A profusion of orange on the table makes post-Labor Day seem more fall-like

No denying it; Labor Day officially kicks off fall. Even the temps here in Texas are cooperating a little and (thanks to Tropical Storm Hermine) seeming a little more fall-like. What color is the essence of fall? None other than orange, so this orange-to-the-bone dish was an ideal one for me to try in my post-Labor Day meal prep.

Sweet Potato Casserole, with the addition of brown-sugar to underscore the "Sweet" in Sweet Potatoes, is a fall staple on many tables, but I love this addition of carrots and onion to make Confetti Carrots and Sweet Potatoes an even more healthy and interesting side dish.

The cooked potatoes and carrots are mashed with a hand masher, not a hand mixer as one typically might mash cooked sweet potatoes, so the texture is not buttery smooth but is more "confetti-like", hence the name.

Confetti Carrots and Sweet Potatoes makes a grand side dish for a ham or chicken dinner. But as usual, Hubby and I didn't need anything else but a small fruit salad to turn this dish into a small dinner meal in itself.

Wee definitely got our "orange-fix" for the week to help kick off fall.

Confetti Carrots and Sweet Potatoes

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 pounds carrots, thinly sliced

6 cups water

1 small sweet potato, peeled and diced

2 teaspoons lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup (or to taste) brown-sugar substitute (I used Splenda)

In medium kettle heat oil and onion until onion is soft. Add carrots, sweet potato, and water. Simmer gently 30 minutes. Remove carrot and sweet potatoes and (using a hand masher and not a mixer) mash thoroughly; add onion. Stir in salt, pepper, butter, and brown sugar. Serve. (If necessary heat in microwave to re-warm before you serve.)

This fresh celery recipe is beyond weird, but what a favorite it turned out to be!

It had to be the weirdest of the weird--a recipe for Stir-Fried Celery. Celery is a stretcher, an enhancer, a crunch- and texture-provider for other dishes. Why would anyone build an entire recipe around chopped celery? Loser, I thought as I eyeballed it more carefully. And for a stir-fry? Celery is an ingredient that goes into a stir-fry to complement other veggies. But this recipe had nothing else added except low-sodium soy sauce, white vinegar, and sesame seeds. Now really.

So what dish at dinner last night got the most rave reviews? Not the Mustard-Lemon Glazed Tilapia that I spent far more time cooking for the entree. The Mustard-Lemon Glazed Tilipia, I might add, only sprang alive when I put the Stir-Fried Celery on top as a relish.

The Stir-Fried Celery was utterly amazing! In previous blogs I've mentioned the guilt factor when I end up having to throw away a bucketful of limp celery stalks because of non-use. This recipe gobbled up the vast majority of the celery in my fridge's veggie bin.

But the taste! Hubby served his over some fresh corn-off-the-cob. I liked mine over the tilapia. But by itself the dish clearly was a stand-alone. By now I should have learned never to look askance at any recipe provided by my little booklet, "Celebrating a Healthy Harvest", that I cite frequently. Always, always, somehow, the folks at the Chickasaw Nutrition Services (who dreamed up the booklet) manage to have a success story.

Weirdest of the weird--still a correct assessment. But I couldn't have asked for a more tantalizing side dish.

Stir-Fried Celery

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 bunch fresh celery, washed

3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons white vinegar

sesame seeds

Chop celery in 1/2-inch slices. In a heavy frying pan or wok heat oil over medium heat. Stir-fry celery for 1 minute. Add soy sauce and vinegar. Continue to stir-fry for 6 minutes or until desired tenderness. Place in serving bowl. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Makes 4 servings.

Leftover oranges spice up seafood recipe--company fare that takes only minutes to fix

Leave it to that great source of recipe ideas--Sam's Club--and a couple of leftover oranges from our son's citrus grove to provide an absolutely fabulous dinner of fish, that menu item we're supposed to eat in limitless supply.

Sam's Club doesn't always spring to the brain when I'm thinking of places to turn up good recipes, but a card that accompanied a recent Sam's mailing featured the how-to for Pistachio-Orange Tilapia. It called for two oranges, peeled and chopped.

Believe it or not, the produce bin of my refrigerator still had two oranges left over from an early spring visit to our son's house in Arizona. I've already blogged about how his back yard contains a citrus garden that, like many other locations in Phoenix, has abundant and gigantic oranges, lemons, and grapefruit.

Two oranges that I brought home with me were in their last stages of existence, but when I peeled them, they were still viable--just perfect for this recipe. My produce bin also contained an almost-unused bag of fresh spinach. Here I go, I thought, as I happily began to chop.

Adding a few pistachios contributed to the heart-healthiness of the dish. The Sam's recipe called for purchasing tilapia fillets that were pre-seasoned and packaged with the tilapia brand's own seasoning. Since the sodium content of pre-seasoned meat items sometimes can be high, however, I preferred to buy the tilapia unseasoned and add my own from salt-free Mrs. Dash (I used the lemon-pepper variety).

In the end my Pistachio-Orange Tilapia looked just like the one on the front of the Sam's recipe card, helped clean out my fridge (always a goal), and checked off another item my summer must-cook list. It was wonderful--and definitely no slouch if you need to serve it for company.

Pistachio-Orange Tilapia

4 tilapia fillets

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt-free seasoning

3 tablespoons pistachios, chopped

2 oranges, peeled and chopped

4 cups fresh baby spinach

2 ounces white cooking wine

Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle salt-free seasoning onto tilapia on both sides of the fillet. Place fillets in skillet. Saute for 3 minutes on each side and place on serving plates. Add pistachios, oranges, and spinach to the skillet. Add white cooking wine. Stir well. Place cover on skillet and allow mixture to sit for 3 minutes. Spoon spinach mixture over fish fillets. Serves 4.

Cute bow-ties, healthy tomatoes and herbs make chicken-salad dish memorable

The bow-ties make it cute; the tomatoes and herbs make it garden-fresh.

Hubby almost couldn't find the bow-tie pasta when I sent him to the grocery to purchase some of the ingredients. Finally he discovered it under the label "farfalle", its formal name.

"Mediterranean," was all he could say after the resulting Herbed Pasta and Chicken Salad was prepared and served. Truly the recipe had many the elements (olive oil, herbs, etc.) of the Mediterrean cuisine that many are telling us is health-inducing and life-prolonging.

But the fresh tomatoes absolutely made the salad. I kept looking out the back door and longed for the day when our fall tomato plans are thriving and when all tomatoes that are called for in a recipe can be the fruit of our garden's handiwork.

Allowing this dish to chill in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight is mandatory. The mixture would have seemed rather insipid if it had not been for the lengthy melding of the flavors. Allow plenty of time; don't get in a hurry (the Mediterranean way, of course). You'll have the salad around forever, so don't rush things here--just as if you were enjoying the more-relaxed pace of the Old Country.

We did. It's still filling up our lunchtime plates after we enjoyed it for dinner one evening.

Herbed Pasta and Chicken Salad

4 ounces bow-tie pasta

1 cup chopped cooked white chicken meat

2 cups small cherry tomatoes, halved (or 4 regular-sized Roma tomatoes, cut into small chunks)

1/2 cup chopped celery

1/4 cup chopped black olives

2 ounces diced cheddar cheese

2/3 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup fresh basil

1/4 cup fresh parsley

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Cook pasta according to directions, omitting salt Drin, rinse in cold water, and rinse again. Combine pasta, tomatoes, celery, olives , and cheeses in a large bowl. Set Aside. Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients, stirring with a wire whisk. Pour over pasta and toss gently. Cover tightly and chill in at bowl at least 8 hours. Yield: about 7 cups.

Not Greek to us: stovetop recipe excellent fare in these triple-digit days

More in the shop-the-pantry (or shop-the-refrigerator) genre: still more spinach to use up before it goes bad. Same thing for an avocado in my fridge: one is starting to get too mushy. What to fix?

In the yet-untried-summer recipe category was Greek Frittata, an amazingly easy weeknight fix that could be prepared on the stovetop (in our string of triple-digit days, you can be sure Hubby still is pleading his case about not firing up the oven, so this preparation made him happy).

This Frittata is a cousin to an omelet and cooks up as quickly and effortlessly. I love the flavor the feta cheese adds (thus making the omelet a "Greek" one). The spinach adds a healthy touch; the tomatoes on top along with the avocado add color.

For just the two of us this menu item lasted several days--and my refrigerator bins were cleaned out again without guilt-producing throwaways.

Greek Frittata

1/2 cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped red pepper

1 1/2 cups torn fresh spinach

1/2 cup milk (I use skim)

8 eggs (I use egg substitute)

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, no salt added, drained

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

avocado (garnish)

In 12-inch nonstick skillet cook onion and red pepper over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally until lightly browned. Stir in spinach. Continue cooking until spinach is wilted. In bowl combine milk, eggs, garlic powder, and pepper; mix well. Stir in cheese. Reduce heat to medium-low. Pour mixture into skillet. Cook; lift edges to allow eggs to flow underneath until edges are set. Cover and continue to cook until top is set. In small bowl mix drained tomatoes and basil. Pour onto top of frittata. Garnish with sliced avocado. Serve from skillet. Makes 6 servings.

"Shop-the-pantry" move cleans out the fruit and veggie bin; yields scrumptious salad

These days we're often being told to "shop the pantry".

In times of penny-pinching and making the most of every dollar, we're advised to save on groceries by first combing through our pantry (and refrigerator) shelves before we make grocery lists. By using existing food items first, we can be good stewards of what we already own and cut down on what we need to buy from the grocery.

Last night was a "shop-the-refrigerator" night where our meal preparation was concerned. My Spinach Fruit Salad utilized a variety of food items that were destined to spoil if they were not used up quickly. I found a few oranges that were becoming overly soft and had some brown spots on them. I had an apple that had been around too long. Likewise my spinach leaves were on the verge of becoming soggy. If they lingered for a few more days of being unused, all would be headed for the compost bin and would not be used for nourishment, which was the original purpose for acquiring them.

My Spinach and Fruit Salad recipe to the rescue. Tough to believe that a "clean-out-the-fruit-and-vegetable-bin" move such as this would bring forth a little seven-ingredient salad so delicious. Hubby, who dined on it after I already had departed for an errand, effused: "That salad! I almost called you to tell you how good it was!" The recipe makes oodles and oodles, so it should stretch for the next three days at least.

Guess I'm neglecting to mention one more aspect of this wonderful salad--look at the healthy choices it represents--even cholesterol-lowering nuts (pecans from our own trees). All in the same recipe I was a good steward of food I originally purchased and treated us to a super-nutritious dish as well.

Spinach and Fruit Salad

1/4 cup olive oil

3 tablespoons sugar-free raspberry jam

3 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 package fresh spinach

1 red apple, chopped

2 oranges, peeled and sectioned, with membrane removed (reserve juice)

1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

Save 1/2 cup juice from peeled and sectioned oranges (if you need more juice, add a little more orange juice from your refrigerator). In a jar combine juice, oil, jam, and vinegar. Shake well. In a large bowl toss oranges, spinach, apples, and pecans in a large bowl. Toss with dressing.

Recipe title may be "upside-down", but peach dish is right-side-up at summer's end

While I'm in the mode of walking down summer's memory lane, I find in my notes that a wonderful recipe that used some of our last peaches from our peach crop has not been blogged upon. How could I overlook this unusual, incredible dish that mixes our own peach fruit with the fruit of our prized pecan trees?

Somehow in my rhapsodic euphoria about Peach Preserves and Peach Muffins and all the other peach delirium of the summer, I've neglected to mention Upside-Down Ginger-Pecan Peach Pie, which originally caught my attention and netted a spot in my new cookbook, Way Back in the Country Garden, because of the "upside-down" nature of it all. It's just so out-of-the-box, which is probably why the California Peaches Plums and Nectarines Network distributed the recipe in the first place. That's how I acquired it.

The purpose of the Network's advancing the recipe, if I recall correctly, was to encourage people about how wonderful peaches taste when they are grilled. I had never thought of that. Truthfully Upside-Down Ginger-Pecan Peach Pie is just as great if you decide to cut up the peach slices into a saucepan, add a little water, and blanch them on the stovetop (or in the microwave in a suitable bowl).

Since I didn't have a charcoal outdoor grill going, I simply pulled out my countertop George Foreman grill and quickly browned them so I could get onto the remainder of the process for this "upside-down" recipe.

I can tell you that the beauty of this recipe, besides the ravishing grilled peaches, of course, is the shortbread that is produced from mixture of the dry ingredients that later is sprinkled over the warm peaches and ice cream. That shortbread lasted us much longer than the peaches did; later we crumbled it over some pudding or even over toast.

So the recipe title also should tout the shortbread by calling it, "Upside-Down Ginger-Pecan Peach Shortbread Pie". The shortbread is a gift that keeps on giving even after the delicious peaches are gone . . . gone but not forgotten--here's to next summer 2011!

Upside-Down Ginger-Pecan Peach Pie

1 cup flour

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted

2 tablespoons minced crystallied ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, divided

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons softened butter, divided

1 tablespoon brown sugar (I used brown-sugar substitute)

4 firm peaches, pitted and cut into 8 slices each

sugar-free whipped topping or sugar-free ice cream, optional

Preheat oven to 325 degrees; spray a loaf pan with nonfat cooking spray. Stir together flour, powdered sugar, pecans, crystallized ginger, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Add in 1/2 cup butter and mix well to form a soft dough. Press into the bottom of prepared pan and bake for 25 minutes. Set aside to cool; then break into a rough crumble,. Leave some larger and smaller pieces. In a large bowl in the microwave melt remaining butter and cinnamon with brown sugar. Toss fruit in butter mixture; then grill over high heat for about 1 to 2 minutes on each side to lightly brown. Remove from grill. Place ice cream in bowls. Top with warm fruit and sprinkle with crumbled shortbread. Makes 8 servings.