Low Calorie Poppy Seed Bread Machine Bread

Max, dear, I just have to pass on this delicious Low Calorie Poppy Seed Bread from my neighbor Ellie Platt. Ellie’s mother was originally from Hungary and she is a fabulous baker. Her strudels are to die for. Anyway, yesterday she brought over a loaf of bread for me to try.

I could tell right off that it came out of a bread machine and you know that I am not a fan of bread machines. I love kneading bread. It’s so therapeutic. For five to ten minutes you can punch any irrating person you know.

But, this bread was really good and it is supposed to be Low Calorie. Ellie has been on a diet for a couple of months and the lack of good bread is killing her. Someone in her exercise class brought in this recipe and when Ellie heard it had poppy seeds she just had to try it. Since you love poppy seeds as much as I do, you really ought to try it.

This bread comes out with a lovely golden crust and little poppy seeds all through the bread. Ellie, good Hungarian cook that she is, upped the poppy seeds to 2 teaspoons.

Low Calorie Poppy Seed Bread:

1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons soft butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
¼ cup dried minced onion
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon poppy seeds
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon pepper
3 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons dry milk powder
3 teaspoons active dry yeast

Place all ingredients in your bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select the basic bread setting. After 5 minutes of mixing, check the dough and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of flour or water if needed.

Makes one loaf of 16 slices. Each slice is 100 calories, 2 grams of fat, 4 milligrams of cholesterol, and 20 grams of carbohydrates.

Unusual Potato Cakes

Max, you know how I love onions. I am convinced that part of my good health is due to eating lots of onions. The better half says that because I eat so many onions, no person, ill or well, will get close enough to spread their germs.

You know that I am NOT cooking until next week, but this recipe tempts me to break that rule. It was passed on by a good friend, who like us, lived in California for a while. She got it from someone from Spanish Forks, Utah years ago, and she swears that it is do die for.

Cris doesn’t know where Spanish Forks is and neither do I, but someone there sure knows how to cook.

Deviled Potato Cakes from Spanish Forks, Utah:

6 potatoes, cooked
1 4 ½ ounce can deviled ham
3 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1 tablespoon mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter
1/3 to ½ cup evaporated milk

Grate the cooked potatoes with a grater. Combine the potatoes, ham, onion, flour, parsley, mustard and salt. Form into 6 to 8 patties. Brown one side slowly in butter in a skillet. Spoon the milk over the patties. Cook until the milk has evaporated and bottom of the patties are crusty. Carefully turn over with a pancake turner. Cook until the other side is crusty.

Serves 6 to 8.

Baked Onion Casserole from Iowa

I knew it, Erma. A week can’t go by with out you liquoring up a good recipe.

That Kentucky Prune and Black Walnut Bread sounds so good that I am going to make a loaf this afternoon. Lucky for me that I always have a jar of brandied prunes ready to use.

Brenda’s new daughter-in-law brought an interesting casserole to the dinner yesterday. Nice to learn that some of the younger women can cook. She said it was one of those dishes that her family always had, and she could not bear the thought of Thanksgiving without it.

It’s Iowa Baked Onion Casserole because her family is from western Iowa. Duh. Since you all love onions, I thought you might want to try this out.

Iowa Baked Onion Casserole:

2 pounds of onions, thickly sliced
8 slices buttered toast
¼ pound Cheddar or American cheese
2 eggs
2 cups milk
½ teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
1 tablespoon butter
Paprika

Cook the onions in boiling, salted water until tender. Place half of the toast in a 13 x 8 inch baking dish. Arrange a layer of onions and a layer of cheese over the toast. Repeat with a second layer.

Beat eggs slightly with a hand whip. Add milk, salt and pepper. Pour over the onions and dot with butter. Sprinkle on paprika. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Serves 8

Thanksgiving Breakfast Bread

Happy Thanksgiving, Max. May you cook and eat all day.

I should have sent this recipe on to you yesterday so you could have it for breakfast today. So, I’m late, as usual. Make it up tomorrow as your family will be there all the rest of the week.

Ever notice that in all the hoopla over Thanksgiving Dinner, that the magazines ignore Thanksgiving Breakfast? And that is an important part of the holiday.

We usually eat the main meal in the middle of the afternoon, so you don’t want to spoil anyone’s appetite by having a lunch at noon. So breakfast is a must.

Oh, I know that most people just buy some doughnuts or Danish at the store and call it a meal.

I like to make a sweet bread and serve it toasted with butter or cream cheese.

There are several versions of Kentucky Prune Bread from the last century. Many are yeast risen. And no, I don’t know why so many Prune Breads have Kentucky in their names. We certainly never had a prune industry.

I like this one as it is a Quick Bread without yeast, and because with the prune juice you end up with a dark, moist bread that keeps well.

If you don’t have Black Walnuts (or your better half refuses to crack out a cup of nuts), you can use English Walnuts. It will have a slightly different flavor, but faced with the chore of cracking out a cup of Black Walnuts (there are plenty in our driveway right now that we are driving over to remove the hulls). Since driving over Black Walnuts doesn’t crush the shells, you can imagine what effort it takes to crack them open. We used to use an anvil and a sledge hammer. Believe me, there is a reason that you can’t buy nice plastic bags of Black Walnuts in the nut section of the grocery.

As you know, I only use prunes that have soaked for weeks in brandy in my kitchen. That does add an additional degree of richness to the bread. Also, as you know, Max, the baker should ALWAYS test sample the brandied prunes before using. Snack on a prune, or two, or three. Your outlook on life will mellow out appreciably.

Kentucky Prune and Black Walnut Bread:

1 cup prunes
½ cup prune juice
¼ cup orange juice
1 egg
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons melted butter
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups flour
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup black walnut meats

Original recipe: “Soak the prunes for one hour.”

Erma’s Recipe: Skip this step as you have already soaked your package of prunes in brandy for several weeks.

Drain the prunes well and cut into small pieces with kitchen shears.

Beat egg in a stand mixer, and stir in sugar and prunes. Add melted butter.

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together and add to the mixture. Alternate with the prune and orange juice. Be sure batter is well mixed.and add the chopped nuts.

Place in a greased bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Twist on Traditional Thanksgiving Raw Cranberry Relish

You know, Erma, that I always keep some Cinnamon Sugar made up in the spice cupboard.

Certainly not much could be easier to make up (although I hadn’t thought of using brown sugar instead of white), and what could be cheaper? Ever price those little bottles of Cinnamon Sugar in the spice section? Those people ought to be ashamed of themselves.

I’m going to have to try your Cinnamon Crunch Delights. You certainly can’t get much easier, or cheaper.

Like you, I am today in Full Cooking Mode.

By the end of the day, all my casseroles, rolls, pies, and other dishes will pretty much be fixed. All that remains in most cases is popping them in to cook. After about 20 years of the Thanksgiving Day Cooking Marathon (as you put it), I finally wised up and started a Cooking Plan. Basically that Plan is: Do everything possible the day before so all you have to do is keep track of the time stuff bakes (for some reason most of our traditional foods need to be baked), set the table (I used to do this the day before, but that was pre-cat days), and talk to the family.

I’ve scrubbed out the five gallon plastic soaking bucket and the frozen turkey will go it this evening. Maybe it is all in my head, but letting the turkey thaw in cold water seems to produce a moister bird. Since you passed on that tip to me, I have found that there is no such thing as a dry turkey. I will put up my 25 pound frozen turkey at 68 cents a pound against any “fresh turkey” in the gourmet meat markets. It’s all in the thawing and baking, baby.

I hunted out my old Meat Chopper/Grinder last evening. It is pretty much retired now by the food processor, but when it comes to Raw Cranberry Relish, I think it is better. The processor wants to turn stuff into mush, and we like our Relish with some body.

How about the price of fresh cranberries this year? Ouch!!

And how about the way the processors have reduced the bag size to 10 and 12 ounces instead of the old pound bags? Like we won’t notice? Probably most women wouldn’t, or at least no one seems to be complaining about this little trickery.

No matter what the price of raw cranberries, we have to have the Raw Relish. It’s such a nice contrast to all the other soft, white foods.

I know we both have been using the same recipe for dozens of years, but I found out last year that a pair of pears is a nice addition.

Cook on, Lady Erma.

Raw Pear/Cranberry Relish:

1 quart of cranberries
1 apple
2 pears
2 ½ cups sugar
2 oranges

Wash all fruit well and remove any seeds. Put all through a food chopper on coarse grind, or carefully use a food processor to pulse fruits coarsely. You want lots of texture. Stir in the sugar and store in covered container in the refrigerator for at least 3 to 4 hours. Overnight or several days is better.

This can also be used as a basis for a Cranberry Jello Mold. Simply make up one package of strawberry or cherry jello and let set until thick. Stir in 2 cups of the Pear/Cranberry Relish and one cup of chopped celery.

Thanksgiving Ideas for Stale Rolls

Went to the store today and came out with a pickup truck load of groceries. I was doing my part to help the economy–at least the grocer’s bottom line.

Now to begin The Cooking Marathon. Let the Baking Begin!!

So, I began with making several batches of Refrigerator Rolls.

Now, normally, in our house, a leftover dinner roll has a life expectancy of about 24 hours, if it is lucky. But last week, I baked up some extra rolls, stored them in one of those Tupperware thingies, and forgot all about them for four days. They probably would have reheated okay in the microwave, but I wasn’t in the hot roll mood.

Then I remembered this thing my mother used to do with old rolls. So, on Sunday morning we had juice, sausage and Cinnamon Crunch Delights (Okay, I added the Delights to the name.) Nobody guessed that they were leftovers and youngest son gave them a 9 ½ out of 10 for taste.

These are actually worth saving back a few rolls to go stale just to serve this Delight.

Cinnamon Crunch Delights:

Baked Dinner Rolls, at least a day old and up to a week old–staler the better
Butter
Cinnamon Sugar
1 cup white sugar (brown sugar makes a richer taste)
2 teaspoons cinnamon

With a serrated knife cut the rolls into 3 or 4 pieces. Spread generously with butter on all cut surfaces. Cover tops well with Cinnamon Sugar. Bake on a foil lined cookie sheet at 450 degrees until crispy. Ten minutes or so. Serve hot.

Thanskgiving Ideas

You are right, Max, Thanksgiving is our kind of holiday. I’m already cooking and hunting up favorite recipes. I don’t know about your house, but try a new recipe for Thanksgiving (in hopes that you can drop another dish) and it instantly becomes a “must have” dish. So the menu just keeps getting longer and longer.

You know how I am about Thanksgiving pies. There must be Mincemeat, Pumpkin and Bourbon Pecan–and only three of us for dinner!! We often don’t even get to the pies until late that evening or sometimes the next day after all the other stuff on the menu.

I’m thinking about adding a Kentucky Lemon Pie this year. One of the great aunts used to always bring it and with its nice tart lemon taste, family members would often eat a bit of this directly after the main meal. This is an old recipe from at least the 1930’s, and it travels well since it isn’t runny or covered with a meringue. Quite different than what most people think of as Lemon Pie.

Kentucky Lemon Pie:

6 eggs
Juice of 2 lemons
1 ½ cups light corn syrup
¾ cup sugar
1/8 cup butter
Grated rind of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon cornstarch
One unbaked pie shell

Beat eggs well in mixer. Add syrup and continue beating. Mix cornstarch and sugar and slowly add to the eggs. Grate the lemon with a grater. Juice the lemons with a citrus juicer. Add lemon juice, rind and melted butter to eggs.

Pour into unbaked pie shell. Bake on lower rack of the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 300 degrees for 40 minutes until pie is set. Remember that pies will continue cooking after they are removed from the oven.

Serve chilled and in small slices as it is rich.

Pre-Thanksgiving Ideas

Well, Erma, here we are at Thanksgiving Week. That wonderful holiday when all we have to do is cook. NO presents to buy or wrap, not a lot of decorating the house, no cards or thank you notes, no butchered favorite Christmas carols on the radio. Just food, food food!!

As always, the women’s magazines are full of advice for cooking that Perfect Turkey. Eeee gads. Could anything be easier? The only trick to a huge Thanksgiving dinner is timing–especially if you don’t have 2 ovens.

And don’t you just love it when the magazine writers suggest a small turkey breast so, “You don’t have leftovers.” Leftovers is what that huge turkey meal is all about.

Maybe Food Editors don’t want any leftovers, but I certainly do.

My friend Martha always gives away everything that is not eaten for dinner. What a dodo!

Fix enough for Thanksgiving Day, and you don’t have to cook for at least the rest of the weekend. How much better does it get? In fact the rule at my house is, all that I will do is reheat things until at least Monday, and then we get turkey sandwiches for the lunchboxes.

To me it isn’t Thanksgiving without that faithful Leftover Turkey Pie recipe you shared with me a lifetime ago. And what could be easier? Take a pottery pie plate or casserole, line it with leftover mashed potatoes, put down a layer of dry dressing, top with an inch or so of turkey bits left from stripping down the carcass, and pour over some leftover gravy. Top with foil or a lid and bake for about 25 minutes .Slice and serve with cranberry relish and reheated rolls. Divine!! And Easy!!

All good cooks have a Basic Casserole recipe that they pull out around Thanksgiving. Here is mine. Note that the amounts and ingredients are just general. As they say in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie about the rules for parley, “They’re not exactly rules, they are more like guidelines.” And Guidelines is what this dependable recipe is all about. You can use chicken, turkey, crab, imitation crab and two cups is just a guideline. The crumb topping can be anything you like, including crushed potato chips, chow mein noodles, or canned French Fried Onions.

I like to use some green onion tops and some chopped red pepper (Remember that if you are as thrifty as we are dear, you have frozen some onion tops and red pepper back when we were trying to give it away?) Mostly they just add a bit of color. Like any casserole, here is the chance to use up those bits of dried out cheese.

I usually halve this and it makes 3 dinner servings and 3 smaller homemade TV dinners for the next day. So, yep, it reheats in the microwave well.

The BASIC Casserole:

2 cups chopped Meat (Turkey, Chicken, Crab)
1 can (10 ounces) cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup mayonnaise
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup shredded cheese (any kind, but cheddar gives a yellow tint to the casserole)
½ cup crushed cornflakes (buttered cracker crumbs, dry bread crumbs, even dry dressing)
2 tablespoons melted butter
Paprika
Choose From the following:
2 celery ribs, chopped
8 ounce can drained and chopped water chestnuts
Half a red pepper, chopped
Tops of several green onions chopped
Sliced almonds

Mix the meat, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, mayonnaise, eggs, mushrooms, onions, lemon juice. Select some items from the Choose From Section depending on your taste and what you have in the kitchen. Stir all together and place in a greased 13 x 9 inch casserole. I make half of this and use a 9 x 9 or 10 x 10 inch casserole. Sprinkle on the cheese.

Melt the butter and mix with the topping of cornflakes, cracker crumbs, or dry bread crumbs. Dust on some paprika. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until bubbley.

Serves 8 generously. More like 12 to 14 unless you are feeding fieldhands.

Sara Evans's Peas and Mushroom Alfredo

Tim McGraw may prefer that old fashioned, down-home style of cooking like Chicken and Dumplings, but not every Country Music Star eats Southern.

“Good Housekeeping Magazine” recently printed a Sara Evans’s favorite recipe. The “Cheatin’” and “Real Fine Place To Start” singer chose an Italian influenced entree that would appeal to an audience wider than her Country Music fan base.

Sara Evans’s Peas and Mushroom Alfredo is as up-to-date and trendy “As If” it came from a New York Bistro.

Sara Evans’s Peas and Mushroom Alfredo:

1 pound of fettuccine pasta
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 10 ounce package sliced mushrooms
1 15 to 18 ounce jar Alfredo Sauce
1 10 ounce package frozen peas
1 to 2 cups grated Romano Cheese

Cook the fettuccini in a large saucepan, and set aside. Meanwhile in a large saute pan, heat the olive oil and saute the mushrooms until lightly browned. Add Alfredo sauce and peas and heat through. Grate the cheese with a cheese grater. Stir in one cup of the cheese.

Drain the fettuccini in a colander. In a large serving type bowl, toss the fettuccine and Alfredo sauce mixture. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot with the remaining Romano Cheese.

Serves 6.

Tim McGraw's Chicken and Dumplings

Hallelujah! I have converted you to the True Religion of Cornbread!! No sugar, no soft fluffy cake, just that Good Old Fashioned Cornbread.

You mentioned Faith Hill and her Cornbread, so I thought of her husband Tim McGraw. I read an article recently that said he made his grandmother’s Chicken and Dumplings for Faith Hill back in the days when they were dating. It must have been good stuff–she married him!

His hit song, “Live Like You Are Dying,” is a good description of life in general, and his Chicken and Dumplings in particular. You need to savor this homey dish for who knows when you may eat it again.

Despite that Scots-Irish name of McGraw, these dumplings have a German noodle touch to them. I grew up with biscuit dough as dumplings, and I won’t tell you how many times my dumplings turned out to be sodden blobs of dough instead of light, fluffy dumplings. Tim’s are certainly easier.

Tim McGraw’s Grandmother’s Chicken and Dumplings:

1 small chicken
Water
Pinch of salt
2 cups flour
3 tablespoons Crisco butter shortening
½ cup buttermilk
1 egg

Boil the chicken in a large Dutch Oven pot with salted water until the chicken is falling off the bones. Remove chicken from the broth and when cool, tear into small pieces. Return chicken–sans bones–to the broth.

Pour the flour into a bowl, leaving a hole in the middle. Add the egg and enough buttermilk to make a biscuit dough consistency. Sprinkle flour on a cutting board, and roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Roll out fairly thin and cut in to squares. Carefully drop one square at a time into the boiling broth. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer until the dumplings are tender. The dumplings will thicken the broth until it is a creamy consistency.

Faith Hill's Cornbread

Erma, I’ll have to pass on those Shania Twain recipes to Mel. He does make a mean apple pie. No, that’s not right. His wife bakes a mean apple pie. Still not right. His wife bakes lots of mean apple pies. Like a dozen a day. Every day. All year long. Year after year.

And she must like Shania Twain. Or at least Mel plays her music a lot at the Diner.

Another Mel’s Country Music Special at the Diner is Faith Hill’s Easy Country Cornbread.
I just noticed that Mel’s favorite recipes and singers are all good looking female singers. Wonder if there is some connection here?

Anyway, this is Southern Cornbread as you taught me to like it Erma. I know that you throw up your hands in horror at the thought of The Sacred Cornbread being served like a soft, sweet cake. I don’t know if Faith Hill is a “Mississippi Girl’ or not, but she must be from way below the Mason-Dixon Line as her Cornbread is definitely Southern in taste and presentation. Faith must have had a grandmother like yours with a heavy, black cast iron skillet.

Mel often brings this Cornbread to the table straight out of the oven. You know what he looks like in his white apron. Imagine that big guy carrying a heavy black skillet with potholders, and then flipping out a giant cake of yellow cornbread on your plate. It just cries for a slathering of butter.

“There You’ll Be” with a piece of buttered cornbread in “Sunshine and Summertime.” Or Wintertime. Or Falltime.

Faith Hill’s Easy Country Cornbread:

3 tablespoons Crisco Butter Shortening
1 ½ cups Martha White Yellow Cornmeal Mix
1 egg
1 ½ cups buttermilk

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place the Crisco in an iron skillet and melt the shortening in the oven.

In a mixing bowl, mix egg, cornmeal mix and buttermilk. Pour the melted shortening into the mixture, leaving a small amount in the skittle so the bread will not stick. Stir in the shortening. Sprinkle a bit of dry cornmeal mix in the skillet and then pour in the cornbread mixture. Bake at 500 degrees until golden brown.

EAT AT ONCE!!

Shania Twain's Apple Pie

If you haven’t made Shania Twain’s Canadian Bannocks, rush right out to the kitchen and whip up a batch. They are perfect for these crisp fall mornings.

Perfect for crisp fall evenings is Shania Twain’s Country Apple Pie. The Country Music Star’s addition to this classic fall treat is raisins. Perhaps that comes from her Canadian heritage? Her crust is a little different to with lemon juice, butter and egg yolk which makes for a rich, yellow crust.

Tune her “From This Moment On” on the CD player and crank out this luscious pie. When your man comes through the door, he’ll sing, “Honey, I’m Home” and dig into this pie. You’ll be singing, “Man, I Feel Like A Woman” after the kiss that this great pie will bring.

Shania Twain’s Country Apple Pie:

¾ cup light brown sugar
½ cup flour
¼ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
8 apples
1/3 cup raisins
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons melted butter

Shania says that the best apples for this pie as Granny Smiths. Peel, core with apple corer, and cut apples into wedges.

Make your favorite double pie crust, or try Shania’s version below, and place into a large pie pan.

Juice the lemon with a juicer. In a large mixing bowl, mix the brown sugar, flour, white sugar, spices and salt. In another mixing bowl, mix the apples, the lemon juice, butter and raisins. Add brown sugar mixture to the apples and lightly toss.

Spoon the apples into the crust and chill for 15 minutes. Roll out the top crust and place on pie. Use remaining dough to cut out decorations for the top of the crust. Beat one small egg with a tablespoon of water and brush over the top of the pie. Add decorations (like little apples or leaves) cut from the remaining dough and brush again. Sprinkle top with white sugar.

Bake in a 375 degree over for about 50 to 60 minutes until the crust is golden. Cool on a wire cooling rack. Serve hot or cold. Serves 10.

Shania’s Double Pie Crust:

1 ½ cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
Grated zest of a lemon
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold butter
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
1 egg yolk
3-4 tablespoons ice water

Mix flour, zest, salt, sugar in a mixing bowl. With pastry blender, cut in the butter and shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix ice water and egg yolk and stir into flour one tablespoon at a time until dough just starts to form. Divide dough in half, and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, or up to 2 days.

Shania Twain's Canadian Bannocks

To be truthful, Max, I have never heard of Carolyn Dawn Johnson, but if her music is a good as her Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole, this gal is a winner.

A Country Music Star that even I have heard of is Shania Twain, and my son sent me a couple of her recipes. He tells me that she is from somewhere in northern Canada and spent some time as a cook in a tree planting camp. There she fried her Bannocks like a pancake over an open fire. Since Bannocks are in the same family as Baking Powder Biscuits, it is no surprise that Shania says that she used to eat these for breakfast with butter and raspberry jam. Actually they are good with any kind of jam or jelly.

Shania Twain’s Canadian Bannocks:

2 cups flour
¼ cup nonfat dry milk powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 teaspoon salt
½ cup raisins (omit if you are serving bannocks as a bread)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil or melted butter
1 tablespoons melted butter, optional
1 to 3 tablespoons of sugar if you like sweet breadMaple syrup

Stir the flour, milk, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl. Stir in the raisins if using. Add the water, oil or melted butter and stir until the dough clings together--like biscuit dough.

Spread the dough in an 8 x 8 x 2 inch baking pan. Brush with the second 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 25 minutes or until golden. Serve with maple syrup, or blackberry jam, or cinnamon sugar, or any kind of sweet preserve.

Serves 6.

I think that Bannocks are an Irish or Scotch invention, aren’t they?

Country Music's Carolyn Dawn Johnson's Favorite Recipe

Shades of that old saying,” You can take the boy out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the boy.” Only with you, Erma, it goes: “You can take the girl out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the girl.” You went to Las Vegas and ending up eating Black-eyed Peas at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill! So, why did you go to Las Vegas in the first place?

Why don’t you just mosey up to Dutch’s Corners and eat at Mel’s Diner. It has all the Country Music that is fit to play–and some that is not.

Mel collects recipes from Country Music stars and often uses them at the Diner. This is one he brought to a community pot luck supper a while back. Mel plays Carolyn Dawn Johnson’s “Got A Good Day” all the time down at the Diner, and he says that she should change the title of the song to “Got A Good Recipe” for her Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole.

Carolyn Dawn’s Chicken Asparagus Casserole:

1 ½ pounds fresh asparagus spears, cut in half
Cooking Oil
4 boneless, chicken breast halves–rather thin, not the monster ones
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 can light cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon curry powder
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Lightly oil a 9 x 13 inch casserole dish.

In a large sauce pan, boil the asparagus for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain well in a colander, and place in the casserole. Arrange the chicken breasts over the asparagus.

In a mixing bowl, mix the soup, mayonnaise, lemon juice and curry powder. Pour over the chicken. Place the lid on the casserole and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle on the cheddar cheese. Return to oven for a few minutes until the cheese is melted.

Serves 6.

Toby Keith's Black-Eyed Peas

No, Max, I am not a Good Ole Girl heading off to watch NASCAR races, but I do like some Country Music. I have to. The only radio stations that we can seem to pick up in the shop are country. So, yes dear, I know who Martina McBride is–and her Favorite Smoked Pork Chops sound divine.

Want a real Country meal? Serve those chops with Toby Keith’s Black-Eyed Peas. As you know black-eyed peas are a Southern tradition on New Years. Supposed to bring you good luck for the next year. So, of course, when we were in Las Vegas two years ago on New Year’s Eve, we had to go to The I Love This Bar & Grill to have REAL Southern comfort food. That was a pretty good year for the company, so maybe there is something in that superstition.

Toby Keith’s Black-Eyed Peas as Prepared at the I Love This Bar & Grill:

1 10 ounce can black-eyed peas
4 strips bacon
2 tablespoons bacon fat
¾ cup of diced red onion
2 tablespoons Cowboy Mix (below)

Dice the bacon and place in a Dutch Oven type heavy pot. Along with the bacon fat and the red onion. Fry until the onion begins to change color. Add the can of peas and the Cowboy Mix. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes at a hard boil.

Makes 2 to 4 servings

Cowboy Mix:

4 tablespoons kosher salt
¼ tablespoon pasilla powder
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons black pepper

Mix and use where ever a Tex-Mex flavor is wanted. Store in a small, tightly covered container. This will “fire up” any thing it touches.

Martina McBride's Smoked Pork Chops

Erma Elizabeth McCall, I can’t believe that you are promoting a NASCAR recipe!! What is the world coming to?

You, who thinks the only proper racing involves four footed horses at Keeneland and Churchill Downs now has become a NASCAR fan? I just knew that somewhere under all that prim and proper Southern Lady facade, there lurked a hidden Good Ole Boy side of you. Next thing I know, you’ll be driving down to Talladega or Daytona and trading recipes out in the infield!! Dear, early senility may be taking over your por’ little brain.

So, just to keep up with your Down Home Country/NASCAR side, I’m sending you some Country Music star’s recipes.

Mel, from Mel’s Diner fame, right here in downtown Dutch Corners, has been featuring a pork chop recipe he says came straight from some big restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee. Mel loves Country Music (that’s all he plays at the Diner), and he especially loves Martina McBride. “Wild Angels” seems to play non-stop during dinner.

Any how, Mel went down to Nashville and ate at this place that claimed these Smoked Pork Chops were Martina’s favorite dish. Mel, naturally, conned the cook into sharing the recipe and it has been a staple at the Diner ever since.

With all of Iowa’s pork, any different recipe for the faithful pork chop is a welcomed friend. These have become something of a Saturday night Special at Mel’s, and he must make up a hundred or so each week.

P.S. You can reuse the marinade. With that whole vanilla bean, this aint a cheap brine. Just bring it to a boil after you remove the chops and store it in the fridge and it is ready for the next batch of Martina McBride’s Favorite Smoked Pork Chops from Cabana in Nashville, or from Mel’s Diner in beautiful downtown Dutch Corners.

Martina McBride’s Favorite Smoked Pork Chops from Cabana in Nashville:

6 large center-cut pork chops–make that HUGE thick chops

Marinade:

1 quart of water
¼ cup sorghum
¼ cup salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar
10 whole black peppercorns
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

Bring all the Marinade ingredients to a boil in a large saucepan. Simmer for several minutes and then cool to room temperature. Place chops and marinade in a large, covered casserole, and place in the refrigerator for one to two days.

Pat dry the chops. In a home smoker or good closed barbeque grill, smoke the chops at 160 degrees with fruit flavored wood chips until the chops reach at least 150 degrees. Use a thermometer to test.

Serves 6.

NASCAR's Tony Stewart's Shrimp

Well, Max, now that it FINALLY feels like Fall Football Weather, Tailgating Parties are becoming fun again. Of course, Kentucky’s recent exciting football wins–and spectacular losses–add to the Saturday afternoon excitement. Since I don’t care all that much about football, I concentrate on the Tailgate Party end of it.

Ours is a competitive bunch of Football Widow-Tag-Alongs. Every week it is who can come up with the most interesting dish. Last week’s hands down winner was Bev Miller with her “Tony Stewart Smoke’s Shrimp.” The fellows were inhaling this appetizer even before she told us that this recipe came from the well known NASCAR driver. At that point, all the men demanded another round of this neat grilled shrimp.

The Smoke’s in the name, according to Bev, is Stewart’s nickname. So we kind of have a little play on words here?

NASCAR or Tony Stewart lover or not, this is one Smoking Good Recipe!!

NASCAR’s Tony Stewart’s “Smoke’s” Shrimp:

One pound of large, uncooked shrimp
Garlic powder
Dried onion flakes
12 ounce package of bacon
Pepper
Jar (18 to 20 ounce) smoky style barbeque sauce

Peel, clean, and devein the shrimp, but leave the tails on. Rinse well. Dry with a paper towel and season with garlic powder, onion flakes, and black pepper. Guys like them SPICY

Pour the smoky barbeque sauce in a glass or corning wear type casserole, about 8 x 8 inches like the CorningWare French White Casserole. Cut each slice of bacon in half and wrap around a shrimp. Secure with a toothpick. Place shrimp in the marinade and store in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Grill the shrimp over low heat until the bacon begins to turn crisp. They can also be broiled in the oven.

Serves 6. That’s normal people. Hungry guys at a football game? Might serve 2 or 3.

Comfort Fish Chowder from Portugal

You’re right, Max. It’s always interesting to run across a recipe you think is your own that turns up in a culture far removed from yours. Stuffed Green Peppers were a summer Sunday dinner in my great-grandmother’s house. As soon as freezers came along, my family put up dozens of packages of the stuffed peppers so we could enjoy them all winter long too.

You know my dislike of fish in general, so when I recommend a fish recipe, you know it must be exceptional. This one is.

This dish was a staple of a neighbor back in Chicago. Her family were Portuguese fishermen who worked the ocean off Cape Cod and she said that this dish appeared often on the table. Her mother used whatever fish didn’t sell off the boat. I suppose it is the dill seed, bay leaf and cloves that make this Portuguese. Juana said the vermouth was often whatever was in the house, and the baking time and temperature depended on what her mother was doing at the time. Like most soup/stews, the longer and slower it cooks, the better.

Portuguese Oven Fish Chowder:

2 pounds haddock or cod fillets
4 potatoes
1 bay leaf
2 ½ teaspoons salt
2 cups boiling water
4 whole cloves
3 onions
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon dried dill seed
½ cup butter
½ cup vermouth or dry white wine
2 cups light cream

Peel and slice the potatoes and onions. Into a large, heavy casserole, place the fish, potatoes, onions, bay leaf, salt, cloves, pepper, dill seed, butter, wine and boiling water. Cover and bake at 375 degrees for about one hour. Break up the fish into large chunks. Heat the cream to scalding and add to chowder just before serving.

Home Style Lebanese Stuffed Peppers

Erma, only you would take a classic Mennonite Comfort Food like a Buttermilk Pie and add booze. Sometimes I think that you must have stock in a distillery, or get a kickback from the bourbon makers for promotion of their product. Well, see if you can add bourbon to this Comfort Food.

Almost every Eastern European country and much of the Middle East have their own versions of that old standby Stuffed Green Peppers. A Lebanese neighbor years ago shared with me what she called her favorite “real” Lebanonese recipe. My Polish grandmother’s Stuffed Green Peppers is almost identical. She used ground beef instead of lamb and brown sugar in place of the mint, cinnamon and cumin.

Isn’t it funny how the only difference between a Polish classic and an Lebanonese classic is the different herbs?

Home Style Lebanonese Stuffed Peppers:

6 large green peppers
1 ½ cups rice
1 pound ground lamb
1 (6 ounce ) cans tomato paste
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon dried mint
Salt and pepper
Cinnamon and cumin to taste
Water

Cut off the tops of the peppers and hollow out. Combine the rice, lamb, one can of tomato paste and the seasonings. Stuff each pepper about 3/4’s full. Place the peppers into a dutch over sized pot. Mix the remaining can of tomato sauce and tomato paste with enough water to cover the peppers. Bring to a full boil.cover the pot, and simmer on low for one to one and a half hours. When serving, pour the juice over the peppers. I like to cook the tomato sauce down to a gravy thickness.

Comfort Food Buttermilk Pie

I tried your Mennonite Cabbage Salad yesterday and it is great. As you know, Max, I love tart sweet and sour salads. With the current price of lettuce (it was $1.69 for a miserable little head Saturday), we will be eating a lot of cabbage for salads around here.

Since we are talking about Comfort Food, and who personifies Comfort Food better than those German Mennonite cooks? Let’s not forget their rich, simple desserts Max.

There is never a time when any cook could not whip up a Mennonite Buttermilk Pie. The ingredients are kitchen staples, the prep time is minimal. Like you can stir it up while the oven is heating. If you don’t have real buttermilk on hand, you can substitute regular milk soured with a little vinegar or lemon juice until it curdles.

I like my Buttermilk Pies just a bit richer than most, so I use bourbon instead of vanilla which would probably cause some older Mennonite cooks to roll over in their graves. The choice is yours. It must be a regional thing. Southern cookbooks often use the bourbon while other regions of the country stick to the vanilla.

Mennonite Buttermilk Pie:

1 egg
½ cup sugar
1 tablespoon butter
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup buttermilk
¼ teaspoon vanilla (I substitute bourbon and increase it to a tablespoon)
Unbaked pie shell

Cream the egg, sugar and butter in a mixer. Add baking soda and flour to creamed mixture, Add buttermilk and vanilla/bourbon. And place in an unbaked pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Pie will continue cooking after removal from the oven. Let cool completely before cutting.

Mennonite Comfort Food

Erma, your Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole reminded me of another classic Mennonite recipe. Our local Mennonites call this Cabbage Salad. Most anyone else would call it marinated cole slaw, and there are dozens of recipes for it. What makes this one different is that the cabbage and onions sit for a while with the sugar to make a kind of sweet brine.

This Mennonite Cabbage Salad would be perfect with your Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole. Like the Pennsylvania Dutch (after all, most Mennonites came from the same regions of Germany), our Mennonites like to combine sweet and sour dishes like the Cabbage Salad with a soft bland one like your casserole. Both of these recipe illustrate a facet of Mennonite cooking that you forgot to mention. Not only are their recipes inexpensive and use common ingredients, but they can be fixed whenever there is time and set aside to eat later.

Mennonite Cabbage Salad:

One large head of cabbage
One onion
1 cup sugar

Shred the cabbage and onion in your food processor. Stir in the cup of sugar and let sit for 10 to 20 minutes for sugar to melt into the cabbage liquids. Then make the Dressing

Dressing:

2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon celery seed
¾ cup vinegar
½ cup salad oil

Mix all in a sauce pan, and bring to a boil. Pour at once over the cabbage and let sit until completely cool. Stir several times. Place in a plastic refrigerator container and chill at least overnight before serving. This will keep for at least a week.

Makes 10-14 servings.

Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole

You made bread yesterday to celebrate the return of cool weather, and I cranked out an old Mennonite chicken recipe. I was busy picking up the house, doing laundry, and getting ready to work outside in the gardens pulling weeds, so I needed a take-care-of-itself kind of recipe.

Long ago, in another life, I worked with a reference librarian who demanded that the library buy a Mennonite cookbook as our standard reference tool. Jasper insisted that all basic cooking questions could be answered from this old classic and he was right. We didn’t have Mennonites in our section of Kentucky, but their style of cooking was just like the home food that I grew up with.

As is typical of Mennonite cookery, the ingredients are things that you always have in the kitchen, are cheap (few meats are cheaper than chicken thighs), and the result is a comfort food you associate with your childhood.

Mennonite Chicken Thigh Casserole:

¾ cup white rice
2 tablespoons minced onion
2 tablespoons minced celery
1 tablespoon minced carrot
¼ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup butter
1 ½ cups water with 1 chicken bouillon cube dissolved in it
¾ cup milk
4 large chicken thighs
Seasoned salt that has paprika
Paprika

Grease a casserole that has a tight fitting lid, about 9 x 9 inches. Sprinkle on the rice. Mince the onion, celery and carrot and sprinkle on the rice. Dust on the flour and salt. Chop the butter into small cubes and place in the casserole. Carefully pour in the liquids. Arrange the chicken pieces on top and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Cover tightly and bake at 325 degrees for 2 hours until the chicken is tender. Toward the end of the taking, sprinkle on additional paprika for color. If the mixture is still too runny, remove the top for a few minutes additional baking and a nice golden top.

Serves 4.

Best White Bread

Now that it has finally settled down to our normal brisk Fall weather, I had to make bread today. My recipe comes from an old (1969) Farm Journal cookbook and was simply entitled “Best-Ever White Bread.” And it is about the best too. I added the egg for richness and came up with the Raisin Loaf from some other recipe.

Erma, your alcohol enhanced ways have rubbed off on me. I wouldn’t think of using raisins straight from the package in any of my cooking after I tried your trick of keeping several packages soaked in lots of bourbon so they are nice and plump, and extra flavorful. One should always “test” these raisins by eating a few while you are cooking. All women need the iron in raisins, and the bourbon sauce makes the cooking go faster.

I found this cookbook at my library on the library discard shelf. Each book was a quarter and there are some real dogs on the shelf, but occasionally you come across a real gem and “Homemade Bread” was a diamond in the rough. Over the past few years, I have collected all of the Farm Journal cookbook I can find. You know they are good because they are always stained and very used looking.

A highlight of each month as a child was the arrival of the “Farm Journal Magazine.” There was a kid’s page, and a nice women’s section with down-home, comfort recipes for farm wives who didn’t have access to a lot of fancy ingredients or time to prepare elegant meals.

Erma, if you ever come across some of their cookbooks, grab them. They are our kind of food. Their one on food preservation is my Bible on canning and preserving foods.

Farm Journal’s Best-Ever White Bread and Raisin Bread:

2 cups milk
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon lard or shortening (butter works too) (see how old this recipe is?)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 package dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
6 to 6 ½ cups flour

Original recipe said: “Scald milk.” Today we only have to bring the milk up to medium warm in a saucepan, then stir in sugar, salt and lard. Cool to luke warm.

Sprinkle the yeast on the warm water and stir to dissolve.

When yeast is dissolved and milk mixture is about body temperature, pour the milk, yeast and 3 cups of the flour into a large mixing bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon until batter is smooth. You could also beat for about 2 minutes in a mixer.

Slowly begin adding the remaining flour until you have a soft dough that leaves the sides of the mixing bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured bread board. Turn the mixing bowl over the dough and let sit for at least 10 minutes.

Begin kneading by hand (or in a mixer with a dough hook) and knead for about 10 minutes. You may need to add small amounts of flour so the dough does not stick to the board. At end of the kneading, pour a bit of oil into the bottom of a mixing bowl. Turn the dough so that all surfaces and sides of the bowl are greased.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours. Punch the dough down, and divide into 2 loaves. Place into two 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pans that are greased, if not Teflon coated. Cover and let rise again until doubled, which will be about an hour.

Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes until a deep golden brown and hollow sounding when thumped. Remove at once from pans and place on wire cooling racks to cool. For a softer, shiny crust, lightly oil or butter the tops.

As soon as the bread is cool enough to cool, cut a slice to sample and slather on the real butter. This step is essential. You would not want to serve your family an inferior bread, would you?

To make a superb Raisin Bread (I always make one loaf Raisin Bread.) Go to the point when you have kneaded the bread well and divide in half. Set the plain loaf in one small bowl. For the other half spread the dough out with your hands and sprinkle on about ¼ of a teaspoon cardamon and a generous ½ teaspoon cinnamon. Knead for another minute or so until the spices are well mixed in the bread. A few streaks may remain, but that just adds interest to the loaf.

When the dough has raised, again pat it out into a rectangle. Sprinkle on a thin layer of brown sugar, a light dusting of cinnamon, and as many raisins as you like. Press raisins into the dough. Roll the dough up tightly so there are no air pockets in the dough. Continue as with regular bread.

This makes a wonderful breakfast toast by slicing and buttering one side of the bread. Bake in a hot 400 degree oven for several minutes, turn over and bake another minute or so until lightly toasted. Watch carefully as once it begins to brown, it cooks fast.

Old Time Hint: When you are shaping your dough into loaves, use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. This removes the bubbles of air that makes holes in the bread.

One Last Apple Recipe

I know, Max, that we have barely scratched the surface of apple recipes, but enough is enough! Still I had to share this one, last apple recipe with you. Except for the addition of the apples, it is your basic sweet potato casserole that everyone makes for Thanksgiving. The difference here is the apples and the fact that the fruits are left in chunks and not mashed as is usual.

No, of course, the original recipe did not call for bourbon, but bourbon and sweet potatoes just go together like crackers and peanut butter. They are a natural mix. This recipe came from a cookbook out of New England, and you know that they do NOT use bourbon. Such a shame too.

Apple Sweet Potato Casserole:

6 sweet potatoes, baked and peeled
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled
1 stick butter
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
Roughly chopped pecans
¼ cup bourbon

Use a fairly large casserole with lid, and grease well. Cut the potatoes and apples into small bite-sized pieces, mix, and put in the casserole. Pour the bourbon over the sweet potatoes and apples. Melt the butter and sugar in a small sauce pan. Add the syrup and pecans, and then pour over the top of the casserole. (Casserole can be fixed to this point up to a day early and held in the refrigerator. Allow to come to room temperature before baking the next day.) With cover on the casserole, bake for one hour at 350 degrees.

Serves 8 to 10 as a side dish. Reheats well in the microwave too.

Antique Shaker Apple Recipes

Talk about unusual, Max, then check out this Shaker Apple and Pork Stew. It starts out kind of like a Pork Roast basted with applesauce, and then it adds carrots, potatoes, and onions like a beef stew. Come to think of it, I often add potatoes, carrots and onions to my pork roasts. So maybe this isn’t such an unusual recipe after all.

Shaker Apple and Pork Stew:

3 pounds boneless pork
3 pounds applesauce
2 tablespoons mixed cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg
6 small red skinned potatoes
3 carrots
2 onions
2 apples

Cut the pork into small cubes. In a heavy Dutch Oven, place the pork, applesauce, spices. Cover and cook on high heat for 10 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for at least 4 hours. An hour before serving, add the unpeeled whole potatoes, the carrots that have been peeled and cut into large chunks, and the onions that have been quartered. About 15 minutes before serving, add the apples that have been peeled and sliced thinly. Serve in soup bowls.

Serves 8.