Food & Recipes - grace grits and gardening

Homemade Fruit Roll-ups

May 2, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

Fruit Roll-ups were a staple snack in our house when the kids were young. Fun for them and quick for me! Plus, I admit it, I liked to eat them too.

I recently tried my hand at making homemade fruit roll-ups. They were extremely easy, healthy and tasty.

Ingredients

3 cups strawberries (or whatever is on sale)

1 tablespoon honey (if your strawberries are sweet enough, no honey needed)

Method

Puree strawberries and honey in blender or food processor.

Cover cookie sheet with plastic wrap. Pour the fruit puree over the plastic, leaving space around the edges.

Bake at 170 degrees for 6-8 hours (depending on your oven). It takes a long time for the fruit to dry out, but don’t worry, the oven is not hot enough to melt the plastic wrap.

When dried and cooled (much like leather), peel the fruit away from the plastic and place it over a sheet of parchment paper.

Cut the fruit and paper into strips and roll them up.

Store in a plastic bag. They will not last long…

talya
Grace Grits & Gardening

Once upon a time as early as the mid-1700s, field hands used their flat hoe blades as a griddle, frying corn cakes over an open flame. In the South, these cakes were known as hoecakes (commonly called johnny cakes elsewhere).

As the daughter of a cotton farmer, I find this fascinating.

My husband and I recently made Bacon Scallion Hoecakes (as published by Garden & Gun). My cast iron skillet handed down from Nana proved perfect for the job and was much easier than trying to clean off my garden hoe.

Get prepared for a seriously amazing dish…

Bacon Scallion Hoecakes
1 cup self-rising flour
1 cup fine yellow cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup bacon fat
1/3 cup sour cream (we substituted Mexican cream – it was great!)
2 eggs
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup finely chopped crisp bacon
canola oil with a bit of bacon fat

Method:

In a medium bowl, whisk together first five ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, water, fat, cream. Blend well then add eggs and mix until just combined. Pour liquid into dry ingredients and mix until a thick batter has formed. Do not over mix… Gently stir in onions and bacon. Again, do not over mix… Heat oil in skillet over medium heat. Use an ice cream scoop to pour batter into pan.

Cook as you would pancakes, frying on each side about 2 minutes. Add more oil as needed.

Makes 12-14.

Serve hoecakes with ribs, chicken, soup, etc. instead of cornbread, garlic bread or rolls. Or for breakfast or dessert, drizzle with honey or maple syrup and serve with powdered sugar and fruit.

We served ours with collard greens and spicy grilled shrimp.

Delicious!

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.

Heavenly Coconut Cake

March 29, 2013 By Talya Tate Boerner

I made this cake a few days ago inspired by a Pinterest recipe. I tweaked it a bit (because I was at my mother’s house and didn’t have all the ingredients…) Had the cake been any more delicious, I’d have eaten the plate.

So simple and perfect for holiday entertaining!

Ingredients

1 white cake mix (I used Pillsbury)
3 eggs
1 cup water
1/4 cup coconut oil (the cake mix called for 1/4 cup vegetable oil. I substituted coconut oil which provides health benefits and adds a coconut flavor to the cake.)
1 14 oz. can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk
1 8 oz. package sweetened coconut
1 container of Cool Whip, thawed

Method

Bake the cake according to the directions using mix, eggs, water and oil.

While cake is baking, toast coconut in a skillet.

Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven, poke holes in it.

Typically, I would make neater, rounder holes with the end of a wooden spoon, but since I was at my mother’s house and she has very few utensils, I made ugly slices with a knife. (FYI – Momma stopped cooking after Daddy died, and her kitchen is suffering…)

Pour the milk over the top of the cake and let cool completely.

Once cooled, ice with Cool Whip. Sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Yum.

Easy.

talya

Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.