"Southern Living Incredible Cookies" - Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies - Holiday Party Food!

Date I made this recipe – December 4, 2016 – Holiday Party Food!

Southern Living® Incredible Cookies by Southern Living® magazine

Published by Oxmoor House, Inc.

ISBN: 0-8487-2389-9; © 2000; Fourth Printing 2003

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Store, St. Paul

Recipe:  Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies – p. 71

So I had my sweet treat lineup all ready to go and then as per usual, I got "cold feet" wondering if I had enough cookies and if so, were they the "right kind" of cookies?

And by "right kind," I mean something chocolate.  Even better?  Chocolate and caramel.  This recipe fit the bill nicely.

I mentioned in a previous blog that there's no rhyme or reason per se for how we select cookies, but we do seem to opt for those that are unique, or those that have interesting (but good) flavors, and sometimes overlook party favorites i.e. anything chocolate. 

Except that's not quite right, either.  We do have chocolate cookies but not necessarily all-chocolate cookies like these are.  So at the last minute, I decided to add this one to the mix.  We made a similar cookie the past couple of years but this one was much easier to make and more chocolate-centric than the other one.  Plus, can we talk about the addition of caramel in the middle?  Oh yes we can and it was a game-changer!

Now these almost didn't happen because while I like this cookbook, the first couple of pages were iced and decorated cookies, and as I also mentioned in a previous blog, I eliminate those right off the back because they are time consuming. 

Then we had some shortbread cookie options– nice, but dull – and some "fruit" cookies but we already had one on deck and so there went that.  And so just as I was thinking I was going to have to re-shelve this book for another day, I stumbled upon these.  And after a quick consult with our star baker, my husband, Andy, we were "'Go' Flight!"

Cookie categories in this book are divided into the following:  "Rolled & Cut Cookies;" "Drop Cookies;" "Shaped Cookies;" "Bar Cookies," and "Simple Cookies." I'm not sure what distinguishes a "simple" cookie from another cookie but the editors decided to make it so and so it is so.

And speaking of editors, this cookbook was compiled by the editors of Southern Living® magazine, and while I can't say that anything I saw here smacked of being indigenous to the south, the recipes looked good and the one we selected tasted great.  I have several other Southern Living® cookbooks that are filled with more standard southern fare than this one, and I also enjoy leafing through Southern Living magazine, particularly their recipe sections.  But if you are not a magazine or cookbook person (what?!) but like looking at and making southern recipes, their website – www.southernliving.com – has plenty in every category that your heart desires.

Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies – Yield:  4 dozen

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 cup sugar

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup cocoa

1 cup finely chopped pecans, divided

1 tablespoon sugar

1 (9-ounce) package chewy caramels in milk chocolate

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until cream; gradually add sugars, beating well.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

Combine flour, baking soda, and cocoa; gradually add to butter mixture, beating well.  Stir in ½ cup pecans.  Cover and chill dough at least 2 hours.  Combine remaining ½ cup pecans and 1 tablespoon sugar.

Divide each portion into 12 pieces.  Quickly press each piece of dough around a caramel; roll into a ball.  Dip 1 side of ball in pecan mixture.  Place balls, pecan side up, 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.  (Cookies will look soft.)  Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

"Southern Living - The Creole Cookbook" - Ham Jambalaya for Mardis Gras!

Date I made this recipe:  March 9, 2014 (for Mardi Gras)

Southern Living – The Creole Cookbook

Published by:  Southern Living/Oxmoor House, Inc.

© 1972

Purchased at Arc's Value Village Thrift Store

Recipe:  Ham Jambalaya – p. 63 – Recipe submitted by Mrs. J.R. Hightower, Itta Bena, Mississippi

Fat Tuesday already?  The month of March is just stacked with holidays and I'm bracing for the onslaught!  Mardi Gras started on Tuesday, March 4^th but I was busy that day so I made a Mardi-Gras recipe as soon as I could.  The Jewish holiday, Purim, starts on March 15^th, St. Patrick's Day follows hot on its heels on March 17^th and the first day of spring, should I choose to recognize it, is March 20^th.  And these are just the holidays I know about!  And not that I consider this a "holiday" but daylight savings time – "Spring Forward!" - was March 9^th.  Whew.  I'm exhausted already.

For this year's Mardi Gras repast, I consulted my growing collection of Southern Living Cookbooks and is there one more perfectly suited to this event than The Creole Cookbook?  No, there is not.

Although I am not a follower of this magazine, I can surmise that these cookbooks are all collections (primarily) of favorite reader recipes.  This recipe for Ham Jambalaya was submitted by Mrs. J.R. Hightower who, like other wives at the time, went by her husband's name rather than her own.  Only rarely do I see the woman's given name listed and when I do, it's likely because the woman is/was a widow; for whatever reason, reverting to a given name was absolutely acceptable after the husband died but using it beforehand was frowned upon.  Okay then!

As to the recipes, I've always said that reading cookbooks is like reading history books as you get a sense of time, place and regional differences.  This book, for instance, contains a lot of Jell-O mold desserts, some of which look appetizing, some of which don't.  For "don't" winners see a photo of Dividend Dinner – page 35, containing chunks of...stuff, or worse, Vegetable Jubilee Salad – p. 37 consisting of cubes of Jell-O containing chunks of...more stuff. (We will not discuss the Flounder Salad on page 39.  We will not.)

The "Creole Meats" chapter was a little less intimidating although I hope you understand that I passed on the Chitterlings recipe – p. 60 and the Creole Tripe - p. 63. In the "Creole Seafood" chapter, Pickled Eel with a Taste of Crawfish – p. 95 also got a pass.  But fear not, readers, because the rest of the cookbook contains some awfully good and good-sounding recipes like our featured recipe today – Ham Jambalaya.  (PS—I don't think anyone can go wrong with a good southern dessert so have at it!  Recipes are at the end of the cookbook).

Now I've made plenty of jambalaya in my day and I like jambalaya because it is easy to make and pretty flavorful; this recipe is no exception to that rule.  A dash of hot sauce and a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce helped kick up the flavor profile just enough to make it interesting and delicious.

Enjoy and remember:  Laissez les bon temps roulet  - Let the good times roll!

Ham Jambalaya – 6 servings

1 medium onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, mashed

1 green pepper, chopped

2 T salad oil

1 T flour

1 cup canned tomatoes

½ tsp thyme

½ bay leaf, crushed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

4 cups boiling water

2 cups diced cooked ham

½ lb cleaned cooked shrimp

1 cup rice

Dash of hot sauce

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Cook the onion, garlic and green pepper in oil in a large saucepan until tender but not browned.  Stir in the flour and cook until smooth.  Add the tomatoes, thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper and water and simmer for 10 minutes.  Add the ham and shrimp.  Bring to a boil and stir in the rice, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce.  Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

"Southern Living - The Meats Cookbook" - Chili Potpie

Date I made this recipe:  April 14, 2013

Southern Living-The Meats Cookbook by Southern Living Magazine

Published by:  Favorite Recipes Press

© 1971 (MCMLXXI)

Recipe:  Chili Potpie – p. 18

People, I know I often spend about as much time on this blog discussing the weather as I do discussing cookbooks and recipes, but our latest weather – a late “winter” snow storm – pushed me over the edge and into the “arms” of this meat cookbook.  I cannot be alone in this as the collective mood of the entire state of Minnesota is getting crabbier by the minute.  I mean come on – plowable snow in mid-April?  What??? 

Okay, fine, last year Minnesota was granted a pass by Nature in terms of weather although we experienced record-breaking heat on the 4^th of July, but this is insane.  And in terms of cooking, this late (if ever) spring is causing havoc with my cooking planning.  By this time, I should be looking at salad recipes and maybe some light pastas or stuff that just screams spring.  But this is hard to do (not the screaming, mind you, because I’ve got that down pat) when the landscape looks like early December for crying out loud.  All that was needed the other day were the twinkle lights and a few Christmas carols.

And so food-wise, I coped with this annoying snowfall by selecting a heartier dish than normal and I knew just what I wanted:  Meat.  Make that lots and lots of meat.  Maybe a roast or a stew or…well, how about this chili potpie?  And I knew just the cookbook I wanted to use:  Southern Living – The Meats Cookbook, specifically because of that cover. Because why wouldn’t you purchase a cookbook with a cover photo of an olive-stuffed roast?  This leads me to discuss one of the questions I am often asked:  why do you buy the cookbooks you do?  There are many factors but I’d have to say “cover art” is the primary reason.

In this case, the cover art of this book drew me in as much as it repulsed.  I think it was the olives (green olives stuffed with pimento, the very kind I use in my martinis) that did it because I have seen many roast recipes in my day but never one quite like this.  But let’s review the year it was published, 1971, and put it in perspective of the times:  this was likely one fancy dish, good enough for photographing and for company!  It’s a double treat!!

Lucky for me and for you, there are better looking photos inside this book.  And then there are some not-so-better photos (and recipes) in this book, to wit:  Ripe Olive Cabbage Loaf (p. 34) where a meatloaf is essentially wrapped in a cabbage leaf (ew) or Lamb-Vegetable Salad (p. 115) that earned a “double-ew” from me.  Thankfully, these were offset by some really delicious-looking photos of steak.  And I love steak, but today’s recipe for chili potpie was selected for one reason only:  the book opened to this page when I took it off the shelf, it was relatively easy to make, and it had that “comfort food” feel to it.  And on a day when we started with sleet and then switched to freezing rain, I was all about comfort.

Now, I don’t have control of the weather (wish that I did) but it’s pretty much time for Nature to knock it the hell off already!  I need to move on.  I want spring food or summer food yet here I am thinking about Christmas cookies.  I have got to stop watching Twilight Zone reruns because kids, I feel like I’m living in it, to wit:  only in Minnesota can they test the tornado sirens (for tornado awareness week) during a snowstorm. Happy Spring?

Chili Potpie – submitted by Mrs. J.T. Springer, Lenorah, Texas – no serving size listed

3 tbsp onion flakes (or use fresh onion)

3 tbsp water

1 ½ pound ground beef, crumbled

1 tsp garlic salt

½ c. chopped bell pepper

1 8-oz can tomato sauce

1 1-pound can tomatoes (I used diced)

1 20-oz can ranch-style beans (I have no idea what that means so I bought a can of small red beans)

1 tbsp chili powder

1 ½  tsp salt

¾ cup cornmeal

1 4/ cup flour

1 ½ tbsp baking powder

1 egg, beaten

½ cup milk

¼ cup bacon drippings

1 tbsp parsley

¼ cup grated cheese

Paprika

Ann’s Note:  In order to get bacon drippings I would have had to make bacon and I didn’t feel like getting it out of the freezer so I substituted corn oil.

Combine the onion and water in a small bowl (or dice a small onion).  Saute the beef until partially done.  Add the onion, garlic salt and bell pepper and cook until brown.  Add the tomato sauce, tomatoes, beans, chili powder and 1 teaspoon salt and simmer for 10 minutes.  Sift the cornmeal, flour, remaining salt and baking powder together in a mixing bowl. Add the egg, milk and bacon drippings and stir until smooth.  Stir in parsley.  Pour the beef mixture into a shallow baking dish and sprinkle with cheese.  Spoon cornmeal mixture around edge of the baking dish and sprinkle with paprika.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Ann’s Note:  I used a glass pie plate for making this recipe and it was fine except the cornmeal mixture spilled over the side before baking.  No problem:  I just put a baking sheet underneath it to catch the overflow!