Mmmm!!! Chocolate Pudding !!!

It's Chocolate Pudding Day today !!!


Whether you make it from scratch, whip up a box of instant or simply pull the foil off a pudding cup, I LOVE a good chocolate pudding.


The Big Guy is not a pudding fan at all, so, more often than not, I simply keep pudding cups on hand for my own indulgences. My favorites at the moment are the Jello Sugar-Free Dark Chocolate and the Jello Temptations' Dk. Chocolate Mousse. ______

Only 60 calories and, I find, it's very satisfying and soothing.

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You know, some folks have been known to enjoy Pudding Wrestling !!! So, what's your favorite way to enjoy Chocolate Pudding?

Don't you just love smelling bread baking?

My husband claims one of his fondest childhood memories is the smell of his dad baking good old-fashioned yeast rolls on Thanksgiving Day. He only made them on holidays. The Big Guy says he remembers the cozy, loving smell more than the bread itself (although he'll never turn down a tasty chunk of fresh bread!)

Unfortunately, he married a yeast-challenged gal! I can cook fairly well otherwise but yeast and I just don't share a kitchen well! It's kind of the old "doesn't play with others" theme. The best thing I can do for those around my table wanting a nice fresh roll is go the brown'n'serve route! I am NOT a breadmaker!

BUT, if YOU are . . .

Wichita, Kansas is holding the National Festival of Breads and Baking this weekend. It's America's only amateur bread baking contest to celebrate the art of baking, to encourage the use of Kansas products and to recognize the wheat and milling industries that are so much a part of Kansas' economy and lifestyle. The main thrust of the festival is the Bread and Baking Contest where average folks (amateurs) are encouraged to develop and share recipes for breads and related products. New categories added in recent years include bread machine recipes, rolls and holiday breads.

So, if you are in to bread baking (or even just homemade bread EATING), you might want to head to Wichita this weekend. It's bound to smell great, there!

P.S. - Did'ja know ...

Kansas produces enough wheat each year to bake 36 billion loaves of bread and enough to feed EVERYONE in the world, over 6 billion people, for about 2 weeks. One acre of Kansas wheat produces enough bread to feed nearly 9,000 people for one day!!

Purple Hull Peas ???

Purple's my favorite color but I've never associated it with peas. Have you ?

So, just what is a Purple Hull Pea ?
If you grew up in Emerson, Arkansas, I'm sure you'd know. This Friday and Saturday, they're holding the 20th Annual Purple Hull Pea Festival. I think it's the world's largest and oldest (and probably ONLY) Purple Hull Pea Festival !

Purple Hull Peas are very similar to black-eyed peas but have more flavor. Just like black-eyed peas and crowder peas, they are part of the "cow pea" or "Southern pea" families. It is believed they originated in Africa and migrated to the Southern states along with the slaves. Eaten by the very poor and used as forage crops for livestock, they were slow to come into use by the general population, and are still considered a "Southern thang" or "soul food." They're most commonly eaten with cornbread. In fact, one of the featured events of the festival is the Great Purple Hull Peas & Cornbread Cook Off."

There's also a new 20th Annual Purple Hull Pea Festival Cookbook available, titled "20 Pea Pickin' Years." If you can't get to the festival in person, you can order the cookbook by mail here. (It's also available at local businesses in Emerson.)

Another festival event is a Pea Shelling Competition. If you don't mind purple fingers and aching thumbnails, c'mon down and give it a shot. They'll provide the peas, all you have to do is show up. There will even be play-by-play coverage in true ESPN-style. The audience is filled with those cheering on their favorites. You gotta see it to believe it!!
One of the other major sports attractions at the festival is the Fastest Garden Tiller Competition. (This is not your standard tractor race, My Friends!)

So, why not bring your sweet little pea-pickin' heart down to Emerson, Arkansas this weekend and get into the purple ?!?!

My kingdom for a chocolate eclair !

Happy National Chocolate Eclair Day !!!


May your dough be light,
Your chocolate rich and creamy,
And your filling sweet and smooth.

I just LOVE a great eclair, don't you?

Let them bake cornbread!!

Okay, so I decided to enter this cornbread recipe contest this week. I didn't find out about the contest until Friday evening and the deadline for submitting your (hopefully) winning recipe is Wednesday. So time was tight.

The rules are simple. Using Shirley J Corn Bread & Muffin Mix, they want you to come up with one "spectacularly original and delicious recipe." they suggest channeling "your inner cornbread connoisseur" and thinking outside the box or "muffin tin," so to speak. I was sure I could do that!!

So I spent all night Friday (I swear I had visions of hush puppies dancing in my head!) and most of the day Saturday brainstorming and jotting ideas down. (We attended and all-day music event so that was about all I could do then.) I thought I had come up with some interesting concepts, too.

Let the record show, I had no Shirley J brand mixes on hand at that time. In fact, my pantry held 2 boxes of Jiffy brand corn bread mix and 8 (yes, EIGHT) boxes of Baker's Corner brand. (What can I say? It was a really good sale!)

To be honest, I'd never even heard of Shirley J mixes but I figured just how different could these mixes be? Cornbread mix is just that - cornbread mix. They all seem about the same and carry the same directions for making that mix into corn bread, corn muffins and hush puppies.

My plan was to create, experiment and refine my recipes using these imposters in my cabinet. Once perfect, I would buy some Shirley J, whip it up to be sure it worked with their product and submit my entry. Fantastic plan.

Early Sunday morning, I got up and began mixing and prepping. I played with my batter and got what appeared to be a reasonable waffle batter. For interest, I crumbled some crispy bacon into the batter. Let's just call the "Cornbread Waffle" "FAIL NO. 1" (twice). (The family ate toasted English muffins with jam and melon for breakfast.)

We had afternoon plans so my next cornbread effort came Sunday evening when I made nibbles for The Big Guy's weekly card game. I was thinking little pizzas with cornbread crusts and "different" toppings. I just had to adapt the batter to a dough consistency.

I divided the batter into thirds so I could experiment with different additives and amounts to reach the consistency I needed. When I succeeded, I figured I could simply adjust amounts for a full batter amount. Doing these small pizzas would also give me a chance to come up with the ideal topping combination to enhance the cornbread flavor. "Ideal" as not an adjective any of the guys uses to describe these snacks. Okay, so we had "SEMI FAIL NO. 2."

Monday, I continued with the divide and conquer method of preparation. I was working on a theory of making a larger, fluffier hush puppy - one large enough to make a sandwich with - sort of a cornbread croissant concept. Perhaps a crab or shrimp salad would be an appropriate filling. Where I had to thicken and dry the batter for the pizza crust, I needed to fluff it up for the "roll." Easier said than done, folks. "FAIL No. 3!"

I was getting frustrated and scratched idea NO. 4 altogether and NO. 5 just didn't go well at all. With only one box of mix left to work with, I decided to work with the "real" thing - some Shirley J Mix, for my final effort.

Hmmm, it seems, Shirley J Corn Bread & Muffin Mix is NOT readily available in my area. After checking several large markets, I reluctantly gave up. After all, $50 and a 4-lb package of cornbread mix just isn't worth these headaches!

My chef's hat is off to all who have persevered and entered their great creations in this contest. May the best cornbread connoisseur win. Good luck to all !!

Keep your eyes on this space. I hope to bring you a recipe for a perfected Cajun jam pizza with cornbread crust in the near future. I'm sure it just needs a little more tweaking!

Do you like a challenge?

So, I've got my dessert ready for tomorrow's get-together and, though the hosts only ask us to each bring something for the dessert table, no side or salad is ever turned away (or, left over, for that matter!)

Let's be honest, if it's edible, bring it. Someone will eat it. If it needs to be grilled or fried, there's plenty of manpower to do that cooking and some mighty big grills and fryers going all day. They just ask that whatever you bring is meant to be shared with the crowd.

Last year, someone actually brought a 10 lb. bag of tater tots. They were fried up in minutes and gobbled up just as fast. No one ever claimed we were gourmets!

While mulling over what else I might make to take along, I decided to play a bit on the computer and what should I come across but a RECIPE CONTEST called "What Should I Bring?" (Maybe it's an omen.)

Seriously, Dinner Tool is sponsoring a contest to find great, easy to make and take dishes perfect for summer picnics and potlucks. We all have some family favorites and stand-bys for these occasions and they'd like us to share those ideas. It could pay off well, too. There will be 4 First Prizes of $100 each and one of those four will also win the Grand Prize - another $1,000!!!! That could make for one heck of a summer picnic!!

The deadline is nigh (June 23 - next Thursday!) BUT it is really easy to enter. All you need to do is upload the recipe to the website. Pictures are optional but won't count toward judging.

I'm already letting my mind run down my standards to see what my crowd enjoys that I could enter. I sent the family each an email asking what their favorites are. I figure if they like them, chances are good others might, too.

I dare you to enter. I'm up for the competition. What have we got to lose? (Just a few minutes of typing.)

For details, click here.

Oh yeah, we get to VOTE, too. Once the dinner tool folks select the top four recipes, they'll post them at www.DinnerTool.com and the public gets to vote from 6/28/11-7/12/11. (If you're lucky enough to be one of those four, you can feel free to lobby the public for their votes on Twitter, FB, blogs, etc.) The Grand Prize winner will be announced on 7/13/11.

So what're you doing this weekend?

The Big Guy and I have our plans sort of set in stone for the weekend. We're going to the Lost, Found and Dearly Departed annual get-together in Harrisburg, PA on Saturday for a full day of blues music and some fantastic food, served throughout the entire day and evening ! I'm already baking my dessert contribution and I believe The Big Guy spent the night dreaming about the fried catfish he'll be savoring !!

Wanta' know what else is happening ?

Folks up in Pinconning, The Cheese Capital of Michigan, are holding the Cheese Town Challenge Festival (Thurs-Sat) featuring cheese cooking demos, a Cheesey parade, the Cheese Town Dad Contest and the Ultimate Mac and Cheese Dinner Contest, along with the usual music and entertainment, sports tourneys and fireworks.

Over in Roslyn, South Dakota, they're holding the International Vinegar Festival 2011 featuring (Get this !!) VINEGAR !! Roslyn is the home of the International Vinegar Museum (I think it may be the only vinegar museum in the world!) They invite us all to come "celebrate the sour powered excitement that is VINEGAR."

There will be a Vinegar Tasting Bar to let you sample "exotic" vinegars and vinegars from around the world will also be available for purchase.

Do you know how to "properly taste" a vinegar?

According to Lawrence, The Vinegar Man, you should swirl the vinegar in the glass and let the aroma "waft" to your nose so you may truly appreciate the individualized scents. Like fine whiskey, it's easier once you get to the 3rd or 4th sample!!

You can also make crafts using vinegar bottles. There will be music, a vinegar parade and crafts as well as lots of food available for purchase.

Back here, along the Mid-Atlantic Coast, we'll be eating lots and lots of chicken!!

The 62nd Delmarva Chicken Festival will take place in Georgetown, Delaware on Friday and Saturday. One of Delmarva's oldest festivals, the event features a Chef's Contest, Chicken Capers like a chicken scratch, egg tossing, spoon races, and more, the 2nd round of the Mountaire Chickin' Pickin' National Championship, and, literally, TONS of food will be available. More than 3 TONS of chicken will be fried up in Delmarva's Giant (10 foot) Fry Pan which has been used every year at the festival since 1950!!

Area chefs will do 2-hour cooking demos, complete with samples. You can watch chicks hatch and learn about the poultry business on Delmarva where the industry employs more than 14,000 people and produces nearly 600 million chickens each year!

***When I lived in Salisbury, the largest city on Maryland's Delmarva Peninsula, I lived only 8 blocks down the street from the Perdue chicken processing plant. Despite all kinds of technological filters and such, we still had a fair number of feathers floating through the air (like dandelion puffs) and we'd have to run our wipers each morning to clear the feathers off the windshield before heading out!

Finally, the folks down in Crewe, Virginia have answered the age-old question of why the chicken crossed the road. He was going to the Virginia Chicken Festival, Southside Virginia's oldest and finest festival !!! Held on Friday (6/17), this event will feature plenty of food - BBQ chicken, chicken nuggets, chicken livers and Robert's Rooster Stew, among others.

So, get those taste-buds primed and head out and stuff yourselves this weekend.

***Don't forget to take Dad along. After all, Sunday is Father's Day!!