Down the Rabbit Hole I Went

This retirement thingy….man oh man!   I have enjoyed it so much I just seem to forget to post new stuff on this here bloggy thing!

Anyhoooo…. with the holidays fast approaching, recipes should be floating in everyone’s heads… or at least they are in mine.  Both for Thanksgiving and for Christmas.

I think I am kicking up one of our recipes for Thanksgiving up a notch.  The standard green bean casserole may just have a couple of added ingredients to it.  While this is not an original recipe of mine, I am making a few changes to it to add a bit of spice to it for our crew.

What is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving?

Creole Sausage Green bean Casserole

1 pkg precooked Andouille sausage, sliced

3 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 can (10.5 oz) Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup

6 to 8 slices bacon, cooked and rough chopped, (reserve 2 tablespoons for topping)

3/4 cups milk

2 to 2 1/2 tsp cajun or creole seasoning, whichever you have on hand (i have both…imagine that)

4 cans cut green beans, drained

1 can (I use the large size for more crispies) Crispy Fried Onions

heat oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the sliced sausage, cheese, soup, milk, and seasoning plus all but the reserved 2 tbsp of bacon in a sprayed 13×9 inch baking dish.  Stir in the beans and 1/13 cups of the crispy onions.

Bake uncovered for 25 minutes or until hot and bubbling.  Stir, and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tbsp bacon, and the remaining onions, or however many you want on top (some may want less unless you get the regular size can).  Bake another 5 minutes longer or till onions are golden brown.

I also may chop up a jalapeno and throw in the pot.  Who knows??!!

Have a great weekend/upcoming week!  Shout out your favorite Thanksgiving dish.  You never know when a surprise drawing may just pop up among those who comment!!!

Buttermilk Chess Pie – made the healthy way

I know you get tired of all these healthy recipes… so for those who want the original recipe I will include it.  But since hubby is diabetic I do have to keep that in mind when cooking.  And he does like something sweet occasionally that is both low carb and that I can make up using sugar substitute.

I decided to remake a classic – Buttermilk Chess Pie and try it “his way”.  And it worked!  He ate the whole pie!  (not in one sitting although he probably could).  It was so good according to him.  I am not a custard pie eater so he was definitely safe with this one.   I just wanted to make sure it would work (1) without a crust and (2) with Splenda sugar and (3) still be good!

He said I could make it again for him!  So I guess it worked!

Here’s the handy dandy recipe I made and then below it the original for those who wish to make it with a crust.

Crustless Buttermilk Chess Pie using Splenda

1/2 cup butter, melted (plus about a tsp of butter not melted to grease the pie plate)

1 1/4 cups Splenda sugar

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup buttermilk

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

t tsp vanilla extract

dash ground nutmeg

dash salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly butter a pie plate.  Mix the Splenda sugar and flour in a large bowl.  Ad the beaten eggs and mix well.  Add the melted butter and buttermilk and mix well again (I mixed everything by hand).  Stir in the lemon juice, vanilla, pinch of nutmeg and salt.  Pour into the prepared pie plate.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees.  Reduce the oven to 350 degrees and bake for between 25 and 35 minutes or until the pie is set and golden.  A butter knife stuck in center should come out clean.  Let cool before serving

See how it bubbles from all that bubbly butter?  (hopefully you can see – I think my picture came out a bit on the dark side!) Hubby loved it! We will be making this again for him.

Now for the original one with the crust.

1/2 cup unsalted butter melted plus about a tsp to butter the pie plate

1/2 recipe of a home made double crust for pie or one purchased pie crust pastry placed in pie plate and edges crimped.

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

4 larg eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup buttermilk

t Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla extract

dash ground nutmeg

dash salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Lightly butter a 9-inch pie pan.  Roll out the pastry dough and fit in pie pan.  Mix the sugar and fjour together in a large bowl.  Add the beaten eggs and mix well.  Add the butter and buttermilk and mix well.  stir in the lemon juice, vanilla, nutmeg, and salt.  Pour in to the unbaked pie shell and bake for 15 minutes at the 400 degrees, then turn the oven down to 350 degrees and bake for another 30-40 minutes or until browned on top and set.  Remove the pie from oven and completely cool before serving.

So there you go- same pie – two ways.   Enjoy!

Jalapeno Cream Corn…yes, yes, yes!

What can you make from can whole kernel corn?  Why, jalapeno cream corn, that is!  This is so easy and versatile.

You can use a regular can of whole kernel corn but I (actually i halved the recipe since there are only two of us) used a can of the mexicorn and it sure was good.

Take 2 cans of whole kernel corn (or 2 cans of mexicorn or other mix of corn you want) and drain and place in a saucepan.  Add one 8-ounce cream cheese(the 1/3 less fat works just fine), 1/4 cup (1/2 of a stick) butter, 1/2 tsp garlic salt (adjust the garlic salt to your taste, more or less) and 2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped.  Heat for about 10 minutes on low to medium low.  You can also sprinkle in a little cumin if you have a notion to or if you want, leave in a few of the jalapeno seeds if you want more heat.  When ready to serve, just throw on a little chopped cilantro.

This was so good.   We enjoyed it with our chicken hubby grilled out on the grill. So get in there and experiment with your favorite recipes this weekend!