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I’m going to be bringing you a recipe that isn’t a sweet soon, but I wanted to have this delicious recipe to you before Valentine’s day in case you’d like to make it for your sweetie’s breakfast. Assemble everything the night before and then just pop it in the oven in the morning and breakfast is served!

Before I go into the recipe you know I have to chat though! Yesterday evening while I was making supper I got a phone call from my friend, Tim (or Teeeyuhm as is the proper Slabama pronunciation). Tim and I have known each other for several years and lately we’ve been working on our first project together, a Southern lifestyle radio show that we’ll be distributing through several channels (including the internet, so anyone reading this will be able to download it and listen free).
I’ve spoke about it briefly on the Front Porch and got some great input from y’all there! We filmed our first few shows two weeks ago but then never put them out there once we got them produced because – dun Dun DUN!

Some friends of ours who are Dj’s listened to them and liked us (there’s just no accounting for taste these days ya know) and invited us to come record our show live in their studio. Out of this we’ve also managed to get advertisers and a producer, which is pretty dern cool for not having a single show air yet!  So that is where I’ll be this Saturday morning, recording and likely feeding people in a radio studio. This time around you should hear the final product hopefully within a week.
Oh wait, I had a point…

So Tim was acting as a go between to set up a time that we would be there to record. I asked him if we could do it in the morning since that is a special day for me and I wanted to spend the bigger part of it with the kids.

He said “Oh sure, the morning works best for me, too. So you wanna meet say around ten?”

I laughed at him. You know, because I’m just that kind of friend.

“Tim, 10 o clock is not morning. 10 o clock is practically lunchtime”

Tim spoke in his defense that he wakes up at 6:00 AM each morning but he can’t be creative until at least ten. After I explained to him that my grandmother refers to his getting up at 6:00 AM as “just a laying up in the bed until six” I finally managed to talk him down to 9:00. Now my goal is to eventually shame him into 8:00 a.m. ~giggle~

Yeah, I’m definitely a morning person. I have a multitude of reasons for this BUT
It’s not that I’m better than anyone else, therefore I rise in the morning…AND
It’s not that I don’t like sleep (sleep and I have a very committed relationship)…AND
It’s not that I want to one up everyone else with my wakeup time or that I really and truly have to start work at 4:00 AM.

The truth of the matter is I’m a major construction project so I’ve got to get to work early. No, I don’t mean makeup and hair, although that takes a good bit of work as well.  I mean Me, as a person, myself, I’m under some serious construction. In order to be a better person, to live up to whatever meager potential that has been placed within me – I’ve got some serious work to do so I gotta get going on it early.

Being a positive person? That takes work. Making sure I have a filter in place so I don’t say everything I want to say? That takes some serious work (and sometimes i have to sit on my hands so they won’t type!). Having my head in the right place so I don’t even think ugly things to begin with? Better make sure we have a full crew present on site each day by 5:00 am at the latest. 

Loving others? Okay, that comes easy. It’s so very easy to love other people and I’ll admit that part comes naturally for me. But being the kind of person I was meant to be? Disciplining myself on a day to day basis to fill the shoes that were placed before me?  – that takes some work. So I gotta start early.
Coffee anyone?

11111

You’ll need: Eggs, Strawberry Preserves*, Cream Cheese, Vanilla (not the gallon I have pictured here, just a little bit will do), Milk, and a loaf of French Bread.

*If you aren’t crazy about strawberry preserves just get your favorite, but this sho nuff is some good stuff with the strawberry in there!

Make sure your cream cheese is good and soft and place it in a mixing bowl with about 3 Tablespoons of preserves.

Mix that up with your electric mixer until good and blended.

Like this.

Now take your loaf of bread and cut some big old honking slices out of it.

We want our slices to be anywhere from an inch and a half to two inches thick.

Using a knife, cut a little pocket into each one, making sure you don’t cut all the way through to the bottom or all the way through to the sides. We just want a little pocket in the very center that we can stuff our cream cheese mixture into.

Oh, by the way, you can totally use fat fee or low fat cream cheese or that other thing folks use in place of cream cheese called neufetchel or something like that.

You can also use sugar free preserves if you want. It’s a free country

Here are our slices all stuffed and ready to go.

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

This is a deeper than normal baking dish but you can use a regular one if you like, it will be just fine.

Place them all on their sides in the baking dish.

Mix your other ingredients really well.

I just use a fork to do this with..

Slowly pour liquid over bread slices. I pour a little over the top of each one until I run out.

Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.

Sometimes I make this as a special treat as part of our supper and then I just assemble in the morning and let sit in the fridge, covered, all day.

When ready to bake, remove cover and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, or until golden.

At this point my assistant food stylist had set the plate out and arranged some strawberries for me and said “Here, get a picture of me so they know I helped”

Here she is, in her rhinestone tiara. We had just got back from going out shopping together and she wore the tiara the entire time.

I asked her, before leaving, if she thought she should take it off or wear it and she said “Oh Mama, it’s just the same thing as a headband, only sparklier!”.

I’ll be danged if that isn’t a smart kid!

And here is the lovely final photograph she helped arrange!

To prepare your strawberry syrup, simply take some strawberry preserves and place them in a microwave safe cup or small pitcher and follow the instructions in the recipe below. This makes a delicious and super easy syrup!

MAKE THIS SUGAR FREE – simply by using sugar free preserves! 

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

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I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed reading your comments in the post my mother wrote yesterday.

I dearly love any time I get to hear from you but I especially enjoy the comments here on Southern Plate because I get to save them here and I have a much better chance of getting to write back to you.

Are you a construction project, too? Do you think you’re going to make this french toast soon? What is the best part of each morning for you? I’d love for you to answer any of these questions or just drop a “Hidy” in the comments below!

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For more Valentine’s Recipes, be sure and check out:

• My Sweet Valentine’s  (cookies that are the actual Valentine!)
• Valentine’s Cupcake Toppers (video) - This has my kids in it and wow, they’ve grown so much since then!
• Mama’s Milk Dunkin’ M&M Cookies for Valentine’s Day - A childhood favorite, use those Christmas M&M’s!
• Cinnamon Love Knots (using frozen bread dough!)

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~The Wolf Within~

An old Grandfather, whose grandson came to him with anger at a schoolmate who had done him an injustice, said, “Let me tell you a story. I too, at times, have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times.”

He continued, “It is as if there are two wolves inside me; one is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. He will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.”

“But the other wolf, ah! He is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit.”

The boy looked intently into his Grandfather’s eyes and asked, “Which one wins, Grandfather?”

The Grandfather solemnly said, “The one I feed.”

A Native American tale told many times around the Sacred Fire.
Author Unknown

Today is my daughter’s 7th birthday. She woke up so excited, rushing out of her room to see her door decorated with crepe paper streamers and the balloons all in the den floor. We started doing that when Brady (who is now twelve) was just a toddler and it seemed a great tradition to stick to so now each year, when our kids go to bed, we set to taping streams of crepe paper up on their door frames and Ricky sets to blowing up balloons.

I don’t have the air in me to blow up balloons anymore, I guess I use all my wind talking.

Brady and Katy Rose enjoying birthday biscuits, another family tradition.

I’m gonna tell you what, it sure is good for the soul to see the excitement of a child. The wonder they feel, the joy and exuberance at every little thing, but especially on big days like this.

I was on a plane last week and as it took off I got to thinking about the first time my daughter was on a plane and how, when it took off, she threw her hands up in the air and shouted “WEEEEEE!!!!” as it rose into the air. Not a soul on that plane complained, her joy and excitement were so contagious that it was just met with smile and chuckles.

As my plane left the Huntsville airport I didn’t throw my hands up in the air, but I sure did think about it, and my heart cried out “WEEEEEEE!” as I set off, thinking of the day as an adventure just as Katy Rose had taught me to do.

They keep us lighthearted, don’t they? We sure do need that. It’s easy to get bogged down with deadlines and schedules and I know my kids are exactly what I need to keep my focus on the truly important. Like today, when Katy Rose is turning 7.

Happy Birthday Katy Rose and Happy Katy’s Birthday to her brother, Bradybug.

I sure do love you.

Now lets make some cinnamon rolls. These puppies are to die for and they are so very easy. They are a deluxe version of my original cinnamon roll recipe, click here for that one.

Today, we’ll be using my favorite shortcut of frozen bread dough (but the original recipe has my homemade dough recipe if you’d like to make it from scratch). I figure someone made this frozen dough from scratch already though, so that works for me!

You’ll need: A loaf of frozen bread dough (I’m using Rhodes), cinnamon, an orange, butter, brown sugar, pecans, and dried cranberries (also known as craisins).

You can also use raisins in this or even dried cherries if you like. If you have any of those on hand, go with what you have .

Note: I’m going to give you the recipe for making one pan of these but during this tutorial I was making two pans so if you think some of the ingredients look like a lot more than the recipe calls for that is why. Why make one pan when you can make two and have more to share!

Place your pecans on a baking sheet and place them in a 350 oven for 5-6 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don’t burn. You just want them lightly toasted.

Toasting pecans really brings out their flavor. I’ve grown to appreciate this extra step! When I was in Charleston we showcased a German Chocolate Cake from Southern Living and I took a bite of it on air. As soon as the segment ended I turned to the stylist and said “You toasted those pecans!!! That was amazing!” It changed the taste of the entire cake for me.

Now I love dried cranberries but raisins and dried cherries would work really well in this also. Before I add mine into a recipe I like to plump them a bit.

To plump your cranberries, simple place dried berries in a bowl and cover them in hot water. Let them sit for about five minutes or so and then drain them.

I love this little bowl. I gotta admit that I have coveted it most of my life. It belonged to my mother and I’ve kept my eye out for one of my own for a few years now.

Some months back, when I was at Mama’s house, I mentioned how hard it is to find one like hers. She went to the kitchen, got the two bowls she had in this pattern, wrapped them up in a dish towel, and put them in a sack and handed it to me! “Just take good care of ‘em and you can have ‘em.”

“Yes Ma’am!”

If y’all see Mama tell her you saw her bowls and they looked very happy and well cared for in their new home…

Line a countertop with a silicone mat or some waxed paper. 

Spread some flour over that to help prevent your dough from sticking.

I used to roll out a bit of waxed paper on my countertop to roll my dough out on but about a year or so ago I found this little mat on sale and picked it up. It’s awfully handy for cookies, rolls, etc. When I’m done I just wash it off really well and fold it to store until the next time I need it. Makes counter cleanup a breeze, but waxed paper will still work just as well.

Make sure your bread is thawed completely and place it on your floured surface.

Coat your rolling pin with a little flour (just rub it on there with your hands) and roll that puppy out into a rectangle -esque object.

Kinda like a rectangle, but no one is taking off points for style or precision here.

If your dough struggles with you, what I often do is roll it out a little bit, let it sit for a few minutes, then roll it out again. This will let it relax some and it will be easier. Either way, rolling it out will take a little muscle. But you can do it. Because …..

“Always remember, you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think” ~Winnie The Pooh quote

I doubt the author was thinking about making cinnamon rolls when he said that but it’s always nice to find a quote is versatile, don’t ya think?

Spread your dough with about half a stick of butter.

“About” is the key word here. Again, no points are taken off for precision. If you’re making these cinnamon rolls for anyone other than yourself, I can guarantee you won’t get complaints. If you do get complaints, take the cinnamon roll back

Stir your brown sugar and your cinnamon together until well blended (or until you get tired of stirring).

And zest that orange.

Now most folks would use a zester for this but mine is around here somewhere and this little handheld grater is so much easier anyway. If you use a grater just be sure you grate only the orange part and try not to get down into the white part because supposedly, that part is bitter I’ve never tried it myself so I’m gonna say “supposedly” here. I think orange zest is kind a bitter but in recipes like this, it is kinda heavenly too.

Now sprinkle your brown sugar and cinnamon over the butter and then top with pecans, orange zest, and cranberries.

Isn’t this beautiful?

~clears throat and speaks louder~ I said, Isn’t this beautiful????

Of course it is ~grins~. We really need smellovision technology. Plumped cranberries, toasted pecans, orange zest for that hint of citrus, brown sugar, and cinnamon...just in case you needed a recap. ~breathes it all in~

Now we gotta roll this puppy up. The trick to rolling it up, as I’ve learned, is to kinda squeeze it together as you roll. Roll, squeeze, roll, squeeze, roll, squeeze.

This is gonna really help keep your filling in while it bakes and also while you cut it and put the slices into your pan. You can kinda see here where I’ve pressed it together as I rolled it up.

Here is my final cinnamon roll log like thingiemabobber whosiewhatsit.

Yup, that’s it! Now we’re ready to cut it.

A lot of people tell you to cut your cinnamon rolls with dental floss and this or that but I have never seen the reason to go to all of that trouble…

I just grab a serrated knife (I am actually using a steak knife here) and go at it in a light sawing motion.

If you prefer to use dental floss or some other method, knock yourself out. But if you ever ask one of your friends to ask me the “right” way to do it, come whisper in my ear real quick that you do it that way so I can tell them I do it that way too and make you look good

.

Spray your pan with cooking spray.

I’m using disposable aluminum pans because I actually took both of these to my kid’s school. Okay, I might have snuck a few out for us first…

I do a LOT of baking for Southern Plate and sometimes I bake to get myself comfortable with Southern Living recipes that I’ll be doing on tv and such, so more often than not when I bake something, I have immediate plans to take it somewhere because we just can’t eat all of it!

Place your slices in the pan, spread out a bit like this so they have room to rise. Cover them and let them rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

If you don’t have a “warm” place, sometimes I just turn my oven on and let it preheat for a few minutes, then turn it off and open the door for a minute or two to make sure it is warm, but not hot. If it is “hot” it will start cooking your rolls and they won’t rise like they should, so make sure it is just warm.

Then place your covered rolls in the oven for an hour or so until they double.

Now we’re ready to bake these puppies!

I bake them at 400 for about fifteen minutes, or until done.

Once you remove them from the oven, This is the point where you would freeze them.

If you like, you can cook them until they’re done but not quite as brown as this and then brown them more in the reheating. If you freeze them before they are cooked, it will kill the yeast. They won’t rise the second time and if they are already risen but not baked, the yeast will still die and they’ll lose volume and be smallish, hardish things. Trust me, I know from personal trial and error. I called Rhode’s bread dough company and they gave me these exact instructions that I’m passing on to you for the best way to freeze these .

To freeze: Allow to cool completely. Wrap well in foil (really well) and place in freezer. To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator (overnight is great) and remove foil. Cover loosely with more foil and place in 200 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Ice and serve.

Make your icing according to the recipe below (you can visit my original cinnamon roll tutorial if you’d like step by step photos of the icing) and spread it over your warm cinnamon rolls.

It helps if you use a cute little piggy spatula, like the one Angela Lewis bought me!

Now remember when I told you to kinda squeeze the dough together as you rolled it up?

I’ve seen a lot of instructions lately on the internet saying that you should turn your cinnamon rolls upside down after cooking them so that all of the good stuff goes back up in the cinnamon roll, but I find that when I kinda squeeze my dough together like I showed you…all the good stuff stays in the cinnamon roll. Here is my pan, perfectly clean on the bottom where I took out two cinnamon rolls.

My husband ate those two just so I could show you this picture. He’s so supportive

 Hope you get to make these Stuffed Cinnamon Rolls soon. They sure are good!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Gratefully,

Christy

” It’s better to be kind, than to be right.”

Submitted by Diana L who found it on a fortune cookie about five years ago.

Baking for folks is a great way to show appreciation. Have you baked for anyone lately? Tell me what you made and who it was for in the comments on this post!

I just love this time of year. After our sweltering summers I can’t help but feel a rush of excitement when a cool breeze begins to blow. The cotton is in full bloom now and they just sprayed the defoliant this past week which means all of the green has died away and we now drive by fields that look like they’re filled with suspended balls of snow. It also means we have one jim dandy of a sinus headache with all of that defoliant in the air but we can pop a few sudafeds and still enjoy the beauty of those fields

Do you remember being a kid in the fall? I remember wearing my brother’s hand me down jacket, pulling the hood up over my head to block out the wind, and me and my sister would rake up every leaf we could find into a huge pile and then spend the day jumping in it, burying ourselves in them, and raking them up again once the pile was depleted from all of our antics. You can sure bet our neighbors didn’t have any stray leaves hanging around their yard when we were done!

I always looked forward to Mama getting out our fall clothes because that meant a fresh crop of my brother’s flannel shirts from the year before were handed down to me. I’d rather have an old worn flannel shirt than a new one any day. The soft worn flannel and slightly too large size were like being wrapped up in a hug from sun up until we were called back into the house at supper time. Most of my childhood was spent wearing my brother’s old clothes, which I have to laugh at now because I know my daughter would be mortified at the very thought of putting on “boy clothes”. But for us, we were just proud to have what we had and I thought he’d hung the moon so I was proud to be following in his footsteps, even if it was just because I was wearing his old shoes.

I experienced fall more back then than I do now, because as a child I absolutely lived in it. Whereas now, I’m sitting here looking at it through my living room window. But you know what? A ray of sunshine is calling my name and the breeze just floated an orangish red leaf by. I think it’s time to pick the kids up from school and show them how to build a jim dandy of a leaf pile…

First, let me show you how to make pumpkin roll cupcakes.

All the flavor and goodness of a pumpkin roll but with a lot less fuss.

You’ll need: All purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, and pumpkin pie spice.

Goodness gracious, this looks like a commercial for Great Value brand! The ironic thing is that I’ve gotten in the habit of shopping mostly at Krogers nowadays, mainly because the people are so very nice there. I love it when you can shop someplace and get to know folks. When you walk in the door and they say “Hi” and you know they recognize you. It just feels like a community. Like the good old days.

I know a lot of the folks at my Wal Mart are very friendly as well, but with the size of the store and turnaround and such, it’s just harder to get to know people there. Just wanted to clarify that I like people at both places!

In a mixing bowl, place your flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and sugar.

Okay, so basically just measure out all of your dry ingredients and toss them in a bowl.

Stir that up with a spoon just to mix it up a bit.

Now add in your eggs and pumpkin.

And mix it up until well combined and smooth.

Yes, it will be this horribly putrid orange color. This always looks like bad baby food to me, but I promise it will taste amazing. In fact, it tastes pretty dern good right now. Not that I want you to taste it, because it has raw eggs in it, and everyone knows that if folks taste anything with raw eggs they’ll keel over and die within the hour.

So don’t do that. And just ignore that I said it tasted good in batter form because, you know, there is no way I could POSSIBLY know that without tasting it and with those raw eggs, had I of had even the smallest taste, I would have met certain doom and obviously would not be here typing to you now after doing such a reckless thing.

~breathes~

Now that we’ve got that settled…

Divide batter evenly among the cups of a twelve cup muffin tin, that has been lined with cupcake papers.

I was trying to decide if I wanted to make mini cupcakes or regular cupcakes for this tutorial so as I was getting ready to photograph it I texted my friend Jyl:

Me : “Full cupcakes or minis?”

Jyl : “I say full because I don’t just want a mini. I want more. And it sounds better to say I ate one cupcake than it does to say I ate five mini ones.”

Her wisdom made sense so we have full size cupcakes in this tutorial

Bake those at 350 for 20 minutes, or until the center springs back when lightly pressed.

Allow to cool completely.

I stick mine in the refrigerator so I don’t have to wait as long. Patience is a virtue but I’m afraid it isn’t one I often possess.

Now we’re gonna make our icing.

This icing is the traditional filling for a pumpkin roll and you’ll notice that it doesn’t use near as much sugar as traditional cream cheese icing does, and I actually like that better. It still tastes plenty sweet though.

You’ll need: Confectioner’s sugar, butter, a brick of cream cheese, and vanilla.

You don’t need this gallon looking thing of imitation vanilla that I have but that was the best deal at Sam’s club and you know how I am about buying in bulk…

Okay, you probably don’t know how I am about buying in bulk, but trust me, my husband (who recently had to load and unload six months worth of tomatoes and apple juice from my car) thinks you are better off NOT knowing how I am about buying in bulk.

Toss all of your icing ingredients into a mixing bowl.

You know a lot of recipes want you to add things gradually, sift things, and hold your pinky toes a certain way while making them. I’m not like that. Dump. Mix, Bake, Eat. If I’m gonna treat something with that great of care it needs to be cute, bald, have teeny tiny feet, and my last name.

I have no idea where my final icing picture went. So just beat this up until smooth and creamy and then imagine a photo of it being all smooth and creamy.

While you’re at it, imagine my house is clean, too!

~grins~

Alrighty, now we’ve got our icing mixed up and we’re ready to fill come cooled cupcakes.

Note: You can TOTALLY skip this step if you want and just put a big old gob of icing on the top of these puppies. Half the time I skip this step, but I went the extra mile for you today on accounta I love you so much.

What I do is get a gallon freezer bag and then I place a big piece of tape over one corner of it before snipping off the point. Insert whatever icing tip you can find, preferably one with a point on it, and you’re ready to go.

Okie Dokie, now fill you bag with icing and seal it shut really well. Take the pointed tip and stick it down as far as it will go into the cupcake like this. Give it a good squeeze.

Or just skip ahead to the part where we put a big old gob of icing on these things

Note: My plastic bag went kapoot after about six cupcakes and icing went all over tarnation. Clearly, some plastic bags are made better than others and clearly, if plastic bags were people I’d not be a very good judge of character.

Some will end up with more icing in them than others but it is the thought that counts.

Top each cupcake with a big dollop of icing and spread slightly.

I think these are prettier if you leave a bit of the edges showing. Enjoy!

I store these in the refrigerator. They’d be beautiful topped with a pecan half.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee or as a special after dinner treat

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

“If you treat every situation as a life and death matter, you will die a lot of times.”

~Dean Smith

Today I’m bringing you a guest post by a very dear person, my friend Myra. Myra is one of those people who just has a sense of peace and calmness about her. In the middle of a crowded room, you can glance over at her and your soul is set instantly at ease. She has that kind of presence. She is as sweet and sincere as they come and one jim dandy of a cook, too! I know you’re going to enjoy her post and recipe today. Thank you so much, Myra! Gratefully, Christy

Hey Southern Plate Family!  I’m Myra from My Blessed Life and I’m so thrilled to be here with y’all!  I adore Christy and I’m just tickled pink that she invited me over today!

I’m a native Alabama girl who, like Christy, is so thankful for a rich heritage of godly, hard working people.  I’m married to my childhood sweetheart and we have a precious two year old little man.

My passion {under God and my family, of course} is to encourage you to creatively thrive in your home through do-it-yourself home decor, seasonal crafts, easy recipes and more. When I’m not blogging, you might find me sorting through someone’s junk at an estate sale, perusing a thrift shop, cruising through Hobby Lobby or whipping up something in the kitchen.

Today, I’m sharing one of my delicious Fall recipes with y’all.  Get ready to drool!

Be sure you check below this recipe for my recipe for Caramel Glaze!

Add this recipe to ZipList!

Pumpkin-Cranberry Pecan Bread

Ingredients

• 2+1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1+1/2 cups sugar {I reduced this from 2 cups}
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 +1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 can (15 oz) solid pumpkin
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce {I used cinnamon applesauce}
• 4 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup craisins

Instructions

1. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. In another bowl, combine pumpkin, oil, applesauce, eggs and water. Mix well. Stir wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients, just until combined. Fold in pecans and craisins.
2. Spoon into two loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

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This bread is perfectly delightful without the glaze.

But if you want to take it over the top and impress both yours and your family’s taste buds, add the glaze.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

I know, you’re drooling on your keyboard. {giggle}

Here’s a few more of my pumpkin recipes:

Pumpkin Crunch Cake |  Pumpkin Dip |  Praline Pumpkin Cake

Y’all have a beautiful day!  Daydream of pumpkins and this delicious bread.

“The best inheritance a parent can give to their children is a few minutes of their time each day.”

~M. Grundler

From Christy: Be sure and visit Myra over on her blog, My Blessed Life, for more great recipes and homemaking ideas (I loved getting to see her recent yard sale finds!) I just love Myra and I know you will, too!

I’m so very honored to have a chance to know each one of you. We’re a family made up of good hearted, hard working, life triumphing, loving people and when we come together on Southern Plate the atmosphere is truly amazing to experience.

Today’s guest kitchens recipe and story are yet another perfect example of that. I’m about to send out another call for submissions to email subscribers so make sure you’re signed up and watch your inbox for details on how to submit your family’s cherished recipe for possible inclusion in Southern Plate Guest Kitchens. I know you’ll enjoy hearing from Pat today and join with me in sending love to both her and her wonderful mother for sharing this delicious recipe with us.

Gratefully,
Christy

My Gorgeous Mom, Betty

Hey Christy!  I’ve been following your blog for a while now and your cookbook release as well.  I’m so excited for you!

The recipe I’m submitting to your Heritage Recipes is from my Mom, Betty Barnes.

Mom is 88 and still quite spry.  She is an excellent cook now, but when she married my Dad in 1942, she couldn’t even boil water. My Dad taught her to cook, bake, and put up canned goods.

I’ve taken over the daily responsibility as her health is beginning to fail.  I graduated from culinary school in 2009 at the age of 47!   The recipe I’d like to share is for “Lemon Poppy Seed Bread” and is one of my best-loved recipes from my Mom.  True, it uses a cake mix, but sometimes you just GOTTA! LOL

~Pat Barnes

Recipe from Betty Barnes, given by her loving daughter, Pat.

Me (Pat Barnes)

To see a complete list of all of the wonderful Guest Kitchens Posts so far, please click here.

I’m a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

-Thomas Jefferson.   Submitted by Amy. Submit your quote by clicking here.

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2011/06/lemon-poppy-seed-bread-from-betty-barnes.html/feed 32 http://www.southernplate.com/2011/05/srawberry-bread.html http://www.southernplate.com/2011/05/srawberry-bread.html#comments Tue, 17 May 2011 14:58:26 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=14673 Pin it

Before the show, I wasn't dressed for the show yet because I didn't want to spill coffee on my shirt! Lol. For reference, I am 5'5"

I had a great time at QVC this past weekend and want to thank everyone who tuned in to watch! I have never seen a more organized television station in all of my life, those folks have it down to an exact science! Everyone is so nice, too, you could not ask for a friendlier group of people. I gave David multiple hugs for you all, just as I promised I would!

Did I mention this is gonna make one loaf of bread? Oh I didn’t? Well this is gonna make one loaf of bread

If you can talk you can sing.

If you can walk you can dance.

Submitted by Megan Hache. Submit your quote or read others by clicking here.

A classic Southern meal in the old days always included bread. Bread was a great meal stretcher and even the poorest of sharecroppers usually had the ingredients to make it thanks to the staples of 25 pound sack of flour provided by the land owners (look for a quote from my Great Grandmother Lela about this at the bottom of this post). Although I don’t have bread with every supper nowadays, more often than not we do. Here are some of my favorite dinnertime bread recipes, some classic and some new fangled. I hope you’ll find at least one or two new ones to make for those you love.

Drop Biscuits – And How Your Mama Did It Just Right

This is a recipe that is always considered a treat at my house, met with the same zeal as a dessert even though it is just a bread. A variation on my Mama’s hoe cake, she often mixed up the same batter and made drop biscuits instead.

Dixie Cornbread (Go Dawgs!)

This recipe is from friend and Southern Plate Family Member Terri. I have never had cornbread so moist in all of my born days. I feel certain that no small amount of my existance has been wasted up until tasting this.

Jordan Rolls – And why interruptions are the key to my success

This is my personal roll recipe, that I serve whenever an occasion calls for them.

I have GOT to remember to take a better photo next time I make these! This one is from three years ago, taken with my cell phone.

How To Make Buttermilk Biscuits

If you have had problems in the past with your biscuits turning out to be more like hockey pucks than our beloved southern staple, this recipe is the one for you.

Ten Minute Rolls

When you’ve got a family of rumbling stomachs and the meal about to go on the table these rolls come in handy. If you work fast, you can have them ready from start to finish in about ten minutes using ingredients you probably already have on hand.

When I first posted these lots of folks said they served them with butter and honey.

Hoe Cake

This bread is one of my dear favorites and I’d hate to think that some of you have never had it. It is among a list of recipes I love so much that I’d like to ask you to make them as a personal favor to me. My family’s hoe cake uses flour and produces a bread much like buttermilk biscuits in flavor only with a lighter and fluffier texture and crispy outsides.

Seeded Yeast Rolls, Ready From Your Freezer Anytime!

These rolls are absolutely delicious but my favorite part is the seeds. I LOVE wheaty bread with seeds inside, it’s my favorite. For this recipe, you can use what seeds you prefer or the combination I used. Everything is nicer when you customize it to your own tastes.

“Mama always said many a family would have starved to death back

then if not for biscuits and gravy.”

~My Grandmother, Lucille Pockrus, quoting my great grandmother, Lela Sanders.

If you haven’t been following me on the Southern Plate Family Facebook page you may be wondering why you haven’t heard from me in a few days. I have a good excuse, honest. I just got home from a little road trip to Savannah, Georgia, where I spent a day filming with Miss Paula Deen. I’ll be in an upcoming episode of her “Paula’s Best Dishes” show on the food network. We had a wonderful time together and I have to tell you, that is one hard working lady and as good hearted as the day is long. She actually left her house before we did to fly to New York and host the Today Show the next day!

I can’t post pictures until I have permission from the Food Network but I’ll be telling you more about my time filming and cooking with Miss Paula in an upcoming post.

Yesterday Susan Hatcher asked on Facebook: Help me out on bread dough. I bought some frozen from Kroger for the first time and don’t have a clue what to do with it.

Well boy howdee Susan, do I ever have a post for you! I have a lot of fun with frozen bread dough and post some of my favorite recipes using it on Southern Plate from time to time. I have tons more I’ll post over the next few years but today I wanted to bring you (and Susan) a compilation post of all of the great Frozen Bread Dough posts on Southern Plate so far.

This convenient wonder can help you turn out beautiful kitchen creations for dinner, dessert, and beyond in no time flat! Enjoy!

Stuffed Pizza Sticks

These are delicious as a snack or even a fun meal for your family! Customize them to your own family’s tastes.

Homemade Cinnabuns – The Easy Way!

You could pretty much control the world if you kept these babies coming, warm from the oven and slathered in cinnamon cream cheese icing.

Baked Sandwiches

Another easily customizable recipe with a gorgeous outcome!

Cinnamon Love Knots

Half dinner roll, half sweet cinnamon treat, these are one of my fun favorites to make with the kids.

Super Easy King Cake

Not in a Mardis Gras mood? Just ditch the sprinkles and you have a DELICIOUS cream cheese filled coffee cake ring.

I have many more recipes using frozen bread dough but these will get you off to a great start. Subscribe by email to never miss a single recipe and be sure and join us over on Facebook to keep up with day to day happenings. As soon as I have permission to post photos from my visit with Paula I’ll let ya know!

Stay tuned for the Air Date. You’ll know as soon as I do!

Gratefully,

Christy

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Submitted by Jenny (thanks, Jenny!). To submit your quote, please click here to visit our Give A Penny Page.

I’m the worlds worst about planning a meal from start to finish and not thinking about the bread until we’re about ready to eat. While Jordan rolls are one of my favorite breads to serve at meals, followed by my Mama’s Hoe Cake at a close second, when you’ve got a family of rumbling stomachs and the meal about to go on the table there is no time to call either of those into play. That is where these rolls come in handy. If you work fast, you can have them ready start to finish in about ten minutes using ingredients you probably already have on hand.

Note: Using what you have on hand, how cool is that? Being able to make a meal for your family without having to buy anything special. I think the best meals come out of that, just like the best lives come out of “using what you have on hand” to make your own happiness. Okay, done being philosophical for now (“for now” meaning for this paragraph).

Now let me start this post by saying that if you are someone who doesn’t care too much for mayonnaise, you’re in good company. I’ve never been a “Ooh mayo!” type gal myself. It kinda grosses me out, to be honest.* Thing is, though, mayonnaise is mostly just oil and eggs so lets look at it from that perspective for the basis of this recipe- because, while I don’t care for mayo, I love these rolls.

The ingredients are easy and you probably already have them on hand: Mayo, Milk, salt, and Self Rising Flour, or Harina Leudante as we have just now learned  is the Spanish translation for “Self Rising Flour” , I think.

So for all the folks who think the South doesn’t have culture, I just wanna give you a big old triumphant Harumph! We got so much culture down here you can pick up another language just walking down the aisle of a grocery store.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*See that asterisk up there after the phrase “to be honest”? I put that there to bring to light something that has always perplexed me, and that is folks who use the phrase “to be honest”, as I just did – only I used it for the sole purpose of being able to go off on this tangent ~winks~.

When we use the phrase “to be honest” we are pretty much saying “up until this point I haven’t been…” or “being honest is so rare for me that I need to declare I am about to do it if  I should ever hit on an honest moment in conversation”. I used to work at a bank whose chief officer used that phrase in every other paragraph. He was known to be a man of integrity but still, when someone handling your money says that you can’t help but feel a few beads of sweat around ye olde forehead, ya know? Another thing I don’t understand is why we say “I could care less” when what we really mean is “I couldn’t care less”.

But, to be honest with you, I’m bad about saying that myself. ~giggle~

Place your flour, mayo, and milk in a bowl…

Add in a your dash of salt. This just gives them a little more yummy oomph.

Don’t fret because you really can’t mess this up so just do a dash, one shake, into the bowl and if you do end up accidentally putting in too much salt, then this is the time to tell yourself “Well I guess I liked saltier rolls anyhow!”

I love this little salt shaker. I got it at Cracker Barrel several weeks back. They have a lot of pretty rooster stuff right now.

I digress...but don’t I always?

Stir that up with a spoon until it is all gobbledy like this.

These are kind of a cross between a biscuit and a roll, so if you want biscuits, call them biscuits. If you want rolls, call them rolls.

Whatever cranks yer tractor.

Now spray six cups in a muffin tin with cooking spray.

I also like that this recipe just makes six, which is usually plenty for us.

Divide your batter between the muffin cups.

Now put these in the oven at 425 for 8-10 minutes.

See how easy that was? Dump in a bowl, stir, bake.

While they are baking, lets have us a little show and tell, shall we?

Ahh, this bowl. I love this bowl. Folks, I’ve coveted this bowl for a very long time. You see, it belonged to my mother and every time I went to her house I would inevitably end up opening her kitchen cabinet and spying this bowl. My great grandmother had one just like it and I’ve been looking for one to buy for quite some time with no luck.

Last time I was there I got out my phone to take a photo of it in order to help my search and told Mama what I was doing. When I left, she surprised me by handing me a bag. Guess what was inside it? “You just go ahead and take it and think of me when you use it” she said.

~grins from ear to ear~

This bowl was made by Hazel Atlas back in the day and the pattern is commonly referred to as “Dutch”. It is a beautiful milk glass and exceptionally well made. I love the vintage pieces like this and really need to do another post on my vintage pyrex pieces for you soon. Whenever I need a new dish, I always look to the old stuff first. I actually don’t use any of the new pyrex because I’ve had it explode on me before (see here for a report Consumer Reports did on that) . Isn’t it amazing that pyrex made forty years ago is baking today better than the new stuff? If that isn’t a testament to old fashioned quality I don’t know what is!

Okay, so the whole exploding Pyrex thing was a bit of a downer…let us move on to flowers to lighten the mood!

And now for another show and tell since we have a few more minutes before our rolls are done. This is my new Hydrangea bush. I dearly love Hydrangeas, almost as much as I love daffodils. Ricky brought this one home for me for Valentine’s day. I’m going to plant it in the front of my house. I already have five huge hydrangeas in the back yard so you know my front yard has been feeling neglected without one. It is pink now but will turn blue after I plant it due to the acid content of our soil.

Aren’t they just the prettiest blooms?

Okay, back to our biscuit/roll/thingies…

Call ‘em what you want and serve ‘em when ya need ‘em.

With a recipe that just has you throwing a few ingredients together in a bowl and stirring, then cooking for eight to ten minutes, it is entirely possible to have these done start to finish in ten minutes. Yeehaa and pass the gravy!

A great cook knows that its not what is on the table that matters,

it is in the chairs around the table.