Another dish from last night’s party. Like the Copper Penny Carrots, making the dish a day ahead allows the flavors to take an overnight mingle. The pretzel crust is the salad’s best feature providing plenty of texture and contrast to the other layers.
Not a hard dish to prepare, quickly finished after the gelatin mixture thickens, this salad provides big results. A three-layer salad, it has versatility for serving alongside your entrée, or, as a sweet dessert treat. The crust, a baked mixture of crushed pretzels, brown sugar and butter, provides the dish its chewiness, and the cream cheese middle layer its creaminess. Add a topping of sweetened gelatin with fruit and how could you go wrong? The result is a pretzel salad with an awesome blend of flavors and texture. Added bonus (because we are into that around here) you can present this in small squares and serve at least 18 people, and you can do it easily because the concoction is rich and satisfying enough to allow for it.
It will take an hour to complete this always popular salad but 30-minutes of that hour is waiting on the gelatin mixture to set and thicken so the cook gets a break before putting the layers together and then it goes right back to the fridge and all pau!
Big Win-Win!
Strawberry Pretzel Salad
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
5 T. brown sugar
2-1/2 cups crushed pretzels (not too finely crushed)
1-(6 oz.) pkg. strawberry gelatin
2 cups boiling water
2 small pkgs. frozen, sweetened strawberries or container to equal 20 oz.
1 cup sugar
1-(8 oz.) block cream cheese
1-(8 or 12 oz.) container Cool Whip, thawed
Directions Preheat oven to 350. Combine butter, brown sugar, and pretzels and stir until the ingredients are thoroughly combines. Press into a buttered 9×13” glass dish. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; cool. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water. In large bowl, combine frozen strawberries and the gelatin mixture, stirring often. As berries thaw, stir to blend well and snip the berries into smaller uniform, pieces if desired. Keep stirring until mixture is thoroughly combined then place bowl in refrigerator and chill until slightly thickened. In large bowl, combine the sugar and cream cheese and use a wooden spoon to thoroughly cream ingredients; add the Cool Whip and beat on low speed with electric mixture until just combined. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the cooled crust then top with cold thickened gelatin mixture, spreading each layer to the sides of the pan. Refrigerate overnight, covered. Cut into small squares for serving.
I associate this dish with friendship because as years pass, the best friendships become sweeter and more meaningful. For the past ten years, I have hosted a group of my closest high school friends to a dinner party in mid-January. “The Class of ’67 & Friends Gala” is now a tradition and the evening passes with much merriment as we enjoy a hearty meal prepared at my house along with many appetizers and desserts shared by the ladies. This particular gathering is our time to celebrate and toast a happy new year and thoroughly enjoy the easy camaraderie long friendships entertain. My dinner party menu for this event varies only slightly each year with menu choices revolving around dishes easily prepared the day before; doing so provides more visiting time and less hubbub once we gather. You will like this dish both because it is tasty and because people don’t eat large servings of it so you will have enough carrots for several meals. The marinade is a basic sweet-sour mixture using canned tomato soup as a base with vinegar and sugar added; the sauce, spiced with ground mustard, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, infuses the carrots with tangy flavor akin to many relishes.
Added bonus for this dish(!) is that the flavor of the dish mellows as it sits. And that is probably why the dish brings to mind friendships. Both only get better with time. The yellowed magazine recipe page in my files, dated September 1977, reminds me that this dish also has stood the test of time. If you and your family like carrots, this is a keeper for you particularly.
Copper Penny Carrots
Ingredients
3 lbs. young slender carrots, peeled, sliced in thin rounds
For the marinade
1-(10 oz.) can tomato soup
3/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup cooking oil
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Directions Peel and slice the carrots then boil them with water to cover in a large sauce pot for 15 minutes or until just fork tender but still crisp. Drain well then place them in large glass mixing bowl. Prepare the marinade by bringing remaining ingredients to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Boil 5 minutes, low. Pour the hot marinade over carrots and stir to coat well. Chill in fridge overnight. This dish lasts a week plus in the fridge if not eaten in one sitting; just stir well before serving again to blend the dressing.
Not sure about you but there’s something about winter that leads to a craving for cabbage, turnips or carrots at my house. I bought cabbage yesterday but wasn’t sure what I was going to use it for. Until lunch time today.
This recipe from my cookbook collection has just enough bite from the red pepper flakes to thoroughly warm you and your kitchen on a very cold day. The croutons are quickly prepared and set aside then a quick simmer of the cabbage and you’re all set. 25 minutes from start to finish resulting in a dish that can stand alone as it did for my lunch or a large bowl for serving on the side, its intended purpose at my house tonight with meatloaf.
I did use 2 T. of butter today instead of the one tablespoon the original recipe calls for because I cut the bread into two-bite pieces. Eating the croutons with your fingers provides the chance to really taste their olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flake seasonings. 15 minutes at 300 is perfect for braising the cabbage until it is just tender. Use your electric skillet for preparing this as you will need the room to spread out the six large cabbage wedges. I drizzled 1/2 tsp. more olive oil over the bowl before digging in.
Thanks to friend, Dodie Conrad, for supplying me with the fresh parsley sprigs from her indoor pot. Our market didn’t have fresh parsley today, and Dodie rescued the recipe by bringing over that small, but essential, ingredient. Yet another advantage of living in a small town to be sure. =)
Braised Cabbage & Spicy Croutons
Ingredients
1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
1/3 coarse bread baguette torn into 1” cubes to equal 2 cups
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 small head cabbage cut into six wedges
1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper, to taste
Fresh parsley for garnish
Lemon wedges for garnish
Directions In large skillet, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add bread, garlic powder, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook and stir 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Remove croutons from skillet with slotted spoon and cool on paper towel.
Add cabbage to skillet, overlapping wedges if needed. Season with salt and pepper and add water. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer, covered, 15 minutes or until tender. Place cabbage on serving platter, drizzle with small amount olive oil if needed. Sprinkle with croutons and garnish with parsley and lemon wedges.
Ever since mama and I each noticed and commented on this dish after seeing it in this month’s Southern Living magazine, I wanted to make it. There no crust, only a thick bottom layer consisting of a mixture of cooked grits, sharp cheddar, and an egg, paired with a traditional quiche filling using heavy cream, half-n-half, and eggs. The dish does produce a rockin’ taste and has a real take-away heft to it so it makes a satisfying main dish. I can attest to all the above because I made it twice. In two days. I had to. Yesterday’s effort was not successful. It was good, but it wasn’t the quiche it was supposed to be. Of course there’s a story here and I will try to be brief in the telling of it.
The first thing to mention is that I’ve renamed this quiche three times. It started with its magazine title, Bacon Cheddar & Grits Quiche, then three more names evolved in my mind as I wrestled with creating it. This morning, while making it again, I renamed it The Second Time Around Quiche. Yesterday’s quiche, baked in a spring form pan as directed in the recipe, shrank before my eyes as it baked. When I first set the pan in the oven on a rimless baking sheet, I initially believed some of the filling sloshed out while placing it on the oven rack. But when I shut the oven door and turned away, I noticed a puddly trail of quiche filling marching across the floor. My eyes followed the trail over to the bottom cabinets then up to the counter where at least 3/4 cup of the filling was spreading! The spring form pan had sprung a leak. With no way of saving what was in the oven, I cleaned up the mess everywhere else and let the quiche bake. When I peered in the oven after cleaning up, there was another 3/4 cup of filling running off the baking sheet onto the bottom of the oven where the eggs had baked up hard and the cream was already browned. EPIC FAIL ON THE PAN!
I now couldn’t bake the paltry amount left in the pan as long as the recipe called for and by the time it did come out of the oven, the grits and cheese mixture was great but there was only a thin layer of the filling, somewhat saved by the cooked crumbled bacon and the green onions which rose to the top and baked just fine. This led to its second name, Pizza Quiche, because it looked more like a pizza than anything else in its skinny little state. It actually tasted good and I ate a large piece (not a large wedge because a wedge involves height and we were definitely at pizza level here). I also carried a piece to mama when I went up to visit and she also found it tasty; she cleaned the plate, but, it was obvious: what we ate was truly a ghost of its intended self and that meant baking it again 🙂
Another trip to the store for an 8-oz. block of sharp cheddar, more heavy cream, and a dozen eggs led to the dish now being tagged “Damned Expensive Quiche!” in my mind. A bright spot here is that it was much quicker to prepare today since the steps were familiar. I did lessen two ingredient amounts, and ended up with the recipe below. I used 1-1/2 cups less half-n-half and one less egg in the filling. And today I used my quiche dish; no spring form pan!
Ta-DA! Today: Winner! The result is as tasty as imagined. The grits, cheese and bacon marry well and the filling is rich with half-n-half, cream, and four eggs. I can definitely see, however, how nice this would look using a high-sided spring form pan, and it would be much easier to serve, but I wasn’t willing to risk losing it all to the bottom of the oven again. Knowing myself, I’ll keep tinkering with it (not tomorrow)! BUT, if any of you try it using the spring form pan and the original recipe and it works for you, down the line, please let us in on it by posting a pic!
For now, my spring form pan is back on the shelf reserved for use with cheesecakes and dishes with heavier batters. The bottom layer of this dish is thick enough to allow using a spring form pan which is surely the trick to making this the Southern Living Way IF said pan can be completely sealed. I imagine this looking even more delightful and serving at least 8-10 people. Meanwhile, the recipe below, as re-written, to serve 6-8, still makes a mighty fine supper. It’s ono, y’all.
I almost didn’t share this story because I already told you about a major flub occurring when preparing the Bacon Bundled Beans last week, and was, you know, thinking perhaps you would be thinking, “this lady writes a food blog but she’s had two flub ups in the first week she’s been blogging”, and, well, then, you know, you might just move on to somebody’s blog who knows how to cook and never has a dish turn out less than perfect.
But my next thought was that the story does testify to the fact that when we’re cooking, we all have glitches, and we don’t just give up because we are made of much hardier stock than that! Actually, in Missouri, it’s all part of our “show me” attitude. 🙂
Bacon Cheddar & Grits Quiche
6 slices of thick bacon
2-1/4 cups milk
2 T. butter
1/2 cup uncooked instant grits
2 t. sea salt, divided use
1 tsp. black pepper, divided use
2-1/2 cups sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded, divided use
5 large eggs
1-1/2 cups half-n-half
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup green onion, sliced thin
Directions Preheat oven to 350. Cook bacon in a skillet over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon; drain and crumble. Transfer 2 tsp. bacon drippings to a sauce pan.
Bring drippings, milk, and butter to a boil over medium heat. Gradually whisk in grits, 1 t. salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper; cook, whisking constantly 7-8 minutes or until very thick. Remove from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Stir in 1 cup cheese and let stand again 10 minutes. Stir in 1 egg, spread in a 10” quiche dish coated with cooking spray. Spread mixture well to the edges.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until set and browned. Sprinkle remaining 1-1/2 cups cheese over the warm grits, spreading to edges. Let stand 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 325. Combine half-n-half, cream, green onion, and the remaining 4 eggs; whisk well. Add the remaining 1 t. sea salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Whisk again to blend well then pour over grits mixture in dish; sprinkle with crumbled bacon. Place dish on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 325 for one hour and 15 minutes or until lightly browned and just set. Let stand 20 minutes then run a sharp knife around edges of the quiche and cut into wedges for serving.
I made this dish when Susie was visiting in November and served it with Chicken Cacciatore, but made it again today because the photo from November was terrible (it’s all about “the learning curve” here with photographing food). Today I halved the recipe since there was no company here to help enjoy it. This simple dish bakes up moist with cottage cheese, eggs, and Jiffy Mix, and it actually tastes more like dressing than anything else. The broccoli and eggs produce a satisfying side dish with many purposes; it is especially delicious accompanying meatloaf or a pot of ham-n-beans. This old recipe of mama’s is always a good choice for a pot luck or when there are enough people around the table to enjoy it in one sitting; if not, it does microwave well the second day.
Directions Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, mix eggs, cottage cheese, broccoli, margarine and onion. Stir to mix well. Add the cornbread mix, one box at a time and mix well, folding all ingredients. Scrape into a greased 9×13 glass baking dish. Bake 45-50 minutes until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly then cut into squares for serving.
