Big City Grits

Watch us make this recipe: Episode Three - Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

For Cookies:

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups white sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

For Icing:

• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 teaspoons milk
• 2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• food coloring

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover and leave in the fridge at least up to an hour, or overnight. 
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough on floured surface. Use your favorite cookie cutter to create shapes. Place cookies on cookie sheets.
3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes. Let cool.
4. To make the icing: In a small bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth and glossy. Mix in corn syrup. 
5. Add food coloring and ice the cookies with a knife or brush. Or mutilate them the way Matt does. 

(Recipe adapted from AllRecipes.com)

Watch us make this recipe: Episode Two - Cornbread Stuffing

Ingredients:

For Cornbread:

• 2 1/2 cups Cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups Flour
• 5 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 6 tablespoons Sugar
• 1 1/2 Salt
• 2 cups Buttermilk
• 4 Eggs
• 6 tablespoons melted butter

For stuffing:

• 4 hard-boiled Eggs
• 4 sprigs of Thyme, chopped
• 4 sprigs of Rosemary, chopped
• 4 sprigs of Sage, chopped
• 3 gallons of Chicken Stock (homemade or store bought)
• 1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
• 1 stale baguette
• 1 white onion
• 2 sticks of butter

Directions:

1. Bake Cornbread: Combine 1 and 1/2 cups flour, 2 and 1/2 cups cornmeal, 5 teaspoons baking powder, 6 tablespoons of sugar, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of salt. Mix 2 cups of buttermilk, 6 tablespoons of melted butter, and 4 eggs into the dry mixture. Gently Combine. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

2. Break-up cornbread and and baguette and combine in a mixing bowl.

3. Melt 2 sticks of unsalted butter and saute desired amount onions until translucent. 

4. Combine bread and sauteed onions. Mix in 1 gallon of chicken stock, chopped herbs, boiled eggs, and half can of cream of chicken soup.

5. Pour into baking dish. Bake covered at 350 for 45 minutes, uncover for last 15 minutes.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and my cornbread bless us.

xxoo

Carrie

Carrie Crowell’s Coconut Cake

Adapted from recipes by my grandmother Carrie Cash and my sister Hannah Crowell

Watch us make this recipe: Episode One - Coconut Cake

Ingredients:

• 3/4 lb of softened unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla 
• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup milk
• 4 ounces shredded sweetened coconut
• 1 can crushed pineapple, drained

Frosting:

• 1 lb cream cheese
• 1/2 lb softened unsalted butter
• 1 lb confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

You will also need:

• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can leche de coco (coconut milk)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans 

Cream together the butter and sugar until smooth.  Add the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients, and then add the mixture, and the milk, to the batter. Add shredded coconut.

Pour the batter into the pans and bake for 45 minutes. Let cool.

Once the cakes are cool, use a fork to make 15-20 holes in both cakes. Pour the condensed milk evenly on both cake, and let it soak into the cake. Repeat with the coconut milk.

Prepare frosting by mixing together cream cheese, butter, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla. Add coconut at the end, or you can choose not to add it to the frosting and simply pat it on top of the cake once it is frosted. 

Recently, I was in Oklahoma City attending a film festival with my friend Phil.  I don’t know if you have ever been to downtown Oklahoma City, but there isn’t a lot of hustle and bustle.  It is almost all mysterious office buildings, with few stores of any sort.  It took us a very long time just to find a regular convenience store where we could buy disposable cameras.   

One night, after a particularly late screening, we attended a small party that was mainly intended for festival organizers.  Ian, one of our friends that was part of the festival, approached us and asked if we were hungry.  We were quite hungry, in fact, and had failed a few hours earlier to find anywhere open within a 10 block radius.  Ian said he knew a place.

The next thing we knew, we were sitting in the back of a party bus associated with a local mexican restaurant, drinking strange tequila, and speeding down a deserted street.  We were going to Bobo’s, a legendary chicken establishment on the other side of town.  Their claim to fame is that they smoke the chicken, then fry it, then cover it in honey.  

Bobo’s is a truck that parks in the middle of a specific empty parking lot on Friday and Saturday nights in a relatively sketchy part of town, according to the local residents.  

“There was a drive-by shooting here a few months ago,” explained Ian.  “Then there was another one a few days later, so I think it’s probably settled.  Tit for tat, you know?”  

We ordered an obscene amount of fried chicken, and then loaded it all into our party van and took it back to the rest of the festival organizers.  We spent the rest of the night bonding with our new friends in Oklahoma City, and eating delicious fried chicken.

Bobo’s in Oklahoma City.  Go check it out.  Above you can see a photo I took with that disposable camera I bought.

- Matt

Hi! 

We are finally finishing up our first three episodes!

1.  Coconut Cake

2.  Spaghetti and Meatballs

3.  Cornbread Stuffing

Come back and check them out soon!

- Carrie & Matt

We are finishing up our first three episodes, and they will be released soon.  Stay tuned!