Fried Green Tomatoes

Southerners are all about frying food... meats, vegetables, desserts. Nothing is sacred when it comes to Southerners and frying. And what could be more Southern than fried green tomatoes? I don't much like tomatoes actually. They're soft and full of seeds, and they kind of gross me out. I love all sorts of tomato products though - salsa, marinara, ketchup. A fried green tomato though is pure genius. So much flavor. I've talked to people who used flour. Some use only cornmeal. I've played with mine over the years and this is how I decided was best to make them.

Green tomatoes
salt
pepper
milk
eggs
flour
cornmeal

Slice the tomatoes thinly. Lightly salt and pepper both sides of the tomato slices. Prepare an egg bath. I used three eggs and a dash of milk (probably a tablespoon or two). Whisk until blended.

Put your bowls in order of dipping toward the skillet - flour, egg wash, cornmeal.

Take each slice and dredge both sides through the flour; submerge the tomato slice in the egg wash; then liberally coat it with the cornmeal on both sides.

I fry my tomato slices in olive oil. Cook until golden on both sides.

Lemon Almond Bread

This bread is O.M.G. good. I'm not a big lemon fan... I don't use it in my tea. I don't drink lemonade. This bread though, was light and sweet and full of amazing flavor. I found the recipe through Pinterest (surprised?), and you can find the original post here: Lemon Almond Bread by Nancy Creative. This one is definitely a keeper. Here you go!

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups all–purpose flour (I like to use unbleached flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp lemon extract
1-2 Tbsp grated lemon peel (the more you use, the more lemony the flavor)
1 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.

In large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 

Add eggs and mix well. 

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream. Blend in lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon peel; then fold in almonds.

Spoon batter into the greased and floured loaf pan; bake at 350 degrees for 50–60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.

LEMON–SUGAR DRIZZLE

3 Tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup sugar

While loaf is cooling, mix the lemon juice and sugar together for the Lemon-Sugar drizzle; mix until sugar is dissolved (you can heat the mixture up in the microwave for about 10 seconds to help dissolve the sugar more quickly). After removing loaf from pan and while still warm, drizzle the lemon–sugar mixture over the top of the loaf and let cool completely.

LEMON GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/8–1/4 cup sliced almonds

Blend powdered sugar and melted butter together; then add lemon juice and mix until well blended. Spoon glaze over cooled loaf; then sprinkle with sliced almonds. Let glaze set, and then reward your baking efforts with a nice thick slice of lemony sweetness!

Zucchini Muffins

The other day, I went on a quest to find some muffin recipes to try so that my daughter could have some new treats for breakfast. I found several recipes that I'm going to try, and of course, I pinned the recipes I found to my Pinterest. This particular recipe is for Zucchini Muffins. They were surprisingly easy to make, and I think they turned out pretty good. I believe the next time I make them I will use 1 1/4 or 1/2 cups of sugar to sweeten them just a little bit more. My daughter said they were really good and ate the entire muffin... until I told her what they were. lol

2 medium eggs
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of shredded zucchini (I used two zucchinis, which was a bit more than 1 cup)
1 1/2 cup of sugar
½ cup of vegetable oil
½ cup of chopped walnuts
1 tsp of baking soda
½ tsp of salt
¼ tsp of baking powder
1 tsp (heaping) cinnamon

Mix together the vegetable oil, sugar and eggs. Add the shredded zucchini, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Fold in the chopped walnuts.

Lightly grease muffin pan, then fill two-thirds full with the mixture. I was able to fill a mini-muffin pan, and 9/12 of a regular muffin pan. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes for regular muffins, 10-15 minutes for mini-muffins. Tops should begin to turn a golden brown color, and you can use the toothpick test to ensure they are done.

Chicken and Dumplings

Let's just be clear... I love chicken and dumplings. I grew up getting these on special occasions, specifically, when we would come "home" to Alabama to visit my mom's family. My Aunt Reba, my grandmother's sister, would have a pot ready on the stove whenever we arrived because it was always my mom's favorite. So, about 10 years ago, I wanted to do something special for my mom's birthday and decided to make chicken and dumplings for her. I called my Aunt Reba and asked if she could give me the recipe. She said she would, and began telling me right there over the phone. By the time I hung up, I was terrified that I was going to make a horrible mess, because there was not a single measurement in the entire conversation. There is a lot of leeway in making these, and I'm going to tell you how I do it, but I'm not so much on the measurements either. Hopefully you can keep up!

Chicken quarters (I usually use 3-4)

Chicken breasts (2-4)

Flour (I use all purpose)

Crisco

Milk

Season all salt

salt

pepper

I begin by placing the chicken quarters in a large soup pot and generously apply season all salt and pepper. Fill the pot with water - at least cover the chicken completely with a little left to spare. Boil the chicken until tender and the fat and skin move easily on the chicken. This is what gives you a rich chicken broth and provides the flavor.

Once the chicken is cooked, strain the broth and separate the chicken meat from the unusable parts. Here is how I do it:

I use cheesecloth, a large bowl and a colander. Pour the broth slowly over the cheesecloth to catch the impurities. Once it's mostly strained through, pour the chicken into the colander. Rinse out your pot, and pour the broth back in. Allow the chicken to cool so that you can separate, rinse and shred it.

This is how I clean off the chicken.  The colander with the chicken on the left. The bag for the bones, skin, and fat in the middle. Running water to rinse the chicken. And there's a grate in the sink to catch the refuse before it goes down the drain. Bowl on the far right is for the good, rinsed, useable chicken. Take a quarter, break the leg off, and one side at a time, rinse it and start pulling the chicken meat off the bone. Shred it and place in the bowl. Once you've gone through all the quarters, throw away your trash and set the bowl of chicken in the fridge until you're ready to add it to the pot.

This is what you need to make the dumplings: flour, crisco, milk, salt pepper, pastry cutter, rolling pin, and something to cut the dumplings with.

As my Aunt Reba told me that day long ago, "Take you some flour and put it in your bowl." "Well, about how much flour, Aunt Reba?" "Oh, about half a bowl..." Oh boy. Sigh. I'm afraid I'm not any better at it than she was. As you can see, I do use a fairly large bowl, and I fill it about half full of flour. Just remember that it's much easier and cheaper to throw away a few extra dumplings than to not have enough dumplings (which has NEVER been a problem for me anyhow).

I used four heaping spoonfuls of Crisco for my dumplings today. Just remember that you can always add more Crisco or more flour to make it right if you need to. Use a pastry cutter, sliding from the edge to the inside around and around the bowl until all of the Crisco is completely incorporated into the flour. Here is a photo of regular flour on the left and the incorporated Crisco/flour on the right (it's subtle, but the mixture is more crumbly and not so fluffy - sort of like peas).

You do not want to be able to see any regular flour. Incorporate the Crisco completely. You can check it by squeezing a pinch between your fingers. If it holds it's shape like this, it's ready...

Liberally add salt and pepper. Begin pouring milk is roughly 1/2 cup increments. Use a fork, folding and flipping the flour until the milk is incorporated and the dough cleans the side of the bowl.

Take a handful of the dough and on a heavily floured surface, roll the dough to about an 1/8 of an inch.

Use a cutter to slice the dumplings. I place them on a plate and stack them until I'm done with all of the dough. I also dredge each one in left over flour on the cutting board. This extra flour helps thicken the broth as they are cooking.

Once done, heat the broth on high or med-high until it comes to a full boil. Begin dropping the dumplings in one at a time. If you add too fast, the boil will slow down. Stop adding until it's boiling again. This is what cooks the dumplings. I stop and stir every 10 or so dumplings. You want to stir across the bottom of the pot to ensure nothing is sticking.

Once all the dumplings are added to the broth, turn the heat down to med, and let the dumplings cook for 30 minutes to an hour. You will still probably need to "thicken" the broth some more. If you do, take a small bowl of the broth. All flour until it makes a thick paste. Slowly stir this paste back into your pot. Once the broth is more white than yellow and begins thickening, add the chicken and turn heat down to med-low. Once it's cooked for an hour or so and is fairly thick, add some milk. Again, it's much easier to add more than to have to wait for it to thicken up, so go slow, because you can always add more milk. You will probably want to add a little more salt and pepper (or you can let each person salt and pepper to their own taste.). The longer you are able to let chicken and dumplings cook before serving, the better they will be. Make some biscuits and enjoy a wonderful, classic Southern tradition.

Baked Cauliflower

Some vegetables I like without any adornment... raw carrots, raw squash, raw cucumbers, boiled corn without butter or additional salt, perfectly steamed broccoli. Some vegetables, I probably won't be eating at all unless it's adorned very well. Peas... not going to happen. I cook with them in casseroles and such, but I'm not eating a spoonful. Cauliflower, I'm more apathetic about. I don't like it raw, but it has to be steamed just right for me to like it. This is an easy way to get in a good serving of cauliflower, and not really even acknowledge that you're eating it. It's a recipe my mother's been making for years, but all I have is a hand-written recipe, and of course I've tweaked it a little since I've been making it.

Head of cauliflower
butter (about 4 Tbsps or so)
Flour (about 3-4 Tbsps)
Milk
Italian-style breadcrumbs
salt and pepper

Cut off the green stalk and boil the cauliflower until fork tender. Pour out water, and let cauliflower cool. I use a colander.

Once cooled, break into bite-size pieces and place in casserole dish. I use an 8X8 glass dish. Start the sauce, which is really just a white gravy. In skillet, melt butter, and then whisk in flour to create a roux. 

Add a little milk and continue to whisk; add a little more and keep whisking. Adding a little at a time helps you keep the gravy smooth.

Bring it to a boil, then turn down heat and simmer. It will thicken as you stir it. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour sauce over cauliflower.

Sprinkle a thin layer of bread crumbs across top. Add a few evenly spaced very small pats of butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until top begins to brown.

Soft Brown Sugar Cookies

Well, I'm running a little behind these days on posting to my blog. The past two weekends have been devoted to work outside my home... Yep, yard work, and lots of it. Planting, mulching, mowing, edging, prepping my garden. I actually made these cookies last Sunday, but just haven't had the time to type this up. So, here we are. I'm always on the lookout for a new recipe to try. I found this one on Pinterest, of course. Here's the link to the original webpage: Soft Brown Sugar Cookies. These cookies are very, very soft, and just melt in your mouth. They were fantastic, and quite easy to make.

2/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup sour cream

Browned Butter Frosting

1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 Tbsp milk

Blend together butter and brown sugar. 

Add eggs, one at a time; blend well. Add vanilla; beat until light. 

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture alternately with sour cream; mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto non-stick or lightly greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove to a wire rack; cool. Frost with Browned Butter Frosting (because I made mine smaller and there were so many more cookies, I actually had to make two batches of the icing). Makes 2 dozen, or if you make them a little smaller like I did, you can get about 4 dozen.

Quiche Lorraine

I think quiche is one of the most amazing recipe ideas ever. How can you ever go wrong with a pastry pie shell, cheese, eggs, and bacon or some other type of meat. I've got another recipe for a "spinach pie," but we will save that one for another day. Today is for Quiche Lorraine. I found this recipe while searching Pinterest one night, and this was the second time I made it. Here's the link to the original blog post: Quiche Lorraine with Bacon. The first time was pretty tasty, but I decided to add onion and black pepper to it, and this time it was awesome! Next time I make it, I'm going to give myself enough time to make the pie crust from scratch. I think that will take this whole meal up another notch or two.

1/2 pound bacon, crisply cooked and crumbled (about 8 slices or so)

2 cups Swiss cheese, grated

2 Tbsp flour

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 small diced onion

dash cayenne

1 9-inch unbaked pastry shell

Toss the Swiss cheese and flour in a large bowl.

And here, I diverged from the original recipe greatly. To the Swiss cheese/flour, add the bacon, eggs, milk, salt, pepper, onion and cayenne. Mix well. Pour in pastry shell.

Bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes, or until set. Here's a tip for you... I was having problems with the edges of my pie crusts getting too dark and overcooked before the pie is even set. If you take aluminum foil and wrap it over the edge of the crust and remove it about the 40 minute mark it will give you the nice golden color.