The Holidays and your favorite recipes

The holiday season will soon be here. 

Thanksgiving is a very special holiday for our family and usually centers around our family dinner.  

Mom’s Southern cornbread Turkey and Dressing is the usual star of the main meal.  There are other favorites that complete our meal.  My brother has to have Chunky Potato Salad, made the same way my grandmother made it.  I usually enjoy the Sweet Potatoes and baked Ham.  

One daughter loves the Green Bean Casserole and Yeast Rolls while daughter #2 loves the Ham and Cream Style Corn.

And of course, the dessert choice wouldn’t be complete without mom’s Angel Salad on the menu.  (Pictures and recipe forthcoming)

 

 I’m a dessert eater.  Below are some of my favorites.

 

Peanut Butter Balls

 

Southern Pecan Pie

 

Chess Pie

 

Sour Cream Pound Cake

 

And if you’re watching your sugar intake…

Low Carb Mini-Chocolate Chip Cheesecake

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What special dish are you looking forward to? 

Chicken and Dumplings and Aunt Mary

As children, my brothers and I stayed with my Great Aunt Mary during the summer and after school while my mom worked long hours at a local law firm.

Summers were so much longer back then and there was always so much to do.  Never a boring moment.  Aunt Mary would keep us busy, either by helping her or by letting us do a craft.  We made beautiful flowers out of colorful layers of toilet tissue (you could buy pale pink and baby blue toilet paper back then ), colored on paper towels or paper plates, or made small trash cans using egg cartons, yarn, and a tin pie pan.

Sometimes we even sat out on the swing and guessed what color the next car would be.  We couldn’t do that today; too many cars fly up and down that road now.

On beautiful warm days, we played outside.  We might even help Aunt Mary hang the freshly washed laundry out on the line or maybe work in her garden.  Oh, how I remember the goodness that came from that little vegetable garden out in the back yard behind the chicken coop and shed.

Fresh green beans with baby whole new potatoes fried up in an iron skillet and seasoned with bacon grease.  Ripe, red tomatoes, peeled because Aunt Mary couldn’t chew the peeling, and cut into thick slices.  Slimey boiled okra, fried summer squash, green onions, purple hull peas, and in the fall,  roasted sweet potatoes.

That woman had a green thumb and was always working at canning fresh snapped green beans and red tomato relish.

Lunch was her main meal of the day and in the evenings she usually had a few leftovers or some cornbread and gravy and sat at the table writing in her journal as the evening grew darker.

I remember as a child loving my Aunt Mary’s Chicken & Dumplings.  It was always a treat when we had Chicken & Dumplings.   Thanks for the memories, Aunt Mary.  You will forever live on in our hearts and minds.

Learn more about my Great Aunt Mary.

This is not her exact recipe, but very similar.

This just happens to be my daughters’ favorite dish.  Rarely ever do I have any leftovers.

Chicken and Dumplings

1 (3 pound) whole chicken

salt and pepper to taste

3 cups water

2 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons shortening

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup water

Directions:

In a heavy pot with a lid, or a crock pot,  place the chicken, salt, pepper and water.   Simmer all over low heat until tender, about 1 hour, or if using a crock pot, cook on low until done, maybe 3-4 hours.  (My crock pot low is like medium, it’s pretty hot)

Let chicken cool slightly in pot, then remove and take the meat off of the bones. Discard the bones and skin and skim excess fat off the broth if desired. Return broth and chicken pieces to the pot. Simmer over low heat while making the dumplings.

To Make Dumplings: In a medium mixing bowl, cut shortening into the flour and salt. Stir in 1/4 cup water (more if needed) to form a soft dough. Roll out dough on a floured surface, with a rolling-pin, until thin. Cut into 1 inch wide strips using a pizza cutter or knife. Tear off 1 -2  inch long pieces from these strips and drop into simmering broth.  Simmer for 10 minutes with the lid off, then 10 minutes more with the lid on.  Serve immediately.

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On this cold winter day, I’m partying over at

Sun Tea

My Handyman hates when I throw big jars away, or medium size jars, or even small jars.   He sees the jar as a potential iced tea glass. 

So, what else to do with his large empty pickle jar?  After thoroughly cleaning and airing out the jar to get rid of the pickle taste, I filled the jar with water, added a couple of tea bags and set it outside in the hot sun.  A few hours later I had Sun Tea.  

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SUN TEA

1 gal. cold water
2 family size tea bags

Place cold water in large glass jar.  Add tea bags.  Close lid and loosen a little. Put in sun until water is dark, 3 – 5 hours.  Remove tea bags, sweeten with sugar to taste.  Stir well. Pour over a tall glass of ice.  Optional, garnish with a slice of lemon or lime.

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Kitchenaids and Potato Soup

Recently I’ve enlisted the help of my growing daughters in the kitchen. I’m encouraging them to cook 1 meal a week each, starting out…hopefully to increase to several more in the coming weeks.  They arrive home before I get off work, so they can get a head start on dinner and I won’t have so much to do when I get home.

My 13 year old chose the menu for tonight, did the shopping with the help of her daddy, and prepared and cooked most of the meal.

Her menu:

• Aunt Dorothy’s Potato Soup
• Drop Biscuits
• Strawberry Shortcake
• Iced Tea

I thought she did a great job.  The soup was very filling.  I was a little scared that my Handyman would say, “Where’s the beef?” but he didn’t and was very satisfied with A’s menu choice.  I’m very satisfied that I came up with this wonderful idea! 

Aunt Dorothy’s Potato Soup

8 medium potatoes, diced

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup onion, diced

1 1/2 cups milk or cream

2 Tbsp cornstarch

celery and carrots (optional)

chopped parsley

Cook potatoes, onions, celery and carrots in boiling, salted water until tender, 20-30 minutes.  Drain the potatoes, add milk.  We used a potatoe masher to smash the potatoes and then stirred the milk into the smashed potatoe mixture.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add cornstarch and parsley.  Simmer until thickened.   Serve topped with your choice of shredded cheese, real bacon pieces, and sliced green onions.

Vegetable Beef Soup with Southern Cornbread

This soup began as a Pot Roast with baby carrots and baby whole potatoes

baked in the oven for 6 hours at 275º.  That wasn’t long enough or the temp wasn’t high enough.  It was supposed to cooked in the crockpot while I was at work until I discovered my crockpot was missing in action and left at the church after the last dinner.

My cupboard was nearly bare of soup ingredients except for the 2 home-canned jars of mixed veggies sent back home with us from a trip to Aunt D’s house in Kentucky. I also had a small can of tomato sauce, but no diced or whole tomatoes which I normally use in soup.

The soup turned out to be the best I’ve made in a while… it was delicious!  Very hearty and full of flavor.   Only from memory, since I didn’t write anything down; it goes something like this…

Hearty Vegetable Beef Soup

Small portion of leftover pot roast
Whole new potatoes, from leftover roast
Onions, from leftover roast
2 cans mixed veggies
1 small tomato sauce
2 bouillon cubes
2-3 Tbs Flour or cornstarch for thickening
1-2 cups of water

Put all in a large pot or dutch oven and cook on medium heat for 30 minutes and until broth is thickened.  Serve with cornbread, breadsticks, or saltines.

Pacify your kids when they come asking for more, by informing them that soup’s all gone but homemade Pecan Pie with a dollop of fresh whipped cream is coming up!