Southern cooking – Page 11 – Camellia's Cottage

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Camellia's Cottage · 4 Comments

The Little Things…

A Sprig of Mint. A squeeze of Lemon. A Johnny Jump Up. A Change of Throw Pillows. Fresh Ground Black Pepper or Paprika. A few slices of Raisin Bread and a Cake Donut or two. A Simple Syrup. A Dozen Stuffed Eggs. A Single Bud in a Tiny Vase. Mysterious but Common Ingredients. A Relish Tray. A Flat of Bedding Plants. A Monogram on Anything! A Splash of Spirits. A Small Gift in Extravagant Wrappings. A bit of Moss or even an odd Stone. A Flavored Butter. A Handwritten Note. A Bundle of Herbs. The Zest of an Orange.

It’s the Little Things that add an unexpected flavor to life and cost next to nothing in time or money. In the South I grew up in- the Little Things were just what we did. It was a sign of hospitality to add the Little Things to a Meal, a Recipe or a Home. It was that subtle difference- Sheets hung out on a clothesline smell different than those run through a dryer. One perfect camellia floating in a crystal bowl, a monogrammed guest towel, or using the good china or silver just because you dropped by for a visit. The Small Things make a guest feel welcome and make house feel like a home.

With Spring in the air, I changed out the throw pillows in my living room, from the soft grays and creams, I enjoy so much in winter- I added the vintage shades of green linen pillows brought a bit of Springtime indoors.

I bought some Bedding Plants for the garden but since they were Begonias, I knew I could enjoy them inside for a while and plant them after Easter – with Good Friday being a day that many did their vegetable planting. For less than ten dollars and a bit of moss, I was able to fill several containers with fresh blooms, the little things made such a difference.

To keep meals interesting, Southerners have always added a little something to the table like relish trays of pickles, relishes, celery stuffed with pimento cheese, sliced tomatoes and the beloved Stuffed Eggs in a highly prized Egg Dish especially for them. And Southern ladies will monogram anything that will stay still long enough- Hand towels, pillows, linens- and aren’t these dishes pretty? I saw them when I was at Williams Sonoma recently. Monograms are a small thing but add a personal touch to almost anything.

We also perk up meals with spices and sauces- A favorite here is Parisienne Chicken which has a Paprika Sauce-

Boneless chicken breasts are sprinkled liberally with paprika, then dredged in flour, a pinch of salt and even more paprika-
Brown chicken in melted butter,
Slice potatoes over the chicken and entire bunch of green onions are chopped over the potatoes,
A rich chicken broth is poured about half way up the Dutch Oven and the whole thing is baked about an hour or so.
The chicken and potatoes are removed to a platter with steamed broccoli. Reserve half of the rich red broth in another container.
Mix together a carton of sour cream and a small softened package of cream cheese, the whisk into the hot broth.

This Paprika Sauce is so wonderful, you will want to smother everything except for the small Orange Rolls served alongside. Add a Lettuce Cup of Orange Sections, folks will think you’ve been trained at the Cordon Bleu when it is really just the Small Things which make this meal delicious.

*With the reserved rich red broth- there is another Paprika Sauce for Seafood–

Warm the broth, add a pinch of dried thyme, the juice and zest of a lemon, a tablespoon of white wine or brandy and again whisk in a carton of sour cream you may also add a tablespoon of capers. This Paprika Sauce is amazing over broiled, baked or fried fish such as Red Snapper.

You will not believe the difference in flavor a Small Thing like chopped Italian meats will make in your favorite Italian Spaghetti Sauce, it almost melts away, it is one of those Mysterious but Common Ingredients! Baked Ham is a staple in the Southern Kitchen- and while we loved our spiced honey glaze, I recently pulled a spiral sliced ham from the freezer and made a Black Pepper Ham–

I baked it according to directions (which is basically to heat a fully cooked ham all the through) covered in foil –
Then I tossed away the glaze package, remove the Ham from the oven-open up the foil and instead mixed the ham juices with more than a cup of Black Pepper-
I coated the outside of the ham and ran it back in the oven for 15 minutes

The Black Pepper Ham was so good with sliced tomatoes, potato salad, green beans and soft yeast rolls. For another meal, the sliced ham was just wonderful tucked inside homemade biscuits. Later in the week, I sautéed a whole head of cabbage in a bit of bacon drippings and added some of the chopped Black Pepper Ham- with Pinto Beans and Cornbread, it was delicious! The addition of Black Pepper was a Small Thing that made a world of difference.

A Raisin Bread Pudding is a Southern favorite, and here the addition of Small Things takes a Bread Pudding from just good to amazing. For this one, I had a half loaf of Cinnamon Raisin Bread, four large cinnamon and sugar Cake Donuts kept in the freezer instead of tossing!

When thawed, the ‘breads’ were torn or broken into chunks. In a bowl I mixed 3-4 eggs, 1/2 cup of sugar and 3 cups of milk with a tablespoon of vanilla. In a larger bowl I soaked the mixture overnight. *There was no need to add cinnamon or salt to the raisin bread and donuts.
The next day I baked off the Bread Pudding in a large greased baking pan. While the Bread Pudding was hot, I poured an Orange Hard Sauce made with a stick of melted Butter, the zest of an Orange and the juice, 3-4 tablespoons of Honey and a tablespoon of Bourbon which had been whisked together. The Sauce could have just been Butter and Honey- however the Little Things like orange zest and a splash of spirits elevated a humble Bread Pudding!

Fresh Mint is always on hand in the Southern garden- add it to simple flowers for a fresh scent, coat the leaves with dark chocolate and keep them in tight container in the refrigerator and add them to a dessert, a plate of cookies or top a bowl of fresh strawberries.

Even a plain Glass of Water can be elevated by adding Little Things like a tablespoon of simple Sugar Syrup, a sweet Johnny Jump Up and a Sprig of fresh Mint- why we had these at Ice Water Teas years ago! Mother Teresa famously said- ‘Do no great things, only small things with great love.‘ I hope you will be inspired to follow her advice!

Love y’all, Camellia

*all photographs are obviously mine.

Posted on March 24, 2017May 14, 2020 by Camellia's Cottage · 12 Comments

Peaches…

It is a known fact that the closer you live to a Peach Tree, the better your life will be… Now, calm down- we don’t have ripe peaches here yet; though fruit tree farmers are anxiously watching the buds and blossoms, the wind and the weather in hopes of a big harvest of peaches and all of the rest of us are too. We cannot wait for the first peaches, to peel a peach and let the juices run down your arm while biting into a fresh peach the color of our sunsets is …well, it’s indescribable. We Southerners try to figure out a way to eat peaches all year round- Fresh, Dried, Fried and Pickled- we love peaches, we love the color, the smell, the flavor. We love Peach Cobblers, Fresh Peach Cake, Homemade Peach Ice Cream, Pickled Peaches and Fried Peach Pies. If it has a Peach in it, well it’s bound to be good! Some of my favorite childhood memories contain Peaches. My Uncle Charles owned a commercial Ice House- he would actually let us sit up in the Ice House on big blocks of ice to get cool in the summer, our shorts would stick to the blocks of ice while we were drinking icy co-colas and laughing amid a few watermelons and cases of bottled cokes he had put there to chill. The Ice Trucks would back up to the Ice House and load up for deliveries while we scooted out of the way; and Uncle Charles had a prolific Peach Tree. We loved going there. He had plenty of ice for cranking out Homemade Ice Cream and when the peaches were ripe, Uncle Charles would get out the ladder and pick ripe Peaches to go with it. You can imagine how good Homemade Ice Cream is with Fresh Peaches and my grandmother’s Pound Cake! Also, women in my family and our neighborhood would go to the Farmer’s Market and buy Peaches by the bushels to put them up so we could have them all year round.

Another one of my favorite Peach stories comes from a friend who told me her family generally had big peach crops from the few trees they had; they didn’t want to lose a single peach- her mother came up with a method to dry the peaches– setting up old screen doors on saw horses. The older kids helped prepare the peaches and laid them on the screens set in the sun, while the younger ones took turns fanning the flies and brushing off ants. The production took several days of turning and drying and fanning during the day, then covering the peaches with clean sheets at night. One year the peaches were ripe, but the weather wasn’t cooperating- so my friend’s mother came up with a plan- they would run the screens into her daddy’s old Station Wagon with the back seat put down and close up the peaches inside. No fanning flies, no ants, no weather problems, no covering and uncovering with sheets! They had perfect bags of dried peaches to enjoy throughout the year until peaches were ripe again. The added bonus was that the old station wagon smelled like peaches for months afterward! Ingenious. I. Love. Dried. Peaches. Almost as much as fresh peaches. There is almost nothing better than a Fried Pie made with dried peaches that have been stewed with a bit of sugar!

They are wonderful alone but made into a Fried Pie, well you haven’t lived until you’ve eaten a Fried Pie! We don’t put a bunch of powdered sugar or drizzle them with icing where I’m from. During Winter Holidays and Easter you could always count on Relish Tray that included Pickled Peaches. Pickled Peaches aren’t easy to find, I’ve been looking. I found a very old recipe for them- using the dreaded canned store bought peaches, I tweaked the recipe a bit and my Home Tester declares them to be just like he remembers- high praise since his mother and grandmother served them often, like my own did.

Spiced Pickled Peaches

1 large can of cling peach halves (1lb. 13 oz. can)
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon green peppercorns (use black if you don’t have green)
½-1 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg (please don’t use powdered!)
1 cinnamon stick
Pour syrup from can of peaches into a saucepan (reserving peaches) Add sugar, vinegar, spices and bring syrup to a boil, then pour over reserved peaches in a container with a top. Cover and cool. Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving. Wonderful on a Relish Tray served with baked ham, roast turkey or fried chicken. Warning: This does not make a large batch you may want to double or triple the recipe. And please don’t eat the spices!

I found Imported Fresh Peaches which looked more like nectarines to me at the grocery store, I took a beauty shot but passed them up in favor of waiting for fresh Alabama Peaches!

And what fun to find some Peach Colored Roses! My favorite were called Tropicana Roses- My Going Away Suit when I was married was a dark peach colored wool suit, my grandmother had made a Nosegay of Tropicana Roses for me. Sweet Memory. Is it any wonder I’m partial to Peaches? Southerners love our Peaches- Fresh, Fried, Dried or Pickled. Okay, so I’m gonna go eat me one of those Fried Peach Pies….

Love y’all, Camellia

*A Relish Tray is a southern name for a small platter of extras found on almost every Southern special occasion or Sunday dinner table.
*We say co-colas no matter what brand they are and we never say soft drinks or soda pop! My Uncle Charles had those little green returnable glass bottle Coca Colas® in wooden cases, we had a really wonderful game of looking on the bottom to see where the co-cola had been bottled, the one who had the bottle the farthest away from Alabama won! Hey, we could literally make fun out of nothing back then sitting in an Ice House on a hot summer day.
*A Going Away Suit- is another name for the garment a bride wore for her honeymoon.
*While Georgia does grow peaches, Alabama has her very own Peach Park near Clanton and across the South some of the finest peaches in the world are grown.

Posted on March 13, 2017May 18, 2020 by Camellia's Cottage · 47 Comments

Southern Pound Cakes…

Southern Pound Cakes are the standard bearer of civilized Southern Society. You can hold your head up high if there is a pound cake in the house, especially if you have perfected pound cakes made by your ancestors. It is considered treasonous to proclaim another person’s pound cake is better than your momma’s. The Southern obsession with good manners, genteel living and our thinly disguised ancestor worship may be summed up in the humble Southern Pound Cake. ‘This pound cake was mah momma’s recipe and her muhtha before her- why mah family’s been making pound cakes for at least 7 generations. If ah’m not badly mistaken it was one of her ancestors who brought the first pound cake over on the Mayflower or they surely would’ve starved to death!’ We can say that without shame or the benefit of DNA testing – because we know who we think we are! We know our pound cakes are the best if our mommas made it- the crumb must be microscopically fine, the texture must be moist, tender, baked to perfection and long lasting, just look at the texture-

Southern Pound Cakes are high in fat content- the term ‘livin’ high on the hog’– means you have an all butter Southern Pound Cake in the house! The Southern standard of excellence in pound cake baking is to carry on the all-important tradition of being able to entertain at a moment’s notice. To have a pound cake in the freezer or to send a pound cake to any and all joyous occasions and a Southern Pound Cake for uplifting sustenance during bereavement is an inherited skill. Bake a pound cake and you’re ready for anything life throws your way.

Bake a pound cake and you will hear– ‘Mah ancestral muh-thas were known to have beaus swarming from all the surroundin’ counties just to get one taste of those delectable pound cakes! Make a pound cake and men will flock around like a murder of crows!’ So, one of our closely guarded secrets is out– Men love pound cakes and will worship the women who bake them. Southern Pound Cake bakers don’t need dating advice or ancestry sites- we just need to have a third or fourth generation recipe for a Southern Pound cake! And…if you have several variations of that recipe- let’s just say…it’s very effective. Well before a Southern lady was rulin’ the world rockin’ the cradle, she was wielding a silver handled cake knife over an array of pound cakes!

We also know this to be a fact, if a Southern Belle is incapable of outrageous flirting or holding up her end of the conversation, when she sweetly says-‘Would anyone like a sl-eye-ce of pound cake?’ – all eyes will rivet toward the Belle with the silver cake server shining like new money. We southern girls invented the concept of the way to get to a man is through his stomach. My own grandmother’s pound cake recipe was delicious plain but- she had at least four killer variations! Recently we had a birthday at Camellia’s Cottage- the birthday boy wanted a Chocolate Pound Cake with Chocolate Glaze. Months before his actual birthday, he ventured very carefully into the sensitive subject of pound cakes-

‘Now you know I think your pound cake is the best in the world but I was just wondering if you evah make a chocolate pound cake? I was actually dreamin’ of one that had a chocolate glaze on top!’ The answer was quick and sure, ‘Why yes, GiGi made chocolate pound cakes for special occasions and always gilded the lily with a chocolate glaze!’ Because of his sincerity and genteel request, Ah’ve re-named this one- Deke’s Decadent Pound Cake– that boy was proud as punch of the chocolate pound cake of his dreams!

Chocolate Pound Cake is one of my grandmother’s variations- another variation was:

GiGi’s Coconut Pound cake. Grated Coconut was added to the batter- and always flavored with Almond Extract. After the tube pan was greased, instead of flouring the pan- the tube pan was coated heavily with finely grated coconut. This outstanding version came out of the oven with Toasty Coconut on the sides and bottom. GiGi’s Coconut Pound cake was wonderful during the Holidays alongside Southern Orange Ambrosia.
Another variation to the plain Southern Pound Cake is the substitution of Lemon Extract, then finished with a Thick White Lemon Glaze; sip a glass of lemonade or a long tall iced tea with Heavenly Lemon Glazed Pound Cake
Still another variation was a family favorite that I’ve never found in any Southern cookbook. The batter is GiGi’s plain pound cake- along with vanilla extract, then for the killer variation- Bourbon is added to flavor the batter. Grease and flour as usual except for the bottom of the tube pan- at least a half stick of melted Salted Butter is p0ured in along with 2 cups of pecans. Don’t get any ideas that this variation is like those Yankee Sticky Buns- this is a Southern Salted Pecan Pound Cake. A man will lay down his life for just one slice of the Salted Pecan, so ladies please don’t trifle with a man’s affections if you aren’t serious.

I must tell you that in civilized gatherings Strawberry Shortcake is made with Plain Southern Pound Cake, topped with lightly sugared fresh strawberries and fresh whipped cream, that’s the right way to make it. Do not use those dried out grocery store shells or Cat Head biscuits. To use a Cat Head biscuit with sugar on top for Strawberry Shortcake is just plain laziness.

Gigi’s Plain Pound Cake has 3 sticks of salted butter creamed with 3 cups of sugar, 8 large eggs added one at a time, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and at least ½ teaspoon of almond extract. Sift together at least three times- 1 ½ cups of all purpose flour and 1 ½ cups of cake flour, then fold the flour into the butter, sugar and egg mixture- do this as lightly as you can. Do not use a mixer to do this step.The batter will be thick. Prepare a tube pan with parchment paper on the bottom, then the sides and bottom are greased with butter, then floured. Scoop the thick batter in, smooth the batter out lightly and evenly before baking in a 325ºoven.Bake for one hour, test with a toothpick, just know that the pound cake will most likely need to be baked another 15 minutes. Let cool until cake pulls away from the sides on it’s own. Do not force the pound cake from the pan. Run a knife carefully around the tube. Remove the pound cake with the top side up. Cool completely on a wire rack.

It is tempting to eat a piece of hot pound cake- please note this is uncivilized, even uncouth; though eating a slice of pound cake for breakfast is an exceptional luxury. Now, you may have noticed that there is not one drop of Milk in GiGi’s recipe- butter is the only dairy product included. My grandmother collected recipes for Sour Cream Pound Cake and Cream Cheese Pound Cake but she never veered from her own perfect Southern Pound Cake. She believed that milk or cream in any form- made a pound cake tough which tended to make the cake dry out quicker. Also, I know she suspected that a Cream Cheese Pound Cake was made by some woman who had made an unholy alliance sometime during or after that unpleasant conflict with the Yankees. Since it is a well known fact that Philadelphia is the home of American Cream Cheese…do I have to spell it out for you? Though some women insisted that their Cream Cheese came from Philadelphia Mississippi, still we aren’t going to mess with GiGi’s ancestral pound cake recipe! Though I do have to admit that I have had cream cheese and sour cream pound cakes that are exceptionally good! By now, I am sure you are completely convinced that we are crazy in Alabama- well we are crazy, we’re crazy ’bout Southern Pound Cakes in all of their glory and variations!

Deke’s Decadent Chocolate Pound Cake

Now you know those are some beautiful Southern Pound Cakes!

Love y’all, Camellia

*photographs are obviously mine! A big thank you to Deke for letting me photograph a slice of Deke’s Decadent Chocolate Pound Cake!

Posted on February 28, 2017January 14, 2020 by Camellia's Cottage · 17 Comments

Of Real Roux and Faux Beignets…

‘First you make a roux.’ Those five words are enough to make even the most accomplished cooks cower in fear and turn the page in a cookbook. Now you know I love cookbooks as literature. I’ve warned you to beware that when ladies are sharing ‘held in the vault family recipes’ there is almost always a teeny tiny technique or one absolutely critical ingredient that is inadvertently left out. I firmly believe it. I have wrestled a mouth watering recipe from an amazing cook more than once, only to find myself saying- ‘Well, mine was good but darlin’ nobody can make it like you do!’ – that’s music to her ear! She knows it isn’t as good as hers because she left out at least one tiny little detail.

It’s tradition. It ain’t right, but some secrets are meant to be kept intact, like- ‘First you make a roux.’ They know most folks can’t make it. A real roux isn’t just a flour paste, I cringe when I see cooking show chefs mix flour and butter together into a pale sickly looking flour paste- and call it a roux. A flour paste is pale and the basis for a bechamel sauce or a white sauce- I repeat, this is not a real roux. A real roux is magic, it adds an indefinable layer of flavor. A real roux takes a good long while if you do it right.

You brown the flour and bacon grease to just the right shade of dark chocolate brown, like in the pan above. It’s not too pretty but it’s gonna taste amazing. If it is too pale, well it tastes like raw flour. On the other hand, if it turns brownish black- Here is what you might read in the recipe- ‘First you make a roux by stirring flour and bacon grease together into a dark brown paste. If it burns, throw it out and start all over.’

Right.
Turn the page.
Run, don’t walk.
Who has time for this?

So, I’m going to share a secret for making a real roux.

Spread all purpose flour on parchment paper in a shallow layer on a baking sheet
Brown the raw flour in a 350 degree oven until dark golden brown, about 3-5 minutes shaking every so often.
Put flour in a jar with a tight fitting lid if you make recipes calling for a roux often-
Or use a zip lock bag for the browned flour in the freezer. This is what it looks like:

If you ever run across a recipe that calls for a real roux, honey you are ready for it! You still have to hover over it a bit when you stir it into bacon grease in a medium heat pan, now, don’t get all healthy on me here! Bacon Grease is a gift from the cooking goddesses. If you mix it this way with the oven browned flour, most of the hard work is done. Another tip: any decent Creole or Cajun food which calls for a roux will almost always have the trinity of sautéed chopped onion, diced bell pepper and chopped celery. There are dozens and dozens of recipes for Jambalaya and Gumbo out there, yours will have that magic unmistakable flavor if you make a real roux with the sautéed trinity. Here’s what a jambalaya looks like with a browned roux –

Now, I don’t know about you, but if I’m anywhere near the Big Easy, the first thing I want is a batch of Beignets at Café du Monde with a strong cup of chicory coffee- pure heaven on the table! With all the talk of Mardi Gras, I’ve been dying for some Beignets!

Now, there are shortcuts and there are shortcuts- some shortcuts like browning the flour in the oven for a real roux actually makes sense. This shortcut will not result in the unmistakable flavor and ambience of Café du Monde; it will satisfy a craving pretty quick and it makes no sense at all! A lot of cooks wouldn’t dream of buying canned biscuits that you whomp on the edge of a counter for morning biscuits.. Southern cooks often sneak them in their grocery buggy, then hide them again in back of the refrigerator. Why? Because actually plain cheap canned biscuits are one of the South’s Secret Ingredients. Let’s get this clear first-I wouldn’t touch canned biscuits for breakfast, brunch or a buffet, only real hand cut biscuits will do. As a crust for Fried Pies-canned biscuits rolled out, filled with rehydrated dried peaches or apples, crimped around the edges, then fried in shallow oil- canned biscuit dough comes out perfect every time!

And… you can make a passable Faux Beignet if you take round canned biscuit dough-

Flatten it slightly
Trim it into a square
Pop it into hot oil
Let the square dough rise to the top
Turn and brown on the other side
Drain on paper towels
Dust heavily with powdered sugar.

The secret to Faux Beignets is to buy the plain cheap kind of dough, not the ‘buttery’ or the ‘flaky’ or the ‘buttermilk’ canned biscuits. Like I said, it’s not New Orleans or Café du Monde but these Faux Beignets are real close to the real deal. And if you’re feeling ambitious, poke a hole in the center of each canned biscuit– fry as for the Faux Beignet and dust with either powdered sugar or a mix of cinnamon sugar for Faux Donut. Hey, it’s Fried dough with sugar, I double dog dare you to try it. Yum!

Love y’all, Camellia

*All photographs are obviously mine, but on the bright side- the food was made right here at Camellia’s Cottage!

Posted on February 20, 2017May 14, 2020 by Camellia's Cottage · 7 Comments

Southern Cheese Custard Pie…

This is settled fact- the closer you are to someone who can make Southern Custard Pies, the better your life will be. The smoothness of a plain Sweet Egg Custard pie or a ragged Coconut Custard pie conjures up the most soothing Southern comfort imaginable. Southerners are no strangers to Savory pies- we love our Chicken Pot Pies, Summer Tomato Pies, Crawfish Pies and our hand held Meat Pies, but one Savory pie has eluded us during this day and age, because somewhere in our youth or childhood, a Southern Cheese Custard pie became an upscale lady’s luncheon or a miniature party food- and it was called by a fancy French name- Quiche. At country clubs or cobbled lane cafes, at private parties- the cheese custard pie was elevated and re-named to reflect the French Influence over our rustic home cooked food to newly fashionable Southern cuisine. In my older cookbooks- I have found Cheese Custard pies which are slightly different from what we now know as Quiche, and frankly I have recently tried making fillings with the standard quiche piecrust or the old style cheese custard pie with a buttery cracker crumb crust. The old style crumb crust tastes better and lighter to me. Think of the difference between a graham cracker crust and pie crust; then think of a cross between a casserole and a pie, then add eggs, cheese, gentle spices and savory sautéed vegetables then baked to oozing perfection, well I’m drooling writing this! And ladies, listen up! When you call it a Cheese Custard pie instead of a Quiche- well, believe me, real men won’t just eat it- they will finish off every last crumb.

The Cracker Crust is always the same-

Crush one sleeve of buttery crackers (not saltines)
Melt 5 Tablespoons of butter (no substitutes!)
Mix together and press firmly into an 8 or 9 inch pie plate (think graham cracker crust for sweet pies)
Do not pre-bake.

While the cracker crumb/butter cools down, mix Savory Filling. Now, here is where it gets interesting- you can basically raid your refrigerator for the filling-as long as the ratios are right you are good to go. The constant is:

2 Large Eggs
3/4 cup of sour cream or cottage cheese and-
At least 12 ounces of some sort of hard cheese.

If your vegetables need to be sautéed or parboiled do that- onions, squash, mushrooms, green peas, broccoli, spinach are all good choices, you will need one cup total after lightly cooking the vegetables you choose. You do not have to add meat in a Southern Savory Cheese Pie, though most call for chopped ham or bacon, even shrimp- all of which add so much to the flavor. For this Southern Spring Savory Pie,

I made the Cracker Crumb Crust.
I preheated the oven to 375º
Then I chopped 1/4 cup of fresh Green Onion Tops and 3/4 cup of parboiled, drained Asparagus Spears, cut in one inch pieces- don’t measure- just eyeball it!
I used 5 slices of crisp Bacon rough chopped.
I had about 6 ounces of Swiss Cheese and a little more than 6 ounces of Muenster Cheese, which I grated. *Here the measurement is not critical but don’t go over 12-14 ounces.
In a bowl, I lightly whipped 2 large eggs
Then added 3/4 cup of sour cream
Next, I added grated cheeses, the green onion tops and asparagus
Add salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. Stir.
Then I added the chopped Bacon, gently stirred into the thick mixture.

I carefully poured the thick mixture into the cracker crumb crust, sprinkled lightly with red pepper flakes, then baked in the preheated oven for 30-35 minutes. Let Spring Cheese Custard pie cool for at least 5 minutes, before cutting into 6-8 slices, since it is a rich pie.

With this Southern Cheese Custard Pie, I served Oven Roasted Shrimp, thinly sliced Navel Oranges on a bed of lettuce with a dessert of Strawberry Shortcakes. A slice of this pie and a citrusy fruit salad would also be a nice luncheon. The variations are endless. Let me repeat, the closer you live to someone who can make sweet or savory Southern Custard pies, the better your life will be!

Love y’all, Camellia

* Ritz® or Townhouse® crackers are good choices Photographs are obviously mine.

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