Winner of the Le Creuset Recipe Contest- Chocolate Bread Pudding!

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Thank you again for all of the entries for our recipe contest- they were amazing!  Our winner is Sally who sent in Chocolate Bread Pudding.  It is light, chocolate deliciousness and everything you want in a dessert!  The picture I took of it when I made it for our Le Creuset judge did not turn out so well, so unfortunately, I don’t have a picture to post, but the recipe will make up for it!

Chocolate Bread Pudding

6 cup bread cubes
4 cups milk
6 egg yolks
1-3/4 cup sugar, divided
1-1/2 tsp. vanilla
4 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate, melted
4 tbs. butter or margarine, melted
6 egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions

Preheat oven to 375°F. Grease a 12x8x2-inch baking dish. In a large bowl, combine bread and milk; let stand 10 to 15 minutes.

In a large bowl with a mixer at high speed, beat egg yolks, 1 cup sugar, and vanilla until light colored. Beat in the chocolate and butter. Gradually stir in the bread mixture. Pour into the prepared dish. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until set.

In a large bowl with a mixer at high speed, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually beat in remaining 3/4 cup sugar and cream of tartar; continue beating until stiff peaks form. Spread evenly on top of baked pudding.

Bake in a 375°F oven 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm.

Makes 8 to 12 servings

Fat & Juicy and my new crockpot!

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I recently learned of the phenom of The Crockpot Girls on Facebook.  In the middle of August, three women out of Texas started a Facebook page for people to post their crock pot recipes- by the beginning of September, they had over 1,000,000 users.  I have no idea how something goes viral like that, but I think it is amazing.  So, of course, I went out and bought a crock pot.  I have made a couple of chicken dishes so far, but last night’s was the best.  I know this doesn’t really fall under the baking category, but it is very Southern!  Two band mates in Charleston (they also have real jobs) decided their Bloody Mary Mix was the best, so they named it Fat & Juicy(www.fatandjuicymix.com), and it started selling like crazy!  While I adore these guys, I don’t like Bloody Marys.  So yesterday, while looking through recipes on www.crockpotgirls.com, I found Bloody Mary Chicken.  As most crock pot recipes are, it is incredibly simple- put chicken and a bottle of Bloody Mary Mix in your crock pot and cook on low all day or on high for 4-5 hours.  I, of course, used Fat and Juicy Bloody Mary Mix served it over brown rice, and it was amazing!  Grab a bottle of Fat & Juicy and mix it with chicken for a delicious dinner or vodka for a delicious drink!

Mississippi Mud Pie

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On top of working with the Lee Brothers last week, which was the best experience ever, I also moved.  As all of you know, moving is not fun- at all!  However, I now have a much bigger kitchen, and I also got some old Pyrex mixing bowls from ebay.com which are fantastic.  My son asked me whether I was more excited about the new house or my new mixing bowls.  The house wins by a slim margin.  As a treat for all of my hard work this weekend during the move, I decided on chocolate. Nothing quite beats it- except for maybe cheese- but those are two totally different categories.  I found this old recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie, and it is delicious!

Mississippi Mud Pie

Use a chocolate or vanilla cookie crust, or a graham cracker crust, to make this Mississippi mud pie
(I used chocolate- so good).

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. butter, 1 stick
2 (1 oz. each) squares unsweetened chocolate
3 eggs
3 tablespoons white corn syrup
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
9 inch graham cracker, chocolate or vanilla wafer pie shell

Preparation:

In a saucepan, heat butter and chocolate, stirring often, until melted and well  blended. 
Beat eggs; stir in the corn syrup, sugar and vanilla. 
Add the chocolate mixture to egg and sugar mixture, stirring well. 
Preheat oven to 350°.  Pour filling into prepared pie shell. 
Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until top is slightly crunchy and filling is set.
Serve  warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or dollop of whipped cream.

The Lee Brothers Cookbook Photo Shoot

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Thank you all so much for the amazing recipes you sent in for our Le Creuset recipe contest!  I don’t have a new recipe for my post today because I am in the middle of helping the Lee Brothers (www.mattandtedlee.com) with their photo shoot for their new cookbook.

It is so amazing to watch all the preparations for delicious food and the extensive work everyone goes to get the perfect shot of the dishes or drinks.  I have been a total errand girl- everything from grocery shopping (my record is six different grocery stores in one trip- Harris Teeter, Whole Foods, Piggly Wiggly, Mt. Pleasant Seafood, Earthfare, and back to Harris Teeter) to peeling peanuts to shelling and de-veining shrimp.  And I am washing a lot of dishes.  It is such a fun experience to watch a cookbook being put together, and the recipes are fantastic!

More to come!!

One More Day for Le Creuset Recipe Contest

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Only one more day to get your recipes in for a chance to win Le Creuset bake ware!!  Send in your favorite dessert recipe to southwillrise.mp@gmail.com.  We have some amazing entries so far!!

 

Gouda Grits and Seafood Goodness

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We spent a long weekend down on Wadmalaw Island, just 30 minutes south of Charleston, SC.  The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful, and we ate some good food!  Here are two of the best things we had.  First- the crabs!  I am not actually going to write a recipe for this as we caught fresh crabs, and a lot of them, put them in a pot with some seasoning, and boiled them.  Then we ate them.  I am using “we” rather loosely, as I am allergic to shellfish, but I did help catch the crabs and lived vicariously through everyone else watching them eat, and they are a lot better in pictures than grits (and here is the sunset thrown in as well)!

Next came the grits, which I ate. And ate. And ate.  I am not sure if it has come across yet how much I love cheese.  But I do.  I love it so much!  So Gouda Grits sounded pretty amazing when I ran across the recipe in Southern Living magazine.  I have grown up eating my mother’s amazing cheddar cheese grits, and I have never strayed from that recipe, but this sounded too good to pass up, especially now that I am writing this blog, which gives me an excuse to try just about anything!  Here is the recipe.  The next time I make this, I will cut it in half if not quarters, because it made so much!

Gouda Grits

4 cups chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 cups uncooked quick-cooking grits
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Gouda cheese
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup butter
2 teaspoons hot sauce

Preparation

Bring first 4 ingredients and 4 cups water to a boil in a Dutch oven over high heat; whisk in grits, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until thickened. Remove from heat, and stir in Gouda and remaining ingredients.

Iced Rum Milk Perfection

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My parents had their 40th wedding anniversary this past weekend, and to celebrate, they took the whole family down to The Inn at Palmetto Bluff (www.palmettobluffresort.com). We gave them pictures of the grandchildren. Now, while that doesn’t seem like quite a fair trade, we hired Katherine Berdy out of Birmingham, AL (www.katherineberdy.com), and she took such beautiful pictures of my parents with all the kids- I think it was a really special present for them. My brother, who just got married and doesn’t have kids yet, said his “much more awesome” present was in the mail. But, back to the Inn- it was spectacular!

We spent the days leisurely riding our bicycles to the pool or the tennis courts, with maybe a stop at the bocce or the croquet courts. The food was magnificent, and the scenery of this little recreated river town was really beautiful. On Sunday, my mother took the girls to the spa for massages. After an hour of complete relaxation, my massage therapist, Andrea, told me to take my time getting up, and she would meet me outside with- well, I was expecting her to say water, but instead she said she would meet me outside with iced rum milk. ICED RUM MILK!! I don’t know if they had problems getting people to leave their luxurious rooms after the massages or if they are just that genius, but enticing me to get out of my comfy massage bed with iced rum milk was perfection. It was the most delicious, refreshing, lovely drink, and the best part of all-
I got the recipe!!

Iced Rum Milk

2 cups half and half
2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cups simply syrup
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons nutmeg

Directions

combine 1.5 oz. of either bourbon or Malibu Coconut Rum with 4 oz. of the mix and pour over ice.

PS- don’t forget to send in your recipes for your favorite dessert for our Recipe Contest to Win Le Creuset Cookware!!! We have some fantastic submissions so far- send your recipes to southwillrise.mp@gmail.com!!