Cheesy Garlic Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/ 2 teaspoon garlic powder 

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 

Shredded Cheddar cheese 

Shredded mozzarella cheese 

One loaf French bread 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Slice the French bread in half. Place on ungreased baking sheet. 

Combine softened butter, Parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Spread onto the bread. Top with Cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. I sprinkle it on the bread generously. 

Bake for 10 minutes. Slice and enjoy!

Candy Cane Chocolate Mini Loaves

This recipe also comes from the December issue of Taste of Home magazine. The author suggested using left over candy canes for this special treat. That's certainly a wonderful idea. However, I love the idea of making these mini loaves and giving them out as Christmas gifts. What a wonderful expression of love and thoughtfulness to give something you made yourself.

I suggest melting the white chocolate for the topping in the microwave. Place it in a microwave-safe bowl and heat at 30 seconds intervals until melted. Be sure to stir after each 30 seconds, as the chocolate may not always look melted when it really is.

Again, I hope you'll take time to purchase Taste of Home magazine and treat yourself to other amazing recipes. This is just the best cooking magazine around.

Candy Cane Chocolate Mini Loaves

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 2/3 cups packed brown sugar
4 large egg whites, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup strong brewed coffee
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup baking cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup (6 oz.) miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coast eight 5 3/4 x 3 x 2-inch loaf pans with cooking spray.

Beat butter and sugar until crumbling, about 2 minutes. Add egg whites, eggs, coffee, yogurt, oil and extracts.

In another bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Add to brown sugar mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Transfer to prepared pans. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Topping

2 oz. white baking chocolate, melted
3 tablespoons crushed candy canes

Drizzle melted white baking chocolate over loaves. Sprinkle with crushed candies.

Hush Puppies

This is the Deep South so every now and then you have to fry up some Hush Puppies. I like Hush Puppies. I do. The fish that sometimes go with them? No so much.

Still, it's important to have a good Hush Puppies recipe. I found this one in the August 2014 issue of Southern Living magazine. For a variety, substitute fresh herbs or chopped green onions for the diced onion.

Hush Puppies

Vegetable oil
1 cup self-rising yellow cornmeal mix
1/2 cup self-rising flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup diced onion
3/4 cup buttermilk

Pour oil to a depth of 2 inches into a Dutch oven; heat to 350 degrees. Stir together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking soda and onion in a large bowl. Add buttermilk, stirring just until moistened. (Mixture will be slightly thicker than cake batter.)

Drop batter by teaspoonfuls into hot oil, and fry, in batches, 1 to 2 minutes or until golden brown, turning often. Drain on a wire rack over paper towels; Serve immediately.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Parslied Buttermilk Biscuits

My Grandmother made the best biscuits ever. She would throw together the ingredients in her flour bowl, mix the ingredients with her hands, pat them into balls and place them in a greased pan. She dabbed a bit of grease on top and baked them until they were brown.

I wanted desperately to learn how to make those biscuits. And she was willing to teach me. But she couldn’t. She was one of those Southern cooks who never measured anything. By the time I came along, I don’t think she even thought about it as she made the biscuits. She’d just made so many over the years it was as natural as breathing to her.

This recipe comes from the November 1990 issue of Redbook magazine. Yeah. I know. Another clipping I saved. And, yes, I can make biscuits that are pretty good but not as good as the ones my Grandmother used to make.

Parslied Buttermilk Biscuits

2 ½ cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon salt
¼ solid vegetable shortening
2 to 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
¾ cup buttermilk

Heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly green large cookie sheet.

Sift 1 ½ cups flour and salt into large bowl. Cut shortening into flour mixture with pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles coarse meal; stir in parsley.

Pour in buttermilk all at once; stir with fork until dough just holds together. Don’t overwork; dough should be wet, sticky and a little lumpy.

Flour hands with some of the reserved flour; pull off ¼-cup piece of wet dough. Toss dough lightly in bowl of flour to coat; roll gently into smooth ball between palms of hands. Inside of biscuit will still be very wet; place biscuit carefully on prepared cookie sheet.

Repeat procedure with remaining dough, flouring hands as necessary and placing biscuits as they are made on cookie sheet so they just touch. Pat each gently to flatten slightly.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown.

Makes about 8 biscuits, at 202 calories per biscuit.

Note: If desired, use 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour sifted with 5 teaspoons baking powder instead of self-rising flour. Increase salt to 1 1/2 teaspoons.

Cholesterol-Free Banana Bread

This recipe come from the May 1991 Good Housekeeping magazine. Okay. I admit it. I’ve been collecting recipes for a long, long time.

Oh, and I rarely ever use walnuts. I live in the Deep South. We use pecans. Why? Because We have a pecan orchard. And they taste good.

Cholesterol-Free Banana Bread

2 ¼ all-purpose flour
2/3 cup honey-crunch wheat germ
½ cup oats, uncooked
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
10 tablespoons light corn-oil spread (1 ¼ sticks)
1 ½ cups mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
1 6-oz. can frozen apple-juice concentrate, thawed
½ cup thawed frozen egg substitute
1/3 cup walnuts, optional
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

About 2 hours before serving or early in day:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. In large bowl, mix flour, wheat germ, oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. With pastry blender, cut in corn-oil spread until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in bananas, undiluted apple-juice concentrate, egg substitute, walnuts and vanilla just until flour is moistened. Spoon batter into pan.

Bake 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center of bread comes out clean. Cool bread in pan on wire rack 10 minutes; remove from pan and cool slightly. Serve warm, or cool completely to serve later.

Makes 18 servings, about 180 calories per slice.

Cheese Biscuits

This recipe looks like it might have come from a newspaper insert but really I have no idea. But these sure do look good!

Cheese Biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus flour for dusting the board
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 cups finely grated Cheddar cheese (about 6 oz.)
2/3 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons milk, approximately
6 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 1 oz.)

Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Put the ingredients in a food processor and add the butter, shortening and grated Cheddar. Blend briefly until well mixed. Do not overblend this dough at any point. (If a food processor is not used, put the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. Add the butter, shortening and cheese and blend, using a pastry blender or two knives.

Add the buttermilk while blending briefly a second time. Gather the dough into a ball. The dough may be wrapped tightly in freezer or plastic wrap and either frozen, if made a week ahead, or chilled overnight, or it may be rolled out immediately.

On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough one-quarter inch thick or slightly thicker. Using a biscuit cutter with a two-inch diameter, cut the dough into circles. Arrange the circles neatly on baking sheets. Gather together into a ball any remaining scraps of dough, roll out and cut out more circles. Arrange them on a baking sheet. There should be about three dozen biscuits. Brush the top of each biscuit lightly with a little milk.

Place the baking sheets on the center rack of the oven and bake about eight to 10 minutes, or until the tops of the biscuits are lightly browned. Sprinkle the top of each biscuit with a little Parmesan cheese. Continue baking for three minutes or longer, until the tops are golden brown and the biscuits are cooked through.

Yield: Eight to 10 servings

Crackling Bread

I admit it. I love cookbooks. Always have. I have a huge assortment and I use them when I can. So no one was surprised when I went to an antique mall’s big sales day and bought -- you guessed it -- another cookbook.

This one is a small staple-bound book from 1964. It’s titled Southern Appalachian Mountain Cookbook by Ferne Shelton. As I flipped through the pages, I knew I HAD to take it home. It’s filled with those old-time recipes that you just don’t find in modern cookbooks.

My Gran always made Crackling Bread and now my Mother does too. I don’t eat it. Not really. I like the bread but I pick out the cracklings. Seems kind of silly, even to me. My Mother, who doesn’t drink milk, crumbles the bread into a glass of buttermilk and seems to love it. I’ll trust her on that because I don’t plan to try it that way.

For those who don’t know -- and the cookbook does explain it -- “cracklings are the browned pieces of meat remaining after pure lard has been rendered from fat pork.”

Crackling Bread

2 cups cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup cracklings

Mix the cornmeal, salt and baking soda. Add buttermilk and cracklings. Form into cakes and place in greased baking pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

Different Version: My Mother fries her bread. She uses a cast iron griddle, pours the thick mixture onto the greased surface and cooks it until it is browned. Then she flips it and browns the other side.

Pear Bread

A funny thing happens when you're faced with a large pear tree and lots of really small pears. Yeah. You guessed it. You start baking things you've never ever tasted before. That's okay. I'm thrilled to have the pears. I love to eat them. More importantly, this particular tree got its start from my Gran's pear tree. The tree means a lot to me because it reminds me of the wonderful times spent at her house. Oh, and the bread's pretty good too!

Pear Bread

3 eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

¾ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups peeled, cored, finely chopped pears

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla. Mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Stir into the egg mixture just until moistened. Don't overblend because that will make it dry.
Toss pears with lemon juice. Stir pears and pecans into batter. The batter will be really thick.
Spoon the batter into two greased bread loaf pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks.

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

This is one of those great Libby's recipes that sometimes gets overlooked as we search for the Pumpkin Pie. But fresh bread is awesome. Try it!

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 cups granulated sugar
1 can (15 oz) Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin
4 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup orange juice or water
1 cup sweetened dried, fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, vegetable oil and orange juice in large mixer bowl. Beat until just blended. Add pumpkin mixture to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened. Fold in cranberries. Spoon batter into prepared loaf pans.

Bake for 60 to 65 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 2 loaves.

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

Two of my friends got together one afternoon and baked two loves of Pumpkin Cranberry Bread. Apparently one friend had pumpkin in her cupboards. The other friend had the cranberry in her cupboards. They gathered at one house, mixed everything together, slid the pans into the oven, then headed to the back porch for some good old-fashioned socializing. What a great excuse to reconnect and enjoy the company of our friends!

We were fortunate enough to get a few slices of the result. It was wonderful! Here's the recipe.

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

2 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin
4 eggs
2/3 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 cup dried or fresh cranberries, chopped.

Beat sugar, pumpkin, eggs, oil and water in mixer bowl. Stir in flour, baking soda and spice. Stir only until moistened. If you keep stirring, the bread will be dry.

Grease two 9" x 5" loaf pans. Evenly divide the batter, placing half in each pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes.

Share with friends!

Cinnamon Bread

Once upon a time I cooked a lot. The kitchen belonged to me. I didn't have to share. I didn't need to work around anyone else's schedule. When I felt like cooking, I cooked.

One thing I loved to do was bake bread. I've spent many afternoons waiting for my dough to rise and pounding out my attitude on a poor piece of dough. But sometimes I did things the easy way. Cinnamon Bread is one of those easy recipes. You don't have to wait for dough to rise. It doesn't take hour upon hour to taste the finished results. It does, however, make your house smell wonderful. Cinnamon always does that.

Cinnamon Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice added
1/3 cup corn oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs

Combine all ingredients with an electric mixer. I always combine my dry ingredients and stir together before adding to everything else. When measuring the flour, be sure to lightly spoon it into a measuring cup, then level it off with a knife. So many people don't realize this and they use the scoop method. ie. They use the measuring cup to scoop the flour from it's container. That packs the flour in and causes you to use too much. Then the bread or cake or whatever is too dry and you can't figure out why. Now you know.

Beat all the ingredients together until fully mixed. You can substitute one cup of buttermilk for the milk with 1 tablespoon lemon juice if you'd like. I just never have buttermilk in the house so I'm accustomed to using the substitute.

Pour batter into a greased and floured 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

Streusel

2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons margarine or butter, melted

Stir all ingredients together. Pour over batter top. Take a small knife and gently swirl the streusel into the batter.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 to 50 minutes, remembering that oven temperatures vary. In my oven it takes about 50 minutes. You'll know it's done when a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the bread from the pan as soon as you take it from the oven. Let it cool before slicing. Store leftovers in the refrigerator. I always reheat leftovers in the microwave because I like it just a little warm.

This bread is wonderful to freeze. I simply wrap it in plastic wrap and then put tin foil on top of that. Thaw in the refrigerator.