Tag Archive | traditional

Vickie’s Sweet Cornbread Muffins

Apr30

Vickie’s Sweet Cornbread Muffins

Sweet Cornbread Muffins

It’s a cold wintry day and I thought it would be nice to warm up the house with a little baking. I love my Dad’s Southern Cornbread. But since it’s snowing and I don’t have buttermilk, I decided to do some experimenting.

One of my first professional jobs was at a large Fortune 5 company. We were graced with a large cafeteria for breakfast and lunch. One of my favorite things from that time was their sweet cornbread muffins. So here’s my attempt to replicate them. These muffins are a bit sweeter and definitely a lot lighter than buttermilk cornbread.

Preparation Time: 45 Minutes
Makes 12 Muffins  Continue reading →

Papaw’s Southern Cornbread

Apr30

Papaw’s Southern Cornbread Sticks

Papaw’s Cornbread Sticks

One of the things I remember my dad baking during the fall and winter seasons is cornbread. He had an old iron baking dish, that shaped the corn bread into small corn on the cob shapes. He liked his cornbread heavy and stiff, for soaking up sauces and juice from the main meat of the meal. Or his favorite red kidney beans. The mainstay in Beans on Toast in our house.

My Mom and Dad are from east Tennessee, in the mountains of the Smokeys. The north side of the South. My dad learned to cook from his Mom, who learned to cook from her mom and so on. The old family recipes are ages old and they were designed to sustain anyone during the hard work of the field and farm. I don’t know exactly where this recipe started, but my Dad told me, his grandmother used to make this nearly every Sunday for dinner after church.

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Makes 12 Sticks Continue reading →

Recipes: Bread Loaf

Apr11

Aunt Mildred’s Bread Loaf

Aunt Mildred’s Loaf Bread
This recipe was shared with family in friends in loving memory of Aunt Mildred Marie Guinn Stoots, my Aunt. Every time we visited the family in east Tennessee, my Mom would head over to Uncle Leonard and Aunt Mildred’s house on Sunday. After church they would always have a big late lunch. With 8 kids, you can be assured it was BIG. Especially when they grew up and brought friends home.

I loved the smell of their house. Especially when Aunt Mildred was baking bread for the Sunday dinner. I really miss both of them. We lost our precious Mildred in January 2009. And we happily share our memories of her kitchen with the world.

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Total Rising Time: 2 hours
Serves: Makes 3 loaves Continue reading →

Recipes: Italian Bread Loaf

Apr11

Garrett’s Italian Bread

Italian Bread

There’s nothing like fresh baked bread on a cold winter day. The aroma that fills the air, can remind you of days gone by, visiting grand-parents for the holidays and just feeling warm and cozy at home.

One very cold January day, we were faced with 3 feet of snow outside and trying to decide what to do for dinner. Spaghetti ended up being our choice, and I made a comment, sure would be nice to have a loaf of Italian bread to go with it. That conversation occurred around lunch time and it started Gary thinking.

He had the rest of the afternoon to put his hands into making his version of an Italian loaf. He has become a well seasoned baker and he always has a few tweaks to any recipe you can find for baking. Bread baking is his usual obsession and what he’s learned over the decades certainly improves his adventures into baking something new. This recipe is just such an attempt.

Preparation Time: 3 ½ – 4 hours
Makes 2 bread loaves Continue reading →

Recipes: Hamburger Buns

Apr11

Homemade Hamburger Buns

Garrett’s Hamburger Buns
Gary is the baker in our house. One summer we had friends and family over for a cook-out and our homemade hamburgers were to large for store bought buns.

Right then and there, Gary decided he was going to make his own buns for the next cook-out. And they’re absolutely wonderful even by themselves!

We’ve become so enamored with his version that we have them anytime we’re having grilled sandwiches. They go great with grilled chicken, bbq, ham, and oh yes, hamburgers.

Preparation Time: 3 hours
Makes approx 32 buns
Use them for your next cook-out or once they’ve cooled from the oven, place them in a ziplock air-tight bag and freeze them until they’re needed. Continue reading →

Recipes: Saltine Crackers

Apr11

Saltine Crackers

Garrett’s Saltine Crackers
When you’re struggling and money is tight, picking up a box of crackers can sometimes seem like a luxury you can’t afford. We’ve been in that situation. It’s cheaper to pick up a pound of flour and make what you need then it is to spend $2 for this and $4 for that. Those little extra dollars eventually add up. But Gary likes having peanut butter and crackers for lunch.

When things were really bad during the recession, he worked on perfecting a saltine cracker recipe. We think he’s created a pretty good cracker.

The other good thing about making homemade crackers, you get to control how much salt is on those saltines. Or you can make your own version of a seasoned cracker. I love replacing the coarse salt with a Ranch Dressing powder for instance.

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Makes: 6 dozen crackers  Continue reading →

Recipes: Spring’s Deviled Eggs

Mar26

Deviled Eggs

Spring’s Deviled Eggs

As an appetizer or a side dish, deviled eggs have always been a dinner table favorite around our house. My Mom always put vinegar in her deviled eggs, something I never cared for. So I started playing with her recipe to remove that ingredient, yet still keep the general flavor in tact. Some of that can be accomplished with simply using a different brand of mustard, or mayonnaise.

But cooking the perfect boiled egg that can be easily shelled isn’t always easy. There are a few tricks my Mom taught me that can help. See below.

Preparation Time:  45 minutes
Makes 24 deviled eggs.

Ingredients:

  • 1 dozen eggs
  • 2 tblspn Miracle Whip
  • ½ tblspn Mustard
  • 1 tspn salt
  • ¼ tspn pepper
  • Paprika

Continue reading →

Recipes: Traditional Strawberry Daiquiri

Mar26

Traditional Strawberry Daiquiri

Traditional Strawberry Daiquiri

Named for Confederate spy, James Welty, whose code-named was ‘Daiquiri’, this sweetly cold treat has become a favorite of many in the south and beyond.

Our son Aidan, had his first virgin strawberry daiquiri in 2007, at one of our favorite restaurants, Smokey Bones. His thirst for this fruity drink has caused us to find out how to make them at home. Thus we went on a search for traditional recipes. In our search we found a little history about the creation of the traditional southern Daiquiri drink and we’re sharing that story below.

Preparation Time: 10 min
Serves: 1

Traditional Ingredients:
1 cup ice
½ tsp powdered sugar
6 cut strawberries
1 oz lime juice
½ oz triple sec
2 oz light rum		 Virgin Ingredients:
1 cup ice
½ tsp powdered sugar
6 cut strawberries
1 tblspn lime juice
4 oz water or strawberry juice

Continue reading →

Recipe: Southern Hot Toddy

Mar22

Maw Stoots’ Hot Toddy
Maw Stoots had this in her recipe box, but she couldn’t remember where she got it from. She said it might have come from her sister Pearl. Or it could have come from her mom Martha, which would put this recipe around the late 1800s.

Maw said they used to drink it when it snowed to keep from getting a chill and catching a cold. But she thought they drank it just to stay warm on those cold winter days.

Which ever works for you, it’s just what you need to run away a cold, or knock out a chill.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • A dab of butter – 1/4 teaspoon will do
  • Add a jigger of rum – 1 1/2 ounces
  • 3 oz of spring water
  • 1 slice of fresh lemon
  • Optional: Sprinkle of ground cloves

Continue reading →