Bubba's Oven-fried Cod

This is good and crunchy fish, minus all the fat. 

Bubba just vacationed in London recently and almost had his fill of fish and chips ~ he loved the meal!   Traditionally, fish and chips are served wrapped in paper to soak up all the grease, probably not a good thing.  

Back at home now, to cut the grease and calories, Bubba coats the cod in a corn meal and Parmesan breading and bakes it.  In his cooking, he goes heavy on the spices and seasonings, adjust to your taste. 

Sprakling Chewy Ginger Cookies with a Twist

Don’t say I didn’t warn you❣

 

These cookies are chewy and delicious ~ bursting with a warm, surprisingly fiery and pungent flavor!

The taste is almost peppery and that’s why I love these cookies, because the surprise ingredient is just that, pepper!

I always bake some sort of ginger cookie during the Christmas season, and this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens surpasses them all.

For additional spicy flavor, the recipe includes  molasses, dark brown sugar, fresh ginger and pumpkin pie spice.  

Gold sanding sugar sprinkled on top of each cookie gives them a festive look when baked and adds another touch of sweetness.

I think they’re divine ~ they’re addictive ~ and if you like ginger cookies,  I bet you will agree!   


Sparkling Chewy Ginger Cookies
Printable recipe

Ingredients:

1⅓ cups firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup shortening
2 large eggs
½ cup molasses
4 teaspoons finely grated peeled fresh ginger
3½ cups flour
3 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1⅓ cups gold sanding sugar, or granulated sugar*

Method:

Preheat oven to 350°.
Beat dark brown sugar and shortening in a medium bowl at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.
Add egg, molasses and finer, beat 30 seconds.
Sift flour with next 4 ingredients in a small bowl.
Add flour mixture to butter mixture, beat at low speed until combined.
Refrigerate for 1 hour.
Place sanding sugar in a small bowl.
Drop dough by level spoonfuls into sanding sugar, using a 1½” cookie scoop; roll to coat.
Place coated cookies 3” apart on 2 parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are fragrant and browned around the edges.
Cool on pans for 5 minutes, transfer to wire racks to cool completely.  
Makes 3 dozen

*Gold sanding sugar can be purchased online or purchased wherever specialty cake supplies are sold.


Enjoy!

Dragonwagon’s Cheddar-Scallion-Black Pepper Cornsticks

Crescent Dragonwagon is the creator of this recipe and The Cornbread Gospels.  It’s a unique cookbook though with all types of recipes using cornmeal.   

Before I go on with the recipe, I just want to thank Kat @sweetkatskitchen for the fantastic “Gooseberry Patch Baking Recipes Organizer" I won in her giveaway.  It’s filled with many pockets for recipes and great tips are on each pocket also.  Kat has an excellent blog chocked full of delicious baked goodies.  She has had a busy holiday season ~ baking for her customers.  And now, I finally have a way to organize all my newspaper and magazine recipe clippings!  Thanks so much, Kat!  Go check out Kat’s website, you’ll be glad you did!

Cornbread is a good thing that turns into a great thing when they’re sticks!  It’s like a little miniature cornbread of your own!  They take being baked in a corn stick pan ~ a heavy cast-iron mold shaped like tiny ears of corn.  Corn sticks have a great crunchy texture because a larger surface area is exposed to both the direct air of the oven and the cast iron molds.  If you favor REALLY crunchy corn sticks like we do, use stone-ground cornmeal for extra crunch.  Like I’ve said before in several posts, I can not buy stone-ground cornmeal locally so purchase it from Nora Mill.

Probably, most any batter can be used for corn sticks. Since it is easy for the batter to stick to the pan, the trick is to grease the molds very liberally and place them into the oven until sizzling hot, almost smoking, before adding the batter.  The corn sticks turn out a beautiful golden color!

 

These Cheddar-Scallion-Black Pepper Cornsticks are in Crescent Dragonwagon’s words, “jazzy enough to make you say ‘WOW’ with each bite!”  You want a sharp Cheddar cheese. “The scallion-black pepper mix is better than it has any right to be,” Crescent is right!

Here’s Dragonwagon’s recipe:

Cheddar-Scallion-Black Pepper Cornsticks

Adapted

Ingredients:

1½ cups flour

1¼ cups stone-ground yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 to 1½ teaspoons coarse freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 cups (8 ounces) very finely grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese

2 eggs

1½ cups buttermilk*

¼ cup (½ stick) butter, melted

3 scallions, chopped very, very fine

Vegetable oil cooking spray (Crisco)**

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and black pepper in a large bow, stirring very well.

Remove 2 tablespoons of this mixture and toss it in a small bowl with the finely grated cheese.  Set aside.

Beat eggs and buttermilk together in a medium bowl, then beat in the melted butter. 

Stir this into the flour-cornmeal mix with just a few strokes-it shouldn’t be fully incorporated yet.

Sprinkle with the scallions and cheese and stir a few more times, just until combined.

Spray the corn stick pan very liberally with oil, and spoon the batter into the molds about three quarters of the way full.

Bake until the corn sticks are crusty and golden, 18 to 20 minutes.

Cool briefly in the pans, then turn out onto a rack to cool a little more.

Serve warm.

YUM!

Pam’s note:  I used 1½ teaspoons pepper.  

*The recipe calls for 1¼ cups buttermilk.  It was a thick batter so I increased it to 1½ cups.  

The recipe reads to fill the molds about three quarters of the way full.  I did this at first and after baking a couple, realized they needed to be filled almost full. 

**I liberally greased the pans with Crisco, (no cooking spray) heated them in the oven until very hot before adding batter and baking.

ENJOY!

Be sure to visit my friend, Linda’s blog @My Kind of Cooking for great tips, recipes and cookbook giveaway!

Cheddar and Chive Scones

The first time I made scones was a disaster.  It was years ago and they were inedible.  They were dry as a bone, crumbling into a hundred pieces.  Looking back at the recipe, I realized there was no liquid in it and that surely must have been the problem.  Now, I have moved on this to this great recipe and thankfully they are moist and hold their shape. 

The scone is a small British quick bread that is popular in North America also and can be sweet or savory.  The early recipes were made with oats, prepared into a large round cake and baked on a cast iron griddle in an open hearth.  To make it easily divide into portions, they were deeply scored before being baked. 

A scone is a wonderful thing:  buttery, soft yet firm with being very easy to make.  They are a lot like biscuits but do tend to get hard once they are cold, probably because the dough is on the dry side.  That’s OK though; just dunk them in a cup of coffee or tea!

This scone recipe includes lots of cheddar cheese, butter and chives.  I think maybe even a little lemon zest would give them great additional flavor.  One taste of these will tell you just how delicious they are!

Cheddar and Chive Scones

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1¼ teaspoons salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 stick butter, cut into ¼” slices

2/3 cup heavy cream, plus 1 tablespoon for brushing

1 cup cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon fresh chives

Method:

Heat oven to 425 degrees. 

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and pepper.

Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until mixture becomes like coarse crumbs.

Stir in 2/3 cup cream.

Add cheese and chives and combine with hands, dough will be crumbly.

Knead dough until it comes together.

Form into a ball and flatten slightly to 1” thick.

Transfer to a baking sheet.

Slice into quarters and then cut each quarter in half.

Brush tops with remaining cream.

Bake 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm

Delicious!!!