A Southern Life

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

I woke up this morning to an icy wonderland. It is eerily quite. No cars driving past, no one out walking their dogs. Every now and then I here the crash of tree branches breaking and falling to the ground. This is the first Winter storm this year but it is doing a lot of damage. I just hope we don’t lose power. I’m making beef stew today. If we lose power, I can at least heat it up on my gas stove. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

Today’s Lagniappe: Beef Stew

Lightly dredge 2 lb. of stew meat in flour. Brown the meat in a little oil in the bottom of a dutch oven. When the meat is brown, add a couple of potatoes and 3 or 4 carrots that have been cut into bite size chunks 1 can of beef broth, 1 lg. can of tomato sauce, 2 cups red wine, a few tablespoons of Worcestershire, garlic powder, salt and pepper (to taste).  Bring to a boil and then simmer for a couple of hours. Serve with cornbread.

Sorry for the vague measurements. I am trying to write fast in case we lose power.

Today marks the anniversary of Prohibition in United States. Prohibition was the period in United States history in which the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors was outlawed. It was a time characterized by speakeasies, glamour, and gangsters and a period of time in which even the average citizen broke the law.

Starting in the late 1870’s the prohibition or temperance movements began to slowly seep into the South, town by town or county by county. By the 1890’s the movement was gaining strength nationally, a fact that aided moonshiners tremendously. If a town outlawed the legal sale of liquor, the demand for moonshiners and their product became even greater. Prohibition reached much of the South on a state-wide level in the early twentieth century.

Prohibition also helped lower the standards of many moonshiners, the emphasis became quantity of liquor that could be produced with the quality taking a backseat.

Now you know. See, reading this blog is very educational!

Ecclesiastes 8:15 – Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour the days of his life, which God giveth him under the sun.

Today’s Lagniappe: Southern Belle Cocktail

1/2 oz. brandy
1/2 oz. white cream de cacao
1/2 oz. benedictine herbal liqueur

Pour the brandy into a pousse cafe glass. Tilt the glass to a 45-degree angle and slowly pour the creme de cacao down the side of the glass so that it floats on the brandy. Repeat this precedure with the Benedictine.

I recently read the book Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes by Cathy Holton. It is a pretty funny read, especially when it gets to the part about the Kudzu Ball. Back in the day, when I was involved in politics, a woman called me in a panic about kudzu. “It’s taking over everything!” The poem Kudzu by James Dickey says:

In Georgia the legend says,
That you must close your windows
At night to keep it out of the house
The glass is tinged with green, even so . . .

The kudzu vine grows as much as a foot a day in Summer months, covering everything in its path. Well, in the South, we are nothing if not resourceful. We have found many uses for kudzu. Here are just a few:

Basket makers have found that the rubber-like vines are excellent for decorative and functional creations. Ruth Duncan of Greenville, Alabama makes over 200 kudzu baskets each year and says she doesn’t mind that people call her the “Queen of Kudzu.”

Regina Hines of Ball Ground, Georgia, has developed unique basket styles which incorporate curled kudzu vines. She weaves with other vines as well, but says that kudzu is the most versatile.

Nancy Basket of Walhalla, South Carolina, makes paper from kudzu which she uses in colorful collages. Her designs vary from geometric shapes to images of rural life and Native American themes.

Diane Hoots of Dahlonega, Georgia has developed a company to market her kudzu products which include kudzu blossom jelly and syrup, kudzu baskets, and books. Her book, Kudzu: The Vine to Love or Hate, co-written with Juanita Baldwin, is an in-depth study of the South’s love/hate relationship with the vine. The book includes recipes and basket making instructions.

Henry and Edith Edwards of Rutherfordton, North Carolina have found many uses for kudzu over the past 30 years. Henry produces over 1,000 bales of kudzu hay each year on his Kudzu Cow Farm. The hay is high in nutritive value, but many people have found kudzu difficult to cut and bale. Henry says the secret is to “cut it low and bale it high.”

Edith Edwards makes deep-fried kudzu leaves, kudzu quiche, and many other kudzu dishes. She found recipes in The Book of Kudzu: A Culinary and Healing Guide by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, and thought this was a good use for a plentiful resource. She has demonstrated kudzu cooking for clubs, schools, and visitors to the Knoxville World’s Fair.

Kudzu blooms the end of July through September. It has attractive bunches of elongated, delicate purple flowers with a fragrance reminiscent of grapes. Use the blossoms to make jelly.

To cook with kudzu, Choose only the smallest, most tender leaves. Large leaves are too tough. Even the small leaves have plenty of body. Fresh and tender, the leaves have a flavor similar to that of a green bean. That’s because kudzu is a member of the legume family.

Wilma Clutter says: “Kudzu quiche and deep-fried kudzu leaves are wonderful. I’ve also eaten small kudzu leaves marinated in Italian dressing served on tofu sandwiches.”

Lagniappe: A recipe for Kudzu Rice Quiche
(from http://www.geocities.com/kudzufest/kudzurecipes.html)

6 servings

4 eggs
2 cups cooked rice
½ cup finely grated Swiss cheese
½ pound fresh, young kudzu leaves
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup cottage cheese
¼ cup grated Parmesan
6 tablespoons heavy cream or evaporated milk
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
6 drops hot sauce

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9-inch pie pan or use an 8- or 9-inch square cake pan. In a medium bowl, beat 1 egg. Add rice and Swiss cheese. Stir well. Spread mixture evenly in prepared pan, making a crust. Refrigerate until ready to fill and bake.
• Cook kudzu leaves in a small amount of water, press to remove moisture and chop fine. Add butter and set aside.
• In a medium bowl, beat remaining 3 eggs. Stir in salt, cottage cheese, Parmesan cheese, heavy cream, hot sauce and nutmeg. When it’s blended, stir in Kudzu. Pour into prepared rice crust. Bake 30-35 minutes or until firm.

Did you know that being nice is good for you? Your niceness inspires others to be nice which benefits all of us! Here is an idea from Bottom Line:

Put 10 pennies in your left pocket. During the day, stop by, phone or e-mail people just to tell them how much you appreciate them or that you were thinking of them. Move one of the pennies from your left pocket to the right each time you do, and do not stop until your left pocket is empty.

I like that idea. I would allow pennies to be moved for opening a door for someone or for performing any small act of kindness. This would be nice for everyone no matter where you live or where you are from.

One of the kindest people I have ever known was Norvelle Turner. She helped raise my husband. She was his mother’s housekeeper and lived with her for 50 years before she died. She was famous for baking cakes for people she appreciated and dropping them by for no reason. She was always thinking of ways to make others happy. What a wonderful Southern lady she was. I’ll never forget her teaching me to make “Jail House Chili”. I think I’ll make it tonight in her honor. Thanks Norvelle.

Jail House Chili

This recipe is from A Cooks Tour of Shreveport from the Junior League of Shreveport, Louisiana, 1964. Norvelle’s version is quite a bit spicier than the original. The recipe here has the measurements that she used. She made her changes in pencil in the cookbook. She made this often and it is great for a cold winter’s day.

3 lb. diced lean beef or hamburger
1/4 cup liquid shortening (I use a couple of tablespoons – Christi)
1 quart water
8 tablespoons chili powder
5 teaspoons salt
8 cloves finely chopped garlic
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons marjoram
1 teaspoon red pepper (can use 1/2)
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons paprika

To thicken:
3 tablespoons flour
6 tablespoons corn meal
1 cup water

Heat oil in a large pot, add meat and sear over high heat, stir constantly until meat is gray but not brown. Add water and cover, cooking over low fire for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Add remaining ingredients, except thinckening, and cook at a bubbling simmer for 30 minutes. Mix together thickening ingredients and add to chili. Cook about 5 more minutes and stir to prevent sticking. More water may be added for desired consistency. If meat is very fat, skim off fat before adding thickening. This is rather hot chili. For milder flavor, cut the chili powder and red pepper in half but add more paprika for color.