Saturday, February 27, 2010

Naner Puddin

Bananas + pudding + Nilla wafers = sweet southern goodness

I was first introduced to banana pudding in the cafeteria of High Point University in High Point, North Carolina in 2004. I was also introduced to the love of my life at HPU in 2004 too, but that's a whole different story.

When I first started at HPU it was a tiny school with a tiny meal program (since then, it has changed a lot!). They had just a few people running the cafeteria and one of those people was Fo Fo, an older black man who drove a Cadillac and wore sun glasses inside because he was just that cool.

We nicknamed him "chickenrye" because he would yell out to the kids in line, "wha choo want?, "chicken rye?". The chicken and rice was usually a safe bet. The food there wasn't great, in fact, it was terrible quite often. But, the southern style food they served was usually the best: fried catfish, fried okra, fried chicken.... BANANA PUDDING.

I'm willing to bet my life savings (which isn't much anyway), that Fo Fo (aka Chickenrye) did not make that banana pudding from scratch. He probably used Nilla wafers, off-brand Jello banana pudding mix, and cool whip... and it was still good. So just imagine how much better it tastes when made from scratch with quality ingredients!

To make this recipe you will need: a box of Nilla wafers (off-brand is fine), 5 or 6 bananas, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, vanilla extract

It takes about 30 minutes to make, but it tastes better if refrigerated overnight.

1. Get out the prettiest bowl you have. My G-mom gave me the bowl I used as a wedding gift.

2. Place a layer of Nilla wafers in the bottom. Top with a sliced banana or two. Repeat until you have used the whole box of wafers and 5 or 6 bananas.

3. In a sauce pan add sugar (1/2 cup), flour (1/3 cup), 3 egg yolks, and milk (2 cups).


4. Cook for about 15 minutes on low heat (I had the knob on 3 on my stove) until it thickens. This part takes a little bit of patience. Try to be inspired by those who lead a slow-paced lifestyle in the South, keep stirring, and don't you dare turn the heat up too high! When ready, it should coat a spoon.

5. Stir in a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Pour over the Nilla wafers and bananas.

6. Give it some time to allow the pudding to soak into the Nilla wafers, creating a cake-y goodness. This should take about 5 minutes.


6. You could eat it now, but I think it tastes much better if you let it sit overnight in the fridge. You could also top with whipped cream if you'd like.



ENJOY Y'ALL!

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Lazy Sunday Braided Rosemary Bread


Nothing makes me feel accomplished quite like making a loaf of bread... or two! For me, it is a great distraction from doing other work that really needs to be done on the weekend.

Plus, I wanted to use the rosemary I recently bought before my un-green thumb and the Arizona "valley-of-the-sun-with-no-rain-and triple-digit-temps" kills it.

The recipe, Braided Herb Bread, comes from my favorite cookbook, The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook from 1989.

Time: be prepared to spend pretty much the bulk of your Sunday (at least 4 hours)

Ingredients: salt, rosemary leaves, yeast, flour, water, butter, egg

1. Put salt (1 tbsp), rosemary (1 tbsp), yeast (2 packets), and flour (2 1/2 cups) into a kitchenaid bowl.

2. Place water (2 1/2 cups) and butter (1 tbsp) in a saucepan and heat until it reaches around 120 degrees.

3. Mix water and butter into the bowl containing salt, rosemary, yeast and flour at medium speed for a couple minutes.

4. Continue mixing and slowly add 4 1/2 cups of flour. Dough should form into a ball.

5. Place into a greased bowl, cover and let rise for an hour. During this hour, you should probably accomplish something else with your day. Maybe put the laundry away before the cat gets fuzz all over it.


6. After the dough rises, knead it for 10 minutes. Add "workout" to your list of accomplishments for the day.

7. Cut the dough into 6 pieces. You will need three for each loaf of bread.


8. Roll out into ropes and braid together, place on cookie sheet.


9. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes. Watch the Olympics.

10. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and brush loaves with egg.

11. Bake for 30 minutes.

12. Take pride!


Saturday, February 20, 2010

Nothing says WASP like pretzel covered hot dogs!


This lovely picture is of my husband, Royall, after we made pretzel covered hot dogs a few days ago. Such joy and excitement!

Our favorite pastime is eating, and our second favorite pastime is creating food that white people like us enjoy.

First up: the pretzel dog.

Now, I've made hot dogs on several occasions. I've grilled 'em, pan fried 'em, microwaved 'em, boiled 'em, and even deep fried some when I was in college, but I had yet to master the pretzel dog.

It was surprisingly simple. Here's the great website where we found the recipe: A Dash of Sass: Pretzel Dogs

Estimated time (cook and prep): At least an hour and a half.

Ingredients: water, sugar, salt, yeast, a pack of hot dogs (we used Hebrew National), flour, butter, baking soda, egg, and toppings of your choice


First, you will need to get your microbiology experiment started by placing the following in a Kitchenaid bowl for about 5 minutes:

warm water (1 1/2 cups), sugar (1 tbsp), salt (2 tsp), and yeast (1 packet)

After the yeast has pigged out on all that sugar, you add flour (4 1/2 cups) and melted butter (2 tbsp) and start mixing with a dough hook at medium speed for about 5 minutes until it forms a nice shiny dough ball.

Let this rise in a covered greased glass bowl for about an hour.

Get your oven ready at 450 degrees and spray some cookie sheets.

Bring water (10 cups) and baking soda (2/3 cup*) to a boil in a large pot.
*this could be reduced a little, I think it was a bit too much when we made it

Divide the dough into 16 pieces, give or take.

Roll these into balls and then into 12" ropes/snakes. Wrap around half a hot dog in a swirl pattern and try to close up any seams.

Dunk the wrapped dogs a few at a time into boiling water for about 30 seconds.

Place on cookie sheet and brush with egg yolk. Add whatever seasonings you'd like. We made some "everything" dogs that had poppy seeds, garlic, sesame seeds, salt, and onion powder. If you don't want horrendous breath or seeds stuck in your teeth, coarse salt is simple and delicious!

Bake for 15 minutes.

Enjoy! (and take silly pictures for your blog!)