Kentucky Bourbon Balls

Christmas parties everywhere, every night. That's what December is for. Of Course, one should never show up to a party empty-handed, so here's a fun treat you can take with you next time you go to a holiday shindig. The glossy finish on the balls makes them a real treat that you can be proud of. They are a little labor intensive, but drag a friend into the kitchen and put on some dancing music and you will never notice.

Also, please please please keep these pure and use real Kentucky bourbon. I personally used Four Roses, but there are quite a number of good distilleries from Kentucky to choose from. These are not terribly strong, so you won't get tipsy off of them, but you can definitely taste the bourbon. This recipe is classic and definitely not that rum ball recipe that you find everywhere else. I personally much prefer these with their sweet, white insides.

Kentucky Bourbon Balls
From Beyond the Fence (a Kentucky cookbook)

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup bourbon
6 tablespoons butter, melted
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 block paraffin wax, shaved
Whole pecans, 1 to top each bourbon ball with

Spread chopped nuts in a shallow bowl and pour bourbon over nuts. Let soak overnight. The following day, in a separate bowl, combine butter, 4 cups sugar, and soaked nuts Mix thoroughly until mixture is consistent. Add remaining 1 cup sugar and mix well by hand. Using 1 tablespoon scoop, evenly scoop balls, rolling each into a sphere in your hand. Lay rolled balls on wax paper. Chill balls for at least 10 minutes in the fridge. In the meantime, prepare chocolate by melting chocolate and wax in a double boiler. Stir until melted and consistent throughout. Dip each ball into chocolate with a toothpick and allow excess chocolate to drip off before returning to wax paper. Place a pecan half on top of each ball before the chocolate hardens.

Should make 48 balls (I suggest to make them smaller than a tablespoon to get 48)

Lemon Pie

Why is citrus season in the winter? I mean, when I think of a season that goes with citrus, it's usually summer. Lemonade, orange creamsicles, citrus tarts... all of those things come out during the summer. The only reason I can think of for God making citrus fruits ripen in December and January is that he wanted to give us a reminder that summer will return. That has to be it, right? Because there is nothing that can make me smile like the sun just came out like a slice of lemon pie.

Also, the lemons looked so pretty at the grocery store and this recipe is soooo fast and easy! I knew I had to make this. At any rate, it was a good way to avoid studying for statistics exam that I might*possibly*probably will fail... I guess I should have gotten a tutor earlier than one week before the final. Maybe eating lemon pie will lessen the blow of failing.

Simple Lemon Pie
1 unbaked pie crust
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
Juice of 2 lemons

Grease a 9-inch pie tin and place unbaked pie crust in the tin. Preheat oven to 350F.
In a medium bowl, stir sugar into butter until fully incorporated. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in lemon juice. Pour into unbaked pie crust. Bake pie in 350F oven for 10 minutes, then turn oven down to 325F and bake for 35 more minutes. Let cool and place in fridge for at least 2 hours. Serve cold.

Easy Red Beans (and Cornbread!)

Do you listen to any NPR or PRX or such? If you don't, I highly recommend you stop what you are doing and go do some exploring of some seriously good stuff. Earlier this week I was listening to Snap Judgement (one of my new favorites) and the host was telling a story that involved him eating red beans when he was a kid. I just couldn't get the thought of red beans out of my head after listening to the show, so I decided to make some. I think this is one of my new favorite dinners. It took just half an hour to come together and all of it was made from scratch (well, the beans were canned, but that's it).

Easy Red Beans

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1/4 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

6-8oz kielbasa, sliced into bite size coins

1 (15oz) can of red beans, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Salt and pepper to taste

Oregano to taste

Thyme to taste

Cornbread, for serving (recipe in post below)

Place first four ingredients into a skillet (make sure you put a little oil in the bottom of the skillet) over medium heat and cook until onions are soft (about 7 minutes). Add the rest of the ingredients and cook 3 more minutes. Serve with corn bread.

Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread

I made this cornbread to go with the red beans in the post above.

A month or so ago, I saw that the local co-op grocery store had 5lb bags of locally, fresh milled, yellow corn meal and I just couldn't pass it up. ...I have no clue what to do with corn meal. This sounds familiar, doesn't? Maybe reminiscent of my cherry-glut week this summer?

Well, the bottom line is that I looked up what to use corn meal in and decided that cornbread sounded delicious. From my research, I found out that, if you are a purist, cornbread has no flour and no sugar in it. Also, the recipes that claimed authenticity did not have butter. I had no idea cornbread was not made with butter. Anyway, I stuck with the no flour and no butter, but I had to add just a subtle sweetness, so I added a tablespoon of sugar and also served it with local honey from the farmer's market. Soooo good. And it was so easy! I definitely will be making this again, it took only 25 minutes from start to finish!

Cornbread

Adapted from Snug Hollow Farm Bed and Breakfast

2 cups cornmeal (white or yellow, I used yellow)

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1/4 cup oil, divided

2 eggs, beaten

Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add eggs, milk, and 2 tablespoons oil to dry ingredients and stir well. Heat remaining oil in a 9 inch black cast iron skillet until smoking (be careful). Pour cornbread mix into hot skillet and place in preheated 425F oven.

Now the fun begins. Ater the cornbread has baked for about 10 minutes, shake to see if the middle is set (mine wasn't read until 14 minutes). If it is set, remove from oven, and, working very fast, run a spatula around the sides of the cornbread, lift and flip the corn bread in the skillet so that the top is now the bottom. I had trouble with this, so I got a big plate, turned the cornbread out on the plate, and then put the cornbread back into the skillet with the old top now on the bottom. Return to the oven for another 5 minutes. When you turn it out it will be golden on all sides. Just do not over-bake it, k?

Mmmm, Pumpkin

Deliciousness!

If you think making homemade biscuits is intimidating, then you don't own a pastry blender. Before I bought my hand-dandy pastry blender for a mere $2.50, I dreaded cutting butter into anything, especially biscuits, but now I am fine -nay, excited- to make biscuits! I am no longer afraid of cutting in butter and the mess that it leaves on my hands.

I realized I had some extra pumpkin that I had frozen a while back that needed to be used, and pumpkin biscuits just seemed perfect for this overcast and chilly day. The two year-old boy and I made them this morning and had a blast. He refused to mix the pumpkin in though and kept saying "yuck!" when he saw me do it. Oh well, he certainly liked eating them! I will be terribly sad when I say good-bye to him next week and start a new job for the summer. Just thinking about how next week is my last got me crying at the library toddler-time on Tuesday.

Ah well, time marches on =/.

Pumpkin Biscuits from Scratch!

Adapted from AllRecipes

Yield: 16-18 biscuits

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, or more to get biscuit dough consistency

3 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup butter, sliced

2 cups pumpkin puree

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a large cookie sheet (or use a silpat!).

Stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the pumpkin and mix to form a soft dough.

On a lightly floured surface pat the dough out to 1/2 inch thick. Cut out biscuits with a round 2 inch cutter or use a cup. Place biscuits on the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve warm from the oven with a pat of butter.

Mmm, fresh out of the oven, still on my beautiful Silpat