Charlotte's Corn

I've been working hard to deplete my canned food stores in my pantry since a family of 10 could probably live a year on the cans that I have in there! I'm the worst about planning a week of meals, buying what I need, and then not completing the whole week of meals and having items left over and just making a whole new list of meals for the next week. So, when I checked we had like 8 cans of corn in the pantry so I went looking for a corn recipe. I love the Cotton Country Baked Corn with Sour Cream (it's my favorite corn dish of all time!) but it takes a little while and I was looking to try something different. While I was on my search I found a recipe that I knew I had to try... Charlotte's Corn! It is a local Delta Zeta alumnae chapter cookbook and so I modified the original recipe by using canned corn instead of frozen but kept the amount the same. No pictures (I'm a slacker, sorry!) but it was pretty good.


Charlotte's Corn
3 boxes of frozen corn
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 pint Whipping Cream
1 tablespoon flour
Mix whipping cream and flour with melted butter. Add corn. Pour into casserole dish and bake at 350 for 35 minutes. Stir once half way through baking.
Variations that were given included substituting creamed corn for some of the corn so I did use a can of creamed corn in mine.

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

I saw a version of this on Tasty Kitchen and I made it a little simpler based on what I had on hand and what Jason and I both like. Turns out that this is a fantastic and really easy pizza. If you're pressed for time and are wanting something a little different try this, it's great!
Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza

1 Pizza Crust (we use the Pillsbury Refrigerated Dough)
Olive Oil
Ranch Dressing
Pre-cooked chicken pieces/slices
Bacon (we use the ready made kind)
Mozzarella Cheese

- Spread dough out onto pan
- Spread olive oil on top of pizza dough
- Spread ranch dressing on top of dough until you have a thin layer
- Place chicken evenly on top of pizza
- Cover pizza with cheese
- Crumble/cut bacon on top of cheese

Bake at 400 degrees (or 425 based on your type of pan) for 10-12 minutes until edges are golden brown.

Summer Squash Casserole

Until last week I had never made a vegetable casserole. But with Grow Alabama providing us with veggies like squash and cucumbers pretty much weekly I had to come up with something new to use the veggies in. So I went to my trusty Arab Mother's Club cookbook that Jason's grandmother gave us when we got married and found a Summer Squash Casserole that turned out to be divine. Even Charlotte loved it which I guess means that she's like her mother in that if you put mayo and cheese on it she'll eat just about anything! So this will now be my go-to recipe for Squash when we're tired of onion squash. I hope you enjoy it also!
Summer Squash Casserole
Yields: 6 servings

2 lbs summer squash, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
1/4 cup Mayonnaise
1 cup grated Cheddar Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
3/4 cup herb-seasoned stuffing mix

Boil squash and onion in water until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and mix with mayonnaise, cheese, salt, and pepper. Turn into buttered 1 1/2 quart casserole and sprinkle with stuffing mix. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.

Brown Sugar Pork Chops

I will be the first to tell you that this recipe is not your typical southern fare. However, Jason had a brown sugar tenderloin on our first trip to The Masters and he talked about how interesting it was so I thought I'd try to come up with a recipe that was similar. They turned out really good but you need to be prepared for a sweet main dish. I will serve mashed potatoes with them next time instead of onion potatoes and green beans because you kind of need a thick, blander starch to counteract all of the sugar. Mac and Cheese would probably go great with it also. I did really like them though and will probably try the recipe on chicken sometime soon. If you do it before I do I would love to hear how it is on chicken! I hope you enjoy them! I did make this up so it's very unprecise and open to your own interpretation.

Brown Sugar Pork Chops

Pork Chops
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Brown Sugar
Maple Syrup (our's was light maply syrup -- any kind of breakfast syrup should be fine)

1. Trim fat from pork and tenderize with mallet or fork
2. Drizzle olive oil on one side, turn over and do the same
3. Lightly salt and pepper one side, turn over and do the same
4. Heap 1 - 2 teaspoons brown sugar on each side of pork rubbing into meat, turn over and do the same
5. Drizzle mape syrup over pork chops until the tops are barely covered
6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to a couple hours to let the pork absorb the juices
7. Bake at 350 for 30 - 45 minutes depending on the thickness of your pork chops

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

My friend Christen posted a Parmesan Crusted Chicken recipe a few weeks ago and I thought it looked great. So last week when we begged, pleaded, and bribed my parents to come help us set up our new bed I figured it was the perfect occasion to try what I was sure would be a fantastic recipe. It definitely didn't disappoint! The chicken was juicy and tender and the spices and crust made it very tasty. I normally cook with chicken tenders and so to use chicken breasts was different but I think this recipe wouldn't be nearly as good with tenders. I did go with the broiler pan like Christen did and I think that worked fine, but I agree that a cookie sheet should work just fine too. I hope you like it as much as I did! And, if so, make sure you let Christen know!

 

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

 

12 multigrain saltine crackers
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
2 Tablespoons finely chopped Parsley
1/2 teaspoon dried Basil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 tsp. each of salt and pepper
1/4 cup buttermilk
4 boneless skinless chicken breast

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place baking rack on a baking sheet/broiler pan.
2. Place crackers in a large zip lock bag and crush. Add parmesan, parsley, basil, paprika, salt and pepper. Shake to combine. Pour crumbs in a shallow dish like a pie plate or breading trays.
3. Place buttermilk in a shallow dish (again with the breading trays). Dip chicken in buttermilk, then coat both sides with cracker mixture.
4. Place chicken on rack on baking sheet.
5. Bake @ 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Crock Pot Cream Cheese and Black Bean Chicken

I got this recipe off of Magnolias, Marriage, and Manhattan and I made it last week. It was SO GOOD and SO EASY! I am loving my crock pot so much these days because it makes cooking a healthy meal really simple. And the good news is that we found out Charlotte's a huge fan of salsa because she was downing the salsa and black beans and when she had sucked all the salsa off she was spitting out the black beans. As a sidenote, I'm afraid my child is never going to eat any table food veggies! :) Also, I would have had a picture but I realized when I checked the picture after dinner that my memory card was in the computer and not the camera when I was taking pictures with it. Sorry!


Cream Cheese and Black Bean Chicken
4-5 chicken breasts
2 cans of rinsed and drained black beans
4 oz cream cheese
2 cups salsa (I used mild)
Spice Options: taco seasoning, chili pepper, garlic powder, crushed red peppers
Throw salsa, chicken and beans into crock pot for 6-8 hours until chicken is falling apart. At the very end, add cream cheese until it melts (about 15 minutes). Stir. Serve.
We served ours plain, but you could use it as a filling in a tortilla or over rice.

Pork with Veggies

Since we started participating with Grow Alabama in January we have been eating a lot more vegetables because we are getting them weekly. The past two weeks we have gotten squash and root vegetables and so I decided to come up with a recipe to use them. This recipe is my creation....it was very good and very, very simple. The beautiful thing is that if you don't like the seasonings that I used you can vary them to suit your tastes. This would also be a great recipe with chicken instead of pork or if you wanted to eliminate the meat and just cook this as a side it would be wonderful. I will list the recipe as I made it but feel free to substitute out veggies for ones that you like. Although, I will say, turnips are the forgotten vegetable! They taste very similar to potatoes and are very good!
Pork with Veggies
One container thin sliced pork chops (mine had 5 small chops in it)
5-6 Small to medium sized Squash
2 large Turnips
6-8 medium sized carrots
Olive Oil
One small box of chicken broth
Onion Seasoning Packet
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
Garlic Powder
1. Trim fat from pork and lay on the bottom of the slow cooker. Season meat with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder (lightly coat tops of meat).
2. Cut vegetables into bite sized pieces (peel turnips and carrots first if fresh). Throw veggies in plastic bag as you are cutting them.
3. Mix 1/2 cup olive oil with packet of onion seasoning.
4. Pour onion mix over vegetables and move around in plastic bag to coat all of them evenly.
5. Pour veggies over meat in slow cooker.
6. Add chicken broth until meat and veggies are covered.
7. Cook on high for 3 hours (or low for approximately 6 hours).