Still full from last nights dinner....

When I reflect this morning while working on my blog, I am thinking about how I decided to blog about southern cooking and when I think about the calories involved, it isn't pretty. Perhaps, I should have used a healthy cookbook instead? I don't think my taste testers would have as much fun as they are having now. (Tom and Jacob)

Here's my menu from yesterday:

Chicken Cacciatore
Mashed Potatoes
Peanut Butter Pie

I made the Peanut Butter Pie first. Peanut Butter Pie is Tom's favorite and I have used a recipe from his Mom that is super easy to make. This one is different and in the directions I think there is a mistake in the ingredients and some additional directions for the whipped cream. It called for 3 oz of cream cheese which is an unusual amount. Was the 3 a typo and supposed to be 8? That is what Tom's Mom recipe called for. I followed the directions and used 3 but the pie wasn't as full. It also called for whipped topping but nowhere in the directions does it say what to do with the 1 1/2 cups. Fold it in the pie filling?  Put it on the top after the pie is chilled?  Serve it on the side? I ended up chilling the pie and then putting it on the top. The other unique option to this pie was that after you pour it into the shell you sprinkle chopped nuts on top of it. That extra peanut love put this pie ranking into the 2nd best Peanut Butter Pie Tom has had. (He said first place is reserved to a pie he had made by the Amish)

Both Jacob and Tom had two pieces of the pie and there was some serious trash talking between the two of them over that pie. There was less than half the pie left and Tom agreed to let me cut two more pieces out to take back over my Aunt Doris's house, leaving one large piece left. He threatened Jacob's life if that pie came up missing. The pie was the most coveted dish in the house yesterday, hands down!

Next I assembled Chicken Cacciatore.  Here's another recipe where a frying pan was involved....Instructions again left me wondering what to do with some ingredients.  At the beginning of the cook book it is dedicated to Mrs. Wilkes daughter Margie who tirelessly typed out all of the recipes on her Smith-Corona typewriter more than three decades ago.  As I work through these, I wondered if the recipes were ever proofed for errors or tested out prior to being published?   I am going to say....hmmmm No.  Next on my agenda is to send a love note to the owners of the dining room asking if they would be willing to answer my questions of what to do as I cook through this book?  There are many positive reviews for the book, but none of them mention making any recipes.  Ok, back to the recipe....

Here's what the directions said that confused me:  Dip chicken in flour, brown in oil. Remove from bone.  Place in casserole with saute onions, and peppers.  Pour over chicken and add mushrooms.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.  Sprinkle cheese over casserole about 15 minutes before removing from oven.  

These ingredients where not mentioned in directions: garlic powder, tomato sauce, bay leaves, celery seed.  What I did was mix it all together and then poured it over the chicken, peppers and onions.  Then placed mushrooms on top of sauce.  What do you all think?  Is it obvious that I am used to step by step cooking?  Perhaps I can get a side job of testing recipes and proofing recipes for errors?

While I was working on the chicken in the skillet, Tom came into the kitchen and asked if he could help with anything.  OMG, I said YES!  So he peeled the potatoes and cubed them for the mashed pototes.  When it was time to cook the potatoes, the directions gave me no indication of how long to cook the potatoes.  Tom said that you only need to cook potatoes for 15 minutes once they reach boiling.  So that is what I did.  They turned out fine.  What do you all do out there?  He put them in a pan and put in enough water to just cover the tops of the potatoes and then told me once they start full boil, set timer for 15 minutes.  Another question is that in the directions it has me melting butter and heating it up with the milk and then pouring it in while I am beating the potatoes.  What do you all do?  Heat milk and butter, use another ingredient?  I didn't use all the liquid in the recipe as it would have made the potatoes too runny.  I like my mashed potatoes more stiff, but these were more medium consistency than stiff or runny. 

My last note on the mashed potatoes is that this is only my second successful attempt at doing them.  Previously, I made terrible mashed potatoes, they always had lumps.  Tom explained it is because I didn't cook the potatoes long enough.  So with his time instructions, my days of cooking lumpy mashed potatoes are behind me.  Whew.....

Now it is time for the taste testing.  Here's a photo of the table before diggin in:

Both Tom and Jake liked the Chicken Cacciatore.  This is huge as Tom is not a fan of chicken, onions or peppers but he ate two pieces of chicken.  Both had two helpings of the potatoes.  Again I ate only small portions and included another spinach salad.  After dinner we had to run back over to Aunt Doris's to fix her door, and Tom suggested taking the left overs to her and Aunt Oatlee.  Aunt Doris was delighted when I showed up with all the food from the last two days in tupperware for her and included two pieces of Peanut Butter Pie.

When I said left overs anyone, I wasn't kidding.  If anyone in town is looking for southern cooking at 6 p.m. dinner time, give me a call.  I'll set an extra plate and suggest you wear some comfortable pants.