What's cookin', good lookin'?

[vanillafluffy]

The house is pungent with the aroma of collards cooking. Until last year, I'd never sampled collard greens, but when I got a bagful at the food bank and Mb cooked them up for us, I discoverred I'm a fan. This is my first attempt at cooking them on my own, so...fingers crossed!

Once they show signs of being done, I'm going on to phase two, which is rustling up some cornbread to go with them. Mmmmm! And since I know I have A Lot of it, I may cook up some rice, too. Starchy, I know, but at least it's real food and I don't make a habit of that often enough, so I'm trying to encourage it.

Or maybe some black-eyed peas, I've got lots of those, too....

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Comments

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

Fluffy, you've gone Southern! :D It all sounds delicious. If you eat the peas with the rice or cornbread, you've got a complete meal.

I have to think up a couple of desserts to take to July 4th at our sister in law's house. Since I'm not going to have much time, these may be cake mix based, but it's not a picky crowd.

[ang5fam.livejournal.com]

Being from Alabama, I love me some collards and cornbread!! Black eyed peas are the perfect accompaniment.
I may just have to fix some cornbread with tonight's dinner!!

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I overcooked the collards. (Pot likker was delish, tho'!) The cornbread turned out perfect---I credit Kat, who taught me the secret---beat the hell out of the wet ingrrediants and use them to wet down the dry ingrediants, but not mix them into a smooth batter.

Also from Kat come an idea for the perfect Southern dessert---"Dump cake"....

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[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

The crnbread ended up beingthe best part. I added a generous pinch of pepper to the mix before stirring in the well-beaten milk and eggs.

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[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

I wound up making a pineapple upside down cake and a chocolate-cherry cake (super easy - just takes cake mix, two eggs and a can of cherry pie filling). The kitchen smells fabulous right now.

[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

Sounds heavenly! I'm eager to try something called 3-2-1 cake, mentioned by SBJB last week over dinner.

Take two boxes of cake mix, one angel food and one of your choice of flavors. Combine. Combo can be stored in your pantry.

Measure THREE tablespoons of the mixed mixes into a coffee cup. Add TWO tablespoons water. Microwave for ONE minute. I'm told the result is something like a lava cake. And it's portion-controlled!

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[vanillafluffy.livejournal.com]

So, how's the new house working out?


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[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

It's working out wonderfully well. The construction guys were here about a week doing the repairs. We still have to paint the porch and the master bathroom, but that's going to be it for renovations. It's a great change from our old house, which required constant upkeep.

This one is super-easy to keep clean due to no carpet. Interestingly, Zippy Cat's life-long allergy went away when we moved out of the old house. No more drippy nosed cat, and he's been much friendlier and happier. :)

The neighbors are really nice too, which is a HUGE change.

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

That's a much easier version of the microwave mug cake that was making the rounds a while back. It sounds very yummy.

I had intended to make an apple-strudel cake, but Aldi didn't have apple pie filling. The pineapple upside down cake recipe I found uses chunk pineapple and yellow cake mix, and it was really easy too.