I stumbled upon Parsnips while watching my new favorite show, Good Eats. I had heard that word before, but I had no idea what a Parsnip was. Well the show said that they were delicious, and I am totally into eating new things, so I went straight to the store and picked up a bag of them. I immediately noticed that they looked like white carrots, so I put them together and created a really awesome dessert tasting side dish.
The 2nd episode of Alton Brown’s Good Eats is entitled This Spud’s For You and of course is about potatoes. Brown shows three different easy ways to cook potatoes, mashed potatoes (mashers), potato gratin, and what I’ll be talking about here, the easiest of all, a baked potato. I had an issue with the specifications from Alton, but once I figured it out I was amazed to be eating a restaurant quality baked potato. I paired it with the perfect ribeye steak and had the time of my life. Here’s how to do it.
I went to the grocery store and saw a towering plant-like thing with crazy colored long and thick red stems. I decided I had to have this thing, which I learned a few seconds later was called Swiss Chard (red swiss chard to be more specific). I took it home, chopped it up and enjoyed it with my dinner. Here’s how to prepare and work with Swiss Chard:
One of my favorite parts about going to Chipotle for a burrito is the delicious tex-mex style lime cilantro white rice that comes on the inside. I’ve never had success with rice, even failing horribly with minute rice, but I really wanted to try to make some rice just like they do at the restaurant and mix it with a great meal (like these taco/burritos).
So I googled some “copycat” recipes, found a few different options, learned about making rice in general and made a few adjustments. Now I can tell you how you can make some rice as good as Chipotle!
Roasting potatoes is super easy bro. You can prepare them in minutes and then set them in the oven while you work on the main course. I know this is not my style, but today I went with a very basic recipe for Rosemary Garlic Roasted Potatoes. I didn’t even put my own spin on them…smh…but I think its still good to know how to prepare them and this is probably better than anything I can come up with. Here’s how you can get a delicious potato side in no time:
I never ate brussel sprouts growing up. Mostly because cartoons told me that they were horrible. But after biting the bullet and trying them, they are something I really like, despite the fact that they make your whole house smell like them for weeks. I typically sear them in cast iron, roast in the oven and then put some vinegar on them, but I wanted to try something new.
I pulled another recipe from Worst Cooks In America, this one courtesy of Ann Burrell, shifted a few things, and then made some delicious Pine Nut Bacon Roasted Brussel Sprouts. Here’s how I did it:
I recently discovered Collard Greens and I actually like them a lot. Where I come from, Collard Greens are not a thing. I never even saw these things until the past few years. I actually HATE the way they are prepared in that “southern” fashion (drenched in butter and served in a nasty collard green juice with slimy bacon). I prefer to blanch and sautee, but no matter how you like them, you have to prepare them for cooking first. Here is how I de-stem them, wash them, and cut them into ribbons so they are ready to cook up.
The Cooking Bro Blog 