The Crab Chronicles

Kitchen Hacks and Food Hacks

I realized today that there are some kitchen hacks that I’ve used for many years that not everyone knows about, which is amazing to me. Then again, I’ve been cooking and cleaning up since I was about 5 years old, so that’s more than half a century of experience!

I was also a busy working mom for years so I had to learn some new kitchen hacks..

I’ve been making my son batches of chicken salad recently because it makes a great and healthy snack. The recipe is simple – cold diced chicken, mayo, diced seedless grapes, diced pecans, chopped onion, and diced celery. There are three hacks here. One, take a fresh lime and halve it and use lots of fresh lime juice. It’s also great on tuna salad. Lime juice is sweeter and has no seeds so I like it much better than lemon juice. Two, take a paring knife and strip the strings off the celery, and it’s much easier to chew. In terms of seasonings, I go in heavy with onion powder, garlic powder, celery salt, and powdered curry seasoning by McCormick.

Cutting cakes and brownies: put Pam on the knife blade to prevent it from getting gunked up.

Peeling hardboiled eggs: hold the egg under running water while you peel it.

Easy Pie: Do you need to take something to a potluck but you don’t cook or bake and you are tired of buying paper plates/cups or ice? Take an ice cream pie! Buy a graham cracker piecrust at the store, and a 1.5 quart tub of ice cream [we are partial to Mayfield] and let it soften on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes. Spoon it into the piecrust and smooth it out. Pop it back into the freezer until it’s time to leave. If you want to get fancy, buy a plain Hershey bar and smash it up, and sprinkle it on top of the pie, or buy chocolate syrup and drizzle it on top before freezing.

Most people will love this Green Bean Salad. My kids loved it. Buy some Del Monte canned green beans – 4 or 5 regular-sized cans. Drain them in a colander, then put them in a bowl. Cut up an onion and add it. Add some diced cucumber if you like, and some original Ranch dressing, onion powder, and lots of dill weed. Leave out the raw onion if your kids won’t eat it - onion powder is easier anyway.

Do you want your kids to eat veggies and find them resistant? Boil that cauliflower or broccoli until really soft. Not mush, but not at all crunchy, either. Pop it into a mixing bowl and take a hand blender and puree it and add: mayo and mustard / real butter and garlic salt / cream of mushroom soup and mayo. Any one of these combos is improved with grated cheese. Don’t sweat the cholesterol in real butter and mayo, unless your child has high cholesterol, which is rare. Call it creamed cauliflower or creamed broccoli and serve it in little dishes topped with cheese and paprika so it looks “partyfied.”

Potatoes are great, cheap and filling and they can make an easy dinner. Scrub your large spuds and wipe them dry, then poke holes in them with a fork, grease them with oil, and sprinkle salt all over them. Wrap them in foil and bake them at 400 for 45-60 minutes. Bake ten at a time and stick them in the fridge to pull out for meals later. When it’s time for dinner, pull them out and open them up and top them with cheese, bacon bits, butter, sour cream, broccoli, chili, etc. Run them under the broiler for a few minutes or just microwave them.

Beef Roast: buy a bottle of decent Sherry or red wine, and add 1-2 cups of it, along with lots of soy sauce and fresh garlic. I like to use bought beef stock, too [see photo]. Soy sauce and liquor always make beef better. In fact, if you have a crock pot, throw in your beef roast, wine, broth, garlic and soy sauce along with a couple of cans of potatoes and a package of baby carrots and cook on high for 6-8 hours and you have a one dish dinner. Prep time is 5-10 minutes. If you leave your meat on the kitchen counter for an hour before popping it in the crock pot it will be much more tender.

Super Easy Chili dinner: My crock pot chili is a super easy one dish meal. I use 1-2 lbs. of ground beef, 2-4 cans of Bush’s chili beans, chopped onion, a can of Rotel, several cans of tomato puree, and a can of pumpkin. Yes, pumpkin! It absorbs the chili flavors and nobody knows they are eating pumpkin. If you hate chopping onion, use lots of onion powder. / I made this chili years ago for a party, and of course bought Fritos and grated cheese because those make chili much better. One of my son’s friends who was a super picky eater ate a huge bowl of it. His mother called me the next day and said he had raved about how much he loved Dee’s chili. I rattled off the ingredients. His mom is a great cook herself. She was astonished he had not noticed the pumpkin. I asked her what she put in her chili. She said grated carrots! No wonder the kid didn’t like it.

Cleaning scrubby pads and brushes: rinse them off and then put them in the dishwasher and run them through.

Cleaning any pot or pan: if there are baked-on glops of food or food residue, put in a cup or two of water and heat the pan on the stove for a few minutes. The warmed water will loosen the gunk so you can scrape it off.

Cleaning the microwave: put water into a sturdy [think, Pyrex] cup and heat it for 5 minutes. Go in with a dry paper towel to get big stuff, then a wet paper towel for the final pass.

Cleaning the counter: Do you have some sticky mess on your kitchen counter? Boil some water and put a dollop on the mess and wait a couple of minutes. It should come off really easily then.

Want more recipes and/or tips? A couple of years ago I wrote a little cookbook, What's for Dinner, Mom? and it's available on Amazon. My mother's memoir, Singing to the Cows, also has a lot of recipes and more cooking tips.

How to Get Kids to Eat Vegetables

I was the world's pickiest eater as a kid. I only really ate two green vegetables, green beans and plain lettuce. I would also eat green peas but in my mother's eyes that didn't count. Nor did green Jello. I tried to get her to bend the rules many times when we were at a cafeteria and her command "Get at least ONE green vegetable!" seemed really harsh and unfair.

I guess I was lucky, though. I had an aunt who helped her kids' plates until they were in high school. At least we had some choice in the matter.

My mother believed kids should eat vegetables, and drink a glass of milk at dinner every night, and we should eat meat. She told us there were four food groups and it was important to cover them all, every day. The four groups were meat, dairy, grains, fruits and vegetables.

Now, if Dad was out of town or there was some special occasion going on, she would bend the rules. If fish were being fried, she was okay with us eating fried fish and hushpuppies. Pizza didn't have to have veggies on it.

My brother would cheerfully eat almost anything. He was the opposite of me.

All this is to say that I am sort of puzzled by moms today who have conniption fits about their kids eating vegetables. It's not really a hard problem to solve. I was lucky because my kids came from countries where the attitude towards fresh fruits and vegetables was: wow, what treats! They didn't have the grocery stores filled with fruits and veggies in the dead of winter.

Adults give signals to their kids all the time and if the unspoken signal is Hey I know they are horrible but you have to eat your vegetables because they are good for you, so do that chore already...

Nope nope nope. Here are 3 ways to get your kids to eat veggies.

1. Parents, act like vegetables are WONDERFUL! They are AWESOME! What a treat!

That's the first step to getting your kids to eat veggies. Treat fresh vegetables as though they are highly prized. Forget about saying things like "eat your veggies or you won't get dessert!" Say IF you are good I will bestow upon you the magic that is fresh broccoli!

2. Quit giving them a bunch of choices. At any meal, tell them they need to eat up or go to bed empty. If they don't want to eat anything say fine. See you at breakfast. Then enforce it. let them go to bed hungry. It won't kill them.

3. Make the food they get delicious. Don't just give them veggies with no seasonings! My mother tried to get me to eat boiled brussells sprouts or boiled broccoli, without any seasonings. YUCK. I wouldn't eat them then and I still won't.

Buy fresh minced garlic in a jar, and garlic salt or powder. Buy onion powder if your kids refuse to eat anything with cooked onions. Find veggie recipes that involve seasonings, butter, and cheese. Remember: almost any veggie will be scrumptious if you add bacon and cheese.

Below are some ideas.

Make dipping sauces of ranch dressing and fresh parmesan and let kids dip veggies.

Spinach -- de-stem the fresh spinach leaves and toss them with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, dried cranberries, walnuts, and blue cheese crumbles.

Cauliflower -- boil until soft then mash it up and add a cup of mayo, a spoonful of mustard, and some cheese. 

Brussells Sprouts -- halve them and saute them in olive oil after dousing them liberally with balsamic vinegar, garlic (powder or fresh) and salt and pepper.

Green beans -- cook them in a skillet and add either balsamic vinegar and garlic OR barbeque sauce OR melted cheese

Cabbage -- buy what's called coleslaw cabbage and saute it in oil, then add soy sauce, onion powder, garlic powder

Pumpkin -- when fixing spaghetti or anything with tomato sauce, add a can of pumpkin puree. It will taste like tomato.

Squash -- saute in butter and throw in fresh garlic and/or chopped up bacon.

Broccoli -- see recipe below. I used to hate broccoli. I will eat this all day long.

 

Golden Broccoli Casserole

[Brenda Gantt recipe]

4 cups broccoli                                                                  1 cup mayonnaise

½ an onion, chopped                                                          1 cup grated cheese

½ - ¾ stick butter                                                             Ritz cracker crumbs [optional]

1 cup cream of mushroom soup                                           2 eggs

Steam or boil your broccoli to desired tenderness. Saute the onion in the butter until soft. When broccoli is done, drain it in a colander, then place it in a 9x13 pan or casserole dish. Add the mayo, soup, and cheese to the onion/butter mixture and stir well. I like to add minced garlic, seasoning salt, pepper, etc. Beat up eggs and stir them in carefully so they don’t cook. Mixture should just be warm. Spoon the mixture over the broccoli and cover as well as possible. Top with crushed Ritz crackers, or if you’re watching carbs you can do more grated cheese.

Bake at 350 until top is bubbly, about 30 minutes.

#freshvegetablesforkids, #veggieskidswilleat, #strategiestogetthekidstoeatvegetables, #veggierecipesforkids,

Mayonnaise Recipes

My mother had a very strong faith in God and she passed that along to me, thanks be to God. She also had a strong faith in the power of mayonnaise to make whatever one is eating more tasty and it's that belief that I want to explain today.

She had a great influence on her grandson. The other day my son was fixing a beautiful steak for himself, and he mixed up mayo and horseradish to form a tasty sauce for the steak. He works in a restaurant. He is fearless in the kitchen, far more adventurous than me, which I applaud.

My son loves a good fried egg sandwich with Duke's mayo.

Duke's Mayonnaise is the only type of mayo allowed in my home. It's simply the best -- not just my opinion, but in the opinion of most southerners. 

When I was eight years old and we moved to Knoxville TN my mother discovered, much to her horror, that Duke's was not sold in K-town. Much sadness and gnashing of teeth and wailing... She bought Hellman's and it was okay. Not good. Not Duke's. It was better than nothing, though, put it that way.

Duke's is so superior to most mayo that one must simply feel pity for those without access to it.

Below are some ways to use mayo [it's quicker to type out "mayo" than "Duke's" or "Hellman's"] that you might not have thought about..

 

POTATOES

Butter, salt, and sour cream are the standard potato additions, but Mom used to peel and boil potatoes and toss them with some mayo, onion powder, and garlic salt. You can also add a dollop of mayo to mashed potatoes.

There is a trend now of making potato salad without mayo. I tasted some once. Then I had to go brush my tongue to get the taste out of my mouth.

 

SAUCES

Take mayo and add real parmesan cheese and onion powder or whatever seasoning you like, and it makes a great topping for potatoes, and/or a great dipping sauce.

 

FISH

1) Baked Fish: slather mayo on your fish, then sprinkle on dill weed, and top with slices of lemon or lime and bake

2) Sauce: mix up mayo, fresh lime juice, lots of dill weed, onion powder, and stir vigorously. We also add a sprinkle of Lawrey's seasoned salt. This works great slathered on most any kind of cooked fish or used as a dipping sauce.

 

CHICKEN

Unlike my mother, grandmother, and generations of fine cooks before me, I stink at fixing fried chicken. However, I have figured out a way to fry chicken tenders that is super easy and tasty.

Take your chicken pieces and salt and pepper both sides and let them sit in a pan or on paper towels on the kitchen counter for at least 30 minutes. Put 2-4 tablespoons of mayo in a dish, and add your chicken, and let it sit in there a few minutes. Pull out eat piece and roll it in seasoned breadcrumbs. The mayo helps the breadcrumbs stick to the meat. Saute in olive oil.

If you don't have seasoned breadcrumbs you can take Ritz crackers and crush them and add in Italian seasoning, and garlic and onion powders.

 

CORNBREAD

Don't laugh. Lewis Grizzard's mama added mayo to the cornbread and it makes it more moist and delicious.

For all cornbread, hoecakes, and corn muffins, we use Lewis Grizzard's mama's recipe:

1 1/2 cups White Lily self-rising cornmeal

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

2 heaping spoonfulls of Duke's mayonnaise

pinch salt [no sugar!]

I would put this in a pan and bake it at 350 for about 20-40 minutes, depending on the size of the pan. I would also fix this like pancakes and add syrup or honey. Yum.

left, my mom in the kitchen of our lake house in Knoxville

 

right, me and some of my Hasty cousins in the kitchen of our Leslie Drive house

 

 

 

 

 

#mayorecipes, #mayochickenandfish, #dukesmayoisthebest, #mayodippingsauces

Thanksgiving Dinner for People Who Don't Cook

If you don't like to cook but you don't want to eat out on Thanksgiving, here are some tips.

 

1) Honeybaked Ham sells sliced turkey, and it's delicious

 

2) Stovetop Stuffing: replace the water with bought chicken broth and use twice as much as the box says, and throw on the butter

 

3) Bob Evans makes pre-made mashed potatoes and you add lots of butter and cheese and nobody cares that they are bought

 

4) Skip the green bean casserole. Take canned green beans and drain them, then throw them in a skillet with lots of balsamic vinegar, onion powder and garlic powder, or fresh garlic if you want to go to the trouble. Cook ten minutes.

 

5) Skip the cranberries. Most people don't like them. My mom bought canned sauce every year, ate a few bites, and then we threw it out.

 

6) Buy a frozen pie. Edwards pies are awesome, ditto for Mrs. Smith's pies.

It will just be me and Michael this year so frankly, this is likely what we will do. Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Now, if you want to make a pie that is super easy and takes 5 minutes, here you go:

 

Myrtle’s Pecan Pie

3 eggs                         1 cup Karo syrup

¾ cup sugar              1 cup pecans

Dash salt                    ½ teaspoon vanilla

Beat eggs with a whisk but don’t get them foamy. Add all other ingredients. You can use light or dark Karo syrup.

Many people use whole pecan halves but we usually give them a rough chop.

Pour into a 9 inch pie crust and start in a cold oven. Turn oven to 350 and bake 1 hour.

 

#thanksgivingeasydinner, #easypecanpie, #dinnerfornoncooks, #nostressthanksgivingideas, #noncookingthanksgivingideas, #easystuffing, #supereasythanksgivingdinner

Not Mama's Meatloaf

As a child, you couldn't pay me to eat meatloaf. My mother loved green peppers and onions and every bite of her meatloaf was full of both. I wouldn't touch it. I would eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead.

When I became a mom and had to start cooking real dinners every night I figured out how to make meatloaf I liked, and my kids would eat. Below is that recipe. It's included in the little cookbook I published, What's for Dinner, Mom? -- which came out just a few months before Mom died. She had been after me to publish my own cookbook for several years and I'm so glad she got to see that done.

 

Meatloaf, Baby!

1 lb. ground sirloin                1 large egg

tablespoon Soy sauce             1/4 cup red wine or Sherry

1 cup breadcrumbs              tablespoon olive oil

Onion powder                         Garlic powder

1 Tbsp. Ketchup                    teaspoon baking powder

 

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.

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.

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.

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

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. 

 

Last night I made a version of meatloaf that used that same basic recipe, but improved on it a great deal.

I saw a recipe yesterday for a chicken breast stuffed with bacon and spinach and I thought yum, what a great idea, except I HATE handling raw chicken so we don't eat it that often.

So I made my usual meatloaf recipe, but then I set aside the meat mixture and started in on my filling. I cooked about 5 pieces of bacon in a skillet, then took the pieces out and put them aside. I took about 3 cups of spinach and sauteed it in the bacon grease, and added about 2 tablespoons of butter, lots of garlic and onion powders, and about 2 tablespoons of fresh Parmesan. (I should have chopped up some actual onion, but I was too hungry...)  I then chopped up my pieces of bacon and added them back in, stirring everything together. I took half my meat mixture and formed it as I normally would, and put the  filling on top. I then took the rest of the meat, formed it into what looked like hamburger patties, and carefully placed it on top of the spinach and bacon and kind of pinched the "burgers" together to form the top layer. The photo below on the right shows the meatloaf before it went into the oven.

I cooked it on 350 for about 40 minutes.

WOW was it delicious! I had some pre-made Bob Evans mashed potatoes and I ate a serving of 'taters, I must confess, but meatloaf just needs mashed 'taters on the side. I have been sick with pneumonia for a while so it was great to eat something that wasn't soup out of a can.

Here's a photo of the cooked meatloaf, and I must confess I had eaten a couple of pieces before I took the photo. I also included a funny photo of fresh spinach. I had left the bowl [piled high] on the back of the stove, forgetting how hot my stove top gets, and the spinach totally wilted. No biggie. I thought it was funny. I will still eat it.

#bestmeatloafever, #stuffedmeatloaf, #spinachandmeatloaf

Delicious and Easy Salmon

I used to hate salmon because so often when I had it, it was dry and/or bland. A few years ago I discovered a way to cook it that's neither dry or bland, and is super easy.

Publix makes a bourbon salmon that is very yummy. I must admit I hate bourbon. Never drink it.

However, the bourbon salmon filet is delicious. The flavor is not overwhelming. A teetotaller would not find it too "alcoholic" tasting, I guarantee. I don't drink.

The easiest way to prepare it, in my view, is this: take the filets out of the wrapping paper and put them in a shallow dish. Fill the bottom of the dish with good orange juice. I like Simply Orange. Cover the top tightly, either with a lid or with foil. Pop it into a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. The orange juice steams into the fish, keeping it moist, and the flavors complement each other.

You can also just put plain salmon filets into the orange juice and bake. In that instance, I would recommend making Elva's Sauce, recipe below. I didn't put measurements because I always just shake in what looks right, and taste.

Elva's Fish Sauce

1/4 - 1/2 cup Mayonnaise [we like Duke's]

fresh lime juice [we love lime because it's sweet and has no seeds]

dill weed

onion powder

Lawrey's seasoning salt

Mix everything together in a small bowl. Go heavy with the dill weed. Taste and adjust seasonings to your taster.

Side Dishes

If you're like me and you live alone, you have no interest in spending a lot of time preparing meals, but of course healthful meals take some preparation. I love yellow squash and zucchini but I hate washing and peeling and chopping it. (I quit eating peel years ago when I had a bout of colitis).

My trick is to buy fresh spinach or coleslaw cabbage, heat up some olive oil and garlic, and saute away. Adding in a splash of balsamic vinegar or low sodium soy sauce and onion or onion powder enhances the flavor as well.

I know fresh spinach is disappointing -- it shrinks to nothing in a hot skillet. When I am watching TV at night after dinner I often sit and de-stem the spinach and pull out any weird looking leaves, and stick the perfect spinach leaves into a bag. The next day it's easy to grab a hand full of leaves, saute them for a moment, and pull them off the stove.

I am trying not to eat carbs but if you eat carbs, I suggest picking up a tub of pre-made mashed potatoes. I like Bob Evans mashed potatoes. Microwave with some butter and garlic and yum.

#easysamonrecipes, #easysidedishes, #freshspinach

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.