11 Jul 2016

Strawberries and Cream Biscuits

by | posted in: food, The Charming South Kitchen | 0

Strawberries and Cream Biscuits

I grew up in the South.  Some folks don’t consider Florida to be the South, but when you live in the middle of the state all your life surrounded by orange groves and muscadine vines, take vacations to state parks and the Suwanee River, and live on Publix fried chicken and church potlucks, you are definitely from the South.

For me, summer in the south meant swimming in our pool (my Mom opened the pool season April 1), playing baseball in our yard with my cousins, listening for our “school bell” to ring to tell us it was time to come home, and heading to the Circle K for ice cream (31 flavors never got old) and watching Mets baseball via WWOR.

For me now, summer is summer.  Its hotter. And I love to pick fruit.  Strawberries, blueberries, peaches, you name it.  If it is available to me, I want to pick it.  And I love to bake with it.  From peach cobblers to strawberry pizza, and these strawberries and cream biscuits.

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Strawberries and Cream Biscuits
Author: 
Recipe type: bread
Cuisine: southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
A mildly sweet strawberry biscuit waiting for some honey and peanut butter.
Ingredients
  • 1¾ - 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • ⅕ tsp kosher salt
  • 6 T cold, unsalted butter
  • 6-7 strawberries (tops removed), mashed
  • 2 T turbinado sugar
  • ¾ cup full fat buttermilk
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400. A cast iron pan grill pan will be a great cooking sheet!
  2. Mix dry ingredients in a food processor.
  3. Slice butter and put in food processor.
  4. Pulse until small pebbles form in dry ingredients.
  5. Mash strawberries and pour in the sugar. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.
  6. Add in buttermilk.
  7. Pour slowly into the food processor and let it mix well with the dry ingredients.
  8. Turn out onto a floured cutting board and kneed for 1-2 minutes, adding flour if necessary.
  9. Form into a ¾ inch high circle and cut into biscuits.
  10. Put in cast iron pan and bake for about 20 minutes.
  11. Take out and let cool on cooling rack.
  12. Serve with butter, honey, strawberry jam, or peanut butter - or some of all.
 

4 Mar 2016

The Perfect Tuna Salad

by | posted in: food, marriage, The Charming South Kitchen | 1
Tuna salad can be a go-to lunch any day of the week!
Tuna salad can be a go-to lunch any day of the week!

One of the pieces of marital advice I give every newly engaged girl I know is simply this: Love God, Love your mister, and study both.

When you love God first, loving others becomes easier (not easy, just easier).

Love your mister – I’m assuming if you are going to marry him you already do.

Study both. The more you get to know God’s character and dwelling on the Gospel, the more you will actively live our the gospel.  Which every marriage needs.  And then when you study your mister – not memorizing every book and trying to make your mister into that person in the marriage book – you are well on your way to success in marriage.

 

Now, how does that marriage advice apply to tuna salad?

Well, my mister loves tuna melts and getting his tuna salad perfect has taken me almost 5 years.  So, when he tasted this the other day – I got a two thumbs up and don’t change a thing look – and he ate it all!

This tuna salad is also vertatile.  You can have a low carb lunch by putting it into a avocado half.  This is a delicious combination.  You can toast some bread, melt some cheese on top, and have a traditional tuna melt.  You can put it atop some greens for a salad.  You can eat it with whole grain crackers for a lighter lunch.  Or just eat it with a spoon.

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The Perfect Tuna Salad
Author: 
Recipe type: Seafood
Cuisine: Southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
A perfect tuna salad is great for parties, light lunches, or salads.
Ingredients
  • 2 cans whole chunk white albacore tuna in water (the quality of tuna is so important)
  • ¼ cup Duke's mayo and 1 T
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 3 hardboiled eggs (the cooking time for the recipe is all in the boiling of the eggs)
  • ½ tsp each of kosher salt and black pepper
Instructions
  1. Mix all together.
  2. Eat.
 

4 Sep 2015

Triple B Mac & Cheese

by | posted in: food, The Charming South Kitchen | 2

Triple B Macaroni and Cheese

BBQ.  Everyone has their opinions of it, especially in the South.  Vinegar?  Brown sugar?  Mustard? Smoked with sauce?  Smoked with sauce on the side?  Pork?  Beef?  Never-ending discussion on this subject.

I do like some BBQ better than others but one of the best parts about bbq is the side dishes that accompany it.  And this new macaroni and cheese would own up to the best bbq at any picnic table – especially this weekend, as it is the official last weekend of summer and many tailgating parties are happening as well.

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Triple B Mac & Cheese
Author: 
Recipe type: casserole
Cuisine: southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
The perfect side dish to any bbq - or just a main dish waiting to be devoured
Ingredients
  • 8 oz shell pasta
  • 6 T unsalted butter
  • ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp country dijon mustard
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1½ cup heavy whipping cream
  • 2 cups shredded monterey jack cheese
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • ⅓ cup diced banana peppers
  • 3 strips bacon (already cooked, diced)
  • ¾ sleeve Ritz crackers
  • 2 T unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
  1. Boil water for pasta and cook the pasta according to directions, drain.
  2. Melt down butter in a pan.
  3. Once butter is melted add flour and salt. Whisk until combined.
  4. Add pepper and dijon mustard and mix well
  5. Add cream and stock and whisk for about 3 minutes
  6. Add monterey jack cheese and turn off the heat.
  7. Dump in the cooked pasta.
  8. Pour all into a buttered casserole dish.
  9. Top with grated sharp cheddar.
  10. Mix melted butter, crushed crackers, and diced cooked bacon. Sprinkle on top
  11. Bake for 20 minutes at 400.
  12. EAT!
Triple B: bacon, banana peppers, and baked.  Creamy.  You can’t go wrong.

12 Aug 2015

Chicken and Dressing Casserole

by | posted in: food, The Charming South Kitchen | 0

Comfort food is the name of the game in the south.  There is high class comfort food – then there is just down home casserole type comfort food.  This is it.  My mister has a great church cookbook from the church he attended when he was growing up.

Chicken and Stuffing Casserole

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Chicken and Dressing Casserole
Author: 
Recipe type: Casserole
Cuisine: Southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
Easy casserole comfort food for dinner any night of the week
Ingredients
  • 3 chicken breasts
  • 1 can cream of mushroom soup
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • 2 cups reserved chicken stock (from cooking chicken)
  • 1½ cup frozen corn
  • 1 5 oz box of chicken herb stuffing mix
  • 1 stick butter
Instructions
  1. Boil chicken until done. You will want to have well-seasoned water because you will be using the water for the rest of the recipe.
  2. Shred or cut up chicken in bite size pieces.
  3. Pour in the bottom of a 2-3 qt casserole dish.
  4. Mix together 1 cup chicken water, and both cans of soup, and corn.
  5. Pour over chicken.
  6. Mix together stuffing mix, melted butter, and 1 cup chicken water.
  7. Pour over chicken mixture.
  8. Bake for 25 minutes at 375.
  9. Enjoy!
 

To make this a complete meal, just add something green and maybe some bread.  You can always have dessert too – and sweet tea!

22 Jul 2015

Easiest Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

by | posted in: food, The Charming South Kitchen | 0

Easiest Homemade Chicken Pot Pie

I’ve mentioned already this month that we are on a very tight grocery budget so I’m making the most of it by using what I already have.  So, I was rummaging through my freezer – and for this meal I only needed to be 1 can of cream of chicken soup.  How effecient is that?

I love comfort food.  My mister finds that strange.  Do you love comfort food?  I’m talking about mostly foods that you can eat with a spoon: my Granny’s chicken and rice, pie, ice cream, macaroni and cheese, cereal, mashed potatoes, guacamole.  The list could go on.  My mister knows that I have a relationship with food because I’ll sit down on the couch with a big bowl in my hand and sometimes sigh as I dig into my favorite dessert or pasta goodness (I don’t do that as often but the relationship still exists.

The biscuits I used were leftover from a 4th of July cookout I went to.  I just saved some of the biscuits in the freezer and used them here.

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Easiest Homemade Chicken Pot Pie
Author: 
Recipe type: Main Dish
Cuisine: Southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6
 
A homemade comfort food staple in short time
Ingredients
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 2 T unsalted butter
  • ½ bag of frozen mixed vegetables (no need to thaw)
  • 3 cups shredded chicken (I had some in the freezer)
  • 1 can cream of chicken soup
  • ½ cup whole milk
  • ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 6 Leftover Joy the Baker biscuits
Instructions
  1. Saute your onions in the butter.
  2. Add the mixed vegetables and cook until thawed.
  3. Add everything else (not the biscuits) and stir until combined
  4. Pour into a shallow baking dish.
  5. Top with thawed biscuits.
  6. Bake for 15 minutes or until biscuits are warmed.
So, if you need a quick comfort food meal to put on the table in less than 30 minutes, here is one for you.

21 Aug 2014

Patchwork Butternut Squash, Kale, & Chicken Pot Pie

by | posted in: food, The Charming South Kitchen | 0

Pot PIe

Bring on the Fall.  This week seems to be one of the hottest in the whole summer – just when I’m thinking of pumpkin lattes and vanilla and sweet potatoes.

I look forward to evenings when I can snuggle on the couch under a blanket with my hubs – watching a movie – after the boys go to bed – knowing that it is getting cool outside!

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Patchwork Butternut Squash, Kale, & Chicken Pot Pie
Author: 
Recipe type: Main Dish
Cuisine: Southern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
A fall flavored pot pie with chicken, butternut squash, and kale
Ingredients
  • 2 chicken breasts, cut into pieces
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 2 T unsalted butter
  • 2 T evoo
  • 1¼ cup diced butternut squash
  • ½ tsp fennel seeds
  • ½ tsp white pepper
  • 1½ tsp kosher salt
  • ½ tsp black pepper
  • 2 massive handfuls of chopped kale
  • ⅓ cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 1 pie crust, torn in pieces
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 350.
  2. In cast iron skillet, heat oil and butter. Add in onion and cook for about 3-4 minutes.
  3. Add garlic and cook for about 1 minutes
  4. Add squash and cook for about 5 minutes.
  5. Remove from pan.
  6. Cook the chicken in same pan until done.
  7. Combine the vegetables, chicken, spices, and cheese.
  8. Pour into a deep dish pie pan. Cut strips of pie crust and make a lattice or patchwork pattern out of them. Layer on top of pot pie.
  9. Cook for about 45-50 minutes or until top crust is golden brown.
I’d never made a pot pie until I moved back to Raleigh in 2010.  My boss’s wife – and friend – made a delicious one and said it was so easy – well, this one is too and has wonderful Fall flavors!