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Archive for the ‘Southern Love’ Category

Celebration and a New Meal!

Hey hey hey! Look up! A Bacon-Wrapped Life is now located at it’s very own domain name baconwrappedlife.com!!! EXCITEMENT! Also exciting, Dori’s Shiny Blog is now located at dorishinyblog.com, check it out and keep your eyes peeled for some fun on her end to celebrate the change!!

I’ve been absent from the blog for a few days because we were switching servers, updating names, and just generally being busy with chores, errands and some nice weather  But I have a yummy new recipe to show for the missing weekend!

This is a conglomeration of this cooking light recipe and a pumpkin ravioli recipe I tried about 4 years ago and turned into an AMAZING pumpkin lasagna recipe that I’ll probably share at some point. 

Spicy Sweet Butternut Squash Ravioli with Prosciutto and Parmesan 

I roasted the heck out of a butternut squash at 400 degrees for about an hour or so, then scooped it out of the peel (after it cooled) and mashed it.  In a pan with a bit of olive oil, I sautéed 4oz diced prosciutto until it was a little crispy on the edges.  Half of the meat went into the squash along with breadcrumbs, 1 egg, salt, and parmesan cheese.  

 

I bought a package of wonton wrappers, and these made the ravioli! I filled a wonton wrapper with about 1Tb of the squash mixture, wet the edges with water, topped with another wrapper and sealed all around, making sure to get out all of the air bubbles.  I used a biscuit cutter to cut into rounds and set them aside on a parchment-lined tray. 

I made 20 ravioli like this and still hade some wrappers and squash mixture left, but knew we wouldn’t eat them, so I just stuck with the 20 (good thing, because I was stuffed by the end of the meal!).  Brought a big, wide pan full of water to a simmer and cooked about half of the ravioli at a time, for about 5 minutes with each batch.  I pulled them out with a slotted spoon and let them wait on the parchment-lined baking sheet while I cooked the second batch. 

As the second batch of ravioli cooked, I heated the remaining prosciutto and olive oil back up and added a little over a tablespoon of brown sugar, a few chopped sage leaves, a pat of butter and a dash of cayenne pepper for a little kick.

After this got all melty, I sort of just wanted to eat it with a spoon!

I melted this over medium-low heat and then tossed it with the ravioli and served, topped with a little more fresh sage and some parmesan!  Pretty easy (a little time-consuming because you have to fill the ravioli) and SUPER delicious!  You could also buy ravioli and just make this prosciutto brown sugar sauce to coat them, and it would be really really easy. 

We served it with a bagged Pacific salad with a bunch of different greens, soy nuts, carrots and a poppy seed dressing.  Plus we added a bunch of diced tomatoes from our CSA!  It was a nice accompaniment to the ravioli, which had a wonderful balance of the nutty squash, sweet brown sugar, salty prosciutto & parmesan, and a tiny bit of spice from the cayenne!

Guest Post on Dori’s Shiny Blog

Click over to Dori’s blog to read my guest post about my Italian Wedding Casserole! Lots of pictures and the Sage Parmesan Meatball recipe! This is a really fun meal that Matt and I made together and has lasted through several rounds of leftovers…yum yum yum!  Here are the instructions for putting the casserole together (you’ll have to head over to DSB to get the meatball recipe!):

• What You Need:
  • Pasta (We used Rotelle, but any curly or spiral pasta will work)
  • About 1/3 of the sage parmesan meatball mix
  • Chicken stock
  • 1 Tb Flour
  • 1 Tb olive oil
  • 1 Tb Minced garlic
  • 1 Diced onion
  • 1 bunch fresh spinach, washed, drained, and chopped. (Or frozen spinach, defrosted, drained, squeezed as dry as possible)
  • Ritz crackers
  • Butter
  • Parmesan Cheese
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Basil, parsley, sage, cayenne pepper

 

• What You Do:
  • Cook pasta, as directed on package, drain, and set aside.
  • While pasta cooks, mix your meatballs and pan fry.
  • Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels — if there is a ton of grease in the pan, pour off or soak up (with a paper towel) most of it, leaving about 1/2 a teaspoon
  • Sprinkle flour around pan, stirring to coat with grease in the pan and let it cook for a couple minutes on medium heat (this will take away some of the floury taste)
  • Add salt, black and cayenne pepper, basil, parsley and sage and slowly add stock, stirring constantly and mixing completely with the flour after each bit is added.
  • When all the stock has been added to the pan, keep stirring so it doesn’t burn or stick. Bring it to a simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes. This will get it just a little bit thick.
  • While sauce is cooking, heat olive oil in pan over medium-high heat.
  • Sauté onion and garlic in pan until very soft and translucent (caramelized a bit if you want that extra sweetness).
  Add spinach to pan and stir. As the spinach cooks it will wilt down quite a bit. It might seem like you have a TON of fresh spinach, but it will result in a lot less cooked than you think.
  • Cook until spinach is wilted and tender, stirring constantly. Set aside.
  • In a large bowl, mix pasta, meatballs, spinach, stock mixture and a handful of parmesan cheese until well blended.
  • Pour into large, greased casserole dish.
  • In small saucepan, melt 1 stick of butter. Crush 1 tube of Ritz crackers (you can really use any kind of crackers you want, but Ritz are super buttery and have the best taste as far as I’ve found so far)and add to the melted butter (along with a small handful of parmesan cheese), stirring to coat.*
  • Top the casserole with the deliciously buttery cracker mix.
  • Bake this in 350 degree oven for 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and hot in the middle. The time will vary based on what size/shape casserole dish you use. You’ll want to watch the crackers, because they could burn if the oven is too hot or they’re in there too long…if you see them starting to get too dark, just cover with aluminum foil. Since everything is already cooked, you’re really just aiming for it to be heated and bubbly all the way through and for the cracker topping to get nice and brown! 

*It should be noted that the topping on this casserole comes originally from a broccoli cheese casserole side dish I learned from my greasy friend from KY, Bob…while we were Undergrads, we spent a LOT of time topping things with butter and crackers.  It’s delicious.

Thanks to Dori for letting me guest post! 4th bar review later today after my afternoon snack! (The last of the leftover italian wedding casserole for lunch today, so that will probably hold me over for a while!)

BBQ!? In Seattle!?

Several weeks ago we decided to try out a restaurant that we had been eyeing for some time.  I did my Undergraduate work in Kentucky and completely fell in love with southern food.  When my then-bf’s mother offered me a glass of sweet tea and I assumed this was the Sweetened Iced Tea I knew from NY, I nearly choked on the sugar in it.  But after the initial coughing and sputtering, I was hooked.   At this point, I am probably made up of at least 23% sweet tea (that number is based on very precise calculations).  It is addicting and delicious.  Along with sweet tea, I fell in love with pulled pork, fried pickles, hot browns, Chik-Fil-A, and numerous other not-so-good-for-you-but-to-die-for-delicious stuff.  It was an indulgently wonderful four years, and I have carried certain parts of KY with me back to NY and now to Seattle.  I can make some killer ribs, have tried my own fried dill pickle slices and sometimes crave sweet tea so badly that I make a giant pitcher that lasts us about 2 days.  When we went to KY in July because one of my best friends was getting married, I had the entire trip planned around food (and the wedding, of course).  We ate way too much, but Matt had never been to KY before and I was really missing it.  Thankfully, I have some equally indulgent friends and we had lots of company at our various food-detours.  I’ll hopefully be heading back there in June (for another wedding!) and I am already trying to decide what the best use of my time will be food-wise! 

   

Anyway, in my near-constant yearning for southern yumminess, we came to the subject of this post: RoRo BBQ, formerly the Rowdy Cowgirl, on Stone Way in Seattle.  I was skeptical, simply because this was a bbq place in the Northwest…the farthest we could get from KY, practically.

The decor was really cute…it’s a small one-room shack of a restaurant, with a mish mash of cowgirl/cowboy knick knacks, paper towels & wet naps on the tables, a giant collection of empty hot sauce bottles, etc.  A few tables and a window bar-top (the picnic tables outside are probably fun when it’s not freezing cold!) were the only seating aside from the counter looking into the kitchen.  Inside, the only other people there when we arrived were two little boys and their parents.  On the flat screen TV in the corner, they were playing old Bugs Bunny cartoons from a DVD. Fun! The kids were loving it.  The TV was muted and old country music was playing.  The only thing I recognized was some Johnny Cash every once in a while, which made me pretty happy.

It smelled delicious and properly bbq-y when we walked in, and the wonderfully sweet woman running the place was really friendly and welcoming.  She asked us if we’d ever been there before and pointed us to the menu.  

Pretty basic and all written up on a large board behind the counter—various combinations of bbq choices, sides, sandwiches, a couple desserts, sodas mixed in-house (neat!) and sweet tea!! SWEET TEA!!! We ordered ribs and a pulled pork sandwich deluxe (with coleslaw and pickles on top).  For our sides we had their shoestring fries, baked beans and cornbread.  When I ordered my sweet tea, she asked “How sweet? Alabama Sweet or Seattle Sweet?”   There was half a second where I debated saying “KENTUCKY SWEET!” but with very little actual hesitation it was without a doubt, Alabama Sweet!  Matt got the same thing (he’s a sweet tea convert, thanks to me) and she told us to grab a table and she’d come over to explain the sauces to us.

Explain the sauces?? Could that possibly be necessary?  Turns out, yes!  They had 7 squeeze bottles on the table….one was ketchup, one was their standard bbq sauce…the rest were variations on their sauce, with different levels of heat, smokey and sweet flavors.  After her really wonderful explanation of them all, we of course taste-tested them with our fries!

The fries were so delicious…I love shoestring fries!! And there were a ton of them! With any meal you get two sides OR an order of fries. At first we were grumpy about this, but it made sense when we saw how many fries there were!

Actually, everything was delicious…the baked beans had noticeable pieces of bacon in them, the ribs were completely falling apart and the pulled pork was perfect for adding your favorite bbq sauce from the table-top selection.  All I could have asked for would be some fried pickles, which were NOT on their menu.  They also didn’t have cheese grits, but I have only really ever seen these at Billy’s BBQ in Lexington.

About 5 minutes into our meal, I had finished my first glass of sweet tea, and she brought the pitcher out for a refill…she also suggested that she loves the tea with a splash of their homemade blueberry syrup (which they use in their sodas).  She thought I’d love it, and I DID! YUM!!! Sweet tea + Blueberry Syrup = Enough reason to go back to RoRo’s. 

Our meal wasn’t necessarily cheap, but that was largely because we ordered WAY too much food.  You get a ton of food for the money, and the meals are definitely splittable.  Plus, they have compost and recycling!! We bussed our own trays and split the garbage into compost and recycling and then the rest went to the counter, where the sweet woman, who had been calling everyone  “baby” the entire time, let us know that we better be back! We assured her that we would, and that is definitely the plan.  Yummy food that was fast and fun! Plus they have a take-out window, just in case you need to eat your ribs on-the-go… a very common problem for me.