Yesterday I came in from the back yard with a hand full of four leaf clovers…

You know, some people think that four leaf clovers are hard to find but when I was a little girl my mother could always walk right up to a clover patch, look down for a few seconds, and pluck one right up.

It seemed she had a special gift for finding clovers, and as I grew older I came to realize she had a special gift for finding a lot of good things. In the middle of the worst storm, Mama could find a song to sing. When we came home with a bad hair cut, Mama could point out the one thing that made it just perfect and turn everyone’s opinion right around. When our school friends went away on trips we could never afford, Mama would invite all the neighborhood kids over to play in our back yard and fill our days with homemade popsicles and hosepipe tag.

She could find good in any situation as easily as looking down at a patch of hundreds of clovers and plucking out the one with four leaves on it.

I spent my childhood looking to her as my example and this morning, I got to thinking about those clovers and how much better I am at finding them now that I’m older. Now, when I walk outside and come back in with a handful of four leaf clovers my daughter exclaims with delight that I must be really good at finding them! I just smile and tell her that they’re there for anyone who looks. Like the special little moments in life, pockets of happiness, and reasons to be grateful.

Four leaf clovers aren’t rare. The people who take time to look for them are.

~takes a moment to look at the picture and let it sink in~

Alrighty, time to package my heart back up and get on to the cooking!

If you’ve never had this soup, you’re in for a treat and a half. It’s kind of like an Italian version of chili – and my family LOVES it!

There are all sorts of variations of Pasta Fagoli out there. Translated from Italian, it simply means “Pasta and Beans” and is traditionally an economical meatless dish. I like to add meat to mine but you can certainly leave it out.

I was originally inspired to make it due to my favorite soup, salad, and breadsticks treat at the local Olive Garden. This is not the exact recipe Olive Garden uses, of course, but it  is close. This is also not the exact recipe found around the web, but it’s close enough to those, too. My recipe is a little more streamlined and makes about half as much as the other recipes do. My recipe makes about 4 quarts, which is a reasonable amount for a family. Leftovers reheat and even freeze really well, too.

You’ll need: Kidney Beans, Navy Beans, Beef Broth, Crushed Tomatoes, Tomato Sauce, Matchstick carrots (or carrots you cut yourself), diced onions, small ring pasta (or small pasta of your choice), and browned ground beef.

Note: I was tired the day I made this and decided to cook up some ground beef. As soon as I got it into the skillet I went and sat down to gift myself with a little time reading my latest Tamera Alexander novel…a while later I remembered my ground beef. Needless to say, it was a little overcooked but the beauty was that I was browning it for this recipe and since this is a slow cooked soup, that gives the overly cooked ground beef time to soften up a bit. Crisis averted. You know, really, most crises can be averted if we just refuse to let them become crisis in the first place, don’t you think?

You’re gonna need some seasonings, too. I’m using salt, dried parsley, and dried Italian seasoning.

Now if you’ve been with me a long time you may be thinking “Christy sure does use Italian seasoning a lot!”.

If you’re thinking that, you’re right.

I like it.

It’s good.

It’s cheap.

For me, it is the ketchup of dried herb blends! Having said that, if you would prefer to make it a little more complicated, feel free to come up with your own herb blend. I’m sure it will be great – or just give yourself a break and do it my way. It’s not like you don’t work hard enough as it is.

So basically, you dump everything in a slow cooker except for your pasta. I drained my beans but it’ll be just fine if you’d rather not.

Dump, dump, dump, dump, then….

Stir.

Now put the lid on it and let it cook on low for 7-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.

About half an hour before serving, stir in your pasta and put the lid back on so it can get done.

Top it with fresh grated parmesan if you want or just go my route and use some mozzarella. There is no rule that says you can’t use whatever cheese your heart desires – and if you find that rule written somewhere, just go ahead and break it.

C’mon, be a rebel with me. Speaking of rebels, we should start our own gang. We can wear yoga pants and ride Schwinn’s – the kind with the big comfy seats, not those factory puppies that give you a total of two square inches to balance your entire body weight on. We’ll get those little horns that honk like we had when were were kids and big tall flags to go on the back of our bikes so when we’re about to crest a hill, the kids will know we’re a coming! I used to have a battery operated loudspeaker on my bicycle with a little cb type handset that let me talk to people as I passed and that could come in real handy, too. “Hey Amy! What’s for supper?” as we drive by a friend’s house. Or the occasional “EHHH!” really loud if we see a kid, dog, or random person about to do something they should know better than to do. ~giggles~ That would be fun. Remind me to start a gang in my spare time. Y’all go ahead and pick out a name...

Oh look, our soup is done! If there are any leftovers, they refrigerate and even freeze well. I thought I’d have leftovers from this but after teenage son ate two bowls and husband ate three…then I myself came back for another bowl…it disappeared pretty fast.

There are four things you cannot recover: The Stone—after the throw, The Word–after it’s said, The Occasion–after the loss, The Time–after it’s gone.

~Anonymous, submitted Faye Hillard (thanks, Faye!). Click here to submit your own  

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Here’s a fun new page to like on Facebook! The Southern Recipe Box is a place where YOU can go and share LINKS to your favorite Southern recipes. Lots of yumminess has already been posted and we’d love for YOU to join in – Help us discover the best food blogs around the web – and we’ll help you discover what to cook for supper! 

Click here to Like The Southern Recipe Box on Facebook. 

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2013/04/slow-cooker-pasta-fagoli-small-batch-finding-clovers.html/feed 50 http://www.southernplate.com/2012/03/chicken-patties-the-one-thing-i-dont-like-about.html http://www.southernplate.com/2012/03/chicken-patties-the-one-thing-i-dont-like-about.html#comments Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:02:05 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=18297  

I love being able to recycle food into new dishes – mainly because I hate to waste food when I could provide one more delicious meal from it, and also because that is the way of my ancestors. Today I’m going to show you how to take leftover chicken and turn it into these delicious chicken patties. This is perfect if you have fried chicken (take off skin and shred it up!), rotisserie chicken, or even leftover chicken fingers. If you’ve had these before, though, you’ll know why a lot of people cook chicken just to be able to make them!

I guess these are kind of like Salmon patties. I could tell you better if I’d ever eaten a salmon patty but I generally avoid eating things that swim. Better folks might call these croquettes – but mine are just patties. Good, honest chicken has no need to put on airs and airs have no place in my kitchen. Now onto my rambling for the day….

I love writing Southern Plate. I love cooking for people, and I love getting to know all of you through the website and different events and things that I go to where you are kind enough to come see me. I love shopping for groceries and I love spending time in my kitchen. I love being able to put meals on a table with my family sitting around it and I dearly love knowing that you trust me enough to bring my recipes into your home and onto your tables.

In fact, I pretty much love every aspect of Southern plate, with one exception. I don’t love food photography. Not in the least. We might oughta keep this between ourselves, though. Entire industries are devoted to people just luh-huh-huv taking photos of food on a plate. I have friends who make their living at it (and produce amazing work), magazines and television networks rely on it, some people get so excited they stay awake at night just thinking about it. I think they’re amazing folks. I respect and admire all of them.

Me though? I’d just as soon eat it as to play with it. I seriously doubt I could manage to care less about taking a photograph of food and I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to publicly admit that because so many folks do take such pleasure in it. But hey, admiring someone doesn’t meant we have to emulate them. Good thing, too, because if that was the case I’d have to go work for a mission in Calcutta or move to Prague and write depressing poetry about the mysteries and loneliness of life.  

I do a little better now than I used to because I have a nicer camera. But I tell myself every now and then that I should go back to my earlier posts, back when I was using a camera I had dropped into chocolate cake batter (that was a fun  post), and re-take the photographs in order to update them.

Then I answer myself by saying that those pictures help preserve the evolution of Southern Plate and let people see how far I’ve come in my little unintentional photographic oddesy. Like most folks, I’m 100% on board with historical preservation when it means avoiding something I really don’t want to do anyway.

I do enjoy the photographs after the fact, especially when I’ve fussed with them and gotten them so pretty that my mother or a friend will call and tell me I’ve done a good job. But I can’t help but fall back on that voice in my head that drowns out all the others, the little practical side of me who rolls her eyes whenever I work on drizzling syrup just right or trying to position a strawberry so it doesn’t have a shadow and says “Look, you cooked it to eat, not to build a shrine to it.” By the time I’m supposed to be putting food on a plate to make it pretty my attention span is lost and I really just wanna call the kids into supper.

I did hang in there with these pictures but by the end you’ll see I was hungry and these amazing chicken patties were getting the best of me…

So now you know my secret.

Well, one of them anyway.

I hate food photography.

There are more but they’re not nearly as interesting.

You’ll need: Shredded Chicken*, Milk, Saltine crackers, poultry seasoning, onion, 2 eggs, salt, and pepper.

*GREATEST HINT EVER ON SHREDDING CHICKEN! 

Take hot cooked chicken, with no bones, and place in the bowl of your stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, turn it on low for a minute, then turn it up to medium or so for another minute. The result? Perfectly shredded chicken! That is how I shredded the chicken pictured here!

Place Saltines in a large ziplock bag and roll over them really good with a rolling pin.

This is just one of many ways to crush them. I usually get them started being crushed in the sleeve.

Do you have some clever way of doing this? Food processor perhaps? Get the kids involved? Run over them with your car?

Toss the ziplock bag onto the floor in a room full of flamenco dancers? Use them to line the floor of an elephant performance ring? Share your suggestions below!

Chop up your onion really well.

In a small bowl, combine eggs, seasonings, and milk.

Oh! I got to meet Dolly Parton last Friday! Seriously!

If you look to the right, you’ll see a play button and you can click that to hear all about where I was and what I was doing on this week’s Southern Fried Radio Show

Mix them up really well with a fork.

In a separate bowl place your chicken, cracker crumbs, and onion.

Stir that up well.

Pour in your liquid ingredients

(That dark stuff is the poultry seasoning floating on the top. I know it’s kinda ugly and I apologize. I started to put a soft focus on it or photo shop it to make it look better but then I thought “Get a grip, It’s poultry seasoning.“)

Stir that up really well.

Now cover this with a towel and let it sit for about five minutes.

Don’t you just love flour sack towels? That’s what people used in the old days, literally the sacks that flour came in, repurposed into towels. They were also repurposed into a lot of clothing, specifically undies and bloomers. Little girls would be outside playing and the wind would blow their dresses a bit and you’d see what brand of flour their Mama’s used

Form into patties with your hands, pressing together really well as you form them.

I make big old patties for sandwiches and usually end up with about five but you can easily make smaller ones and get seven or eight.

Now put about a tablespoon or so of oil in a skillet, heat it on medium heat for a minute or two, and pop those puppies in there.

Cook until browned on both sides, flipping once (or twice if you need to, ain’t nobody gonna judge here)

I needed a better pic so I took my skillet with the finished chicken patties out to the sunroom.

They did a good job posing, didn’t they? They were probably thinking “If we’re really still, maybe she’ll hurry up and get us out of this hot skillet!”

So at this point, It was closing in on afternoon when I as taking this shot, which means the sun was in a great position to cast shadows on the plate – which is exactly what you don’t want…..

But I don’t always want to cook supper at two o clock in the afternoon and reheat it when we’re ready to eat. Today, I was being a rebel and cooked supper when I wanted — with no regard to the lighting. As a result, this is the best photo. ~sighs~

Now I have remorse. but I whenever I feel guilty at the time – my stomach overrides it.

Here is another shot with shadows and obvious signs of me wanting to eat more than I wanted a good photo. Maybe I’ll make up for it by including a casserole in this year’s family Christmas picture or something…

Those are sweet and sour green beans by the way. Green beans with bacon and some other delicious seasonings. Click here for that recipe. I make a huge batch of them about once a month and then freeze them in quart sized zipper seal bags to heat up whenever we need a quick side. They microwave well and you can’t ever tell they weren’t freshly made. Good stuff right there.

As are these chicken patties. Goodness gracious are they ever good!

This is what it looks like inside. Incredibly tender and flavorful. These also freeze very well! You can cook and then freeze or freeze and then cook.

Life and recipes are far more versatile than we realize .

Put a big smile on, bring your best attitude, and dive in head first!

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Submitted by Angela Lewis. Submit your quote by clicking here. 

Now tell me, what is the most creative and/or elaborate way you can think of to crush saltine crackers?  

Oh, about the wardrobe malfunction…

Towards the middle of the video, as I was talking and we were filming, I looked down and PLOP, one of my earrings fell right into the middle of the skillet! I remember saying something like “Oh! there’s my earring!” and then we cut so I could get it out and keep on rolling! I hope you enjoy this video as much as I enjoyed filming it.

Remember, just click the link at the bottom to get the recipe!

To get this Sloppy Joe recipe, click here. 

To view more of my Southern Living Quick Fix Videos,

visit my Quick Fix Suppers page on SouthernLiving.com! 

“He’s more turned around than a flyin’ squirrel in a tornado!”

Old Southern Saying submitted by Vicki. To submit your old Southern Saying, click here. 

Of course, if it is on SouthernPlate.com, you know it’s a favorite of mine so I hope you’ll enjoy all of these. Be sure and let me know which are your favorites in the comments section below and if you have time, I’d love it if you read my letter at the bottom of this post. I know you’re busy and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you taking a few minutes out of your day to spend with me.

Gratefully,

Christy

Almost No Sugar Ice Cream Grahamwiches

I dearly love these little wonders and they can be made at a fraction of the cost and calories of what you’d buy in the store. What’s even better is that they are absolutely delicious and super easy!

Frozen Cranberry Banana Salads

This was one of Granny Jordan’s signature recipes and I’ve never met a person who didn’t fall in instant love with them.

Ashley Mac’s Coconut Caramel Pie

Ashley Mac’s is a treasure located in Birmingham, Alabama. The owner shared her signature recipe for this delicious pie in a guest post on SouthernPlate.com!

Front Porch Salads

On those days where I’m really hot and need a special fruity treat, these really hit the mark. My mother loves them, too!

Mandarin Orange Pie

If you love the icing on my Mama’s Mandarin Orange Cake, you’re really gonna love his cool and fruity pie!

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This is just a sampling of some of the many shortcut and quick fix desserts on SouthernPlate.com. If there is something in particular you are looking for be sure and check out the index or type it into the search box in the top right hand corner.

To go directly to the dessert index, click here (scroll down a bit until you see Category: Dessert).

If you’re looking for some main course ideas that are easy on the budget, check out my 20 Recipes for Ground Beef post!

I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. I’m getting ready for my son’s twelfth birthday party tomorrow. We’ll be having a slumber party so y’all say a quick prayer for me that my walls are still standing when I take them all home on Thursday. He has become quite the trekkie as of late. So much so that his cake, instead of saying “Happy Birthday” is going to say “Live Long And Prosper”. ~giggles~ Don’t you just love your kid’s personalities? Both of my kids have added such sparkle to my life!

There is another significant birthday this week as well. Three years ago this Friday, I started my first post on Southernplate.com. It sure has been a wild and wonderful ride and I never expected all of the blessings Southern Plate has brought into my life. What I am most grateful for is my Southern Plate Family, which wouldn’t be the same without you.

I’ll be around this week, but in and out as I get ready for Brady’s birthday and prep for a little business travel but I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you. Southern Plate would be nothing without you and the rest of the Southern Plate family. I hope you know how very dear you are to me.

Gratefully,

Christy

“If you can’t see the bright side of life, polish the dull side.”

Jyl Nipper on her Facebook.

(You can join me on my Facebook by clicking here)

A note about Facebook: Have you ever wanted to make a difference in the world? Well let me tell ya, Facebook is a fertile field just waiting to be planted! Being positive in your status updates has a ripple effect on everyone who reads them so go ahead, inspire someone! In the end, I bet you’ll feel pretty uplifted and encouraged yourself!

These little frozen gems come to us courtesy of Granny Jordan’s recipe box. She was known for her frozen salads and her personal favorite were the frozen Cranberry Banana Salads which she always kept on hand. As good as those are, I think these are my favorite though. They just taste so summery! If you’ve had about all you can take of dreary skies and cold days this is the taste that will perk you right up!

The great thing about it is that you can make up a batch and keep them in your freezer to have on hand anytime for last minute company or treats while sitting on the porch. I think you’ll enjoy the convenience of these and I know you’ll enjoy the fresh summer flavor!

Read the bottom of this post to find out why I named these Front Porch Fruit Salads

~Grins and gets really excited~

To make our Front Porch Salads, you’ll need: Greek Yogurt, Canned Apricots, Canned crushed Pineapple, Orange Juice concentrate, Frozen sweetened strawberries, ripe bananas, and a little bit of sugar.

Now let me tell ya something about this Greek yogurt pictured here. I’m not one for new fangled things. Although Greek yogurt isn’t new per-say, but it is for where I’m from. Anytime something new comes out, I like to wait it out a bit, give it say, fifty years or so and see if it is still around. If it is, then I know there is probably something to it and I might put it on my list of things to try.

However, my whole family somehow ended up being yogurt people. Both my kids, myself, and even my husband all have our favorite brands and flavors of yogurt.

A year or so ago we were on a family vacation and stopped in at a grocery store. I told everyone to pick out something as a treat and by the time we got up to the register I looked and there were four differen kinds of yogurt in our buggie! Up until then I had not realized how much we all loved it.

So after hearing about Greek yogurt over and over, I decided to forego my usual five decade waiting period and give it a go now. Boy howdee, is that stuff ever good. On it’s own, it is like a very thick sour cream. I like to eat it with a little bit of honey stirred in. In this salad, it creates the perfect blend of creaminess to really make it stand out all the more to me.

In it’s place, though, there are lots of things you can use. Regular yogurt, Sour cream, and even Whipped Topping will work just fine. You can also leave it out entirely because Granny Jordan’s original recipe didn’t have anything creamy in it, I just added this on my own. I know she wouldn’t have minded though.

Open up can of apricots and drain the juice into a measuring cup.

Do the same with the can of crushed pineapple.

Don’t worry about squeezing the juice out of the pineapple, whatever comes out on it’s own will be fine.

We need to dice our apricots so I just take a knife and run it through them several times while they are still in the can.

Your pineapple is already crushed so you’re good to go there.

Now take your reserved juice and sugar…

and put them together in a sauce pot.

Place that on medium heat and stir constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Then set aside.

In a large bowl place your peeled bananas. Moosh them up really well with a fork.

Add pineapple, apricots, strawberries (juice and all), and orange juice concentrate.

Stir well.

Add in yogurt. Stir again.

Pour in the juice mixture from the sauce pan and stir again until it’s all mixed up really well.

Line a muffin tin with paper cups and fill each cup with salad mixture.

Freeze several hours, or until firm.

Pop out of the muffin tin, but leave in the papers, and place salads in gallon zipper seal bags and return to the freezer.

Serve frozen.

Makes about three dozen salads.

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

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The Southern Plate Front Porch

Please note: this giveaway has ended.

We’d still love to have you on the Front Porch though!

This been a great week!

Yesterday was the official launch of the Southern Plate Front Porch, our official forum where folks can share recipes, ask questions, chat about anything from books to tv to grandkids to quilting. With the launch being yesterday, we already have almost two thousand members and nearly as many posts. It’s already become a great community and the past two days I have woke up with a sense of excitement to see how it has evolved next. I do hope you’ll go check it out and join. You can register at the top right of the screen and then once you get validated jump right on in!

To make it fun, I’m going to be giving away an exclusive (not for sale) Southern Plate Apron on the Southern Plate Front Porch Forum each Friday for the next four Fridays.

~Please note that this giveaway has ended~

This week’s Front Porch giveaway apron says “Southern Plate” in green on the front and will be given away tomorrow night on the forum. I will choose a post at random to win so come join in the conversation!

On the Front Porch I asked folks if they had a special quote or saying that they considered to be their “life verse”. Debi shared one that I had never heard or read before and it really struck me as being just the thing we need to hear at certain times in our lives, especially if we find ourselves in a rut or dealing with a problem on a repeated basis.

“You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north.”

~Deuteronomy 2:3. Wow Debi, that can be pretty profound at the right time. Thank you for sharing!

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2011/04/front-porch-fruit-salads-giveaway.html/feed 315 http://www.southernplate.com/2009/10/meatballs-make-many-meals.html http://www.southernplate.com/2009/10/meatballs-make-many-meals.html#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:24:36 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=5856

This past weekend I came across ground beef in five pound packages for $6.25. A few years back I would have considered that expensive but these days it is at least four dollars cheaper than what I normally pay. I did good, though, I only bought twenty pounds. I say that is good because last time I came home with about fifty. Of course, had I the money for more I would have surely gotten that much this go ’round, too! ~giggles~

Ground beef is a mainstay for the family on a budget and homemade meatballs bring you several new options for supper as well as a way to serve ground beef so those eating it don’t exactly think “ground beef again!”. Whats even better in my mind though is how this meatball recipe allows you to stretch your ground beef!

Homemade meatballs are easy to throw together and when made ahead of time and stored in the freezer, they provide a homemade convenience food with options that are only limited by your imagination.

At the end of this post, I have several recipes listed to use with these meatballs and more will be coming up on Southern Plate!

I start with five pounds of ground beef. This is going to make about a hundred meatballs but you can make many more by doubling my add ins or even adding more to your taste, I’ll put some ideas down at the bottom of this post.

Don’t worry about adding things into your meatballs, no one will ever be able to tell when they taste the finished product so your frugality will be our little secret!

To mix this up, you can use a spoon or potato masher if you like but when it comes to things like this, I use the greatest kitchen tool ever invented – my hands .

When it’s all mixed up, shape into meatballs. I love this little cookie scooper that I picked up at the grocery store eons ago. I paid a pretty good bit for it (about six dollars) but if you’re going to make meatballs of any quantity, it really pays for itself.

I make my meatballs about one inch round.

I line all of my baking sheets with aluminum foil and only use baking sheets with a little bit of a lip on them because there will be some grease that we need to pour off once the meatballs are done. Bake at 350 for about thirty minutes. You want them to be browned and no longer pink in the center.

It’s always a good idea to take one and break it in half to check for doneness the first time you try this so that you can get a good time down pat depending on your oven.

I ended up with right at 100 meatballs. Allow them to cool and then package them in quart sized freezer bags, according to how many your family will eat during any given meal. Remember, if you have company drop by you can always get out another bag. I packaged mine in groups of twelve since Katy doesn’t eat meatballs (she is going through that chicken only phase so typical of kids her age these days). Feel free to be more generous with your servings, of course.

Now for the recipes! Weeeeee!

Make Ahead Meatballs

Ingredients

• 5 lbs ground beef
• 1-2 Cups Oats (or cooked rice)
• 2-5 eggs (I use two but you can use more!)
• 1 16oz Can Tomato Sauce (Can use up to 3 cups ketchup in its place)

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredients in large bowl and mix well with hands. Scoop out and form into meatballs approximately one inch thick. Place on foil lined baking sheets that have a lip on them. Bake in batches at 350 for about thirty minutes, storing raw meat covered in the refrigerator while you wait on each batch to bake. Test a meatball to make sure the center is no longer pink. Allow to cool and store in quart sized freezer bags. Use any of the following recipes or create your own!
2. Place frozen meatballs in pot and add one of the following sauces. Cook over medium heat until heated through and serve with rice, egg noodles, or other cooked pasta or grain.

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http://www.southernplate.com/2009/10/meatballs-make-many-meals.html

Spaghetti: Store bought Marinara Sauce or my Super Easy Spaghetti Sauce

• Easy Stroganoff: 1 Can Cream Of Mushroom Soup, 1/2 C milk, salt and pepper (I love this over egg noodles)
• Salisbury Stroganoff: 1 Can Cream Of Mushroom Soup, 1/2 C Milk, 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce (I swear only food bloggers can spell Worcestershire off the top of their heads!)
• Meatball Soup – Recipe Coming Soon! This is one of my Mama’s favorites.
• Meatball Sub- Place heated meatballs in sub. Top with hot marinara sauce and sprinkle with Mozzarella (Great to make the day after Spaghetti and use leftover sauce)

I know you must have some great recipes to use frozen meatballs for, too. Tell me about them in the comments and please feel free to post your entire recipe if you like!

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How Many Servings In A Southern Plate Recipe?

Someone asked me this past week how many people my recipes feed so I thought I’d talk a little about that and then add that question to my Frequently Asked Questions Page (soon as I find a minute).

My recipes feed a typical family of 4-6 people unless otherwise stated.

Of course, it’s difficult to give you an exact number because that is going to depend on what types of eaters you have in your home. Katy eats like a bird but Brady and Ricky eat like horses so it all evens out. We generally have enough left over from most meals for a lunch the next day (which usually ends up being mine). If we have more, I simply freeze the leftovers in individual servings to use as quick convenience lunches later. Having extra food does not mean that you are wasting food, it just means that you have a “freebie” meal sometime in the future.

If you are short on freezer space, it is definitely worth your effort to save up a little and keep your eyes peeled for a good scratch and dent deep freezer. I got my large chest deep freezer for right at $100 because the corner is banged up. It has been a great investment for our family and has saved us what we spent on it a hundred times over.

This is just a good starting point for ya. If you are cooking for two, it’s safe to always cut my recipes in half unless you like to cook extra and freeze, which I do very often.

I’d love to include exact servings and nutritional information on my recipes and posts but that would require an extra “me” and surplus money to make everything on here and measure it out ~laughs~. I’m just showing you Mama and Grandmama’s cooking and seasoning it with a little of my own to bring to you. Folks didn’t think about servings or carbs back in the day. If anyone were to ask one of my grandmothers how many servings a recipe made she’s likely answer, “Enough to feed everyone!”.

So short answer is, whenever I cook I am generally making enough to feed 4-6 people, unless otherwise stated.

On another note, I feel like I say this all the time but I also feel like I could never say it enough : Thank you. Y’all give me so much and each day is even brighter because I have such wonderful people who take time out of their lives to read my ramblings and share a few memories with me. I love how so many of y’all also take the time to comment, turning this into a real conversation and helping to make us more of a family than just some woman’s blog. I love to read your comments and cherish each and every one of them – as well as the folks who write them! Please feel free to chat with each other in comments as well. I know that I’ll often read a comment that really touches me and that must happen to you as well but sometimes folks worry that “conversing” in the comments on Southern Plate might be stepping on my toes. Well let me tell ya, I may have big feet but I keep my toes tucked in really well so y’all go on ahead and make yourself comfortable here! We’re all family and family is family is family. ~thinks that made sense to her~

One more thing, please know that when I sign off “gratefully”, I mean it with all of my heart.

Gratefully,

Christy

P.S. Going on very little sleep this week. I’ve worked on this post late into the night and then early morning. I hope (and think) there aren’t any errors but please forgive me if there are and I’ll correct them as soon as possible!

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

BOUNTIFUL BASKETS ARE  HERE!

For all of those who ordered Bountiful Baskets, we’ll be shipping them out by the end of this week (or as soon as the boxes come in to ship them out in!). I’ll be announcing the winner of the first Bountiful Basket shortly. Thank you!

These are just some of the Bountiful Baskets!

They all come with liners but they are not pictured.

Between Birth and Death there is a small interval called Life.

Take time to ENJOY it.

Submitted by Donna in SC. To submit your quote, please click here.

Lots of inspiration is shared and found on this quote page thanks to all of you!

Todays post is quick and easy to throw together and serves as a wonderful side dish but the versatility allows you to use leftovers to turn this into a main entree! The fun thing about it though is that you can make several ahead of time and freeze them to use in a jiffy at a later date. Reheating may then be done either in the oven or microwave, so this is a win win either way you look at it.

Back when we had people over for dinner on a regular basis, this was a go-to dish for me that I served just about every time. It was a great way to round out the meal without taking any additional prep time and they always got rave reviews. I don’t get to have folks over nearly as often these days, much to my dismay. With the kids getting older and having activities of their own amidst our every quickening schedules, our focus has turned to making sure we get to spend our quality time together as a family.

Things sure were different when I was little though! Its amazing but almost every memory I have of our dinner table growing up includes my mother, father, sister, brother, and at least one or two “extras”. No matter how tight our grocery budget or schedule was, Mama always found time and managed to feed more.

Usually it was a rookie police officer my dad was training, they were riding around in the patrol car so if Daddy was to come home for supper we couldn’t hardly not feed them as well. Sometimes it was a random uncle or bachelor friend of the family and as we got older our friends also clamored into the mix as they got to see that a full supper at our house wasn’t a special occasion but a daily event. There were two kids (well, they were teens at the time) who took to eating at our house and literally ate supper with us every single night for about two years. Mama and Daddy always said that if anything ever happened to them, they hoped someone would do the same for us.

Inviting folks over to dinner is one of those “oldie but goodie” practices that is, in my mind, the ultimate show of welcoming and graciousness towards your neighbors and friends. I’d love to hear from you why you do or don’t have folks over more often. Is it time constraints? Budget? Lack of time alone as a family?

But mostly, I’d love for you to answer a question my mother posed to me recently (because Mama and I sit and come up with the strangest things to talk about from time to time):

If you could have dinner with any living person,

who would it be and why?

I know y’all are going to have some great answers to this so I’m gonna hold off on my answer until I read a few of yours! I’ll post mine in the comments along with y’all. There are no limits here aside from it being a living person.

How bout some loaded ‘taters?

I’m going to show you the ingredients I use but the best stuffed potatoes are the ones made to your individual tastes.

I’ve seen folks add milk, tomatoes, leftover chicken or bbq (yum!), mayonnaise, ricotta cheese, fresh or dried herbs, etc.

The sky is the limit here.

For mine, I use: A few tablespoons of margarine, pre-cooked chopped bacon, green onions, cheddar cheese, and sour cream. I also use a little salt and pepper.

Bake your potatoes and cut them in half lengthwise like this.

*I bake my potatoes by starting them in the microwave on about five minutes, then transferring to a 450 degree oven for about an hour. Sometimes I rub them down with a little cooking oil and sprinkle some coarse sea salt on them before baking like my Great grandmother did. MMM-MM Good!

Scoop out the pulp but leave enough that the skin still has a bit of shape to it. You’ll see what I mean in the next photo.

See? Here are the hollowed out potatoes.

To your pulp, add the margarine, sour cream, salt, and pepper.

Mash up well with a potato masher or just a fork.

Add cheese, mash in.

Like this. Oh my that looks good already!

Add all other toppings.

Stir up well.

Resist urge to eat entire bowl as is.

Decide you want a little bit of garlic powder and add that too…

Whatever cranks yer tractor.

Spoon back into your shells.

Like so.

Now I’m going to take a few and sprinkle with cheddar cheese to bake right now for our supper.

The rest I’m placing in the freezer. My pan has a lid so I’m using that until they are frozen and then placing them in zipper seal bags. You don’t have to cover them for the initial freeze though.

Just place a pan in the freezer for about an hour and then place in zipper sealed bags and return to freezers.

This initial freezing outside of the bag is called “flash freezing” and will keep them from sticking to each other in the bags.

Enjoy!

Loaded Potatoes

Ingredients

• 7 medium sized potatoes, washed
• 1/2 C Sour Cream
• 3 T margarine
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 1 1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese
• 8-10 slices bacon,cooked and chopped

Instructions

1. Bake potatoes and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out pulp, leaving enough for the skin to retain it's shape. In bowl, combine scooped potatoes, butter, and sour cream. Mash together well. Add cheese, mash. Stir in all other ingredients. Spoon filling into potato shells.
2. To bake from frozen: Place on cookie sheet in 350 oven for half an hour, top with cheese and return to oven until melted.
3. To bake from room temp: Top with cheese and place in oven until heated through.
4. Can also be microwaved from frozen or room temp as well. I microwave my frozen ones for a minute and a half to two minutes.

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

I will prepare and someday my chance will come.

~Abraham Lincoln. To submit your quote, click here.

If you’re wondering if I need or would like more quotes submitted, the answer is always “YES!!!”

A member of our Southern Plate Family asked me if I’d put more slow cooker meals on the website with fall coming up. When she posted this on the Southern Plate Family Facebook Page, my wheels started spinning. Who doesn’t love being able to put a meal on the table with a slow cooker?  With our Fall schedules in full swing this is the ultimate time saving way to eat well while saving both money and effort.

When we were teenagers, Mama started working outside the home and began relying on our slow cooker on a regular basis. She still managed to put hearty, kid pleasing meals on the table despite spending a fraction of the time at home. This was one of our standbys and its one of my very favorite “convenience” meals because there is virtually no work to be done to get it on the table once you shred your roast!

As with most slow cooker recipes, this one is versatile. Use a beef roast or pork roast, plain water or beef broth, it’ll still turn out great. You also have plenty of room to customize for your own tastes and still end up with two hearty meals and time on your hands.

To get started, you’ll need a roast. Any old roast will do, be it beef or pork.

I was “down in my back” as folks say and unable to go to the grocery store myself so I had my husband make this meal and do this tutorial. He’s in trouble now because he’s proven he can cook. Fortunately, I am the only one who enjoys cooking so he can stick to building space stations and I’ll stick to browning the beef.

I had my husband go to the grocery store and email me pictures of roasts so I could pick out the one I want. Wee bit obsessive? Of course I am! But I don’t just toss out $14 on meat randomly so I wanted to make sure it was a good one.

Normally I look for a good bit of marbling in my roast in order to ensure a good tender outcome but I wanted more lean meat for this so we got one with minimum marbling.

I am using a few beef bouillon cubes in the water for a little more flavor. You can use beef broth as well or just plain water, whatever you prefer.

Place your roast in the slow cooker.

This is an awesome new slow cooker I have, by Hamilton Beach of course! It’s programmable, which is nice, but the neatest thing in my book is that the lid has a rubber lip around it and locks into place for travel without spills.

I like to send things to my husband’s work and this lid is a life saver. Before we had this slow cooker, I always lined a cardboard box with a towel to place the slow cooker in and hoped for the best. He arrived at work with spills every time (bit of a NASCAR fan, that one). With the holidays coming up and us traveling all about with food, this baby is gonna get a lot of love from me!

Add your water.

And your bouillon cubes.

~blinks and looks at the photo~

Okay apparently Ricky saw fit to latch it down like you would for travel. I normally don’t do that at home but maybe he was afraid it was going to blast off or something. Anyway, you can see how it latches.

That groove in the top is for a spoon to stick into, which comes with it.

I cook mine on high all day.

Normally, anytime you are using a slow cooker (regardless of what you are cooking), times are as follows:

If cooking on High: done in 3-4 hours

If cooking on Low: done in 7-8 hours

But since I was cooking this in water only I wanted it to cook at a  higher temperature longer to be more tender. It is still slow cooking so this concept works. After seven or eight hours, take out your roast and shred it with two forks, like this. Discard liquid or reserve two cups to use in the next step.

This is the part that takes a little elbow grease and I didn’t mind one bit having someone else do it for a change. Ricky asked me later how he did and I said “You did SUCH a wonderful job that I’m going to let you shred the roast from here on out!”.

Take half of your roast and put it back in the slow cooker. Add about two cups of water (or reserved broth).

Place the other half in a zipper bag or sealed bowl and put in the refrigerator or freezer for our next meal.

Pour Taco seasoning in and give it a good stir.

Put the lid back on and keep slow cooker on just until heated through.

Fill tortillas with shredded meat and favorite taco toppings.

In our family that means cheese.

I prefer cheese, tomatoes, sour cream, onions, lettuce, etc…but the majority rules because I’m not going to buy that stuff just for me.

So…cheese.

EAT!

The last picture is always the most difficult to take and this was Ricky’s first shot at Food Photography.

I think it turned out pretty well.

Second Meal

The next day, take out the rest of your shredded meat and place in a sauce pot or a microwave safe bowl.

Pour a bottle of Barbecue sauce over it and heat through.

Serve on buns.

Wasn’t that easy?

2 in 1 Meal: Beef Burritos and BBQ Sandwiches

Ingredients

• 1 Large Roast (4-5 pounds)
• 4 beef boullion cubes (optional)
• 1 packet taco seasoning
• 1 bottle BBQ sauce
• Flour tortillas and favorite toppings
• Hamburger buns

Instructions

1. Slow cook roast all day on high. Remove from slow cooker and shred with fork. Reserve half of meat for second meal. Pour out liquid in slow cooker and return othe half of meat to crock. Add in taco seasoning and two cups of water, stir. Return lid and cook until heated through. Serve on Tortillas.
2. The Next day (or meal), take remaining meat and add bottle of BBQ sauce. Heat through on stove top or in microwave. Serve on buns.

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*Each of these meals fed our family of four with some to spare.

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I’ve been a little under the weather (in body, not spirit!) and am just now getting back up to par. Thank you all for your understanding as I work to get caught up. I really appreciate you taking the time to read Southern plate and hope you know that your comments mean the world to me!

Gratefully,

Christy

P.S. Dr Bailey of Bailey Chiropractic is my new best friend!

Learn From Yesterday,
Live for Today,
Hope For Tomorrow.

Submitted by Dawn. Submit your quote here.

I learned at a young age the value of the wisdom which can only be gleaned by those who have lived a lifetime before us. My parents taught me to listen and they drove the lessons of my grandparents home through repetition and life application. These are things I was fortunate enough to be taught by example and I’ll just bet you have already been taught them, too. Still, it never hurts to have a few of them written out plainly all in one place.

So today, as I bring you an easy method to freeze apples which my mother learned from her step mother, I’m also bringing you a little bit of wisdom directly from the folks who came before us with hopes that you’ll be kind enough to share some of your life’s lessons at the end of this post as well. ~clears her throat and steps up to the black board~

First off, a help with perspective:

Troubles are temporary. So is life.
Decide which one you want to focus on.
This is an extension of “This too, shall pass”, which is a blessing and a curse. Most folks think of it in terms of hard times: hang on, this too shall pass, but it also works for good times and moments of joy.

Holding your newborn babe? This too, shall pass.
Spending an afternoon with your mother? This too shall pass.

Live in the moment, Focus on what is important. Don’t let that time with your mother pass with you living in the hardships instead of the joy. That’s not to say don’t worry about paying your bills but don’t spend all of your time in the presence of your loved ones seeing only your bills instead of their faces before you.

If you can’t say something nice…
This is a big one that most folks learn around preschool, but it seems in our modern era that a great many have either forgotten it or decided to ignore it. In the age of the internet where people get all trumped on a power trip of anonymity, it is even worse. Before we are quick to think ill of another, and most especially before we are quick to speak ill of another, we need to put ourselves in their shoes and realize that they are a person just like us. It never hurts to think of how our words will affect their family either. Remember, the trues test of character is who we are when no one is looking.

Just because someone has money doesn’t mean they’re better than you. Just because someone doesn’t have money, doesn’t mean you’re better than them.

Good people come in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Don’t let the friend of your heart pass you by because you can’t see past one of these obstacles.

Wisdom doesn’t come automatically with age.
 This is a very important one to me that I am always striving for. When I was a girl, I thought everyone older than me was automatically wiser than me. That rug gets pulled out from under your feet pretty quick! I’ve found that the folks who seem to have the most wisdom and understanding are those who have valued and sought it throughout their lives, using each situation to try to become a better person or to have a better understanding of others.

More often than not, doing the right thing won’t be easy and no one will even know you did it.
Your reward for being a good person is being a good person. Be glad you can sleep at night and get over it. You may not have a parade thrown in your honor but personal pride counts for something. Hold your head high and know your Mama would be proud of the person you have become. Honor, Integrity, and your good name cannot be bought or sold. They must work for and careful cultivated through a lifetime.

At the end of the day, there is always something to be grateful for.
To me, no one was a better teacher of this than my great grandmother, Lela. Most folks who consider themselves to have hard lives by today’s standards would change their thinking pretty quick were they to live just half a day in Lela’s shoes during her younger years. A sharecropper with four children to feed and take care of and a husband whose primary talent was taking what little money they acquired and spending it for his own entertainment purposes. She and her children worked from sun up til sun down, sometimes going to bed hungry because there simply wasn’t any food. They’d come in from a long days work in the fields and the kids would fall asleep wherever they sat first. Lela would walk around with a bowl of water and an old rag and wash the dirt off their feet.

But you know what? Lela always felt she had a lot to be grateful for. All four of her children were healthy. They had a roof over their heads, and though it was meager, they had food. Lela was wise enough to see these things as blessings rather than focus on their predicament as a curse. As a result of her attitude, we are now on our fifth generation of positive thinkers in this family and every single one of them have been happier and more fulfilled by growing up learning from her teachings of gratitude.

This is where you come in. What life’s lessons have you been taught by your elders that have guided you to be the person you are today? I’d love to hear them and a little about the person who loved you enough to teach them to you. I’m always talking about my grandparents, now it’s your turn!

Eventually, I get around to the tutorial so here are the apples we’re gonna freeze today.

This method works for any type of apples. Today I am freezing Jonagold and Fuji. If you’re going to be freezing them for a pie later, you might want to cut up a few granny smith and include some in each bag.

You’ll need about a gallon of water. First though, pour about a cup of that warm into a large bowl. Add about 1/4 of a cup of salt.

Stir until salt is dissolved.

Add the remaining water. This water should be cold.

Now we’re gonna peel our apples and slice them up one at a time.

Cut them however you prefer.

I usually do sections.

Be sure and remove the core.

There we go!

As you cut them, place all of the slices in the salt water.

I left the skins on some of mine because I prefer my fried apples to have the skin on.

Push them down in the water a bit and make sure they all get submerged good at some point.

After they have soaked for a few minutes, drain them in a colander.

Then place in freezer bags and label.

Laying them out flat like this when you freeze them will keep them from sticking together and allow them to thaw quicker.

Here is a bag of apples a few days later, frozen and still beautiful thanks to the wisdom from the “old folks”!

You can take these apples directly from frozen and use them fried, in muffins, cakes, or pies!

No, they won’t have a salty taste!:)

Freezing Apples

Ingredients

• Apples
• 1 Gallon water
• 1/4 C Salt
• Freezer Bags

Instructions

1. Place one cup warm water in a large bowl. Stir in salt until dissolved. Add remaining water cold. Peel and slice apples (can leave skin on them if desired). Place each slice in salt water as you go along. When done with all apples, stir water a bit to make sure all have been submerged. Drain in a colander. Place immediately in freezer bags, label, and freeze.

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Some of my favorite Southern Plate apple recipes:

• Apple Dapple Cake
• Apple Skillet Cake
• Fried Apples
• Crock Pot Apple Butter
• Apple Flautas
• Apple Orchard Snack Cake

Live in the North Alabama area and looking for apples? Try Isom’s orchard in Athens, that is where these beauties came from!

“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.”

~George Santayana. To submit your quote, click here.

 

Please share a life lesson you were taught by your parents, grandparents, or just someone who came before you below. If you like, feel free to just use the space to brag on the good folks who raised you!

(Originally posted July 10, 2008. Please see letter at bottom)

Tea rooms in the south are a far cry from formalized locales where you sit up straight, sip hot tea, and nibble on a scone. In the south, our tea rooms have a relaxed and bright atmosphere. They are filled with smiling ladies gathered together for a special treat of girl time – away from kids, husbands and demands of home. Plates are filled with an assortment of salads: potato, vegetable, pea, macaroni, and chicken or ham usually served inside a fresh buttery croissant. Tea is still drank over ice, served in special stemmed “iced tea” glasses.

While the salads vary by tearoom, I have personally never been to one which did not serve a frozen cranberry salad such as this. Creamy, fruity, light tasting and just the right size when prepared in a little muffin paper, this is the quintessential tearoom must have and a very special treat to enjoy at home.

This recipe came from my husband’s grandmother, Granny Jordan. She was the embodiment of everything a southern lady should be. Practically anytime guests happened by, she was always prepared with a warm welcome and plenty of southern hospitality thanks to these little delights.

Once you make them, simply remove the muffin papers from your tins, pop them into Ziploc freezer bags and have an instant company worthy dessert or special treat for yourself anytime!

As always, the entire recipe is at the bottom of the page. You will need sour cream, sugar, whipped topping, crushed pineapple, two cans of whole berry cranberry sauce, and four bananas. I used light cool whip and light sour cream but you can use whichever type you like.

Drain pineapple well and put in large mixing bowl. Add sugar.

And whipped topping….

Add whole berry cranberry sauce and sour cream.