Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share With Family and Friends (2 page)
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Authors: Trisha Yearwood
Tags: #food.cookbooks
I have always associated really good food with really good company. If you’re with people you love, and you’re having fun and loving life, great food is almost like another guest at the table. You laugh, talk, and savor a good appetizer together. Or you assign your friends the job of chopping up the vegetables while you fire up the grill. It’s really all about being together, and enjoying life surrounded by people you love and food you can share!
Anyone can cook at home, but that doesn’t necessarily make it home cooking. There’s a lot of love in these pages that comes from generations of Yearwoods, Paulks, Bernards, Brookses, and beyond.
That’s
home cooking. I’m proud to share this collection of recipes and stories with you.
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If you have a slow cooker, now commonly referred to as a crockpot, that is over ten years old, chances are it has a liner that isn’t removable. Think about buying a new crockpot with a removable liner for easy cleanup. The liner is also great if you want to remove the pot to serve at the table.
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Never put hot water in a cold glass or ceramic pot or pitcher. If you’re making tea, be sure to put some cold water into your cold pitcher before adding hot steeped tea. The same goes for cold to hot. Never put a hot ceramic or glass bowl into the sink and fill it with cold water. You can easily crack a nice pan or pitcher (or your new removable crockpot liner) this way. Let the pot cool completely before rinsing.
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Take the time to grate your own cheese instead of buying preshredded for use in a recipe. The agents sometimes used to keep commercially grated cheese from clumping give the cheese a waxy taste and a rough texture. Always read the label to look for additives to cheese.
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Cake Release made by Wilton is a product I’ve discovered that you can use instead of cooking spray or greasing and flouring your pans. It works great in all pans, but is especially good in Bundt pans and helps the cakes to release easily.
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When icing a cake, use a decorating turntable for easy turning.
Cake-decorating turntables are fairly inexpensive (some under $10) and can be easily found at craft stores or online.
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Invest in an inexpensive offset spatula for frosting cakes and cookies. The slight bend makes icing a breeze.
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When baking a pie in a disposable metal pie plate, cut away the pan’s outer rim with scissors to release the pie. This makes it much easier to cut slices of pie, and eliminates digging in the pan to get all the crust.
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Beater Blade makes a blade for stand mixers that has a rubber scraper on it. It basically works like a spatula and keeps your mixing bowl scraped while it turns. It works best in smooth cake batters.
The saying is that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
People who think they aren’t breakfast eaters should take a look at these dishes before they say no. Whether you like something light or hearty, sweet or salty, something that feeds a crowd or just one, there’s a dish here for you. Breakfast was always a weekend treat for my sister and me as we grew up. Daddy didn’t have to get up early and be at work on the weekends, so he would usually make us a huge breakfast that included bacon, sausage, eggs, grits, and homemade biscuits.
I’m a big believer that cooking for someone else is an act of love. We serve breakfast in bed to our moms on Mother’s Day, our dads on Father’s Day, or as a special treat for a birthday or anniversary, but you don’t have to wait for a special occasion to show people you love them. Make every day special with these satisfying dishes.
homemade waffles
with hot maple syrup
Pancakes and waffles were special morning treats at our house. As you might imagine, breakfast in a home where both parents worked and the children were running off to school every day was more often than not a quick piece of peanut butter toast or a bagel. We usually saved the big breakfasts for the weekends, and I remember waking up on Saturday mornings to the smell of something homemade cooking. Pancakes were a sweet breakfast surprise. Even today when I make them, I feel like it’s a special occasion! We usually use one of our favorite store-bought syrups, but this Hot Maple Syrup from our cousin,
Susan Yearwood, is easy to make and also tastes great over
Blueberry Pancakes
. Just make sure to watch the syrup carefully once it starts to boil, reducing the heat as necessary to prevent it from boiling over.
MAKES 6 WAFFLES
Waffles
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, separated
1½ cups milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Set aside.
Beat the egg yolks. Add the milk and butter. Add the flour mixture, stirring until just blended. Fold in the beaten egg whites. Bake in a hot waffle maker that has been sprayed with cooking spray for about 5 minutes, until golden brown. Serve immediately with
Hot Maple Syrup
, melted butter, honey, or jam.
FROM GWEN:
This batter works great in a Belgian waffle maker, too.
FROM BETH:
Folding in the beaten whites makes these waffles really crisp.
Mama’s Homemade Waffles
with
Hot Maple Syrup
syrup
MAKES 4 CUPS
3 cups granulated sugar
2 cups light brown sugar
2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
2 cups water
2 teaspoons maple flavoring
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
Mix the sugars, syrup, water, maple flavoring, and extracts in a medium saucepan and cook over medium-high heat until the sugars dissolve. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, as the syrup reaches the correct consistency. Serve warm over pancakes or waffles. Store any leftover syrup in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Change it up by making bacon waffles. Cut bacon to fit each waffle grid. Close the cover and bake for 1 minute before adding waffle batter. Scramble some eggs and you have a complete breakfast.
pancakes
Like me, my nephew Kyle loves anything made with blueberries, and he also loves breakfast
for supper, a tradition we have perfected here in Oklahoma. There really isn’t any rule about when breakfast should be served. If we feel like having eggs and bacon for supper, we do it! Serve these pancakes topped with
Hot Maple Syrup
.
SERVES 4 TO 6
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon lemon zest
1½ cups fresh or frozen blueberries
Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large mixing bowl. In a separate large bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Add the milk, sour cream, melted butter, and vanilla, whisking to blend. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the egg mixture into it. Whisk the ingredients together just until blended. Fold the lemon zest and blueberries into the batter.
Heat a large skillet over medium heat or use an electric skillet on a medium setting. Use cooking spray or pour in vegetable oil to lightly coat the surface of the skillet. For each pancake, pour about ¼ cup of the batter into the hot skillet. Cook 3 or 4 pancakes at a time, depending on the size of the skillet. If the batter seems too thick, thin it with a little milk (1 to 2 tablespoons). When bubbles begin to form and “pop” on the pancake’s surface (about 1 minute) and the outer edge looks done, flip it over and cook briefly (about 30 seconds) on the other side.
