Sweet Potato Rice Pudding

I prefer to use brown rice in the following sweet potato rice pudding recipe because that's all that I ever cook. However, if I found myself with some white rice leftover for one reason or another I would not hesitate to use it as a substitute even though it's less healthy than brown.

The same goes for using pumpkin rather than sweet potato puree. I'm a big fan of pumpkin bread, but sweet potato puree works better with this recipe PLUS I seem to always have enough homemade sweet potato puree in the refrigerator especially around the holidays. This is one of my favorite healthy holiday dessert recipes because it not only tastes and looks amazing but the cinnamon in it makes the house smell like Christmas! Oh...and it's EASY TO MAKE!

SWEET POTATO RICE PUDDING RECIPE

INGREDIENTS
2 Cups cooked brown rice (warm is better so nuke your leftovers a second or two)
3 Cups 2% or less evaporated milk (plain 2% milks works but it's not as creamy)
1 Cup of Pumpkin or Sweet Potato Puree
3/4 Cup Honey
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt (optional)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine all dry ingredients including salt if nobody at your house is on a low-sodium diet. Stir milk, honey and dry ingredients into the sweet potato or pumpkin puree brown rice mixing well. Bake in an oven set at 375 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until bubbly. Remove from the oven, stir well and then refrigerate for at least 8 hours before serving. Stay tuned for more healthy holiday recipes including some traditional favorites with a fresh, new spin!

Christmas Menu Ideas

Hey everybody, I'm open to some new and interesting Christmas menu ideas if you happen to have any lying around. I made a huge pan of southern cornbread dressing using my family's traditional recipe for Thanksgiving with all the usual trimmings including a large cheesecake for those who don't fully appreciate sweet potato pie or banana pudding.

Plus, we had enough turkey to feed our large group, have turkey sandwiches for a week and then boil it for a big pot of turkey carcass soup. My nieces and nephews cringe at the word "carcass" so if you have any suggestions for renaming my favorite leftover turkey recipe I will consider them.

My problem is that after eating one creative leftover turkey recipe after another for several weeks, the idea of baking another one so soon is not so appealing to me and my husband actually turned a lovely shade of green awhile ago when I mentioned it. His Christmas menu idea is to buy rib eye steaks, potatoes and salad fixings and let that be it; he even offered to be the cook! Whoa, now that's hard to resist but I can feel all my ancestors in the background threatening to haunt me if I'm lazy enough to cave.

We are not big fans of ham around here so I need Holiday recipes that don't use ham and Christmas menu ideas that will keep both my living and departed family members happy!

PUMPKIN BREAD RECIPE with CANNED PUMPKIN

I would rather use pumpkin that I process myself but I have kept a pumpkin bread recipe with canned pumpkin handy for those times when I need to whip up a batch and don't have any pumpkins around.

J CLAIRE'S PUNKIN BREAD
3 cups of sifted plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice or allspice
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 cup Crisco or 2 sticks of margarine
1 tsp of baking soda
2 3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp nutmeg
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
(1) 1 pound can of pumpkin

Line two small coffee cans with waxed paper without poking holes in the paper or leaving seams where your bread batter can leak through.

Sift the flower, salt, baking power, baking soda and spices together.

Cream Crisco or your softened sticks of margarine gradually adding sugar as you cream till fluffy.

Add one egg at a time to sugar mixture beating well after each.

Stir in vanilla flavoring.

Add dry ingredients to the creamed sugar mixture alternately with dollops of canned pumpkin beating after each addition.

Stir in chopped nuts. You can use pecans or walnuts in your pumpkin bread recipe but I can't have either because of baby's allergy to tree nuts.

Pour equal amounts into each wax paper lined coffee can or a wax paper lined bundt cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours.


I might catch some flack from my visitors for posting this recipe for several reasons, like the fact that my bread has LOTS of calories, using canned pumpkin instead of fresh and for saying that I use a coffee can as a cake pan. I will address these issues in order:

1. I already explained why this easy bread recipe calls for canned pumpkin. It's handy and a timesaver and I believe the vitamin benefits are the same as fresh but don't quote me on that.
   
   
2. This bread is not low calorie and I'm not trying to pass it off as such. It's a guilty pleasure that should be limited unless you want to move up to the next clothing size.
   
   
3. My mom always made her pumpkin bread recipe with canned pumpkin baked in two small coffee cans that had been greased and lined with wax paper. It was fun and I don't believe it presents any possible health problems.
   

WHAT KIND OF YEAST TO MAKE WINE

I just accidentally deleted or rejected a comment asking what kind of yeast to make wine muscadine wine to be exact. I don't know if the would-be winemaker will check back here to get the answer to his or her winemaking question but just in case I wanted to leave a reply.

I'm told that you could use the same yeast that you might use to make bread, but the taste would be terrible but to be clear I've never tried it so I can't say. I would advise that you use specifically cultured yeast for winemaking. And that is a perfect example of things I wish that had been asked of the old folks before they passed on. I would have loved to be able to ask what kind of yeast was used to make muscadine wine in those days. I doubt seriously that my great-great grandmother had access to special ingredients; so what DID she use? My guess would be that in the old days they grew their own special cultures or just allowed the muscadines to ferment naturally without using yeast cultures.

As far as what what kind of yeast to make wine that we would use today, I have seen Red Star Pasteur Champagne yeast recommended by people who say that it works great and is very cheap to use. If you don't have a home brewing supply store in your area, you can order it online. The only problem there is that I'm told most wine yeasts should be refrigerated until used and I'm not sure how that could be guaranteed in the mail.

Return to Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues if you have questions and I'll try to answer them.

MUSCADINE WINE RECIPE

NO PESTICIDES USED!


Hubby said I should share our old-fashioned, southern muscadine wine recipe after I told him that I had posted Gran's muscadine cobbler recipe. I was reluctant to do so not because of its secret ingrediants or because it's acidic and you have to acquire a taste for it. I didn't post it because all of the kids would have been in big trouble if we had ever so much as whispered out loud that somebody in the family had made wine or anything alcoholic.


This recipe for muscadine wine will produce a sweet version. If you want your wine to have more kick to it, some people add vodka.

OLD FASHIONED MUSCADINE WINE RECIPE


8 quarts of muscadine Grapes
8 pounds of granulated sugar
4 quarts of warm spring water (un-chlorinated)
1 package of dry yeast

Wash the muscadines and then one by one, mash the grapes in your fingers.

Pour the sugar in the warm water and stir still dissolved. Dip out a small amount in a cup and dissolve the yeast and pour it back into the main mixture.

Pour the liquid over the mashed muscadines.

Stir the muscadine mixture every day for a week.

Strain into a crock or churn that can be sealed and let sit for six weeks.

Strain mixture again and put in jars with the lids screwed on very loosely for the first few days (about 3) so that there's no chance of the jars exploding (ask me how I know!).

Tighten the jar lids and store in the cellar or a cool place.

A LITTLE BIT OF SOUTHERN HISTORY
The south, as I'm sure you know from watching old timey movies, has a reputation for making moonshine whiskey. But what you might not know is that for every man who had a still and made "shine" there was probably a wife who sang in the choir every Sunday that may have helped in the process to raise a little money to feed her children. The enterprise was necessary but shameful at the time and in the south, if you had relatives who made whiskey it is not something that is discussed.

The one and only reason that my grandmother shared her muscadine wine recipe with me is because she believed in its medicinal properties. And as muscadine grapes contain as much if not more resveratrol than grapes, it seems that she was right.

Return to Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues to find more of my family's favorite recipes.

MUSCADINE PIE RECIPE

My grandmother's muscadine pie recipe may be the most delicious way I know to get your daily allotment of the trendy, anti-aging flavonoid known as resveratrol. Who would have dreamed that muscadines, or scuppernongs as we always called them, are supposed to be loaded with the same stuff that has red wine flying off the shelves of your local liquor store! Another added benefit of this pie is that I know that the muscadines I pick myself have never been treated with any pesticides!

MUSCADINE PIE

4 pounds ripe scuppernongs (muscadine grapes)
3/4 cup white sugar
2 Tablespoons cornstarch (or plain white flour)
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 Teaspoon of Lemon Juice

1 Recipe of your favorite double crust pie crust

Wash the scuppernongs then pull the hulls off off the pulp over a bowl to save the juice.

Pour the hulls, half of the saved juice in a heavy boiler and cook till tender. If the hulls are tough, it could take a while.

In a separate container, combine the remaining juice and the pulp until the seeds come loose, stirring constantly. Then run this mixture through a sieve to remove the seeds.

In a large pot, combine pulp mixture and hull mixture and stir until mixed.

Remove 2 cups (freeze leftovers for later or make another pie) with sugar, cornstarch, butter and lemon juice stirring well.

Pour into a pie plate lined with crust, top with remaining portion of crust. Trim and seal the edges. Flute the edges and cut slits in the top of the crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake for 20 minutes at 425 degrees or until crust is brown.


As for me, I don’t like the taste of wine. Fermented beverages of any kind have never held much appeal for me. I’ve tried it and not only did I fail to appreciate the bouquet and flavor; the stuff makes me sleepy and gives me a headache. Dessert has yet to produce those side effects so I think I’ll stick with getting my flavonoids the old fashioned way.

Lucky for me that this old, southern muscadine pie recipe has (reportedly) many times the amount of resveratrol than is supposed to be packed in a bottle of Bordeaux. And I can cook it for a fraction of the price unless you count the time that I spend picking them off the vine and the time I’ll be scratching the redbug bites after the fact. Why do I always forget to spray before I head out the door to the woods with bucket in hand?

Return to Muscadine Pie Recipes to find more easy dessert recipes using old fashioned ingredients.

MAMA'S QUICK RECIPE FOR PEAR COBBLER

I call this Mama’s Quick recipe for pear cobbler because this was the dessert that was served when fresh pears were coming in by the bushel basket full and quick family meals were to be expected. After the crops were in and jars of canned fruit were lining the shelves, when a more relaxed pace fell in place we could look forward to pastries that took more time to produce. Another good thing about these pears is that I know they have never been treated with pesticide.

MAMA’S QUICK RECIPE FOR PEAR COBBLER


2 cups of peeled, sliced fresh pears 2 cups of sugar (1 ½ if using canned pears)
4 ounces of unsalted butter
¾ cup of plain flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sweet milk
1 whole egg

Pour 1 cup of sugar over sliced pears in a bowl and set aside (if using canned pears, half the sugar and use a little syrup out of the jar). Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Melt your butter in a 2 qt oven proof baking dish either by placing dish in the oven or microwaving for a few seconds.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining sugar with the rest of your dry ingredients including spices and salt (less a half cup of sugar if you chose to use canned pears) and mix well.

Beat the egg and sweet milk together with a spoon, pour over the dry ingredients and blend until a batter forms. Pour this batter over the butter that you melted WITHOUT STIRRING. Then pour your pears including syrup on top of your butter and batter, AGAIN WITHOUT STIRRING.

Bake your preheated oven for about an hour at 325 watching to see when batter (which has now miraculously risen to form the top crust) begins to brown.

Most cooks would leave it at this, but Mama would brush the top of the crust lightly with butter and sprinkle it with sugar which gave it better flavor. In my traditional southern home, more butter and sugar were added to practically every recipe.

Pies with rolled pastry were more time consuming than Mama’s quick recipe for pear cobbler and more visually showy but it would be impossible to find fault with the sweet, buttery filling of this easy pear dessert no matter whether what!

Return to Oooh Baby Parenting, Family and Environmental Issues to find more frugal southern recipes that include fresh fruit and produce.

PEAR HONEY RECIPE with PINEAPPLE

From as early as I can remember, August was the month mama made her pear honey recipe with pineapple. My favorite pear tree, the one that my daddy planted the day I was born, could be depended on to deliver many bushels of firm cooking pears around the first of August and this treat was just one of the many delightful dishes made from its bountiful harvest.

MAMA’S PEAR HONEY RECIPE with PINEAPPLE

12 cups of firm, peeled, sliced pears
12 cups of white sugar
1 (20 oz) can of crushed pineapple undrained
1 washed, thinly sliced lemon including the peel

After you wash the pears and cut them up, keep them covered in cold water until you have twelve cups. Drain the water from the pears and run them through the coarse blade of your food processor or thinly slice them. Put pears and sugar in a large pot and heat over very low heat (to give the juice a chance) stirring occasionally and don’t worry about crushing the pears. Simmer until the pears are cooked clear (I’m not going to put a time here because pears in different stages of ripeness take different amounts of time to get the right honey- like consistency) stir in the crushed pineapple and lemon and cook 5 to 10 minutes more. Pour the Pear Honey recipe with pineapple into hot, sterilized jars and seal. The results should be 6 to 8 pints of a delicious treat that is wonderful on a hot biscuit and makes an attractive gift.

Tips:
1. Some cooks drop a cherry in each jar for a little added color if you want to dress it up to give as a gift

2. If you have some over ripe pears. Half the amount of sugar recommended for crisp pears

3. Try using Pear Honey on your kids peanut butter sandwiches instead of jelly

Some cooks use pineapple juice instead of crushed pineapple in their recipe. But Mama’s pear honey recipe with pineapple just tasted better to me, had a better texture and was easy to make with less cooking time than when juice was substituted. There were times when frugal cooking was a necessity that the juice from a can of sliced pineapple was substituted for the crushed pineapple. Many reading this may be thinking that a can of crushed pineapple is so cheap that they could not imagine altering the taste and appearance of the pear honey recipe to save a dollar. And I pray that those ladies never have the need to watch every cent like our family had to when times were bad.

POST HALLOWEEN BABY BOREDOM

Here we are the day after Halloween! It seems like only yesterday that I was bitching about the hot weather and the drought. Just goes to show that time flies when you're having fun or not as the case has been at my house lately.

On the upside, trick-or-treating went well. There was no crying about a costume that didn't fit right, look right or that was duplicated by another kid down the street. This was our first time for trick-or-treating this far south. Southerners really make Halloween a major production! Churches have Trunk or Treat where the entire church parking lot is filled with parked cars with the hatches open or with open trunks filled with candy, baked goods and small toys for the children.

Even with all the festivities at the local churches our neighborhood was filled with little ghouls and goblins and their parents. The kids wanted to visit some of the neighbor's houses, and I went along with it. We were actually invited in for a light supper at two of the houses. The last one would not take no for an answer and treated us to a wonderful Halloween dinner of chicken chili served in hollowed out rolls. I had never a eaten any chili that was made with chicken before but I begged for the recipe!

Did anyone else feel that Halloween was so much more fun since daylight savings time had not kicked in yet? I hope that they don't turn the clocks back till after the 1st again next year!

Here's a recipe chicken chili

1 tablespoon virgin olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
4 large garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless boneless chicken breasts or the chicken meat of your choice that has been cut into bitesize pieces
1 large jalapeno pepper, seeded, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 cans (or a 29 oz can of ) diced tomatoes including the juice
2 cans (or (a 32 oz can of )Great Northern beans that have been drained
1/4 cup lime juice or fresh juice of 1 lime
2 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed, or 2 cups of fresh or canned kernals
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup finely chopped onion (southerners swear by Vidalia onions for obvious reasons)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
PREPARATION:
Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Once the oil has been heated, slide your chopped onions and garlic into the oil

Stir and saute until onion is tender

Add your chicken and stir till lightly browned on all sides

Next add the chopped jalapeno pepper, coriander, cumin, tomatoes and juice and drained beans.


Turn the heat to low and let simmer for around 5 minutes

A lime juice and kernels of corn. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

Continue to simmer the mix, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking, for 5 to 10 minutes more.

Serve with sour cream, chopped Vidalias and cilantro for guests to add to this easy recipe for chili.