The best I’ve ever had and subsuqently, the best Avocado, egg, bacon and raw goat cheese, sandwich I’ve ever had.

Picked up the biscuit recipe from Simply Cooking.

Best Buttermilk Drop Biscuits

Yields: 12 biscuits, if you’re careful about apportioning out the dough
Time to make: ~25 minutes

You need:

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. sugar
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 1 stick + 2 tbsp. butter
• 1 cup buttermilk
• parchment paper

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
2. Melt the 1 stick butter and let cool about 5 minutes.
3. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the melted butter and the buttermilk, and stir until clumps form.
5. Stir the liquid into the dry ingredients until just incorporated and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
7. Using a ¼ cup dry measure, scoop out and drop 12 balls of dough onto the baking sheet (this is easier if you spray the measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray).
8. Bake until the tops are golden brown, about 14 minutes.
9. Let cool on a wire rack.
10. Meanwhile, melt the remaining 2 tbsp. butter and brush the tops of the biscuits with the butter before serving.

Last week, I shared with you some ideas about cast iron skillets: what’s so great about them, what you can use them for, what to look for when purchasing one, etc.

And I promised that I’d share with you a great recipe for cast iron skillet corn bread, from my friend, Lauren.  Lauren and I work together (at my day job), and she’s a native Tennessian (sp?).

Lauren moved to Seattle with her husband a couple years ago, as he’s a Seattle native.  For her birthday this year, her mom (aka MomBun) sent her a cast iron skillet, some corn meal and her family recipe for corn bread.

Now, this is a big deal, for a Southern woman to open her recipe book and share with everyone. So, I’m VERY excited to present Lauren’s guest post about cast iron skillet corn bread!

Take it away, Lauren:

Greetings A Half Cup readers!  I’m so excited to be Siiri’s first guest blogger – and even more excited to share a little slice of my southern heritage with y’all. 

As mentioned in Siiri’s pot rack post, my birthday was this past weekend.  I was SO excited to receive a seasoned Log Cabin cast iron skillet in the mail from my momma back home in Tennessee!  She was also sweet enough to include a 5 pound sack of White Lily brand self-rising white cornmeal mix!!  (This is the secret to making the cornbread of my childhood and unfortunately isn’t sold here in the northwest. 

After a lot of searching, I discovered other transplanted southerners were having it shipped – (a four sack case for under $20 is an extremely reasonable price!)

I couldn’t wait to christen my new skillet and break open the cornmeal mix!  With fingers crossed I hoped that I could finally make something similar to what I grew up eating. 

To start, coat the bottom of your skillet with oil and pop it into a 425 degree oven.  This will ensure that your cornbread will fry ever so slightly on the bottom – giving you a crisp crust.

While that’s coming to temperature, combine the following ingredients in a large bowl. (Just until moist, don’t over mix!)

2 cups White Lily self-rising white cornmeal mix
1 ½ cups milk or buttermilk (no lowfat milk here or your consistency will be off)
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 large egg

Once the oven has come to temperature, pour in the mix and bake for 20-25 minutes.  When done, the edges will turn golden brown and pull away from the skillet. 

Let the cornbread cool for a few minutes before inverting it onto a plate and slathering with butter (my favorite) or covering with homemade crock-pot beef stew (my daddy’s favorite).

I’m happy to report that this batch of cornbread turned out wonderful and reminded me of home sweet home in west Tennessee.  For other southern style recipes, visit my family blog!

—————–

Thanks so much for sharing that great recipe, Lauren! And please thank your mom also, for me and all my readers! (all 10 of them!)

Next up on the cast iron skillet agenda: braised chicken.

Stay tuned!

PS: If any of you readers out there have questions for Lauren, or tips and tricks of your own for a corn bread recipe, we’d love to hear from you! So send me a comment!

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

2 eggs

3 large mashed bananas

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 3/4 cups all-purpose  flour

3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Cream sugar and shortening.  Add eggs and mashed bananas.

Combine dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture.  Bake in loaf pan at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.

Makes one large or two small loaves.

This original recipe is one my sister in law uses and is in our church cookbook.

*My variation of this recipe.

I substituted 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar for the cup of white and used half soft whole wheat flour in with the all-purpose.  Rather than the shortening, I used 1/2 cup of Smart Balance Omega oil. I also added 1/4 cup milled flax seed and a generous dash of nutmeg.   I never add nuts so that wasn’t an option.  Too much nut intolerance in the family.  This made a more nutritious and good, moist loaf.  My picky little four yr old grandson asked for more. 

In honor of the Masters this week, here is a wonderful and time honored traditional recipe for Pimento Cheese.

Because of my passion for traditions and recipes, an obvious question I posed .. where does this tradition of serving pimento cheese sandwiches at the Masters come from anyways?

The answer is delightful. In true Southern fashion, families in the South generally had to eat what they grew on their own farms – fruits, vegetables, grains. At that, very few Southern farms made their own cheese, and when they did it was white cheese, like ricotta or mozzarella. Yellow cheese was a delicacy for Southerners, and thus generally reserved for the upper class or special occasions.

That being said, they took the precious yellow cheese, added mayonnaise (again, in true Southern fashion) and pimentos which were grown locally across the South to make the fine spread. The Masters, being the epitome of golf and of the elite, began the time-honored tradition of serving the pimento cheese sandwich – which is one of their most popular by far.

Do enjoy!

A very yummy recipe today … an easy & charming southern cookie recipe … Buttons & Bowties! I love the recipe on so many levels.

First, I think it’s pretty easy to see that this was a popular one in our family from the huge stain across the card. A little hard to read, but well worth the efforts!

Second, the buttons. I’ve seen several variations of button cookies – very cute, very easy to do and they make for a great presentation for a special homemade gift. The cutest probably being for baby showers, with the buttons threaded together & sweetly packaged in a little box.

And lastly, the bowties! Certainly my favorite – sort of reminds me of seersucker suits, southern weddings & summertime. I am quite certain a bowtie-exclusive post will follow very soon!

And remember – be sure to roll the cookies in the sugar when they’re good & hot. Delish!

Thanks to Mom for deciphering the recipe below …

Buttons & Bows
____ Preheat oven: 400˚ Bake

____ Mix the following in a medium bowl to make a soft dough:

2 cups Bisquick® Original baking mix

1/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 egg

____ Sprinkle (LIGHTLY!) counter with flour

____ Put dough on surface, and knead quickly and lightly (if you knead for too long, the dough will turn hard)

____ Roll dough with rolling pin until it is ½” thick

____ Cut dough with biscuit cutter or shape as you want (be creative! Roll out the letters for your initials, make shapes, tie into
pretzel knots, make buttons and bows, etc!)

____ Place shapes on cookie sheet

____ Bake 8-10 minutes or until the tops are light brown

While you’re shapes are baking:

____ Clean up what you can

____ Melt 1/4 cup butter in saucepan over LOW HEAT

____ Put 1/2 cup sugar in a small bowl

____ Take cookie sheet with baked shapes out of oven (use oven mits!), and remove with a spatula—place on drying rack

____ While they are warm, dip in melted butter, then dip/roll in sugar

____ Clean up kitchen while they cool/dry

Recipe Summary

Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10-15 minutes
Yield: enough for a 9×13 cake

1 C Sugar
2 C Powered (confectionary) sugar
4 Tbs Cocoa (unsweetened powder)
2/3 C Evaporated milk
1/2 C 2% milk 1Tbs  Light corn syrup                                                                                                                    1/3 Cup (51/3 Tbs) butter (Trans fat free)                                                                                                                1 tsp Pure vanilla

Directions:

 Melt butter and cocoa in saucepan over low heat.  Slowly add the sugar alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the sugar.  Add corn syrup and cook on medium heat stirring constantly about 8 minutes or until thick and creamy.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.

Serve warm over cake.  Best over yellow butter cake (I just use a mix).  Store in refrigerator, reheats well.  Serve warm over strawberries or bananas for another healthy twist.  *Growing up on a farm, my mother would make this yummy sauce on cold winter evenings.  Ummm “sweet” memories. 

Recipe Summary

Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 27-30 minutes
Yield: enough for a 2 quart casserole dish

1 16oz. pkg. frozen broccoli cuts
1/3 cup Velveeta (Light) cheese (cut in chunks or shredded)
1/4 cup Hellmann’s (Light) mayonnaise
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1 10 3/4 can cream of mushroom soup (98% fat free)
 

Directions:

Cook broccoli in covered 2 qt. casserole dish in microwave for 10 min. on high.  While broccoli is cooking, mix the next four ingredients in a separate bowl.  Remove dish from microwave and pour soup mixture on top of broccoli.  Return covered dish to microwave and cook 7 minutes on high.  Remove and cover top of casserole with Ritz cracker crumbs (about 15 crackers).  Brown casserole uncovered in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 10 min. or until golden.  *Through the years, I have tried to make this casserole healthier without changing the taste.  It is amazing that all ages, even teenage boys and girls, love this dish. 

Hey thanks for checking out my page, new to WordPress but finding my way. Please feel free to look around and check out my Family Cookbook, I will post updates as I go along.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.