The Neely's Southern Sweet and Spicy Slaw

There is just something about my fascination with Southern cooking and watching Down Home with the Neelys on the Food Network. While a few of my food aficionado friends may beg to differ because the Neelys aren't professionally trained chefs, I stand by their  family-style cooking because not only do they own a barbeque restaurant (and I love barbeque), they are so funny to watch with their personal stories of Southern life and everything in-between. If I lived in Memphis, one thing's for sure, I'd be looking them up in the phonebook and inviting myself over for some dinners (or really any meal--heck, I'll even take snack.)

So last week, while on break at work, I was looking in the cookbook section and got that little flutter of excitement in my stomach when I saw the Neely's cookbook. The feeling was something on par with finding an extra present under the tree on Christmas or when a really hot guy smiles at you (especially if that really hot guy is Justin Timberlake.) Therefore, when I saw the book, I immediately grabbed it and headed to check-out. Having their cookbook was probably the closest I'd get to sharing a meal with them, which is such a shame because I totally know we could be best friends.

That night, I came home from work and decided I wanted to make something from the book that I could bring for lunch for a few days to work. I also wanted to make something easy and that wouldn't take a long time. Hence, when I came to the page titled,  "Sweet and Spicy Slaw" I knew that was it. The Neelys wrote that this slaw would be the prettiest, crispest and crunchiest--so I was hooked despite not being a fan of coleslaw. C'mon, how many of us have a bad impression of coleslaw? You know the kind from catered work parties that comes in plastic containers and is just green cabbage soaked with mayo. Totally gross. And totally bad for you.

This Southern sweet and spicy slaw seemed different because it looked like a great salad and side dish, not just cabbage and clumpy mayo. With most of the ingredients already in my fridge, I set out to start cooking Neely style (minus the giant pig jar of sugar of course.)  The first thing I did was wash and quarter a green and a red cabbage. Then I took the core out of both of the cabbages. Next, I was going to shred the cabbage in the food processor, but I couldn't find the right blade attachment. Not wanting to call my parents who were lunching in the city, I opted for chopping attachment instead. I then cut the quarters of cabbage into smaller pieces, popped them into the food processor and turned it on. When the cabbages were chopped, I emptied the contents of the food processor into a giant, blue glass bowl. 

After the cabbage, I peeled a yellow onion and placed that into the food processor to chop up. Just putting the chopped onion into the bowl made my eyes tear as if I was watching Miley Cyrus'  new movie, The Last Song. Onion aside, I peeled four organic carrots and chopped them up in the food processor too. Right about now, I was feeling pretty good about owning a food processor (or that my mom owned one) because this was sure saving me a lot of work. 


                            

Now that the slaw was complete, I mixed it around and got out another glass bowl to prepare my dressing. For the dressing, I added one cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of mustard, 1/2 cup of mayo, 1 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp cayenne pepper, a pinch of kosher salt and 2 tbs apple cider vinegar. I whisked the dressing until it was mixed and then poured it over the slaw. When the slaw was covered with the dressing, I put plastic wrap over it and popped it into the fridge.

After the slaw chilled and marinated, I packed my lunch for the following day by putting trail mix, string cheese and a tupperware of the sweet and spicy slaw into a brown paper bag. Although it was almost time for dinner, I couldn't resist trying some of the slaw and it was amazing! I couldn't believe the flavor that was packed into the dish. It was sweet from the sugar, yet the slaw had a kick too it from the cayenne pepper. My nose started to run after several bites, but it just had great flavor. The colors were bright and the cabbage was crunchy. This slaw gets an A+, which I'm glad it did because the recipe made enough slaw for about fifteen people, so I'd have lunch for a few days. 

A Quesdilla Side: Guy Fieri's Black Bean Salad

Last night, my mom was making quesdillas for dinner, so I volunteered to put myself in charge of finding and creating the perfect side dish to a food I lived on in college. But what was I going to make ? At a Mexican restaurant, the normal side dish would be either refried beans, yellow rice or chips and salsa. But then, I remembered a few years ago my aunt made a delicious three bean salad, so what did I do? I hopped onto FoodTv.com and typed in "bean salad" to search for the recipe that would match some homemade Mexican.

The picture of Guy Fieri's (the chef on the Food Network who makes cooking cool for "men") black bean salad looked delicious and was just what I was envisioning making. I had most of the ingredients for the dish at home except for green onions, a red onion, canned pineapple and canned corn. Therefore, I made a quick trip to the store and of course while I was out, I had to get an iced raspberry coffee with Soymilk from Starbucks as well!

With my ingredients on the table along with my mom's food processor, a spoon, a giant bowl, and a cutting board and chopping knife, I began to assemble to salad. The first thing I did was drain and rinse two cans of black beans, and two small cans of sweet corn before placing them into the large bowl. Then I cut up my red onion before I realized half of it was rotten, so I threw half in the garbage and chopped the other half in the food processor. After the red onion, I put the green onions in the food processor and then added them to the bowl.

Fieri's recipe called for two Roma tomatoes, but I opted to leave them out of the recipe as well as switch the 1/4 cup of diced red bell pepper to one roasted red pepper and a half of roasted orange pepper that I had in the fridge and chopped up. Using a roasted pepper gave the salad a better texture and flavor. The orange in the salad really made it pop, so I decided because I had enough organic carrots in my fridge for an army, to shred up a carrot in the salad to mix it up! I also added the entire can of diced pineapple into the bowl, but I wish I had chopped the cubes in half because they looked rather large.

Now that the salad was put together, it was time to make the dressing--to which I made some changes. Instead of using the juice of 1/2 a lime, I used a full lime and then the zest of the lime for additional flavor and color. I also substituted the 3 tablespoons of honey for three tablespoons of agave nectar, which tastes exactly like honey and has a low glycemic index. (This means you won't get a high sugar rush followed by a crash.) It also has less calories, dissolves quicker and is a little sweeter than sugar.

Then the dressing called for 4 tablespoon of sherry vinegar. Not having any in the house, I added 2 1/2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar instead. In addition, I added only a dash of salt instead of a tablespoon, a few cranks of ground black pepper and opted to forget about the pinch of ground cumin and cilantro because my mom isn't a fan of the latter.

I mixed all my ingredients up making sure the salad was coated with the dressing and then plated a generous portion of the salad in three white, square bowls. I put plastic wrap over the salad and placed the bowls into the fridge to chill until dinner was ready.

This recipe gets an A+ because it is a great side dish you could have with Mexican food or even bring to a barbecue! The black bean salad was delicious! Not only is it very healthy for you, but the flavors came together incredibly. Luckily, I had an entire container of the concoction left over, so I couldn't wait to have some for lunch the following day.

The only downside to the recipe was that Fieri said the prep time was only 10 minutes, but it took me 25 to put it together because you have to wash and chop all the veggies! But, on a brighter note that night, I brought some over to my friend's house to try and her mom asked me if I bought the salad or made it because it looked just like the one they got from the store!