My Famous Baked Beans (2)

This is a repost of an earlier recipe that I originally posted without pictures

Baked Beans

(this is half of the recipe below)

In my family I'm famous for my baked beans. For years I made these for almost any occasion, whether it was a barbeque, church supper, or family reunion. I love the way these thicken up and get crusty around the edges. (in the picture above, I was rushing and didn't let them get quite thick and browned enough)

Ingredients:

• 2 1lb 12 oz can of baked beans or pork and beans
• 1/2 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c molasses or syrup
• 1 c ketchup or chili sauce (oops-forgot to put this in the picture)
• 1 c chopped onions
• 1/4 c Worcestershire sauce
• 2 t dry mustard (optional)
• 2 T liquid smoke (optional)
• 5 strips of bacon, chopped in small pieces (optional)

Mix all ingredients together. Bake in covered casserole for 1 hour at 300 degrees F. I like to take the lid off for the last 10-15 minutes or so to thicken the sauce and brown top.

In the summertime when I make this for just my family, I cut the recipe in half, microwave for awhile, then finish off uncovered in the oven just for the thickening and browning--saves heating the kitchen up for so long.

I like Bush's Baked Beans for this

The best syrup for this is not pancake syrup, but a good thick, golden cane syrup. In the south I like Johnny Fair or Blackburn Made syrup the best.

Most of the time I leave off the bacon, but if I use it, I like to put the bacon on top instead of mixed in.

I leave off the liquid smoke most of the time, just because it's not something I keep on hand.

And as always, I use dried onion flakes instead of fresh onion.

All cans of beans are not created the same. On occasion, I've opened beans that seemed to have more juice than usual--in those cases, I cut back on the syrup and increase the brown sugar to balance the extra liquid.

This recipe lends itself well to halving, which I do for the family-sized version pictured above, and doubling, which I've done for church dinners and other large functions. In that case, double the ingredients listed here for each gallon of beans, and allow at least two hours to bake; more if you mix it up the night before and refrigerate. (It does seem to taste better if I mix it all up and refrigerate overnight, but it takes a lot longer to bake if it's been refrigerated instead of just mixed at room temperature.)

Try this out, I think you'll like it!

I know I'm famous in my family for my yummy baked beans. Maybe I could be famous in other families too. Better make some business cards.

For more recipes, check out:

Tasty Tuesday

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday

And for the first time:

Friday Feasts

I Am Blissfully Domestic

Good cooking, and good eating!

Blog Link-A-Thon

My apologies to those of you who subscribe to both of my blogs for a duplicate post--it's just part of taking care of bloggy business!

One of the things we "Bloggy" people like to do is link to other blogs, and more importantly, have other blogs link to us. I recently participated in a Blog Link-a-Thon at MomDot--a magazine style blog with multiple contributors on lots of different topics related to motherhood--from personal to practical!

As part of that Link-A-Thon, I agreed to post a list of each and every participating blog, and they have each agreed to do the same. It's a virtual web of links and cross-links! (Get it? A virtual web. You know, web. Like the world wide you-know-what--I know, I know, it's weak, isn't it? I'm pitiful, but oh-well.)

1. Lori@Not Always Charming

2. Fairy Blog Mother

3. Crazy Adventures in Parenting

4. Engineer a Debt Free Life

5. Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls

6. Good Golly Miss Blondie

7. SavvySuzie


8. For The Love of Baby!


9. Tammy@lovemy2dogs


10. Blessings Abound


11. Coupons, Deals and More

12. Hairstyles For Girls

13. Stacie @ The Divine Miss Mommy

14. A latte in the morning

15. KiddiesCorner Deals

16. 3 Kids and Us | Mom Blog

17. The Ohana Mama

18. Coupon Queens of Laurel Run

19. Today's Journey

20. Eve @ Confessions of a Housewife

21. My Charmed Life

22. Laurie@DoubleBugs

23. Lisa @ Final Score boys3 girls2

24. New Sue Review

25. Suzanne Calling

26. Just For Me…and You


27. Time Slides By


28. Babes and Kids


29. Declutter a Little Each Day


30. Grocery Savings for Real Families


31. Life Starring Ellie and Eve :: A review site (and more!)


32. So Cute Crafts


33. Brea's Mommy


34. Are Muffins Just Ugly Cupcakes>


35. It's A Beauty Filled Life


36. The crazy suburban mom


37. Donna's World


38. Momma's Gone Over the Wall


39. Mommy's Quiet Time


40. Joyce (Saving My Cents)


41. My Trendy Tykes


42. The Not-So-Blog


43. Confessions From HouseholdSix


44. SiPPyCuPSand FiNGerPriNTS


45. Jennifer@CouponMommie


46. Shasta @ Crackers&Chaos


47. Giftfully Simple


48. Just For Fun


49. Digital Mommy


50. Me And Craig


51. Parenting Princesses


52. Shan@Last Shreds Of Sanity


53. Inside My Head


54. Petit


55. My Love Lucy


56. FreckleBox personalized gift


57. Baby Lulu Dress


58. Blog 4 Mom


59. 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires


60. Jolly Mom


61. My Life My Journey


62. Maman And Gourmand


63. Jess - Life @ 30


64. The POSHpreneur


65. A Blog of Goodies


66. Christy aka The Write Gal


67. LookWhatMomFound


68. Peanut Butter & Smelly's Dad


69. Lucy


70. Angry Julie Monday


71. The Mogul Mom Blog


72. Angela


73. Deal-ectible Mommies


74. Christy's Creations


75. Lisa


76. Courtney@Booksnboys


77. Wannabe Supermom


78. Thre Craft Momma


79. Internet Toddler


80. Jennifer@Life is a Sandcastle


81. Kristen of La Dolce Vita


82. Cranberry Fries


83. Toni @ The Mud Bug


84. The Mom Buzz


85. Tricia @Nightowl Mama


86. Frugal Mommy of 2 Girls


87. Mommy Cracked


88. EclecticBird


89. Mama Mentor


90. Moomettesgram's Musings


91. Moomette's Magnificents Reviews


92. Moomettesgram's Favorite Recipes


93. Diaries of a Domestic Goddess


94. Go Graham Go!


95. NerdFamily Things


96. NerdFamily Blog


97. Making Money Keeping Money


98. NerdFamily Food


99. Flying Giggles & Lollipops


100. Gena @ Morris Bunch


101. Crystal @ Simply Being Mommy


102. A Kindred Spirit's Thoughts


103. Two Of A Kind, Working On A Full House


104. D-Lo's Lounge ($25 Gift Card for Ginch Gonch)


105. Free Sample Freak


106. What Mommies Need


107. Mom of 2 Boys, Wife of 1


108. icefairy's Treasure Chest


109. Cheaper Than Therapy-Musings of The Mom Jen


110. Therapeutic Reviews & Giveaways

111. Lily Bean Designs


112. Dirty Diaper Laundry


113. Dance Momma


114. JamericanSpice


115. Mombalance


116. A Pocket Full Of Buttons


117. Ordinary and Awesome


118. Reviews and Giveaways


119. Subjective Beauty


120. Tales From A Shopaholic Mommy


121. Mommiemayhem


122. IE Mommy


123. Nikki @ Blasian Baby Notes


124. Amber Woodward


125. Grammy Janet's Place


126. Outnumbered 3 to 1


127. ShimmerMeBlue


128. Dev's Favorite Giveaways


129. Joyful Money Saving


130. 1stopmom


131. A Modern Mama


132. PourSomeSugarOnMe


133. Fancast


134. Lollipop Baby


135. Lola & Ben


136. idoby2celebrants


137. Sue Jackson


138. Cackleberry Kids


139. Gifts By The Stars


140. Jemma


141. Handmade Kids


142. Ollie Rose


143. Babasfarmlife


144. Banquet Manager


145. Monkey's Momma


146. This Mom Can Shop


147. EcoLabel Fundraising


148. Divine Chaos


149. baby kakes ink alphabet onesie


150. tee from recycle me


151. Elizabeth @ Suzy Q Homemaker


152. marla mandell bread (5/17)


153. ozone socks 5/15


154. Belly Bumps to Baby Hugs


155. Hip T (5/12)


156. ThenComesBaby PARTY FAVORS


157. Homemade Gourmet


158. Fresh Pure and Simple- Arbonne Consultant


159. MomDot Mom Blogs


160. MomDot Mom Reviews


161. Bloggers Give Charity


162. Organic Baby Resource


163. Potamus Prefers


164. The Army Wife


165. Through Hazel Eyes


166. Frugal Rhode Island Mama


167. Just Jingle


168. And Twins make 5!


169. Frugal Plus


170. Christie


171. What Happened To My House?


172. Miracles on Mama Street


173. Heck Of A Bunch


174. Blog Designs by Susan


175. mommy23monkeys


176. Hanna


177. Got Kids Need Valium


178. Womb At The INNSANE


179. Katie & Kimble Blog


180. Kim @ Adventures SAHM


181. The Frugalicious Mommy


182. Penny Pinching Diva


183. CarrieAnne@Another day. Another thought or two


184. Beauty4Moms


185. Nikki @evilflu.com


186. Little Miss Julia


187. Mrs Zeee


188. Cheryl


189. Frazzle Dazzle SuperMom


190. Florida Mealtime Savers


191. Inspiration Station


192. Mommy's Kitchen


193. Saving with MamaNordy


194. Saving SAHM Sanity


195. Stephanie @ A Little Piece Of Perfect


196. Nodin's Nest


197. Lil Miss Eco


198. Laryn Strickland


199. HeatherMama


200. The Gerber Babies Blog


201. WhateverSuccess


202. Women Who Win: Enter Sweepstakes & Giveaways


203. Kat @ The Burb Blog


204. Happy Healthy Families


205. Sweeps4Bloggers


206. dramaqueensmum


207. The Mom Trap


208. Multitasking Mama


209. Mama Michies Musings


210. Little People Wealth


211. Belly Beyond


212. Kim Kihega


213. Mom Fuse


214. Juanita


215. Adopt a 'Do


216. On the Refriderator Door


217. Christine


218. Little Diva


219. My Household Junk


220. I'm Here….Really

221. Brittany@The Greer 5


222. mary


223. Nicole @ Nicole's Nickels


224. Lori Newman


225. Kris @ NSQSA


226. Debb


227. Shawn Ann's World


228. Peke Moe -NZ made baby sleep sacks


229. A Simple Kinda LIfe


230. Sweet Serendipity


231. Bouncing Off The Walls


232. Jane Loedding


233. Roz


234. http://msbuildingupdabenjamins.blogspot.com/


235. Msbuildingupdabenjamins


236. Musings from Me


237. Veronnica


238. The Adventures of Miss V


239. Mudd Kids


240. Mom Most Traveled family travel


241. Relishing the Dirt


242. Good, True and Beautiful


243. Deb @ Frugal Living and Having Fun


244. The Last Blog on Earth


245. A Wrestling Addicted Mommy


246. Rae


247. kimert@diaries of a coach's wife


248. Dore's Diaries


249. Blog by Donna


250. Lisette


251. Pillaging With Buffie


252. Mom of Faith


253. GODSOWN


254. flutterbyechronicles


255. shelley


256. Life In A House Of Blue


257. kristen


258. Alex the Fey Thriller Series


259. MamaCheaps!


260. Donalacasa


261. A Jewish Journey


262. Anissa @ Our Chaotic Life


263. BethinNC


264. Stuttering Shell


265. Don't Blink


266. Life is Sweet


267. Lisa


268. Sue@Stay At Home Mom


269. m.e (cathie)


270. Run DMT


271. Princess Ratbag


272. Michelle G


273. CF Mama @ Nathan's Fight


274. Moody Mama Says


275. Laurie Ann


276. Cooking During Stolen Moments


277. A Simple Walk


278. Vanessa


279. middleagedmom


280. Ramblings Of A Wannabe Writer


281. Oh My Baby


282. Fordcast Sunny


283. Lisa Miller


284. Stacie @ The Divine Miss Mommy


285. Bibs & Cribs {very cute stuff}


286. My Lil' Budget Book


287. Misadventurous Mommy @ Misadventures in Baby Raising


288. Misadventurous Mommy @ My Mommy Said


289. Milk & Honey Mommy


290. Milk and Honey Mommy


291. Amy O'Neal


292. Parenting Children


293. A Girl And Her Life


294. MarieLynn Boutique Blog


295. Born Fabulous Boutique Blog


296. The Pitter Patter Boutique


297. Stephanie Deese


298. Brea's Baby Boutique Blog


299. digiscrapping.net - Heather Manning


300. Kids Activities Blog


301. Two Little Whales Cloth Diapers & More


302. 3 boys & a dog


303. Karen ~Georgia Angel


304. JenniferB @ my not so hurried life


305. Shannon Blogs Here


306. A Virtuous Woman


307. Secrets of a Southern Kitchen


308. Dreamer


309. Sweet Reads from Lollipop Book Club


310. Mommie Daze Virtual Baby Shower - ends June 8


311. Heck Of A Bunch (1 yr. Pogo sub giveaway)


312. MomSaves4U


313. Barely Domestic Mama


314. Emilie @ Baby Loving Mama


315. Professional Family Manager


316. Kathleen


317. Coaching The Family


318. Frugal Creativity


319. Easy Being Green


320. Dandelion Bubbles


321. Shelly aka The Attic Girl


322. Foxtoybox-Discovery Toys


323. Ashley @ Beauty4Moms


324. Colleen - Mommy Always Wins


325. Playground for Parents


326. World of Discovery


327. Kati @ Country Girl City Life


329. A Little Bit Nutty


330. Mahayla’s Mommy


332. If I Could Escape . . .


Wow, that's a lot of links!

Frosting-in-the-cake Cake

I should probably title this post "True Confessions of a Not-So Great Cake Baker"

I've never had problems with cakes before. Until lately.

I have a recipe for a really good but slightly unusual cake that I've been wanting to share; the problem is, I've made it three times, and I can't get it to come out pretty. It tastes great, it just looks awful. It's fallen every time, not to mention run out through the bottom of my removable-insert tube pan. It's been a disaster. Every time. And yet I can't resist trying it, again and again.

So I'm going to give your the basic recipe, along with what I think are the issues with it!

Ingredients:

• 1 box cake mix, any flavor
• 4 eggs
• 1 c milk or water
• 1/2 c oil
• 1 can frosting, any flavor

Mix all ingredients together, including the frosting. This makes a softer batter than most cakes. Pour into a lightly greased or cooking-sprayed tube or bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before trying to remove from the pan.

The first version of this I ever tasted, it was made with German chocolate cake mix with the traditional German chocolate coconut-pecan frosting, and was an excellent, extremely moist cake and looked fine.

The first time I made this, I used Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Golden cake mix, and chocolate frosting. Partway through the baking process, I smelled smoke, and realized to my dismay that the batter had oozed out around the bottom of my removable insert tube pan, and was burning on the bottom of the oven. I attributed the fall to me opening the oven door to slip a cookie sheet on the bottom shelf to catch the drips. It tasted great, but looked terrible.

Second time around, same cake and frosting flavors, only this time I put the cake pan directly on the cookie sheet and turned the oven up slightly. It still oozed, only this time, it just stuck the cake pan to the cookie sheet, and poofed up to make a little round baby cake inside the tube. And fell. Kind of like this:

So I gave up for a while. Looked up reasons for cakes falling--over beating. under beating. oven temperature too low, etc, etc. Decided to use a bundt pan and try one more time. Forgot the bundt pan and used the tube pan again, this time with French vanilla cake mix and cream cheese frosting. It puffed up so pretty. At 50 minutes, it was still slightly "jiggly" in the middle, so I left it an additional 5-7 minutes. Took it out, it was slightly deflated, but not bad. Went back later to find, once again, this:

I still haven't given up on this recipe. My mother makes a version of this recipe and hers doesn't fall. Her local paper has a cooking column where this recipe has been discussed, though, and apparently I'm not the only one who's had problems with it. Some folks have had it rise so much it overflowed their pan, others, like me, have seen it rise to beautiful heights, only to fall later. For myself, I've made this in an electric oven, and in my experience most electric ovens burn too hot, so I automatically reduce the oven temp by 50 degrees. That may be too low for this particular cake, due to the softness of the batter.

So next time, this will be made in a bundt pan, not a tube pan, and I'll adjust the oven down only 25 degrees. And put a cookie sheet under the pan. Just in case.

Meanwhile, we're having some good-but-not-pretty cake this afternoon.

(Not so)Good cooking, and good eating!

Stuffed Bread, Live and In Color

Taco Stuffed Bread

This is a repeat of a recipe I posted, without pictures, in January. My family still thinks I'm a little bit "not right" for taking pictures of food as I cook it, not to mention toiletries and groceries I buy (on A Virtuous Woman). There's just something about a post with pictures, though! Unfortunately, as my timer was beeping to check this, my sweet husband checked the oven, removed the bread, sliced it up, and even served our plates before I thought to tell him to hold off for a final picture! So, you will have to imagine this artfully arranged on a dinner plate.


Ingredients:

• pizza dough (homemade would be great, but refrigerated works just fine, too!)
• 1 lb ground meat
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• 1 envelope taco seasoning
• grated and/or sliced cheese

Cook and drain ground meat. Add corn and taco seasoning, and enough water, if needed, to mix thoroughly.



Bring to a bubble, cover, and simmer for a few minutes to allow the seasonings to blend well with the meat and corn. Remove the cover and allow most of the liquid to cook away.

Open the pizza dough and spread flat, stretching the dough as much as you can without tearing it. Put meat mixture down the middle and cover with cheese. (This shows grated cheddar--I've used every kind of cheese you can imagine, including sliced American)

Bring the dough together on top, pinching or folding to close the edges. (Sorry for the poor quality of this picture) You may have to slightly stretch the dough to do this. Spray lightly with cooking spray or brush lightly with oil to keep the dough moist and give it a bit of a shine. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned on top. Let cool slightly, slice and enjoy!

Note:

You can make this with Italian/spaghetti seasoning and mozzarella cheese, but our favorite is still the taco filling.

I hope your family likes this as much as mine does!

I listed this recipe at the recipe swap at the Grocery Cart Challenge.

Good cooking, and good eating!

One of My Favorite Kitchen Tools

My Recipe Holder

I'm not a kitchen tool snob. I don't have a lot of expensive gadgets and utensils. I have a few quality items that I really love, but most of my cooking spoons and tools come from Walmart or Dollar General or Target.

This one, though, is different. It's a little wooden thingy shapped like an old-fashioned iron, with a clothespin glued to the handle to hold recipes--it keeps them where you can see them, without getting in the way on the counter. My aunt, my mom's sister, painted the design by hand. Isn't it cute? I can't even count the number of times I've used it over the years.

So what's your favorite kitchen gadget? Is it one like this, that you use often without even thinking about? That trusty old half-melted-off-handled cooking spoon that you can't live without? Or an expensive-but-worth-it state-of-the-art something?

Review--Country Bob's All-Purpose Sauce

I received an email a while back asking if I'd like to do a review of Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce. This is not a product I was at all familiar with, but I agreed, and they sent me two bottles to try, along with a little booklet.

I went to their website first, http://www.countrybobs.com/ to find a little more about their products. What I found was an interesting backstory--doesn't knowing something about a product's history make it even more interesting? It does for me!

I'm not going to reprint the whole story, but this is a company that's founded on Christian principles--a little lagniappe for me--by a gentleman who started off making the sauce for his own use, then for family and friends, and finally expanded into commercial production. They now produce Country Bob's All Purpose Sauce, All Purpose Spicy Hot, Barbecue Sauce, and Seasoning Salt, as well as a really nice cookbook.

The sauce that I got to try was the regular All Purpose Sauce.

The first thing I did with it was use it straight, as a steak sauce. I liked it, but thought it was a little sweet for that. I think I'd like the Spicy Hot version better for that.

Next I put some on some boneless skinless chicken thighs, which I baked in the oven--this was similar to oven-barbecued chicken, but without the smoky taste that most bbq sauce has. Good, but again, I'd like the try the regular barbecue sauce for this.

Next, I used this as a dip/sauce for steak and baked chicken, this time mixed with ranch dressing, and loved it that way. (I have a long history of mixing ranch dressing with ketchup, bbq sauce, or steak sauce--I don't like ranch on salad, but I love it, mixed with various sauces, with meat). This is my table use of choice, but again, I hardly use anything without mixing it with ranch dressing.

And the final use--my favorite cooking use--was mixed into ground meat, along with bbq and a little worchestershire sauce, which made some of the best sloppy joe's I've ever made!

When I got back to Georgia after being home in Louisiana for several weeks, I had another package from Country Bob's waiting for me--with a complimentary copy of their cookbook, and ten coupons for free sauce--some for me and some to give away to family and friends! If you've ever read my other blog, A Virtuous Woman, you know how I love my coupons! I was surprised, though, at how much I liked the cookbook. It's a really nice hardback book, well laid out with attractive pages, and has recipes for everything from appetizers to main dishes, and even some for desserts! No, the desserts don't have Country Bob's sauce in them!

One thing I like about this company, as well as the cookbook, is that this is a Christian-based company, and they make no apologies for that. "Christ is our CEO" is a slogan that's prominently displayed on their website, as well as their products.

Another thing of interest I found on their website, which may be of special interest to some of you foodies out there, is that you can purchase plastic bottles from them to use for your own concoctions that you may want to give away to family and friends--and, they can also contract with you to make and bottle your sauces for you if you're ready to branch out to sales! Isn't that the coolest thing??? I'm not that creative at this point, but you can be certain that if I ever get ambitious, this is the kind of small company I'd want to do business with.

Visit http://www.countrybobs.com/, check out their story, and request a free bottle to try.

Good cooking, and good eating!

Pass the Peas, Please

A couple of months ago I posted about my learning to eat and then to cook asparagus, a vegetable that I was not familiar with growing up. Today's post is about a vegetable that this Southern girl grew up with; one that that my parents and grandparents and probably even their parents' parents grew and cooked and ate, namely, the purple hull pea.

These may look like a green version of black-eyed peas, and while I'm sure they're related, fresh purple hull peas, to me, taste nothing like black eyes. For one thing, black-eyes are mostly eaten dried, then soaked and cooked, while purple hull peas are eaten fresh or frozen from fresh, not dried.

My family grows what's called pink-eye purple hulls. My dad's favorite variety, the Mississippi Pink-Eye, is one that hasn't been available commercially for a couple of years, so he's compromised by growing a different variety of pink-eyed purple hulls, known, I think, by the name "Top-pick".

I have memories in childhood of getting up in the dark and riding in my Papa's pick-up truck while my mom and Nanny (grandmother) rode in the car, to a farm where you paid a little bit of nothing to pick your own peas. (In later years I remember them growing their own, so I'm not sure why we went somepalce else that year to pick peas.) It was wet, nasty work--you had to pick early, when the dew was still on the ground, before it got too hot. It was fun for about the first five or ten minutes, but once the sun came up, it got old fast. (Where were the child-labor laws when we needed them??)

Once we had picked our bushel baskets full, we took them home and then the fun part begun--shelling all those peas by hand. I can remember shelling till my fingers got sore--and with purple-hulls, they get black and purple stained, too. Nobody could out-shell my Nanny-she loved it and was faster than anybody else I knew. In the early days, we sat outside in lawn chairs under the tree, surrounded by the bushel baskets of picked peas, dishpans full of shelled peas, and brown paper bags of pea hulls--ready for daddy or papa to throw over the fence to the cows. It was fun, really, everyone sitting around and talking and shelling peas. To this day I love running my hands through dishpans full of raw, uncooked peas, they feel so smooth and cool, I used to imagine it was treasure as I picked up handfuls and let them run through my fingers back into the dishpan. Nowadays my parents have a pea-sheller; two people can shell a bushel of peas faster than we could have even imagined back then.

I'm not sure how much help we kids really were, or if it offset the amount of whining I'm sure we did, but once the shelling was done, we were off the hook. The women of the family, though, still had hours more of blanching and shocking and bagging for the freezer before they were done--usually long after the rest of us were in bed. It was a right of passage for us girls to be allowed to help--first with the bagging, later with the actual blanching (immersing in boiling water for a few minutes) and shocking (immersing then into ice water to stop the cooking process), getting them ready for the bagging process. Zipper topped freezer bags are a wonderful invention, but there was a technique to twisting those little paper-(and later plastic) coated wire twisty ties to the top of the bags so that they held tight without slipping off!

The results, though, brought back the taste of summer every time our mom's and grandma's cooked up a pot of peas. A little bit of bacon or at least bacon grease, some salt and pepper, that was all that was needed to cook the best peas.

These days I do mine a bit different, but they still have the same great taste. Once I put my still frozen peas in the pot and add water, I add dried onion flakes, a teaspoon or two of chicken stock paste, and my favorite all purpose seasoning, Tony Chachere's (Tony Chay Chay's to my family).

Bring everything to a boil, breaking apart the peas as they thaw. Turn down to medium or medium high, and cook until the peas are done, at least 45 minutes, depending on the quantity of peas.

Note:

I've tried commercial frozen so-called "purple hull peas", and to me, they taste like black eyes. Personally, I like dry black eyes, but not fresh ones. I have yet to find a commercially frozen purple hull peas that taste like the purple hulls I know and love.

Some people freeze their purple hull peas without blanching first--I've never cooked peas done this way, but I know they take longer to cook. Conversely, some people basically cook their fresh peas almost to done before freezing, so they take a much shorter time to finish.

In my family, we put up vegetables in the freezer. There are different techniques for vegetables canned in jars; I have no experience cooking peas put up this way, so if you try canned peas, you're on your own!

What's your favorite home grown vegetable?

For more recipes and links, see Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed with Grace.

As always, good cooking, and good eating!

Not Your Granny's Banana Puddin'

Probably a staple at every Southern family reunion is good old banana pudding. I can remember my grandmother making the traditional banana pudding--hot, cooked pudding poured over layers of vanilla wafers and banana slices--best eaten when it's cooled just enough to "set", but still slightly warm. (Any later and it turned into a slimy mess of soggy cookies and blackened bananas. Yuck.) Every now and then she made a pineapple version for one of my cousins who doted on it. (Hot pineapple. Double yuck.)

Banana pudding was never one of my favorites growing up, but I did enjoy it on occasion if I could catch it at just that right moment--otherwise, I'd rather have the pie. Or cake. Or anything other than banana pudding.

A number of years ago, though, there began to appear recipes for "uncooked" banana pudding. At first they were just instant pudding poured over the cookies and banana--good, but nothing to write home about.

Later some other versions came up, made with that staple of a Good Southern Belle cook--Cool Whip. My sister made one of these at Easter, and it was Very Good.

I remembered, though, somewhere in the back of my brain, finding a recipe once for uncooked banana pudding that was made with sweetened condensed milk as one of it's ingredients, and I determined to leave no search engine unsearched until I found it. Turns out there are several different versions of uncooked-banana-pudding-made-with-sweetened-condensed-milk, so I looked over several of them and found the basis of what I believe may be the Ultimate Uncooked Banana Pudding. It has all the right ingredients--namely, Cool Whip, sweetened condensed milk, and cream cheese. Could it possibly get any better than this? I don't think so. I did adjust the proportions of some ingredients, but I believe this may be IT.

Here is my version of the Ultimate Uncooked Banana Puddin'

Ingredients:

• Vanilla Wafers
• 4-5 bananas
• 2 boxes of instant vanilla pudding
• 1 8ox pkg cream cheese, softened
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 3 c milk
• 1/2 container Cool Whip

Cover the bottom of a 9 x 13 pan with vanilla wafers. The original recipe called for 30--it took 35 (yes, I counted) to cover the bottom, plus a couple of extra thrown in just to be sure. And I like to put some around the edges to look traditional, too, so that was at least 20-25 more, if you really want to count them. Cover with sliced bananas. The original recipe called for 2 thinly sliced bananas. They must have shaved them awfully thin, because I used 4 or 5 to cover the pan. Mix the cream cheese, sweetened condensed milk, milk, and pudding mix, and beat for 2-3 minutes. Add cool whip, and beat at low speed until well mixed. Spoon over the top of the cookies and bananas. Add extra cookies around the edge. Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Notes: I had a hard time getting the cream cheese to mix in thoroughly. I let it sit out to soften, but apparently not long enough--when I added all of the pudding ingredients, including the cold milk, I had a hard time making the cream cheese fully incorporate. As a result, some bites have an extra little lump of cream cheese--for a special treat!

I made this tonight to take to a family reunion tomorrow. I had some extra pudding and cookies and one leftover banana, so I made a couple of small ones--don't they look cute? I admit--I tasted--the pudding is quite rich-I think it'll be a big hit.

What's your favorited version of banana pudding, cooked or uncooked?

I'm sharing this recipe at Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Bedlam and Beauty, and Tempt My Tummy Tusday at Blessed with Grace. Check both of these out for links to other recipes.

Until next time--good cooking, and good eating!