Coconut Creamed Greens from Whitney Miller's New Southern Table (& her book signing in Memphis today!)

Whitney Miller's second cookbook, New Southern Table (Nelson Books 2015) was released this month, and we are so happy for her! Justin took the photos for the book, which is filled with re-imagined Southern classics and so many creative dishes we can't wait to make during the holidays. Whitney won MasterChef in season one, and soon after her victory, she wrote her first cookbook, Modern Southern Hospitality: Simple Recipes with Southern Charm, and traveled all over the world cooking up a storm and speaking about topics close to her heart.

Whitney, a native of Southern Mississippi, is currently in Memphis for the holidays with her awesome husband Ryan, and she's speaking and signing books today, Saturday, Nov. 28, at 4 p.m. at Booksellers. So come on out with us and meet our friend, get a book signed, and take care of a little holiday shopping at the best bookstore in town this afternoon!

We wanted to share a recipe from the book with you -- one that's representative of Whitney's modern take on Southern food. We already had a bunch of frozen blanched greens from the farm, so this was the perfect thing to make as a side dish today for lunch. (Except it looked so good that we actually ended up having it with tofu scramble and stewed tomatoes for breakfast!)

Whitney Miller's Coconut
Creamed Greens

2 teaspoons coconut or olive oil
12 cups packed, chopped turnip greens or kale, ribs removed
2 (14-ounce) cans coconut milk
6 cloves roasted garlic
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
honey (optional)
1/2 cup unsweetened shaved coconut, roughly chopped

Place the oil in a large sauté pan and heat over medium heat. Add the greens and cook, stirring and tossing occasionally, until slightly wilted, 8 to 10 minutes. Add the coconut milk and roasted garlic. Stir until well mixed. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to medium-low, add the salt, and cook uncovered, for an additional 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Transfer the greens to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the greens are broken down into chunky small pieces, about 30 seconds. Do not puree. Stir in the honey to cut any remaining bitterness from the greens. Pour into a shallow 8-inch casserole dish. Season the creamed greens with additional salt to taste. Sprinkle the coconut in an even layer over the greens.

Preheat the broiler. Broil the greens until the coconut is golden brown. Serve warm. (Makes 4 servings.)

Recipe courtesy of  Whitney Miller and Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. 

Thanksgrilling on IHA's Inspired Home blog

We are excited to have been selected by the International Housewares Association to contribute to their Inspired Home blog. We've been compensated for our time, but our opinions are, of course, our own. 

Check out our new post on the IHA Inspired Home blog. Last week, we did a test run for an outdoor Thanksgiving celebration, and we overcame both the meager Sunday night flower selection in Memphis and an all-night downpour in order to take some photos and help the story come to fruition. We included 3 recipes that are Thanksgiving mainstays around here: Smoked Dates Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Pecans, Roast Beast, and Cast-Iron Brussels Sprouts and Apples. Good stuff! Hope you are excited about your plans for the holiday this week and also hope you're inspired by our low-key, non-crazed, and slightly contrary take on the whole deal. 

Vegetarian Thanksgiving: Chanterelle and Apricot Stuffed Acorn Squash with Miracle Mushroom Gravy

This is the perfect vegetarian main dish for Thanksgiving. Check out this great link: it was even featured HERE in The New York Times!

1 tablespoon unsalted butter 

1/2 cup finely diced celery

1 cup finely diced white onion (about 1 small)

1 vegetable bouillon cube 

1/4 cup white wine (like Pinot Grigio)

1 cup chanterelles, torn into strips

1/4 cup finely diced dried apricots 

Sea salt flakes and cracked black pepper (to taste)

2 cups brioche or good-quality white bread, torn into pieces

2 large eggs (beaten)

1 large acorn squash (or two small)

1 tablespoons olive oil 

Miracle Mushroom Gravy (to garnish; recipe follows)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. In a medium pan over medium heat, melt the butter and then sauté the celery, onion, and bouillon cube until lightly browned. Deglaze the pan with the wine, and reduce until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the chanterelles and apricots to the pan and warm through. Add salt and pepper. Chill the mushroom mixture thoroughly. In a large bowl, mix the bread, eggs, and the cooled vegetable mixture

Using a sharp kitchen knife (and plenty of caution), trim the stem end off of the squash and cut the squash into 3/4 inch rings. You should be able to get 4 rings out of a large acorn squash. Discard the stem end and bottom piece. Using a spoon, scrape the seeds and membrane out of the squash and discard. Lay the squash rings out on a large parchment-lined baking sheet drizzle slices of squash with olive oil and bake for 15 minutes.

Remove squash from the oven and press the stuffing into the center of each squash ring. Bake for an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until the stuffing has set and starting to brown. Add Miracle Mushroom Gravy to garnish. 

Miracle Mushroom Gravy

1 (10-ounce) package crimini (baby bella) mushrooms

1 tablespoon canola oil

1/2 cup diced shallot

1 teaspoon dried sage

1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

scant 1/8 teaspoon ground clove 

1 tablespoon soy sauce (like Bragg’s)

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole milk

smoked paprika (to garnish)

Slice mushrooms about 1/4-inch thick. You will blend them later, so there’s no need to be overly precise. In a medium frying pan over hight heat, sauté the mushrooms until browned. Add the shallot to the pan and continue to cook for another minute until the rawness has been cooked out of the shallot and it's translucent. 

Place the mushrooms and shallot ino the work bowl of your food processor and add the sage, red pepper flakes, clove powder, soy sauce, and maple syrup. In the same pan over medium heat, melt the butter and add the flour. Whisk mixture until fragrant (about five minutes.) Whisk in the whole milk and heat mixture until slightly thick. Add milk mixture to the food processor that contains the mushroom mixture. Pulse until mushrooms are finely chopped and well incorporated into the milk, but leave some chunkiness for a nice texture. Return the mixture to the pan and keep warm until ready to serve. If gets too thick, add some milk or stock to thin it out.

New TCV Kitchen Update #2

Thanks so much to Uhlhorn Brothers Construction Co. here in Memphis (see their Insta here) for everything that's happening these days to put our kitchen back together in record time. 

We figured it's time for another update as we head toward the last couple of 

weeks -- some new stuff has been done since Update #1.

Something great happened in the kitchen: the new cabinets were installed! We've never before chosen cabinets for any previous apartment or house and were kinda not so sure what the big deal was about them. Look at us, growing up and adulting -- we understand the cabinet thing a little better now. Guess they frame the whole kitchen and such.

At Stone City, we got to help design the cabinets. A lot of the kitchens in all the pretty pics everywhere right now are white. We went with the trend and chose a plain Shaker style. All of the lower cabinet drawers are going to be really helpful to have.

The drawer and cabinet pulls we were dreaming of were kind of hard to find. Cool Knobs and Pulls came through with better options and better prices than anyone else. Through this reno process, we've been finding out the actual names of things we like, and these are called bar pulls or appliance pulls, oversized and in antique bronze.

We went with the American cherry butcher block countertops that were in stock at Floor & Decor on Summer Avenue here in Memphis. We doubled up on the lengths of butcher block to make the top for the island/bar that'll house the sink and the dishwasher. We're left the tops unfinished and oiled them with Clark's -- the citrus oils they use smell amazing -- and will wax them with stuff from the same company for the next step.

Finish carpenter Josh Wyatt and his crew are amazing. We had cedar barn doors added to the bookcases that frame the fireplace. They also built us a bar/locker with 2 x 4s and chicken wire; that'll be in the next update once it's painted. The counter stools also arrived today.

The vent hood was the repurposed top of our old living room coffee table, ordered from a carpenter on Etsy a few years ago; we had it framed out and mounted to fit the space.

Tomorrow, there'll be lots of paint and wood stain on the rustic wood-wrapped beam, floor molding the same color as the walls, and a pickled ceiling. Maybe a sink and -- coming full circle -- a new dishwasher to replace the horrible broken one that necessitated this whole project in the first place.

So this week is gonna be fun! We may even get to start cooking in here very soon. What do you think should we make first?

Pumpkin Marshmallow Cereal Bars

We received free marshmallows from Chicago Vegan Foods in exchange for developing this recipe here on TCV. As always, all opinions expressed are our own. 

This one is by request from our nephew G3. At dinner at Swanky's one night, he said we should make   crispy treat-type cereal bars for him soon and launched into great detail about them and how we should put them together. When we asked, puzzled, how he knew so much, he shrugged and said he read a recipe off his cereal box every day, and it sounded like a good, easy thing to make.

Love that kid! We got him hooked on our crazy style of trying-to-be-a-little-bit-healthier desserts at a young age. He really is the best dessert tester there is.

So we'd been talking to the folks at Chicago Vegan Foods this summer about their Dandies vegan marshmallows, and they recently sent us many bags of regular and tiny vanilla marshmallows to use; they'd seen our s'mores bar and shout-out to them here and realized we were fans of their marshmallow work. Many vegetarians are careful to avoid foods with gelatin since it's made from fish, so vegan marshmallows are a great thing for us.

Well, they also sent us an unmarked bag of their new pumpkin-flavored mini-marshmallows set to make it to shelves this fall, and Pumpkin Marshmallow Cereal Bars sounded like the best thing to do. G3 gets a few dropped off at his house this week for sure. 

So on Sunday, we borrowed a kitchen from a family member who gave us free reign while she's out of town. Then we got back to our house and put waxed paper on top of a magazine as a makeshift cutting board. We washed our one knife under the water from the bathtub faucet so we could cut these squares all pretty. Counting the days until our new kitchen is complete -- maybe as soon as next week! 

Pumpkin Marshmallow Cereal Bars with Dandies Pumpkin Marshmallows

1 package (10 ounces) Dandies Pumpkin Marshmallows
4 tablespoons vegan margarine
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Kosher salt (to taste)
4 cups sprouted O's
3 tablespoons roasted and salted pumpkin seeds

Place butter, pumpkin pie spice, and salt into a saucepan and heat mixture on medium-low until it's melted and bubbling a bit. Add marshmallows, stirring constantly so they do not burn. Once the marshmallows become one smooth mass, add the cereal and take the sauce pan off of the heat while mixing. Butter the bottom and sides of a square or rectangular pan. Once fully combined, press the mixture into the pan; you can use wax paper to press down. Press the pumpkin seeds into the top. (We like to sprinkle an extra hit of salt and pumpkin spice on top as well.) Let them cool and then cut them into squares.

New TCV Kitchen Update #1

On July 3, we stepped down hard on a tile in the kitchen, and water came up to the surface. It has been rather interesting around here since we found out about that stealthy dishwasher leak in our midst. You can probably tell from the lack of new posts here that we haven't been cooking -- really cooking -- much. But we sure have been microwaving a lot! We might have even mastered that at this point. More about that soon maybe...

So we were overjoyed that our friends Walker and George at Uhlhorn Bros. Construction Company here in Memphis didn't hesitate to jump in right when we needed them this summer; they're helping us figure out the new space even though they're already crazy-busy doing gorgeous new builds all over Memphis these days. (Seriously, look at their Instagram. Check out their site -- we helped them create it and handled the photos. These two are just so talented. We'll keep our own future dreams involving their creativity under wraps, but you can probably guess.)

This is how our kitchen used to look for the past year or so. Overall, we really can't complain about the situation now, not one bit; it's all going to be okay pretty soon. However, we never would have remodeled our just-right-for-us old kitchen if we'd had a choice. So here's what has been happening at our house (and a glimpse of where we are today toward the end of the post).

The first step after seeing that water damage happened over the July 4th holiday weekend: we had to have industrial fans and a dehumidifier around on full deafening blast for days to try to salvage some stuff. That wasn't too successful, even though we could still cook a little bit if we wore earplugs and didn't feel moved to converse outside of exaggerated expressions and miming key things.

Very soon after our fruitless holiday weekend of attempted drying, we had to give in to the inevitable and have layers of tile, linoleum, and even subfloor removed. We decided to take out the old cabinets and the walls and ceiling as well. Why not? It was already a mess, and we wanted to tile under everything so this water-trapped-under-layers thing wouldn't happen again, to us or whoever might live here next.

We found some crazy things on the walls (and in them) during the demo stage!

We had to get the washer and dryer out of the kitchen for more space and made a closet into a laundry room. We cleaned out every other closet because everything had to shift to another place during the first stages of construction. For two people who purport to travel light in this world, we sure have a lot of stuff we never use.

We've been microwaving or grilling most of our meals for a while now. We know a lot about surprisingly good convenience foods (like some really good microwaveable Indian food in a pouch) and have tried a slew of new snacks and chips.

Everything was removed from the kitchen and the dining room to make way for the new floor. The wall between the kitchen and dining room is no longer there since now there will be an island with a sink, dishwasher, and a few low bar stools. Now folks can talk to us while we cook. 

Figuring out whether to do wood floors or tile like we had before was a tough choice, but we love what we decided on (basically through text message!) thanks to the the gracious help from Amanda at Acme Brick and Tile in Memphis. The floor just got finished last Friday, and it's charcoal gray wood-look ceramic tile, LEED-certified, and at a reasonable price by the foot. We got it grouted with the darkest shade and put down in a herringbone design for a little interest.

This week, we got a ceiling, which is very exciting. It was made with random-length 1" x 4" wood planks, which might soon be painted haint blue or pickled. Josh Wyatt, the trim carpenter who made Sweet Grass and Next Door look so good, did the finishes.


Something like this happening right in the middle of other unexpected family crises popping up really does put things into perspective. We all can have a lot changed or taken away in a short amount of time, and the only things to do are pray, stay positive, and hope that it'll all turn out all right. This unexpected project might have cured us of a bit of perfectionist tendencies as well.

One of the best moments during all of this was when our niece Amelia was visiting. The only decent place to sit was outside in the backyard, and she was tired of that and wanted to hang out inside. "It's so gross and junked in there!" we told her. "We don't want to look at it!" She said, "Look this way, and you won't see it. It's not that bad if you do that." Ten-year-olds are often the smartest ones in the room.

The next couple weeks' progress just might include cabinets, a wrapped beam, new plumbing, and oiled butcher block countertops. We'll keep you posted as we move closer to the finish line by October. Can't wait to cook again because we've missed that comforting and entertaining part of life a whole lot. So what shall we make first?

Demystifying the Dehydrator

We are excited to have been selected by the International Housewares Association to contribute to their Inspired Home blog. We have been compensated for our time, but our opinions are, of course, our own.

Most methods of preserving in-season food from your garden or your local farmers market are super time-intensive and take a fair amount of know-how in order to make sure everything will be good when you go to use it later in the year. Dehydrating, however, is about as simple as you could possibly imagine. Slice, place on a tray, and set a timer to capture a bit of that summer sweetness that you can access all year long.

We wrote a story for the IHA Inspired Home blog called "A Summer Without End: Saving the Season with Your Dehydrator"; it outlines four simple recipes for preserving food. You'll learn simple tricks for saving tomatoes, herbs, figs, and peas along with suggestions for using each ingredient in a recipe.

Click HERE for the full story.

10 'til 10 at Majestic Grille: Vegetarian Dinner Recap

We were happy to be invited to attend this amazing 5-course meal last week on Tuesday evening at The Majestic Grille in downtown Memphis. After chatting with Chef Patrick Reilly beforehand about his ideas and learning more in this interview, we knew it was going to be a great experience for all involved. We are so grateful that chefs bring their culinary chops and creativity together to put these type of dinners on in our city. It's even better when they have a vegetarian option, or like this one, go completely vegetarian...from nose to tail.

The evening started with passed appetizers including tomato bruschetta, corn and jalapeño hushpuppies, apple jelly and goat cheese rangoon, and berbere-spiced okra. We had the honor of helping to brainstorm with chef, and two of those dishes are his amazing riffs on recipes we love.

The first seated course was sweet potato gnocchi with roasted shiitake mushrooms and grilled artichokes. That list of ingredients alone had us floored. Chef Reilly made a killer stock that brought everything together so beautifully. I'm going to try that idea in my own kitchen really soon.

The second course was a simple salad with some really special components. The locally-sourced, jewel-hued baby lettuce featured a rich avocado dressing. It was topped with house-made pickled carrots, fresh radish, and thinly-sliced cucumber.

The third course was right up our alley these days. It was all roasted vegetables, beans, and wilted greens. It's how we eat at home, so we loved it. It's our kind of comfort food and led perfectly into dessert, which was a summer berry crumble with custard that was served on the side in gravy boats.

Just goes to show yet again that Memphis isn't only about BBQ, y'all. We're looking forward to what's coming next for vegetarians around here.

Completing Your Outdoor Space

We are excited to have been selected by the International Housewares Association to contribute to their Inspired Home blog. We have been compensated for our time, but our opinions are, of course, our own.

So a couple of years ago, we designed and built a backyard area that we love, and this week, we got to do this fun story for IHA's Inspired Home blog. The deal for the update was lights everywhere, feather-print everything, and a better entryway than just a forlorn table all alone. We love the results!

Blogging can be a trip, though, for things are rarely what they appear. We set it all up on a sweltering Sunday evening all the while wishing we were really having a party that night. Our cute new stuff sure made the scene look great, and we were pining to share it with others. But 90+ temps after dark may be pushing it when it comes to a relaxing evening for all. One day soon, it'll happen, and we'll be ready.

The second reason blogging is a funny thing is that we're going ahead with a forced renovation (okay, complete gutting) of our original kitchen inside due to a dishwasher leak, a little water wreaking havoc as it can do. But it's hard to undersell how lovely was it to get away from the craziness (all closets emptied, stuff in places that makes no sense for said stuff to be stored, a ripped-out floor, complete chaos so widespread that we can only roll with it and make fun of it) for a night.

It was good just to focus on making one thing that we already love better. Now we're preparing for what's got to be a much calmer and less eventful fall. We'll get creative and see what we can cook in the meantime! We'll let you know how it goes…

Honey Balsamic Strawberries & Halo Top Ice Cream

We requested and received coupons for free pints of ice cream from Halo Top in exchange for writing a review here on TCV. As always, all opinions expressed are our own. 

We tried a pint of vanilla bean Halo Top ice cream last week, and now we're loving all that they do. Sometimes we'll buy 'healthier' ice cream and find it's only good for being mixed in a milkshake because the texture's off or the flavor's weird. Not so with this new stuff. It's got protein, fiber, fewer calories per pint than most, less sugar, and it tastes like real ice cream. We've tried vanilla, strawberry, lemon cake, and chocolate so far since those are available in Memphis (all 4 can be found at Whole Foods Poplar in Memphis; we also spotted vanilla and chocolate at Kroger). Dying to try the other flavors soon!

We have some ideas about what you can do with each flavor, but the first topping we made was some quick, marinated Honey-Balsamic Strawberries and paired them with scoops of strawberry Halo Top. These ingredients might make an awesome milkshake, too!


Honey-Balsamic Strawberries

1 pint strawberries
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
pinch of sea salt

Cut berries into fourths and set aside. Whisk the vinegar, honey, and salt. Pour mixture over berries and allow them to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Spoon mixture over strawberry ice cream.

5 Quick Questions with Chef Patrick Reilly of The Majestic Grille

Chef Patrick Reilly, originally from Ireland, and his wife Deni are hosting a series of 10 themed dinners, one for each year they've served delicious food at The Majestic Grille in downtown Memphis. We were excited to learn that Chef Reilly was planning an all-vegetarian feast as one of the "Ten 'Til Ten" dinners. 

The menu he is working up sounds amazing. It'll be a salute to the South's seasonal produce with dishes like his amazing Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Roasted Shiitake Mushrooms and Artichokes and another favorite of ours, Ratatouille with White Bean and Tomato Ragout. There'll be several passed appetizers like Berbere-Spiced Okra and also Apple Jelly and Goat Cheese Rangoons. Dessert will be a Cherry-and-Apple Crumble with Custard. There will be five courses in all, each paired with wines that complement each dish. 

Seating for Majestic Grille's Summer's Bounty dinner is limited, and we just know it will sell out. So get your tickets today. We'll be there for sure! 

So you can get to know one of Memphis's best chefs a little better, we asked Patrick Five Quick Questions:

1. TCV: What are some of your earliest food memories?

PR: "My father was an avid gardener, and I remember going down to pick lettuce or parsley for dinner. We had (and my sister still has) rhubarb plants that we dug up and brought with us when we moved house when I was like seven. There is nothing in the world like first spring rhubarb tart. The first dish I ever made was oatmeal cookies. I was eight years old." 

2. TCV: Being a chef seems both difficult and rewarding. Tell us about your decision to feed people for a living.

PR: "I have wanted to be a chef since I was a child. I have no idea why but it appealed to me; I seemed to have a knack for it. I love food, and I love the reaction I get from people when they taste something that they really enjoy."

3. TCV: Why do an all-vegetable dinner as a part of your '10 for 10' dinner series? Why limit yourself like that? ;)

PR: "I wouldn’t call it limiting in the least! In the 80’s, I worked under Chef Paul Gayler at Inigo Jones Restaurant in London. He was a pioneer of vegetarian cooking in French haute cuisine. We had a ten-course vegetable tasting menu available each night, and in the spring, we had an entire menu devoted to asparagus. These dinners are a way for me to cook different styles and cuisines which I would otherwise not get a chance to do."


4. TCV: What’s the secret to longevity in the restaurant business? It must have something to do with family, right?

PR: "I don’t know if there is a secret. We just try to provide the best and most consistent experience we can. We love what we do. There is no doubt in my mind that our staff is the biggest factor in our success. We have an amazing team of people here,  some of them since the day we opened. And we just make it our priority to do right by them, and that just seems to work out best for everybody."

5. TCV: What is the one dish that you make that connects your Irish heritage with your Southern American sensibility?

PR: "Meat was considered a luxury and was used almost as a seasoning; while here, the common crops were rice, beans, and corn, among others, in Ireland, it was potatoes, roots, and vegetables like kale and cabbage. So on one hand, you have rice and beans with maybe a ham hock thrown in for flavor, and on the other, you get 'colcannon' which is mashed potatoes with onions, kale, leeks, or cabbage -- or a combination -- and a fistful of chopped bacon or ham."

Using Up All Those Cucumbers

This time of year, piles upon piles of them stare you down and seemingly multiply like Gremlins when you turn your back for a second. Today we're all about cucumbers, and we have a few ideas about how to make an abundance of cukes a more appealing situation this summer.

We have a bunch from our family's Concord Farms sitting on the counter this morning, and we're going to go with quick pickles and maple cucumber lemonade! Check out today's WKNO radio interview with and article for more cucumber dishes you can check off your list this season. Jennifer Chandler, cookbook author and host of The Weekly Dish, was kind enough to ask for our favorite cucumber recipes this week.


(And if you've never made summer salad, you have to try our version!)

Thank you, Memphis!

We were overjoyed to see the response to our pop-up restaurant at Iris Etc. today. We had to close up early at 4:00 after running out of most of the dishes by 3:00. Thank you to all who supported us today! We will be working on a recap post with recipes for next week.

TCV + Iris Etc. Pop-Up: The Prep & Set-Up

Now on to what you can expect on Saturday! Our first pop-up restaurant on 7.11.15 at Iris Etc. (62 S. Cooper in midtown Memphis) is cash only and happens from 11 a.m. until we run out of food. See the menu HERE; everything is $5 so that it's easy to try a bunch of stuff. We hope you can stop by and thought we'd give you some background about the event and let you know what to expect.

Here goes…

When it comes to planning an event, we think about the food first and then start picturing the atmosphere and the way things are going to work. When we throw a party at home, we try to think through what we want the experience to be like for our guests. So for this Saturday's TCV pop-up restaurant, we want the vibe to match the menu: summery, casual, and lighthearted. We lucked out because Iris Etc. is quite a beautiful canvas. We're dreaming of black-and-white gingham, bright flowers, and an inside-outside party set-up. We might even tote our record player to the space and play some old-school country and Memphis classics for you.

Today we wanted to give you a peek at the place so you can look forward to checking it out and enjoying some TCV summer favorites this Saturday. You're going to grab a sushi-style menu, check off what you'd like to order, hand your menu back to the girl (most likely Amy!) behind the desk up front, and hang out with a drink while your food is put together, and then your name is called and your order is handed to you.

We'll have a few seats and tables here and there, but this isn't your usual sit down, order, and converse politely at the table for hours type of thing; it's more like a food truck experience. You get to walk around and mingle and are not stuck in one spot. You decide what works for you -- pick up a few items and go do all your Saturday stuff or stick around for a while catching up with friends and ordering a couple of items here and there at your leisure. We've hosted planned-out dinners with courses and structure and the like, and this is designed to be the total opposite of that. The very reasonable prices -- everything's priced at $5 -- reflect the informality because we want you to be able to try lots of stuff.

So excited to see you on Saturday and share some of our favorite dishes with you. This is another first for us, and it's going to be great to see you right there with us as we give our pop-up all we've got!

Menu for the Chubby Veg + Iris Etc. Pop-Up this Saturday, 7.11.15 at Iris Etc.

Tomato and Pimento Cheese Pie

Summer tomatoes served with lemon-zest-and-thyme pimento cheese and topped with puff pastry

Carrot Corn Dog
Organic carrot encased in our jalapeño and smoked cheddar cornbread, our cookbook’s cover star, and served with Creole mustard sauce

Cabbage Kimchi Dumplings (V)
That kimchi we always make stuffed into wonton wrappers and served with peanuts and white soy sauce

Smoked Shiitake Mushroom Tamale (V)
One of our most-requested dishes made from local corn and mushrooms and topped with charred corn salsa. This one’ll likely surprise the most staunch tamale purist...

Andouille Eggplant Po Boy + Tabasco Pickles
French bread with grilled, spiced Japanese eggplant “sausage” and house-made pickles from cucumbers from our family farm, Concord Farms; dressed with lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, and mustard (V if you ask for it minus the mayo) 

Smoked Fig Jam with a Waffle Iron Grilled Cheese
Our vegetarian take on smoky bacon and onion jam: whole wheat with cheddar and mozzarella

Baked Cauliflower Wings with Black-and-Blue Dressing
Local cauliflower florets tossed in Crazy Good Hot Sauce and served with carrot sticks, celery, and black pepper and blue cheese dressing (V if you ask for it minus the dressing)

Stuffed Squash Blossom and Creole Squash
Tempura-fried squash blossom stuffed with roasted carrot puree and soft cheese served atop spicy squash and zucchini from our family farm, Concord Farms

Grilled Watermelon Salad with Goat Cheese, Jewel Tomatoes, and Honey-Lime Vinaigrette
Watermelon changes from sweet to savory on the grill; we highlight this amazing transformation with our spicy, salty take on this Southern favorite

Banana Ice Cream Sandwich with Oatmeal Ginger ‘Power’ cookies (V)
A healthified ice cream sandwich with raisins, cranberries, walnuts, and coconut; vegan, free of refined sugar, and 101% amazing

Roasted Peach Shortcake with Lavender Cream
Our beloved gluten-free almond biscuits served with the season’s best fruit and herbaceous whipped cream

Rosemary Lemonade With Ripe Stone Fruit (V)
Lemons and herbs from our garden sweetened with maple syrup and infused with the flavors of summer

(V)=vegan

Flower Crown Pre-Orders for Saturday's TCV + Iris Etc. Pop-Up Restaurant

This morning through Friday at 10 a.m., you may pre-order your very own *BEAUTIFUL CROWN* to be picked up at the TCV / Iris Etc. Pop-Up Restaurant on Saturday! (See more about the event HERE and HERE.) Grown-up and children's crowns will be made ahead by Jill Forrester of Whitton Farms, and pre-ordering (from right now until 10 a.m. on Friday) at our Square link below guarantees your crown will be ready for you on Saturday.

https://squareup.com/market/thechubbyvegetarian

Grown-up flower crown: $15

Child's flower crown: $10

Child's greenery crown: $7

(Know that the pop-up event is cash only, but we're thrilled to be able to offer a few things ahead of time on our Square site! We also have signed, personalized books available for pre-order at the same link above.)

The TCV + Iris Etc. Pop-Up Restaurant this Saturday, July 11!

Come enjoy our favorite summertime TCV recipes at Iris Etc. on Overton Square in Midtown this Saturday for lunch or dinner! It's going to be casual, fun, and a la carte, and you don't need a reservation. Check out more details HERE (including some of the featured vegetarian dishes) and stop by 62 South Cooper from 11-8. Keep up with us this week as we share how it's going along with a surprise or two along the way. Hope to see you there!

A Backyard Fire Pit Cookout: Carrot Dogs with Slaw + A S'mores Bar for IHA's Inspired Home Blog

We are excited to have been selected by the International Housewares Association to contribute to their Inspired Home blog. We've been compensated for our time, but our opinions are, of course, our own. 

We'd NEVER before cooked over a backyard fire pit, so we gave it a shot and ended up making some great food this past Sunday evening! Thanks to the International Housewares Association, we had a few great new tools to make it all go smoothly. The carrot dogs we roasted with our guest turned out awesome; also, it's been on our minds for a while now to put together a make-your-own-s'mores bar, so we finally did it!

Go check out the IHA Inspired Home blog for the full story and see what you can do with some open-flame cooking this Fourth of July weekend! Have a beautiful holiday!

5 Quick Questions for Lindsey Lettvin of Triple L Bakery

(Update, 7.4.2015: So, sallyc, you are the winner of a dozen free cookies to be shipped to you since random.org selected comment #4 on this post! Just comment below using the same account as you did previously and tell us your choice of cookies and the address where you would like them shipped; of course, we will not post the comment. Thanks to all who entered -- and be sure to check out the new cookies being added weekly to Lindsey's Etsy site.)

Lindsey Lettvin, our sister / sister-in-law, recently brought her baking company, Triple L Bakery, to Etsy. Lindsey lives in Boulder, Colorado, and this isn't the first time we've featured her cooking on TCV. Her Paleo Energy Snacks are unbelievable. She makes us all jam thumbprint butter cookies for the holidays and surprised all the dads with sugar cookies this past Father's Day.

She started out as a baker at one of her first jobs during college, and now she's circling back to her love of the craft. Here's more about Linnie and her work below; please contact her via Etsy if you need cookies for an upcoming celebration, an awesome gift, or to chat with her about placing a special order request. We have a lot of respect for her skills in the kitchen and think you're really going to enjoy checking out what she's working on these days. 

Giveaway alert! We've got a way for you to put your name in the hat for your choice of a dozen free cookies! Check the end of this post to see how to enter in the drawing on Friday, 7/3/15.* 

5 Quick Questions for Lindsey Lettvin of Triple L Bakery

1. The Chubby Vegetarian: You're vegetarian now, right? How did that come to be?

Lindsey Lettvin: Yes! We were Paleo for more than 2 years, and my husband, Moishe, has been wanting to make the veggie switch for a while. We decided, as a family, to become vegetarian three months ago and have not looked back. I don't miss meat one bit. I was vegetarian in high school and vegan for a couple of years then, too, so cooking that way comes naturally to me. 

2. TCV: Let's reminisce about your start at Blue Heron Bakery in Olympia, Washington. How did you start working there, and what was it like?

LL: Blue Heron holds a special place in my heart. And they just expanded and moved locations to a beautiful space, so yay for them! I landed the job because at the time, my roommate knew a woman named May who worked there, and they needed help. They trusted that I would learn the ropes and hired me. It was my first professional bakery job, and it was just a lovely group of eccentric people who shared the joy of baking together. We were like a little family. I was the cookie baker, along with a few others, and my job was to make hundreds of cookies a day, like 8 different varieties. Some of my favorites are the Turbo cookie, which is loaded with eggs and turbinado sugar and about as big as one's head, no kidding! It is heavenly. And we did these awesome Fudge Bars and Date Bars with an oat crumble on top -- they still make them! -- that I had to sample every day. Oh, and Evan makes the best Orange and Chocolate Biscotti I have ever eaten.

3. TCV: So, why cookies? 

LL: Because who doesn't like to indulge in them every now and again?! Seriously, I baked in college and that was one of the most satisfying jobs I have ever had. I'm trying to recreate that now and bake because I am passionate about it, and it is something I would be doing anyway, whether for fun or for a job. I love how cooking and baking zone me out; I get into the flow and am present and just thinking about what I am doing at that moment. It is my peace.

4. TCV: What are some of the must-have ingredients for your cookies?

LL: Of course, butter and sugar. I only use organic eggs and pure vanilla extract. I am working on more recipes, so if I'm using gluten-free flours, I am picky about which ones work well. I have found that I like the Pamela's brand the best for texture and taste. And I recently rolled out a Gluten-Free Oatmeal Raisin Cookie, which features organic raisins and organic oats. So, for me, when it doesn't break the bank, I like to use organic.

5. TCV: Will you do custom orders for different occasions or needs, and what about special dietary considerations? 

LL: Yes to custom orders -- since cookies have a shorter shelf life, I am basically doing a custom order every order I get. That is to say, when I get an order, I don't have it sitting and ready to go. So, if you have a certain design idea or color scheme (or want only gluten-free or organic ingredients), I can do it. I am flexible and really just want to give my customers what they want, so tweaking colors, shapes, ingredients is easy for me because I am the only employee, and it is a small business. I also can do nut-free orders, gluten-free, and vegan versions if requested. 

Thanks so much, Amy and Justin, for having me on TCV!

*Leave a comment at the end of the post and tell us your favorite cookie to make or eat. On Friday, 7/3/15, we'll choose one commenter at random to receive your choice of a dozen Triple L Bakery cookies shipped to you next week, and we'll update this post to reveal who won. (We moderate comments, so don't worry if your comment is not posted right away -- it'll be up very soon!)

Part Two of Our Recipe Contest Winners: Curried Corn by Raihana's Cuisines

We were instantly transported halfway around the globe by the aroma of toasted mustard seeds and the smell of fresh curry leaves. Again, we found ourselves using unfamiliar ingredients that took a little searching to find, but without them, the recipe just wouldn't be the same. As a bonus, we got to expand our kitchen vocabulary thanks to Raihana of Raihana's Cuisines; she's the co-winner of our first-ever recipe contest along with Lys Green and her Chana Masala. 

Raihana's Curried Corn recipe calls for curry leaves, not a common sight in our kitchen, but we'll be picking them up anytime we see them now. They are the leaves of the curry tree which, confusingly enough, has nothing at all to do with the spice powder mixture. They are extremely fragrant, and any fan of authentic Indian cuisine will pick up on the flavor immediately. "I love curry leaves!" Raihana said when explaining this recipe on her site. "They give food a really amazing taste."

We made this dish for one big Indian feast the other night, and it was so good. Raihana suggests taking her curried corn dish to a potluck. We second that -- especially now since the corn here in the South is already pretty good and sweet this season. One commenter suggested trying it as a dip, so we scooped up some leftovers with our favorite white bean tortilla chips for a little snack the next day and loved it. Think about picking up a few ears at the farmers market in your town this week or grab the non-GMO corn available at Whole Foods and give this amazing recipe a place at your table.

Curried Corn by Raihana's Cuisines

2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
8-9 curry leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Kosher salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon amchur/amchoor powder (mango powder)
1 teaspoon lemon pepper
3 cups corn
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (optional)
1/2 lime, juiced
2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

Heat the olive oil and add the mustard seeds; once they pop, add the curry leaves and tomato paste. Let the mixture cook until it becomes fragrant and darker in color. Next, go ahead and add the salt, mango powder, lemon pepper, and corn. Mix it well to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated. Add the dried parsley flakes for a little color. (Make sure not to cook the corn too much; you want it to be crispy. Lastly, drizzle on the lime juice and add salt and fresh cilantro on top. (Serves 4-6.)