Southern Grits Casserole

Ingedients


I made this for Christmas morning breakfast since I have been on a grits kick lately! Everyone seemed to enjoy it and it was super easy! I will definitely make it again...

Ingredients

6 cups of chicken broth (original recipe calls for water but I think broth flavors the grits better)
2 cups uncooked grits
1/2 cup butter, divided (I cut this in half by not putting any on top)
3 cups shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
1 pound ground pork sausage
8 eggs (original recipe calls for 12)
1/2 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking dish.
Bring water to a boil in a large saucepan, and stir in grits. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 5 minutes, until liquid has been absorbed. Mix in 1/2 the butter and 2 cups cheese until melted.
In a skillet over medium-high heat, cook the sausage until evenly browned. Drain, and mix into the grits. Beat together the eggs and milk in a bowl, and pour into the skillet. Lightly scramble, then mix into the grits.
Pour the grits mixture into the prepared baking dish. Dot with remaining butter, and top with remaining cheese. Season with salt and pepper.
Bake 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until lightly browned.

Thanksgiving Recipes - 2010

Wow - I am behind in my posting, but better late than never! For Thanksgiving we had a great dinner at my brother-in-law Matt's house on Thursday. Matt and his wife Lauren were great hosts and we had wonderful food and got to spend quality time with that side of the family in Indianapolis. I brought my grandma's famous corn. There really is no recipe for this - it is just fresh corn, cut off the cob, with salt, sugar and pepper. She and poppy makes it in the summer from corn given to them by local farmers and they store it in freezer bags so we can enjoy it all winter long! Then I made a green bean casserole. I like this particular recipe because it has pecans and lots of cheddar cheese.

Cheddar-Pecan Green Bean Casserole





Photo: Beth Dreiling Hontzas; Styling: Rose Nguyen


The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I was lucky enough to be able to spend more QT with my side of the family at my sister Krista's house. I made Sausage, Apple, and Fennel Corn Bread Dressing. This is the second year in a row that I have made it for Thanksgiving and it is a big hit. I love cooking with fresh fennel. The other thing that Krista asked me to bring, is also one of my favorites - Bread Pudding with Bourbon Sauce. I use the Beaumont Inn Bread Pudding and the Keeneland Bourbon Sauce.

Sausage, Apple, and Fennel Corn Bread Dressing (reposting from last year)

Becky Luigart-Stayner

Beaumont Inn Bread Pudding

Keeneland Bourbon Sauce

Krista made her yummy Squash Casserole again (also from last year), but my favorite new thing she made was the appetizer cheese balls. The recipe is appropriately named Cheese Ball Three Ways. All three were absolutely delicious!

Dinner Tonight: Must LOVE Bourbon

Today, I didn't want to spend hours in the kitchen, but wanted something yummy, so I decided to do Pulled Pork in the Slow Cooker, with a Bourbon BBQ sauce, topped with Blue Cheese Cole Slaw with a side of Brussel Sprouts.

The pork was easy - 4lb pork tenderloin, spice rub, broth to cover the bottom of the pot, 10 hours (6 hours on high, 4 hours on low) in the crock pot. Take out the pork, shred it with a fork. Drain the remaining juices from crock pot. Put the meat back in the crock pot and pour the below BBQ sauce in, stir to cover the meat. Let it simmer on high another 30 min to an hour. Delicious. I made an extra batch of the sauce to pour over our open faced sandwiches.

I just knew I would love this sauce because it had bourbon in it... I must warn those people that just kinda like Bourbon - this sauce will be too strong for you! Even after cooking it down, you can taste the Bourbon. Love it!!! NOTE: Just use the part of the recipe to make the sauce, the ribs look good too though..

Bourbon BBQ Babyback Ribs

To serve the pulled pork, I split a slider bun, topped with meat, then this Blue Cheese Cole Slaw, and more Bourbon BBQ sauce.

For the side tonight, I made these Brussell sprouts. My friend Mindy was telling me that the recipe was out on the web and I had to try them. They are from a very high-scale recipe here in Cincinnati (BOCA) and are awesome. Well worth the wait (they take about 3 hours to cook). If you are looking for something healthy, it won't be these... There are only three ingredients, the sprouts, butter and salt.

Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

Ariel made this for the Bluegrass for Babies event. I wasn't able to try it out, but according to the ratings on the site - it is 5 stars out of almost 4,000 reviews! I am going to try it for sure!!!

Ingredients
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
4 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup water
3 cups white sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour three 7x3 inch loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.
Bake for about 50 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

From - http://www.allrecipes.com/
By: Laurie Bennett

Festive Feta Spread

Trisha makes this dip for Bunco and it is awesome and it is from Weight Watchers, so it is good for you!

Link to Recipe

Ingredients:

7 oz roasted red peppers, packed in water, drained
1 pound(s) 1/3 less-fat cream cheese, two 8-oz blocks, softened, cut up
4 oz reduced-fat feta cheese, crumbled
1 large garlic clove(s), peeled
1/4 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
3 Tbsp dill, fresh, chopped
1/4 cup(s) dill, fresh, whole sprigs
10 1/2 oz baked low-fat tortilla chips

Instructions:

Slice off a 1 1/2-inch piece of roasted pepper to use for garnish; wrap and refrigerate. In a food processor, combine remaining roasted peppers, cream cheese, feta cheese, garlic and black pepper; process until smooth. Add chopped dill; pulse until evenly distributed.
Scrape mixture into a serving bowl; cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour (or up to 5 days) to firm up slightly and for flavors to blend.
To serve, smooth surface of dip with a spatula. Arrange dill sprigs on top in a circular fashion to form a “wreath;” cut reserved piece of roasted pepper into tiny “berries" and place on wreath. Or create any other decorative pattern you desire. Yields about 3 tablespoons of spread and 8 chips per serving.

Notes:
This recipe can be cut in half to serve 8, but it keeps so well (up to 5 days refrigerated) that it makes sense to make the whole batch to have on hand for unexpected holiday guests. Serve with pita wedges, whole grain crisp breads or crackers and/or raw vegetables. (The dip alone is 2 POINTS values for 3 tablespoons.)

Krista's Shower Menu

I hosted Krista's shower this weekend and we had a great turnout and good food. A few people had asked for recipes of some of the things that either Krista and I made or that other people had brought! Below are the links to sites where we found the recipes. A couple of them were things where we didn't have a recipe, but they are super easy.


Beer Chese in a Bread Bowl - Mom made this!


Winter Spiced Sangria - I made six batches of this throughout the night, so it was definitely a crowd favorite.


Ham and Guyere Thumbprints - Krista and I made these and altered the recipe slightly. Instead of using a pastry bag, we spooned the dough into the mini-muffin pan. I think they turned out great! Best when served warm.


Hot Roast Beef Party Sandwhiches - Mom made these - always a favorite!


Sausage Balls - described as a sausage hushpuppy, whatever, love them.


Bacon Wrapped Dates - my personal favorite. Can eat these for a meal.


Mini Salami Puff Sandwiches - we used a tiny cookie cutter and these turned out super-cute - very easy.


Pecan Pie Muffins

Peanut Butter-Filled Brownie Cupcakes - Mom made these and they were delicious.

Three-Cheese Mini Macs - Holly gave me this recipe - she always makes it for the kids at parties and it is a big hit. The adults like it too!

No recipes here, just threw these together:

Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Toast

Ingredients:

1 skinny french loaf

Tomatoes and Mozzarella salad from Kroger Olive Bar

Fresh Basil, chopped

Directions:

Cut bread into 1/4 inch pieces. Cut tomatoes and cheese to fit on toast. Sprinkle with Basil. Bake at 350 until toasted.

Bruschetta with Goat Cheese, Fig, and Prosciutto

Ingredients:

1 skinny french loaf
Fig spread (jam, jelly, preserves)

1 package Prosciutto

1 small package of Goat cheese
Fresh rosemary

Directions:
Cut bread into 1/4 inch pieces. Spread fig jam on toast. Top with goat cheese, prosciutto and top with a few sprigs of rosemary. Bake at 350 until toasted.

Brie in a Puff Pastry with Roasted Garlic Onion Jam

Pretty self explanatory! Jessica made this and used frozen puff pastry, a small round of brie and Stonewall Kitchen Roasted Garlic Onion Jam. She topped the Brie with the jam, wrapped it in the puff pastry and baked it at about 350 degrees until golden brown.

Chili-Beef Skewers

Stacie made these for the June meal exchange and this was the first meal I tried! It had awesome flavors and was very easy. I served it with more veggies - frozen Asian Green Beans - super easy meal from the freezer!

yield: makes 4 servings

ingredients:

8 wooden skewers
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
4 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp sriracha
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 lb lean beef sirloin, cut into 1/8-inch strips
1 each red, green and yellow bell peppers, cored, seeded and cut into 2 1/2-inch pieces (optional)
Vegetable oil cooking spray Dipping sauce
1/2 cup lowfat mayonnaise
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp fish sauce

directions:

Soak skewers for 30 minutes. Puree cilantro, garlic, soy sauce, orange zest, sriracha, fish sauce and sugar in a food processor. Transfer marinade to a resealable plastic bag; add beef. Seal bag, toss and set aside up to 30 minutes. Combine dipping sauce ingredients in a bowl. Thread 4 pieces of pepper and 2 beef strips on each skewer, alternating beef and peppers. Coat grill rack with cooking spray; heat grill to high; cook until meat is no longer pink, about 3 minutes.

SELF, MAY 2008 - Adapted by Marge Perry
From: Epicurious