Southern Style Grits

The Mission:

I was given this bag of Charleston Favorites Yellow Grits as a gift from my third cousin and his wife. They were visiting over the Thanksgiving holiday after recently moving back to the Charleston area. I've only had instant grits before and never cared for them, so I figured I'd wait and make these for someone who really enjoys grits.

My husband's dad came to visit us for Christmas, and I know he likes yummy grits, so I made these for breakfast the day after Christmas. I was pretty excited to have someone really look forward to this treat! He said that yellow grits were one of his favorite things to eat growing up. Serving them with bacon and scrambled eggs seemed to go over quite well.



The Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/3 cup Charleston Favorite Grits


• 4 cups water


• 1 and 1/4 tsp. salt

The Instructions:

1. Put the measured amount of grits into a heavy saucepan. Cover them with water to help bran rise to the top. Drain as much of the bran and water off as possible.
2. Pour the 4 cups of measured water over the rinsed grits and stir in the salt.
3. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for 28 minutes - stirring occasionally.
4. Serve hot with butter, salt, and pepper

The Results & Reviews:

I was a bit worried about how they would turn out since I've never made them before, but I was assured that they tasted wonderful. Rinsing the bran part off seemed to go alright, though I was sure I'd screw that up. At first I didn't realize that grits are more of a side dish and not the main event like oatmeal or cream of wheat. Thankfully I had some bacon in the fridge and plenty of eggs so I could whip up a proper breakfast.

Now for those of you who know me know that I'm not a Southern girl. You also know that I hate, hate, hate bacon. So obviously I skipped the meat part.... but maybe you'd be surprised to know that I didn't only try the grits, I actually liked the grits! I added some butter, salt, and pepper to my portion and they tasted pretty good. I'm beginning to wonder if it's just the instant stuff that tastes icky, or if the Charleston Favorites brand is just spectacular. Either way everyone loved breakfast and I felt pretty good about it!

Monkey Bread

The Mission:

Make Monkey Bread from scratch using a recipe that I've had for years and never bothered to try out. The original plan was to make it for breakfast on a Saturday morning since we were supposed to have overnight guests on Friday. Well, the sleepover never happened, but I made it anyway as a snack for the guests.

The Ingredients:

• 4 cans of Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits
• 1 1/3 cups of sugar
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 sticks of butter
  

The Instructions:
In a medium bowl combine the sugar and the cinnamon. Set aside. Cut each biscuit into fourths, then roll each piece into a ball. Roll each ball around in the sugar-cinnamon mixture until coated and plunk in a tube pan. Continue doing this until all the biscuit pieces are gone. It takes a little while. This is also a fun activity for children (if you trust them in your kitchen). Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan then stir in the remaining sugar-cinnamon mixture. Heat to a boil, then pour over the balls of dough in the tube pan. Bake in a 350*F oven for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Turn the tube pan over onto a plate or platter of your choosing and serve warm.

The Result:
Well, for some reason they didn't turn out perfect. I had a few problems. 1) they were underdone. This could be because of the non-stick tube pan I used, or the fact that my oven is super cheap. So if I make them again, I will probably bake them in a 325*F oven for an hour. 2) I wasn't a huge fan of the biscuit taste. So when I make these again I will use brand-name biscuits instead of generic. 3) My tube pan is the kind that comes apart - so the melted butter leaked allllll out from the bottom and all over the bottom of my oven. Well, part of it managed to get on the cookie sheet that I had on the bottom rack just in case. Stupid tube pan. So I need to buy another tube pan - one that is all one piece - no stupid removable part.



The Reviews:
Everyone who tried it really liked it, even though I thought it left something to be desired. I think it would have gotten more reviews if it had been the main attraction at breakfast rather than an afternoon snack. I'll be making this again sometime, and hopefully under the "right" circumstances to have a better result and better reviews!

Valentine's Day Waffles

The Mission: Make my husband's favorite breakfast to serve him on Valentine's Day! I use my Mom's recipe, so these are the waffles I grew up eating. My husband loves them, and I wanted to make him something special. We don't usually make 'fancy' breakfasts, so it was a treat!

The Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 4 tsp baking powder - sifted
• 1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/4 cups milk
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce (can substitute oil if desired)
  

The Instructions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well blended - making sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. Follow the instructions on your waffle iron, since waffle irons tend to differ greatly. Serve waffles hot with butter and syrup, or your own personal favorite topping!




The Result:

These got RAVE reviews from my husband, even though he seemed a bit perturbed that I woke him up to eat them. It was noon, and I was hungry! I've never used my waffle iron before so it took me a little bit to get the proper amount of batter in the iron to make a perfectly sized waffle. All in all - I adore my waffle iron. It's actually my Gramma's Pizzelle maker/Waffle iron. She got it as a Christmas present in 1976. Yes. My waffle iron is older than I am! haha. But it is in perfect working condition, and I love it.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

The Mission:
Make something yummy for a "Christmas Brunch" at work. I wanted to do something easy, something cheap (I had all the ingredients already), yet something a little bit different. Chocolate Chip muffins are slightly more unique than blueberry. Right??





The Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar - packed
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter - melted, then cooled
• 2 eggs - lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 (11.5 oz) package of chocolate chips

The Instructions: Preheat the oven to 400*F. Arrange 12 muffin cup papers in muffin tin. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate bowl, blend together the milk, eggs, butter, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add milk mixture and stir until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and spoon batter into the muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove muffin tin to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from tin to finish cooling. Serve warm or cool. The Result: They turned out really well. They were heavier than I expected them to be, but that worked out nicely. In my oven (which tends to be a bit weird) they took the full 20 minutes. I ended up doubling the recipe so I'd have 2 dozen muffins. We were expecting about 20 people at the brunch.

The Reviews: My muffins got rave reviews. Hooray. One coworker commented on how nice it was that I used regular sized chocolate chips instead of the mini ones. It had never crossed my mind to use minis, so I'm glad I didn't think of it. The muffins were devoured by hungry coworkers so I didn't have a single one left over to get any family reviews. I'd say that this recipe is a keeper!

Buttermilk Pancakes

The Mission:

Use up the rest of the buttermilk that was needed for the coffee cake recipe. The easiest thing I could think of was to just make pancakes. Everyone likes pancakes, right? So I got out my trusty Red-Checkered Better Homes & Gardens cookbook and proceded to gather the rest of the ingredients. Thankfully they were all things I have stocked at all times! So as the husband slept in on this beautiful Saturday morning, I was in the kitchen making pancakes and preparing to bake a few more cookies.

The Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 beaten egg
• 1 cup buttermilk

The Instructions:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix with a fork until blended, then create a well in the middle of the mixture. Set aside. In a separate bowl, gently beat eggs, then beat in the buttermilk. Pour into the well in the flour mixture and beat well. I've found that the more air you beat into the batter, the fluffier the pancakes will be. Pour batter onto a hot griddle or pan. I have found that each pan requires a different temperature. I usually start out with a medium heat and then adjust from there. I typically use a large ladle and make each pancake about 1/4 cup worth of batter. My Mom actually makes her batter in the blender - less drips when pouring onto the griddle! When the pancakes look dry around the edges, flip them over to cook on the other side. Pancakes are done when the batter is no longer runny and each side is a beautiful golden brown.

The Result:

As usal, the first batch came out all weird and burnt. I always seem to have trouble getting the temperature adjusted correctly. Hey - I never claimed to be a good cook, just an enthusiastic one! But once I got the temperature and the timing down, the subsequent batches turned out delicious and properly golden brown.

The Reviews:
I thought they were tasty. Buttermilk tends to make a "heavier" pancake, and I prefer mine light and fluffy. I probably won't make them again unless I have some buttermilk to use up. The husband liked them, though. He refused to get out of bed and eat them on Saturday, but I packed them for his breakfast (he eats it at work) on Monday and Tuesday and he seemed happy. I can only hope he ate them himself instead of donating them to a coworker or the trashcan!

Pear Coffee Cake with Ginger Pecan Crunch Topping

The Mission: Ingredient Challenge #2 - Pears

The Recipe:
Pear Coffee Cake with Crunchy Pecan Ginger Topping. Though it's a mouthful of a title, I still think it will turn out well. After all, it is a yummy coffee cake including ginger. I figured it'd be a nice, spicy addition to a breakfast menu. And it meets the requirements by including pears :)





The ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 1 slightly beaten egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 cups chopped ripe pears
• 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 cup chopped pecans

The Instructions:
Mix together flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, nutmeg, and oil. Set aside 1 cup of mixture for topping. Add 2 cups chopped ripe pear to the rest of the above mixture. Add egg, buttermilk, baking soda, and baking powder. Mix well. Spread in greased 9''x 13'' pan. Topping: add ginger and pecans to the reserved mixture and blend well. Sprinkle over top of batter. Bake at 350*F for 40 minutes or until knife inserted comes out clean.

The Result:

Delicious! Even though I figured out after putting it in the oven that I forgot to add the salt. Oops. But I didn't notice it in the final product, so oh well. I also wasn't sure whether or not to peel the skin off the pears. So I didn't. I took the lazy way out and hoped for the best. Success! I couldn't detect any skin at all in the cake once baked. Hooray.

The Reviews:

Dad - "yum!" Mom - "delicious!" Husband - "I don't eat pears." (so he didn't try any. Wuss.) Friend Mark - "Oh my God." All in all - it was a big hit. My coworker also enjoyed the piece I set aside for her. I'll be back with more reviews. Mom took the remaining cake to work so her coworkers could pass judgement.

Update: Mom's coworker's thought it was good, but no rave reviews.

Butternut Squash Cake Roll

The Mission: Since my first butternut squash recipe turned out to be a flop, I decided to try a second recipe. This time instead of making a side-dish, I went for a dessert. mmmmm......dessert...... This is a great way to use up a little bit of extra squash - the recipe only calls for 2/3 cup of mashed squash. So, it's definitely a recipe to use when you're already planning on doing something else with your butternut of goodness.

The Recipe: I was looking through my Taste of Home magazines to find an interesting recipe to make for dinner this week when I stumbled upon a fabulous picture of a cake roll - and to my delight it called for Butternut Squash which just so happens to be the ingredient for the current recipe challenge. Hooray! I hope mine turns out as pretty as the picture in the magazine....

The Ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup mashed cooked butternut squash

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 cup finely chopped walnuts (I used pecans)

Confectioners' Sugar

Filling:

1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp. butter, softened (I used real butter, not margarine)

1 cup confectioners' sugar

3/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Additional confectioners' sugar optional

Instructions: In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs; gradually beat in sugar. Add squash and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda and cinnamon; add to squash mixture and mix well.

Line a 15" x 10" x 1" baking pan with waxed paper; grease and flour the paper. Spread batter evening into pan. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake at 375* for 13-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes.

Turn cake onto a kitchen towel that has been dushed with confectioners' sugar. Gently peel off wax paper. Roll up cake in the towl, jelly-roll style, starting with a short side. Cool completely on wire rack.

In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Unroll cake; spread filling evenly over cake to within 1 inch of edges. Roll up again. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Just before serving, dush with confectiners' sugar if desired. Makes 10 servings.

The Result: Wow. The cake turned out fabulous! I have learned that my oven is a bit testy and tends to overbake my baked goods, so I only put the cake in for 11 minutes until it was done. I didn't have quite enough confectioners' sugar dusted onto my kitchen towel, so I ended up with a small bare spot on the cake because it peeled off. Oh well - it turned out alright in the end!

The Reviews: I ended up taking the Roll to a gathering on Sunday night. Everyone who tried it really liked it. (My husband doesn't care for cream cheese stuff, so he didn't eat the filling, but liked the cake part.) I had a few comments on how it was similar to a Pumpkin Roll, but that was to be expected. I was very pleased with the rave reviews it got - I even had one friend chastise my husband for not liking it! Hahaha. This recipe is definitely a keeper :)