A collection of my Southern inspired food and garden adventures
Along with all the fun things that summer brings, one of my favorites is picking all the fresh fruit that I possibly can. Growing up in Mississippi, blackberries grew wild all over the place. My sister and I spent many hours foraging delicious treats and going to U-Pick farms to gather other goodies that we didn’t grow in our backyard. I have moved a few times since then, but I have always been able to locate family farms to visit and carry on the tradition.
During the majority of my 20’s, I lived in southern Mississippi where I was only an hour and a half drive from New Orleans. I fell head over heels in love with the city and all of the wonderful cuisine. I cannot say that I have a favorite Cajun or Creole dish because they are all near and dear to my heart, but gumbo is probably the most well known. Over the years, I have experimented with different gumbo recipes and tried to reach that authentic Louisiana gumbo goodness. After some trial and error, this is where I landed and it hasn’t let me down!
Brunch is one of the best things about the weekend. You can snooze in a bit through the morning if you want, and still enjoy all of the wonderful goodness of breakfast.
Pad Kee Mao, aka Drunken Noodles, is such a fun and very easy Thai dish to prepare at home. While I love grabbing Thai take out when I am in a rush, stocking up on ingredients can save a lot of money if you love to eat Thai as much as I do.
I have been seeing a lot of progress in the plant-based protein trends recently, and I am liking it! I don’t think I can give up meat, but I am not opposed to the idea of reducing my intake. I have always considered myself a partial vegetarian because of my vegetarian mother, so I am totally in support of all the mainstreaming.
I absolutely cannot wait to be picking fresh veggies from the garden this summer. I started my little seedlings for this year’s garden a few weeks ago indoors under a grow light, and they are really starting to show out.
I love all of the food videos that float around on social media these days. Lately, I have seen several Korean BBQ recipes that I have been wanting to try. Most call for sugar, however, and I have been trying to cut back on processed sweets. So I decided to try making bulgogi with honey instead. I also added ginger and chili sauce for a little extra kick. This dish was so simple to prepare and insanely tasty! I served it with rice and steamed broccoli. This dish is also the perfect filling for lettuce wraps!
Even though summer still feels so far away and we just got a dusting of snow this past weekend, it is time to start thinking about my vegetable garden! If you want to start your garden from seeds, a good way to get a head start on the growing season is to sprout your seeds indoors. In Ohio, we have a shorter window of warm weather than many other parts of the country. By starting my plants indoors now, I can transplant them outside to my garden beds when old man winter moves on and the threat of frost is gone.
During one year that I lived in Arkansas, I developed a massive Pad Thai obsession. Probably due to the fact that I was working full time and also pursuing my MBA online at night, and there was an Asian fusion restaurant that delivered to my house. I was always crunched for time, and definitely got to know the delivery folks there on a first name basis.
Fat Tuesday isn’t until February 28th this year, but carnival season is well under way in New Orleans! Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, which is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday that lands 47 days before Easter. While Mardi Gras is technically only one day, carnival season kicks off each year on January 6th. Even though I am not down in Nola watching the parades this year, I am still participating in the festivities from up here in Ohio. Even if it’s just in my own kitchen!
Audra Rice 