Aunt Lila Mae's Peach Cobbler - the World's Best

My Aunt Lila Mae was my mother's aunt, but they were the same age and next door neighbors. My Great Grandaddy Spooner married a much younger woman when he became a widower and all of his children were grown and gone. Aunt Lila Mae was the baby daughter and only child of this marriage. They lived right next door to my mother and the two grew up as best friends. According to my mother, Lila Mae was spoiled rotten. She had a car in the 1930's and would take all of her nieces "joy riding". When she graduated from high school, she moved to Atlanta and became an airline stewardess in the late 30's. I always thought that she was glamorous beyond belief. After the war, she came home and married a local boy and moved into her parents' home. Not only was she sophisticated and beautiful, but she was a wonderful cook and loved to entertain. This is her peach cobbler recipe that she promised would never fail and would make any man propose marriage.
I have been making this version for around 50 years and it always comes out perfect. It is so very easy and my family and friends claim that it is the World's Best.

I loaded up on peaches from the Peach Stand in Fort Mill to make all of our favorite peach desserts. The peaches in South Carolina may not be plentiful this summer, due to a late freeze, but they are delicious.

Aunt Lila Mae's Peach Cobbler - AKA the World's Best

2 cups fresh and juicy peaches - peeled and sliced
1 cup self rising flour
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup sugar

Topping
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup boiling water

Place peeled and sliced peaches in a buttered 2 quart casserole dish.
Stir the flour, milk, butter, and sugar with a spoon until well mixed.

This mixture will be very thick. Spread the batter on top of the peaches. Try to keep all of the peaches underneath the batter.

Sprinkle the 3/4 cup sugar on top of the batter. The sugar may be increased to 1 cup if the peaches are on the tart side.

Pour the boiling water over all. It will be very wet and appear not appetizing at all, but this step creates the crispy sugar glaze on top along with yummy peach juices

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour or until the top is brown and the sugar has formed a glaze,

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It is imperative to serve this cobbler with vanilla ice cream. Home churned is preferred, but a quality vanilla bean variety will do just fine. Enjoy and please leave a comment with your results.

Aunt Lucille's Peach Pie and the Peach Stand

My husband's Aunt Lucille lived just outside of Vienna, Georgia on a farm loaded with lots of peach trees. She made a fabulous open faced peach pie that was a favorite of my husband and all of his cousins that met there every summer for a family reunion. This pie was one of the very first desserts that I learned to cook as a new bride. It is very simple to make with perfect results every time. I use the Pillsbury roll out pie crusts and everyone always raves about my homemade crust. I'll never tell!

As many of you know, I have just sold my family home of many years and have relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. I am always on the lookout for fresh produce and a good meat market. I have only been in Charlotte for one week and have had great success at the Peach Stand in Fort Mill, SC. It is only about 15 minutes from Lake Wylie where I live and has the most fantastic meats and fresh produce. I have been on a search for peaches for Aunt Lucille's pie as well as my World's Best Peach Cobbler and was directed to the Peach Stand by several Carolinians. My daughter and her joined my there today for a terrific lunch. She had the Ultimate BLT with Fried Green Tomatoes and pimento cheese. I had the Pita Chicken Salad wrap. It was some of the best chicken salad that I have ever eaten, including my own. After our delicious lunch, we journeyed to the meat market for a quick preview. The steaks looked amazing.

Our main mission of the day was to select the perfect basket of peaches along with some South Carolina tomatoes, grown in the richest red clay imaginable. We succeeded and headed home with out prized possessions.
Aunt Lucille's Open Faced Peach Pie never tasted better. Here is the simple recipe that is suitable for the most novice pie baker.

Aunt Lucille's Open Faced Peach Pie

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup butter or margarine- cold and cut in small slices

Blend together the sugar, flour, and butter with a pastry blender or very clean fingers and hands- the hand method is by far the easiest.

Place half of the mixture in an unbaked pie shell.
Peel about 6 or 7 ripe peaches, cut them in half and remove the pit. Place them on the sugar, flour, and butter mixture that has already been placed in the pie shell.

Top the peaches with the remainder of the  prepared mixture.

Bake in a 325 to 350 degree oven until top is golden brown - this should be 30 to 40 minutes.

Always top with vanilla ice cream.

This pie can be wrapped in saran wrap and then in foil and frozen before it is baked. It will turn out perfectly, just like fresh, if baked within six months. 

Fried Okra - My Mama's South Georgia Method

If my mother was given a good cast iron skillet, she could fry anything. She used her dutch oven for frying okra, green tomatoes, quail, dove, and chicken. She used a shorter but larger frying pan for frying catfish, bream, and shellcracker. Her secret was not hurrying and never overcrowding the pan. She also was perfection at seasonings. I have found her recipe for fried okra. She always fried in peanut oil. It did not smell up the house or smoke heavily. It is very expensive now, but I still splurge and use it for my fried favorites. 

Try to find very young and tender okra. You will not want hard edges that can be quite chokey. 

South Georgia Fried Okra

2 cups Peanut Oil

1 large egg - lightly beaten

a little water- maybe a tablespoon

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup flour

1 cup fine cracker crumbs - this is one sleeve of saltines - or cracker meal can be used

1 1/2 teaspoons salt should flavor the breading 

1 pound okra with the stem removed that has been sliced into rounds. . 

Line a broiling pan or platter with a brown grocery bag. 

Heat the oil in a cast iron Dutch oven or other deep, heavy skillet. Whisk the egg, water, and buttermilk together in a small bowl. In a paper bag, combine the flour, cracker crumbs or meal, salt and pepper to taste. 

Dip the okra into the buttermilk milk using a lunchroom size slotted spoon. Place the okra in the bag and shake, shake, shake until well coated. Using another slotted spoon that is completely dry, remove the okra from the bag, and shake to remove the the excess oil. 

Fry the okra in hot oil until deep brown, several minutes. Drain on the prepared grocery bag and sprinkle with extra salt. Serve immediately. 

The serving tray will probably not make it to the table. My people stand around waiting for each batch and eat it as soon as it is cool enough to not burn their mouths. Enjoy!

30 Minute Chicken Broccoli Divan

I really can't believe that I am writing a blog post on this super simple recipe, but my family loves it, and it only takes 30 minutes from prep to table. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble and 20 easy baking minutes. It is perfect for a family of four and might even get the little ones to eat some broccoli, or they can pick around it, if they must. I usually just served a simple lettuce and tomato salad with purchased dressings to accompany this quick weeknight meal. Vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup makes a fast dessert. I just feel that it is very important for the family to sit down together every night to a nutritional dinner. This is just about as easy as picking up fast food and doesn't take much longer to prepare. 

You will need to purchase a rotisserie chicken for this recipe and pull the meat off of the bones. I often buy the cold ones from the day before at the grocery store. They are cheaper and easier to work with due to the fact that they are not hot. Of course, you can always use leftover chicken that you have prepared. Or even the packaged grilled strips.

Purchase the family size Steamfresh broccoli cuts and prepare them in the microwave following package directions. I love Birds Eye Stemfresh Frozen Vegetables for young families who need to get dinner on the table as fast as possible.

Chicken Broccoli Divan

1 Family size package Steamfresh Broccoli Cuts, cooked or 4 cups cooked broccoli florets

2 cups cubed chicken - rotisserie is perfect for this recipe

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/3 cup milk

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

30 Ritz Crackers crushed

1/4 cup butter, melted

Place the broccoli and chicken in a  shallow casserole dish - and 11 x 7 will do - or even a deep dish pie plate

Stir the soup and and milk in a small bowl. Pour the soup mixture over the broccoli and chicken. Sprinkle with the cheese. Stir the Ritz Crackers and the melted butter over the cheese. 

Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes until the chicken mixture is hot and bubbly - It could take a few extra minutes. Just check to make sure that your topping doesn't get too brown.

Could any dinner for 4 be easier? Enjoy!

Georgia Fig Preserves from Brown Turkey Figs

My parents both grew up in the small South Georgia community of Donalsonville in Seminole County. My daddy was a city boy. His mother died very young leaving my grandfather with four children under the age of 5. My daddy always said that it didn't take his father long to decide that he wanted to become a Baptist minister and headed to Seminary School at Mercer in Macon, Georgia. The children went to Donalsonville to live with their grandmother. She had a grocery store, chickens running around the yard, and a big healthy fig tree. They all loved figs, but my daddy feigned an allergy to fig leaves and never had to pick the fruit. When he was a grown man, his aunts and uncles all said that "Brother" as he was known, would get fig poisoning if he touched the fig leaves.
My mother, on the other hand, grew up on a farm about 5 miles out in the country. She had two sisters and no brothers and had to work in the cotton fields like a "hand". Her mother was a very genteel lady and even though she and the girls often picked cotton, they wore large brim straw hats to preserve their peaches 'n cream complexions. It was at her farmhouse table that I learned to love fig preserves.
When, my parents retired and moved home to Georgia, they had the most beautiful fig tree in their yard. The kids always got a kick out of the fact that there was always a rubber snake in the tree to scare off the birds who loved to nibble on the juicy sweet figs. Mother would fix them bowls of fresh figs bathed in cream and sprinkled with sugar for breakfast. That was just the appetizer. The main attraction were her homemade biscuits slathered with butter and gobs of her sweet fig preserves.
Her recipe was from a University of Georgia pamphlet that I still have in my cookbook collection.

The type of figs that my parents and grandparents grew in their back yards and made those delicious preserves with are named Brown Turkey. They are a brownish purple on the outside when ripe and a have a pinkish tinted and juicy center. 

Georgia Fig Preserves

3 quarts figs

3 quarts boiling water

4 cups sugar

1 1/2 quarts water

2 lemons - thinly sliced

Yields about 10 half pint jars

Pour 3 quarts boiling water over the figs. Let stand 15 minutes. Drain and discard liquid. Rinse figs in cold water and drain. Prepare syrup by mixing sugar, 1 1/2 quarts water and lemon. Boil rapidly 10 minutes. Skim syrup; remove and discard lemon slices. Drop figs carefully into the boiling hot syrup, a few at a time, Cook rapidly until figs are transparent. Remove figs and place in a shallow pan. Boil syrup until thick, pour over figs and let stand 6 to 8 hours. 

Sterilize half pint jars and lids. Reheat figs and syrup to boiling. Pour hot preserves into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rims of jars with a dampened clean paper towel; adjust two piece metal canning lids, Process in a Boiling Water Canner 10 minutes. 

When pouring hot preserves into hot jars, make sure to wear oven mitts and to use a kitchen funnel, as the hot juice can quickly scald hands. 

This may seem like a lot of trouble, but if you have access to Brown Turkey Figs, the finished delectable preserves will be well worth your time and effort. 

Fried Dill Pickles and the OK Cafe

While visiting Altanta in the early 1990's I was introduced to Fried Dill Pickles at the OK Cafe. The OK Cafe is a family owned diner that serves southern specialties with a twist of soul. The fried dill pickle chips and the restaurant became favorites of ours instantly. No trip to Atlanta was complete without a visit to the OK Cafe on West Paces Ferry. Recently, the cafe was a victim of a fire in the take-away section, and has been closed for repairs. It is scheduled to reopen this summer. Everyone in Atlanta is celebrating. Other favorites on the menu include meat loaf, chicken pot pie, country fried steak, and the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich ever. All vegetables are fresh and prepared daily according to availability.

The pickles at the OK Cafe are served with a ranch dressing, but I prefer a concoction known as Comeback sauce. It is a dipping sauce, somewhere between Remoulade and Thousand Island dressing. 

Fried Dill Pickles

1 jar dill pickle slices

1 cup flour

1/2 cup cornmeall

1 tablespoon seasoned salt

1 cup buttermilk

Peanut oil for frying 

Comeback Sauce for dipping

Pour peanut oil into a skillet about 1/2 to 1 inch deep. Heat to Medium High. Drain the pickles on paper towels, and prepare the coating.

Place corn meal in a small bowl, and add 1/2 of the flour and seasoned salt. Stir until combined. In a separate bowl or plate place remaining flour and pour buttermilk into a third bowl.

Dip pickle slices into buttermilk, then flour, then buttermilk again. Finally dip into the cornmeal - Place pickles on a paper towel lined cookie sheet or tray during this process. By all means, use your hands and dip the slices one at a time. 

Place pickle slices into hot oil and cook until browned. You may need to stir and flip once during the frying. The frying process should be between 5 and 10 minutes. 

Remove from skillet and drain on another paper towel lined tray or cookie sheet. Let cool for a few minutes before eating.

Comeback Sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup chili sauce

1/4 cup ketchup

1 cup mayonnaise - Duke's preferably

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon Gulden's mustard

cracked black pepper to taste

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Combine all ingredients and whisk briskly until well mixed, or process in a blender. Store in refrigerator. 

Margarita Pie and Hurricane Charley

Fresh key limes had been so common place to us for decades. We had an everbearing Key Lime tree in our backyard that always had fruit. We would have blooms and fully developed fruit on the tree year round. Many people lost their homes, cars, and businesses when the eye of Hurricane Charley whipped through our small town in 2004. We were saddened by our great loss- Our Key Lime tree. It was pulled completely out of the ground. We tried to save it by replanting it with tender loving care, but it never produced fruit again and had to finally be removed. I always had key lime juice for our favorite desserts and marinades. I would freeze bags of juice in one cup quantities for cooking and sharing. The traditional Key Lime Pie with meringue was common around our house on a monthly basis, but for special occasions, I would make this frozen Margarita pie with a pretzel crust. It does taste just like its namesake. Be prepared with a designated driver after partaking -

As with the original Key Lime pie recipe, it calls for that magical can of deliciousness - Sweetened Condensed Milk - Eagle Brand being the choice of the South.  Many quick desserts begin with a can of the ever faithful Eagle Brand.

This particular recipe is from the 1980 cookbook - Sunny Side Up from the Junior League of Fort Lauderdale. 

Frozen Margarita Pie with Pretzel Crust

Crust:

1 1/2 cups crushed pretzel sticks

1/4 cups sugar

1/4 pound butter, melted

Combine crushed pretzels and sugar. Add melted butter. Press into a 9 inch buttered pie plate and chill.

Filling:

1 (14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk)

1/3 cup fresh lime juice - Key Limes are preferred, but any variety will work

2 tablespoons tequila

2 tablespoons Triple Sec

1 cup heavy cream whipped with 1/4 cup sugar

Combine sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, tequila, and Triple Sec. Fold whipped cream into mixture. Pour into chilled crust and freeze for three to four hours until firm. The pie can be made ahead and stored in the freezer for three to four days before serving. Before serving, garnish with a slice of lime.