1 cube of butter

6 eggs, beaten until fluffy

1 cup, flour

1 cup, milk and salt

1 ½ tablespoons, sugar

Melt 1 cube of butter in 10×15 pan in 375 degree oven. When bubbly, pour in the above mixture. Bake 20 minutes without opening oven. Serve with syrup.

I forgot to get syrup so I used agave and powered sugar, which was also really good.

Enjoy!

So, I made the mistake of reading just the ingredients for this recipe before heading to the store. It wasn’t until I had all of my ingredients out, my adorable, vintage apron on (thank you Scott) and got ready to bake, that I read the instructions on my grandmother’s little card, read it again, and thought…hm…that sounds an awful lot like raw egg. Really? Maybe the melted chocolate is supposed to cook the egg? I called Chef Linda (my mom), read it to her and she confirmed that back in the day it was acceptable and actually safer to eat raw eggs because the chances of Salmonella being inside the egg (vs. just on the shell) was much lower.

I won’t lie, my desire to be as true to these recipes as possible almost won over my fear of Salmonella. Luckily though we came up with an alternative. However, I would like to note that despite my changes to this recipe, there still aren’t any pecans in the pie, sure some in the crust, but I’m not sure that entitles it the Pecan Pie label. (sorry Grammers…just sayin)

Anyway, what I did instead was make the crust per the recipe, plus a little butter, used all of the same filling ingredients, plus some sugar (just guessed and dumped some in there), but then baked it for about 20mins on 375.

Let’s be honest, I couldn’t really go wrong…it’s chocolate, butter and sugar after all. It definitely tasted much more like a large brownie with crust than a chocolate pecan pie, but was still delicious with a big glass of cold milk, or red wine.

(original recipe)

Crust:

1 egg, separated

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cocoa

1-1/2 cups ground pecans

Filling:

6 onces semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 egg, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 pt. heavy cream, whipped

1 tablespoon powered sugar

For crust, beat egg white till stiff (reserve yolk for filling). Gradually add sugar, beating till stiff and glossy, beat in cocoa. Fold in nuts, spread mix firmly in well-buttered 9″pie plate. Microwave on high for 3-6 mins.

For filling, melt chocolate on 70% power 2-4 mins. Stir in 2 egg yolks, vanilla. Cool. Beat remaining egg white till stuff. Set aside. Whip cream, add sugar. Fold in half of cream and beaten egg white into chocolate mix. Pour into pie shell. Garnish with remaining whipped cream.

Best when paired with a Malbec and reruns of I Love Lucy.

Enjoy!

1 tablespoon finely chopped onions

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

1 can condensed cheddar cheese soup

1/2 cup milk

1 16-ounce can (about 2 cups) tomatoes cut up

1 7-ounce can tuna packed in water, broken into chunks

1 tablespoon snipped parseley

Dash coarsely ground pepper

In saucepan, cook onion in butter or margarine till onion is tender but not brown. Add cheese soup; gradually blend in milk.  Add undrained tomatoes, undrained tuna, parsley and pepper. Cover and simmer. Makes 4 servings.

The other night Scott and I made Crab Casserole. In true Erin and Scott fashion it was 1 cup craziness, 2 cups multi-tasking. I realized I needed more time if I wanted to go to the gym and avoid eating at 11pm. I did all of the prep work, gave Scott a 20sec lesson and ran out the door to Zumba class. Scott was charged with baking the dish for 15mins, pouring the yumminess on top and putting it back in the oven for another hour. Well about 45mins into the hour our fire alarm goes off and Scott runs in to find the cheese pouring out of the dish and burning on the bottom of the oven. Around that time I opened the door to an apartment that smelled delicious, but was filled with smoke. I assumed the casserole was a goner, but it was fine and SO good! 

Like many of these dishes they are old school, sometimes sound pretty strange and generally not too healthy. Once you read the ingredients you’ll realize there’s no way this one can’t be delicious. Enjoy! 

8 slices of bread cubed (4 bottom, 4 top) 

1 can of mushroom soup

2 cups grated cheese 

1 stick of butter or margarine 

Beat Together: 

4 eggs 

3 cups milk 

1 cup chopped celery 

1/2 cup chopped green pepper 

1/2 cup chopped onion 

2 cups crab meat 

dash of salt & pepper 

Melt butter in a baking pan and pour excess into above mixture. Put half of the bread in the baking pan, pour crab/milk mixure over and top with remaining bread. Bake at 350 for 15mins. 

Mix 2 cups grated cheese, 1 cup cream of mushroom soup and spread over top. Return to oven and bake for 1 hour longer (or until your alarm goes off). 

2 medium, ripe avocados 

1/4 small onion

juice of 1 lemon

1 garlic clove 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

pepper

Mix together. Should have small chunks of avocado and onion in it. 

There was a lady in Charlotte who lived not far from Maw Maw in Dilworth.  She was famous for her vegetable sandwiches. It simply was not a wedding or bridal party in town without Mrs. Pressley’s vegetable sandwiches.  She guarded the recipe with her life.  Through circumstances that were never made public, Grammers got the recipe.  How she obtained it was never made known to us; it was simply never discussed. I did find three handwritten copies in Grammers’s recipe boxes. I guess she didn’t want to lose it and was afraid to try to commit it to memory. 

It was a lot of work to prepare before food processors, and Grammers did hand cut everything until the invention of the processor. The original recipe is included in Grammers’s hand. 

As with most things in my mom marches to a different drummer on recipes and makes stuff up as she goes along so her revised version is below. You will notice that Grammers cautions twice not to use Lite mayo, use only the real stuff.  She’s right and by the way, only use good ole plain white bread.  If you want your vegetable sandwiches to be as beloved as they were in Mrs. Pressley’s day, you just can’t worry about healthy; they just won’t be the same.

This made a pretty big batch:

Two cucumbers, peeled and seeded

3 firm tomatoes, peeled and seeded

1 small onion (I used Vidalia)

1 green pepper, seeded

1 red pepper, seeded

1 orange pepper, seeded

1 carrot

1 packet of dry ranch dressing 

2 packets of Splenda or sugar 

2 packets of plain gelatin 

3/4 to 1 cup mayo

Put all of this through a processor in no particular order and use the grater attachment. It will not go all at once.  You will want to drain everything together in a colander.  DRAIN INTO A BOWL because you want to reserve the vegetable juice.  While it is draining, stir in about 2 tablespoons of dry ranch dressing. I added 2 packets of Splenda, though you could sprinkle a little sugar instead.  Stir well, this needs to drain very, very well about 2 to 3 hours, mix it a few times while it is draining.  Heat about 1 cup of the juice, stir in 2 packets of plain gelatin.  Let it cool and mix with the vegetables.  If you want to make the sandwiches right then, add enough real mayo to mix but not make it too soggy, about ¾’s to 1 cup. If you can wait until the next day, let it all gel over night then add the mayo the next day.  That is the way I did it and I think it makes the filling a little more stable.

This seems complicated, but it’s not. Just picture poor old Mrs. Pressley hand cutting all that stuff for all those years for other people’s parties, only to have Grammers rip her off !

1/8 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic 

1/4 cup olive oil 

1 (6.5 oz) can of minced clams

1/4 cup Chablis 

1/2 teaspoon of basil leaves

1/2 teaspoon of dried whole thyme

1/8 teaspoon of salt 

1/16 teaspoon ground pepper

4oz. linguini, cooked 

1/4 chopped fresh parley 

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a medium skillet. Drain clams, reserving 1/4 cup juice. Add juice and wine skillet, bring to a boil. Cook over medium to high heat for 10 minutes or until mixture is reduced by 1/2. Stir in clams, thyme, basil, salt and pepper. Simmer an additional 5 minutes, pour over linguini. Toss well and sprinkle with parsley. 

3 dozen medium size oysters

1 medium red onion

2 red cayenne peppers

1/2 tablespoon whole peppercorn

1 whole bay leaf

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

dash of Tabasco

Shuck about 3 doz. fresh oysters and plunge into 3 to 4 cups rapidly boiling
water. Remove from heat and let sit for about 5 minutes before draining in colander. Thinly slice red onion and separate rings. Cut pepper in half lengthwise, flatten and scrape out seeds and pulp. Cut pepper into long slivers.
Begin layering in a pint jar: oysters – onions and hot peppers along with ½ tlbs. of whole peppercorn. Place a whole bay leaf about half way up. When jar is full pour in mixture of ½ cup vinegar, ½ tsp. salt and dash or two of Tabasco.
Hide jar in refrigerator for 3 days (no less) and get ready for some good eating!

Enjoy!