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!

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.

This is National Read Across America Week and if you have young kids they’ll be celebrating with fun reading activities in school all week long.

Big Birthday wishes go to Dr. Seuss who would have been 107 on Wednesday of this week and in honor of his books, here are some fun activities for you and yours!

Put a Wocket in everyone’s pocket!

I LOVE making my little wockets. My husband drew out the wockets and we colored them in and then uploaded the whole sheet of them to SouthernPlate.com. All you have to do is print them, cut them out, laminate them, (I show you a cheap and easy way) and glue to a popsicle stick. Then, insert in a cupcake or muffin and when the kids are finished they have their very own wocket to put in their pocket just like the Dr Seuss book!

Click here to view that post and print out the sheet of wockets

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

Reading to and with your kids is so very important and I really enjoy getting to read to your children here on Southern Plate.

Below you’ll find links to the story time videos on Southern Plate so far:

Giraffes Can’t Dance

Pete The Cat

Kiss Good Night

Green Eggs And Ham

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

And here is a special poem I found on the NEA website!

Read Across America Poem

~Courtesy of the NEA

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild,
To pick up a book and read with a child.
You’re never too busy, too cool, or too hot,
To pick up a book and share what you’ve got.

In schools and communities,
Let’s gather around,
Let’s pick up a book,
Let’s pass it around.

There are kids all around you,
Kids who will need
Someone to hug,
Someone to read.

Come join us March 2nd
Your own special way
And make this America’s
Read to Kids Day.

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

HAVE A GREAT READ ACROSS AMERICA WEEK!

Why not have your own celebration at home?

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

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

— Emilie Buchwald

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now go make ‘em some double chocolate muffins.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now pour that into your dry ingredients.

and start stirring…

until it looks like this

Add in your chocolate chips

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

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

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

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

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

Remember that what you now have was once among the things

you only hoped for.”

~Epicurus, Greek Philosopher

Catch up on Life At Bountiful by reading these posts:

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

]]> http://www.southernplate.com/2011/01/double-chocolate-chip-muffins.html/feed 89 http://www.southernplate.com/2010/11/green-eggs-ham.html http://www.southernplate.com/2010/11/green-eggs-ham.html#comments Wed, 10 Nov 2010 16:55:42 +0000 Christy Jordan http://www.southernplate.com/?p=12196 Pin it

Reading Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

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

Good morning! ~thinks a minute~ Okay, so it was morning when I started working on this post. However, by the time I got back from the grocery store, made the ham salad, and heard my stomach growl as I took photos of the finished product, I ended up sitting down to eat my model (it was just too pretty not to eat right then and there) and lo and behold, by the time this puppy is posted it will likely be early afternoon – if I’m lucky. Good thing is, by then it will be time for a snack of …more ham salad ~grins~. It’s a tough job.

I’ve had more requests for a ham salad tutorial than I can count since starting Southern Plate so I’m hoping y’all will enjoy this one. This is one of those old timey recipes that used up leftovers and scraps of ham to make something pretty, filling, and delicious. There are as many ways to do ham salad as the day is long so if you don’t have your own ham salad recipe, feel free to take this one and customize it to your tastes or make it up with what you have on hand. Don’t have spicy brown mustard? Use a bit of regular and add a little more pepper if you like. Prefer a different mayonnaise than what I used? Go for it. Tweak it, mix it up, taste it, and make it your own.

Fact is, I can think of very few recipes as simple as this one. I’ve been getting a lot of comments lately from really nice folks thanking me for having such simple recipes and I want to thank You for being kind enough to read them and taking the time to comment! I think cooking really should be simple, though, and I’ve found that its the simple recipes that tend to taste the best.

Of course, that could be due to the fact that I won’t actually go to the trouble of making a complicated recipe…

Either way you look at it, here is another simple but good one for ya. Hope you get to try it soon!

You’ll need: Spicy brown mustard, sweet pickle relish, mayo*, boiled eggs, pepper to taste, and chopped ham**.

*I am not a big mayo person. I often try to get Duke’s because so many of y’all have told me how much you love it but I mostly just use it to mix up things with so sometimes grab whatever I can find first. If you have a favorite mayo, be sure to use that in this recipe.

**A lot of folks chop up their ham for ham salad in the food processor. If you like it really fine, that is the best way. I’d just as soon chop it up coarsely with a knife as opposed to having to get the food processor out and go to the trouble of cleaning it afterward. Big old chunks of ham are a beautiful sight! You’ll notice from the photo that I also don’t cut the skin off my ham, but just leave it on there. I don’t see any reason to add an extra step to things. You can if you like, of course, but if you’d rather not just consider it a wee more on the gourmet side. Kinda like how we made that stew a few days ago and didn’t peel the potatoes but just called it “rustic” instead. It’s all in the perspective…

Place your ham in a mixing bowl. Add Mayo.

See how easy this is already?

Add pickle relish.

I’m using the same cup I had the mayo in and just eyeballing it. No sense in dirtying up another measuring cup.

Add in your mustard

Don’t stress if you don’t have this exact type of mustard. Just use what you have on hand and roll with it.

Some of the best recipes came about by folks using what they had on hand.

Here we go. Ready to stir!

It doesn’t look too purty right now but hang in there with me.

Stirred up well

Oh, let me tell ya about my bowl.

This is a Pyrex mixing bowl from the sixties-ish era and the pattern is called Snowflake Garland. It is one of my favorite patterns because this is the pattern of dishes my Grandmother Lucille had when I was a little girl (for those of y’all who have heard this story before, bear with me!).

We didn’t have much money at all growing up so we never ate out. We actually won dinner for our family at McDonald’s once and it was such a big deal that we had a family photo taken out front! But Grandmama and Grandaddy both worked and could afford food out from time to time. A lot of times they’d invite us over to their house for supper. Lela (my great grandmother who lived with them) would make corn and rolls and Grandmama would make her mashed potatoes and then they’d go get Kentucky Fried Chicken to go with it. We’d eat it on these snowflake garland plates and to us that meal was just such a treat. To this day, whenever I use my snowflake garland plates, I think “These plates are for the fancy food!”.

If you’d like to read more about the plates we had growing up and why I use the dishes I do, there is a tangent on that in my Pork Chop Biscuits post.

After you have everything all stirred up and added in, add in your chopped boiled eggs.

Stir gently. Your ham salad is now ready!

You can refrigerate it for a while to allow the flavors to blend well or you can just eat it right now.

Guess which one I’m gonna do?

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Ham Salad

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped smoked or baked ham- diced as finely as you like
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish
• 2 boiled eggs, peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon spicy brown mustard
• pepper to taste (I usually don't add salt because the ham is salty, but add it if you like!)

Instructions

1. Chop up ham with a knife or food processor (however fine you want it to be). Place ham, mayonnaise, relish, mustard, and pepper in a bowl. Stir with spoon until well blended. Gently stir in chopped eggs. Serve on sandwiches, rolls, or crackers.
2. Makes about three cups ham salad.

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

You can’t control the direction of the wind

but you can control the direction of your sails.

Linda Barker (thanks, Linda!). Submit your quote or browse through our

collection of positive quotes by clicking here.

New to Southern Plate? We sure are glad to have you! You can subscribe by email to receive an email from me each time I post something new on the website by clicking here. You also might want to join us over at our Facebook Family Page. I know you’re going to love the rest of the family!

Gratefully,

Christy

P.S. I don’t want to bog down your mailbox by sending too many emails so I’ve started a new section on Southern Plate where I can write about my adventures on the book tour. If you’d like to check it out, you can do so by clicking here. I’ll also post updates on facebook so you can keep up with new posts by joining us over there as well. Visit the Tales From The Tour section. These posts won’t be included in the emails I send out. I still try to keep those mostly geared towards recipes Love y’all, Christy

I’m working on filling up my bacon grease jar today so I followed my mother’s advice and decided to make her breakfast pizza, starring bacon. In it’s original form, this recipe could feed an army. Literally. Mama made it on those mornings my dad or brother had friends over getting ready to go fishing, camping, canoeing, you name it. I made it a bit smaller but still large enough to feed company. If you like, you can use the small can of crescent rolls and half everything else to make it an 8×8.

After I post this I’ll be hitting the ground running. We already have crepe paper twisted and draped in the living room and kitchen. Balloons in a rainbow of colors litter our living room floor and the layers of my son’s soon-to-be-lego cake are waiting for me to decorate on the kitchen counter (I’ll post pictures on Facebook). That’s right folks, my son went and got another year older despite my pleas not to. He turned eleven yesterday and we’re having a slumber party with his cousins tonight (all boys – the cupboards will be bare by morning!).

Yesterday when he woke up we had the den all decorated and little strips of crepe paper hanging from his door. He came out with a huge grin on his face and we all sang as he blew out the candle in his birthday biscuit – an old family tradition. We spent the day together and ended it by seeing the Star Wars exhibit at the US Space & Rocket Center which I feel quite certain would be really something for anyone with the slightest interest in Star Wars or anyone who had watched just one of the movies – since I don’t fit into either one of those categories I am happy to report that it is also fun for mothers who want some pictures of their kids having a good time.

My kids enjoying the Star Wars thingiemajigger that is currently in our town.

So today as I rush around (and squeeze in an eye exam for my little girl who will surely pick the loudest colored eyeglass frames available) I’m feeling all nostalgic and emotional. My babies are growing up. Katy Rose even has the nerve to start Kindergarten this year. For eleven years I’ve had a baby at home and now they are both going off and having little lives of their own. They’re growing up on me and no one will listen when I try to stop it. ~sighs~

Thank goodness they come back home when I set the dinner table. A Mama’s secret weapon .

You’ll need: frozen shredded hash browns(can use cubed), shredded cheddar, eggs…

You can also add your favorite things into this. Veggies, sausage, different cheeses, have fun with it!

and bacon of course!

Go ahead and fry that up.

You know, you can cook up a few packages of bacon at once and just store the cooked bacon in the refrigerator to make meal prep easier. When I do this, I try to use mine within a few days.

Open your can of crescent rolls and place them evenly in the bottom of a greased 9×13 inch pan.

Eh, that looks even enough for me.

Spread your hash browns over them. The hash browns are still frozen, don’t worry about thawing them.

Salt and pepper to taste if you like. I’d start with about 1/2 teaspoon of each.

Crack all of your eggs in a bowl and beat them up well.

Pour the eggs over your hash browns.

Now that your bacon is done, crumble it up a bit and sprinkle over the top of your eggs.

Like so!

Bake this in an oven at 35o for about 45 minutes, or until set in the center.

Sprinkle cheese over the top and return to oven just until cheese melts.

Now for the good part! Lets preserve all of that miraculous substance that is bacon grease, or drippings if you prefer.

I let mine cool in the skillet first, then pour it into a mason jar.

Now a lot of people strain off their grease but I actually scrape the pan just to get all of the little bits in mine. Then, when I’m making cornbread and such I dip my spoon waaaaaaaaaaay down to the bottom so I have the yummy bits in my batter.

A lot of folks have asked how I store my bacon grease. I’ve never seen anyone in my family who didn’t store theirs right on the counter. However, I started storing mine in the refrigerator a few years back. It solidifies but its just fine, you can scoop it out and put it right in the pan when you need it. I find that refrigerated bacon grease is a lot more convenient for me because there is no worry of messy drips when you spoon some out of the jar. If you need liquid bacon grease (like what I add to cornbread batter) you can scoop out what you need and heat it slightly in the microwave. It just takes a few seconds to get it liquified again. Bacon grease can go rancid so storing it in the refrigerator can prolong it’s shelf life considerably.

Tipnut says you can even freeze bacon grease, which I hadn’t thought of before. I guess because I tend to use mine up before I have a surplus. Now that I think about it, though, my goal is to have TWO mason jars full and put one in the freezer. Oh my, what a bounty that would be!

This is my bacon grease jar straight from the fridge, right after I added the new grease on top of the old. We’re getting there!

I think I need to cook some more bacon though…

Bacon Breakfast Pizza, all ready to serve up!

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Bacon Breakfast Pizza

Ingredients

• 1- 8 count can crescent roll dough
• 3 cups shredded hash browns (can used cubed)
• dozen eggs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 6 slices bacon (more or less, depending on what you have on hand)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Optional: Other toppings of your choice. Examples are: Onions, mushrooms, other meats, other vegetables, etc

Instructions

1. Cook bacon and set aside. Spray a 9x13 inch pan with cooking spray. Place crescent roll dough in the bottom of the pan, pinching seams together to seal. Spread frozen hash browns over dough. Salt and pepper to taste (I start with 1/2 tsp of each). Beat all eggs in a bowl and pour over hash browns. Sprinkle crumbled bacon over. Place in oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, or until set in center. Sprinkle cheese over top and return to oven just until melted. Serve warm.

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While we try to teach our children all about life,

Our children teach us what life is all about.

~Angela Schwindt   Submit your quote here.

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

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

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

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

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

Crack all your eggs into the bowl.

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

Pour in your milk.

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

Whip it, whip it good!

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

~smiles and does a little dance~

dump in cheese

and chopped ham

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

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

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

Mix that up as well.

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

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

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

Pour that all in.

Wasn’t that easy?

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

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

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

Yumm!

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Omelet Made Easy

Ingredients

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

Instructions

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

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

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

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

Every self respecting Southerner has a deviled egg plate, usually two. We have one for “fancy” company and a travel one which has a handy little lid (in the interest of disclosure, I have three fancy ones and one travel one). Deviled eggs are standard fare at all family reunions, church gatherings, and holidays but they are an absolute requirement at Easter!

When I was a little girl we always had family reunions on my Papa Reed’s farm each summer. The two things I looked forward to the most were Mama’s Mandarin Orange cake (because she used to torture us by making it three days ahead of time and letting it sit in the refrigerator -at perfect eye level for my siblings and I!) and all of the platters of deviled eggs. Everyone brought covered dishes from home and when time came for the meal Papa Reed would hook his tractor up to a large flatbed trailer and pull it right up into the front yard. The ladies would then lay out bed sheets and table cloths to cover the trailer bed and everyone would take the covers off their dishes and lay them out, forming a huge country buffet. Deviled eggs were plentiful and I would go down the line, examining each platter and making my choice. Usually, I got one from each dish but my very favorite were the ones with “red stuff” (paprika) sprinkled on the top!

After everyone had eaten second and sometimes third helpings, the dishes were cleared, sheets removed, and we’d all climb up onto the trailer for a hayride through the country. My favorite part of the hayride was when we stopped over at a creek and got to throw rocks in. It was pretty hot by then and you’d try to find the biggest rock you could so you’d get a good splash of cool creek water out of it! Later, we’d put out chairs in the front lawn and the musicians in the family would set up on the porch for a little concert of sorts. We usually had a guitar, fiddle, and banjo.

I miss family reunions.

Well, I may not have a family reunion today but look what I do have!

Real, honest to goodness, fresh from a local farm, EGGS!

I have always wanted a chicken coop. Its been a dream of mine since I was a little girl and my step grandmother would let me go gather the eggs when I came for a visit. Each egg was like finding a grand prize. Returning with an entire basket full thrilled me to no end. I’ve always wanted to raise chickens, gathering and cooking for my family with fresh eggs I had harvested from my own hens. I’ve read books on how to build the coop, what to feed the chickens, and how to care for them but alas, I still live in the city and these silly city folks don’t think chickens are the best choice for neighbors.

So I am just going to live vicariously through Kamilla, over at Fledermaus Farm.

Now THIS is fresh! This photo was taken on April 7th!

Farm fresh, local egg

Egg from grocery store.

On the top is a farm fresh egg and the bottom is a store bought one. Notice the richness in the color of the yolk on the top. Let me tell you, there is a definite taste difference as well! It was such a treat for me to find a local source for fresh eggs. I’ll be bringing you more in future posts about the farm these eggs came from.

If any of you are wondering how to find a local source for eggs or any other farm raised food, www.localharvest.org is a great place to start. This is where I located the farm these eggs came from and it turns out the owner and I went to high school together! It really is  a small world and its fun to find out just how small by looking to your own local resources for food.

With spring upon us now and summer coming up, I’ve been looking at different ways to be more self sufficient in terms of providing for my family. I have a small garden planned (it may end up being a series of container gardens) and am working on several true “from scratch” tutorials to bring you. My eventual goal is to be able to provide as much of my family’s food as possible from my own garden or local sources. Keep in mind that I am still cheap though, so this will be done within reason. While I would love to start using meat from local sources, I can’t bring myself to pay double the price- even if it is organic.

Although this is better for the environment, healthier, ensures better quality food, and is better for our local economy, my primary goal is to simply increase the self sufficiency of my family. I’ll be sharing more of how I am doing in my little quest throughout the summer. For now, I’m reading, studying, and planning.

~sighs~ But I still can’t have my chicken coop.

How about we make us some deviled eggs from Kamilla’s chicken coop instead?

Place fresh eggs in pot and add enough water to cover them by one inch.

Add a pinch of salt per my mother’s directions.

We don’t question our mothers. We just do it.

Bring to a full boil over medium to medium high heat.

Once it comes to a boil, remove pot from hot eye and cover.

Allow to sit for fifteen minutes.

Place pot in sink and run cold water into it until eggs are cooled.

Once cooled, remove each egg and tap it gently on all sides on a hard surface to get a nice cracking on the shell.

Carefully peel egg.

To peel an egg and have it still be pretty requires a delicate hand, which I do not have. I forced it for y’all though (Because I just love ya so much). I’m one of these people who has fifty different things I want to do at once and I just barrel right through them!

To make our eggs, you’ll need: Mayo, Mustard, and Sweet Pickle Relish

You’ll also need: salt, pepper, and paprika but these are actually optional.

Cut each egg in half.

Spoon out all of the yolks.

WOW! Look how bright and rich these are!

For six eggs, I am using 3 T of Mayo and 1 T of mustard.

This is something you’ll need to customize to her personal taste so just start out with lesser quantities, mix it all in, and then add more if you prefer!

With a fork, mush* it all together.

*Once again, I am bringing you a highly technical term which I yield effortlessly thanks to my $40,000 Home Economics degree. As a Southern Plate reader, you are now qualified to use this term as well and FREE OF CHARGE, too!

The perks never end, folks!

Once its all nice and creamy, add about a 1/2 tsp salt (more if you prefer)

I add about 1/4 tsp pepper. You can omit this or use white pepper if you prefer.

For me, white pepper is about like a penthouse suite.

I’ve heard of it, I have every faith that it exists, but I’ve not once laid eyes upon it.

Then we add about a tablespoon of sweet pickle relish.

Most people would want to add two tablespoons here but I keep it light on the pickles at my house.

Mix all of that up. You can make it even creamier with more mixing if you like but I like the tiny little lumps in mine.

Its how we had them at the family reunions. ~smiles happily~

There are several ways to fill your eggs and no one way is wrong! You can simply spoon the filling in, pipe it in with a pastry bag and tip with a large opening, or do it the way I am today. I spoon my filling into a sandwich bag and cut the corner off, then squeeze it in each egg half.

Like this.

Or you can have some fun and do this….

The eyes are olive slices (with pimentos) and the beak is bits of carrot…

But I digress…

When finished, place on a pretty plate and sprinkle with “red stuff” if you like!

I should have done that before placing them on the plate but I was running late for Katy’s preschool Easter party and so…

well you get my point well enough.

Deviled eggs, on my fancy plate!

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Deviled Eggs

Ingredients

• 6-7 eggs
• 3-4 T Mayonnaise
• 1 T Mustard
• 1-2 T Sweet Pickle Relish
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Place eggs in pot and add enough water to cover by one inch. Add a pinch of salt. Place on medium to medium high heat and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and cover, let sit fifteen minutes.
2. Place pot under cold running water to cool eggs. Carefully peel. Slice each egg in half and spoon out yolk onto separate plate. Add all other ingredients and mash with fork until creamy and well blended. Spoon contents into plastic bag and seal. Cut off corner and squeeze back into egg halves. Sprinkle with paprika, if desired. Some people like to garnish with a slice of olive or sprig of fresh herbs.

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try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing.

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Christy