The VeryVera Show, Season 12 Episode 3, “Fall Favorites”

Featured Recipes: Baked Cheese Grits, Chicken and Bacon Chowder, Pecan Stuffed Mushrooms and Fall Popcorn Balls

Hey everybody I’m Vera Stewart and welcome to the very Vera show you know when the temperatures start dropping and that tea Olive in the front yard is blooming there’s nothing like it and along with that comes all of the great fall recipes and we’re going to do some

Of those today we’re going to start with the baked cheese grits this is a really wonderful way to start a weekend has lots of cheese and butter your family’s going to love it and then if you’re looking for something hearty that’s a meal in itself what about a chicken and

Bacon chowder just the sound of it makes me hungry and then we’ll do a pecan stuffed mushroom that might be your next tailgate surprise or just a bite-size appetizer when you’ve got guest over and then finally let let’s get the kids involved how about a popcorn ball

Perfect for this time of year and in Vera’s Corner today as long as we’re talking about snacks let’s do a sugared pecan that you can put on a salad or eat as a snack so I’m ready to get started let’s get in there and get those grits Going all right so grits are just a southern staple and they come in all different forms and shapes and sizes so you’ve got your quick grits instant grits just regular grits and you’ve got stone ground grits and I highly recommend that you use the stone ground

For this recipe as you can see it’s just a really hearty Gritz and it just Cooks up beautifully it does take longer but it’s worth the wait so this recipe for the baked cheese grits would be amazing with our kiche from the first cookbook it would be a really nice compliment to

That if you’re looking for something different if you’re having weekend company and you want a great breakfast you can make this the day before so it’s perfect so what we did here is I put my water in my pan and I like to use the Dutch oven it’s easy to maneuver when I

Get ready to put it into my casserole dish and I added the salt to the water it makes it boil faster it also helps to incorporate that salt into the Grits so that you’re not adding a lot of salt at the end all right so it has cooked now

For about 40 minutes it’s just perfect so now I’m going to add all the yummy things this is my Fresh Market butter that I’ll put in and then this is also their sharp cheddar cheese so I certainly recommend that you use a sharp cheddar cheese I also recommend that you

Grate it yourself because it really does make a difference and also theirs has such a really great sharp cheddar cheese flavor it’s really great so this is the best part when you’re just mixing all of these ingredients together and like I said I think people a lot of times

Because I’ve been in the catering business for right at 40 years you have to know what you can make in advance you can’t be ready for a big brunch for a bride if you cannot make some of those dishes in advance so this is now going

To be melted together but you can make this the day before you could actually make it 2 days before and just bake it at the last minute so needless to say this is you know piping hot my heat is off my induction cook top with um Wolf

The minute you turn it off it’s off so I don’t even have to remove the pan from the top of the stove um but now I’m going to add egg to this so what you certainly have to do here is you’ve got to temper that egg so I’m going to put a couple

Spoonfuls of this hot mixture in my Bowl and then you see I’ve got a towel under the bowl so I’ve got my egg cracked and mixed together so what I’m going to do here is just quickly start stirring this in and that keeps the egg from cooking this is called tempering the

Egg and this way the egg is now the same temperature is the Grits before you add it to the rest of the casserole and you see the towel keeps the bowl from spinning all around your counter so it works out great all right so this is ready to go

So now I can easily transfer this to the rest of the hot mixture and you don’t see cooked egg in it all right so I’ve greased My Pan and I’ve got my oven preheated to 350 so I’m going to put all of this into my casserole dish I’m going

To top it with a little extra cheese and pop it in the oven it does cook for about an hour and 15 minutes and when we come back from the break we will get started on the best chowder you ever ate so do not go away

Stick with me I’ll see you back in just a minute Welcome back everybody and if you’re just joining me we are celebrating fall we got a little bit of a nip in the air the tea Olive is smelling good outside and we’re ready to make some great fall dishes and we’ve already gotten started with the baked cheese grits and they are

Baking away in the oven but this is also something you can do a few days in advance and then not bake it until you’re ready to use it all right so now we’re starting on the chicken bacon chowder and this is a meal in itself it’s got the vegetable has everything

You need in it and it is so hardy and also freezes beautifully so you’re going to make a big pot of it even if it’s only two of you at home you can enjoy it all fall so what I’ve done in advance is I went ahead and cut my bacon into small

Pieces and fried it in my Dutch oven just get it good and crispy then drain it on a paper towel but you’re going to leave all of those yummy bacon drippings in the bottom of the pan cuz I’m going to add in my shallots and my celery a

Little bit of red pepper and some salt and just cook those vegetables down until they’re nice and tender and that’s where I am right now with this all right so now we’re going to make a rue so I’ve got my flour we’re going to add that to the vegetables and the bacon

Drippings and get that good and coated and that’ll cook you know just for a couple of seconds so you know in terms of what I said earlier about you can’t wait until the last minute to make everything when you’re entertaining it is important to know what things do

Freeze well and what you can do in advance and this is certainly one of those dishes you wouldn’t think that a milk-based chowder would freeze well but this really does and the only suggestion I would make is if the potatoes have gotten it kind of thick when you reheat

It just add a little bit more of either the low sodium chicken broth or some extra milk all right so now we’re ready to add the chicken broth and you know The Fresh Market has their own brand of chicken broth they have the low sodium they have the organic lots of different

Ones to choose from and I’m just going to slowly add this in and this just turns into the most amazing broth you know just the sound of chicken and bacon um in a chower that has you know we’re going to also put some corn in this in a few minutes along with the

Potatoes um it really is a meal in itself and I love to do this with just a salad or half a sandwich so now I’m going to get this stirred together and we’re going to add in and I the other part of this recipe that I really like a lot is it uses

Boneless skinless chicken thighs and I love Dart meat but you could use chicken breast too if you would prefer so I’m going to add those in and I’ve cut those into smaller pieces just so they’ll cook just right because this is going to simmer on top of the stove for about 12

Minutes and then my red potatoes are cut into about an inch that’s about a four of the potato when you’re cutting it but you don’t want it to be too big that you can’t pop it in your mouth because again you’re eating this in a bowl with a

Spoon all right so I’m going to put this on about a medium heat and we’re going to let this cook for about 12 to 15 minutes or until that chicken is done through all right so the chicken is cooked now for 12 to 15 minutes I’ve

Taken it out of the pot and I’ve shredded it with my forks and it just easily shred apart it does take a little bit of time to do it not because it’s hard but because you had a good bit of chicken but this just came together

Really well I’m going to go ahead and put a little bit of salt on top of this chicken and now I’m going to put it back into the pot so that mixture that we cooked has really worked up good and this is just the right size for

Eating and eating in a bowl and eating with a spoon um and I really like this consistency better than just chunks of chicken and your consistency of a d meat thigh is a little different from a chicken breast as well so now let’s add in the

Milk and this is where it gets nice and creamy and I’ll turn my pot back up just a little bit and you know honestly the longer this Cooks the better it is um and this is just shoe Peg corn and you can either buy the Frozen or the

Canned now this is going to simmer it’s ready to go and when we come back from the break we’re going to get started on those Pon stuffed mushrooms it’ll be the perfect appetizer or you know what you could have these with this soup too so come back with me in just a few Minutes Vera’s corner is brought to you by tax Slayer it’s no surprise that I love peanuts but what about candy pecans this is such a great southern staple it’s easy to make so let me show you the technique and some fun ways to use it preheat the oven to

325° bring water to a bowl of me medium heat in a large saucepan add 1/2 cup of sugar for classic candy pecan let the sugar dissolve on its own once the sugar is dissolved pour in 2 and 1/2 cups of pecan halves and let them cook stirring

Every few minutes the liquid will begin to thicken remove from the heat when most of the liquid has cooked out and the pecans are shiny and sticky spread the pecans on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and and bake for 8 to 10 minutes they should have a frosty look

Remove from the oven and let the pecans cool before using for Savory pecans use some paprika or add in some fall spices like cinnamon nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice for a holiday twist for something on the Savory side use fresh herbs like Sage or Rosemary and then add them to a

Sherie board or sprinkle on a salad to add a sweet savory or even spicy Crunch Wrap in a cellophane bag with a ribbon for a tasty gift enjoy this simple Treat start free today at tax slayer.com Welcome back everybody and I hope you enjoyed Vera’s corner you know I do not need to make those candy pecans because I end up snacking on them all day long but please try that recipe you know these little tips and verer Cor Corner come in handy and those are great on a

Salad all right so now we have the pecan stuffed mushrooms this is one of the recipes in the new book occasions it’s one of my very favorites really takes me back to my old timey catering days when we had the beautiful two bites that were

Spread out on top of silver trays I just love it so in advance I went ahead and just took a paper towel just brushed off the little bit of you know dirt or you know just some of the stuff that’s on the mushroom you want to make sure you

Get that off and I recommend you could also use like a little small brush but you don’t want to run them underwater to do that because that changes the consistency of the mushroom then you pop the little stems out and then you chop those up because that is your filling

That’s part of the filling that’s going to go into this recipe so we’ve got all of that ready now I’m going to add in my Pearson f Farm pecans and these are the Elliot halves and just remember they’re one of our partners they’re in Fort Valley Georgia they’re a family-owned

Business they’ve been in business since 1885 they have so many other products so be sure to check out their website all right we’ve also got freshly chopped parsley so don’t use the dried just go ahead and buy some parsley and cut it up you could even put it in your food

Processor if you wanted to all right then we’ve got some softened butter got a little bit of garlic that also makes you know all the flavors come out when you use a little bit of garlic th which is also a nice flavor with the other ingredients and

Then some kosher salt now I’m just going to mix this together and you know this is also a great idea for a side dish if you’re cooking a steak on the grill you want to do something different while you’re guest put this in the middle of a portella mushroom cap that would be

Tremendous and if you’re ever having a need to have something that’s a vegetarian dish this is also really good as an entree all right let me put some fresh ground pepper in there and like I said you’ve got your mushroom caps all ready to go and you

Could do this that morning and cook them off the night before um but I’m just going to use a spoon and we’re just going to put it inside each little cap and one of my tips from catering is when you’re doing an appetizer you don’t

Want it to be any bigger than two bites you know they can take a bite and have one bite left but if they’ve got a lot that they have to work with there in their hand that doesn’t work so well all right so these are going to go into a

325° oven and they’re going to bake off and when we come back from the break we’re going to get started on our presentation and some other tips about fall recipes and how to incorporate those into your fall all right so I’ll see you back in just a few Minutes welcome back everybody and you know there’s nothing like fall in terms of Aromas and different ingredients and things that you can do to make your home attractive and to make your guest want to be invited back and so hopefully today with the recipes that we’ve shared

You’ve got a little bit of an idea about what you want to do this fall the weather is always so pleasant and you can you know do some of this outside so let’s talk about how we turned this kitchen island into Qui quite a beautiful fall landscape so first of all

We started with a runner from Hester and cook that really pops everything else we’ve done today and I certainly want to invite you to go to their website because they have beautiful paper products for every occasion and you would never even know this was paper

Unless you touched it so I love the way that looks with our um straw basket weave charger plate the gold the bamboo handled silverware that we’ve got there it just really turned out great so let’s walk back through all the recipes we made today we started with the baked

Cheese grits and as you can see they bake up really beautifully in the pan and because of the egg they’re going to hold up so you have so many different ways to interpret grits you know real runny on the plate very fine thicker um something like this can be cut into

Squares and I’ve got the cutest way to present this is to slice it into squares and stack it like a breakfast sandwich and put the bacon in the center so you could even do that on a on a platter and serve it that way but it’s certainly a

Great way to present it if you’re doing it plated so I love that idea all right then we did the chicken and bacon chowder and I’ve got some in my Croc right here h i mean it is such it’s just the right consistency in terms of the actual

Chowder itself it’s not like soup and it’s not thick like a stew it’s absolutely perfect so again this you can make an advance honestly the longer it sits the more the flavor of the bacon and the potatoes and the chicken and the corn really go all the way through it so

I love that we’ve put it on the center of the plate and garnished with some extra of the bacon and a high High recommend that market bacon at Fresh Market it just fries up beautifully so then we moved into the pecan stuffed mushrooms and honestly on a stackable

Tray like this it just makes such a pretty presentation and they are easy to pick up it’s a two bite again I gave you the idea of putting that into a big portabella mushroom shell so if you were doing an entree with with the soup that

Would work well it’s also great with the salad but Pearson Farm just has the most amazing product their Elliot pecan halves are so flavorful you start chopping those up to go in those pecans and the flavor just goes crazy and so certainly I want you to look them up

They’ve been in business since 1885 it’s a fifth generation family business and they have a website where you can order directly from them all right then we did the popcorn balls so this recipe the kids are going to love it you put the marshmallows and the

Butter in a bowl put them in the microwave for a minute then you stir 30 seconds more then you’re going to take that out you’re going to fold in that mixture into the corks popcorn and they’re another family-owned business right here in Statesboro Georgia they started doing kettle popcorn at the

Local farmers market we added in some Reese’s chips and you just make balls out of those our campers you know are going to be doing that this fall we can’t wait to do it with them and speaking of campers they have decorated all of these gorgeous pumpkins plastic

Pumpkins that we just used to Sharpie so fall is in the air get excited get it done and remember no matter what you do do it in good taste I hope you’ll come back and join me again next Week