These big old potato wedges have all the taste, texture, and deliciousness of fried fries – but without all the mess. Kids love ‘em, Teens love ‘em, and adults come running (just ask my friend Jyl, who I shared this recipe with over the summer).

I don’t know many people who don’t love potatoes. They’re filling, fairly inexpensive, and I can come up with a hundred delicious ways to prepare them off the top of my head.

My biggest problem is choosing just one!

I had an epiphany when I was in my early twenties though. I went out to eat with a friend and when she placed her order she ordered a steak with french fries AND baked potato! I looked at her with wide eyes and said “You mean you can do that?” She laughed at me, much like I would laugh at the same question nowadays.

We realize we live in a free country until we come to the food dictators.

So often I’ll post a photo of a plate that has say, mashed potatoes, corn, and a piece of chicken on it and someone will inevitably chime in with “I don’t see anything green on that plate!” which is COMPLETELY wrong because whenever I have a meal with no green vegetables I ALWAYS make sure to put them on one of my corelle spring blossom plates so that the ENTIRE plate is edged around with little green flowers.

How could you not see that?

In all seriousness though, I understand what we were taught in Home Ec but contrary to popular belief, you do not have to eat the entire food pyramid in one sitting. If you did, settle in for  milk, fruit, vegetables, meat, rice/pasta, fortified bread, oil/fat, and a vitamin supplement.

Instead of choking all of that down in one sitting, if something in your heart just dies when you don’t see a green vegetable on your supper plate, just eat a salad for lunch – then hold onto that memory while you dig into some corn and potatoes, or better yet, potatoes and potatoes!

You’ll need: 3 Medium to large baking potatoes, Salt, garlic powder, butter (or margarine), and Parmesan cheese.

For the Parmesan, I use that powdered kind that you find near the spaghetti sauces and such that isn’t refrigerated.

For the Salt, I’m using sea salt but you can use kosher salt or even regular table salt if you like, no worries.

Mix up your parmesan, garlic powder, and salt in a shallow dish.

Like this.

Cut each potato into 8 long wedges.

Then set up a station with melted butter in a dish, topping mixture in a dish, and your potatoes along with a baking sheet that you’re going to cook them on.

Dip each potato wedge in melted butter on all sides…

Then roll the cut sides in the parmesan mixture.

That’s right, just cut sides. The side with the skin on it doesn’t need to be coated.

Place all of those on a baking sheet and bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes, or until they are good and tender and nicely browned.

These incredibly flavored fries are perfect with just about anything, or on their own! When I photographed this recipe I had them with my Meatloaf Burgers.

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

 
“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

~Kurt Vonnegut

To read more inspirational and encouraging quotes or submit your own, please click here. I’m in need of more quotes. If you fear yours has been submitted before don’t fret, the best ones bear repeating.

This slaw is one of my very favorite accompaniments to a big old juicy hamburger, especially a Mouthwatering Meatloaf Burger like I posted yesterday! It’s simple to make and compliments beef really well.

I ‘m really excited to get to speak to an elementary school today so I’m gonna dive right in here with the recipe to allow myself more time later to get my ducks in a row before heading out. Hope y’all have a wonderful day!

Let’s get cookin’!

You’ll need: White vinegar, cole slaw mix, sugar, and Season All. 

Yup that’s all. I know we see these long drawn out recipes all over the place so sometimes when we happen upon an easy on we stand there like a deer in headlights for a minute.

Can it be that easy? 

But….but…it appears to be written in English! There are no words I have to look up in order to understand this! 

I don’t have to take off work a half day to make this? How could I possibly enjoy it then! 

Calm down. Relax. Get off the gussied up recipe freeway.

Good food doesn’t have to be complicated and complicated food isn’t always good anyway. 

If it makes you feel better, you can shred the cabbage and carrots yourself instead of buying this bag (you overachiever, you!). Just get a small head of cabbage and about 2 carrots (whatever size you grab first) and shred those puppies up.

Pour sugar into vinegar. 

Stir that up a minute or so or until you’re tired of fooling with it. 

Most folks would say until your sugar is dissolved but we’re gonna pour this over our cabbage and let it marinate for a bit and the sugar can dissolve just fine during that process without needing me to babysit it

Add Season All…

…which has no MSG. Not that I, personally, have a vendetta against MSG but I know a lot of folks do and suspicions would be raised in the comments about whether or not this was evil.

I don’t get on the food is bad bandwagons because, in my line of work, I have entire wagon trains of various and assorted bandwagons coming by every single day and if I took up every cause I’d end up huddled in a corner wearing a straight jacket and starving to death.

Having said that, I am a big respecter of personal convictions. I just keep the majority of my own convictions personal

Stir that up. Again just until you’re tired of fooling with it. 

Put your coleslaw mix in a big old bowl and pour our vinegar mixture over it. 

Stir it really good until it is all coated. 

Put a lid on this and place it in the fridge for about half an hour (or more if you need to)

During that time it will wilt down significantly and become filled with even more wondrous yumminess.

Use to top your favorite burger – I especially love it on these Mouthwatering Meatloaf Burgers that I posted yesterday.

Now go make it a GREAT day!

Falling in love is not a choice.  To stay in love is.

~Unknown

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2013/04/burger-slaw.html/feed 45 http://www.southernplate.com/2013/03/squashzucchini.html http://www.southernplate.com/2013/03/squashzucchini.html#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:52:05 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=22473

This is a simple recipe, simply prepared with simple ingredients – with a wonderfully simple but delicious taste. you know, so many of the best dishes are that way. They don’t need to be complicated or over thought in order to be delicious. I’ve convinced that most of life is meant to be that way as well – simple. Yet, we manage to overcomplicate it every single day. We can take something that is meant to be a line drawing and complicate it to the point of being a Monet.

There is a video on Youtube….Don’t worry, it’s not cute kittens or puppies doing tricks. My daughter loves those and I’ve had to sit through entire days of cute kitten videos (I’m being totally serious). They are cute and all that and I love kittens but I’m no longer in my pink puffy clouds and unicorn phase of life so when Katy Rose calls for a marathon, I come up with excuses to clean the house and cook things for her to keep her strength up as it goes into the third hour.

This video I’m taking about today is Youtube gold and I dearly love the woman in it. Apparently, it is about a year or so old but, being out of the loop as I am, I am just now seeing it.

Sweet Brown, a woman that I would love to sit down to a meal with, is being interviewed about a fire in her apartment. She tells how it took her by surprise and she ran out for her life once she realized what it was, then complains about an injury to her throat and ends with “I got bronchitis, Ain’t nobody got time for that!”

That’s my favorite line for 2013.

Ain’t nobody got time for that. As simple as it can be and it says so much.

To make it even better, someone has made a song of it so now I can sing it to myself as much as I want. “Ain’t nobody got time for that! Ain’t nobody got time for that! Ain’t nobody got time, ain’t nobody got time, ain’t nobody got time for that!”

Some folks look at the musical version and think it’s making fun of her, I watch that video like she’s a preacher and I’m the congregation. Preach it, Sweet Brown!

My great grandmother didn’t have time for that, either. She used to pick cotton in the blistering hot fields with her kids all day. When they headed back at the end of the day, there was a fence they had to climb across to get to their little shack house. After a day of picking and dragging that heavy cotton sack behind her, Lela would be so tired that she couldn’t lift her leg to climb over the fence. My grandmama says “The kids could climb the fence but mama was too tired to climb, so she’d just fall over it.” 

Think about all of the other options available to her. She could have just stood there and whined. She could have had her kids try to help her over each day. But she didn’t have time for that. She had kids who were tired and hungry and she still had to prepare and cook supper for all of them. So she just fell over the fence and kept on going.

Last year around this time I shared with y’all about the day that I ended up needing a good many stitches in my head. I had an accident at home alone one day that resulted in a pretty impressive L shaped gash in the top of my skull. I was immediately perturbed because I had work to do. I took a photo of the wound and texted it to my friend Jyl, who used to be a paramedic, hoping she’d text me back and tell me it was okay to walk it off. She called me back laughing. “I think you gonna need to go to the emergency room kinda quick.” 

Crud! I called my family doctor and told him “I don’t have time to go to the hospital and sit around all day, if you can see me I’ll come in but other than that I’ll just deal with it.” 

He laughed at me too, but let me come in and stitched me up on his lunch hour. I had to put on a baseball cap and tuck all of my red stained hair up in it as I drove myself down there so I wouldn’t freak out people in traffic. I got my stitches, wore my baseball cap back home, took a shower real quick before the numbness wore off, dried and curled my hair, reapplied my makeup, cleaned up the stains from my carpet and washed the towels I’d used to try to stop it from bleeding. Then, drove to pick up the kids from school and came home to cook supper.

When my husband came home he said “Did you get a lot done today?”

I said “Well not really.”

I’d lost valuable work time taking care of that nonsense. 

I had other options that day. I could have laid down and cried and called folks and told them I had a profusely bleeding head wound. I could have even called 911 and had them send an ambulance for me. I’m sure ambulances go for lesser things. 

I could have called up my husband and made him miss a good day of work, too, to take me to the hospital. You really don’t want to go to the hospital around here unless you have a good bit of your life to dedicate to it. I think the wait is their version of triage. They figure the only folks who are serious are the ones willing to wait 8 hours, so they decide to see you at that point. I had kids to pick up from school and supper to cook and a mess to clean up and work still left to do. I didn’t have time for that.

The main thing, though, is that I was perfectly capable of taking care of it myself, so there was no reason to pull other’s away from what they were doing or cause a stir.

I had a friend who once said to me, “You’re the type of woman who would give birth in the fields and then go right back to picking cotton.”

My first and immediate thought was “Well, somebody’s gotta pick it.”

You know, it’s that inner drill sergeant of mine. The one I installed in my brain. It’s all in the way I talk to myself.

I’ve struggled with gravely deep depression in my life. Since I clawed my way out of that black pit, I’ve spent every day since making sure I don’t go back.

I’m like a recovering alcoholic who won’t allow themselves to be around alcohol. I won’t listen to certain music, I won’t watch certain tv shows, I won’t even read certain books or articles. I keep my head high and my thoughts on things worthwhile.

When I’m in a bad mood or feeling down I tell myself “I’ve been there and I ain’t going back. So if you want to hang around here, bad mood, you’d best suck it up and get happy real quick because I’ve got work to do.”

I used to lay in bed and bemoan that I had to get up, but one day that common sense side of me said “Well, you gonna lay here and whine about wanting more sleep or are you going to get up and put this day to good use? “

We don’t dedicate a day to being miserable. We don’t do a series of posts on Facebook about it. We don’t call up Mama and Daddy and cry over the phone.

So you’re tired, but there is a fence in front of you and you’ve got hungry kids. You can climb over it or you can fall over it, but it’s a fence that has to be gotten over one way or another.

Well, you need stitches. You’d best just accept it and get them so you can get back here and clean up this mess.

So life is hard. You can whine or you can stand up straighter and start conquering it.

I decided several years back that as long I’ve got a life to live, you won’t find me laid out on the fainting couch.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

Now let’s cook.

You’ll need: Yellow Squash, Zucchinni, butter*, salt, and pepper.

*You can use 1/2 cup water in place of butter if you like. The butter does add a nice flavor hint but the veggies also taste wonderful on their own.

Place butter or water in large skillet over medium high heat.

Slice vegetables.

I always eat a few slices raw because you know, cooking is hard work and you’ve got to keep your strength up!

Add veggies to skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring every few minutes, until veggies become translucent, about 8-10 minutes.

You don’t want them so cooked that they cry uncle, but just enough to make them tender.

Remove to bowl or platter.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper according to your taste, and serve.

This side dish is simple and clean tasting and goes really well with pretty much anything. You can serve this as is or add in other vegetables while it cooks, too! Try adding onions, tomatoes, thin sliced carrots, or anything else you have on hand!

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts.

Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts.

Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me …

Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”

~ Shel Silverstein

Submitted by Jenny. Click here to read more wonderful quotes and submit yours, too.

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2013/03/squashzucchini.html/feed 77 http://www.southernplate.com/2013/02/3-ingredient-rice-pilaf.html http://www.southernplate.com/2013/02/3-ingredient-rice-pilaf.html#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:23:20 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=22046

To get the recipe for the Oven Steak Kabobs pictured here, please click here.

Rice is a wonderfully filling meal stretcher and if you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for another way to use it!

When I was shopping for my Steak Kabobs post, I tossed around an easy rice pilaf idea in my head and instantly thought of vegetable soup mix and how flavorful it is. I wanted a rice pilaf that didn’t have you going to the pantry for fifty thousand different herbs so decided this was definitely worth a try.

Oh my goodness, we love it! My only complaint from the kids was that I didn’t make enough, so next time I’ll be doubling this recipe so we can have some for later.

To start with, you’ll need some dry rice, a packet of vegetable soup mix, and a few chicken bouillon cubes.

I also used a little fresh parsley but that was mainly because I was photographing it. Don’t think for one second I’m gonna run out and buy parsley just for the heck of it. I do keep dried parsley in my pantry, though.

You can use chicken broth in place of the cubes if you like but I prefer bouillon cubes for budget reasons.

Place all ingredients (plus water) in a small saucepot.

Bring this to a boil, stirring every now and then, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed.

Stir in some fresh or dried parsley if you would like – skip this step entirely if you’d rather

Fluff it up a bit and enjoy!

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy.

It is what you think about.”

~Dale Carnegie

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2013/02/3-ingredient-rice-pilaf.html/feed 34 http://www.southernplate.com/2013/01/cheesy-baked-vidalia-dip.html http://www.southernplate.com/2013/01/cheesy-baked-vidalia-dip.html#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2013 15:21:14 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=21940 If you’re on Pinterest, I’d love it if you could use that button above! Thanks

I have something on my heart to share with you today but it is a little deep so I’m going to put it at the bottom of the post instead of the top. In it’s place waaaay up here at the beginning is a recipe for a cheesy baked vidalia dip that will have your stomach growling and your tongue wagging!

This stuff is ooey, gooey, cheesy to a whole new level, and the flavorful bites of sweet onion take all of that to new heights. Oh how I love this dip. I could eat it til I was sick off of it, it’s so good.

I first had this at a football party a decade or so ago. I know a lot of people really enjoy watching football and I try to support that by hanging out in the kitchen to leave more room for them around the tv. The hostess had just taken it out of the oven and it was just a bubbling so nicely on top of a folded up dishtowel. I asked her what it was and she immediately started telling me the recipe. I dipped a corn chip into it and decided to keep that bubbly dish company for a little while .

There are all sorts of recipes with all sorts of ingredients out there for this amazingly delicious dip, but I just streamlined and put together what was needed to make it. In a world that strives to make everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be, I prefer to simplify things whenever possible. Here is my recipe for Cheesy Baked Vidalia Dip in all of it’s four ingredient glory. If you’re gonna have folks gathering around a tv this weekend, this gooey cheesy deliciousness is guaranteed to be a hit!

Tomorrow I’ll be sending out a special Super Bowl edition of my newsletter, filled with great recipes for your big game parties! If you don’t already subscribe, you can do so by clicking here. I am the only one that will ever have access to your email and you’ll generally get 2-3 emails a week from me for recipe newsletters and whenever I post a new recipe.

 You’ll need: Mayo, Mozzarella and Cheddar Cheese, Cream Cheese, and some sweet onions. 

Ideally, you’d like Vidalia onions but they don’t come into season until late spring so just get a sweet yellow onion and you’ll be just fine.

About cheese: Okay, I know the pre-shredded stuff is handy to have and I’m a HUGE fan of it BUT for this recipe to be it’s ooiest and gooiest, you gotta get a block of cheese and shred it yourself at home. Pre-shredded is coated in anti caking agents to prevent it from clumping and that prevents it from melting together completely when you bake it as well. HOWEVER, if you just really don’t want to shred your cheese for this or if you already have preshredded on hand and don’t want to spend extra money, go ahead and use it and it’ll be just fine. I just wanted to throw that little tip out there and let you know that I shred it fresh for this when I make it – in most cases.

And y’all know I don’t like mayo so if you don’t like mayo, don’t worry because you don’t really taste it in this. Please try not to leave comments about how unSouthern I am for not liking mayo and football. I’m sure they’ll deport me any day now due to these things so I’m trying to enjoy what little time I have left here. ~sobs and pauses as she envisions being forced out of her beloved homeland by mayo wielding football fans~ Okay, over that, now let’s move on. ~grins~

 You only need half of that brick of cream cheese so cut half of it up into little cubes and put into a large mixing bowl. 

Place this in the microwave for 30-45 seconds just to soften it. 

Chop up your onions until you’re tired of chopping up onions.

The ideal here would most likely be finely diced, but can you really see me sticking with it that long? You can use one of those little mini chopper things for this if you want.

This is my cream cheese after 45 seconds in the microwave.

I went to touch it lightly with my finger to see if it was soft and poked a big old hole in it because it was definitely soft!

Sidenote: I love smilies in posts. In fact, every time I finish a post, before I publish it, I have to go back and remove a bunch of smilies that I had just naturally typed while I was writing. Whenever I smile at something, I tend to put a smiley face in it, and that is FAR too many smilies to leave in a post. So whenever you see one smilie like this —> please know that there were originally more like this —-

Toss your onions on top of your cream cheese.

Toss your cheese on top of that.

Put some mayo on top of all of that…

And stir it all up pretty good.

Spray a baking dish with cooking spray.

This is a 1.5 quart baking dish. You can use an 8×8 dish or anything in the general vicinity of that size and it’ll be just fine.

Spoon it all into the dish and bake at 375 for 25-30 minutes.

Oh have mercy! It will look like this.

Lean in to your computer and see if you can smell that. You can’t?

Well can you at least hear it bubbling? You can’t?

Well good gravy child! I reckon you’re just gonna have to make it yourself then!

You can serve this with corn chips (I use the scoops kind) or crackers.

My favorite choice for crackers would be Wheat Thins or Triscuits.

And now for today’s thoughts…

You know, some days it just feels like the world is beating up on us. We’re hit from all sides with complaining, criticism, and negativity being shipped in by the boatloads with countless people at the docks waiting to unload as if it’s crates of gold. People don’t just complain and find fault, they get EXCITED when they find more opportunities to complain and find fault.

To quote a bit of ancient Jewish wisdom on the subject “Oy Vey!” 

The crazy thing is, it’s really easy for us to end up just like them and not even realize it until we find ourself at the end of a day filled with complaints. You know the thing about complaining though?

At any given point in all of our lives, there are just as many things to be grateful for as there are to complain about. One of the greatest verses applies to this, although it was not the original intent. “Seek and ye shall find.” So basically, what I’m saying here is that if we are finding things to be grateful for, that shows the state of our heart and the decision in our mind of what we want to look for. If someone is finding only things to complain about, that is clearly a result of what they are seeking. While one person may say “Oh, this water doesn’t taste good.” Another looks and says “Oh how wonderful! We have water!” While one looks at a plate of food and says “What a wonderful plate of food! What a bounty, how blessed we are!” another may look and say “There aren’t enough vegetables on that plate. It looks boring.”

While this has always been the way of mankind since the very beginning, it’s multiplied countless times over with our ready access to each other’s thoughts through social media and the internet. Where we used to only have to hear complaining and negativity from those we worked with or interacted with throughout the day, now we add in a few hundred of our nearest and dearest friends, family, coworkers, and facebook pages and our cup runneth over and maketh a pond of debris each and every day.

It gets to be too much for the best of us at times, and certainly does for me.

How do we deal with this constant bombardment?

Here is a bit of wisdom from me to you that has helped me keep my sanity:

• Facebook has a logout button
• The tv can turn off
• Phones can power down

When it feels like negativity is the only thing flowing through the wires, unplug from the connection unplug from the constant connection.

Get outside. Take a walk. Look up at the trees and remember how small it all is in comparison.

I can promise that this will lead to better mental, spiritual, and physical health. It will cause more smiles, decrease angst, and you’ll breathe deeper than you have in years.

Now go make some Cheesy Baked Vidalia Dip – and have a WONDERFUL life today!

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2013/01/cheesy-baked-vidalia-dip.html/feed 176 http://www.southernplate.com/2012/11/easy-candied-sweet-potatoes.html http://www.southernplate.com/2012/11/easy-candied-sweet-potatoes.html#comments Mon, 12 Nov 2012 01:22:50 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=21241 If you’re looking for Grandmama’s Sweet Potato Casserole, please click here. 

Hey Everyone!

This is Christy’s Mama. She’s having a photo shoot today and tomorrow at her house so I thought I’d chime in with one of my recipes while she works on that. If you
are looking for a wonderful, old-fashioned, mouth watering, easy and quick Thanksgiving side, look no further!  Here it is and so easy. The best part, no one will believe you are not a top chef in your kitchen.  

hold against her is that she calls some of us magnolia mouths because of our southern drawl. But she is so sweet when she says it, you just want to hug her!  We all want to grow up to be Susie.

Whenever I am with Susie for any length of time, the conversation always goes to new recipes.  We talk back and forth and then promise to email the ones everyone wants. A lot of these exchanges have given me some of my new go to dishes. This is one of those. I bet you are wondering when I am going to tell you what the recipe is….. This is known as the buildup for the suspense.  Your mouth should be watering about now. Mine sure is!

Are you ready?

Hold onto your seat!

Drum roll please….candied sweet potatoes!!!!

From a can!

Cooked in the oven!

So easy!

Delicious!

Makes you want to slap yo mama good!!!

Note: Sweet potatoes are a vegetable, no matter how you prepare them, so you can serve them with the meal and then have dessert too!  

Now I want you to try these if you are hosting Thanksgiving or need to take a dish to share. Leave your comments and let me know how everyone likes them.  If you don’t want to tell everyone how easy they are to make, just smile and say it’s a family recipe handed down through the generations. It’s the truth!  You are a part of the Southern Plate family. It was handed down from Susie to me (Mama), then to Christy and then to you, three generations! I’ll make sure Susie reads the comments and you will put a song in her heart. Enjoy! And remember Mama wishes you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving.

You’ll need: Butter, sugar, canned sweet potatoes, and cinnamon.  

Christy’s Note: most canned sweet potatoes are labeled yams so just buy those. This is one of those things that drives me slightly bat crazy, because they’re not yams, they’re sweet potatoes. Seriously, if you look on the ingredients of Canned Yams, it says “Sweet potatoes”. But, there are worse things in this world than the continual mislabeling of sweet potatoes so I’ve learned to internalize my annoyance

Drain sweet potatoes and pour into oven proof casserole dish.

This is a round casserole dish but it holds the equivalent of an 8×8 baking dish.

Sprinkle sugar over sweet potatoes.

Cut up butter and put on top.   

Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Place in oven for 35-40 minutes or until syrupy.

Enjoy!

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

Thank God for dirty dishes.
They have a tale to tell.
While others may go hungry,
Thank you, God,
We’re eating well.

 ~Unknown

Submitted by Rebecca Orr, thanks Rebecca!. Click here to submit your quote.

In the continual search for something green to add to our meals, this is a great quick and easy recipe that makes canned green beans delicious. I say this with

Sticky
Chicken

surprise because, until I made them this way, there was nothing more un-delicious to me than canned green beans. I usually only served green beans when I had time to fry up bacon and make them sweet and sour style. I was skeptical when my friend, Heather, told me this recipe was her son’s absolute favorite side dish, but I tried it. I have to say, it has become one of our favorite side dishes, too. This is handy because you can keep the ingredients on hand easily enough and whip it up at the last minute with very little thought. In fact, this recipe has shown up as a side dish in photographs on my Sticky Chicken Post and my Maple Glazed Pork Chops post. So if you were wondering what those green beans were, here ya go!

P.S. I really don’t fret over whether or not I have something green on every supper table. One of my favorite meal combinations includes sides of creamed corn, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and rolls! But we try to toss some green in there for good measure to keep all of our home economics teachers from rolling over in their graves. I have a home economics degree, so it’s my duty

But now onto a glimpse into my life today…

~Takes a deep breath and exhales~

Life is so incredibly full when you have a family. Full and busy. I enjoy it, though. Of course, we get pulled this way and that, which gets tiring at times, but it’s a fun little race we run to make it all work and we’re grateful for the two kids we have that give us a reason to run it.

Brady and Katy Rose back in the day

My kids are a pretty good bit apart in age, five and a half years, so we’re often going through very different phases with each of them. Having a teenager has been quite an adjustment (and I know the adjusting is going to last for at least a decade or so!). While he is gaining his independence, forming his work ethic, and categorizing the world into how he wants to interact with it as an adult, our youngest is enjoying the ability to read, playing dolls, and happy to be nestled in our laps every chance she gets.

It’s quite a contrast, but they’re quite the children

Katy Rose came home from school earlier this week all excited. “Mama! We’ve got big news. There is a chicken decorating contest at school..”

A chicken decorating contest? Umm, okay. I had never heard of such a thing but then I don’t reside in the ever progressing land of education so I just roll with these things.

“Really Katy Rose? A chicken decorating contest? Well that sounds like fun.”

She went on, her face aglow with excitement “Yes, my teacher gave us each a paper chicken and we have to decorate it with feathers and things. She said we can add anything we want, but we’re not supposed to just color it, we’re supposed to get creative and have lots of fun with it!”

“Well that sounds like a lot of fun, when is it due?”

She went on to tell me that it was due this Thursday before going into more detail about how she wants her chicken to look. I was still curious as to why they were decoarting a chicken and then she mentioned them being up to see everyone’s chicken by Thanksgiving. Aha!

“Katy Rose, do you think it might be a turkey that you’re decoarting instead of a chicken?”

She thought about it a moment and then nodded, “Well … that would make sense why everyone was making gobbling noises.”

Katy Rose

Oh how I love my girl.

This exchange took place at the end of a long day for me, when my heart really needed that little smile Katy delivered. You see, around 4:30 that morning, I’d said goodbye to my oldest as Brady set off to go on a class field trip for four days. It was a tough thing to do for me, but Brady was looking forward to it. At thirteen, he’d gone on field trips before, even extended ones, but one of us had always gone as a chaperone. This year, though, we just couldn’t make it work.

Weeks before, when I’d broken it to Brady that Daddy and I weren’t going on this trip, he’d not missed a beat as he responded “Well that’s cool. Don’t worry, we’ll have fun.”  Clearly, this wasn’t as difficult for him as it was me, so I did what any good parent would do and pretended that I was cool with it.

I was assured when one of my friends let me know she was going as chaperone on the trip and then to discover that Brady was going to get to room with one of his dear friends that we think the world of. So all was well. Everything was in place and all that was left was for him to get packed up and sent off.

That was the hard part. Releasing your child, at any stage in their life, is never easy. We have to raise them to be able to take care of themselves, to have the neccesary wisdom to make decisions, and to have guidelines for the kind of person they want to be in this world along with the knowledge of how to live that way. Even when we feel we’ve managed to do all of that, when we know in our heart of hearts that they’re good kids and that they’re going to go do good things in the world, part of us will always want to cling to them and make them stay in our little nest at the same time we’re watching the world open up for them.

“Hey Ma, I love ya and all that…”

But he’s thirteen.

I know he’ll be eighteen and thirty before I know it, believe me. I know this because he was two just yesterday, honest.

So I kinda let him go. I mean, for all intents and purposes, if you’da seen me, you would have thought that I did let him go, even Brady probably does.

I gave him one of those quick tight hugs you give thirteen year olds, kissed his cheek and let him go. I didn’t even drive him to school. I let his Daddy do that after Brady asked because “Ma, no offense, but you’ll wanna kiss on me and hug me and stuff in front of people. That’s okay to do at home and everything sometimes,but not at school.” So Ricky drove him, and I pretended to let him go.

He doesn’t know that I know the fastest route to get to where he is, have a full tank of gas, and a friend who can get Katy at a momen’s notice if the need arises for me to get to my baby. No one needs to know that. I mean, it’s just me being prepared And I’m always prepared.

I let him go, as far as anyone knows. I wonder about Mama birds that kick their babies out of he nest so they will learn to fly. I can’t imagine there isn’t really a daddy or MamaBird’s best friend somewhere on the ground, just out of sight, with a net or catcher’s mitt just in case. I think we all pretend a bit when it comes to our kids. We let them stretch their wings and learn to fly and pretend we’re not gnashing our teeth at the thought of them falling. Soemtimes we even let them fall because wisdom tells us that without falling down a time or two, they’ll never learn the value of getting up again.

So Brady isn’t here and that doesn’t feel right. It didn’t feel right the moment he walked out the front door and I sat down and held my breath. Five minutes later I was still sitting there, thinking about him when I got a phone call. My son’s ever deepening voice was on the other end.  “Hey Ma, just wanted you to know that I love ya and all that.” I breathed again at that point. “I love you too, baby. Have a good time.”

He’s been gone two days now and i’m getting the hang of this to an extent. At least until he comes home Thursday night, I’m pretending to let go. I know it will be good practice for me as I foresee a lot of pretending to let go in my future with these two.

Fortunately for me there is a distraction to help me this time, because it’s getting close to Thanksgiving and I’ve got a chicken to help decorate.

Now, time make some green beans.

You’ll need: diced tomatoes, french style green beans (regular green beans work just fine), salt, pepper, and an onion.

You can also use fresh tomato if you have it, Just dice it up an go for it.

Drain your green beans and dump them into a pot.

Say hello to your green beans because they’re being all sweet and posing for you. They look like they are seeking approval…

HELLO GREEN BEANS! You look mighty pretty today!

Add chopped onion, diced tomatoes (with juice), salt, and pepper.

Stirry stirry.

Cook over medium high heat until it just comes to a light boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Then, eat it.

You saw that coming, didn’t ya?

If you pray for God to move a mountain, be prepared to wake up next to a shovel.

~Unknown. Submitted by Rick (thanks, Rick!)

“Chicken” Update!

We finished Katy Rose’s “chicken” last night in plenty of time for Thanksgiving. Here are some photos. As you can see, this turkey has some serious bedazzling going on!

These deliciously different mashed potatoes are a companion post to my Blackened Pork Chops and the perfect accompaniment.

To get the blackened pork chop recipe, please click here. To learn how to make these potatoes, keep reading.

I’m sparing you a long winded tale because I’ve already done that on my pork chops post See? I can be brief….every now and then ~grins~

You’ll need 4 large russet potatoes (or an equivalent amount), butter, garlic powder, and evaporated milk.

You have two choices here, you can pretend you don’t see the bacon, because I forgot to use it, or you can use it and pretend you saw me use it in this recipe. Either way, we gotta pull out your special imagination skills  

You’re also going to need about a cup of grated mozzarella cheese.

I am going with the block. I learned the most bizarre thing while I was filming Beat The Chefs. All of the chefs and home cooks were using shredded cheese each time they needed it, but being on a time crunch I was surprised folks didn’t use pre shredded cheese.

I mentioned this to Brad, my co-critic on the show, and he said “Well, it’s because of the sawdust.” o,O Sawdust?

Apparently, shredded cheese is commonly coated with sawdust, listed as cellulose on the package, to prevent it from clumping. This also prevents the cheese from melting evenly and smoothly, too. As soon as I got home I made a lasagna and used fresh grated mozzarella in it. WOW. okay, so this really truly does make a huge difference. I’m a believer.

Will I ever use pre-shredded cheese again? You bet your gouda I will! But it’s good to know that this little extra step really does make a difference you can taste.

 Peel and cube your potatoes and place them in a pot. Cover with water and put that over medium high heat to bring them to a boil. 

Once boiling, reduce temperature to medium and cook for about half an hour, making sure they remain covered with water, until fork tender.

 Grate your cheese. 

Once potatoes are done, drain the water off.

Now, while your potatoes are hot (this is important) dump them into a bowl and add milk, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Using a potato masher, mash them up a good bit.

 Until they look about like this.

Don’t worry, we’re not going for totally mashed. A few lumps will add a nice texture to it.

Add in your mozzarella and if you’re using bacon, add that now, too.

Mash just a little bit to help incorporate it.

Then, switch to a spoon and stir until everything is well combined and the cheese is fully incorporated, this will just take a minute.

 Serve immediately.  

Click here to get the recipe for Blackened Pork Chops.

“Successful people are not gifted – they just work hard,

then succeed on purpose.”

- G.K. Nielson

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2012/08/garlic-mozzarella-mashed-potatoes.html/feed 14 http://www.southernplate.com/2012/08/pickled-onions-heaven-for-an-old-southern-soul.html http://www.southernplate.com/2012/08/pickled-onions-heaven-for-an-old-southern-soul.html#comments Tue, 07 Aug 2012 16:17:35 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=20036

Pickled Onions, Pintos, and Mexican Cornbread on a 1970′s Corelle Spring Blossom Plate.

I’m going to start this post out with a disclaimer: half of you will hate even the thought of this recipe,  but the other half will take one bite and set about doing paperwork to rename all of your children after me.

Pickled onions are not for the novice who is new to Southern food. These are hardcore, for old school Southern tastebuds – but oh will they make those buds sing! Would you believe that I had them for the FIRST TIME this past weekend? We went to a restaurant in Nashville with the kids and they brought out a bowl of pickled onions and hot cornbread, still in the cast iron skillet it was cooked in. I reached for a wedge of cornbread and put it on my plate where I topped it with a spoonful of pickled onions. Not knowing what to expect but trusting the instinct of my Alabama roots, I dug my fork in to get a bite full of hot bread and onion….

…and tasted all that was reverent and good in the world of old fashioned soul food.

I started praying over the food right then and there. “Oh LORD! We thank you for this meal.” ~Shoveled another bite in~ “Dear God, thank you for this food that is so good, oh Lord it’s still warm and these onions are so crisp and sweet…” ~shoveled in another bite~ “We thank you so much for letting us take this trip and getting to spend this ..” ~reaches for more onions~ “time together!” After a moment, I just about started speaking in tongues, it was so good. But then I got to thinking that if I kept on describing it to God, He might just come down to join me and then I’d have to give Him most of it because, that is the only nice thing to do considering all of the exceptions and forgiveness he’s had to pipe out on my account. I paused and noticed that my kids and husband were just looking at me, blank faced.

I encouraged them to eat.

One child took a timid bite of the spicy cornbread and put it down. “That tastes weird.” My husband waved his hand over the plate “I’m just not into that kind of stuff, you can have mine.” My other child just continued watching me in disbelief and looking at the cornbread trying to figure out if I saw something he didn’t.

Apparently, I did. Oh good gravy, it was amazing!

As soon as we left the restaurant I called Mama and Grandmama and by the time I was home I had a recipe.

My husband came in yesterday while I was cooking a big pot of pintos (definitely not one of his favorites, he won’t even eat them) and said “What is that SMELL?” Note that this was said in the tone that let you know he left out “horrible” before smell because he knows it will get him killed. ~sighs~ I get that a lot from him. Bless his heart, he doesn’t know any better. He’s good hearted but terribly uncultured when it comes to  an appreciation for po’ folk food.

“Pintos” I replied “If you don’t like that you might wanna hurry back to work because I’m about to get some cider vinegar boiling.” You’ve never seen a man eat lunch so fast in all your life. I made up a quick pan of Mexican cornbread (my mama’s recipe is in my first cookbook) and come suppertime I had a spread so good it’s a wonder my ancestors didn’t rise up from the grave at the smell of it!

My husband texted “Do I need to stop and get anything on the way home?” That is his code for: are you going to serve that stuff I smelled earlier for supper?

 I texted back “Well I made a big pot of pintos, mexican cornbread, and pickled onions for supper – so you might wanna grab takeout for you and the kids :”

Sometimes we gotta do what we gotta do.

These onions are heavenly. I sent a pint jar of them to my 81 year old Grandmother yesterday along with a quart jar of pintos. She called at 5 this morning. “Did you try it yet Grandmama?”

“LORD Yes! Done had me two bowls! That was the best stuff. Lord oh that was so good. You fixin’ to put that recipe up on your website?”

“Yes Grandmama, I’m putting it up today!”

You’ll need: Salt, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper, about 4 sweet onions (Preferably Vidalia), Cider Vinegar*, and Sugar

You can use white vinegar instead of Cider so if you prefer the taste of white, I’d recommend you go with that instead. I want to try them with white next time but I did love the extra little tang cider vinegar gave it.

You see my Kosher salt up there? My friend Jyl turned me onto that a year or so ago and I’ve fallen madly in love with it. It really does taste amazing and it doesn’t cost a lot, so it’s an easy switch. I still use regular old iodized salt, too, but am using Kosher more and more these days out of personal preference.

Soapbox time! Whenever you make a change in your cooking or eating habits, do it out of personal choice rather than some ad campaign or a zealot on the internet telling you that you have to. There is big business in buying and selling opinions out there so just be careful that you don’t ever feel the need to adopt anyone else’s personal convictions because they bullied you into doing so.

~tucks soap box away~

In a medium saucepot, place vinegar, sugar, salt, and garlic powder.

Stir that up well and put over medium high heat to bring it just to a boil while you cut up your onions…

Keep a watch on it and stir it often.

Peel your onions and slice them into rings.

I cut my rings in half, too, to make them easier to eat.

You could even dice them if you want.

It’s your kitchen, you’re a big boy/girl,  and the only rules are the ones you decide to make

Oooh look! Our cider mixture is boiling! Now, if you or anyone you know has their sinuses stuffed up, alls ya gotta do is invite them into your kitchen and have them stir this pot Actually, cider vinegar is an old folk remedy for many an affliction.

But if someone decides onions are outselling a vegetable they represent they are liable to launch a pr campaign talking about how onions are causing brain damage or some such. Sadly, that really is how this works most of the time.

Remove pot from heat.

Dump your onions in and stir them to coat.

At first, it will seem like there are way too many onions but just let them sit for about five minutes and they will wilt a bit.

Like this. Now stir that again and let sit just a few minutes more.

Until they look kinda like this. Now place all of these in a container and cover it to put in your fridge.

If you do not cover it, your sinuses will clear each and every time you open your fridge, which is good or bad depending on how stuffed up you are Come to think of it, maybe this is a good springtime recipe in the south when our world is coated in that lovely yellow dust…

Voila! My refrigerated onions all ready to make my stomach happy!

These are wonderful served as a side or as a topping on beans, hot cornbread, etc.

Just git ya some!

THESE CAN WELL. FOR INSTRUCTIONS ON CANNING, CLICK HERE TO VISIT MY CANNING TUTORIAL.

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to everyone who takes the time out of your day to chat with me in the comments. Getting to hear back from you is my favorite part of Southern Plate!

Do you have any memories of pickled onions? How often did you dine on beans and cornbread growing up (it was weekly at least at my house)? I’d love to hear from you in the comments, or just drop a Hidy! 

Gratefully, 

Christy 

It requires less character to discover the faults of others

than is does to tolerate them.

~J. Petit Senn

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2012/08/pickled-onions-heaven-for-an-old-southern-soul.html/feed 262 http://www.southernplate.com/2012/07/cornbread-salad.html http://www.southernplate.com/2012/07/cornbread-salad.html#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 17:18:10 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=19911

There are so many wonderful recipes around this world and I’m blessed to have tried just a handful of them. I was raised on good Southern cooking. We grew things in our garden and cooked them up just right to lay out on a table with vegetables galore, meats, and hot cornbread or biscuits, fresh from the oven.

When I was younger, once a year we’d all gather for a feast so big it would make kings cry - The family reunion. I’ve written about our old family reunions before and went into details in my first book, but today I’m looking back fondly and figured y’all would forgive me if I reminisce with you a spell.

To begin with, you have to picture me with two pony tails, one on each side of my head. That was my childhood hairstyle and in all of my memories I’m running around with ponytails flapping in the wind. The reunions involved a lot of running around, too! The folks would set up chairs all over the yard and the kids would be turned loose to chase chickens, run with dogs, and visit with goats and cows until someone rang the dinner bell and we all gahered around to bow our heads over the meal.

The table was a unique one, Papa Reed would saunter to his barn and pull out his big red tractor, hitching it to a flatbed trailer to pull it up by the house. Ladies would come and spread pretty bed sheets over it as makeshift table cloths and then it would get loaded down with every type of dish imaginable. Oh the food we had that day!

I got to thinking about all of this because of something I made recently. Have you ever heard of cornbread salad? I’ve heard of it for years but surprisingly, had never tasted it! After having person after person ask me if I had a recipe for it, one day Linda Wood posted on my Facebook page “Christy, you need to make cornbread salad sometime. I’ve got a recipe that I use and when I make it I could just about eat it all“. I had planned on working up a recipe of my own due to demand but when Linda posted that I responded “I think you’re right, Linda, and I think you should share your recipe with me!”

Lo and behold, she did! Now honestly, this is one of those dishes that is just really hard to imagine what it’s gonna taste like. I knew I liked everything in it, but I was going on faith in Linda and all of y’all that it was good. I made it when my Mother in law was here so I’d have a partner in crime to help me eat it and she and I were curious as all get out while I put it together. We didn’t even wait for it to get cold before we were dipping spoons in the bowl for a taste.

My verdict? CORNBREAD SALAD, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? My mother in law and I ate every blessed bit. Sure, it took us two days, but we’re no quitters. This stuff is amazing. It’s kind of in the same family as potato salad and definitely something you’d expect to find at a family reunion or barbecue.

I did alter this a bit from the traditional recipe but I’ll tell you exactly what I did in the notes and recipe so you can un-alter it if you like You see, I’m not a mayonnaise person. Alright now stop right there if you are a mayonnaise person. I know, I know. I am a horrible person and it’s a wonder they don’t lock me up somewhere to keep me separate from society. I would set aside a whole week to mourn my woeful character flaw of not liking mayonnaise but I’m too busy doing other things so we are just gonna have to move on from that. So here is the deal, if you love mayonnaise, you’re just going to have agree to love me despite this and I’ll agree to love you despite whatever character flaws you have too. Deal? Deal. See? That’s what family does

You’ll need: Onion, Corn, Mayo, tomatoes, bell pepper, dry ranch dressing mix (optional), 1 pan crumbled cornbread, and some crisp fried bacon.

Crisp Fried Bacon. Doesn’t that sound good?

Pour ranch dressing mix into bowl with mayo.

You can skip this step if you just really like mayo, but if you’re like me and want a little something to help you take your mind off the fact that it’s mayonnaise – or if you just love the taste of ranch, do what I’m doing here.

Then stir it up.

What is this? Well let me tell you one thing, it surely isn’t me adding in one teaspoon of bacon grease and stirring it up for an extra KAPOW of flavor.

No siree…it surely isn’t that.

~whispers~ if you saved any bacon grease from your bacon, pour in one teaspoon but don’t tell anyone because they’ll react as if you’d told them you didn’t like mayonnaise! I’m not going to put this in the recipe so only the folks who read this part of the post will know this little secret ingredient – shhhh. 

Stir it up til it’s all good and stirred up like.  

Dice up your tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, and drain your can of corn.

Dump all that in a bowl.

A big bowl.

Add in your crumbled bacon.

Make sure you taste of the bacon to see if it is still good because it’s been sitting around for like…five minutes now…and it never hurts to test bacon.

By eating it.

Well now we done wasted time jabbering so you better test it again.

Bacon, the candy of meats!

Crumble up your cornbread and dump that on top of the veggies.

Stirry stirry

Add in mayo mixture.

Or as Linda said it “All that lovely mayonnaise!”

Stir that up really good until well coated. Cover and refrigerate for several hours or until chilled well.

In your lovely Friendship pattern pyrex bowl

Garnish with beautiful sliced red tomatoes and serve cold.

DELICIOUS

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

I’m happier than a bird with a french fry!

~Unknown, but an awfully good way to feel!

I love getting to chat with you! If you have time, please leave a comment below Thanks!