Mini Sour Cream Lemon Pound Cakes

This is a recipe that my mother taught me how to make. I have many memories of this cake growing up. I cut the recipe in half to make 6 mini bundt cakes. But the recipe can be doubled to make a full size bundt cake.

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs (separated)
1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
yellow food coloring
no stick spray with flour

Glaze:
Powdered sugar
Milk
Food coloring

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour mini bundt cake pan or spray with no stick spray with flour.
Cream butter and sugar.

Mix in egg yolks. Then, gradually add flour while mixer is on low speed. Next, add sour cream.

In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to stiff peaks.

Fold beaten egg whites into the pound cake batter.
Mix in vanilla extract, lemon extract, and a few drops of yellow food coloring.
Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
I mixed a small amount of milk into powdered sugar, added a drop of yellow food coloring. I drizzled it over the pound cake.

Sweet Tea

Sweet Tea

Ingredients:
2 family size tea bags
3/4 cup to 1 cup sugar; depending on how sweet you want the tea.
Water
Ice

I used two Luzianne family size tea bags; each tea bag makes a quart of tea.
I boiled about a cup and a half of water in a measuring cup in the microwave. Then, I added the tea bags to the boiling hot water.
I let the tea bags steep for 3 and a half minutes.
I removed the tea bags; added 3/4 cups of sugar. I dissolved the sugar in the hot tea to make a concentrated tea syrup.

I filled the pitcher half way with ice and water, and then added the tea syrup mixture. I finished filling the pitcher with water and ice.

Hamburgers with Brown Gravy

Ingredients:
Ground chuck
A medium onion
Cornstarch
Water
Salt
Pepper
Accent meat tenderizer

Season ground beef with salt, pepper, and meat tenderizer. Shape seasoned ground chuck into patties
Brown patties on both sides in large pot, without cooking all the way through.
Transfer browned patties into a bowl. Continue browning the rest of the patties and transfer them into the bowl.
Once all the patties are browned, save some of the drippings in the pot and sautee a medium onion in the same pot. Add all the hamburgers back into the pot and cover with water.

Add cornstarch and water mixture (for the large quantity I made, I added 3 Tbsp of cornstarch to 1/2 c. of water) to thicken the gravy. Season gravy to taste.I also microwaved a bag of Southwestern frozen corn.
And cooked rice, cornbread, and iced tea.

Peach Cobbler

Easy peach cobbler recipe:

4 - 29oz cans of sliced peaches in heavy syrup
2 Tbsp. Butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
4 frozen pie shells
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 c. water

Melt butter in large pot. Add peaches with syrup, 1 cup of sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon to pot. Heat on medium high until hot. Mix cornstarch and water, then add to pot. Taste; add additional sugar if needed; depending on the tartness of the peaches.

Line bottom of pan with pie crust. Blind bake until lightly brown. Add peaches and syrup to the pan.
I took the remaining to pie crust and removed from tins to parchment paper to defrost for a couple of minutes. I cut pie crust into 1 inch strips and make a lattice on top of the peaches.
Bake at 350 degrees, until golden brown.

Drop Biscuits

Drop Biscuits

There are only three ingredients:
2 cups self-rising flour
1/4 vegetable shortening
2/3 c + 2 tbsp milk (buttermilk can also be used to make Buttermilk Bicuits)

Preheat oven at 450 degrees. Mix the shortening into the flour with a fork, until the flour resembles coarse meal/crumbs. Add the milk and mix well with the fork. Dough will be very soft and sticky. This makes the biscuits very tender.

The dough will be stuck the bowl. Using a rubber spatula move the dough to one side of the bowl. Dust the other side of the bowl with flour. Using the rubber spatula flip the dough onto the floured side of the bowl. Now, dust the other side of the dough with flour. The dough should now be able coated with flour on both sides; and free from the bowl.

Flour hands. Pinch off pieces of the dough and drop them onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Gently press down the dough to make a flat top.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until browned.

Here's the finished biscuit. I like to eat them for breakfast with maple syrup.

If there so happened to be leftover biscuits. I refrigerate them. Then, when I want another biscuit I remove it from the refrigerator, place it in the microwave for 20 seconds, or until just warm. Then, I place the biscuit in the toaster on a light setting to crisp the outside. I like them a little crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. If, you didn't know any better, you would have swore they just came out of the oven. If you don't like them a little crunchy on the outside, you can skip the toaster step.

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Fried Chicken

I made fried chicken for dinner tonight. I cut up two whole chickens and seasoned them with seasoning salt and pepper. I placed the seasoned chicken in the refrigerator to marinate for two hours. I then coated the chicken in seasoned flour and placed into a 360 degree deep fryer. I fried until golden brown.


I made some more cornbread using a box of Jiffy cornbread mix; following the package directions:


I served the chicken with leftover rice and sweet peas.
Some of the fried chicken was used to make smothered chicken, which I will be having tomorrow. The smothered chicken is made the same way as the smothered pork chops; instead of fried pork chops, fried chicken is used.

Smothered Pork Chops, White Rice, Sweet Peas, and Cornbread

Today for dinner I made smothered pork chops, white rice, sweet peas, and cornbread.
For the pork chops:
1. I very lightly seasoned both sides of the pork chops with seasoning salt and pepper. I then coated each pork chop with seasoned flour. The flour was seasoned with seasoning salt and pepper.
2. I fried each pork chop in oil, until golden brown.
3. In a separate large pot, I sauteed a medium onion in a tablespoon of vegetable oil.
4. I transferred the fried pork chops into a large pot containing the satueed onions.
5. Add three cups of water over the pork chops. Season the water with salt and pepper to taste.
6. Bring everything to a boil. Cook on medium heat for twenty minutes.
7. Mix two teaspoons of constarch into 1/4 cup of water. And add to the pot containing the pork chops to thicken the gravy.

For the sweet peas and rice:
Sweet peas:
1. I three pieces of salt pork or bacon and fry until golden brown; leaving a tablespoon of bacon grease.
2. Add two cans of undrained sweet peas. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Bring to a boil. Add two teaspoons of constarch to 1/4 cup of water; mix well.
4.Stir cornstarch mixture into sweet peas.
5. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Rice:
1. I cooked the rice in a rice cooker, according to directions on the bag.

Cornbread:
I made the cornbread according to the cornmeal mix directions. And added two tablespoons of sugar to the cornbread batter.

Lastly, I plated the food.