Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your Christmas Season is truly wonderful with the company of family, friends and Food! Thank you to everyone that has visited my site this year! I have been blessed with wonderful foodie friends and hope to make many new friends in the New Year! Sharing a little Christmas Breakfast cheer...

Christmas Breakfast... Eggs, Ham and Mama's Biscuits! (My biscuits came out pretty good this time. Thank goodness!)


Mama's Biscuits

2 cups self-rising flour
2/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put 2 cups self-rising flour in a medium sized bowl. Take 2/3 cup vegetable shortening, and cut in with fingertips until dough looks like small peas.

Make a well in the center and add 2/3 cup milk slowly, mixing with floured fingertips until it gets sticky. Keeping hands floured, shape biscuits with hands and place them on an ungreased pan. Mama always placed the biscuit down and pressed three fingers into each one leaving ridges… Bake 10-12 minutes.

This is a very sticky dough. Don’t be tempted to keep adding flour. The more you mix, the tougher the biscuit. Just keep flouring your hands and it will coat the biscuit so that you can handle them.

Baked BBQ Hot Wings

Baked BBQ Hot Wings

Wings
salt, pepper and garlic powder, to taste

Sauce:
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp oil
1 cup ketsup
1/4 cup brown sugar, light or dark
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup Texas Pete hot sauce***
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season wings with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Place wings in a baking dish or sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until done. Saute onion and garlic in oil in a large pan. Drain any excess oil. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes. 

Remove wings from oven and drain the pan. Coat the wings well with bar-b-que sauce and return to the oven for 10 minutes, making sure not to let the sauce burn.

*** This recipe makes a mild/medium wing. If you want hotter wings, add more hot sauce or your own hot peppers to the sauce while cooking.

Vegetable Confetti Salad

I'm always looking for new side dishes and this one does not disappoint! It is beautiful as well as tasty! I made this for my Wednesday Night crowd at church and it was a hit!

1 cup diced radishes
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup cucumber
1/2 cup diced red and green bell pepper
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 oz Feta cheese
1/2 cup (your favorite) Italian salad dressing
1 1/2 cups cooked and cooled pasta (optional)
      (I used a Red Wine Vinaigrette and broken spaghetti noodles)

In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, and toss. Refrigerate until ready to serve. If the pasta is dry, add a little more dressing and serve.

Beef Stew

This is a wonderful dish for this time of year. Tonight it's chilly and rainy. This is a perfect comfort food recipe for tonight. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes!

I used two very cheap cuts of shoulder steak. You can use pretty much anything you want. I don't buy the stew meat any more, because you are just paying and enormous amount of money for someone to cut your meat for you! LOL

Cut whatever meat you want to use into 1 inch cubes. Toss them in seasoned flour. (I used garlic, salt and pepper.)

Place 2 Tablespoons Oil in a large skillet. Heat to medium-high heat and add the cubed meat. Brown the meat on all sides. If there is excess oil, add a little flour and stir. Add 2-3 cups of beef broth. Add cubed vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, onions and a teaspoon of minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

If the stew is too thick, just add more broth until it is the consistency you like.

Grocery List:

2 Sirloin, Chuck or Flank steaks
2 potatoes
2 carrots
2 onions
1 clove garlic
Beef broth
Flour
Oil

A Christmas Family Story... and Judy's Red Velvet Cake!

A Christmas Tree in Every Room!

When I was growing up, each year we had at least two Bar-B-Ques, one at Thanksgiving and one at Christmas. The Bar-B-Que at Thanksgiving was on Saturday and was for all the employees and business associates of Mama and Daddy. The one at Christmas was on Christmas Eve and was for family and friends. We had about a hundred people at each. We would spend all week getting the house ready and two days getting all the food ready. Mama would take some of the guys from the shop (Central) and put them to work at the house. One year, Al Miller (a young black guy that worked at Central) told Mama, “ You've owned slaves before, Haven’t you?” It was always a busy and exciting time.

At one of the Christmas Bar-B-Ques, someone came out of the bathroom and I heard, “Oh my goodness, she even has a Christmas tree in the bathroom!” Mama had a Christmas tree in every room. The kitchen... living room... bathrooms... bedrooms... everywhere... We kids even had our own trees in our rooms. The trees ranged in size from 2 feet to 6 feet. Mama had a tree with seashell ornaments. One had dove ornaments. One had all homemade ornaments. One had all Victorian ornaments. One had all red and white ornaments. One had all Santa ornaments. She had a tree made of holly decorated with ornaments. She even decorated some of the houseplants!

Mama loved it. Holidays were another reason for parties, gifts and food with family and friends! Christmas was especially magical. Mama went all out. I remember one year Mama came home with Christmas sweatshirts. Mine read, ‘I Believe in Santa Claus.' Mama’s read, ‘I Want It All.' Charlie’s read, ‘Bah Humbug!’ Mama’s one requirement for Christmas morning presents was that you believe in Santa. Mama and I even had our picture taken with Santa.

One year when Charlie was about 6 years old, he came in and told Mama that there was no Santa Claus. She questioned him and then called everyone in the room. She said, “Listen up! Charlie has come in with the idea that there is no Santa Claus! That is not true! There is a Santa and anyone who does not believe in him...well, Santa won’t bring them presents. Is that clear? And I mean it! Clear?” Well, later Mama pulled us (except Charlie) aside and said that it didn't matter who Santa Claus was or where the presents came from. It was the love and giving of the Christ-mas season. But the presents did come and as long as we said we believed we’d get presents. It didn't matter if we were married or 50 years old, Santa would always come for us. What a concept! And she meant it. Jim and I got married (now my ex-husband) and she told him the same thing. That first Christmas, Santa brought Jim a recliner! The next year Jim told Mama at Christmas time, “I believe!”

Judy's Red Velvet Cake

There is no getting away from making this cake that Mama made famous in these parts. This is the most flavorful, moist and delicious cake I've ever made. I will say that to make this like Mama, you HAVE to follow the directions word for word... FOLD do not beat with a mixer at the end. It makes the cake dense and hard.

1/2 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons cocoa
3 tablespoons red food coloring
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs. Mix well. Mix cocoa and food coloring in a cup. Add to eggs and sugar. Add vanilla. Sift flour and salt. Add, alternating with buttermilk. Add soda and vinegar. Let foam and FOLD into mixture. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Icing:

1/2 cup butter, room temp
8-ounces cream cheese, softened
1 box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Whip together until creamy. Spread on cake. Garnish with chopped pecans if desired.

If you like Red Velvet, try this Red Velvet Cheesecake! Click on the hyperlink below this picture for the recipe. A perfect blend of two wonderful desserts!

Red Velvet Cheesecake