What Can I Bring? Southern Food for Any Occasion Life Serves Up

It's that time of the year, with Halloween followed by Thanksgiving followed by Christmas followed by New Year's. Be prepared for all of these holidays by taking a close look at What Can I Bring? Southern Food for Any Occasion Life Serves Up.

It's a book chockful of recipes for foods you can whip up fast, for potlucks, when a friend is under the weather, dinner with friends, when someone brings home a new baby, or on moving day, and the chapters are nicely divided into these helpful categories. I've got a dozen recipes marked for the future, including Lemon Rice (doesn't that sound delicious?), Mimi Hall's Butter Cookies (nothing better or simpler than butter cookies), Fudge Cake, Cinnamon Rolls, Roasted Rosemary Chicken with Root Vegetables, Sour Cream Coffee Cake, Chicken Potpie, and Chicken Enchiladas. 

For now, I'll simply share a recipe I couldn't resist. I brought home a couple pounds of freshly ground cornmeal from the antique fair a few weeks back, and I just had to try Spoon Bread.

Here's the recipe:

Spoon Bread from What Can I Bring? by Elizabeth Helskell

serves 6      hands-on 20 minutes      total 45 minutes

4 large eggs, separated

3 cups whole buttermilk

1 cup fine yellow cornmeal

2 tablespoons butter, softened, plus more for greasing dish

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease an 11 x 7 inch glass baking dish with butter. Beat the egg whites with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment on high speed until medium peaks form, about 2 minutes. Transfer egg whites to a small bowl.

2. Bring the buttermilk to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high. Whisk in the cornmeal, and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the butter, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Transfer to a bowl, and cool 5 minutes. Add the egg yolks, 1 at a time, and whisk until well blended after each addition.

3. Fold the egg whites into the buttermilk mixture; transfer to prepared baking dish. Bake in the preheated oven until the bread is set around edges and slightly wobbly in the middle, 25 to 30 minutes. Serve warm.

Here are a few more recipes from the book: What Can I Bring? 3 Home-Run Recipes for Any Gathering.

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