Sweet Potato-Pecan Pie

One of my favorite pies to make is the Sweet Potato-Pecan Pie. I usually make this in place of a pumpkin pie around the holidays. This recipe was the winner of the 1958 Louisiana Yambilee, yes, in Louisiana there is a festival for everything!!!

 

Pastry:

1 ½ cups All Purpose Flour

½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons water

½ cup shortening

Sift flour and salt into bowl. Take out ¼ cup flour and blend with water to form a paste. Cut in shortening into remaining flour until the pieces are the size of small peas. Add flour paste to blended shortening/flour mixture. Mix with a fork until dough comes together and can be shaped into a ball. Roll out crust and line a 9” pie pan.

Custard:

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (if using fresh sweet potatoes add 1/3 cup granulated sugar)

1/3 cup brown sugar

¾ teaspoon cinnamon

¾ teaspoon ginger

Dash salt

¾ cup scalded milk

2 eggs, well beaten

Combine all custard ingredients and fill pastry shell. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with topping.

Topping:

¼ cup softened butter

½ cup brown sugar

¾ cup pecans, finely chopped

Combine three ingredients and sprinkle on top of pie. Return to oven and bake additional 25 minutes. Let cool. Serve.

 

 

 

Steel Magnolias and My Momma’s Fruit Cobbler

I love being from the South. I love the charm of the people. I love the pace of life. I love the culture. I love the traditions and rich history. I love the food! Growing up in south Louisiana one of my favorite desserts was my Momma’s Fruit Cobbler.

Momma’s Fruit Cobbler is not like the kind you see in some food magazines, where you see a bed of fruit with something that looks like a biscuit setting on top. My goodness, biscuits are for breakfast and you put butter and fruit jam inside the thing! Or if you are like my dad, you put some figs on it or some peanut butter and syrup on it.  Or my favorite biscuit topping-sausage gravy. But that is another post about biscuits, this one is about cobbler!

My Momma’s cobbler is more like the kind that Dolly Parton’s character Truvy Jones talked about in the movie Steel Magnolias. Her and the gals are in her beauty parlor and she mentions her recipe for “Cuppa, Cuppa, Cuppa”. The fruit cobbler that I grew up eating was like that. And just like Truvy says in the movie, “I like to serve it with some ice cream, to cut the sweet.”, this recipe  is great alone but who doesn’t want a  nice scoop of ice cream too!

So here is My Momma’s Fruit Cobbler or Cuppa, Cuppa…depending on title preference!

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Self Rising Flour (1 Cup Flour and 1 scant Tablespoon Baking Powder does the same thing)

1 Cup Milk

1 Stick Butter melted

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Quart Fruit (I use frozen peaches, blueberries or blackberries, thawed first of course.  If you have fresh, go fresh)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter and sugar, add milk, vanilla and flour. Spray Pam in  a 9X13 baking dish. Pour batter in sprayed pan. Drop fruit evenly over the batter. Be sure to let lots of the juice go in there too!

Put in oven and bake about 50 minutes or until golden brown and bubbly on top. Serve with a scoop of ice cream or whipped topping. Enjoy!

Pork Roast with Gravy

One of the places our family went on a regular basis was to my paternal grandparents, known to me and my siblings as MaMa and Papa Fabre. They lived in Baton Rouge, about a thirty minute drive from our home. Many of my childhood memories center around times we spent there and often those memories also involved food! My MaMa was an excellent cook and I don’t recall any meal served at that house that did not also include a delicious dessert to follow the meal; whether it was lunch or supper.

One of the meals that my MaMa cooked that I loved was her Pork Roast and Gravy, served over rice, I never remember having her pork gravy served over mashed potatoes! For years I tried copying her delicious gravy but always fell short in the taste department. I even have a cookbook filled with her recipes, thanks to my sister who gave the best Christmas gift to me one year! Alas, MaMa didn’t seem to write out a detailed recipe for her pork gravy.

The following recipe is the closest I have gotten to over the years and it is what my girls grew up eating.

Pork Roast and Gravy

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients:

Pork Shoulder Roast

Large onion-chopped

Olive oil

Minced Garlic

Creole Seasoning

Worcestershire Sauce

Cornstarch

Water

Salt To Taste

Place Pork Roast on counter and insert a knife into roast, making a slit. Press some minced garlic in the slit then add a small amount of creole seasoning. Repeat making slits and adding garlic and seasoning throughout remaining roast. Rub any Creole seasoning around the slits over the surface of the roast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Turn oven to 350 degrees.  In a roaster pot put chopped onions and about a tablespoon of olive oil. Toss together then move onions around to the sides of the pan.  Place on burner with med-high heat and add roast. Brown roast on all sides then place covered in oven for one hour. Test for doneness, if juices run clear, roast is done.

 

 

 

 

When done, remove from oven and place roast on platter. Put pan on stovetop and bring juices to a boil. Mix together a half cup cold tap water and a heaping spoon of cornstarch. Once juices are boiling, add cornstarch mixture and stir till blended. Let gravy come back to a low boil. If you prefer a thicker gravy add more cornstarch mixture until you get to the consistency you like. Add a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and salt and Creole seasoning to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serve with rice or potatoes.

Cajun Cookin’

                                                                                                        

   Let’s travel down the river and see what is cookin’! One of my favorite places to go when I am in Louisiana is down to my sister and brother-in-law’s fishing camp. It’s a little off the beaten path; a place of quiet and solitude, peace and relaxation. To get there you have to park your car/truck at the boat landing and get in the boat and head on down the bayou. It’s a beautiful boat ride and the scenery along the way is incredible.

A couple of years ago while I was down visiting my sister and brother-in-law, Cindy and DK, they  took me to the camp to go fishing. We weren’t fishing for Large-mouth Bass or Sac-au-lait, but for “channel cats”; large catfish that swim near the mouth of the river as it feeds into Lake Ponchartrain. 

The night before we had out the fishing gear and our bait was ready; it would be an early start to get out on the river and begin fishing. Now the large catfish don’t really care for just a worm on a hook, they are looking for something with a little more…hmmm…sustenance. The bait in this case was soft-shell crabs; a wonderful meal for us seafood lovers as well as for the fish we were in pursuit of! My sister and I love the idea that in Lousisana if you don’t catch any fish you can usually eat the bait!

The day began very early as we headed out in the dark to get to the perfect fishing spot! The reward was getting to see a beautiful sunrise as we cast out our line. As the morning passed away and the sun rose higher in the sky the ice chest got heavier and heavier with our catch! The thrill of reeling in a large catfish and spending time with family made for an unforgetable day.

That evening back at the camp we were rewarded with deep-fried softshell crabs, the perfect end to a perfect day.

                                                

Buttermilk Pies

Several years ago a friend of mine gave me a buttermilk pie around Thanksgiving time. It was delicious! Very rich and creamy was the custard, it didn’t seem as though there were any buttermilk in it all! I got the recipe and filed it away in my recipe box and as time went by I forgot all about the buttermilk pie.

After my husband and I moved to California to serve as Pastor and family for a small church in a small town; I decided that it was my mission to show these people some good ol’ southern hospitality. When November rolled around I thought of that buttermilk pie and dug through my file box to find it. It was my goal to make every family in our church a buttermilk pie and deliver it to their home. And that is exactly what I did that first year we lived here, and continued that practice each year since then. It is my way of showing them how thankful I am that they are a part of our church family. The first year I made 68 buttermilk pies, two years later I made 120. The number goes up and down each year, depending on the number of people in the church. It’s a pleasure to make something for someone and see the surprise and joy on their face when you give it to them! The recipe follows and makes two buttermilk pies.

Buttermilk Pies:

Ingredients–

6 eggs 

3 cups sugar

2 cups buttermilk

1 stick butter (melted)

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup flour

pinch of salt

2 deep dish pie crust

Mix sugar, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla and butter till well blended. Mix in flour and salt. Pour into 2 pie crust and bake at 350 degrees for 55 minutes.

Jalapeno Stuffed Peppers

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Stuffed Jalapeno Peppers 15 Jalapeno peppers, halved w/ seeds and membranes removed half pound bulk sausage 1 cup grated cheddar cheese 1 cup bread crumbs 1 egg, beaten 1 Teaspoon Creole Seasoning 15 slices bacon cut in half Mix sausage, … Continue reading →

Tailgating Tastiness!

This weekend is the beginning of one of the most popular seasons during the year! Football Season, not just any football either, SEC football. Even more specific LSU football! Geaux Tigers!

One of my favorite things to do during football season and prepare the goodies for our tailgate parties on game day! Each week I pour over recipes and decide what yummy goodness I can prepare for the games. I enjoy having several small items to snack on, some item that is grilled and at least one sweet item. If the weather is cool/cold then it’s even better because I can add a gumbo to the mix!

This Saturday we started out with some homemade salsa, Mark’s recipe for homemade salsa has been in our family for almost 20 years now and is always a favorite! We also had guacamole to go with the chips.  Mark grilled some brats (got to get that grill on) while Hannah put together some stuffed jalapeno peppers wrapped in bacon. I made lime bars that had a toasted coconut crust. I also had some hamburger in the fridge and made up some homemade meatball.

We had a great time (though at times it was a nail biter) watching the first game of the season and eating our tailgate faire! Now what can I make for next week’s game?