We were having some friends over the other night and I had 2 hours to get to the store and have dinner ready and sitting on the table. What the heck was I was going to make? Meatloaf. Instead of shaping it into a mound-shaped loaf, I decided to cook the meatloaf in cake pans. Instead of two hours, it took less than one. The key to moist meatloaf is fat–a combination of 80/20 beef and a smidge of ground pork and let us not forget, the secret ingredient, baconnnnnn. Top it with our own version of homemade ketchup–and dinner is practically done.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground pork
• 2 lb ground beef
• 1 c almond flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 c of tomato sauce (recipe below)
• 10 slices of bacon
• s&p

Ingredients for Tomato Sauce

• 1 15 oz can of fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 1/2 c (about 1) roasted red pepper
• 1/2 onion, roughly chopped
• 4 cloves garlic
• s&p

Method

Place your oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 350ºF.

In your food processor blend together all the ingredients for the tomato sauce.

In a large bowl use your hands to mix together the ground meats, eggs, almond flour, tomato sauce and salt & pepper. Separate the meatloaf mixture into two 9 inch cake pans. Fill the cake pans to the brim, as the meat loafs will shrink consdierably as they cook. Top with the slices of bacon.

Bake for 45 minutes. Turn the oven to broil and get the bacon crispy, about 10 minutes.

While the meatloaf is baking, pour the rest of the tomato sauce into a small saucepot and simmer over medium heat.

Once cool, remove the meatloaf from the pan and slice on the opposite direction you placed the bacon–against the grain, just like meat. Top with the tomato sauce and serve immediately.

This is a serious multi-tasking kind of recipe. I don’t typically make/write recipes that require dirtying lots of dishes or require multiple steps or too many ingredients, because I know most people (including myself, most days) just want to eat something a.) that tastes good b.) is good for us and c.) doesn’t require washing more than 3 dishes. I absolutely, positively abhor washing dishes. Let me get back on task here, what I’m trying to say is…I’m not trying to scare anyone off, but this should be made on a “I can’t wait to cook an awesome meal” kind of day. We didn’t need a roux for this recipe. I thought I would have to experiment with some arrowroot powder but the okra does a nice job of thickening the gumbo. Oh and let me mention, this makes a TON…get ready for leftovers!

Ingredients

• 1 head cauliflower
• 4 T butter, cubed
• s&p
• 3 leeks*
• 3 celery stalks
• 1 green pepper
• 1 lb. Andouille sausage, chopped
• 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped
• 6 c shrimp stock** (any stock will work)
• 1/2 lb. okra
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced fire roasted tomatoes
• 2 T Old Bay
• 2 t Quatre épices***
• 3 green onions

Method

Get your oven to 450°F. The food processor is going to be your BFF for this recipe. Get it out! Cut out the core and leaves of the cauliflower. Roughly chop and, in batches, process the cauliflower until it resembles rice. Place on a baking sheet. Toss it around with the butter and some s&p. Roast the cauliflower rice until it’s a nice pale yellow-ish color and doesn’t taste cauliflower-y, making sure to toss it one or two times while it’s roasting. About 25 minutes.

While the cauliflower is going, add the andouille sausage to a soup/stock pot, at least 5 quarts. Saute until it’s browned, remove from the pan and place on a “holding” plate. Add the chicken and saute until it’s done…if you’re a little shy of done, no worries, it’ll continue to cook in the soup. Remove the chicken and add to the plate with the sausage.

Add the green pepper, celery stalks and leeks to the food processor and blend until everybody is in small, itty-bitty pieces. Add to the stock pot and saute until everybody has softened. Pulse up the canned tomatoes in the food processor too–I don’t like when they’re too big in the soup, I like them evenly sized and textured within the soup. Add the rest of the ingredients, including the sausage and chicken, and simmer until the okra has softened, about 20 minutes. Don’t be afraid to taste the okra for the correct done-ness–soft, but still has a crunch to it.

To serve, place a scoop of cauliflower rice in the center of a bowl, ladle around the gumbo and sprinkle with green onions. You will have more gumbo than cauliflower. So leftovers will be “soup.”

*Leeks are dirty little suckers. To clean them: Cut off the root and to the top where it starts to get really, really green. Slice lengthwise and toss into a bowl of water. Use your hands to jiggle them around and that should remove virtually all the dirt.

**So here’s the deal with shrimp stock: I made the faux-viche one night and used shell-on shrimp. I saved the shells, added them to 3 quarts of water, simmered for 3 hours, strained and discarded the shells. Incredibly easily, and might I add, very resourceful.

*** Quatre épices is a french seasoning mix: white pepper, nutmeg, ginger, cloves. It’s not a necessary component, but it’s a nice addition. I found mine at World Market.

I have a difficult time talking myself into making ceviche at home. Even though we’re not far from the coast here in Columbia, South Carolina, it is quite difficult to source fresh, wild ceviche-makin’ seafood. Insert lightbulb overhead. Why don’t I just pre-cook some seafood like shrimp and scallops, chill it and then make the tasty “broth” to go with. Wonder if you can tell the difference, we sure couldn’t.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. wild shrimp, peeled, deveined and tail-off
• 1/2 lb. bay scallops
• 1 mango, diced
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 1 orange, juiced
• 1/2 handful cilantro, chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped
• chili garlic sauce, optional
• s&p

Method

Heat about 2 quarts of water on medium until it starts to simmer–no boiling allowed! While the water is coming to temperature, make sure to have the shrimp peeled, deveined and take the tail off. Chop the shrimp and scallops into bite size pieces. Alternatively, you could use pre-cooked shrimp…it may cost more, but it will save a bit of time. Once the water is ready, add the seafood and cook until the shrimp is pale pink. This will not take long, about 5 minutes. Strain the seafood from the water.

In a bowl add the rest of the ingredients. Add the cooked seafood and let chill before serving.

Okay, I’m going to start right out by saying these suckers have the same carbohydrate load as a regular corn chip set of nachos. We just had a hankering for a cheat night, but really didn’t want to ingest corn, wheat or other cereal grains. We are so embarrassingly barbaric with these, we lay down oven mitts on our coffee table, place the hot pan on top and sit on the floor and scarf them down with a fork. Let me also say, the salsa recipe is ‘da bomb dot com’, it’s cheaper to make this than to go out and buy a jar.

Ingredients

• 1 package sweet potato chips, we used Terra brand
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 T chili powder
• 1 t cumin
• 1 c raw cheddar cheese (optional)
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 1/2 head romaine lettuce, chopped
• s&p

Salsa Ingredients

• 15 oz crushed fire roasted tomatoes with juice, we used Muir Glen brand
• 1 t granulated garlic
• 3 T pickled jalapeno slices (about 12)
• 1 lime, juiced
• 3/4 t allspice
• 2 handfuls cilantro

Guacamole Ingredients

• 2 avocados
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 t chili garlic sauce
• salt
• 1/2 handful of cilantro

Method

Brown the meat in a saute pan with a bit of fat, and add the chili and cumin. While the meat is browning, empty a bag of sweet potato chips on a baking sheet and spread them out as evenly as you can. Toast at 350°F for about 8 minutes.

To make the salsa and guacamole, just blend all the ingredients (one set at a time, of course) in a food processor.

Assemble by topping the chips with ground meat, cheese, lettuce, green onions,  salsa and guacamole.

Also, just to add insult to injury, we decided to partake in this….

…and it was delicious. Yes it has agave, but sometimes you gotta just pick and choose your battles when you’re having a cheat.

We were on a mission with this recipe. A mission to make ourselves like arugula and…chicken breasts. We’ve both always thought arugula tasted like dirt and chicken breasts were more often than not– dry, rubbery and overcooked excuses for protein. Anyway…we were quite successful with this, I must say. Lots of flavor, but still light and relatively inexpensive. Why is this African you ask? Well, the dressing is a riff on Harissa, which is a Moroccan paste made of peppers, cumin, coriander, etc. It’s often found in tube form at the grocery store or of course, on Amazon.com

Ingredients

• 1 lb. chicken breasts, sliced in 1/2 width wise and pounded thin with a meat mallet
• about 3 oz. arugula*
• 1/3 c oil cured olives, pitted**
• 3 oranges supremed (keep the zest for the dressing)***

Dressing Ingredients

• 1/3 c avocado or olive oil
• 1/3 c orange juice
• 1/3 c roasted red peppers
• zest of 2 oranges
• 1 t chili garlic sauce
• 1 t each cumin, coriander, paprika
• s&p

Method

Heat some fat in a saute pan on the high side of medium-high. These chicken breasts cook wickedly fast because they’re so thin. To get a good sear, cook the chicken until it’s about 3/4s of the way there on one side. You’ll see the sides of the chicken turn from pink to white. Flip it over and sear for a quick minute–very, very short amount of time here.

For the dressing:

In a food processor or blender, blend all the ingredients until emulsified.

To serve:

In a bowl, mix the dressing with the arugula, olives and orange supremes. Place the chicken on a plate and top with the salad. Why not put the chicken on top of the salad, you ask? Because you have to knife-and-fork this sucker. Why not have the chicken lying on a hard surface, like a plate, instead of on top of a bunch of lettuce? It’s much easier to gobble up this way, I promise.

*If you can’t find/don’t like arugula, ANY lettuce will work. Romaine, Mixed Greens, Spinach….

**Oil cured olives are just cured in oil (duh) as opposed to brined. Same as above–if you can’t find/don’t like oil cured olives, Kalamata (Greek) olives will substitute well

***You do not have to do this, but it sure is purrrrty and it’s a technique that looks really fancy, but is actually quite simple. This is how you supreme an orange:

Please notice the knife in Ming’s hand–it’s ceramic. I’ve heard they’re super sharp but break easily. Anybody got one of these? Also, Ming made a Paleo recipe, so write it down and make it too!

If you’ve never heard of this, it’s probably because you don’t live in the South. This is completely, 100% Southern. What’s funny is– I have no idea why that’s so. I don’t really associate curry and cilantro with the South–but hey, I didn’t make this up. It’s usually got some bacon in it and served over rice, but for budget and time’s sake, I didn’t use bacon– I did, however, saute the chicken in bacon renderings. My favorite.  As you can see from the picture, we used drumsticks. I strongly advise you to follow the recipe below and use boneless chicken thighs (skinless, if you want) because drumsticks, as cheap as they may be, take forever + a lifetime to brown and cook through.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. boneless chicken thighs, skinless will work too
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 t garam masala
• 1 t curry powder
• 1/2 c raisins
• 2 t fresh ginger, minced
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 lime, juiced

Method

In a skillet, melt some fat over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper the chicken thighs. Sear them on both sides until browned and cooked through. Remove from the pan and place on your serving platter.

Add the diced onion, garam masala, curry powder and ginger to the saute pan. Saute until the onions are tender. Add the coconut milk, raisins and lime juice. Simmer for a few minutes. Spoon the sauce over the chicken thighs.

Top with fresh cilantro and sliced almonds.

Also

You will probably have leftover sauce. Here’s an idea to use it up…

To the remainder of the sauce, add 2 cups of chicken stock. Ta-da, you’ve made a coconut curry soup. Add leftover pulled chicken thighs or roughly dice up a pound of chicken breasts and add to the soup. Let the soup simmer on medium heat until the chicken is cooked through.

Have you ever tasted this super special, amazingly yummy sandwich called The Cuban? It’s a toasted sandwich with honey mustard, pickles, ham, pork loin and swiss. We have been to Miami and tried to source the best Cuban sandwich we could find…and we have also frequented Publix supermarket for its Cuban sub as a meal in a hurry–when we thought whole wheat bread and juice were healthy. Well….here is our version, sans bread and tons of sugar. We wanted to call this “Pork Three Way” since we’ve got a pork tenderloin stuffed with ham and seared in bacon fat…but we’ll just stick with Cuban to be P.C. We served this with sweet potatoes we had previously roasted, scooped out the insides and put in the freezer. Just add some cinnamon and orange zest and nuke in the microwave to re-heat.

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin, about 1 1/2 lbs.
• 1/2 lb. thinly sliced deli ham
• 1/4 lb. swiss cheese, optional
• 1/2 c. dill pickles, sliced into long strips
• 4 T yellow mustard
• 2 T honey
• S&P

Method

Get your oven to 450ºF. To prepare your pork, watch this video:

Please notice right around the 1:40 mark of the video he shows the front side of the pork. Here you can see, on the left side of the pork, what is called the “silver skin” …it should be removed with your knife. Don’t worry about all the fat, that will cook away, but DO DO DO remove the silver skin. Salt and pepper both sides of the pork.

Mix together the honey and mustard in a small bowl.

This is the easy part, in whatever fashion you’d like, layer the ham, cheese and honey mustard into the pork loin.  When you’ve gotten about half way through, add the pickle slices (going long ways). Make sure to put the pickles long ways so when you slice the meat, you get a little bit in every bite. I suggest putting the pickles in half way through the stuffing process because otherwise it’s likely to cause the pork loin to be over stuffed and not roll up properly. Once you’re finished, roll the pork up. Using about 4 pieces of butcher’s twine, tie the pork together–don’t worry about the ends.

Sear the pork loin over medium high heat (in an oven safe pan) in a bit of fat, until you see a nice brown crust on both sides.  Stick the pan in the oven and cook until the center of the pork loin measures 140ºF– about 25 minutes. Let it rest for around 10 minutes, then slice and serve. You may want to make another batch of honey mustard to serve as a dipping sauce.

WE’RE ALIVE! I hope you weren’t worried (or starving). Summer=Vacation. Wanted to say a BIG thank you to all the Facebook and website comments about our recipes. I’m at a crossroads about commenting on every single comment to say ‘thank you’, I just feel like that seems a little silly, but believe me, we cherish EVERY single comment–good or bad!

So onto the recipe…

This is actually 3 recipes, hence the title  “Feast”. Here’s the breakdown: Mediterranean spiced meat kebabs, tafooleh salad and roasted garlic baba ganoush dip. You can make all 3 or just one and you’ll be eating like a king. We’ve made this so many times, in fact, we’ve made this for a dinner party (+ a few other accoutrements), our grandparents, my parents, kids –and had huge success. I don’t know why I’m just getting around to posting it.

Ingredients

Meat Kabobs

• 1.5 lb. ground meat (we’ve used lamb, beef and buffalo with great success)
• 1 T ground cumin
• 1 T ground corriander
• 1 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 t garlic powder
• S & P

Tafooleh Salad

We posted this recipe way back in the day…well, it was one of our first posts anyway.

We grow tomatoes and this salad is a great way to use them up, if ya got ‘em.

Roasted Garlic Baba Ganoush Dip

• 2 medium eggplants
• 7 cloves garlic, skin kept on!!
• 1/2 c olive oil
• 2 T sesame oil*
• 1 lemon, juiced
• S &P

Method

For the Kebabs

Turn the grill onto HOT and keep it there! Completely submerge 5-6 wooden skewers (if you have metal skewers, skip this step) in water for about 30 minutes. You’re trying to wet the wood so it doesn’t burn on the grill. In a medium sized bowl, combine all the ingredients for the kebabs and mix together with your God given forks, yo hands!

Form the meat around the water soaked skewer, like you’re be making a lollipop, or perhaps a meat-sicle. Haha! Place the meat-pops on the grill and cook for about 5 minutes, turn and cook another 5 minutes on the other side.

For the Roasted Garlic Baba Ganoush Dip

Get your oven to 350ºF. Cover a baking sheet with foil. Cut the stems off the top the eggplants and split them in 1/2. Place them on the baking sheet and give them a light drizzle of olive oil. Grab a small sheet of foil and place the garlic cloves in the middle (DO NOT remove the skin of the garlic!), drizzle with olive oil and close up tight, like a little bundle of love. You’re making roasted garlic baby–some of the tastiest stuff on Earth! Place in the oven and roast until the eggplant can easily be pierced with a knife, about 45 minutes to an hour.

Once the garlic is cool enough to handle, remove the skins. The garlic should be nicely golden, brown. In a food processor, add all the ingredients and blend until smooth.

*Typical baba ganoush uses Tahini, which is sesame seed paste. It’s expensive and a mono-tasker kind of ingredients–I only really make one recipe with it. It’s just not worth it, so I use sesame oil instead, something I use a lot in Asian recipes.

Imagine eating a chili dog with slaw, onions and yellow mustard. Now imagine taking off the bun and eating it in a bowl with a fork and you’ve got the idea behind this recipe. Another way to look at it, we’ve taken off the sour cream, avocado and cheese from chili and added hot dog toppings.

Ingredients

Chili Ingredients

• 1 lb. ground meat* (I used ground chicken, but anything would work)
• 1 package hot dogs, chopped (I used sugar-free beef franks from U.S. Wellness Meats)
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes, juice drained, chopped small
• 1 c tomato sauce
• 2 chipolte peppers in adobe sauce, chopped finely
• 1 t garlic powder
• 1 t cumin powder

Slaw Ingredients

• 1 red cabbage, sliced thinly (The cabbage should quite small–weighing about 1 lb., you won’t need more than that)
• 1/2 c mayo
• 1/2 red onion, sliced
• 3 T pickled jalapenos, finely chopped**
• 5 T pickled jalapeno juice**
• 1 T yellow mustard

Method

In a medium sauce pan, cook the ground meat all the way through and then add the cut up hot dogs. Throw the rest of the ingredients in the pot and let it simmer while you make the slaw.

For the slaw, get out a large bowl and add all the ingredients, except the cabbage, and whisk to combine. Add the cabbage to the slaw base and mix to combine.

To serve, place the chili on the bottom of the bowl, then add some slaw and top with whatever hot dog fixings you like. Yellow mustard is an absolute must!

*If you’re pinching pennies, you can definitely leave out the ground meat and just use hot dogs. Chop the hot dogs rather small so they go further.

**Don’t be afraid of the pickled jalapenos or the juice. It’s not nearly as spicy as fresh jalapeno…but as always, add a little at a time and taste as you go–because you can’t take it away after you’ve added it.

How would you like a fish that tastes like crab, cooks quickly but isn’t finicky about being cooked perfectly and is very affordable? BAM! I have found it…it’s called skate wing. Wild skate wing, $3.99 a pound at Whole Foods! I thought, this is just a sale. Go back to a different Whole Foods, (months later, as we do not have a Whole Foods in Columbia, and go there every few months to stockpile their wild seafood) and it’s the same exact price!

This fish deserves two paragraphs of copy. It’s a flat fish with lots of meat on both sides. So it’s like a 2-for-1 kind of deal. The meat forks off like string cheese. The “bones” look more like fingers. It’s quite odd, but it’s a very tender texture with a crab-like, delicate taste. I hope, if you ever see it in the seafood case, you give it a try. The two skate wings pictured above weighed around 2.5 lbs total and were kept in the freezer for about a month before we cooked them.

Ingredients

• 3T + 2T fat
• 2 skate wings
• S&P
• 1/2 lb. fresh spinach
• 3-5 gloves garlic, finely chopped

Method

In a saute pan over medium high heat, melt about 3 T fat. Pat the skate wings dry with a paper towel and sprinkle with S&P. Place the wing in the pan and saute for about 7 minutes, flip once you see a little bit of color and saute on the other side. You shouldn’t see any pink or redness, if you do, cook it longer.

For the spinach, use the same saute pan and saute the garlic in about 2 T melted fat. Add the spinach all at once and let it sit for about 2-3 minutes. Then use some tongs or a spatula to turn it over so the fresh spinach gets wilted. This should take less than 10 minutes.