grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

Grilled Poundcake with Fresh Strawberries and Basil

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Grilled poundcake with strawberries and basil is that special sweet something you need for your 4th of July celebration. This dessert is super simple to make, especially since you’re already planning to fire up your grill for the holiday. Right?

Grilled Poundcake with Fresh Strawberries and Basil

Here’s the simple part—I used a bakery poundcake and Reddi-wip® in a canister.

Okay, keeping it real here—sometimes I make homemade whipped cream, and sometimes I don’t. Usually I make homemade poundcake. This time, I didn’t. If you prefer to make your own poundcake, I highly recommend Elvis’s Poundcake. It’s the best I’ve ever had. But, for this dessert, I don’t think it makes a hill of beans difference whether you bake a cake and whip up cream or run down to the local IGA. There’s magic in the combination of smoky flavor + sweetness + twist of basil.

A fanciful flavorful fabulous strawberry shortcake.

Trust me.Continue Reading

my most excellent CHICKEN SALAD recipe

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chicken salad - my favorite version!

This is my favorite chicken salad recipe and the perfect way to use leftover chicken. Simple to make and super flavorful—what more do you need for an easy southern dish?

An old-fashioned recipe with updated taste.

One reason the flavor is so great is the chicken itself is delicious. Grilled chicken adds a smoky flavor to your dish. Whatever seasonings were used during the grilling process become part of this recipe. Even a quick rotisserie chicken from the deli will add lots of flavor to your chicken salad.

The other key to the flavor of this dish is DILL. If you aren’t growing dill in your garden, run out to your local nursery and get some today. Not only is it delicious and loaded with health benefits, but dill is a host plant for Black Swallowtail Butterflies. And that’s a good thing.

Dill in the garden

My recipe has two kinds of onion—green and purple—because you can’t have too much onion. Continue Reading

I had a Frog and Toad moment.

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It seems like only yesterday when my sister, cousin Lesa, and I entertained ourselves for hours on end acting out stories from Frog and Toad. If you don’t know what on earth I’m talking about, well I’m sorry. Frog and Toad Together was Newbery Honor book two in a four part series written by Arnold Lobel.

Greatness.

What can I say, we were farm girls with fantastic imaginations and oh so much talent.

Trust me.

Frog and Toad and Chocolate

There’s a particular story in Frog and Toad Together that goes something like this…

Toad bakes cookies. Frog, knowing they have no will power, places the cookies in a box, ties up the box with string, and puts the box on a high shelf. Toad, being the realist, points out how easy it would be to climb the ladder and get the box and eat the cookies. Frog and Toad ended up giving their cookies to the birds. As a kid I remember thinking just eat the cookies if you want them. Today I think all that sugar and chocolate probably killed the poor little birds…

I can’t tell you how many times we acted out that story in our bedroom. We had high bookcases that worked perfectly for hiding the cookies. Lesa, the best actress in our threesome, played Frog.

A few days ago, I had my own Frog and Toad moment. Continue Reading

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!