Crawfish Tortellini Salad

Who said crawfish and collard greens don't mix? This salad from The Collard Patch will prove otherwise. When we cooked this and featured it on KTVE news, the staff had trouble giving the news that day because they kept sneaking over to get a little more of this while they were trying to give the news, weather, and sports.

Crawfish Tortellini Salad
Ingredients
½ cup thinly sliced green onions with tops
1 small jar artichoke hearts, drained
1 cup small fresh mushrooms
1 cup large pitted ripe olives
1 cup fresh red bell pepper, sliced
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
12 ounces frozen crawfish tails
1 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon salt-free Creole seasoning
½ cup red wine vinegar
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon spicy mustard
1 teaspoon Splenda®
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Salt substitute to taste
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped
1 cup seedless golden raisins
1 package (14 ounces) cheese tortellini
4 ounces (¼ cup) feta cheese
4 cups tender baby collard leaves, chopped
4 cups Romaine lettuce, torn into small pieces

Preparation
Place the first 6 ingredients in a big bowl.

Place ¾ cup olive oil in the blender. Add the vinegar, lemon juice, mustard and all the remaining powdered seasonings. Blend until it is well mixed. Stir in the parsley and basil.

Pour the blended dressing over the ingredients in the bowl and marinate them covered at least 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Sauté the crawfish in ¼ cup olive oil and Cajun seasoning about 5-7 minutes. Even though there will be other seasoning mixed with the tortellini, each individual crawfish needs its own spiciness.

You don’t want those crawfish to get lonesome. After you sauté them long enough to catch the seasoning, set them aside to cool.

Cook the tortellini according to the package directions. Cook it al dente. Drain it in the colander and allow it to cool.

Toss the crawfish, tortellini, and raisins with the vegetable mixture.

When you serve the salad, place it over the greens. Garnish it with feta cheese.

Cooking Tips
Instead of crawfish, substitute 1 of the following:
3 cups white chicken meat, cooked and chopped
1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
If the feta cheese is a block, cube it.
Cubed ham would be tasty too.

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Top Secret Green Beans Recipe -- 25 Servings

I overheard the recipe for church beans! And here I'm sharing it with you. This is top secret. I'm sharing this with you so you can make some outstanding beans the next time you have to carry a covered dish to a fellowship.

In addition to what I overheard, I suggest you add a teaspoon of garlic powder, a generous shake of red pepper, and two generous shakes of black pepper to the sugar and butter mix. (Only if you are a spicemouth.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place 1/4 of a small bag of brown sugar and two sticks (1/2 pound!) of salted butter in a saucepan. Cover that with water, not too much. Heat that until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves, not too much.

Place an institutional-sized can of cut green beens in a big pan. (Don't drain them. You will have to be careful not to spill them on the way to church.) Pour the sugar and butter mix over the beans.

Cut a pound of bacon in pieces -- about 1-1 1/2 inches long. Spread the butter over the top.

Bake the beans 30 minutes or until they bubble and the bacon is cooked (not crsip).

Cover it and take it to church. You will have enough beans for 25 people. Don't even think about the number of calories or fat grams in this dish. Beans are health food, aren't they?