It's All About Mom...and Corn Fritters

How important is your family to you?

Sit anywhere close to me for five minutes, and I bet I will have mentioned my family or my cats at least once. I make no apologies for this.

It took me probably close to 20 years to realize that my mother was the best friend I always wanted throughout life. See, girls growing up, they have "friends" who stab them in the back and leave them in the cold for no reason at all. It happened to me more times that I care to admit when I was growing up. (Hell, it still happens, and I am 39 years old.) My mother would always be there to comfort me and have my back when needed...a fact I don't think I ever really appreciated until many years later.

Once I got over the whole sullen teenager "my parents suck" phase, I found out my mom was really one of the coolest women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. We share so many of the same passions and dreams. We are completely simpatico. This doesn't mean that we don't still have our share of fights...we are still mother and daughter, after all, and I can be quite the handful to deal with...but in the end I still know that she loves me deeply...and she knows that I feel the same.

Because of this woman, I developed a love of entertaining and cooking. She is just as frou-frou as any female on the face of the Earth...and I love it. She has a seemingly endless supply of things to make any number of dinner parties something that one will never forget. I am willing to bet that she could pull out party napkins to just about any occasion that pops up.

She has an impressive green thumb and can grow flowers from sticks. I know what the names of countless plants and flowers are by just being around her all my life. I think that impresses my husband a little bit, and honestly I am a bit impressed with myself at retaining all of this information considering I don't have any sort of desire to garden whatsoever. It's not that I don't like playing in dirt - alright...that's exactly what it is. Kneeling in dirt planting flowers, getting all hot and sweaty plus the knowledge that a bug is going to crawl on me is not my cup of tea.

My mother also taught me to serve others. By her example, I have learned how rewarding it can be to give my time in exchange for helping those who need it. From collecting canned goods for God's Storehouse, to helping build a shelter for a homeless man, to volunteering for Operation Christmas Child, to simply cooking a meal for a sick friend, she has spent her life looking for ways to make other people's better.



A lot of girls spend their youth vowing to never become their mothers...yet I can only hope to become the woman my mother is. I pray that I emulate her giving spirit and genuine love and concern for people. I hold out hope that one day my fiery temper I inherited from my father will be tempered with the propensity for being a peacemaker like she does. You won't get her to admit it, but she is a wonderful artist and has always painted beautifully. I wish I could do that.

My mother has also been a teacher for me in the ways of the kitchen. Through her and my father, I am actually not a bad cook. I learned how to can my own foods by years of watching them. I still can't fry chicken without burning it (sorry mom and dad), but I did master a few of her recipes thankfully.  It is never as special as eating your parents' cooking, but it is an acceptable second place if you learn how to make it exactly like they do.

That said, I really have to learn how to properly fry chicken. I can't call myself a southerner if I don't know how to do at least that. Sounds like I need a day in the kitchen with mom and dad where I learn from the masters.

The other day, I made sour cream cornbread from my grandmother's recipe. I had creamed corn leftover from the ingredients, and I promised to show you how to use them up by making my mother's delicious corn fritters.

Thank you for everything, mom. For your friendship, your guidance, your wisdom, your love, your patience, your honesty, your strength...everything...over the years. Thank you for loving me even when I was horrible to you. Thank you for never turning your back on me. To say that I love you just doesn't seem to cover what you mean to me, yet words are all I have to try and explain the depth of my emotions and gratitude towards you. So when I tell you that I love you, I hope you feel everything that those words encompass.

Grandma's Sour Cream Cornbread

When I think of my grandmother's cooking, I think of fried chicken, vegetable soup, homemade biscuits, butter beans, fried fatback, and this lemon meringue pie she used to make that only my brother liked. It's not that the pie itself was bad, but she didn't pre-bake the pie crust before making it, so you had this delicious filling and gorgeous meringue, but a raw and gummy pie crust. For someone (like me) with textural issues in food anyway, I just couldn't eat it. My brother was fine with that, and made sure to scarf pretty much the whole pie down himself. Not that it mattered because she always seemed to have chocolate ice cream in the freezer, and that made for a very happy Krista.

Something else my grandmother used to make that was out of this world, was her sour cream cornbread. This stuff is amazing. Somewhere, there is a handwritten recipe from her of this miracle cornbread. I think we framed it and gave it to my brother at some point in time. As for me, before I moved away from home, I took the time to hijack kindly ask for and copy each and every recipe that my mother made over the years that I fell in love with. I was huge into scrap-booking at the time, so I put them all into a book with pictures and anecdotes behind the beloved people who gave me the joy of eating these wonderful foods over the years. As I grow older, and some of these people leave us, this book grows more and more precious to me.

This weekend was game night at our house, and I felt like cooking.  On the menu was a chicken casserole (recipe to come later this week), tomato/basil/feta salad (yummy and brought by our friends!), strawberry poundcake with Tequila Rose glaze, and grandma's cornbread. There was also a fantastic ham ball with crackers, spinach dip, and my homemade peach salsa as appetizers. A lot of food, no? That's what gamers do: they snack while playing.  *wink*

So this five ingredient cornbread is actually pretty easy to make, and I am not kidding you when I tell you it's a show stopper. It uses creamed corn and sour cream, which gives it a moist, dense, cake-like texture - and honestly - taste. I could eat this for dessert, breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner...that is how yummy it is!

Grab a bowl, and empty the contents of a package of Jiffy corn muffin mix. Then add two eggs, one stick of melted butter, 8 ounces of sour cream, and 8.5 ounces of creamed corn. Basically it runs about 1 cup each of sour cream and corn, with the cup of corn being a heaping one. The debacle is that you will have leftover creamed corn...and unless you really like eating it the way that it is...what do you do with it? Hang onto it. Freeze it or something, just don't throw it away. I have a recipe for my mom's corn fritters that are out of this world, and they will use up those leftovers!

When you unwrap the stick of butter, don't throw the wrapper away just yet. Use it to grease your 8x8 dish so that the cornbread won't stick! It works perfectly, and doesn't get your hands messy.  (thank you Paula Deen for that gem of an idea!)

Mix everything together until well combined, and pour into your prepared baking dish. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 25-35 minutes, or until lightly golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center.

Cut into squares, put on a serving platter, and stand back!  Well, after you get your share, of course. ;-)

Single Serve Frittata

Not so long ago, a friend of mine confided in me that he had trouble making an omelet. They should be easy, right? Not always. There have been plenty of occasions where I have gone for a nice omelet and ended up with scrambled eggs by way of completely and accidentally butchering my eggs.

The only foolproof method I have found for that is to make a frittata. Which, in reality, is just basically a fancy omelet when you come down to it. The bonus is that it is simple to make and requires no special chef skills of flipping it over.

This morning while surfing on Facebook, a friend of mine mentioned that he was in the mood for a big breakfast. Something about that really struck a chord with me, but it's been a week of little to no sleep and daily migraines for me, so a big, involved breakfast was not really something I was wanting to invest in. I have a small frying pan, about 6-8 inches or so, and immediately thought about making a "personal pan" frittata in it.

So I gathered my ingredients, and set out to work:

1. one small new potato
2. two eggs
3. 1/4 cup cheese
4. 2 tablespoons milk
5. 1/3 cup chopped ham
6. salt and pepper

As proof of being a true Southerner, I keep a small container of bacon grease in the fridge; something that I picked up from my parents. When I was a kid back in the 80's, they used to make popcorn on the stove, and the oil they used was - you got it - bacon grease. 

Best. Popcorn. EVER.

I don't even care how incredibly unhealthy that was...I would eat that popcorn again right now if they made it for me. Man that was some gooooooood stuff. My parents were hip to bacon flavored popcorn before it was even a thing. That is the proof that I officially have the coolest parents ever. Yup, yup.

But I digress.

A little smear of bacon grease into the pan, followed by finely chopped potato. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper on them, and saute over medium heat for about 5-7 minutes so the potatoes are cooked through and even a little bacony-crunchy. (Bliss.) 

In a small bowl, crack your two eggs, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper, and then add your milk. It helps the eggs to be a little lighter and fluffier. Now take a fork and whip the heck out of that stuff. Once it is nice and combined, pour that into the pan over top of the potatoes. Don't stir. Remember, we aren't scrambling!

Now quickly add the ham and sprinkle the cheese over top. You can push the ham down with a spatula to make sure it's well incorporated into the eggs. Let this sit for a minute or two, or until the edges just start to cook. Once it gets to that point, take the frying pan and pop it into a 350  oven for 10 minutes. You can tell it's cooked when you shake the pan and the center doesn't jiggle like my second grade teacher's flabby biceps.

Remove pan from oven - be careful, don't do like I do sometimes and forget that handle is HOT! - and grab a plate. Your frittata should just slide right of of the pan. Sometimes you may have to wriggle a small spatula beneath it, but it shouldn't be hard to remove at all. I added a sliced Honeycrisp apple and two pieces of toast to my brunch. I am good until dinner!

Do you like to eat breakfast at any other time of day than morning? I sure do. I can eat it for any meal!

Deep Dish Cheeseburger Pizza

Back in the 80's when my dad had cancer, friends and neighbors would frequently bring food over to the house so my mom didn't have to worry about cooking. Across the street lived a wonderful lady who had a terrible little french bulldog named Choo-Choo. It used to be outside chained to a tree and when I would walk down the street to my friend's house to play barbies, Choo-Choo would growl and snort and try in vain to get loose so he could eat my face off.

True story. That wicked little 5 pound dog was planning to eat my face off. It scared me to death. Anyway, so one day she brings over this really good deep dish pizza that she had made for us. I never had it again after that...and I thought about that pizza for years. The crust literally melted in your mouth when you took a bite.

Fast forward almost three decades, and one day when I was surfing the Bisquick website, I found a recipe for deep dish pizza...and I rejoiced!  I had found my long lost recipe! I did have to make a little adjustment here and there, because if I made a 9x13 pan of this with just the two of us in the house, my husband might not sleep knowing there were leftovers just downstairs.

Speaking of hubby, when we were dating there was this amazing out of the way pizza parlor that we used to drive to and have one of the best pizzas I have ever had in my entire life. They used a yeast dough to make the crust, and I can't even...it just...ugh, it's just that good. There are so many yummy kinds of pizzas that they make, but we never could stop ordering the cheeseburger pizza because it is sooooo good.  So in homage to that pizza, I altered the recipe to my beloved deep dish and came up with a winner...at least in this household anyway.  ;-)

First things first: preheat your oven to 425°. Then we're going to start with a pound of ground beef, 1/2 of a large onion (leftover from last night's meatloaf recipe), and 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder. Toss all of that into a pan and cook until the beef is browned. Drain it and set it aside.

Now put 1.5 cups Bisquick and 6 tablespoons of water into a bowl, and stir with a fork until combined and it pulls away from the bowl. Lightly spray an 8x8 pan with cooking spray and put the dough in it. Now spray your hands with the cooking spray and gently press the dough over the bottom of the pan and up the sides.

The next part sounds kind of weird, especially in the form of a pizza, but trust me...it makes this whole recipe.  Combine 1/2 cup of ketchup and 1/3 cup of mustard, and stir that together really well. Try to ignore the fact that it looks like baby poop. Now pour that into the pizza shell and spread it to cover the bottom evenly.

Yeah I know...I spilled a little bit of the sauce on the side. I will admit that it bugs me aesthetically now that I see the picture, but not enough to Photoshop it out. I noticed it when making it, but didn't even care enough to wipe it off then. It's really not that big of a deal. Plus it's going to get covered up in a few minutes anyway.

Okay now take your drained ground beef and onions and spread it out on top of the sauce.  Here is where you would add the rest of the toppings that you would have on a cheeseburger: bacon, tomatoes, more onions...you get the idea. I would definitely not use lettuce, though. Just saying. The only thing I ever add to mine is chopped dill pickles, and a lot of them!

Yummmm...look at that. I'm already drooling.

Okay now cover that bad boy in as much mozzarella as you want. In true cheeseburger form, I always make sure to throw a slice or two of American cheese on top as well.  Feel free to mix that mozzerella with some shredded cheddar cheese as well.  Let it bake for 25 minutes, and you will wind up with something that looks like this:

And I wonder why there is none leftover. Pfft.

Mom's Meatloaf

Okay, first of all: don't be jealous of my really expensive china pictured there. It's an heirloom, and has been in our family for at least two generations. Thank you, Hefty.

Tuesday night we went to dinner with friends before heading out to a screening of "Ender's Game."  The restaurant we picked was Del Marva's Southern Cafe. They have such a yummy variety of food on their menu that I always have trouble deciding on what to get.

Admittedly, I was eyeballing the meatloaf pretty hard, but the Monte Cristo sandwich won out. I mean, come on...a ham, turkey, swiss and cheddar cheese sandwich, batter dipped, deep fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with raspberry jam? Yes, please...even though I can only eat half of it. That's okay, I had hungry men who were more than willing to pinch hit for me on that front.

The waitress told me she'd never tried the meatloaf there because she "makes the best."  I know, likely story...right? However upon reflection, she has a valid point: as far as meatloaf goes, everyone says they have the *best* recipe.

Of course, that put me in the mood for making meatloaf after that conversation. Recipes for this dish vary as much as the "ultimate" burger recipe, and I don't know that I can say that I have the best recipe ever, but I can tell you it's fantastic.  Realistically, it's actually pretty healthy if you use ground beef only and not sausage as well - which is something I frequently do, and it's still great.

What's even better about this recipe is how EASY it is as well. I'm not kidding. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuper simple.
So I grabbed a package of 90/10 ground beef that measured in at just under a pound. The little roll of sausage is a cute little baby version of a mere 12 ounces, so the total meat ratio is about 1.75 pounds. Don't worry about being too accurate. I use the same ingredients with a little over a pound of ground beef alone.

The next thing is to chop up 1/2 a large onion and 1/2 a large green pepper. I really am not picky on my knife skills. My kitchen in no way is ever going to be on Food Network, and I am fine with that. So to help out with my chopping, I have a Pampered Chef food chopper. It can be a little pricey, but I got it as part of a wedding gift.

There are other brands that work just as well, (like the more well-known Slap Chop) and it is definitely one of the kitchen gadgets I highly recommend. I am all about something that is going to get me done with fixing dinner faster and back to my Xbox. Batman Arkham Origins came out recently, and my caped crusader beckons to me insistently...and I answer the call embarrassingly more than I kind of want to admit.

So add the ground beef, the sausage, the chopped onion and green pepper, one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and 1/2 cup of instant oatmeal. I usually just grab a handful of oatmeal and just eyeball it, but I figured not everyone has my sized hands (small), so I actually measured this out for you guys. Season with salt and pepper, then wash your paws and get in there and squish it all together until just combined. Don't over-mix it because that will make the meat tough.

I stopped there and looked at my mixture. It looked pretty good, but I happen to really like a lot of green peppers in my meatloaf, so I chopped up the rest of the pepper and gently worked them in. They give it such a great flavor!

After it is combined, grab a little bit larger than a baseball sized but smaller than a softball sized hunk and form it into a little loaf. Keep doing this until you have used up all of the meatloaf mixture. I got six single serving sized loaves from this recipe.

Line a 9x13 dish lined with foil and spray it lightly with nonstick spray, and arrange the loaves to fit. Squirt a little ketchup on top. The foil isn't necessary unless you want cleanup of your dish to be super simple...and I do...because Batman is waiting.

Oh and sorry for my less than perfect ketchup squiggly lines on top. I was at the end of a bottle and it got all farty on me, which made me have to shake it...and then when you squeeze it a huge blob comes out. *sigh* Never neat. Never neat.

And frankly, I'm just not anal enough to wipe it off and make it look all purty for a blog entry. I gots things to do, yo. Like play Batman.

Preheat your oven to 350° and pop them in there for about 35-40 minutes. Depending on how much fat is in your meat, they might be sitting in a little bath of grease. When I take them out of the oven , I sit them on paper towels for a few minutes to drain. Or you can get a turkey baster and drain some of the fat off as it cooks, but ain't nobody got time for that.

And mom, just in case you're wondering why I only served this with mac & cheese...it's because the veggies are in the meatloaf. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Five Ingredient Tuna Noodle Salad

My mother made this tuna noodle salad occasionally for me growing up, and I will admit...my abhorrence to green peas made me really not want to like this. (please don't judge me, I just never really developed a taste for green peas as well as a plethora of other vegetables, but that is a totally different post) That said, I really DO like it...and I make it quite often for the hubby and myself to this very day.

The best parts are that not only is it completely delicious, but it is also very inexpensive and really easy to make. Seriously. If you can boil water and chop an onion, then you can make this. It also makes a lot, so you are set for lunch (or dinner) for a few days. Unless you have a huge appetite that is...then you might want to double it.  ;-)

So here are the things you will need:

• 1/2 box of pasta
  (mom used elbows, but I really like the mini penne)
• one can tuna
• one small can of green peas, drained
• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 1/3 cup Duke's mayonnaise

You can use any mayo you like, but I am from the South, so Duke's is the only kind that ever makes it into my house. Because it's the best. I'm a self-admitted mayo snob. That said, you have no idea how hard it was for me to compromise on getting the Duke's Light version of it. I felt like a traitor to my heritage. I am still worried that my mom will have strong words for me if she ever sees this post.

So go ahead and get a pot of salted water on the stove to boil the pasta. I'll wait.

Once you have that to a boil, add your pasta and give it a stir. Cook according to package directions.

While the pasta is cooking, chop up a half a small onion. You can choose how finely you want to chop this, but keep in mind you will be eating raw onion, so I suggest chopping it up pretty well or it's a bit overwhelming. Open the green peas and the can of tuna, draining them both really well. This recipe doesn't need any added moisture.

Once the pasta is done, drain it and rinse well with cold water. Drain it again, and then add it to a large bowl. Add the green peas, chopped onions and mayonnaise. I also sprinkle about 1/8 teaspoon of black pepper over this as well because it brings the flavors together much better. 

Don't be afraid to play around with this recipe. Use different pastas. Try red pepper if you want a kick. Throw in some chopped water chestnuts. Use wasabi mayonnaise. 

Uhhh...wait. Holy yummy! Now I am kicking myself for not making a version of this with the wasabi mayonnaise I have in the fridge right now. I can see this will have a take two later in the week!  

Make sure you store this in the fridge immediately, and as with any mayo based dishes, discard any that you have not eaten after two days.

My total cost of making this: $2.54
1/2 box pasta = $0.50

1 can tuna = $1.00

1/2 small onion = $0.45

1 small can peas = $0.59

Mayo = on hand

Pepper = on hand

Enjoy!

Homemade Sloppy Joes

I think it is safe to say that I have eaten my fair share of sloppy joes in my 39 years.  They kind of seem like a fun, retro kind of food to me that I often forget about...which is a shame actually, considering they are really good, and pretty easy to make!

Until a few years ago, I made mine the only way I knew how:  by adding a can of stuff to ground beef. After I began to modify my husband's and my diet to include less sodium, I started looking into how to make my own mixes, sloppy joes included. I found a couple of recipes that were pretty close to what I consider to be the *perfect* joe, but not quite what I was hoping for.  So I decided to piece a few different ones together and modify it a bit until I found what is, in my opinion, the perfect sloppy joe.

First let's look at the kind of meat you want to use.  I have made them with ground turkey and ground chicken...but in all reality I am a joe purist and prefer the taste of ground beef.

My mother smothers hers in mustard, ketchup, and diced onions...something that I have followed suit on.  She used to take the leftover meat mixture and put it all in buns, then put them in the fridge totally made so all you had to do was grab one. I have fond memories of grabbing one, peeling the top layer of bun off, squirting it with mustard and ketchup and eating it cold.

I'll admit it:  I am one of those cold leftover food eaters.  Cold spaghetti, hamburgers, hot dogs, and lasagna are my very favorites!
Er, does that make me strange?
If so, then color my hubby as much of a weirdo as I am, because he does it, too.  :-P

So, we're going to start with a pound of whatever ground meat you choose (although ground pork...I would have to say...probably not a great idea).   Now, chop up one small onion and one small green bell pepper.  Add 1/2 tablespoon of chopped garlic to the mix and throw it all in a pan. Turn that to medium heat and cook until meat is browned and cooked through.

Drain that and then return it to the pan.  Immediately add 3/4 cup water, 3/4 cup of ketchup, one tablespoon Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 tablespoon chili powder, two tablespoons mustard powder, 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder and 1/4 teaspoon pepper.  Let that simmer and cook down, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is about the consistency you want for your sandwiches.

Now here is where I add another tablespoon of mustard...only the prepared kind from the fridge. Stir that in really well, and you are ready to serve some sloppiness!  What is awesome with these is some barbecue beans, which honestly are super simple to make.  Grab a can of pork and beans and drain them.  Throw them in a pot and add a cup of your favorite BBQ sauce to them.  Heat them through and that's it.  Yummmm.

Enjoy!