3 Generations of Southern Recipes (2024)

As we are approaching the week before Thanksgiving, menu planning and grocery shopping goes into full swing. If you are expecting a house full of company, especially with teenagers or college students, breakfast planning may become an issue. They do love to sleep late, but need a little bit of nourishment with their morning coffee, coca cola, or orange juice. I have been baking this banana coffee bread for well over forty years. I have tried many other versions of banana bread, but always return to this super moist and delicious easy to mix and bake recipe. It was one of my first baking endeavors as a new bride, and turned out perfectly, much to my surprise. I don't think that I have ever had a mishap with this recipe. I use self-rising flour and have switched the original recipe from shortening to vegetable oil. It is baked in a square pan and therefore, bakes up quickly and more evenly than in a loaf pan. If freezes wonderfully, and is perfect to make now for Thanksgiving or Christmas guests. When the children would bring guests home for Thanksgiving, I would always put a little basket of these banana squares in their rooms for late night snacks or noon breakfasts.

Banana Coffee Bread recipe is adapted from the 1970 Better Homes and Gardens recipe book - quick bread category

Banana Coffee Bread

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 to 1 cup mashed bananas
1 1/4 cups self rising flour

Mash the bananas really good; until they create juice, this helps add moisture to the quick bread.

Cream shortening with sugar. Add eggs, one at at time, beating well after each. Stir in bananas. Add flour to mixture. Mix well. Pour into greased 9x9x2 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

When freezing this bread, I let it cool completely in the pan. Then, I run a knife around the edges. It releases well from the pan. I then wrap the bread in Saran Wrap and wrap again with aluminum foil. It makes an easy to store, compact package for the freezer. Remove wraps when ready to thaw.

My grandmother always had an icebox fruit cake for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She had a mile high soaked in brandy and wrapped in cheesecloth fruit cake also. It was stored way in the back of the pantry in a dark cool spot. But my favorite was always the ice box fruit cake rolled in a log and perfect for nibbling by my cousin and myself. It was often made with graham crackers, but my Aunt Winnie would make it with vanilla wafers. Aunt Winnie didn't get married until she was over forty and always lived with my grandparents during my childhood years. She worked at the bank downtown and would always take me to the dime store shopping. We would always buy a paper doll book and a bag of the world's best popcorn. I remember that smell so vividly. I dearly loved my Aunt Winnie. She would let me use all of her bubble bath products and her big fluff of a bath powder mitt.

During our Thanksgiving and Christmas visits to South Georgia, we would get up early, have grits and eggs and then breakfast dessert. Breakfast dessert for my cousin and myself was this delicious Fruit and Nut log served with half milk and half coffee and lots of sugar. My parents always carried on with the breakfast dessert tradition for my children also. In later years, when my grandparents were gone and we visited my parents' home for the holidays, they would serve ice cream or a piece of cake to the kids after breakfast, and in the summer it was always fresh peaches with heavy whipping cream and lots of sugar. Breakfast dessert is definitely only a grandparent tradition. I never thought to say "no" to my parent's indulgences for the children. It was their right and privilege to spoil them.

I found this recipe written on an old yellowed piece of paper in her cookbook. I have tried to revise it a little.

Vanilla Wafer Ice Box Fruit Cake

1 box of vanilla wafers
2 cups chopped pecans
2 cups raisins or nowadays, I love craisins
1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows
1 jar maraschino cherries - drained and chopped
1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup confectioners sugar

In a bowl, combine all ingredients except confectioners sugar: mix well - remember that clean hands are the best mixing tool
Form mixture into 4 equal size logs
Place confectioners sugar in shallow dish and roll logs in sugar- coat completely
Wrap each log in plastic wrap and chill for several hours or overnight
Slice just before serving

The logs make great gifts and no cooking at all -

As November fast approaches, I get very excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas being just around the corner. Our childhood plays a very important part in making us who we are today. From Thanksgiving to Christmas was a magical time at our house. It was filled with good food, lots of family visits, and co*cktail and dinner parties.

My favorite childhood memories revolve around holidays during the 1960's. Times were changing. Modern day conveniences were quite common. Everyone I knew had color TV, air conditioning, a bouffant hair dryer, and at Christmas, a fabulous artificial tree - and if your mother was really modern and hip, your tree might have been silver or white. Perry Como's Christmas special was the highlight of the television season. co*cktail parties were an every weekend event, and we kiddos trailed along, eating Lipton's California Dip on deliciously greasy Charles Chips.

The mom's always had some type of sweet or sour concoction prepared. My parents and their friends all had several sets of co*cktail glasses. There was a different set of glasses for each drink. We kids loved to drink our cola out of fancy long stemmed wine glasses. It always tasted so much better and more sophisticated. Mother would pour a little of the Maraschino cherry juice into our cola for a special treat.

The weeks and days until Christmas were quite a hectic time, culminating with the Christmas Eve drive to my Grandparent's farm in South Georgia. Eagle Brand, sweetened condensed milk, was the magic product of the day. Mother's Magic Cookie Bars, Lemon Icebox Pie, and Holiday fudge were all favorites which have withstood the hands of time. All of these recipes will be included during the next few weeks.

My mother was an extremely talented cook, but not such an accomplished baker. Once introduced to the "new and improved" boxed cake mixes, she was a believer. She could also do wonders with canned biscuits and crescent rolls.

I hope to have fun sharing with you some of my favorite memories and recipes from my childhood. Life may not have been perfect, but my memories were.

I was very hesitant to even write this blog, as it seems so processed and unimaginative. But with Halloween quickly approaching, I've been thinking a lot about fun celebrations and trick or treating with the kids as the were growing up. Our Halloween tradition was pigs in a blanket and a bowl of chili served with saltines.

The pigs in a blanket were not the popular crescent roll variety, but a Lykes hot dog rolled with a slice of American Deluxe cheese in a slice of bread and secured with toothpicks. After trick or treating, we would place the pan of pigs in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5 to 10 minutes or until the bread was toasted and the dogs were browned.

I have tried many chili recipes over the years, but our family favorite is still the French's Chili-O seasoning version. I make just a very few changes to the package directions. I like chunky Vidalia onions in my chili, but omit the onions altogether when preparing this recipe for the children.

Famous French's Chili-O Chili

2 pounds ground chuck or ground round, seasoned with salt and pepper

1 small Vidalia onion - coarsely chopped

2 packages French's chili-o seasoning mix - available at Winn Dixie or WalMart

2 16 ounce cans Bush's Chili Beans - mild or medium - available at Winn Dixie

2 141/2 ounce can of diced tomatoes

1 small can rotel tomatoes - (optional) - if you want a little more spice

Brown seasoned ground beef with chopped onions in large skillet.

Stir in the two packs of French's Chili-O seasoning

Place meat mixture into 6 quart slow cooker.

Add chili beans, diced tomatoes, and Rotel tomatoes, if desired.

Cook on low 4 to 5 hours, until heated thoroughly and flavors have combined.

Serve with fresh saltine crackers and, of course, a pig in a blanket.

The French's Chili-O mix and the Bush's Beans are the secret to this recipe

I would love to read your comments concerning my shortcut chili recipe.

The humidity is lower in south central Florida and the temperature highs are only in the mid 80's. We are in the middle of our fall season which lasts from mid October - to late December. Then, we may run temperatures from lows in the 40's to back up in the 80's on the same day. But, we Floridians wouldn't trade the pumpkin patches, change of seasons, and autumn leaves for anything. We love our mild winters and short sleeve Thanksgivings. However, we do crave the fall comfort food that warms up our northern neighbors. And, I am considering our northern neighbors to include north Florida all the way up to Virginia and over to Arkansas and Texas. Anywhere north of those regions has a whole different outlook on food in general.

This morning, I put in my slow cooker all of the ingredients for a Tuscan Slow Cooker Beef Stew recipe that I found in Paula Deen's magazine from 2007. One stir and then it slow cooks for 8 to 9 hours. My slow cooker has about had the insides cooked out and I really want this Cuisinart model from Amazon.

Enough daydreaming. Let's get on to the goodness of this recipe.

Tuscan Slow Cooker Beef Stew

2 pounds beef stew meat- seasoned with salt and pepper

3 large carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces

4 medium red potatoes peeled and cut into quarters

1 14.5 can of Itatlian style diced tomatoes

1 10 oz can beef broth

1 10 oz can tomato soup

1/2 cup red wine

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

In an electric slow cooker, combine all ingredients. Cover and cook on low 8 to 9 hours, or until beef and vegetables are tender.

How easy is that!

Pinot Noir is the chef's choice for beef dishes. It was pretty good to the cook also, while awaiting the finished product.

I had a great week visiting with both of my older children and grandchildren this week. Our visit started out with a fun 2nd birthday party for an adorable little boy. He really enjoyed his Mickey Cake with all of the colored icings. We are so lucky to have Publix here in Florida. The make great kids birthday cakes at a great price.

His Dad did a great job of cutting the cake and serving all of the cousins, grandparents, friends, aunts, and uncles. He also was in charge of the grill for the hot dogs and hamburgers.

Yummy, Happy Birthday to Me!!

I pretty much got off easy. My only assignment was to prepare the Carolina Mustard Slaw for the dogs and burgers. I have several recipes, but chose this version, as I thought the children might like it. It has a little mayo and is not quite as strong as my other mustard slaw recipes.

My son in law is from Venezuela and grew up eating potato sticks on hot dogs. They were also a must.

We ate our share of potato sticks as children growing up in south Georgia and central Florida also. Good things have no boundaries.

Carolina Mustard Slaw - very easy

1 bag angel hair slaw mix

1/4 cup Duke's Mayonnaise

1 Tablespoon yellow mustard

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

salt, pepper, and celery salt to taste

Mix the dressing - Mayonnaise, yellow mustard, and Dijon Mustard. Pour over slaw mix. Salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe is delicious on hot dogs, hamburgers, or barbecue sandwiches. I have even been known to eat it with fried catfish, even though I usually make a more mayonnaise based slaw for fish.

We enjoyed the slaw with hot dogs so much that I might be tempted to get this hot dog steamer for my older grandkids for Christmas. It is available at Amazon and shipping is free.

I love, love a good Bloody Mary. I love tomato juice, Bloody Mary mix, V8 juice, anything that can be doctored up with lemons and olives. I have even been known to upgrade to first class for that delicious airplane Bloody Mary. I also have been known to drink Bloody Mary mix without the vodka. It is just as delightful to me. Add a celery stick and have a well balanced dinner in a glass. We know that tomatoes are cancer fighters.

My perfect Bloody Mary has evolved over the years. I'm not crazy about hot tobasco sauce, but love horseradish. My favorite part is to make a mini skewer with three olives. Let the olives macerate while I am sipping my Bloody Mary. They are tangy, salty morsels of deliciousness.

My Bloody Mary

1 46 ounce can original V8 juice
1 cup vodka
1 tablespoon horseradish
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon dill pickle juice
Lemon wedges
Celery ribs
Pimiento stuffed green olives

Mix first six ingredients in a large pitcher. Chill for several hours.
Add ice to glasses, if desired. I prefer my Mary's straight up with no ice.
Pour drinks over ice. Add olives skewered on toothpicks and allow to macerate in drink.
Add lemon wedge and celery stalk to glass.
Enjoy!!!