Cooking Through the Football Season – Week 8

I nearly took this week off.  Nothing on the Vanderbilt Commodores menu was working for me.  Either I couldn’t afford the money required to purchase the ingredients or the recipe just simply didn’t strike my fancy as something my family would eat.

However, since it was a morning kickoff, I decided to stray from my original goal of cooking something from the opposing team’s menu and opt for something from the breakfast section of the cookbook, “Early Morning Warm-Ups.”

I finally settled on a recipe I’d had my eye on for a while.  Scrambled Egg Muffin Sliders.

This is a cornbread muffin that is laced with cheddar cheese and bacon, cut in half and stuffed with scrambled eggs. 

The idea is great.  However, this particular cornbread muffin didn’t wow us.  The mouth-feel was rough and we think it needed some regular flour to lighten up the texture.    I’d probably just use my regular cornbread recipe, add some bacon and make it into muffins in the future. 

One interesting thing was that the recipe called for the eggs to be seasoned with Cajun seasoning.  I’d never thought of adding Tony Chachere’s to my scrambled eggs before, but I tell you what, it was good.  Just a little went a long way to flavoring the eggs.

So there you go.  A nice bounce back for the maroon and white and a nice end of the game video-bomb…

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Gig ‘em and God Bless the Aggies!

Cooking Through the Football Season – Week 7

Auburn.  War Eagle.  Tigers.  So many mascots. 

Not that A&M is any less guilty of multiple mascot syndrome.  Reveille.  Ol’ Sarge. 12th Man. Yeah.

And do you want to know how I deal with a game like that was?  I eat.

Slow-Cooked BBQ Chicken and Sweet Potato Cornbread.

We’re kind of corn bread purists around our house.  So to add something like sweet potatoes to our cornbread was a bit of a stretch for us.  However, it works.

This particular recipe calls for some pumpkin pie spice to be added as well.  I think I might skip that next time in favor for something more savory or spicy… like some chipotle chili powder. 

I also got to thinking that this recipe might make some good cornbread for dressing to go with your Thanksgiving Day turkey.  Just thinking out loud here.

The chicken was easy enough.  Just sprinkle a cut up whole chicken with a spice mixture (salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika), put it in the crock-pot, add the liquid (ketchup, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, “cola” - I used root beer – and bourbon – which I skipped) and cook on low for 6-7 hours. 

I served mine on top of the cornbread and it worked really well together.  But I only did that because we were out of sandwich buns, the kids used the last of the sandwich bread and I was far too depressed and judgment impaired after the game to go to the store to buy anything else.

*sigh*

On to “The Next One.”

Gig ‘em and God Bless the Aggies… and Johnny’s shoulder.

Cooking Through the Football Season – Week 6

Ole Miss. 

I am writing this during the game, so I apologize if I may not make sense.  I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine and I’m trying to pay attention to the game.  It’s been an “Upset Saturday” with t.u. beating OU, Mizzou beating UGA and Utah beating Stanford.  Understandably, I’m a little on edge about our game.

I don’t really know much about Ole Miss other than that The Grove is supposed to be the best tailgating experience ever.

Well, if the recipe I made from the Southern Living SEC Tailgating Cookbook is any indication, it’s got to be good.  Because… my mercy… these kabobs…

Molasses-Balsamic Steak Kabobs. 

Ideally these would be best earlier in the football season when green tomatoes and peaches are easy to find at your local farmers market.  Instead, we had to settle for pluots (a plum/apricot cross) which were good, but I’m guessing peaches would have been amazing.  The green tomatoes are not something I would have thought of myself, but they are a stroke of genius here.  The tart of the green tomatoes balanced so well against the sweet of the molasses-balsamic glaze. 

And playing Ole Miss, I couldn’t resist making Minny’s Chocolate Pie from the movie The Help.

So.  Beat The Hell Outta Ole Miss.

Gig ‘Em and God Bless The Aggies!