Food with Soul: SSC's Southern Hospitality Edition

There's something to be said for good old fashioned home cooking. Its simple, fun to make and always delicious. So when we were looking to stray a bit from our fancy shit (with a twist!) we knew just who to look to. My roommate and fellow Supper Clubber Arlan!





Arlan's family is originally from the Alabama and Gerorgia, so she's got a plethora of fantastic Southern family recipes to choose from. As promised everything tasted fantastic, and in true Southern tradition, most of it was fried. Hell yes!

On a more sobering note (...and you know how we all hate being sober), this was one of our resident wine experts/writers last dinners with us. Rachel just moved back to California, to pursue what is sure to be an awesome career in the wine industry, so we definitely had to make this Supper Club count! We'll miss you Rachel! Believe me, we're all eternally jealous that you'll actually be living somewhere that has more than of a month of nice weather. Good luck!


Corn Bread
We decided to take a short cut this time but with the
addition of corn and bacon, it's just as delicious!

3 boxes of Jiffy corn bread mix
1 bag frozen sweet corn
10 strips of bacon
Butter





Prep
Follow Jiffy corn bread mix recipe. (3 boxes makes about 2 loaves of cornbread)

To Add Bacon & Corn
Chop 10 strips of bacon. Fry bacon bits in a skillet. Use leftover bacon grease to grease pan.
Add fried bacon bits to prepared corn bread mix. Add 1 bag of frozen sweet corn. (To make veggie friendly, just leave out the bacon and use butter to grease pans.) Pour batter into 2 pans.

Bake in oven between 30 and 40 minutes.



Hoppin’ John
3 cups of Uncle Ben’s White Rice
6 cups of water (per 3 cups of rice)
1 ½ cans of Black Eye Peas
1 package of bacon
½ a yellow onion
Salt and Pepper



Prep
Boil rice for 15 to 20 minutes. Chop onion. Drain water from canned peas.
Chop up bacon and fry until crispy. Sauté chopped onions in bacon grease until golden brown. Add sautéed onions w/ grease to cooked rice. Add black eyed peas and fried bacon bits to rice, season w/ salt and pepper and serve.



Salmon Croquettes
Corn oil
4 cans of Red Salmon (there are 7 patties per can)
1 egg per can of salmon (if using 4 cans, use 5 eggs)
3 Yellow Onions
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
Salt and Pepper






Prep
Chop onions. Drain water from canned salmon. Mash canned salmon in bowl with a fork.
Beat eggs. Mix in chopped onions, beaten eggs, and flour in salmon with a fork.
Season with salt and pepper.

Roll salmon into a tight ball. Place salmon balls into a hot skillet and gently press
down on them. Fry salmon patties in skillet until golden brown.

Serve with fresh lemon juice and Franks Red Hot.



Fried Chicken
Corn oil
1 pound of chicken wings
Poultry seasoning
Old Bay & Adobo seasonings
Salt & Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Flour
Franks Red Hot

Prep
Season Chicken w/ poultry, old bay, adobo, salt and pepper seasonings and hot
sauce.

Mix pepper and cayenne pepper into flour. Coat chicken wings in flour mixture. Fry chicken wings in deep cast-iron skillet or deep fryer until they are fully cooked.


Jamie's Sweet Tea
Relax kids, this one's easy.

tea bags

hot water

sugar

Steep tea. Add sugar to taste. Chill. Serve.



Christa's Stuffed Red Velvet Cupcakes
Making stuffed cupcakes is a lot easier that it sounds. These cupcakes are stuffed with an awesome strawberry cream filling,
but just plain strawberry jelly works great as a filling as well.

Cake
2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup oil
2 large eggs

Frosting
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Strawberry cream
1/2 of the frosting
1/3 cup strawberry jam
1/2 cup strawberries

Topping
chopped pecans
strawberries


For cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350°F. Put cupcake papers in cupcake tins.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in small separate bowl. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating after each addition. Add oil. Beat in dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk mixture.

Poor batter into cupcake tins. Bake about 18-20 minutes. Cool completely.












Cut a hole in the top of each cupcake, leaving about 1/8-1/4 of an inch around the top edge. Remove top and set aside. Fill with strawberry cream or jelly. Replace top of cupcake. Frost the top of the cupcake with frosting. Top with chopped pecans and 1 strawberry.

For frosting
Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla.
Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.












For strawberry cream
Take 1/2 of the frosting you made and put in a separate bowl. Mix in strawberry jelly until well blended. Chop strawberries into small pieces. Gently mix in. Strawberry cream should be light pink.



Booze Pairings

Sweet Tea Vodka
Sweet tea vodka on the rocks, Rocks! You can also add it to a non-alcohlic sweet tea like Jamie's, a traditional Southern favorite.
Not surprisingly, like many American traditions, this one has been
vastly improved by the addition of alcohol.

The booze combined with the tannins in the tea creates a refreshing mixture that’s tailor-made for sitting on a porch on a hot day as beads of condensation drip down the rim of a tall, icy glass. Perfect as just a simple cordial with some ice, sweet tea vodka hits it big on the cocktail scene.


This particular night we just added some of Jamie's home made sweet tea, a bit of lemon and we were a GO! If you're feeling fancy, you can even frost the rim of your glass with some sugar, while leaving the rest of tea unsweetened. Delish!


Beer: Longtrail Summer Survival/various other things!
Grab something light and refreshing like a lager, pilsner, and maybe a wheat or something with fruit, like a blueberry beer. We recommend you pick up a Longtrail Summer Survival back from your local packie, if they don't carry it, tell them they are nuts and then promptly march your ass out of that awful store.

American Chardonnay, Pali $21.99 at the Wine Gallery
Fried chicken, bacon cornbread, beans and rice just beg for an oaky creamy
chardonnay. Pali Chardonnay is heavy, bold, and lightly fruity, a perfect
combination to compliment your salty sweet and buttery meal. If you can't find
this particular brand ask your wine retailer for something bold and buttery.
















Arlan fries up a storm; Sarah helps with the cornbread; Rachel receives her going away gifts. (For the record, that wine glass is literally big enough to hold an entire bottle. Hell yes!)










Phoebe fries in Jamie's labcoat (Yay nutritional science!); We all take a bite; No dog's were harmed in the production of this Supper Club (Seriously, we are not gonna waste good wine on a dog.)




Cheers!
Christa, Rachel, Phoebe & Arlan





About Arlan
This was not only Arlan’s first attempt at cooking for the Supper Sanity Club
(admittedly due to postponing), but it was also her first attempt at cooking
for a large group. Arlan is a mental health outreach worker for a nonprofit in Boston and is headed to graduate school in the Fall for her MSW.

Born in Northern Jersey and now living in Massachusetts, Arlan credits
her innate ability to cook Soul Food to her parents who were raised in
Alabama and Georgia and her relatives in Boston who also have roots in the
South. All these dishes are loosely based on family recipes and have been enjoyed by her family for generations.

SSC's Cinco de Most Awesome: Mexican Fusion Edition!

Boston has a lot to offer: it's a great sports town, you can walk almost anywhere, and I always get a warm fuzzy feeling when a townie calls me "feckin retaded," but one thing our fair city is seriously missing is good Mexican food. That's where we come in! The West Coast ladies of SSC decided to take a stand and fight back by celebrating Cinco de Mayo week (yes, the 5th of May lasts a week for us) with Mexican inspired cuisine. Since we already had a Tex-Mex night, we decided we needed to kick things up a notch and infuse Mexican dishes with some of our other international favorites. The results are not only spectacularly weird, but just plain spectacular!


Mole Pad Thai
Feeds a lot!

3 boneless chicken breasts
Mole sauce*
2 14 oz boxes of rice noodles
2 tablespoons oil
Unsalted roasted peanuts, chopped finely
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
2 limes, cut into 6 wedges each

Bring large pot of water with a large pinch of salt to a boil. Lower water to medium heat and poach chicken breasts until they are fully cooked, about 20 minutes.

When breast are cooled shred and chop into shall pieces bring large water to boil. Turn heat off and submerge noodles into the water until noodles are soft, about 11 minutes.

Heat oil in large frying pan. Fry noodles with chicken and mole sauce, you want to use enough mole sauce to lightly coat noodles and meat, but no more than that.

Serve with peanuts, cilantro and lime on side

*I made my own mole a while ago so I used what I had in the freezer but I highly
recommend just buying it as it is extremely time consuming… One jar of Dona
Maria brand Mexican Mole sauce should be plenty. That being said, if you would
like my mole recipe just email us and I will gladly send it to you.



Italian Nachos

The secret to nachos is baking it in layers. Unfortunately, we figured this out after the chips got soggy so we had something more like chilaquiles but hey, even soggy they were delicious,
so who cares?



Thick corn tortilla chips
Bolognese sauce
Shredded mozzarella
Ricotta
Peppercini

Preheat oven to 350˚

Lay one layer of chips on baking pan. Spoon Bolognese sauce on chips and put mozzarella cheese on chips. Bake for 5 minutes and then do the same with another layer on top, repeat one more time for third layer. Spoon ricotta and peppercini liberally on nachos.


Bolognese Sauce

2 lbs lean ground beef
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon basil
salt and pepper to taste
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
28 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons oregano
2 tablespoons basil
2 cups red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Heat large frying pan. Cook meat with spices until fully cooked. Strain to get rid of fat and the set aside.

Heat oil in large pot. Cook onion and garlic until onion is golden brown. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs and wine. Bring to a boil then reduce to simmer, cook for 35 minutes.

Blend tomato sauce in blender or with handheld immersion blender. Add meat and bring back
to a boil. Simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.



Scandinavian Quesadillas with Chipotle Dipping Sauce

For Quesadillas:
12 taco size flour tortillas
3 packages lox smoked salmon
1 package goat cheese
Monterey Jack Cheese
Chives
Chipolte Dipping Sauce




Lay out 6 of the tortillas and top with all ingredients making sure cheese layers
are both on top and bottom. Top with remaining tortillas.

Place frying pan on stovetop over medium heat and coat with cooking spray before
each quesadilla is placed on pan. Grill quesadilla on both sides for 3-4 minutes or until cheese has melted and tortillas are lightly browned. Garnish with chipotle dipping sauce.

For Chipolte Dipping Sauce:
1 12oz container plain greek yogurt
2-4 tbsp chipotle salsa (Chipotle salsa can be found in a can or jar and is found in the
international section of most grocery stores.)

Thoroughly mix yogurt with chipolte salsa to preferred spicy level.



All-American Choco-tacos!
Remember those crazy Choco-tacos you used to buy in
your school cafeteria? These are like 8 zillion times more awesome.

For crepe taco shells:
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 to 3 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
Magic Shell
vanilla ice cream
peanuts

For crepe shells: (Any crepe recipe should work here.)
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Gradually add in the milk, vanilla, and melted butter, stirring to combine. Add the flour and salt. Beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled, small griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. (The
smallest pan you can find the better) Pour about 1/5 cup of the batter onto the
pan for each "shell," tilting to make sure the liquid coats the surface evenly.

Cook the crepe on each side until light brown (about 1-2 minutes).
Shape the crepe around the bookbinding so it forms a taco shell mold. Freeze the crepe over
the book for ten minutes. Continue until all batter is used. (Makes about 8-10 crepe tacos.)

After shells are frozen remove each to coat with Magic Shell on inside of shell and return to freezer. If they need help keeping their shape you can use toothpicks to hold them together (while keeping ends apart). Keep in freezer for at least a full minute to harden Magic Shell.

Remove Magic Shell lined shells from freezer one at a time and fill with vanilla ice cream.
Top with magic shell and peanuts and return to freezer until ready to serve.



Booze Pairings!

Cocktails

Jamie's Sangria Smoothie

1 bottle red wine
2 cups Bacardi's coconut rum
1 can pineapple chunks in juice, including juice
2 apples (peeled)
1 lemon
1 cup frozen, unsweetened peaches
1 cup frozen, unsweetened raspberries
3/4 cup frozen, unsweetened blueberries
3/4 cup strawberries


Blend the shit out of everything. Then add liquids. Stir!


A Fancier Way to Drop your Panties
An authentic panty dropper cocktail is made with beer, so we kicked it up a notch
and made it with with sparkling wine…

½ part tequila
½ part pink lemonade
1 part sparkling wine

Pour, in order, into champagne glass.


Beer: Negra Modelo

Mexican beer lovers beware, this is nothing like the light style Corona and
Pacifico. This beer is robust, rich, and complex. This wine’s nutty and caramel
notes are a perfect compliment to the rich flavors in the mole sauce. It is a
little too rich for the lox quesadillas, though, so stick with the cocktails
when you drink those.


Wine: White Trimbach Gewurztraminer $17

This wine is the perfect compliment to spicy food. Don’t let the lychee and
apricot on the nose fool you, this is not a sweet cloying wine. This
Gewurztraminer is spicy, exotic on the palate, and surprisingly, fairly dry. It
is perfect with this menu because it cools spicy food, stands up to Bolognese,
and yet does not overpower smoked salmon. Plus, it is freakin delicious.


Wine: Red Bodegas y Vinedos Luna Beberide Mencia Bierzo $15

This bright red wine screams red berries, licorice and pepper. This drinkable
wine has great structure but no tannins so it will not interfere with spicy
food. It is the perfect companion to any spicy Latin food, fusion or no!
















Cheers!
Christa, Rachel & Phoebe





About Rachel
Rachel is the "professional drinker" of the group. She is from California but currently resides in Somerville. She graduated from Boston University's Culinary Arts program in the Fall but her true love is booze, which is why she is drinking her way through the Elizabeth Bishop and Master Sommelier programs. She has traveled the world drinking wine but her favorite spot is among her ladies...

SSC's 4/20 Edition:Let's Just Say Hitler's Birthday Wasn't the Holiday We Were Celebrating

Finally, after much deliberation, much agonizing thought and painstaking preparation, we bring to you, the Supper Sanity Club, 4/20 Edition. Yes friends, not only was it revolutionary in that the focus was shifted from drinking, but for the first time ever, we invited (gasp!) boys!





For this, the most glorious of holidays we decided to keep it simple. We wanted to have a fun, relaxing get together (some may even call it a "chill" party,) with lots of food that was easy to both make and eat. You might even go so far as to call the food we prepared, "munchies."

So, we invited all of our friends, disabled the smoke detectors, bought some crappy beer and set our lasers to awesome!


Christa's Spinach Artichoke Dip
This dip is great to bring to parties and works for pretty much any occasion.

1 can (14 oz) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/2 package (10 oz) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 clove of garlic, minced or 1 tbsp chopped garlic
Italian or some other kind of hearty white bread cut into cubes or pita chips

Mix ingredients well. Bake at 350 degrees until hot and bubbly (about 20 minutes). Serve with cubed bread or pita chips. Dip!


Rachel's Superb Sliders
Holy crap! These are uber delicious!

Cheeseburgers
1 lb ground meat (85%)
1 tablespoon worshershire
½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
small yellow onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
generous pinch salt and pepper



Lamb burgers
1 lb ground lamb
¼ fresh mint, chopped finely
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
generous pinch salt and pepper


Cooking both:
Mix all ingredients well. Form small patties (approximately 3 inches diameter, 1 inch thick,).
Heat grill pan on medium high. Grill burgers to rare, about 3 minutes each side.*

Keep warm in slow cooker on low heat with about an inch of chicken broth.
This way you can enjoy party and not have to cook the whole time!

* Only cook it rare because the burgers will cook more when they sit in slow
cooker.


Chipotle mayo
1 cup mayo
2 chipotles from canned chipotle in adobo sauce
1 tablespoon adobo sauce from canned chipotles

Blend in food processor. That's it!


Tzatziki sauce
1 cup greek yogurt
½ cucumber, grated finely
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Mix ingredients well. Done.

Serve!
Serve sliders with small buns, tomatoes, red onion, pickles, ketchup, mustard, bacon
(cut into small pieces) chipotle mayo, tzatziki sauce and anything else you like. Chipolte mayo works best on the cheesburgers, tzatziki sauce works best with the lamb.


BBQ Chicken Pizza
This is one of my favorite simple recipes. It works great to serve as a main dish or just as an appetizer when cut into small squares.

Pre-made pizza dough (Suck it up guys, I'm lazy.)
1lb chicken breast
3 scallions
1 tbsp chopped garlic or 2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil
BBQ sauce (I use Dinosaur BBQ Sensous Slathering Sauce)
1 c shredded chedder cheese
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Cut up chicken into small (approx) 1in cubes. Chop scallions. Put chicken, oil, scallions and chopped garlic in a large skillet and saute until chicken is just cooked through.

Spray pizza pan with Pam or another non-stick spray. Work dough into a circle and place on pan. Spread BBQ sauce on dough. Sprinkle cheeses evenly on top of the dough. Place chicken/scallions on top.

Bake in 375 oven for about 25 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the underside of the crust is golden brown.


Phoebe's French Toast Sandwiches
WARNING: Do not eat this sandwich if you: have a heart condition, high blood pressure, diabetes, think you're fat or love your body.

This is something I recreated from a diner in Portsmouth RI called Graziano's 501 Cafe located in Island Park. It is quite possibly the best hangover plan known to man, and all I can think about on this particular day of the year.
-Phoebe

4 eggs
1 teaspoon sugar, optional
1 teaspoon cinnamon
A little vanilla extract
1 cup milk
10 to 12 think slices white bread
butter
maple syrup
(fried egg if your feeling ambitious)

THICK sliced bacon.
American cheese

Break eggs into a wide, shallow bowl or pie plate; beat lightly with a fork.
Stir in sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, and milk. Over medium-low heat, heat griddle or skillet coated with a thin layer of butter or margarine.

Place the bread slices, one at a time, into the bowl or plate, letting slices soak up egg mixture
for a few seconds, then turn to coat the other side. Soak/coat only as many slices as you will
be cooking at one time. You don't want them to get mushy and gross.

Put bread slices to griddle or skillet, heating slowly until bottom is golden brown.
Turn and brown the other side.

Take two slices of French toast bread and place American cheese and 2 slices of bacon in the middle like a sandwich.

Slather with maple syrup and enjoy your time on earth before you die of
diabetes.

(I would also HIGHLY recommend incorporating a fried egg in this mix, to make
the most mind blowing breakfast sandwich you've ever had.)

Recipe for French toast serves 4.


Pete's Pineapple Graham Cracker Sandwiches
This one is pretty weird and took some convincing for us to try, but it's actually really good. Also great if you are in desperate need of a snack and there isn't much in the house.

1 can slicked pineapple rings
graham crackers

Place a graham cracker on each side of the pineapple ring. Yup, that's it.




Jamie's Banana Bites

a couple of bananas
peanut butter
raisins
pumpkin seeds

Slice bananas. Put a dab of peanut butter on each slice. Place one raisin and one pistachio on each slice. Simple! Delicious! Healthy!


Laura's Reese's Piece Rice Cereal Treats!
Exactly the same as the normal recipe, except with some added peanutbuttery goodness! (Also, if you are interested in making something "special" or possibly even "magical" this is a good alternative to brownies.)





3 tbsp butter or margarine
1 package (10 oz) marshmallows
6 cups rice cereal
1 large box or bag Reese's Pieces

Melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until melted. Remove from heat.

Mix in rice cereal and stir until well coated. Add Reese's pieces.

Spread in 13 x 9 x 2 pan sprayed with cooking spray. Cool for about 15 min. Enjoy!

Booze Pairings! (What can I say, we couldn't resist.)
Pairing for a potluck can be difficult because you usually do not know what
people are going to ultimately bring. Here are some drinks that will pretty much
go with anything…


Beer: UFO Hefeweizen

The trick here is to get something light that is not too hoppy because you don’t
want the beer to overwhelm any appetizers or increase the bitterness of any
vegetable dishes. This is why this beer from Harpoon is the perfect companion to
any food. It is crisp and refreshing with hints of vanilla and citrus notes on
the palate. It may not be complex but it is definitely very drinkable.


Cocktail Bar

Who wants to be making cocktails while everyone else is busy partying? Leave options to your guests so that you can enjoy mingling and hosting…

Liquors: vodka, rum, and gin
Mixers: cola, diet cola, soda water, tonic water, cranberry juice, and orange juice
Garnishes: maraschino cherries, lemon and lime wedges, and olives


Wine: Red
Latutude 50 Dornfelder $15

Impress your friends by choosing this hot varietal from Germany. It is similar
to Pinot Noir in that it is light enough to go with a whole range of cuisines,
but with a bit more depth. This wine has soft tannins and sharp acidity with
notes of dark fruit and spice. It is fun to say and even more to drink!


Wine: White
Zolo Gaucho Unoaked Chardonnay $15

Chardonnay, in its purest form, is actually a fairly neutral un-aromatic wine.
Modern winemaking techniques like oak ageing or oak chips and malolactic
fermentation give it the buttery vanilla characteristics that we now associate
with the wine. For this party’s purpose we wanted an unoaked version because it
goes with pretty much anything. This wine is delicious yet subtle, which makes
it perfect when one guest surprises you with gefilte fish but another brings
steak tips...


And of course, the actual party...











Things get smokey for more than just the obvious reasons; Boys! Boys! Boys!















Durso makes the mistake of coming early; We receive a mountain of chips; Rachel gets creative with pineapple












Ladies, boys; The consumption of delicious foods


Cheers! (...and pass to the right)

Christa, Rachel & Phoebe


About Christa
Christa is a comedian, artist and graphic designer living in Boston. Because most of her family is fresh off the boat, she knows a thing or two about traditional European cooking and baking, provided that the recipes are in English (Thanks a lot, crappy American school system!). She also has a vast knowledge of fancy-smancy beers made by smelly hippies. Although she has no food credits to speak of, generally speaking everything she makes is considered to be "damn good." Check out her other blog, Shameless Pomp and Circumstance, if you feel like it!