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Easy Peasy Yummy Brownie
By Beverly Hicks Burch
When you’re in the middle of a move and you’ve set your weary bones down in front of the telly, it’s funny what the mind can do to you. Like play minds games concerning food…causing you to crave “comfort” food you know good and well you just don’t have on hand and DO NOT have the energy to make. That happened to me over this past weekend when Tall & Handsome and I were working around the house.
Now, just interject your own personal energy draining and exhausting activity and…well, never fear…do I ever have the recipe for you! It’s a brownie recipe that is so yummy and so easy to make it ought to be against the law…
T & H deemed them quite good and scarfed down two warm ones right away. I think they would be extra yummy with a little bit of vanilla ice cream on the side. (My favorite is Byers Light and Creamy Vanilla.)
Hope you enjoy Easy, Peasy, Yummy Brownie!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Easy, Peasy, Yummy Brownies
½ cup unsalted butter, melted (you could use salted, too)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup self-rising flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla flavoring
½ cup chopped nuts (my go to nuts are pecans and walnuts. I happened to use walnuts the other night.)
1. Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare an 8 inch or 9 inch baking pan.
2. In a mixing bowl mix together the sugar and the melted butter. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix well.
3. Combine the dry ingredients together and then stir them into the sugar mixture.
4. Add the vanilla. Stir in the nuts.
5. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the edges are firm. A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean. Cut into squares.
Enjoy!!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Chili-Lime Butter
By Beverly Hicks Burch
This is a great spread to use on grilled corn! We recently made this for my folks when Tall & Handsome grill during the Mother of all Storms on a very wet September evening. Just don’t say “wet dog” around him…
Chili-Lime Butter
1 stick butter, softened
Zest of one lime
1 teaspoon chili powder
Cream butter.
Add lime zest and chili powder and mix well.
Spread on corn and grill. YUMM!!
Store leftovers butter in refrigerator.
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Bacon! …and Pimiento Cheese
By Beverly Hicks Burch
Am I the only one that thinks bacon should belong it its own special and totally honorable food group? Can you think of anything bacon doesn’t make better? Well, ok, maybe not caramel or chocolate…
Yes, I know…bacon isn’t considered to be particularly healthy for you, but there are precautions you can take.
· You can limit your intake or consumption of bacon.
· Years ago I discovered the wonders of center cut bacon. Center cut bacon reduces the fat and calories found in bacon and it tends to be leaner.
· Also, the market now offers low sodium varieties of bacon. And, of course there are different types of bacon like Canadian bacon which is extremely lean and lower in fat. Then there are the foreign types like Serrano (Spanish) and Prosciutto (Italian) types of bacon.
Another food I acquired a fondness of…kind of late in life…was Pimiento Cheese. I think I was at a tea or shower or reception and had for the first time in my life home-made Pimiento Cheese. It began a love affair. Maybe it’s a Southern thing, but I don’t know anyone that eats the stuff like we do. We’ll slather it on anything. Ever wonder who first put the combo of celery sticks and Pimiento Cheese together? As the Brits say, “Brilliant!”
Well, imagine the overload my taste buds went into when I saw a recipe in the July 2009 issue of Southern Living…we’re talking the kind where your mouth get all watery inside just from anticipation… The recipe was for Bacon Pimiento Cheese. Somewhere there has to be a culinary genius treading the soil of terra firma.
I’m going to share my version of the recipe. I called it my version because there are a couple of adaptations I would make to “lighten” it up just a tad. If you choose not to do this I’m sure yours will turn out just as yummy.
Enjoy!
©2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Bacon Pimiento Cheese
Adapted from a recipe from Southern Living July 2009
4 strips center cook bacon
16 oz. shredded Cheddar cheese
1 – 4 oz. jar diced pimiento, rinsed and drained
½ cup low fat mayonnaise
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon salt or salt to taste (I reduced the salt also from the original)
1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1. Cook bacon and drain well on paper towels. Crumble or chopped bacon.
2. Stir together bacon and remaining ingredients and mix until just blended.
3. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
A Staple in the South
By Beverly Hicks Burch
When I was little there was a food that I absolutely would not touch and it was pimento cheese. Somewhere down the line I mustered up enough courage to try it and a love affair began. I think my first taste must have been a home-made batch because it was fantastic. Ever since then I have been on a quest for the perfect Pimento Cheese recipe. Seems everyone has one…some use mayo, others use Miracle Whip…the recipes vary in some way or another.
Here in the South we love a good Pimento Cheese sandwich and what’s better than crisp, cold celery stuffed with pimento cheese? I’m sure everyone has their own personal favorite use for the decades old stand-by.
While browsing though one of my mother’s cookbooks, The Dinner Doctor, by Anne Byrn (also the author of The Cake Doctor) I noticed yet another recipe for Pimento Cheese. She has made the recipe easy by using packaged shredded cheese. I made a small adaptation to the recipe to lower fat and calories. Regardless, it is a super easy recipe to make.
Enjoy! 
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Quick and Easy Pimento Cheese Spread
1 8 oz. package of shredded Cheddar cheese
1 2 oz. jar diced pimentos (if you can only find sliced pimentos, chop them up)
1 tablespoon minced onion
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup lite or low fat mayonnaise
Fresh ground pepper to season
1. In a medium bowl mix together the cheese, pimentos, onion and Worcestershire sauce.
2. Fold in mayonnaise and stir to make sure ingredients are mixed well. Season with black pepper.
3. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes to allow flavors to combine.
**Options: Use a Mexican blend cheese instead of Cheddar.
Add ½ of a seeded and veined and chopped jalapeno pepper to either cheese
recipe.
Add 1 tablespoon of chopped, drained green chiles.
Hawaiian Chicken
By Beverly Hicks Burch
I’ve been making this recipe for years…probably 15+ years. Surprisingly it’s one I haven’t prepared for Tall & Handsome yet, but when I told him about it he seemed eager to try it. It is fast and easy to prepare and only take about 45 minutes to an hour to bake.
I’ve made some adaptation to the recipe I found originally in a cookbook by Mary Beth Roe.
The “gravy” or sauce is good with rice or even mashed potatoes. Another good option would be to serve this with a baked sweet potato.
Enjoy!!
© 2009 Beverly Hicks Burch All Rights Reserved.
Hawaiian Chicken
8 small or 4 – 5 large pieces of chicken (boneless chicken breast would be excellent for this recipe)
1 jar (not too large) fruit jam – the original recipe calls for apricot jam, but peach would be good, too; another optional might be pineapple jam for a real Hawaiian taste
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
1 8 oz bottle Russian salad dressing
Preheat oven to 350°
Wash and dry chicken; place in a 13 x 9 baking dish.
Mix together the jam, onion soup mix, and Russian salad dressing.
Pour over the chicken in the pan and bake 45 minute to 1 hour or until tender.
Enjoy!!
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