southerncooker's Reviews
15 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 15Sort by: Title 
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Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen
By Elizabeth Sims, Chef Brian Sonoskus
Andrews McMeel Publishing - 2011
Bacony Egg Salad : page 87
Hubby and I liked this very much. Him even more so than I. Don't get me wrong I really loved it, just like my regular egg salad better. I would enjoy eating this again though and hubby would any day he said. Interesting that they tell you to boil the eggs for 12 minutes then add ice and cold water before peeling. I'd never tried that technique before but it worked well. I made a half recipe to serve the two of us. I didn't have pepper bacon so I ground fresh black peppercorns on my raw bacon before preparing. That seemed to work well and I hope to try this again with the pepper bacon sometime to compare.
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Cheesy Onion Bisque : page 63
Hubby and I loved this one. So cheesy, creamy and a tiny sweetness from the caramelized vidalia onions. This was a perfect meal for this rainy cold night. Hubby asked what kind of cheese was in this and when I told him Swiss, Parmesan and Cheddar he said no wonder I like it. I'll be making this one again.
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Cranberry Mayonnaise : page 34
This was so good on the Tupelo Honey Chicken Sandwich with Havarti Cheese and Cranberry Mayonnaise from page76. I used Dukes Mayonnaise since that's our regular brand. I'm sure it would also be great on turkey sandwiches. It's a beautiful color. The recipe called for whole berry cranberry sauce but our store was out so I got the regular. I think it probably mixed up better than the one with berries would have. I made a second batch to spread on flour tortillas and added some sliced turkey rolled them up and cut into pinwheels to take to work for our Christmas snacks tomorrow.
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Creamy Tomato Soup : page 62
My daughter had this one along with a grilled cheese made with goat and Havarti (I think) when we ate at Tupelo Honey Cafe a couple years ago. She loved it. I knew when I got this book at some point I wanted to try this recipe. I saved my left overs so my daughter can try this too.
It's easy to make and doesn't even take flour to thicken it, but tomato paste instead. It didn't get real thick, just right and was creamy and delicious. I did omit the bay leaf since hubby and son don't care for the taste it lends some dishes.
Not many ingredients in this one - crushed tomatoes, water, tomato paste, a little sugar, salt, fresh ground black pepper and heavy cream. Very satisfying on a cold winter night with crackers and a grilled cheese sandwich.
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Dijonnaise : page 85
This is excellent on the Southern Fried Chicken BLT's but I know it would also be good on other sandwiches. I like that it uses stone ground mustard along with mayonnaise, and Dijon.
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Macaroni and Gouda Cheese Casserole : page 170
We love trying different mac and cheese recipes. This one was delicious. We loved the gouda cheese in this one. The parm, cracker, panko bottom and top (especially the crunchy cheesy top) was a nice addition. Son in law ate the Ritz we were saving for this one (we forgot to mention it to him) so we ran to the nearest store to my daughters where we made the casserole. Since they didn't have any Ritz type crackers my son picked up some cheese it crackers a small bag of spicy ones and a small bag of original. My daughter used all of the original and about a third of the spicy to make the 4 ounces needed. The heavy cream makes this one a bit caloric and not one I'd make often but it was very good. I would like to try again though to see how it is with the Ritz.
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Peach Butter : page 40
This was really good on the Sweet Potato Pancakes from page 199. I can't wait to try it on the Ginormous Biscuits on page 189. I had a little trouble getting this to mix up in my small food processor. I tried at first only doing half a recipe at a time and even though my butter was at room temp. (but it's pretty cold in here this morn.) it didn't want to mix together. The recipes says leave visible pieces of the peaches but I wasn't quiet sure how it should look. A picture would have been helpful. I ended up scooping the mixture from the processor and mashing and mixing with a fork which worked a bit better. A little more info in the recipe would also have been helpful since it says you can use frozen peaches if fresh aren't available, but doesn't say whether or not to thaw before chopping. I thawed mine in the fridge and they were still much colder than the butter so that may have been what happened with the butter. A fresh peach at room temperature would probably work much better and I can't wait till peach season to try it that way too. Nevertheless this was fantastic and we all loved it on our pancakes.
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Southern Fried Chicken BLT : page 83
This was excellent. I had only one complaint the chicken was hard to fry and to thick to eat comfortably on the sandwich. Next time I'll cut the breasts in half length wise for ease of eating. Other wise it's excellent. I served ours on Cibata bread. It was great with the suggested Dijonnaise on page 85. I like the suggestion of using about a tsp of the dijonnaise on the bottom bun then layering on the lettuce, more dijonnaise, tomato, more D, chicken, more d then the bacon and top. Helps to hold the sandwich together.
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Spiced Pecans : page 200
These taste addictive. Great on the Sweet Potato Pancakes from page 199. These would also be great for a snack. I loved the spiciness from the cayenne and the sweetness from the honey. It calls for Tupelo Honey but I only had local honey on hand. Son-in-law didn't like the spice. Need to watch carefully when preparing since with the honey they can burn easily if left unattended. It says to cook 8 to 10 minutes but mine were done in less than 6.
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These were fantastic and went great with the suggestions of serving with the Peach Butter page 40 and Spiced Pecans page 200. My family all also added some pancake syrup to theirs, but I though it was great as is with some crispy bacon on the side. Son-in-law didn't care for the spiced pecans but the rest of the family enjoyed the spicy sweetness the honey and cayenne gave to the nuts. I didn't have Tupelo honey so I just used some local honey.
I have a few thoughts on the recipe though: It would have been helpful to give a weight on the sweet potato instead of just saying large sweet potato. Also they don't say anything about oiling or spraying the pan before frying the pancakes. I guess they just assume the reader is pancake savvy. Good thing I was. The final though about the recipe is that it says it serves 4, well I used the measure called for divvying out the batter and made two fairly large pancakes for each of the 4 of us and it was plenty. Looks like in the picture there are 4 per stack though. Even after making 8 pancakes there was over half the amount of batter left. Next time I will probably only make half a recipe unless I am feeding more than four.
This is a recipe you need to plan ahead for though since you need to bake and cool the sweet potato before mashing and adding to the batter. Also the batter has to sit for one hour before finishing the pancakes. You can whip up the peach butter and spiced nuts while you're waiting. I baked my potato the night before.
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Tomato Pie : page 190
My family except for hubby loves tomato pie and I'm always trying new ones. We have a favorite that I make every year but love to try new ones as well. Daughter said this one is almost as good as the favorite of hers. Son liked it but not as good as the favorite. I would make this one again. One difference in this one is that it has panko bread crumbs in it. I used a store bought pie crust. I used Cherokee Purple and yellow striped tomatoes in this one. It was great reheated too.
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Tupelo Honey Chicken Marinade : page 77
This is an excellent marinade. It made the chicken for the Sandwiches from page 76 so moist and delicious. I know it would be great to marinate chicken in even if you weren't making the sandwiches. The flavors of the pineapple juice, soy, garlic ginger and olive oil are out of this world. A keeper recipe for sure.
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This was oh so good. The recipe makes one sandwich but so easy to make more. We made three, one for daughter, son-in-law and one for me. Hubby doesn't care for chicken. Son-in-law doesn't like cheese nor mayo so we made him one just on the toasted sour dough bread and he loved it. I used spinach on mine and daughter's instead of the suggested romaine. These were quick and easy to make with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but you need to plan ahead since they have to marinate overnight in the Tupelo Honey Chicken Marinade from page 77. Normally dark meat is my favorite for chicken but this one has me turned in to a true believer that breasts can be moist and delicious. Loved the Havarti cheese and cranberry mayo on this one. This recipe is a keeper.
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Tupelo Honey Ginormous Biscuits : page 189
I had one of these at the restaurant and mine weren't quiet as good. Maybe with practice mine will be better. These are not something I'd make often though since they have 3/4 cup butter in them and more melted butter on top. I ate one with some of the leftover peach butter p.40 and it was pretty good. Hubby and son liked the buttery taste but like the ones I make with lard better.
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Warm Pimiento Cheese and Chips : page 55
Hubby and I thought this was pretty good. A little different than our favorite homemade pimento cheese which is actually made with pimentos. Instead this one called for roasted bell peppers and I used jarred ones. I did omit the parsley since I didn't have any fresh on hand. Instead of serving this with chips as the recipe title states we had toasted pimento cheese sandwiches. I toasted in the oven and opened the sandwiches near the end so I could heat up the pimento cheese a bit and get it a little melty.
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