What can you make with two pounds of okra? Gumbo time!

My parents in Florida have a wonderful garden, and I miss the numerous fresh vegetables during the summer—tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, potatoes, squash and okra. During our recent trip, my dad gave us a lot of okra. Okra is a unique vegetable, and most people eat it stewed with tomatoes or fried. It has a slimy texture when sliced, and I actually had trouble giving it away since many people don't like it or don't know how to cook with it.

I found several recipes online for gumbo with okra, so we made a pot on a Sunday afternoon and had plenty of leftovers throughout the week. I sauteed the okra in olive oil first for about 30 minutes to remove most of the slimy texture. Then, I added tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery and red and green peppers and let the mixture saute for a while longer. Next, we added chicken broth and water and brought it to a boil.

We decided to add sausage and shrimp.

I seasoned the shrimp with salt, pepper and some Old Bay Seasoning.

We added the meat last and then let the gumbo simmer for several hours on low heat. It smelled great, and we ate it over rice. With the leftovers, I made some orzo and served it over that. I also ate it over a package of instant cheese grits. It was a great dish with lots of fresh vegetables, and okra was the not-so-slimy star.

A LivingSocial meal deal at Hall's on the River

I use coupons on a regular basis, but I'm definitely not into extreme couponing, a practice some people use that you might have seen on some recent television shows. I don't spend hours clipping and cutting coupons, but I do like a good deal, so I've started visiting LivingSocial.com and Groupon.com—online sites to find deals in your area. There is a daily deal for many cities around the country, and businesses such as restaurants, salons, car washes, and even dentists are using the site to offer a percentage (usually 50 percent or more) off of their products and services. For example, you spend $10 on the deal and receive a $20 coupon.

These sites are easy ways to find possible deals in your area and try new places. You can sign up to receive a daily email that lists the deal for specific cities. I receive notices about deals in Lexington, Knoxville, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Gainesville. While I've only purchased deals for Lexington and Knoxville, I want to know about the deals in other cities in case I want to take advantage of them and possibly share or buy them for family and friends. I also think they would be great if you're planning a trip to a specific city.

So far, I've purchased deals from several restaurants, including some we haven't tried before, a magazine subscription to The Bourbon Review, and deals to purchase University of Kentucky merchandise at Fan Outfitters. (Since David will be a dental student here for four years, we can't exactly wear orange and blue all the time contrary to what some of our family and friends might think!) The deals have expiration dates, but the ones I've seen are for at least four or five months up to a year after the purchase date. Other rules include using the entire coupon in one visit and not receiving any money back if you don't spend as much as the coupon is worth, but most of the time, those rules shouldn't be a problem.

I actually purchased a few deals for restaurants when we lived in Knoxville. Lexington wasn't a city on LivingSocial last year this time, but the sites add cities on a regular basis, and Lexington was picked up a few months ago. Our latest LivingSocial deal was to Hall's on the River in Winchester, Kentucky. I paid $15 and received a $30 coupon to spend on food and drinks. 

The restaurant is about 25 minutes from our house, and we can take several scenic routes through rolling hills and horse farms to get there. The food is a combination of seafood, steaks and southern speciality dishes, such as Kentucky's famous hot brown and lamb fries (lamb testicles). Two appetizers that we've seen on many menus in Kentucky are beer cheese dip and fried banana peppers. I'm still getting used to the beer cheese dip as a cold dip since I've had beer cheese at other restaurants, and it's served warm. There is a long history of beer cheese in Kentucky, and there is even a beer cheese festival each year in Winchester.

We ordered the beer cheese dip as an appetizer, and it is very good. In addition to the beer and cheese, there are other spices in it such as garlic and probably cayenne since there is a kick to it. It is served with crackers, carrots and celery.

I reviewed the menu online before we went, but there are some dishes on the menu at the restaurant that aren't listed online, including the one I ordered. For our entrees, I ordered the stuffed sole with crab meat, and my sides were a tossed salad and beer cheese grits. Some of the salad dressings are homemade, including ranch and blue cheese. I tried the blue cheese first, but it had too much mayo and very little blue cheese, so I asked for ranch, and it was much better. The fish and grits were very good.

David ordered another house speciality, the fried catfish, and he also got the tangy slaw and smashed potatoes. I am not a fan of cole slaw, but the tangy slaw was excellent, some of the best I've ever had. Our server said it is vinegar-based and based on a German recipe. His catfish and potatoes were also good. Each entree was $15 or more, and while the two sides were good portions, the actual amount of fish we each received wasn't overly generous.

The service was excellent, and we let our server know it was our first visit, and he was very helpful in explaining their popular dishes and making suggestions. There is a large outdoor eating area with covered tables, and even though it's the middle of July, we could have dined outside comfortably on this Saturday afternoon because of low humidity.

I noticed some photos when we walked in that were taken last year when the restaurant flooded. Read this online story at http://www.lex18.com/news/halls-on-the-river-re-opens-after-flood/ to see photos and video of how fast water can rise on the Kentucky River.

We enjoyed dining at Hall's on the River, and it's a place we might not have tried without the LivingSocial deal, so it was a win, win, win!

An Italian Christmas

We've started several Christmas traditions, and one of them is having an Italian meal on Christmas Day. We enjoy the ham, turkey, stuffing and other side items at Thanksgiving, but we like to do something different for Christmas.

This year we made seafood lasagna rolls-ups stuffed with asparagus and topped with a creamy vodka tomato sauce. Besides looking like Christmas colors of red, green and white, they were delicious. We prepare everything on Christmas Eve, so all we need to do on Christmas Day is bake everything.

Our Christmas Eve meal carries over from my parent's tradition of having ham sandwiches, sausage balls and chips and dip. We bought Boar's Head deli meat from Kroger, and they have some great selections. We decided on the Salsalito turkey and rosemary and sundried tomato ham with Havarti dill and Asiago cheese slices. We eat the sandwiches on onion rolls, and this year, we tried a new brand we found at Meijer stores, Aunt Millie's. They were better than ones we've had in the past.

This meal would not be complete without David's favorite chip ever, Cool Ranch Doritos.

We also make sausage balls each year, and David is holding the giant sausage ball before I rolled about 50 individual ones. This year, I used the sage pork sausage and Bisquick and added some Gruyere cheese along with extra sharp cheddar, garlic salt and red pepper flakes.

OK, back to the seafood lasagna meal. We used crab, lobster and bay scallops for the filling. David sauteed the crab in a dab of olive oil, and then cooked the lobster in Sherry cream.

He then mixed in some minced garlic while he cooked the scallops in garlic butter.

Next, he combined all the seafood and garlic with ricotta cheese and two eggs.

Here is what the filling looks like before it's rolled into the cooked lasagna noodles.

We steamed the asparagus and set it aside.

It's time to put everything together.

Start with a lasagna noodle.

Add some seafood and ricotta cheese mixture.

Cut the asparagus into smaller pieces and add it.

Almost ready to roll it up!

Let's roll!

The first one in the pan.

They keep multiplying.

Finally finished rolling.

For the sauce, we used a jar of Vodka sauce, a jar of light Alfredo sauce, a can of Italian style diced tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and some garlic cloves.

We poured the sauce on top and covered the dish for baking on Christmas Day.

A Christmas meal wouldn't be complete without Herman rolls.

We also had an Italian side salad with mixed greens, tomatoes, black olives, carrots, green peppers, banana peppers, green onions and grated Parmesan cheese.

Here is the main course hot out of the oven and topped with Pecorino Romano cheese.

It was a delicious meal!

Hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Cane syrup...the best breakfast condiment ever

My family has a long tradition of making cane syrup, a most delicious substance that is far better than any other type of syrup, especially maple.

My brother, father and some family friends continued the tradition over Thanksgiving weekend. My dad sent the photos below, and I've simplified each step greatly, but the general idea is to: 1. Grow sugar cane 2. Cut it down. 3. Grind it 4. Cook it. 5. Bottle it. 6. Eat it on homemade biscuits, waffles, pancakes and more. 7. Repeat step 6 often.

One of my favorite meals was eating cane syrup with my Papa's homemade biscuits and pork sausage. It was divine.

Another important job is supervising, a task my mom excels at, in addition to delivering pizzas and brownies to the workers. 

They made 7 gallons of cane syrup, and I hope they saved a bottle for me. 

Here's a great shot of my dad, brother and the newest little syrup maker, my nephew Judson. He's already looking up to his Grandpa. :)

Dinner in a pumpkin

I had never heard of making dinner in a pumpkin until I saw a recipe for it online last month. I thought it was a unique idea and decided to try it. After searching for recipe variations, I developed my own list of ingredients. The hardest part was finding a smaller sugar or pie pumpkin in the grocery store.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground pork sausage (I used the sage-seasoned package)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can chicken stock
• 2 teaspoons of soy sauce
• 1 1/2 cups long grain and wild rice mix
• 1 sugar or pie pumpkin
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 2 (4 ounce) cans mushroom stems and pieces, drained
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can French cut green beans

 Directions

• In a large skillet over medium heat, brown sausage and chopped onion. Cook and stir until evenly browned. Mix in salt and pepper, pumpkin pie spice, and brown sugar.
• Drain meat, and mix in chicken stock and rice. Cover, and cook 25 to 30 minutes, until rice is tender.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove and reserve top of pumpkin. Scoop out seeds and stringy pulp.
• Mix soy sauce, cream of celery soup, cream of mushroom soup, mushroom stems and pieces, and green beans into the sausage and rice mixture. Spoon mixture into the pumpkin, and replace pumpkin top.
• Place pumpkin on a large baking sheet, and bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until pumpkin is tender. Scoop out portions of filling and parts of the cooked pulp to serve. 

The sausage and rice mixture was great, but we couldn't taste much of the pumpkin even after we baked it. I'm glad I added the pumpkin pie spice since it helped bring out a pumpkin flavor. While it's fun to bake it in the pumpkin, the sausage and rice mixture would be a great meal on its own. 
 

Shrimp Boil

In the spirit of summer and shrimp, we recently cooked a shrimp boil feast with Old Bay Seasoning. It was quite good, and we had plenty of leftovers. The recipe below says to use uncooked and unpeeled shrimp, which we did, but I hate peeling shrimp, so for the leftover version, David peeled all the cooked shrimp (bless him), and I added a few more unpeeled ones we bought. Both versions were quite delicious.

Recipe from Old Bay's web site

Ingredients
4 quarts water (16 cups)
1 can (12 ounces) beer (optional)
1/2 cup OLD BAY® Seasoning
2 tablespoons salt
8 medium red potatoes, quartered
2 large onions, cut into wedges
2 pounds lean smoked sausage, cut into 2-inch pieces
8 ears fresh corn, shucked and halved crosswise
4 pounds unpeeled jumbo shrimp (21 to 25 count)

Directions

Bring water, beer, OLD BAY Seasoning and salt to boil in 12-quart stockpot on high heat. Add potatoes and onions. Cook 8 minutes. Add smoked sausage. Cook 5 minutes. Add corn. Cook 7 minutes.

Stir in shrimp. Cook 4 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink.

Drain cooking liquid. Pour contents of pot into large serving bowl or platter. Or, mound on paper-covered table. Sprinkle with additional OLD BAY Seasoning, if desired.

Enjoy!

Homemade Herman pizza

We made homemade pizza Friday night using Herman bread as the pizza dough. So delicious! It was a thick pan-style pizza with turkey pepperoni, black olives, roasted garlic and sauteed mushrooms as the toppings. We baked the crust for about 15 minutes first, and then added the tomato sauce and toppings and cooked another 15 minutes. Finally, we added mozzarella cheese and baked it another 5-10 minutes at 350 degrees.

I realize that while I've mentioned Herman bread before on this blog, I haven't explained what it is or how I make it. My mom started making Herman when I was in middle school. Herman is the sourdough-based starter that people have used for years, primarily in the South and similar to Amish Friendship Bread, from what I've read. The bread doesn't taste like traditional sour dough, but it's very good. It's not too sweet or too sour.

Once you receive a cup of starter, you take Herman out of the fridge and feed him every three to seven days with a mixture of sugar, water and dried potato flakes (the kind you would use to make instant mashed potatoes). You can either use a cup of the starter after it has sat out for several hours to make Herman, through the cup away or give the cup to friends to start their own Herman offspring, which my mom and I have done many times.

After moving to Knoxville, I asked my mom to bring a cup of starter when they visited a few years ago, and I started making Herman. It's not hard, but you have to remember to feed him and be patient when first mixing him up with all the ingredients, especially the bread flour. Herman can be fickle. Some days he likes to rise in a perfect mound shape, and other days, he doesn't. Bread loaves and rolls (Dolly once ate a entire Herman roll off my plate!) can be made, and I've taken both to parties and given a lot of baked Herman away, just like my mom. Everyone strongly adores Herman for the most part, and if you don't, there might be something wrong with you! :)

Last year, I started adding Italian seasoning and garlic salt to the dough to spice it up a bit, and we really enjoy it. I also use olive oil at times instead of corn or canola oil. I've never made the cinnamon rolls using Herman, but my mom has, and they are delicious.

My friends used to give me strange looks when I told them I had to feed Herman or that I had brought some Herman to share at a party. Now, they just smile and realize they are about to enjoy a special homemade treat.

Picking a peck of peppers

We've cooked a variety of pepper dishes recently, thanks in part to our Sam's Club that sells a combo pack of six (two yellow, two red and two orange) for around $7, a great deal! They are pretty to look at, and I like the flavor a bit more than green peppers.

After making fajitas a couple of times, we decided to make some stuffed peppers. I remember my mom making delicious stuffed peppers filled with rice, tomatoes and hamburger meat. I added a new twist by adding corn, black beans, and tomatoes to the dish below. Another idea came from the back of a jambalaya box. I made the jambalaya with sausage meat and rice like I usually do, and then I stuffed the peppers with the jambalaya. Yummy!

The last recipe I made was Paula Dean's brunch stuffed peppers on Father's Day. I substituted turkey sausage for the bacon and used green peppers. Using green and red would make a nice Christmas brunch dish, and yellow and orange would be nice for Easter.

The peppers are easy to make, and there are plenty of leftovers that heat up nicely for a second meal. How many pecks of peppers can you pick?