Cornbread in a Skillet

We love cornbread in Texas. The first recipe is my favorite. If you don't have access to a pre made cornbread mix then I've posted another recipe for  Tex - Mex Cornbread in a Cast Iron Skillet. I like that one too.


Cornbread In A Skillet:

10" cast iron skillet

375 degree oven

Just out of the oven.
3/4/2017

2 TBS vegetable oil & 2 TBS butter

3 C ( Marie Callender's Cornbread Mix) or a mix of your choice. ( I know there are those who don't

believe in a prepared mix, but believe me this makes a great cornbread and easier than creating a batter from scratch)

1 1/2 C water

1 C creamed corn

1 sm. onion, chopped

2 C shredded cheddar cheese

3-4 jalapenos, seeded and minced. ( or 1 small can of chopped chile peppers)

Melt butter and oil in the skillet, in the pre heated oven.

In a bowl:

Mix  cornbread mix & water, blend well

Add corn, onion, cheese and jalapenos

Pour batter onto the heated skillet and bake for 45 minutes.

Hint:

cut left over bread into cubes and bake  on a cookie sheet in a single layer at 400 degrees for 15

minutes to make croutons!

Enjoy!

Peace in the Kitchen!

ready for the oven!

Tex - Mex Cornbread in a Cast Iron Skillet.

Here's what you'll need:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
1 - 10" Cast Iron Skillet

1 C Yellow Cornmeal
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
2 Eggs, beaten
2/3 C Buttermilk
1/3 C Shortening, melted and cooled slightly.
3/4 C fresh Corn from 1 Ear of Corn.
1/2 C Heavy Cream
2 Jalapeno Peppers, minced
1 Roasted Hatch Chile, diced
1 C grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

In a large bowl:
Cornmeal
Salt
Baking Soda
Whisk well and set aside.

In a medium bowl:
Eggs
Buttermilk
Shortening
Mix well with a blending fork.

Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients, gradually.
Stir just to combine.
Fold in, by hand with a silicone spatula:
Corn
Cream
Jalapeno Peppers
Hatch Chile

Put the skillet in the preheated oven for 5 minutes ( I brush it generously with Vegetable Oil first) It helps to create a nice crust.
Remove the pan from the oven and pour in half of the batter.
Evenly sprinkle the Cheese over the batter.
Add remaining batter and spread out evenly.
Bake for 30 - 35 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve Hot with Butter and your favorite Berry, Peach, Apricot or Cherry Preserves. I prefer Bonne Maman Preserves.

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen

Dallas Morning News Taste Recipe August 28, 2013

Today's Taste section headline was Salad Daze. I found it to be a bit boring even for a vegetarian. It was a recipe for an Antipasto Salad.
There were a few other interesting recipes, but the one that got my attention was this one for Molasses Crinkles.

 ( Source: Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girl's Cookbook, out of print/ The Miami Herald)

The Holidays are approaching and I can't seem to get enough cookie recipes. I enter the Dallas Morning News Holiday Cookie Baking Contest annually, so I am constantly researching cookie recipes. I'll post all of my recipes that I enter in the contest.

3/4C shortening, or butter
1 C brown sugar, well packed
1 egg
1/4 C molasses
2 1/4 C flour
3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
Granulated Sugar for dipping

Wet Ingredients
In a bowl, thoroughly mix together:
shortening
brown sugar
egg
molasses

Dry Ingredients
In a separate bowl, whisk together:
flour
baking soda
cinnamon
ginger
clove
salt

Mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients
Refrigerate 2 hours or overnight ( I always recommend refrigerating cookie dough, it's an important step in making great cookies)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line a cookie sheet pan with parchment paper or Silpat

Using a cookie scoop,  make1"- 1/2" balls about the size of a walnut.
Dip the tops only in the granulated sugar
Place the 3" apart on the cookie sheet pan
Bake 10 - 12 minutes or just until set

Cool on the sheet pan for 2 minutes and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!

One Pot Pasta

Pasta, Tomatoes, Veggie Broth, Olive Oil, and Seasonings 

Place all  of the following ingredients in a Pasta pot.
Bring it to a boil, reduce heat to simmer. 

12 oz. uncooked  linguine ( or your favorite pasta)
1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes with liquid 
1 large sweet onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsp dried oregano 
2 large fresh basil leaves, chopped
4 1/2 C vegetable broth 
2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to tasteGrated Parmesan cheese for garnish

Place pasta, tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, in a large stock pot. Add vegetable broth. Sprinkle with pepper flakes and oregano. Drizzle with oil.

Cover the pot , bring to a boil. Reduce to a low simmer and keep covered , cook 10 minutes, stirring every 2 minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.
Garnish each dish with Parmesan cheese. 

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!

Crock Pot Breakfast

A friend shared this recipe with me.
This is an adaptation.
I don't know the origin of it, but I think it's a great Fall and Winter recipe.

2 apples, peeled and roughly chopped.( I recommend Jonagold Apples)
1/4 C brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
Don't Mix the ingredients
Place in a Slow Cooker in order listed

Add 2 C oatmeal
2 C milk
2 C water
Do not stir
Cook on low for 8-9 hours

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!

Fried Plantains (Memories of days spent on the Island of St. Lucia)

St. Lucia:

I spent some time in the West Indies on the Island of St. Lucia back in the 70's. I was growing out of my Hippy stage. Maybe it was the end of that era in my life, or maybe not. We were quite carefree on the island. Anyway, I experienced the culture and the food of the West Indies and a few memories have remained with me.
I stayed in a house on the side of the mountain. There were no actual windows in the house. It was an amazing view of the Caribbean Sea.
Just off the opened living area were many Cashew trees. It was the first time I had ever seen them. We had a cook that would arrive everyday and plan meals for us. It was the first time I had experienced fried Cashew Nuts. He would cook them in coconut oil , salt them and serve them hot. The taste was incredible.
He taught me how to climb a coconut tree and I have a picture of that experience somewhere in my thousands of photographs of my worldly travels. I may have to post that someday so that my grandchildren will know that I wasn't just telling them a crazy story.
The chef would shave strips of fresh coconut and fry them in coconut oil. They were an afternoon snack served with a traditional St. Lucian cocktail.
The last food that I experienced for the first time was a fried Plantain.
Prior to that trip, I had never even seen a Plantain.
He would slice them, fry them, smash them and refry them, salt them and serve them as a chip for another afternoon snack.
I absolutely loved all of the new foods that I experienced.
I continued to make these items when I returned home from the island.
I never really had a recipe for the Plantains but I had my memories of watching the chef prepare them.
My children and grandchildren recently took a trip to Puerto Rico. It's another island that loves Plantains. As they were describing the foods that they experienced on the island, it brought back memories of St. Lucia. I was especially interested that they had eaten Fried Plantains and liked them.

Here is my recipe for Fried Plantains as I remember them:
I hope some of my readers will make this recipe and create a new food memory.

4 green plantains
vegetable oil ( on the island it was always coconut oil)
salt

Peel and slice the Plantains on an angle 1/4" to 1/2"
Preheat the oil in a cast iron skillet
In small batches, fry the slices for 2 - 3 minutes on each side
Remove, drain on paper towels ( they drained them on pieces of brown paper bags)
Use a meat mallet ( or whatever you have on hand that would smash a Plantain ) I use a stainless steel measuring cup, smash them to 1/8"thick
Place them back in the oil and fry 2 minutes per side, until golden brown and crispy.
Drain again and sprinkle them with sea salt
I've included a dipping sauce recipe, but you can just eat them without it if you choose.

Mojo Sauce :

1/4 C olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 TBS finely chopped cilantro, parsley or rosemary... etc. ( whatever herb you have available).
Salt to taste

Combine oil and garlic in a saucepan
Heat on low for about 5 minutes
Remove from heat
Place in a serving bowl
Add herbs and salt
Dip the crispy Fried Plantains in the sauce


Here's another sauce that can be used as a dipping sauce ;
This one comes from Bhutan, a country in the Himalayan Mountains.

1/3 C olive oil 
2/3 C sour orange juice (or half and half regular orange juice and lime juice)
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped 
1/2 tsp cumin, ground 
1/2 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp pepper 

Prepare the same as the previous sauce.



Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!

Vintage slides
of St. Lucia:

the rough side of the island

this may be the island of Filicudi off the coast of Sicily.
Oh Well, another story , another time!
That was definitely a Hippy experience during
my many travels!

one of the grand pitons

the view from the opened living space in the house

I salted them with my Rosemary infused Sea Salt

Vegetable Tian

• I hesitated to post this recipe. When I discovered that it was shared from another blog, I researched it and found two other blogs that had posted the same picture, the exact picture. I do not post photographs other than my own. In this case I am not going to list the 3 blogs that posted the same recipe and the same photograph. Instead, I will simply say that this is not an original recipe and I will not post a photograph unless it's my own.
  I liked the recipe so much that I felt  I should share it with my readers. I could have adapted it, changed it and made it my own, but I chose not to do that. I hope this covers all Food Blogging etiquette, otherwise I will gladly pull it from my blog.
  
  
  A Tian is a layered, baked vegetable dish that originated in Provence. It is traditionally served for Bastille Day. It was made at this time because the Summer Vegetables used in the recipe were in season. Unlike a gratin, a Tian does not include bread crumbs or cheese, which allows the juices in the vegetables to evaporate in the oven's dry heat, concentrating their flavors.
  
  This recipe does include a bit of cheese, a traditional Tian doesn't.
  
  1 TBS. olive oil
  1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
  1 tsp. minced garlic
  1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
  1 medium yellow squash, thinly sliced
  1 medium potato, thinly sliced
  1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
  1 tsp. dried thyme
  salt & pepper, to taste
  1 cup shredded Italian cheese ( I used Organic Paragon Cheese from The Van Huizen's Dairy in Texas) It's very comparable to an Italian Hard Cheese.
  I bought the Cheese at a very cool shop on Mesquite St. in Arlington.
  
  The shop is called Potager's Other Stuff, it's part of the Potager Cafe on Mesquite St. just south of the store.  http://www.potagercafe.com/
  The owner is Cynthia and the restaurant is amazing.
  If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it.
  You'll love the food, the atmosphere, the staff and especially the proprietor.
  The concept of the restaurant is very clever. Look it up and let me know if you ever eat there or shop at the store!
  
  
   Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
   Sauté onion and garlic in a skillet with olive oil until softened (about five minutes).
  
  Spray the inside of an 8x8 square baking dish with non-stick spray. Spread the softened onion and garlic in the bottom of the dish. Place the thinly sliced vegetables in the baking dish vertically, in an alternating pattern. Sprinkle generously with salt, pepper, and thyme.
  
  Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, top with cheese and bake for another 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown
  
  Enjoy!
  Peace in the Kitchen!
  
  
  
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

Crunchy Roasted Peanut Butter

This is so appropriate for the Hippy in The Kitchen Blog.
In the 60's, we made our own peanut butter.
I happen to prefer crunchy, but you can alway add additional oil and honey to create a creamy consistency. Begin by processing the peanuts before adding additional ingredients to get a creamier butter.

This is so simple and fast that I find it worth the effort. Good peanut butter can be a bit expensive.

1 C dry roasted, salted , extra large peanuts.
2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS honey
1/8 tsp salt

You'll need a small food processor for this recipe
The recipe can be made larger so use the appropriate sized processor.

Add peanuts and salt to the processor.
Drizzle the honey over the peanuts.
Begin pulsing for about a minute, scraping the sides as needed. At the end you should have started to see a crunchy consistency.
Slowly drizzle in the oil.
Continue pulsing for about a minute or two. Continue processing until you reach the consistency you like.
Scraping when needed.

The process is simple and you can create your own consistency. Creamier, add  more oil or honey, or a combination of both.
This is not an exact recipe, the options are yours.
Additional honey will result in a sweeter butter.
No salt, less salt depending on the amount of salt in the peanuts you choose.

Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!