Old Fashioned New Orleans Creole Bread Pudding with Meringue

A rich, meringue topped, New Orleans style Creole bread pudding souffle, drizzled with whiskey sauce and perfect for any special occasion, holiday or event.

Old Fashioned New Orleans Creole Bread Pudding

When most of us think of bread pudding, we think of a simple country dessert, born out of leftover bread that is tossed together with a belly warming custard. It really is like a hug y'all!

I bet you don't often think of a rich, meringue topped version though. Oh my goodness is this bread pudding just over the top. It is rich, nothing low calorie here, and it's a large batch recipe too, so holidays are the perfect time to share this delectable treat. While my post is a little late for Christmas this year, it's a recipe you might want to consider sharing for your New Year's brunch or an upcoming special social event. I think it'll be one that you certainly want to bookmark and remember for the next holiday.

In truth, this is actually a very old and nearly forgotten method for bread pudding here in the Deep South, and although you don't see it much anymore, it is still a signature dessert at Commander's Palace restaurant in New Orleans, where it is served in individually portioned souffle dishes. It is a wonderfully rich and decadent dessert that I adore and will make a perfect au revoir to those very sweets you might be giving up for New Year's, on the heels of these just past indulgent holidays.

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The Authentic Original Original 1952 Chex Party Mix

The authentic, original, original Chex Party Mix was very simple - containing only Wheat and Rice Chex cereals, butter, Worcestershire sauce, salt and garlic salt. As pictured, I've made a few changes, including substituting Corn Chex for the wheat and adding thin pretzel sticks.

Original 1952 Chex Party Mix

We were talking on Facebook the other day about the many varieties of Chex Mix there are these days - seems a lot of us make multiple batches of it over the holidays because it's a nice snack to have around to keep the hungrys down and everybody out from under your feet in the kitchen. I confess to being pretty old school with my version, and it isn't that I don't love the add-ins that everybody has put in over the years, I do! It's just that for some reason I find a version pretty close to what I call the "Authentic Original Original 1952 Chex Party Mix" to be the version that is still my own personal favorite.

I know it sounds funny to say authentic original original but there is a reason for that, you see, because there are actually many different versions of Chex Party Mix out there that lay claim to being the original. Best I can tell, this one that appeared in an ad in Life magazine in June 1952, just two years after the launch of Rice Chex cereal, appears to be the true, authentic, original, original Chex Party Mix recipe.

Life Magazine, June 1952

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Old Fashioned Martha Washington Candy

Another old fashioned heritage confection, Martha Washington Candy is a rich mixture of buttery coconut and condensed milk with pecans, rolled into a tight ball and dipped in chocolate.

Martha Washington Candy

These little scrumptious bite-sized confections have been a beloved Christmas favorite in families for years, often passed down for generations. People remember their mothers making them, and their grandmothers before them. I don't know how they officially got their name, except perhaps for their namesake, who I've read was quite a good cook. Maybe they came from her own recipe collection - that's one cookbook I don't happen to own!

Sometimes just called Martha Washingtons, Martha Washington Balls, or just Coconut Bon Bons, you won't like these if you aren't a fan of coconut, because they are definitely coconut central, but oh my goodness, are they just little bites of heaven if you do.

Though recipes vary wildly on the amounts, many seem to be heavy on powdered sugar, so when I ran across this recipe in my Gooseberry Patch cookbook, I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did because it uses significantly less powdered sugar, a little more coconut, and more butter - right up my alley, wouldn't you say?  These were much creamier. Nothing could be easier either. It's a simple "batter" made from coconut, powdered sugar, condensed milk, melted butter and pecans.

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A baked ham, glazed with a mixture of apple cider, mustard, brown sugar, cane syrup, Cajun seasonings and holiday spices.

Cajun Glazed Ham

This is really pretty much a play on the cane syrup glaze variation found on my Coca Cola Ham, except that I decided to play around with it a bit. Instead of using Coke, I decided to go with apple cider, like I did with my turkey this Thanksgiving. I also switched out the yellow mustard for Creole mustard, reduced the brown sugar slightly so I could use more cane syrup and bumped up the "holiday" spices a little bit, adding some cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger to the recipe. It was Cajun-Approved and delicious!

As with my other baked ham, what you want here is a fully cooked, preferably bone-in, ready to eat half ham, a shank end portion, if possible. You'll want to save that bone too for a pot of Cajun White Beans or Butter Beans, or maybe for a nice pot of Green Gumbo or other greens for your New Years menu. You are still baking the ham, but mostly it's just to infuse it with flavor and warm it through. Just be sure that you do not pick up a picnic ham, pork shoulder ham, or a country ham for this recipe.

Same process applies - first, protecting your pan with several layers of foil. Don't skip this step especially with this recipe since burned cane syrup is not fun to clean up! Then you make a tub with several additional layers of foil, place the ham in the tub, and cover with the cane syrup mixture. Bake it at 325 degrees, about 15 minutes per pound, or per the package directions for the brand of ham you choose, and baste it about every half hour. You'll have a  yummy beauty that looks like this when it's done.

Slice around the natural seams of the ham, plate and enjoy!

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Forgotten Cookies are another heritage recipe that has been around for years. Made with egg whites and sugar whipped up into a meringue, and typically chocolate chips and minced pecans folded in, they are always a holiday favorite.

Forgotten Cookies

Traditionally, Forgotten Cookies were the last cookie to go into the oven on cookie night, the oven was then turned off, and the cookies left to dry overnight, which is where they got the name "forgotten." Best served fresh of course, so don't make them too far in advance, but meringue cookies will keep well for a few days, giving you at least a little bit of leeway for advance prep.

These meringue cookies have been around for many years of course, and usually chocolate chips, and often pecans, are added. Do get the mini chips though, since these cookies are so delicate and should always be piped or spooned out tiny and petite. Once dried, they are super crisp, which makes them a delight for one or two bites. The standard chocolate chips are a bit overwhelming, but the mini chips are just perfect for these.

I had intended to do these this time as peppermint swirls like those on the beautiful cover of the December issue of Bon Appetit magazine. Even though their recipe did not include the chocolate chips, I knew the peppermint flavor would marry well with the chocolate.

I don't own the larger piping tip they used however, and the zipper bag I was using burst on me, so I had to extract my pretty swirled meringue mix back into a bowl. I had also used up all of my red food coloring on my Red Velvet Cake piece for the magazine eat. drink. MISSISSIPPI and only had icing gel in the house, which is generally more intense.

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Crockpot Candy Peanut Clusters

Crockpot Chocolate Peanut Clusters are a favorite holiday candy made from a mixture of almond bark, baking chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate chips and peanuts.

Crockpot Candy

Crockpot Candy Clusters are a popular confection at Christmastime everywhere, and usually includes pretty much the same combination of ingredients - some kind of mixture of chocolate, along with almond bark and peanuts.  I wanted to use a combination of honey roasted peanuts along with regular dry roasted peanuts this time, so I decided to pair up the almond bark coating, with a bittersweet baking chocolate, instead of the German chocolate that is often typically used. I happened to have some Scharffen Berger bittersweet dark chocolate in the freezer which worked marvelously, though good ole Baker's bittersweet will also work just fine.

You do not need to make this candy in a slow cooker of course, though the advantage of using one is that the chocolate melts nice and evenly, and you can work right out of the slow cooker, keeping the chocolate nice and pliable until you finish that last dollop. You can certainly use a microwave or double boiler to melt the chocolate also.

One word of caution. While this popular crockpot candy recipe has been around for many years, it was originally written at a time when the old slow cookers cooked at a much lower temperature than they do today. Unless you're still using one of the older ones, don't think you can dump everything in and then just leave it unattended for 3 hours on low. While all slow cookers vary and you might get away with it, there is also a strong risk that you will end up with nuts and chocolate that tastes, and are, burned with the newer cookers. Even though I do still use my 70-something Crockpot slow cooker for this recipe, I still stir it out of an abundance of caution.

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A heritage recipe, English Pea Salad is made up of frozen or canned peas, mixed, at minimum, with celery and onion, and dressed with a mayonnaise or sour cream based dressing. I've added some bacon, dill and cashews in mine here, but it's wide open for personalization.

Old Fashioned Cold English Pea Salad

Cold Pea Salad is another holiday dish you may remember from your grandma's kitchen during the major holidays. Called English Pea Salad, it's more widely known these days as simply Cold Pea Salad, and is a long held holiday favorite, though it's really a great side dish for anytime of the year.

We were chatting about Pea Salad over on the Facebook page right around Thanksgiving and all of the different variations everybody makes. When I had a baby shower to go to this past weekend, I thought it would be a nice dish to bring and get posted before Christmas. Pea salad is probably one of those dishes that isn't nearly as appealing to the younger crowd as those of us who've been around a bit, so to be honest, I was secretly hoping there would be enough left for my lunch the next day. As it turns out we had plenty of food, ate plenty enough, and had leftovers too, so I was a happy gal!

To enjoy this salad, it helps if you're a fan of peas, which I am, though I have been told by some folks that family members who won't eat peas, will often eat a pea salad. Unless you're my husband who will, almost reluctantly, eat peas when I set them before him, but isn't remotely interested in pea salad at all. In his defense, he's not much of a salad eater to begin with though. His idea of salad is iceberg lettuce with French dressing, though I don't let him get away with that either.

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Shipwreck casserole is a super easy to put together, layered casserole, made with ground beef, onions,  potatoes, and veggies - here I used carrots, bell pepper and celery - and added a layer of rice.

Shipwreck Casserole

There is not a single thing particularly unique to me about this Shipwreck Casserole. It's just one of those meat and potatoes, family-pleasing casseroles with a funny name that's been around a long time. It's actually known by a couple of other names too, like Dinner in a Dish or Meal in One Supper, but there are at least two stories of lore that are attached to how the name shipwreck came about.

One story goes that following a shipwreck, shipmates grabbed what food they could before abandoning the vessel and this mixture became their supper on land, from the result of what they had gathered. Another claims that this became a traditional dish prepared for survivors and first responders when a disaster at sea had occurred - sort of like our funeral foods down south. I don't know if there's any truth to either story, but I think it'd be fun to play along with it for the kids, and since this is easy enough to throw together, they can even lend a hand in making supper.

As always there are many variations with this casserole and the way that it is layered, but this is the one we like the best. Carrots are one of the few vegetables that The Cajun will eat and paired up here with ground beef, onion, potatoes, bell pepper and rice, means it's a hardy and filling dish that my husband gobbles up! Since there are potatoes, you can skip the rice if you like. It's not uncommon for them to share space in this part of the south, and frankly we like them both in this casserole. Some folks do not precook the meat, but I do prefer to do that and drain off any excess fat.

The real beauty of this casserole is that it is a meal in one dish that you can customize to your own needs. You can stretch this by using as little as one pound of ground beef, or bump it up to a full 2 pounds if you have more hardy eaters. You can use more or less of the veggies too, and there's plenty of room to change them up to your liking. Chopped broccoli, corn, green beans, mixed vegetables, and peas are a few excellent choices. Drained beans are a typical add-in as well.

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Cornflake Candy is another heritage recipe you may remember from your grandmother. They are a simple blend of sugar, corn syrup, peanut butter and cornflake cereal that are a Christmas classic.

Old Fashioned Cornflake Candy

Another one of those old fashioned treasures that's been around forever, cornflake candy is super easy, and is a treat that is certainly fondly remembered around the holidays. There are a few variations of it around these days, but this is the classic version, with the addition of some vanilla. Feel free to embellish to your heart's desire though, if you like. Coconut, peanuts, chocolate chips and raisins are a few of the typical, modern add-ins.

Like those old fashioned Ting-a-Lings, these are a well loved and easy treat to add to your holiday cookie and candy trays. The one thing that you need to remember is that this sets up quickly, so have everything ready and work quickly.

Here's how to make them.

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A simple soup made from a chicken broth base, with leftover baked ham, bacon, a ham hock and cabbage.

Ham and Cabbage Soup

Soon as southern fall and winter weather fluctuates from flip-flops back to jackets, I instantly want a good warming soup and I love experimenting with different combinations. This one came about from having some leftover holiday ham and cabbage that I needed to use up, and knowing I had a frozen ham hock I could use to flavor the soup base. I don't bake a whole ham very often, though I really don't know why, but ham hocks make such a great flavoring stand-in for a ham bone for soups and beans, that they really should be a freezer staple. They certainly are for me!

There is nothing at all unusual or unique to me about this soup - in fact, with some slight variation in the ingredients, it's pretty common, but it's a nice tasty soup for those of us who enjoy cabbage. Hey - y'all know it must be okay when I can get The Cajun to eat cabbage, and he gobbled down three large bowls of it.

I started with a little bacon for the smokey flavor, added a mirepoix of veggies, a quart of chicken stock and an equal amount of water, threw in a slashed ham hock, and let that simmer for an hour. You can go a little shorter if you have to, but unless you're in a hurry, let it simmer for a full hour to extract all the flavor out of that ham hock. The ham hock flavored this up nicely, so an all water base would probably be fine here too.

After the ham hock has simmered, add in some chopped potatoes, thickly shredded cabbage and seasonings, cover and let it low simmer for another 20 minutes or until the cabbage and potatoes are tender. I decided to chop the potatoes a little more chunky than a dice for this soup, but if you dice yours, be sure to factor that in the time so you don't end up with potato mush. Core and cut the cabbage up into quarters before thickly slicing it to make it more bite-sized. Add a little thyme in at the end, taste and adjust seasonings and serve. This is a very nice soup that I think you'll enjoy. Here's how to make it.

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Southern fried cabbage is a very simple cabbage dish prepared often as here, with a bit of butter, bacon & onion. I like to add cider vinegar and dried pepper flakes for a little extra flavor punch.

Southern Fried Cabbage

We southerners know this dish as "fried" cabbage, even though it's usually a mixture of sautéing, and braising or stewing, being cooked low and simmered in its own juices, rather than being flash fried. I imagine a lot of folks raised outside of The South associate the words "southern" and "fried" to always mean something that is deep fried in a huge vat of boiling oil, like our fabulous fried chicken, for instance. Surely these people must think we crazy southerners deep fry some odd things - like cabbage and fried corn and fried apples, to name a few.

What they don't realize is that the term often represents different things, and very often, simply the tool used, more so than the actual method or process. In many cases it's referring to the cooking of something in a skillet - or what we call a frying pan - and so, we call the dish "fried."

We southerners are a funny lot aren't we?

I prefer to render out some bacon with my fried cabbage, then cook a bit of onion in that before adding in the cabbage and simple seasonings of salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning. After that, I cover and let it braise for 30 minutes, adding a splash of cider vinegar and red pepper flakes just before serving. Since the bacon is used more as a seasoning for me, I only use a few slices, but certainly use as much as you like. I do like to add in some butter too though since it adds a great flavor to the cabbage.

I love this dish so much, that despite the fact that I've purchased a head of cabbage multiple times with the intention of making one particular recipe to post, I keep using it for fried cabbage time and again instead. I love the stuff, so what can I say? This last head of cabbage was so huge, it was like getting a 2-for-1 deal, so I also used a bit of it to make a wonderful pot of soup during that last blast of cold air that flowed through here a week or so ago. I've been dealing with computer gremlins the past couple of weeks, but hopefully I'll be posting that recipe soon, assuming technology cooperates, since the weather appears that it will switch from flip flops to winter again in just a few days. Gotta love The South!

While fried cabbage is technically a side dish, frankly I can make it a main dish meal and often do, since The Cajun isn't all that interested in cabbage. I can barely manage to sneak it in on him in soups, but considering that he ate three large bowls of that soup I made, I am grateful that we have at least progressed to that!

Here's how to make some delicious fried cabbage.

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The Simple Act of Popping Corn

Homemade popcorn, made the old fashioned way, in a pot on the stovetop, can truly bring folks together. Make some and see where it takes you!

Old Fashioned Homemade Popcorn

Don't think I've gone off the deep end for publishing a "recipe" for popcorn. Today's post is more about a story than a recipe. It's a story about the simple act of popping corn.

I don't mean sticking a bag of popcorn in the microwave either. Not that there is a thing wrong with that of course! Heaven knows I've popped my share in that metal box.

No, this is about pouring popcorn kernels into a pot with some hot oil and popping corn on the top of the stove - like we once used to before air poppers were around and before microwaves were a central appliance in our homes.

One day recently, when my son and daughter in law came to pick up the grandkids, on the kitchen counter sat the remnants of a large bowl of cold popcorn we had popped earlier. My son dove right into that bowl and looking a little nostalgic, mentioned something to the effect of "I used to have popcorn like this at Nuna Helen's house. We used to make it all the time." Nuna Helen was what my son called my mama, and I took notice that his memory was not of having popcorn with his mama even though we'd certainly had our share of popcorn together, but he remembered sharing it with his grandma. It hadn't even occurred to me when I made popcorn for my grandkids that day - it was just an automatic thing to pop some popcorn while they were here. Seeing my son munching on that popcorn and hearing him say that, brought a smile to my face and a warm feeling, deep in my heart.

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