Tag Archives: Side Dishes

Basic White Beans

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beansCurrently cooking from Tasty by Roy Finamore

This is a simple side dish, albeit one that takes four hours of simmering on the stovetop. The beans (I used great northern beans) are cooked until tender with an onion, a couple of whole cloves, a couple of carrots, a stalk of celery, some rosemary and a bay leaf. If you have any parmesan rinds, you can also throw one of those in. Finamore doesn’t have you soak the beans first; he says the texture is better without soaking. I just liked that I didn’t have to plan too far in advance to make these.

As a side dish, these are, well, beans. Straightforward and simple. The cloves add an unusual flavor that I thought was okay, but Bryan didn’t really like. Finamore gets some mileage out of this recipe, using the beans to make a soup and a baked pasta dish. He also says the beans freeze really well.

Baked Beans

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baked_beansI’ve been thinking about making my own baked beans ever since I returned from a trip to Eastern Tennessee back in May. I had some decent barbecue while I was there, but it was a side of beans that really stands out in my mind. After a bit of internet browsing, I stumbled on a blogger who had tried Alton Brown’s recipe and really liked it.

So, after my marathon trip to Maryland that lasted almost 4 weeks, one of the first things I did when I got home was to make these beans. And they are fantastic! They aren’t too sweet and have a bit of heat from the jalapenos and cayenne pepper. I seeded the jalapenos, so if you are looking for more heat, leave the seeds and membranes in.

Really, the only problem I had was the amount of grease from the bacon and I was able to spoon most of it off. Like several other reviewers, I found that my beans were done after about 5 hours of baking.

Short Ribs Provencale and Mashed Turnips with Garlic

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short_ribsCurrently cooking from The Carefree Cook by Rick Rodgers.

Out of these two recipes that made up dinner, the short ribs provencale was, by far, the best. It is one of those dishes that takes a bit of prep work, but then spends the rest of the time slowly stewing away in the oven while you do other things. As an added bonus, it made the house smell really, really good.

The dish starts by browning ribs on the stovetop, then adding onions, celery and canned tomatoes and popping the whole thing in the oven until the meat is tender and falling off the bone. Midway through baking, baby carrots are added.

Rodgers suggests serving the ribs and sauce over mashed potatoes. I was feeling adventurous and decided to try his recipe for mashed turnips. Honestly, they were pretty disappointing. They were watery and the strong turnip flavor almost overwhelmed the ribs.

We had lots of leftover ribs and sauce, so the next night, for dinner, I used the leftovers as a sauce for pasta. This dish was better than the original and worth making just for leftovers!

Orzo with Parmesan and Peas

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orzoCurrently cooking from The Carefree Cook by Rick Rodgers.

I don’t have a very large repertoire of side dishes, and I haven’t cooked with orzo before, so I was excited to try this recipe.

If you aren’t familiar with orzo, it is a small, rice-shaped pasta that cooks up quickly and can be flavored in a hundred different ways. This dish was simple, very tasty. You boil the orzo until tender (about 9 minutes), drain it, then toss it with the parmesan, peas and a bit of butter.

Any vegetable could be used here, although you might need to precook it. I ended up adding a bit of the pasta water to keep the dish from getting too dry. This dish would go with just about anything and the leftovers are good reheated.