Sweet tea class mentioned in this month's Southern Living Magazine!

Details to follow!

Friendly Reminder!

How to get copies of our recipes....

We have posted all of the recipes on our website for you to enjoy.  You can even print a handy recipe card.  Click here and enjoy!

This year's charity pick:

The Gulf Coast Kid's House is the sweet tea charity of 2008.  As you all know are classes are free to our guests as our way to say thank you for visiting us.  We started last year by asking class attendees to donate what they could to the "Loaves and Fishes charity."  It was a great success raising hundreds of dollars to help feed those in need.  This year we picked The Gulf Coast Kid's House.  Please click here it find out why!  Bring what you can but if you can't afford to donate don't let that stop you from coming to have a good time.  

This year's class schedule!

Hooray!  It is that time again.  We are so excited to see you all again.  Please come at around 5:30 p.m. and get your seat. Class begins at 6 p.m. 

• October 14, 2008 “A little ‘nip’ never hurt anyone” — Cooking with spirits

• November 11, 2008 “Putting lipstick on a pig” — Prettying up your barbecue

• December 9, 2008 “Finally a gift you can appreciate” — One-pot meals and money-saving recipes

• January 13, 2009 “I don't have time to run all over creation for you!” — Great local resources

• February 10, 2009 “Oysters” — Nature’s love potion or just an excuse to eat a saltine covered in hot sauce

Sweet Tea #5

Southern Belle’s Gone Wild

a/k/a Sweet Treats For Your Sweet Heart

Bittersweet Bourbon-Pecan Truffles

¾ cup heavy whipping cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)
3 tablespoons Jack Daniel’s whiskey
2 cups toasted pecans (finely chopped)
Make a ganache by pouring cream into a 2-quart saucepan over medium heat and bringing just to a simmer. Remove from heat and immediately sprinkle chocolate into the cream. Cover and let set for 5 minutes. Stir gently until smooth. Stir in liquor. Pour into a shallow bowl. Cool to room temperature, cover, and refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight.

Roll ganache into ¾- to 1-inch balls and set aside on a cookie sheet (should make 40 to 45 balls). Place chopped nuts in a shallow container and roll ganache balls until fully coated. Return to cookie sheet and chill in refrigerator to set. Serve at room temperature.



New Orleans-Style King Cake

There are many recipes for this Mardi Gras carnival staple. This one was given to me by my pastry teacher Bill Hamilton. This is from the late Myriam Guidroz, a longtime food columnist for The Times-Picayune.

Basic King Cake Dough (enough for 2 cakes)

1 envelope dry yeast ½ cup sugar
¼ cup warm water 2 egg yolks
½ cup milk 2 whole eggs
1cup (2 sticks) butter 4 cups (approximately) unbleached flour

Mix yeast with the warm water. Stir 1 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon flour into the yeast and set aside. By the time you have measured the other ingredients, the yeast should be beginning to bubble and show signs of life.

Bring milk to a boil and stir in butter and sugar. Pour into a large bowl; the mixture should be lukewarm. Beat in egg yolks, whole eggs, and yeast.

Beat in approximately 2 cups flour until the dough is fairly smooth, then gradually add enough additional flour to make soft dough that you can form into a ball. Knead it, by hand or machine, until smooth and elastic. Lightly oil a bowl, turn the dough once or twice in it to grease it lightly all over, cover with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm spot until doubled in size, about 1½ to 2 hours.

Pat the dough down and cover the bowl with a damp towel, wrap plastic film over that, and refrigerate until the next day. This recipe makes enough dough for 2 King Cakes. Extra dough can be frozen, or you can make two cakes and freeze one (to use, thaw frozen cake and reheat 10 minutes in a 375-degree oven).

Filling for 1 King Cake

½ recipe King Cake dough (above)
1 (16-ounce container) apricot preserves
8 ounces cream cheese
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 whole eggs
¼ cup milk

1 plastic baby (traditional)
16 ounces confectioners’ sugar
Colored sugars: purple, gold, and green




Remove dough from refrigerator. With well-floured hands, while dough is firm and cold, mold into a long sausage shape. Using a floured roller on a floured surface, roll out the dough into a 30- by 9-inch rectangle as thin as a pie crust. Let the dough rest.

Mix cream cheese with sugar, flour, egg yolks, and vanilla. Spoon an inch-wide strip of fruit filling the length of the dough—about 3 inches from one edge. Spoon the cream cheese mixture alongside the fruit about 3 inches from the other side. Whip whole eggs and milk to make a simple egg wash and brush both sides of the dough with it. Fold one edge of the dough over the fillings, then fold the other edge over the first edge. Gently place one edge of the filled roll onto a greased pizza pan or large cookie sheet. Ease the rest of the roll onto the pan, joining the ends to form a circle or oval. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes. Brush again with egg wash and cut deep vents into the cake.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 325 degrees, just until cake is well risen and golden. When cool, you can insert the plastic baby into the bottom of the cake. After cake cools, ice with confectioners’ sugar mixed with enough water to make a spreadable paste. Then top with colored sugars.

Chicken and Dumplings or Dumplin's

Hi everyone! Yesterday we packed up some tenderloin chili and our famous gumbo and took off to volunteer at the manna food bank: Fill a Bowl for Charity event. A celebration of 25 years of MANNA in our community.

A little background on MANNA

Established in 1982, MANNA is a private, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to alleviating hunger in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. MANNA is nonsectarian, community-focused, volunteer-supported, and committed to the philosophy-"waste not, want not."

The demand for emergency food services in our local communities is growing at an alarming rate, with a 43% increase in families served by MANNA year-over-year from June 2006 to June 2007. MANNA now serves over 20,000 persons in northwest Florida annually through a network of ten distribution sites spread throughout the two-county area.
There are no costs for any of the program services of MANNA Pantries, either to the client or the referral source. MANNA operates with minimal government support and is dependent on donations of both food and funds to sustain its operation and to support the growing base of men, women and children facing hunger in our local communities each day.

The event was a lot of fun and so I thought since it is so cold I would add a southern favorite for everyone to try.
This recipe comes from allrecipes.com. I like this site because you can read the reviews of people who made it and sometimes additions or subtractions to the recipe that you might like to try. Dumplings date back to practically the creation of man in a lot of cultures. I know that they were a regular staple in southern kitchens. I remember when my Grandfather, Charles Teague moved up north to stay with my mother in Pennsylvania he had me go to the store buy several packages of frozen dumplings and have them fed-exed priority mail so that he can make real chicken and dumplings. He was tired of Yankee food! It turned out to be a really bad idea because the dumplings of course thawed and turned into a gooey mess. It made us all laugh though! Happy Sunday Everyone...



Chicken and Dumplings III
SUBMITTED BY: Linda Humphress

"A lighter version of this classic down-home dish. One of the best comfort foods of all time!"

PREP TIME
15 Min
COOK TIME
45 Min
READY IN
1 Hr
SERVINGS & SCALING
Original recipe yield: 4 servings
US
METRIC

About scaling and conversions
INGREDIENTS
1 (10.75 ounce) can reduced fat cream of chicken soup
1 (14.5 ounce) can low-fat, low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into strips
1 teaspoon celery seed
ground black pepper to taste

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, stir together the cream of chicken soup, chicken broth, and milk. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken strips, onion and celery. Saute until chicken is cooked through, and onions are tender. Transfer the chicken mixture to the soup pot, and mix well. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes. Season with celery seed and black pepper.
To Make Dumplings: In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of oil. Pour into the dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the dumpling mixture into simmering chicken stew. Cover pot tightly, and bring to a boil. Simmer for another 12 to 15 minutes - without peeking! Ladle into bowls, and serve hot.