50 foods Donna craves

50 foods Donna CRAVES (in some semblance of order):

Fresh, creamed/fried, Silver Queen corn
Fried pies (apricot is the best, but any dried fruit will do)
Apple dumplings w/ Grandma’s milky-sweet “dip”
Cornbread (to accompany a lot of other stuff on this list)
Fried bacon
Beef steak (filet, rib-eye, t-bone, skirt: most anything!)
Crunchy Cheetos
Vidalia onions (fixed just about any way)
 Fried crookneck squash
 Chicken and dumplings (“slicks”-style)
 Heirloom tomatoes
 Pasta (best plain w/ olive oil & sea salt)
 Ice cream (especially hand-cranked, homemade, vanilla)
 Cheese (just about any kind you can name)
 Lay’s potato chips (plain)
 French fries (the skinnier, the better)
 Smoked pork barbeque
 Fried chicken (thighs are my favorite)
 Pecan pralines (that's pronounced pe-CON, ya'll)
 Black-eyed peas
 Turnip greens
 Meat loaf (I’ll make it myself, thank you, with a little ground pork added in)
 Biscuits and gravy (can't believe my mom doesn't make this anymore!)
 Potato soup
 Egg salad
 Baked beans
 Fried okra
 Chicken salad
 Fried green tomatoes
 Corn fritters
 Bread pudding
 Sausage (most any way)
 Fried fish (No one has ever taken me fishing in my entire life and I'm still waiting....)
 White half-runners (fully cooked & seasoned)
 Baked sweet potatoes
 Salmon patties (ask Edward about this)
 Chess pie
 Fried chicken livers
 Shrimp (any way at all!)
 Cinnamon toast
 Cheesecake (NY style)
 Scrambled eggs
 Turkey w/ cornbread dressing & giblet gravy
 Ground beef tacos (crispy)
 School lunchroom yeast rolls
 Pancakes w/ butter and maple syrup
 Fudge (w/out marshmallow gunk)
 Fried frogs’ legs
 Pumpkin anything
 Grandma Trotter’s Christmas jam cake

OK, load up my plate!  (But come to think of it, mashed potatoes and/or cabbage slaw are de rigueur with several of these dishes; maybe I didn't explore sides quite enough!)  And pour me a table wine or a glass of sweetened iced tea.

"The Best Pound Cake I Ever Tasted"

What a great dessert to carry to meetings, reunions, funerals, homecomings, tailgates, parties and potluck.  Pound Cake!

My mentor librarian, Ethelene Dyer Jones, had a really good recipe for pound cake.  Ethelene made so many that her husband, Rev. Grover Jones, learned how to make them too and baked them often himself.


Ethelene & Grover Jones' Pound Cake:

3 1/2 cups sifted plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 cup shortening
2 1/2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons of 2 different flavorings (lemon, almond, vanilla or butternut)

Sift together the sifted flour, salt and baking powder.  Beat together shortening and sugar and continue to beat, adding eggs on at a time.  Continue to beat, adding dry ingredients alternately with milk.  Beat well after each addition.  Beat in flavorings at end.  Bake in a greased and floured tube pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour and 10 minutes.

For their Walking Across Egypt Gwinnett Reads a few years ago, Gwinnett County Public Library including a couple of pound cake baking contests as part of the festivities.  The staff winner was submitted by Anne Henson.

Aunt Hortense's Poundcake


2 sticks butter at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla flavoring
3 cups sugar
6 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.  Whip the butter until creamy.  Add the vanilla and whip until well-mixed.  Gradually add the sugar and whip the butter and sugar on high speed for several minutes.  Reduce the speed and add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each one.  Add salt to flour.  Alternate mixing the flour and cream into the butter/sugar, ending with flour.  Pour batter into a greased tube pan and run knife through the batter to prevent air pockets.  Bake for 1 1/2 hours.  Let cake cool before removing from pan.

(Thanks to author Clyde Edgerton for "The Best Pound Cake I Ever Tasted" phrase.)

Pictures of recent efforts

CORNbread

swordfish steaks

Joyce Trotter's Vinegar Pie Recipe

Melt 1 stick butter; add 2 well beaten eggs, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup raisins, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup coconut, 1 tablespoon vinegar.  Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake @ 325 degrees fahrenheit for about 50 minutes.

How simple is that?

Tonight I used golden raisins; sweetened, grated coconut and plain ol' white distilled vinegar.

It's really a regular pie size, not deep dish.

This pie is not overly sweet, but tonight Edward says this is it -- the best pie he's ever tasted.  OK!

Oops, didn't take a picture of it!

Ode to Grampa Jones

What's for supper, Grandpa?

Needless to say, we're polishing off a pitcher of manhattans even as I type.

Plus, I'm simmering those farmers' market-purchased fresh, shelled pink-eyed peas (wish they had a name other than a rampant disease that runs through elementary/grammar schools...) with garlic and bacon.  Edward is making some sort of spread (parsley, ground pepper, lemon peel, garlic, BUTTER) for the swordfish he's going to pan fry and oven-finish.  Ingredients for cornbread are set out, and there's small Indian eggplant to grill.  Garnishes?  BUTTER.  Vidalia onion and heirloom tomato slices.  And mozzarella or feta waiting in the wings if needed.  

What wine will we have with this eclectic menu?

WAIT!  There's also my cousin-in-law Joyce's recipe Vinegar Pie for dessert.  I promise to post this great recipe soon.  

We'll eat, tally the results and report ASAP!