Tag Archive for: southern food

Garden & Gun: The Southern Food Bracket

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I am not into basketball.  I did not go to a Division I college, except that we were Division I in squash.  In fact, Trinity holds the longest collegiate winning streak in history- 252 matches in 14 years.  They did not lose for 14 years.  I mean, that is amazing.  Maybe I can get a little geared up about Trinity squash, so I guess I can understand how people who went to these colleges still left in the March Madness thing, tournament, I don’t even know what you call it, can get so excited about it.  However, according to an article on CNN.com, March Madness could cost American companies $889.6 million in lost work because people are so preoccupied by the basketball and everything that goes along with it.  All the talk of the brackets is making me tired.  It was such a relief to read on the Garden & Gun (love!) website and see a fun take off of the whole bracket situation.  Here is the link to the article http://gardenandgun.com/southern-food-bracket.  I am a little late to the game on this because first round voting is already complete, but the gist is you get to vote on your favorite Southern foods in a bracket style- super fun!  So while I might be losing my company money (not really though) being preoccupied by a bracket, it will not be based on basketball.  That being said, I hope Kentucky wins.

All done skiing- its time for Spring!

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We got back from Vail last night to 80 degree weather- a very welcome change despite the fact that I was still wearing my wool socks and my feet almost melted off walking to the car.  Vail was amazing!  I have not been to Colorado in over 20 years and never in the winter, and it is breathtakingly beautiful.  It certainly helped that the weather was excellent- it was in the 50s by mid morning of the first three days we skied which made the snow like mashed potatoes, and it was spring skiing at its finest.  The last day it was about 20 degrees, and I had not packed for 20 degrees.  Lets just say that Corby spent the majority of the last day skiing by himself while I walked around Vail village looking for a present for Walker and then hunkered down the awesome coffee shop the Yeti’s Grind (www.yetisgrind.com) which has the best cupcakes.  On St. Patrick’s day, we went in there before we hit the slopes and got an Irish Carbomb cupcake- holy amazing Batman, that cupcake set me right for the rest of the day.  One of other fun places we checked out was the Red Lion (www.theredlion.com).   This is probably the most famous apres ski place in Vail, and it is not to be missed.  Phil Long puts on a fantastic show while you are indulging in their GI-NORMOUS plate of nachos and sipping on your favorite cocktail.  It might be worth getting of the mountain early just to grab a seat.  On the opposite end of the spectrum, we spend one day skiing at Beaver Creek and had lunch at the Ritz Carlton.  This place is kind of silly it is so nice.  We had lunch on big couches (the couch in the picture is the one we sat on) in front of a huge window watching skiers come down the hill, and we sat next to Joe Kern from CNBC (I had no idea who he was, but Corby is a big CNBC watcher).  Corby and I spilt a turkey club and a bowl of tomato parmesan soup. Honestly, I am not sure it it was the setting or the relief of taking my ski boots off, but that was the best damn soup ever!

Now we are back in Charleston- it is full on Spring with the azaleas blooming everywhere and tank tops and flip flops have taken back over, and to put the ski season and winter behind me, I found this very spring time recipe on www.GoodHousekeeping.com for a Lemon Ricotta Cheese cake.  Enjoy!!

Lemon Ricotta Cheese cake

Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
4 tablespoons butter or margarine,  softened
3 to 4 lemons
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 packages   (8-ounce)  reduced-fat cream  cheese softened
1 container   (15-ounce)  part-skim  ricotta cheese
4 large eggs
2 cups half-and-half or light  cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Wrap the outside of a 9-inch springform pan with heavy-duty foil to prevent batter from leaking out during baking.

In a springform pan, with fork, mix graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. With hand, press mixture firmly onto bottom of pan.  Bake crust 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack, about 15 minutes.

Reset oven to 325 degrees F. Meanwhile, from 2 lemons, grate 2  teaspoons peel and squeeze 1/3 cup juice. In small bowl, stir together sugar and  cornstarch until blended. In large bowl, with mixer on medium speed, beat cream  cheese and ricotta until smooth, about 5 minutes. Slowly beat in sugar mixture.  Reduce speed to low; beat in eggs, half-and-half, vanilla, and lemon peel and  juice just until blended, scraping bowl often with rubber spatula.

Pour batter onto crust. Bake cheesecake 1 hour. Turn off oven; let  cheesecake remain in oven 1 hour.

Remove cheesecake from oven. To help prevent cracking during cooling,  run a thin knife between edge of the cheesecake and pan as soon as the cheesecake comes  out of the oven. Cool cake in pan on wire rack 2 hours. Cover and refrigerate cheesecake at least 6 hours or overnight, until well chilled.

To serve, remove foil and side of pan and place cake on plate. From remaining lemons, with a sharp knife, cut 8 very thin center slices; use to garnish the top of the cheesecake.

 

Fun with Velveeta

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We had an engagement party on Sunday for my sweet friend Kendall and her fiancé, Robert.  It was a very casual backyard cocktail party, and we had a blast.  Since we had gotten back from Disney World the night before, I didn’t have a whole lot of time to get ready for the party, especially losing an hour thanks to daylight savings.  My friend Patricia and I were throwing the party together- she was bringing half of the food, and I was making the other half, which included a bread wreath and brie, veggies and ranch dressing dip, spanakopita, cheesecake strawberries, and a spicy sausage queso dip.  My darling angel Walker was the best helper.  He decorated the backyard with streamers and flags and pretty much every other party decoration he could find at the Dollar Tree.

I was browning the meat for the queso dip on the stove and hollowing out the strawberries, and Walker wanted to help, so I asked him to cut up the big block of Velveeta into little squares to put in the crock pot.  This is the easiest recipe ever- big block of Velveeta, 1 lb of ground beef browned on the stove and then drained, 2 cans of Rotel tomatoes- put in the crock pot until melty cheesy goodness, and serve with Fritos.  So, I finished browning and draining the meat and took it over to the crock pot where Walker had cut up about 3/4 of the Velveeta, and the rest he made into a cheese family watching TV.  This was just too funny not to share!

Disney Surprise and Profiteroles

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We surprised Walker with a trip to Disney World this past week.  Corby and I have been planning this since before Christmas, and I was looking forward to his reaction more than to the trip.  We had it all planned out- we would pick him up from school and tell him we were taking him down to a plantation (he is doing a year-long project on plantations), and then we would surprise him when we got somewhere in Georgia.  Of course, last Tuesday night, Walker woke up with 104 fever and did not go to school on Wednesday but to the doctor, who pronounced that Walker had strep throat.  Fortunately, his fever was gone and we got him on antibiotics immediately, so we were still able to leave on Wednesday afternoon.  We still told him that we were going to a plantation, and finally, somewhere south of Savannah, Walker asked when we were going to get there- here is the video of his reaction- so fun- click here to watch disney video!!  Thursday morning we went to the Animal Kingdom, where Corby and Walker rode the Yeti Mt. Everest ride 3 or 4 times.  I sat and waited as I don’t do roller coasters.  We went back to the hotel for some lunch and pool time and then headed over to Epcot for some more roller coasters for Walker and Corby and more waiting for me.  Then we went to Les Chefs (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/les-chefs-de-france/) for dinner in France at Epcot.  I don’t actually remember what I had for dinner because I was so excited to order Profiteroles for dessert.  I had read Les Chefs was known for their Profiteroles, and I was beyond happy when they arrived, as they were so delicious.  I have found a recipe on www.joyofbaking.com that looks very good, and when I get more than 5 minutes of free time, I can’t wait to try to make them!  The rest of the trip was fabulous- lots more roller coasters and waiting.  Walker’s reaction and the profiteroles were definitely my favorite parts!

Choux Pastry

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
2 large eggs lightly beaten

Egg Wash Glaze:
1 large egg
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions

for Choux Pastry:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven.  Lina a baking sheet with parchment paper.  In a bowl, sift together flour, sugar, and salt.  Set aside.  Place the butter and water in a heavy saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil.  Remove from heat and with a wooden spoon or spatula, quickly add the flour mixture.  Return to heat and stir constantly until the dough comes away from the sides of the pan and forms a thick smooth ball (about a minute of two).  Transfer the dough to your electric mixer or hand mixer and beat on a low speed a minute or two to release the steam from the dough.  Once the dough is lukewarm, start adding the lightly beaten eggs and continue to mix until you have a smooth sticky paste.  Spoon or pipe 12 mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, spacing them a couple of inches apart.  Beat together the egg and salt for the glaze.  With a pastry brush, gently brush the tops of the dough.  Bake for 15 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.  Bake for another 30-40 minutes or until the shells are a nice amber color and when split, are dry inside.  Turn the oven off and with the door slightly ajar let the shells dry out for a further 10-15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool on a wore rack.

Chocolate Ganache Ingredients:

4 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate cut into small pieces
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Chocolate Ganache Directions:
Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized stainless steel bowl. Set aside. Heat the cream and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil. Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a whisk until smooth.  Use
immediately. (The ganache can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. Reheat in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.)

Filling:
Vanilla ice cream
To assemble- split the pastry shells in half, fill the bottom halves of the shells with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and replace the top.  Drizzle each profiterole liberally with warm chocolate ganache.  Serve immediately.

Skiing, Swimming, Sledding, and a Pinata

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We took 14 people up to North Carolina with us this past weekend, so including us, there were 12 adults and 5 children (and 2 dogs). It was a packed house, but we all had so much fun!  Corby, Walker and I drove up on Thursday night which also happened to be Corby’s birthday- we stopped in Blowing Rock at Bistro Roca (www.bistroroca.com) for dinner which was fabulous.  I had a pulled pork crepe that was out of this world.  Walker had mussels that he said were delicious, and Corby had meatloaf that was really good.  The only drawback was that we saved one slice of meatloaf to put in our eggs on Friday morning, and when we stopped to get gas after dinner, Nemo- my pesky 10-year-old Springer Spaniel- ate the meatloaf- it was disappointing.  Oh well.  Friday, we skied all day at Sugar Mountain which was so much fun- bluebird day and 50 degrees- what more could you ask for! The rest of the gang arrived on Friday night.  Saturday, we woke up to another beautiful warm day and an amazing egg, cheese, and vegetable casserole made by Marguerite.  So, the way we set up the weekend was every family was in charge of one meal- we didn’t count lunch, and I was in charge of appetizers and desserts.  After our marvelous and healthy breakfast (the casserole consisted of the only vegetables we had all weekend) we set off on a hike to Lost Cove, while the kids went snow tubing.  It is a beautiful hike down to these amazing swimming holes generally used in the summer unless you are crazy like the men on our hike who decided to swim- in February- in 45 degree water- what?  Anyway, appetizers after we got home included “cheesy goodness” which is Edam cheese wrapped in Pillsbury Crescent Rolls baked at 350 for about 35-40 minutes, and a cheese plate- yay cheese.  Dinner was the Haynie’s famous hot dog bar- every topping you could ever want on a hot dog, and then for dessert, I made the Cheesecake Strawberries which were amazingly good and easy and Blondie Bars- also easy and delicious!  In one batch I cut up Twix Bars- that was something special.  Sunday morning was a breakfast for the history books.  Kendall and Robert made Bailey’s french toast with some sort of homemade heaven (aka syrup), venison sausage, and they added a bowl of fruit for good measure.  While we were eating, it started snowing which of course made the kids go crazy!  We ended up getting about 5 inches of snow throughout Sunday- the sledding, the games, the snowmen, and the snowball fights exhausted everyone!  To revive the group, I made Bacon appetizers which I found on the Pioneer Woman website (www.thepioneerwoman.com).  It was the most simple and fantastic thing ever!  Take a package of bacon- cut it in half.  Lay out the half strips of bacon on a baking sheet.  Place a club cracker in the center of the strip of bacon, place a spoonful of Parmesan cheese on top to the club cracker and wrap the bacon snugly around the cracker and cheese.  Bake at 250 for 2 hours. Really really good, and they did not last long!  After another amazing dinner cooked by Robert and Olivia- beef stew with baked potatoes, we brought out the pinata for the kids which was so fun!  The whole weekend was amazing, and not surprisingly, Walker slept for 3 and a half hours on the car ride home!  Such good food and good friends- can’t wait to do it again!

Valentine’s Day Venison Jerky

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I love Valentine’s Day.  I know that it is a cheesy Hallmark holiday, and other than getting jazzed up to help Walker make his Valentine’s for his classmates, I should just treat it like any other day, but I really love it.  I really love those hearts with the sayings on them-  I actually don’t even read the sayings, I just eat them by the handful- yum.  I love roses, I love big chocolate hearts, I love helping Walker make Valentine’s for his classmates- I really love it all.  Corby, on the other hand, is not that into Valentine’s Day.  To be fair, his birthday is 2 days after Valentine’s Day, so he is a little more focused on that- he LOVES birthdays- that is his thing.  So last year, we had been dating a little over 1 year, and I decided that I was going to get him something for Valentine’s Day. Corby used to hunt when he was younger, and he really loves venison.   So I called up my good friend Peter Brown, who had just had one of his deer turned into jerky the week before.  Peter was kind enough to give me a big zip-lock bag of jerky. What about venison beef jerky doesn’t scream HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!! Nothing. Except maybe the ziplock bag, which is just not very romantic.  You know what is romantic and what guys really love- big red velvet heart-shaped boxes that are usually filled with chocolate, and usually for girls.  Needless to say, when I showed up at Corby’s apartment with a big red velvet heart-shaped box, he was nervous.  But when he opened it and found that it contained venison beef jerky instead of chocolate, he was thrilled.  Best trick Valentine’s Day present ever!  This year, I just posted this picture from our ski trip on his Facebook wall. 

I don’t hunt at all.  I have no idea how to turn venison into jerky, except that you can pay people to do it for you.  But, I googled a recipe and found what looks to be a good one on www.cooks.com.  So, if you are in the market for an awesome Valentine’s Day present, here is the recipe:

1/2 c. soy
sauce
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/8 c. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1/2 tsp.
dry mustard
1/4 c. salt
Dash of pepper
3 c. water
Slice meat in strips 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Leave in brine 6 to 8 hours. Dry and place on racks in Little Chief smoker. Smoke for 12 to 16 hours,
depending on how you like it. This makes a small batch, enough for one smoker.

Pinterest and Cheesecake Strawberries

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I admit that I am pretty slow to the game when it comes to new social media technology.  I am terrified of this new facebook layout and won’t even look at friends pages that have the new layout because I don’t understand it.  I don’t twitter or tweet or whatever you call it even though I probably should.  And until literally five minutes ago, I had heard of pinterest, but hadn’t ever looked at it.  Well I just did, and this is one of the first things I saw!   What is this amazing little treat???  It was put up by The Sweets Life (www.thesweetslife.com).  It sounds easy, delicious, and looks fancy- YAY!!  These are the directions I copied from the Sweets Life website- which I clearly need to read a lot more of!

Cheesecake Strawberries

Ingredients:
-1 lb large strawberries
-8 oz. cream cheese, softened (can use 1/3 less fat)
-3-4 tbsp powdered sugar (4 tbsp for a sweeter filling)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-Graham cracker crumbs

Directions:

1. Rinse strawberries and cut around the top
of the strawberry. Remove the top and clean out with a paring knife, if
necessary (some may already be hollow inside). Prep all strawberries and set
aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla
until creamy. Add cream cheese mix to a piping bag or ziploc with the corner
snipped off. Fill strawberries with cheesecake mixture. Once strawberries are
filled, dip the top in graham cracker crumbs. If not serving immediately,
refrigerate until serving.

So, while I am still a complete novice at pinterest (I am actually waiting for an invitation to join), I am intrigued by what might be on this site or did I just find the best thing right off the bat?  Can’t wait to make these!

The Secret to a Red Velvet Cake??

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I made Red Velvet Whoopie Pies last night to take as dessert to a dinner party.  The recipe was a very simple recipe for the red velvet part- a box of cake mix, eggs, water and oil.  I made two different fillers: a marshmallow and a cream cheese icing.  Everything went very well, and they looked beautiful- I had rolled them in mini chocolate chips and red hots- it was just a fun dessert to make.  Then Corby came home.  And he tried one. And it was bad.  Corby loves red velvet cake, and as this was my first attempt to make this, I was pretty excited for him to try it and love it and think that I was the best baker in the world.  Needless to say, very disappointed.  What went wrong??  I, of course, tried one as well, and Corby was not lying- they were bad despite how pretty they looked.  Fortunately, I had enough time to make a Cheerwine Cake, which is always good.  So, my goal this weekend is to find and make a good red velvet cake.  I am not going to use a box mix because that clearly didn’t work.  The standard recipe that I am finding online seems to be:

Red Velvet Cake

  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 2 ounces red food coloring
  • 2 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar

There is some variations in the amount of baking soda and vinegar and cocoa powder, but I am going to be a master of this by Sunday so stay tuned!!

Peanut Butter Pie Fail

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I love The Local Palate (www.localpalatemag.com), the new cooking/food magazine in Charleston.  Yesterday, they put up a link to all of their recipes http://www.localpalatemag.com/recipes.html, and I tried the Peanut Butter Pie recipe.  You know those days in the kitchen where everything goes wrong- you drop eggs on the floor, you burn butter, your flour explodes everywhere into a disastrous mess- that was pretty much my experience with trying to make a Peanut Butter Pie.  You know when you have those days, and despite all the mess and frustration, your dish turns out marvelously- well, that didn’t happen.  Ok- here is the recipe from the Local Palate-

Peanut Butter Pie

Ingredients:

2 cups peanut butter, smooth or chunky
1 pound cream cheese
¼ cup powdered sugar
1 pint heavy cream
1 vanilla bean, split and seeded
3 large egg yolks
1 Oreo cookie prepared pie shell
4 tablespoons peanuts, toasted
4 ounces shaved bittersweet chocolate

Directions:

In a mixing bowl, whip together peanut butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar.

Pour cream into a second mixing bowl or stand mixer. Whip cream with vanilla bean seeds to stiff peaks.

Fill bottom of double boiler with water and place on medium-high heat on the stove. Place egg yolks in top of double boiler and lightly temper egg yolks until slightly thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let come to room temperature.

Fold eggs into peanut butter mixture.

Fold in whipped cream with peanut butter mixture. Combine thoroughly.

Pour mixture into prepared Oreo pie shell. Top with peanuts and shaved chocolate. Place in freezer for 2 hours. Use a warm knife to serve.

Now- here is what went wrong.  First of all- I could not find an Oreo pie shell as the store, so no big deal, I got a chocolate pie shell. Next, I decided to use my stand mixer to mix the heavy cream and my hand mixer to mix the peanut butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together.  Bad idea.  Perhaps I might have used too small of a bowl, but mixing cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar is not so easy- but mess aside- got it done.  Now to the heavy cream and the seeds of a vanilla bean.  I got some of the seeds out and the rest all over me, so I added some vanilla extract, but despite the work to get the seeds- my heavy cream did not whip… at all.  It just stayed very milky and spraying everywhere.   A phone call to my mother informed me that even though the recipe said heavy cream, I should have bought heavy whipping cream or just whipping cream and fortunately she had some at her house.  In the mean time, I did not have a double boiler for the egg yolks- it took five attempts to get the three yolks needed.  Not only that, but in my homemade double boiler of two pots on top of each other, are you supposed to have the bottom pot boiling before you put on the eggs- I don’t know, but I did not have the water boiling before I added the eggs, so I am not sure if the eggs turned out correctly.  I took the eggs off of the stove to let them get to room temperature and rode my bike over to my mother’s to get her whipping cream.  She only had 1/2 a pint, but it whipped beautifully, so I then added half of mine that I had been mixing for 15 minutes to no effect.  Well, of course that diluted the whole mixture but I added it and the eggs to the peanut butter mix anyway.  This part all went ok- and I put it in the pie shell and froze it and it looked very pretty.  It really didn’t taste very good, and it wasn’t that it was horrible by any means, but just not great.  I don’t know if it was the eggs or the bad heavy cream or what, but if I was to attempt this again, I would get some good whipping cream, and I would cut the amount of cream cheese in half as it was a very strong flavor and kind of hid the peanut butter flavor, and I would double the amount of powdered sugar to 1/2 a cup.  I think you could do this without messing up the recipe too much as I had a ton of the pie filling left over.  I will say the chocolate pie crust was very tasty, and if you can’t find oreo- this works just as well!  Here’s to feeling like a complete beginner in the kitchen again!!

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts and Backgammon Night

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I work at the Charleston Library Society, which is a pretty special place.  It is the third-oldest library in the United States, and the collection of books, letters, maps, etc., is unbelievably impressive.  This is the main room of the Library- it is beautiful.  And what better use for this amazing room than a backgammon club!  I started the Charleston Library Society Backgammon Club in September, and it has been so much fun.  The best part of Backgammon night is that the Library supplies beer, wine, and light snacks, of which I am in charge.  So, of course, I test recipes on our little group.  I tried out the Prosciutto Cheese Straws, Blue Cheese and Toasted Walnut Crostinis, Spiced Eggnog Pound Cake, and on and on.  Last night at Backgammon, I brought the Pioneer Woman’s Mystery Roll recipe, which I put up in a post when we went out to visit her and Ladd.  Check out the post for the recipe- super easy, and they were a huge hit.

This morning, I started thinking about what I was going to try next time, and then I started thinking about bacon because it is so good and I really love it.  Amazingly, initially, the two thoughts did not have anything to do with each other.  Fortunately, I was awoken from my bacon daydream to Google bacon recipes, and I came across bacon-wrapped water chestnuts.  I haven’t had those in so long, and I love them, and that is what I will be making for the next Backgammon Night!  Here is the recipe from www.allrecipes.com that I will be using- I am pretty excited!

Bacon Wrapped Water Chestnuts

Ingredients

1 pound sliced bacon

2 (8-ounce) cans whole water chestnuts, drained

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup chili sauce

Directions

Cut bacon strips in half. In a skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until almost crisp; drain. Wrap each bacon piece around a water chestnut and secure with a toothpick. Place in an ungreased 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish.

Combine the brown sugar, mayonnaise and chili sauce; pour over water chestnuts. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly.