Halloween Salad: Cabbage, Carrot, Raisin, Pecan Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
The perfect Halloween festive salad that is as tasty as it is colorful. It’s bold, sweet, salty, and has texture for days. The dressing brings the perfect amount of zing that balances the sweeter components.
Grande Pates
Grande pates is dough that is pulled, fried, and served with smoked sausage and a good helping of Steen’s cane syrup. It’s a perfect harmony of sweet, savory, and smoky.
Fig, Yogurt, and Almond Cake with or without Extra Figs
Fresh fig juice caramelizes around the edges of this almond cake, creating the perfect crispy pillowy contrast.
Peanut Soup
I began the meal with peanut soup and that first bite warmed and relaxed my most inner soul. It was creamy with a faint, but lingering peanut flavor.
Cookie Butter and Banana Potstickers
A delicate crunch filled with banana that is made heavenly by the complexity of cookie butter. It makes for such a special dessert that no one will guess how easy it is to make.
Cucumber and Peanut Salad with Tahini Dressing
Cooling cucumbers give you all the freshness you want on a hot day and peanuts and tahini bring you an earthiness to keep you satisfied.
Smothered Pork Chops with Caramelized Onions
The pork chops are tender with the deepest rich notes of caramelized onions that create the base for one of the best gravies you’ll ever eat.
Peach and Almond Salad with Creamy Lemon Basil Dressing
The dressing is so smooth and bright with the luxurious feel of a creamy dressing but the freshness and palate cleansing components of a vinaigrette.
Butter Cake with Blackberry Filling and Lemon Russian Buttercream
Sister enlightened me with Russian buttercream, something I never heard of and is made with condensed milk and butter. We paired it with my favorite standby Bonnie Butter Cake and made it “summery special” with blackberry filling.
Roasted Potatoes with Harissa
These little guys are a mouthful full of bold flavor. They’re spicy and crispy and creamy and perfect as a hot appetizer.
Strawberry, Ricotta, and Sunflower Seed Salad with Lemon Tarragon Vinaigrette
It’s sweet, fresh, and grounded. It brings us the best of warm spring days.
Beef and Beet Stew
It’s deep and decadent like the best of beef stews but also has a subtle sweetness and lightness, thanks to the beets. The combination creates the perfect bridge food between wanting the depth and comfort of winter food, but the air is a bit too warm.
Stuffed Poblanos with Red Chile, Chorizo, and Black Beans
It’s a punch in the mouth full of chile flavor that will leave you satisfied for a long time and will have you looking forward to leftovers. The poblanos reheat in the oven so nicely you won’t even know they were leftovers.
Creole-Spiced Poached Fish
With warming spices of allspice, coriander, and cloves, it creates a comforting dish full of flavor that is perfect for an early spring cold snap. The flavors are reminiscent of grits and grillades.
Ginger Spaghetti Squash with Orange Zest and Browned Butter
This spaghetti squash is bright, light, and bold with ginger, orange zest, and browned butter. It plays well with a simply seasoned broiled fish.
Higos y Datiles (Figs and Dates)
I had these wonderfully glorious creamy cheese filled sweet dried fruit with pistachios and a bit of citrus to break the sweetness as a dessert at El Farol, a Spanish tapas place in Santa Fe.
Garlic and Rosemary Butter Bean Dip
It’s garlicky, fresh, oh so bold and creamy. It’s a mouthful of flavor that will pair with any raw vegetable.