget to keep your pets inside today and tonight!

July 4th Fireworks Are No Blast for Pets

Taco Bell's New Green Menu!

This makes me want to run out to the car, shuffle through the trash on the floor and find enough change to order the Crunchador!

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature

Food Fireworks

Love this!