Southern Cornbread Dressing

When I was growing up, anytime we went to my Maw Maw's house for the holidays there was ALWAYS a pan of her cornbread dressing.  ALWAYS.  No matter what holiday it was, that pan of yummy SOUTHERN CORNBREAD DRESSING was always sitting on the top of her dishwasher. She had a portable dishwasher and that thing was H-E-A-V-Y, it was like trying to push and pull a hippopotamus over to the sink.  That dishwasher top, it was home to the dressing pan and her yummy biscuits at all the gatherings.

 

Southern Cornbread Dressing and Giblet Gravy

This southern girl would love to have this dish on the menu every month. But, it is one of those favorite treats we look forward to at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. I am even known to cook a smaller pan for supper throughout the year.

I've eaten different versions of cornbread dressing and while they were good, they were not my Maw Maw's recipe. Many add bread and/or crackers to their recipes, I don't. The only bread you will find in this recipe is cornbread. Honestly, I've tried adding bread and crackers and it just doesn't taste the same.

While cornbread dressing is good by itself, it is a lot better with giblet gravy on it. The giblet gravy is made with that little bag of innards from a turkey or a chicken. You don't necessarily have to use giblets to make gravy; in fact, I don't even like to use some of those horrendous pieces of the bird to make my gravy. The thought of eating pieces of a heart, just doesn't sit too well with me.  Instead, I use the gizzard and pieces of the bird after its cooked and I just chop them up. In the picture below, I had some dove breasts in the freezer and I used a couple of those to make this gravy and it worked perfectly.

There is something about a pan of hand pressed dressing! To me, it just doesn't seem the same if you can't see the little hills from being pressed in the pan. Oh yes, it must be baked in cast iron, that is if you have cast iron. If not, a 9x13 baking dish will work just as well; I won't judge. Wondering about my cornbread recipe? This is our FAVORITE and it is easy to divide in half. When I bake the whole recipe I use my LODGE pan (pictured below).

Now that I have your mouth watering, here's the recipe.

Southern Cornbread Dressing

Ingredients:

Dressing:

• 1 pan of cornbread, cooked, cooled and crumbled
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 TBSP oil
• 4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 TBSP sage
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 2+ cups turkey stock
• 1 carton chicken broth

*Giblet Gravy:

• 4 cups stock/broth
• giblets, chopped
• 2 TBSP uncooked cornbread dressing
• 1 hard boiled egg, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degree.

In a pan, saute the garlic and onion in oil until translucent. In a large bowl, mix the cornbread, seasonings, eggs, onion and garlic. Add stock and mix well. You want the mixture to be wet but mot overly juicy. ( you may not even need the chicken broth, if you have a lot of turkey stock.) Reserve 2 tablespoons of mixture. Pour mixture into a greased pan and bake for about 45 minutes.

Giblet Gravy:
Bring stock to a boil along with giblets. Reduce heat and add reserved dressing and egg. Cook for 2-3 minutes, add salt and pepper. * If your gravy is a little thin, you can thicken it with some cornstarch.

Honey Sweetened Chocolate Sauce

I am a chocolate lover! Chocolate ice cream, chocolate milk, chocolate gravy, the list could go on. Whoever said, "Chocolate makes everything better" was on to something. Believe it or not, chocolate is GOOD for you. What is not good for you is all the sugar and additives that are included in all the tasty, chocolatey treats that are on the market.

HONEY SWEETENED CHOCOLATE SAUCE ~

 An amazing substitute for store brand chocolate syrup.

Several years ago, I stopped buying Hershey's Chocolate Syrup. It was our staple for making chocolate milk and topping ice cream. Sadly, it is full of sugar and additives, things that we have cut way back on.  I knew making homemade chocolate syrup would be possible, because I make Chocolate Gravy for biscuits. The two are very similar in making with a few differences.

When we returned from our trip with twenty pounds of honey, I knew I would be incorporating more honey by reducing the usage of sugar in my cooking.  My BIG test with honey was making a chocolate sauce.  Since this recipe doesn't really get thick like my syrup recipe, I think of it as a sauce instead of a syrup. Although, you could had a little thickener to the sauce to have more of a syrup. Saucy or syrupy either way it is so good.

I found this recipe HERE after searching if it was possible to make chocolate syrup using honey instead of sugar. I was excited about finding it and I knew I had to give it a try. I was a little leery while making this because I didn't want it to have the honey taste. The first thing I made with the syrup was chocolate milk. I knew if I was going to taste the honey, it would be in the milk. Yep, there was NO hint of honey in my milk. In fact, this glass tied with the best tasting chocolate milk I have had. The other best tasting chocolate milk came from a dairy in Florida when we visited St. Augustine years ago.

I did make a couple of changes to the recipe the second time I made this, like adding an extra ⅛ of a cup of cocoa ~ what can I say, we love chocolate. Another thing I changed was the amount of water from 1 cup to ¾ cup to help thicken it a little.

Ingredients:

• 1 ¾ cup + ⅛ cup cocoa
• 1 ⅓ cup honey
• ¾ cup water
• ⅛ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions:

In a pan combine cocoa, honey, water, and salt. Bring to a rolling boil and boil for 2 minutes, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Store in a sealed contain in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Chicken Stew

I love a good stew! I remember the first time I ate CHICKEN STEW, I kinda crinkled my nose because of the tomatoes. I do not like tomatoes, nor do I like to eat soups, stews or chili with huge pieces of tomatoes. I dislike the thought of having a tomato swimming around in the juice with me trying to scoop around it. Sadly, I have passed this on to my tomato eating son. Yeah, I know!

Chicken Stew

Back to the first time eating chicken stew... A dear little lady where I used to teach school worked in the kitchen. Some days she would make special things to eat for the staff members. One day chicken stew was the specialty, after eating it and scooping around tomatoes, I realized how yummy it was. After talking with her about the tomatoes, she told me, "You can't have a stew without the tomatoes". Boy, did that throw a wrench in my plans! Over the years, I have learned to just deal with my tomato problem by crushing the tomatoes. When a recipe calls for tomatoes, I pull out my stick blender and give them a whirl.

Most recipes that I have found for  chicken stew calls for the whole bird. Well, if I use a whole bird, I cook it the day before so I can get the fat off the broth once it's cooled down. When I'm in a crunch on time, I use boneless/skinless chicken breast and it works just fine if not better in my opinion.

When shredding the chicken, place it in your mixer with the paddle attachment. It shreds the chicken down rather quickly if the meat is still warm, so if you want bigger pieces keep a watch on it.

The last time I cooked this recipe, I cooked it on the stove using chicken breasts. But in the past, I have cooked it in the crock-pot using chicken that I cooked the day before. The longer it simmers, the better it tastes. In fact, I think it tastes better the next day for lunch.

Chicken Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 chicken
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 6-8 cups water (enough to cover bird)
• 2 cans tomatoes
• 4 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 can whole kernel corn
• salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste

Directions:

Cook chicken until done. Remove chicken from broth, when cooled, pick meat off the bones and shred. Remove as much fat from the broth as possible. Simmer potatoes in 1-2 cups of broth in a smaller saucepan until done, do not drain. Mash them just a little, so they will help thicken the broth. Add corn, onions, tomatoes, garlic powder, salt and pepper to the large pot of broth. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add potatoes and chicken and simmer slowly with lid off for at least 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Housewife - It Doesn't Sound Like A Real Occupation

After being married for sixteen years, my husband finally talked me into getting my hunting license. I would have had them when we lived in Georgia, but I was not going to sit in a class with mostly young teens taking the hunter's safety course. Since I believe in honesty, I never tried to buy a license without a card and having to come up with some sort of lie to cover why I didn't have one.

Montana doesn't require a course card for people born in the 70's so I decided, why not. I was a little more than excited about obtaining a license because this meant I could actually go hunting and not have to take a book to read while my husband and son had all the fun.

The day I bought my license, my husband took me to our local feed store. I was giving my information to the girl and since I was not in the system, there were things the state required like personal information found on driver's license and occupation. Since I was a "new applicant" help from another employee was needed. When asked what my occupation was, I began to tell her I was a homemaker. Before I could even get the word maker out, the little guy who was helping her said, she's a housewife. There was no snarky attitude about the word housewife, only that it doesn't sound like a REAL occupation. The young man was tongue-tied, he couldn't say anything. I quickly spoke up with "I'm a homemaker". The girl nervously laughed and said, "Now that sounds like a real occupation." As far as the state of Montana is concerned, my occupation - Homemaker.

There was a little confused look between the two, but the light went off for both of these kids with my response as why I'm a homemaker and not the other.

At one time, women like me did not mind being labeled a housewife. Thanks to Hollywood and the media, I try to not use that word when I'm talking or writing about myself and homemaking. There's nothing wrong with being labeled a housewife, but when TV shows and movies give a false pretense to this honorable occupation, I tend to steer clear from it.

I'm a homemaker. I tend to the things around our house on a daily basis. I do this, so my husband can focus on providing for our family without having to worry all the time about things falling apart. The four walls around us and the roof over our heads is only a house, not a home. To make a house a home takes someone who will make the house a warm and inviting place - A place where family and friends can be themselves - A stress free, safe haven from the outside goings-on. The list could go on, a homemaker's job is never finished, it's a 24 hours, 7 days a week job.

While I don't get a "paycheck" for my occupation right now, I do have treasures waiting for me in heaven.

A Carrot Raisin Salad - Just Like Chick-fil-A

I was a little saddened when I heard about the removal of Chick-fil-A's Carrot Raisin Salad from their menu, last year. I was not A LOT sad because the closest restaurant to me  is a little over 300 miles and to hop in the truck for a quick Chick-fil-A trip is not going to happen anytime soon. For all of you Chick-fil-A lovers out there who are within a stone's throw from a restaurant, enjoy a chicken sandwich for me, please.

CARROT RAISIN SALAD - JUST LIKE CHICK-FIL-A

I began the search for a recipe that tasted just like the famous carrot raisin salad. Most of the recipes that come up in a search are basically all the same, with a few minor changes. While some were not sweet enough, others had way too much pineapple in them.

Last Saturday morning, I went to town with my husband. While we were there, we stopped off and bought several pounds of locally grown carrots and other goodies. Would you believe my husband thought I was buying the carrots to feed to the rabbits? :) Carrot cake and carrot raisin salad is all I had to say to this idea.

One thing I learned about trying the several versions of the recipes ~ NEVER use pre-grated, bagged carrots. I had a bag in the bottom of the refrigerator last fall that needed to be used, so I used it in the salad. That bright idea quickly turned into a bowl of uneaten, almost loss of love for carrot raisin salad.  FRESH grated carrots is the secret to this recipe!

While testing the recipes, I added the required lemon juice to each batch. To me, all I could taste was lemon. There's no lemon juice in this recipe. ;) Another thing, every recipe recommended chilling all the ingredients except for the sugar and mixing the sugar and pineapple. Yeah, that didn't work for me either, I ended up with super sweet and gritty pineapple.

I also found that a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple - little too much pineapple. So I used a small eight ounce can of crushed pineapple plus three pineapple slices which I chopped up and added to the little can. There's a reason why this salad's named Carrot Raisin and not Pineapple Carrot Raisin.

While I remember my cute little Chick-fil-A bowl with a little juice at the bottom, I knew I wanted to have just the right amount of pineapple juice in my salad. I drained the pineapple has must as possible (pressing it in a fine mesh strainer). The next thing I did was mix the mayonnaise, sugar and almost all the pineapple juice together and set it aside.   I placed the carrots, raisins, and pineapple in large bowl and tossed them a little. I poured the "dressing" over the carrots and continued mixing everything together. I even ended up adding the last of the pineapple juice so the salad would stay juicy.

Even at room temperature, this recipe tasted just like Chick-fil-A's. Once the salad was chilled, it was out of this world!

 Carrot Raisin Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 cups fresh carrots, finely shredded

• 1 (8oz) can crushed pineapple

• 1 cup raisins

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise

• 4 Tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Drain as much of the pineapple juice out as you can and set aside.

In a large bowl, toss the carrots, raisins and pineapple together.

In a medium bowl, mix the mayonnaise, sugar, and most of the juice together, mixing well.

Pour the dressing over the carrots and mix until coated. If needed add the rest of the pineapple juice and keep mixing. Cover and place in the refrigerator until chilled.

Not long after I shared my copycat recipe, I was contacted by Chick-fil-A with a link to their recipe of the well loved recipe. You can find the original recipe

HERE

.

Conversations from the Garden a Review and Giveaway

When I was asked to review {affiliate link} Conversations from the Garden: Forty Days to Build a Biblical Worldview by Marcia Harris Brim at Brimwood Press, I was excited. I knew I was not going to be disappointed since I've used other products from Brimwood Press.

 

Conversations from the Garden is based on Genesis chapters 1-3 and shows how everything throughout the scriptures are based on those chapters. Conversations is a Bible study guide, but without answers; you are going to have moments of thinking and conversations about each topic. While the recommended ages are for 10 and older, I believe many younger children will benefit from listening and conversing about the topics. It's never too early to start them out on a Biblical worldview.

The primary use of the book is for dinner table discussions or daily family devotions. However, it is written in a way where it can be used in Sunday schools, youth groups and Christian school classrooms. Don't be led to believe it is not for individual use, because it could very easily be used as a personal Bible study.

Some of the questions you will find in the book are:

• What does looking at the world teach us about what God is like?
• From the creation story, how do you know God is good?
• Who did God the Father relate to before He made Adam and Eve and the angels?
• Does history provide evidence that Satan is man's bitter enemy?
• Can you imagine Adam and Eve’s joy to touch the hand of their savior, to see Him face to face, to be free forever from Satan’s grasp?

You can read about why Conversations in the Garden was written HERE. There are now SAMPLE PAGES for this book on the website. I have also been told about a new PARENT GUIDE coming in October.

For my readers, I'm giving one of you my copy of Conversations from the Garden. There’s no hoop to jump through for this give away, all you need to do is leave me a comment about why you would like this book. I’ll choose the winner at noon (MT) on Friday, September 5th. Click the ENTER TO WIN button on the Rafflecopter app after you leave your comment.

*****NOW CLOSED*****

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Psst... have you liked Frog's Lilypad's FACEBOOK PAGE? If not, what are you waiting for?

Comforting Northern Bean Soup

There's a chill in the air around here,  just a little tease of the cooler temperatures that will soon be heading our way. I love fall and winter and the yummy comfort foods that are perfect for the seasons. I found this recipe for Northern Bean Soup on a blog at the end of June and it sounded so good, I had to give it a try. Cooking the soup in the crockpot helped keep the heat down in my kitchen. In fact, when using the crockpot during the summer months, I put it in one of two places - the front hallway or on my washing machine when I'm not doing laundry.

 

{affiliate links}

Comforting Northern Bean Soup

I took a chance on this recipe and "kind of" doubled it, I'm glad I did because it was quickly gobbed up. I even had to hide a bowl for our lunch the next day. Kind of doubled means I improvised on the amounts of beans and broth.

I knew this recipe would be good with a crusty bread, so I used half of my  bread recipe and baked a loaf in my dutch oven early that morning. A first for me!

Some of the brands that were recommended are not sold in this area, so I had to make do with what I could find. Because of this recipe, I have been saving all the scraps from peeling and cutting vegetables so I can make my own vegetable broth.

As for the ham, our Walmart carries ham pieces in a one pound package. All I did was chop up those pieces, but any kind of ham will work.

A couple of things I did differently, I cooked and mashed one extra potato to use as a thickener and I shredded my carrots to "hide" them a little.

A wonderful, comforting soup for those cooler days and even when it's not so cool.

Northern Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 5 cans Great Northern Beans
• 1 (32oz) carton vegetable broth + 1 can (14.5 oz)
• 1 carrot shredded
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 potatoes diced
• 1 potato cooked and mashed
• 1 can cream of broccoli soup
• 2-3 cups chopped ham
• 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• 2 teaspoons Parsley Flakes
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

Place all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high 4-5 hours.

Do you have a favorite comfort soup?

Saving Money With The Library

Being a one income family who home educates, I have had to learn ways to save money in our school. Saving money with the library is our biggest means of not over spending. We are not one of those families with book shelves that line the walls full of books any more. We were in the past and many of the books either found themselves on Ebay, in a yard sale, or in the backdoor of a local thrift store. We do have a few non-fiction books that are reread and Jamie has a collection of out of print William O. Steele books he is collecting. Other than that, we borrow books from the library.

Saving Money with the Library

I have a Kindle full of free books that I hate to read, because I love REAL books. I love the smell, the feel, and the sound of the pages as they are being turned. When I come across free books that we will need to read for school, I download them but I don’t like them. I’ll use them if I can’t borrow a book from the library at the needed time or it can’t be renewed.

You can see this year’s reading LIST for ninth grade. I have several of the classics on the Kindle, but I’m hoping we will have a real book in hand when it is time to read them. Preparing my list in advance helped me decide which books to read but it also helped me to know when to request the books from the library.

The one thing about living in a small town, our library doesn’t have many of the books we will need. So I had to go on a book hunt early on and mark which books our library doesn’t own. This helps me know I’m going to have to ask for certain books several weeks in advance. Before we moved, we lived in a county that had 15 library branches, and if the branch we visited didn’t have a book, I could have it within two days. A BIG difference to where we live now.

There are a couple of books, I will be buying for this year and of course the books that have movies we will more than likely be watching them. Using the library for all of our books is saving me around $240.

I’m going to tell you a secret... Uncle Tom’s Cabin was due last Tuesday. I completely forgot about it since my parents were in town. I remembered it was overdue last night and called this morning to renew the book and find out what my late fees were so I could send the money with my husband to pay them. LOW AND BEHOLD our library DOESN'T charge late fees!  I’ll gladly give up 14 other library branches for no late fees.

Saving money with the library for your school year
is going to take some work on your part.

• Plan ahead – have your list ready and mark the books that your library does not own, so you can request them in time to have them.
• Don’t wait until the last minute to check availability.
• Renew your books before the day they are due so you'll know if there is a hold on them.
• Plan for extra books so just in case you can't get a certain book.