Yums

YUMS

I call these YUMS because they are made with all the things I love best -- YUM! Even better, they are SUPER EASY.

2 flour tortillas (the small ones)

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Butter, softened (or use spreadable butter)

Cool Whip (about 1/4 cup)

Preheat oven to broil. Quarter tortillas to make 4 triangles each. Combine sugar and cinnamon on a saucer. Spread butter over 1 side of 1 triangle. Place in sugar and press to coat. Butter other side then flip and press into sugar/cinnamon so that both sides are coated. Pull 2 corners together and hold with a toothpick. Repeat with remaining tortilla triangles, placing each on a cookie sheet as you go. Place in oven to broil about 5 minutes. (Watch closely and remove when they are toasted; they go from perfect to over-cooked quickly.) After broiling, they may flatten out some. Don't worry. Allow to cool slightly so they are easier to handle then gently squeeze from the sides to plump them back out. Allow to cool completely. Fill with Cool Whip (plump them up again before filling, if needed). YUM!

Facing Fears

I can back our green Ford F150 from here to the city if I had to. And for us, "here to the city" is a very long way. I haven't always had the confidence or the skill to back a vehicle, however.

As a teenager, all my friends couldn’t wait to get their driver’s license. They begged exasperated parents to take them on their birthday so they wouldn’t have to wait one extra day. Not me. I had an older brother and a boyfriend. They both had their own vehicles and would take me anywhere I needed to go.

The summer I turned 16, my Mom made me get my license. My brother had graduated high school and she was not about to drive me to school every day. I passed the written test with no problem. I was so nervous for the driving test, that drove right past a stop sign without stopping. Despite that one small (?!) mistake, I managed to get my license on my first try (what was that guy thinking?).

Several months later, I drove myself to a birthday party. The party was at my uncle’s new house which sits far off the road at the end of a narrow gravel driveway. It was dark by the time I left, and, as I opened the door to my lime-green maverick (that’s another story!), I realized I would have to back all the way out of that driveway. I briefly considered asking one of my uncles to come back the car out for me. In the end, my pride won over fear. I started the engine, put the car in reverse, and began my backward assent up and out of the driveway.

I immediately turned too far to the left. I over-corrected and the car lunged too far to the right. I pulled back in straight and tried again... and again... and again. I finally decided it would be daylight before I got out of there if I didn’t do something. So, I did something. I backed off the driveway into the yard so I could turn around and drive out the way I knew how. Unfortunately, it had been raining. So, of course, I got stuck. I mean really, really stuck.

Pride or no pride, I had to go back in the house and ask my uncles for help. They waded into almost knee-deep mud to push my little maverick out of the predicament. The entire situation was incredibly embarrassing and I swore I would never get caught like that again.

So, I practiced driving in reverse every chance I got. I drove backwards even when it was totally unnecessary. Now, reverse is a breeze but I still practice frequently. While I was backing down my own very long driveway just the other day, my youngest said, "A girl shouldn’t be able to back like that." I wonder where he heard that?!

Another fear of mine is making cheesecake. I’ve never had faith that the mixture of cream cheese, eggs, and other ingredients would rise and set into such a delightful cake. Not for me, anyway. I always leave the cheesecake making to my friend Cyndi. But, just like driving in reverse, when it comes to making cheesecake, the only way to do it is to do it.

So, today I made a Kahlua Cheesecake. Not only did it turn out perfect, it was delicious. I guess I’ll have to make cheesecake every chance I get. What’s next on conquering my fears? Maybe one of these scary-sounding french recipes from Julia Child (egads)... Or driving my husband’s 1965 pickup (it has a on-the-column standard-shift transmission) in town!

Share your food/cooking fears and/or success stories...

Click here for Kahlua Cheesecake recipe.

Santa Rosa Sunshine

I’m desperately trying to re-adapt to the real world after a week on Santa Rosa Island (Pensacola, Florida). It isn’t easy, let me tell you.

My family has spent a week at the same condo (Soundside) for the last 13 years. It’s now like a 2nd home to us. We see many of the same people every year and seeing each other only once a year gives us plenty to talk about.

We look forward to this week “on the island” all year long. We'll usually walk across the street to the Gulf one or two days, we visit the local restaurants (Peg Leg Pete’s is our absolute favorite and Flounders is good, too), and, of course, we do some souvenir shopping. However, Ryan and Nicholas can enjoy the entire week without ever leaving the property. They spend hours (and hours!) fishing and crabbing off the long pier; they enjoy the swimming pool, too.

This year, the boys caught a good many crab the first night and one of our “yearly” friends, Wild Bill, cooked them along with the fish they had caught. It was a delicious impromptu dinner.

We also went shark fishing with Wild Bill and his family. Just after dark, we set-up camp on the Gulf-side. Bill and Ryan would wade into the surf, cast the line, then walk the poles back to the beach. Then it was time to sit and talk and wait for a bite. I was a little concerned about allowing my 15-year-old to walk into the water when they were desperately trying to bait shark, but I let him go anyway. This night, there was obviously no need to worry because they didn’t get a single bite. I didn’t know wether to be disappointed or relieved.

On Tuesday, Brenda cooked a delightful breakfast for all of us staying at the resort. Around 9 am we gathered in the lobby where she had a table piled high with eggs, pastries, fruit, and her famous Nassau Grits. All the food was really good, but the Nassau Grits were outstanding. So, of course, I asked her for the recipe. After we discussed cooking and cookbooks for a while, she reached behind the counter and handed me a copy of the recipe (obviously I was not the first to ask for it). She did, however, share with me the changes she made and the shortcuts she takes, so now we have the even-better recipe for Nassau Grits.


Brenda suggested that, in addition to breakfast, the grits were really good with fried fish. So, when I got home, I pulled out my favorite recipe for fried catfish and my favorite recipe for hushpuppies (both Harold Webster’s recipes as featured in our Game for All Seasons Cookbook) and we had a feast. Brenda was definitely telling the truth; Nassau Grits are a great side dish to fried fish. Try it, I’m sure you’ll love it too.


Recipes:
Nassau Grits
Deep-Fried Louisiana-Style Thin-Sliced Catfish
Pappy's Hushpuppies (I cut the recipe to 1/4 for my family)
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Sheila Simmons is Publisher at Great American Cookbooks and co-author with Kent Whitaker of the Hometown Cookbook Series

What is Bunco?

"What IS Bunco?" I get asked that question quite frequently – mostly from men. The whole thing, I think, seems very mysterious to men. Why do all those women get together every month? What do they do while they are there? Why is there so much laughing involved?

At first glance, Bunco is a game. The rules for Bunco varies between the many, many groups around the country. Basically it is a dice game played in groups of four people. The four people at the table roll three dice for a particular number. Points are scored based on how many of that number are rolled. If you roll three of a number, you score a BUNCO. When someone at the head table gets to 21 points or the first time a BUNCO is rolled, the round ends and everyone at the table scores a "win" or a "loss" based on their score when play stops. After three rounds, the losing team moves to another table and play is resumed. There are other rules and other variations, but this gives the gist of the game.

Now that you know a little about the game, I will tell you the REAL answer to, "What is Bunco?". Bunco is an excuse — an excuse to get together with my girl friends once a month... an excuse to talk and laugh and cut-up... an excuse to get out of the house or, when my turn to host comes around, an excuse to have friends over. It seems that my friends and I are forever promising to"get together soon" or "do lunch" or "cookout sometime," but life gets in the way. We are all busy with our families and our work and the convenient time to get together just never happens.

So, on Bunco night, we all gather... to play a game, yes... to win prizes, yes... but also to catch-up on each other’s lives, to tell stories about what our children have been up to now, to brag or complain – whichever is most applicable – about our spouses or boyfriends.

For me, hosting Bunco is also an excuse to try-out new recipes on a new batch of people. Thursday night was Bunco at my house so I tested Fun Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-ups, Upside-Down Pan Pizza, Strawberry Pudding Dessert, and Almond Joy Pie. I served them with peas from last year's garden and okra and tomatoes cooked together. The test recipes were a success, and judging from my hubbies comments about the noise level (he was hiding out in the bedroom) a good time was had by all.

--Sheila

(Sheila Simmons is Publisher at Great American Cookbooks • Their newest publications Game for All Seasons Cookbook and Tennessee Hometown Cookbook will be available soon. If you are a Bunco fan, visit their Bunco website www.weplaybunco.com; there is a very convenient scorecard available for download that includes numbers across the bottom to keep-up with your score.)