Category: nekkid-throw cooking ~ what is THAT?
Tomato-Pimento Cheese Shortcakes With Black-Peppered Whipped Cream
Sometimes, those of us who create recipes for both pleasure and profit throw together something that becomes a personal favorite. It seems that mine tend to be those using freshly harvested tomatoes! I got most of the tomato gene in my family, because my sister has never liked them, (with the exception of them being turned into something else like sauce that involves some sort of pasta). Myself, well I live for the first early spring hothouse tomatoes grown by “down the road” friends… be it at my Zebulon home in Franklin County and a quick zip over to The Vollmer Farm, or just up the road a piece at one of my new favorite places near my “other” home in Cedar Point, NC… Winberry Farm Produce Market! It just so happened I was in Cedar Point when doing my happy dance creating this vision for the first time I’ve had parked in my head for a few years, but just never got around to making it come to life!
This recipe was created for Carolina Country Magazine... where I am blessed to contribute a couple of recipes each month, and occasionally get to write for the magazine too! We create and shoot for magazines a few months in advance, so both Vollmer and Winberry’s hothouse tomatoes were none too soon for me to start playing with this… what I consider one of my personal “masterpieces!” What’s not to love?
…fresh local tomatoes? …pimento cheese? …whipped cream?
Goodness Gracious for sure!
Nekkid food… just like God gave it to us.
My guinea pigs all gave this a thumbs up too, confirming what I thought… this one is a keeper. So without babbling on, here is my recipe for Tomato-Pimento Cheese Shortcakes with Black-Peppered Whipped Cream. It’s just right for a light summer breakfast or brunch (to be sure with a side of bacon, sausage or country ham)… or my favorite way to eat, alongside a big hunk’o grilled bone-in ribeye!
Suit your fancy…
And just a helpful hint… the shortcakes can be made ahead and frozen. Just take out and “freshen” in your toaster oven. The microwave will do too.
I hope you and yours enjoy these as much as I have this summer. Now run along and make yourself some. Stay tuned… still to come, more tomato faves, including my Dilly Swiss Tomato Pie.
Serve these savory summer shortcakes for breakfast, brunch... and they make a perfect side for grilled steaks, chops and chicken. The shortcakes can be frozen to quickly revive in your toaster oven or microwave.
- 3 1/4 cups biscuit mix
- 1 cup thick pimento cheese
- 1/4 cup Duke's mayonnaise
- 1/2 cup club soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- about 14 large tomatoes
- 3/4 cup minced sweet onion
- 4 tablespoons oil, your preferred salad oil
- 4 tablespoons vinegar, your favorite
- 4 tablespoons honey
- 1/2 cup each fresh chopped basil and oregano
- salt and pepper to suit your taste
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 1 8 ounce cream cheese with chives
- freshly ground black pepper
- fresh herbs to garnish, chives preferred
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine shortcake ingredients and drop by heaping tablespoon onto prepared baking pan. Spread flat with back of spoon.Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool.
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Stir all filling ingredients together least one hour before serving. Spoon filling over 12 shortcakes, covering each with second cake.
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For topping, whip cream and cream cheese until thickened. Blend in pepper.
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Top shortcakes with dollop of whipped cream and garnish with fresh herbs.
Southern Colcannon… get’n my Irish on for a day! (1)
Southern Colcannon featuring North Carolina Sweet Potatoes and Wendy’s Cabbards (collards and cabbage) @ WendysHomeEconomics.com
UPDATE…. my Southern Colcannon and “Cabbards” recipes were published in Our State Magazine in March 2015! This is such a tasty recipe to serve anytime, but just right for adding a southern twist to your St. Patrick’s Day supper table. I am republishing this old fave per requests… I hope you’ll enjoy!
With all the blogs and newsletters filling my inbox with St. Patty’s Day recipes, I got to pondering what I could do to put the “Wendy Twist” on things while throwing some Irish South In Your Mouth. So far as I know, there’s nary a drop of Irish in me, but green IS my favorite color. Those are (that is) my credential(s) for this recipe.
All my life, I’ve seen “colcannon” but never really paid attention to what that is, so being the Culinary Adventurist that I am, it was time for me to dig deeper… turns out, “DIGging” around was appropriate since this dish involved taters that have been dug up… somewhere… sometime.
I first turned to a few dictionaries to find out just what such an oddly named dish is made of… and find that to be potatoes, greens (traditionally kale, but cabbage and other greens have come to be used), butter and seasoning. Bestill me heart, you little Leprechan! Some of my FAVs… this is a no-brainer for me. Since I love to sub this for that, and that for the other, I got to it.
Let’s start with the potato part. Seeing as how I am lucky to live in the heart of sweet potato country here in North Carolina, it only makes sense to me to throw aside plain old potatoes and grab Sweet Taters as I mostly prefer using anytime a potato is called for… This past week, at my local Piggly Wiggly, I got THE best white sweet potatoes… about the best of ANY colored sweet potato ever to pass my lips… so good in fact I got a whole case of them. All you have to do is throw some in the oven and bake until nice and soft when squished with a hot pot pad. (Note: I Dig the Pig, cause they are local folks who buy local NC goodies for their store.)
Next.. cabbage. I do luv me some cabbage, but even mo’ better are my cabbards. We’ve cooked those here before… and just so happens I still have plenty of my winter stash in the freezer, so just had to thaw and heat those.
Ahhh… Butter! A staple in my kitchen. Not much that makes butter better… except browning! I’ve been throwing browned butter into all sorts of stuff lately, so why not atop my Southern Colcannon too? And according to the song I found, see below (after creating my recipe), it seems there is supposed to be a butter hole on top! So there’s your pot ‘o gold. Toasty, nutty browned butter. I’m quite certain the fountains in heaven doth flow with luscious browned butter.
As I read more about Colcannon, it seems that it is mostly served with ham. Yet another staple in my kitchen, it only makes sense to this “Irish for a day gal” that a helping ‘o country ham (from here in North Carolina of course) snuggles up next to my concoction of Southern Colcannon!
Now that, my friends, is my contribution to the day of Irish celebration. Colcannon is so groovy, it has its own song.
So here you go… tap along.
The song “Colcannon”, also called “The Skillet Pot”, is a traditional Irish song that has been recorded by many artists.
“Did you ever eat Colcannon, made from lovely pickled cream?
With the greens and scallions mingled like a picture in a dream.
Did you ever make a hole on top to hold the melting flake
Of the creamy, flavoured butter that your mother used to make?”
The chorus:
“Yes you did, so you did, so did he and so did I.
And the more I think about it sure the nearer I’m to cry.
Oh, wasn’t it the happy days when troubles we had not,
And our mothers made Colcannon in the little skillet pot.”
The story of its name and the colcannon traditionalists versus “the other group” is rather interesting. I’ll let you decide if you need to know more… over here!
And on a personal “toot my horn” note, St. Patty’s Day is special for me… because it was on that day in 2005 I QUIT SMOKING!
If you have a Colcannon story or memory to share, please do in the comment box. Share your recipe too… for Colcannon or how you quit smoking.
What to throw together...
- baked sweet potatoes, any kind but white used in photo
- cooked and seasoned cabbards, cabbage or collards
- roughly chopped scallion, white and green parts (optional)
- salt and pepper
- browned butter
How to throw together...
- Use about equal parts baked sweet potatoes and greens. Exactness is not important.
- Throw baked potatoes into mixing bowl and mash. Fold in greens and mix well. If using, add scallion into mixture and stir to combine. Or, simply add into greens when cooking or heating. Season with salt and pepper.
- Make well in serving of colcannon and fill with browned butter.
- ENJOY!
Ribs… for the winter that won’t quit!
| February 10, 2014 | Posted by Wendy Perry under barbecue or is it BBQ?, here's the beef!, nekkid-throw cooking ~ what is THAT?, not yo' mama's meats!, wendy's signature recipes |
Mercy! I’m about d.o.n.e. with this winter… snow, cold, icey mix… and power bills that may necessitate selling off body parts to pay for….
here in central North Carolina, here we go again. I did the obligatory grocery store stomp earlier. In some ways, I must secretly admit I kinda like all that frenzy in there. I love grocery stores and grocery shopping anyway, and days like this make it a social event. A couple of weeks ago, you may remember getting a post from me and the snow cocktails I had fun creating during our last “event.” I have a couple of ideas for this week too… something Krispy Kremeish and something Cheesecakeish, so stay tuned for those.
But there is just something inside me that begs for MEAT… hearty MEAT, during inclement weather. I guess the cavewoman in me comes out and puts me into survival mode, and chunks of marbled meat on big bones fills the bill. I thought I had blogged these before, but when I came here today to share with folks, low and behold, I find I have been derelict in doing that. So without further delay, because you do need to get to the store for your ribs and the 2 or 3 other things you’ll need, here ya go. I hope some of you will throw some of these in your oven this week while homebound, and be sure to leave that oven door open when done to take advantage of that free heat as the oven cools down.
Wendy’s Winter Ribs!
What to throw together...
- 1-2 rack(s) beef ribs
- 1-2 large onions (I prefer sweet onions)
- 1 jar of your fav North Carolina sweet thickish tomato-y BBQ sauce
- *beef broth or can of onion soup, undliuted
- 1 turkey size roasting bag
How to throw together...
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Place roasting bag onto baking pan.
- Place ribs into the bag, cutting into chunks if need be to fit.
- *If you like extra saucy ribs, pour broth or soup over the ribs BEFORE pouring on the BBQ sauce.
- Throw some sliced onions on top of the ribs.
- Pour BBQ sauce over the onions and ribs. Squish around from outside of bag to distribute the sauce all over your ribs.
- Close bag per instructions.
- Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes. Reduce heat and continue cooking for about 1 hour. Ribs should be fork tender after about 1 1/2 - 2 hours tops.
Easy Butt….
| November 21, 2013 | Posted by Wendy Perry under barbecue or is it BBQ?, crock pottery, slow cook'n & instant pots, gluten free, nekkid-throw cooking ~ what is THAT? |
Wendy’s Easy Butt is just that… and tastes soooo good!
Bacon Kissed NC Apples, Cabbage and Onions
| October 13, 2013 | Posted by Wendy Perry under bacon & belly, cook & eat nekkid, cook'n with NC goodies, garden goodness, nekkid-throw cooking ~ what is THAT?, sensational sides |
Bacon Kissed NC Apples, Cabbage and Onions en Skillet!
What to throw together...
- bacon drippings
- thinly sliced cabbage ribbons
- thinly sliced onion, any kind will do
- thinly sliced apple, any kind of cooking apple will do
- couple pinches of brown sugar, optional
- generous pinch of sea salt
- generous crushed black pepper
How to throw together...
- Heat drippings to Medium High. Add in cabbage, onion and apple. Cook, tossing about frequently, until wilted and soft and cabbage and onion start caramelizing (turning a little brown, but not burned). Scatter with brown sugar, salt and pepper. Toss and serve!
Tis that time of year when we start hunkering down inside on chilly fall eves… and for some of us, what amounts to the start of “cooking season”! I threw together some stuffed pork chops yesterday and just dug around in my fridge to find the perfect side dish to go along with them. What I found was half a small cabbage, a NC apple (from a bowl full I’m using to create a recipe entry at the State Fair next week) and part of a red onion. One of my cast iron skillets happened to be sitting on top of the stove from earlier in the day… with a light coating of…. BACON DRIP’ns! Well that was just the perfect canvas for me to use for this quick and tasty side dish. This is true “throw cooking” using “nekkid food” at its finest… I do practic what I preach…. my friend Pam came over for supper, and she couldn’t stop eating this stuff…. so here you go! Throw some together for yourself. The caramelization of these veggies is just wondermous and is a scrumptious side dish for all sorts of stuff, or just crumble some bacon into this for a simple meal.
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