The Crab Chronicles

Recipes from Yesteryear

My grandmother Memaw Hasty [Wilma Butler Hasty] majored in Home Economics at Bessie Tift College and was a wonderful cook. She was always happy to try new foods, new methods of cooking, etc. -- except for things she didn't like, like garlic. (Her idea of "Italian" was actually canned spaghetti from Chef Boyardee. LOL) She was a "modern" cook for her day -- she used Crisco instead of lard, for instance. 

Mom found the recipes below and I wanted to share them. 

The Pear Salad recipe has an interesting history. My aunt Jane Hasty made it when Mamaw was visiting, probably sometime in the late 1960's, and Mamaw liked it and wrote down the recipe. She sent it in a letter to my mother. My mother made it and liked it. Mom gave the recipe to her sister in law, Diddy. Diddy liked it and gave it to her other Thompson sister in law, Evalyn. Now, my aunt Evalyn was a gourmet cook, and if she liked a recipe we considered it high praise indeed. Evalyn made the recipe for years, on many occasions. [See below for Evalyn's version of this, which Diddy said is not quite as sweet.]

I left the image large, to be easier to read. 

One of these days I'm going to make some pear salad, in honor of Mamaw and of my Aunt Evalyn. [Thankfully, Diddy and Jane are still with us.]

right - Evalyn

I remember Mom making the frozen salad recipe and it was very tasty. Mom froze little one cup servings of that once, in our big freezer, and when we were hungry for something sweet and there were no cookies or ice cream available we would eat a frozen salad. 

When I look at these photos of my grandparents it makes me kind of sad. Rarely does a day go by that I don't think of them and miss them. I loved to sit on my grandmother's lap and play with her necklaces. She loved good costume jewelry and almost always wore necklaces. I have some of them now.

I loved to sit on my grandfather's lap and he would read to me. Bible stories, Heidi, Swiss Family Robinson -- those were our favorites. Even now, if I catch a whiff of Old Spice it brings back those memories and I want to cry. 

My grandparents always wore aprons when they cooked. My friend Stacy at Down South House & Home has a lot of really unique and creative products, from tea towels to tote bags, to tee shirts, but my favorite is her new line of aprons. This one is just adorable -- and in the South it's very important to be raised right. If you're looking for a unique and delightful Christmas gift, check out the aprons and other wares at Down South House & Home. I know my memaw would have loved everything Stacy makes.

Asian Green Beans the Southern Way

When I was a kid, I love my Memaw's green beans. So did my daddy. We would eat the tender, delicious "snap beans" flavored with fatback and cooked until they fell apart. Heavenly.

I was in New York City many years ago, a senior in college, and a friend my of dad's had invited me to eat lunch with her at a very chi chi restaurant. I wore pantyhose to the lunch date -- that tells you how long ago it was. I ordered some chicken or fish and it came with green beans on the plate. The beans were just slightly warm, and I tried to eat one and nearly spit it out, in horror. It was barely cooked. It was crunchy. I called the waiter over and told him to please take the beans back to the kitchen and cook them. He looked very puzzled.

It's not my fault that chef had no idea how to cook green beans.

This year I planted a TON of green bean seeds, Blue Lake variety. I didn't realize any were ready to pick until day before yesterday, and then I picked what you see above. Hallelujah!

My brother and I love the green beans we get at Asian restaurants. So he set out to re-create their green beans and I took his ideas and added my own twist. I posted on Facebook about it and I think everyone was sort of amused that me, a born and bred southerner, would go nuts over green beans cooked a very non-southern way. Tasty is tasty, though.

My green beans were not crunchy. Lord no. However, they weren't cooked until they fell apart, like Memaw cooked them. There IS a happy medium

I cleaned these, boiled them for about 15 minutes to soften them up, then in a skillet sauteed two cloves of fresh minced garlic in olive oil. I then threw in the beans, and liberally added soy sauce, sesame oil, a little bit of balsamic vinegar, a pat of Plugra butter, and salt and pepper. You will need to taste and adjust seasonings to your taster. That's the best way to cook.

My brother would have added some hot chili oil. I did not.

I had to restrain myself from eating the entire skillet full of beans.

We've had a lot of rain the last few days so I am hoping my bean plants will continue to keep me in fresh beans all summer. There is no comparison -- fresh from the garden just taste 100% better!

Elva's Cornbread Dressing - the Best in the World

The tradition in my family has always been that on Thanksgiving morning, instead of my usual breakfast, I would eat a piece of cornbread spread with butter and crumbled up in a bowl with some warm milk. YUM.

Guess what Michael had for breakfast this morning?!

The first thing I made today was the cornbread.

It's important to make the cornbread so it can cool off before the dressing is made. Here in the south we make dressing, not "stuffing" and we put it in a pan, usually Pyrex or Corning Ware, not inside the turkey. [We don't even eat turkey at my house, we prefer pork roast.]

My mother's favorite food is her own dressing. Most people who have ever tried it understand why immediately. Nobody makes dressing better than Elva. Nobody. My friend Bronwyn said recently on Facebook that Elva's dressing was her favorite food! High compliment. She's from Louisiana and a good cook and gourmand.

This year, we let Michael do most of the work making the dressing. The whole process went a lot faster. My brother couldn't come over so it's just the three of us. We are trying to get Michael helping more in the kitchen.

The fact he has only one hand is irrelevant. He has a sharp knife he likes, and he has a method of chopping which is fast and accurate and involves no bloodletting. He breaks eggs easily. He loves to use the hand blender. He does make a big mess in the kitchen, but what man doesn't?!

The other aspect is that with his granny sitting at the table telling him what to do, he is learning valuable kitchen skills and he will eat a boatload of whatever is cooked, which is good. (He actually forgets to eat sometimes and he's skinny as a stick.)

the recipe is below - click on it to make it bigger

This year, Mom wrote down the recipe, and it occurred to me that it would be a good idea to scan it into the computer. She left out a few things. For instance, cornbread is much better if you add a big dollop of mayonnaise -- Duke's, of course. It's great to make it in a cast iron skillet, unless you're a small woman with arthritis and/or you don't have a strong person around to get the skillet in and out of the oven. [I actually wrote a blog a few years ago about how to make cornbread.]

Mom says "string" the celery. My memaw used to do that. I am a bit lazy. I use the tender inner stalks and don't fool with stringing the celery.

You don't have to dry out the bread. It's optional.

We like to take the chopped celery and onion and cook it in a small glass bowl in some chicken broth in the microwave for about 3 minutes, then macerate it with a hand blender. (Mom's teeth are bad and she can't eat anything chewy. Don't ever use the word "dentures" around her either, unless you want to get slapped.)

She didn't put precise measurements on the seasoning. We season HEAVILY. The more the merrier. Onions plus onion powder means extra onion flavor, which is always good.

We like to use Campbell's Cream of Chicken soup with herbs. Old-fashioned cream of chicken is fine too.

You mix the celery and onions into about 3-4 cups of crumbled cornbread and about 3-4 cups of bread torn into little pieces. Then you throw in your soups, melted butter, eggs, seasonings, baking powder (about a tablespoon) and chicken broth. The mixture should be pretty wet, not stiff.

A lot of times, we make 2 small pans of dressing instead of one big one, and freeze one. Then we've got dressing already made for Christmas dinner.

If I were a professional blogger I'd post a photo of the dressing but we aren't eating until tonight and it's not cooked yet.

I did take a photo of the pecan pie Michael and I made this morning. YUM.

One day in the future, when my mom is in heaven I will find this recipe, assemble the ingredients, and Michael and I will make the dressing, and think of Mom/Granny/Miss Elva, and hopefully we will smile. Hope that's a long ways away, though..

 

 

The World's Best Meatloaf

My cousin and BFF Lesleigh came to dinner last night and I made meatloaf, pasta salad, and sauteed spinach. I didn't feel awkward about serving her meatloaf, for several reasons. One, she's family, and has eaten many meals at our house. Two, I make

The World's Best Meatloaf

I know what you're thinking. MEATLOAF. YUCK. I always think of the scene in A Christmas Story when Ralphie's Mom is dishing out meatloaf from a loaf pan and it looks revolting.

I remember my mother making it when I was a kid, and the shudder of revulsion when I found bits of chopped up green peppers in my meatloaf.

I've also tasted meatloaf that had bits of chopped onion that weren't really cooked fully. [IMHO onions should only be ingested if they are either cooked down to a softness that's just a step above butter, or cooked into a crispy yumminess like an onion ring. I aim for one of those two states when I add onions to food.]

But back to my topic - meatloaf, for most people, means

MAJOR YUCKO.

My mother loves meatloaf. She says she can eat it every day. We don't get that crazy, but we do have it fairly often. She's 82, so she needs soft foods that are easy to chew.

So in the interest of public service, and to help busy moms throw together a great meal from scratch that kids will love, I give you my tips to make great meatloaf.

One of the keys is to NOT use cheap meat, like ground chuck. Use ground sirloin. Yes, it's a tiny bit more pricey, but it's worth it. One of the criticisms of beef is that animal fat is bad for your heart. I like to buy the leanest ground beef possible, and add some heart-healthy olive oil to my meat mixture.

Another key is if possible, let the beef sit out on the counter and warm up before you start making the meatloaf. I don't know why, but all beef should be room temp before cooking. Makes it more tender.

My grandmother was a Home Economics major and she taught mother that one of the keys to great meatloaf is to put 1-2 tablespoons of baking powder in the meat. This keeps it from being so heavy.

You also want to use 1 or 2 eggs.

I like to get a mixing bowl and put my meat in it and leave it under a towel for a while to warm up, then I add my eggs and baking powder first, to be sure those ingredients are in there.

I like to buy breadcrumbs that are seasoned and add them to the meat.

I throw in a handfull - about 2-4 tablespoons of crumbs. Now, you can also just put a piece of ordinary bread, and that's OK. If you are going to do that, soak the bread in water [or Sherry or soy sauce] first, for a minute. That makes it easier to break up and incorporate into the meat.

My mother's trick for making meatloaf great is to add in lots of flavorful liquids, until the meat is pretty soggy. You don't want dry meatloaf. For depth of flavor, add one or all of these, about 1/4th of a cup:

Sherry or red wine

soy sauce

balsamic vinegar

You can find this at most major grocery stores - Kroger and Publix for sure. Not sure about other chains in other parts of the USA. I don't add a lot; usually a teaspoon or so for each lb. of meat.

Now, if you have time, it's great to chop up an onion and mince a clove of garlic, and saute those in some olive oil until they are soft, and add them to the meat. If you're in a hurry, use granulated garlic and onion powder.

I recently started adding Italian seasoning to my meatloaf. Gives it more flavor.

In terms of seasonings, most people are too timid. My rule is, the more the better.

And by the way, salt and pepper are not seasonings. Don't even cook food without them. They are basic. Most meat needs a good bit of salt to be edible. We use Sea Salt.

I also add a couple of good squirts of ketchup to the meat mixture. You can use tomato sauce.

We don't cook our meatloaf in a loaf pan. Typically, I use a small tin pan that was my great grandmother's for a 1 lb. meatloaf, and a 9x13 pan for a 2 lb. meatloaf. Once the meat mixture is ready, I just dump it into the pan and form a roughly rectangular shape in the middle of the pan. I then cover the top with either ketchup, or toothpick in some slices of bacon. I bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes. 

If you want to be more "company" then saute some mushrooms, and put them around your meat, swimming in beef broth. I buy boxed broth or stock. You can also chop up mushrooms and add them to your meat mixture, which is tasty.

SANDWICHES

One of our favorite ways to use leftover meatloaf is to take slices and fry them in a skillet, then pile on the grated cheese.Put it atop a piece of bread covered in butter and garlic powder, for a very yummy open-face sandwich.

Mother likes a cold meatloaf sandwich on white bread with Duke's mayo and tomato slices.

 

So next time you are stumped for a dinner idea, try meatloaf and use my tricks/tips. I guarantee you that you will love it.

Amazing Chicken Salad

My son likes cold salads. This is a very Russian thing, where cold vegetable salads are an integral part of Russian diets.

In America we are accustomed now to being able to buy fresh vegetables year round. Of course, in January they have likely been shipped from California, but they are on the shelves. Russia, despite being a vast country, has traditionally not been able to get fresh veggies so easily in winter - unless you are very wealthy and have access to pricey imports.

Now, to be fair, I last visited Russia in 2004 so maybe things have changed radically and normal folks can get fresh veggies year round. I don't know.

I do know the Russian tradition has been to can or pickle veggies in summer, to see folks through the long winters. Nothing wrong with that. Both my kids were happy to eat vegetables when I adopted them, because fresh veggies were considered a big treat. They would pick onions and tomatoes from the garden and just eat them raw, right then and there. Of course, I was delighted by that, after admonishing them to rinse the veggies off with a hose, at least.

So a few years ago my friend LeeAnn gave us some chicken salad she had made. I am not a big fan of cold salads, but Michael LOVED it. He inhaled it.I didn't even get to try a bite. I put it in the fridge, and the next time I checked it was GONE.

LeeAnn puts chopped celery, chopped pecans, and grapes, in her chicken salad, so it's fairly healthy.

Last week I went to Honeybaked Ham for my lb. of turkey I like to keep in the fridge for a snack. Great low-carb high-protein snack, smoked turkey. They had some small containers of chicken salad in the cooler, and the salad looked like it had grapes in it, which is how LeeAnn makes hers. 

I got home and looked at it and that tiny container was $8! Michael ate it all in less than 24 hours.

I decided yesterday to just find LeeAnn's recipe and make my own chicken salad, to keep in the fridge for Mike. He is never home for dinner these days, always out with friends, but he often comes in at midnight hungry. I'd rather he eat chicken salad than just a granola bar.

So I found the original email from LeeAnn where I had asked how she made her chicken salad.

"I just salt/pepper/boil boneless chicken breasts, shred in food processor, add mayo, pecan bits, a little bit of diced red onions and celery, and a pinch of pepper and salt and a bigger pinch of sugar.  At the end I add celery salt until I like the taste.Then I add the grapes last so they don't get smooshed."

I used rotisserie chicken because it's easier to pull chicken off the bone - and Lola was happy to eat the skin and gristley bits, of course. I went right by LeeAnn's instructions, but I also added some squeezes of fresh lemon juice to the chicken, and some onion powder and Lawrey's seasoned salt. I made Mom taste it. She said it was good. (I couldn't taste-test it because my stomach won't tolerate raw onion, no matter how finely chopped.) The grapes were rather large and I asked Mom if I should halve them. NO. Of course, Michael said I should have chopped the grapes. He ate a big fat sandwich when he got home, though, so it was a win-win situation for me.

I used up a good bit of mayonnaise, and Lola had a great time using her incredibly long tongue to lick the jar...

Elva's Country Fried Steak

Years ago my mother figured out a way to make a delicious dish involving cubed beef and gravy. We call it "country fried steak" although it might better be described as "smothered steak" or simply cube steak and gravy. It's my mother's favorite food [well, besides fried scallops and prime rib, neither of which I can cook]. I try to make her country fried steak every couple of weeks.

My blogging this recipe is really an attempt to think through the process and have a historical record. I could make it in my sleep. One day, I imagine, years from now, I will think of this and want Michael to make it for me. I will also want rice or biscuits, to put the gravy on. There's really no point in making it unless there is a lot of gravy and in the south, that calls for rice or biscuits or possibly mashed potatoes.

Michael watched me make this tonight. I wanted him to watch and learn, even though he has now gone out with friends and likely won't be home for dinner. When I had finished making the gravy and poured most of it over the meat, he asked for the small amount left in the pan. He got a piece of bread and poured the gravy over the bread and ate it. (I used to love "gravy bread" as a kid. Tickled me to see him doing that.)

I will share with you another secret. I cannot make biscuits that are worth a damn. I know, I know, my Mamaw and Granny Butler and on and on back, they are all flipping around in their graves, horrified that their descendant cannot make a decent biscuit. My biscuits are either hard enough to be used as a construction material or the consistency of chewing gum. Mama TRIED to teach me how to make scrumptious biscuits but I failed miserably at it. I accept that. Pillsbury frozen biscuits ROCK - about 90% as good as what my mother could make from scratch. 

 Now, if I am feeling energetic, I will chop up an onion and maybe even some fresh mushrooms and saute them in some olive oil and/or butter, and let them get soft. Then I will take them out of the pan and put them aside. I don't always feel that energetic.

Elva's Country Fried Steak

4 pieces of cubed steak, each piece about the size of the palm of your hand

1 onion, diced

1-2 cups mushrooms, chopped

1-2 cans Campbell's beef consomme or 2-4 cups beef stock

1 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

sherry

1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

onion powder

garlic powder

Lawrey's seasoned salt

salt and pepper

2-3 tablespoons olive oil

 

About an hour before you plan to cook, take the cubed steaks out of the package and salt and pepper them on both sides. Then let them sit on the kitchen counter for 30-45 minutes. Preheat the oven to either 250 [if you can let the dish cook at least 4 hours] or 275-300 [if you have 2-3 hours before dinner]. Take a large shallow bowl, like a soap bowl, and put into it the flour, and a few shakes of onion powder, garlic powder, pepper, and seasoned salt. Take a spoon and mix it up well. About 5 minutes before you're ready to cook the steak, heat up olive oil or canola oil in a large skillet, to between medium and high. Take each piece of beef and dredge it in the seasoned flour mixture. I usually use my fingers to pat the flour into the meat. Place each piece into the oil. It should fry up and be crispy, about 1-2 minutes on each side. As you finish cooking each piece, put it in a 9x13 pan. Take your onions and mushrooms and put them in between each piece of meat, or wait and add them to the gravy.

Now for the fun part: making the gravy. You should have a couple of tablespoons of oil left in your skillet. I like to also add about 2-4 pats of real butter. Then dump what's left of your flour into the skillet, and stir it around. This is your roux. Cook it on low for a minute or two. Now add in your beef consomme or stock, soy sauce, Sherry, and balsamic vinegar. Keep it on low and keep stirring. Add water and stir it in. Add in extra onion powder and garlic powder. (I like to be heavy-handed with seasonings.) You have to stand there and keep stirring a bit until the gravy looks right.

Pour the gravy over the meat, and try to cover it. Or you can add in the onions and mushrooms to the gravy and then pour the gravy over the steak.

Cover the dish tightly with tinfoil and put it in the oven. Cooking low and slow is best and really brings out the flavors. I made this recipe tonight and mine will cook for 2.5 hours at 275. You can also put it in the crock pot for 4-6 hours on low. The meat should be fork tender when it's done cooking.

Serve with biscuits or rice.

The Always Popular Tex Mex Dip

Many years ago, my mother found a recipe for Tex Mex Dip. She started serving it at parties. People would make fools of themselves eating this dip. I've never seen anything like it. About a year ago, we made it and watched Michael eat it like crazy -- which is a very good thing because it's got guacamole and chopped tomatoes and olives and beans. It's fairly healthy.

Michael invited his friend Eric over to Granny's little birthday celebration last night. We like Eric a lot. Nice boy, very polite. He brought Mother some roses. I sent Michael to the store for last-minute supplies while I made the birthday (rum) cake. He asked about making the Tex Mex dip. I told him all the ingredients and I said IF you buy the ingredients, you and Eric can make it, with supervision from Granny of course.

Much to my surprise, the boys got all the ingredients. It only took 3 phonecalls from Kroger. LOL

I asked Mother to walk out to the kitchen and supervise because I'm not as good at making it as she is. I let the boys do it all except I chopped the tomatoes. (Chopping is a laborious process for Michael although he can do it just fine.)

Anyway, the photos below tell the story, and I've included the recipe -- which is in a cookbook Mom and I wrote years ago.. If you ever have a party, make the dip. Buy Tostitos or Fritos scoops, because you want a big chip to hold the dip. Mother advises folks to dig straight down, through all the layers. Michael usually just spoons a bit bunch of dip onto a plate and sits there and dips off the plate.

We also made Mom's famous shrimp spread [fresh shrimp, cream cheese, mayo, herbs] and Alton Brown's Onion Dip. Our friend Bronwyn came over and had a good visit, too; I just didn't get a photo. So it was a fun evening.

I hope 2016 is a terrific year. Lord knows 2015 was difficult..

 

Real Southern Cooking

I was born in Augusta Georgia and I started cooking [real cooking, not just tuna salad and jello] when I was about 10, so I’ve been cooking now for over 40 years. I’ve lived in either Georgia or Tennessee my entire life, and I come from a long line of strong Southern women who were good cooks. So I know about southern cooking.

Mamaw Hasty, my mother’s mother, was a FANTASTIC cook. I always say when I get to heaven my first meal will be Mamaw’s fried chicken and homemade biscuits and gravy. My daddy loved her green beans above any other food in the world, and she always made them for him, because he had a fit over them. I’ve never tasted green beans that good since she died.

Over at the Bitter Southerner they got a professional food writer to come up with what they call The Seven Essential Southern Dishes. This is troubling for a couple of reasons. One, they left off fried chicken. I’m sure it was deliberate – what better marketing than to get folks riled up. Second, they left off barbeque. That’s just flat out wrong.

Then again, to be fair, barbeque deserves its own article, because it IS in a class by itself.

I told my mother [at 81 years old a true old southern lady] about my issues with the BS article and she talked me through how Mamaw made green beans, and other issues I had with the article.

My Mamaw cooked GREEN BEANS until they fell apart. She stringed them first – you always pinch off the ends and pull the strings off, and rinse them under cold water. Put them in a pot and cover with water and put in a hunk of fatback the size of your fist, plus a teaspoon of salt. (She always rinsed off her fatback under cold water, and didn’t use that curing salt that came on the meat.) Bring them to a boil, then cut them back to a low simmer, with the lid on, and cook 1-3 hours. She always kind of went by when the fatback got done. She never called it fatback – she called it streak of lean. If you can’t find fatback, just use a couple of pieces of raw bacon.

Of course, when you refrigerate the beans then later pull them out, you skim off the fat, at least we do. My grandfather or my dad always ate the fatback.

Mamaw attended Bessie Tift College and majored in Home Economics, and she never put sugar in any vegetable. [Mother and I boil corn on the cob in a big pot with some sugar in the water, though. Makes the corn sweeter.]

Crisco was considered superior to other fats and used for biscuits and cakes. Bacon grease was poured into jars or cans and saved to cook with. Mother remembers that from World War II the fat [lard] was rationed and hard to buy. She never remembered corn oil or canola oil – liquid fats like that were hard to find, and expensive. Mamaw always used hog fat or butter. If you lived in the city you had to use your ration tickets for butter. Mother was glad that during the war they lived on a farm, because they always ate well.

Anyway, I digressed. Back to the Bitter Southerner article..

In an attempt to correct some of the issues I see with their list of foods and recipes, I’ve included here two tried and true recipes and tips.

 

CORNBREAD [also good for hoecakes, and corn muffins]

* we use Lewis Grizzard's mama's recipe:

1 1/2 cups White Lily self-rising cornmeal [don’t use anything but White Lily; you don’t have to use baking powder, baking soda, or flour, if you use White Lily]

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk [you can use sweet milk or even canned milk but it won’t be as good]

2 heaping spoonfulls of Duke's mayonnaise

pinch salt

Mix it all together. Pour it in a cast iron skillet* that has been greased with Crisco or bacon drippings. Mamaw would put the grease in the iron skillet and put it in the oven and let it get real hot, then pour in the batter and put it back in the oven. That makes a nice brown crust on the outside of the cornbread. Cook it about 375 for 20-30 minutes. You can tell if the edges turn brown – light brown.

 

Pound Cake

Pound cake is quintessentially southern. I wrote an entire blog about it. Pound cake stars in my childhood memories – smelling a pound cake cooking is bliss.

 

1 stick butter [real butter, not margarine]

1 cup Crisco

3 cups sugar

Cream the butter/Crisco/sugar a long time. Really let the mixer cream it until it's like buttah, y'all.

Add in 5 large eggs, one at a time, just beating them in carefully, but not overbeating.

Set out 3 cups of cake flour in one bowl on the counter, and a 1 cup of sour cream. In the sour cream, mix in 1/4 tsp. baking soda. Alternate mixing in the sour cream and the flour, beating well after each addition but not overbeating, until everything is incorporated.

Add in 1 teaspoon vanilla, and one teaspoon almond flavoring.

Bake at 350 about 90 minutes. Check it after 80 minutes, if you don't know if your oven runs hot or cool. No oven is perfect.

SOME COMMON MISTAKES:

Use real butter and real sour cream. Don't try to go low fat. Use real vanilla extract and real almond extract. The fake, or "imitation" kinds are not as good. Be sure and grease and flour your pan well. I use a bundt pan that's nearly as old as me, and just give it a spray of Baker's Secret.

A good pound cake will actually be better the second day, as long as you keep it in a good cake carrier.

 

* A good cast iron skillet is a treasure. We have several that have been passed down in our family for decades. Apparently the South isn't the only region to recognize the value of cast iron. Check out this article from Bon Appetit magazine: How to Use a Cast Iron Skillet.

Above [in color] me and my brother with Mamaw and Papaw, about 1964; one of Mamaw's handwritten pages of recipes; Mamaw and my uncle Bobby around 1924.

Culinary Experiment

Every once in a while I try to do something that goes beyond mere cooking and is more in the realm of "culinary." Such was the case yesterday after Michael and I returned from the grocery store and I realized that I had utterly forgotten to buy broth.

I try to keep chicken broth and beef broth on hand because they come in handy for several dishes I cook on a regular basis. 

For instance, if you make rice using chicken or beef broth, it makes the rice much more flavorful. I make real rice, and I make it the way my grandmother did - sticky. Not chewy. I think chewy rice is an abomination. No, I use Mahatma Jasmine rice, and I typically use 1 cup rice to 1 cup water and 2 cups chicken or beef broth. Add a spoonful of salt and a big pat of butter. Bring it to a boil. Cut it down to low, slap the lid on it and simmer it for 20 minutes.

I like to use beef broth when I make a beef roast, along with red wine, soy sauce, onions or onion powder, and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Slow cook that in a 200 degree oven all day or throw it in the crock pot. Lots of salt and pepper, too. Yum.

I also like to make meatloaf with lots of beef broth added, until the meat is super moist. It just boosts the flavor. 

I digressed.

So late yesterday afternoon, after giving it some thought, I decided to make my own chicken stock. I remembered seeing Ina Garten make stock, once, and it was a fascinating process, involving lots of ingredients and a pot that Ina probably could have bathed in.

I went online to research making chicken stock. I found How to Make Chicken Stock and Not Call It "Bone Broth," Ever. This made me laugh out loud, in many places. Among the pithy observations:

"Stock, like so many other slow-cooking techniques, originated as a way for very hungry people to wring some nutrition and flavor out of whatever sad, nigh-inedible shit—leftover bones and joints, fibrous vegetation, fragrant twigs, etc.—happened to be around. People who could choose, say, going and getting something else to eat over waiting for hours to see if a pot of hot water with a bunch of gnarled bones in it might magically transform into nutritive sustenance would never have come up with stock."

So I went rooting around in the kitchen and came up with a very large pot that Mother bought me years ago, much to my puzzlement at the time. I then went rooting around in the freezer, and came up with two chicken breast filets. [I also threw out a bunch of stuff that had freezer burn, but we don't need to discuss that...]

I had no carrots or celery, so I called my next door neighbor and she said she had plenty of carrots and celery, and very sweetly brought me over several of each.

[Thin people always have celery. This I learned long ago.]

I next grabbed my pot and filled it with: the chicken breast filets, carrots, celery, bay leaves, and entire package of frozen and chopped onions, salt and pepper, onion powder, and basil, oregano, and sage from the garden. I found a nice jar of peppercorns in the back of the spice cabinet and threw those in.

That was my fatal mistake.

A few peppercorns = good stock

20-30 = disaster

I didn't realize it until I had boiled the mixture for a while. Then I tasted it.

It wasn't too hot, as in spicy hot. It was simply too PEPPERY.

I then had to make a decision.

Throw out the entire pot? Or try to salvage the situation??

I opted for the latter. Soup. Soup is good.

So I painstakingly dipped out all the leaves and all the peppercorns. Took me half an hour. Why didn't you use a strainer? asked Mother. Well, I couldn't lift the enormously heavy pot of boiling hot liquid and I was afraid I'd spill it and make a huge mess. HUGE MESS. So I dipped out everything that didn't need to be in there.

I then shredded the chicken, and cut up the carrots and celery, and added them back in.

Then I got to thinking about the grody old bottle of lemon pepper I'd just thrown out when I spied it in the back of the spice cabinet.

Lemon + Pepper = yummy

So I juiced and entire lemon and put that in there.

Then I got to thinking about another very yummy thing - buttered noodles. So I found some spaghetti in the cupboard and threw it in there along with an entire stick of real butter.

Then I tasted.

It still didn't taste right. I added a teaspoon of sugar, out of desperation.

I know, I know, I know. You're thinking "Dee just lost her mind."

Yes, sort of. But here's the thing: I did NOT WANT TO ADMIT DEFEAT.

So my chicken stock was not to be. SOUP! Soup is a worthy thing.

Mother tasted some of it and said it was fine, just needed more salt.

Michael ate a big bowl of soup when he got home last night. [the above photo is from about 5 years ago, BTW]

I will try making stock again.

I will never admit defeat!

I will probably not put in ANY peppercorns, however.

One day I will make all my own broth, all my own stock, and it will all be excellent. I will revel in my culinary skills.

Of course by then it's quite likely I will be living alone again...

 

Easy and Delicious Chicken

I have found over the past few years that cooking meat "low and slow" in the oven is the way to get the most tender meat. Mother has a lot of issues with her teeth, so cooking meat that is very easy for her to chew is a priority around here.

So tonight I had baked chicken. I knew you're thinking well that sounds BLAH, but it wasn't. It was very easy and very tasty.

Take several chicken breasts -- or an entire chicken, if you like, which is what I did -- and find a dish with a lid. Or use a baking dish and cover it with foil. Wash your chicken carefully and pat it dry.

[Do I need to tell you to be careful when washing chicken and washing your hands?!? Hope not.]

Cover the chicken with liberally sprinkled salt [I like Sea Salt] and let it sit for at least 30 minutes before doing anything else.

If you don't salt the chicken it's 50% less flavorful. Not good.

Take Hidden Vally Ranch dressing -- the original, not the low fat -- and cover that chicken with it. Yes, it's messy. You can wash your hands.

Next, take Italian breadcrumbs and liberally pour those breadcrumbs -- or you can use panko but it's not as tasty -- all over that chicken. Place it carefully in your pan, and pour some water in the bottom of the pan, just so it won't stick.

Cover the pan with the lid or with foil.

Turn the oven on 250 and put the chicken in there and cook it for HOURS. If you're doing chicken breasts, maybe 3 hours? If you've got an entire chicken, 4-6 hours should do it.

If you want to have a complete easy meal, get a Stouffer's Spinach Souffle and throw it in the microwave for 5-8 minutes. A pan of Sister Schubert's rolls can be cooked after you bring out the chicken. Just leave the chicken covered, on the counter.

If you're a working Mom this is a great meal because as long as you have enough liquid in the dish, you will be fine -- the chicken won't dry out. You can put the chicken in the oven overnight, then throw it in the fridge the next morning.

NOTE: I am not a Food Stylist. My food photos tend to be blurry and look like Science Projects, but so be it. The chicken was DELICIOUS. I have a great local place to buy free-range chicken that is wonderful.