Monday, June 30, 2008

Skillet yummies

Tonight's Menu

  • grilled Italian sausages
  • okra & corn with bacon & onions
  • sliced tomatoes
Gah. CSA pickup was on Wednesday, but since then we've been eating out more often than not (which is unusual for us) and I'm starting to FREAK OUT that all these delicious veggies will go bad before I can use them. I have CSA STRESS, y'all.

First let's talk about the sausages, which were pretty much the usual deal. Mild, fresh Italian sausages simmered in water for 10-15 minutes, then browned off on the grill. Super easy.

I've been drooling over the idea of okra with bacon ever since a recent post about it by my fabulous foodie pal Jaye. I had a couple of cobs of already-cooked corn left over from a recent dinner (Friday night fajitas) and corn usually plays nicely with okra so I decided to kill two birds, as it were. All I did was chop up a few slices of good bacon (Pederson's apple-smoked, in this case) along with about 1/4 of a sweet yellow onion. Then I sliced up a bunch of fresh okra from the CSA and sliced my already-cooked corn off the cob. I tossed the bacon into a skillet and once it had gone about half-crisp, I added the onions. Stir, stir, stir until the onions start to go translucent, then add the okra. Stir, stir, stir until the okra gets tender, then add in the corn and just toss around a bit to warm it through (and let it pick up a bit of color, if you like). Then just season with salt and pepper and Bob's your uncle!

EVERYONE loved this. The boy scarfed his down, and the girl actually TRIED it and thought it was pretty darn good. Holy crap, y'all, my kids ate okra!

Tomatoes were from the CSA. I have GOT to use these up; they are almost over-ripe after a few days on the windowsill.

4 comments:

Jaye Joseph said...

Yum! I added little tiny cherry peppers to it last night when I made it. Corn is next!

Anonymous said...

1. Did the okra get slimy? (I like (fried) okra a lot, but the potential for sliminess keeps me from trying new, non-fried things with it. I trust you, though, Badger, so give it to me straight. If you say, "No slime," I'll try it. :o)
2. If you need a good recipe for all those tomatoes ("good" as in, "Lord, this can't be good FOR ME but it sure TASTES good!"), try Paula Deen's tomato pie. Healthy - not so much; tasty - oh yeah.

Unknown said...

Love okra, and always looking for new ways to fix it. MUST try this, since I love okra and corn together. No CSA here though, so I'll have to make a trip to my semi local farmer's market to get the okra. IF they have it, no one up here in the frozen north knows what it IS! Paula Deen's tomato pie is awesomely wonderful, but you could also try Caprese Salad...just wedge your tomatoes you have instead of using the little grape tomatoes. Or, there's always tomato and onion salad with avocado dressing.. ok, gotta stop, making myself hungry.

Tracy said...

Had to tell you I tried your okra and corn recipe. Excellent! I threw in some halved grape tomatoes the last few minutes of cooking time and it was so pretty and delicious. We had it with grilled fish but it would be great with just about anything.