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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

11111

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

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

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

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

Like this.

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

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

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

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

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

Here are our slices all stuffed and ready to go.

Spray a 9×13 baking dish with cooking spray.

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

Place them all on their sides in the baking dish.

Mix your other ingredients really well.

I just use a fork to do this with..

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

Cover and place in the refrigerator overnight.

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

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

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

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

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

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

And here is the lovely final photograph she helped arrange!

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~~~~~~~~~~

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

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

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~The Wolf Within~

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today I’m proud to bring you Mama’s third installment of Heritage Hints and Notes. I know you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. We’d love to hear from you in the comments below and be sure to check out her other Heritage posts by clicking here. Gratefully, Christy

  I come from a long line of proud, hard-working country people, and despite what you might see on television from time to time or hear about ever now and then, we country people are definitely not stupid or ignorant. My ancestors may have talked differently from others but they were soft spoken gentle people.

A while back, I happened upon a documentary on Appalachian people. I try not to call Christy when these are on because more often than not they subtitle folks as they talk and nothing gets her riled faster than seeing Southerners subtitled…

This particular documentary really stood out to me, though, because I recognized a lot of phrases used by my grandparents, phrases that I’m often corrected on nowadays because folks simply don’t understand them. As it turns out, the words make perfect sense (and always have), it’s just that they were somewhat foreig – what things were called in England and Scotland years earlier and passed down generation by generation.

A prime example is a phrase I’ve heard all of my life. My grandmother (Lela) always complained that we kids were “A messin’ and a gomin’ ”.  I always wondered what “goming” was.  A man on the documentary explained that goming was making a real mess or being messy.  Brings to mind how we were always in the kitchen fixing us a snack and leaving a mess behind-“goming”.

My grandmother “toted stuff in a paper poke”.  Translated that means carrying things in a paper sack.  Times were hard and my grandmother carefully folded her used paper pokes to be reused whenever she got any.  They were reused until they were soft and floppy.  Unknowingly she was practicing saving the earth. Country folk recycled long before it was popular.  Every now and then I toss a plastic throwaway container in the trash and I can’t help but pause to think of how my grandmother would have loved and cherished something as simple as a plastic container.

Country people rose with the dawn, worked the fields all day, raised all their own food, and preserved it to feed their families through the winter.  They made every piece of clothing their family had and even recycled outgrown clothing into clothes for younger children or quilts to provide warmth on long winter nights.  Nothing was wasted.  Every scrap, thread, and piece of string was valued and saved.

I am often corrected for saying “warsh” instead of wash. Christy tells me that her kids have told her she is supposed to pronounce her father’s title “Da-dee” instead of “Deh-dee”.  We aren’t supposed to say ain’t, pokes, “coo-pun” instead of q-pon and the likes. Often, I am torn between using what I know as proper grammar and holding on to the speech and values of my beloved ancestors.  It feels as if I am turning my back on them if I change my ways.  On the other hand, if I don’t I am perceived as backwards or uneducated. Many a Southerner (or folks from any region with a specific dialect for that matter) struggle with these same feelings.

From my ancestors, I have learned values, how to work hard, and integrity that no school could ever teach.  Just like Northerners speak differently, so do I and I will continue to do so. I am proud to be from great loving hardworking stock.  I can never turn my back on my heritage but I will try to tone down the “ain’t” at school assemblies for my grandkids as long as they’ll sit and listen to my stories of the people they come from – I figure that is a fair trade off. It is my hope to pass on the integrity with which my ancestors lived every day.  I may sound more like them than future generations will, but I only hope I can be half the person that they were.

When asking my Mother what should I do in a sticky situation, she would answer…

“In your heart of hearts you already know the answer. You just have to listen to your heart.”

~Advice from Dawn Tierney’s mother that Dawn submitted on our Give a Penny Page.

So today something cool happened. Alright, actually several cool things happened but I’m gonna focus on one here because if I took the time to write about every little detail in my life that I felt was cool or neat or served as evidence to enforce my view that the world is mostly a good place full of good people, y’all would just have to clock in each morning by 5:00 AM and hang in there with me til I ran out of wind around midnight - And Repeat next day  

So I checked in on twitter and I saw a wonderful tweet from Charlie Daniels, so I retweeted it. Then I got to working in the kitchen and cranked up some CDB while I was cooking. I tweeted about that, too. Cool thing is, I heard back  “Bet you’re cooking something good” from Charlie Daniels himself!

As a girl I used to listen to his fiddle playing, begging my dad to play Devil Went Down To Georgia over and over again. When I took up classic violin in middle school I had visions of playing like him one day. The fact that I never got much beyond The Old Gray Goose is entirely beside the point… 

I called my mother and said “Guess who just talked to me on twitter? Charlie Daniels!” 

She replied, “Really? Now you know They say he’s just the nicest man.

I held in my chuckle. We do that a lot around here, talk about “They” say this or that.

“They” is a group of people that just about everyone I know has. “They” apparently get together frequently to discuss current events, recipes, people, and raising your kids.

I’ve spent my life hearing:  They say you should (insert should here)… They say this really tastes good…and when it comes to people “They say Charlie Daniels is the nicest man”

So I just wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who happens to be in our group of “They”. There are all sorts of “They” groups and I’m so thankful that the “They’s” in our lives are the kind that say nice things about people. :0)

If your group of “They” is like that, They say you should let them know how much they are appreciated! 

And now, On to the Pie! 

Okay, kinda. I have something else to talk about first but I promise we’re getting a lot closer to the pie…

The famous Miss Fay's portrait is also with us in this photo!

So this past weekend, my mother and I ended up at the famous Loveless Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee with our friends Shannon Kozee and Tamera Alexander. I’m gonna talk more about Shannon in a future post. If Tamera’s name sounds familiar it is because she is a wonderful author of historic fiction. (You can check out her blog here. You can also get her latest book here, which Mama is reading now and I’m reading as my treat once I get done writing my second cookbook.)

Getting to meet her was a complete thrill for me because we’ve had some of those encounters with each other via internet that you know just can’t be coincidences. The first time I was made aware of her blog was when I got a notice that someone had blogged about me (it is an automated thing that sometimes works but most of the time doesn’t). I looked at the name and thought it sounded familiar but couldn’t quite place it. Then, a few days later, someone was giving a copy of my cookbook away on Twitter and again, her name. So this time I decided to do a little investigating and went to visit her blog. As I scrolled down I saw the cover of a book she had written – and that book was sitting beside my chair because I had just finished reading it. LIGHTBULB.

We exchanged a few emails and Tammy was always so encouraging and warm in hers. I was actually a little nervous about meeting her but she was even warmer in person! She absolutely exudes kindness and grace and is just one of those people you want to sit around and soak in for as long as possible. She also had perfect hair. ~sigh~ But I shall not covet…much.

While there, of course we had to have dessert. They had a new offering which immediately caught my attention: Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Pie. Oh my goodness, how I love a good oatmeal raisin cookie! I had to get it.

When it came, I was not disappointed. Mama and I split the piece and it tasted like the ideal oatmeal cookie, hot from the oven (even thought it was served cold!) because the middle was nice and gooey with the richness of oats, brown sugar, and cinnamon. I set to looking for the recipe the moment I got home.

I found one of the original postings of it on Sun Maid Raisin’s website, so I contacted Sun Maid raisins and they graciously gave me permission to share their wonderful recipe with you. I have to tell you my funny Sun Maid story though..

When I was going to New York to do the Today show a little over a year ago, I was scheduled to promote my book by making Lela’s Fried Peach Pies. The secret to Lela’s fried pies is, of course, the dried peaches. Whe you make pies with dried fruit instead of canned or even fresh, you get a much bigger punch of flavor. Well, I got a call from the food stylist in NYC to see if I could bring the dried peaches with me. It turns out, they are almost impossible to find in the big city! So I headed to the “big town” with three bags of Sun Maid dried peaches in my suitcase. I guess tha tmakes those pies “fancy” since they were made with fruit imported all the way from Alabama If you’d like to see that segment and my recipe for fried peach pies, click here, but come back because I wanna show you this pie, too!

Oooh yum, de pie! de Pie!

(that was supposed to be my impersonation of Tattoo in Fantasy Island, in case you didn’t recognize it)

To make this delicious pie, you’ll need: Raisins, Cinnamon, quick oats, corn syrup, salt, brown sugar, and a wee bit of melted butter and flour.

You’ll also need a pie shell.

The original recipe called for a graham cracker crust but I’m using my traditional mix-in-the-pan pie crust. You can click here if you’d like that recipe.

Place brown sugar, eggs, corn syrup, and melted butter in a bowl. Mix well with a large spoon.

Until it looks like this

Now add in all of your other ingredients and mix again.

So it looks like this.

See how easy that was? Easy as pie, right?

Thus the expression

Oh! I forgot to show you my bowl.

You’ve probably seen this one before but just in case it is a Pyrex Cinderella Bowl in Amish Butterprint blue.

Ain’t it purty?

Spend time with those you love. One of these days you will say either, “I wish I had,” or “I’m glad I did.”

~Zig Zigler

Thank you to Angela for submitting this one! Add your motivational or inspiring quote to our collection by clicking here. 

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2012/02/oatmeal-raisin-pie-and-they-say.html/feed 95 http://www.southernplate.com/2012/01/signs.html http://www.southernplate.com/2012/01/signs.html#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:12:49 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=18169 Pin it

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I’ve seen some of the neatest signs on Pinterest lately and as an avid sign lover myself, I thought I’d do a post sharing some of the signs I have around my house with you (You can follow me on Pinterest by clicking here if you’d like).

Most of my signs are located in our Diner or the kitchen. We don’t have an actual open-to-the-public diner or anything, but since we converted our sunroom to a fifties style diner, that is what we call it. I’ve had a lot of fun hanging memorabilia up on the walls in there!

The Story Of Our Diner

This is a photo of our Diner. I needed more room in the kitchen but adding onto the house wasn’t an option for us. We had this beautiful sunroom right off the kitchen that we weren’t using but it just doesn’t look right as a dining room to me so I came up with the diner option and got to looking online for diner booths and furniture. There are all sorts of options for second hand but none of them were able to be shipped so I finally settled on buying having my furniture made just for us – and it ended up costing much less for everything than I would have paid for a dining room suite at a furniture store.

We have a booth with a table for four, another table for four with five chairs, and a table for two with two chairs that I keep in the kitchen as a little breakfast table.

WE LOVE OUR DINER! 

I have hopes of decorating it more and would like to add little cafe curtains and such. The kids really want a neon open sign ~grins~. But all of that is just going to have to wait. We’ll get there eventually and in the meantime the journey is half the fun!

I call it the “Do Dine In”, which I think is terribly clever – and the kids just roll their eyes at me every time I try to explain how clever it is.

This is our booth where the four of us eat supper every night. We always loved sitting in booths in restaurants so getting our own was pretty cool for the kids.

We do have a terrible time keeping the cats from scratching it though. I’ve tried putting the little covers on their claws and spraying repellent on the backs of the furniture and nothing has helped. If anyone has any ideas please let me know.

This is Katy Rose in her waitress costume. She loves to put this on when we have company

This is part of one wall hanging in our diner.

I’m only showing close ups of some of these so if you have any questions about particulars let me know. That 45 record is a Leslie Gore song. The skillet is the one I got at the Taste of Charleston Iron Chef Competition a few months back (It was a gift).

This post only has some of the signs hanging around my house because…well I really have too many to put into one post ~grins~

Happiness is not a destination. It is a way of life. 

I like to pick signs that have words I want my kids to remember, lessons that I feel are important. This one is crucial. I know so many people who have spent entire lives just waiting for x,y, and z to fall into place before they will be happy. I also know people who haven’t got a penny to their name and they’re living lives more full than the richest among us could ever hope for.

This sign is pretty huge, about a yard tall and over a foot wide.

I got it at Cracker Barrel a while back. Since then I’ve seen a lot of them crop up in antique malls and such for outrageous prices (well over $50.00 – I paid $20.00).

This baby came off Ebay. It is a cast iron plaque that says “On this site in 1897 nothing happened.”

~grins~ I have it hanging on the wall in the diner.

This is a cute little sign, about 5×7 in size. It was a gift from my friend, Beth.

I have no idea where she got it but it sure is cute!

This sign is over 40 inches wide and customized with our name.

The center Coca Cola medallion is a three dimensional metal disk. I got it off of Ebay for a little over $30.00

“Laugh a lot, and when you’re older, all of your wrinkles will be in the right place.”

Jyl got me this one. She and I are big advocates of wrinkles – They are one of the best ways to tell if someone has spent their life smiling or scowling.

Family Rules: Share. May Every word be full of grace. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. Give Thanks. Hug Often. Obey your parents. Rejoice in this day that the Lord has made. Love one another. No whining – ever.

I got this one at Cracker Barrel this past summer.

Everything is Beautiful in it’s time. Ecclesiastes 3:11.

This is from the Dayspring line. Their merchandise can be purchased from their website and many Christian book stores.

These little fellas are tin concession stand signs.

I got them off Ebay for about ten bucks.

To enjoy the flavor of life, take BIG bites.

I think I got this one at Old Time Pottery for about $10.

It’s Never Too Late to live Happily Ever After

This applies to so many situations. I think every married couple needs this in their home.

I got this one at the Nashville Flea Market. There used to be this man who set up and made the neatest signs! I was there this past weekend and he wasn’t there anymore but he may start coming again once the weather warms up (winter months are slow for them).

MANY PEOPLE HAVE EATEN IN THIS KITCHEN AND GONE ON TO LEAD NORMAL, HEALTHY LIVES.

I picked this one up at a little gift shop in the Earlyworks Museum complex in Huntsville. It was just too cute not to come home with me!

This is a Buy Fresh Buy Local poster from Alabama that they sent me when I let them use some of my recipes on their website.

Isn’t it pretty? I just framed it in an inexpensive frame and put it up.

I love you like biscuits and gravy

This is a letterpress sign made by Yeehaw Industries that I received when I spoke at a food blog conference last year.

Those who wish to sing always find a song.

This is so so so so so true.

Also, those who wish to wish to complain, always find something to complain about. I want to be in the first category

I got this from the little sign man who used to be at the Nashville Flea Market.

This is a special sign because it was a gift from Su James. Su has been reading Southern plate just about since I started. She and her mother live in Australia. When they came over to visit the south for the first time two summers ago, I drove to Atlanta to spend the day with them (and make some banana pudding for Su to try!) and she and her mother bought me this sign in a gift shop at Stone Mountain. I think of them every time I look at it!

The most important things in life aren’t things.

If only more people realized this.

Another gift from Jyl. It’s like she knows I like signs or something…

You are my sunshine.

I hope my kids remember this sign when they grow up….

Old Time Pottery again. Their signs are really cheap there.

A rich person is not the one who has the most but the one who needs the least.

I think I got this one from a dollar store or something. I have no idea. I’ve had it quite some time though.

The letters on the wall read “The Kitchen Is The Heart Of The Home” and the sign under it says “Because Nice Matters”

This is in my kitchen.

God’s Top Ten: Put God First. Worship Him only. No bad words. Work 6, Rest 1. Obey your parents. Harm no one. Don’t cheat. Don’t take what is not yours. Tell the truth. Be happy with what you have.

Yup, these are the actual commandments paraphrased.

I got this sign at Cracker Barrel this past summer but a few days ago saw one exactly like it at a Lifeway Christian Bookstore. I’ve had a lot of people ask about this one.

This is over the doorway leading from the kitchen into the den. I’ve had this sign for at least twenty years so I have no idea where I got it.

That hook you can see on the top inner bit of the doorframe is where I hang mistletoe at Christmas

This isn’t really a sign but it’s hanging on my wall and I like it.

A set of miniature copper molds in their original display package. I hang a set of copper measuring spoons on individual nails beneath it and I use those all the time.

I’m not a decorator and I know this arrangement is a bit crowded but I’ll live.

The phone on the left is our kitchen phone – I think we still have a house phone number but I turned the ringer off when I first got it and have used it maybe twice so it’s mostly for decoration. The mug rack on the right is one that my grandfather made and finished and Grandmama cross stitched the Morton Salt center of it.

I love this saying and this particular sign was designed by a nice lady on Etsy. I bought a jpeg file of it from her and had it printed on a 16×20 canvas at Wal Mart.

To get it to go on the canvas, I had my husband add an inch and a half border all around to the original file so it wouldn’t have white space when stretched across the canvas frame. I posted a photo on Facebook and so many people asked about it that I emailed the lady who made it and asked her if she would consider setting up an easy auction for the image with the needed boarder around it but I’m afraid I never heard back from her. You can search and find the image on Etsy if you’d like, it is only $8.95 for the jpeg and you have rights to print it on whatever you like (would make great gifts) but if you decide to do it on a canvas like I did some modification will be needed.

Having a place to go is Home.

Having someone to love is Family.

Having both is a Blessing.

I think this came from Kirkland’s a few years ago.

This is a reproduction Coca Cola menu board that I picked up a few years ago at the gift shop in Lake Winnepesaukah

This is a paper potato sack that I got at a flea market two years ago for $2.00.

Now let’s head back into the Diner…

Here are a few signs over the window in the diner. Let’s get a little closer…

A beautiful metal sign from the Loveless Cafe gift shop in Nashville, TN.

Quit Your Meanness

I love this one! How many times have we wanted to tell folks this?

This is actually a bumper sticker that I mounted on cardboard and then just stuck up on the wall.

Visualize Minnie Pearl

Another bumper sticker that I mounted on cardboard and then stuck up on the wall in the diner. This one came from the Loveless Cafe Gift shop.

Flea Market Find.

This is a reproduction sign. It was original $24.00 but we got him down to $20. It’s hanging in the diner.

I got this from Ebay. I can’t speak with certainty here, but I’m pretty sure this was meant to be read by the writers at the New York Times and all those other folks who have come out of the woodwork to get five minutes of fame in exchange for saying nasty things about Paula Deen. As my mother would say “Their time is coming.”

NOTICE

Having a sense of humor is vital to survival. If you are blessed with a sense of humor, exercise it often. If you are not blessed with a sense of humor, give serious thought to acquiring one Having said that I love this! ~Giggle~

This sign came from Amazon.com. Click here to buy one if you’d like.

To see more of my kitchen itself (beyond the signs) and the rest of my house (on a day it was clean!) click here to see a tour.  

Do you have any signs around your house that have a special quote or message on them?

“Humor is the great thing, the saving thing.

The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.”

– Mark Twain

Submitted by Jenny. Click here to submit your quote.

I’m excited to be bringing you another story time video today! After you watch this one, you can scroll down and click on any of the other book covers to hear more of my favorite stories.

One Fish, Two Fish

by Dr Seuss

Listen to more of my favorite stories below!

Tacky The Penguin

Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type

Bark, George

YES DAY!

Giraffes Can’t Dance

Pete The Cat

Kiss Good Night

Green Eggs And Ham

One Fish, Two Fish

Wocket In My Pocket

Today I have a guest post for you for Chicken Pot Pie from one of the head chef’s at UNA’s Culinary Department. But before I hand over the reins, I’m feeling chatty so I thought I’d spend a few minutes visiting with you if I may…. Y’all know how I am when I get chatty. Not much that can shut me up

I have some great friends and each one seems to have a specialty when it comes to the friendship department. Jyl is good as a sounding board. She lets me do my “brain dumps” and then she helps me put the pieces of the puzzle together until they make sense. Jason is good for talking things out to. When I get a thought in my head that I want to think more on and examine from all angles, Jason is always good for a few other perspectives.

Yesterday, I was working on a story that I’ve had in my head to write for well over a year now and I needed to go meet Jyl in nearby Scottsboro. So I asked Jason if he’d mind going along since I wouldn’t be back home til after dark and …oh yeah, did I mention Jason is a very good driver and used to staying up late at night? Well that’s one of his gifts, too.

We share a Southern heritage and a friendship that started back in high school when he was editor of the literary magazine and I was junior editor. He also fills the role of our “Adopted pitiful bachelor who needs to be fed” in the family. We always had a few of those hanging around my mother’s kitchen growing up and so I’d feel a little empty if my family didn’t have one, too. So you see, Jason is a handy feller.

So we get in the car and I immediately started in (The beauty of good friends is that you can skip the niceties and greetings and just begin your thought waves wherever they are at that given moment)  “Okay, so George Washington. You know what he did, right? He was actually offered the throne of the United States, they offered to make him KING of the US and he turned it down because he felt it was in the best interest of the country…”

He didn’t miss a beat as he adjusted the driver’s seat of my car to accommodate his legs when he replied, “Oh yeah, I know that! And did you also know that he was the one who first introduced the idea of term limits and that they used to be voluntary until it was written into the constitution in 1947″

This is a pretty typical conversation between me and Jason.

From there we somehow took a detour and got into talking about our childhoods and attitudes and the kind of people we look up to, from there we went to our culture and how it has changed in our lifetime.

And that is where he told me the story.

It was in a book he had as a child, a collection of fairy tales and fables that his mother used to read to him. This one had stuck out to him, it had struck a note in his heart that still rang true today. He didn’t know it word for word but he knew the premise enough to tell me and for me to recreate the premise for you now.

There once was a king.

One day this King chose a man and assigned him the task of going out into the kingdom and picking the most beautiful flowers he could find to bring back to him. Another man was dispatched on the same day to pick the most noxious weeds he could find and bring them back.

And so each set about their assigned tasks and at the end of the day they returned, one with a wagon full of beautiful flowers and one with a wagon full of terribly noxious weeds.

The wise king called them before his throne and he asked the one who had brought the flowers “Tell me, did you find any weeds?” The man replied “No my king, I was too busy looking for flowers, I didn’t see any weeds at all.”

The king smiled and turned to the man who had gathered the large load of weeds, which were most assuredly resting amidst the beautiful flowers and asked “Tell me, did you find any flowers?” “No my king, I was too busy looking for noxious weeds. I didn’t see any flowers at all.”

Jason’s point was that more people used to look for flowers. We talked about this a while and he thinks Watergate was a turning point. Now I know full well what Watergate is but I prefer Jason not bring it up because it just makes me want that green goopy salad with marshmallows in it. I’m not sure if Watergate was the turning point but it definitely stands one of those times in which the record skipped, the party stopped, and the lights were turned on.

I guess it doesn’t really matter when or why it started, the end effect is the same. At some point a majority of media outlets (news, tv networks, filmmakers  etc) stopped looking to Little House on the Prairie and started looking to the National Enquirer to set the standard for behavior – and once the pied piper started playing that flute all the rats just followed along behind and ran right off the cliff together. Note: My use of rats here is a pied piper reference, not calling people rats. People are hope and potential filled individuals, regardless.

At that point, they decided that the business of looking for flowers held little appeal in terms of ratings or shock value and instead began the search for noxious weeds.

And after our talk yesterday, I finally understand reality tv.

Today, as I’m writing on my second book (You can purchase my first book by clicking here) Chef Lewis from my Alma Mater has graciously agreed to share with you a simple recipe for Chicken Pot Pie. I asked him specifically to do a guest post on Chicken Pot Pie because I’ve received so many requests for one that I’ve lost count. Why haven’t I ever brought you a recipe for chicken pot pie? The same reason I won’t be bringing you a recipe for seafood. ~giggles~ Take it away, Chef! 

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Hi there, I’m Chef Lewis from the University of North Alabama’s Culinary Department in Florence, Al. I was asked to do a guest post to share some of our recipes for the holidays, and I was more than happy to do so. We’re very happy to have Christy as one of our departments alumni’s, and we’re happy that we can share some of our ideas with all of you. This recipe was done by myself and my team Kenny and Devon.

The ingredients you’ll need for the pot pie are chicken breasts, cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, corn, peas and carrots, butter, white pepper, diced yellow onion, and buttermilk biscuits.

I will give easy instructions for making a smaller quantity  below as well.

Begin by boiling the chicken breasts in 4 cups of water with ½ of your diced onion until they are fork-tender (this will be around 20 minutes).

Remove the chicken from the water, keeping the water for later. Strain the onion out of the water with a colander or strainer, and let it cool.

Next you’ll brown the other half of your diced onions in the butter until they’re soft (around 8 minutes).

Then you take the cans of mushroom soup, chicken soup, the browned onion, and the white pepper and combine all of that in a big bowl.

Then you add about 1/2 (2 cups) of the chicken broth (the leftover water you boiled the chicken in) to thin out the soup mixture.

After that you open up the can of peas and carrots and the corn, and drain the liquid out of them, then pour that into the soup mix as well.

By now the chicken breasts should have cooled down enough that you can cut them up into bit-sized pieces.

The chicken goes into the soup mix as well. Just stir it all together and make sure it’s evenly mixed up.

All of the soup mix then goes into a deep greased 13×9 inch pan.

For the topping, you take the biscuits out of the can and flatten them out (you can use either a rolling pin or your hands).

Then stick the biscuits on the top of the chicken soup mix, till they’re covered.

Then you just stick it in the oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for around 20 minutes, and the top should be golden brown.

Enjoy! 

Today’s quote will likely make most of y’all giggle!

“Any mother could perform the jobs of several air traffic controllers with ease.”

~Lisa Alther

Submitted by Louise. Click here to add your quote to the collection.

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2012/01/chicken-pot-pie-flowers-vs-weeds.html/feed 41 http://www.southernplate.com/2012/01/monte-cristo-skillet-and-national-cornbread-festival-news.html http://www.southernplate.com/2012/01/monte-cristo-skillet-and-national-cornbread-festival-news.html#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:23:48 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=18102 Pin it

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

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

(more details at bottom of post)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love Your Cast Iron?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Congratulations to Ricky Mudd!

His comment was chosen using random.org to win this prize. Thank you to everyone who entered! You help ensure we have more great giveaways coming up on SouthernPlate.com! 

Congratulations are also in order to Christine Sanford! White Lily was so excited with the participation in this giveaway that they decided to choose a second winner as well!  

If you’re on Facebook, please click the “Like” button above,thanks!

I’m tickled to be able to bring you this great giveaway today, courtesy of White Lily! 

The prize package includes: 

• 2 Reusable White Lily Shopping Totes
• 2 Bags of White Lily Flour
• a Cuisinart Power Advantage Plus 7 Speed Hand Mixer (with storage compartment, $90 value) 
• Silicone Spatula with White Lily Logo
• Oxo Good Grips Pastry Cutter
• Measuring Cup with White Lily Logo
• White Lily Magnetic Shopping List
• White Lily Recipe Card holder cube 
• Old Fashioned Flour Sack Towel embroidered with the White Lily Logo (LOVE THIS)
• Recipe cards featuring treasured White Lily Recipes and more! 

To Enter, Leave A Comment Below! 

Contest closes Sunday night, January 22, at midnight Central time. Winner will be chosen at random and contacted by email as well as announced Monday morning on this post and on the Southern Plate Family Facebook Page.  Winner will have three days to respond or alternate winner will be chosen.

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Disclaimer: I have not been financially compensated for this post but I did receive a prize package, just like one of y’all will get! I’m madly in love with that flour sack dish towel because I like how they clean and they just feel like a connection to my heritage. Truth be told though, I won’t be using that one, it’s going to hang on my kitchen wall! Hmm, I feel like this disclaimer needs to be a little longer so let me see if I can think of something else to add…. Oh here we go! Ovens are hot and knives are sharp – consider yourself disclaimered  

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.

-Henry David Thoreau

Add to our collection of wise and inspirational quotes by clicking here to visit our Give A Penny page!

If you’re on Facebook, please click the “Like” button above, thanks!

Incredibly moist Dark Chocolate Cake iced with a Whipped Cappuccino Buttercream icing and served with chocolate ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup… 

We used to have this great restaurant in Huntsville called Darryl’s. Everyone loved that place. As a teenager, anytime homecoming, birthdays, or any other eating out occasion rolled around, we all went to Darryl’s. It got to be kind of funny because you’d show up with a date or a group of friends and it would turn out more like a class reunion with practically every other table filled with folks you know.

Unfortunately, Darryl’s closed a good while back. There is only one remaining in North Carolina, but I live in Alabama so I’ve spend over ten years pining away for my very favorite thing on their menu – Cappuccino Cake.

Cappuccino Cake was one of their signature desserts and they always brought out a huge wedge of it for birthdays and special events. My sister got her first job working there as a hostess and we’d never been more proud of her than when we’d come home on the rare occasion and find an entire cappuccino cake in our refrigerator! They served it cold (I think it is better that way) with a side of chocolate ice cream and generously drizzled chocolate syrup over the whole thing.

This is a deep dark chocolate cake iced with a whipped cappuccino buttercream icing. Does it get any better than this? Maybe, but not right now because right now, we’re focusing on this little side of heaven .

After pining away for over a decade, I decided it couldn’t be that difficult to duplicate the recipe so I set out to do just that. You can’t find a copy anywhere on the internet so I went by memory and a basic starting point of dark chocolate cake, coffee infused buttercream – and we have a winner. We have  grand prize winner. This puppy deserves one of those 6 foot tall trophies.

If I didn’t share this recipe I could retire and just bake Cappuccino cakes the rest of my life. But it’s not nice not to share recipes and I don’t really want to wash that many dishes. 

I hope you get to make this soon. It is definitely a showstopper cake perfect for any special occasion.

Come to think of it, today seems pretty special to me, doesn’t it to you? 

For the cake part, you’ll need: 

Chocolate Cake Mix*, milk, sour cream, eggs, dutch process cocoa powder (dark cocoa powder), and oil. 

*You can use any dark chocolate cake mix such as devil’s food, dark chocolate, or even regular chocolate if you like. You can also use your favorite chocolate cake recipe if you like but I like this one because it is dense and extremely moist.

In a mixing bowl, place all of your ingredients. 

Mix that with an electric mixer until well blended and smooth, about 2-3 minutes, scraping down sides as needed. 

Some folks have you add gradually but unless you’re just now joining this party, you know I’m really not a gradual person. 

If you are just now joining this party Welcome to Southern Plate! Come holler at us on Facebook so we can all welcome you proper and love on you a bit!

Be sure and visit our Front Porch forum too. There is a recipe sharing and request forum that has literally hundreds of recipes already on it. We have fun there You have to register to post but once you register, we’ll approve your account and you have Front porch and sweet tea privileges for the duration!

While that is mixing, grease two or three 8 inch round cake pans. I’m only using two. 

To grease my pans I fold up a paper towel and dip it in vegetable shortening and then smear it around real good.

Instead of flouring our pans, since this is a chocolate cake, I like to use cocoa powder. Just put a tablespoon or so in your pan and then…

 tilt your pan all around while patting it to distribute it evenly like this. 

Dump excess out into the trash or back yard. Squirrels need chocolate too. Just kidding. It may be bad for squirrels and then I’d get all sorts of squirrel rights activists boycotting my website and such, which is utterly ridiculous considering I’m practically running a squirrel wildlife refuge here at my house considering I have two of the biggest pecan trees you’ve ever seen in my yard but have gotten a grand total of two pecans in the past three years. The squirrels sure are plump though. And happy. In fact, I don’t think they could be any happier unless I started giving them chocolate…

Then you divide the batter evenly between your two baking pans.

This batter is going to be really thick and will likely remind you of jello.

Remember, never ever eat raw cake batter. 

But I don’t count licking it off the spatula as eating it. 

So many things are all about perspective…

~grins~

Bake cake layers in the oven at 350 for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Note: If you are making more than two layers, check on them after twenty minutes. Mine are thicker since I’m only doing two layers so they will need to cook longer.

Once they are finished baking, remove from oven and let sit in the cake pans for ten minutes. 

After ten minutes, turn cakes out and allow to cool completely. 

I like to let mine cool and then wrap them really well and refrigerate overnight for easier icing the next day

Time to make Cappuccino Buttercream Icing!

You’ll need: Butter, milk, instant coffee, vanilla, and powdered sugar. 

I only use instant coffee for recipes such as this so I got those neat little packets that have a sleeve you open for each cup. They were just $1.00 for a box of seven so that seemed like a pretty good deal to me and my instant coffee stays fresh for whenever I need it.

When it comes to my daily coffee, I need the hard stuff. The real stuff. I’m talking coffee so strong you’d have to put quarters on your eyelids if you wanted them to shut anytime in the next eight hours. 

Take the instant coffee and stir it into your milk until dissolved.

 This may take a minute. 

You don’t have to heat your milk first though.

Place your well softened butter in a mixing bowl. 

Important: Don’t be tempted to soften your butter in the microwave, on the stovetop, or any other trick we use to soften it when we’re in a hurry for this recipe. We really want to just leave our butter on the countertop for a few hours until it softens on it’s own for this recipe. Normally, I’m all about shortcuts but this one is important because we’re gonna have us a whipped icing in the end so bits of melted butter won’t help us achieve our purpose

.

Beat for a minute or two, until fluffy like this. 

Add in all other icing ingredients. 

and beat until smooth, scraping down the sides as needed (like in this picture)

Now crank up that mixer again and beat this icing until it is fluffy, 5-7 minutes. 

If you haven’t tasted this icing by now, I’d sure like to know where you get your willpower from.

Time to ice the cake!

This cake is best if made ahead and refrigerated until good and cold. 

I know that is torture but just try it for me once, it’s totally worth the wait!

Serve with chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup (I used Hershey’s) and a strawberry.

Eat the strawberry last – your body might get confused and think you just finished a fruit plate

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

 “Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Proverbs 16:24

The honeycomb is one of the strongest structures designed. Strengthen those around you with uplifting speech. Everyone needs cheerful words these days. Life and death are in the power of the tongue, Choose LIFE.

~Submitted by Marilyn Miller. Click here to submit your quote.

TIPS AND RECIPES FROM OUR FRIENDS AT SOUTHERN LIVING

What to Eat (ALABAMA vs, LSU): 

Southern Living whipped up menus and cocktails that celebrate the cuisine of each team:

• Alabama: “Million Dollar Bama Sandwich,” Big Al’s Grilled Bacon-and-Blue Cheese Potato Salad, Pennant sugar cookies, and Crimson cupcakes
• LSU: “Muffle the Tide” Mini Muffulettas, Tiger Bait Red Beans and Rice, Hurricane Punch-Out, and Love Purple Live Gold Cupcakes
• We have videos of a team colors cupcake faceoff featuring our Test Kitchen Pros, click here to watch!

The Latest Gear

 Game Day Trivia

8 Fun Facts Every LSU Fan Should Know

6 Fun Facts Every Bama Fan Should Know

Football is, after all, a wonderful way to get rid of your

aggressions without going to jail for it. 

~Heywood Hale Brown