Southern Potato Cakes

Aug30

Southern Potato Cakes

Mammaw’s Southern Potato Cakes
When I was young, my Mom always found ways serve leftovers that made them seem like an entirely new meal. One of my favorites was Potato Cakes. Left over mashed potatoes, fashioned into small individual cakes. They were always delicious.

I never helped make them when I was still living at home, so when I called and asked her how do you make potato cakes, she said “you just cook them in butter in a skillet”. So I fashioned the left over potatoes and fried them……yeah that didn’t work. I called back and told her about how they fell apart and she asks “well did you put flour in them?” No Mom, you didn’t tell me to do that.

You really need to go home and cook with your mom and write down the family recipes, because they didn’t seem to do that in my family. I learned how to make them by watching her and I’ve written it down to share with my son.

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Serves: Depends on how many leftover mashed potatoes you have.  We usually have enough to make 3 to 6 cakes.
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Potatoes Au Gratin

Aug30

Vickie’s Potatoes Au Gratin

Vickie’s Potatoes Au Gratin
A simple way to spruce up your dinner table for the holidays. This is an easy recipe to make, though it does take some time to bake. It’s well worth it.

I found this recipe in a box at my Grandmother’s house. It was a clipping from the local paper, with hand written notes next to some of the ingredients and directions. I’m pretty sure those notes were made by my Maw. In our family, we called her Maw Stoots.  I’ve made my own little tweaks to the recipe to fit my families tastes. I hope you like it.

Preparation Time: 25 Minutes
Bake time: 1 to 1.5 hours
Serves: 6  Continue reading →

Southern Fried Okra

Aug30

Southern Fried Okra

Vickie’s Southern Fried Okra
One of Gary’s favorite southern foods is fried okra. He says it’s like eating popcorn and you just can’t get enough of it.

I make it for him about three or four times a year. For his birthday, our anniversary and on holidays.

Preparation time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 to 2 cups of fresh or frozen okra (thawed)
  • ½ cup Flour
  • ½ cup Corn Meal
  • 1 tspn salt
  • 1 tspn pepper
  • ½ stick of butter or margarine

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Green Bean Casserole

Aug30

Sandy’s Green Bean Casserole

GrandMa Sandy’s Green Bean Casserole
A perfect way to spice up your veggies.  For Gary’s family, holidays often included this bean casserole that makes every celebration a little extra special.

It’s simple to make and is often found on southern tables for fall and winter dinners, or spring and summer picnics. It’s become a family favorite for the Hollands.

Preparation time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:

  • 2 med size cans of cut green beans
  •     (or 1 lbs frozen cut green beans)
  • 1 can Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup
  • 1/2 can of milk
    (use the mushroom can to measure)
  • 1 tsp of black pepper (or to taste)
  • 1lg. container of French’s French Fried Onion Rings

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Not The Enemy Of The People

Aug16

Defend The Free Press

Supporting The Free Press
August 16, 2018

Today, August 16th, 2018 is the national day to support America’s Free Press. The idea began with the Boston Globe proposing that all Newspapers Rally To Protect The Free Press. The coordinated effort for an editorial response from publications across the U.S. to President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the news media.

Beginning as early as one month after being sworn into office, Trump labeled the News Media “The Enemy of the People”. According to the Washington Post, he has “used the word “fake” — as in “fake news,” “fake stories,” “fake media” or “fake polls” — more than 400 times” in the past 19 months.

He constantly tells his followers at rallies, that you can’t believe the “Fake News”, and “what they say is going on, isn’t what’s really happening”. All this to undermine the credibility of ethical and factual reporting that is critical of his actions, both past and present. Continue reading →

Green Beans and Potatoes

May13

Vickie’s Green Beans and Potatoes

Beans and Potatoes

A classic way to spruce up your vegetables. Beef stew is a popular favorite in my family. But sometimes stew isn’t really what you want.

One very cold winter day, we just wanted to warm up the house. Too snowy to take to the country roads. It was time to open the freezer and the cabinets to find something good for dinner.

Cleaning out the pantry, we found a sack of potatoes and some green beans in the freezer. And a dinner side dish, became dinner.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes, 3 hours to cook.  Continue reading →

Country Green Beans

May13

Vickie’s Country Green Beans

Country Green Beans

A spin on our Southern Green Beans.
There are several southern cooking restaurants around the country. One of our favorites is Cracker Barrel. And the boys love their green beans.

One weekend we slow cooked a roast with potatoes and green beans. The beans in particular garnered rave reviews and my son mentioned he liked these beans better than the southern green beans. So I devised a way to get the flavor of a slow cooked stew, without the 2 day cooking.  They go great with a chicken or beef dinner.

People ask, what’s the difference between country green beans and green beans? The answer is cook time. Today a lot of people barely cook green beans, making them crunchy and hard. That might be great for the vitamins, but it’s not the way our country ancestors cooked beans. My grand mothers cooked the way their grand parents cooked and so on. They cooked the hell out of their veggies.

Preparation Time: 6 to 12 hours
Serves: A large family Continue reading →

Southern Green Beans

May13

Southern Green Beans

Vickie’s Southern Green Beans

When I was young, we would trek down to Tennessee to visit the relatives. My Dad’s Mom loved to cook. Of course she kept cooking even when everyone had sat down to dinner or supper. My Dad was always telling her to sit down and eat. Within 5 minutes she’d jump back up and run to tend something else in the kitchen.

I loved the smell of her house. It always had such a warm and welcoming scent. Primarily because she was always cooking something. She had her own large vegetable garden and was always canning and cooking for the freezer. It’s always the simple recipes you don’t write down and become lost to the shadows of the past. I’ve never been able to recreate her version, but I stumbled on a version that my family loves. They go great with a ham or chicken dinner.

People ask, what’s the difference between country green beans and green beans? The answer is cook time. Today a lot of people barely cook green beans, making them crunchy and hard. That might be great for the vitamins, but it’s not the way our country ancestors cooked beans. My grand mothers cooked the way their grand parents cooked and so on. They cooked the hell out of their veggies.

Preparation Time: 4 to 8 hours
Serves: A large family Continue reading →

Southern Greens – Turnip, Collard and Mustard Greens

May8

Southern Greens – Turnip, Collard and Mustard Greens

Collard Greens

Turnip greens are popular in the South and probably the most common greens you’ll find on a Southern Dinner Table. But mustard and collard greens are also popular favorites.

Turnip greens are distinctive, but mild tasting. Mustard greens tend to have a strong and somewhat tangy pronounced flavor. While Collard greens hold the mildest taste and pick up the flavor of the ingredients you add to them.

None of these are my thing, but I’ve had to learn to cook them for Gary. All of them are really simple to cook. Just don’t ask me to try them.

Preparation Time: 2 – 2.5 hours
Serves: 4 to 5 Continue reading →

NC BBQ Cole Slaw

May8

Granddaddy Holland’s NC BBQ Cole Slaw

BBQ Coleslaw

I’ve heard many stories about Gary’s side of the family going to Love Valley in North Carolina to visit their grand parents. One of the stories I often hear about are the bbq dinners with Granddaddy’s special Cole Slaw. It became a family tradition and even a family secret.

Sadly, Granddaddy Holland passed away before passing on his secret recipe that everyone loved so much. But cousin Kevin has been working on that recipe for a number of years and everyone has told me he has recreated it quite well.

Like a lot of North Carolina bbq, this slaw has a vinegar base.

Preparation time: 10 minutes or 2 days.
This is best when made 2 days ahead of meal time, so flavors have time to blend.  Continue reading →