Corn Casserole (aka "Corn Pudding")

During Christmas dinner this year, I was exposed to a medley of American comfort foods at the Gregorys' house: green bean casserole, oven-roasted spiral cut ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potateos, and a new discovery, corn casserole.  I think I've had corn casserole at some point, but I cannot remember when.  Regardless, this was the dish placed directly in front of me during dinner, and I made the best of its positioning! Further, I kept having to heap plates with corn casserole because it was one of the more popular dishes and after six very hungry people, there was still plenty left over.

I'm posting this recipe because it was easily one of my favorites made by Joe's mother, Joanne Gregory.  She's been making it for years, and has made several adjustments to the recipe (an addition of parsley and butter over margarine).  I will be re-posting this recipe in the future with my own notes on how to prepare this dish, but until then, here are the ingredients and the basic directions as suggested by The Times Magazine in its Nov. 4th, 1985 edition (page 39).

Joanne's Corn Casserole
* 1 8 1/2 ounce box of corn bread mix, used dry
* 1 17 ounce can cream-style corn
* 1 17 ounce can whole-kernel corn, undrained
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 1 8 ounce container commercial sour cream
* 1/2 cup melted butter
* 1-2 tablespoons parsley, chopped

1.) Preheat oven to 350 F.
2.) In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together.  Pour into a lightly greased 9 x 13 inch baking dish and bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
3.) Serve immediately and enjoy!
Makes 8-10 servings. 

Meanwhile, here are some more photos of Joanne's Christmas brunch and hungry family: 

Bring me that Corn Casserole!!

Tom Carving the Ham:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have so many memories of making chocolate chip cookies as a kid.  Usually under the guidance of very patient adults and friends of the family (Linda and Lise, you know who you are!), we made batches and batches of America's favorite cookie, and I would chow down on both the batter and the cookies alike.

Today, I am often more inventive with the cookies I bake--I like to experiment with ginger snaps, dump cookies, and dishes that generally require more work.  Yet, when it comes time to make a crowd pleaser, nobody likes a cookie more than chocolate chip cookies! Nor are any recipes as reliable and tasty as a traditional chocolate chip one.  While baking for the holidays, this is exactly the cookie Sarah and I made!







Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe comes from the back of a Nestle's Chocolate Chip bag.  The recipe is often referred to as the "Tollhouse Cookie Recipe," and is even the same as the one on the back of the McCormick vanilla extract box.  I've retained the original Nestle's recipe here, but added an extra 3 teaspoons to the vanilla extract.  At first, I assumed McCormick was over-compensating the vanilla for the retail of their product (and, they probably are), but the resulting adding vanilla makes such a yummy difference! Try the recipe for yourself with the regular vanilla (1 teaspoon vanilla extract), or make it with the suggested 4 teaspoons.


Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (or "plain flour")
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Butter, or 2 sticks, softened
3/4 cup Granulated sugar
3/4 cup Brown sugar, packed
4 tsps Vanilla extract
2 large Eggs
2 cups, or 1 bag of NESTLÉ TOLL HOUSE Semi sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup Walnuts, chopped (OPTIONAL)

METHOD
1.) Preheat oven at 375 F, and combine dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, and set aside.  You will need the flour mixture to add to the wet mixture.
2.) In a separate bowl (preferably a kitchen aid bowl), beat butter, sugars (both regular granulated and brown), and vanilla extract on low speed until fully integrated and creamy. 
3.) Slowly, add eggs one at a time to the mixture at low speed.
4.) Then, add the dry/flour mixture slowly, and a little bit at a time.  I usually try to eyeball about 1/4-1/2 cup of the dry mixture at a time until fully integrated.  Remember what Alton Brown says, "Speed Kills Kids," so you definitely want to be patient while combining both the wet and dry ingredients.
5.) Finally, stir in the Nestle morsels and chopped nuts (if using chopped nuts), and mix fully on low-medium speed.  You'll probably need to scrape down the sides of the bowl to fully integrate all of the ingredients.
6.) Drop dough by "rounded spoon fulls" onto an ungreased baking sheet.
7.) Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown.  Like most baking goods, you'll know the cookie is ready to be removed from the oven when the edges are browned.  If the tops are golden brown, the chances are very high you'll have very dark/burned bottoms to your cookies.
8.) Let sit for two minutes on cookie sheet, and then remove onto a wire rack/parchment surface.  The cookies will continue to cook on the sheet for these two minutes, so don't worry if you think they're just a hair underdone.  Enjoy!

Chicken Potpie

Chicken potpie.  A dish that many of us never make ourselves, or have ever had made for us homemade.  But the real tragedy in the world of chicken pot pie is that many of us have been exposed to the dish through the freezer section of our local grocery stores, or the not-so-homemade phenomenon of places like Cracker Barrel (I'm not hating on Cracker Barrel, I'm just saying....).  If we're lucky, the restaurant and frozen potpies we buy may taste kind of good, but are seldom layered in the kinds of flavors a real homemade recipe pulls together.

This kind of praise aside, I must admit, this is not an easy recipe, a quick recipe, or a recipe for starters.  This chicken potpie recipe is a recipe that, if done in its entirety, takes several hours to make and lots of focus, but has one of the tastiest of outcomes.  It consists of a homemade pie crust, homemade chicken broth and subsequent filling, and lots of fresh ingredients.

When I first got to Asheville for the holidays, I made this recipe for Joe, his family, and his friends.  I spent about three-to-four hours in the kitchen with the help of his younger sister Sarah (holla!) and the result was, as both of Joe’s parents stated, “divine” (very possibly the best compliment my cooking’s ever gotten!).

Chicken Potpie

The below recipe is in its entirety.  However, you can easily cut corners with the chicken broth, the pie crust, and the preparation of the meats.  Oftentimes, I prepare the pie crust a day ahead of time and refrigerate it so that all I have to do is roll it out when it’s time to put the pie together.  Additionally, the chicken can easily be substituted with leftover turkey after Thanksgiving, and the broth can be regular chicken broth from the store.

Ingredients

Chicken and stock ingredients
1 (3 ½-4 lb) chicken (i.e., a “frying chicken”)
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 small onion, halved and separated
2 teaspoons salt

Pie crust ingredients

NOTE: this makes enough pie crust for four discs, or two pies.  It can easily be halved. Also, many pie crusts call for Crisco/lard instead of all butter.  Although the resulting flaky texture may be just that—awesome and flaky—the resulting flavor is way less tasty.  Remember what the wise Julia Childs once said: “You can never have too much butter.”
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt

2 heaping teaspoons of brown sugar
4 sticks of butter frozen, or chilled
10-15 tablespoons ice water

Filling ingredients
6 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 large onion, diced (about 1 1/4 cups)
3 carrots, thinly sliced on the diagonal
3 celery stalks, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups milk (regular, 2 %, or skim all work fine)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves (can use dried thyme as well)
1/4 cup dry sherry (“cooking sherry”)
3/4 cup green peas, frozen or fresh, boiled
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Egg wash
1 egg whisked with 1 Tbsp water

Special equipment needed
6 10-ounce ramekins

OR: 2 regular pie pans (i.e., 10 inch pie pans)

PIE CRUST

1.) First, prepare the pie crust and refrigerate.  You’ll want to do this about 3 hours before you make the actual potpie.  Several hours of refrigeration allows the pie crust to firm up and thus, hold together when rolling the dough without being tough, or overworked.

2.) Start by combining the dry ingredients—flour, salt, sugar—, and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon, or sifter.  Add ALL of the chilled butter as tiny cubes.  Usually, I divide the sticks of butter by their tablespoons, and then chop them even smaller.  Using your hand(s), squeeze the flour and butter mixture to integrate until you have pea-sized pieces of butter; you’ll know the mixture is properly integrated when it resembles coarse meal. 

3.) Once the butter and flour mixture are properly integrated, begin adding the chilled water and mixing with your hands.  Since you’re doing a large batch, feel free to add up to 10 tablespoons at once and then slowly add water as you mix the crust together.  Elise Bauer notes on her food blog Simply Recipes, that when you pinch the dough together and if it sticks, you’re ready.  If it doesn’t stick, you’re not ready, so add more water.  However, after doing this recipe so many times, I can tell when the pie crust has become a pie crust by this technique as well as the way it feels.  It’s hard to define the pie’s texture when it’s just right—it’s stiff and sticks together easily when pressed between two fingers, but it also has an air of dryness to it that allows you to work it into balls on a floured surface.

4.) Once the dough is ready, place it on a floured surface and separate the mixture into two large halves; then, separate these two halves into two halves each (you should have four balls).  Carefully work the balls into circular discs on a floured surface, and DO NOT OVER-KNEAD THE DOUGH! You should still be able to see little bits of butter throughout the dough.  Wrap each disc in plastic wrap, or a sandwich bag and refrigerate for several hours.

CHICKEN STOCK AND FILLING
1.) Cook the chicken and the chicken stock.  Wash and clean the chicken, add to a large pot, and fill with water until it just barely covers the chicken.  Add the carrot, celery, and onion (the onion should be broken into pieces from the half).  Add the salt.  Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, and then turn down to medium-low and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour (45 minutes for a 3.5 lb chicken, and 45 minutes for a 4 lb. chicken).

2.) Once the chicken is cooked, remove from pot and place in a cooling pan for about 15 minutes.  Allow the broth to continue boiling until it has reduced to about a quart.  Reserve 2 1/2 cups broth for the filling.  You will have plenty to reserve and cook with other dishes!

3.) Once the chicken is cool enough to touch and pick clean, do just that.   Remove all of the chicken, and reserve for the filling.  NOTE: As you're picking the chicken clean, feel free to put the chicken's bones back into the broth as the stock continues to boil.  You will definitely get added flavor from this process!

CHICKEN POT PIE FILLING

1.) Preheat oven at 400 degrees F.  In a large skillet, melt the butter, and add celery, carrot, and onions.  Cook the vegetables until they are translucent (about 10 minutes or longer depending on how high you have your heat set).

2.) Add the flour, stir in fully, and cook for one minute.

3.) Whisk/stir in 2 1/2 cups chicken stock.  Whisk in the milk.  Decrease the heat to low, or medium-low and stir occassionally for about ten minutes.

4.) Add the final ingredients: the reserved chicken, thyme, salt and pepper, cooked peas, parsley, and stir well.  NOTE: These will probably not be the final touches you add to this mixture.  Taste the filling and add salt, pepper, and thyme accordingly.  When I last made this recipe, we decided a little extra thyme was what was missing, but it depends from preparation to preparation.  

MAKING THE PIE

1.) Roll out two discs of dough (one for each pan) on a floured surface, and pour half of the mixture into each pie pan.  

2.) Roll out the remaining two discs of dough and flop onto the top of the pie.

3.) Curl the crust on top of itself, or fork for a design.  Cut X's, or lines across the pie crust top for design and to let the pie breathe when cooking.

4.) Prepare the egg wash: mix one tablespoon of milk with one whisked egg, and brush on top of the pie crusts.

5.) Cook for about 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. 

Peppermint Bark

Chocolate.  I love chocolate.  Is there anything I love more than chocolate? Probably coffee, but it's by a slim margin.  Seriously, though, I LOVE chocolate.

During the holidays, one of my favorite treats to make for friends and family is Peppermint Bark.  Every Christmas, I seem to find more and more people who know what this concoction is, but when I first found out about it...boy, it felt like my little candied secret covered in peppermint.  Further, I'm now beginning to see this treat in the specialty candy section of food stores like Whole Foods and Fresh Market.  Often, one small container of peppermint bark sells for around $10, and is not nearly as tasty as the homemade kind! Peppermint Bark is easy to make, cheap to make (about $5 for this whole batch), and in many ways, tastes like an Andie's Mint.

Peppermint bark is one of those tasty treats that you only really see during Christmas.  It consists of one layer of white chocolate, one layer of regular chocolate (milk, or dark), and one layer of crushed peppermint (usually crushed up candy canes).  For this holiday season, I made it for Stan and Joan, the neighbors next door, and for Joe's fabulous family up in North Carolina.


Peppermint Bark
For this recipe, I always advise dark chocolate.  It takes the flavor to a whole other level! As for the candy canes, you can certainly use regular peppermint candies, but it's always a lot more work than crushing 12 candy canes.  ALSO: it's a very good idea to go ahead and crush the candy canes first.  Since you'll need to have your eyes on the melting chocolate, you won't have much free time, or free hands to be unwrapping and crushing candy canes at the same time.  So, I usually crush the candy canes first, and then reserve them until it's time to add them to the melting chocolate.


* 1 12 oz. bag dark chocolate, melted
* 1 12 oz. bag white chocolate, melted
* 1 box candy canes (around 12 candy canes), crushed
* 1/4-1/2 cup skim milk, or cream (for melting the chocolate)

1.) Pour two 1/4 cups of skim milk or cream into two separate saucepans.  Open bags of chocolate and empty them into saucepans--white chocolate in one pan, and dark chocolate in the other.  Now would also be a good time to crush the candy canes before you start the melting process.  First, unwrap all of the candy canes and throw them into a double-bagged ziplock bag.  Close both zippers, place on a sturdy, and non-sensitive counter, and take a can of soup, peas, whatever you have in the cabinet, and bang the candy canes until they are in SMALL pieces.  The bigger the pieces, the harder the peppermint bark will be to eat, so smaller is always better here....and that's what she said, haha.  Moving on.....

2.) Turn the heat on medium for both saucepans.  Don't worry if you're afraid this process will take forever on medium--melting chocolate is freakishly easy and only requires a little bit of heat for the melted chocolate to mix in with your cream or milk.

3.) Stir both pans of chocolate every few minutes so that you don't burn the chocolate and can integrate the cream mixture with the chocolate (this process will probably take around 5-10 minutes for each pan, depending on the heat of your "medium" setting).  NOTE: You'll probably notice that the white chocolate doesn't melt as smoothly, or evenly as the dark chocolate.  For years, this difference confused me, but there appears to be a very simple answer: white chocolate just isn't chocolate.  Apparently, it is a man-made confection that comes from a combination of cocoa, sugar, and milk.  Unlike regular chocolate that has natural compounds and thus, naturally wants to stay in a smooth mixture when melting, white chocolate has the tendency to split into an oily substance and a thicker, gobbier substance.  If this happens to you (and it will), feel free to drain a few ounces of the oily substance out of the saucepan before continuing to the next step.  If you're stubborn and just think the problem will solve itsself, you're wrong because you would need to re-emulsify the compound, and that's just...well, a lot of work.

4.) Once melted, pour white chocolate onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet, and spread thinly/evenly with a spoon.

5.) Pour dark chocolate on top of the white chocolate thinly/evenly, and spread over white chocolate with a spoon.  Top with crushed peppermint, and press peppermint into the chocolate so that it will be more inclined to stick in the candy.

6.) Put bark in the freezer for about an hour to an hour and a half.  Then, you are ready to cut the candy, or reserve in the refrigerator until ready to cut.  I've seen numerous ways of cutting the candy.  If you're like me, and like to savor the cutting process, just dig in with a sharp knife and cut out your pieces.  However, since "bark" is in the title, feel free to perform a more dangerous, but effective cutting technique: bang the knife into the bark repeatedly until it breaks off into shards.  This will give you a more aesthetically pleasing-bark-like effect.  Enjoy!

Homemade Pizza

I met the most interesting man last Friday night at the end-of-semester-EGSA party--his name is Samuel Welsh, and many people in the LSU music department know him as the very talented pianist Sam.  Well, Sam was interesting to say the least.  Not only did he amuse me with his crazy stories about getting his own doctoral degree in the Music Department, but he also is pretty cool to look at: stylish blonde hair, bad-ass glasses, and these really big muscles.  I like muscles.

Regardless, one conversation led into another conversation and Sam and I realized that we both had brindle dogs! This similarity seemed crazy to me until we realized that they couldn't be more different in breed and size: Sam's dog, Lucy (also known as Ms. Lady, Snarfleton, etc.), is a brindle Boston Terrier of roughly 25 pounds, whereas Eve is a brindle greyhound of about 65.5 pounds.  As an excuse to create a playdate of what would be great doggie-friends, Sam and I scheduled a get together/cooking lesson of sorts where I would teach him to make something he didn't know how to prepare.  Case in point: pizza.  Not just any pizza.  GRILLED pizza.  One of those delicious homemade specialties that make you wonder why you'd ever eat Domino's ever again.


Pizza a la Brigman
The below recipe is one that I have amalgamated over the years--it's a combination of anything I ever liked in other pizza recipes mashed together in a flavorful bash of goodness.  You can easily use a storebought dough here, but that really destroys the point of homemade pizza on the grill.  So, please see the easy and fast pizza dough recipe catalogued by Elise Bauer over at Simply Recipes.  I will try to post my own version of this recipe in the future.  Until then, the below ingredients list is the most specific recommendation I can give you in terms of what to do right here.


* 1/2 Simply Recipe's pizza dough
* flour for rolling
* cornmeal for bottom crust (if cooking in oven)
* about 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil
* salt and pepper, to taste
* 1-2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
* Tony's Cachere's, to tase
* 1/2-1 cup tomato sauce (storebought is fine!)
* 1 cup-2 cups cheese (depending on how cheesy you like your pizza)
* 1/2 bell peppers, chopped (a combination of red, green, etc.)
* 1/4 cup onions, chopped (red or white will do)
* 1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
* 4-8 anchovies, optional
* pesto, optional

1.) Prepare the dough by sprinkling a work surface with flour.  Divide dough recipe in half and use one half for the dough ball of this pizza.  (NOTE: the other half of the dough ball will keep pretty well in the refridgerator for a few days, but if in doubt, freeze it.  It should keep for up to 2-3 months and still taste fresh.)

2.) Begin rolling dough with an actual rolling pin.  The key to evenly/circular pizza is usually a combination of the rolling pin and one's hands, so make sure you have washed your hands when entering into this process! Also, the rolling pin technique works best for me in the same way you would prepare a pie dough crust: roll forward and back a few times, then flip the dough in another direction, roll forward and back.  Flip and repeat until the dough is properly stretched out and big enough for the recipe (about 12 inches in diameter).

3.) Now's the time to begin the stacking process.  As we add ingredients, you want the pizza to be stacked with different layers of flavor--oils, cheese, seasonings, toppings, sauce--but it's key that you're not too greedy here.  Since this recipe is built for a grill (but can be used on an oven), you'll need to make sure you don't OVERSTACK the dough as many Americans are want to do.  Let's continue....

4.) Poke the circular disc of dough with a fork evenly.  This technique allows the dough to breathe and not get giant bubbles during the cooking process.  Sprinkle 2-4 tablespoons of olive oil over the dough's surface, and smooth with a spoon.  Add tomato sauce and spread with spoon.  Season with Tony's, salt, pepper, italian seasoning, garlic, and several tablespoons of pesto (pesto is optional).

5.) Now, I suggest stacking the pizza in the following order: toppings first, then cheese.  This way, the cheese will melt on top of the topings and you will have a very cool effect: not only will you still be able to see the topings after the cooking process (like any normal pizza), but you will have created a sealant of sorts for structural stability between the cheese and dough.  So, add the the toppings like the ones listed above--mushrooms, peppers, onions, etc., and then the cheese (1-2 cups depending on preference).

6.) Place on heated grill that's been sprayed with non-stick spray.  If your grill has one of those temperature gages, heat up to 350-400F.  Place pizza directly on grill.  Now, this task is much harder than it seems! Since the dough is soft and floppy and now has all of these ingredients waying it down, putting the dough directly on the grill may be a crazy and unstructural process.  Thus, you'll probably need two people (one for each half of the dough.

7.) Once dough is placed on grill, close lid and let cook for 5 minutes.  Check to see if crust is cooked all the way through.  Depending on your grill and the accuracy of the temperature gage, this process can take as little as 5 and as much as 10 minutes.  You'll know the pizza is done when it is one, all melted together and delicious looking, two, the cheese has browned a little bit on top, and three, the crust is a golden brown or cooked thoroughly.

8.) Remove pizza from grill using a metal spatchula and let sit for a few minutes (this process, as many pizza lovers know, allows the pizza to solidify and help the cutting process).  Enjoy!