Madison&Mayberry

What I Learned Over Christmas

Several new culinary thoughts to share --

-- Tomatoes in cole slaw work surprisingly well. (Add them at the end though because their delicate nature won't survive the tossing of the cabbage.)

-- My friends, Melanie and Craig, hosted a bbq tasting at their house. I've never had the option to dunk my meat into so many sauces. The winner -- Big Bob Gibson's Red Sauce, followed closely behind Big Bob Gibson's White Sauce. And, no, Big Bob Gibson did not pay me. The red sauce was a perfect  harmony of tanginess, sweet and robust tomatoes. And the white sauce was reminiscent of Miracle Whip. But not in a bad way. Just that hint of Miracle Whip that I remember so fondly from my great aunt's sandwiches.

-- Deviled eggs don't survive well in a fall.

Before:

After:

--And when all else fails, pull out a Paula Deen recipe. My mom made this sausage pie on Christmas Day. I, along with everyone else, was addicted to it. She had pulled it off a community board, who referenced the recipe from the Food Network. I looked it up, only to find it was originally a Paula Deen recipe. Of course it would  be. Who else would be endorsing sausage, cream cheese and pastry?

Here's the recipe:

Ron's Tybee Island Sausage Pie (from Paula Deen)

1 pound ground sausage
1/3 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup milk
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese
3 eggs
1 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt (use less if the sausage is salty)
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 (9-inch) deep-dish pie crust, partially baked and cooled

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a heavy skillet over medium heat, crumble the sausage with a fork. Saute the sausage until completely cooked. Drain off the fat, remove the sausage, and set aside. Melt the butter in another skillet over medium heat. Saute the onions in the butter until tender. Add the milk and heat until steam rises, but do not boil the milk. Cut the cream cheese into small pieces, add it to the onion mixture, and remove the pan from the heat. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, then add the cheddar, the onion mixture, the Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Mix thoroughly and pour this into the piecrust. Top with cooked sausage, and bake for 30 minutes, or until set.

A Buttery Peach Cobbler Wonderland, Courtesy of Paula Deen

I was curious to learn more about Paula Deen's cooking, but to do this, I had to get through her almost agonizing auto-biography, "It Ain't All About the Cookin'." Don't get me wrong -- her poverty-to-food-goddess story is inspirational. But it's written exactly how she talks. It's too much, too over the top.

Anyway, one of the funniest passages in the book retells comedian Sara  Schaefer's joke on Paula Deen's love of butter:

Now, I’m no stranger to Paula Deen’s cooking. The woman’s recipes often look like this:

2 cups butter
1 1/2 cups butter oil
1/4 cup butter juice
3 cups all-purpose butter
1 teaspoon baking butter
3 cups peeled and finely chopped butter
1 cup shredded butter
1 pinch of butter, for taste

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Generously grease a tube pan.

For the cake: in a large bowl, combine the butter, butter oil, butter juice, and baking butter; and mix well. Fold butter, butter, and butter into batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bathe in it until you go into cardiac arrest.

Case in point -- Paula's Peach Cobbler, which has a stick of butter in it. Ryan, the butter-hater that he is, nearly had a heart attack upon finding this out. But let me tell you... if you're going to gorge on butter, this is the recipe to do it with!

The most time-consuming part of the recipe is cutting the peaches. Then into the pan goes melted butter, batter (without stirring) and the fruit. So what enters the oven is a gooey mess with globs of butter -- not so attractive. See below.

But when you take it out of the oven after 45 minutes, the cobbler has been transformed.  I'm going to talk like Paula Deen now -- "Honeychild, this is the most finger-licking good peach cobbler you'll ever put in your mouth." Honestly though, this is so easy and so amazingly good. The bottom crust is crisped yet chewy and contrasts with the spongy buttery nature of the rest of cobbler. I halved the recipe and then was instantly sorry I did. I wanted the whole portion. And why stop with peaches? Think of all the other fruits that could be used here. Serve it warm with a dollop of ice cream and you'll fall to the ground in worship of dear Paula.

The Lady and Sons Peach Cobbler, courtesy of Paula Deen

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup self-rising flour
1 cup milk
1 (28-ounce) can sliced peaches in heavy syrup, un-drained (use fresh peaches if available; see note*)
Cinnamon, for sprinkling, optional
Vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream, for serving

*If they are available, by all means use fresh peaches. In a saucepan, mix 2 cups fresh peach slices with one cup sugar and one cup water. (NOTE: I bypassed the sugar water step. I only tossed my fresh peaches with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.)

Cook's Note: The most important part of this dish is not stirring the mixture.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Put butter in a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish and place in the oven to melt. Stir sugar and flour together and mix well. Slowly add milk and continue stirring to prevent the batter from lumping.

Being careful not to burn yourself, remove hot baking dish containing melted butter from oven; pour batter directly over butter in baking dish. Do not stir.

Spoon fruit on top of batter, then gently pour syrup on top. Do not stir. Sprinkle cinnamon on top of batter, if using. The most important part of this dish is not stirring the mixture.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Your batter will rise above your fruit, producing the most wonderful of crusts. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

Egg Salad, Paula Deen Style

If the thought of crumbled Saltine crackers and mayo together in a salad don't completely repulse you, then Paula Deen has a recipe for you. In last week's New York Times, Ms. Dean was profiled on her rise to fame, as well as conquering her agoraphobia. Along with the profile came a few downhome recipe.

I was a little wary of the "Georgia Cracker Salad" but -- having all the ingredients on hand -- decided to give it a try. The salad is a mixture of hard-boiled eggs (I doubled the amount), tomatoes, scallions, mayo and crackers. I'm a big egg salad eater and it's never occurred to me to add tomatoes to it. I loved it! The crackers gave a nice crunch but I think I prefer to leave that to some celery. I don't know why I couldn't shake the fact I was eating crackers drenched in mayo. I mean, I would eat the egg salad atop a cracker. So why is it any different to eat it with it?

Paula does recommend serving the cracker salad with shrimp, which I think would work nicely and am up for trying. Until then, I may substitute the crackers for celery.

Georgia Cracker Salad

Adapted from "The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook," by Paula H. Deen (Random House, 1998)

Time: 10 minutes

4 ounces saltine crackers

1 large tomato or 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped

3 scallions, finely chopped

1 cup mayonnaise

1 hard-cooked egg, finely chopped

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Just before serving, place saltines in a medium-size bowl. Use your hands to crush crackers into big pieces. Add remaining ingredients, mix gently but thoroughly, and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately as a side dish or top with shrimp to serve as an entree.

Yield: About 2 cups, or 6 servings.

Paula Deen's Finest

Double servings of Paula Deen's Gorilla Bread

It's quite easy to assign blame to your mom, especially when she introduces you to a recipe that will clearly become your downfall. It's everything Paula Deen stands for -- dough, butter, sugar and fat. And oh my gosh, is it good. I could devour the entire thing. I'd be ill for a bit, but it  would be quite worth the pain.

Monkey Bread is a Southern treat of pull-apart bread sprinkled with cinnamon, sugar, butter and pecans. But Ms. Paula takes it one step further -- by adding a slab of cream cheese smack in the middle of the biscuit dough. I can't describe the fattening goodness of this concoction.

So when Anne at A Good American Wife had a party Saturday night to the theme of  bringing something you shamefully love to eat, this came to mind. (In a close second was green bean casserole. What is it about green bean casserole that I can't get enough of? The canned green beans? The Campbell's soup? The canned fried onions? Oh, yeah.. It's the whole spectacular combination of it all.)

Back to the Gorilla Bread -- it was a hit, if I do say so myself. (Just read Anne's review of it.) A lot of it is the warm cream cheese oozing from the dough. Some would recommend eating this for breakfast but I'm just not a huge sweets-in-the-morning person, so I save it for other occasions. Prepare to be addicted. But don't say I didn't warn ya.

Paula Deen's Gorilla Bread (adapted)

1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese
2 (12-ounce) cans refrigerated biscuits (10 count)
1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts or 3/4 cup chopped walnuts + 3/4 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray (I found success with a regular round pan). Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar over low heat, stirring well; set aside. (Add a few splashes of rum and cook an additional minute or two. Or use a different flavored liqueur or flavored extract.)

Cut the cream cheese into 20 equal cubes. Press the biscuits out with your fingers and sprinkle each with cinnamon sugar. Place a cube of cream cheese in the center of each biscuit, wrapping and sealing the dough around the cream cheese. (I found it worked best to make these into balls and then squashing them back into biscuit size to fully enclose the cream cheese.)

Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nuts into the bottom of the bundt pan. Place half of the prepared biscuits in the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar, pour half of the melted butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle on 1/2 cup of nuts.

Layer the remaining biscuits on top, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon sugar, pour the remaining butter mixture over the biscuits, and sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of nuts. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Place a plate on top and invert.