Name: Pear-Pecan Oven Pancake
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons unsalted butter; 1/2 cup pecans, chopped; 3 pears, stems and seeds removed, coarsely chopped; 2 tablespoons brown sugar, divided; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 2 large eggs; 1/3 cup all-purpose flour; 1/4 teaspoon salt; 1/2 cup whole milk; maple sugar, for serving

Oven Pancake with Pears and Pecans

October 2, 2015

This oven pancake with pears and pecans is full of delicious Fall flavors and allows you to have “pancakes” without slaving over the stove!

As I mentioned in my post for cheesy French onion dip on Wednesday, Saturday mornings are pretty sacred around here. We sleep till we wake up (usually between 7:30 and 8 a.m., which reminds me of just how old I am. I remember the days when I could sleep until 12 or 1 p.m. on a weekend. Those days are long gone), watch all of our favorite sitcoms on Hulu, and hang out in our pjs as long as possible. Oh, and breakfast. We make breakfast.

Breakfast usually consists of homemade biscuits (unless, like this past weekend, I inexplicably switch the baking soda and baking powder and render my biscuits inedible), gravy, bacon, and fried eggs. I’ve been switching it up more lately, though. Sometimes we’ll have waffles or French toast, or maybe I’ll make baked eggs with creamed spinach. Probably our most popular biscuit alternative, though, is pancakes. I honestly can’t tell you why, because they are the single food that make me the craziest. They are my most food-tantrum inducing food.

That, my friends, is where oven pancakes come in. Yes, you heard that correctly…oven pancakes, AKA Dutch baby. With a batter more like a popover than a traditional pancake, an oven pancake is light and airy and puffs like crazy when you put it in the oven. After you bake it, you slice it and serve it with whatever toppings you’d like.

Since it’s Fall now, I thought about making this with apples…maybe apples and walnuts. Or apples and pecans. Oh WAIT. Pears and pecans??? YAAAASSS. Pear-pecan oven pancake. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get it together, then you throw it in the oven while you cook your accompaniments and brew your coffee. The flavors of pears and pecans go perfectly with maple syrup. And with each other. This pear-pecan oven pancake is warm, full of Fall flavors, and stunningly delicious.

4-6 servings

Pear-Pecan Oven Pancake

10 minPrep Time:

30 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
3 pears, stems and seeds removed, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons brown sugar, divided
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
maple sugar, for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a 10-inch cast iron skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the pecans and pears and cook until the pears begin to soften, then add the cinnamon and one tablespoon of the brown sugar. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, until the sugar forms a glaze on the pears. Remove from the heat.
In a blender, combine the eggs, flour, remaining brown sugar, salt, and milk (if you don't have a blender you can whisk the ingredients together). Pour the batter over the pears and pecans.
Bake the oven pancake for 15-20 minutes, until puffy. Remove from oven and serve immediately with maple syrup.

https://chattavore.com/pear-pecan-oven-pancake/

Click here to print the recipe for pear-pecan oven pancake!

This pear-pecan oven pancake is full of delicious Fall flavors and allows you to have "pancakes" without slaving over the stove! | chattavore.com

Cheesy French Onion Dip

September 30, 2015

Cheesy French onion dip has the flavors of a bowl of French onion soup in dippable form! Oh, and lots more cheese.

Here’s how Saturdays go in our house: breakfast (usually biscuits & gravy, bacon, fried eggs, and coffee); lunch (restaurant review); afternoon coffee (weekend ritual); snack (because we’re never hungry enough for an actual meal. Sometimes the snack is just popcorn for me and cereal for Philip, but lots of times Saturday night is the night that I make one of the appetizer or snacky type items that I’ve listed on my running ledger of blog post ideas.

This one came from a recent preparation of caramelized onions. I started thinking about French onion soup, then, for some reason my mind turned to turning that soup into a cheesy, oniony dip for crackers. Really, think about it: French onion soup = warm, buttery, caramelized onions, crunchy bread, and rich melted cheese. French onion dip = cold, sour cream based, raw (usually dehydrated) onions, and potato chips. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not hatin’ on traditional cold French onion dip. I love the stuff; pair it with Ruffles and you’ve got my favorite snack when I’m sick.

Sometimes you just need a warm dip, though, and the more cheese the better. Word? Word. And not every dip needs a chip…a warm dip full of Gruyere is much happier with a cracker. This cheesy French onion dip has all of the flavors of French onion soup (well, aside from the beefy flavor of the broth base) but doesn’t require a spoon. Perfect Saturday night food…around here anyway. If you put it in a mini Crock-Pot (<–affiliate link), cheesy French onion dip is perfect for your next party, too.

This post contains an affiliate link. That means that if you click through the link and make a purchase, I will earn a small commission. This will not affect the cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosures. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Cheesy French Onion Dip

10 minPrep Time:

35 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk (I use whole milk)
4 ounces Gruyere cheese, shredded
salt and pepper, to taste
crackers, crostini, pretzels, or chips for serving

Instructions

In a 10-inch skillet, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the onions, salt, and sugar. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions begin to soften. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, soft, and syrupy.
Sprinkle the the flour over the onions and stir to combine. Cook for about one minute. Slowly drizzle in the milk, stirring constantly. Cook until thickened.
Add the cheese, a handful at a time, and stir until completely melted. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately with crackers, crostini, pretzels, or chips.

https://chattavore.com/cheesy-french-onion-dip/

Click here to print the recipe for cheesy French onion dip!

This cheesy French onion dip has all the flavors of French onion soup in dippable form! | chattavore.com

Double Barrel BBQ (Signal Mountain)

September 28, 2015

If you’re looking for delicious barbecue on or near Signal Mountain, Double Barrel BBQ serves tasty barbecue (and great beer!) in a great atmosphere!

I recently discovered something called bullet journals and now I am obsessed (mine isn’t nearly as pretty as the one in that post, but I love the idea of keeping my calendar, notes, and lists organized as opposed to having random notebooks floating around and having to dig through them to figure out where things are. This weekend I updated my list of restaurants I need to try and posted the list on Facebook to see if anyone had anything to add. Turns out I have a lot of places to visit in Cleveland and North Georgia…those take some planning. We ended up at Double Barrel BBQ on Signal Mountain, which a friend suggested on my Facebook post (I have a handful of other places on Signal to try as well).

Double Barrel BBQ is on Taft Highway just a little past the Signal Mountain “business district” in the building that used to be Pepper Jack’s. Double Barrel started as a food truck and in August opened their static location. They are currently operating off of their food truck menu but will be expanding starting with their grand opening in October.

We were offered the options of being seated in the bar or the dining room and were seated immediately by a very friendly server. It’s a log cabin so the decor consists of lots of wood, but it’s not dark. They have lots of cool pendant lights hanging all over the dining room and interesting wall hangings. There are televisions in the dining room as well as the bar.

Our server, Tabitha, came pretty quickly to take our drink orders and brought a beer list at Philip’s request. They have a pretty impressive list of craft beers-both bottles and draft-at great prices, including some local brews from Chattanooga Brewing Company. Philip ordered a Straight to Ale Lily Flagg milk stout, which was listed on the list as a bottled beer for $2.50 but was actually on draft for $3.50 (still a pretty amazing price). He’s had that particular beer before and loved it. I, of course, stuck with water.

They have a pretty lengthy list of sides that come in a side-size portion or as an appetizer, and we decided to order some fried pickle chips, which the menu purported to be hand-bettered. We got the appetizer sized portion for $5.75…it was a pretty large portion and we probably should have stuck with the side-size portion for $2.50. Oh well. I never cry over more fried pickles. They were indeed hand-battered and were very tasty, well seasoned and with just enough batter to add crunch and flavor but not so much to mask the pickle flavor. They were served with ranch dressing which was just basic ranch dressing.

Right now the menu consists of a selection of meats and some hot dogs. I decided to get the 1/2 pound pulled pork plate for $9 (you can get a half-sized portion for half the price) with a side of fried squash, which the menu also said was hand-battered. I was a little less convinced about the squash being hand-battered than I was the pickles, since the coating was fairly thick. It tasted good, though, and was well-seasoned with Cajun seasoning. The meat was tender and smoky and was pulled and served on top of a couple of toasted dinner rolls. I had enough to bring home for lunch the next day.

Philip decided to order the 1/2 pound of brisket ($9.25), chopped (you can also order it sliced) with fried okra. The brisket was chopped into bite-size pieces and had a spicy rub on it (it was also served on top of toasted dinner rolls). The fried okra was lightly coated and was also seasoned with Cajun seasoning.

The sauces at Double Barrel are made in-house. I didn’t think to get a photo, but there was one called “Old Faithful” that was sweet and chunky…it was our least favorite. There was a molasses-based sauce that had a deep molasses flavor and a little bit of spice. The third sauce was a sweet and spicy blend, and it was very spicy.

Our total for this meal was $29.22 pre-tip, which included fried pickles, a beer, a pork plate, and a brisket plate. The service at Double Barrel BBQ was friendly and the food was tasty. I like the atmosphere in this restaurant, and it didn’t hurt that the mountain air was nice and cool and just made it nice to be up there (I love what I call “shorts and long sleeves weather”). I can’t wait to see what they unveil for their expanded menu. By the way, they also serve a breakfast buffet daily and offer growlers of beer to go. There are daily specials as well.

Double Barrel BBQ is located at 3720 Taft Highway, Signal Mountain, TN 37377. You can call them at 423-777-5491. They are open 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 7 a.m.-12 a.m. Friday-Sunday. You can check out their website, www.doublebarrel.me and like Double Barrel BBQ on Facebook.

Marsala Mushroom Rice Casserole

September 25, 2015

This Marsala mushroom rice casserole is warm with the deep flavor of Marsala and full of mushrooms and gooey, melty cheese!

So, it’s officially fall now…time to pull out as many warm comfort meals as possible. It’s the season of Crock-pot meals, soups, and casseroles. In my world, not every casserole has to have cheese, but it definitely helps. You know what else helps? Wine. Wine helps.
I am not a drinker of wine. I’ve mentioned this a time or two. I’m pretty sure that this means automatic loss of culinary street cred, but I just don’t care for the taste of the stuff and I figure it’s a little expensive for me to try to “acquire the taste”. However, I love the flavor that wine adds to food so I find every excuse to pour it into the pan.

There is something about Marsala, a fortified wine, that goes perfectly with mushrooms and cheese. Yep. Stinky, stinky cheese. When I unwrapped that Gruyere, I was basically overcome by the stench of the rind…but GAH that flavor. So delicious. And I just love mushrooms so much, which apparently is some kind of anomaly because you wouldn’t believe how many people I have invited to my house, served them something with mushrooms in it….and watched them pick the mushrooms out. Oh well. More mushrooms for me! Rice…well, rice just adapts to whatever you mix it with. Rice is so versatile!

This Marsala mushroom rice casserole is so rich, cheesy, warm, soothing. Sometimes, it can be difficult to find vegetarian dishes that are thick, rich, and rib-sticking. This is a problem that Marsala mushroom rice casserole does not have. It’s a perfect casserole to welcome fall, and it’s even better as leftovers.

What’s your favorite fall comfort meal?

Yield: 4 servings

Mushroom Marsala Casserole

10 minPrep Time:

1 hr, 10 Cook Time:

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Ingredients

1 cup uncooked brown or white rice
3 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, diced
1 pound crimini or white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Marsala wine
3/4 cup whole milk
salt and pepper, to taste
4 ounces Gruyere cheese

Instructions

Cook the rice according to package directions.
While the rice is cooking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large skillet and add the onion. Cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook until brown.
Sprinkle the mushroom and onion mixture with the flour. Cook and stir for one minute. Pour in the Marsala gradually and cook until thickened, then gradually stir in the milk and cook until thickened. Stir in half of the cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Once the rice is cooked, stir the rice and mushroom mixture together. Pour into a 2-quart baking dish and sprinkle with the remaining cheese. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until bubbling. Serve immediately.

Notes

The cook times listed is for brown rice. White rice will take less time.

https://chattavore.com/marsala-mushroom-rice-casserole/

Click here to print the recipe for mushroom Marsala casserole!

This Marsala mushroom rice casserole is warm with the deep flavor of Marsala and full of mushrooms and gooey, melty cheese! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Barbecue Chicken Salad

September 23, 2015

This barbecue chicken salad is chock-full of good stuff…oven barbecued chicken thighs, crisp lettuce, fresh tomatoes and corn, delicious cheese, and creamy barbecue-ranch dressing, all topped off with a few crunchy corn chips.

I spent most of August trying to figure out how to get fresh corn into all the things. I did manage to get it in most of the things, at least. I wish I could have shared this salad with you earlier, but hey…I didn’t. So, corn is out of season now, but that’s okay. The great thing about corn is that frozen corn is almost as good as fresh…no cooking, just thaw it and throw it on the salad.

Barbecue chicken is not something that I’ve made at home a lot, and honestly the idea of a barbecue chicken salad always seemed oddly overwhelming to me. That may seem bizarre if you read my blog much and you know the types of food that I cook on a regular basis. The thing about me, though, is that I am really, really bad at making meals that require me to make more than one item at a time. That’s why I make so many one-pot and one-dish meals and almost never make a “meat and three” type of meal (I recently acquired Ina Garten’s book Make it Ahead and with her encouragement I hope to get better at, well, making things ahead. Why, just last night we had a dinner of cornbread dressing that I assembled the day before, cranberry sauce I made the day before, and turkey thighs cooked in the slow cooker).

Anyway, why on earth was I scared of barbecue chicken salad??!?!? I must have read a recipe that was overly complicated. My recipe is not. Sear the chicken, slather it with sauce, throw it in the oven. While it’s roasting, chop and assemble the rest of the ingredients. Boom. Done. The Fritos were my naughty touch. I love those things (and my sister is gagging because we have an inside joke about Fritos) and I cannot stop eating them. Oh well. They were awfully delicious on top of this barbecue chicken salad!

Yield: 4 salads

Barbecue Chicken Salad

20 minPrep Time:

20 minCook Time:

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Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 pounds chicken thighs, trimmed
salt and pepper
1/4 cup ranch dressing
1 cup barbecue sauce
2 hearts of romaine, chopped, washed, and dried
1 cup corn kernels (frozen-thawed, or fresh-1-2 ears)
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/4 cup monterey Jack cheese + 1/4 cup pepper Jack cheese (or you can use 1/2 cup of just one of these)
corn chips (e.g. Fritos)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat the oil in a medium oven-safe skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken thighs on both sides with salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes on each side.
While the chicken is searing, whisk together 1/4 cup barbecue sauce with the dressing. Cover and place in the refrigerator. Brush the chicken liberally on both sides with the remaining barbecue sauce (I like mine good and sticky, so I used all of the sauce). Place the skillet into the oven and cook the chicken for 15 minutes. Remove and place on a cutting board to cool slightly.
To assemble the salads, divide the lettuce, corn, tomatoes, and cheese among 4 plates. Cut the chicken into strips or chunks and divide among the plates. Drizzle each salad with 2 tablespoons of dressing then top with desired amount of corn chips. Serve immediately.

Notes

To assemble into a Mason jar salad, allow the chicken to cool completely then place the ingredients into the jar in this order: dressing, chicken, cheese, tomatoes, corn, lettuce. Place corn chips in a separate container.

https://chattavore.com/barbecue-chicken-salad/

Click here to print the recipe for barbecue chicken salad!

This barbecue chicken salad is a simple and delicious weeknight recipe...topped with corn chips for a perfect finishing touch! | chattavore.com

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