Basil Tomato Tart

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Pie Crust (I used store bought)

1 1/2  cup shredded Mozzarella

4  medium tomatoes, sliced

1/4 cup pesto

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1/8  tsp white pepper

Bake pie crust according to directions on crust.  Remove from oven and sprinkle 1/2 cup Mozzarella on bottom.  Let cool.

While crust is cooling, cut tomatoes into slices (about 1/4″ thick or thicker if preferred) and drain on paper towel.

Spread layer of pesto over cheese.  Place tomatoes over pesto layer.

Combine mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, pepper and remaining Mozzarella and spread on top.

Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes or until browned.

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from the kitchen of Leigh Anne - yourhomebasedmom.com

NOTE:  Chef Rick has an awesome site that you will enjoy, click here.

… from The Four Ingredient Cookbooks

Soy Sauce Chicken

4 chicken breasts, skinned and boned

1 cup sour cream

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ teaspoon black pepper (optional)

Place chicken in greased casserole dish.  Mix sour cream, soy sauce and black pepper together.   Spread over chicken.   Bake covered at 350F for 1 hour.   Serves  4.

NOTE:   The soy sauce mixture can be contoured to your individual taste.   I prefer to use a bit more soy sauce for a more pronounced flavor.  

Layer the bottom of the casserole dish with very thick slices of Vidalia onion, and fresh mushrooms.   The soy sauce mixture separates during baking and will flavor these vegetables.   Carefully remove from the over as this recipe will have lots of juice.

Serve over rice.

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… from the kitchen of Linda Tyree

Walmsley Boulevard United Methodist Church Cookbook

Richmond, Virginia

Preacher’s Meat Loaf

1 ½ lbs. ground beef

2 eggs

2 Tbsp salt

2 medium potatoes

2 carrots

1 medium onion

4 cups quick oats

¼ cup Heinz ketchup

1 can tomato sauce

Beat eggs well and add with salt and tomato sauce to beef.  Set aside.

Peel and cube potatoes, slice carrots.   Peel and dice onion and cut peppers in small pieces, put in blender and grind.  Mix into meat mixture and put in greased pan.  

Put Heinz ketchup on top of meatloaf and bake at 375F for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Growing up, our Sunday mornings were spent in church.  We attended First Baptist Church in Immokalee, Florida (United States) and started with Sunday School (an age specific study of the Bible), then onto corporate worship (hymns, prayers and a sermon) with many folks from the community.

In small Southern towns, church takes on special significance as it is a gathering place where everyone comes together.  Without a movie theater or town square in my hometown, the church became the point of intersection.    This weekly gathering place was akin to ‘command central’ when a local tragedy activated the faithful to prepare dinners, collect clothing, and ‘take a love offering’… things done as signs of Christ’s love to those hurting and in need.

My mother, like many other Southern ladies, would prepare lunch before leaving for church — something in the crock pot, stews, a roast, a hearty casserole — basically, foods that could be readied and left in a timer equipped oven so that it was nearing perfection when we arrived home shortly after 12 noon.

Below is a traditional Sunday dinner recipe my Mother prepared more times than I can possibly count.

Mom’s Post Roast

1 chuck roast

1 large onion, sliced

1 bag carrots, cleaned

3 - 4 cloves of garlic pressed into slits of the roast

8 - 10 potatoes

Salt & pepper to taste

Using a Dutch oven, brown the meat on both sides using a little oil.  After the meat is brown, add about 1 cup of water and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat and put in the carrots and onions.  

This is a roast that has to be cooked for a long time (2 - 5 hours depending on the size) so it will be tender and fall apart.  About 30 minutes before it is done, put in quartered potatoes.

When ready to serve, remove the roast and thicken the juice with cornstarch.   Gravy is very important.   You can use cold water to the cornstarch and pour slowly into the boiling juice.   I have always used cornstarch because it does not lump like flour.

NOTE:  Accompanying this on the table would be a loaf of fresh white bread!   Plain, simple, and hearty.   Make enough so that you will have plenty of leftovers… always better the next day.

 411 — Click herefor infromation regarding all things beef.  

Cowboy Brisket

4 pounds first cut beef brisket

3 cloves garlic, slivered

3 cloves garlic, crushed

4 large onions, thinly sliced

1 cup apple cider vinegar

1-1/2 tablespoons bacon drippings

1 cup strong black coffee

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup water

What is brisket?

Brisket is a beef cut taken from the breast section beneath the first five ribs, behind the foreshank.

Fresh brisket is an inexpensive boneless cut that requires long, slow cooking to break down the collagen in the connective muscle tissues achieve tenderness. The long piece is cut in half for marketing. You’ll find it sold as a flat cut or a point cut. The flat cut is leaner, but the point cut has more flavor due to a bit of extra fat (called the deckel).

It is hard to get much more Texan than Chicken Fried Steak. Quality of the beef really counts in this dish. This recipe calls for cube steaks, but good round steak that you have asked the butcher to run through the tenderizer or that you have tenderized yourself with a mallet (no big deal and can be a real stress reliever) can be even better.

• 4 tenderized beef cutlets (known in supermarkets as “cube steak”) OR 1 round steak, with fat removed, that you’ve tenderized yourself (see above)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• all-purpose flour
• cooking oil or melted Crisco®
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper

Beat together the egg and milk and set aside. Mix together the salt, black pepper, paprika and white pepper and sprinkle on both sides of beef cutlets.

Dredge the cutlets in the flour, shaking off the excess. Then dip each cutlet in the egg/milk mixture, then back in the flour. (You’re going to get your hands messy here, so take your rings off.) Set cutlets aside on a piece of waxed paper.

Heat the cooking oil in a large cast-iron or other heavy skillet over medium-high heat for a few minutes. Oil should be about a half-inch deep in the pan. Check the temperature with a drop of water; if it pops and spits back at you, it’s ready.

With a long-handled fork, carefully place each cutlet into the hot oil. Protect yourself (and your kitchen) from the popping grease that results. Fry cutlets on both sides, turning once, until golden brown. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook 4 or 5 minutes until cutlets are done through. Drain cutlets on paper towels.

CREAM GRAVY

After the cutlets are removed from the pan, pour off all but about 2 tablespoons of oil, keeping as many as possible of the browned bits in the pan. Heat the oil over medium heat until hot.

Sprinkle 3 tablespoons flour (use the left-over flour from the chicken fried steak recipe) in the hot oil. Stir with a wooden spoon, quickly, to brown the flour.

Gradually stir in 3/4 cup milk and 3/4 cup water, mixed together, stirring constantly with the wooden spoon and mashing out any lumps. Lower heat, and gravy will begin to thicken. Continue cooking and stirring a few minutes until gravy reaches desired thickness. Check seasonings and add more salt and pepper according to your taste.

Recipe from Texas Cooking.

A word to the wise – and read this carefully – this is a true Texas chili and it will light you on fire!  

I rented from Mrs. Jean Glenn (or Mama Jean) for many years, and often found myself paying rent in person – and always at dinner time!   Being a native of Georgia, she always cooked dinner and made me feel like a member of the family with her Southern hospitality.   Dinners at her home were always eventful as the phone would ring with a delinquent renter sharing their ‘tales of woe’, stories of a family friend, Mr. Daknak, and daughter Sherri discussing the latest celebrity news from Hollywood.

 Mrs. Glenn made this chili and invited me for dinner (or perhaps I just dropped by her house at dinner time!), and I got a big bowl… and it was wonderful!   HOWEVER, the first couple of bites are painless, but this chili has a knock down, drag-out punch.   My eyes were watering, my nose was running, and Mrs. Glenn and Sherri laughed at me.  I was in pain.   Mrs. Glenn said, “Benjy, honey, just eat the meat and not the gravy!”    I said, “I am, I am!”

Before I could finish the meal, I was holding ice cubes to my lips!    This true Texas chili is authentic, hearty, delicious and hotter than anything you have ever eaten.

TRUE-BLUE HOT TEXAS CHILI

… from the kitchen of Jean Glenn

- West Palm Beach, FL

1.5 lb full cut round steak

8 heaping Tbsp of self-rising flour

10 heaping Tbsp of Crisco

Jalapeno Peppers

Hot Banana Peppers

Kitchen Bouquet

6 or 8 cups of water

Salt

1 loaf of Dandee White Bread

Heat your deep dish frying pan and melt Crisco.

Cut round steak into strips — not too thick. Brown the strips — cook on high heat.  Once browned, reduce heat to low.

Add the self-rising flour to the meat, make sure all the meat is covered with the flour and the flour has soaked up the melted Crisco. Keep the heat on low.

Now…  depending on how hot you can take it… I add about 15 or 20 jalapeno peppers, slice evenly.  Then, I add about 8 or 10 hot banana peppers, slice evenly.

Put those delicious peppers in the pan and stir around with the meat… simmer for 5 minutes on low heat.

Then heat to high and start adding water 2 cups at a time. Make sure the water covers the meat and peppers.  The water (which will make that gravy) should be added to almost the top of the pan.

Add the Kitchen Bouquet – a little at a time… do not make that delicious thick gravy too dark.

Add a pinch of salt.

Keep stirring until you see the gravy getting thick.  If too thick, add more water. Reduce heat to low/medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes.

At 21 minutes, get your plate and dip yourself a big spoonful or two!  Put a 1/2 slice of Dandee bread in your right hand (left hand if you’re a lefty)… and grab a strip of meat and pepper into the bread and gently bring to your mouth… YUM!

Oh, I forgot to add … HAVE LOTS OF ICE COLD WATER or COCA COLA at all times during this meal!

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Have the telephone handy because you may need to dial 911 and have the fire department rush over… this stuff is hot!

Tex - Mex Bake

2 cups crushed corn chips

1 large egg, beaten

2 tablespoons water

1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup® Mix

1 pound lean ground beef

4-ounce can chopped green chiles, drained

1 cup grated Monterey Jack cheese, divided

1 cup tomato sauce

1 medium green pepper, chopped

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine corn chips, egg, and water; press into 9-inch pie plate or casserole. Bake for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine the soup mix, ground beef, chiles, and 1/2 cup of the cheese; evenly spread mixture in the prepared crust. Top with tomato sauce, then green pepper. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes.

Top with the remaining cheese, then bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and beef is done. Makes about 6 servings.

Recipe for Texas Cooking.

411- ABOUT TEX MEX CUISINE
Food historians tell us TexMex cuisine originated hundreds of years ago when Spanish/Mexican recipes combined with Anglo fare. TexMex, as we Americans know it today, is a twentieth century phenomenon. Dictionaries and food history sources confirm the first print evidence of the term “Tex Mex” occurred in the 1940s. Linguists remind us words are often used for several years before they appear in print. TexMex restaurants first surfaced outside the southwest region in cities with large Mexican populations. The gourmet Tex Mex “fad” began in the 1970s. Diana Kennedy, noted Mexican culinary expert, is credited for elevating this common food to trendy fare. These foods appealed to the younger generation.    … from Food Timeline.