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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

This delicious recipe is at the bottom of the post. Hope you get to try it soon!

Be sure and share your special Cast Iron memories in the comments below!

(more details at bottom of post)

Today I’m thrilled to bring you a guest post from the good folks at Martha White, along with a fun announcement! The National Cornbread Festival is coming up! The cornbread festival is held each year in the neat little town of South Pittsburg, Tennessee, and this year Martha White has asked me to be a judge. So I get to participate in the festival AND taste all of the yummy entries, to boot! The festival is a weekend long family event with all sorts of fun activities taking place, including tours of the Lodge Cast Iron Factory. Click the Cornbread Festival logo at the bottom of this post to visit the official homepage and learn more.

I’m really looking forward to meeting more of the Southern Plate Family! We have a page over on Facebook where folks can RSVP that they are coming so if you plan on coming out for the fun this year so click here to head on over there and let me know so I can look forward to seeing your face and keep you posted on times and location of the Southern Plate Family meet and greet.

I’m also hoping some of you will enter the competition. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a member of the Southern Plate family won it? I happen to know that y’all are a group of extremely talented cooks – who cook for the love of family and friends – and I can’t imagine a dish tasting better than one made by one of you. For the official rules of the competition, click here. To go ahead and enter, click here.

This Monte Cristo Skillet was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2006 National Cornbread Festival. It caught my eye because I recently had my very first Monte Cristo Sandwich and absolutely loved it. Southern Living sent me to Charleston to do some presentations for the Taste of Charleston Festival. Have you ever been to Charleston? Oh my goodness gracious, is that a beautiful town! With every sight and sound I became more determined to bring my family back there someday so I could experience it with them (It is hard to enjoy a trip without the folks you want to share it with beside you).

As I’ve started traveling from time to time I’ve taken a queue from my adventurous counterparts at SL and started making it a point to try something new in each place if possible. In Charleston, I had my first Monte Cristo Sandwich and it was right up my alley. I ate it in the cafe of a beautiful hotel right downtown. The flavors were a unique combination for me: Ham, cheese, battered and toasted bread drizzled with a sweet fruit preserves and sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. It was part lunch, part breakfast, part sandwich, part dessert, and all the way good!

So when Martha White offered to guest post I got to nosing around for what recipe I thought would appeal the most to everyone and as soon as this skillet came before my eyes, my heart just settled on it.

This recipe is quick to throw together and feeds six people. I like strawberry preserves with mine but feel free to use whichever you like best. I also omit the turkey and use additional ham in it’s place. Lunchmeat ham works just fine!

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

Love Your Cast Iron?

Be sure and pick up this month’s special Cast Iron issue of Taste Of The South. It is filled to the BRIM with delicious recipes for your cast iron skillet, gorgeous food photography,

and those sweet people even put my name on the cover!

I don’t know who is more tickled, me or my mother!

In this issue of Taste of the South, Paula Deen, Myself, Lucy Buffett,

and many others share some of their special Cast Iron cookware memories.

These skillets, pots, and pans aren’t just cookware for us, they’re part of our heritage.

I’d love to hear if you have any heirloom cast iron memories in the comments below!

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

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.

My Katy Rose (Karo)  loves Chocolate. She especially loves double chocolate anything. The Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies earned me the title of the Best Mother In The Entire World and these muffins brought home a second honorary crown from the taste buds of my kids. After I got back from the Today Show, I was anxious to get up early the very next morning and make them a treat. I dearly love being home with my kids so I can do things like this for them.

Until I was twenty seven, I had never even flown on an airplane. That first time involved a trip to Disney World with two year old Brady, who was our only child at the time. We got airfare super cheap back then, $100 round trip for each of us, so it ended up being cheaper than driving. Ricky was also going for a conference so his portion was paid for along with our hotel room. All that was between me and getting to take my son to Disney for the first time was a little bit of gravity defying courtesy of Huntsville International.

Man was that some flight. I’ve never hidden terror so well. I spent the entire time mentally going over every possible crash scenario and how I would get little Brady out of it alive (Ricky was a big boy, he was on his own). I never dreamed in a million years that flying would become normal to me. Now, after this past year, I am one of those people who get on the plane and settle in for a nap before it even takes off. I’ve only seen a small fraction of the country in my book tour travels but its far more than I ever dreamed of or expected to see in my entire lifetime. I’ve met some wonderful people, gotten and given more hugs than I can count, and found that my theory about the world is true : The world is, by and large, made up of really good people.

But you know the main thing I learned on my travels? I do not have the wanderer’s soul I once thought I did. Hand me a globe and tell me to point out anyplace in the world I’d like to go and I’ll stick that thumbtack right smack dab on North Alabama every time. I used to not be like this. I used to want to see things an go places, but as I’ve grown older I’ve realized that there isn’t a place my heart wants to go unless I can turn and look into the eyes of my family and share it with them.

Call it blessed, call it luck, call it enlightenment, but either way you look at it I fully realize how much fuller my life will be for me having been given a chance to learn this lesson. You may not be able to visit twenty cities in a month like I did, but I bet if you take a moment to think about it, to imagine doing just that, you’ll find your arms aching to hold your family and your appreciation for them all the more greater.

Contentment. I think that is one of the greatest gifts and it is one that you have to give yourself, but it often comes for some people in wistful strains while looking through the rear view mirror. Today I want to urge you to turn around and check out what is right in front of you now. Because what is in your windshield now will surely pass you by, too. Moms, Dads, Grandparents, I know you’re tired. I know you work long days regardless of whether or not you get a paycheck, but these are the days. This is it. They’re eating and making messes and distracting you and dancing and talking nonstop, but before you know it that house will go silent and that refrigerator could be holding just enough food for one.

So take a breath, in and out. Close your eyes. Feel the love around you.

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” ~Frederick Keonig

Now go make ‘em some double chocolate muffins.

You’ll need: Vanilla (not a gallon like I have pictured though), Milk, Chocolate Chips, Margarine, Cocoa Powder, Self Rising Flour, Egg, and Sugar.

I’m using semi sweet chips but you can use any kind you want, really. You can also use butter if the thought of using margarine makes you feel as if you will most certainly go to some horrid place where folks who use hydrogenated oils and such go. Personally, I know a lot of people in that place and I happen to know that if I go there we’re gonna have some fine eatin’!

Place your sugar, flour, and cocoa powder in a bowl.

Don’t worry if your cocoa powder is lumpy, mine was so its in good company

Melt your margarine in the microwave. You can use butter if you prefer.

To the margarine, add your milk, vanilla, and egg and stir that up.

**If your margarine is fresh from the microwave you need to add your milk first so it will cool the margarine on the off chance it is hot enough to cook your egg.

Now pour that into your dry ingredients.

and start stirring…

until it looks like this

Add in your chocolate chips

and stir some more. If it is a little lumpy, thats fine.

You can cook this either in a greased muffin tin or muffin papers. I’m using muffin papers right now. 

Bake at 400 for twenty minutes. Serve them with love.

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

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.

Remember that what you now have was once among the things

you only hoped for.”

~Epicurus, Greek Philosopher

Catch up on Life At Bountiful by reading these posts:

• Wow, That Was An Intensive Interview!
• Christmas Miracles In Alabama
• Family Snapshots From Disney
• Behind The Scenes At The Today Show

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2011/01/double-chocolate-chip-muffins.html/feed 89 http://www.southernplate.com/2010/04/old-timey-butter-roll-dessert.html http://www.southernplate.com/2010/04/old-timey-butter-roll-dessert.html#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:09:23 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=7992 Pin it

One of the things I enjoy doing above all others on Southern plate is taking those lost and nearly-lost recipes of days gone by and posting them in hopes of bringing them back from the brink of extinction. This is especially important to me in preserving our food heritage because our most cherished recipes were never written down, instead passed from cook to cook by showing them along with instructions like “you take a little bit of this and little bit of that”.

Well of course, that hardly works nowadays when cooks are thousands of miles apart or perhaps precious Granny has passed on and taken the recipe with her. I don’t even know if my great grandmother ever followed a single written recipe in her life, I’d be surprised if she ever did. She didn’t get to go too far in school and I know that writing a recipe would have been a difficult task to attend to for her. Instead, it was a bit of this and a bit of that, humming along as she took whatever she had in the pantry and whipped up a little supper.

Some of our most beloved dishes begin with flour. Biscuits, milk gravy, chicken and dumplings, and today’s recipe: Butter Rolls. I wish I could say I’d grown up eating butter rolls but the truth is I had this dessert for the first time about ten years ago. We were having supper over at Grandmama’s house (her slow cooked pork roast) and as soon as we walked in the door I honed in on an indescribably delicious smell wafting at me from her oven. “Grandmama, what is that?”

“Oh, I just made us some butter rolls for dessert”. She said it with a wave of her hand, dismissing it as nothing special.

I was confused. Rolls for dessert? I thought she had taken rolls and slathered them with butter and was heating them up in the oven. It smelled so different though, vanilla and sweetness and butter. I hardly ate any supper waiting on them. As soon as she pulled the pan out of the oven I was beside her helping – you know, in case she forgot to get me one out first! I stuck my fork into it and was hooked. “Grandmma, you have GOT to get me this recipe”

“Well now t’ain’t really no recipe, I just make ‘em like Mama did. You take you a little bit of biscuit dough and put you a little bit of butter on it and then just sprinkle you a little bit of sugar and make you up a sauce and then you bake it.”

For five years, I had no idea how to make a butter roll.

Everytime I asked Grandmama she’d just make them again for me, but they were always in the oven by the time I showed up at her house, baking. I would say “Grandmama, you have got to give me that recipe” and off she’d go again into her “t’ain’t really no recipe, you just take a little bit of…”

~sighs~

Finally, Mama and I hit pay dirt when Mama found a few recipes for butter roll in some brittle church cookbooks. We tried them out and this one was the winner – just like Grandmamas. After having made it according to the recipe, I can now understand Grandmama’s instructions fully – it really is that simple. But I think y’all are going to need a recipe just like me in order to get you started. After you give this a go, feel free to use your favorite biscuit dough or even experiment with canned biscuits. It’s really easy and fuss free.

By the way, like so many of my other dessert recipes on southern plate, you can use splenda in this one. Just remember that the key to cutting down on the artificially sweetened taste is to use just a hair less than the recipe calls for (remove one or two tablespoons per cup) and be sure you don’t pack it. Splenda should be measured out light and fluffy.

Still wondering just what a butter roll is? Think more in line with cinnamon rolls, only without so much cinnamon and baked in a rich homemade custard sauce- that stays just runny enough to be considered kind of a custard gravy of sorts. Oh Lawd, you need to make these. I have a favor to ask as well, since this is a nearly forgotten recipe of days gone by, help me bring it back again so it won’t be lost to future generations. If you enjoy it, please pass the recipe on.

I’ll send out a printer friendly version of it later this week to my email subscribers to make that a little easier!

You’ll need: Milk, Sugar, Self Rising Flour*, Vanilla, Shortening, Cinnamon, and some butter at room temperature.

There are two sticks of butter pictured here but you only need one. They were friends and hated to be separated just yet.

*To make your own self rising flour, see my FAQ page.

Eventually I promise I’m going to get around to doing a tutorial on my canisters… I made them myself but I don’t know where you can get the letters because I had a friend do those up for me so that is what I’m hesitant about because I can’t bring you A.B.C. steps to having canisters just like mine, I can only bring you A. and B.

Place your flour in a large mixing bowl along with shortening.

Cut shortening in with fork…

until combined well, like this.

I use a lot of both plain and self rising flour at my house and have been known to dump whatever I grabbed first into my flour canister when it got empty. Sometimes I lose track of what is in there and need to know if it’s plain or self rising. There is an easy fix. Dip your finger into the flour and lick it. If it tastes salty, it is self rising. If it tastes bland, it is plain. I have to do this at least once a week but I’m perfectly alright with that because I decided long ago that being disorganized was just part of my charm. ~grins~

Pour in your milk.

Stir

Spray your pan

You don’t have to do this but I was in the mood.

Put you some flour on a clean counter top or wherever you feel like doing this.

I’m using my kitchen island that I love so much that the nice man in Tennessee made me.

You can use whatever biscuit dough is your favorite or just go by this recipe. This one is gonna hold up a little better in our sauce cause it’s a little dryer.

Press it together to form a ball.

Then pat  it out with your hands a bit

Roll it out into a rectangle type object.

Notice I didn’t get too particular here. This is an old fashioned dessert and I figure Granny was busy with kids underfoot and hungry folks marching in the door.

Back in those days folks cooked their food, not built a shrine to it.

I imagine if I were to go back in time and show up in her kitchen and say “Wait, Lela! Let me get a picture…oh can you make it a little prettier first?” I’da probably ended up with a big wad of dough thrown right at my head – and rightfully so.

Now we’re gonna smear our butter on the rolled out biscuit dough.

All y’all who are on the real butter bandwagon need to give me my gold star today

and generously sprinkle all of our sugar over it.

Then comes the cinnamon, just a hint.

The dough and sauce mixed together  with the butter and vanilla are going to have the most lovely flavor on their own!

Now roll that up.

Cut it in about one inch slices (one inch-ish).

Remember, this is old fashioned food. It’s not supposed to look a certain way, it’s just supposed to taste good.

All sliced up and ready for the party in my baking pan!

There ya go.

In a saucepan, pour milk and sugar.

Add your vanilla.

Stir that over low to medium heat until the milk is hot and the sugar is dissolved.

(that’s supposed to be a teaspoon of vanilla there, I’m generous ~giggle~)

They’re ready for their nice warm bath now

Pour milk sauce over your butter rolls.

Oh my.

I hope you’ve tasted the sauce by now.

If you haven’t go ahead, I won’t look. ~covers eyes and grins~

Bake at 350 for about thirty to forty minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Place rolls on plates to serve and…

Spoon more sauce on them. Enjoy real old fashioned goodness, from Granny’s kitchen to yours.

At the end of a matter ask,

“What will I learn from this to make me better?”

– Mary Anne Radmacher. Submit your quote here.

Good Morning! I hope y’all are experiencing the first signs of spring wherever you are. If not, I hope you have at least set aside a little room for Springtime in your kitchen. We can always “force spring” by making some of our favorite sunshiney dishes!

Today I’m bringing you a video of a brunch I hosted at my mother’s house, as part of the fun I’m having being one of the five Velveeta Kitchenistas! I’m also bringing you a great recipe for Velveeta Cheesy Bacon Hash Brown Bake  (say that five times really fast!).

I’ll be posting the recipe for my Americanized version of Devonshire Cream (featured in the video as well) coming up on Southern Plate at a later date, but later today I’ll be emailing that recipe as well as Granny’s Jordan’s English Pea Pimento Salad recipe to all of my email subscribers so be sure and subscribe if you’d like to receive both of those a little early!

I hope you enjoy the video, the recipe is below!

The recipe for  Pecan Pie Muffins we served at the brunch can be found by clicking here.

See the recipe and remainder of this post by clicking below!

Special Thanks to my guests: Mama, Aunt Sue, Grandmama Lucille, Granny Davis, Miss Millie, and Sister in Law Stacey! Also in attendance (but who disappeared when the camera came out) : Daddy, Uncle Jerry, and Katy Rose.

To find out how to host your own house party, visit HouseParty.com

You can also find more great Velveeta recipes from my four Kitchenista Sistas over at Velveeta’s Facebook Page!

Of course, if you’re gonna head on over to Facebook, I’d love for you to join the Southern Plate family on our Facebook Page!

Elaine Raye is a dedicated contributor to our Give A Penny Page on Southern Plate. Today, I couldn’t choose just one quote and so I’m going to bring you two of hers. I think these two are worthy of writing down and taping up somewhere – that’s just what I plan on doing! Thank you, Elaine!

Write it on your heart that everyday is the best day of the year.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect-

It means you’ve decided to see beyond the imperfections.

~Source unknown

Transparency Disclosure: I have partnered with VELVEETA to serve as one of five VELVEETA it! Kitchenistas. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes vlogging about my cooking experiences with VELVEETA and developing one original VELVEETA-based recipe. I have also been compensated for the food purchased for my VELVEETA vlogs. However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments – because that wouldn’t be right anyway.

HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY TO YOU!

I have fun with my family on April Fool’s Day but haven’t pulled my prank on them just yet! Once, I iced two layers of meatloaf with mashed potatoes, decorated the top by piping potatoes through an icing tip and adorning with with cherry tomatoes, and then served that first with a cookie pizza for dessert to several of Bradybug’s friends. I also told them we were having water to drink (which is very odd in my neck of the woods) and served them clear Kool Aid instead.

Back when my mother was a little girl my great aunt Myrtle made two cake pans of cornbread and took them to a local bakery where they iced them just like a birthday cake. Everyone was pretty surprised when they cut into that cake. Mama said they all giggled and took turns cutting into it to see how hard it was!

Tell me your favorite April Fool’s pranks (family friendly only, please) in the comments below and we can all get inspiration and ideas for what we’re gonna do later today!

I was fortunate enough to get to visit Canada a few years back and while there treated to the loveliest vision – my first real live slice of blueberry pie. Until then, I had only seen it on magazine covers and photographs in books. Mama and I used to talk about how good it must be and how we’d like to try it sometime.

We can get blueberries here, of course, but they cost so dear that buying enough to make an entire pie is out of the question – at least I can’t bring myself to do it. So I had my piece of blueberry pie in Ottowa, sitting in a little diner where folks flipped  back and forth between French and English as easily as drawing breath. I sat among them in pure blueberry bliss for every sacred bite. That was my first piece of blueberry pie and I haven’t had a single bite since ~sighs~  but it was delicious.

The world is getting smaller so rapidly that eventually blueberries will be more attainable in my neck of the woods. I’m sure someday I’ll be able to buy enough for a pie without having to mentally calculate my mortgage payment. For now, I can swing muffins thanks to frozen berries. If I were to buy enough fresh blueberries to make these muffins it would have cost me nearly eight dollars, but I picked up more than enough frozen ones for just $2.98 – and a lot less guilt.

So I am bringing you my guilt free blueberry muffins with a time saving twist – they’re made using a baking mix. I have a lot of rabbits in my hat that I pull out with the use of a baking mix, including some bar cookies that are out of this world, but you don’t always hear about using it to make muffins.  I love these because they aren’t too sweet, very filling, and really make the perfect setting to complement juicy blueberries. They’re also awfully pretty. I hope you get to try them, to me they are almost as good as that piece of pie in Ottawa.

You’ll need: Sugar, Baking Mix, Milk, Egg, Vegetable Oil, and Blueberries.

Feel free to use your favorite berry to make this muffin. I want to try a berry medley I found in the freezer section of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries!

Pour your blueberries in a small bowl.

Pour 1/4 cup of baking mix over them.

and stir.

This will keep them from sinking down into the bottom of your muffins.

Pour remaining baking mix in a large mixing bowl.

We’re using a Pyrex bowl in a pattern called “New Dot”.

Ain’t it purty? There were four in the set, I have three. A yellow one, an orange one, and a blue one, in graduated sizes.

I need the green one to complete but the price of that one makes fresh blueberries look like penny candy.

Add in your egg, milk…

and vegetable oil..

and also your sugar.

Give that a good stir. It will be lumpy and that’s okay.

Sometimes we get lumpy, and that’s okay, too

Pour in your blueberries

baking mix and all.

Gently stir them in.

Spray a muffin pan with cooking spray.

Evenly spoon into each of twelve regular sized muffin cups. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes, or until lightly browned on top.

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

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.

~old Chinese proverb

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2010/03/blueberry-muffins-made-with-baking-mix.html/feed 41 http://www.southernplate.com/2010/03/omelet-made-easy.html http://www.southernplate.com/2010/03/omelet-made-easy.html#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:49:06 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=7764 Pin it

Back in my younger days, one of my favorite things to do with friends was head over to Shoney’s on Wednesday nights because that was the night where they served their breakfast buffet for dinner.  To a teenager this was pure bliss - all of my favorite foods and no one had to get up early to enjoy them. Of course there was never a shortage of volunteers to join our breakfast group and our night out became a tradition I carried forward after I got married. We kept it up for quite some time, until babies and schedules slowly took precedence and squeezed out our beloved french toast sticks. I’m still a huge fan of breakfast for dinner, though, and since I have already brought you my kid’s favorite pancakes, today I thought I’d show you my favorite omelet – and the super easy way to make it.

To make my omelet you’ll need: Eggs, Cheese, Ham, Milk, and frozen Pepper/Onion blend.

My ingredients are really simple, but you can customize your omelet to your own tastes. Isn’t that the cool thing about omelets?

I love onions and bell peppers -  I also love shortcuts, so sometimes I just buy just buy this bagged mix of them unless I already have the peppers on hand. You can often find a mix of onions and bell peppers in the freezer section under the name of seasoning mix or pepper and onion blend.

I’m using cheddar cheese but you can also substitute your favorite cheese as well. I think an omelet with roast beef, peppers, and mozzarella would be divine. I gotta get around to do that one day.

Crack all your eggs into the bowl.

Now listen, I know this recipe calls for eight but if you only have six, just go ahead and make it with six, don’t go running out to the store to get more eggs just for this. I think the best dishes are the ones you make do with, that is how all of the good Southern recipes came about anyhow.

Pour in your milk.

I’m using whole if if you have 2% or even skim those will work also.

Whip it, whip it good!

If you just smiled and did a little dance when you read that, you dated just dated yourself!

~smiles and does a little dance~

dump in cheese

and chopped ham

If you don’t have leftover ham, you can just dice up some lunch meat and it’ll be fine.

You can also leave the ham out entirely, goodness knows this has enough protein with the eggs and cheese.

Add in your peppers and onions. I use about a cup of the mixed variety.

Mix that up as well.

Here is my 8×8 pan, already sprayed with cooking spray.

I wanted to take a photo of me spraying it with spray but it wasn’t the sunniest of days and so I was using a light to get these shots. Well, as it turned out the best location for the light to avoid shadows was on top of my head. Seeing as how my head is round, I was balancing the light and holding it there with one hand and holding the camera with the other, I also had to hold my tongue just right and bending my left pinky toe in order to appease the photography gods and since I’m still waiting on delivery of that third arm, you didn’t get the shot of me holding the can of cooking spray. I knew you’d understand though .

By the way, one of my campaign promises when I run for President is that I’m gonna work out a way for every mother to grow an extra arm for each child she has. Judging from the things I try to juggle each day, I think I was meant to have at least four.

Pour that all in.

Wasn’t that easy?

Now, instead of standing over the stove and watching this cook in a skillet, all we have to do is pop it in the oven and go watch Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Today’s episode is the one where Johnny Cash and June Carter guest star! Yeah, that was a good one.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about forty minutes, or until it no longer wiggles in the middle when you shake it a bit.

Dinner’s ready! I like to have mine with a dollop of sour cream on top.

Yumm!

Add this recipe to ZipList!

Omelet Made Easy

Ingredients

• 8 eggs
• 1 Cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 Cup milk
• 1 Cup chopped ham
• 1 Cup diced onion and bell pepper blend

Instructions

1. In large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add milk and all other ingredients. Beat until well combined and pour into 8x8 baking dish. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about forty minutes, or until it no longer wiggles in the middle when you shake it a bit.

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1.2

Customize your omelet! Substitute a cup of your favorite veggies for the onion and bell pepper blend, use your favorite shredded cheese in place of the cheddar, and add in bacon or sausage in place of the ham – or leave it out altogether!

“Be pretty if you can, witty if you must, and gracious if it kills you.”

Submitted by Becky. Be sure to visit my Give A Penny page to read more and add your own!