Southern Night & Several Recipes!

The other night, my sister & her friend, Megan, invited me to their cute new house for a Southern feast! My sister made delectably tender cornbread. Megan made baked beans (which, tragically, wouldn't soften up till way after dinner) & perfect peach cobbler. I went overboard, of course, & brought BBQ ribz, coleslaw, roasted asparagus, & iced tea!

Only shot I took of the initial feast:


Smels gave me her recipe for cornbread. It is so good! She doesn't know where the recipe came from, besides her greasy Post-it note. :)

Smels' Cornbread of Delight

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Ener-G egg replacer (or a large egg)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 400*F. Butter an 8X8- or 9X9-inch pan & set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the remaining ingredients & mix until just combined. Pour into prepared pan & smooth out the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Eat with butter & honey!

Once I got home, Ethan requested some more ribz, so I made another batch of them, plus more coleslaw!


WARNING: what follows is basically an excuse for eating a bunch of BBQ sauce...

BBQ Ribz adapted from VegFamily

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine
• 3 tablespoons natural peanut butter
• 1/2 cup vital wheat gluten
• 7 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 9 tablespoons whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2/3 cup cold water
• 1 bottle BBQ sauce

Preheat oven to 350*F. Oil a large cookie sheet & set aside. In a small saucepan, melt the butter & peanut butter; once you've stirred them together, remove from the heat.

In a medium bowl, combine the gluten, nutritional yeast, flour, paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder & garlic powder. Stir in the water. If the dough is super dry, you can add a teensy bit more water. Use your hands to form the dough into a 1/2-inch thick, vaguely rectangular, shape.

On a large cutting board, pour half the peanut butter mixture. Plop the rectangle of dough on this, then pour the remaining peanut butter mixture. Use your fingertips to poke the dough over & over, getting the peanut butter goodness into the whole thing. The rectangle will get bigger, but you shouldn't be poking holes into it, just go halfway through the dough.

Using a big knife, cut the nutty dough into strips that are about 1/2-inch wide. Carefully transfer them to the oiled cookie sheet. It's okay if some break or stretch out---those are the little taste-testers for the chef!

Bake the ribz for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, turn them over, & spoon about half the BBQ sauce over them.

Bake for 5-7 minutes. Turn them again, & spoon the remaining sauce over them. Bake for another 5-7 minutes. Let cool for a while, so you don't burn yourself. They're actually much tastier if you let them sit for a couple hours, or even overnight!


This coleslaw recipe is from my late Granny, who no doubt clipped this from The Oregonian. It's a copycat of the Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe, so there are copious amounts of sugar in it, of course. Feel free to cut back as much as you want, but realize you won't be eating all of the sugar, unless you drink the sauce from the bottom of the bowl. :)

Best Coleslaw Evarrr

• 1/2 head purple cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 head green cabbage, shredded
• 2 carrots, peeled & shredded
• 2 tablespoons minced onion
• 1/2 cup Vegenaise
• 1/2 cup sour cream (or vegan equivalent)
• 1/2 cup sugar (I know, I know!)
• 3 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Combine all the ingredients in the hugest bowl you can find. Refrigerate for at least an hour, stirring a couple more times. The veggies will let go of some moisture, & will wilt down into the saucy goodness.

I discovered that a delicious wrap could be made by laying down some greens, coleslaw & 3 ribz on a scrumptious wheaty tortilla. Perfect with hot sauce too!



The Saturday Farmer's Market had some scrumptious sugar snap peas, which are a perfect snack!


Oh, I also made the famous New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies for my Feminist Biblical Interpretations class party! I'll admit that I don't follow the recipe to its utmost pretentiousness level, & they're still edible, ha ha.

Big ol' cookies, cooling in the windowsill...


Chocolate Chip Cookies w/Toffee & Pecans adapted from Jacques Torres

• 1 1/4 cups butter (I use salted, sue me!)
• 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4-1 teaspoon kosher salt (use less, if using sea salt, or table salt)
• 12 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
  
• 4 ounces toffee chunks
• 4 ounces chopped toasted pecans

Cream the butter, sugars & vanilla till light & fluffy. Add the eggs & beat for about a minute, scraping down the sides of the bowl a couple times.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt. Either add the flour, half at a time, to the mixer, or just pour the creamed ingredients into the flour bowl & do it by hand. I prefer the latter, since I can make sure everything is combined evenly, with less of a risk of over-mixing.

Dump in the add-ins: chocolate, toffee & pecans. Work them in, stopping as soon as they're evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Cover the dough & let it rest for up to 36 hours in the fridge. I have made these immediately, & they're amazing. I think I let the last batch rest for about 12 hours...

When you're ready to bake them up, preheat the oven to 350*F. Portion out 1/4-cup balls of dough, placing about 6 of them to a cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes. Makes about 2 dozen big-ass cookies.

***The original recipe calls for portioning the dough into 1/3-cup blobs, then baking for 18-20 minutes. They make 5-inch cookies though, so look out!

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On a sad note, Ethan's Mom's oldest brother passed away yesterday, so I made Cathy some lavender & orange bath salts. All you do is mix 1/4 teaspoon of essential oil with each cup of Epsom Salts. I usually don't tint mine when I make only one type, but I added a bit of food coloring this time, to delineate between the two scents. Put them into canning jars, or any other glass bottles you have floating around. Milk bottles look really cool too!


Lavender:


Orange: