Cornbread Pudding

Summer is corn season, especially in our little burg. The small city right next door to us hosts a CornFest each year. While just eating the corn right off the cob is always fun, so it adding it to various recipes. My favorite is adding it to meatloaf and cornbread, but looking around for something different I came upon this recipe.

As always I changed the recipe to my liking. For example adding a little sugar did the trick after my husband said it was missing something. And my son suggests that you don't put ketchup over the it.

Ingredients:
3 medium sized corn on the cobs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 scallions, sliced
½ pound of Black Forest ham, diced
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
3 eggs
2 cups half-and-half
½ cup shredded pepper jack cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash
1 cup packaged cornbread stuffing cubes
1 tablespoon sugar


Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Husk and boil corn for 10 minutes. Place cooked corn in cold water and cool off. When cool enough to handle use a sharp knife to remove corn from cobs.

Melt the butter into a frying pan over medium heat. Saute  corn, scallions, ham, garlic, and chili powder for about three minutes or until scallions are soft.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl, then stir in the half-and-half, cheese, basil and Mrs. Dash.

Place corn and ham mixture in a 13 inch x 9 inch glass oven safe pan. Stir the cornbread stuffing mix and sugar in with the corn and ham mixture. Pour the egg mixture over and stirring gently. Bake for about 30 minutes or until lightly puffed and golden.

A pie made out a favorite candy bar

I was reading a romance book a few weeks back and the author made mention of Snickers Pie. I'd never heard of it so I decided to look up the recipe and see what it was all about. Apparently this is a Southern favorite and there were several variations of the recipe. This one was the easiest and one that everyone liked. I made a couple of changes to make it fun for us.

Snicker Pie

Ingredients:
2 9-inch chocolate graham cracker pie crust
5 king sized Snickers bars (2 in each pack on the candy isle at the grocery store)
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 1/2 tablespoons dairy half and half
4 cups cool whip
caramel sauce

Directions:
In the microwave, melt together four candy bars, peanut butter, and half-and-half in a glass bowl, stirring until smooth. Allow to cool slightly. Fold in whipped topping, pour into crust, and freeze for 4 to 6 hours before serving.

When ready to serve, top with pieces of remaining Snickers bar, add cool whip and drizzle with caramel syrup. Store in refrigerator.

The quest for a great peach cobbler recipe

I love testing out new recipes and working on coming up with my own creations. They don't always turn out the way I like, but it is fun to try anyway.

Since it is summer and the stores are filled with fresh peaches my latest attempts are with peach cobbler, I've been trying out several different recipes. I've been fiddling a little with them and have come come up with some fun varieties. Here are just a few...

Here is a very simple variation and tastes great.

Peach Cobbler
 
Ingredients:
1/2  stick (1/2 cup)  unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup milk
4 cups fresh peach slices
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:
Preheat oven at 375 degrees F.

Melt butter in a 13- x 9-inch baking dish.

Combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt; add milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Pour batter over butter (do not stir).

Bring remaining 1 cup sugar, peach slices, and lemon juice to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly; pour over batter (do not stir). Sprinkle with cinnamon, if desired.

Bake at 375° for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve cobbler warm or cool.

Cin-ful Peach Cobbler
by Food Networks -- Guy Fieri

This wasn't one of my favorites because it tasted more like granola than peach cobbler when it was done, but it is an interesting variation and shows what you can do when you add some different ingredients. I also saw a few that added blueberries and blackberries that looked good.

Ingredients:
For the peach filling:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 cups frozen peaches, thawed, about 3 pounds prepared
1 teaspoon cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
1 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon butter

For the crumb topping:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup oats
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into 8 pieces
Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving
Special Equipment: 12 by 8-inch oval stoneware dish or 13 by 9-inch rectangular glass or stoneware dish

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

To make the peach filling: In a large bowl, stir together sugars, flour, cinnamon and salt. Add peaches and gently toss to coat. Mix together cornstarch slurry and lemon juice and stir into peaches to incorporate. Butter a 12 by 8-inch oval dish and add peach mixture.

To make the crumb topping: In a medium bowl, combine dry ingredients, add in butter pieces and combine with hands until crumbly.

Top peaches with half of the crumb topping. Place in oven and immediately reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Bake uncovered for 30 minutes, then add remainder of the crumb topping. Reduce heat to 325 degrees F and bake until golden and bubbling, another 45 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

If you have a good recipe I'd love to share. I've yet to find the perfect recipe. I'll be making another recipe tonight, maybe that one will top the list.