Category Archives: Side dishes

I’ve been making yogurt on and off for many years. Sure, it’s easier to buy it, but it’s significantly less expensive to make it yourself. And it’s easy.

Equipment:
1 gallon insulated drink container
1 large pan
thermometer is helpful, but not crucial

Ingredients:
1 gallon whole milk
1 cup live yogurt (plain yogurt, yeah?)

Method:
Heat the milk gently until it reaches scald temperature, around 180F, stirring often. You don’t want to burn it… The milk will start to form a skin on the surface. This step alters (or “denatures”) the proteins in milk to make better yogurt. Cool the milk to about 100-110F. A sink full of ice helps here, but simply waiting works too. The milk will feel quite warm on your wrist – a little hotter than you’d give to a baby. Mix in the yogurt, and put it all into the insulated container and leave overnight.

You now have a gallon of yogurt.

To make Greek yogurt out of this, line a colander with a fine clean cloth (i.e. pillowcase fabric) and pour the yogurt into it. I pull the fabric corners up to form a bag, and let the whey drain out over the sink over several hours. Removing some of the whey thickens the yogurt and removes a lot of the sour taste to which a lot of people object.

I saw an episode of The French Chef with Julia Child recently, and she divulged a recipe for this dish. I don’t know what she called it, but Peggy actually liked it (surprise!), so that’s what we named it.

I don’t measure so much for this dish. I scale it according to the number of people, and season to taste. That being said, here’s a “recipe” for two people. That’s what I cook any more, so that’s the scale of my recipes.

1 zucchini
1 T butter
1 T chopped onion
1 T flour
2 T cream
Salt & Pepper to taste
1/8 t nutmeg

Grate the zucchini. Lightly salt the zucchini (use great discretion) and drain in a colander. Reserve the liquid.

Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the drained zucchini and onion, and saute.

When the zucchini is nearly done, mix in the flour and reserved liquid, add the cream and nutmeg, and complete seasoning with pepper and maybe just a bit more salt.

Makes ~ 1.5 cups, serves 2 generously

We usually make a traditional recipe (Betty Crocker’s was the base recipe) scalloped potatoes, but I had an odd thought the other night and thought since Peg wasn’t home to pooh-pooh the idea, I went with it, and I was pleased with the results – to the extent that this is going to be my lunch for the coming week.

Heat your oven to 350F

2 # peeled potatoes, sliced thinly (1/8″ is ideal, but if you’re knife challenged, anything smaller than 1/4″ is OK. (Hint – take two slices off one side of the potato, then rest it on the flat side for easier slicing. Nobody cares how they look.
1 small onion, diced
1 cup cubed ham, sliced ham, chopped ham, whatever
2 C frozen kernel corn
3 C milk
4 T butter (divided 3 T & 1 T)
4 T flour
salt & pepper to taste

Slice the potatoes as thinly as you can
Dice or slice the ham into smaller-than-bite-size pieces
Dice the onion quite finely

Grease an 9×13 casserole with some of the 1 T butter
In a heavy skillet, melt the butter, add the onion, and saute until tender.
Add the flour and mix thoroughly, then cook the flour mixture (called a roux) for two minutes over medium heat.
Using a whisk, stir in the milk, continuing to stir completely until the mixture (now a Bechamel sauce) comes to a boil for two minutes and thickens. Take the sauce off of the heat.

Pour a thin layer of sauce into the casserole. Layer half of the potatoes in the casserole, and then layer half the ham and half the corn. Evenly distribute half of the sauce, then layer more potatoes, ham, corn, and sauce.

Dot with butter. Cover with foil, bake for 40 minutes. Uncover, bake for another 60-70 minutes until the potatoes are tender but not mushy.

Serve alone, or as a side for ham or anything else. Excellent as a hot picnic dish. Reheats well in the microwave, arguably with more flavor.

This recipe comes from Kenda, Peg’s best friend (probably mine, too), and it gets rave reviews everywhere. We normally make a double batch. Peg has some notes. I have some footnotes.

8oz pkg elbow macaroni, cooked until still firm
12oz. can evaporated milk [1]
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, slightly beaten
4 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese, divided 3c/1c
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. white pepper [2]
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese grated

In the slow cooker, combine lightly cooked macaroni, evaporated milk, whole milk, melted butter, eggs, 3 cups cheddar cheese, salt and pepper.
Top with remaining cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese. [3]
Cover. Cook on low 3 hours. Watch the pot – one pot’s “low” can burn
the outside and make it like rubber.[4]

Peg’s Note:

I doubled this recipe when I made it to take to a party.
It really doesn’t need the butter. It makes a very rich mac & cheese dish without the butter in it!!

John’s Note:
I once put 1/2tsp of ground mustard into a double batch, but there was no discernible difference. I was hoping for just a little more “zing”, thinking it would play off of the ham,  but didn’t go strong enough.

[1] Original recipe called for 13oz. Evaporated milk comes in 12 oz cans. Don’t kill yourself over detail if it’s not baking.
[2] Really, does anybody still have white pepper? Black pepper works just fine.
[3] Peg normally mixes the Parmesan in with the main ingredients.
[4] Ask John how he knows.

It reheats well in the microwave, too.!

I don’t really know what to call this. I accidentally made it one year and it turned out pretty good, so I continue to make it on occasion. Sometimes Peggy even requests it. And it’s vegetables!

It should be no surprise that the fresher the vegetables, the better the taste. #1 – your garden #2 – the farm stand #3 – the grocery store

2 T vegetable or olive oil
1 onion, rough chop
1 t – 1T chopped garlic
2 zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced
2 yellow summer squash, halved lengthwise and sliced
3 large garden tomatoes. roughly cubed (or a 28-oz can of whole tomatoes, hand crushed)

Heat the oil and add the onions. Cook until tender, and add the garlic.
Cook until the onions are caramelized, just starting to brown,
Add the squash, and let it saute for a bit.
Add the tomatoes, lower the heat, and let it simmer for 20 minutes or so.

A little salt, a grind or two of fresh pepper, voila!

I often serve this over rice for a hearty side dish. Start the rice right after you add the tomatoes, everything is done at the same time.

I’m too lazy to make rice the right way. I use medium grain rice most of the time. And it’s usually Goya rice if you can find it in your area.

2 C water
1 C rice
pinch of salt

Heat the water until boiling (or almost boiling if you’re in a rush like I normally am)
Stir in the rice and add the salt.
Reduce to very low heat and cover.
20 minutes later you have rice.