Southern and Hungry

  I started this blog with every intention of working through the whole The Complete Southern Cookbook.  It came with wonderful reviews. Lots of people singing its praises online. I, however, am disappointed. The directions are unclear or simply just vague. The recipes have been bland. I cannot afford to waste ingredients. Not financially. Not environmentally. It was my intention to do these recipes exactly as they were found in the book. It is nearly impossible to not tweak them somehow. The length of each section is disappointing, as well. A mere 5 recipes for pork. One of the chicken recipes called for pre-cooked (pre-packaged) chicken. The seasonings were all just a bit off and most recipes tasted as if they needed just a little something else. I don't mean to sound critical; I am merely sharing my experience with this book. As the disappointments mounted, my enjoyment of this project decreased. With that in mind, I am seeking out another cookbook with, hopefully, an empha...

 I love baking bread. I don't care how many times I bake a loaf of bread, it always delights me to see how the dough has risen. I love kneading the dough, too. There's something soothing about the motion of kneading dough. The rhythmic motion allows me to just zone out and not really think about anything - or meditate on something that's been on my mind. As much as I love baking bread, I just don't do it very often. Right now, in South Carolina, it is just too humid to get the bread dough to do what is needed. That's why I was happy to find this recipe for yeast-less biscuits. It only called for three ingredients - self-rising flour, butter, and milk. Easy enough! The blurb written in the beginning of this recipe said that this was an excellent recipe for introducing kids to biscuit-making. Great! The last time I made biscuits, they resembled hardtack - the biscuits old-time sailors would eat - both in look and consistency. It was not pleasant. At least the birds an...

 About a year ago, a local restaurant supply store had chicken breast and chicken quarters on sale for incredibly cheap. The catch? You had to buy in 40 pound cases. This store is also open to the public. So... I did what any deal-seeking person would do. I bought a case of chicken breast and two cases of quarters. The quarters were actually a mix of leg quarters, legs, and thighs. It probably will not shock anyone to know that I am still working my way through the quarters! I have my usual go-to recipes for chicken, but it's fun to try something new, too. This recipe sounded tasty, and I had a container of buttermilk languishing in the fridge. It actually called for chicken breast, but I'm working with what I have on hand, so out came the quarters. Once they were thawed, I saw that I had two whole quarters and two extra thighs. Not a problem, everybody's invited to this party! I like to do process pictures with these posts, but raw chicken just isn't very pretty so I s...

As a kid, I distinctly remember being served honey-glazed carrots. They were almost always made with baby carrots. I wasn't much of a fan of the raw ones without dip, but give me cooked carrots any day! Adding that extra touch of buttery sweetness was just the thing to make them practically irresistible! This recipe sounded very similar to what my parents served, but just enough difference to convince me to try it out as something a bit new. This recipe called for sliced carrots, so that is what I did. It's easily adaptable for baby carrots, though. This is about half of what was called for in the recipe, since 4 cups of carrots seemed a bit too much for two people - especially when one person doesn't exactly love cooked carrots. These needed to be cooked a bit on the stovetop before putting them in the oven. Just a little water and salt went in along with the carrots.                                   ...

Potatoes are delicious. There's so much you can do with them, too. I'm going to refrain from going all Bubba (from Forrest Gump) here, and let you imagine all of the delicious ways you can enjoy these unassuming little balls. I've tried growing my own, but only ever got some about the size of a quarter, and never enough to think about cranking up the oven or boiling a pot of water. I generally just buy mine at the grocery store, like most people. Sometimes I'll buy them from a farmer's market, but I've honestly never thought too much about buying local potatoes. I'm sure they taste better. All local produce tastes better, really. It's picked or harvested at peak ripeness and never travels more than a few hundred miles. Come to think of it, I haven't seen potatoes for sale any of the times I've gone to any farmer's markets this year. Here in South Carolina, they're in season May through September. Maybe I just wasn't looking hard enoug...

Would you believe me if I told you that I have never had carrot cake? It's true. Growing up, we didn't eat a lot of sweets. My father is allergic to tree nuts, and now so am I. Carrot cake traditionally has a lot of pecans in it, making it pretty much off-limits. The beauty of baking my own cake is that I can omit the nuts. It still turns out just fine, in my book.  And why, in the middle of a pandemic, when we're all supposed to stay home and away from others, did I decide to finally try a carrot cake? Because it sounded delicious. Plus, there are safe ways to share slices with friends - mostly porch drop off. It's a version of ding-dong-ditch that results in the target receiving goodies rather than a few moments of wondering if they're starting to lose those precious few mental faculties they have left. I really don't have to hit the doorbell and run away to hide, I can just hit the doorbell and run 6 feet away - it gives me a chance to catch up with the tar...