Sour Apple Sparkler

This week’s Five Ingredient Friday is for all of you who are looking for a delightful new cocktail. This Sour Apple Sparkler cocktail has pucker power, it has bubbles, and it has the irresistible sour apple in cocktail form. If you love Sour Apple Jolly Rancher candies? You’ll love this adult beverage.  

A few weeks ago the Blount County girls took an expedition to a graveyard. Sounds weird, right? It was, in fact, fascinating. Each year a local college hosts a cemetery tour at historic Fort Hill Cemetery in Cleveland, Tennessee.  The students research cemetery “residents,” then while dressed in period costume they portray the character they have researched, regaling visitors with the life story of the cemetery “resident” they are representing.

This year’s theme was people who were Unionists, and who attempted after the Civil War to obtain reparations for property seized by the Union during the conflict; some of the characters were successfully and some were not, but they explained the circumstances surrounding their claims and why they were awarded reparations, or not.

It was an eye-opening peek into the history of the time, in an area of Tennessee where there were splits in sentiment for and against the Civil War, even among family members. In many cases, the players were husband and wife who had been interred side-by-side. It was extremely interesting the way infant mortality of the time was noted, “We had nine children, five of whom survived to adulthood.” It was always said in a proud way, that so many had survived. All of the players did an outstanding job, remained in character the entire time and were delightfully funny as well as informative.

The day was organized by my friend, Terry. She is a consummate hostess and planner, and is the person who frequently spearheads the adventures of our group. The day began at her house where she hosted us for a delicious lunch prior to heading off to the cemetery.

As is our wont, she started us out with a cocktail. It was a version of this particular cocktail, which I have modified somewhat from what she served. I just loved it, because I love sour apple and I love champagne.

The cocktail itself is only four ingredients. If you count the garnish of the green apple slices, that brings it to five. Those ingredients are:

• Sour Apple Pucker Schnapps
• Rose’s Lime Juice
• Apple Cider
• Champagne
• Green Apple Slices

If you’re at the T.G.I.F. stage this week, then this cocktail has your name written all over it! I hope you’ll try it. As always, when consuming beverages containing alcohol, please drink responsibly!

P~

Sour Apple Sparkler

 

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Sour apple schnapps mixes with a bit more sour from Rose’s lime juice, apple cider and champagne for an adult beverage with real pucker power.This recipe makes a small pitcher.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 cup Sour Apple Pucker Schnapps (I used DeKuyper)
• ¼ cup Rose’s Lime Juice
• 2 cups Apple Cider
• 1 750 ml bottle Champagne
• Green Apple slices (for garnish)

Instructions

1. In a pitcher, add the Sour Apple Pucker Schnapps, the Rose’s Lime juice and the Apple Cider.
2. Stir to combine.
3. Add ice to your favourite glass, pour the Sour Apple mixture over the ice, about ⅓ full (or more depending on your love of pucker).
4. Add champagne to top the glass.
5. Garnish with green apples slices, if desired.

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3.2.2124

Artichoke and Gruyère Pizza with Prosciutto

Is Friday Pizza Night at your house? This Five Ingredient Friday Pizza loaded with marinated artichoke hearts, Portobello mushrooms, cheese and prosciutto is a five ingredient fabulous change of pace from the ordinary pepperoni pizza. It’s ready in minutes, so get that movie set to play! Your weekend is about to begin!  

Mr. Saucy loves my cooking; he’d be the first to tell you that. But Mr. Saucy has a not-so-secret-anymore (since I tell the tale often) love of frozen pizza. This passion of his resulted from a real tragedy, though. Let me explain.

When we first started dating, Mr. Saucy was quite the cook. Really. On our first date, Mr. Saucy actually cooked dinner for me at his house. He drove across town to pick me up, drove back to his house where he had an enormous vase of flowers on the hearth and an orchid for me to take home; he also had a really wonderful meal for us. I was quite impressed.

As our relationship grew, we cooked for each other often. And he would ask me for my recipes, which he would actually cook! Once we got married however, Mr. Saucy, sadly, was stricken with chronic condition. No known cure. Cooking Amnesia.  The only memory of cooking he retains is the ability to bake pizza. Frozen pizza. While I think this is a convenient “illness,” I think it’s pretty funny. *wink*

Any time I go away on a trip, or am away for the evening, or not feeling like cooking, Mr. Saucy will offer to cook, bless his heart. “I’ll cook tonight, girlfriend (he still calls me that even though we’ve been married almost twenty years now…isn’t that cute?), I’ll just pull out a frozen pizza!”

Not being a huge fan of the frozen pizza myself, I will acquiesce nonetheless. Cravings must be indulged, I know. But every once in a while, I want pizza. Not frozen pizza. So, I’ll make what we’ve lovingly termed “Prissy Pizza.”

I suppose this could be a “Prissy Pizza,” but I prefer to call it simple and delicious. And it really was! It got the Mr. Saucy Pizza Seal of Approval. And it’s only five ingredients! They are:

• Store-bought pizza dough
• Cheese (I used Gruyère, but any mild white cheese would work-think Fontina, Swiss or even Mozzarella)
• Marinated artichoke pieces
• Portobello mushroom slices
• Prosciutto cubetti

I could easily see this pizza done in small, bite-size pieces on a party buffet or as an appetizer for a dinner party. The combination of flavours was fantastic. I’ll be making this one again. I hope you’ll try it.

P~

5.0 from 1 reviews

Artichoke Mushroom and Gruyère Pizza with Prosciutto (Five Ingredient Friday)

 

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Store-bought pizza dough along with marinated artichoke, Portobello mushrooms, Gruyère cheese and topped in the end with prosciutto cubetti make for an outstanding five ingredient pizza. Perfect for parties, in bite-sized pieces.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Entree, Appetizer

Ingredients

• Store-bought pizza dough (or make your own)
• 1½ cups grated Gruyère cheese (or any mild white cheese…Fontina would be great, Mozzarella, or Swiss)
• 6 ounces marinated artichoke pieces, drained of liquid, chopped
• ½ cup sliced Portobello mushrooms
• ¼ cup diced Prosciutto (I bought some cubetti from the deli)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425° F.
2. Dust a work surface with cornmeal and roll out the pizza dough (mine was a 10″ round).
3. Transfer to a baking sheet, or onto a piece of parchment paper if you’re going to bake the pizza on a stone.
4. Place the dough in the oven and bake for about 8 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven.
6. Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the dough, add the artichoke pieces and mushrooms over the cheese.
7. Sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper.
8. Return the pizza to the oven and bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are browned.
9. Remove the pizza from the oven and sprinkle with the diced prosciutto.
10. Serve hot.

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3.2.2124

Muffuletta Sandwich

If you’ve never had a Muffuletta, or if you love a good Muffuletta, now you can make one at home. This post has the recipe for the Muffuletta olive salad that I use to make these unbelievably good sandwiches; I also tell the story of when I discovered the Muffuletta, when I started making them regularly, and the memories that this amazing sandwich evokes for me.

A traditional style muffuletta sandwich consists of a round loaf, split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad, mortadella, salami, mozzarella, ham, and provolone. Quarter, half, and full-sized muffulettas are sold. The combination of meats and cheeses doesn’t make it sound so special; anyone can make a Dagwood sandwich, right?

What makes these sandwiches so special is the olive salad that acts as the condiment spread for them. Olives are combined with the pickled vegetables found in a typical giardiniera. Giardiniera is just pickled cauliflower, celery and carrots (and sometimes other things like red pepper and jalapeno or peperoncini). Then, you add garlic, fresh chopped oregano and olive oil; those all rest in the refrigerator for about 24 hours to allow all the flavours to meld.

The first time I had a Muffuletta was in New Orleans (where this sandwich originated), on a business trip back in the 80′s. I just couldn’t believe how delicious it was, or why I’d never had one before then. I thought I’d died and gone to sandwich heaven! I was absolutely stuffed after finishing my quarter-serving Muffuletta, but I wanted more. That desire has not changed any time I’ve eaten one since.

When I returned from that trip, I wanted desperately to replicate that sandwich. This was back in the stone-ages, pre-internets, and it wasn’t possible to easily research a recipe. Fortunately, I have a very good ability to discern ingredients in foods I have eaten, so I got very close to the traditional olive salad on my first attempt. I think the only thing I missed that first time was the fresh oregano.

Since then, I have made Muffulettas frequently; I used to make them as a guide lunch for our business, back when I did the cooking for our fly fishing trips and schools. The reason a Muffuletta is perfect for such lunches is that it doesn’t contain mayonnaise that might go bad if left un-refrigerated; this making it a perfect picnic sandwich.

There are so many facets to my life, and I’ll have to say that fly fishing (and fishing for tarpon, in particular) ranks right up there with my love of food and cooking. While I don’t work at our shop any longer (I ‘retired’ at the end of January after 18 years of doing that), I do still teach our beginner fly fishing classes. And that brings me to a story…the story of how I started fly fishing, how I came to my quest for giant tarpon and how the Muffuletta plays into the story.

I started fly fishing in 1991. It was a fluke, really, the way I got my start. Mr. Saucy and I were dating then; the property we now live on has a small stream flowing through it and Mr. Saucy had stocked it with trout. Because he fed them, they were monsters. We even gave them names. For instance, Bad Ass was a 24+ inch trout that lived under the “lunker bunker” (a bank stabilization structure we’d built). Anyway, Mr. Saucy was wanting to show off the new girlfriend to one of his buddies and he took me down to the stream for my first outing. I caught an enormous fish and was immediately “hooked.”

After we married, we got involved in the fly fishing business and I progressed in my fishing abilities. Eventually, I decided to learn to teach fly fishing and took many classes and private instruction with some of the greatest and best known fly fishermen (and women) of our time. I wasn’t a very good distance caster still, since I didn’t need to know how to cast very far to fish where we do, here in the Smokies.

The desire to cast a long distance came the first time we were invited to fly fish for tarpon in the late 1990′s. A friend of ours, who was a sales-rep for a company we bought products from, invited us to Islamorada in the Florida Keys to fish for the Silver King. Of course, I didn’t catch one on that trip, heck, I was afraid to catch one as I had no idea what to do if I should. But I wanted to catch one. In the worst possible way.

When we returned home, I started watching every video I could lay my hands on; I read every book I could read about tarpon fishing. I wanted to be prepared the next time we went. I wanted to catch a tarpon…I needed to catch a tarpon. The best thing I found was a video done by Billy Pate, the then world-record-holding tarpon fisherman.

I wish I could insert his accent for you to hear, Billy is from the Lowcountry in South Carolina, so his accent is pure gold in this (he pronounces tarpon as: tah-puhn), but here’s the observation he made in that video:

“In the quest for giant tarpon, you need physical strength, but you must be mentally tough as well…your will to win must be greater than the tarpon! And the TARPON….thinks…HE’S… gonna …DIE!”

So, long story short…we went back to another place to fish for tarpon; I hooked a tarpon and promptly lost it. On our third tarpon trip, I landed my first tarpon (we released him, of course) and we went tarpon fishing every year for many, many years. Here’s a picture of me and our long-time guide and friend, Doug Cole, as we prepare to land a monster tarpon I’d caught:

So, how this story relates to Muffulettas…every year I would mix up some of the olive salad for Muffulettas for our boat lunches before we left home. We would make the long journey by car to our fishing destination, loaded down with all of the fishing and camera equipment Mr. Saucy could imagine. Every year, our guide would shake his head in amazement that first morning at the dock at the pile of stuff Mr. Saucy would tote along, all of which would need to find a spot in the boat. Our guide called it “Mount Begley.” The one thing our guide wouldn’t complain about was the  Muffulettas I’d made for us, stowed in the cooler.

Now, every single time I eat a Muffuletta, I am transported to the bow of a flats boat, with the feeling of anticipation of the possibility of giant fish, exciting times and great memories.

Start your Muffuletta memories with this easy and delicious Muffuletta olive salad recipe. If you’ve never had one, you won’t believe how awesome this sandwich is.

P~

5.0 from 1 reviews

Muffuletta Sandwich

 

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A traditional style muffuletta sandwich consists of a round loaf, split horizontally and covered with layers of marinated olive salad,mortadella, salami, mozzarella, ham, and provolone. Use whatever bread, meat and cheese combination you like, but use this olive salad recipe to spice up your favourite sandwich.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Sandwich

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients

• FOR THE OLIVE SALAD:
• 1- 5 ounce jar green olives with pimentos, drained
• 1- 16 ounce jar giardiniera (pickled cauliflower, celery and carrot-I use Mezzetta brand hot mix that contains jalapeno peppers), drained
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves, chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• FOR THE SANDWICH:
• 1 round loaf of bread (I used mini French boules for this one), baked until the outside crust is crisp, cut horizontally removing the top third of the loaf, inner bread hollowed out leaving about 1 inch of bread attached to the crust.
• Hard salami slices
• Ham slices (I used baked ham)
• Mortadella slices (if you can’t find mortadella, use whatever other luncheon meat you prefer)
• Provolone cheese slices
• Mozzarella cheese slices

Instructions

1. Combine the olives, giardiniera, garlic and oregano into a medium-sized bowl.
2. Remove about ⅔ of this mixture to a food processor (or blender, or just to a chopping board).
3. Pulse until you have a finely minced mixture.
4. Slowly drizzle in olive oil.
5. Return the minced mixture to the bowl of whole vegetables (I do it this way since I like some bigger chunks of vegetables in mine, you can mince all of the salad if you wish).
6. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
7. TO ASSEMBLE THE SANDWICH:
8. Take the hollowed bread round an spread the salad mixture in the bottom and the top of the loaf.
9. In the bottom of the loaf, layer the meats and cheeses on top of the salad mixture until you have filled the cavity in the bread.
10. Place the top of the loaf onto the filled bottom, and cut the loaf into half, or quarters,depending on its size.
11. You can wrap these pieces in plastic wrap and refrigerate..these sandwiches hold very well for several days.

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3.2.2124

Potato Galette with Gruyère and Rosemary

This simple potato galette recipe will transform the bland and boring potato into a tasty, elegant potato dish with just five ingredients. Don’t just eat potatoes…dine on potatoes! 

After all of the Southern-Style Mustard Potato Salad I’ve been making lately (well, since the first nice day in the Spring…I’ve been killin’ Mr. Saucy with potato salad), I decided it was time for a change of pace. Bless Mr. Saucy’s heart, he does love potatoes, he just isn’t as big a fan of THE potato salad as I am.

His favorite potato dish is mashed potatoes because, of course, he adores gravy. But if I put cheese and some onion in potatoes, like I have for this galette, he’s all over them. The night I made the galette pictured above, I was wanting something simple, elegant and rustic; I love that combination. Elegant simplicity…it’s how I love to live.

I’ll tell you a story about that…Mr. Saucy and I hadn’t been married long and I went to Knoxville for a day of browsing with my good friend, Pat. One of our stops was at an art gallery near the World’s Fair site; it was located in an old house. When we walked in the door, above the fireplace of this gallery, in the room that was once the living room, there was a painting. As soon as I saw it, for the first time ever, I fell in love with a piece of art.

The painting was a watercolor of some Paperwhites in a verdigris bucket and the background was old barn wood. It screamed elegant simplicity. It spoke to me. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. So, I told Mr. Saucy about the painting and he encouraged me to go back and buy it. I hesitated to do that…it was kind of pricey, but I really couldn’t forget that painting.

So, on a subsequent trip to Knoxville and on Mr. Saucy’s urging, Pat and I went back to that gallery for me to make the purchase. We walked into the gallery and, coincidentally enough, the artist of that particular painting was there. But the painting wasn’t. I practically ran through the rooms of the house/gallery looking for it…maybe they’d just moved it! Finally, I asked the artist about it. She said it had sold. I’ll never forget how crushed I was. I was just devastated. I cried. Real tears. I was distraught (Moaning Myrtle voice).

Long story short: the painting WAS purchased. Mr. Saucy purchased it; he surprised me with it at Christmas…months later. He’d hid it at Pat’s house. I could have killed her…after I cried with delight. To be fair, it almost did kill her when she saw how upset I was that it was gone (she’s really good at keeping secrets, though). That painting symbolized to me everything I wanted our new life together to be…simple, elegant, rustic and filled with love.

And that brings me back to this potato dish. It is all of those things. And you can eat it. And, it’s only five ingredients. They are:

• Potatoes
• Gruyère  cheese (or swiss)
• Onion
• Rosemary
• Nutmeg

I used Gruyère cheese, but you could certainly use any cheese you like. The pinch of nutmeg enhances the nutty flavour of the cheese in the potatoes, so do use it. Fresh chopped rosemary is a natural with potatoes and one of my favourite herbs. They all come together beautifully to create this wonderful potato galette.

So, don’t just eat potatoes! Give them an elegant, rustic makeover and dine on potatoes.

P~

p.s.: Here’s the painting, in case you’re curious:

5.0 from 1 reviews

Potato Galette with Gruyère and Rosemary (Five Ingredient Friday)

 

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This simple potato galette recipe will transform the bland and boring potato into a tasty, elegant potato dish with just five ingredients.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Side Dish

Ingredients

• 1 pound potatoes (I used Yukon Golds), washed, skins on, sliced ¼ inch thick
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup Gruyère cheese (or your preference), grated
• ½ medium onion, peeled, cut in half length-wise, sliced thin along the length (half-moon crescents-this should be about 1 cup)
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, minced
• pinch of nutmeg
• salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, toss the sliced potatoes with the olive oil.
3. Drain the excess olive oil into an oven-proof skillet to coat the bottom and sides.
4. Arrange half of the potatoes in the bottom of the skillet, overlapping the slices.
5. Sprinkle the cheese, onion, half of the rosemary, nutmeg and salt and pepper over the potatoes.
6. Layer the remaining potatoes on top, overlapping the slices.
7. Add salt and pepper and the remaining rosemary.
8. Take a second, heavy skillet (I used one of my iron skillets) and place it on top of the first (I used a layer of foil between the potatoes and the bottom of the second skillet). This presses down the potatoes and firms the shape you’ve arranged…so if you don’t have an iron skillet, just put something oven-proof and heavy on top.
9. Place the skillets into the oven.
10. After 20 minutes, remove the weight skillet from the top of the potatoes.
11. Using another oven-proof pan of the same size as the bottom skillet (or slightly larger-I used a rimmed plate), hold the plate over the top of the bottom skillet and turn it, flipping the potatoes out to the second dish.
12. This is a little tricky, and your overlapped potatoes may not turn perfectly, but it’s rustic…so it doesn’t matter.
13. Place the turned potatoes back in the oven for another 20 minutes, or until the edges are browned and crispy.
14. Remove from the oven and serve hot, cut in wedges.

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3.2.2089

..transformed into a Wee Kitchen Garden Shed

How this…

This isn’t the step-by-step account of a Do-It-Yourself project; rather, it is a story of love, thoughtfulness, forgetfulness, and how a poor, pitiful, Pie Safe found its purpose in life.  

Mr. Saucy and I met in Nashville, where I worked (for a very short time) for his business. Years later, both of us divorced, we were reintroduced by a mutual friend. Neither of us were overly enamoured with the thought of being wed again; we both figured it would be nice to have someone of a like mind to hang out with and do things together.

We went on a hike on our third date; we rode our bicycles together (I was an avid cyclist at the time); I even got him away from car camping and “forced” him to backpack camp in the woods. When I felt myself growing attached to him, I encouraged him to move away from Nashville (Yes, that’s right…move away!); he’d owned the property we now live on since the 80′s and kept saying he wanted to move eventually. So, my girlfriend Peg (one of The Nashville Girls) was looking for a house and I pushed them together to get Mr. Saucy to move away. She bought his house and within weeks he was gone.

The way I saw it, I didn’t want to become involved with anyone and I didn’t think a long-distance relationship would ever last.

Oh, the best laid plans…Mr. Saucy and I continued long-distance dating for several years while he was finishing up construction on the house in which we currently reside. Still clinging to the belief that he was a confirmed bachelor, he refused to “build a house by committee.” I had a titch of input on the house (mostly because I can’t keep my mouth shut), but they were important things like:

• DO NOT put a red brick foundation on a house in the WOODS! It really needs be stacked stone to blend in, so it will appear to have grown up there.
• Gray…the house needs to be gray. Not Federalist Blue (see above).
• The wall ovens should not be on the far side of the kitchen with no counter space nearby.
• The refrigerator door needs to open INTO the kitchen.
• The garbage drawer should not be next to the dishwasher, so both could not be open at the same time (honestly, I don’t think his kitchen designer actually ever used a kitchen, bless her heart).

As time got close for the completion of the building and his moving-in date, he did give me a project to help him with the house. I was tasked with the acquisition of furniture for one of the guest bedrooms. It would be a complete room decorating project, floor-to-ceiling furniture, fixtures, bedding. It was a pretty tight budget, but I had some ideas in mind.

First, I got a friend to build a Shaker-style pencil post bed, raised high so that it needed steps to get into; I went to an unfinished furniture store and bought bedside tables in the same style and finished them myself in the same stain as the bed; I ordered lamps and a mirror, a rug, and mattress and bedding. The last thing the room needed was a big piece for one wall, and I envisioned an armoire, but something more in keeping with the Shaker-goes-elegant style of the room I had in mind.

Since my budget was so limited, and I was running low on the allotted amount, I started scouring thrift and antique stores for an old double pie safe to fit the bill. I thought something like that would really work. I looked. And I looked. And I looked some more, but I just could not find anything that was suitable. So, I got Mr. Saucy to increase the budget just a hair and purchased a golden oak armoire. Project complete. The room looked gorgeous.

Fast forward a few years…we had married, co-mingled our belongings into the house he built, and started a fly fishing business. At that time our shop wasn’t just fly fishing, we also carried camping, backpacking, hiking equipment and clothing. Mr. Saucy wanted to use another successful area store as a business model, so he and our friend, Tom, traveled to North Carolina to visit the store to get ideas.

While they were there, Mr. Saucy spotted a Pie Safe for sale. He didn’t remember at all why I had been looking for a Pie Safe, he just knew I’d been hunting one. He promptly told Tom that he was going to buy said Pie Safe for me and tote it home. I still laugh, to this day, over Tom’s response, “I can absolutely guarantee you…that is not something P~ would want.” Mr. Saucy brushed aside Tom’s comment, purchased the Pie Safe, and proudly brought it home to me.

I loved the sentiment behind the purchase, but I really didn’t have anywhere I could use it (keeping my thoughts about its aesthetics to myself). I thought about putting cookbooks in it, but I already had an antique half-canoe that was converted into a bookshelf for that purpose. So, the poor, pitiful Pie Safe was relegated to the basement where I used it to store gardening supplies.

In April of this year, when I started construction on Saucy’s Wee Kitchen Garden, I was digging around in that Pie Safe to find the various paraphernalia I had purchased over the years for use in my dream garden when the thought struck! I needed a garden shed!

The site for the garden is on a small field (the only open area on our 10 acres) and it is a bit of a hike from the house. Since I didn’t relish toting all my gardening tools there and back every time I worked in the garden, I decided to convert that drab, ugly, brown Pie Safe into a happy, fun, whimsical Wee Kitchen Garden Shed.

I bought this new handle for it at Hobby Lobby, as the inspiration piece for its renewal:

I cleaned it up, painted it, coated it with varnish to protect the finish, and have installed it in Saucy’s Wee Kitchen Garden. It has life…it is loved…it has found its purpose. And every time I walk into the garden and see that Pie Safe turned Garden Shed, I will smile. And I will be thankful for the convenience of having it there, but more for the love and thoughtfulness that originally brought it home to me.

P~

Transformed into a Wee Garden Shed

Saucy’s Wee Kitchen Garden

Saucy’s Wee Kitchen Garden Planted

I have waited nearly twenty years to plant a garden in this very spot; I finally have the chance and the time; I’ll be taking you along on my gardening adventures. I’ve decided to call my garden (because I am wont to name things) Saucy’s Wee Kitchen Garden. So, join me as I watch the miracle of growth.  

I love digging in the dirt; ever since I was a little girl I have loved to get my hands in the soil. Sometimes when that meant weeding flower beds when I wanted to play that love was not so strong and my actions brought disastrous consequences. Like the time my sister and I were tasked with weeding a flower bed; we decided that instead of pulling all the stubborn weeds, we would take a shovel and turn the weeds under. Well, after the next good rain, those weeds were bigger, more strongly rooted, and we were in big trouble!

When I married Mr. Saucy and moved to East Tennessee (nearly 20 years ago now), I wanted a garden. As a matter of fact, we spent our honeymoon building a raised bed herb garden for me just behind our house. Long story short, we decided to get into the fly fishing business; what was supposed to be a “Mom and Pop” shop turned into a major undertaking that eventually saw us building a 7,000 square foot shop, working 6-7 days a week for years on end, and my little herb garden was sorely neglected.

Recently, I decided to not work in the shop any longer, except to teach our beginner fly fishing classes. The time was ripe to have the garden of my dreams. Here are some photos of the progression of the garden so far. I apologize that some of the first are horribly out of focus…I had the wrong lens on my camera…but I want you to see the site so you feel at home there.

Saucy’s Wee Kitchen Garden site…

The only open spot we have on our ten acres is this field…but it gets the full sun for about 7 hours a day, so I’m hoping that will suffice. We live at the end of the valley; the mountain in the distance is the border of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s a beautiful place to live.

Landscape fabric goes down…

I decided to not worry with killing the grass (well, mostly clover), so I put down a heavy-duty landscape fabric that would allow moisture to go through from the top, but not allow anything to grow up through it.

This is mid-assembly of the raised bed garden kit I bought. It’s a Greenes Fence kit that is 80 square feet of garden space.

The assembly was really easy and took just under an hour. It didn’t require any tools except for a Phillip’s head screwdriver to attach the top caps. Here it is fully assembled, with our barn in the background:

With gravel on the borders…

The next step was to put gravel down around the borders, on top of the landscape fabric. This will keep weeds and grass  far enough away from the garden, as well as make a path to easily access it.

Before I added dirt, I put supports posts, which were 24″ grade stakes, and screwed them into each side board. This will help keep the sides from warping from the moisture.

And then came the dirt…

I got a little help with the dirt…I enlisted the fellas from our mowing company to deliver a combination of sifted topsoil and Monterey Mushroom compost.

The garden gate…

I designed and built (all by my lonesome) trellises for vertical growing (this really utilizes the space of a small raised bed to the greatest yield), and a garden gate. I also installed six posts…four fence posts and the garden gate posts. Mr. Saucy helped me dig two of the holes, thank heavens. Digging fence post holes is not for sissies.

I plan to have a “sort of fence,” by which I mean, it is not going to be a typical fence. I will attach screw eyes to the fence posts and to them I will attach and string 50 pound monofilament. There will be a several down low, to (maybe) deter rabbits, and further apart up higher to keep deer from getting in there. I really didn’t want to obstruct the view; also, I have plans to expand the garden and didn’t want a permanent fence up.

I wanted a “garden shed” to store my tools, so I took an old pie safe that had been living in the basement (storing unused garden supplies) and transformed it. You can see on the top of it, in the photo above, my “inspiration piece,” which was a new handle for the door. I transformed that sad, brown, dirty pie safe into this:

I wanted whimsical and fun…and happy…it’s going to love living in the garden.

And that brings the garden progress up-to-date. It’s fully planted with heirloom seeds. The center box is all herbs and will be the only permanent box. The rest I will rotate crops in from year to year. I’m growing the following:

• Tender Green Cucumbers
• Pickling Cucumbers
• Slenderette Green Beans
• Cherry Bell Radishes
• California Wonder Peppers
• Sweet Banana Peppers
• Brandywine Tomatoes
• Roma Tomatoes
• Grey Zucchini
• Early Prolific Straight-neck Yellow Squash
• Copenhagen Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Emerald Green Okra
• Sweet Alaska Peas
• English Thyme
• Italian Oregano
• Chives
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Basil
• Dill
• Cilantro

Sprouts are showing themselves now, so it’s the waiting game that every gardener faces. In the meantime, now that I have tender shoots that critters will be interested in munching, the next phase is my “sort of” fence. I’ll keep you posted about my failures as well as my successes; I’ll share recipes for the dishes I make from the bounty of my wee kitchen garden.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure…it’s one of the happiest I will ever take.

P~

Banana Macadamia Nut Muffins with Streusel Topping

Banana Macadamia Nut Muffins with a Streusel Top…oh, how I love thee. Not only are these muffins divine, they have a sentimental history for me.

I went to Nashville last weekend for the wedding of my dear friend Peggy’s son, Josh. That got me reminiscing about my time in that great city. I was sharing a hotel room with another of “The Nashville Girls,” Robin. We drove all over town remembering old haunts, places we lived, places our family lived, places that were filled with memories. The wedding was in downtown, so we were staying at the Hilton, which is new since I left there.

But, back in my career-girl days in Nashville, I worked in downtown Nashville. Our offices were originally in the L&C Tower, quite a famous landmark for the city. Then, later we moved into (what was then called) the Third National Building and the tallest building (at that time) in Nashville. Here’s a picture:

Nashville’s Third National Building

That building always reminds me of muffins; muffins always remind me of the English nursery rhyme, The Muffin Man:

Oh, do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, do you know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane?

Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man,
Oh, yes, I know the muffin man,
That lives on Drury Lane.

Christie Hauck was Nashville’s Muffin Man. The Christie Cookie company was founded by him after he quit his job in the corporate world to make cookies. Christie Cookies aren’t good cookies, they are amazingly good cookies. The motto of the company is, “Guaranteed To Make You Smile.” Appropriate. Anyway, at that time in the late 1980′s Christie Cookie had retail locations. One of them was in the lobby of the Third National Building, on the left when you walked in the front doors.

In addition to their cookies, though, they made muffins in the morning. The aroma of those muffins would slap you in the nose as soon as you walked through the revolving door (something I’m sure Mr. Hauck counted on). He was brilliant; he’d occasionally stand in the lobby, wearing a tuxedo, handing out samples of his cookies and muffins. They were just so, so very good. Everything. All of them.

The favourite muffin, of mine, that they made was the Banana Macadamia Nut Muffin. They were enormous, Texas-sized, muffins with a sugary streusel top and I would eat every single bite. While I can’t claim that these are Christie Cookie muffins, they are so much like them to my taste buds that I guarantee they will make you smile.

Make them. Now.

P~

ps: I don’t think The Christie Cookie has retail locations anymore, but their products can be ordered online to be shipped in their signature tins.

Banana Macadamia Nut Muffins with a Streusel Top

 

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Over-ripe bananas and toasted macadamia nuts in a cinnamon and nutmeg laced muffin, all topped with a delightful streusel make for an extraordinary treat that is guaranteed to make you smile.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Muffins

Ingredients

• FOR THE MUFFINS:
• 1 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 overripe bananas
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup macadamia nuts (or whatever nut you choose), toasted, coarsely ground
• FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING:
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons macadamia nuts, toasted, coarsely ground
• 1 tablespoon sanding sugar (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Line 12 muffin tins with cupcake papers, or lightly grease.
3. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder,cinnamon and salt; set aside.
4. With an electric mixer, beat the bananas and sugar together until smooth.
5. Add the softened butter, egg, and vanilla and beat for 2 minutes.
6. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated.
7. Fold in the nuts with a rubber spatula.
8. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins to fill them about halfway.
9. In a small bowl, combine the streusel topping ingredients, with the exception of the sanding sugar if you’re using it,
10. With a fork, cut the butter into the other ingredients until the mixture is crumbly.
11. Spoon the streusel mixture on top of the muffin batter in the tins.
12. Sprinkle with sanding sugar, if using.
13. Place the muffin tins into the preheated oven and bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, about 20 minutes.
14. Allow to cool for a few minutes before turning the muffins out of the baking tins onto a wire rack.

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3.2.1336

Bagels and Lox Deviled Eggs

These deviled eggs combine most of the wonderful ingredients on a Bagels and Lox Platter, minus the bagels. Tucked into the egg yolks are brine-cured and beautiful pinkish-orange salmon, red onions and capers. The yolk is dressed with a bit of Dijon mustard and crème fraîche (or sour cream) instead of mayonnaise. They are simply delicious, and they make me reminisce about my single-girl Sundays. 

Back in my single-girl days, when I lived in Nashville, Sunday was my favourite day of the week; the habits I established for the day were just what I needed to recharge my batteries to face another frenetic week. After church, I would head over to a local bagel shop and pick up some bagels, cream cheese and lox; package in hand, I’d walk out to the front of the shop to a newspaper machine and pluck out the Sunday New York Times.

Loaded down with my bounty, I’d steer home to my darling little condo, switch on the gas logs in my fireplace (yes, even in the summer), make a pot of coffee, squeeze some fresh orange juice, make up a tray for my goodies, and plop on the floor in front of the fire. I’d spread the Sunday Times out on the marble hearth (easier than cleaning newsprint off of cream coloured carpets) and dig in. While I noshed, I’d read that paper from cover to cover, with especial attention to The Food Section, of course. Whiling away the day in that manner was just the most wonderful thing.

These deviled eggs really brought those sweet, calm, relaxing days, back to me. They may well be my new favourite version of deviled egg deliciousness. I hope you’ll try them.

P~

Bagels and Lox Deviled Eggs – Minus the Bagels

 

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These deviled eggs combine most of the wonderful ingredients on a Bagels and Lox Platter, minus the bagels. Tucked into the egg yolks are brine-cured and beautiful pinkish-orange salmon, red onions and capers. The yolk is dressed with a bit of Dijon mustard and crème fraîche (or sour cream) instead of mayonnaise.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: appetizer

Ingredients

• 8 eggs, hard-cooked, peeled
• 1 tablespoon capers
• 2 teaspoons red onion, minced
• 1 ounce lox (thin sliced, brine cured salmon), minced
• 1 rounded teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 5-6 tablespoons crème fraîche (or thick sour cream)
• ground black pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Cut the peeled, hard-cooked eggs in half, length-wise.
2. Remove the yolks to a small bowl and place the now hollow whites on a platter.
3. With a fork, mash the yolks until they are very finely crumbled.
4. Add all the other ingredients and stir to mix.
5. Either pipe or spoon the mixture into the whites.
6. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

This recipe is for 8 eggs, which will make 16 deviled eggs. The platter I used only holds 12. I always make extras of deviled eggs, because somehow…I don’t know how it happens…if I don’t make extras, my tray is never full. *wink*

Also, I did not add salt to this recipe, since the capers and the lox are salty enough for me. Be sure to taste yours first if you decide to add any salt.

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3.2.2089

Split Pea with Ham Soup

Split Pea with Ham Soup is one of my all-time favourites. This soup is filled with deliciousness and is ready quickly! It is the perfect answer to “What’s for dinner?” And…it’s even better warmed up for lunch the next day.  

Here is a perfect example of how suggestible I am when it comes to food: As I was driving to the shop yesterday, the fog was incredibly thick. I thought to myself, “This fog is as thick as pea soup!” Then, of course, my next thought was, “Oh! Wouldn’t some split pea soup be just wonderful for dinner?!”

That was all it took for me to dream of a bowl of thick, hot, tasty split pea soup. All. Day. Long. I’ve told you all before how much I love soups. I really love soups. I’ve often said, if I could marry soup I probably would. There is nothing more satisfying when the weather turns chilly than a big, steaming bowl of soup.

My love affair with split pea soup is one that goes back many years; I’d meet up with my darling wherever and whenever I could. One of our favourite rendezvous spots was a little tea room in downtown Nashville, where I worked at the time. Satsuma was run by a mother and son and they offered up some of the most delightful Southern food. It was every Thursday when they would give me the opportunity to tryst with my amore.

Every Thursday, one of the specials on the menu was a bowl of split pea soup, served with half of an honest-to-Pete-oven-roasted-turkey-sliced-ever-so-thick sandwich. I was hooked. Anyone who knew me well would know exactly where to find me on any given Thursday afternoon. I’d be at Satsuma, huddled in an intimate corner, at a tiny little table, locking lips with my love.

There are many ways to prepare split pea soup, but this recipe is my own, and is patterned after the split pea soup they served at Satsuma. The peas are cooked until tender, but not completely dissolved. There are chunks of onion, carrot, celery and ham, and it’s packed full of other wonderful flavours like garlic and thyme and stock and brandy. It is just dreamy. Why, it’s good enough to marry…if you could marry soup, that is.

I hope you’ll try it.

P~

Split Pea with Ham Soup

 

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A delightful rendition of the classic, split pea with ham soup: The peas are cooked until tender, but not completely dissolved. There are chunks of onion, carrot, celery and ham, and it’s packed full of other wonderful flavours like garlic and thyme and stock and brandy. It is just dreamy.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound bag split green peas, washed, picked and drained
• 2 tablespoons butter
• ½ cup onion, diced
• ½ cup celery, diced
• ½ cup carrot, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 big sprig fresh thyme, tied in a bundle with butcher’s twine* (or 1 teaspoon dried leaves)
• ¼ teaspoon herbes de Provence
• 8 cups stock (I used turkey stock, you could use chicken stock, or water, or a combination. Using stock really enriches the flavor of the soup)
• ¼ cup brandy
• 8 ounces cooked ham, diced
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized stock pot, over medium heat, melt the butter.
2. Add the onions, celery and carrots and saute for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the garlic and continue to saute for a couple more minutes.
4. Add six cups of the stock, the brandy, thyme, herbes de Provence and split peas, cover and simmer for about 35 minutes.
5. Add the diced ham and another cup of stock, stir.
6. Cover and continue to simmer watching to see if the final cup of stock is needed (meaning if the peas are absorbing the stock readily – you don’t want it runny, but you don’t want it too thick).
7. Continue to simmer until the peas are soft, completely soft, but not completely dissolved. Do not puree.
8. Serve in a hot bowl and garnish with a dollop of sour cream and chopped green onions.

Notes

*When making soups, I tie my thyme in a bundle, rather than pulling the leaves off the stems. This saves time, since as the soup cooks, the thyme leaves will fall off the stems on their own and you can just remove the tied bundle of stems later.

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3.2.2089

Oyster Casserole before the final layer of crackers…these oysters were just enormous!

Oyster Casserole is an absolute-must-have in the Saucy household for the holidays; it is that important on the holiday foods line-up. Additionally, it may very well be the single dish that sealed the deal and convinced Mr. Saucy to propose marriage all those years ago. And you can just get your mind right out of the gutter! This did not come about because of the alleged aphrodisiac effect of oysters. 

Back when Mr. Saucy and I were dating, of course, I cooked for him. This was in the day when Mr. Saucy actually cooked too. As a matter of fact, on our first date, Mr. Saucy prepared dinner for me at his house; I jokingly accused him, later as we dated for a while, of continuing to date me until he’d gotten all of my best recipes. It was only after we married that Mr. Saucy was tragically struck with an incurable illness. Cooking amnesia. Woefully, the only thing he remembers how to cook now is frozen pizza. Poor darlin’.

Anyway, we had been dating for a couple of years and I was planning on cooking our Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Saucy asked me if I had a recipe for Oyster Casserole. I told him I did and he asked me how I made it. Well, I explained to him that it was a recipe from the Low Country of South Carolina and that it wasn’t like standard oyster dressing at all (hoping he wouldn’t be disappointed). When I related how it was made, it was like the sun burst out of his eyes.

You see, the recipe was just exactly the same as how his mama made Oyster Casserole. Mr. Saucy’s mama had passed on by then and in addition to missing her terribly, he missed her Oyster Casserole. Of course, I had to make it for him. I had a bit to learn about the traditions of Oyster Casserole, though. That first time, I made up the Oyster Casserole, showed it to Mr. Saucy who then inquired, “Where’s the extras?” What I didn’t know was that Mr. Saucy’s mama always kept in reserve an extra pint of oysters for Mr. Saucy to have as a snack with cocktail sauce.

Hee! Well, lesson learned; there are always “extras” now. And the rest, as they say, is history. Mr. Saucy and I got married, and Oyster Casserole has been a part of our holiday celebrations ever since.

If you like oysters, or if you are looking for an alternative to oyster dressing, or if you’ve never had it at all, give this simple recipe a try.

P~

Low Country Oyster Casserole

 

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This Oyster Casserole is a low country of South Carolina tradition. It’s simple, but elegant and really highlights the lovely oysters. It may be prepared ahead (a day or two) and baked before serving.

Author: The Saucy Southerner

Recipe type: Side Dish

Cuisine: Low Country

Ingredients

• 6 cups cracker crumbs (coarse crumbled – I use a combination of saltine and Ritz crackers)
• 1½ sticks butter (12 tablespoons), melted
• 4 pints shucked oysters
• nutmeg
• salt and pepper
• 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• ¾ cup oyster liquor (the juice from the oysters)
• ¼ cup half and half

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, combine the cracker crumbs and butter.
2. In a 9 x 13′ buttered casserole, put a layer of buttered crackers (use ⅓ of the crackers).
3. Add a layer of oysters (using half of the oysters), sprinkle with fresh ground nutmeg, salt and pepper, and parsley.
4. Add another layer of the same. Never use more than two layers of oysters.
5. Top with remaining ⅓ of crackers and remaining parsley.
6. In a small bowl, whisk the oyster liquor and half and half.
7. Pour this mixture over the top of the ingredients in the casserole.
8. At this point, the casserole may be covered and refrigerated for a couple of days before baking.
9. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
10. Bake the casserole for 30 minutes or until the cracker crumb top is golden brown.

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3.1.09

The Oyster Casserole is on the far right of the plate, by the carrots and butternut squash…