Sweet Pepper Relish!

 

 

I love a good relish or chow chow.  It is so good with beans and fresh vegetables or on a hot dog or good smoked sausage.  However, it's hard to find a really tasty recipe for sweet pepper relish.   This is probably one of the best.  It's one of those really old recipes that has been around for a while and it came from the lady that ran our elementary cafeteria years ago.   My mother was fortunate enough to get several of her recipes.  She was a wonderful southern cook.   I am sure this recipe was in her own family for years.  You will be surprised by how uncomplicated making something like this actually is, if you have a good recipe.  Here is what you will need:

 

 

4 cups ground onions

1 medium head of cabbage, ground (4 cups)

10 green tomatoes, ground  (4 cups)

12 green bell peppers, ground

6 red bell peppers, ground

1/2 cup salt

6 cups sugar

1 Tbs. celery seed

2 Tbs. turmeric

4 cups cider vinegar

2 cups water

 

Grind the vegetables using the coarse blade of the grinder.  This recipe was before the invention of the food processor, but you can use your food processor.  If you do use a food processor, be careful not to over process this.  It should be left coarse.  We are making relish, not juice and it's easy to over do it with those powerful food processors nowadays.  Do I sound like I have experience with this...lol?   I have had a few batches of salsa that was more like spicy tomato juice, before I got used to a new food processor.

 

Sprinkle the vegetables with the 1/2 cup of salt.  Cover and let sit in the fridge over night. 

 

The next day, rinse and drain.  Mix the rest of the ingredients and pour over the vegetables in a large pan.  Place on the stove and heat to boiling.   Turn the heat down and simmer for about 3 minutes. 

 

Seal in hot, sterilized jars.  My mother always turns the jars, after filling and sealing, upside down on a kitchen towel to aid in the sealing process.  This makes 8 pints of relish. 

 

Isn't it pretty?  This would be great for an inexpensive, but thoughtful, Christmas gift.  Tie a little burlap or gingham bow around the jar and it would be darling!





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Homemade Gingerbread!

 

 



 Nothing smells any better baking than gingerbread to me!  It also smells like Fall and holidays!  For some reason gingerbread makes me slightly nostalgic for a time gone by.  I don't know why, because I am not much of a person to live in the past, but I always think of relatives long gone when doing anything having to do with gingerbread.   Just the smell of it, reminds me of being a little girl and my mother making it or relatives who made it. 

This recipe is well over 100 years old and has been passed down in my family through the generations.  My own mother got it from her great aunt so you can see that it is very old and dates back to the late 1800's at least.  You will notice it calls for butter or lard, which back then would be the two choices you had for baking.  I realize most of you won't use lard, but I am keeping the recipe authentic.  Feel free to use shortening if you don't use the butter.

 

To make good gingerbread, you have to have good molasses or as the type here in Kentucky is called, sorghum molasses.  Kentucky and Tennessee are the top producing states for sorghum and therefore sorghum syrup or molasses.   Making syrup or sorghum molasses is very labor intensive and just about a dying art.   The sorghum used in this gingerbread came from a Mennonite farm a county over from ours that still grow sorghum and make the molasses with it. 

 

This gingerbread is the cake like version instead of the cookies some people think of and it's good served just plain, sprinkled with some powdered sugar or with a warm caramel sauce.    Here is what you will need:

 

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter or lard

2 eggs

1 cup molasses

2  1/2 cups all purpose flour

1  1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1  1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1 cup hot water

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Cream together sugar and butter (or lard).  Add eggs and mix. Add molasses.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves. 

 

Add the flour mixture to the sugar, butter and egg mixture and then beat in the hot water.  Mix just until combined. 

 

Pour into a shallow baking pan that has been well greased or sprayed with nonstick baking spray.   Use a 9"x13" pan with and edge on it.    Bake for about 25 minutes.

 

Cool slightly before cutting.

 

Serve sprinkled with powdered sugar!

 

Or with a warm caramel sauce and a dollop of whipped cream for something even more special!

 



 

Caramel Sauce
1 stick butter (1/ 2 cup)
1 cup milk
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

To make the warm caramel sauce, which you can serve over each piece or without, mix the butter, milk and the sugars in saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil.  Allow this to boil for 3 full minutes, stirring constantly.   Remove from heat and stir in 1 tsp. of vanilla.   This will thicken as it sits, but should be served slightly warm over each piece. 


 

 

 

 

 

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Creamy Scalloped Potatoes!

 

 

 Scalloped potatoes are something that seem so simple, but like so many dishes that, on the surface, seem simple, people do have difficulties with them.   The main issues with scalloped potatoes seem to be that the potatoes don't get done, the sauce is too watery or if you cook them long enough to get the potatoes done, they dry out and get too brown on top. 

 

This is a fail proof recipe for "Creamy Scalloped Potatoes" if you follow it exactly.  Here is what you will need:

 

4 cups potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced  (about 4 or 5 medium size potatoes)

4 Tbs. butter

4 Tbs. flour

1  (12 oz.) can of evaporated milk

1/2 cup whole milk

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided

1 tsp. seasoned salt (can use regular salt, just add a pinch of garlic powder if you do)

1/2 tsp. black pepper

 

Melt the butter in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stove.  Whisk in flour just until blended.  Whisk in the evaporated milk and the whole milk.   Add seasoned salt and pepper.  Cook on low and whisk occasionally until it boils.   I just do this in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes.  Remove and whisk until smooth.  Add 1 cup of the cheese to the sauce and cook or microwave for 1 minute more until the cheese melts.   You are basically just making a light cheese sauce. 

 

Spray a casserole dish with nonstick spray and layer 1/2 of the potato slices in.  Cover with 1/2 of the sauce.

 

Layer the rest of the potatoes next, cover with the other half of the sauce and sprinkle the top with the rest of the cheese. 

 

Place in a 350 degree oven and bake for 1 hour or until the potatoes are fork tender.  If the top starts to brown too much, cover loosely with a piece of foil.  This usually doesn't happen, unless the type of potatoes you use are difficult to get done.

 

See how creamy they are on the inside, but not watery like sometimes happens.  The evaporated milk is key to this recipe, because most of the water has been removed from it, so it makes really creamy sauces.



 





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Lemon Lush!

 

This is a dessert a lot of us grew up with and then went on to make ourselves for our own families.  It's really fairly simple, but no matter what sort of gathering you take this to, it will be one of the first desserts to disappear.  I think it's because it appeals to everyone!   It's also very versatile, because you can use different flavors of pudding and change it up for your families or guests tastes.  My mother-in-law usually made chocolate and my own mother would sometimes make butterscotch or chocolate.  However, lemon seems to be what I get the most requests for from you all, so today we will do lemon.  This dessert also has about a gazillion names and variations on the recipe, but I like the sound of "Lemon Lush"!   Here is what you will need for this:

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 cups self rising flour
1/2 cup nuts, chopped (pecans or walnuts)
2 (3 oz.) small boxes instant lemon pudding mix
3 cups milk
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
12 oz. frozen whipped topping, thawed
lemon slices for garnish (optional)

Melt the butter in a 9"x 13" baking dish.  Add the flour and the nuts to the butter and mix.  Press in the bottom of the dish to make a crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes or until just lightly browned.  Cool completely.

Mix the pudding mixes with the cold milk.  Cover and chill.

Beat the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla flavoring.  Fold in 1/2 cup of the whipped topping. Spread evenly over the crust. 

Layer the pudding mixture next.  Spread the remaining whipped topping over the pudding layer. 

Garnish the top with lemon slices or even some extra chopped nuts.  You can also garnish each piece with a maraschino cherry.   Chill for 2-3 hours before serving. 

 

 

  

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Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole!

 

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If you like cabbage rolls, you will love this "Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole"!   It's much quicker to get on the table than cabbage rolls and you can serve this for a main course or as a tasty side dish!  I like cabbage just about any way you prepare it, but I especially like it with a little spiciness.  You can adjust this recipe to your level of spice, but using either the hot or mild sausage so if you are not into spice don't shy away from it.   This is my mother's recipe and she doesn't do spicy much at all so she uses the milder seasonings.  

 

Here is what you will need for this dish:

 

1 lb. ground sausage (use hot if you like spicy)

1 medium sweet onion, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 tsp. seasoned salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/2 head of cabbage, cored and chopped

1 (10  3/4 oz.) can tomato soup

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

 

Brown the sausage in a skillet adding onion and bell pepper about half way through to just get them tender.  Add seasoned salt and pepper.

 

Place the chopped cabbage in enough water to cover and boil for just about 8 minutes or until just tender.   Drain really well.

 

Place cabbage in a 2 quart casserole dish that has been sprayed with nonstick spray.  Top  with the sausage, onion and bell pepper mixture.   Spread the can of soup over the top.  Cover and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. 

 

About 10 minutes before it's finished baking, uncover and sprinkle the top with cheese.  Leave uncovered so cheese melts and just starts to brown. 

 

 

This is great served as a main dish or as a side dish!  Add some beans and cornbread and you've got supper! 

 

 

 



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Potato Cakes!

 

 

 In the South, we don't believe in wasting anything.  Many of us were brought up with this way of thinking deeply ingrained in us by parents who were brought up with this as a matter of survival and necessity.  If you have leftovers, you save them and eat them or figure out a way to reorganize them and make them interesting the second time around.   I am sure that is how the potato cake came to be.  I know that is when my own mother would make them, when we had leftover mashed potatoes.  I am not sure how my grandmother ever had enough leftover mashed potatoes to make them when she had to mash potatoes for 13 people, but I guess sometime she did.  My mother-in-law only had 4 children and she used to tell me that in order to have enough leftover mashed potatoes for potato cakes, she would cook extra potatoes and put some aside for the next day.  We do love our potatoes in this part of the country. 

These are really very simple to make and just like salmon patties, everyone does it just a bit different to suit their own tastes and their families tastes.  They are also called several different names by different folks....potato cakes, potato patties, potato pancakes...all the same thing.

 This is the way my mother always made them and what we like.  Her potato cakes are a little puffier and light than some and you will see why if you make them.  Here is what you will need:

2 cups cold mashed potatoes
1 egg
1/2 cup self rising flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbs. finely minced onion (optional, we don't use onion)
oil for frying

Mix the potatoes, egg, flour and baking powder.   Add onion if using it.   Heat about 2-3 Tbs. oil in a skillet until hot.  Make sure your oil is not enough or the potato cake will just spread out and not stay together.  

Scoop with an ice cream scoop and drop in the hot oil.  Flatten slightly, but don't mash down too much.  Cook until nice and brown on one side and then turn them over and cook until nice and brown on the other side.   Remove to a paper towel lined plate. 

Serve with a little sour cream and chives or green onion or just plain.  These are good with any meat or with beans and cornbread!



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Mama's Pecan Chicken Salad!

 

 

 My mother makes the best "Pecan Chicken Salad"!  She and one of her sisters used to own a restaurant and this was always one of their biggest sellers at lunch.  They usually sold this as a salad plated with fresh fruit around it.  I love it like that, but it's also really good on a fresh croissant as a sandwich.  This is so much better than any you can buy already prepared, unless you do get it at a deli or restaurant where they make it fresh daily and it's so easy, why not make it yourself for half the cost!  Here is what you will need:

 

4 cups cooked chicken breast meat, chopped or 2 (15oz). cans all white chicken  (SAM's sells some that is really good)

1 1/2 cups sliced seedless grapes (red or white)

3/4 cup chopped celery

1 Tbs. sugar

1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbs. lemon juice

3/4 cup pecans

1 cup mayonnaise

Mix all ingredients and stir together. This chicken salad is so good with fresh fruit or on croissants as a sandwich.

 

 





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