Category:

Kiss My Grits: Cooking Blog

The Tomboy’s Guide to Cooking Like A Southern Belle

Chicken Enchiladas

written by Piper

Growing up in California, one acquires a taste for Mexican food early on. Hearty, mildly spicy enchiladas with a fresh sprinkling of piquant cilantro over melted cheese are true comfort food to me. Nearby avocado orchards make guacamole a cinch to mash up. And with truly high quality bottled enchilada sauces available from grocery stores like Trader Joe’s, there’s no need to go to all the trouble of making your own–even though normally I’m an advocate for everything homemade. Though the process of making enchiladas can be on the messy side, once they’re in that casserole dish, a celebratory Cinco de Mayo dinner is as simple as popping ‘em in the oven. Though, once prepared, they can sit in the fridge for up to a day, once you make a tray you’ll be hollering “Andale, andale!” so you can sink your fork down into one of these enchiladas.

May 3, 2013 1 comment

Kiss My Grits: Cooking Blog Seafood

Tilapia Vera Cruz

written by Piper

One of my favorite restaurants in the whole world, which you may already know if you read Part 2 in our af

oories on Santa Cruz, is Riva Fish House, out on the municipal wharf. They serve a dish there called Tilapia Vera Cruz. When I was younger, it was made with shark, then snapper, but now they serve this dish with the more environmentally-responsible farmed tilapia. A thick, tomatoey sauce studded with tender vegetables and black beans covers the broiled fish, draped in jack cheese. Spilling over rice pilaf, this is hearty and healthy, with a nice kick of heat. Though my version sadly lacks the exquisitely deep-fried zucchini spear as a garnish, it does a pretty good job of summing up all the flavors I’ve come to crave. When I can’t get to Santa Cruz for the original, I whip this up and suddenly it’s like I’m there; surfers cutting arcs across the break at Steamer’s, seagulls coasting on thermals, and the convivial bellows of sea lions, echoing in the distance.

March 14, 2013 1 comment

Kiss My Grits: Cooking Blog Side-Dishes Vegetarian

Greek Pasta with Mushrooms, Peppers and Feta

written by Piper

A couple years ago, I went over to a friend’s apartment to hang out. Since we were about twenty two at the time, it seemed reasonable to assume that, since I got there around five, we would all — at some point — go in search of some sustenance. So, imagine my surprise when everyone had already eaten! I think may have indicted everyone with a round of zippy insults that relied heavily on references to nursing homes and early bird specials, and when I had resigned myself to silencing my rumbling tummy with the battered protein bar that swims around in the bottom of my purse for the occasional unforeseeable emergency such as these, good ole Dave gave me a pitying look and sprang into action. He whipped up this pasta for me: a simple sautee of veggies you probably already have languishing in your crisper drawer, multi-grain rotini pasta and that wonderful gilder-of-lilies, feta cheese. Ever since, this has been one of my favorite go-to quick meals for a healthy serving of veggies combined with that wonderful chew that only pasta can deliver. When the feta melts into a kind of sauce, all I can say, my friends, is “Opa!”

March 9, 2013 0 comment

Breakfast & Brunch Kiss My Grits: Cooking Blog

Bacon, Mushroom and Zucchini Frittata

written by Piper

Frittatas are just about the easiest thing to make with eggs. When you have company, a nice frittata — hot from the oven — is an ideal egg dish to make for a crowd; it’s certainly more efficient than scrambling eggs, or worse, frying them up to order. But with a small pan or miniature skillet such as the one I’ve used when cooking for just myself, this is a dish that can be pared down to serve one without suffering in the slightest. This particular combination was inspired by a favorite item on the breakfast menu of the Walnut Avenue Cafe in Santa Cruz, about which you can read here in this article from The Tomboy’s Guide to California, part one in a three-part series detailing all my favorite things and places in the town where I’ve spent so much time, first as a day-tripper with my family growing up and then as a college student. That scramble introduced me to the idea of using zucchini in breakfast eggs, which, frankly, sounded really weird to me at first. But sliced thinly, the squash is tender and delicious and doesn’t dominate this dish. I’ve added Yukon Gold potatoes to make this even heartier, but you can really make a frittata using anything you’ve got in your fridge.

February 18, 2013 1 comment

Desserts Kiss My Grits: Cooking Blog

Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies

written by Piper

Sometimes there’s nothing better than a simple, buttery, tender sugar cookie. And no bakery can replicate the pure perfection of these delicate, flaky cookies. Flavorful and sweet from the addition of both vanilla and almond extracts, a little bit soft and a little bit crunchy from the decorating sugar on top, these are a cinch to whip up. But you don’t have to tell your sweetheart that. Place a cooled stack of these cookies in a celophane bag and tie with a ribbon to present to your loved one (or your girlfriends if you’re boycotting Valentine’s Day this year — it happens, and it doesn’t mean that you should be deprived of cookies this good and so addictive that yours truly recently downed eight in the course of a single evening… in the name of research, of course.)

Happy Valentine’s Day.

February 12, 2013 1 comment

Newer Posts

Older Posts