Cream Biscuits

Are you ready for the easiest biscuits in the world? So simple, you don't even need a recipe, but I'll give you one anyhow. (The beauty of not needing a recipe is that you can eyeball things if you need to make just a few biscuits, or need to use up an odd amount of flour left in the canister. Cool.)

Cream Biscuits
(Adapted from the millions of cream biscuit recipes out there, all of them Southern)

Makes 12-16 biscuits

Preheat your oven to 375.
Lightly grease a sheet pan.

In a medium sized bowl, add 2 cups of self-rising flour and 1 1/2 cups (12 oz.) heavy (whipping) cream. Stir with a wooden spoon until just combined. If it is a bit crumbly, add another splash of cream. Sticky? Add a tablespoon of flour.

At this point, you have two options: drop biscuits and cut biscuits.

If you want drop biscuits, drop spoonfuls of your biscuit dough onto your prepared cookie sheet, 1/2" apart.

If you want cut biscuits, lightly flour your work surface and gently fold/knead your dough two or three times until it makes a sort of smooth ball. Roll it out to about 1/2" thick, and cut with a 3" cookie cutter. Please your biscuit rounds onto your prepared cookie sheet, again 1/2" apart.

Bake 15-17 minutes, or until the bottoms just start to get golden (or a little longer, if you like darker biscuits). Remove to a cooling rack, or straight into your serving basket.

(These biscuits are pretty darn close to what you get with your fried chicken with the eleven secret herbs and spices. Just FYI.)

Macaroni De-Luxe

Yes, De-Luxe is a word. Why? Because I say so. And because I tweaked this recipe out of a Southern cookbook that my grandmother found for my sister and I ages ago. (I think she actually stole it off one of her sister's shelves...but I could be wrong about that. Heh.)



I had volunteered last week to make some dinner for a friend who was expecting a baby. (As luck would have it, she had her baby right at dinnertime, on the day I had volunteered to cook. Her husband called from the hospital and said their doctor would like me to deliver the food there - lobster and steak please, with a good bottle of champagne. Pff. As if!)



However, the dinner was already made, so now...it sits. In my freezer. Awaiting the day when my friend no longer has enough food in her refrigerator to feed an army, and hasn't the will to cook anything. For, my friends, that day will come. And when it does, I'll be ready. Why?



Because I have the largest pan of macaroni I've ever seen, waiting for her in my freezer.



I wanted enough for my family, as well as hers, so this recipe makes two 9x13 pans. Please don't laugh at the ingredients. And please don't make the same mistake I did - if you serve this as a main course, it will serve 4-6 people, and you'll gain about 19 pounds.



Don't say I didn't warn you!



Macaroni Deluxe
(Adapted from "Macaroni and Cheese Deluxe", out of The Energizers' Powerful Good Cooking: a collection of recipes from retired employees of Alabama Power Company)



Ingredients:

2 pounds macaroni noodles, cooked and drained

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can evaporated milk

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/2 tsp. black pepper

3 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese, divided



In a large bowl, whisk together the cream of mushroom soup, evaporated milk, mayonnaise, minced garlic and black pepper. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of grated cheddar cheese. Stir in your cooked macaroni, folding to coat.



Divide the macaroni between two 9x13 pans and sprinkle 1/2 cup of cheddar cheese on top of each pan.



Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes, or until the noodles are heated and the cheese is melted.



Alternately, this can be covered well with tin foil and frozen.



*The thing I love about this recipe is that it I can make it at a moment's notice, because these are all ingredients that I generally have in the pantry. So, when someone needs a dinner...I can whip this out and have it on their doorstep within 45 minutes.

Great-Grandma Susie's Apple Cake

My friends...I canNOT believe I haven't shared this recipe with you yet! This is an old family favorite, from my great-grandmother. She was a humble woman, living in backwoods Alabama. What they ate they mostly raised themselves. They were frugal. They were gracious.

The story is that this apple cake could usually be found on Grandma Susie's sideboard, just waiting for a hungry child after school, or a friend who stopped by for a chat. (Because, down south, nobody stops by for a chat without having a bite to eat! My mother used to time her visits to "chat" for right after Great-Aunt Velma pulled her chicken n' biscuits out of the oven. Heh.)

Without further ado....

Great-Grandma Susie's Apple Cake
Makes 1 10-cup bundt cake

Ingredients:
3 cups unsifted flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 cup oil
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
3 Tbsp. artificial lemon juice (or 1 Tbsp. real)
3-4 cups firm apples, chopped (3 large apples)

Grease a 10-cup bundt cake pan and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together the oil, eggs, vanilla and lemon juice.

Gently mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the apples.

Bake until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. (Approximately 75 minutes for a bundt cake.)

This is a rather rich cake, so we usually serve it in small slices, with a dollop of whipped cream.

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

So, watermelon season is drawing to a close. As an homage to my southern roots, I decided to put up a few pints of pickled watermelon rinds this year. Mmmmm. Pickled Watermelon Rinds seems to be an American invention...and an acquired taste. Lo Gung despises these pickles. (Oh well - more for BBJ and me!) They're intensely sweet, and intensely sour, with a sniff of cloves thrown in for a kick.

In other words, they're divine!

I used the recipe from the 75th Anniversary edition of Joy of Cooking, modified just a bit for the amount of watermelon I had on hand. (About half of the watermelon the recipe called for. The original recipe called for 20 pounds of watermelon, to yield 8-10 1-pint jars. I had one 10-pound watermelon.)

First, cut your watermelon into eights, then cut away most of the red flesh. Save it, eat it, juice it...just don't pickle it. Not crunchy = Not tasty here.

Once the flesh cut away, you can hold your watermelon rind in your hand and, using a vegetable peeler, careful pare away the green outer rind. You want to be left with just the white part on the outside. The green part will never get soft during the pickling process.

(Do you love how I'm multitasking here? I fed the kids lunch while I was prepping my watermelon. If I do big cooking projects while they're asleep...they don't stay asleep for long!)

Once your green outer skin is peeled away, you can dice up your rinds. Cut them into pieces that are approximately 1" square. (Incidentally, these pickles aren't really good for anything except snacking. Not as far as I know. Anyone else have any great uses for these fabu little pickles?)

Blanch your little pickle-ettes in boiling water until they are crisp-tender, about ten minutes. Drain and set aside in a large non-reactive bowl or another container you can cover.

Now for the fun part - the pickling!

Gather your materials: white vinegar, sugar, cinnamon and powdered cloves.

Put your ingredients together in a large pot (I used a 5-qt dutch oven) and bring to a boil.

Pour your boiled syrup into your large bowl, just covering the watermelon rinds. Cover and let them hang out in the refrigerator overnight.

On the second day, drain the syrup back out into a large pan and bring to a boil again. Then pour it back over the rinds. Cover and let it chill out, just like the first night.

(That golden wire-y thingy in the bowl up there is called a "spider" and I LOVE it. It's perfect for scooping things out of liquids. We use it for wontons, making pickles, boiling greens...whatever needs to be scooped and drained! I picked mine up at a restaurant supply shop in Chinatown, but I've seen them all over the place. The bamboo handle makes it nice and sturdy - my plastic "spider" tends to bend when I scoop up anything heavy.)

On the third day, put the whole mess into a big pan and bring it to a boil. Remove the rinds to your prepared jars, then add your hot syrup. Process your cans....and you've got pickles that will last the rest of the year!

Pickled Watermelon Rinds

(Adapted from Joy of Cooking)

Day 1: Slice, de-fruit and peel 10 pounds of watermelon. Cut the watermelon rinds into 1" squares and blanch in boiling water until crisp-tender - about ten minutes. Drain and set aside in a large non-reactive bowl.

In a large skillet or pot, combine 3 1/2 cups sugar, 1 cup distilled white vinegar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/4 tsp. ground cloves.

Bring to a boil. Pour over the watermelon rinds. Cover, cool, and store in the refrigerator overnight to plump the pickles.

Day 2: Drain the syrup back into a large skillet or pot. Bring to a boil. Pour over the pickles. Cool as on Day 1.

Day 3: Prepare 4 or 5 pint-sized jars for canning. Pour the pickles and syrup into a large pot or dutch oven. Bring to a boil. Using a slotted spoon, pack the hot rinds into your prepared (read: warm) jars, then pour in enough syrup to cover the rinds and leave 1/2" of headspace. (Any pickles that lack the proper amount of syrup can be packed away into jars and put into the refrigerator for immediate consumption. Or foisted off onto your friends. Make sure you pick friends that like intensely sweet and sour pickles, otherwise you might lose your friends.)

Process 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.

(For more information on how to can, visit www.FreshPreserving.com)