Name: Twice-Baked Spinach and Artichoke Potatoes
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 h 25 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 2 large baking potatoes, scrubbed clean and dried; olive oil; 4 tablespoons unsalted butter; 5 ounces baby spinach; 1/2 can artichoke hearts, well-drained and quartered; 4 ounces Swiss cheese, shredded; 1/4-1/2 cup sour cream; salt and pepper, to taste

Twice-Baked Spinach and Artichoke Potatoes

April 10, 2015

Who doesn’t love spinach-artichoke dip? These twice-baked spinach and artichoke potatoes combine that classic dip with a delicious baked potato.

Twice-baked spinach and artichoke potatoes are a marriage of two of my very favorite foods. There are few dishes in life that I love more than a perfect baked potato. At Christmas, my mom makes a gigantic prime rib and, while I adore a medium-rare slab of prime beef, I honestly get more excited about the twice-baked potatoes I make to go alongside than the meat. If I am offered a loaded baked potato as a side dish option in a restaurant, I am rendered unable to order any other side. In fact, I will not order pasta in a restaurant that serves baked potatoes. I just can’t. Here in Chattanooga, most of the barbecue restaurants serve baked potatoes piled high with smoked meat, and I always order the potato, even when I convinced myself before walking into the restaurant that I would order a sandwich or a plate or something else besides a potato.

Spinach and artichoke dip is another love of mine. I still remember my first experience with it, when my friends and I decided my freshman year of college that TGIFriday’s was the best restaurant on the planet. Hey, we were young! And excited to be hanging out downtown, because we were college kids and we were sooooo cool. I remember ordering spinach-artichoke dip as my entrée on multiple occasions. Once I had to go to the ER (stress-related neck cramps…I was a bit of a perfectionist even back then) and my roommate went and got me some TGIFriday’s spinach-artichoke dip and had it waiting for me when I got home (thanks, Crisi. You really were the best!).

So what could be better than to combine two of my favorite things into one dish? And if there is any way to make a baked potato better, it’s to bake it twice. Scoop out the flesh, mix in some good stuff, throw some extra cheese on top, and bake it up. I won’t say that they’re quick, because baking potatoes takes a long time (I believe in really baking the potatoes, not microwaving them) but I will say that they’re easy. And I will continue to find new things to stuff into a potato…

These spinach and artichoke potatoes are a great side dish for a family meal, but they are also a great main dish.

Yield: 4 servings

Twice-Baked Spinach and Artichoke Potatoes

15 minPrep Time:

1 hr, 25 Cook Time:

1 hr, 40 Total Time:

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Ingredients

2 large baking potatoes, scrubbed clean and dried
olive oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 ounces baby spinach
1/2 can artichoke hearts, well-drained and quartered
4 ounces Swiss cheese, shredded
1/4-1/2 cup sour cream
salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Rub the potatoes lightly with olive oil. Place them on a baking sheet and bake for one hour. Remove from the oven (leave the oven on), cut in half, and set aside to cool briefly.
Preheat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the spinach to the skillet and cook until completely wilted.
Use a spoon to scoop the flesh from the potato halves and into a bowl, being careful not to break or tear the skins. Place the skins back onto the baking sheet. Use a fork to mash the potatoes. Add the remaining butter, the spinach, the quartered artichoke hearts, half of the cheese, and enough sour cream to bind the mixture together and make it creamy. Salt and pepper to taste.
Divide the potato mixture among the 4 potato skins. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese has lightly browned. Serve immediately.

https://chattavore.com/twice-baked-spinach-and-artichoke-potatoes/

Click here to print the recipe for twice-baked spinach and artichoke potatoes!

Whiskey Glazed Carrots

April 8, 2015

With tender carrots, butter, brown sugar, and, of course, whiskey, these whiskey glazed carrots are an easy and incredibly tasty side dish!

Whiskey glazed carrots are a little out of my comfort zone. I know that sounds odd. Carrots? They’re so simple, so normal. It’s not that I’m scared of them, it’s just that…well, I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I totally fail at side dishes. 100% without a doubt fail. It’s a matter of planning and routines, really.

The thing is that I usually cook things that don’t really require a side dish. A casserole here, a pot pie there…some tacos, a pot of soup. It’s actually pretty rare that I serve just a piece of grilled steak, baked chicken, sautéed fish…you know, the types of foods that need a side. So when I do, I always wonder how my mom and my grandmother always managed to get multiple side dishes on the table, all done at the same time.

Another thing is that I love the concept of the “vegetable plate”. It’s as Southern a concept as any, wouldn’t you agree? I am very chagrined at the idea that Southerners don’t know how to behave when there isn’t a hunk of meat on the plate. It’s just silly, really. Right now I’m reading the book Smokehouse Ham, Spoonbread, and Scuppernong Wine in which Joseph E. Dabney interviews the people of Appalachia about the foods on which they grew up. Well, guess what? There’s more credence given to vegetables than meat. The thing is, vegetables are easier to grow than livestock is to raise (that is, they require less care) and then canning allowed fresh vegetables to be “put up” so that they were available year-round. Turns out that often meals in the American South contained little, if any, meat but instead were made up of lots of vegetables plus cornbread or biscuits. Honestly…that sounds like the good life to me.

Eat at my mom’s house just about any night of the summer and you’ll be served multiple side dishes, including freshly sliced tomatoes (gosh, I can’t wait till late July!). That’s how I grew up. Often, I will order a vegetable plate in a restaurant, completely bypassing the meat, because I am dying to try all of the side dishes. Luckily, I married a man who is happy to eat all the vegetables (though he does get a little peeved when I serve him too much asparagus). These whiskey glazed carrots came from my needing a dish to serve alongside macaroni and cheese, lima beans, and biscuits.

I adapted this recipe from Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House Cookbook. Being in Lynchburg, naturally Miss Mary Bobo’s Boarding House uses Jack Daniel’s to glaze their carrots. Now, I know JD is a Tennessee tradition, but I’m keeping it even more local with Chattanooga Whiskey. Why wouldn’t I? You should probably go ahead and make these whiskey glazed carrots too, regardless of what type of whiskey you would like to use. By the way, these would be excellent with a sprinkle of cinnamon or glazed with honey or maple syrup instead of brown sugar.

Whiskey glazed carrots are sweet, buttery, and flavorful! Try them!

Mary

Yield: 4 servings

Whiskey Glazed Carrots

10 minPrep Time:

10 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

8 carrots
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons whiskey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (plus more to taste)

Instructions

Peel the carrots (or scrub them thoroughly) an slice on the diagonal into 1/4-inch thick coins. Place them in a 10-inch skillet and cover with water. Add the 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt to the water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until crisp-tender, about 10 minutes.
Drain the carrots. Put them back into the skillet and place over medium-high heat. Push the carrots to one side of the skillet and add the butter, whiskey, and sugar to the other side of the skillet, stirring to combine (but not stirring into the carrots).
Once the butter, sugar, and whiskey have combined and formed a bit of a syrup, stir in the carrots. Cook until lightly browned. Add more salt to taste and serve immediately.

https://chattavore.com/whiskey-glazed-carrots/

If you need a simple and delicious side dish, whiskey glazed carrots from @chattavore are a perfect-and inexpensive-choice!

Purple Daisy Picnic Café (Revisit)

April 6, 2015

Purple Daisy Picnic Café is a popular restaurant near downtown Chattanooga & Lookout Mountain (St. Elmo) that serves great BBQ, Southern food, & burgers!

So, this was not supposed to be a Purple Daisy revisit post. We were actually planning to go to Zarzour’s since I’ve been told that a Chattanooga burger list is invalid if Zarzour’s is not a consideration. I tried to call them to see if they take credit cards (does anyone know the answer to this?) and got no answer…so they either were too busy to answer or they were closed for Good Friday. We decided not to take the chance and instead went to Purple Daisy. I’ve been before, but want to try the burger and the barbecue (I always order the rainbow sandwich).

The place was pretty busy right at noon but we were immediately seated at a table outside. The server took our drink order and I decided to deviate from my usual water and have fruit tea instead. The fruit tea is a blend of tea, juices, and spices. It tastes mostly like tea and pineapple juice…it’s a little tart and a little sweet and very delicious.

Since a burger was my mission, I didn’t have to think about my order at all. I decided on the single ($4.95…there’s a double for $7.95) with Cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, mayo, mustard, and ketchup. I decided to get hash brown casserole instead of the chips that come with the burger, because has brown casserole is a non-negotiable when I go to the Purple Daisy. It’s creamy, cheesy, and very flavorful, just like my mom makes it. The burger is charcoal grilled. It was well-cooked and tasted like a burger you’d get at a cookout. I’d rate it a 3 for meat-well-seasoned, cooked through just right, and with a nice grilled flavor. For bread, I’ll give it a 3-standard soft bun like you’d get in the bread aisle of a grocery store. For cheese, a 4…a decent amount of Cheddar, melted on top; for toppings, a 3-just the standard toppings, maybe a little too heavy on the condiments. For structural integrity, I’ll give it a 3 as well. It held together pretty well until I got to the middle, when the ample condiments started sliding around on the lettuce and tomato and it pretty much fell apart. Size? A 4.5…it was a good-sized burger, not so huge that I felt stuffed but definitely not small. Overall burger score: 3.4.

Philip decided to get the pork barbecue tacos with a side of hot slaw (extra-they don’t come with a side). The tacos came on flour tortillas with cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, and a little bit of original barbecue sauce plus a small cup of sour cream. The barbecue here is very good-fresh tasting, shredded (not chopped), smoky, and moist. They offer three sauces: original, sweet, and hot. Philip didn’t care for the sweet much but liked the hot and the original. The tacos overall were very tasty, simple enough to allow the flavor of the pork to shine through. The slaw? HOT. Philip isn’t very sensitive to spicy foods and he found the hot slaw very hot, seasoned with cayenne and with chopped jalapeños mixed in. Again, very fresh, very flavorful, but don’t plan on eating all of it unless you are used to eating very spicy food.

I love The Purple Daisy Picnic Café, and apparently a lot of other people do too. The place was full the whole time that we were there and people were coming in and out the whole time. The food at The Purple Daisy is very consistent. The menu is fairly limited-barbecue, burgers, deli sandwiches, hot dogs, salads, and a few other items, plus sides and a couple of desserts (Oreo dirt cake and banana pudding)-allowing them to focus on serving flavorful and fresh food. I highly recommend The Purple Daisy! By the way, our pre-tip total for one drink, a burger, pork tacos, and 2 sides was just under $20.

I highly recommend The Purple Daisy!

The Purple Daisy Picnic Café is located at 4001 St. Elmo Avenue, Chattanooga, TN 37409. They are open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. You can call them at 423-822-6477. Check out The Purple Daisy Picnic Café website and like The Purple Daisy Picnic Café on Facebook. You can also follow The Purple Daisy on Twitter.

Tortellini Primavera Soup

April 3, 2015

Tortellini primavera soup is delicious, full of spring vegetables and cheesy tortellini in a creamy broth flavored with wine.

Tortellini primavera soup is pretty much an excuse to eat cheesy tortellini and all the spring vegetables you can think of all cooked in one pot. I mean, I guess you could just make pasta primavera, but I just really loved the idea of making pasta primavera into a soup. Can you believe that when I was working on this recipe I did a Google search for pasta primavera soup and really came up with very little? I figured the internet would be saturated with ideas. Funny, I just now searched for tortellini primavera soup and there were several of those. Oh well. None of them are like mine so I don’t feel too bad about it.

Honestly I never really liked pasta primavera. I’m a little embarrassed to tell you why…it’s because I’m so obsessed with pasta in creamy, cheesy white sauces that the idea of a pasta dish with all those luscious vegetables tossed in a super-light, barely if at all creamy sauce seemed pretty blah to me. By the way, I used to not care much for red-sauced pastas either. I’ve grown a lot, though, and while I will usually still vote for Alfredo over red sauce, I can eat all manner of pasta dishes now and be happy.

If white wine (or Vermouth, which I have started subbing pretty much 100% of the time for white wine, since it is fortified and doesn’t care that it takes me months to use it up) is involved, any recipe is made at least 1000 times better and this tortellini primavera soup is no exception. As I’m sure you’ve heard many a television chef say, most of the alcohol cooks out (but not all, so if you are concerned, check out my note at the bottom of the recipe). It doesn’t impart a “wine-y” flavor at all…just a deep flavor note that enhances the flavors of everything else. Oh, and then there’s heavy cream. I heart heavy cream.

Don’t let the 30-minute sweat scare you. It’s a trick I learned from Deliciously Organic that makes the vegetables really meld together, marrying their flavors and making them tender and soup-tastic. While you obviously don’t want to leave a pot completely unattended on your stovetop for thirty minutes, that thirty minutes will give you time to chop up the rest of your vegetables, make your lunch for the next day, empty the dishwasher…whatev.

I hope that you’ll celebrate spring with me by making this tortellini primavera soup!

Mary

Yield: 6-8 servings

Tortellini Primavera Soup

20 minPrep Time:

30 minCook Time:

50 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 leeks, halved, sliced, and thoroughly washed
1/2 red, yellow, or orange pepper, diced
2 carrots, scrubbed and thinly sliced on the diagonal
4 ounces button mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced
1/2 cup Vermouth or dry white wine
1 large or 2 small zucchini, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 large or 2 small yellow squashes, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
8 ounces asparagus, woody ends removed, cut into 1 1/2 to 2-inch pieces
4 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
1 pound cheese tortellini (frozen or refrigerated)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
salt

Instructions

Melt the butter in a 6 to 8-quart Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the leeks, peppers, carrots, and mushrooms. Stir to coat the vegetables with butter. Cover and reduce heat to low. Leave the pot covered for 30 minutes.
After the vegetables have sweated for 30 minutes, remove the lid and raise the temperature to medium. Add the Vermouth or wine and cook for one minute. Add the zucchini, squash, asparagus, and chicken stock. Bring to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender.
Add the cheese tortellini and cook according to package directions. Stir in the tomatoes and heavy cream. Cook to heat through. Salt to taste and serve immediately.

Notes

If you prefer to leave out the Vermouth/wine, just use an additional cup of chicken stock.

https://chattavore.com/tortellini-primavera-soup/

Click here to print the recipe for tortellini primavera soup!

Cheesy Mashed Potato Bites

April 1, 2015

Cheesy mashed potato bites are so tasty and they’re a perfect way to use up any leftover mashed potatoes you have sitting in your fridge.

I love leftovers, and I hate wasting food. I’ve gotten much better over the last several months about utilizing my leftovers. I’m ashamed to admit that my fruit and vegetable drawers do see a little more waste than I’d like, partially because a lot of delicate produce goes bad a lot more quickly than two people can eat it, and partly because I forget about it or I’m just too lazy to cut up the darned romaine for a salad.

The reason that we do such a great job with eating all of our leftovers is because I plan to use them up. When I make my menus, I either plan to have a meal twice or I plan to make one thing into something else (like turning roasted chicken into chicken salad). I also freeze a fair amount.

But then…then there are mashed potatoes. For some reason, I am terrible at judging how many potatoes I should cook for just the two of us, which is really ridiculous when you consider how many times I’ve made mashed potatoes in my life. I really should know this by now, but I always make too much. And the thing about mashed potatoes is that they just aren’t the same the second day around. Usually my mashed potatoes get thrown out (I know, I know…). Other times, though, wonderful things happen with leftover mashed potatoes. Things like boxties.

The last time that we went to BrewHaus, they served these tiny little potato cakes that reminded me an awful lot of mini boxties, and that made me start thinking about how I could pack as much flavor as possible into a cute little homemade tater tot. I tried using shredded potatoes and ended up being pretty disappointed. Then I remembered some “housemade tater tots” I had in a Nashville restaurant (I don’t recall the name) a few months back. They were made with cheesy mashed potatoes that were deep-fried, which I thought was a genius idea…but since I’m not much with the deep fryer, I decided that my cheesy mashed potato bites needed to be oven fried. I packed them with bacon, cheese, and green onions, rolled them in panko crumbs, and baked them on an oiled baking sheet, which basically masquerades as a frying pan with not nearly as much oil or mess.

I made a little oniony sour cream dip to go with these (just mix a little onion powder and salt into some sour cream-I added parsley flakes too) and it was delicious. Ranch dressing would work great as well. I was very happy with these cheesy mashed potato bites, which we ate as a side with sandwiches. One batch made two very large servings…they’d definitely be a decent appetizer for four people.

I hope you’ll try these baked cheesy mashed potato bites as a way to use up your leftover mashed potatoes and an alternative to frozen tater tots!

Mary

Yield: 2-4 servings

Cheesy Mashed Potato Bites

20 minPrep Time:

15 minCook Time:

35 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

2 cups cold, leftover mashed potatoes
2 strips bacon, cooked and chopped
2 ounces (1/2 cup) cheddar cheese, grated
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup panko crumbs
2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
Sour cream or ranch dressing, for serving (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.
In a medium bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, bacon, cheese, green onions, and flour. Scoop tablespoon-sized balls of the mashed potato mixture onto a baking sheet.
Carefully press the balls of mashed potato mixture into discs and coat completely in panko crumbs. Place back on the baking sheet.
Drizzle the oil onto another baking sheet and brush the oil all over the sheet. Place the baking sheet in the oven and preheat until smoking, about 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the coated mashed potato bites onto the hot baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes.
Remove the mashed potato bites from the oven. Carefully flip each bite. Rotate the pan and place it back into the oven. Bake for another 7-8 minutes, until lightly browned on both sides. Serve immediately with sour cream or ranch dressing for dipping.

https://chattavore.com/cheesy-mashed-potato-bites/

Click here to print the recipe for cheesy mashed potato bites!

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