Peerless Chocolate Cake
This cake from the Fannie Farmer Baking Book has become Carol’s go-to chocolate cake. It is rather complex with a separate pudding-like filling and a buttercream frosting. She most recently made it for Vivie’s birthday.
Category: American Cuisine
Sawdust Pie
This is a rather unconventional pie with a filling of graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and pecans bound together with egg whites, and which looks rather like coarse sawdust. It is apparently of Amish origin. I spotted a recipe for it on Epicurious.com, and it looked intriguing. It was not until I was actually making it Read More …
Southern Sausage Roll
This is half a batch of buttermilk biscuits encasing a browned and split 4 oz. smoked sausage, some grated cheddar, and pickled jalapenos. It was a fairly quick and tasty breakfast
Meatballs with Eggplant Sauce
I was looking for a way to use some Italian meatballs in the freezer and hit on the idea of eating them with a sauce based on roasted eggplant. It turned out well, so I am documenting it here. We ate it on top of hummus. Michael Solomonov’s cookbooks are filled with ideas for using Read More …
Grilled Steak and Vegetable Salad
This recipe is an inspiration which turned out well. The same basic idea can be done with a variety of ingredients, but this was done with some ingredients we had on hand. Quantities are about right for 3 adult servings. Amanda thought this was like a fajita turned into a salad. 1 lb. steak, marinated Read More …
Peach-Bourbon Jam
We recently bought a large quantity of peaches at a roadside stand in eastern North Carolina, and decided to turn many of them into jam. This version is an adaptation of a recipe in Southern Living’s Little Jars, Big Flavors, and it turned out very well. It made a little more than 9 half-pint jars. Read More …
Butterscotch Pudding with Ginger, Salt, and Pepper
When Carol first tasted this pudding, she thought it was delicious, but she wasn’t sure exactly what flavor it was. That was the result of a blend of several different flavors – a base of caramel, with ginger, and a little salt and black pepper to add complexity to the taste. This was adapted from Read More …
Pimento Cheese
Pimento Cheese is a Southern classic. This version is taken from Southern Living in November 2019 and used Farmhouse Cheddar – First Try , which was rather crumbly and thus quite suitable for a cheese spread. This was quite tasty, but more saucy than I expected. The next time I would start with less mayonnaise Read More …
Bread and Butter Pickles
These tasty pickles can be eaten within a day or so of making them. This version is adapted from a recipe in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and makes about a pint of pickles. 1 lb. English or Persian cucumbers, cut into ¼ inch slices 2 Tbs. salt ½ cup sugar ½ cup white vinegar 1 Tbs. Read More …
Hawaiian Macaroni Salad
Amanda has wanted some Hawaiian Macaroni Salad, so we made a batch to go with Huli Huli Grilled Chicken Wings . This version is adapted from Cook’s Country, and has a number of noticeable features. First, the macaroni in a Hawaiian-style salad is supposed to be softer than we would normally cook macaroni. Second, the Read More …