Picture Perfect Cooking

Most cooks from the south have their favorite recipe for cornbread.  This is mine!  It always turns out light and fluffy with a wonderful buttery flavor.  I found this recipe back in 1999 when it was aired on the “Martha Stewart Living” tv show.  You bake it in a pre-heated cast iron skillet which gives it a great crunchy crust with a soft interior.  Try it and I know it will be one of your favorites, too.

1 cup yellow cornmeal (not self-rising)

2/3 cup all purpose flour

3 tbsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup butter, melted & cooled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Put a cast iron skillet in the oven while it is preheating so the pan will be hot as well.  Mix dry ingredients together.  Beat egg with buttermilk and melted butter. NOTE: Save about 1 tbsp of the melted butter to coat the skillet.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir to combine.

Coat the preheated pan with the reserved butter.  Pour the batter into the skillet and bake for about 20 minutes or until there is a lightly brown crust around the edge and the center is springy.

“Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Kerrygold.”

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One of my favorite cooking blogs is www.eatathomecooks.com. She always has recipes that look delicious for one, but also simple and crowd-pleasing.  This is one that I really wanted to try.  The original recipe called for cream of chicken soup, and since I am deathly allergic to chicken and turkey, I asked her if a substitution could be made.  She let me know that cream of celery or cream of mushroom should work just fine and she was right.  I used cream of celery in mine, but you might want to try the cream of mushroom as well.  The only other change I made was to add a little black pepper to the breading mixture.

6 pork chops (I used bone-in.)

1/2 cup flour

2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground mustard

1/2 tsp garlic powder

freshly ground black pepper to taste

3 tbsp vegetable oil

1 can cream of celery soup

1/3 cup water

Mix the flour, salt, ground mustard, garlic powder, and pepper together.  Dredge the chops in the flour mixture and fry in a skillet.  Don’t cook them all the way, just brown them.

Put the chops in a slow cooker.  Mix the soup and water together.  Pour this into the hot skillet, stirring to pick up all of the little crispy bits on the bottom of the pan.  Pour the gravy over the chops and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  By the time I took these out to serve, they were so tender that the meat was falling off the bone.

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Here is a twist on the Italian classic, Stromboli.  I love Italian food and could eat it everyday!  Traditional Stromboli is meat with sauce and cheese baked in a crust.  One night I had an urge for both Stromboli and Manwich.  I know, I know…Manwich?  Some cooks would probably rate Manwich right up there with Spam, but not me!!  Manwich is good stuff, and, no, they are not paying me!!  Give it a try!

1 lb. ground beef

1 can Manwich sauce

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese of your choice

1 package refrigerated thin pizza dough (I used Pillsbury.)

Preheat oven to 375 and line a baking sheet with foil.  Spray foil with non-stick spray.

Cook ground beef until it is no longer pink.  Pour the Manwich sauce over the beef and stir to combine. 

Lay out the pizza dough on the greased foil.  Layer the ground beef and cheese on the crust.  Next, fold the sides of the crust over the meat/cheese layers and seal.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.  Slice and enjoy!!  I like to serve this with a tossed salad or sliced fruit.

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Biscuits are almost a universally popular food, even though there are many different recipes for them.  I know people that like them extra thick and bready, and I know people who like them thin and crispy.  I have even seen people pull out the bready inside to just have the crust!

This recipe is pretty versatile because you can roll the dough out thick to have sky high biscuits or roll it out thin to have crispy biscuits.  It is all up to you!  The fact that is has only 2 ingredients makes it a winner as well.

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 1/2 – 2 cups self-rising flour

Preheat oven to 375.  I bake my biscuits on a pizza stone because I think it gives the bottom of the biscuits a nice texture.  Mix cream and 1 1/2 cups flour.  Roll out dough on a floured piece of wax paper. It will be sticky.  Knead in the last 1/2 cup flour and roll out the dough to your preferred thickness.

Cut out biscuits and place on a stone or baking sheet.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until tops are starting to brown lightly.  Enjoy!!

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