Pre-Thanksgiving Prep

My mother wrote this down for me many years ago. 
It's fun to see her handwriting.

 My cornbread is in the oven. Two 8x8 pans, ready to be mixed into dressing for Thanksgiving Day. I came here to look up the dressing recipe that my mother gave me many years ago. Decided I would share it again in case you are looking for a recipe. I made this last year and it was as good as I remember. It's the simplest recipe out there. 

As far back as I can remember, we had dressing. Not stuffing. Dressing is baked in a dish separate from the turkey. Stuffing is just what it implies—it's stuffed inside the turkey and it cooks while the turkey is roasting. I've never had stuffing. Ever.

Both son-in-laws have made dressing from their family recipes. And both are good. All three are similar in taste. My family's version is the least complicated. I know my mother used sage, so I added that even though she didn't include it in her written recipe. This recipe dates back to a time when full instructions were not always included. Cooks just "knew' what to do.

So if you are the one responsible for the dressing this year, here is my mother's recipe. Read the notes below the recipe. 

CORNBREAD DRESSING

1 9x9-inch pan of cornbread (I used the recipe on the White Lily self-rising cornmeal mix bag)

1 egg

*1/3 cup celery, chopped fine

*1 medium onion, chopped fine

*a little Pepperidge Farm seasoned herb stuffing mix

enough chicken or turkey broth to moisten (and make it "mushy")

I added a few shakes of ground sage

Crumble the cornbread with your fingers so that there are no large pieces. The texture is a fine crumb. Mix all ingredients together, adding enough broth to make the mixture "mushy." Put into a greased 9x9 pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned on top.  

Notes:

*Double everything for a 9x13 pan. And the cooking time was nearly double, too. My double batch filled a 9x13 dish, plus a 1-qt dish which went into the freezer.

*Mother always stressed the importance of chopping the celery and onion fine. She said no one wants to bite into a big piece of celery. 

*I had a thought during the night! I did a reverse weigh of the stuffing I had left to figure out how much I used! It was right at 1 cup for a 9x9 pan of cornbread.

*It can be mixed the day before and refrigerated until it's time to bake. Adjust your time if baking straight from the refrigerator. 

 

And that's all she told me! Sometimes she added a little mashed cooked sweet potato to keep the dressing moist. (Instead of the can of chicken soup folks use now.) Last week I used the herb stuffing mix. How much you ask? About that much! I know you hate answers like that, but I can't tell you any more. 

And how much broth? For my double batch it was a little over a quart. I was using boxes of Swansons and I had to open the 2nd box. It always takes more than I think. 

A better question would be "how do I know when I've added enough?" My mother only said "mushy." I would add "but not soupy." Mine sloshed around a little in the dish when I put it in the refrigerator.

If you are brave enough to make this recipe that doesn't have precise amounts, remember that my mother never measured anything. So it's unlikely the amounts she used would have been exactly the same each time. And it always worked. I don't think precise is a requirement here.

Tomorrow, the day before Thanksgiving, I will mix up the dressing and have it ready to go into the oven on Thursday morning.  I'm pretty sure there will be enough to fill a 9x13-inch dish for the Thanksgiving table and a smaller dish to go into the freezer. I'll freeze it before I bake it. 

Our Thanksgiving visitors for the week!

Thanksgiving Week And Our Cornbread Dressing

My hat loving youngest grandchild. 

Our house was full to the brim last week. Five grandchildren, ranging from 22 months to 23 years old. Daughters. Son-in-laws. It was loud, messy, chaotic and wonderful. The youngest set was here for over a week. The others were in and out for several days. And to top it off, the day after Thanksgiving, we had 15 men on our roof replacing the shingles. It sounded like Santa and his eight tiny reindeers plus his reindeer B-team.

For almost all of my long life, Thanksgiving was a big extended family affair. I remember years when there were 40+ people heaping plates from a long line of casseroles. But because we always went to that house for Thanksgiving, my turkey cooking skills were in the "yet to be explored" category. Since the large family gathering came to an end a few years ago I've still not cooked the turkey. We had a Covid year when I cooked a turkey breast. One year a son-in-law took charge, brining and roasting an heirloom turkey. And the other son-in-law fried a turkey for us a couple of years.

But this year, it came down to me. After looking at so many ways to roast the perfect turkey—wet brine, dry brine, oven bag, slow roast, cook at a higher temp than usual, etc.—I decided to go with tried and true. I followed the Butterball instructions to the letter. And it worked perfectly. Their method is straight forward. Pretty uncomplicated compared to some of the other directions. If it's my turn again next year, I'll know this way works.

The dressing is between the turkey and the fork.

Our menu was like so many others for the actual Thanksgiving meal. Turkey, cranberry sauce, green beans, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs and my favorite part, dressing and gravy.

There is a huge debate—where the right answer is always "the kind my mama made"—about dressing vs stuffing. Stuffing goes inside the turkey. Dressing is baked in a dish and served beside the turkey. And the debate continues...sausage or no sausage, oysters or no oysters, apples or no fruit. Here in the South, dressing is most often made with cornbread. Every cook has their own version. Both my son-in-laws have recipes from their families. Both are good. But this year I made dressing like my mother made it.

Like many good cooks, Mother didn't have a written recipe. But several years before she died, she decided to write down recipes for some of her favorite dishes. I am so glad. She didn't write them down as she made them, measuring as she wrote. Instead I remember her sitting at the kitchen table, writing down how she remembered doing it. So the directions are not specific like modern recipes. 

In the interest of preserving her "recipe" I'm sharing it here. This dressing is uncomplicated but it was delicious. I hadn't made it in years and was happy it was as good as I remembered.

This is in my mother's handwriting. 

CORNBREAD DRESSING

1 9x9-inch pan of cornbread (I used the recipe on the White Lily self-rising cornmeal mix bag)

1 egg

*1/3 cup celery, chopped fine

*1 medium onion, chopped fine

*a little Pepperidge Farm seasoned herb stuffing mix

enough chicken or turkey broth to moisten (and make it "mushy")

I added a few shakes of ground sage

Crumble the cornbread with your fingers so that there are no large pieces. The texture is a fine crumb. Mix all ingredients together, adding enough broth to make the mixture "mushy." Put into a greased 9x9 pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until lightly browned on top.  

Notes:

*Double everything for a 9x13 pan. And the cooking time was nearly double, too. My double batch filled a 9x13 dish, plus a 1-qt dish which went into the freezer.

*Mother always stressed the importance of chopping the celery and onion fine. She said no one wants to bite into a big piece of celery. 

*I had a thought during the night! I did a reverse weigh of the stuffing I had left to figure out how much I used! It was right at 1 cup for a 9x9 pan of cornbread.

*It can be mixed the day before and refrigerated until it's time to bake. Adjust your time if baking straight from the refrigerator. 

 

And that's all she told me! Sometimes she added a little mashed cooked sweet potato to keep the dressing moist. (Instead of the can of chicken soup folks use now.) Last week I used the herb stuffing mix. How much you ask? About that much! I know you hate answers like that, but I can't tell you any more. 

And how much broth? For my double batch it was a little over a quart. I was using boxes of Swansons and I had to open the 2nd box. It always takes more than I think. 

A better question would be "how do I know when I've added enough?" My mother only said "mushy." I would add "but not soupy." Mine sloshed around a little in the dish when I put it in the refrigerator.

If you are brave enough to make this recipe that doesn't have precise amounts, remember that my mother never measured anything. So it's unlikely the amounts she used would have been exactly the same each time. And it always worked. I don't think precise is a requirement here.

As I sit here writing this a few days after our Thanksgiving feast, I am truly giving thanks for so many things. Let us all live in a season of thanksgiving all year long.

 

Aiming For An Ordinary New Year

Chloe, your comment on my last blog post meant more to me than you'll ever know. 

We all (I think) wonder if people notice us. It's good to be checked on. 

We said "good riddance" to 2022 and welcomed 2023 with our traditional peas and collards. Notice how basic the plate is? It was a very bare bones meal, with three of us eating at lunch time and the rest having the leftovers for dinner—after they got home from the hospital. 2022 seems to be dragging its feet into this new year. 

We are aiming for "ordinary" this year. There is wonder and comfort in the routine and the regular. We look forward to tucking in special bits in here and there.

We have had nothing catastrophic happen, but the last six months have been nothing like we expected.  So many things happened. Our schedule went wonky. Some health issues were ours. Some belonged to others but impacted us, too. Our church pianist fell right before Christmas and broke her arm. That turned into lots and lots of extra time at the piano to prepare music for several services. I'm learning trying to live within my limits. Piano time took priority over cooking, making photos and blog posting. 

Yesterday I was able to spend several minutes in our beautiful historic sanctuary before I sorted out my music and settled in at the piano. I needed the calm and the peace that was there. 

(It was a different story on Christmas Eve when a squirrel got into the sanctuary and raced around during the service.)

These collards were so good yesterday that I'm sharing this recipe again. It takes a whole morning or afternoon to cook them like this—and I put my cooker out on our porch—but it's very easy. Any leftovers can be frozen for a quick vegetable side dish later. 

COLLARD GREENS

1/2 lb. smoked meat (ham hocks, smoked turkey wings or smoked neck bones--I use turkey wings)
2-3 teaspoons House Seasoning*
1-2 teaspoons Lawrys' Seasoning Salt
2 (16- oz) bags frozen chopped collards (or 1 large bunch of fresh collards, cleaned and sliced)
1 tablespoon butter

In a large pot, bring 3 quarts of water to a boil and add smoked meat, house seasoning and seasoned salt. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour.
Add frozen greens and butter. Cook for 1 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Adjust seasoning to taste.

*House Seasoning: 1 cup salt, 1/4  cup black pepper, 1/4 cup garlic powder. Mix together and store in airtight container.

 

How regular will I be posting in 2023? I really have no clue. Maybe not at often as in years past (do I dare admit I have nothing left to say?) but I'm aiming for at least once a month, with extra posts when there is something worth sharing. 

This blog space has become a much used resource for storing my recipes. It's accessible to family and friends. It can be pulled up while standing in the grocery aisle. So you may see and occasional post that is only a recipe. That lets me add it to the index. 

Just a reminder, if you can't find a recipe in the index, you can use the little search box at the top left of the web version of the blog. Type in a key word and it should pull up any posts related to it. I find I use that more often than the index. The trick is to open the web version . 

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

This year's odd Thanksgiving has come and gone. We were home alone but thankful for FaceTime and Zoom so that we could have a little visit with the family. While we certainly missed the big family gathering and the tables loaded with food, we didn't starve. Far from it. And I didn't have to cook for a couple of days. LOTS of leftovers. 

Since I was only cooking for us, it was a good time to try a new recipe. Our Thanksgiving table always includes a sweet potato casserole. I love it. It's topped with brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon. It's sweet enough and rich enough to be a dessert—even after I halved the amount of butter my mother used— but here in the south it totally qualifies as a vegetable. 

A plain baked sweet potato is pretty awesome. If they are really good potatoes, they are sweet enough as is. A sprinkle of cinnamon is all you need. But it was Thanksgiving. I wanted something "special." And I found the perfect recipe. Here is my version of the Food Network recipe from The Neelys. It was an easy make ahead dish that was much lighter on the add-ins than my usual. Adding this to my recipe list. 

TWICE BAKED SWEET POTATOES

3 medium sweet potatoes, similar in size & shape

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons cream cheese, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

Salt & pepper

Cinnamon sugar (I keep some mixed up in a shaker bottle)

Preheat oven to 400º. Scrub potatoes well. Place on baking sheet and bake 1 hour, or until tender. 

While potatoes are baking, mix remaining ingredients, except for salt and pepper. 

Let potatoes cool enough to handle. Cut potatoes in half and scoop flesh into a mixing bowl. Mix in the butter/cream cheese mixture completely, adding salt & pepper to taste. (I only added a little.) Spoon potato filling back into potato shells. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar.

Place potatoes in a baking dish. If you are making the day ahead, cover and refrigerate. Before serving, bake at 350º for about 30 minutes. If you aren’t making them ahead, bake after stuffing the potatoes for about 15 minutes.

Serves 6

Today, after making these for our Thanksgiving, I actually watched the video of The Neelys making these. They did it slightly differently so that each person got a whole potato. For our meal which had many side dishes, a half potato was plenty big enough.

 

Quarantine Cooking Week #6

Oven "Fries"

Way back when I started using this recipe, oven roasted vegetables were not the first vegetable cooking method that came to mind. Now, people roast everything. But this was a magic recipe 20+ years ago. A teaspoon of oil? Yep. That's really all it takes. I love this oven baking grid that I bought at Walmart for $5 about 20 years ago. The potatoes brown on the top and bottom—without turning them over half way through. I have no idea if anything like this still exists, but if you see one, grab it.

Pre-quarantine we would go out sometimes on Sunday nights to a local diner for hamburgers. And we rarely made burgers at home. But now we are at home on Sundays, just like we are every other night of the week. Since I've been doing my grocery shopping online I've been at the mercy of what was available. The first time or two, there was no ground beef to be had. So I ordered frozen hamburger patties. And what a surprise! These have been good. And easy since they go on the grill straight from the freezer. They are ready in about 10 minutes.

I typically keep a pretty well stocked freezer. Stocked with foods I have prepared. Soups and stews. Casseroles. Baked goods. Meats ready to thaw, warm and serve. Hot dog chili. Even cooked dried beans. I have done this for years. But in anticipation of a long stay-at-home, I bought a few convenience freezer foods. (But never did I think the stay-home would be this long, with no clear end in sight.) On the nights when I think I cannot look at my stove again, frozen chicken strips have been better than no supper, and I didn't have to cook. Frozen meatballs are still waiting a desperate night of their own. (And I just read that I am not alone. Evidently the sales of frozen pizza have gone way up.) 

Most prepared frozen foods are in the "just okay" category for us, but I'll be keeping these burger patties in the freezer from now on. FYI, I bought the 80/20 lean-fat version. That could be why we thought these were good. Usually I buy extra-lean ground beef and while that will continue to be my first choice for most things, hamburgers are better with a little more fat. The extra fat drips down in the grill, right? Sure thing.

So I'm wondering, have you had any quarantine food discoveries? Freezer finds. Recipes. Ingredients. Things you might not have tried otherwise. Things you'll keep in your pantry all the time going forward. I'd love to know. 

To make our at-home diner meal complete, I cut up these potatoes for the oven. It's almost as easy as frozen fries. Don't have potatoes? Go ahead and use frozen fries. Don't have a bag of fries in the freezer? Then let's hope you have the potatoes. Or sweet potatoes even. This day and time, it's nice to have a choice.

I cut these fries thinner than the "eight wedges" the directions call for. They cook quicker a good bit quicker. Just keep an eye on them and look for the browning. Friend Kathie told me that sometimes she adds a little garlic powder and chili powder to the oil. Next time....

OVEN "FRIES"

4 baking potatoes

1 teaspoon cooking oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Spray baking sheet with PAM. Scrub potatoes, pat dry and slice each potato lengthwise into 8 wedges.

Put potatoes in mixing bowl and drizzle with 1 teaspoon of oil. Toss to coat.

Bake on sheet for 15 minutes. Turn and bake 15 minutes more, or until they begin to brown.

An Easter Like None Before

I'm sitting here, still in my pajamas this morning, savoring the sunrise service we "attended" this morning. In this new world we are experiencing now, all of the Easter services we could have attended were cancelled. In their place there were a myriad of online options. We chose the sunrise service at Pretty Place, a camp chapel that sits on the side of a mountain facing east. How beautifully timed the simple service was, making sure that we saw the sun come up just as the sermon and music ended.

This camp holds good memories for our family. I chaperoned school group trips there for both daughters when they were in middle school. We spent several nights at the camp with nature activities filling the days. It is also where J-Daddy proposed to Mommy. It was good to "be there" again this morning.

Like everyone else we know, we are home alone on this Easter. No family here to sit around the table for an Easter dinner. No family photo beside the flower cross in front of our church. No little girls shrieking with delight as they race around finding Easter eggs after church. But none of these things we are missing stopped Easter from coming.

Jessica's table set with her great-grandmother's china.

Friend Joanne was going early this morning to adorn the cross at church with fresh flowers. In normal times church members add flowers to the cross as they arrive for the service. Today it will be decorated by one. For those in town, they can still ride by and see the beautiful cross transformed from its somber black drape into a vision of spring's glory, a sign of God's grace.

Instead of family around the table, we are delivering Easter dinner to my sister and brother-in-law. I promised we would drop it off at their door, providing "contactless delivery" just like Pizza Hut advertises. And I'm sure that later we will swap photos of Easter dinners and Easter activities with both daughters. I imagine the Easter Bunny still came. 

Like so many other grandparents we are missing the grandchildren. We will be thankful when all of the restrictions are lifted and we can smother them with hugs and kisses. But until then we will give thanks for the current technologies (that we may or may not have complained about in other times) like FaceTime and Zoom and text messages that let us stay in touch, and even see what's happening in their houses.

My menu is a streamed down version of what I would have done if I were feeding all 9 of us. (New baby makes 10, but isn't old enough to eat yet.) But we will still have the basics. The ham is in the oven now, making the house smell delicious. I planned ahead and made potato salad and deviled a few eggs yesterday. There are no recipes for either of these dishes. I just make them like my mother did. 

But I did look up recipes here on the blog for baked pineapple and the ham glaze. I have plenty of canned pineapple in the pantry. And glory be, the ham glaze calls for a tablespoons of pineapple juice. I had forgotten that. So those two recipes work hand in hand. 

EASY BROWN SUGAR-MUSTARD GLAZE

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon pineapple juice

In a small bowl, mix all ingredients until well blended.

Brush glaze over ham during last 45 minutes of baking. 

Can also use glaze on pork chops or pork roast.

I had bought a fully cooked, bone-in ham on my first online grocery order. We are following the directions on the label, baking it for 20 minutes per pound at 325 degrees. I scored the outside and covered it loosely with foil for most of the baking time. Daddy-O will add the glaze for the last 40-45 minutes and leave the foil off to finish the baking.

BAKED PINEAPPLE

1/4 cup sugar

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 (20-oz) can of pineapple chunks in juice, drained (reserve some of the juice)

3 tablespoons of the reserved pineapple juice

1/2 cup crushed Ritz cracker crumbs

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter a 1 quart baking dish. (Mine was 6 x 9-inches)

In a bowl, stir together sugar and flour, then stir in cheese. Add the drained pineapple chunks and stir until well mixed. Pour into baking dish.

In another bowl, combine cracker crumbs, melted butter and reserved pineapple juice. Stir gently until combined. Spread crumb mixture over pineapple mixture.

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.   This can be easily doubled.

While the ham is baking, I'm headed to get dressed and pull out the ingredients for the two recipes above. Both are quick and easy. Then after our meal delivery we will come back home and enjoy the rest of our Easter Sunday. Easter 2020–unlike any other Easter. 

So from here at Buckner Hill Farm, we send you the best wishes for Easter, the holiday that is a celebration of hope. We need all the hope we can get right now. Take a minute and enjoy our own personal Easter sunrise that happened right outside our back door.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day meal.

This was the Christmas I discovered that many of my "must do" holiday things were not particularly necessary. I probably knew that intellectually but I never wanted to skip any of it. Until the flu made that decision for me. The funniest part is that no one else seemed to notice what didn't get done. Lesson learned.

I am thankful for daughters and sons-in-law and a capable husband who all pitched in to make sure everyone was fed. I was laying low, looking at friends IG posts of their families seated around beautifully set tables and feeling like I had let my folks down a little. I was sad that my Christmas china never made it out of the cabinet. And then yesterday one daughter told me that one of the best parts of her holiday was eating the Christmas night dinner—standing rib roast and the (fewer) trimmings—on the holiday Corelle dishes, in her pajamas. Nothing fancy required. But we were all around the table. That's what mattered.

Yesterday, it was the traditional Southern New Year's Day meal of peas and collards meal that promises good fortune in the coming year. And I cooked most of it. So good to be back in the kitchen. As we feasted yesterday everyone said this was their most favorite meal. Maybe because it's the opposite of rich holiday foods. And we all wondered why we don't make this menu more often.  

Here are the links to the foods that are on our plate each year. And the recipe to an old, old recipe that hasn't been on the blog in this version. (Before you cringe at the amount of butter you should know I cut it in half from Aunt Bibby's original version.) I often have macaroni and cheese with this meal but this year I subbed "brown rice." It is easier to put together. It isn't really brown rice...the brown color comes from beef consommé. I was completely grown before I knew that real brown rice was rice that retains the bran layer. In my family brown rice was white rice baked in the oven with beef consommé. And butter. This dish still shows up on every church covered dish dinner table.

NEW YEAR'S DAY MENU:

Bourbon Marinated Pork Tenderloin

Collard Greens

Black-Eyed Peas (cook a bag of frozen peas)

Sweet Potato Soufflé

Brown Rice

Pickled Beets (from a jar)

Corny Cornbread

BROWN RICE 

1 cup white rice

1/2 stick butter

2 cans Campbell's beef consommé

1 can of mushrooms, drained (optional)

Preheat oven to 350º.

Melt butter in a 2-qt baking dish (I put the butter in the dish and slide it into the oven while it heats.) Stir in the rice, consommé and mushrooms. Cover dish (I use foil tightly wrapped over the top) and bake for 1 hour.

You may now return to your clean eating plan for the rest of the year.

Kitchen's Open Again

New bull in our pasture

You probably think I've quit cooking. Daddy-O would likely agree with you. But on Saturday night I made supper while Daddy-O was out in the pasture. There's a new bull out there, hopefully getting acquainted with the cows.

I cooked a big pot of stew beef for my cattle ranching husband. Enough for him to have next weekend while I'm away knitting. And I tried a new Instant Pot recipe I saw on Instagram this week. A savory rice and vegetable dish. 

The recipe called for basmati rice. Now, I live in the country. A rural area. Our nearest store is small town store. So I crossed my fingers when I shopped and hoped I could find this  exotic sounding rice. Well, the store did sell it but that bit of shelf was empty. (Who are these gourmet cooks that grocery shop in my little town?) They were restocking that aisle but when I asked if they were about to unpack the basmati, they checked and told me the truck they were unloading was huge. And the rice was likely in the middle of it. So the next morning we made a second trip to Food Lion and bought basmati rice.

On the way out of the store, Daddy-O asked me why basmati was any different from our regular long-grain rice. And I couldn't tell him. I knew that jasmine rice was sticky. And I knew that risottos call for arborio rice. But other than remembering basmati is a fragrant rice, I could not answer him. When I grew up, the only rice we knew was Comet long-grain white rice. My, how times have changed.

But basmati is what the recipe called for. And the first time around I wasn't about to tinker with the basic ingredient. As we were turning into our driveway, I had a terrible thought. I should have checked the box of mushrooms in my refrigerator. They had been there a while. This rice recipe called for fresh mushrooms, too. Sadly, those mushrooms ended up going in the trash instead of the rice dish. I thought about making a THIRD trip to the store. But we live a long way from town. So this time I made the rice without mushrooms. And it was delicious. Mushrooms would only make it better.

Savory Instant Pot Rice & Veggies

SAVORY INSTANT POT RICE & VEGGIES (for 6-qt. pot)

     ~from Meal Plan Addict

2 cups uncooked basmati rice
3 cups water
3 tbsp Better than Bouillon, beef flavor (or 3 c. beef broth)
1 cup chopped fresh green beans (1 inch pieces)
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup frozen peas

Select the SAUTÉ button and pour the water and beef-flavor Better Than Bouillon into the liner. This will allow it to dissolve and make a broth. (If you choose to use beef broth instead. You don't need the sauté step.)

Add the remaining ingredients and stir the mixture. Secure the lid to the Instant Pot, set to sealing, and press the RICE button. This will auto set to 12 minutes of low pressure. 

When the pressure cycle is complete, quick release the pressure. Fluff the rice with a fork, and enjoy!

If you haven't used Better Than Boullion, it's worth seeking it out. The flavor is richer and more complex than a bullion cube. My small town store stocks it so you shouldn't have any trouble finding it. It's with the soups and broths. At my store, it's on the top shelf. And it comes in a crazy array of flavors. I have only tried the beef, so if you try the others. you're on your own!

Someone asked me last week if I liked my Instant Pot. I think my answer was something to the effect that if mine broke, I didn't think I'd buy a replacement. (I have enjoyed using it and found some good recipes, but don't consider it essential to my kitchen.) But this rice recipe may have changed my mind. It was really good.

Please go to the original source and read more about cooking this rice recipe in the instant pot. I can't wait to make it again. WITH the mushrooms!

All That Butter!

I could not resist sharing the text message conversation that happened yesterday with my daughter while she was cooking to take dinner to another family. And cooking a double amount so her own supper would be done, too. 

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Baby Girl does not start her 4-year-old preschool until after Labor Day (the big sisters have been in school for nearly a month), so she is still at home during the day to "help" her mommy in the kitchen. Remember now...she isn't quite 4-1/2 yet. Maybe she's our future nutritionist.

Baby Girl might be right. This probably shouldn't be your everyday version of mashed potatoes. But I cannot wait to try them next time I visit down there. <hint, hint, Mommy>

And she did. I got this email first thing this morning...

CREAMY MASHED POTATOES

6-8 servings as a side

• 4 lbs (12 medium russet) potatoes, peeled 
• 1 1/4 cups hot milk
• 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature, not melted
• 1 1/2 tsp salt or to taste (Recipe says she uses sea salt)
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley or chives finely chopped for garnish (optional)

1. Peel potatoes (cut potatoes in half if very large). If you want the smoothest potatoes possible, remove the little knots from the potatoes with a small spoon or the tip of a potatoes peeler. Place potatoes in a large pot (5 Qt+) and cover potatoes with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook partially covered until easily pierced with a knife (boil 20-25 min depending on the size of your potatoes; mine took about 30 min).
2. Drain well and transfer to the bowl of your stand mixer. Grab the whisk attachment and mash potatoes lightly by hand to break them up. Fit mixer with whisk attachment and start on low speed 30-seconds then increase to medium and slowly drizzle in the HOT milk.
3. With mixer on, add softened butter 1 Tbsp at a time, waiting a few seconds between each addition. Potatoes will be whipped and fluffy. Finally add 1 1/2 tsp salt, or add to taste.

Recipe Notes:  To keep mashed potatoes warm until serving: cover potatoes and place into a warm oven or transfer to a slow cooker on the low setting to keep potatoes warm until ready to serve.

Mommy’s Notes:

• I used a 5-lb bag with 12 potatoes, but one potato was lost during the water-draining process.
• I used whole milk and table salt.
• I used salted butter, but next time will use unsalted like recipe calls for, or back off adding salt at the end of recipe. (I thought they were salty, but the rest of my family didn’t seem to notice or mind.)
• I skipped the stand mixer. Once potatoes were cooked & drained, I left them in the same pot they cooked in, and mashed them up a bit with a large wire whisk. Then did rest of the mixing using hand-mixer with egg beater attachment.
• I lightly sprinkled top with a little dried parsley at end so they didn’t look so naked.
• Will definitely make again. Little Sister closed her eyes and happily moaned as she ate them while singing-to-herself “delicious!” and I think Big Sister ate 4 helpings last night alone. (And you’ve already heard Baby Girl’s commentary on them…perhaps I’ll back off the butter next time too ;) )

You'll find the recipes for Bourbon Marinated Pork Tenderloin, Company Carrots and Pumpkin Bread in the recipe index here on the blog. 

Mommy said she took the pork tenderloin "oven ready"—which meant she took them the tenderloin in the marinade in a ziplock bag, in a foil pan, ready for the meat to be taken out of the marinade and put  back into the pan for baking. It's only 30-40 minutes in the oven. That way, Mommy could take the meal earlier in the day, but the family could have an easy hot meal when they wanted to eat.

Cheese Souffle

Cheese Souffle

As Christmas rushes full speed toward us, I'm sharing a recipe that we enjoyed at Thanksgiving. (I'm a little behind with posting recipes.) This was delicious and it would certainly fit into a Christmas menu, too.

Jessica brought a friend home for Thanksgiving and since he was away from his own family over the holiday, she asked if his family had a traditional Thanksgiving recipe. His answer was cheese souffle. Since it's not something that has ever turned up on our Thanksgiving table, she asked if he would like to make it for the big family dinner. His family always has cheese souffle like our family always has macaroni and cheese. Having the souffle was a way to make him feel at home.

Well, it was so good on Thanksgiving Day that before they headed back to the city a couple of days later, he made it one more time for us. Where we live, dishes like this souffle and our mac & cheese are served as side dishes. But I also think if I added a salad, this souffle would make a great supper.

CHEESE SOUFFLE

3 cups saltine cracker crumbs (a little less than 2 sleeves)
4 cups grated extra sharp cheddar cheese (Cracker Barrel--with the red wrapper)
3 cups milk
4 extra large eggs
Red cayenne pepper and salt to taste

Put saltines in a ziploc bag and crush with your hand to make crumbs.

Heat milk to tepid and pour over crumbs and cheese.  Mix.

Add beaten eggs and rest of ingredients.  Pour into greased soufflé dish. 

Bake at 350 degrees for almost 1 hour, uncovered. Done when a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.


I don't own a true souffle dish, but a round 2-1/2 qt. CorningWare French White baking dish worked just fine. And here's a tip for warming the milk— heat the milk in the microwave, in 30-second bursts, stirring each time, until it's the right temp.

This is beautifully puffed when it comes out of the oven. And then it falls pretty quickly. Know that is normal and does not affect the taste. It is also good to know that the leftovers are delicious. Just warm it a bit in the microwave.

Thanks to Todd (and Todd's mom, I'm sure) for sharing this recipe with our family.