TheIrishLady

Sweet Potato Casserole, Countdown to Thanksgiving I

Posted on November 12, 2011November 13, 2011 by TheIrishLady in Cooking

Having finalized the menu and made the grocery list, this will be a great time to prepare those casseroles or items that you have on the menu that freeze well. Go ahead and purchase your non-perishables such as the baking items and casserole ingredients. Cross those off your list and start baking and freezing for goodness sake! This will leave time for the fun part which are the table setting ; embellishments; and, of course, your loved ones! Below you will find the recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole. Enjoy!

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE

Ingredients: (I always double the ingredients.)

Casserole

2 Eggs

1 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla

1/2 Cup Milk

1/2 Salt

1/3 Cup Soft Butter

1 Large Can Sweet Potatoes (29 ounces)

Topping

3/4 Cup Soft Butter

2/3 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cup Chopped Pecans

1/2 Cup Flour

Preparation:

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees. Drain and then mash your sweet potatoes with a potato masher. Add the rest of ingredients and stir. Spray casserole dish with cooking spray. Add ingredients and smooth. Do not add topping. Bake for 45 minutes. In the meantime, add all of the topping ingredients in a bowl and stir lightly to create a crumbly mixture. (Stirring too much will make a paste.) Remove from oven and then add topping. Bake for another 15 minutes. Serve or cool completely, wrap in foil and freeze. (Remember to thaw before reheating.)

Pleasant Bohannon Collins, Veteran

Posted on November 11, 2011November 12, 2011 by TheIrishLady in Sharing

My great great grandfather Pleasant Bohanon Collins was a Civil War Veteran and a prisoner of war who fought as a Son of the Confederacy. There, I said it, it may not be politically correct these days; but, at one time the Sons of the South and the Sons of the Union would have reunions because they respected one another. There was an admiration between the soldiers on both sides because they knew what each had endured. Also, a tinge of regret for what happened during the ten years deemed as reconstruction which was really retaliation and retribution for President Lincoln’s asassination. Pleasant Bohannon Collins never owned a slave nor did he aspire to own slaves. He fought the war as most southerners did, not for slavery, but to end the surge of The North into the government of the southern states.

At twenty-one he left the farm and joined the Confederate Army in 1861. When he was asked how many he had shot during the war, he replied that he didn’t know because ‘so many were lined up shooting and so many were lined up dying’. He never knew what his shot struck but he was known as a “sure shot ” when squirrel hunting.

Fighting in the infantry in Richmond, in what was called “The Seven Day’s Fight”, the line he marched in was firing on command when hit by cannon fire. His eardrum burst. In the excitement, he was unable to hear the command to file in and was hit by a brass mini ball. When he came to, he recalled the ‘terrible thirst’ and how he wandered around disoriented for a while. He must have fallen out again when he was rolled off his blanket by a childhood friend thinking he was dead. He might have been had his fellow soldiers not needed his blanket themselves. They made a litter, a type of cot, out of the blanket and carried him to the hospital where the doctor made an incision in his back and removed the ball which had pierced the top of his lung. This hospital was captured by the Union Army. Pleasant, or PB as he was known, was transported by train to Illinois and placed in a federal hospital. He and another prisoner, with only one leg, escaped and headed south as fast as they could travel by night. He never shirked his duties as he fought in many battles before being wounded and captured. There is no disgrace in how he served his country nor is there any disgrace in fighting for freedom against tyranny whether political or religious.

PB was eighty-six when he died. He outlived three wives and had ten children all together. I am one of his descendants.

Something Simple – Banana Pudding

Posted on November 10, 2011March 1, 2013 by TheIrishLady in Cooking

Since I am considered the keeper of my mom’s recipes, often I receive requests for those recipes. When my sons requested this for dessert; I thought of my mother and how her simple home cooked meals were magic in the kitchen to her grand kids. Something as simple as Banana Pudding can make a treasured memory to a child or even grown ups. It is all done up in minutes and in the same bowl my mother used. This post isn’t so much about banana pudding but more about reminding us that simple things are just as wonderful to our loved ones. Here it is, I challenge you to make a memory, or at least a smile, with something simple from your own kitchen.

Ingredients:

8 Cups Milk

2 Small Boxes Banana Pudding

1 Box Mini Vanilla Wafers

3 Bananas

Cool Whip (we like ours plain)

Preparation:

Whisk Milk and Pudding Mix until pudding forms, Place Mini Wafers at bottom of bowl, Layer Bananas, Add Pudding, Layer Wafers, Layer Bananas. Add Cool Whip if you like.

The first layers look like this:

Two Weeks Away!

Posted on November 10, 2011 by TheIrishLady in Cooking

The Gobbler Awaits! (Wow, I need a better camera!)

If you are on the Thanksgiving countdown, it’s two weeks away. I thought you might appreciate my method of preventing madness for the Day of Thanks. You’ll be thankful if you start now and enjoy the process. Here is what I am working on today:

1. Get Your Recipes Together

I ask for faves and try a at least one new recipe each year which is usually a dessert. This year will be a little different since I am not eating sugar or white foods. I will be preparing them for my family but need to add something appealing to me with no carbs so I won’t be tempted. I like this part. Enjoying cookbooks, time-worn family recipes, magazines and input from my family is part of our tradition leading up to the holiday.

2. Finalize the Menu

Deciding on a traditional Thanksgiving in The South consists of: will I have just turkey or turkey and ham or both; stuffed bird or dressing; and, how many desserts? The rest fits in nicely under side dishes. Here is our traditional menu which includes everyone’s preferences and sometimes causes duplicates but in a different form; i.e., cranberry sauce:

Turkey (one to serve and one to render broth and meat for the dressing)

Dressing (the cornbread, sage, poultry seasoning kind that no one knows of a written recipe – you just make it like Mom)

Casseroles (broccoli cheese, sweet potato and corn)

Cranberry Sauce (homemade, whole and jelly)

Fruit Salad (plain and sometimes with nuts or whipping cream but no bananas)

Bread (yeast rolls in our house with real butter)

Desserts (Pecan Tarts, Cheesecake, Pumpkin Pie and that is it this year. I can’t handle anymore with the diet thing.)

Low Carb (Turkey, green beans, special pumpkin pie and green salad should carry me without temptation for leftovers.)

3. Make the Grocery List

I divide everything into sections; for example,

Produce

Celery, Onions, Lettuce, Broccoli, Sweet Potatoes, Cranberries, Apples, Oranges, Pineapple, Green Beans, Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Green Onions

Baking Needs With Spices

Cornbread Mix or Corn Meal, Yeast, Flour, Pecans, Pumpkin, Sugar

Nutmeg, Vanilla, Pumpkin Spice, Sage, Poultry Seasoning (Just a reminder, I have ample on hand year round)

Dairy

Butter, Eggs, Milk, Heavy Whipping Cream, Cheeses

Frozen

Broccoli, Corn, Rolls (Just a suggestion, I like to use fresh when it really is fresh and rolls if I don’t have time but they still need time to rise if you buy the yeast rolls in the freezer case.)

Canned

Pumpkin, Corn, Sweet Potatoes (You decide: fresh or canned.)

Relishes and Dressings

Green Olives, Black Olives, Pickles, Mayonnaise, Salad Dressing

Meat

Two Turkeys (one large for serving and one to make dressing. If you don’t have room wait until the week before and refrigerate. Big note to self – it takes days to thaw a turkey. I missed that one year and had a late dinner with a tough turkey.)

Breads and Chips

Sandwich Bread, Croissants or whatever you like and Chips for Turkey Sandwiches on Black Friday!

Utensils

Basters, Measuring Cups, Aluminum Roasting Pans (You decide what you don’t have.)

Just add your recipes and ingredients to my plan and you should be well on your way to success. I will be adding new recipes in the following days for the things I am preparing.