Dishin' in the Kitchen by Angie Ledbetter

I'm leaving in a few minutes for a school meeting, then on to my parents' house where I'm going to prepare a really good recipe with one of my sisters and our mom. I love spending time in the kitchen with family and/or friends. It's a relaxing hobby with something good created for all to share. Old stories invariably come up also, and although you've heard or told them hundreds of times, they're still amusing. It's also nice to catch up on how nieces, nephews or other friends are doing, and just generally being together in unhurried circumstances.

Grateful for these kitchen klatches, I want to share my Chicken Salad recipe with others in the hope that they might have a get-together with utensils and stories mixing up the atmosphere. It's an easy and convenient food to keep in the fridge for a decently healthy snack that's also delicious.

Best Chicken Salad Ever

1 Roasted chicken prepared and sold at grocery store delis (cut into small chunks)
1 Cup Duke's sugar free mayonnaise
1 Cup Craisins
1/2 Cup nuts (walnuts, pecans, almonds, whatever)
1 Cup red or green seedless grapes

Ready for the complicated directions? Mix all the ingredients in an air tight container and voila! Great as sandwiches or on crackers. Enjoy.

Warm Blackberry Cobbler and Cold Ice Cream, by Kat Magendie

This has been the best blackberry year since I moved to my mountain. The vines are heavy with blackberries, those blue-black heads dripping lush and full and ripe. All I have to do is walk along our road and pick like mad. I have to watch for the bad among the sweet: mean stickers that tear at skin and clothes; bees (although I’ve never been stung picking blackberries); and the one I watch out for most of all, snakes, particularly copperheads. Snakes can hide within the thick brambles and when you step closer, or reach in your hand STRIKE! snake bite! I’m careful, and knock on the clichéd wood, I’ve never been bitten.

After I have enough, I head back home, old Kayla plodding alongside me. The blackberry juice drips from the holes in the plastic container that previously held local tomatoes, and I wish I’d used one without holes so as not to waste a drop. Back at the log house, I carefully wash them. There is no worry of pesticides here, for we do not use them; we do not use any kind of fertilizer or pesticide or anything artificial, for we let the mountain take care of its own. I wash away dust or any bugs. Once washed, and a few eaten of course, I place them in the refrigerator for later. I’m going to make a blackberry cobbler, and on top of the cobbler, while it’s still good and warm, I’m going to place a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Then, I’m going to sit down and eat every bite. The cold cold ice cream over the warm warm blackberry cobbler, with its juices thick and syrupy and the berries plumped and soft and the cobbler crust crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

There is something that surely feels like a special gratitude for the things our Earth provides us. And, when picked and washed and cooked with our own hands, the gratitude and love for the natural things of the earth is more acute. There are many cobbler recipes out there, but here is a basic one my mom made for years with much success that is foolproof, easy, and doesn’t require many ingredients:

Preheat oven to 350. Melt one stick of butter in a Pyrex dish. Mix together: 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, and 1 cup milk. Pour mixture over the melted butter. Top with fruit (if you like the fruit sweeter, sprinkle sugar over it. Also, for this recipe, use about 1 ½ to 2 quarts fruit). Bake until crust rises to top, and gets golden brown and bubbly, approximately 30 to 35 minutes. Enjoy!

Zucchini Days by Barbara Quinn

I don’t plant much in my garden anymore. I have lots of herbs, and a few zucchini plants. And boy do those four zucchini plants take up room and produce like mad. I grow them mostly for the flowers. I can find good tomatoes and other veggies in my local farm market, but those zucchini flowers are elusive and very expensive if you do find them. Each morning I go out and harvest a bunch.

So what do I do with all those flowers? They are good to add to salads, and to zucchini bisque with fresh tarragon, and also to zucchini fritters which make a great accompaniment to grilled fish or meats. A major treat is fried or stuffed zucchini blossoms. Italians fry the blossoms in a simple thin water and flour batter called pastella which is similar to tempura batter. You sprinkle them with salt and enjoy. Tonight I’m going to stuff half the blossoms with mushroom, breadcrumb, pine nuts, and raisins. I’ll stuff the rest with leftover polenta mixed with a little parmesan. Then I’ll bake them in my toaster oven. What a terrific time of year.

Here’s a recipe for fried zucchini flowers:

2/3 Cup of water
1 Cup flour
Pan with one inch of Canola oil
A dozen or so zucchini blossoms.

Place water in a bowl. Sift the flour into the water and use a whisk to incorporate till mixture is a thin paste. You can experiment with consistency. Wash the blossoms and dry on paper towels. Cut open one side and remove the inside pistil. Leave them whole if possible. If too large cut into two pieces. Heat the oil on high heat. Dip the flowers into the batter and drain a bit, then put into the oil. Brown on one side, then flip to the other. Remove to paper towels and drain. Sprinkle with salt. Serve hot. If done right, they should be crunchy good!

Lovin' from the Oven by Angie Ledbetter

Yeah, I ripped off the Doughboy's saying, but it fits perfectly, so let's just say I'm borrowing it for today. We southern cooks (men and women) really enjoy showing our love by making wonderful meals, preparing delicious baked goodies, and especially by using our tried and true family recipes. I don't know a single person who enjoys cooking who doesn't have dog eared old yellowed recipe cards full of mouth-watering concoctions. The best ones are spattered, splattered, torn and maybe even scribbled on.

My most precious of this type of recipe is in my grandmother's own handwriting, and although I wish she was still around to help me finally learn to make her famous biscuits, my continued failure doesn't keep me from trying it every now and then.

BIGMAMA'S BISCUITS:

Use a medium large bowl that will become your biscuit bowl forever. Fill it ¾ full with sifted Gold Medal Self-Rising Flour.

“Doodle out a ‘waller hole’ in the middle of your bowl,” as Bigmama used to say. Make this well by gently swishing your fist in the flour. It will hold the other ingredients.

Pour in ½ tablespoon of cooking oil. In a standard drinking glass, stir together ½ cup buttermilk and ½ cup water. Add to your well.

Work the mixture gently with your fingers, pulling in as little extra flour as possible. Try not to handle or knead the dough very much.

Prepare your heavy iron skillet by pouring in a thin layer of oil. Roll the skillet around to spread the oil evenly. Pinch off biscuits and place into skillet. (Dusting your hands lightly with flour helps.)

When the pan is full and biscuits rest gently against one another, sprinkle on a small amount of oil to the raw biscuit tops. Put skillet into a cold oven, and set at 400 degrees. Put your pan in the middle of the rack so biscuits cook evenly. When they are light golden brown, move skillet to top rack until darker brown. If your oven is true to temperature, the whole process, including preparation time, will take about 25 minutes. The first few times, watch the biscuits' progress in the oven closely to be sure.

Butter immediately...or cover with gravy...or drown in maple or cane syrup. Any way you like your biscuit, you'll love these!