Category Archives: Sides

Sides

Easy Oven Rice

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Easy Oven Rice makes a great side for a beef or pork dish with its beef consomme and oniony flavor.  It reheats well, so you can enjoy it for the next few days as leftovers – that is, if you have leftovers!  It requires very little preparation, and since it cooks for an hour, it does not require any prep time just before dinner is ready, which makes it an easy addition to your meal.

Difficulty:  Easy

1 10-ounce can French Onion Soup

1 8-ounce package of mushrooms (I used sliced baby bellas)

1 cup white rice, uncooked

1/2 stick butter (original recipe called for a whole stick, but 1/2 stick is plenty)

1 beef bouillon cube

Easy Oven Rice Ingredients

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Saute mushrooms in a little butter until almost done.

Sauteed Mushrooms for Easy Oven Rice

Stir beef bouillon cube in a saucepan with a soup can-ful of hot water (use the French Onion Soup can) until dissolved.  Then mix all ingredients in 9×13 casserole dish.

Easy Oven Rice ingredients in dish

Easy Oven Rice ready for baking

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes to an hour, stirring once about halfway through the cooking process.

Easy Oven Rice

 

Shortcut:  If you want to make this recipe even easier, substitute canned mushroom stems and pieces for the fresh mushrooms and a 10-ounce can of beef consomme for the bouillon cube and water.

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Sides

Southern Fried Corn Taste (Without the Mess) aka That CORN!

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This creamed corn is amazingly easy and my favorite corn dish.  It’s so easy that it’s almost not worth posting… but it’s so delicious that I thought everybody should know about it!  Now that I have this recipe, I cannot imagine a need for shucking corn and cutting it off the cob.  This is a great side for Thanksgiving dinner – it may even win over your pickiest eater!

1 package Frozen white Silver Queen corn by Southern Farms (packaged like a roll of sausage)

1 12 ounce sack of frozen shoe peg corn, loose kernels

1/2 stick butter

 

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Place one package of each type frozen corn in greased casserole pan with 1/2 stick of butter.

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Cover with foil, and bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.  Take the dish out of the oven, stir the corn (getting rid of all lumps of creamed corn), and check for seasoning.  Add salt and pepper to taste, and cook for another 15-30 minutes, until the kernels are done.  It is easy to over-salt this dish, so salt lightly.  The recipe calls for adding lots of pepper, but I prefer to pepper lightly.  It will bubble around the edges when it’s done.

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The Story:  Each year in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, my mom sends around her meal plan for Wednesday through Sunday and asks for any special requests.  One year my 9 yr old niece named a few desserts and then said, “that CORN!”  This recipe from then on became simply known as “that CORN!”

 

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Sides

Go-To Sweet and Sour Salad Dressing

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Sweet and Sour Dressing is a great dressing for Go-To Craisin and Feta salad, and the name pretty much says it.  It’s more sweet than sour, and it’s my favorite salad dressing.  That is to say that I don’t like salad all that much, and I really like this dressing!

Difficulty:  Easy

Source:  Come On In!, with an adjustment or two

1 cup vegetable oil (I use canola)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

3 teaspoons soy sauce

splash or two of balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper to taste (I don’t think it needs any)

Stir sugar into red wine vinegar, whisking to dissolve the sugar.  Add other ingredients and blend.  Keep refrigerated.  The ingredients will separate, so be sure to shake/stir just before serving.

Serve with Go-To Salad with Craisins and Feta.

http://notjustanotherfoodblogger.com/go-salad/

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Go-To Salad with Craisins and Feta

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This salad is great for feeding a crowd and for people who don’t really like  your run-of-the-mill salad – the dressing is sweet, and it’s topped with crumbled feta, mandarin oranges, and craisins.

Difficulty:  Easy

Source:  my mom

Baby Spring Mix

Mandarin oranges

Craisins

Feta (crumbled)*

Sliced almonds, toasted (spread on cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 5-8 minutes or until very lightly toasted)

A few green onions, sliced

*The feta is better (less dry) if you buy it in a block and crumble it yourself, but the already crumbled feta is still very good and a little less work.

Serve with Go-To Sweet and Sour Dressing.

http://notjustanotherfoodblogger.com/go-sweet-sour-salad-dressing/

Since the toppings don’t require much effort (other than toasting the almonds which can be done ahead of time), this works well when serving large quantities of salad.

I like to place bowls with extra toppings beside the salad bowl for those like me who are really in it for the toppings.  I took this picture before adding the crumbled feta and dressing for bunco the other night.

Craisin and Feta Salad

The Story:  I call this my Go-To Salad, because that’s exactly what it is – the salad I almost always go to when I need to serve dinner to any size crowd.

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