Praline Yams (Sweet Potatoes) with Orange Sauce

The night before I was to prepare our Thanksgiving meal this week, I cuddled in bed with Mike and listed out the dishes for the next day: turkey in the doufeu, dressing, gravy, spinach madeline, cranberry sauce, yeast rolls, and pumpkin pie.  Then this happened:
Me: What was your favorite Thanksgiving dish growing up?
Mike:  Sweet potatoes.
SWEET POTATOES.  The one dish I didn't even THINK to include.  Of course.  It just so happens that Riggs is on a big sweet potato kick, so I had the ingredients for this dish in the kitchen.  I rattled around and found the recipe in one of my old standbys: Best of the Best from Mississippi Cookbook.  I also happened to have the ingredients for the orange sauce, and let me just say.....that stuff is FINE.  It has completely revolutionized the way I think about sweet potatoes, and I'll never again be able to make this casserole without the orange sauce.

4-5 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and quartered (I chopped into 1/2 inch cubes)
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar, divided
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted, divided
1 teaspoon salt
pecan halves

Cook potatoes in water to cover until tender (about 25-30 minutes).
Drain.
Add 1/4 cup brown sugar to hot potatoes.
Add eggs, 3 T butter, and salt.
Beat until smooth.
Pour into a greased 1 1/2 quart casserole dish.
Lay pecan halves end to end, covering the entire casserole. (I just roughly chopped pecans and sprinkled liberally on top.)
Sprinkle with remaining brown sugar.
Drizzle remaining melted butter over top.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
Ladle Orange Sauce over individual servings.

Orange Sauce

1/3 cup sugar
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup orange juice
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 Tablespoons butter
3 dashes Angostura bitters

In saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, orange rind, orange juice, and lemon juice.
Bring to a boil over medium heat.
Cook until thickened.
Remove from heat.
Stir in butter and bitters.
Serves 8-10.

Great Performances Cookbook

Photo courtesy of Bakers Royale.

Elvis Muffins

The original recipe by Sara Foster at Foster's Market is Oatmeal Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips, but she included a note that you can substitute peanut butter chips for the chocolate. Woah! Hello, fried peanut butter and banana sandwich! That combination was entirely too tempting for me to resist. Next time I think I'll also try half & half, peanut butter and semisweet chips. The possibilities are endless.

But they're not fried, you say? Not a problem: add a big pat of butter for a more fried flavor. The King would have loved these.


These chunky moist muffins are one of the favorites at Foster’s Market.Make 1 dozen

1 1/2 cup rolled oats
2 1/2 cups all- purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola or safflower oil
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Line 12 large muffin cups with paper liners.

3. Place the oats on a rimmed baking sheet and lightly toast. Set aside to cool.

4. Combine the oats, flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix.

5. Whisk together the butter, eggs, bananas, buttermilk and oil in a separated bowl and blend well.

6. Combine the two mixtures and stir just until all the dry ingredients are moist. Stir in the chocolate chips.

7. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin with a large ice cream scoop( 1/3 cup scoop).

8. Place in the oven to bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops of the muffins spring back when touched. remove from the oven and let cool slightly. serve warm.

To Sara and The Foster's Market Cookbook for this recipe and SagHarbor for the Elvis photo, thank you, thank you very much.

Curried Fruit

Mike loves curry as a seasoning, so this is one of his favorite dishes. I particularly like how it compliments any white-meat dish. The flavors of the different fruits shine through when you take a piece of pear or peach or pineapple and eat it with chicken or pork. It's divine.

This dish is best with fresh fruits, but with Little Bit it's easier to just pop open a can. I suppose the recipe was modified in the 40s or 50s, when canned fruits were in high style. Then again, when you dump brown sugar and melted butter on anything, it's bound to taste delightful.

1 large can peach halves
1 large can apricots
1 large can pears
3 small or 1 large can pineapple, cut (not crushed)
10-20 cherries to taste
1/3 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
4 teaspoons curry

• Drain fruit well.


• Mix butter, brown sugar, and curry.


• Spread fruit in shallow baker - dot wiht sugar mixture.


• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour the day before serving to let flavors bloom.


• Refrigerate overnight, and warm at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour.

Basically, it's a fruit casserole, so changing the fruits included to suit your own taste is bound to only make it better. I'd personally love one with only pears and peaches, etc. Have fun with it.
As usual, I forgot to take a photo of mine, so thank you to Evening Edge for the photo above.

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Muffins

Well, even though there's no frost on the pumpkin just yet, I decided the cooler weather warranted a hot breakfast. And what better accompaniment to eggs and sausage than pumpkiny muffins to warm us? And even though these would be fine without the semi-sweet addition, is there anything that goes better with a pumpkin muffin than chocolate chips?

I think not.

3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease and flour muffin pan or use paper liners.
2. Mix sugar, oil, eggs. Add pumpkin and water. In separate bowl mix together the baking flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt.. Add wet mixture and stir in chocolate chips.
3. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Recipe courtesy of Donna at AllRecipes.

A Little Creativity

Good afternoon, dear readers. What are you up to this weekend? Please join me in remembering the victims and heroes who were created today nine years ago. We will never forget.

Our first DAR meeting of the season was this morning, and I agreed to be head hostess now so that I won't be waddling around in the kitchen in a few months. This meeting was especially exciting, as we were meeting in the Genealogy Room of the new library for the first time. At the same time, this meeting was especially tricky, as food is not allowed in the Genealogy Room, but the librarians were making an exception for us wild and crazy Daughters of the American Revolution.

Our refreshments are always simple: the usual menu involves sweet and salty, so I decided on a pound cake, some fruit, assorted nuts, and cheese straws. I baked a million dollar pound cake with amaretto whipped cream and had my other hostesses bring nuts, cheese straws, and drinks. But what to do about the fruit salad? I had nightmares of grapes rolling off plates and onto the brand new hardwood floors.

What to do, what to do..... I know! Skewer 'em.

I had the best time making this platter, and though it looks awfully summery for the week after Labor Day, every one of my compatriots were wearing open-toed shoes, so I figured there was no better time than the present to celebrate the end of summer.
I pulled out all the stops and made a whole theme with these little parasols: I put them in the cake and the centerpiece to give the party continuity. Then Mike took photos of the finished work this morning before I left. Love how the sun shines through the jewel tones.

The very best part? My mom was able to come to the meeting too. Two of my three co-hostesses weren't able to come, so Mom jumped into the fray, and with the help of Mary Jo, she and I were able to churn out and serve plates like a well-oiled machine. Thanks Mom.

I always wonder if a cake is good before serving because it's just not the type of food you can sample before the big reveal. But I suppose this particular cake was especially good, as when we returned to the kitchen to clean up leftovers, somebody in the library had stolen the last 5-inch chunk that I was planning to take home to Mr. Peacock!

Photos courtesy of Quisenberry.

The Methodist Ladies' Chicken Lasagna Florentine

It's a glorious Monday morning here in beautiful downtown Burbank. 74 degrees (I know - shocker!), the sun is rising, and I am up, dressed, and ready for the day. Taking Dante for a W-A-L-K? Ah... No. Going outside to work in the garden? Nope. Off to the grocery store while it's still cool? Of course not! I'm sitting on my duff, waiting for the painters. Last time they were two hours late, and they said they would arrive at 7:00 this morning, which I suppose translates to sometime around 4 this afternoon. The day is totally shot.

Well, not completely. Laundry is running, dishes are washing, and here I sit, making good on my resolution to blog more often.

This is another excerpt from my current favorite read, Being Dead is No Excuse. Despite the subject material, this really is a funny cookbook written in somewhat sarcastic hyperbole (yet the truth comes in jest, you know) that strikes a chord in me. If you live in the South, these people are your neighbors.

For once, we're at a loss for words. Pecans and lasagna? But this is the quintessential Methodist death dish, and it's so good it'll kill you.

Ingredients:

6 lasagna noodles, uncooked

1 (10-ounce) package chopped frozen spinach, thawed

2 cups cooked, chopped chicken breasts (about 3 medium breasts)

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons white pepper

1 Tablespoon soy sauce

1 can (10 3/4 ounce) cream of mushroom soup (of course.)

1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream

1/3 cup homemade mayonnaise (I used our olive oil stuff, and it came out just as well.)

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or to taste)

Butter Pecan Topping (see below)

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cook the noodles according to the package directions, drain and set aside.
• Darin the spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels (or kitchen towels).
• Combine the spinach, chicken, cheddar cheese, onion, nutmeg, salt, pepper, soy sauce, soup, sour cream, and mayonnaise in a large bowl; stir to blend.
• Arrange half the lasagna noodles in a lightly greased 11 x 7 x 1 1/2-inch baking dish.
• Spread half the chicken mixture over the noodles.
• Repeat this procedures with the remaining noodles and chicken mixture.
• Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and Butter Pecan Topping.
• Bake, covered, for 55 to 60 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
• Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.
• Serves eight.

Butter Pecan Topping

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter or margarine

1 cup chopped pecans

• Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat; add the pecans and cook for 3 minutes.
• Cool completely.

Beware: this stuff is super-duperly rich, so have a side salad nearby. The spices are great though, so I would recommend following that part of the recipe rather closely, which you know is odd for me. Especially with a casserole. Mike calls it "the chicken stuff," and requests it often.

Now for a little lagniappe: the photo below was taken at Grace Church Cemetery in St. Francisville, Louisiana. The structure is in the back of the antebellum churchyard, and Mike and I were transfixed by the architecture, brickwork, and current state of ruin. My guess is that it was some sort of crypt - there was another opening on the other side - but Mike didn't seem to agree. The other entrance was below ground level and had been haphazardly covered up with a road sign by some authority, only to be pushed aside by teenagers looking for a spooky thrill.

What do you think it is? Can you imagine the stories, sordid and toe-curling, that might have occurred at this eerie kind of spot?

Million Dollar Pound Cake

I've read somewhere that your sense of smell is most closely linked with memory. For instance, Mike gave me a perfume for my birthday one year when we just started dating, and to this day, that scent takes me back to the first fun days of falling in love.

Every now and then a recipe comes along that makes the whole kitchen and parts of the house smell like my grandmother's. I don't know if it was her cooking or Daisy's (I flatter myself to compare m creations to Daisy), but it feels like coming home and taking a trip back to my roots. Poached chicken breasts with onions and bell peppers and bacon for BLTs cooked in the cast-iron skillet are two in particular that hearken to the old days in a kitchen with brick floors.

And now I've found another.

This recipe is another that came from my new favorite book, Being Dead is No Excuse, and I love the simplicity of it. Truly, some of the most simple things in life are the best. Give a kid a gift wrapped in a big cardboard box, and you'll see what I mean.

1 pound butter, softened

3 cups sugar

6 eggs

4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt (I added this to bring out the extract flavors)

3/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
• Cream the butter; gradually add the sugar. Beat well (as in, fluffy. I beat it for a full 5 minutes.)
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each.
• Add the flour and salt to the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk. Begin and end with flour. Do not overmix.
• Add the flavorings.
• Pour batter into a greased-and-floured tube pan (10-inch tube pan or 10-cup pan).
• Bake for 1 1/2 hours, or until slightly firm to the touch.
• Cool in pan for ten minutes.

Voila.
I know it's odd to show the bottom of a cake, but it was just too pretty and decadent not to take a photo of that. I mean, look at all that lovely caramelized sugar. Yum.

Dump it out, and this is what you get. Can be topped with anything fancy - homemade whipped cream and raspberry coulis is one of my favorite combinations. Or you can be a purist and just enjoy it warm. This cake freezes exceptionally well, which makes it a great funeral dish.

But my favorite way to serve it.....

.... is toasted. With coffee. On a cool autumn morning (I know it's hot as hell out there, just bear with me). And not just any toaster will do. You have slice it up and broil this baby old-school. One day I'd love to have an honest-to-Pete gas broiler, but Mr. Peacock (wisely) doesn't trust me with an open flame in the kitchen. I suppose I'm lucky to have my gas stovetop.

Coconut Chicken

If Mike wasn't allergic to shrimp, this post would be entitled, "Coconut Shrimp," but he is, so I exchange chicken fingers for all things shrimp in the kitchen. That's not to say I haven't tried to force Mike into eating shrimp. On our first real date (we had been friends for more than a year before we started dating), I fed him sushi with a big wad of shrimp in it, completely forgetting his allergy. His response? Jokingly something along the lines of "wait until my life insurance is paid up next time."

He's so cool.

Anyway, this recipe is simple and gives a huge return on your investment. I especially love the juxtaposition of sweet coconut crunch to savory juicy chicken. The most difficult part is waiting for the oil to heat up in the deep fryer that my good friend Jessica gave me. I'm such a kitchen dork that I squeal with honest and unabashed delight when the box reveals something like a deep fryer. I didn't measure anything while I was making it, though, so you'll have to bear with me on the volumes of the ingredients. Take everything with a grain of salt (no pun intended) and tweak it as you go along.

1 package chicken fingers, optionally soaked overnight in buttermilk

2 quarts peanut oil

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere's

1/2 cup flaked coconut

2 eggs

1/2 cup Louisiana hot sauce

Orange marmalade and cilantro for dipping

1. Heat the oil to 350 degrees in a deep fryer, or if you don't have a deep fryer, use the deepest frying pan you can find. Either way be very careful with hot oil, watch out for smoke, and keep a fire extinguisher handy. Never ever ever use water to put out an oil fire.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, pepper, salt, Tony's, and coconut.
3. In another medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and hot sauce.
4. Once the oil is hot enough, dip a chicken finger in the egg mixture, then in the flour mixture. For extra-krispy, go back to the egg and in the flour one more time.
5. Slowly slip the finger into the oil.
6. Work in batches of 4 or 6.
7. After about 5-9 minutes, the chicken should be a golden brown.
8. Remove from the oil and drain on a cooling rack over newspapers.
9. Finely chop the cilantro and mix well into the marmalade.
10. Try not to burn your tongue by eating them too soon after frying.

Goes great with onion rings.

Flowers & Fruit Salad

Does this chocolate make my butt look fat?

I have recently been accused of making everybody around me chunky with my cooking. Thing is, I'm just as guilty of taking in calories as everybody else, as I'm the one stuck with all this food at the end of the day. So what if I bring a platter of brownies to the office every now and then? I have to spread the
fatlove around.

But yes, I suppose a little fruit here and there is in order. And it's the perfect excuse for me to buy a new gadget that I've been eyeing lately. Ladies and Gentlemen, feast your eyes on (drumroll please)

A pineapple slicer! Actually, Williams-Sonoma calls it a Pineapple Easy Slicer, but that name is a complete crock. If you follow the link and watch the video, when it comes time to pull the pineapple rings out, you can see in that woman's eyes a glimmer of, "are you kidding me?" And it's true: this thing is not really easy. It helps to take a knife and run it around the edges after you've twisted it down into the fruit, but you should still expect to come out of this experience sticky and to have let fly a few expletives.

But it makes this possible:

I do love a crisp fruit salad. They're pretty, they're easy, and gosh darn it, you can't have a decent brunch without one. This one included the following:

1 pineapple

1/2 pound strawberries

1 pound black grapes

1 green pear

5-6 sprigs fresh mint

2-3 sprigs fresh basil

5-6 leaves fresh lavender

Chop it all up and throw it in a bowl. Or a pineapple.

Yesterday was neon limey green from all the pollen. Every year it's this way - the great equalizer, as everybody's car is covered in green - but yesterday was especially different as I could actually see the stuff in the atmosphere. Swirling, settling, puffing out from everywhere. It's strange, as last week it snowed on my tomatoes.

I had to work, so Mike scrambled around the backyard protecting them. The man must love me.
But spring is most definitely in the air.

Classic Sour Cream Coffee Cake

As the song goes, to everything there is a season, turn turn turn, and a time for every purpose under Heaven. Now is the time for me to make hay while the sun shines. To work long tax hours and eat Stouffer's lasagna along with cleverly frozen soups and casseroles.

But the geek in me is loving it. The tax part at least. When I have a really tough one and it balances, man, there is nothing in the world like it. I want to jump up and down and holler.

The thawed out eats? Eh. It's worth it. Spring is coming.

But as you know I'm a sucker for baked goods, especially at breakfast. Mike likes cereal. Cereal! Blech. It is cold and wet. So I usually have to share my breakfast stuff so I don't gain 50 pounds. Who better with whom to share than my coworkers?

This is a coffee cake by Sara Foster that I made earlier this week to fend off the frost. Coffee cake must be in the air because my good friend Missy invited me over for some this afternoon. She won't tell me how she made it, but you know what? Hers is totally better.

Makes one 10-inch cake
FOR THE BROWN SUGAR/PECAN FILLING
1/3 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

(And you know I added a couple handfuls of mini chocolate chips.)
FOR THE CAKE
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sour cream
Confectioners' sugar
Directions

Prepare the filling:

In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and pecans; set aside.

Prepare the cake:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
• Spray a 10-inch nonstick Bundt pan with cooking spray; set aside.
• Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, starting on low speed, then increasing speed to medium.
• Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of the bowl.
• While beating on low speed, add the flour mixture, alternating with sour cream, and beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat just until well combined, scraping down sides several times.
• Spoon half the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle evenly with the reserved filling. Top with remaining batter.
• Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.
• Let cake cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then turn the cake out onto a rack to cool completely.
• Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Lazy Pimento Cheese

What food made you realize you'd grown up? Spinach? Black eyed peas? Chicken a-la-king? Which dish was the one that your mom would spend the entire meal trying to make you eat, only to meet your firmly clamped teeth, but five, ten, fifteen years down the road you realize hey, this stuff is pretty good?

I remember Cha-Cha trying to make me eat blackeyed peas. She finally managed it by carving the top out of a piece of cornbread and saying they were the eggs in a nest. I probably only ate a total of 10 peas, but that kind of creativity was entirely too much for a five year old to ignore.

Mike still doesn't like pimento cheese and probably never will, but I surprised myself the other day with a craving. It was a warm, beautiful springlike day outside, and my mind went directly to pimento cheese. Blech. Where did that come from? When I was a kid, I would have sooner had a mayonnaise sandwich than pimento cheese (blech). Even in my mind I would think of it not as simply "pimento cheese," but "pimento cheese blech."

What the hell is a pimento, anyway? As a kid I probably didn't like pimento cheese (blech) because it didn't taste like olives. Because after all, green olives are the only known source of pimentos, aren't they? Except for the Wal-mart brand, which replaced its pimentos with some red gelatinous substance that made me think of jelly beans. Hmm. Pimento-flavored jelly beans. Sounds like a case for Bertie Bott.

But I digress.

I did like my cousin Cliff's mama's pimento cheese, but he told me the recipe when I was tipsy, so there's no hope of my remembering it. So I bought 16 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar cheese. Hey, if this was going to be an off-the-top-of-my-head recipe for something I didn't even think I liked, I wasn't going to put an awful lot of effort into it.

16 ounces sharp cheddar. Dumped into a bowl.

Ok. Now what? Pimentos! Took a 4-ounce can and dumped that on top of the cheese.

Pimentos and cheese. Need something to keep them together. What would Mom have used....

Mayonnaise! I added about half a cup. You could probably go lower-fat and use sour cream, but really. It's cheese. There isn't that much help for it.

At this point I stuck my head in the bowl and smelled to see what else it needed. I added a dash of garlic powder, onion powder, and salt. Then I added a few dashes of black pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and Tabasco.

And I stirred it all up.

But it was missing something to make it my own dish. So I gave it 4 or 5 liberal dashes of my favorite, Cheyenne pepper. And there you have it. Fran's pimento cheese.

Oh, and the green beans? They're green bean chips from the Fresh Market. Asher mentioned them the other day, and I had to find out what all the fuss was about. They're delicious!

Not Yo' Mama's Bran Muffins

Bran muffins. Blech.

You know the ones. They're always the last lonely flavor in the bottom of the basket. Nobody wants to try one for whatever reason, but it's 11:45, you forgot your lunch, and it will just have to do. Feeling fortunate to have anything to eat, you choke one down and promptly decide to survive the rest of the day on hot chocolate packets mixed with coffee. Five hours later, you're still buzzing only to come crashing down into a total grumpfest once you get home.

Your poor housemates don't deserve that kind of treatment.

But these bran muffins? THESE bran muffins are fabu. Trust me. They have enough sugar and buttermilk to render them completely the opposite of whatever you're hoping for when you hear the word "bran." BUT they're still classified as bran (hey, it's in the name), so technically you're being very responsible and healthy when eating them.

Well, that's my excuse.

Oh, and the best part? Put the batter in tupperware, and it'll keep for 6 weeks. SIX WEEKS. Which is a good thing, as it makes a heckuva lot of "bran" muffins. Imagine. Getting up. Turn the oven to 400 degrees. Pour up the batter in a pan and pop them in the oven. Take a quick shower. BAM. Insta-healthy-breakfast.

Don't forget the butter.

6 Weeks Bran Muffins

6 cups All Bran (small box)

2 cups boiling water

1 cup shortening

2 1/2 cups sugar (more or less)

4 eggs, beaten

1 quart buttermilk

5 cups flour

5 teaspoons soda

2 teaspoons salt

• Pour 2 cups All Bran in large bowl.
• Pour boiling water over it and let stand while assembling other ingredients.
• Melt shortening.
• Mix rest of All Bran and sugar, eggs, and buttermilk.
• Sift flour, salt, and soda together.
• Combine everything in the first large bowl and mix well.
• Cover tightly and store in refrigerator overnight.
• Lightly grease a muffin pan. NOTE: Do not use muffin papers with this recipe! The muffin will stick like glue to the paper and make you cuss. Just a light spray or buttering should spring them right out.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Batter will keep for up to 6 week in the refrigerator.

Thanks to my friend Dot Hawthorne for keeping the current muffin mania alive.

Photo courtesy of Zinke.

Trophy Wife Blueberry Muffins

This is my favorite mug. Mike bought it for me on our trip to Seaside, Florida, to celebrate our first anniversary. I actually bought the button pin version back in April of 2007 on my legendary bacheleorette trip to Memphis, Tennessee, so Mike knew I liked the symbol. Trophy wife. You know what? Yeah. It fits.

We are each other's trophies, and we both have it made in the shade: he has somebody to feed him and take care of the house and everything that goes with it, and I have somebody to keep me in the state to which I have become accustomed.

It's kind of a Gift of the Magi thing really. Before we married, I asked Mike what he was most looking forward to about marriage. Having been a bachelor for 14 years with only the company of a (very mean) cat, he responded, "Having a reason to come home." So I am happy to make it a point to be home for him every night with supper and his lunch for the next day waiting.

But enough mushy stuff. Sorry if I made any of y'all out there gag.

These blueberry muffins are fan-freakin'-tastic. And yes, I know I'm completely and utterly stuck on Foster's Market. The ingredients are all wonderfully basic and usually found in my pantry. And her methods are solid and time-tested to produce really great baked goods. I haven't even begun to scratch the surface of this cookbook, as there are entire chapters devoted to entrees and such, but they are much more fancy for the likes of me.

In other weekend news, Mike is currently out in the yard creating a border for the flower beds out of bricks from Mom's fallen wall before it rains. Since I spent the morning at a fabulous yoga workout and lunch with Asher and the gang, I'm going to shower my trophy self to get ready for supper with Dad and Carrie Ann tonight. Am doing a damn fine job of un-doing all the good work I accomplished at yoga this morning. Then tomorrow Ying and I are shopping for my bridesmaid dress for her upcoming nuptials.

We are also considering where we want to go to celebrate our third anniversary. I brought it up this morning over the blueberry muffins. Mike suggested we "find a haunted bed and breakfast in Louisiana and camp out a while." After watching The Skeleton Key, I'm not so sure about that. It's his turn to pick, and I know how he loves the beach, so I was thinking about going back to Destin, where he asked me to marry him in the first place. Or we could save up some vacation time and head down to Belize, where he has always wanted to go scuba diving. Any thoughts or suggestions would be very much appreciated!

And trophy dog is snoozing on the couch next to me.

These blueberry muffins are the only ones that we've made every day since Foster's opened over a decade ago. That's over four thousand days of blueberry muffins! Our customers demand them; they're delicious plain or with butter. Adding finely chopped blueberries to the batter–in addition to whole berries–is the key to these moist, flavorful muffins. They freeze well, so make an extra batch for hurried mornings.
Makes 1 dozen muffins
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder (I use 3 teaspoons for higher-rising muffins.)
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
¾ cup milk (I use buttermilk for fluffier muffins.)
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
2½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries (see Note)


1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Line 12 large muffin cups with paper liners and spray the top part of the pan lightly with vegetable oil spray.

3. Combine or sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

4. Whisk together the butter, eggs, milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a separate bowl until well combined.

5. Place 1 cup of the blueberries in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse several times until coarsely chopped. Stir the chopped berries into the egg mixture.

6. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir just until the dry ingredients are moist and blended. Do not overmix. Fold in the remaining whole blueberries.

7. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pan with a large ice cream scoop (⅓-cup scoop). The batter will come to the top of the paper liner or pan.

8. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

9. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Turn the muffins out of the pan and serve immediately.

Belize photo courtesy of the National Geographic.

Foster's Market Oatmeal Banana Muffins with Chocolate Chips

Don't let the photo fool you: these are GARGANTUAN muffins from my favorite cookbook. This was my first time to make them. As the recipe called for a whole tablespoon of baking powder and buttermilk and this was my inaugural use of the jumbo muffin pan, I erred on the side of caution and didn't fill them all the way up. But I actually like them like this: the streusel isn't so messy, and the only way I can eat one is by sticking it in the microwave for 23 seconds, then cutting it in half.

It's like two muffins for the price of one.

But oh my are they delicious. The oats, bananas, and buttermilk give great texture, and the chocolate makes a heavenly combination. And of course I had to use jumbo chocolate chips in the jumbo muffin pan. They're so big I feel like a little kid again.

Make 1 dozen
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
2 1/2 cups all- purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola or safflower oil
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

• 1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
• 2. Line 12 large muffin cups with paper liners.
• 3. Place the oats on a rimmed baking sheet and lightly toast. Set aside to cool.
• 4. Combine the oats, flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and stir to mix.
• 5. Whisk together the butter, eggs, bananas, buttermilk and oil in a separated bowl and blend well.
• 6. Combine the two mixtures and stir just until all the dry ingredients are moist. Stir in the chocolate chips.
• 7. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin with a large ice cream scoop( 1/3 cup scoop).
• 8. Place in the oven to bake 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops of the muffins spring back when touched. remove from the oven and let cool slightly. serve warm.

Recipe courtesy of Sara Foster.

Pork Florentine

Cabin fever.

It hasn't completely set in yet, as Mike and I set out for a quick trip to Walgreen's and to put gas in his car this afternoon. But when the high in Mississippi is 28 degrees, well, we just don't get out that much. And it's snowing in Atlanta. You should have SEEN the hordes at the Kroger on Wednesday; that's how I realized bad weather was on the way. If a snowflake is spotted in Texas you can bank that there will be a run on bread and buttermilk in Mississippi.

We're trying to keep busy and moving in the house, but there's only so much we can do inside. The neighborhood pond has frozen over except for where the two pumps keep water moving, and even those circles of movement are giving up to the ice. Our bodies aren't accustomed to this kind of weather, and we both get instant brain freeze upon walking outside.

The cat and dog L.O.V.E. it.

It's like somebody has set them both on fire. I suppose it's a function of movement = warmth, but when the dog isn't curled up shivering next to me for MY warmth, he's frisking and running laps through the house and being as much of a pest as he can be to Kearney, who has taken up residence in Dante's bed. When Kearney isn't bedded down, he is begging, pleading, DEMANDING that we let him outside RIGHT THIS MINUTE.

So I figured I'd pull out an old recipe that I developed back in April of 2008. This was a matter of me wandering around the grocery store thinking, "Hmm. I like pork. And I like spinach. Let's put them together." And this is what I discovered. It's actually more of a springtime/summer dish I suppose, but you can raid your freezer and pantry and probably come up with something similar and probably tastier. The basic premise is to wrap meat up around something savory and roast it. Pull out some puff pastry, wrap that around the meat, and bam! Wellington.

And afterward you can huddle around the open oven for warmth as it cools down.

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Roast time: 30-40 minutes
Yield: 6-8 servings
Pan Preparation: lightly greased cooling or roasting rack, kitchen twine

1 ½ - 2 pound pork tenderloin (can be marinated overnight)
2/3 - 1 cup olive tapenade
16 ounces frozen chopped spinach, seasoned and cooked, drained, and squeezed dry
½ – ¾ cup feta cheese crumbles

1. Preheat oven to 425, and salt and pepper the outside of the tenderloin to taste.
2. Using a very sharp knife, and being careful not to slice all the way through the meat, make a rectangle of pork.
3. Make a long horizontal slice about ½ inch from the bottom of the pork, to about ½ inch from the other side.
4. Open up the pork like a book, and make another incision, again toward the bottom of the meat, ½ inch shy of the opposing side. Press down to flatten.
5. Lightly grease a roasting rack with cooking spray, and line the pan with aluminum foil. Set the opened pork on top of the roasting rack, perpendicularly to the rings of the rack.
6. Spread the olive tapenade evenly on the pork, pressing into the meat.
7. Spread the spinach on top of the tapenade, again, pressing down to flatten.
8. Top the spinach with feta crumbles.
9. Slowly roll up the pork lengthwise, and tie with kitchen twine.
10. Roast pork for 30-45 minutes, or until internal temperature reaches 155-160 degrees.
11. Allow meat to rest for 5 minutes after removing from oven.

Cats photo courtesy of icanhascheezburger.

Corn Chowder

Earlier this month, just before the holidays, a dear, close friend of mine shared with me that she was in charge of her entire family's Christmas dinner and expressed a smidge of trepidation over the affair. I have the luxury of a relatively small family, so cooking for 15+ over a holiday has never really been an option for me, but I do remember the Flynn Family Christmas Eve Extravaganzas, with a huge house filled to the brim with laughing adults and screaming children.

Hmm, now I'm shaking in my boots too.

But even though those were some of the happiest times of my life, they were also the most simple. I vividly remember the drunkenness of a child's pure happiness, glee, and delight. Everyone shared the feeling, and the Christmas spirit of my memory will keep me warm through to Spring.

But you know what else? Cha-Cha, my grandmother, never brought out the fine china on Christmas. And we didn't have help in the kitchen. We had a selection of corn chowder, chili, and taco soup on the stove. There's the pot. There's the ladle. Help yourself. At best we used the somewhat chipped or cracked white octagonal beaded-lip bowls of her everyday dishes, but usually we used paper plates, bowls, cups, and utensils.

And that was just part of the fun.

The happy part, the real part, was honestly loving and enjoying the people around me. Furthermore, we had the bonus of not worrying about breaking a piece of crystal or tarnishing the silver.

So for the rest of your celebrations, simple it up. Not like Sandra Lee. Take it back to your grandmother, your great-grandmother, or another lady you know who is better at conversation than cru d'ete.

My Unc' called the other day to let me know he was making this dish, and it instantly brought back the best memories of youth at my grandparents' house. He wanted to let me know that he was using the meat thermometer that we gave him a few Christmasses ago to set off an alarm before the chowder boils. Ingenious.

Corn Chowder

1 pound ham, cubed

3 pieces bacon

3-4 green onions, chopped

2 large cans creamed corn

1 small can kernel corn

1/2 quart half & half (MUST be half & half. Anything else doesn't taste right.)

2 large cubed potatoes

Milk

White pepper and salt to taste

Optional parsley for garnish

1. In a big pot, cook the 3 pieces of bacon until crisp.
2. Take out of pan & crumble.
3. Drain off all but 1 1/2 Tablespoon of grease for flavor.
4. Fry 3 or 4 green onions in grease.
5. Add ham & bacon and fry slightly.
6. Add corn & stir well.
7. Add half & half and mix well.
8. Add potatoes.
9. Top off pot with plain milk until desired consistency is achieved.
10. Cook gently - DO NOT BOIL - for 30 or 45 minutes until potatoes are done.

Photo courtesy of Dinner and Jam.

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

Frost is on the pumpkin, but translated to Mississippi terms, it's raining cats and dogs. I hold firm to my original instinct that spring is my favorite season, but fall comes in at a very close second. The gray English days, the feeling that the world is slowly falling asleep, the beautiful foliage, and the coziness of an evening fire come together for one of the most distinctive times of year.

Last night was particularly spooky: Kearney has discovered the grandeur of the outdoors in the backyard. As soon as I return home in the afternoons, Kearney bolts to the backdoor and begs, whines, pleads, and insists that he be let outside RIGHT NOW. He has very important things to take care of out there. So far the score is Kearney: 1, lizards: 1.

I suppose along with his newfound freedom, Kearney has developed a territory all his own that encompasses the back yard. So at 2 this morning, when he discovered another cat in his territory, Kearney was none too pleased. The noises that came out of that cat raised goosebumps on my arms and the back of my neck. Woken from a deep sleep, my first instinct was to reach for the gun: there must be a zombie in the house. I soon realized it was just Kearney, as Mike was already out of bed and in the living room, trying to placate the feline. I fell back asleep with visions of the big tabby arched on top of a pumpkin.

So I decided to bake this cake.

And the smells this cake emits are almost even better than the taste. Even Mike came in wondering what the heavenly aroma was. And from his adventures in scuba diving, Mike can't smell a damn thing.

The most sincere form of flattery is imitation, so my friend over at The Food Librarian should be sincerely flattered. Like me, she loves bundt cakes and has started I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes leading up to National Bundt Day on November 15th. It's worth the click to see the logo.

For cake
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing bundt pan
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15-ounce can; not pie filling)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs

For icing
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar


Special equipment: a 10-inch nonstick bundt pan (3 quart)

Make cake:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.

Whisk together flour (2 1/4 cups), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, 3/4 cup buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.

Beat butter (1 1/2 sticks) and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

Make icing:
While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk and confectioners sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over warm cake, then cool cake completely. Icing will harden slightly.

Cooks' note:
Cake can be made 3 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

Inspiration courtesy of The Food Librarian.

Recipe courtesy of Epicurious.

Sex in a Basket

Don't look too closely at that picture: 1. prices are visible and that's tacky and 2, I never realized how grody the baskets at Fresh Market are. Eiw.

Anyway, Mike had a long day at work yesterday. So I promised to have a suprise happy waiting for him when he got home. Which meant a trip to Fresh Market with Asher. Inspired by Montie's cheese tray on Facebook, I hooked a basket under my arm and picked up whatever tickled my fancy.

I absolutely love antipasto. It is currently my favorite both to fix and to eat. Literally, it means, "before the meal," but last night we made it the whole meal, which is one of my favorite things to do. All you need is a big pretty plate and some imagination. I'm always suprised how many pick-up snacks we keep in the pantry, and antipastos generally end up much bigger than expected at our house.

And Mike loves a cheese plate. So easy to be so fancy! Pick up three different kinds of cheese - our favorites are also the most basic: Stilton (bleu), brie, and an exotic cheddar (though I truly love a good Wensleydale, I can't find them around here without added cranberries). Throw in some sliced fruit and crakers, and you're in business.

These are black figs stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with honey. I read somewhere that this is the ultimate aphrodisiac. Better than oysters. Better than ginger. Better than cold duck or champagne. Better than Vitamin B-12.

They were pretty good.

So here's what we had for supper last night. From the top: olives stuffed with pimento, Stilton, olives stuffed with anchovies, applewood smoked cheddar, petit brie, and natural almonds.

Not pictured was another tray with black pepper-crusted salami, assorted nuts, sliced apples, grapes, and crackers. And we had fancy dark chocolate and raspberries for dessert. Mike had licorice to round out his suprise.

It made his day.

Cosmopolitan Breakfast Bread Pudding

Boredom set in while we were waiting for our flight to depart Mississippi a few weeks ago. You know how dangerous I become when bored. I stopped by the newsstand and picked up a bottle of water: while I was at it, I bought a Cosmopolitan magazine. After all, nobody on the plane would know who I was, so they couldn't judge me for reading something so trashy.

Until I blog about it of course.

Turns out this rag actually has some pretty neat stuff inamongst the Bad Girl Sex, Sexy vs. Skanky and The Two Hottest Things You Can Say in Bed articles. Like Why it's Smart to Be an Early Riser, Death by Suntan at Age 26, True Crime: How She Outsmarted a Brutal Rapist, and Eat This Up: Breakfast With Your Boyfriend, which is where I found this recipe.

What can I say? I read it for the articles.

Cinnamon-Swirl Breakfast Bread Pudding
It is said that the Queen of Sheba used cinnamon to mesmerize King Solomon. So it has power. Prepare this bread pudding ahead of time so that in the morning, all you have to do is turn on the oven.

4 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 loaf day-old bread, cut into cubes
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
Nonstick cooking spray
Maple syrup

1. In a large bowl, whisk eggs and milk.
2. Add the brown sugar, vanilla extract, and cinnamon, and whisk until all the ingredients are completely incorporated.
3. Stir the bread and pecans into the egg mixture.
4. Coat an 8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
5. Pour in the bread pudding, and cover with foil.
6. Let sit in the refrigerator at least one hour and up to overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Bake the bread pudding, covered, for 30 minutes.
9. Remove the foil, and bake an additional 10 minutes, until the pudding is browned.
10. Serve hot with maple syrup.

I added a dash of salt to bring out the flavors more, and we had some peaches that needed to be eaten. And I served it with sausage balls.

Cosmolicious.

Mix1

Check out what was waiting on our doorstep when I returned home yesterday afternoon. Thank you Randy at Mix1 and Amanda at Nourish!

I have to admit. I am an novice when it comes to protein, antioxidant, or energy drinks. I'm also rather skeptical in my old-school ways. Well, except for coffee. Does coffeee count? Probably not.

But let's just say I had one this morning for breakfast. And I had enough energy to run/walk the dog 3.5 miles, unload the dishwasher, wash, dry, and fold 3 loads of laundry, and mow the lawn. Mow the lawn, people.

All before lunch. Did I mention our mower is an old-school pusher, powered only by yours truly? And we have hills?

This stuff is definitely worth a try.