FABULOUS FIESTA CHILI SOUP

 

Fabulous Fiesta Chili Soup

 

I Love soup all year round, and I don't care what the weather is like, but it sure felt good on this cold, rainy January night to have this hot bowl of soup at suppertime.

The first recipe that I made of this soup was an accident. I didn't have the right ingredients for a recipe that I wanted to try, so I substituted almost everything, but I wrote down the ingredients and used it for the second batch and it was just as good. I've now made it with beef and chicken. Both recipes are below.

 

Fabulous Chicken Fiesta Chili Soup

 

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup chopped sweet onion

1/2 cup finely diced green pepper

1 garlic clove, finely minced, or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, oregano

1 (10-ounce) can Rotel

1 1/4 cups beef broth

 (or if you don't have beef broth use 1-1/4 cups water and 2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon Beef Base)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 (15-ounce) can Seasoned Black Beans, undrained (I use Bush's)

2 cups cooked cubed chicken breast or chicken tenderloin meat

1 cup white corn

 

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a Dutch oven, or heavy pan. Add the onion and green pepper and sauté until tender. Add the remaining ingredients, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and serve with sour cream and cheese nachos. Makes about 5 cups soup.

 



With Sour Cream and Cheese Nachos

 

 

Here is the beef version. One of the ingredients will surprise you! This was the result of adding hot chili powder  by mistake and looking for something in my pantry to cool this soup down. It was great in the soup! I also cook and freeze portions of ground sirloin, so I had a 1/2 pound package of frozen cooked beef and all I had to do was thaw it a little in the microwave and add it to the soup.

 

Fabulous Fiesta Beef Chili Soup

 

2 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup chopped sweet onion

1/2 cup finely diced green pepper

1 garlic clove, finely minced, or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with basil, garlic, oregano

1 (10-ounce) can Rotel

1 (10-ounce) can French Onion Soup

 (if you don't want to use the onion soup, use the same amount of beef broth or use 1-1/4 cups water and 2 teaspoons Better Than Bouillon Beef Base)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 (15-ounce) can Seasoned Black Beans, undrained (I use Bush's)

1/2 pound cooked, crumbled ground sirloin

1 cup white corn

 

Heat the olive oil over medium high heat in a Dutch oven, or heavy pan. Add the onion and green pepper and sauté until tender. Add the remaining ingredients, and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and serve with sour cream and cheese nachos. Makes about 5 cups soup.

 

Hope you enjoy this as much as we have. Thank you for reading my blog and looking at my posts.

ELLEN'S HOT BEEF BBQ

 

 

Yeah man!



This is my "go to" recipe when I want to make a quick beef barbecue.

                                                  

                                               ELLEN'S HOT BEEF BBQ 

4 lb chuck roast

2 onions, chopped

1 (10-ounce) can beef bullion or broth

BBQ sauce (see suggestions below)

Set oven at 350 degrees.

In a large Dutch oven, put onions down first, put roast over the onions, and then add ½ can Campbell’s, beef bouillon or broth. Cover it and cook an hour and a half, then add the rest of the broth. Pour in a middle size bottle of Sweet Baby’s Rays original barbecue or Sweet Baby Ray's Vidalia Onion Barbecue sauce. Use all of it. Cover and cook for another hour. *Cook a half hour longer with the lid off. *If you decide not to add the sauce until you've shredded the beef, keep it covered the last half hour. (That's how I prepared the cover photo above).

It cooks for 3 hours total. If not eating right away, don't shred, but put in the refrigerator overnight and take any fat off before serving. Reheat, add sauce, shred and serve on buns or over rice.

 BBQ sauce cooked with the meat.



                                         

Squash Puppies



 

Squash Puppy with Garlic Mayonnaise

My friend, Johnathon Scott Barrett, is the author of a wonderful book on being a "Southern son" called, Rise and Shine, published by Mercer. It's full of stories and the other things we southerners love, like really good family recipes! Hallelujah, because I can hardly pick up a book anymore that doesn't have recipes and southern stories. Reading how other southerners lived and what they ate are my adult bedtime stories.

Johnathon's book is very popular and he has had one of the busiest schedules ever, with book signings and speaking engagements. But, finally we were able to mesh our schedules and meet in Yemassee, South Carolina. Yemassee is halfway between our two cities of Charleston and Savannah.

Lucky for us that we had planned on meeting at a place that didn't serve lunch on Saturday. And, the place we ended up was where we were really supposed to be. It was a quaint tea room by the name of Fletcher's Finds and Finest. What a wonderful surprise it was too.

After we had some great conversation with the owner and her assistants, we settled in by seating ourselves at a huge dining room table in a room off to the side of the main dining room. The tables behind ours were covered in stacks of rugs, and the walls were covered in portraits and other art. The shelves were full of glassware, and cabinets were full of knick-knacks. We couldn't stop looking, nor could we stop talking. After all, we had a lot to catch up on and one of those was, of course, southern food. 

But first, we had to eat. On the menu in the list of appetizers was one called, "squash puppies"which the owner told us that we had to try. So, we placed the order, and soon, the big basket of squash puppies was on the table. We couldn't stop eating them. So good.

We had a fun lunch, and didn't want to leave because we still had so much to talk about, but alas, life calls and we both had to leave the table with "stuff" on it and go to our homes. But, we'll meet again one day and this time we will be talking about Johnathon's latest book! I will let you know about the book as soon as it's out, and where we ate as well as what we ate. I know it will be something good.

A week or so before our meeting, I had made hush puppies and published the recipe on this blog, so I decided that I would try to use that recipe and make squash puppies. If you want the original recipe from Fletcher's, please contact them in Yemassee, for a cookbook that includes the recipe. The cookbook is very reasonable and I am sure they'd love to ship you one. If you want to try my recipe, you will find it below. I hope you enjoy them. See photo directions below the recipe.



Squash Puppies

Inspiration from Fletcher's Finds and Finest

Yemassee, SC

 

1 cup self-rising corn meal mix (I use Martha White Hot Rize, white cornmeal)

1 tablespoon self-rising flour

pepper, to taste

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg, beaten

1 cup finely diced yellow squash (zucchini would work too)*See instructions in photos below for cutting squash

3 green onions, including the stems, thinly sliced, optional (you could also use chopped jalapenos)

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk*

 

Mix the dry ingredients together with the squash (and green onions if using them in the recipe). Add the buttermilk starting with 1/3 cup and then per tablespoon until you have a very thick batter, making sure you have no dry cornmeal in your batter.

 

Prepare a small, deep, heavy saucepan for frying the hushpuppies by adding about 2-3 inches of oil, and place over medium to medium high heat. When the oil starts to move, scoop out hushpuppy batter a tablespoon at a time and add to the hot oil. A one tablespoon ice cream scoop works great for this. Your saucepan should be deep, but large enough to hold 3-4 hushpuppies at a time. Brown hushpuppies on each side, and remove to paper towels to drain. Serve hot. Makes 13-16 hushpuppies. *Repeat-you want a thick batter, so add the extra two tablespoons sparingly. It would be better to add one at a time as needed.

 

Serve with red pepper jelly or aioli on the side. Aioli is garlic mayonnaise. I mixed finely chopped garlic with mayonnaise, and served it with the squash puppies.

 

 

Cut the squash by quartering from stem to stem. Slip your knife under the seeds and slice them out.

 

 



Cut the squash into strips and then into small dice. 

 

Batter should be thick.

 



 

I use a Le Creuset Saucepan.

 

 

Use a small ice cream scoop for the batter.

 

 

 

Drain on paper towels.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Mother's Chocolate Butterscotch Pie with Rum Whipped Cream

Mother's Chocolate Butterscotch Pie

This pie is scrumptious and it's one of Richard's favorites. So, I should post it for him. He loved all of mother's recipes, but this one is in the list that he gave me. He is right to love it because it sure is so good! Especially served with a big billowy spoonful of rum whipped cream.

 

 

Mother's Chocolate Butterscotch Pie

¾ cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup flour

½ teaspoon salt

2 1/3 cups milk

6 tablespoons chocolate syrup

2 egg yolks, well beaten

2 tablespoons butter

½ teaspoon vanilla

Baked 9-inch pie crust

Topping:

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons sugar

½ teaspoon dark rum or vanilla

Pie- Bake and cool a 9-inch pie crust. Set aside until ready to fill. Thoroughly combine sugar, flour and salt. Stir in the milk, chocolate syrup and egg yolks and cook over medium heat until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and blend in vanilla and butter. Add to the cooled pie crust. Cool in refrigerator. Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Topping-Add heavy cream, sugar and rum into a mixer bowl and using the whisk attachment, whip cream until thick. Serve in dollops over the pie.

 

 

My Southern Petits Biscuits de Fromage Pimiento

 

Petite Pimiento Cheese Biscuits!

 

These soft and tender little biscuits will have the flavor of those little tiny cheese crackers when you first taste them, but then you'll get the pimiento cheese bite. The biscuits would be so good stuffed with ham salad, or sliced ham and a little mayonnaise. It would be like having a pimiento cheese sandwich with ham on it. What could top that! Oh, I think I know, serve them with ham and eggs topped with salsa and sour cream. Hmmm, sounds like breakfast tomorrow morning to me.

 

1 cup self-rising flour (I use King Arthur)

2 tablespoons shortening

1/2 cup of your favorite pimiento cheese * see mine below the photos

1/3 cup plus more if needed, buttermilk- add 1 tablespoon at a time if extra is needed.

optional-add a tiny bit of cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. (I used a convection oven, so keep that in mind because cooking time may be slightly longer in a traditional oven). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

 

In a medium bowl add the flour and shortening and mix with a fork or your fingertips until shortening has been incorporated. Add the pimiento cheese, and mix into the flour-shortening mixture. Add the buttermilk, stirring with a fork until the ingredients are blended. If you see flour, add a very small amount of buttermilk to make a pliable dough.

 

On a floured surface, knead the dough a few times until smooth. Roll out dough to 1/2- inch thickness, and cut with a one-inch biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on parchment paper. Bake for approximately 8 minutes or until lightly brown on top. Makes 17 petite biscuits. The flavor develops even more when the biscuits have been baked for a while.

 

 

Dough as it should look.

Dough ready to knead and roll.



Dough rolled to 1/2-inch thickness, cut with a 1-inch biscuit cutter.

 

On parchment paper, ready to bake.

 

Beautifully baked, but not overcooked.

I make the same pimiento cheese that my mother made. I change the cheese every once in a while, but I use only cheese, chopped pimientos and Duke's Mayonnaise. If you make pimiento cheese with cream cheese, that would be good in the biscuits as well.

Grate 8-ounces of sharp cheddar cheese (I used Cracker Barrel for this recipe)
1 (4-ounce) jar of diced pimiento cheese
Enough mayonnaise to moisten well
optional-dash of cayenne pepper

Mix all together. Use 1/2 cup for biscuit recipe, and save the rest for sandwiches or to stuff celery. Keep refrigerated.

 

 

 



A Southern Supper of Trout, with Butter-Lime-Caper Sauce, Sweet Potato Wedges, Coleslaw and Hushpuppies!



Trout with butter-lime-caper sauce, cinnamon dusted sweet potato wedges, coleslaw, hushpuppies

This supper is on the heels of going through the week of Christmas thinking that I am just tired of the same old food! We'd just had a similar menu for Thanksgiving and the thought of cooking that tired menu, although I do love traditional foods during the holidays, just gave me fits. So, I started to make menu changes then, and to our traditional foods like ham, dressing and gravy, pear and cheese salad, I added Country Captain over white rice, butterbeans, roasted asparagus with Parmesan and Romano cheese and corn fritters with red pepper jelly.  If you would like to see the menu and recipes for Christmas Day, just check out this site; www.southernsundaydinner.com. We are still talking about how much we enjoyed the old and the new.

Now, here I am in the next week trying to think of something different for supper. What will it be? I really enjoy a good fish dinner, or should I say that I enjoy a dinner with good fish. So, it was time that I bought some fresh fish. The store had pretty trout, and I could lightly dust it with flour and fry it in butter. Finishing the fish would be easy, all I have to do is add more butter, a couple of tablespoons of capers and a splash of lime juice. The ideas started to fly though my head. Coleslaw would be good with that too, so would home-made hushpuppies, which I have not made in a long time. Oh, and I already have sweet potatoes in the pantry.

Oh yummy, I said, a plan. The lime juice from the sauce on the trout would be a good complement to the cinnamon dusted sweet potatoes. And, the hushpuppies would be a  nice complement to the coleslaw. And, it was! I made it all, and it was a good supper all the way around. Would you like the recipes?


Hushpuppies!

The Trout

2 servings

 

2 trout filets

1/2 cup flour with salt and pepper

2 tablespoons butter

 

 

Mix flour with salt and pepper. Lightly dust the trout.

Add butter to a skillet large enough to hold both pieces of trout.

Heat the butter until sizzling. Add the trout, skin side down and making sure the thickest part of the fish is toward the center of the skillet. Cook for 2 minutes or until lightly browned and crisp. Turn to the other side, again, making sure that the thickest part of the filet is toward the center of the skillet, and finish cooking. Time for cooking depends on size and thickness of the fish. You should be able to touch the fish and feel the firmness. Remove the fish to a plate and keep warm.

 

Sauce

 

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons capers

2 tablespoons lime juice

 

Add the butter to the skillet set on medium high. Add the capers. The butter will start to brown. Add the lime juice and let the sauce thicken. Divide the sauce between the two servings of fish.

 

Sweet Potato Wedges

 

 

2 sweet potatoes

cinnamon

 

Cover a baking sheet with foil and place the sweet potatoes on the sheet. Bake sweet potatoes in a 350 degree oven until almost done. Remove from the oven, and slice the potatoes into wedges. Remove skin. Spray baking sheet with non-stick spray. Place potato wedges back on the baking sheet and sprinkle with cinnamon. Put back in the oven to finish baking until tender.

 

 

Coleslaw

 

There really is not a recipe for this, but I make it like my mother made it. I use a bag of angel hair coleslaw mix which has 6-7 cups finely grated cabbage. About 3/4 cup chopped bread and butter pickles, plus a couple tablespoons pickle juice, a teaspoon sugar, and enough mayonnaise to make it creamy. Mix it all together and chill until ready to serve.

 

 

 

Hushpuppies, Hush!

 

 

1 cup self-rising corn meal mix (I use Martha White Hot Rize, white cornmeal)

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg, beaten

3 green onions, including the stems, thinly sliced (you could also use chopped jalapenos)

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk*

 

Mix all together. Batter will be thick, but if you can see dry cornmeal, add more buttermilk, a little at a time.

Prepare a small, deep heavy saucepan for frying the hushpuppies by adding about 2-3 inches of oil, and place over medium or medium high heat. When the oil starts to move, scoop out hushpuppy batter a tablespoon at a time and add to the hot oil. A one tablespoon ice cream scoop works great for this. Your saucepan should be deep, but large enough to hold 3-4 hushpuppies at a time. Brown hushpuppies on each side, and remove to paper towels to drain. Serve hot. Makes 13 hushpuppies. These are great with a little red pepper jelly on the side.*You want a thick batter, so add the extra two tablespoons sparingly. It would be better to add one at a time as needed.

 



 

 

 

MAMA IRENE'S MINCEMEAT FRUITCAKE

 

 

 

From the time that I was a little girl, at Christmas, I would walk down the long hallway and by the dark dining room table filled with cakes and pies, to get to my grandmother's kitchen. There, in that old farm kitchen were produced some of the best Lane Cakes, fruitcakes, and pecan pies in the South.

 



My grandmother, Lillian Irene Murray Rogers, in front of her home.



 

Mama Irene's desserts were the epitome of what traditions were made of, and she was the perfect grandmother. Very much a lady, very much involved in her church, Eastern Star and her community, and very loved. So every chance I get, I like to honor her.

 

This fruitcake, along with a white fruitcake that my mother made, are two of my favorite fruitcakes during Christmas. Now, I must admit to you that this is not a moist fruitcake, but it's great for dipping in tea, and it has a crust that is absolutely fabulous to eat! This cake has the perfect amount of spice from the mincemeat. Divine, is what I should say about this cake. Then again, that's how I feel about it, because I'm not just eating cake, I'm eating a memory.

 

Mama Irene's Mincemeat Fruitcake

 

 

2 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 (1-pound) jar mincemeat

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped pecans (I toast whole pecans in the microwave for about a minute and then chop them before adding to the mixture)

1 cup sugar

1 stick butter, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla (or Grand Marnier)

2 eggs, slightly beaten

 

Add the first 4 ingredients to a sifter and sift into a small bowl. Set aside. To a large bowl, add the mincemeat, raisins, pecans, sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs. Fold in the flour mixture. Line the bottom of a tube pan with parchment. or waxed paper. Grease the pan. Pour in the fruitcake mixture, evening off the top. Bake in a low, 325 degree oven for 1 to 1 1/2hours, depending on pan size, or convection oven (my cakes take about an hour). When the cake is done, let it rest for 10 minutes and then remove it from the pan. I use an instant read thermometer and my cake was done at about 192 degrees.

 

I put an icing of confectioners sugar, butter and orange juice on each slice. You can also make a hard sauce that would be perfect with this cake. If using the icing, use 2 cups sifted confectioners sugar, mixed with a half stick of very soft butter, and enough orange juice or Grand Marnier to make it spreadable.

 

                                                           Merry Christmas!