A FRIDGE FULL OF FOOD...

Hot and Cheesy Bacon Dip with Milton's Original Multi-Grain Crackers

       

 All we really need here are two words:  "bacon" and "cheese".

If pushed, I could probably say a few more words: like yummy to the tummy Milton's snack crackers.  I've been a fan of their gourmet line for many years but the beauty of the snack cracker line is that that crackers are smaller so you get the crunch, the whole graininess, and the slight sweet in a smaller version so you also get bacon and cheese with every bite--that's a win every way there is to win!

Out of the six flavors Gene and I, and lots of other family members, tried these were our favorite flavors:  Original Multi-Grain, Honey Multi-Grain, and Honey & Corn, all yummy on their own or as a great base for chips or chicken and tuna salad.

In this area, southwest Missouri, they can be found at Wal-mart, Target, and Sam's Club.

 

Ann's To Die For Blueberry Crumble Muffins

The best part about being sick is when people bring you food. Take these yummy blueberry muffins for example. I might never have tasted them had it not been for being sick and my cousin, Ann, taking food pity on me. Well, not really food pity as much as the concept, in my family, that food means love. When there's nothing else we can do, we bake! 

Thanks Ann! I love you too!

(And yes, I'm feeling much better. I think the muffins were the cure.) 

Feb 12, 2013: Happy Fat Tuesday--Mardi Gras King's Cake

 This is my very very favorite King Cake recipe. I've made it for several years and it's always a huge hit. It's a great combination of buttery pastry, creamy fruit filling, and just enough sugar to be a dessert but not so sugary that it's overwhelming.

Thanksgiving Sides: Ozarks-style Slow Cooker Dressing/Stuffing

 

One of my favorite Thanksgiving tricks is to throw the dressing/stuffing into the crockpot.  It saves room in the stove, you can fix it and not worry about it, and it cooks up deliciously. Is it "dressing" or is it "stuffing" at your house?  I live in and was raised in southwest Missouri and while we use both terms, my family tends to stick with the southern version:  "dressing" while most of the rest of the country, it's my understanding, usually calls it "stuffing." Either way, it's yummy carb-licious.

Speaking of delicious, my favorite dressing has a couple of extras: chopped sweet apples and Missouri black walnuts in a southern cornbread base. English walnuts are a great option too but black walnuts are native to our American Midwest and more than 65% of those are grown in Missouri, with the largest black walnut processor, Hammons Nut, residing in Stockton, Missouri, just a rock skip from Springfield, Black walnuts are a treat we've grown up having plenty of and loving.  For the uninitiated, like the differnece between cream cheese and goat cheese, black walnuts have all the creaminess of an English walnut but with a little more zip.  One of my dearest memories of my mother was how she would hand-shell bushels of black walnuts through the fall that we kids had scavenged from the woods around our house, and then use them in Christmas cookies and candies.  As a child I took it for granted, as an adult I admire her tenacity.  Hand-shelling nuts is not the most fun job in the world but we loved the final result, for sure!

 
Mrs. Cubbison's Stuffing mix is spiced in a way that goes particularly well with the apple/black walnut combination, I've found. It's slightly sweet and very savory which highlights both the sweetness and savoriness of the fruit and nuts, which seems to me to be the quintessential tastes of fall.

Mrs. Cubbison's, a true American success story, was started by Mrs. Cubbison in 1890's as a bread bakery, then moved to crackers, and eventually to stuffing (dressing).

For tons of Thanksgiving recipes, decorating ideas, and table setting ideas, please go to www.thanksgivingtips.com for photos, recipes, and videos.

 Mrs Cubbison's:  Facebook Page

 

Painted Bread: Fall Pumpkins

After painting bread for the 7th World Bread Day was so much fun I decided to play some more. Probably will even more--it's just too much fun!  Poor Gene will have painted bread for dinner for the next...whenever i get tired of painting bread, I guess. Poor, Gene.  Poor, poor Gene, getting home-made painted bread for dinner every night. It's a hard knock life, eh?

The recipe I used this time is my own basic large loaf (1 1/2 to 2 lbs) recipe that easily fills my Pullman Pan or my large Pampered Chef bread loaf crock, although in this instance and often, I simply formed it into a boule (big round loaf), painted it, and baked it without a form of any kind. 

Baked Ham & Provolone Roll-up

 Ham & Provolone roll up is one of my favorite weekend night meals.  Even though it takes a couple of hours to make, there's relatively little hands-on time so I can lay the dough out to defrost in the early afternoon, run errands, make the roll-up, and then do laundry or other household chores for the next hour while it raises again.  After that, it's only a matter of baking. By the time we eat, usually serving only a simple salad on the side, I barely feel like I've spent any time at all in the kitchen.  Magic!

It, and its pepperoni cousin, also make great party appetizers, almost always found on my family holiday menu list.

 

7th Annual World Bread Day: Primitive Painted Farmhouse Boule

Welcome to the 7th Annual World Bread Day, sponsored by Zorra Kochtopf.  I love the thought of breaking bread together, and if not all together, then at least baking bread together globally.

For my selection, I chose my favorite every day bread, Farmhouse bread, the recipe given to us and taught by Faith Brockoff during a class Auntie Miranda, Ann, and I took at War Eagle Mill for Auntie's birthday a few years ago.  It's a wonderfully crusty, eggy, bread that's easily adaptable by using all-purpose white flour, white whole wheat flour, or a 50/50 mix of white and whole wheat.

To decorate it, I simply took cake decorating colors and paint brushes from my cake decoating supplies and primitively painted on a deep red sunflower encircled by vines and leaves. I used the paste food coloring straight out of jars, occaisionally tipping my brush lightly into a small cup of water to thin it.

 I love the way the browning crust turned the colors from  bright and shiny to a deeper, more antiqued look on the bread.  And best of all, we have fresh warm bread to eat, slathered in real butter and sweet fall pumpkin butter, to devour with dinner.

After October 17th, click here to be linked to Pinterest to see all the breads baked around the world for this event:  7th Annual Wrold Bread Day

1...2...3...Beer Bread!

 

I've made some beer bread in my life.  Not because I'm a huge beer drinker, mostly just to use up beers leftover from entertaining.  This bread was made with a bottle of Guiness leftover from Gene's birthday party...three weeks shy of two years ago (and there are still three bottles left!)   With it's dense, chewy texture and quick and easy prep, it's a great bread to eat with soups and casseroles, especially now that the days are turning darker and cooler.  It's also easily customizable by adding 1/4 cup of pureed pumpkin, applesauce, or apple or pumpkin butter. The beer blends well with the fruit/squash that makes such nice dinner company for stews, chowders, and creamier, chunkier fall soups.

The recipe was given to me by our friend, Jeff, whose question was "Can you remember 1-2-3?"  Well sure!  Maybe not what came after that but I can remember the first part.  Okay, kidding aside, it's easy to figure out if you think about it. One beer, got that one covered....two cups of flour wouldn't quite fill a loaf pan so it must be the Tbsp of  honey (or sugar) and three cups of self-rising flour. Play with more ingredients if you feel like it. Stir.  Bake.  Feast.

Thanks, Jeff!

Biscuits and Gravy? Biscuits and CHOCOLATE Gravy!

The ultimate in southern comfort food--biscuits and chocolate gravy!  Yes, you read that right: Chocolate gravy.

Thanks to my friend Sara McNew for making, baking, and posting this pic of the delicious breakfast she made for her daughter, Sara, and her grandkids, Lauren and Samuel last week. 

Pepperoni & Provolone Crescent Rolls

Another kid-friendly recipe that my sister, Suzanne, served for lunch to the kids (toddler through seven) she babysits this summer.  They were easy to make, the kids helped, and they loved them.  I think one of the great things about simple recipes like this is that it gets kids in the kitchen, on their level, doing something they can gain confidence with and then when they love the taste, it gets them even more excited about cooking and trying more complicated things.  It's about building a foundation of skill and confidence.

For parents, it's quick, easy, and tasty, so that's ALWAYS a winning combination!