Tag Archives: vegetables

Cook like a New Orleans native, Food, Recipes

How to make yellow squash casserole (recipe)

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I love squash and enjoyed growing it in my garden for years. For now, because I’m working away from my garden, I get mine at the local farmers’ market (locations in New Orleans).

This recipe is inspired by one of my and my son’s heroes, Sidna Brower Mitchell, who is well known as a great cook and food writer but perhaps even more importantly as the unjustly maligned student editor of The Daily Mississippian on the Ole Miss campus when it was forceably integrated in 1961.

My recipe is an adaptation of hers, with a few extra ingredients. It’s great in the summer when the produce is bountiful. It’s also an easy veggie side dish throughout the year.

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Cook like a New Orleans native, Food, New Orleans, Recipes

How to make giardiniera (pickled vegetables) – recipe

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When I was a kid, our neighbor, Wilbur Pickett, made hot sauce on an open fire on the vacant elementary school-yard between our McComb, Miss., houses.

Patsy R. Brumfield The Southfacin' Cook

Patsy R. Brumfield
The Southfacin’ Cook

I didn’t think too much about why until years later when I made my first batch of garlicky dill pickles from garden cucumbers – and stunk up my house without the possibility of parole.

Luckily, I’d acquired a small, bottle-gas burner for football tailgating. From then on, I cooked my pickling juice out on the porch to avoid the penetrating aroma. It’s mighty good in the jar, but it’s a bit something to take into your nose when it’s steaming hot. It also infuses itself into drywall (just my opinion – not a scientific fact).

Now I know why Wilbur’s wife, Gladys, sent him to the school yard for his vinegary concoction.

This recipe for giardiniera mimics those fancy, expensive pickled veggies in the grocery but is easy to make at home. It makes a pretty gift for friends, too. Try it.

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Cook like a New Orleans native, Food, New Orleans, Recipes

How to make ratatouille

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Patsy R. BrumfieldThe Southfacin' Cook

Patsy R. Brumfield
The Southfacin’ Cook

RATATOUILLE (pronounced RAT-tuh-TOO-ee)

For you Gen Xers or Yers, this is not a recipe about a rat, who directs a clueless chef in a French restaurant. Actually, I didn’t even see that movie, but I’ve seen trailers.

Ratatouille is a veggie melange or medley that makes a great side for almost any main dish. It also keeps well in the fridge to microwave for lunch or a snack.

I like it because it’s tasty and fun to make. This approach comes from “Ten Dollar Dinners” cook Melissa D’Arabian, who married a Frenchman and advises it’s made in a special order required by her mother-in-law: Remember EZPOT.

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