Father Pat’s Black Skillet Cornbread

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Father Pat

I love cornbread.  Especially with the chili I cooked up tonight, but that’s a post for another time.  So I read a bunch of recipes for cornbread, and saw it made on America’s Test Kitchen (or was it Cook’s Country … same people, so I’m not sure!).  I liked some of the things they suggested, like toasting the cornmeal to bring out the corn flavor, and then letting the cornmeal and buttermilk get to know each other for about five minutes, so that the cornmeal hydrates and the batter is moister.  But I also wanted a few more things: I wanted to use my nifty black cast iron skillet, because it would brown nice and get all crunchy.  That and I wanted cheese and chilis in the bread to add flavor and coordinate with the chili.  (Note: the chilis were not spicy at all; they just added a nice, peppery flavor).

So after a bunch of research, here’s what I came up with.  Fr. Dan said it was the best cornbread he ever had.  Yes, I’ll make it again…

Update 2/1/2011: Upon making this a second time, I realized that I put the melted butter in the ingredients list and not in the directions.  My bad; so that’s now fixed.  I also ran into a thing where I had very little sugar, so I used honey instead.  We’ll see how that goes.  Also, since I was re-writing, I decided to put things into the more classical “combine the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately and mix together form,” just in case Bobby Flay ever challenges me to a cornbread throwdown and Food Network wants to publish the recipe for a considerable sum.  Right.

Recipe: Father Pat’s Black Skillet Cornbread

Summary: Great with chili!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups fine cornmeal
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (or honey)
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 ½ cups buttermilk
  • 1 can creamed corn, 14 oz.
  • 2 cups grated sharp cheddar
  • 1 can green chilis, (small can)
  • 1 stick butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Instructions

  1. Heat a 10 – 12 inch black cast iron skillet at 400 degrees fahrenheit for 10 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil to the pan and heat 5 minutes more.
  2. Pour the cornmeal onto a rimmed baking sheet and toast in the oven at 400 degrees for 5 to 10 minutes.  Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
  3. Combine the creamed corn, melted butter, buttermilk, honey or sugar, eggs, and green chilis in a large mixing bowl.
  4. In a smaller mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
  5. Whisk the cornmeal into the buttermilk and creamed corn mixture and let sit for 5 minutes to hydrate the cornmeal.
  6. Add the dry ingredients to the cornmeal mixture and combine well without overworking the batter. Fold in the cheese.
  7. Remove skillet from oven and reduce oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Pour batter into skillet and bake in oven for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is well browned and the bread is firm to the touch.
  8. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes, remove from pan and slice.
PrintFriendly
Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in breads, recipes, side dishes | Tagged | Comments Off

Neighborhood Chocolate Cake

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Father Pat

So I made this cake for our bake sale planning meeting this evening.  Now it’s not a bakesale, but a Fall Harvest Market, but that’s even better.  We’re planning to raise as much money as we can to feed the Glen Ellyn Food Pantry, our parish OWLs mentoring ministry, and Catholic Relief Services Food Safety programs.  So I made the cake to get things off to a good start.  We had a ton of great food (and wine!) at the meeting and were inspired to come up with some great ideas.  I’m looking forward to seeing how it all comes out.

So back to the cake.  The back story is that the recipe first appeared in print in our neighborhood newspaper, which I edited when I was like ten or something.  Every issue had some great recipes from the local moms, and this was one of them.  So credit to Ann Corrigan, who doesn’t even remember this cake at all now.  So I’m stealing the recipe!  The great thing is that it begins with a boxed cake mix, which you doctor up real nice.  It comes out rich and moist, and it takes like five minutes to put together and get into the oven.  This is a great go-to cake for last-minute company or even a gift for a sick friend.  Or just because you’re craving chocolate – I hear that happens once in a while.

Often this cake has been frosted with a jar frosting, but tonight I fancy-shmancied it up a bit, and made two drizzles – way easy, and the recipe for those follows.  Here’s how it came out – presentation is everything!

Yeah, and it tastes even better than it looks.  Try it!

Recipe: Neighborhood Chocolate Cake

Summary: Rich and chocolatey – a real crowd pleaser!

Ingredients

  • 1 package chocolate cake mix
  • 1 package instant chocolate pudding mix, (small package)
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup warm water
  • 4 eggs
  • 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Mix everything together except chocolate chips.
  2. Fold chocolate chips in last.
  3. Pour in a greased and floured bundt cake pan.
  4. Bake at 350 degrees 45-55 minutes.
  5. This cake must be mixed by hand, not with a mixer!

Quick Notes

Easily serves twelve or more.

Variations

Check out the drizzle recipe to follow. Equally easy!

Cooking time (duration): 5-10

Number of servings (yield): 12

Meal type: dessert

My rating: 4 stars:  ★★★★☆ 1 review(s)

Microformatting by hRecipe.

There’s a funny story about my cousin Dominic making this the first time, with regard to the last instruction.  But I’m not telling on him!  Instead, here’s my drizzle icing recipe:

Recipe: Easy Drizzle Icing

Summary: Just enough!

Ingredients

  • 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 teaspoon good vanilla (hat tip to Ina Garten!)
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon good cocoa (I know Ina would agree!)

Instructions

  1. 1. Mix the the sugar and vanilla, and a little of the milk together in a bowl. Continue to whisk in milk, a little at a time, until you have a thick, but BARELY pourable consistency.
  2. Drizzle half the icing over the cake, and refrigerate the cake for ten minutes to let the icing set up.
  3. Meanwhile, mix the cocoa in with the rest of the icing, along with a few drops of milk, until you once again reach the correct consistency.
  4. Drizzle the chocolate icing over the vanilla icing and make it look real nice.
  5. Serve!

Microformatting by hRecipe.

You will totally be making this recipe over and over again for company.  You want to make it now, I know it.

PrintFriendly
Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in cakes, desserts, recipes | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Macaroni Salad

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Father Pat

For summer, macaroni salad is the perfect side for so many grilled favorites. Tonight we had it on the side of some barbecued chicken, which we did not grill due to hellacious storms blowing through the area. It was all good anyway, and hey, this time the storm didn’t wipe out the power. Well, it did at the church, but I was at Mom’s house on my day off. So back to the salad. I adapted this one from Cook’s Country, dropping the parsley (boring) and adding some cheese (why not?). I love the seasonings in this recipe, and the flavor turned out terrific. Definitely will make this one again.

Recipe: Summer Macaroni Salad

Summary: Yummy summertime side.

Ingredients

  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 1 pound elbow macaroni (I use Barilla)
  • 1/2 small red onion, minced fine
  • 1 rib celery, minced
  • Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
  • Pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions

  1. Bring 4 quarts water to a boil and add 1 tablespoon salt, along with the macaroni. Cook until nearly tender, about 5 minutes. Drain in colander and rinse with cold water until cool. Drain briefly but not completely, so that macaroni remains moist. Transfer to large bowl.
  2. Stir in onion, celery, lemon juice, mustard, garlic powder, and cayenne, and lit sit until flavors are absorbed, about 2 minutes. Add mayonnaise and cheese and let sit until texture is no longer watery, about 5 to 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Microformatting by hRecipe.

PrintFriendly
Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in recipes, salads | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Come, have breakfast … or at least a drink

Posted on April 18, 2010 by Father Pat

Well, I can hardly let a day go by without a post when this blog’s title is mentioned in the Gospel reading.  And, since Jesus was making breakfast, I feel like this should have a breakfast theme too.  Which works out nicely, because we had a great brunch for Uncle Bob’s 70th birthday today.  It was the first time our family had done a brunch like that; usually for birthdays we will gather for dinner.  So this was a great change of pace, and we got to taste all kinds of wonderful brunchy things that people had made.  By the time I asked what I could make, all the usual things were covered, like an egg casserole (I offered a kind of frittata).  So  I settled on the cocktails.  And since we were doing brunch, I thought a nice mimosa would be appropriate.  But, being me, I wanted to kick it up a bit, so I added a bit of triple sec for a little more orangey goodness, and used frozen orange wedges instead of ice cubes at the suggestion of a chef friend (thanks Diane!).  Those two things really made the drink.  So here’s the recipe:

Recipe: Mimmosa Punch

Ingredients

  • 2 bottles prosecco
  • 3/4 cup triple sec
  • 1/2 gallon orange juice
  • 4 oranges, washed on the outside, sliced in wedges, and frozen

Instructions

  1. Put the oranges in a punch bowl. Gently pour in the prosecco and the orange juice. Add the triple sec, and stir gently. Serve immediately.
So, you know, having thought about posting this recipe helped me to remember that I made a really good cocktail a week or so ago for my priest support group.  I wanted something refreshing, because the food we were having was a bit on the heavy side.  So I thought of a kicked up lemonade.  It begins with a lemon simple syrup, and adds a touch of limoncello for the money shot.

Recipe: Father Pat’s Limoncello Lemonade

Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup water
  • juice of 5 large lemons, strained
  • limoncello
  • club soda
  • ice

Instructions

  1. Make the lemon simple syrup: Mix the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Warm until sugar is dissolved, about ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly and add the lemon juice. Chill thoroughly.
  2. Fill a large cocktail glass or tumbler 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up with ice. Add enough of the lemon simple syrup to come up to about 1/3 of the glass. Add one shot of limoncello. Top off with club soda and stir gently. Serve.

So there you go.  Two very good (imho) cocktails, perfect for spring and summer entertaining!  Yes, I’ll be making them both again.

PrintFriendly
Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in beverages, recipes | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Feeding the hungry

Posted on April 16, 2010 by Father Pat

If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them,
“Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?
James 2:15-16

Tonight I added a bunch of links to the site (check them out in the bottom right corner).  All of them added tonight have been for food pantries and depositories, fair trade education and sales, and other hunger-related charities.  If I’m going to do a food blog, I absolutely have to encourage everyone to reach out to those who are hungry, because feeding the hungry is a Gospel value that cannot ever be ignored.  Jesus tells us that the poor we will always have with us, and we can be kind to them whenever we wish.  And by his example, we see that we should wish to be kind to the poor nearly always.  So please, click on a link, and be kind.  No one should ever go hungry in this modern world.

PrintFriendly
Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in charitable giving | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Welcome, have some iced coffee

Posted on April 13, 2010 by Father Pat

This is just the beginning of my cooking blog.  There are a ton of things I’d like to do here, but I have to have at least one recipe to get started.  So here is my recipe for cold-brewed iced coffee, using a wonderful fair trade iced coffee blend from my favorite purveyors: Just Coffee in Madison, WI.  They are the fine folks who put together the Raphael’s Roast coffee that we used at my last parish, St. Raphael.  I learned from them the process of cold-brewing the coffee, which makes it far less acidic, a good idea for coffee served cold.  I experimented with additives, and this could more properly be called Fr. Pat’s Iced Vanilla Latte, I think, but that’s not what we called it.  Anyway, enjoy a cup of it, and sit back while I do some more tinkering around here!

Recipe: Father Pat’s Iced Coffee

Summary: Fair Trade Iced Coffee, Cold Brewed

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Mix coffee and 5 cups of the water in a bowl and leave at room temperature for 12 hours. Pour through coffee filter, yields about 3 cups. Refrigerate until used, up to two weeks.
  2. To serve, blend one cup of the coffee concentrate with 1½ remaining water, milk and creamer. Pour over ice.
PrintFriendly
Did you like this? Share it:
Posted in beverages, recipes | Tagged , , , | Comments Off