Pioneer Woman's Favorite Recipe

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, February 06, 2022

 


I've been making Texas Sheet Cake since the 70's when my mother gave me the recipe because all of her friends were making it and raving about it.  Well, our family loved it too and even now, it's our favorite, and one of the easiest cakes to make, no mixer required.

When Pioneer Woman started talking about it, I was just shaking my head, thinking, umhmmmm, I know all about this, I could recite the recipe by heart.  So naturally I had to compare her recipe with mine, and here's how it stacks up. 

  • Bake in a 9x13 pan, because we like thick cake, not thin.  It takes it 30-35 minutes to bake
  • Use a whisk to combine ingredients, easier than stirring and does a thorough job
  • The more chocolate the better,  so I increased the cocoa to 6 tablespoons in the cake
  • I used 1/2 teaspoon of salt
  • I also add more pecans, a lot more to the frosting, at least a cup.  If you're going to make this, make it over the top delicious by being generous with your nuts. 
  • Use an entire box of sifted powdered sugar 
  • Decrease the vanilla to 1 teaspoon
  • Add 1 cup of coconut to the frosting
Her recipe is below, the tweaks above is how I've made it forever.

Here's my original detailed recipe that I posted to this site several years ago

CAKE

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks butter
4 heaping tablespoons cocoa
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla

FROSTING

1 3/4 sticks butter
1/2 cup pecans finely chopped, optional
6 tablespoons milk
4 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pound minus 1/2 cup powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS

Cake:

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl.

In a saucepan, melt the butter and 4 heaping tablespoons cocoa. Stir together.

Add 1 cup boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.

In measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, beaten eggs, baking soda and vanilla.

Stir the buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture.

Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350°F for 18 to 20 minutes.

Frosting:

While the cake is baking, melt the butter, then stir in cocoa powder, milk, vanilla, powdered sugar and pecans (if using).

Pour over warm cake.



Ina Garten's Most Famous Recipe, Beatty's Chocolate Cake

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, February 05, 2022

 

If there is one cake that you should make in your lifetime, this is it!  Ina Garten's famous Beatty's Chocolate Cake dates back to 2006.  It's worth the trouble, the flavors are amazing, the hint of mocha just take it over the top.  It’s very moist without being dense or heavy, and has just the right balance of sweetness with rich chocolate flavor. I can see why this is a beloved recipe, 

What a great cake to make for a special occasion, a birthday, a holiday or just because you want to bake something amazing...

  • 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ¾ cups good cocoa powder, such as Valrhona
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 cup buttermilk, shaken
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee
  • Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 8-inch round cake pans (for cupcakes, see note). Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. (Not to worry; the top will sink a little in the center.)

Place one layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread a thin layer of buttercream on the top only. Place the second layer on top, flat side up, and spread the frosting evenly first on the sides and then on the top of the cake. Cut in wedges and serve at room temperature.

Note: For cupcakes, reduce bake time to 25-30 minutes.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (frosts one cake, or 12 cupcakes)

  • 6 ounces good semisweet chocolate, such as Valrhona (see note)
  • ½ pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 extra-large egg yolk, at room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1¼ cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, such as Nescafe

Chop the chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl over a pan over simmering water. Stir until justmelted and set aside until cooled to room temperature.

Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light yellow and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue beating for 3 minutes. Turn the mixer to low, gradually add the confectioners’ sugar, then beat at medium speed, scraping down the bowl as necessary, until smooth and creamy. Dissolve the coffee in 2 teaspoons of the hottest tap water. On low speed, add the chocolate and coffee to the butter mixture and mix until blended. Don’t whip! Spread immediately on the cooled cake.

Note: I use Valrhona Le Noir 56% Cacao Semisweet Chocolate. You can use also use a good bittersweet chocolate but don’t use chocolate chips because they have stabilizers in them.

If you love the pink cake stand used for the original picture of the cake, I found it for you on Etsy, it's from Mossler Glass and it's called The Large Thistle Cake Plate.   Here's the link, it's not an affiliated link, I just thought it was so pretty I wanted to share.  

Here's the click...

Recipe reprinted from Ina Garten's Website
Copyright 2006, Barefoot Contessa at Home by Ina Garten, Clarkson Potter/Publishers, All Rights Reserved

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Katharine Hepburn Brownies

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, February 05, 2022

 


Some recipes are just perfection, and this brownie recipe from Katherine Hepburn, first published in  the August edition of Better Homes and Gardens is perfection...

Since then it has been consistently a favorite of food editors, bloggers, cooks and kids, too, because it is so simple to make.


But first, a little trivia about the great lady herself, often imitated but never duplicated, Katherine Hepburn...



Fact 1

Katharine Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut.

Fact 2
Katharine loved to play tennis and golf and was also an amateur artist. Some of her oil paintings were auctioned off in 2004.

Fact 3
Headstrong and spirited, Hepburn refused to conform to society’s expectations of women and she did whatever she thought was right.


Fact 4

This talented performer has won four academy awards for best actress in a film. Her first award was for her role in Morning Glory in 1933. It would take another 34 years before she would win another Academy award. The other movies for which she won Oscar awards as best actress were “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner”, “On Golden Pond” and “The Lion In Winter”.


Fact 5

Katharine Hepburn starred in her final film role in 1994 in the movie Love Affair.


Fact 6

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were long time companions. Hepburn and Tracy starred together in many films throughout her career.


Fact 7

In 1932 this performer was paid $1,500 a week for her appearances on Broadway. At this time this sum of money was unheard of for young actresses.


Fact 8

She was a natural redhed and as a child, Katharine cut her hair off, wore boys’ clothes and made people call her Jimmy.


Fact 9

She was 96 years old when she died on June 29, 2003. She died at her old family home in Connecticut. She was buried in her family plot at the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford.


Fact 10

Before her demise she requested to be buried with no memorial service. Her wishes were upheld but to honor her long time film career and the impact she had on films, the lights of Broadway were dimmed for one minute during her burial service.


And now for that famous brownie recipe....


Ingredients


* 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

* 1 stick butter

* 2 eggs

* 1 cup granulated sugar

* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

* 1 cup broken up walnut or pecan pieces (for better flavor, toast the nuts at 350 F for about 5 minutes)

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

* Pinch salt


Preparation


* Preheat oven to 325F.

* Grease an 8-inch-square pan. (Line it with aluminum foil, overhanging on all sides.)  I used parchment paper instead of foil to make a saddle, spraying both the pan and the parchment paper with cooking spray so they won't stick.

* Melt butter in a saucepan with cocoa and stir until smooth.

* Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.

* Whisk in eggs, one at a time.

* Stir in vanilla.

* In a separate bowl, combine sugar, flour, nuts and salt.

* Add to the cocoa-butter mixture. Stir until just combined.

* Pour into prepared pan and bake 30-40 minutes. (Do not overbake: Center should still be a little gooey.)

* Let cool completely before cutting into squares. If foil lining is used, lift from pan and cut into 16 squares on a cutting board.


Don't make this in a 9" pan, the brownies will be too thin, and if you bake in a loaf pan, they will be too thick.  You really do need an 8" pan for these.  If you don't have one, Nordic Ware makes a really nice commercial one, their quality is always excellent.  


If you have any interest,  here's a link to Amazon for you.




Paw-Paw Garrett's Famous Homemade Whiskey Cough Syrup

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, February 04, 2022

Whether you have a chronic cough, flu, sinus congestion or Covid, whatever cough you have, this homemade cough syrup will seriously make you feel good. It's all that whiskey and yummy peppermint flavor.  

This is family tested and approved.  A shot before bedtime and you will quit coughing and sleep like a baby.

Fill a small mason jar with broken peppermint candy, you can use a food processor, blender or a rolling pin to beat candy into submission.

-Add 1 generous tablespoon of Honey.

-Squeeze 1/2 lemon over the peppermint candy

-Pour Bourbon over ingredients until jar is full.  Paw-Paw recommends  Wild Turkey Bourbon (101 proof) but any whiskey will work...

-Screw on Lid.

-Wait until fully dissolved (you can shake jar occasionally to help dissolve faster).  If it doesn't dissolve fully, just strain it and pour it back into the pint jar...

-Fill a shot glass with the concoction and drink until that cough goes away...

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Overnight Steel Cut Oatmeal

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, February 04, 2022


This is the easiest oatmeal, EVER!   Steel cut oatmeal is a pain to make, it takes forever, sticks easily and who needs that hassle in the morning.

I did a little research and found that you can do this overnight in the slow cooker, but there is a trick.  You don't just put it in the crock, it sticks, the edges brown, it dries out easily.  So this is what works for me...

The Basic Recipe:

1 cup steel cut oats
4 cups water
Dash of salt

Put an inner bowl inside your slow cooker.  Don't just sit in the bottom, take a couple of Ball metal rings, or a few balls of aluminum foil to boost it up so that your inner container isn't sitting on the bottom of the slow cooker.  The reason for this is to prevent the bottom of the oatmeal from browning because it has direct contact with the heat source.   

Pour your oatmeal, water and salt in the inner bowl, place it in the slow cooker and then pour water in the outer bowl.  Fill the slow cooker about half full of water.  Then before you go to bed, set it to cook for 8 hours on low, put on your jammies and go to bed.

How easy is that 😀  I turn mine on at 10pm, and by 6am I have perfect oatmeal.  My slow cooker switches to warm after 8 hours and it's ready to eat when we get up.  The only thing I have to do is add cinnamon, toppings, a splash of cream and brown sugar and breakfast is ready.  I refrigerate the leftovers for another morning...
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My Ninja Foodi Smart XL 6-in-1 Indoor Grill & Air Fryer is WONDERFUL...

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, November 18, 2021



I'm totally obsessed with my Ninja Foodi Smart XL 6-in-1 Indoor Grill & Air Fryer. I love the convenience, it's totally enclosed so there is no mess, it never smokes, and the best feature is the probe. Just insert it and set meat to the desired cooking preference, rare, medium rare, etc. it cooks it to perfection and alerts you when it's finished. The air fryer has a really large cooking surface, too . 

This is the best piece of kitchen equipment I've bought since my Instant Pot and I use it multiple times weekly. It's well worth the $$ to upgrade to this model with all it's great features. And no doubt, it will be on sale Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We never use our outdoor grill anymore, this is so much easier to use and cleanup is a breeze, I just put everything in the dishwasher. 

Think about it, what a great Christmas gift this would make.

Here's the Amazon link to see all the great features.

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Slow Cooker Chicken In a Bag, the most tender chicken you will ever make

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, November 18, 2021


So easy, so good and it literally falls off the bone, it's that tender.   And it's so simple.  All you need is a slow cooker, a Reynolds Chicken Size Cooking Bag and a chicken.  I posted this recipe years ago but it's definitely worth repeating.

You just take a whole chicken, season it, put it in a Reynolds Cooking Bag, (the kind you put a turkey in at Thanksgiving, but a smaller size for a chicken, or just use the big turkey bag if you can't find a small one) squeeze out the air, twist it shut with a twisty, and put it in the slow cooker, no liquid, nothing, don't worry it won't burn.  Cook it on low for 8-10  hours, that's the key, low and slow but if you're in a pinch you can cook it on high 6 hours and the chicken literally falls off the bone.

Lift the bag out of the slow cooker with an oven mitt, snip the end and drain the chicken stock in a large bowl to use later.

This is a win-win recipe, you will love it!  Pinky swear you will.

Note:  I don't pierce the bag before I cook it because I want the chicken to steam.  When the chicken is ready to take out of the slow cooker the bag will be puffy with air, so I pierce the bag close to the twistie, let the steam escape, then take it out with my mitts and snip a corner of the bottom of the bag over a bowl to drain the liquid.

Variations:

Season it with fresh herbs, stuff it with lemons, apple, oranges, any kind of fruit you want.  Sprinkle ranch dressing on it, or taco seasoning, the possibilities are endless.  I like it with just salt and pepper myself.

You will never make more tender chicken than this.

Photo Source:  Adobe Free License Stock Photos
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Pioneer Woman Slow Cooker Sweet Potatoes with a Few Changes

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, November 15, 2021

 


Our family loves candied sweet potatoes, and cooking them to the syrupy consistency without being watery is a challenge every . single . year.  Mother was the queen of candied sweet potatoes, I can just see her standing over the stove with a wooden spoon, her eye constantly on them until they were candied to perfection, with lots of thick, sweet syrup. But it's been hit or miss ever since she's been gone.  Some years they are syrupy and some years they are watery and I am always on the search for a solution.

A few years ago Pioneer Woman published a recipe for Slow Cooker Candied Sweet Potatoes and I was all over that like mayo on white.  Could it actually be this easy?  And the answer is YES!!!!  I adjusted her recipe though because we're not a fan of spices and vanilla in our sweet potatoes.  

I made them the way we always have:

Several large sweet potatoes

 1/2 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

A little dash of salt

Half a stick of butter

1/4 cup water 

2.5 heaping Tablespoons of cornstarch

Be sure and toss the sweet potatoes with the cornstarch until they are well coated.  I used more cornstarch than Ree did in her recipe, probably because I always use really large sweet potatoes.

I cut them in smaller chunks, cooked first on low, after an hour switched to high because I was afraid they wouldn't get done. Then I cooked an hour and a half on high and they were PERFECTION!

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Here is her original recipe

6 to 7 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

4 tablespoons salted butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Juice of 1 orange

1/4 cup water

Pinch of kosher salt

Chopped walnuts, toasted, for serving

Chopped fresh parsley, for serving

Toss the sweet potatoes with the cornstarch in a bowl to coat well. Add the mixture to a slow cooker and dot with the butter. Sprinkle over the brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice and cayenne. Pour in the vanilla, orange juice and 1/4 cup water. Season with salt. Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low, stirring once or twice, until the potatoes are tender, about 3 hours.

Toss the potatoes once more and transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle with the walnuts and parsley and serve.

Source: Food Tv

Picture courtesy of Adobe Free License Stock Photos

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Perfect, Yummy Cranberry Sauce

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, November 14, 2021


Empty a 12-ounce bag of fresh or frozen cranberries into a saucepan, saving 1/2 cup and transferring to a small bowl. 

Add 1 cup sugar, 1 strip orange or lemon zest and 2 tablespoons water to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the cranberries are soft, about 10 minutes. 

Increase the heat to medium and cook until the cranberries burst, about 12 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the reserved cranberries. 

Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste and cool to room temperature before serving.

Source:  Food Network

Winter Minestrone

by 👩‍🍳 Cooking With a Southern Vibe in Music City USA 👩‍🍳, November 11, 2021

 

Who doesn't love soup on chilly winter days. It's soul soothing, warm and wonderful.

This Minestrone is so good and it freezes really well.  I'm a big fan of Ball wide mouth jars for freezing soup.  I just leave three inches of headspace to allow for expansion, don't put the lid on until it's fully frozen and it freezes beautifully.  So, if you're in the mood for soup, this adaptation from Giada DeLaurentis is just that good!

1 onion, finely diced
2 large carrots, peeled and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
2 ribs celery, trimmed and diced into 1/4-inch pieces
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 ounces lean (8 percent fat) ground beef - sometimes I omit this
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
1 small can of tomato sauce
4 cups low-sodium beef broth - I use better than beef bouillon a very large tablespoon scoop of it 
1 can of italian diced tomatoes
1 can of petite diced tomatoes
One 15-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained, Great Northern Beans work well
One 15-ounce can light red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 head of chopped cabbage
1/2 cup of ditalini pasta
1 tsp. sugar
 
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, optional
Steps
Turn Instant Pot to saute and brown ground beef, if using.  Add the rest of ingredients, pressure for 3 minutes, Quick Release, TURN INSTANT POT OFF - then I just let it set until it cools.

No Instant Pot, just put it in the slow cooker for 4 hours or simmer on the stove for 30 minutes.  Anyway you cook it, it's a winner!
© Jan CAN Cook · THEME BY WATDESIGNEXPRESS