Gingerbread

Tried and True Thursday Gingerbread I have always loved Gingerbread.  Years ago when I was in elementary school, Gingerbread days in the lunchroom were hailed as mighty fine ones.  That was truly years ago, when food in the schools was made from scratch, not this frozen processed stuff that is merely heated and served now in the schools.  School lunches in my youth were awesome things. Anyway, back to Gingerbread:  spicy, warm, rich, moist and topped more often than not with a warm lemon sauce.  Awesome!  Granny made Gingerbread as well and served hers warm with chilled homemade applesauce on the side.  Yum! When I grew up and had children of my own, Gingerbread was one of our frequent desserts, especially in those early days when money was so terribly tight.  It was fairly inexpensive to make and rich enough to satisfy the family sweet tooth and a smaller portion satisfied.   Then I lost my recipe...and I spent years looking for a good gingerbread recipe.  For once my favorite recipe book, The Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedia Cookbook, utterly failed me.  Not one of the recipes was quite right.  Some were too light, all were too dry and none had that spicy richness I wanted. Last year when I was visiting the Culloden Library Booth at the Peaches to Beaches Yard Sale, I found a 1970 issue of Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, close enough to my long lost 1978 version to give me hope.  Flipping it open to cakes, I found my favorite recipe for Gingerbread.  I bought the book on the spot and made gingerbread that afternoon after returning home. For me, Gingerbread is the quintessential Autumn dessert.  I love it best when the weather is rainy and cold and I can turn on the oven, whip up a panful and fill the house with warmth and spice.  That said, I do make it in occasionally in other seasons.  But I make it more often in the colder months.  Sometimes I make it just as it is written below.  Other times I make it more like an upside down cake and if you haven't tried this you really should.  Proceed as you would for a pineapple upside down cake, melting butter in the bottom of your pan and adding brown sugar...then layer in thinly sliced pieces of apple or pear, pour over the Gingerbread batter and bake.  It's an interesting twist and a good way to use up those last two apples or pears. To serve Gingerbread: Cut into squares and eat plain, out of hand, while warm with a tall cold glass of milk to wash it down.  For dessert, serve topped with lemon sauce (I don't have a recipe for this but it is essentially lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and water cooked until thickened.  It's a sweet tart sort of sauce), or applesauce or mix a spoonful or two of warm lemon curd into whipped cream and dollop on top.  Gingerbread 1/2 cup shortening (some recipes call for butter.  I use what I have on hand) 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg 1/2 cup molasses (I like dark for the darkness it gives the bread...I have substituted cane syrup but I prefer molasses) 1 1/2 cups sifted self-rising flour 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 cup boiling water (you can use hot brewed coffee if you've leftovers) Cream shortening and sugar until light.  Add egg and molasses, beating thoroughly.  Sift flour then add alternately with water, beating after each addition.  Bake in greased and lightly floured cake pan, 8 X 8, at 350F for 35-40 minutes, until pick inserted in center comes out clean.  ***Just a side note here...when I lived in an older home with plenty of holes for wintering mice to find their way indoors, I often baited mice traps with Gingerbread cubes.  The mice found the spicy goodness irresistible, too!

Guacamole

Tried and True Thursday

Guacamole

When I was growing up the Avocado was a pretty much exotic fruit.  We might see an occasional one at the bigger chain grocery stores, but seldom.  Things have changed dramatically.  Now even the tiny local grocery stores carry avocados (though not the one in my hometown). 

My first experience with avocado came in my early twenties.  My neighbor and friend was from California, Riverside to be exact, and she knew all about wonderful things like Hispanic cooking, avocados and wine, all exotic stuff to this rurally raised Southern gal.  I kid you not, the first macaroni salad I ever ate in my life was served at this woman's table, complete with the equally exotic black olives as garnish! lol   My California born friend was responsible for broadening my food horizons. 

I love avocado now.  I like it on burgers, in salads, and made into guacamole.  There are all sorts of recipes out there for guacamole.  It's kind of like eating Brunswick Stew or Barbeque or Clam Chowder...every region has it's particular version.  I can't recall just where I got my recipe from, but it is fairly straightforward, it tastes wonderfully fresh and when I do make it I fight to get a tablespoonful before it's all gone.  While one might traditionally eat guacamole with tortilla chips, it's wonderful spread on a burger, dolloped in the midst of a green salad and topped with grilled chicken, or even eaten with crackers.

Guacamole

2 ripe avocados (about 1 cup flesh total)

juice of 1 lime

1 tsp. minced garlic

1 small jalapeno, seeded

2 green onions, whites and green tops

salt to taste

Cut avocados in half, remove pit and scoop out flesh.  Mash with a fork.  Add seasonings and stir well.  Serve immediately.  If you plan to keep in fridge for a few hours, put one of the avocado pits in the bowl with the guacamole and cover tightly.

Lemonade Stand Pie

Tried and True Thursday *Flashback to July 2009 Lemonade Stand Pie This was one of the very first desserts I made as a brand new homemaker.  I loved the tart rich flavor of the pie filling and because it was a frozen pie it was perfect for a summer dessert.  I'll never forget the first time I served it.  Granny and her mother, Big Mama, came to lunch at my house.  I made sure the table was pretty with a tablecloth and my wedding china and because I had no flowers my bouquet was bunches  of  branches with green leaves of various trees from the yard.  I served potato salad and dusted the top of the salad with paprika for additional color.  I can't for the life of me remember what else was on our menu, except for the pie. This recipe is versatile and easy to make.  A graham crust is the traditional crust, but you could use gingersnaps, vanilla wafers, pecan shortbread cookies or cornflakes, etc.   While the recipe calls for lemonade concentrate, I have used lime and you could use pineapple or orange juice concentrates as well.  I can tell you for sure that this is an easy recipe.  It's less than five ingredients if you have a pre-made crust.  Lemonade Stand Pie 1 6-ounce can frozen lemonade concentrate 1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk 1 12-ounce container whipped topping 1 prepared crust, graham or your choice Allow lemonade concentrate to thaw.  While still cold, pour into mixing bowl.  Add condensed milk and stir until thick and creamy.  Gently fold in all but 1/2 cup of the whipped topping.  Pour into pie shell and freeze. To serve, allow to sit at room temp for 15 minutes.  Slice and serve.  Use remaining whipped topping to dollop on slices

Fried Green Tomatoes

Tried and True Thursday  *Flashback to July 2009 Fried Green Tomatoes Growing up in the South and in a gardening family, we had plenty of vegetables to eat fresh all summer long.  Often lunches were vegetable plates only, no meat.  And it wasn't uncommon to have cucumber sandwiches, tomato sandwiches or vegetable garden sandwiches (whatever was fresh and ripe and ready to eat along with a lettuce leaf between two slices of white bread!). Occasionally we'd have green tomatoes on the vine come end of season and at that time Mama and Granny and Big Mama went into a frenzy of making up huge batches of green tomato relish.  Boy was that stuff good, especially on a mess of black eyed peas mid-winter.  (A mess of anything  is a potful).  During the relish making it was inevitable that we'd want lunch.  And with all those green tomatoes on the counter it seemed only fitting that we'd eat them for lunch.  In later years, we often didn't wait for relish days to make fried green tomatoes.  When tomatoes were plentiful and in various stages of ripeness they were brought indoors and put on the windowsill.  Just let Mama think for one minute she didn't have a green vegetable to go on the table.  Why right there was a green tomato on the windowsill.  She'd take two, slice them and fry them right up. Then Fannie Flagg wrote a book, which was made into a movie, both titled Fried Green Tomatoes.  Suddenly, everybody wanted to try those fried green tomatoes.  Nowadays many  groceries carry green tomatoes as well as ripe ones, so I can buy them.  And do you know they charge more for green tomatoes?  Well they are worth it. Several years ago a friend from up North happened to drop by as I started to prepare supper, which happened to have Fried Green Tomatoes in the menu.  He was fascinated by the whole concept of eating a green tomato.  My kitchen was very small and as I took up the tomatoes from the pan, I put them on a plate on the counter behind me.  I urged him to "Try one..."  Well I should have known better!  The man not only tried one, he tried every single tomato slice that came out of the pan.  Imagine my surprise when I turned to pick up what was supposed to be a platter full of tomato slices and found just three lonely little slices on the plate!  He looked at me sheepishly and apologized...for not eating them all!  "I got full," he said.  Needless to say, he was a convert to eating green tomatoes! I do things a bit differently.  Number One, I don't garden.  I know it's a darned shame, but Chance was city born and bred and truly did believe for many years that gardens were for those who couldn't get to the grocery store!  He's changing his thinking though and perhaps next year, he says, we shall plant a small garden of our own.  Being limited to the grocery store, meant I didn't have access to green tomatoes for a long time, unless someone with a garden blessed us.  (2016 and he's still saying, "Maybe next year..." or more often, "When I retire...") Number Two, I have perfected my own method of making Fried Green Tomatoes.  Mama's method was straightforward, dip the sliced tomato in flour, drop in a skillet of hot oil, brown, flip and brown and eat.  They are perfectly edible prepared this way.  A neighbor of ours used to dip them in corn meal, which was pretty darned good, too.  Here's my way of making them: Fried Green Tomatoes 2 or 3 large green tomatoes (some red streaks are okay but all green are even better) 1 cup buttermilk 1 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp black pepper 1 tsp dried oregano 1/4 cup corn meal 1/2 cup flour Oil Slice tomatoes thin (I know in the movie they sliced them thick, but honestly no one I know ever cut them that thick to fry.  Thin is best.  The tomatoes will crisp up a little).  Pour buttermilk over tomato slices. Mix the dry ingredients in a pie plate.  Heat oil in skillet (you don't need to deep fry, just cover the bottom of the frying pan with oil.  You'll be adding more as you go). Take a tomato slice that is fairly wet with buttermilk, dredge in dry mixture, drop into hot pan and repeat until pan is filled but not overfull.  They will fry fairly quickly and about the time you drop in the last that will fit in the pan you'll be turning the first one over.  By the time all the slices in the pan are turned over, it's time to take up the first one.  The slices are best put on a rack over paper towels to cool slightly, rather than right on a plate, if you want them to remain crispy.  Otherwise, as you layer them on a plate they will get soft, but believe me they are still wonderful.  Repeat process until all slices are cooked.

Homemade Cream Style Corn

Tried and True Thursday (flashback to July 2009) Homemade Cream Style Corn I grew up in a family of gardeners.  We ate fresh vegetables all summer long and canned and froze and preserved everything we could for eating the other nine months of the year.  Fresh foods are soooooo much better than the stuff we get today in the grocery. I've made the most of corn on the cob thus far this summer.  But I was homesick for some of the foods I grew up eating...like homemade cream style corn, which has absolutely no relationship to the canned stuff on the grocery shelves, nor the frozen stuff that comes in tubes either.  Twenty years ago, when Mackenzie Foods was still a small independent produce plant in the small town I lived in, they offered up packages of frozen cream style corn that was like homemade.  Alas, that business bit the dust after the union came in and took over the plant. So this past week, while I was with Granny I asked: How do you make cream style corn?  I well remember the shucking and silking of ears each year.  But the part that came after we weren't allowed to participate in.  So Granny told me how to do it with a knife and as an afterthought she told me I could also use my box grater and use the long slicing side. I bought corn on Big Shop day and yesterday I set to work.  First I cut off the tassels and the stem.  Then I shucked the corn and silked it and washed the ears well.  Then I put the box grater in a big deep bowl.  I did recall this part correctly.  Grating corn is a messy splattery sort of job.  I ran the ears of corn over the box grater until I saw nothing but cob on them.  And then I began the cooking of the corn.  It was delicious!  We had fried green tomatoes with the dish (I'll try and remember to share that recipe with you next week) and cold ham slices and freshly buttered homemade bread.  While Katie declares me a gourmet cook, this was pure country cooking, good food, and boy was it worth every bit of my time and effort! Homemade Cream Style Corn 6 ears of corn, trimmed, shucked, silked and washed Place box grater in deep dish pan, or pot.  Grate corn on box grater (use the cheese slicer side) until nothing but cob remains. Put corn in frying pan.  Add just enough water to cover slightly, then bring to boil over medium heat.  Stir and scrape pan often (I found about every ten minutes was just about right).  Add more water as needed.  Corn will need to simmer over medium to medium low heat for about 40 minutes.  Taste to determine 'doneness'.  It will taste sweet and not have the 'raw' milky taste of fresh uncooked corn. When done, slowly stir in 3 tbsps cream, and 1 generous tbsp of butter.  Salt and pepper to taste and cook a few minutes longer until corn is thick and creamy.

Slow Cooker Mongolian Beef

Forgive the banner in the midst of this.  I was being lazy and used copy/paste instead of editing it properly, but only because I'm anxious to share this recipe.  It's one of the meals made while Bess was here and sharing cooking duties and it was so awesome.  John has mentioned it three times and each time he ends with "And it was good!"  I'm not sure but he might have liked it.

This recipe is from the website www.iamthatlady.com 

Slow Cooker Paprkia Chicken

Slow Cooker Paprika Chicken

Author: Lauren Greutman

Prep time:  15 mins

Cook time:  4 hours

Total time:  4 hours 15 mins

Serves: 6-8

 

Ingredients

• 2-3 lbs. chicken drumsticks or thighs
• 3-4 russett potatoes, peeled and chopped into cubes
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks
• 1 onion, sliced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp butter, cut into cubes
• 1 tsp worchestershire
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Chicken Bullion cube
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup sour cream

Instructions

1. Add all ingredients (except the sour cream) into the slow cooker.
2. Mix to evenly distribute the spices.
3. Cook on high for 4 hours (or medium for 6, or low for 8).
4. Remove chicken and vegetables from the slow cooker.
5. Add sour cream to the remaining liquid and whisk.
6. Pour some of the gravy over the top of the chicken and vegetables and serve.

3.3.3077

3.3.3077