Smoked Salt & Pepper

I'm really bad at posting great holiday recipes until it's too late.  I'm just not that good of a food blogger.  But posting ON THE ACTUAL DAY? Does that count? HEB is open until 2pm so if you're still looking for a last minute Thanksgiving dish to bring to a dinner or add to yours, here it is! Mom's Bourbon Pecan Sweet Potato Casserole Ingredients: 4 lbs. sweet potatoes 3 green apples, peeled, cored and sliced 6 tbs. butter 1/2 c.dark brown sugar 1/2 tsp. kosher salt 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. ginger 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1 &1/2 tsp. vanilla 2 tsp. maple syrup 1/4 c. bourbon 1 c. toasted pecans or chestnuts optional: 1 bag mini marshmallows Directions: Roast and peel sweet potatoes in a 375*F oven for about 30-45 minutes.  Slice in 1/4" thick rounds. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, combine butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.  Lower heat to a simmer and add vanilla, maple syrup, and bourbon.  Simmer until sugar is di...

In my quest to find lower carb substitutes, I learned that cauliflower can be made into ANYTHING. Although whether it should or not remains to be questioned.  You want to eat rice? Make cauliflower rice! You want to eat pizza? Make cauliflower pizza crust! You want to eat mashed potatoes? Make mashed cauliflower!  You want to eat crackers and hummus? Just eat cauliflowers.  So basically, since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, I've bought a head of cauliflower every week at the grocery store.  I love that cauliflower is super cheap I'd posted this on my Instagram account a few weeks ago, and I hadn't planned on posting about it since it is so stupid simple, but lots of people were interested in it so here goes: Fully Loaded Mashed Cauliflower Ingredients 1 head of cauliflower florets 1/2 c. shredded cheese 2 slices thick-cut bacon, cooked and crumbled 3 tbs. butter 2 tbs. Greek yogurt 1 tbs. ranch dressing mix (optional) salt and pepper, to tas...

Nem Nuong are traditionally Vietnamese grilled pork meatballs or patties.  They can be eaten over a bowl of vermicelli noodles or rice, over a simple salad of greens and herbs, or rolled up in rice paper wrappers.  Basically you have the meatballs + some format of rice (vermicelli noodles, rice, rice paper wrappers) + lettuce + herbs + some kind of crunchies.  When making the spring rolls in rice paper wrappers, they are dipped in a savory peanut/hoisin sauce.  Nem nuong cuon (rolls) are super refreshing and tasty and a great alternative to anyone tired of shrimp filled spring rolls.  Because making them actually does require a lot of different components, I learned a trick from my mom to get dinner on the table on a weeknight, after work, on time, and....I use store bought chicken teriyaki and pineapple meatballs from Costco! Ok, I admitted it! I didn't actually make the main part of this dish.  But that's what makes this so great! It's so delicio...

The other night Reid and I did something a little different for date night.  We attended a butchery class held by the Sustainable Food Center! It was a lot of fun.  I've been trying to get Reid to go to a cooking class with me and so I sent him a list of different classes around town.  If you are interested in a cooking class in Austin, I'd definitely recommend the following resources: The Sustainable Food Center  The SFC building is really nice! and the class was great! Class prices can range from free to $70/person depending on the class.  I think we paid about $40 each to take the butchery class.  They have an adjacent community/teaching garden on the east side.  Class topics range from bee keeping, gardening classes, knife skills, tamale making classes, etc! Kitchen Undergound   I want to try a class out here.  A few of my fellow AFBA bloggers teach classes with Kitchen Underground and they have a variety of interesting and unique c...

I love fall flavors.  I think I already rambled on about that in my butternut squash soup post .  There's just something so comforting with fall flavors.  It's like getting a big, warm, spice hug.  I also love bread.  And muffins.  And pie.  And pretty much everything I'm not supposed to eat according to the nutritionist that is helping me manage my gestational diabetes.  I've been pretty good lately and hadn't baked anything recently,  but it was starting to get really hard to not fill my Sunday early afternoon with the oven on and tinkering with baking recipes.  So, I decided to try to 'healthi-fy' or low-carb-a-fy? a pumpkin bread recipe. Pumpkin bread/muffins/cupcakes are pretty good for my diabetes since pumpkin has fiber and protein and beta-carotene, and only 8 g. of carbs per cup.  Basically, it's good stuff.  I'll even recommend canned pumpkin to some of my doggie patients that are having some GI issues (helps firm u...

I really enjoy baking, but having gestational diabetes has made it difficult to enjoy baking the usual things.  Banana bread is one of those things that I'll make once I have a few too-ripe-bananas and want to have breakfast for the week ready.   I have an old standby recipe that I have no idea where it's origins are from, except that the handwritten recipe is in my sister's handwriting and it's on a scrap of a flash card.  I altered this one to include some dark chocolate chips to compensate for cutting back the sugar and subbing whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour.  I also added some chopped walnuts for added protein/satiety.  Came out well.  I did add some cream cheese frosting to the loaf for Reid to enjoy.  Without icing, it still comes out to about 42 grams of carbs per serving (which is a bit more then the 30 g/meal I should be eating...).  But hey, I can satisfy myself with half a slice and 1 c. of milk. "Healthified" Ban...

We had about 4 days of 'fall weather' about 2 weeks ago and it was amazing.  Fall is Reid's favorite time of year here in Central Texas.  On any good day/night he'll take a deep breath in and scan the sunset and declare, "Just another beautiful day in Central Texas!"  That is, of course, once we get out of the >100 degree brutality that is the summer here.  I really enjoy fall as well.  I like pulling out all my light clothing layers, and my cowboy or fashion boots from the back of the closet.  I like wearing a rain jacket with the hopes it will actually rain and then feeling like an idiot when it doesn't.  I like the smell of roasting squash like pumpkin and butternut and acorn and weird ones I've never seen before, and cinnamon, and nutmeg, and all those warm flavors.  So when we had those 4 days for fall weather a while back I loaded my grocery cart with butternut squash and grabbed my Dutch oven from the cabinet. This butternut squash sou...