A Southern Life

Wow, it has been such a busy week. I feel like I have been in a whirlwind for a while (kind of look that way too!). Fortunately, I got to start the week by having my friend Paula over for lunch. She was such a sweetie. She brought me these flowers.

As I have been running around this week, I have enjoyed seeing these flowers. They just really brightened the week. I love being busy, but I really appreciate a friend who reminds me to stop and enjoy the beauty in life and for giving me something to share for:

Pink Saturday with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound

Happy Pink Saturday to all!

Today’s Lagniappe:  Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing
A yummy classic, this version is from Alton Brown.

• 8 ounces young spinach
• 2 large eggs
• 8 pieces thick-sliced bacon, chopped
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 large white mushrooms, sliced
• 3 ounces red onion (1 small), very thinly sliced

Remove the stems from the spinach and wash, drain and pat dry thoroughly. Place into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Place the eggs into an electric kettle and cover with cold water by at least 1-inch. Turn the kettle on. Once the water comes to a boil, the kettle will turn itself off. Leave the eggs in the water for 15 minutes. Remove and peel off the shell. Slice each egg into 8 pieces and set aside.

While the eggs are cooking, fry the bacon and remove to a paper towel to drain, reserving 3 tablespoons of the rendered fat. Crumble the bacon and set aside.

Transfer the fat to a small saucepan set over low heat and whisk in the red wine vinegar, sugar and Dijon mustard. Season with a small pinch each of kosher salt and black pepper.

Add the mushrooms and the sliced onion to the spinach and toss. Add the dressing and bacon and toss to combine. Divide the spinach between 4 plates or bowls and evenly divide the egg among them. Season with pepper, as desired. Serve immediately.

Still happy after all these years.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Personally, I’ve never really been a big fan. When I was a kid I enjoyed making the Valentine bags from white paper sacks and red and pink construction paper. I liked exchanging the little paper Valentines with all my school friends.

When I got older the expectations changed. If you were not in a relationship you always hated Valentine’s Day. If you were in a relationship, you hoped it would live up to your expectations and it caused a lot of pressure on you and your sweetie.

I’ve been happily married for a little over 11 years now and I actually enjoy Valentine’s Day a little more now. I don’t have a lot of expectations. We are usually too busy to do too much. Maybe a nice dinner with dessert. We rarely ever have dessert around here so that is a big deal. We usually even make our own Valentines and don’t bother with store bought and don’t even exchange gifts. This is fine with me. Now it is just kind of a day to reflect that we are happy with each other and still in love . . .

That is not just enough, that is a lot!

Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

Today’s Lagniappe: Christi’s Chocolate Chocolate Pudding Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Note: This is my easier version of Emeril Lagasse’s chocolate chocolate pudding cake with chocolate ganache. If you are more ambitious, you can make his original version.

• 1 chocolate cake mix baked according to package directions
• 3/4 cups Grand Marnier or other orange-flavored liqueur
• 1 pkg. chocolate  pudding made according to directions
• 2 cups heavy cream 1-1/2 lbs. semi-sweet chocolate squares, chopped

Bake the chocolate cake according to package directions. Make 2 layers. Using a serrated knife, cut each layer in half horizontally.

Brush 3 of the layers with 1/4 cup Grand Marnier each.

Make the chocolate pudding according to the package directions. You may use regular or instant.

Place one of the soaked layers on a round piece of cardboard on a wire rack. Cover with 1/3 of the pudding. Repeat with 2 other soaked layers and top with the 4th layer.

Trim cake if necessary to make it smooth on all sides. Chill the cake for 2 hours.

Combine the cream and chopped chocolate in a medium-size nonstick saucepan over medium heat. Stir until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat and stir to cool, lifting the mixture out of the pot several times with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until it cools slightly. It should be glossy and slightly thick. This is the tempering process.

Spoon the mixture onto the top of the chilled cake, allowing the overflow to drip down the sides. Cool slightly. Carefully remove the cake from the wire rack. Chill for at least 6 hours.

Garnish with chocolate curls.

Oh, it's Monday!

Ah Monday – again. Hope everybody had a restful weekend. As for me, I did cleaning and more party planning. I’ve been looking for recipes for the Mardi Gras party. I got a Mam Papaul’s king cake mix. It includes the praline filling, decorative sugars and even the baby. I’ve heard they are really good. If you can’t get one locally, you can do a Google search and get one online. I also found a praline cheesecake recipe that looks great and I want to make some white trash.

Anyway, back to Monday. I am working on a 3 hour workshop called First Steps to E-Commerce for the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center from Arkansas State University. The workshop will be on Friday the 20th at the Mountain Home ASU campus. That, of course, is the day before the Mardi Gras party. Looks like a couple of busy weeks coming up.

I’m also still working on my book. I saw an interview of  the author of The Man Plan: Drive Men Wild, Not Away recently and thought, “I need to write faster!” I am so tired of books about how to catch a man. These books give men all the power in relationships. Apparently women are supposed to read these books and talk the way they say to talk, dress the way they say to dress, act the way they say to act and they will catch the man of their dreams. Give me a break! How about finding a man that likes the way I act and dress and talk and he tries to impress me instead of always the other way around. Anyway, I’m working on the book. Sorry to get carried away.

Today’s Lagniappe: Southern Pecan Praline Cheesecake

1 1/2 cups crushed gingersnaps (about 24 cookies)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted and divided
3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted
15 Caramels, unwrapped
2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Stir together gingersnaps and 1/4 cup melted butter; press mixture into bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
Beat cream cheese, sugar, and 2 tablespoons flour at medium speed with an electric mixer 2 minutes. Add eggs, vanilla, and salt; beat 3 minutes. Pour batter into prepared crust. Set aside.

Stir together brown sugar, pecans, remaining 1/4 cup flour, and remaining 1/4 cup melted butter until crumbly. Sprinkle around edge of cream cheese mixture.

Bake at 300° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until center is firm. Turn off oven. Leave cheesecake in oven 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven; cool in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Cover and chill 8 hours. Drizzle caramel topping on edge of chilled cheesecake, if desired.

To make caramel topping, place caramels and whipping cream in 1-cup microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at High for 30 seconds to 1 minute, stirring halfway through cooking time, until melted.

Note: Commercial caramel ice-cream topping may be substituted for caramel topping.

Yield: Makes 12 servings

Me being happy with my husband.

Okay, I’m finally going to do it. I have said for years that I needed to write a book for single women on dating. After a nasty breakup (back in my dating days), I was really in a funk. A male friend of mine laid it on the line for me and gave me a “system” to dating that gave me back my confidence and helped every relationship I had with men from then on. This friend had been a football player so he kind of put it in football terms but that was okay because I like football and it made sense to me. I’m going to write about this system and hope that it will help others women with their dating relationships.

Actually, my best friend, Jay Richey, and I had kind of started on this book back in 2005. She was battling breast cancer at the time but we worked on it when we could. She lost her battle with breast cancer on Christmas day of 2005. I put the book idea away for a long time after her death. Now, I’m ready to write it and remember her and her great ideas. We actually had thought we could write a comedic book about our dating experiences and laughed and laughed talking about them.

If you are single or have single friends, keep watching. I’ll keep you posted.

Today’s Lagniappe: Travis Avenue Goulash
(from Travis Avenue Baptist Church Cookbook)

Note from the cookbook: Back in 1938 it was customary for the different Sunday school classes to take turns serving lunch to the WMU ladies on Tuesday. One Tuesday morning only two frightened young brides reported for kitchen duty but Mable Estes saved the day by furnishing Dorothy Sanderson and Jackie Meeks with the following recipe and showed us how it was made.

1 pkg. macaroni cooked and drained
1 lb. ground beef, fried
1 can tomatoes
1 lg. onion , diced
1 lb. diced cheese

Cook and drain macaroni. Add 1 pound browned ground beef. Add 1 can tomatoes and 1 large onion diced. let simmer. just before serving, add 1 pound diced cheese. With a salad, drink and dessert, it makes a very good meal.