Holidays are Coming: Festive Cauliflower with Swiss cheese sauce

Festive and cauliflower are not two words usually put together. In this recipe, though, the words work together beautifully. White cauliflower, swiss cheese sauce, and bits of red and green peppers…lovely, yummy, festive and easy.

Good dish for  company, good for a family meal, good all through the year. Fresh or frozen cauliflower works well. Simply adjust the cooking times of the vegetable so your cauliflower doesn’t turn to mush. If it does, then just mash it all together and serve it anyway. Make up a name for it that sounds special and fun. I think you will like this. My aunt served this years ago during a Christmas when we moved the family Christmas to Colorado during her first year of marriage.  It has since become one of our family favorites and is a regular on the holiday menu.

NOTE: Reduced fat milk and cheese can be used. It is not recommended for margarine with a high water content to be substituted for butter. Regular margarine can be used.  Large bag of frozen, defrosted cauliflower can be used.

Festive Cauliflower
1 large cauliflower
1 4 oz. can sliced mushrooms
1/4 c. diced green bell peppers
2 tbs. diced, drained pimiento
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. flour
2 c. milk
1 c. grated swiss cheese
1/2 tsp. salt

Break cauliflower into bite sized pieces. Cook 10 minutes and drain. Saute mushrooms and pepper in butter until tender. Blend in flour (make a roux). Slowly add cold milk and blend and cook until thickened. Add pimiento, 2/4 cup of cheese, and salt and stir until cheese is melted. Place one-half of cauliflower into a 2 quart casserole and cover with half of sauce. Add rest of cauliflower and top with remaining sauce and cheese. Bake in 325 oven for 20 – 30 minutes until cheese is melted. Six to eight servings.

Holiday Sweet Potato (no, not yam) Recipes

photo from NC Sweet Potato Commission

Okey dokey. Let’s clear this up before we go any further: What is called “yam” in the US is not a yam – it is a sweet potato. Sweet potatoes and yams are not even related or even part of the same family. Yes, both are tubers, yes, both are sweet, both are flowering vines. But…

YAM: grown in Africa, Asia and the Carbbean. It has a thicker skin and some of those pups can grow to be seven feet in length! Yams are starchier, drier, paler interior, darker exterior, must be cooked to be eaten safely, firmer textured, lower in beta carotene and Vitamin C. The yam is part of the lily family.

Sweet Potato: Grown in the Southern US, has tapered ends, flesh can range from white to deep orange, moister, thin skinned, and is a member of the morning glory family. There is a purple variety grown in Okinawa, however. What is called “yam” in the US is actually – Sweet Potato!!! So, no more candied yams, baked yams, fried yams. Unless of course you have been to a specialty grocery and specifically bought a yam imported from the Caribbean, Asia, or Africa.

The Recipes: Cornwallis Yams, er, Sweet Potatoes. I don’t think General Cornwallis ever had this dish or a yam and haven’t a clue as to why this ridiculous name was given to this recipe. But, it is one delicious and rich casserole. It could be considered dessert but it is a side dish typically served during the Holidays. Both of these are standard recipes and came from handwritten recipe cards from my Grandma Ninny’s recipe box and have been part of our family celebrations since Ninny was a baby.  Sweet Potato Pie is a Southern Classic. You folk can have all the pumpkin pie you want, most of us in the South will take Sweet Potato Pie, thank y’all very much.

I did a Christmas post a couple of seasons ago about sweet potato pie, family, and honoring those who have passed before. Here is the link:  kanzensakura.com/2012/12/24/the-smell-of-home a true Christmas-story   I am link challenged and it probably won’t work but the name of the post is The Smell of Home – a True Christmas Story.  You can also search under sweet potato.  I hope y’all enjoy.

Cornwallis Sweet Potato Casserole
6 medium sweet potatoes
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon
ground nutmeg
1/2 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup grated coconut, plus some for garnish (I use the frozen, unsweetened grated rather than the sweetened coconut in a bag or can)
1 1/2 cups milk
½ c. chopped pecans (optional)

Directions:
Boil sweet potatoes until softened. Peel and mash. Season with cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter.  Beat eggs and add to cooled potatoes. Combine with remaining ingredients. Pour into a greased 9×13-inch or 3-quart casserole. Bake in a 350 oven until light brown, about 1 hour. Top with a sprinkle of coconut.

Sweet Potato Pie
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup butter or margarine
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. ground cloves or mace
2 tbs. orange juice
1 tsp. freshly grated lemon peel
1 – 2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 (12-ounce) package frozen deep-dish piecrusts, thawed
Garnishes: whipped cream, grated nutmeg

Directions
Cook sweet potato in boiling water to cover 30 minutes or until tender; drain .Beat sweet potato and butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add eggs, vanilla, orange juice, peel, and spices, beating well. Pour mixture evenly into each piecrust. Bake at 350° on lower oven rack for 45 to 50 minutes or until set. Garnish, if desired.

 

Matant Livia’s Baked Eggplant

Creole and Cajun foods are sooooo good.  Different, but kinda sorta similar.  I spent a year in Nawlins..New Orleans to those who don’t know what Nawlins is.  I visited various parishes as well.  I collected many wonderful recipes and how-to’s while there.  All of them are “Take this, do that, add this….”  Most of them begin with “First you make a roux.”   If you are an inexperienced cook and not sure about amounts or methods, you’d best leave Cajun and Creole food alone.  I would suggest though, you learn how to cook without a recipe.   Make it individual, make it with joy, and like all good Southern food, make it with lots of love!

Eggplant – depends on size and how many you want to feed

The Holy Trinity – onion, bell pepper, celery, chopped finely

Fresh parsley, chopped

Grated parmesan cheese

Chopped tomato (fresh summer tomatoes are alway best for everything!)

Worcestershire sauce (Lee and Perron’s as they say)

Cooking spray 

OPTIONAL:  Seasoned or unseasoned bread crumbs are good tossed with a bit of butter/margarine and the parmesan cheese, sprinkled on top for last 15 minutes to get all toasty

Take an eggplant, wash well and pierce skin with fork all over.  Cut the eggplant in half and spray with cooking spray.  Place both halves, cut side down on a cooking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake at 350 until tender.  Amount of time varies with size of the eggplant.

Remove from oven and carefully scoop out cooked eggplant and coarsely mash.  Add to this the Holy Trinity, parsley, peeled and chopped tomato(s), parmesan cheese, some shakes of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper.  Let sit a few minutes and taste.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  Pile back into eggplant shells (or into a sprayed baking dish) and bake until warm and steamy.  Add some good shakes of parmesan cheese over top.

This is not one of those highly seasoned, luxurious recipes.  It is earthy, basic and excellent with a good French bread slathered with butter, a glass of Southern style sweet tea, and a slice of buttermilk pie (recipe coming soon!).

(HINT) I add foil to the baking dish so I can remove the casserole, allow to cool, and then wrapping well and freezing.  While eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers are cheap; this is a good use of end of summer bounty.