Greenling Quickfire Round 14

The amount of fun I have had week after week with this little challenge has been exponentially growing with each new box. And once again this week is no exception.


Upon arriving home I discovered a surprise waiting with me Greenling box. An awesome box of goodies from Greenling and an awesome note to let me know they read this blog. Totally made my night!


My daughter thought it was super cool and so did I. Even better was the yummy treats waiting for us inside this week's box. Last week we had turnip greens - this week we got the full turnips! Golden turnips to be precise!

My first thought was to make a redo of the braised turnip greens from last week because they were so delicious, but then I had an idea. I decided to make 2 dishes, one with the turnips themselves, based on an old Julia Childs recipe and the other with the turnip greens.The Julia Childs recipe for caramelized turnips is something I have made for years. Basically you peel and chop the turnips and caramelize them in a brown butter and sugar sauce. For this meal I decided to take that a step further and make a Turnip Hash

The first step in the turnip process is to parboil the turnips in salted water for about 5 minutes. This helps soften them. Once the five minutes is up, you remove them from the water and cool them down and pat dry. Once dry you can add them to a saucepan with butter and sugar and all sorts of yummy goodness until they turn a beautiful golden brown.

While the turnips were boiling I chopped up a yellow onion, zucchini, and the greens from the Greenling Box. My trick with turnip greens it to remove as much of the steam as possible from the leafy part.

I decided to give my new Calphalon Unison Fritatta pan a spin and what better way to use up the delicious vegetables!

Once my parboiled turnips were cooled and dried I placed them back in the pan with this awsome combination of sugar and spice. And a generous helping of butter of course.

A gift from my Mom that she picked up from a local vendor back home in Florida, I am never without a fun way to spice up a dish. These spice blends are fun - although I've never used them for what they were originally intended for. Who want's pork chops when you can have turnips? The sugar in this one was perfect for what I needed.

I sauteed the greens and onion in butter as well as the turnips (with the added sugar rub). While those cooked I boiled up some organic chicken apple sausage for the hash. The benefit of having the fritatta pan is that the two sides can be used independently or together and they are both super easy clean up.

Here's a pic of the beautiful results of the new magical pan. A perfect fluffy fritatta with no mess and no fuss!

I topped off the fritatta with some fresh grated parmesan and romano cheese and served along side the turnip hash.

I paired the dinner with Abita's SOS. An awesome beer that benefits an even better cause. For every bottle sold Abita will donate 75¢ to the rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive the disastrous oil spill in the gulf.

My other favorite part about last night? That's easy - in addition to Paul winning the Top Chef elimination challenge and making it into the finals he also won a Prius V. As if He wasn't awesome enough already he and I now have matching cars!

I've been Team Paul from the start and I'm crazy excited to see him go for the win!

Greenling Quickfire Round 11-13

I know... I know...  I was supposed to be doing this every week and keep up with each episode and make a corresponding dinner using my weekly Surprise Me ingredient from Greenling. and then the holidays happened and then vacations...


So what's my excuse this time? Trust me it's a good one. I was out of the country on a cruise with the band Weezer!


But this week I'm finally getting caught up and what better way to celebrate than with a yummy treat?


This week's Surprise Me ingredient was turnip greens!

 My favorite family recipe for any type of greens is "bacon and butter".


So that's just what I did! The secret I use is to boil the bacon first - this allows you to easily remove the fatty pieces and leaves you with a delicious pile of smoked pork.


I only boil the bacon for a few minutes, just long enough to cook off some of the white. Then I let it cool off in the liquid and let the fat separate and float up to the top.  Once cooled it easily pulls apart and from there I just chop it up.

Throw the bacon meat in the pan with a heavy helping of butter and some chopped onion.


Stir until the onion is caramelized and the bacon starts to crisps up.


This will also make your house smell like heaven.


Just as the bacon starts to crisp throw in your greens, remove from heat and stir until they are wilted. For turnip greens I also threw in a pinch of sugar and a dash of Maldon seat salt for good measure 

 For this meal I also chopped up one of my tomatoes from my Greenling box and an avocado.


tossed them in a bowl with some fresh lime juice, sea salt and fresh cracked black peppercorn for a quick and refreshing avocado salad.


And not that it really goes with turnip greens, but I had a flank steak marinating in the fridge in orange juice, orange zest, habanero pepper and honey so I pan grilled it up medium rare.




The finished meal? A mismatched habanero orange honey steak, avocado salad and southern style turnip greens.


I was a little off in the pairing of these 3 - but each on its own was pretty damn fantastic.


I could have eaten an entire plate of just bacon and butter turnip greens, but I had a dinner guest and had to share :D


And Paul Qui is rocking the Top Chef competition! Life is good!

And just in case you didn't believe my excuse - Here's a pic of me and Weezer!

Best Vacation Ever!!!