Week 7 - Minnesota

Hi-dee-ho there! Last week brought us to the Land of 1,000 Lakes, dontcha know? (Ok I'll knock that off now...)

Minnesota holds a special place in my family because it's the state that Lars Horpedahl immigrated to from Norway at the start of the 1900's.  He met his wife Sofie, who had also immigrated from Norway, and the two bought a farm in the Red River Valley.  I've spoken about Lars Horpedahl before (he's where my name comes from), and I hope to not only see the Horpedahl River in Norway one day, but the area of Minnesota where he staked his claim on a small part of the American Dream.

My grandma, Ruth, was the youngest of six children.  She went to a one room school house, and often skated to school when the rivers and lakes froze over in the winter.  The children at school would bring sandwiches for lunch, and the parents would rotate bringing a "hot dish" (casserole) so all the kids would also have something warm to eat during the frigid Minnesota days.  Grandma said that her mother would bring whatever hot dish she'd made in the same container with the red lid every time it was her turn.

I wanted to honor the Minnesota connection, so on February 15th, I made some hot dishes that Grandma Ruth and my Aunt Debbie found in some cookbooks from the church that the family went to up there.  It wasn't exactly health food, but it was sure was delicious.



Tater Tot Hot Dish

1 lb ground turkey, browned

1/2 cup FF onions

1 can of cream of mushroom soup

1 can of cream of cream of celery soup

1 cup mixed frozen vegetables vegetables

1 pkg of tater tots

This was a super easy recipe to follow, which was the point.  Grandma said these were meant to be thrown together quickly after work for an easy, hot meal.

First, I mixed the frozen vegetables and the soups together and poured them into a large casserole dish. Then, I browned the turkey and folded that into the soup/veggie mixture. 

Finally, I topped the whole thing with the tater tots and baked it all at 350' for 1 hour.

Four Bean Hot Dish

1/2 lb bacon and some onion browned

1 can pork and beans

1 can light kidney beans

1 can dark kidney beans

1 can lima beans

1/2 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons vinegar

Again, a super easy dish to prepare.  I mixed the beans, ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar together in a large bowl.  Next, I browned the onions and the bacon. 

I folded this into the bean mixture, and poured everything into a casserole dish and baked it for 45 min, at 350'.

The result...

...was perfect for a cold, rainy evening.  I think my favorite was the tater tot casserole, while everyone else preferred the beans (those were also tasty too).  I'll have to keep both of them in the rotation.

It was great to be able to cook recipes that have a connection with my family.  I've done each of these blog projects for a specific reason that goes beyond their topics.  I wasn't celebrating a holiday each day just to do it. I was celebrating a holiday each day to show that there was a reason to celebrate something, always.  I've been cooking a different meal each week inspired by a different state because there is so much variety out there in this great big country of ours.

That, and there's so much of our history tied in to food.  Food gives us a sense of place.  Dinners around a table give us a sense of home.  Recipes like the ones I made for the Minnesota night give us a sense of history, a sense of those that came before us, a sense of family. I hope to find more recipes like this throughout the year.

Because come on, any recipe that includes tater tots is one that has to be tried.

Week 6 - Kentucky

Hello from the Bluegrass State! This week took us to the first of four "Commonwealths" in the United States, and back to one of the states that I recruited in during my first four years at High Point University.  Kentucky was always a great place to visit, and I had a lot of fun exploring Lexington and Louisville and the Bourbon Trail that wove itself across the state.  Maybe too much fun exploring...

I got some input on this one from an old high school/college buddy Bill (he suggested catfish and hushpuppies, but also mentioned something that you could really only find in Kentucky so I went with that).  The Kentucky Hot Brown is a Derby favorite.  Originating in the Brown Hotel in Louisville (Lou-uh-vull, not Louis-ville or Louie-ville), it's an open faced sandwich drenched in cheese sauce and is super tasty. I had my fair share of them when I visited Kentucky (that is to say...I had way too many...)

I decided to make a version of this dish for my family.  But instead of just making individual sandwiches, I found a recipe that turned the Hot Brown into a casserole.


Kentucky Hot Brown Casserole

2 large chicken breasts
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons sage
1 tablespoon salt
Juice and zest from one lemon
1 package turkey bacon
1 loaf gluten free bread
1/2 cup butter, melted
6 large eggs
3 cups milk
2 cups Parmesan cheese, divided
Two tablespoons coconut flour
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium tomatoes, diced
2 tablespoons parsley


For this recipe, I first prepared the chicken.  I combined the chicken breasts, softened butter, garlic, sage, salt, and the juice and zest from one lemon into a dish and baked it all at 350 for 20 minutes.

While the chicken was baking, I diced the loaf of bread into one inch cubes and set them on a baking tray...

When the chicken was done baking, I put the bread cubes into the oven and baked them for about 5 minutes, just to toast them a bit. I then removed the cubes and mixed them in a large bowl with the melted butter, eggs, and 1 cup of the cheese. I shredded the baked chicken breasts and added this to the bowl as well.

I then mixed the milk, butter, flour, and remaining cheese in a small sauce pan.

Finally, I cooked up the turkey bacon until it was good a crispy...

I poured the bread and chicken mixture into a casserole dish, and the poured the cheese sauce over all of it.  I topped the casserole with the bacon crumbles, the diced tomatoes, and the parsley.  I baked everything again at 350 for another 20 minutes.

The result...

Was delicious! After the failure of my pepperoni rolls the week before, coming back with a winner was very much needed.  And this recipe is definitely a keeper.  The gluten free bread was actually a really good substitute, and the flavors all melded together to form what I remembered of the Hot Browns I'd tried back in Kentucky.  I can see this one as being a great use for leftovers for Thanksgiving turkey, and the left overs from the casserole itself were great for breakfast as well.

We pared up this regional delicacy with another famous Kentucky product...

One day I'll actually take my wife with me when I head back for a trip through the Bourbon Trail. For now, we're fortunate enough that this will have to do.

Week 5 - West Virginia

Hi from the wild and wonderful Mountain State! Superbowl Sunday brought with it a sixth championship for a certain New England team (GO PATS!)  At the Farabee house, it also brought with it a trip to West Virginia.

When I started working at High Point University, one of my first recruitment territories was West Virginia.  I had never been to the state, and had only heard vague, fairly negative stereotypes about it. But the four years I spent as the West Virginia counselor was great, and I met some great people and saw absolutely breathtaking natural wonders.  I'll never forget the first time I walked out on the wooden platform overlooking the New River Gorge and seeing the absolute grandness of that vista.

This past year, Elizabeth and I actually had the chance to take a weekend trip together to West Virginia.  I was there for work, and while it may not be everyone's number one vacation destination,  we've tried to find adventure wherever we find ourselves and that trip was no different.   While we were there, we had our first taste of the West Virginia Pepperoni Roll.

Initially created as a cheap, quick, easy lunch or snack for the coal miners in the state, the pepperoni roll is a state-wide delicacy with a variety of devoted camps. Some swear by sliced pepperoni in the roll, others go for the stick pepperoni.  The kind that we tried in a little bakery in Buckhannon actually used ground pepperoni for their filling. 

As it sounded like a perfect Superbowl food, I decided to try to make some of my own for the big game.  Unfortunately, it was a comedy of errors...


Pepperoni Rolls

1 1/2 cups milk
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 packet active dry yeast
3 1/2 cups coconut flour (MY FIRST MISTAKE)
1 large egg
1 12oz. package sliced pepperoni
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup olive oil

This was my first time making a bread dough...and I really should have stuck to the recipe.  Elizabeth has noticed that after Eleanor was born, she's been more sensitive to gluten.  In an effort to honor that and make something that she could eat, I replaced the regular flour with coconut flour...which was not the way to go...

First, I heated up the milk and the butter, and then added the active yeast.  But I'm pretty sure that I heated the milk up too much. The instructions in the recipe said to not heat it over 115 degrees...and I think I didn't pay attention to that part.  Which meant that my yeast was probably scalded into oblivion the second I poured in the packet...

While I was letting my yeast activate (die), I mixed the sugar, salt, and coconut flour together. I formed a well in the middle and added the egg.

I then poured in the milk/butter/obliterated yeast mixture over that and mixed well. The batter was supposed to be sticky and crumbly.  And mine was...kind of...like that...

I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and left it in a warm place to rise for 2-3 hours.  It was supposed to double in size during this period...but this just didn't happen.

No change...

I should have known then that I was in trouble, but I pressed on.  The next step called for making a ball out of the dough.  The fact that it kept falling apart had alarm bells going off in my head, but I eventually got it shaped into a rough ball form.  I put this back in the bowl, covered it again, and let it "rise" some more.  By the quotations, you should be able to figure out that it did nothing of the sort.

I didn't have high hopes at this point for my pepperoni rolls, but I pressed on further.  I cut the ball up into eight pieces...

And then attempted to roll each of these pieces out into a circle. The problem is that they wouldn't stick together.  The "dough" kept falling apart and cracking, and it felt like nothing was really holding it all together.  In short, it was a complete failure...

Tip: It's important to have a backup plan...

When I realized that the dough was not rising during the first period, I ran out to the grocery store and got some store-made pizza dough.  I know, I know, this is sacrilege, but I wanted to at least get something that resembled what Elizabeth and I tried on the table for this week's state-themed dinner.

I rolled the dough out and cut it into eight sections. I rubbed each of the sections with olive oil (using a slice of pepperoni), then put two or three slices of pepperoni in the middle of each slice of dough.  I topped this with a mound of mozzarella, and then rolled them up. I put them in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes.

The result...

Was very tasty...but more like a calzone than anything else.  They were a hit at the party, but I know that I didn't do the West Virginia Pepperoni Roll the justice that it deserved.

The plus side is that I've identified where I could improve for the next go around. And there will be a next time.  As I get better with baking, I'm going to attempt this one again, so look out at some point this year for a "redo" on West Virginia's pepperoni filled treat.  Hopefully they'll turn out better that time!

Week Four - Mississippi

Greetings from the Magnolia State! This week got away from me for posting, so I'm trying to play catch up here!

Last week, I cooked up a traditional "soul food" dinner for my family's stop in Mississippi.  Soul food is steeped in the culture of the Southeast, and it is rooted in the culture of slavery (not a coincidence that Mississippi's state flag still has the "Stars and Bars" so prominently featured). Slaves were given limited rations of food, and the recipes and cooking methods that one associates with soul food stem from those limitations.  Thus, you see many fried foods and cooked greens in traditional soul food recipes.

Soul food encompasses so many different foods and recipes that I was hard to narrow down what to fix.  I finally picked out a couple of my favorites and got to work.


Fried Catfish with Comeback Sauce

2lbs catfish nuggets (frozen then thawed)
2 cups buttermilk
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup flour (I used chickpea flour)
1 teaspoon "Soul Food" seasoning
2 cups vegetable oil for frying

For the sauce
1 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce
2 tablespoons ketchup
Juice from 1 lemon, squeezed
1 tablespoon smoked paprika


This was a day long process (a lot of these meals have required a bit more planning than I typically do for dinner!).  First, I put the catfish nuggets in a baking dish and poured the butter milk over them.  I let them soak in the refrigerator for 8 hours.

The sauce was super easy, and it's known as a "kissing cousin" to a roumalade. Just mix everything together until it's well blended, then let it set in the fridge for a few hours until you're ready to serve.

When it was time for frying, I took the catfish out of the refrigerator.  I mixed all of the dry ingredients together (salt and pepper to "seasoning") in a bowl, and I heated up the oil in my electric skillet.

I dredged the nuggets through the dry mixture, coating them well, and then popped them into the oil to fry. I did so until they were golden brown.

Black-Eyed Peas

1 lb. dried black eyed peas
Pork Fatback
4 Bay Leaves

Another all day affair, I first soaked the beans overnight.  Then, I used something that I hadn't cooked with before...

That's fatback, and it's a seasoning "meat" (I mean, it's just fat, right?).  I put the fatback into the pot and brought it to a boil. I then added the beans and the bay leaves, brought the water back to a simmer, and let it all go for an hour and a half.

Collard Greens

4 collard green stalks, chopped
Pork Fatback (chopped)

The second use of fatback for this dinner, this time around I chopped up the fatback and put it into a cast iron skillet. After sauteing it for a few minutes, I added the chopped greens.

Corn bread

1 cup corn meal (I use House-Autry)
1 cup chickpea flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 cups milk
1 can creamed style corn
Sliced jalapenos

First, preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  I mixed all of the dry ingredients together, and in a separate bowl I beat the eggs, milk, and oil together.

I added the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, slowly and continuously mixing while I did. I poured the batter into a baking dish, and put the sliced jalapenos on top of half of the mixture.

The result of all of this...

...was deeeeeelicious.  The comeback sauce was spicy but not overpowering, and the cornbread turned out well.  I'd had problems using gluten-free flour for baking in the past, but this go around it worked.

The star of all of this was the black eyed peas. I'd never prepared them this way, relying instead on the canned version. They were salty and came out tasting better than any black eyed peas I've ever had.  I'll need to stick with this preparation method from here on out. I hope that I did "soul food" justice with this meal. It was my first time with most of these recipes, and I'll definitely be coming back to them to try to make them better the next go around. 

With all this said, I have a pro-tip that I'd like to pass along to any home cook: check with your wife regarding her fish preferences before you go through the trouble of making dinner.  If it turns out that she doesn't like catfish at all, you're already starting off the evening with a handicap.