Alabama Street Corn

Most everyone has heard of Mexican Street Corn, but I made a much more simpler version, with ingredients I can pronounce. Then I named it Alabama. Creative huh?

Cooked corn (I cook mine in the oven in the shucks, 30 min @ 350)

Butter

Sour Cream

Parmesan Cheese

Seasoning of your choice (I used Lawry's seasoned salt)

Cook corn, add butter, slather with sour cream, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, add seasoning. Enjoy!

Creamy Potato Soup

I originally got this recipe from Janet over at A Farm Wife's Life. I made a few modifications to it like leaving out the carrots and onions. I'm allergic to carrots (yeah, I know, crazy), and the rest of my family won't eat onions.

Creamy Potato Soup

4-5 potatoes

1/4 stick butter

3 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sour cream 

Salt/Pepper

Cheese/Bacon Bits

Peel potatoes. Chop into small pieces. Put in pot and cover with water. Boil until soft. Drain water and place on medium burner. Add butter and 1 1/2c milk. In small lidded bowl, add flour, sour cream, and 1 cup milk. Shake to mix. Add to pot. Fill pot with milk to cover potatoes. Cook till thick and creamy. Add salt/pepper to taste. Top with cheese/Bacon.

Turnip Greens Soup

I discovered this recipe in the Alabama Power bill a few months ago. It's pretty darn tasty and also great to eat on New Year's Day, as it contains most of those foods you're required by law to consume on that day.

Turnip Greens Soup

16oz chopped turnip greens

2 cans chicken broth

1 cup black eyed peas

1 can Rotel

3/4c shoepeg corn 

1/2c chopped carrots

1 med onion, quartered 

1lb Polish sausage 

Hot sauce to taste

Slice sausage in 1/2 inch slices and brown in skillet with onion quarters. Mix remainder of ingredients in a Dutch oven and simmer on low for 1 1/2 hours. Serve with cornbread.

Easy Harvest Meals

If you're a farm wife like me, who has to feed a crew of hungry guys during harvest, or just anyone looking for some easy meal ideas, this is the post for you!

This past harvest, I cooked on Tuesdays and Thursday. The guys had to bring their lunch the other days, but I decided to cook those two days cause everybody gets tired of a sandwich. To make things easier, I planned my meals and wrote the ingredients down before harvest. Every two weeks I would go to the store for the next two week's ingredients.

I got most of my recipes from Pinterest, but some were my ideas. I only took a picture of a few meals, but you can click on the link to see someone else's. All of these meals were good too, none were a flop! Sometimes I doubled or even tripled the recipe. I'll even include what else I served.

Crockpot Cranberry Chicken

Served with mac n cheese, corn from our garden, and rolls.

 

 

 

Slow Cooker Chicken N Dumplings

Served with mashed potatoes and broccoli and cheese.

 

 

 

Easy Crockpot Sloppy Joes

Served on buns with hashbrowns.

 

 

 

 

Easy Crockpot Ribs

Served with baked beans, corn on cob, and bbq bread.

 

 

 

French Dip Sandwiches

Served with fries.

 

 

 

Crockpot Ranch Porkchops

Serve with collards from the garden, 7 Up Biscuits, and corn on the cob.

 

 

 

Lasagna

No recipe here. Just bought a family size frozen lasagna and served it with salad and breadsticks.

 

 

 

Ham and Cheese Sliders

Served with chips.

 

 

 

 

Roast

Bought an appropriate size roast, put it in crockpot, added potatoes, carrots, and two cans of beefy mushroom soup. Cook til done. Serve with biscuits.

 

 

 

BBQ Chicken

Serve on buns with chips.

 

 

 

Chicken and Stuffing

Serve with green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, and rolls.

 

 

 

 

Santa Fe Soup

This is my recipe on my blog. Scroll down the post to find it. Serve with tortilla chips and cheese.

 

 

 

Creamy Crockpot Spaghetti

Serve with Texas Toast

 

 

 

Chili

Serve with cheese, crackers, and sour cream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Surprise Alabama Football Party!

So, on November 29th, my dad turned 60. It's not every day a person turns 60, so why shouldn't they have a party? Or better yet, a surprise party! Or even more better (is that a thing?) a surprise party at their house, set up while they were gone to church! Yep, that's what I did. Put all the stuff together at my house the day before, drove over an hour, snuck into my parent's house, and set up a party. Boy was he surprised! So surprised, in fact, when he drove up and saw all the cars, he kept driving! Thankfully, my mom convinced him to turn around, lol.

Here's how I decorated the party...

I made him this for the flower bed, so I thought I'd decorate with it first.



Outside the door was a "A" for everyone to sign. I had it made, and then I painted it.



Some of the table decorations...



I blew up 8 balloons, no, make that 9 cause one 1 popped. I don't think I've ever blown up 9 balloons in my life. I thought I was gonna die.

Football plates, and check out those "penalty flag" napkins, haha.



And now for the best part...the food!



My friend Brandy made the Alabama jersey cake. I'm terrible at decorating cakes. I decorated a cake that looked like a chicken once. I'm sure people thought it had the bird flu.



This is peanut butter football dip. You can get the recipe here.



I also made football brownies, parched peanuts, and a cranberry cheese "football".  I didn't get this recipe online, so here it is...

Cranberry Cheese Ball

3 oz pkgs cream cheese, softened

1 can crushed pineapple, drain

1 pkg Craisins

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix all ingredients except nuts. Place in fridge for 1 hour. Form into shape. Add nuts. Cover and chill.



I also fixed boiled peanuts and little smokies (recipe here).

For drinks, we had coffee and "crimson" colored fruit punch Gatorade!



Homemade Chocolate Fried Pies!

Now, I've had a couple of chocolate fried pie recipes on my blog before. One was an "easy"way, the other slightly more work. Neither one of the recipes was my actual family recipe that no one can seem to remember, lol. But, by George, I think I've got it now!

(Terrible picture, but I'm no professional!)

Chocolate Fried Pies

Crust:

3 cups plain flour
1 cup shortening
1 tsp salt
1 egg (beaten)
1 tsp vinegar
12 tbsp. ice water

Filling:
3 cups sugar
9 tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp salt
Melted Butter

Directions:

Combine flour, shortening, and salt with pastry blender. Mix egg, vinegar, and ice water in separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with pastry blender. Finish mixing with hands. Mix sugar, cocoa, and salt in separate bowl, set aside.  Take 2" balls of dough and roll out into 6-7" circles on floured surface. Brush with melted butter. Add 2 tbsp. cocoa powder to center. Fold one side over cocoa and seal edges with fork. Place each pie in freezer paper and onto a baking sheet. Store for a few hours or overnight in freezer. When ready to fry, heat oil in an iron skillet and drop in frozen pie. Fry on each side until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Original Recipe from Here

 

Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
3 cups sugar
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
6 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon lemon zest
2/3 cup strawberry glaze

 

Preheat oven to 350°. Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add cream cheese, beating until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Gradually add flour to butter mixture. Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition, stopping to scrape bowl as needed. Stir in the lemon zest, almond, and vanilla extracts. Pour one-third of batter into a greased and floured *10-inch 14 cup tube pan (about 2 2/3 cups batter). Dollop 8 rounded teaspoonfuls strawberry glaze over batter, and swirl with wooden skewer. Repeat procedure once, and top with remaining third of batter.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 1 hour).

 

Strawberry Swirl
2 cups strawberries(about 1 lb), quartered
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon corn starch

Combine the water, strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice in a large saucepan on high heat. Stir and bring up to a boil.
After the mixture begins to boil, reduce the heat to medium low. Cook for 5-8 minutes, until the strawberries have completely broken down.  As the strawberries soften, use a wooden spoon or potato masher to break up the berries. (At this point you could strain the strawberries through a sieve for a smooth glaze, but I decided to leave the bits of strawberry in mine.)
Meanwhile, whisk the cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of water in a small bowl. Then, pour into the strawberries.
Increase heat to high, and continue to whisk the mixture until it thickens and the cornstarch becomes clear and loses it's cloudy appearance, approximately 3-5 minutes.
Remove  from heat, and pour into separate bowl to cool down. Use 3/4 a cup to swirl in the cake. Any leftovers are great served along with the cake.

Corn Chowder

One afternoon, a while back, I had no idea what to cook for supper. Imagine that. So, I got on Pinterest. Imagine that. I knew the stuff I had in my pantry, and I found a recipe that would work with it. I ended up modifying a recipe to suit my pantry's needs, and it turned out awesome.

Corn Chowder. If you have ever been to the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge, TN, it tasted just like that. I amazed myself. I made a mental note to take pictures and blog the recipe before I forgot what I did. And I forgot. Then I remembered. Then I lost the original recipe. Then I found it. Now here's my version!

Corn Chowder

1 (12oz) can whole kernel corn
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
Few pieces onion, diced
1/4 cup butter
2 cups milk
2 beef bullion cubes
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
Sprinkle of parsley

Combine all ingredients in pot. Cook until potatoes are tender.

*I know some of this sounds weird, like why canned and frozen corn? Beef cubes? But, it's exactly what I used that night, and it tasted exactly like the Old Mill Restaurant's Corn Chowder. I'm afraid to change anything!

 It's really yummy with some homemade sourdough bread!



Chocolate Fried Pies

First, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Second, I wanted to share an awesomely yummy, awesomely easy dessert that I made for Thanksgiving!

Chocolate Fried Pies! Yummy!

 

These are a hot item at my family's get togethers. They aren't made often. I think it's mostly because the can be a little complicated to make. Well, I happen to love fried pies so this made me sad. Solution? Come up with an easier way to make fried pies! And I have finally accomplished it! The possibilities for this recipe are endless! Most any pudding or pie filling will work! I'm trying apple next!

 

What you need:

Canned Biscuits (Original)

1 box of chocolate pudding (instant or cook, doesn't matter)

Flour for dusting

Water for sealing

Oil

 

What you do:

Make pudding. Cool Pudding. Flour your surface. Place biscuits on floured surface. Roll biscuits into a very thin circle. Place one spoonful of pudding in center. Brush edges of dough with water. Fold one side of biscuit over pudding and seal to the other side. Crimp edges with fork. Fill skillet with 1/2" of oil. When hot, place pies in oil. Fry for 1 minute on each side. Flip with tongs. Drain on paper towels. Enjoy!

"Baked" Apples

Before Lance and I married, I had never had "baked" apples. They have since become a staple in our house. Mainly because my in laws serve them at every meal we are invited to (well, not really, but a lot). I have kind of become addicted to them.

 

 First, you need some apples. These came from a neighbors tree. Or you could buy some at the grocery store. Doesn't matter.

 After you wash the apples, slice them.

 Throw them in a bowl and add some pats of butter.

 Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Cover and microwave till soft. I usually check them at 5 minutes.

Enjoy!

Memorial Day Cookout

Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day! I also hope you remembered the reason we celebrate this holiday!

Today we had a cookout at our house, so I wanted to share some recipes with you!

Reed loved this! 

Pasta Salad

1 Bag Spiral Noodles

1 Bottle Italian Dressing

Handful of Cherry Tomatoes, sliced

1 Small Jar Sliced Olives

Cook pasta, drain and cool. Add dressing, tomatoes, and olives. Mix well.

 



 We also did "shrimp boil" kabobs on the grill. Here is the recipe I used: http://cookauvin.blogspot.jp/2011/07/shrimp-boil-kebabs.html

 



I also  made some strawberry lemonade. Nothing fancy. Just used Country Time Lemonade mix and added sliced strawberries and lemons. Let the fresh fruit hang out in the lemonade for a while, then stir it, before you serve.



 For dessert, I did some Oreo Cookie Pops. Just poke a stick in an Oreo and dip it in melted almond bark. Use sprinkles to decorate.

 

And because not everyone could eat the cookie pops, I made a Sugar Free Berry Trifle. I made some sugar free vanilla pudding and mixed it with sugar free Cool Whip. I layered it with angel food cake and fresh strawberries and blueberries.

Cornbread Recipes

Last Thursday, our county's Farmers Federation Women's Committee held their annual cooking contest. This year, it was cornbread. I took pictures of each entry and snagged the recipes so I could share them!

 

 Tex Mex Cornbread

Non stick cooking spray

1 large egg

1 1/3 cups milk

1/4 cup oil

2 cups corn meal mix

1 tsp sugar

1/2 can whole kernel corn

1/2 can Rotel with green chilies

Whisk all ingredients together. Bake about 20 minutes in 450 degree oven.

 

Chunky Broccoli Cheese Cornbread 

1 stick butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1 (10oz) package frozen, chopped broccoli, thawed but not drained

2 (8.5oz) boxes corn muffin mix

1/2 cup whole milk

2 cloves minced garlic

1 (8oz) container cottage cheese

4 eggs

1 tbsp salt

1 cup & 2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in skillet or pan; saute onions and broccoli in butter until soft. Set aside 2 tbsp grated cheddar cheese. Combine all other ingredients, including vegetables to create batter. Place batter in greased skillet or pan. Sprinkle top with remaining grated cheddar cheese. Bake until golden (20-30 min).



 

 Broccoli Cornbread

1 stick margarine

1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix

4 eggs

Dash salt and pepper

1 (10 or 12oz) frozen broccoli chopped

1 small onion chopped

2 cups grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup water

Spray 9x13 Pyrex dish with Pam. Steam broccoli and chopped onion 8 minutes in 1/4 cup water. Add margarine; add corn muffin mix, eggs, salt, mix well. Add broccoli, onion, cheese,stir into prepared dish. Bake @ 400 degrees for 25 min.



 

Sweet Cornbread

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

3 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9" round cake pan with non-stick cooking spray. In large bowl, combine flour, cornmeal,sugar, salt and baking powder. Stir in egg, milk, and vegetable oil until combined. Pour batter into pan. Cook for 25 minutes.

 

 Mexican Cornbread

3 cups self rising cornmeal

3 eggs

1 large onion (grated or chopped)

2 pods jalapeno peppers

1 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

3 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 cup sweet milk

1 cup vegetable oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 can cream corn

Combine all the above ingredients in large bowl. Mix well. Bake at 450 degrees for 20 minutes or until brown.

 

Tie Dye Cheesecake

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter! This Easter, I made a cheesecake, a tie dyed cheesecake!

 I know, this picture does not look like a tie dyed cheesecake. This is the top. I covered it with a layer of Cool Whip and M&Ms. Why? Because my cheesecake had a big crack in it! But totally not my fault. The original recipe said to use a 9 " spring form pan. You should probably use a 10". It's not a good sign when you peek in your oven window and you see cheesecake towering about 2" above the sides of the pan, lol.  But, crisis averted and it's hidden under a layer of Cool Whip!

 

Here's what the tie dyed part looks like! Look at those purty Easter colors! The bottom "crust" is a red velvet cake. Anyways, on to the recipe!

 

 

Red Velvet Crust
1/2 stick butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp cocoa

 Red food coloring
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c buttermilk
1 c flour
1/2 tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp baking soda

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 10″ springform pan. Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs. Add all other ingredients and mix til blended. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool cake in pan.

 

Cheesecake Filling:
24 oz. Cream Cheese
1 1/3 c Sugar
5 Large Eggs
16 oz. Sour Cream
1/4 c Flour
2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Lemon Juice

 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Beat cream cheese on low until fluffy.. Add the sugar a little at a time and continue beating. Add one egg at a time and beat after each egg. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Divide batter into different bowls and color with food coloring. Drop by spoonfuls on top of red velvet cake to make tie dye effect. Bake 1 hr 15 min. Cool cake in oven with door oven. Refrigerate over night.

New Years...Time for Good Eatin'

New Years Day...a time for new beginnings, a time for making resolutions, time for a fresh start, and time to stuff your face with some good eatin'!

 

Being the good southerner that I am, we ate the mandatory meal on New Years. Here's a post I did a few years ago as to why we eat what we eat.

 This year's menu included Hoppin' John, which has the mandatory rice and black eyed peas. This is the recipe I used. I would use a little less rice and a little more seasoning next time.

 Then we had our greens. This was a mixture of collards and turnip greens I got out of my Uncle's garden at Thanksgiving and had froze. I cooked mine with a little salt, sugar, oil, and a ham bone for flavor!

 We also had ham. This was a pre cooked Honey Baked Ham. A guy we sell some of our cotton to sent it to us for Christmas.



 And lastly, the cornbread.  You can find my recipe for Golden Sweet Cornbread here. It's the only cornbread recipe I make, except for the ocassional Mexican Cornbread. I can hardly stand to eat that normal, crumbly, dry cornbread anymore. Blech. My father in law is diabetic, and he ate with us, so I actually made this with Splenda!

This is a terrible picture, but I almost forgot to take it. It's supposed to be a peach cobbler. A very delicious peach cobbler. Very easy to make. Here is the recipe.

 

Hope you ate your way into 2013 too! Happy New Year!



Yummy Strawberry Pie!

2 cups whole strawberries

1 baked 9" pie shell

3/4 cup sugar

3 tbsps cornstarch

1 cup crushed strawberries

1/2 cup water

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp lemon juice

8 oz whipped topping

Arrange whole strawberries in pie shell. Mix sugar and cornstarch in saucepan. Add crushed strawberries, water, salt, and lemon juice. Cook for 8 minutes or until thickened and clear, stirring constantly. Let stand to cool. Pour over whole berries. Spready with whipped topping.

(I changed the recipe some...didn't use Cool Whip, and also used halved strawberries instead of whole!)

Something Sweet on Valentine's Day!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

 Here's the something sweet I got from Lance.

And here's the something sweet he got from me!

And now, my gift to you...the recipe!

Smores Cupcakes

Cupcakes
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup cocoa
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup oil
6 jumbo marshmallows cut in half, plus more for decorating

Graham Cracker Crumb topping
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/4 cup butter, melted

Ganache
4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda together with a wire whisk.
Separate the mixture in half into two bowls.

Stir cocoa into one bowl and the graham cracker crumbs into the other.
Add 1/2 cup milk, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/4 cup oil to the cocoa mixture and beat on medium until combined.
Repeat adding the same ingredients to the graham cracker crumb flour mixture.

Prepare the graham cracker crumb topping.
Add the brown sugar and crumbs in a small bowl and pour on the melted butter. Stir until combined.

Pour a little graham cracker cake batter into the bottom of your baking cups and then sprinkle the topping mixture lightly on the surface.
Place a marshmallow half on top and then cover the marshmallow with the chocolate cake batter until it is about 3/4 full.
Sprinkle with more topping mixture.

Bake cupcakes for about 15 minutes. Place a cookie sheet underneath when you bake just in case. I had a little bit ooze over into the oven. Oops.

This recipe will make at least 12 cupcakes. I had a some batter from each left over so you can probably get more like 14-16.

Let cool and top with ganache.

Heat the butter and cream on the stove. Heat until just before it boils. Remove and pour over chocolate. Stir until completely melted and smooth.
Pour over cupcakes and add more marshmallows if you desire.

(From Bakerella)



Whirrled Peas

Happy New Years!

For years I never really understood why we had to eat all that we had to eat on New Years Day. I knew the different foods stood for things like luck, peace, money, etc., but how in the world did this tradition get started?  Thanks to Google, it is rumored that it dates back to the Civil War when those mean ol' Yankees marched through the South burning everything. They saw fields of black eyed peas and collard greens and assumed they were for the livestock to eat. Since that was the only thing left for Southerners to eat, they were deemed lucky. I always like having a good reason to stuff my face.

This year our New Year's meal included:

Peas-I've always heard eat them for peace, but have also heard for prosperity, good luck, or for more "coins".

Greens-for money, "greenback" or wealth.

Cornbread-good fortune, also have heard for "gold" or "circle of life?"

Rice-riches

Hog Jowl-I've always thought it was for joy, but have recently heard to eat it for health. Health, really? Of all the foods to choose from to eat for health, it's hog jowl? haha!

Sweet Potatoes-for being sweet. Nah, I made that one up. I just had some sweet potatoes that I wanted to cook.  But, maybe I could start a new tradition.

So, what did y'all eat on New Years? You are what you eat!