Roasted edamame: Protein Zap in a Snap

We try to eat high protein as much as possible.  We are not those Atkins, Keto, or any other extremists, but we like lots of protein.  In the constant search for snacks and grab-n-go foods, I tried roasted edamame this week.  

For those of you who don't know, edamame are soybeans.  You can buy them frozen, either shelled or still in the pod.  You see the pods often served in Japanese restaurants as an appetizer.  The shelled ones are great in salads, or just warmed and eaten like butter beans.  But, roasting them transforms them into a nutty, crunchy snack.  Kind of like high protein popcorn. And, it's really simple.

Thaw the edamame and dry them well.  Then, toss with some olive oil, Kosher salt and pepper.  Spread them out on a pan and roast at 375.  I stirred them around every 10 minutes for about a half hour, but just keep going until they look good and roasty to you.  The longer they are in the oven, the crunchier they get.  That's it. Enjoy!

Thawed and patted dry with paper towels

Simply edamame, olive oil, salt & pepper

About a Tablespoon or so

Spread out; stir every 10 minutes

 

Crunchy, nutty, crispy; don't forget to add some salt while they are still hot

Thanksgiving Tapas

Holidays.  Some people look forward to them all year, some dread them.  Some holiday gatherings go off without a hitch, some not.  Sometimes you have everyone together, sometimes not.  Sometimes people are missing. Sometimes you wish they were (ha ha.  But we all know it's true!)

When it comes to family gatherings, I have it easier than Neil.  My parents are here, my sister is 2 1/2 hours away, my aunt is 1 1/2 hours away and my uncle is about 45 minutes away.  We do have Neil's dad and Glenda (his long-time sweetie who I consider my mother-in-law) here in Columbia, but his brother is in Minnesota, and his younger brother and sister are in Florida.  Sadly, Neil's mom, Mimi, died about 2 weeks after we were engaged and his step-dad died just a few years ago.  

I think we all grow up with that "cool" aunt, uncle or cousin that is special and influential in our lives.  Well, that's where Aunt Kathy comes in!  Kathy is Mimi's younger sister and is the 2nd family member (after Mimi) that I was ever introduced to.  She is Neil's "Cool Aunt Kathy."  

Neil & his cool Aunt Kathy

Even before we met, I heard many stories about her and it was clear that she made a huge difference in Neil's life.  I couldn't wait to meet her.  (That was 1997.)  We've had many opportunities to spend time together since that initial meeting, but since the Wunderkind landed on Planet Earth, none.  So, this Thanksgiving, it was off to Aunt Kathy's we went!

Me and Marisa

The synopsis is this:  Neil and I both were ecstatic to spend time with Kathy and her daughter (Neil's cousin, Marisa) but even more to introduce them to Viv.  We are so proud of her, as you can imagine, but just to share more family with her was priceless.  She's only 5, but she was so interested and intrigued about learning more about her family and hearing the stories and getting to know more on her own.  It was truly a great holiday on so many levels.  

Okay, so you're wondering if I'm ever going to talk about food, right? Well, yes, yes I am.  We did the usual suspects for T-Day.  Neil was turkey maestro, I made Aunt Jennie's sweet potatoes, Marisa made green bean casserole and Kathy introduced me and Viv to Nana's "stewed corn."  It was a wonderful feast...so much so it sent Neil to an early slumber!  But my favorite part was the next day.


We indulged in leftovers for lunch but when evening rolled around, we went my favorite route of all time...SNACKS!  I'm not talking about Bugles and french onion dip.  No, no.  Real snackin' Akre style!  Aunt Kathy grilled the most amazing sweet peppers, apple/chicken sausages, smoked venison sausage, asparagus and scallions.  We dipped into spicy hummus, speared black pepper/white cheddar with picks and scooped up hunks of beautiful blue cheese.  

This is the smoked venison sausage

Chicken/apple sausage & beautiful pepper in background

Check the color...and these peppers were actually sweet!

Jalapenos, spicy hummus & blue cheese...oh my!

Of course, we had all of this accompanied by the appropriate wines, mixed concoctions and Viv's special "kid cocktails" which were various fruit juices with club soda in fancy glasses.  

Uh huh...I'm in Kindergarten now. I deserve a "kid cocktail"

Who said club soda was boring?

 


Our trip was fantastic for so many reasons.  Neil was able to show off Gainesville and some of its attractions and places of memory to his little one. We had a great Thanksgiving feast.  But most of all, we spent several days with family who we don't get to see often enough, teach our baby about more of her heritage and enjoy each other's company.  I hope your holiday was as fulfilling and rich as ours.  Time and family are both so precious.

Two beautiful ladies!

So happy to see these girls for Thanksgiving!

Me and Aunt Kathy

My little family unit

Snacking with Soul

Send me to the grocery store and I'm armed with a specific list, a fistful of coupons and a pit bull will to pay as little as possible.  Send Neil, or most men, and they will return with whatever you asked for (most of the time!) and anything else that caught their eye.  That's how Palmetto Cheese ended up in our house.

It has soul indeed!

For those of you not from South Carolina, this is a SC product that we all love.  It's pimento cheese but much more special than that.  It's made with real cheese, real mayo, real pimento, by real people.  It comes out of Pawley's Island and we're proud to eat it, serve it at parties and claim it as our own.  But, Palmetto Cheese isn't cheap.  Don't get me wrong; it's not outrageously expensive but it's pricey.  So, I stop and look at it in the store, but then my coupon-psycho brain kicks in and talks me out of buying it.  

Delightfully, Neil ended up at Publix. He saw, he bought, he brought home.  While at first I looked at it and said to myself, "OMG, I can't believe he bought this!" I was secretly jumping for joy because I haven't had it in so long!  He chose the Palmetto Cheese with bacon. Highly recommended.  I've been snacking on it with pretzels.  Neil has varied his morsels this afternoon.  First, he started with a small spoon.  At the time of this post, he's using one of our home-grown jalepenos as a "cracker" and just topping it with the cheese.  I'm looking at him now...he looks like one happy little snacker.

If you haven't tried Palmetto Cheese, you should.  If you're a man, head on over to the grocery.  If you're a frugal woman, like me, send your husband.  

Snow in SC and we're snackin' it up!

As you can imagine, snowfall in South Carolina is very, very few and far between.  Today, it happened. Not just a teaser dusting like we got a couple weeks ago, but REAL snow!  We have been out throwing snowballs, pulling Vivian in a kayak tied to her little motorcycle (I know it sounds redneck, but it's all good!) and now we're feeling snacky.

We aren't much on junk food around here, so we don't have typical chips and other snacks readily available to us.  In fact, while all our Southern brethren were raiding the groceries yesterday for bread, milk & eggs, we simply made a wine run.  We have our priorities straight, after all.  So, today, we opened the cabinets and the fridge and came up with a pretty damn nice snack plate if you ask me.  

For Christmas, Neil gave me two nice caviars: A paddlefish caviar, which is a small black roe and a wild caught Keta salmon caviar that is a large, brilliant orange roe. They are both fantastic but I think the salmon is my favorite.  We put this together with some simple water crackers, spreadable brie cheese and goat cheese.  And, of course, we tapped into a bottle of cabernet as well.  I'll speak for myself and Neil and tell you we have happy little tummies right now!

Christmas Eve Plans

Every year, I start imagining all the Thanksgiving/Christmas get-togethers and what kind of menu we should have, what look, what time to eat, etc.  I sometimes have a theme, sometimes it's an elegant candlelit affair, occasionally I envision a Norman Rockwell painting.  The thing is, no matter what ideas or scenarios that I come up with, it usually plays out like our holidays have played out my whole life.  And, that's ok.

We have never been the night-time, dress up in velvet, candlelit formal holiday dinner types.  I see the articles in Food & Wine and Bon Appetit with all the shimmery decorations, formal china and crystal, fancy dresses and coats and ties and it looks great.  I love an elegant event as much as, maybe even more than most people.  But, holidays in the Webber-Wilson-Akre-Ballard clan have always been pretty casual, homey, pot-lucky and what I consider to be "normal."  We make a plan: who's making a turkey, who's  bringing ham,  how about Uncle John's smoked corned beef this time?  Aunt Jennie is always asked to make her dressing & sweet potatoes.  I've probably told y'all before that without her sweet potatoes for at least one of the holiday dinners, the Earth will fall off its axis.  My sister and I are usually the ones who will throw in a new experiment or some hors d'oeuvres.  We all pitch in, plan on eating a mid to late lunch, drink wine.  You know.


So, Christmas is upon us and I'm thinking about Christmas Eve in particular.  At Thanksgiving, I said to my Dad, "What about doing a beef tenderloin on Christmas Eve after church and having the traditional stuff for lunch on Christmas Day?"  We both agreed this would be a great plan.  I think I suggest the tenderloin every year; it usually happens about every 7 years.  What usually ends up happening is what will happen this year too.  We all gravitate back to "pick up food."  Not take-out, but hors d'oeuvres, snacks, casual dishes like gumbo, antipasto.  Sounds great to me: I could live off finger food.  Remember how Rachel served her kids their meals in Mermaids? 

 I want to throw in a cheese fondue this year.  Vivian hasn't experienced fondue and at 4 1/2 years old, I think she'll really think it's cool.  And, I want to do the real thing: the emmenthaler, kirsch, garlic, good bread...the whole nine yards.  We have tons of crab in the freezer, so I think crab cakes go without saying.  I'm looking at some other recipes like roast beef & horseradish crostini for example.  That's as far as I've gotten so far.  I'm sure Mom has some great ideas floating around in her head as well.

Ok, that does it...I want fondue NOW!

So, as is pretty typical for us, we'll have a yummy, casual Christmas Eve grazing.  Katherine is bringing a ham, we'll make Aunt Jennie's sweet potatoes, maybe a broccoli casserole, so Christmas Day will be pretty traditional. OUR Traditional anyway.  And that's ok!

The Snack Bag

So, today I'm at work and Neil has two days at the track this weekend (motorcycle racing). My dear, sweet parents decided to take Vivian to the Aquarium in Charleston today. The excitement began building yesterday.

First, she had to pack a suitcase. Of course, Charleston's only 2 hours away and they're coming back this afternoon, but she packed about 17 T-shirts, 23 pairs of pants, 1 stuffed unicorn, 2 books and 3 videos. It was quite heavy, but she managed to lug it to the front door last night, you know, so we wouldn't forget it this morning. Then came "The Snack Bag." Did you just hear that Dunt Dunt Duhhhh music?

She found a bright yellow nylon zippered bag and began packing up provisions for this LOOONG road trip. Here's what the Snack Bag contained: 1 of my good spoons (I switched it out for a plastic one when she wasn't looking), 1 Fiber One strawberry yogurt, 1 leftover fish stick, 1 unwrapped slice of turkey, 1 unwrapped slice of American cheese and 1 bottle of water. I couldn't stand it; I had to put the turkey & cheese in a ziploc when she wasn't looking. And, I took the liberty of adding some trail mix. Seems like a Snack Bag is just supposed to have that. Plus, everyone knows that nothing goes better with a leftover fish stick than trail mix, right?