Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share With Family and Friends (22 page)
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Authors: Trisha Yearwood
Tags: #food.cookbooks
Garth and Miss Bess at our wedding, December 10, 2005.
apple ambrosia
In my family, ambrosia is usually made with oranges, coconut, and sugar. My friend
Betty Maxwell used to make this for my daddy all the time. He loved ambrosia. You don’t have to wait until oranges are in the peak season to enjoy this—just use a lot more sugar for sweetness.
MAKES 6 CUPS
1 cup orange juice with lots of pulp, or more as needed
3 ripe Delicious apples
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple
¼ cup sugar
½ cup frozen grated coconut, thawed
Pour the orange juice into a medium bowl. Peel and core the apples, then grate them into the orange juice using the large-hole side of the grater. Add the pineapple, sugar, and coconut. Mix well, adding more orange juice if the mixture is not juicy enough. The apples will continue to absorb juice, and orange juice can be added as needed to keep it as juicy as you like. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Choose a sweet apple that you like.
My favorite is Golden Delicious.
chocolate candy
My cousin
Donna Paulk is a great cook. She’s kindly given us several great recipes for this collection, including chicken soup, macaroni and cheese, beignets, and this candy. I love this kind of recipe: the candies look so pretty and appear really hard to make. People will think you’re a genius cook, which is almost embarrassing considering how easy they are to make. Just layer everything in the cooker and wait!
MAKES 30 TO 40 PIECES
2 pounds (36 ounces) salted dry-roasted peanuts
4 ounces (4 squares) German’s sweet chocolate
1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
2½ pounds white almond bark
Put the peanuts in the bottom of a 4-quart slow cooker. Layer the chocolate over the peanuts, beginning with the sweet chocolate, followed by the chocolate chips, and then the almond bark. Set the temperature on low and cook for 3 hours. Do not stir the mixture.
After 3 hours, stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until smooth. Drop the candy into cupcake pan liners using about 2 tablespoons per liner. Allow the candy to cool completely before removing the cupcake liners.
If you can’t find almond bark, substitute white chocolate chips.
FROM BETH:
This is a fun recipe to make with your children. They can put everything in the slow cooker, and drop the candy into the cupcake liners, too.
peanut butter balls
One summer our friends Patty and Pam were having a garage sale. Our girls Taylor and August wanted to have a lemonade stand, so they made a sign to hang on the front of their card table, and they set up shop during the garage sale. Patty and Pam’s sweet neighbor Howard saw the girls and came over to buy some lemonade. Shortly after that, Howard’s wife, Mickey, came over with some cookies and some peanut butter balls to give the girls. After that day, any time the girls were visiting Patty and Pam, they’d go see Howard and “Miss” Mickey. Mickey passed away several years ago, but Howard is eighty-one and still going strong. Garth and the girls make these peanut butter balls to give as gifts, and they always remember “Miss” Mickey when they make them.
MAKES ABOUT 40 BALLS
1 cup sugar
½ cup dark corn syrup
½ cup white corn syrup
2 cups crunchy peanut butter
4 cups Rice Krispies
In a large saucepan, stir the sugar and the syrups together over medium heat. Add the peanut butter and continue to stir until the mixture is fully combined. Remove the pan from the heat, and add the Rice Krispies. Mix well. Spray your hands lightly with cooking spray and shape the mixture into balls. Transfer to waxed paper. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
August and Taylor and their lemonade stand.
bars
These peanut butter bars came from Beth’s sister-in-law,
Margaret Ann Akins. She says her daughter Amanda requests them for her birthday instead of cake. Mama and Beth spent a weekend testing all kinds of brownies and bars, and they sent some to school with Beth’s children on Monday morning. When my mom drove the carpool that afternoon, she overheard my nine-year-old nephew, Bret, and his friends in the backseat discussing the cookbook. Bret spoke up and said to her, “Grammy, we have another two thumbs up for the Peanut Butter Bars!” If a nine-year-old says they’re good, what more do you need to know? They’re perfect for a picnic or a day at the lake.
MAKES 3 DOZEN 1 X 3-INCH BARS
½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup plus 4 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup quick-cooking oatmeal
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup)
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
4 tablespoons milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 × 13 × 2-inch baking dish.
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, sugars, and ½ cup peanut butter. Add the egg and vanilla. Sift the flour with the baking soda and the salt. Mix the oatmeal into the flour and stir the flour into the creamed mixture. Spread the batter in the baking pan. Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the batter and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until browned around the edges.
Mix the confectioners’ sugar, remaining 4 tablespoons peanut butter, and milk. Blend until smooth, then spread over the warm Peanut Butter Bars.
and saltines
After a meal, my mama will always say, “I need a little something sweet.” If she has dessert, she will inevitably follow it up with, “Now I need a little something salty.” It’s become a joke at our house. These crackers are so good, you will just keep eating them, and Mama has her sweet and salty thing covered. Beware, they’re really addictive.
SERVES 20
40 saltine crackers
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 cup light brown sugar
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (about 1⅓ cups)
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line a large jellyroll pan with aluminum foil and the saltine crackers.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar together and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and pour over the crackers, covering them evenly. Put the jellyroll pan into the oven and watch closely. Bake for 4 to 5 minutes, or until just bubbly. Remove from the oven and pour the chocolate chips over the crackers. When the chips melt a bit, spread them over the crackers with a knife. Transfer the pan to the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until completely cold. They will form one big sheet. Break up into pieces. Store in an airtight container.
FROM GWEN:
Use anywhere from 35 to 45 saltine crackers, depending on the size of your pan.
FROM BETH:
I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet once because that’s what I had on hand. They tasted great, too.
Substitute graham crackers for the saltines for a sweeter snack. Use 1 stick of butter instead of 2 for a crunchier, saltier cracker.
