Mexican Johnny Cakes (Hoe Cakes) With Our Pinto Beans

In Sep 2022, I posted about our meal of Pinto Beans and Hoe Cakes but this meal is different in that we used our recipe for Mexican Cornbread for the cakes.  Johnny Cakes are made along the eastern seaboard from New England into the Caribbean Islands and are often called Hoe Cakes in the US South.  For this meal, I cut our Mexican cornbread recipe in half to get the one below.

Chili Pie and Muffuletta Pizza

I’d mentioned a while back that we were trying to eat our big meal in early afternoon and go lighter in the evening. I didn’t blog about it because it was pretty much our standard, which I’d posted about previously, but we made a pot of chili the other day. The only differences were that I intended to use a blend of 2# of venison and 3# of ground beef, except the three packages of beef I used were 2# each verses the 1# in my mind. I ended up using about 40% more meat than normal and we all thought it was great – a mistake spawns a recipe change.

So for the main meal, it was one of Bev’s favorite uses for leftover chili - chili pie - which she usually makes by putting her normal cornbread recipe on the bottom, pouring the chili on top and letting the cornbread rise to the top as it cooks. This method works great and makes an excellent dish, but for today, she decided to use her Mexican cornbread recipe, which includes onions, peppers, and corn. As I was typing this, while she was cooking, it occurred to me that the cornbread ingredients wouldn’t necessarily rise to the top along with the bread so she decided it would be best to put the chili in the skillet first and top with the cornbread. I thought I’d previously posted the cornbread recipe, but couldn’t find it, so this is it. It came from a friend and it’s been a favorite of all who have tried it.

MEXICAN CORNBREAD
Carol Myers
Makes 12” skillet full

2 cup self rising corn meal mix
3 lg Eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Vegetable oil
1 sml Onion, finely chopped
1 sml Green pepper, finely chopped
1 cup Cheese, shredded
1 cup Buttermilk
½ tsp Baking soda
1 ea Jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup Whole kernel corn, drained

1. Preheat oven to 400F and warm greased cast iron skillet.
2. Mix together meal, eggs, oil, soda, and buttermilk.
3. Stir in other ingredients.
4. Bake until top is browned and toothpick pulls out cleanly.

For this dish, she made just a half recipe and since she didn’t have any corn, she chopped up some canned hominy – she’s more creative than me.

It would have looked better had I cut it with a knife, but we just dipped it out.

And for supper, it ended up being a little heavier than I intended.  I’d mentioned earlier, we brought back a jar of olive salad from the Central Grocery in Nawlins and I made a sandwich with it the other day. Since this was supposed to be our lighter evening meal, I wanted to use less bread and opted for the same ingredients but on a piece of Naan bread. I spread a coating of the olive salad on the bread, topped with sliced provolone then, added the julienned meat – mortadella, ham, and salami, and a little chopped green onion. I popped it in the toaster oven until the cheese was melted and here’s the result, which Bev and I split.  Here it is with just the olive salad.

Ready for the oven.

Ready to eat.

Some time back, I tried making an omelet  from a smoked salmon pizza recipe and cooking really diminished the flavors. This on the only hand turned out really good and Bev’s first comment was “I like this better than a muffuletta.” Of course she thought the Central Grocery sandwich was just ok, but I thought the pizza was delicious as well, with all of the flavors standing up to or being improved by the heat. I heated it in the toaster oven at 350* for about 12 minutes then used the toast feature for a few more minutes. The bread got very lightly crusted, the cheese was melted and the meat was warmed through. I could have added more items, but I’d already deviated form the recipe with the onions, although a last minute addition of another layer of cheese on top would have fit ok. I guess what I had was a heated and open-faced muffuletta and in the near future I’ll have to try heating the normal sandwich.  Even though I read somewhere that it's considered blasphemy to heat a muffuletta, it's probably ok to do so with an Italian meat and cheese with olive salad sandwich :-).  
Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

New Years Day - Hoppin John's and Mexican Cornbread

In the South, the traditional New Year's meal for good fortune includes black eyed peas, pork, collard greens, and cornbread.  We chose to forego the collards as I’ve never been able to make any that I liked so we just went with the other three.

Hoppin Johns seem to have originated in the South Carolina Low Country when rice was cooked with black eyed peas and for our meal, we used a recipe that we have made before except I used Kentucky Legends Ham rather than andouille to keep the heat level down.

Let’s Open The Dock For 2010

One of the excuses we use each year for a social event is the official opening of our boat dock. We try to have a varied type of food each time – country breakfast, BBQ, Tex Mex, etc., and this year we decided on something simple - everyone bring a salad, appetizer or dessert. I wanted to make an antipasto pasta salad, and Bev wanted to make Mexican cornbread.

For the cornbread, she used her usual recipe, but made it as small muffins.

MEXICAN CORNBREAD
Makes 12” skillet full

2 cup Self rising corn meal
3 lg Eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Vegetable oil
1 sml Onion, finely chopped
1 sml Green pepper, finely chopped
1 cup Cheese, shredded
1 cup Buttermilk
½ tsp Baking soda
1 ea Jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup Whole kernel corn, drained

1. Preheat oven to 400F and warm greased cast iron skillet.
2. Mix together meal, eggs, oil, soda, and buttermilk.
3. Stir in other ingredients.
4. Bake until top is browned and toothpick pulls out cleanly.

You can of course make it hotter by how you prep the jalapeno and by adding more. I failed to get a pic, but at least one person who normally only eats plain cornbread ate at least a couple of them. I liked them even though she had them pretty spicy. These are the three that were left.


For the pasta salad, I used 2 pounds multi colored pasta, pepperoni, salami, ham, provolone, asiago, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, grape tomatoes, pepperocini, green, ripe, and kalamata olives, shaved parmigano reggiano on top. Dressed with a bottle of Kens Steakhouse Caesar dressing with ¼ cup of additional olive oil and one tsp each of dried basil, oregano, leaf thyme. I left the items bigger than normal for a pasta salad so it would be more antipasto like. It filled our largest bowl.



Once the party got going, I forgot to take anymore food pictures, but we had more than enough as most folks bring what they said they would, plus another item or two.

I did manage a couple before things got going then some as we were finishing eating. This is the dock from the ramp leading to it.


Alex and her friend Jordyn are injoying their first swim of the year.


Relaxing and socializing after some good eats.


As you can see, this was a pet friendly event. I think there were about 8 dogs roaming around and keeping the dock floor cleaned up for us.







Most folks headed out before the rain came, but a few stayed until dark, which is my favorite time to enjoy the dock.


We managed to inspire a little rain as is often the case with dock parties, but we only collected a tenth of and inch - better than nothing.


We are really blessed to have a small group of friends we really enjoy spending time with. It seemed a good time was had by all, and I hope you'll come see for yourself at our blogger party on June 5.

Hope you have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Fried Crappie - Last Meal Of The Decade

And the last meal on our list for the family visitors from Korea. They headed back to the other side of the world early Jan 1. I’d probably just shoot myself if I had to start the new year with a 15 hour flight from Atlanta to Seoul – after getting up at 4am, driving to the airport and the flight from Knoxville to Atlanta. But I digress, the meal was fried crappie supplied by our fishing friends, Mexican cornbread, and slaw. The fish were beer battered and deep fried - I’ve posted a few times about our crappie cooking and at least once about the cornbread, but this time I’ll supply the recipe. It’s by far our favorite cornbread in part because all the stuff in it helps it stay moist. It came from a friend of ours but I don’t know where she got it.

MEXICAN CORNBREAD
Makes 12” skillet full

2 cup Self rising corn meal
3 lg Eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup Vegetable oil
1 sml Onion, finely chopped
1 sml Green pepper, finely chopped
1 cup Cheese, shredded
1 cup Buttermilk
½ tsp Baking soda
1 ea Jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced
1 cup Whole kernel corn, drained

1. Preheat oven to 400F and warm greased cast iron skillet.
2. Mix together meal, eggs, oil, soda, and buttermilk.
3. Stir in other ingredients.
4. Bake until top is browned and toothpick pulls out cleanly.

You can of course make it hotter by how you prep the jalapeno and by adding more.

It's a balmy 14 degrees here in East Tennessee - Have a great day.

Larry

A Different Slaw For The Dock Party

A BIG THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE SERVED IN OUR MILITARY AND THOSE WHO ARE SERVING NOW.

During our trip to New England, we had a Blue Cheese Slaw with dried currants or cranberries from the Margarita Grill and Bev wanted to take a shot at replicating it. So I found an Ina Garten recipe for Blue Cheese Cole Slaw for her to start from.

Ingredients

1/2 small head green cabbage
1/2 small head red cabbage
4 large carrots, scrubbed or peeled
2 cups (16 ounces) good mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon celery salt
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) crumbled Roquefort blue cheese
1 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves

Cut the cabbages in half and then in quarters and cut out the cores. Set up the food processor with the slicing blade (according to manufacturer's instructions) and place the pieces of cabbage, one at a time, lying horizontally in the feed tube. (If they don't fit, cut them to fit lying down.) Place the feed tube pusher on top and turn on the processor. Don't push on the feed tube pusher or the slices will turn out too thick! Continue with the remaining red and green cabbage quarters. Transfer into a large bowl, discarding any very large pieces. Before you pour the dressing on the salad, save a handful of the grated vegetables to decorate for serving. Change the slicing blade for the large shredding blade and cut the carrots so they also lie down in the feed tube. Since the carrots are hard, replace the feed tube pusher and press firmly with the food processor on. Transfer to bowl with the cabbages. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, both mustards, vinegar, celery salt, kosher salt, and pepper. Pour enough mayonnaise dressing over the grated vegetables and toss to moisten well. Add crumbled blue cheese and parsley and toss together. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours to allow the flavors to meld. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Bev amended it by omitting the parsley and mixing yellow raisins, and Craisins to taste with the dressing – we had no dried cranberries or currants. Then she split it into two batches and left one as is (not everyone likes blue cheese) and to the other, she added Salemville Amish Blue Cheese Crumbles (milder than many) to taste. I thought the slaw was outstanding and it will be a requested version from now on. The dressing made a nice slaw without the blue cheese, although it was more mustardy tasting. If you like blue cheese, I have to believe you'll love this - one of the dock party attendees liked it and he doesn't care for blue cheese.

The next day, she made cornbread salad from the Mexican cornbread leftovers. We’ve been a fan of this dish since we first tried it and Mary over at Deep Dish South posted a great picture of hers the other day. But to my recollection, Bev has never made it from Mexican cornbread and I thought it kicked the salad up several notches – another dish to be requested for the future.

Sorry, I didn't get any photos.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago:  Pasta Bolognese

Larry

Chicken And Dumplings

It was a balmy 8* here yesterday morning.  That's a lttle cool for a fall day (winter's a week away) in the South.

We have friends who basically don't cook and we like to regularly invite them over for a home cooked meal. Tonight’s choice was chicken and dumplings, and as with her potato soup, Bev is a purist – thickened chicken broth & milk, chicken, and dumplings. I’d prefer it be made with some veggies, like Debbie's over at A Feast For The Eyes, but this version is still awfully good. The one thing we did borrow from Debbie was to brown the chicken skin before removing it.

When the skin was browned, Bev deglazed the pan with some homemade chicken stock, removed the chicken skin, and cooked the chicken in the broth. When done, she removed the chicken to cool and added milk and flour to the pot to get the desired volume and thickness. She then de-boned and shredded the chicken, added it back to the pot, and mixed up her drop biscuits, using Pioneer Brand Baking Mix.

She dropped the biscuits in the pot a spoonful at a time and here they are cooking.

I got busy visiting with our company and sipping on some V. Sattui Gamay Rouge wine, and I forgot to take more pictures, which was a shame as my bowl looked outstanding and it tasted just as good - serious comfort food for a cold Saturday evening.

For our snow day on Monday it was chili pie and I think some recipes deserve repeating - Bev's Mexican cornbread.  We made some chili the other day and I didn't blog about it because it just looked like chili and we just added and tasted, so there is no recipe - except it was half beef and half venison and very good.  So for this meal she did as usual - pour the cornbread mixture in a cast iron skillet, top with the chili, and bake - the cornbread will come to the top.  This is the result after flipping to cornbread down when plating and adding a little diced onion and shredded cheese:

Pretty good eats, sitting in front of the fire on a cold day.  Click on pics to enlarge.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting Almost Heaven South - although you wouldn't know it from our temps.

Larry

Corn & Cheese Chowder and Cornbread

Bev had a dozen ears of good, fresh, young corn and since the weather had cooled, she decided to make it into corn chowder.  She checked the web and decided she liked the recipe from Pioneer Woman for Corn & Cheese Chowder, but she adapted it a quite a bit - click on the link for the original.  I would like Ree’s site if she didn’t show a half dozen photos of adding salt to a dish – a slight exaggeration.

Pinto Beans, Hoe Cakes, and Birthday Meals

This post is primarily to get our pinto bean recipe documented on my blog. For our pinto beans, we’ve always just added stuff to taste so they rarely taste the same and some are better than others so this time, I tried to make a good batch and document the recipe.  I looked around the web to see what ingredients were used by others and came up with the following recipe.

Vegetable Soup For A Dreary Day

Every now and then, Bev needs a vegetable soup fix and with the many cool, rainy days we’ve been having, she decided the day had arrived.  We had a full compliment of veggies on hand plus several packages of various beef cuts that needed to be used from the freezer.

She pressure cooked the meat to get it tender enough to remove from the bones then shredded and diced it for the soup.  Along with the meat, broth, and veggies, our basic recipe includes canned tomatoes, garlic, thyme, bay leaves, and S&P.

Surf & Turf

The bulb flowers have come and gone but spring is still showing off here at Almost Heaven South with the crab apple and Yoshino Cherry in full bloom

Huevos Rancheros Ala Larry

It’s been awhile since I’ve made a breakfast that I thought was pretty special but this one sure hit the spot.  I was sitting behind my computer in the early morning and began thinking about breakfast options and I thought I might just have a bowl of leftover Charro Beans but decided I put in the effort for something better and included eggs. 

I knew we had all of the ingredients for Huevos Rancheros utilizing the beans and since they were awesome, I knew they would make this dish special so the first thing I did was reheat a bowl full in the microwave.  While the beans were heating, cooked a couple of corn tortillas in a skillet and laid them on a plate.

Then I used a slotted spoon to remove the warm beans from the bowl, let them drain off the liquid, and added them atop the tortillas.

Next came shredded cheddar and back in the micro wave for 30 seconds to melt it.

While the cheese was melting, I cooked the eggs sunny side up with a lid on the pan and when done, I slid them out onto the tortillas – a little off center – added a little more cheese and chopped cilantro.

I cannot imagine I’ve ever had better huevos rancheros which was due in large part to the Charro Beans, which may be the best Mexican beans I’ve ever had – you may want to make them for your next pot of beans - I'm sure they would go well over some Mexican cornbread.  Just click on the link for the recipe and for this batch I used four cups of pintos that I had cooked rather than canned beans.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

5/9/20 event date

A Few Random Meals Around The Holidays

Happy New Year and thanks for stopping by my blog this past year.

Here are some meals we’ve made recently but I didn’t want to do an entire post on.  The first one is breakfast hash that was inspired by Pam’s post for Skillet Potato Hash WithMushrooms and Bacon on her "For The Love Of Cooking" blog.  I made it to use some mushrooms we had in the fridge and some leftover boiled potatoes.  I generally followed Pam’s recipe except I just used bacon grease rather than cooking bacon and I started with cooked potatoes.  I topped the hash with three small eggs for a delicious breakfast.

Wine Club Soup Bar

It was our turn to host our wine group and since it was the last day of October (Halloween), we opted for a very fallish menu and made up a soup bar.  We asked others to bring the appetizer, salad, and dessert along with their bottle of wine so we ended up with this menu:

Red Assaritas as an aperitif

Appetizers

Salad with wine of choice

Soups with wine of choice

Homemade Limoncello as after dinner drink (digestif)

Dessert 

We served four very different soups from our serving area - the triple slow cooker comes in very handy.

Good Meals While Bev Travels

I’d had a continuing-to-get-worse issue with the first two toes on my left foot growing further away from my big toe which resulted in pain when I walked.  So after getting two new knees last winter, I had this, hopefully final, problem fixed the end of October which means I’ll be in a boot for several weeks.  Since Bev was heading off to Florida for two weeks in mid-November, she cooked me up several dishes to tide me over until she returns.

For each of them, we made enough to eat and enough to freeze often doubling the recipes which can be found via the links.

First up was a big pot of her normal chili - this is an old shot but it still looks just the same and as always we really enjoyed it – especially over some of her Mexican cornbread.

Cleaning Out The Freezer

I’ve been on a campaign to empty out the freezer to prevent things from overstaying their welcome there. Like many people, we freeze items with the best of intentions, they get pushed further to the back and bottom and eventually get tossed. I hate that, even when it’s a box of store bought broccoli, but I really hate it when it’s something into which I’ve invested some time and love.

So for Saturday dinner, it was to be some corned beef I’d made in June and a head of red cabbage from the garden that had been in the fridge since June as well (but it had molded throughout and we had none on hand – a rarity – so no cabbage for this meal). I had corned several briskets and this is the last one – so now I get to do some more. This is one of the two pieces.



Here’s a pic of the potatoes and carrots ready for the pot. The potatoes are kennebec’s from our garden and it’s time to become serious tater eaters as they are beginning to sprout.


About 8am I just tossed it into the crock pot with some water and additional pickling spices to slow cook all day. I cooked a whole brisket that was cut in half as we like to have lots of leftovers for Reuben sandwiches.


However, as the day wore on and word got out we were going for a pontoon boat ride on this beautiful 70* day, the number of diners went from five to nine. We had plenty of meat, but the crock pot would not hold all of the veggies, so I transferred it to our 16 qt soup pot on very low heat and at 2:30pm, we added everything to the pot and headed for the lake.


I know it isn’t traditional to have kraut with corned beef, but we had some Bavarian style in the fridge and decided it would have to do. Plus I’d just read Chef Chez’s (http://chez-frontporch.blogspot.com/) Saturday post about BBQ kraut and wanted to give it a try – and I’m sure it’s not a typical corned beef go-with – remember the word eclectic in my blog name. It turned out to be pretty tasty with the sweet-tart combo.

Here’s a pic of the bowl of grub. The brisket got too done to slice, so we served it in chunks.


At the request of a friend who was dining with us, Bev whipped up a 12” skillet full of Mexican cornbread that was delicious.


My plate.


Bev wanted to try a new pumpkin pie recipe out on us as a potential for Thanksgiving and it was outstanding. Here are a couple of pics and the recipe.


Grandma Lucille’s Caramel Pumpkin Pie
From The Daily Times – Maryville, Tn

Mix together well
6 cup Fresh pumpkin, cooked and pureed (we used canned)
3 cup Granulated sugar
6 whole Eggs

Then add and mix well
3 tbsp Butter
1 ½ cup Evaporated milk
1 cup Heavy cream
1 tbsp Watkins clear extra strength vanilla (we used what we had)
1 tbsp Salt
2 tbsp Cinnamon

Pour batter into 3 unbaked pie crusts and bake in a 325 degree oven for about one hour or until pie is set (no liquid in center).
Cool and refrigerate.
Top each pie with 2 cups whipped cream, drizzle with light caramel sauce and sprinkle top with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Refrigerate until serving. Will keep in the refrigerator one week.

Whipped Cream (we just used whipping cream and super fine sugar)

Chill all utensils then mix together in a bowl
2 cup Heavy whipping cream
4 tbsp Sugar free instant vanilla pudding

Mix on high speed with wire whip attachment until stiff peaks form.

Carmel Sauce

1 stick Butter
½ lb Dark brown sugar
1 cup Heavy whipping cream
1 cup Confectioners powdered sugar
1 tbsp Vanilla

Melt butter in a large saucepan and add brown sugar. On high heat, let the mixture come to a full boil for about 2 minutes. Slowly stir in the cream, return to full boil, then remove from heat and pour into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar and vanilla and stir until smooth and creamy.

And once again, I failed to have the camera with me to get some of the great scenery shots during the boat ride. I had it with the stuff to take on the ride and we got everything but it – hummm, now that I think about it I wonder if Bev hid it so I couldn’t post a shot of her.
Have a great day.
Larry