Creamed Collard Greens

I never used to be a fan of collard greens which is about as un-Southern as one can get. My uncle's wife started bringing them to Thanksgiving dinner several years ago and they looked pretty good so I tried them. Now I'm still not going to eat a big ol' bowl of them but I do like them in moderation with corn bread and lots of pepper sauce. As a rule I don't like mushy, drippy things so collards were never an option for me. My family certainly didn't agree. A pot of collards, a pan of cornbread and those folks were ready for supper.

A few weeks ago I caught a few minutes of the FoodNetwork tv show "Cooking with the Neelys". The Neelys are a couple who own a barbecue restaurant here in Memphis but their show is about Southern or Soul food. They were cooking creamed collard greens and it just looked so good. I made a big dinner for my Mama on Mother's Day and we decided to try this dish. I got the recipe from http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_131396,00.html. I made changes right away. The recipe calls for shallots which I omitted because I don't like anything in the onion family. I also had to add a lot more heavy cream than the recipe called for. I thought about how I make Creamed Spinach so I added cream cheese to the collards too. I know, just call me Paula Deen!

My whole family enjoyed this change to an old family favorite. We will definitely have this again sometime when we really want to indulge in something rich and decadent. 'Til next time.