3 Bean Salad

This is little Raine's favorite salad right now and it is super easy to throw together quickly. She ate it just about as fast as I could make it this weekend. It only takes a little planning to make sure it sits long enough for the flavors to mix well. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.


Needed:

1 can green beans-drained
1 can cannellini beans-drained
1 can kidney beans-drained
1 cup Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
1/2 cup sugar
1 clove of garlic-minced
4 basil leaves-sliced

Mix Paul Newman's Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing, sugar, and garlic together until sugar dissolves. Place beans in a bowl and pour dressing over them and stir to mix. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Coffee Cake

I love coffee cake with it's ribbon of goodness calling my name. They smell soo good baking in the oven and besides, Fall is just around the corner. Make a strong pot of coffee and bake this cake and you will feel all warm inside. This is What's Coookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

Topping

1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 T cinnamon
6 T butter-melted

Filling

1 cup brown sugar
6 T butter

Cake

3/4 cup butter
1 t salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 t baking powder-I only use Rumsford
1 T vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups milk
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Make the topping and your filling and set both aside. Now you will make your batter. First cream both sugars with your butter and egg, then add vanilla, milk, and sour cream. Now sift your flour with your baking powder and salt. Add this a cup at a time until all is mixed in. Pour half of this batter in a 9x13 pan, now sprinkle filling evenly over the top of your batter. Cover filling with the remaining half of batter. Sprinkle topping on the top of your batter and bake at 375' for 1 hour.

Zucchini Bread-Paula Dean style

If you are anything like me, you can use as many zucchini recipes this time of year as you can get. This one is so moist and sweet that you will be glad you made it. I like this toasted with cream cheese and a hot cup of tea. I bake mine in loaf pans but you could just as easily bake this in a 9x13 pan. This is What’s Cookin on Beaty’s Creek today.

Needed:

3-¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ t salt
1 t nutmeg
2 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1-cup vegetable oil
4 eggs-beaten
2/3-cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 t lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Mix dry ingredients (except for nuts) in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix wet ingredients. Fold into dry, and add nuts. Bake in 2 loaf pans at 350’ for 1 hour, or until done.

Fried Crawdads

I had never eaten a fried crawdad until I married my husband and this is now my favorite way to cook them. The cornmeal gives them the best taste and with a bowl of pinto beans, there is nothing finer. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:
3 pounds of *see note below* clean SMALL crawdads with third tail piece and head removed
4 cups of white cornmeal
1 cup of all purpose flour
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Place about a 1/4" of oil in a cast iron skillet and heat over a medium burner. Now place the cornmeal, flour and salt in a mixing bowl and mix well. After cleaning crawdads, place in the cornmeal mixture and coat well. Just as you would do when frying fish. Cook in a single layer in your skillet and brown on each side for about 5-10 minutes per side, depending on your heat source. That usually happens in about 10 minutes at my house but make sure you don't burn the little critters. Seems odd to eat shell and all but this is because you only fry the small size crawdads. When eaten this way they have a nice crispy crunch similar to fried shrimp.


*This is how we clean our crawdads after we have cleaned our crawdads, Hee hee. Bring water to almost a boil in your tea kettle. Now pour hot water over your prepared crawdads and mix them around in the water. Pour water off and then cook crawdads as you like.

Homemade Salami

My mom made this every Fall and I always loved it with a strong mustard and some crackers. This is a lot like summer sausage so if you are a fan of it, you may want to try this. You can make this with venison but I used hamburger this time. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

4 pounds hamburger or venison
2 T Garlic Powder
2 T Accent
1 T Onion Salt
1 t Liquid Smoke(NO MORE THAN A TEASPOON!!)
2 T crushed (or whole) Peppercorns

Mix all of the ingredients together very well. Now form into 4 logs and wrap tightly with Saran Wrap and place in the fridge for 24 hours. Bake at 225' for 3 hours. Cool completely before eating or slicing.

Jalapeno Jelly

This jelly is so good poured over some cream cheese on your favorite cracker...Yummy! Be careful when you make this, the fumes from the vinegar and peppers will take your breath away. I left my kitchen exhaust fan on high. This is What’s Cookin on Beaty’s Creek today.

Needed:

2 pounds of jalapeno peppers
1 ½ cups apple cider vinegar
6 cups of sugar
1 box pf pectin

Cut tops off of peppers and place jalapenos in your food processor and process until fine. Now add your vinegar and process a little more. Now place this mixture in a heavy bottom pot and add pectin, mix very well. Now you will add your sugar and boil for 2 minutes. Watch your jelly very carefully because it can boil over quickly and oh what a mess that is. Ask me how I know this….. I strained my jelly but you don't have to. I like jelly opposed to jam in this case. Pour into sterilized jars and seal. Process in a hot water bath for 12 minutes.

Canned Tomatoes

When tomatoes are coming out of your ears what do you do??? You can them. I can a ton of tomatoes each year and by winter's end, I'm out. Tomatoes are one of the easiest things to can and are the very first garden item that I ever canned. I use my canned tomatoes for chili, salsa, baked tomatoes, tomato dumplings and many other things. They are so good sprinkled with sugar and eaten right out of the jar too. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek today.

Needed:

20 pounds of tomatoes
10 t lemon juice
10 quart jars-sterilized


Place tomatoes in a large stock pot and cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and then remove tomatoes from pot. I place mine in a large bowl to cool. Once cooled core and peel tomatoes, the skin will just slip off. Place 1 t of lemon juice in each jar and pack with tomatoes. When I say pack I mean PACK your tomatoes in. Now place your flats in a pan and pour water over them and bring to a low boil for 1 minute. Seal jars with flat and ring. Place in a water bath after canned and process for 12 minutes.