Mess of Greens

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Channeling Little Bankok: Collard Greens & Venison Larb

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For the past 5 years of  my life, the closest Thai restaurant has been two hours away in Memphis or Jackson. Since this is one of my MOST favorite kinds of food, and we lived around the corner from an AMAZING hole-in-the-wall place in Atlanta where we ate at least once a week, this had been one of the hardest parts of small-town Mississippi life. It meant that I needed to figure out some approximations of my favorite dishes…and I can say that I’ve gotten pretty good at massaman and green curry and larb.
But y’all! NOW, we live 30 minutes from a nice little spot in Hattiesburg, so we can basically eat Thai food whenever the craving strikes. It’s so fantastic.

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Summer Squash Souffle’ from the OK Cafe

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One of my all time favorite (and diet-busting) things to do with summer squash is to make a souffle’. The OK Cafe in Atlanta (and I’ve learned, so does Connie’s Kitchen in Leland, MS) both make to-die for versions. The first one I ever had was in Atlanta, so I’d searched around for the OK Cafe’s recipe for awhile, and came across the one they actually use every day for their customers. I mean, 66 pounds of squash and 2 quarts of green onions is a little bit more than I usually buy at the farmer’s market, so I (I mean, boone) did a little math and worked out the proportions for our family. I’ve made this so many times now and I’ve tested it out with a little less mayo or a little more cheese and this is the version that tastes THE MOST like what I remember from the ATL. It’s best served with creamed corn, speckled lima beans, fresh tomatoes, or turnip greens… or really, whatever your favorite combination for your vegetable plate!

Summer Squash Souffle’ from the OK Cafe
Serves 4-6

What you need:
2-3 lbs of squash, cut into half rounds about 1/2″ thick
1 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese
1 cup hellman’s mayonnaise (y’all  know I don’t mess around with other kinds of mayo. also, the recipe actually calls for 2 cups, but I think this is WAY too much)
1/4 cup green onions
1 stick of butter
salt and pepper
1 egg
1 cup Crushed ritz crackers or bread crumbs for topping

What to do: 
First, steam the squash until it’s soft and then mash with a potato masher so that you don’t have chunks of squash. Cut the onions and made your breadcrumbs or crush the ritz crackers while you wait to maximize your time.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Melt the butter and sautee’ the green onions in the butter until limp. use a fork or whisk to whip up the raw egg. Once the squash is steamed and mashed and has cooled entirely (the fridge speeds up the process!), mix in the onions with the butter, the egg, the mayonnaise, the cheese and then salt and pepper it to taste.

Pour into a 9″x11″ pyrex dish, top with the bread crumbs or ritz crackers, and bake for about 30-45 minutes or until bubbly. Serve it with your favorite other vegetable sides and savor!

I may or may not have eaten this for 3 meals in the span of 5 days… so, so, so good…but better eaten as a special summer treat once or twice a year for staying on my swimsuit diet!

Murphy’s Tollhouse Pie

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I turned twenty nine on Saturday (yikes!), and when my mama asked my what kind of birthday cake I wanted, I told her that I’d rather have a Tollhouse Pie like the one from one of my favorite Atlanta restaurants, Murphy’s. sure, there are “traditionally” southern establishments in ATL, but it IS in atlanta, and has been around for an unusually long time (I ate there with my debate team in high school, on my first Atlanta apartment hunting trip with my mom, and then again on an early date with boone), plus, it’s just delicious. Murphy’s is in my fave ATL neighborhood, the highlands, and is super close to the teeny basement apartment where boone proposed…and their tollhouse pie is. the. bomb. dot. com.
i know it was my own birthday dessert, but mama let me help with the baking since I love doing it but always feel like i need a really good reason to put so much labor and love into something so unhealthy. regardless, we had a great time baking–and then eating– that pie. read on for the recipe.
What you need: 
For the Oreo Crust:
7/8 Cup (7 oz) fine Oreo crumbs
1/4 Cup chopped walnuts
1/4 Cup Salted (or unsalted, but salted works fine) Butter

For the Filling:
1 Cup Light brown sugar (had dark brown, and it works just fine)
6 tablespoons (3 oz) Granulated sugar
3/4 Cup  (6 oz) Bread flour
4 eggs (the recipe doesn’t say, but I figure this is 4 med or 3 large)

5/8 Cup (5 oz) butter
5/8 Cup (5 oz)Chocolate chips
5/8 Cup (5 oz)White chips
5/8 Cup (5 oz) chopped Walnut pieces
we added 1/4 tsp of vanilla

What to do:
To make the crust, crush the oreo cookies without the cream into a fine powder using a food processor, (or better yet, use the pre-crushed oreo crumbs) Melt the butter and with the crumbs and nuts. Press into a 10” pie tin. Cool until hard.

 
Blend together with the paddle part of your mixer the brown and granulated sugar and the flour.
  
Add in the eggs, and then melt the butter for the filling and cool to room temperature and pour it into the mixture. (this keeps the butter from scrambling the eggs, I figure). Mix the chips and walnuts into the batter slowly until blended.

so, so, so delicious.

Pour the batter into the prepared crust; bake at 250 degrees for 90 – 110 minutes until the crust is light brown. Let it cool completely before serving if you want it to be firm and cut cleanly. I honestly couldn’t wait because i wanted warm pie so badly…I ended up with un-perfect slices. oh well. it didn’t taste un-perfect.

 

note on my photos: although my mama was 100% against my help on my own cake, my really good reason was the NEW camera boone gave me….it had to charge for most of the baking, but the last few photos were taken with it. i’m smitten with how sexy the photos turned out and with my wonderful honey who knew EXACTLY what I wanted. 😉 it’s A-mazing what the right tools can do.