Tomato-Artichoke Spinach Salad and a 16th Birthday

Recently, I made a quick trip to Florida to visit my oldest son and his family. I had an incredible trip and was fortunate enough to be part of some very special milestones. My oldest grandson turned 16 with all of the hoopla and celebration that goes with a new drivers license and freedom. His little brother, only a mere freshman in high school was moved up to the Varsity football team for the remainder of the season and the next year. I was lucky enough to be there for a game and watch him catch an amazing touchdown pass.

 

 

Their little sister, always the cool girl, is practicing her safe passenger techniques while looking great -

 

 

Things were so very hectic, but my daughter in law always comes up with delicious meals on the run. We had this delicious Tomato Artichoke Spinach Salad one night and it was just the perfect touch to complete our pasta dinner. Since I have returned to North Carolina we have enjoyed it several times. It is fairly easy to put together and healthy also.

 

Tomato Artichoke Spinach Salad

 

3 Large Plum Tomatoes - Quartered

2 Tablespoons Basil Pesto

2 Tablespoons Sherry Vinegar - or Red Wine

1 cup quartered Artichoke Hearts - Drained

1/2 cup Cheese and Garlic Croutons

2 Cups Baby Spinach

 

Whisk pesto and vinegar in a medium salad bowl until well blended. Add tomatoes, artichokes, and croutons, toss until evenly coated. Add spinach to bowl and gently mix. Serve immediately

 

 

 





Scalloped Potatoes from my Grandmama

Scalloped potatoes have always been a favorite side dish with our family. I have never seen a written recipe. My grandmama taught my mother how to make them and my mama passed on the oral instructions to me. I have handed down the "recipe" to my girls. These potatoes are a wonderful addition to almost any dinner table. We love them with steak cooked on the grill. They are a good accompaniment served with meat loaf, pork chops, or baked chicken. I will gladly share my grandmama's instructions.

Scalloped Potatoes
Serves 4 to 6

3 pounds of red potatoes, sliced fairly thin
1/2 to 3/4 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
3 Tablespoons Flour
1 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese - hoop is the best
salt and pepper

Butter a 2 1/2 quart casserole generously. Your casserole dish should be on the shallow side. You will have two layers of potatoes.

Layer half of the sliced potatoes into the dish. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover the potatoes with half of the butter cut into pats.





 

Sprinkle half of the flour over the potatoes and pour half of the milk over all. Cover all with 3/4 cups of the grated cheese.

 

Repeat the layers, but do not add cheese on the top at this time. Cover with foil and bake 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Test potatoes for doneness by sticking with a fork. When potatoes are tender, remove the foil and add the other 3/4 cup cheese on the top. Bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted.

 

I hope that you enjoy this passed-down family recipe and will prepare it often for your family.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Pie - Straight out of the 70's

One of the first pies that I learned to bake as a new bride was the Toll House Chocolate Chip pie. The recipe came from an advertisement in one of the Holiday magazines during the early 1970's. I rediscovered the original clipping recently while unpacking my recipe file. I have moved from Florida to North Carolina and was quite concerned that all of my family recipes make the move safely. I made this pie this weekend and it was just as good as I remember. The topping has a crispy crust and the filling is a very decadent layer of  chocolate chips mixed with eggs, flour, sugar, and lots of butter!!! Your family will love this special treat! Don't forget a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the finishing touch.

Toll House Chocolate Chip Pie

1 unbaked nine inch pie crust
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter - softened to room temperature
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a pie plate with the unbaked pie crust - I use Pillsbury roll out crust and have for years- Don't forget to crimp the edges of your crust

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs on high speed until light and foamy. Add the flour and both sugars to the bowl and mix again until combined. Then add the softened butter and mix one more time until completely mixed.

Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans and mix until the chocolate and nuts are evenly mixed throughout the batter. Spoon the batter into the prepared crust.

Bake for 50 or 60 minutes until a sharp knife inserted halfway between the edge and the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for about 30 minutes.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.

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!