Pickles & Ice Cream

My Dad passed away May 25th. I seem to pause every time I say or write that to see if I believe it's really true. And, no, I don't. Not yet.

Family and friends spent the week after his death sitting around the kitchen table he and my Mom bought shortly after they married 60+ years ago, sharing stories, and eating. Not that we were having to cook -- friends brought more to us than 10 families could eat. I don't know about other places, but that's what we do in the South, and I'm grateful.

A covered dish means that there are people who care enough about you to make something special and put it in their very own dishes and take it to your house for you to eat without even the slightest expectation that they will stay and share it with you. It's for you and your family because you need to think about other things at this time besides cooking but you still need to eat.

And every single plate, napkin, bag of chips or ice, cup, pie, cookie, sandwich, salad, and casserole says, "I love you and I'm sorry for your loss and I'm here to help you get through it," because the words are just too hard when everything is fresh and raw.

I don't know where Dad got the recipe, but Grandad's Pickles are extremely popular with his grandsons. The ice cream recipe was one of his favorites, too.

And, oh yeah, he mixed a mean Jack and Coke. Easy recipe -- half and half.

Grandad's Pickles

Take 1 jar of whole dill pickles (do not use kosher dills), drain them, slice them into 1/2" rounds or quarter the rounds, and place the chopped pickles back in the jar. Cover the pickles with sugar. Make sure the pickles are completely covered. Add Louisiana hot sauce to taste. I like them hot, so I add a couple of tablespoons. I've also added whole cloves of garlic. Refrigerate several days until the sugar has completely dissolved. You may need to turn the jar a few times to get all the sugar dissolved. These are sweet, hot, crunchy, and wonderful.

Ice Cream
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
2 tall cans evaporated milk or 1 quart heavy cream
fruit (see note below)
milk
1 - 2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix the sweetened condensed milk and the evaporated milk with the fruit. Add vanilla and put in the freezing container of an ice cream maker. You need an ice cream freezer with a 1 to 1-1/2 gallon capacity. Add milk to the fill line. Freeze according to manufacturers directions.

Fruit note: Measuring the fruit is not an exact science. Peach ice cream requires a blender-full of peach puree. Pineapple takes two tall cans of crushed pineapple undrained. Add 1 can of coconut milk to the pineapple for pina colada ice cream. Four or five jars of stemless maraschino cherries drained and run through the food processor with some extra vanilla makes cherry vanilla.

Cherry vanilla was quite a hit at the Greenbrier First United Methodist 4th of July celebration this past Sunday.

If you're going to make this recipe in a counter top ice cream freezer, use 1 can Eagle Brand, 1 cup of fruit, a splash of vanilla, and cream or evaporated milk to the fill line. It's just me, but that just seems like such a sad little bit of ice cream.

Save the Recipes!

I have this cookbook that I put together 30 some-odd years ago. Some of it is typed (yes, on a type writer), some of it is hand-written, and some of it is pasted from magazines and newspapers. Some of the recipes are classic family favorites, and some I look at now and wonder, "What was I thinking? That sounds terrible!" I will probably try to save some of the original copies of the recipes in some sort of scrapbooky- mixed-media format not only from this book but also from some other sources; in that way I can to save the memories of typewriters and the handwriting of my mom, myself, and others and even the memories of all that cooking reflected in the dirty pages and the scribbled notes. But mainly I want to save and pass on the recipes, the ones that still make me want to run to the kitchen and preheat the oven just because I've thought about them again. Maybe if I put those recipes in several formats in several safe places, some of them will survive and live on. Pound Cake is what my mother made whenever people she didn't know very well were coming over. Pound Cake is safe; who doesn't like butter, sugar, and vanilla? And look at the ingredients? Any cook worth his or her salt doesn't even have to go the grocery store before making this cake. You could even get up in the middle of a sleepless night and bake this cake. But it doesn't have to stay plain. My daddy loved it hot out of the oven spread with butter. That is a delicious treat. I love is as the base in Strawberry Shortcake. It will hold up to any flavor of ice cream. Cut it warm and spread it with butter -- that's great for breakfast! It travels well so it's great for potlucks and it freezes like a dream.

Pound Cake 1 cup butter 1 2/3 cups sugar 5 eggs 2 cups flour, sifted 5 times 1 teaspoon vanilla Cream butter with sugar in electric mixer. Add 1 egg and beat until no egg can be seen. Add another egg until all five have been added. Beat very hard and long. Add flour; beat to a creamy mass. Add vanilla. Bake in a slow oven for 50 min. or longer. Notes: You don't really have to sift the flour at all if you don't want to. This is an old recipe and flour is a more consistent product these days. "Beat very hard and long" means to beat until the batter is very smooth and the eggs have had the chance to do their leavening work. I usually mix it about 5 minutes. We're not doing this beating by hand any more either. Treat the phrase "creamy mass" the same way. When the flour is fully incorporated, you're fine. I usually bake this in a bundt pan. I really like it in my new fancy one. It works in a loaf pan, too. Spray whatever pan you use, even a non-stick one, with cooking spray. I use the one for baking. I set my oven on 350 degrees and I set the timer for 40 minutes. Then I test with a toothpick every 5 - 10 minutes until it comes out clean. It's 2023 and my mom, now 92, has lived with us since COVID erupted. I'm making a pound cake on a sloppy, post-snowfall day. I told her and commented on the directions. She said, "I remember where I got that recipe. Jack and Ruth Jeans were stationed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where he was working on an atomic project. Ruth met an Italian woman there for similar reasons and she shared the recipe with Ruth." I have never heard that story before. These scientists were working on projects to save the world on a grand, powerful scale while their wives were doing the same one pound cake at a time.

Paula's Tea Cakes

Paula and Louie are good friends of my parents. Paula makes these "tea cakes" that are actually cut-out sugar cookies. My dad and my husband think they are the best cookies ever made. Mom and I think cut-out cookies are a pain in the butt, but this recipe makes a bunch and our guys like them and we like them, too, so we bake them occasionally. Not nearly often enough, say Dad and Terry. They are probably right.



Paula's Tea Cakes

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 lb. butter

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

6 cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (lemon, maple, and butter are also good flavors to use)



Cream sugar and butter. Add eggs and flavorings. Mix well. Combine dry ingredients and add to butter and egg mixture. Roll out on a floured dough board. Dip cutter in butter then sugar. Cut cookies. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or less or until lightly brown.



Notes:

If you have a wimpy mixer, you will probably want to half this recipe.

For Valentine's Day this recipe made 32 large heart-shaped cookies.

I roll my cookies on parchment paper between 1/4" spacer bars made from a stick of balsa wood from Hobby Lobby. It was a 3' stick that I broke in half.

I also used parchment paper to line the cookie sheets for baking.

I sugar the board rather than flour it if I'm not going to ice the cookies.

Sage Advice: Grow It For the Dressing

My favorite part of holiday meals is the dressing. I use my variation of my mom's dressing, which is, of course, her variation of my grandmother's. That's the way it works down South, folks.

Cornbread Dressing

1-2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 package celery, washed and finely chopped
1 stick butter

Saute in a large skillet on low heat until soft and clear, but not browned.

In a large bowl, break up the following:
1 pan of cornbread plus several pieces of stale light bread (any kind of bread will work)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 handful of fresh sage, chopped finely

Add the onion mixture along with the following:
1 to 1-1/2 quarts boxed chicken stock

At this point, taste the mixture and adjust the seasonings. It's not a good idea to do this after you've added the eggs.

Add
3 - 4 eggs

Stir until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Place in a large buttered casserole dish (at least 9 x 13) and bake at 350 degrees until set. Usually, this takes 45 minutes - 1 hour. Using muffin pans cuts the baking time, but not by much. The dressing should be lightly browned. Avoid over-cooking: dry dressing is one of life's great disappointments.

By the way, the best way to cook a turkey is the way my friend Cheryl taught me. Take one thawed breast, put it in a crock pot, add 1 stick of melted butter and salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4. I'll be hard-pressed to ever roast another full bird. Or better yet, buy Honey Baked brand ham and smoked turkey. That way you can concentrate your culinary efforts on the dressing!

Faux Foods

The book is almost always better than the movie* and homemade treats beat store-bought 99 times out of 100, too. Don't try these recipes unless you are prepared to by-pass the purchased version because they no longer hold any appeal.

I found this recipe in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on May 28, 2009. The article was called "A Treat for Graduates" by Betty Rosbottom.

Caramel Chocolate Bars (Homemade Twix)
Makes 16

Crust:
6 Tablespoons softened butter, plus extra for greasing
3 Tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

Chocolate and Caramel Layers:
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (do not substitue semisweet or milk chocolate and use absolutely the best chocolate you can find)
1/3 cup heavy cream

Arrange a rack at center position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8-inch baking pan, then line it with a sheet of aluminum foil cut 8 inches wide and long enough to extend 3 to 4 inches over 2 sides of the pan. Butter the foil.

In a mixing bowl cream butter with an electric mixer on medium speed, then beat in sugar and salt. Beat 1 to 2 minutes to blend well then beat in the flour. Gather dough into a ball and place in the middle of the pan. Press to form a smooth, even layer. Prick the dough with the tines of a fork. Bake until just starting to color lightly, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove pan, but retain oven temperature.

Place 1 Tablespoon each butter and brown sugar in a heavy, medium saucepan set over medium low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk until the suga has dissolved, about a minute. Add milk and salt and, whisking constantly, bring mixture to a slight simmer. Cook, whisking constantly and never letting mixture come to a boil, until it thickens and becomes a light caramel color, about 10 minutes. As milk cooks, it will caramelize lightly on the bottom of the pan so you may see some flakes floating in the mixture. That's ok.

Pour caramel over pastry crust, smoothing into an even layer with a metal spatula or back of a knife. Return pan to oven and bake 10 minutes. It will bubble and look a litle scary, but just go with it. Remove and cool to room temperature.

Place chocolate and cream in a heavy medium saucepan set over medium low heat. Whisk constantly until mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes.

Cool 5 minutes, then pour melted chocolate over cooled caramel layer and spread evenly with a metal spatula or table knife. Refrigerate until chocolate is set, 30 minutes or longer.

Run a sharp knife around inside edges of pan to loosen, then lift out pastry using the foil as an aid. Remove foil. Cut into 16 squares. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Bars are good either way.

(Bars can be made 2 days ahead; store in an airtght container at room temperature or in the fridge.)

*I used to say the book always was better than the movie until I tried to read Tom Clancy.

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My sister/girlfriend Terry Gravenmier introduced me to Cranberry Bliss Bars at Starbucks. They are amazing. I found this recipe on the internet (sorry, I don't have the URL), and as crazy as it may seem, I think the recipe is better than the original. And there is the added advantage of being able to have them any time I want instead of having to wait impatiently and obsessively for the brief period between Thanksgiving and New Years, which is the only time they are availabe at Starbucks.

Now a note about how I made these: I do not like having little bits of this and that left over so I made a few adjustments. In other words, I used the entire bag of dried cranberries, the whole package of white chocolate, and the entire little jar of crystallized ginger. I'll note these changes in the recipe. I also made the first batch with my grandkids. I'm afraid I can't account for the adjustments they made!

Cranberry Ecstasy Bars
Makes 16

Cake
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger (I used pumpkin pie spice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup minced dried cranberries (I chopped them in food processor.)
1-1/2 ounces white chocolate (Use a good quality white chocolate like Ghirardelli - I used half the package, which is 2 ounces)
1/4 cup minced crystallized ginger (Again, I used the food processor to mince, and I used the entire jar. It was probably closer to 1/3 of a cup.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9 x 13 inch pan with parchment paper and then grease the paper. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; continue mixing until light. Sift together flour, ground ginger and salt; add to the butter-sugar mixture. Continue mixing until flour is incorporated. Fold in dried cranerries, chocolate, and crystallized ginger. Spread the batter in the prepared pan and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely in pan.

Frosting:
1 8-ounce package cream cheese room temperature
3 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup plus 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon grated lemon zest
pinch of salt
1/3 cup minced dried cranberries (I just used the rest of the package)

In a medium bowl, mix together cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt until well-mixed. Spread the frosting onto the top of the cake. Sprinkle minced dried cranberries on top of the frosting (I blended the cranberries into the frosting) and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Drizzle:
1 ounce white chocolate (I used the rest of the package - 2 ounces)
1/4 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon milk

In a small saucepan over low heat, melt white chocolate, whisk in powdered sugar and milk until well-mixed. Scrape into a small, sturdy plastic bag; cut a tiny corner of the bag and squeeze to drizzle chocolate decoratively over the entire frosted cake.

To serve, slice the cake lengthwise down the center, making two long rectangles. Cut each rectangle into four equal portions; slice each of these in half diagonally. These are delicious at any temperature, but I like them best right out of the freezer.

Football Food

Some events just draw a crowd. Some crowds are hungrier than others. If you ever find yourself needing to feed a high school football team before a home game, this recipe might help you out.

Sloppy Joes for 50

8 lbs. ground beef
8 cups chopped onion
8 cups chopped celery
8 teaspoons chili powder
4 teaspoons salt
black pepper to taste
8 Tablespoons shortening
8 cans tomato soup
8 Tablespoons worchestershire sauce

Brown beef in shortening. Add remaining ingredients and simmer at least one hour, stirring frequently. Serve over hamburger buns. I prefer mine toasted.

Notes and variations:
This recipe is easily doubled.
A food processor makes short work of the onion and celery.
Green pepper makes a nice addition, too.
You can prepare the ingredients in advance and freeze them. Thaw in the refrigerator and put together the day of the event.

Don't Put Sugar in the Cornbread

My husband is the reason that I can make a good cornbread. He loves it. When we were first married I tried any number of recipes, but they were not "nearly as good as Granny Treat's". Well, that was a throw down if I ever heard one! I asked Mom for her recipe, but she doesn't have one. I tried all the recipes in the southern cookbooks I have to no avail. They just weren't quite right. After much trial and error, I now have a recipe that is "almost as good as Granny Treat's." That's good enough for me!

Terry likes cornbread with chicken and dumplings, my dad likes it with sweet milk, I like it with beans or chili. Or just put lots of butter on it and eat it all by itself -- add honey if you're eating it for breakfast!

Save the mix for that broccoli casserole thing. Make cornbread from scratch. It's way easy.
Just remember, you HAVE to use a cast iron skillet, and you won't get a good crisp crust if you don't preheat the skillet and the oil.

Heat a 8" cast iron skillet with 2 Tablespoons of oil or bacon grease to 375 degrees.

Mix the following dry ingredients:
1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup white cornmeal
1/2 Tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon salt.

Add wet ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk

Blend until well mixed. Add carefully to hot skillet. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Variations:
Use soured milk instead of buttermilk by adding a few drops of vinegar or lemon juice to milk.
Add 1/2 - 1 cup grated cheese to batter.
Add a small can of chopped geen chiles (mild) or 1 jalepeno chile (hot) to the batter.
Triple the recipe for a 12" skillet (which you'll need for dressing).