Southern Style Green Beans

Usually in the South, when you see green beans on the holiday table, they are in the form of a casserole. You know the one... cream of mushroom soup with the crunchy french onion topping. I never liked the french onion stuff. I changed the casserole to a cheese topping with the cracker and butter crunchy topping, but it seems that my kids kind of skip over the casserole. When I serve them plain, just heated through with salt and pepper, they don't get much attention either. Sooo, this time I dumped them in the crockpot and let them simmer all morning. These turned out to be the best green beans I've ever fixed! (I would have used fresh beans, but I didn't have any available. Use fresh whenever you can.)

2 family-size cans Green Beans, with juice
4 slices Bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
2 tbsp of reserved Bacon Grease
2 beef bouillon cubes or 2 tsp beef bouillon granules
1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Kosher Salt

Combine the above ingredients in a crockpot and set on medium. Simmer beans for 2 or 3 hours or until the beans take in the flavor of the seasonings. The juices will darken as they cook down. This juice is awesome with a chunk of cornbread!

Cornbread Pudding

After my hubby's Grandmother passed away, two different churches in the family brought food over to her house which is a tradition in the South. One of the dishes that was most talked about was the Cornbread Pudding. My daughter-in-law asked me about it, and asked if I could get her the recipe. I decided it was the perfect recipe to share here! It is an awesome casserole!

Cornbread Pudding

2 eggs

1 cup sour cream

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 can cream-style corn

1 stick of butter, melted

1 package Jiffy cornbread mix

Salt and Pepper, to taste

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients. Stir in cornbread mix and seasonings. Pour into a greased 13X9 baking dish.

Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center. Serve warm. 

BBQ Baby Back Ribs

When I went to shop for a catering job, I notice that my local Piggly Wiggly grocery store had Baby Back Ribs on sale for $2.99 per pound. Here, that is an awesome deal. I actually bought 3 slabs of them. I've also been looking at a dry rub and finally decided to try it. I usually just use my house blend of salt, pepper and garlic, but this dry rub has caught my eye several times. I tend to stay away from spice blends that are loaded with paprika because to me, it makes them bitter. This blend has paprika, but it is very well balanced. The flavors blend very well, and none stands out to strong. Willie's Hog Dust is a very good dry rub for these ribs! I heard that the manager of The Pig uses it on his steaks every time he grills out! I'm sold!

1 slab of Baby Back Ribs
Willie's Hog Dust

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. I cut the ribs in half and heavily dusted the ribs with Willie's Hog Dust. Place them on a grill pan or a rack in a pan.

I cooked them for an hour 

and turned the pan for them to cook even. 

I cooked them for about 2 more hours.

Sauce:

1 yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp butter
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 worchestershire sauce

Saute onion and garlic in butter in a large pan. Add the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes. Remove ribs from oven and slather heavily with sauce. Increase the heat to 300 degrees and return them to the oven for about 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened and created a sticky glaze on the ribs. (Be careful not to let the sauce burn!)

Done!

This one has a sweet yet spicy rib sauce...

 This one has Daddy's BBQ Sauce...

 Potato Wedges on the Side...

This is when I remembered that 

I hadn't taken a picture of the finished ribs! LOL

Pizza Dip

My son loves all things pizza, so I made this dip. It was perfect for him. I served it with bread sticks, but you could serve it with crackers or chips. The full recipe is at the bottom of this post.

Mix cream cheese, sour cream, and cheese until smooth.

Spread in the bottom of an oven proof dish.

I used a jarred spaghetti sauce and added hamburger.

Sprinkle with bacon and add mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with basil, salt and pepper.

Add pepperoni and a little Colby Jack cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 or 20 minutes.

I used canned biscuit dough and shaped them into bread sticks.

YUMMY!

Pizza Dip Recipe

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese

3/4 cup finely shredded Colby Jack cheese blend, divided

1 jar spaghetti sauce

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon basil

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

12 slices pepperoni
Crumbled bacon (2 slices)

1/4 lb hamburger cooked and crumbled

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a bowl combine spaghetti sauce, garlic, onion, basil, salt and pepper. Set pizza sauce aside.

In another bowl, combine cream cheese, sour cream and 1/2 cup of Colby Jack cheese.  Mix well until combined.

Spread cream cheese mixture in an even layer in a baking dish. Pour blended pizza sauce over cream cheese mixture and evenly distribute with spatula. Add hamburger and bacon.

Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese over pizza sauce. Top pizza dip with pepperoni. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of Colby Jack cheese.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese is browned and bubbly.

Serve with Breadsticks.

Pizza Tarts

Most kids like pizza, but my son likes anything that resembles the flavor of pizza. I made a pizza dip last night and had plenty of stuff left over. He requested that I make these tarts!

1 can refrigerated biscuits (10 biscuits per can)
Spaghetti Sauce
Cheese, (I used Colby/Jack)
Pepperoni
Basil
Garlic Powder
Salt & Pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Flatten out each biscuit and put them into a muffin tin. Top with a teaspoon of sauce, cheese, the seasonings and finally 1 or 2 slices of pepperoni. I added a tiny bit more cheese on top. Bake for 10 minutes or until biscuits are golden brown. Remove from the oven and use the tip of a knife to transfer the biscuits to paper towels to absorb any grease from the pepperoni.

Seasoned Potato Wedges

My family loves potatoes. The hubby is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I love to bake and fry potatoes. We actually had potato wedges for lunch today... the hubby is home with a backache. This was the perfect treat for him. I like to try and get more flavor when frying, so I made up this simple coating. It turned out awesome!

4 potatoes, (I used Yukon Gold) cut into wedges
1 cup flour
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Oil for frying

Heat oil to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour and seasonings. 

Add potato wedges and toss.

Remove from flour and gently place in hot oil. The oil must be up to temp or the coating will boil away.

Cook until golden brown and floating on the surface of the oil.

Yummy!

Cheesesteak ~ Style Sloppy Joes

1 lb. ground chuck
1 onion, sliced
1 Tsp Worchestershire Sauce
1 c. beef stock
1 pkg. sliced mushrooms
Provolone cheese, slices

2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt & Pepper to taste
Buns/Rolls

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

In large pan brown the hamburger, about 5-6 minutes. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook until they start to get tender.

Stir in the Worchestershire sauce and beef stock, season with salt and pepper, bring up to a simmer and cook until most of the liquid has cooked down. If sauce is too thin, make a slurry with about an ounce of water and 1/2 teaspoon of corn starch. Bring to a boil for desired consistency.

Split open rolls, place a scoopful of the meat on the bottom half and add place one slice of cheese on top.  Toast in the oven until the cheese is melted and the bun starts to take on color.