Dorito Casserole

Sometimes the very best recipes come from people who "don't cook." That's certainly true in this case. This casserole is easy and yummy!!!

I use the "mild" Rotel tomatoes. If you like things hot and spicy, obviously choose the "hot" version. Spoon the ground beef mixture on to the crushed Doritos. If you pour it in, the Dorito layer has a tendency to slide up the sides of the casserole dish. I never measure the Doritos. We buy them in a larger bag. I simply crush enough to cover the bottom of the casserole.

This casserole is one of my favorites. I hope you enjoy it too!

Dorito Casserole

1 lb. ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
1 can Cream of Mushroom soup
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1 can (5.33 oz) evaporated milk
1 can (10 oz) Rotel tomatoes with diced green chiles
1 pkg. (8 oz) Doritos
1/2 lb. shredded cheddar cheese

Brown ground beef, adding the onion, salt and pepper as it cooks. Add the soups, milk and Rotel tomatoes. Cook until heated through.
Spread crushed Doritos on the bottom of a 9 x 13-in. pan. Spoon the meat mixture over the Doritos. Top with grated cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!

Butter-Nut Cake

All of us have a special food that we enjoy making. Butter-Nut Cake is my mother's special. She makes it for birthdays and holidays and deaths and potlucks. You get the idea. The good thing is that she doesn't mind sharing the recipe. She even wrote out several copies to attach to recipe holders she's made for a craft show. (The little pink pigs are so cute!)

So here's the recipe!

Butter-Nut Cake

1 cup Crisco Oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter-nut flavoring

Beat together sugar, Crisco oil and eggs. Add the flour and milk, beating well. Place in four round cake pans. Be sure to grease and flour the bottoms and sides of the pans. Mother cuts little circles from wax paper and puts those in the pans, greasing both sides.
Bake at 350 degrees until the layers start to pull away from the sides. I know. You want a nice, neat little time. But ovens vary and Southern cooks don't generally do a lot of timing in the kitchen. We're fortunate she measures she measures the ingredients.

Frosting

1 8-oz. package creme cheese, softened
1 stick margarine, softened
1 box confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon butter-nut flavoring
3/4 chopped pecans

Mix all ingredients except pecans until it is creamy. Stir in pecans. Frost cake.

Enjoy!

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake

In the South, one is always expected to take food somewhere. It's just part of life. It could be the church supper, a potluck at Aunt Betty Sue's house or to feed the family after a death. It could also be any number of other events. Southerners really like to eat.

It's also expected that the "dish" be homemade. As in, made from scratch. As in, store-bought goods are frowned upon. I had been an adult far more years than I'll ever admit before I came to accept that sometimes it really was okay to not take something I'd made from scratch. I'll always thank that sweet little widow (she really was short!) who explained that she gave "from scratch" up somewhere along the time she was left to work and raise three children alone. Time is a huge factor. Just think. I didn't have to stay up to 1 a.m. baking all those years.

Before I realized that things had changed, I developed a few good recipes that were quick, easy and looked like they took a great deal of time. You may notice a theme here among the different recipes I share.

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake is one of those recipes. It also was my best friend's favorite dessert. He always requested it for birthdays and such. Yes, I gave him the recipe. And, yes, he could cook. I guess some things just taste better when someone else makes them for you. He's been dead a good many years now but I always think of him when I make this dessert.

Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake

2 (8-oz) packages of creme cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
graham cracker crust (6 0z)
Comstock Blueberry Pie Filling

Mix the creme cheese, sugar and vanilla until it's smooth and creamy. If you forget to let the creme cheese soften or simply don't have time, put it in the microwave on medium for a few seconds. Every microwave varies. Just keep checking it until it's softened but not soupy.

Pour the mixture into the graham cracker crust. However did we manage before we could buy those crusts already made and ready to go? Spoon 1/4 to 1/3 of the blueberry pie filling on top. I generally use a teaspoon and drop bits of the filling around in little puddles. Then use a toothpick to gently swirl it around. It looks really pretty, sort of like marble.

Bake it at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until the center is set. Let it cool until room temperature, then refrigerate.

Serve topped with the remaining filling.

Hey, look at you! You made a cheesecake without having to use a "real" cheesecake pan!

Coconut Pie

In the Deep South, recipes are passed from generation to generations. Sometimes they're simply a scribbled list of ingredients on a scrap of paper. The paper might include an oven temperature but little else. Sometimes the cook can't really tell anyone else how to make it. She never measures. Such was the case with my Grandmother's biscuits. It remains a sad loss.

These days we've progressed to cookbooks. Some of the best recipes are in church and senior center cookbooks. They're the ones with the old recipes, the ones passed along from grandparents and beyond. This is one of those recipes.

My Grandmother made this Coconut Pie when I was a child. It was one of the first recipes I got from her after I went away to college. It's simple and doesn't require a pie crust because it makes its own. Years later she submitted the recipe and it was included in a cookbook for The Coffee Springs Senior Citizens Cookbook. I hope you enjoy it as much as I always have.

Coconut Pie

4 eggs
1/2 cup self-rising flour
2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups coconut
1 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups sugar


Beat the eggs. Slowing add the remaining ingredients. It's easy just to stir this with a fork rather than getting the mixer out. Either way works.

Pour the mixture into a greased glass baking dish or pie plate. If you use a pie plate, make sure it's deep. I didn't know about that the first time and I had the opportunity to clean up raw pie from the floor. It just jiggled right out as I walked toward the oven.

Bake the pie at 300 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes. It just depends on your oven. I use the jiggle test. The pie will firm up some when you remove it from the oven. Th edges will also start lightly browning when it's done.

Sweet Potato Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole has been on our table for every holiday or special occasion meal for almost longer than I can remember. I don't know who gave the recipe to my mother. It's easy to bake and it looks a great on a table. That's always a plus.

I don't know if you were taught as I was to always have a variety of colors on the table. It makes the food look more appealing. This casserole can be your orange or brown. You could add peas or broccoli or corn to the meal. Maybe even dumplings. You get the idea. A colorful table is usually well-balanced.

In the South, we tend to forget the calories and move straight to the comfort. We also use what we have. Hence, the pecans. Doesn't everyone have a few pecan trees? Well, the grocery store is also a good source for pecans. Same for the sweet potatoes. We've never had any luck growing them. That's almost embarrassing to admit. Fortunately, others grow them quiet well.

I hope you enjoy this special comfort food!

Sweet Potato Casserole

6 medium sweet potatoes
1 stick margarine, softened
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
dash nutmeg
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/3 stick of margarine
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup ground pecans

Peel, chop and cook the potatoes until they are tender. Drain the water from the boiler. Mash the potatoes until they are like mush.

Add the stick of margarine, eggs, sugar, vanilla and nutmeg. Beat together until fluffy.

Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

Melt the 1/3 stick of margarine. Mix it with the brown sugar, flour and ground pecans. Spread on top of the mixture in the baking dish.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Blonde Brownies

Southerner folks, of which Bouffant Blonde is one, always seem to gather around food. We celebrate with food. We visit with food. We mourn with food. We love to eat. No doubt about that. But it is so much more. Food is our connection.

We're good at it too. Raised up to take a covered dish anywhere and everywhere the situation might arise. Dinner (lunch to folks in other parts of the country) means a table laden with food. Any spots are not acceptable. If the table is not groaning ( a Southern expression) then the hostess really hasn't done her guests right.

Food is always a reason to visit with each other. Family reunions are built around food. It's a wonderful excuse to gather together and catch up on the news while eating. No excuses needed for overindulging. It's expected.

Southerners are also known for providing food when someone has a need. It gives us something to do. Casseroles and platters and desserts arrive along with a new baby's homecoming. The same is true when the sick leave their hospital rooms for the comforts of home.

And we're really known for how we feed the grieving. It's as if we believe we can somehow ease their pain by inundating them with food. We take food as soon as we learn that someone has died. We feed the family "officially" either before or after the funeral. We use food as comfort. It speaks words we can't seem to otherwise convey -- "We care," We're here for you," "We hurt with you."

The following recipe is suitable for most any occasion. It is not an original recipe. I was at a show (sometimes it seems that I'm always at a show) and the booth next to me was selling cookbooks for their organization. This was a smart group of women. They baked several of the items, packaged said items for individual sale, then opened the cookbooks to the items. I bought a cookbook because of this recipe. My mama bought a cookbook because of this recipe.

Of course, being a woman and being Southern, I had to alter it slightly. I'm sure the lady who submitted it did the same. It wasn't original to her either. This is my version. I hope you enjoy it!

Blonde Brownies

1 box Betty Crocker Butter Pecan cake mix
1 stick melted margarine
1 egg, beaten
1 (8-oz) pkg. cream cheese
1 stick melted margarine
1 box powdered sugar
2 eggs
3/4 finely chopped pecans

Grease and flour a metal 9 x 13 pan.

Mix 1 stick margarine, the beaten egg and the cake mix together with your mixer. Press into the pan. I use the back of a spoon to press it down. It doesn't seem to stick as much as it does with a plastic spatula.

Next mix the cream cheese, two eggs, the second stick of margarine and the powdered sugar. I always use a clean mixer bowl for this. I know it's tempting to reuse the same one. It might be fine. I don't know. I just have visions of crust in my cream filling. I pour this mixure over the crust layer. Top it with 3/4 cups finely chopped pecans.

Bake it for 55 minutes in a 300 degree oven. All ovens vary so keep a watch on it. When it starts browning and pulling away from the edges, it's done.

Let is cool for an hour or so. It's so much easier to cut when it's cool. Then cut it into little squares. Place the pieces on a pretty platter. Reserve a few extra just for you. Shhh...if you don't tell, nobody will ever know.