Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Raisins

For the last few days, our household has been on a self-prescribed food detox regimen. Thanksgiving, and the days leading up to it, included an abundance of delicious – and very rich – food. By the time Saturday rolled along, our stomachs were crying “uncle.”

We needed a break from the butter, the sugar, the starches – all the things that make Thanksgiving so tasty. Thankfully, we had plenty of veggies in the house, bought to be used at Thanksgiving, but untouched up to that point.

Joanna attacked the broccoli, roasting and eating it for breakfast and lunch both Saturday and Sunday. I craved leafy greens, and made salads or added heaping piles of lettuce to my turkey sandwiches.

Last night we made sautéed brussels sprouts.

A Simple N’awlins Supper: Shrimp Creole

Growing up, I hated eating shrimp. In fact, I tended to avoid eating seafood of any kind. This is probably because my family’s go-to seafood dishes consisted of tuna noodle casserole and salmon patties.

If you grew up in the 80s, you feel my pain!

My first memory of shrimp involves a cold shrimp cocktail with spicy cocktail sauce – which I mistakenly thought was ketchup. Not the best introduction.

It wasn’t until I began working in a restaurant kitchen while in college that I discovered how delicious shrimp could actually be – when cooked properly.

A Recipe for Dad: Huevos Rancheros

Cooking doesn’t come easily for my dad.

Growing up, this was never more apparent than on Mother’s Day. For as long as I can remember, my mom’s wish on Mother’s Day was for the men in the house to make her a delicious breakfast. Before Aaron and I grew confident in our cooking skills, it was up to Dad to find a suitable recipe, struggle through the directions and nervously hope for a good outcome.

Needless to say, Mother’s Day wasn’t a favorite holiday for the men in the Watwood household.

Without a good grasp of certain cooking fundamentals, my dad lacked the ability to discern the good recipes from the bad ones. A recipe’s a recipe, right? Choosing a dish for Mother’s Day often came down to which cookbook photo looked the nicest.

Building Blocks: Grits

Grits sum up Southern culture perfectly.

They are as polarizing as a Southern politician – you either love ‘em, or you hate ‘em. They are thick and steamy, just like a humid Southern summer morning. They are hearty, just like the people of the South. And just like iced tea, they go well with nearly everything.

Good grits, that is.

As a kid, grits were a breakfast staple not just on the weekends, but most weekday mornings, too. A heaping ladle-full of cheddar grits – strings of cheese stretching from the spoon to the serving bowl – is a great way to start off any morning.

The Peak of Produce: Farmer’s Soup

I call this Farmer’s Soup because this is what I would make if I could harvest these veggies from my own farm. My farm would be located on a considerably-sized plot of land, and I would spend my days tending the crops in my trusty blue Ford tractor, fishing my backyard pond in a 17’ handmade wood canoe, and scouting whitetail and turkey from my perfectly running 1963 Jeep Gladiator Thriftside truck, after which I would retire to the wrap-around porch on my restored farmhouse to watch the sunset and sip some small-batch bourbon with a lemon wedge and splash of sparkling water. Yes, indeed. Until THAT day arrives, I will continue to purchase my produce from our community farms when I can to make this dish.

Jeep Gladiator used in the movie Tremors. Which makes it even more amazing.

Soup is really an amazing meal—especially compared to a store-bought canned variety. Soup is very economical, yields a ton, and can have ridiculous flavor, particularly with fresh, quality ingredients. If you have kids, they will almost always eat veggies from soup over quickly prepared veggies, and it makes sense—they taste better! There are endless variations you could make on this recipe; it is just stewing fresh veggies together and enjoying the result. Fresh produce is really incomparable to frozen or canned, but get what you can. Fresh corn would be awesome in it, mushrooms could be good, and beef is optional – it adds some protein and flavor. I probably wouldn’t add a watery veggie like squash or zucchini because it would get too mushy. I used a Serrano chili in mine, but you could omit if you do not want a little heat. I used fingerling potatoes in mine purely because we received them in our CSA box – fingerlings are super pricey, so redskins and Yukon golds would also be great. Yukons would probably break down into the soup and thicken it, whereas redskins would retain more of their structure. I don’t cook a lot of russet potatoes because they taste a little like cardboard. A note about the okra: I added it and let the soup simmer for a couple hours; this caused the okra to completely break down into the soup and act as a thickening agent. If you want to keep the okra intact, I would add it in the last 15 minutes to the soup. Or you could add some early and some later….you get the point.