Southern Style Chow Chow

 This will be the best Chow Chow you have ever eaten!

Nice for gift giving, very colorful and packed full of flavor!

In a big pot combine:

1 ½ cups sugar
3 cups vinegar
1 tbs. Celery seed
1 tbs mustard seed
½ tsp red hot pepper

Chop by hand (do not grind):

4 white onions
4 green peppers
4 red peppers
1 small cabbage
2 large carrots (optional)

Sprinkle with salt; toss. Allow to stand for about 2 hours. Then put into vinegar mixture and mix well. Allow to cook about 15 minutes after it starts to boil. Pack in sterile jars. Make certain that all of the vegetables are covered by the vinegar mixture in the jars. Pour off excess. Seal jars.

Note: This can be as hot as you like. Use mild pepper instead of hot peppers if you don't like it hot. I wonder what this would taste like with Habanero peppers?

Baked Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

With the delicious and rich taste of the cream cheese, you don't have to use butter in this recipe (unless you just want to). I like a few “lumps” of potatoes in mine, so to make this my own recipe, I add a few diced cooked potatoes to my instant potatoes. You can also add a little cheese on top for visual appeal!!!

Ingredients:

6 cups mashed potatoes (can use instant)
1 8 oz package cream cheese
1 egg
½ cup onion, chopped fine

Directions:

Add cream cheese, egg and onion to hot mashed potatoes. Beat with electric mixture on medium speed until mixture is smooth. Pour into a buttered 2-quart casserole and bake at 350 for 40 minutes. Serves 8.

Tomato Sandwich

Can't beat a good ol' southern tomato sandwich. Fresh garden tomato, mayo, light bread and garnished with salt and pepper. Yummeeee

Some folks say this is a southern thing. We grew up with a garden, and the tomatoes were plentiful. In the country this was (is) a quick, cheap and delightfully filling meal. Of course there are variations, but the simple tomato sandwich is the best.

The bread is also important in this recipe. We grew up on “homemade” breads (biscuits, hoe bread, cornbread), so the lightbread was not an everyday food item. My great-grandmother was a believer in Bunny Bread only, when choosing lightbread. Of course the bread back when was of a different texture (finer) than now (porous, holey, and won't die due to preservatives)

Fresh home grown tomato
Mayonnaise
Bread
Salt and Pepper

Slice tomatoes on a plate or in a bowl. Put mayonnaise on each slice of bread (only on one slice if you are watching calories). Salt and pepper to taste. Best if you make them as you go because the juiciness of the tomato will cause the sandwich to become soggy.

Variations:

Use biscuits instead of lightbread (friend from Georgia like this)
Add a slice of fresh cheese (on toasted or untoasted bread)
Add fresh lettuce
Add a couple slices of bacon
Use a crusty french bread

Carrots with Wine (Slow Cooker)

Never have plain carrots again. These will really make a great impression on the un-impressionable (is that a word?). This recipe has the “secret sauce” so you know its gotta be goooood!!! Enjoy

1 lb bag of carrots
½ cup white wine
1 tsp butter
¼ tsp thyme
3 green onions, chopped
¼ tsp salt
freshly ground pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 4 to 5 hours.

Greasy Beans

 Greasy beans as opposed to steamed beans, is just an old southern method of cooking seasoned greens. Believe it or not, the old cooks did a lot of frying, boiling and stewing. Steaming just wasn't a common stove cooking method. So to fry, boil or stew there had to be some incorporation of flavor. In comes the fat for seasoning. There doesn't have to be a whole lot, just a little can go a long way.

3 lbs fresh green beans (I use whole fresh frozen)
6 slices bacon (or ½ cup bacon drippings, or a ham bone)
2 med. Onions, quartered
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp pepper
¼ cup brown sugar

Wash, string and snap beans into pieces. Place in a large pot with water to cover. Add rest of ingredients, dicing the bacon. Cook at least 3 to 4 hours. The longer they cook, the better they taste.

Serves about 8 folks. Double recipe for folks with large appetites.

This can also be made in a slow cooker.

If you don't want the pork, try using smoked turkey instead.

Deep Fried Okra

1-1/2 cups okra, cut-up
2 tbs. buttermilk
2 tbs. flour (or cornmeal.  I like to do 1/2 flour and 1/2 cornmeal)
1 tsp. salt (I use pepper also)
1 egg, beaten





Boil okra, drain and Mash*.  Add all other ingredients.  Drop by tsp. into hot oil.  Fry until golden brown.

*The recipe above is the original one.  My modified one is, first of all,  I don't mash my Okra.  I just cut them up, season them, roll in egg buttermilk mix, and then in my 1/2 and 1/2 cornmeal/flour mixture.  You will need to double the total amount of buttermilk/egg mix and the cornmeal/flour mix in order to cover the okra.

Capri Salad (Tomato and Mozzarella)

This is a delicious and simple recipe for an appetizer.  This would also be nice as summer side dish along side a grill steak or chicken.

2  beefsteak tomatoes
4-1/2 oz mozzarella cheese
12 black olives
8 fresh basil leaves
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh basil leaves to garnish

Using a sharp knife, cut the tomatoes into thin slices.  Drain mozzarella, if necessary, and cut into slices.  Pit the black olives and slice them into rings.  Layer the tomatoes, mozzarella, olives and basil leaves alternately in a stack, finishing with a layer of cheese on top.  Place each stack under a preheated hot broiler for 2-3 minutes or just long enough to melt the mozzarella. Drizzle over each balsamic vinegar and olive oil, and then season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer to individual plates and garnish with basil leaves.

Kidney Beans with Salt Pork

This is another recipe that calls for the “Secret Sauce”. This is from an old cookbook and was originally written using Kidney beans. This recipe, I think, can be adapted for any dried bean such as Kidney, Navy, Pinto, Lima, Cranberry, Black-eyed Peas,  etc.  I prefer the Pinto and Cranberry beans over the Kidney beans.

I realize that people used to make their own moonshine and “happy juice”, but I am kinda wondering if maybe the parents and grandparents used this to cook everything with! Maybe those Family Recipes were passed down....minus the “Secret sauce ingredients”. What do you think?

3 oz. salt pork
2 medium sized onions, chopped
1 tbs. flour
No. 2 can red kidney bean (or beans of choice)
2 tbs. cooking cherry

 

Cut salt pork into ½ inch dice; turn into skillet and pan broil slowly until crisp. Add finely chopped onion and cook slowly until onion is soft and yellow, stirring to prevent scorching. Blend in the flour to a smooth paste, then stir in beans and sherry thoroughly, then simmer gently for 10 minutes.

If you prefer the homemade beans, then cook them to your preference and then add this to beans and let simmer to blend flavors.

I love cooking with cast iron. Not only do you Not have the flakes sometimes associated with no-stick cookware, but the cast iron retains heat for better cooking temperature and as an added bonus you implement some iron into your dish. If you have a cast iron pot this would taste awesome!