Amy Burns the Recipe Book - Page 5 of 5 - Delicious. Healthy. Food.

Peanut Butter Banana Vegan Ice Cream

February 4, 2015

I have a sweet tooth, dozens of them actually. My mom blames my dad. When I was a baby, my mom used to work swing shifts and apparently when I would wake up in the middle of the night crying my dad would fork over a bottle of warm strawberry milk. Worked every time, he still proudly asserts. It’s uncertain whether I lost my baby teeth naturally or they fell out, rotten from all of the Nesquik. For those of you with kiddos, don’t take a page out of my pop’s book; I’m pretty sure a move like that would land you in serious hot water with CPS these days.

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Sunday Supper: Cauliflower Cream Veggie Lasagna

January 28, 2015

Cold weather, short days, and dragging work weeks require comfort food in my book. And there’s no better way to hit the re-set on your dreary winter rotation than to spend a Sunday holed up in the kitchen making some comfort food.

While me may have different versions of what comforts us when we’re under the weather, homesick, or had a rough day, we can all agree that some foods take us back to a memory, make us feel cozy, and sate our cravings.

I’ve been traveling for work for three of the last four weeks, eating soggy salads wherever I can find them and dreaming about returning to my bed and my kitchen. It’s really tough to eat healthy when I’m on the road. Eating out for most of us is a real treat, or at least it always was for me. I would save up all week for a weekend splurge and then order the most indulgent item on the menu, think chicken and waffle sandwich with poutine fries. In an attempt to avoid the paunch and facial hair characteristic of my position, I’ve learned the hard way that I can’t splurge when I’m eating out while traveling.

I can’t tell you how much it pains me to order a salad when the guy at the adjacent table has cheese sauce dripping from his chin and burger. I’ve been trying to manage this new lifestyle for over a year, and while I wish I could say it’s gotten easier, my envy hasn’t abated. I mitigate the foodie pain by making healthy versions of the dishes I pass up in restaurants during the week. I replace hamburger with a juicy, well-seasoned portabella mushroom and sandwich it between a sprouted grain bun. I lighten up one of my favorite comfort foods, pasta, with lots of veggies and sometimes even gluten-free noodles.

Any foodie worth his or her weight has read at least an article or two about the gazillion ways one can transform cauliflower into all manner of delicious pseudo-treats. Buffalo wings…made from cauliflower florets! Pizza crust…pureed cauliflower!! Fried rice…again, cauliflower!!! I’ll admit to trying more alternative cauliflower recipes than any one person should, but I’m here to share with you one of the best. That’s right, I’ve eaten cauliflower pizza so you don’t have to.

This Cauliflower Cream Veggie Lasagna checks all of the boxes. Healthy, check. Creamy, check. Comforting, check. It’s a light indulgence when you just need a damn plate of pasta and glass of wine after a long week. It has seven different kinds of veggies, and the creamy, cheesy Alfredo-like sauce between each layer of lasagna noodle is made from cauliflower. Rejoice! And then make this recipe. And then rejoice again. PS: if you make a full pan of this stuff, all of your workdays will be made significantly happier with the addition of leftovers.

INGREDIENTS:

CAULIFLOWER SAUCE:

1 small head of cauliflower, cut 2-inch pieces

6 small cloves of garlic, smashed

3 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 whole milk

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 pepper

VEGGIES:

2 cups broccoli, chopped into 1/4 pieces

2 cups cremini mushrooms, chopped into 1/4 pieces

1 zucchini, chopped into 1/4 pieces

1 pint of cherry tomatoes, cut in half

3 cloves garlic

RICOTTA:

1 15-ounce container whole milk ricotta cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

5 ounces frozen spinach, defrosted and drained of excess water

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

CHEESE:

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated

2 cups smoked mozzarella cheese, grated

1 1/2 cups Fontina cheese, grated

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place chopped cauliflower in a large pot and cover with 2 inches of water. Bring to a boil and cook until the cauliflower is fork tender, about 10-15 minutes. While waiting for the cauliflower to cook, peel and smash with the back of a knife six small cloves of garlic and place in a small sauté pan with the butter. Cook on low heat until the garlic smells fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Be careful not to burn the butter or the garlic. Take the cauliflower off the heat and drain. Rinse with cold water to cool down before transferring to the blender. Combine the rest of the sauce ingredients in the blender and pulse until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Set aside until ready to assemble the lasagna.

Once the frozen spinach has thawed, squeeze it with your hand until you’ve released all of the excess moisture. Combine the lightly beaten eggs, spinach, and Parmesan cheese with the ricotta and mix until smooth. Season with the salt and pepper. Refrigerate until ready to assemble the lasagna.

Combine chopped vegetables in a large sauté pan with 1 tablespoons olive oil and salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until the mushrooms have given up their moisture and the veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.

Boil the lasagna noodles in a large pot of salted water until al dente, about 8-9 minutes. You want them to be pliable, but not cooked all the way through as they’ll continue cooking in the oven. Drain and drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil to prevent the noodles from sticking.

Begin assembling the lasagna by covering the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch pan with a light layer of the cauliflower sauce. Next lay down a layer of noodles. You may need to cut your noodles to ensure even coverage depending on the size of the pan. Cover the noodles with half of the ricotta cheese mixture. Next lay down a layer of noodles but arrange them in the opposite direction. If your first layer was horizontal, lay the next ones vertically. This will ensure a more firm, compact lasagna when you cut it. Cover the noodles with half the veggie mixture, half of the shredded cheese, and half of the remaining cauliflower sauce, and then repeat with another layer of noodles. Repeat with the remaining ricotta, another layer of noodles, and finally, the rest of the veggie mixture, cheese, and cauliflower sauce Make sure the sauce covers all of the noodles, otherwise the exposed parts will get too crispy when cooking.

Cover the lasagna with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and cook for an additional 15 minutes until the top is slightly crispy and the cheese has browned in places.

Let cool 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

Guilt-free Mexican Fiesta!

January 21, 2015

I challenge you to identify a gal who doesn’t revere a solid Mexican and margaritas night while in front of bad TV or catching up with her best friends. You can’t. She doesn’t exist. There’s something about slushy margaritas, gooey cheese, and spicy tacos that make us swoon.

In college, our Mexi and Margs nights brought us all to the table where we inevitably vented, gossiped, and by the second or third margarita, occasionally bared our souls. These nights were as cathartic then as they are now, nearly ten years later.

As inevitable as a second blender of margaritas, so too were the exclamations of guilt, cries of uncomfortable fullness, and threats of fasts.

This vegetarian taco salad eliminates all of the nasty side effects of a Mexi and Margs night gone wrong, while still delivering on the flavors that bring everyone to the table. Spicy, crunchy, warm, and refreshing; my version of homemade, fresh Mexican will leave you satisfied…and with room for an extra margarita.

I started making a version of this recipe years ago, but instead of using the filling as a salad topper, I originally added chicken and rolled it up in a warm corn or flour tortilla. Delicious, but not exactly light. I find when I combine multiple proteins with a carb (like beans with chicken and a tortilla), I usually end up feeling stuffed and weighed down.

The spicy corn and bean mixture here makes this salad a satisfying meal, and the creamy avocado-cilantro dressing feels indulgent, but doesn’t make you feel as bad about yourself as consuming the schloads of greasy cheese you’d typically find at a Mexican restaurant.

Next time you crave a night of catching up with your best pals, stay in, make this salad, talk until you’ve solved the world’s problems, and then send me a thank you in the comments section.

Oh and PS: men like this salad too. But let’s be honest, mexi and margs will never mean as much to them.

INGREDIENTS:

SALAD:

1 head of romaine hearts, cut or torn into bite-sized pieces

1/2 bunch leafy kale, sliced into thin strips

TOPPING:

2 ears corn, kernels cut from the cob

1 orange pepper, diced into 1/4-inch pieces

1 zucchini, diced into 1/4-inch pieces

1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained (or any other bean of your choice. Kidney or pinto work well)

3 large cloves of garlic, finely minced

1/2 medium white onion, diced into 1/4-inch pieces

2 tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup of chicken stock

DRESSING:

1 cup loosely packed cilantro, roughly chopped

Juice of 2 limes

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup Greek yogurt

1/2 avocado

1 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4-1/2 jalapeño pepper (depending on how hot you like your dressing) seeded and de-ribbed

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

Chop lettuce and kale and combine in a large bowl. Cover with a wet paper towel and store in the refrigerator to crisp while you prepare the rest of the components.

Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender and pulse until completely combined and smooth. Feel free to add an additional tablespoon or two of water to reach desired consistency. Transfer to a storage container and place in the fridge until ready to serve.

Combine all of the topping ingredients in a large non-stick skillet and sauté over medium heat for 7-10 minutes. Add the spices and stir to combine. Cook the mixture with the spices for about a minute before adding the chicken stock. Continue to cook until the chicken stock is absorbed and you have a saucy consistency.

Once all of the components are complete, you can either dress the greens and then add the topping, or place the topping on the greens and then drizzle with dressing. I prefer to dress the greens and then add dressing to ensure each leaf of lettuce is well incorporated into the dressing.

An Oldie but a Goodie: Classic Banana Bread

January 14, 2015

Don’t throw your extra ripe bananas away! Or curse yourself for once again buying more organic groceries than you can use (or afford).

While Amy Burns the Recipe Book is all about showing you how to spruce up and healthify your favorite dishes, there are some recipes, published decades ago and perfected by your Grams that need no tweaking.

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Amy’s Famous Granola…’Nough Said

January 7, 2015

I’m so excited to share this recipe with you! It was the first I created, the inspiration to learn more about clean eating, and I’ll just be real here, my vegan, sugar free granola bars are one of the best things I’ve ever made. In fact, I planned to make this post my first on Amy Burns the Recipe Book, but refined carbs kissed with gravy are so much sexier. Do you see what I did there? I lured you in with a carb-bomb and then dropped a healthy granola recipe on you. Keep reading, keep reading; these gems are versatile, packed with energy, and delicious! I pass them out in bars when my friends have had too much to drink, pop them in my backpack for a mid-hike snack, and make them a regular part of my breakfast routine.

A few years ago, I traveled to Portland, Oregon for a ten day work conference. I travel a lot for work and my usual M.O. involves dropping my carry-on in the city’s finest Holiday Inn and plugging Whole Foods into my Google maps. I then walk or run to the nearest location (a quick trot in Detroit, obviously), and proceed to hit up the salad bar pretty heavy. It’s so hard to find healthy and consistent grub on the road, I always thank my lucky stars when there’s an oasis like Whole Foods in the middle of my Midwestern territory.

So I’m walking through the Whole Foods in Portland in hot pursuit of a fresh salad and some non-perishable snacks when I stumble upon a colorful display with giant hunks of what looks like granola. For reasons inconceivable to me now, I had never eaten real granola before. Sure I’d popped some of the cloyingly sweet, chocolaty variety in my sports bag in high school, but I had never sunk my teeth into the chewy yet crunchy texture of an unprocessed, homemade granola bar. Whole different ballgame, folks. A Michael Pollan convert and expert on In Defense of Food at this point, I diligently scanned the granola bars’ ingredient list to look for the usual culprits: artificial colors, preservatives, high fructose corn syrup, weird things I couldn’t pronounce. These babies were clean, and by God were they addictive!

After more trips back and forth to Whole Foods than I care to admit, I came home and immediately began trying to re-create the recipe. While I’ve always loved to cook and had a couple of tried and true recipes down by this time, I had never tried to develop one on my own. I could follow a recipe well enough, but I never even considered the idea of writing one myself. But these bars were delicious and so I tried and I tried. And I failed and I failed; each iteration too sweet, too salty, too crumbly, too mushy. I learned quickly that these deceptively simple treats were going to be tricky to master.

After dozens of attempts I came to a few conclusions which I’ll share with you here to save you the trouble of spending waaaay to much time and money trying to catch up with Whole Foods’ granola game. First: you will never have a vegan, organic, whole food granola recipe that holds together in the same way the store bought versions do. Store bought granola contains lots of lots of ingredients, including high fructose corn syrup to whip it into shape. Although it was important to me that these bars be conveniently packaged and easy to eat, it was more important that they be healthy, whole, and free of refined sugars. Once I came to terms with my granola bars being “different” than Quaker’s, I started to get creative. For instance, I accidentally made them vegan when I realized coconut oil produced a product that held together better than the butter version.

Begrudgingly omitting butter from the recipe (isn’t everything supposed to be better with it?!), I figured out pretty quickly that I needed another ingredient or technique to ensure the granola could sustain the sharp blade of a knife and be cut into bars. The fridge/freezer solved this problem for me. So yes, my granola bars should be refrigerated, not because they go bad if kept at room temperature, but because they hold their shape so much better this way. I’ve come to terms with it, and I’m going to need you to trust me on this one.

Confession time: my critically acclaimed (the critics being my brutally honest family and friends) are not as good as the ones I had in Portland. Maybe it’s because I don’t have dreads like the talented chefs/aspiring songwriters at Whole Foods in Portland. Or perhaps it’s because my bars haven’t been kissed by the rarified air wafting down from Mount Rainier. Whatever! They’re pretty dern good, and I resolve to stop being tortured by the Portland version I’ve surely built up in my mind. “Where they really that good?” I sometimes wonder.

As I mentioned, this recipe couldn’t be more versatile. Throw in whatever kinds of fruits and nuts get you excited. And once they’ve set up in the fridge, you can cut the granola into bars and eat them plain, dunk them into some thick Greek yogurt, or crumble them up and pour over some ice cold milk. Just make the recipe and see where your creativity takes you, my friends. One thing’s for sure, these sweet yet sustaining bars will become your favorite way to start the day!

INGREDIENTS:

1.5 cups old-fashioned oats

2 cups mixed nuts (use your favorite variety. I like the roasted, deluxe assorted nuts from Costco which contain pecans, almonds, pistachios, and cashews. I also throw some pumpkin and sunflower seeds into the mix)

1.5 cups brown rice crisp cereal (like Rice Krispies, but brown and less processed)

2 cups assorted chopped, dried fruits (I like cherries, Turkish apricots, figs, and dates)

3/4 cup dried, shaved, unsweetened coconut

3/4 cup all-natural peanut butter

1/4 cup coconut oil

1.5 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup real maple syrup

1 pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 pan with foil and pour oats (and nuts if unroasted) into the pan. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring the mixture half way through.

Chop fruit and nuts into ¼ inch pieces and combine with brown rice crisps and coconut in a large mixing bowl. Pour the toasted oats into the bowl and mix to distribute ingredients evenly.

In a medium saucepan combine peanut butter, coconut oil, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, honey, maple syrup, and salt over medium-low heat. Whisk continuously until the peanut butter and coconut oil melt and the mixture becomes homogenous. Once it’s all combined, take off the heat and pour over the dry ingredients. Stir the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients until the sticky mixture evenly coats the oats, fruits, and nuts.

Transfer the contents of the bowl to the 9 x 13 pan and press evenly until compact. I like to cover the granola with a piece of parchment at this point and then take another pan of the same size and press it on top of the one with the granola to get an even bar.

Cover and refrigerate for 3 hours, or if you’re in a hurry and dying to get one of these in your mouth ASAP, place the pan in the freezer for 30-45 minutes. Lift the foil you lined the pan with to remove the granola bars. Cut into 16 even pieces and wrap individually with parchment paper or foil.

Green Smoothies: Coming Clean in the New Year

December 31, 2014

I’ve been doing a lot of this…

And not a lot of this…

Since we’ve chatted last, I’ve traveled over 4,000 miles, slept under four different roofs, consumed meat and alcohol every. single. day. and have noticed a tightening of my favorite jeans and a sluggishness in my gait. As Ellen Griswold says, “It’s Christmas and we’re all in misery.” Maybe miserable is a little dramatic, instead I’ll compare my holiday festivities to the bloody French revolution, “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.”

I reeeaallly enjoyed my best friend’s generous contribution of 20 dollar brie to our Dip Day, and the first four bottles of bubbly went down reeeaaal smooth, but instead of dreaming about fried chicken, as per usual, I’m now fantasizing about a 110 degree hot yoga room and a giant kale salad. This mood usually strikes me but once a year, so I’m planning to harness my holiday heaviness, both literally and figuratively, to usher in a new year of healthy and satisfying foodie happiness.

Can you relate? Been perusing Gwyneth Paltrow’s two week detox plan? Enjoy a few of these green smoothies, and I promise you’ll begin to feel lighter, both literally and figuratively, within the week. This recipe is a great foundation. Once you start feeling comfortable with the idea of drinking a viscous mixture of fruits and veggies slightly resembling swamp water, you can begin to make this surprisingly tasty drink your own by adding herbs, spices, supplements, ginger, healthy fats…the list is endless!

Just in case you’re late to the green smoothie party, you’ve never heard the trendy new word ‘microbiome,” or the idea of downing 12 ounces of blended cruciferous plants makes you queasy, I’ll say this: my boyfriend is a Midwestern meat and potatoes type of guy. He drinks these smoothies. Happily. He’s even started requesting them. If he can get behind them, you can too. Promise. Start off your new green smoothie kick by adding an extra hunk of frozen banana or a couple extra pieces of pineapple. The sweetness will cut the sometimes grassy-bitterness of the greens, and you’ll barely noticed that you’ve consumed a day’s worth of fruits and veg in one glass!

INGREDIENTS:

1 kale leaf, center stalk removed

1 handful of baby spinach

1/3 carrot

1/3 celery stalk

1/4 kiwi, washed (leave the skin on, tons of nutrients in there, I promise you won’t taste the fuzz)

3/4 cup water

1/4 frozen banana

3 pieces frozen pineapple (I get a massive bag of it from Costco; it’s organic)

1 handful frozen berry mixture (also Costco, organic)

1/4 cup orange juice

Blend greens, kiwi, carrot, and celery with the water until smooth. Add frozen fruit (pineapple, banana, and berries) and orange juice and blend again until smooth. You can add things like a 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon of spirulina (AKA algae, it’s really good for you, find it at any health food store), and/or 1 teaspoon each of ground flax meal and chia seeds. A half-inch piece of peeled ginger couldn’t hurt, nor would a teaspoon of turmeric or a couple of dashes of cinnamon. I prefer non-dairy smoothies so I usually add a tablespoon of spirulina and a teaspoon of flax meal and chia seeds to my blend. When I’m feeling under the weather, I throw in a little ginger. The point is, these smoothies are really hard to mess up, so make them your own.

Happy detoxing!

Does it get more festive?!: Baked Brie with Cranberry Compote

December 24, 2014

Ever notice there’s an inverse correlation between the number of days ‘til Christmas and your stress level? The presents, the food, the parties…your diet’s disappearing act. To make things worse you’ve got Pinterest taunting you; a daily reminder that there are people in the world, maybe even down the block, who are making multi-tiered Christmas Jell-O shots and wreath-shaped Stromboli.

Ain’t nobody got time to compete with Martha this time a year, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want your friends and family to rave over the dish you brought to the party. When my life gets busy, I usually find that simplicity rules the day, especially when it comes to cooking. I like to choose a few really good ingredients and let them speak for themselves.

This year I hosted my very first party in Louisville, toasting the holiday season with an Ugly Sweater fete of epic proportions. Of course my friends came through with some truly heinous ensembles, but the food spread was really the highlight of the evening. My dining room table was no match for the dozens of tasty treats that ranged from scallion crepes to vegan buffalo “chicken” “cheese” dip. My contribution to the festivities was a baked brie with cranberry compote number…because who doesn’t love rich, warm, oozing cheese?

This recipe is super easy, fast, and most importantly, delicious. When party goers realized there was a wheel of brie baking in the oven, my friends migrated to the kitchen to wait for its debut. While I realize the congregation in the kitchen had nothing to do with my cooking prowess and everything to do with the power of French cheese, you’ll feel like a bad ass too when your friends follow you in single file from the oven to the table.

A couple of notes about the ingredients: as I mentioned above, choose quality ingredients when you’re making them the star. I’m a huge fan of Costco in general, but they really go above and beyond in the cheese department. For less than ten bucks you can get an entire wheel of authentically French brie cheese and enough cranberries to get you through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Throw in some Breton’s wheat crackers, you know the ones that have a subtle sweet, gingerbread-y flavor, and your friends and family can’t help but feel fancy.

Bust out this dish for your Christmas party, New Year’s celebration, or any cocktail merrymaking, and I promise, you’ll get invited back again and again.

INGREDIENTS:

1 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup water

1/3 cup maple

1/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1/2 tablespoon bourbon

1/2 teaspoon thyme, finely chopped

DIRECTIONS:

Heat water and orange juice in a large sauté pan on high heat until boiling. Add cranberries and bring mixture back to a boil. Cook 2-3 minutes at a rolling boil. Turn heat down to medium-low, add the bourbon, and simmer for 4-5 minutes until thickened slightly. Turn off the heat and allow to cool. Transfer mixture to a storage container and cool in the refrigerator until completely chilled. This recipe will give you more cranberry sauce than you can pile on top of one wheel of brie so I recommend saving the leftovers and adding them to ice cream or oatmeal or yogurt or a pork chop or turkey sandwiches…really, put it on an old shoe, it’ll taste delicious on anything.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place wedge of brie on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake the brie for 30 minutes or until the skin of the cheese begins to soften. You may see some of the cheese begin to ooze out of the skin. Remove from the oven and transfer to serving tray. Top with chilled cranberry sauce and scatter chopped thyme. Serve with crackers or French bread.

My Friends Are Family: Friendsgiving 2014

December 5, 2014

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, even when it involves creamed corn and canned cranberry sauce. But when you replace those things with 10 pounds of bacon-y, cheesy mashed potatoes, a deep-fried turkey, and my dear, weirdo friends, I’m in heaven! Thanksgiving is the one day a year everyone else becomes as food obsessed as I am. No one thinks it’s strange when you devise (and obsessively revise) your Thanksgiving menu, hunt endlessly for gobbler themed table decorations, or spend three days chopping vegetables and making pies…if it’s Thanksgiving. This is my day people, it’s the essence of who I am, and this year, our Friendsgiving feast was one of my all-time favorites.

I’ve moved a lot, I work a lot, I travel a lot…and I live nowhere near my family. Thanksgiving takes on a depressing air when you’re roasting a turkey breast for two and your Grandma’s not asking when you’ll give her another great-grandbaby. This is my second Thanksgiving in Louisville, and I’m sad to report that my first resembled the scenario described above (plus a bottle of champagne for one). This year, however, was the Thanksgiving of my dreams. My boyfriend and I starting collecting all manner of lonely, familyless guests in October. When the big day finally arrived the kitchen was swelling with laughter and delicious aromas and everyone had a drink in their hand. And my heart was bursting with gratitude and love (sorry for the cheese)!

Apps on apps on apps on apps: cheese plate with lemon-thyme goat, Stilton blue, and cranberry cheddar and green olive and pomegranate dip.

Although our Friendsgiving table looked very different from the one of my childhood memories, it was full of mouth-watering, perhaps more sophisticated versions of the staples you’d expect. The mashed potatoes were livened up with (four pounds!!!) Parmesan cheese, bacon, and chives; the cranberry sauce was made festive with orange zest and bourbon; and the centerpiece of the meal, the turkey, was injected with Creole seasoning and deep-fried. Now feels like an appropriate time to bust out with a little confession: maybe it’s because I now live in the South or because I’ve always secretly held a special place in my heart for deep-fried poultry, but I really can’t eat another turkey if it hasn’t been submerged in hot oil for hours. Grams, I’m going to have to insist you and Grandpa invest in a turkey fryer, please and thank you.

The bird! I know it looks like the turkey from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, but it was delicious! Next to it is an update on a green bean casserole with the traditional can of mushroom soup swapped out with a blue cheese cream sauce.

Caramelized sweet potatoes, recipe courtesy of my boyfriend’s mom, and THE mashed potatoes. I’ve talked about them ad nauseam, no need to go there again.

Missing from our festivities were crying babies, nagging moms, and in my case, Fox News, but let me assure you, weirdness still abounded. One of our friends was in the middle of a seven-day juice fast and showed up to help with dishes, take the less sober among us to the gas station for more firewood, and gracefully sip a vat of juice that resembled pond water. Another one of our guests thought it was totally appropriate to unbuckle his belt and unbutton his pants at the dinner table mid-meal. And it was. Because it was Friendsgiving. There was no air of politeness or sophistication and that’s just the way I like it.

My boyfriend’s brother, Greg. He likes mashed potatoes like whoa. Also, my hero, Conchi with her Thanksgiving feast, green juice.

Evidence of the damage: belt unbuckled and head in hands. SUCCESS!

Now to the reason you’re here. How about a recipe Amy?! Okay, okay, I’ll stop gushing about my friends and get to the food. Everyone has a dish that absolutely must make an appearance on the Thanksgiving table. For me, it’s stuffing. There are just not enough occasions to enjoy this carb-bomb throughout the year, so when I get the opportunity, I go haaaard. And you all agreed. When I asked my Amy Burns the Recipe Book followers on Facebook which dish should be featured as this blog’s first, the result was overwhelming: STUFFING!

This recipe is salty, moist, herb-y and contains both sourdough and cornbread. There’s a little bit of bacon mixed in because you know what they say about bacon. You’ll likely be whipping up another round of stuffing for your Christmas feast, and this recipe is the one you’ll want on your holiday table. I’d also implore you to incorporate stuffing into your meals more throughout the rest of the year. This recipe would be the bomb with a pork loin roast for Sunday supper. Moral of the story: eat more stuffing!

Ingredients:

1-pound loaf of sourdough bread,

3 cups cornbread

4 slices bacon

10 ounces crimini mushrooms, sliced ¼-inch thick

3-4 stalks celery, chopped in ¼-inch dice

3 carrots, chopped in ¼-inch dice

1 medium onion, chopped in ¼-inch dice

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped finely

8 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped from stems and chopped

4 sage leaves, rolled and cut into ribbons

2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves stripped from stems and chopped

4 cups low-sodium chicken stock

3 tablespoons butter, plus more for greasing the pan

Salt and pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 13 baking dish and set aside.

Cut or tear the sourdough and cornbread into 1-inch cubes and spread it evenly on a large baking sheet. Toast the bread in the oven for about 20 minutes until completely dry and beginning to crisp and brown. Remove from oven and set aside.

Arrange the bacon in a single layer in a large heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven. Cook the bacon on medium-low heat until extra-crispy, about 10-12 minutes. Set the bacon aside on paper towels to drain and then chop into small pieces.

Isn’t this a beautiful sight?! Be sure to get the bacon extra crispy. No one likes limp, fatty bacon in their stuffing. And don’t worry about the brown bits at the bottle of the pan. Scrape them up when you sauté you veggies; that’s the best flavor you’ll create in any recipe.

Use the grease leftover in the pan from frying the bacon to sauté the onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, and onions. No need to clean it out, all of the fat and brown bits add flavor. Season the mixture with salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the mushrooms have given up their liquid, the onions are translucent, and the carrots and celery are tender, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes.

This is a soffrito, folks. Just a fancy word for carrots, celery, and onions. I beefed mine up with garlic, mushroom, and oh yeah, bacon fat! This is the base for so many recipes; get it down, stat!

Add the bread mixture and herbs to the vegetable mixture in the Dutch oven. Stir well to combine. Add the chicken stock a cup at a time until the bread mixture is moist. I like a very moist mixture and added all four cups, but if you like a dryer final product, reduce the chicken stock to three cups. Add the bacon crumbles and taste. Add salt and pepper to your liking.

The mixture will seem a little more wet than you think it should. Don’t worry, you want all of the pieces of bread almost completely saturated with stock, otherwise you’ll wind up with dry, hard to swallow stuffing and nobody wants that. To the right you’ll see little, beautiful squares of butter dotting the casserole. They’ll give the finished product a crispy, brown top.

Transfer the stuffing to your greased pan and top with the butter, diced into 1/4-inch pieces. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes and then remove the foil and let brown in the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

Taaa daaahhh!! Whatta beaut, if I do say so myself. Pardon me, I’m going to the kitchen to make more stuffing. I find my pants often fit too loosely this time of year….

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