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!

Kitchens are heating up leading up to the Thanksgiving Holiday! If you are still looking for ideas and some recipes… 

Be sure and check out my Thanksgiving Menu Bonanza Post

for over 60 recipes! (Click here).

Below are some other recipes that have been popular this week based on views and how many of you have saved them to your online recipe box!

Cornbread Dressing 

Made in the slow cooker!

Faux Pecan Pie

This is quickly becoming one of the most popular Southern Plate recipes of 2011

Cranberry Crunch

The comments on this post alone are worth the read. Settle in and get comfy, don’t forget the tissues.

Other recipes that have been very popular this past week: 

Grandmama’s Holiday Fruit Salad - I won’t tell you how much I ate of this yesterday at my mother’s house

Sweet Potato Casserole – Sweet potatoes topped with a nutty brown sugar crust. Oh have mercy this stuff is good!

Ham Salad - great for leftover ham!

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Streusal topping – three ingredients in the muffins themselves, and one of them is water!

Mama’s Corn Casserole  - An old family favorite, whenever it is served!

Grace isn’t a little prayer you say before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.

~ Jackie Windspear

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

Drop Biscuits – And How Your Mama Did It Just Right

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

Dixie Cornbread (Go Dawgs!)

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

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

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

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

How To Make Buttermilk Biscuits

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

Ten Minute Rolls

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

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

Hoe Cake

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

Seeded Yeast Rolls, Ready From Your Freezer Anytime!

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

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

then if not for biscuits and gravy.”

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

If you missed my Guest Appearance on Paula Deen’s Best Dishes, it airs a final time on November 14th at 12:00 Noon Eastern on the Food Network. Click here for more information and to read about my day with Paula.

Today I’ll be doing last minute prep for my Holiday Cooking Show and I’m so excited to get to see some of you tomorrow!

Big doings in store this year so if you’re in our area you won’t want to miss it! For more information, click here.

I’m so excited for the holidays to be here, a time where we all gather together and give thanks for all of the blessings in our lives.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season planned, too!

I’ve compiled a list of recipe ideas to help you plan your Thanksgiving meal below. Of course we don’t have all of this in one sitting but I wanted to give you plenty to choose from! Click on each recipe to view the complete tutorial of how to make it. Recipes which are in the Southern Plate Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family cookbook are noted in the side along with page number. Recipes which are exclusive to the cookbook (not on SouthernPlate.com) are also noted beside the recipe.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Main Meal

• Buttermilk Congealed Salad (Cookbook p. 66)
• Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes
• Fried Apples (Cookbook p.106)

• Cornbread Dressing (easy and moist) (Cookbook variation p.128)
• Lucy’s Sweet Potato Casserole (Cookbook p. 117)
• Green Bean and Shoepeg Corn Casserole (Cookbook only p. 226)
• Jordan Rolls (Cookbook p.16)
• Preston Rolls (Cookbook only p.230)
• Cranberry Relish
• Candied Baby Carrots
• Fried Cabbage
• Grandmama’s Tex Mex Dip (Cookbook only p.173) – no idea why we have this at Thanksgiving but we’d all boycott the holiday without it!
• English Pea Pimento Casserole
• Broccoli and Cauliflower Salad (Cookbook only p.42)
• Fried Okra (Cookbook p.224)
• Butter Stewed Potatoes
• Sweet and Sour Green Beans (Cookbook p.40)
• Kid Friendly Relish Tray
• Corn Casserole (Cookbook p.23)
• Creamy Macaroni and Cheese (Cookbook p.200)
• Deviled Eggs (Cookbook p.24)
• MeMe’s Mashed Potatoes (Cookbook p.35)
• Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole (Cookbook p.33)
• Sour Cream Hash Brown Casserole (Cookbook only p. 32)
• Watergate Salad (Cookbook only p.218)
• Pecan Pie Muffins (Cookbook p.169)
• Streusal Pumpkin Spice Muffins (Cookbook p. 129)
• Frozen Cranberry Banana Salads (Cookbook p.188)

Pies

• Faux Pecan Pie
• Lucy’s Chocolate Pie (Cookbook only p. 146)
• Aunt Sue’s Fried Chocolate Pies (Cookbook only p.146)
• German Chocolate Pie (Cookbook only p.246)
• Perfect Pecan Pie (Cookbook p.120)
• Honey Punkin Cream Cheese Pie
• Coconut Meringue Pie
• Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Pie
• Ashley Mac’s Caramel Pie
• Buttermilk Pie
• Sawdust Pie
• Chocolate Pecan Pie
• Lemon Meringue Pie (Cookbook p.192)

Cakes

• Good N Easy Apple Cake with Homemade Whipped Cream (Cookbook p.107)
• Chocolate Velvet Cake (Cookbook p.142)
• Green Velvet Cake (Cookbook only p.170)
• Aunt Sue’s Pound Cake (Cookbook only p.8)
• Mama’s Custard Sauce – to go over pound cake (Cookbook only p.10)
• Chocolate Pecan Pie
• Daddy’s Coconut Cake (Cookbook p.154)
• Apple Dapple Cake (Cookbook p.118)
• Mandarin Orange Cake (Cookbook p.14)
• Butterfinger Cake (Cookbook p.22)
• Fruit Cocktail Cake (Cookbook p.39)
• Yellow Cake with Peanut Butter Icing (Cookbook p.258)
• Chocolate Pound Cake with Fudge Glaze (Cookbook p.100)
• Pumpkin Crumb Cake (Cookbook p.130)
  
• Granny’s Sheath Cake (Cookbook only p.31)

And don’t forget this…

Holiday Fruit Salad (Cookbook p.164)

Homemade Caramel Corn (Cookbook p.91)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

For many more recipes and stories from my heart, be sure to pick up a copy of my cookbook, available at booksellers nationwide!

Click here to purchase it on Amazon.com for 48% off the cover price

We often take for granted the very things

that most deserve our gratitude.

I read another book for the kids! Click here to watch Green Eggs and Ham.

Thanksgiving is coming faster than ever this year and I have some recipes I’m going to do my best to get up here while we still have time. Next week I’ll also post my full menu of Thanksgiving suggestions complete with tutorials but today I’m going to show you how easy it is to make moist and delicous cornbread dressing.

Yesterday as I chatted away about Thanksgiving on the Southern Plate Family Facebook Page, Laurie Sawyer Johnson chimed in with a comment that just about summed it all up when she said. “Everyday is Thanksgiving at my house. We all have so much to be thankful for these days.” Amen Laurie, you are a wise woman. We all do have so very much to be thankful for and these days are ones in which I think we are better able to see just what it is we hold of true value in our lives.

Yesterday I was talking to Mama about how lucky we are that we don’t come from money, that we come from financially poor ancestors and how this has shaped our view of what really matters in life. I would like to say that I’d be the same person if I was brought up in a financially wealthy family but I really don’t believe I would be. If anyone could raise kids amidst money and have them walk a straight line though, it would have been my parents.

But you know, we never had much and so Mama and Daddy compensated by spending time with us, making things from scratch, recycling household items into toys and overall investing time in their kids when they couldn’t invest money. That taught me integrity, values, and created in me a thankful heart while keeping my eyes ever open to the richness of relationships.

Every time I look around me now, I can’t help but be humbled and amazed at how much I have to be thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving to you, for the next 365 days.

You’ll need: cream of chicken soup (two cans), stick of margarine or butter (whatever you have), ground sage, turkey, onion, and broth.

Now I’m using my broth from cooking the turkey but you can use canned broth if you like (just go by the measurements in the ingredients list below).

You can also omit the meat if you like, or even use a rotisserie chicken in place of having to cook it.

Are you looking at this and thinking “Well my Mama always added chopped celery” or “My mama never used onion…” then go ahead and add celery or leave out the onion. Make it your own!

You’re going to need some cornbread, about two quarts worth which is pretty much a double recipe (get Terri’s recipe by clicking here).

I just cook mine in a 9×13 pan and then I know I’ll have enough. Don’t worry about cooking it in cast iron or anything like that because we’re going to saturate it with broth and lots of good stuff anyway so a crispy crust isn’t going to do you much good. Special thanks to Debbie Strum for my fine white corn meal that I used in this!

You’re also going to need some chopped, boiled eggs.

Mine were camera shy at first so I had to cut them up a bit and force them on camera. Don’t worry, I am much more understanding of people who are camera shy than I am of eggs. Muwahaha!

Okay so here we go…

Crumble up your cornbread. This is in a really really big bowl (I think four quarts).

Chop up your onion and add that in

add in eggs

and sage

pour in melted butter or margarine

(whatever you have on hand)

pour in broth

Man that makes the sage look ugly…

and one can of cream of chicken soup

stir that up really well

Take a bite just to taste it

Now take that other can of cream of chicken and spread half of it in the bottom of your slow cooker

Top with 1/3 of the dressing mixture

and 1/2 of the turkey

then another 1/3 of the dressing

the remainder of the turkey

and the rest of the dressing

Spread half of the cream of chiken soup over the dressing

Cover and cook on low 3 hours and it’s ready to serve!

Okay so I totally forgot to take a photo of this. I made the plate to take a photo of and in the process kind of forgot about the camera and started eating. So the final photograph is of a plate I made the next day with the leftovers

Add this recipe to ZipList!

Cornbread Dressing

Ingredients

• 3-4 Cups Shredded Turkey (can substitute chicken or omit entire)
• 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 2 quarts cornbread
• 2 tablespoons dried sage
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 1/2 cup (one stick) margarine, melted
• 3-4 cups broth (from your turkey or canned)

Instructions

1. Set aside one can cream of chicken soup and the turkey (or chicken). In large bowl, crumble cornbread and add all other ingredients. Stir until well mixed. In bottom of 6 quart slow cooker, spread half the remaining can of cream of chicken soup. Top with 1/3 of the dressing mixture and 1/2 of the meat. Add another 1/3 of the dressing and remaining meat, then the remaining dressing. Spread the rest of the cream of chicken soup over top. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours. Serve hot.

Google Recipe View Microformatting by ZipList Recipe Plugin

1.2

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

*This recipe is on SouthernPlate.com using cooked chicken breasts and canned broth, you can find that post by clicking here. This recipe is also listed in the cookbook on page 128 using a cooked whole chicken as well. It is easily adaptable either way you go so I just thought I’d bring you another full tutorial for those of you who may be using turkey and broth from cooking the turkey.

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was

“thank you”

that would suffice.

~Meister Eckhart. Submit your positive or uplifting quote (or read some more!) by clicking here.

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

Thank you again for all of your support of the book! They’ve lowered the price again on Amazon.com so if you’d like to get it at a discount you can click here to beebop on over there and save a little money! Check out my Tour page for details on my upcoming appearances on The 700 Club and The Today Show!

Sort your beans. Sometimes, tiny little stones make their way into your bag of dried beans. What we want to do is carefully pour a handful at a time and look through them. I just do this as I am putting them in my pot.

Here comes more seasoning…now to understand how I season my beans you’d pretty much have to meet my grandmother. She is as good hearted as the day is long, but a wee bit on the absentminded side (not that I’m any different!). So I called Grandmama about ten years or so ago when I was making dried beans for the first time.

A few minutes later I got another phone call…

A few minutes later I got ANOTHER phone call…

A few minutes later…

So basically, every time I go to make beans I just basically go about and add everything I can think of to add and then I know they’ll be like Grandmamas – except the kitchen sink, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she started adding that in eventually.

I add one tablespoon of sugar, because my great grandmother always did like to add a “lil bit of sugar in thangs”.

Now toss in your ham hock or bone or whatever you are going to use for the meat seasoning. You can do without that if you are a vegetarian…just pretend you put the ham in . When my sister was a vegetarian, some time between her super model phase and learning to shoot a machine gun in the Army, my mother used to make pintos with ham as usual and then just hide the ham when Patti came to eat .

Now just stir that up and bring to a boil. Once it is brought to a boil, turn it down to a simmer and simmer for several hours. I get mine on in the morning right after my son goes to school and then let it simmer all day, eating it at supper. By supper time that juice in the pot is every bit as good as the beans!!!

I want to give a special thanks to Life At The Lake for a lovely blog post about Southern Plate. She is so very kind, please do go pay a visit to her beautiful blog!

If you like Southern Plate, please tell your friends and Stumble me if you are a stumbleupon user!
Have a great evening!!!
Gratefully,
Christy
~~~~~~~~~~~~Hang on, I’m about to go off on a major tangent about my family below~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is my grandmother “Grandmama”, sitting near my brother’s tent at our recent Fiddler’s Convention.

And this is Mama, after my brother suckered her into working the BBQ Sundae/Roasted Corn booth while he ran his cooker.

And now y’all are wondering “What on earth is a BBQ Sundae?”. So this is my dad making one…If you think he looks familiar and you are or have been a police officer, you’re probably right. Also, if you have ever been arrested and his face rings a bell…..

and this is the finished product. They are soooooooooo good! Baked beans layered with slaw (its a BBQ slaw, not a mayonaise slaw), topped with pulled pork and served with a pickle sticking out! My brother has a BBQ restaurant and this is one of his specialties. He has won the Jack Daniel’s Cookoff Grand Champion for his ribs and his smoked chicken!

He also has an AMAZING BBQ sauce (because I developed it from scratch, of course!).

Have a great evening!!!

I got an email from a reader, Terri (Who is originally from Georgia -Go Dawgs!) telling me she made world famous cornbread. I was intrigued.

Then she told me that her husband said she made better cornbread than his MAMA. I was stunned.

THEN she told me that her cornbread recipe included TWO CUPS OF BUTTERMILK. My jaw was hanging open.

I had to try this. She offered the recipe (on accounta she’s so nice!) and of course I said yes (on accounta I do NOT make it a habit to turn down world famous recipes of cornbread that include two cups of buttermilk and make husbands turn on their Mamas).

It took her a week or so to get it to me and I have to admit I was getting kind of worried that she may have decided to keep it a secret after all. When I did finally get it, Terri (Go Dawgs!) and I had us a bit of an OMG moment. It turns out the very cookbook she got this from, which is a rare one printed in the seventies, just happened to be the very same cookbook I was laying in bed leafing through as her email came through on my iphone. Spooky or Fate? After having been fortunate enough to get to know Terri (Go Dawgs!) through email, I can definitely say it was the latter.

Let me tell you my personal experience with this cornbread :EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY GOBBLED IT DOWN. That may not seem like that big a deal until I tell you that up until I made this, cornbread had not ever passed the lips of either of my children (they are weird). My husband (whom I’ve mentioned before must have been dropped on his head as a child because of his extremely strange aversions to some staple southern dishes despite having been born and raised just outside of Atlanta) even ate a rather large piece and came back for seconds.

I have never had cornbread so moist in all of my born days. I am flabbergasted and feel certain that no small amount of my existance has been wasted up until tasting this. My in laws are coming to visit this weekend from Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and I plan on having this in the oven when they pull in the driveway.

So without further fuss (On accounta I don’t want to stand between you and this cornbread, because standing in between anyone and THIS cornbread is NOT a safe place to be), here is Terri’s (Go Dawgs!) Dixie Cornbread!

We do dressing differently in the south. Dressing is moist and delicious, served steaming with sides of cranberry sauce and ample amounts of chicken or turkey inside. Often reserved for holidays, my grandmother changed all of that with her crock pot chicken and dressing recipe. Now we have this family favorite all year long thanks to the little effort involved in preparing it.

I’ve often said there is no sight prettier than an old lady with a casserole dish – but the sight of my Grandmother toting her crock pot has it beat by far! This is from my grandmother, Lucille, to you. Enjoy!
(Good thing y’all aren’t waiting in real time for me to finish this post. Its taking me ten forevers because I am sitting here eating more dressing as I do it.)

You are going to need…TWO pans of cornbread (I know I am only showing one here, but trust me, two, two..), Two hotdog or hamburger buns, two boiled eggs, stick of butter, chicken (I used 4 boneless skinless breasts and just boiled them in water until done), two cans cream of chicken soup, two cans chicken broth, sage, and a chopped onion. Uh oh! Here goes my tangent…..

Eons ago (A few years), I was watching the Martha Stewart show and Donald Trump and his new young thang were on there. The newly acquired Mrs. Trump had come to demonstrate how she makes meatloaf. Who are we kidding here, if you were married to “The Donald” would you make meatloaf? Anyway, lest we actually think she had done this before, she requested a latex glove (which she pronounced “Lah-tex”) before handling the meat. The following segment was perhaps the most riveting food show segment of all time. A super model attempting to smoosh ground beef for the first time. Okay, so my point is this, Mrs. Trump was too good to touch ground beef with her bare hands and you know what? I think she was on to something.

I think all of us, no matter what station in life or how little money we have, should all choose something and declare ourselves too good to do that. Its just a state of mind really. I mean, load your dishwasher and tell yourself in a diva-esque tone “I’m too good to hand wash dishes.” See how it feels, really. Me, I’m too good to chop onions ~grins~.

Alright so…I’m too good to chop onions when the grocery store has the frozen ones in stock but still – at times I am too good to do something and it makes me feel rather indulgent and as close to being a princess as I am likely ever to come.

–End Tangent. On To Recipe–

Alright! Things are heating up here at Southern Plate! We now have ACTION Photography!!! Crumble all of your cornbread into a large bowl. I will be posting a cornbread tutorial later in the week. My mother said she is going to do it because I use whole milk instead of buttermilk when I make it ~dramatic gasp followed by a giggle~.

Tear hot dog or hamburger bun into small pieces and place in bowl. We always use two types of bread in our dressing. The white bread helps to bind it together. If you don’t have any buns, you can always use loaf bread.

Chop eggs.

Stir well until it looks like this. You’ve made your dressing!!! Go you!!!

In crock pot, spread half of the remaining can of cream of chicken soup.

Spread remainder of cream of chicken soup over the top. Cover and cook on low for three to four hours.

Dig in!

Crock Pot Chicken and Dressing
~My grandmother, Lucille

4 chicken breasts, cooked
2 pans of cornbread or two quarts
2 hamburger or hot dog buns (can use a few slices of white bread)
2 Tablespoons sage
1 medium onion, chopped
2 eggs, hard boiled
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 stick margarine, melted
2 cans chicken brother (3-4 cups)

Mix together cornbread, sage, onion, eggs (chopped), melted butter, one can cream of chicken soup, two cans broth.

Make a layer of half the remaining can of cream of chicken soup in the bottom of a large crock pot. Top with 1/3 of the dressing. Top dressing with half of the chicken, shredding it as you put it in. Top with 1/3 dressing, remaining chicken, and remaining dressing. Spread other half of cream of chicken soup over top. Cover and cook on low for three to four hours. Serve hot.