Cornbread

I have a confession.

I’ve been living a lie since 1989.

And, I feel the need to finally confess my sins and wash away the guilt.

So, here goes.

I cheated in The 1989 Sumner County 4-H Cornbread Muffin Competition. I was the grand prize winner, but, I did not make the cornbread muffins.

When I was in grade school, everyone had to participate in the classroom level 4-H cooking competitions. There were categories for no bake cookies and cornbread muffins. If you won, you automatically got to participate in the county level competition held at a local community college. Basically, this means you had to waste your Saturday sitting around waiting for your baked (or non baked, as the case may be) goods to be judged.

That Saturday morning, my mom helped me make the cornbread muffins and by make, I mean, she threw everything into a bowl (she never measures anything) and I stirred. That was my single contribution, I stirred.

At the end of the baking process, she put pats of butter on top of the muffins and off we went to the community college.

We sat there for about 3 hours, luckily (actually, not so luckily) they scheduled a talent show to coincide with the competition so that we competitors would have something to watch while they tasted all the goods.

After 3 hours of watching kids sing or dance in horrible neon bows and matching puff paint shirts (it was 1989 afterall), my mom and I decided we were out. My mom wanted to play golf, instead of wasting the rest of her Saturday.

Later that afternoon, we got a phone call from a classmate of mine’s mother who was also at the competition. Apparently, MY cornbread muffins had won Grand Prize and she was going to bring MY ribbon over.

I couldn’t believe it. I had never won anything in my entire life and technically, I hadn’t won this either.

But, it doesn’t take winning a 4-H competition to know that my mom does make the best cornbread. Hands down, bar none, it’s what she does best and no one else’s cornbread that I’ve ever had comes close.

So, yesterday, I had her make it while I watched and tried to learn. She does it all by feel (how can you bake without measuring??!!!????!!!???), but I tried to roughly estimate the amounts of each ingredient.

So, here we go… My mother’s Sumner County 4-H Grand Prize Winning Cornbread recipe. It’s not sweet, but it’s baking at it’s best.

Cornbread

1 ½ tbsp Butter
1 ½ cup Self Rising Corn Meal
2 tbsps Self Rising Flour, sifted
1 Egg
¼ cup buttermilk
1 tbsp regular milk
1 tbsp oil

Preheat oven to 375.

Place the butter in a round 9 inch pan and put into oven to melt and heat pan (dont let the butter burn while you prepare the cornbread though!).

Mix the cornmeal and the flour together. Make a well in the center of the flour and cornmeal mixture and add the egg, buttermilk, regular milk and oil. Incorporate all together. If mixture is too dry, add more milk to thin it out. It should be a pourable batter similar to a thick pancake batter consistency.

Pour into heated pan with the melted butter and cook till golden brown.

Where's the pintos?

Another Birthday... another chocolate chip recipe.

This is my friend Jeff:

Trust me, I have WAAYYYY more fun and interesting (read that as drunk and hilarious) pics of this guy, but he has my ticket to the South Carolina vs. LSU game and I can't piss him off till after that...

Jeff is one of my best friends and his birthday was Sunday. We met in college and ours is one of the rare friendships that actually grows stronger AFTER college than during. He's hilarious... he's one of those people that you love hanging out with because you know that you are going to be laughing a lot. And he's loyal. Very loyal... everyone should have a Jeff as one of their best friends.

So, since he is such a good friend and since he lives in baltimore, the baked goods I can send him are limited to ones that ship well... I asked him what his favorite type of cookie is. His answer was:

"Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies"

He studies measles for chrissakes, I should have known it was going to be something basic. Well, anyway, I decided to try a different chocolate chip recipe just for fun and I found this recipe.

This was the best chocolate chip cookie dough I've ever had. I could have eaten the whole freaking bowl. Luckily, for Jeff's sake, I didn't.

The cookies are just good. Not spectacular, but good. I think I still prefer the epicurious recipe, which has a crispier outside and smoother center. But this a good for those who like all-round soft and chewy.

And look how cute they look packaged up in Martha Stewart cookie boxes! They won't look this cute when he gets them after the USPS gets their hands on them.

I need to go back to 1st grade, seriously, I have the penmenship of a six year old.

Pecan Shortbread Cookies

Ahhh... the Lorna Doone. One of my new loves

They are delicious, buttery, crunchy "shortbread cookies." I usually only eat the ones in the 100 calorie packs... otherwise I could easily inhale a box of the full calorie, full size ones.

I never knew I liked shortbread. And actually, I don't think I would like regular scottish shortbread. I think I just like shortbread cookies. Which are basically just buttery, sweet, hard cookies.

I've been trying to find a recipe for shortbread cookies. I finally found this one , it's from Martha Stewart's website and it's an Ina Garten recipe. The texture is perfect, but the cookies aren't sweet enough or buttery enough for me. Hmph.

They were super easy to make though. And they are good cookies, but they aren't like the lorna doone or the pecan sandy that I was hoping for.

So, the search continues...

Oh, but I did get to use my new cookie cutter! Cute, huh?

Orange-ies

I've had this recipe printed ever since I saw Paula Deen make them on her show. I love Paula Deen's recipes. I've made a ton of her cookies, cakes, etc. Hell, she practically catered my friend April's bridal shower... I used like 3-4 of her recipes for that party (all delicious). And this one doesn't disappoint either.

The thing is though... I didn't really get a big orange flavor from it, it was more of a citrusy-lemon flavor. Really refreshing though and definitely the texture of chewy brownies. It features a cream cheese icing which is of course delicious. It was a nice summery dessert for my family's cookout this afternoon. Try it when you are craving a refreshing but rich citrus dessert.

I made a half recipe in a circle pan and then I used a biscuit cutter to cut out little rounds and then sliced them in half to serve.

I also thawed a bunch of my previously made cookies and brownies for dessert, too.

Reese Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Sometimes, 1500 calories consumed in 10 minutes is worth it.

This cheesecake is extremely decadent. And extremely tasty. This is the only time that I've ventured away from my typical cheesecake recipe. And I'd say I was pretty successful. I first saw the recipe here and it looked delicious! So, I decided to make this for Chad's Birthday cake. He told me that his grandma always made him a cheesecake for his birthday, so I decided this was a perfect opportunity to to bake a different cheesecake!

So, first off, this cheesecake has 4 blocks of cream cheese. And did you know that a block of cream cheese has 800 calories? Yeah, neither did I. Shocking and very disappointing.

I made a few changes, so mine doesn't have QUITE that many calories. For one, I omitted the topping and I also only used about half of the batter (the other half is frozen in the freezer). I also used half and half instead of whipping cream. And I omitted the peanuts in the crust and only used a half stick of butter. I'm not crazy about the oreo crust, I'd prefer just a graham cracker crust (and that would save a few calories, too). So next time, regular graham cracker crust for me. I felt like the oreos got a little burned... they tasted coffee-like.

So, here is the recipe. Save it for a special occasion, but its definitely worth trying. (and incidentally, I only ate a sliver of this cake and it took all the willpower I had to keep from eating more than that).

Peach Buckle

Cobbler is a southern staple. My grandma used to make it a lot and my mom. Peach, Cherry, and Blackberry Cobbler were the most popular in my family. Honestly, I was never a huge fan. I ate it, but it was never a particular favorite of mine. Their cobblers consisted of the biscuit top and my grandma always included dumplings inside hers (which I always picked around). So, since I never really loved cobblers, I never considered making one.

And then, I saw a "cobbler" on Pioneer Woman site and I examined the pictures very closely... it didnt look like the cobblers I had seen. No, it looked like it had crispy, buttery edges (which, incidentally, I'm a HUGE fan of). I decided that this is a cobbler I could fall in love with. Hers was a blackberry cobbler, but not liking the seeds (and I couldnt find fresh ones at the store) I opted to try a peach one and boy, is this recipe simple and delicious. But, folks... it's not technically a cobbler... it's a buckle. You should definitely try this. Hot out of the oven, it's divine. It gets pretty soggy on day two, but the flavor is still excellent.

Incidentally, I only made a half batch of pioneer woman's recipe and I used all splenda, so I calculated the whole buckle as having about 700 calories. Not bad when you can get 4 good sized servings out of it (or if you just sit down with an oven mitt in your lap and consume the whole thing straight of the oven, hey, it's only 700 calories...).

Peach Buckle
1/2 stick butter
1/2 cup self rising flour
1/2 milk
1 cup splenda (if using real sugar, only use 1/2 cup)
2 fresh peaches peeled and sliced
extra splenda for the top

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut your butter up and pit in the pan you are going to be using to bake the buckle. Melt the butter in the oven while it's preheating (dont burn it!)

Meanwhile, mix your sugar, flour, and milk together with a whisk. Pour mixture into the melted butter and place your peaches on top.

Bake till golden brown. Now, I put extra splenda on the top right before I took it out of the oven and thats why mine has that white-ish tint to it. If you used real sugar it would melt better and look prettier.

DELICIOUS.

Whoopie Pies

I have never really thought much about whoopie pies. I've never had homemade ones. Never seen homemade ones and never even knew that they were called whoopie pies... I thought they were just chocolate creme cookies. Like, a little debbie oatmeal creme pie, except with chocolate cookies, instead of oatmeal.

But, reading Cookie Madness I saw a post from her about homemade whoopie pies and they intrigued me. I kind of dismissed them initially. But, I found myself thinking about them more and more and finally I decided, they would be a fun addition to SQB's Birthday Cookies.

When the cookie part first came out of the oven, frankly, I was a little disappointed, the cookies tasted salty to me. Not as sweet as I had hoped for.

But, after they sat overnight with the creme filling inside them. Wow!!!! They became very delicious. These are awesome! They are soft and moist cookies and the creme inside is fluffy and sweet, but not cotton candy sweet- just right sweet. A great recipe that I will definitely make again when I am looking to impress people. (They weren't hard at all to make!) Apparently, I'm not the only one that thinks they are good, I got a text message from SQB after she had tried them that said... "OMFG the whoopie pies are soooo good!"

My work here is done.

Recipe is here (I made the amish version).

(I apologize for my picture taking skills... they suck lately. I take like 15 pics per item and I'm struggling to find one good one out of all of them! Uggh).