I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Side Dishes

Sweet Potato Casserole with a Marshmallow & Pecan Crunch Topping

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I bought an Instant Pot just after Thanksgiving while it was on sale on Amazon. It came quickly (thanks Prime… I love you!) but then I didn’t know what to do with it. I was scared to touch it.

Well, there are instructions but I didn’t know about what recipe to start with. Once my dad brought home a pot roast I knew that I needed to try that. I love cooking with the slow cooker but wanted to give the pressure cooker a try this time.

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Cilantro Lime Rice (Chipotle Copycat)

This Cilantro Lime Rice is the perfect Chipotle Copycat recipe so skip the long line and just make this at home. It captures it’s great flavors and texture.

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Autumn is turning 3 on Friday. I can’t deal!!!

In typical Mom style, I can’t handle that she is going to be 3 years old. It’s all gone by so quickly.

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Gloria’s Black Beans

Gloria's Black Beans

So, I’m alive.

I don’t think I’ve ever taken a week off from my blog before, aside from when I had Autumn, but this week got the best of me and I fell behind on the blog. And with just about everything else in life. Care to help fold a billion loads of laundry anyone?

 

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That’s what happens when you work insane hours for several deadlines that hit in the same week. It’s been a long month filled with late night and long hours, but OT and the projects make it worth it.

But it meant I was not in the kitchen much. Or on the computer doing non-work things. So the blog has just been hanging out here waiting for me.

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Here I am, back for a Taco Tuesday post with a great side dish that you will love to serve along side your tacos or in your burritos or next to some grilled chicken or mixed into some salad… BLACK BEANS!!!!

But they are not any ordinary beans. Oh no, they are “Teacher’s Beans!”

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Autumn went to the most amazing home-daycare from 12 weeks until the time we moved to Florida. Gloria and Ivette ran the daycare with such love and kindness. We wish we could have brought “Teacher” and “Hermana” along with us! Autumn was Gloria’s buddy in the kitchen so I always heard about the food they had and how much she enjoyed it.

One such favorite was her black beans. So I requested the recipe so that Autumn could enjoy something that was familiar and comforting to her. We went to the store for the ingredients and she was so excited about having “Teacher’s Beans”.

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We were all so happy with how they came out. Autumn ate a big serving while saying “Yay! Teacher Beans!” and “Yummy yummy in my tummy”. That’s true love right there.

These tender beans are a must make for your family dinners.

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Gloria’s Black Beans

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 pound dry black beans
  • 6 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 large green bell pepper, diced
  • 1 large yellow onion, diced

Process

  1. In a very large bowl, combine the dry beans with enough water to cover the beans by 2″. Let sit overnight for 8-12 hours.
  2. Drain and rinse the beans.
  3. In a very large pot, bring the beans, garlic, pepper, and onion with 6 Cups of water to a boil. Turn down the heat to simmer the beans, covered, for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes.

 

Waffle Iron Grilled Cheese

Waffle Iron Grilled Cheese

My mom was up from Florida visiting this past long weekend. It was such a blast. The last time I saw her was in January when we were staying with my dad after we went on our cruise. And the next time I will see her is in June when we get married. So we had a lot of catching up to do. As well as things to get done!

We did plenty of shopping for the wedding to get our DIY decorations  and the goodie bags we are handing out at the rehearsal dinner started. I got my dress fitted on Sunday which was an ordeal but I think it’s all settled now. oy. And my mom get her dress too.

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Besides that we also attempted to get some stuff from the Lilly for Target collection but that was a cluster … UGH! While that was a bust, we did get to enjoy some great food throughout her stay that I cooked & Price grilled. And I think I got her hooked on Naked and Afraid. ha!!

I was bummed that I didn’t get to break out the waffle iron while she was in town but I’ll better plan for it the next time she is visiting us. But I do have a great recipe to share this week!!! So pumped about it.

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I just couldn’t ignore the fact that is it Grilled Cheese Month!!! And I obviously had to waffle it. Duh.

I swear I am going to use my waffle irons to make everything this year. Price is definitely going to kill me. I say by September, at the latest. ha!

It’s just that a waffle iron is like a panini press, but cooler. So you can, and should, use it to make grilled cheese.

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I often alternate using mayo or butter on my grilled cheese, but this time I decided o use butter. What, you’ve never heard of mayo on a grilled cheese?!?! Oh I swear it makes for a dang good grilled cheese. Just swap out the butter you schmear on your bread with some mayo and cook like normal. Anyway, anyway, I used butter this time as I wanted it to feel more waffle-y as I pretty much always have butter on my waffles. No, I dunno. Actually.

Anyway, it’s important to use soft butter so you don’t tare the bread when you are schmearing it on. (Schmear is my current favorite word.) You can totally use butter softened to room temperature but I don’t typically plan for that prep time so I always keep some Kerrygold Naturally Softer Pure Irish Butter on hand so that I can use it right out of the fridge. I know there are other soft butters on the market but I truely prefer to use Kerrygold’s as the don’t add anything, like oil, to keep the butter soft. It’s just how they churn the milk the cows produce in the summer (naturally higher in softer milkfat) that keeps it soft. Cool!

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I am totally flexible on the kind of cheese to use when making grilled cheese- America, light cheddar, sharp cheddar, etc. But I am not flexible with the color. If it can be orange it must be orange. It’s just one of those things that I really like, I dunno. Reminds me of growing up and using Kraft singles, I guess. But you can use whatever cheese you really enjoy. Just make sure do take a bite when it’s nice and hot!! Yum!!!

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Waffle Iron Grilled Cheese

Makes 1 Sandwich

Ingredients

  • 2 slices of sandwich bread
  • 1 Tablespoon butter, softened
  • 3-4 ounces of cheddar cheese, sliced very thin or grated

Process

  1. Preheat your waffle iron.
  2. Butter 1 side of each of the slices of bread.
  3. Lay out one slice of bread down on your work surface, butter side down. Cover with your cheese, and top off with the other slice of bread, butter side up.
  4. Lay your sandwich in your waffle iron. Close the top. No need to press it down as the weight of the top will slowly compress the sandwich on its own.
  5. Cook for 3-4 minutes, or until the sandwich is golden and the cheese is melted. Enjoy!

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Kerrygold has provided me with butters and cheeses to use in the creation of these waffle recipes for my #WaffleWednesday series. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks for all of your comments. I appreciate them all.

Apple and Mushroom Wild Rice Stuffing- SRC

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I have a funny story.

It happened on Saturday, but it all starts with something that happened on Thursday. Kinda. Sorta.

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See, on Thursday our wonderful dog walker emailed me asking for me to call her. She wanted to let me know that Kemper’s left eye was all puffy. Not the eye actually, but all around it. Top and bottom lid. My poor bug eyed dog was even more bug eyed. It looked like he was punched. Well, a trip to the vet later, he was having an allergic reaction to something. Nothing in his diet or in the environment changed. Nothing that we could think of. So, he had to get a benadryl shot and keep taking it 3x a day for 3 days, plus pepcid for his stomach as allergic reactions will often upset their stomach. (The things you learn.)

Fast forward 24 hours to Friday night and my stomach starts itching. No big. It’s the winter. My skin is dry.

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Then it’s Saturday morning and my feet and hands start itching. My hands get splotchy and a bit puffy, enough to take my ring off. So while Kemper is getting Benadryl dose I take a pill too. What the hell is going on!?!? Anyway, Autumn and I then go grocery shopping. Enough of a distraction for me to stop scratching my palms. By the time we got home it was time for Autumn’s nap so I put her down and then got the perishables away. I was crashing so I figured I’d take a 5 minute catnap, or maybe a 15 minute nap. I’m usually great at getting myself up at a certain time, but I didn’t do so well as I woke up at 10.40. And panicked. Why? Because I had to make mac and cheese to bring over to our friend’s house for 1pm. I sprung up and stumbled into the kitchen while freaking out ‘How did you let me sleep so late? I gotta make mac and cheese. We are never gonna get to Mark and Allie’s on time!!!” “Umm, we’re going there tomorrow…” And so there we were. So I took a deep breath, stumbled back to the sofa and fell back asleep.

And that is why you should buy NON-DROWSY Benedryl. Noted.

Now it’s time to discuss this amazing side dish.

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For this month’s Secret Recipe Club post I was given Sarah’s blog Curious Cuisiniere. Sarah shares her adventures; whether it’s in the kitchen, traveling or her recent bakery position.  It all makes for well balanced blog with wonderful recipes including the one I chose for this months SRC.

Sarah shares hundreds of recipes, thankfully all very well organized. I enjoyed browsing through them as she shares a unique range of dishes from all different cultures. As I had been focusing on Thanksgiving recipes I picked her Apple and Mushroom Wild Rice Stuffing as it sounded easy to make – just about 30 minutes- and really flavorful with the layers of flavors from the apples, mushrooms, raisins, and, of course, the wild rice.

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This Apple and Mushroom Wild Rice Stuffing is the perfect side dish for Thanksgiving.  It’s off the beaten path which will make for a tasty alternative to stuffing but goes great with roasted turkey or other fowl.  The earthy texture and filling taste of the dish makes for a hearty side for tummy and palette.  The wild mushrooms mixed with the apples and long grain rice are a wonderful combination.

I changed things up a bit by using fresh mushrooms, as opposed to canned. But the recipe was so great that there was little personalizing needed. I did garnish the stuffing with chopped pecans and dried cranberries but you can leave it plain. Or you might even want to add some pecans into the rice. I love pecans but Autumn doesn’t do too well when nuts are mixed into things. She just spits them out. ha!

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Apple and Mushroom Wild Rice Stuffing

Makes roughly 2 quarts

Ingredients

  • 3 Cups water
  • 1/2 Cup wild rice
  • 1 Cup white rice
  • 2 Tablespoos butter, divided
  • 1 Tablespoon chicken or vegetable broth
  • 8 ounces of baby bella mushrooms, white button mushrooms are okay too
  • 1 medium onion, chopped (approximately 1 Cup)
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped (approximately 1 Cup)
  • 1 medium green apple, cored and chopped (approximately 1 Cup)
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/2 Cup chicken or vegetable broth
  • 1/2 Cup raisins
  • 3 Tablespoons parsley, dry
  • 1 teaspoon thyme, ground dry
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Process

  1. In a large sauce pan, mix water and wild rice and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered for 5 min. Add white rice, turn the heat down to low, and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes, until rice is tender, but not overcooked. Note: You may have some water left over in the pot when the rice is tender, simply transfer the rice to a strainer to eliminate the excess liquid.
  2. Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in 1 Tablespoon butter and 1 Tablespoon chicken broth over medium heat. Cook until browned and reduced in size, approximately 4-5 minutes. Remove from the skillet.
  3. Add 1 Tablespoon butter to the skillet. Once melted, add the onion and celery. Sautee for 3-4 minutes. Add 1 Tablespoon chicken broth and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the apples, and garlic and sauté an additional 3-4 min. Remove from heat.
  4. Add the onion mixture to rice along with remaining stuffing ingredients.
  5. Stuffing is ready to serve, or be stuffed inside a turkey.

Inspired by Curious Cuisiniere

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Check out all the other great Secret Recipe Club posts this month!

 

And be sure to check out my 3 years of Secret Recipe Club posts!!!!

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Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.

The BEST you’ll ever have… My Signature Macaroni Salad

My Signature Macaroni Salad is the BEST macaroni salad EVER. It’s going to be the side dish that everyone loves at your BBQ.

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I wish that macaroni salad was a food group.

And, of course, you’d get to have 4-6 servings to meet your daily servings requirements.

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Skillet Spinach Pie

Skillet Spinach Pie

Hi my name is Popeye.

Well, it might as well be considering how much spinach I’ve been eating lately. I basically eat spinach every day. For real. I have spinach in salad every day for lunch and then I add more spinach to my diet for breakfast or dinner too in different ways as well. The Greek Quiche I recently made is a perfect option for either meal.

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Spinach is just so good for you. It is a low fat food that is high in fiber, protein. As well, it loaded with vitamins A, C, E and K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese, niacin, and zinc. Flavonids in spinach also help as antioxidants to keep cholesterol from oxidizing and protect your body from free radicals.  If heart health is a concern that spinach is your friend as it’s great for you cardiovascular system as the magnesium in it helps lower high blood pressure. Overall spinach is a great super food that can be enjoyed in juice form, raw, and cooked. It’s versatile nature makes it easy to incorporate into your healthy diet.

So, here I go again making another spinach packed pie!

This is a fun play on Spanokopita in that it’s served just like a pie instead of the handheld triangles I normally see. They are great as well but I like this ratio of filling to phyllo much more in this pie. I just love spinach and feta so much so my craving is satisfied with this pie. The original recipe called for dill but I just don’t like dill that much so I added some oregano, which pairs well with Greek recipes, instead.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s pie recipe! Get ready for a sweet treat for next week!

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Skillet Spinach Pie

Makes 8 serving

Ingredients

  • 1/2 stick unsalted butter
  • 1 small yellow onion, chopped
  • 20 ounces frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
  • 1 cup whole-milk ricotta
  • 3 large eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup crumbled feta
  • 1/2 teaspoon oregano
  • 1 pinch of crushed red pepper
  • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 4 sheets frozen #10 phyllo dough, thawed

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
  2. In a 10-inch non-stick skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Once melted, reserve 2 tablespoons in a small bowl.
  3. Add the onion to the skillet and stir while cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from heat and let cool slightly.
  4. Stir in the spinach, ricotta, eggs, feta, oregano, crushed red pepper, salt, and pepper.

  5. Lay 1 sheet phyllo on a work surface and lightly brush with the reserved melted butter. Lay the sheet, butter side up, over the spinach mixture, folding edges under to fit inside skillet. (Keep the extra phyllo covered while you work.) One at a time, brush remaining 3 sheets and add to the top of the skillet, rotating and scrunching each sheet slightly so edges are offset and the top is ruffled.

  6. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown and heated through.

Slightly adapted from Everyday Food, Oct 2013

Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

On Wednesday I shared with you some awesome cornbread muffins that I saw featured just last week on Baked By Rachel and just had to make. Let’s call it a craving. They make for a great breakfast, snack, or side for dinner. I just love how cornbread is so versatile like that.

Well, now I’m back with another awesome recipe from Rachel that uses those cornbread muffins as a great base for a side that will grace your Thanksgiving table. You start with the cornbread muffins, or some store brought cornbread, and add some more great flavors to make kick ass Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing. Really, it kicks ass.

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But I guess it’s obvious for it to be a great stuffing recipe when you start with cornbread and then add in sausage, sauteed veggies, dried cranberries, and other great aromatics.

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I used a plain breakfast sausage for this recipe as I don’t love Italian sausage… shhh don’t tell my Italian relatives! I just don’t like fennel that much!! But if you enjoy Italian sausage then I say feel free to use that just like in Rachel’s recipe. Just be sure to use a sausage that has been removed from its casing.

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But now I have a question…

Do you call it stuffing even if you don’t put it in the bird?

I do. I guess it will always be stuffing to me just because that it what I’ve always called it so I associate the food itself more with the name than if it’s actually being stuffed into something.

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I hope that you’ll give this Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing (or dressing… depending on what you call it!) a try since it is sure to be a big hit at your Thanksgiving table!

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Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

Makes 6-8 servings

Ingredients

  • 5-6 cups cornbread broken into chunks (or 9 muffins)
  • 1/2 lb plain breakfast sausage, like Jimmy Dean’s regular sausage
  • 1 cup celery, chopped
  • 3/4 cup yellow onion, chopped
  • 2 fresh sage leaves
  • 1/2 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1 cup chicken or vegetable broth

Process

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Create a single layer of the crumbled cornbread on a large baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until nearly crisp. (drying the cornbread out helps it hold it’s shape/texture)
  3. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook  the sausage, breaking it up into small pieces while cooking. Transfer sausage to a large bowl reserving some fat in the skillet.
  4. In same skillet, cook onion and celery with seasonings until the vegetables are tender and nearly translucent. Add the sausage back in. Add the dried cranberries and cornbread, toss to blend the ingredients together. Pour broth over mixture, toss again to combine well.
  5. Transfer the mixture to a greased 2-quart baking dish.
  6. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until heated through and the top is crisp. Serve immediately.

Slightly adapted from Baked by Rachel