Honey Vanilla Cornbread

My Life List: Things I'd Like to Do Before I Go #73: Attend the National Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. That's right. South Pittsburg. Not Rome. Not London. OK, Greece is admittedly on my list. But, I was just as happy to check this item off my list last April when Dad joined me on this excursion to this quaint town.

We enjoyed browsing through the various exhibits, arts and crafts, and we even did a little bit of antique shopping. I think Dad would agree, though, that our favorite part of the festival was the trip down Cornbread Alley. Here, you pay one price and get to sample many different kinds of cornbread. We just giggled thinking about all of the creative recipes made with this Southern staple. Some of the items we tasted included Tooti Fruity Cornbread Balls, Bacon Ranch Cornbread, Louisiana Yam Cornbread, Hawaiian Cornbread Fritters, Chipotle Cornbread, and Honey Vanilla Cornbread (my personal favorite). And I thought cornbread was just your requisite side dish to a good 'ole bowl of pinto beans!

The National Cornbread Festival takes place the last weekend in April each year. Although I'm not planning on attending this upcoming weekend, it did inspire me to try making my favorite. This is so good . . . just as I remembered. I was crazy for waiting a whole year before making it myself!

Honey Vanilla Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 1 cup self-rising cornmeal
• 2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 boxes (10.1 oz) vanilla instant pudding
• 4 cups milk
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1-1/2 cups chopped pecans
• 3 cups coconut flakes

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray 9x13 casserole dish or large skillet with cooking spray. Blend together cornmeal, flour, sugar and pudding. Add milk, oil, eggs and honey. Stir until well mixed. Add pecans and coconut flakes. Mix until moistened. Pour into pan and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Note: I cut the recipe in half and made cornbread muffins instead. It's a good thing I did because I still ended up with 18 muffins! I baked them at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Mmmmmm.

Fun with Fondant

After enjoying my first cake decorating class in January, I decided I wanted to take it one step further. So today, Mom and I headed to Oak Ridge to the House of Cake to learn how to make homemade fondant, cover a cake, and decorate a cake. We had such a good time!

I ended up decorating mine with a variety of flowers; Mom chose a dogwood design: 

We were pretty proud! :)

We started the class by first making the fondant. This began by melting a bag of marshmallows in the microwave for only 1 minute along with 3 tablespoons of water. I didn't know this was even possible! In fact, I'm definitely going to try this technique the next time I make Rice Krispie treats. The texture was perfect after stirring, and there was no messy pot to clean nor fear of burning. Then, we added powdered sugar. That's it. I know that I have tried fondant in the past and didn't like the taste. Although I didn't taste our batch, surely it is good given the ingredients!

After the fondant was made, we rolled it into a very large, thin circle and carefully placed it on top of our frosted cake. Here is Mom in action:

 

 

After a little tucking here and there, and then trimming off the excess fondant, we spent the next hour or so just decorating. I thought that was the best part. It reminded me of working with edible play-doh. Here are the two proud "graduates" after their fun with fondant. You should try it!

Fondant

Ingredients:

• 1 bag of miniature marshmallows
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 (2 lb) bag of powdered sugar
• food coloring (optional)

Directions:
Place marshmallows in a microwaveable bowl. Sprinkle with water. Microwave for 1 minute. Stir until melted and smooth. Add 1 pound of powdered sugar to melted marshmallows. Stir until combined. Add another 1/2 pound of powdered sugar and begin folding it into the mixture. Add more powdered sugar, if needed, until the dough is no longer sticky. Use your hands to knead the dough into a smooth ball with the consistency of play-doh.

Using a rolling pin, roll dough into a very large, thin circle approximately 15 inches in diameter . . .  enough to cover the top and sides of your cake. Carefully place on top of cake. Smooth fondant with your hands around the cake until there are no wrinkles or bubbles. Use a pizza cutter to cut the excess fondant around the base of the cake.

Now you're ready to decorate. Break fondant up into approximately 1 cup pieces and color each piece as desired. Cut out desired shapes. Using a small paint brush, adhere fondant to fondant with water.

Pineapple Cheese Ball

Admittedly, I'm not a big fan of traditional cheese balls. Most of the ones I've had seemed to be a little hard. Then by the time I try to spread some on a cracker, the cracker falls apart, and you just try to discreetly stuff the whole mess in your mouth before anyone at the party sees you. Surely, I'm not the only one who has experienced this.

Not any more! My friend Cindy Pickett makes the best cheese ball. I've had it before and was reminded how much I loved it when she made it for Sheelah's bridal shower this past weekend. I knew it would be a keeper, given it has pineapple in it. The final consistency is perfect, too. If you're looking for something to bring to a party, you should give this a try:

Pineapple Cheese Ball

Ingredients:

• 1 small can of crushed pineapple, drained
• 2 (8 oz) blocks of cream cheese, softened
• 1 tablespoon seasoned salt
• 2 tablespoons chopped green onion tops
• 1/4 cup finely chopped red bell peppers
• chopped pecans

Directions:
Drain all juice from the can of crushed pineapple. Use paper towels to mash the pineapple until completely dry. Add remaining ingredients, except for nuts. Mix well. Form into a ball and roll in chopped pecans. Serve with crackers.

Love is in the Air

This was a busy weekend for me because I helped host not one, but two bridal showers. Coincidentally, both are upcoming beach destination weddings. So, we used that theme for the bridal showers. Having them on back-to-back days saved decorating as well as food costs. While some people may initially think that's a little cheesy, I think it's just plain smart. And, for those of you in the business world, you'll recognize this as simply being lean!

We held the shower at my friend Cindy Pickett's beautiful house, and she handled the decorations. They were so classic and just perfect. Perhaps the most talked about food item was the vegetable tray. So many people kept trying to give me the credit for such a beautiful, clever presentation. The real credit, however, goes to my friend Cindi Burtnett. Using a hollowed-out red cabbage as a dish for the dip made all of the difference. Here it is up close:

My main contribution was cupcakes. This was my first opportunity at putting my new cake decorating skills to the test. (I mentioned in a previous post how my friend Kim Suiter gave me a cake decorating class for a Christmas present.) Mmmm. As I'm writing this, I realize that Kim may be the smart one since the first bridal shower was for her son and his fiance. I saw an idea on Pinterest to add white chocolate sea shells as a decoration for cupcakes. I decided that I would make these toppers myself after learning only one would cost me almost $1 after doing some online research. Unbelievable.

Saving money has always been a motivator for me. So, I purchased a candy mold for less than $3 as well as some white confectionery coating. This stuff is like almond bark, but it's supposed to be a higher quality of chocolate. You simply pour the melted coating into the mold and "pop out" the shells once they're completely cooled. Much easier than I anticipated. In fact, one should consider starting his/her own candy making business if people out there truly spend $1 on each of these. I was pretty pleased with the final product:

So, congratulations to Stephanie Kane and Wes Suiter (Kim's son) as well as Derek Hicks and Sheelah Johnson (Cindi's daughter) on their upcoming weddings. Love is in the air!

Key Lime Cake

Unfortunately, we missed seeing our Aunt Marilyn at Vicke's party, but she was sure there in spirit. She emailed me and my sister Jackie a recipe for key lime cake, saying, "This would be great for Vicke's birthday since it is a beautiful green cake." She was right. Jackie made it, and it was a hit. Steve said that it reminded him of eating lime push-up pops. I agree! While most of the recipes for the food served at the party are already in our family cookbook, this is a new one.

Marilyn writes, "I first saw and tasted this beautiful and delicious cake on Palm Sunday at our covered dish dinner at LaFayette First Baptist Church. I later found out that Mary Howard had brought it. I called her, and she willingly shared the recipe with me. She has been making this cake for many years, and she got the recipe from an old Farm Bureau cookbook."

Thanks, Marilyn, for suggesting it . . . and thanks, Jackie, for making it! Mmmmmmm

Key Lime Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 box lemon cake mix (Mary uses lemon supreme)
• 1 (3 oz) box lime jello
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/3 cups oil
• 3/4 cup fresh orange juice
• 3 limes
• 6 tablespoons confectioner's sugar
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 box confectioner's sugar
• 1 stick butter (Mary uses only about 1/2 stick or a little more)

Directions:
Combine the dry jello with the cake mix. Add eggs, oil, and orange juice. Mix well. (Add a few drops of green food coloring to the batter if you want a darker shade of green.) Pour batter into 3 cake pans that have been sprayed with Baker's Joy. Bake at 350 degrees until the center of the cake is done, or approximately 25-30 minutes.

Next, mix the juice of 3 limes and 6 tablespoons of confectioner's sugar. Spoon this mixture over the warm layers when you take them out of the oven. (If you mix this up before starting the cake, you will need to keep stirring while the cakes are baking to keep it from getting hard.)

Lastly, mix together the last three ingredients to make cream cheese icing. (Optional: You may want to double the cream cheese icing recipe. You can also add a few drops of green food coloring if you wish.) Spread over the top and sides of cooled cake.

Note: Jackie added the lime juice to the cake batter and eliminated the confectioner's sugar. Then, she iced the layers with lime curd. 

Fifty is Nifty

We had a great time celebrating Vicke's 50th birthday at Scott and Tina's house. Honestly, I've never seen so much green in one place. Scott said, "This isn't "Vicke Green;" it's  freakin' green!" It started with the clothes. Most party-goers wore some shade of green. Yes, it was a bit obnoxious, but silly and fun, too. Here's the most recent photo of the Harness clan. I'm certain that everyone is just as grateful as I am for these kind of family get-togethers.

The menu began with simple petros as well as hot dogs cooked on the open fire. Then we got creative with all of the extras. You would be surprised at how many "Vicke Green" foods that are out there. The "Vicke Green" appetizers included jalapeno poppers, spinach and artichoke dip, guacamole, and asparagus rolls. Sorry for such a blurred photo:

Next, came the "Vicke Green" side dishes: fruit salad (layered honey dew, green apples, green grapes, and kiwi), pea salad,  broccoli toss, veggie tray (broccoli, celery, and cucumbers), and a lime congealed salad.

Then, came the "Vicke Green" desserts. My brother-in-law Greg made the birthday cake as shown above. But of course we had more: key lime cake, million dollar pie, tapioca pudding (always one of Vicke's favorites, but this time Mom used green maraschino cherries instead of the red ones), banana bread with a green tinted cream cheese topping, and Easter s'mores made with green peeps.

In addition to extended family members attending, Vicke really enjoyed close friends and former classmates who came bearing well wishes. It was a real "blast from the past" for West High graduates, some who I hadn't seen in 30 years. From left to right:  Lynn (Smeltzer) Raymond, Tina (Irwin) Harness, Scott Harness, Jackie (Harness) Bailey, the birthday girl Vicke (Harness) Pyles, Mike Zavels, Steven Pyles, Keely Moore, Apryl Pyles, KK (Harness) Moore, Tammy (Waggoner) Zavels, and Harry Paris

Although I can tease that "50 sucks," we all knew that this fifty was indeed quite nifty.  :)

Easter S'mores

Happy birthday, Vicke! Although today is my sister's 50th birthday, the big celebration will take place this weekend. We're all looking forward to the big bash at Scott and Tina's house on Saturday. One obvious theme for the party is "Fifty is Nifty." But, another obvious theme for anyone who knows Vicke is "Vicke Green." Most people would call this color chartreuse or maybe just simply apple green. It's her favorite color, and you will see it on most of her clothes, casserole dishes, kitchen walls . . . you name it! This weekend, you'll see it in the food. That's right. Our family has been brainstorming all month long for "Vicke Green" foods to serve at the party this weekend. It should be a hoot.

Since Scott is planning on having an outdoor fire, I knew that one of the things I wanted to contribute was Easter s'mores. I first saw this idea on Pinterest:

After searching high and low for "Vicke Green" peeps, I finally found them in Nashville. Now, each party goer will have his/her own s'more kit:

It's my way of wishing Vicke "s'more years of love, laughter, and fun." In fact, that's my wish for all of my family and friends in the spirit of this upcoming Easter weekend.

Stay tuned for more recipes and party ideas after Saturday. I don't want to spoil any more surprises!  :)

Easter S'mores

Ingredients:

• Graham crackers
• Easter peeps
• Hershey chocolates

Directions:
Roast peeps over an open fire. Place unwrapped chocolate bar on top of a graham cracker square. Top with roasted marshmallow and second graham cracker square. Or, simply microwave for 10-15 seconds. Enjoy!