Collard Greens

Combine 2 types of greens to get the best flavor, but you can use straight up greens if your local grocery store is limited in produce. The key is the meat you'll use to build the broth, I usually save a turkey neck (if it's Thanksgiving season) or buy ham hocks from the store.

---

Ingredients:

--1/2 lb meat (ham hocks, turkey wings or neck, or smoked bones)

--2 tsp Liquid Smoke (omit if you have already smoked meat/bones)

--1 TBSP garlic, salt, pepper seasoning (or 1 tsp of each)

--1 TBSP seasoned salt

--1 TBSP hot sauce

--1 large bunch collard greens (or one small bunch each of collard and mustard greens)

--1 TBSP butter

---

1. If you need to smoke the meat, place the Liquid Smoke and meat into an airtight Ziploc bag and work the liquid smoke into the meat with your hands, then let sit for one hour. Omit this step if your meat/bones are already smoked.

2. In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil then add smoked meat/bones, g/s/p seasoning, seasoned salt and hot sauce. Reduce to medium and let cook for 1 hour.

3. Wash the greens thoroughly! Remove the stems that run down the middle, you only want the leaves. The leaves in the center of the bunch won't need stripped because they're the younger leaves and the stems aren't tough. Stack 6-8 leaves on top of each other, roll up, then slice into 1/2 inch thick slices. Do this until all the greens are cut, then place them in the pot with the meat & broth and add the butter.

4. Cook for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally; I like just around the 50 minute mark. When done you can taste and adjust seasoning or hot sauce to your preference.

5. Serve immediately. Yum!

---

Chicken & Dumplins

This is definitely one of my favorites! I'm constantly wanting to make it for dinner and usually end up eating all the leftovers by myself. Don't judge me. This is a super easy way to do chicken and dumplings; doesn't take a lot of time or energy and it's done in about 45 minutes from start to finish.

---

Servings: 4 good sized bowl fulls

Ingredients:

--1.5 lbs chicken breasts *boneless, skinless, cut into bite size chunks

--1 TBSP olive oil

--2 TBSP unsalted butter

--2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced. (I usually cut one into medium sized chunks and the other one into more small pieces)

--2 carrots, peeled and diced very small

--1 medium white onion, diced

--1 tsp celery salt (if you'd prefer to use celery, just add 1 celery stalk, diced)

--1 bay leaf (remember to remove before serving)

--salt and pepper to taste

--1 tsp poultry seasoning

--2 TBSP all-purpose flour

--1 quart good quality chicken stock

--1 box buttermilk biscuit mix (Jiffy Mix--I usually can only find it at Meijer stores near me)

--1/2 cup warm water

--1 TBSP fresh parsley, chopped

---

1. Dice chicken breasts, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

2. Over med-high heat, in a large pot or Dutch oven add oil, butter, vegetables (potatoes, carrots, onion), celery salt (or celery if using) and bay leaf and cook for 5 minutes, stir frequently. Then season with salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning, stir. Add flour to the pot, stir, and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Once boiling add diced chicken and stir, continue boiling while you prepare the dumplings.

3. Place biscuit mix in a bowl with the parsley and WARM water and combine. Drop tablespoonfuls of mixture into the pot, spacing them around the pot evenly. *I typically use a cookie scoop, but the dish pictured below was dumplings I made with a large soup spoon and you can see they're pretty big; so it really just depends the amount and size of dumplings you want.* After dropping in all the dumplings cover the pot tightly and reduce to medium-low heat. Let them steam for 10 minutes, then remove lid and stir the chicken and dumplings, lightly, to thicken it up a bit.

4. Remove from heat and serve immediately. Enjoy!!

---

Quick and EASY Pho

When we lived in Portland we fell in love with all the Pho and Ramen places; I never really thought I could make it at home and have it taste the same way, but I gave it a shot and it's awesome! Honestly, we wouldn't pay to eat Pho out anywhere else. I was surprised at how affordable it was to make and there's really not much leftover, which eliminates the waste. This isn't traditional Pho, which takes hours to make, but it's a great quick alternative with the same great taste.

---

Servings: 4 bowls

Important: Special items you'll need:

--cheesecloth and butcher's twine for herb satchel

For the Pho Stock:

--2 TBSP beef bouillon +water to mix with

--1 TBSP fish sauce

--1 TBSP sugar

--one piece of ginger (approx 2") peeled and sliced into thin strips

--1/2 yellow onion, large diced

--pinch of salt

--herb satchel: 2 whole cloves, 2 whole star anise, 1 cinnamon stick

For Pho Assembly:

--1/2 lb thin rice stick noodles, rinsed (found in Asian aisle)

--1/2 lb THINLY sliced beef loin

--1 cup Thai basil (if you can't find Thai basil, you can use regular. I've had to)

--1 cup bean sprouts

--1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

--1/2 yellow onion, sliced paper thin

--2 jalapenos, finely diced (if you like a lot of spice you can add more jalapenos)

--1 bunch green onion, sliced thin

--1 lime, cut into wedges

--Hoisin sauce (found in Asian aisle)

--Sriracha, optional

---

1. For your Pho broth: Add the beef bouillon and 1 qt of water to a 3 qt saucepan and bring to a low boil. Add the fish sauce, sugar, ginger, large diced onion and salt to the stock and lower heat to simmer. "Build" your herb satchel and add to the broth, simmer for at least 30 minutes, but no more than 45 minutes or the herbs will begin to break down and leave the cheesecloth.

2. After 30 minutes of simmering, taste the broth and make sure it's flavorful. Adjust salt if necessary and cook a few minutes longer if you don't feel the flavors have built yet.

3. Strain the aromatics (ginger, onion) and herb satchel from the broth, return broth to sauce pot and reserve for assembly.

4. If your beef is very thinly sliced you don't need to cook it; the heat from the broth will cook it. However, if you're someone that doesn't like rare-medium rare meat then you can cook your beef however you wish to. Just be sure you don't have large chunks of beef, that takes away from the broth; which is what the star is.

5. For the assembly: Bring broth back to a simmer. Bring a separate pot of water to a boil and quickly dip the rice noodles into the water until they are al denter, 10-20 seconds! This is important, overcooked noodles will be like glue. Strain the noodles of any excess water and separate into 4 deep bowls.

6. Each bowl can be assembled according to preference; ideally you would top the noodles with beeef, basil, bean sprouts, cilantro, jalapeno, green onion and onion; then ladle in enough broth to cover the ingredients. Garnish with lime wedge, Hoisin sauce and Sriracha, if preferred.

---