Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Several years ago I had the privilege of taking high school juniors and seniors on a science trip to Belize and Guatemala. One of our first stops while visiting these countries was at the IZE located on South Water Caye. IZE has a marine biological station and lodge and hosts many school trips from the high school level to the college level. Since it is located right on the second longest barrier reef, it is a fabulous place to spend several days, a week, a month, or several months.

Some of the people helping to run IZE are called Garifunas. They are descendents from Carib, Arawak and West African people and live primarily in Central America along the Caribbean Coast. These are some of the nicest people I have every met. They have their own language that is beautiful when spoken. Elveria Smith was the head cook at IZE and she made amazing traditional dishes while we were there. One delicious dish was her Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. I asked her for her recipe along with Lunch salad and Coconut Shrimp Soup recipe when were were leaving and was honored when she gave them to me.

This is her recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. It is sugary and delicious. If you ever have a chance to go to Belize, spend a few nights out on South Water Caye at IZE. You will have a fabulous time.

Ingredients:  (topping) 3/4 c sugar, 1 stick butter, melted, Pineapples, Cherries, Papaya for decoration (cake) 2 c flour, 2 c sugar, 3 eggs, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp vanilla, 1 c milk, 1 stick butter, melted

Instructions:  (1). Preheat oven to 350 and prepare pan for cake by using cooking spray with flour or by greasing pan with butter and sprinkling with flour. (2) Mix topping ingredients and pour into the pan. Using fruit, make decorations on top of the topping. (3) Mix and blend ingredients for the cake and pour into the pan over the fruit decorations and topping. (4) Bake for 45 minutes and cool on a rack for a few minutes before flipping cake out of the pan. Let cake cook completely before serving or you can serve it warm.

Raspberry Lemon Corn Muffins

Raspberries are currently being found at local farmer's markets along with other delicious fruits like plums, peaches, blueberries, red currants and blackberries. The next several blogs will focus on these particular fruits.

Here's a recipe for Raspberry Lemon Corn Muffins. I like corn muffins, plain, with sour cream added to the batter, jelly put in between layers of batter, jalapenos, etc. I figured I would try adding raspberries and using up the last lemon in the bowl.  The tartness of the berries and the lemons definitely makes you pucker but the color of the raspberries against the corn muffin is pretty. I think if I make these again, I would add a little more sugar so it wasn't so tart but they were still go none the less. Enjoy.

Ingredients:  1 c flour, 1 c yellow cornmeal, 1 TBSP baking powder, .5 tsp sea salt, 3/4 c sugar, 2 eggs, .5 c unsalted butter, melted, 3/4 c milk, 2 TBSP grated lemon zest, 1.5 c raspberries, turbinado sugar for topping

Instructions:   Preheat oven to 400 and prepare muffin tin with muffin liners or cooking spray.  1. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder and sea salt. 2. In a medium bowl, whisk sugar, eggs, milk, butter, and zest until well blended. 3. Add egg mixture to flour mixture and stir until just blended. Fold in raspberries. 4. Divide batter evenly amongst prepared muffin cups and sprinkle each muffin with turbinado sugar. Bake for 16 minutes or until tops are golden brown and toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes then turn out onto the rack and cool completely.


*I usually invert the muffins while in the pan so the bottoms don't steam while they are cooling in the pan before turning out onto the wire rack to cool completely.

Peach Cobbler

Cobblers, I love cobblers. It doesn't matter what type of cobbler it is, I just love them. Bob makes a pretty mean apple cobbler and he'll let you know it.  Since peaches and blueberries are abundant right now, I have a ton of them just waiting to be incorporated into delicious baked goods for the market. I purchased some peaches from C.N.Smith Fields last week at the Plymouth Farmer's Market located at the Plimouth Plantation. I'm making some peach pie for this weeks market and had a few left for a cobbler.

Here's a recipe for cobbler. You can substitute the peaches for just about any type of fruit. Enjoy.

Ingredients: 8 fresh peaches - peeled, pitted and sliced into thin wedges, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, 2 teaspoons cornstarch. Topping: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces, 1/4 cup boiling water.  Mix Together: 3 tablespoons white sugar, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.   2. In a large bowl, combine peaches, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and cornstarch. Toss to coat evenly, and pour into a 2 quart baking dish. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.  3. In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Blend in butter with your fingertips, or a pastry blender, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in water until just combined.  4. Remove peaches from oven, and drop spoonfuls of topping over them. Sprinkle entire cobbler with the sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake until topping is golden, about 30 minutes. 

* I will sometimes add oats to the topping; depends on what I'm in the mood for.

National Pecan Pie Day

July 12 is National Pecan Pie Day, just in case you didn't know. Pecan Pie is considered a specialty Southern dish. Usually it is served at holiday meals and consists mainly of pecans, corn syrup or molasses. Chocolate or bourbon whiskey are popular additives to the traditional Pecan Pie.

Tradition has it that the French invented the pie soon after settling in New Orleans. Supposedly they were introduced to the Pecan by Native Americans. No early recipes prior to 1897 can be found and popular cookbooks like Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking didn't include a recipe until the 1940s. The Corn Products Refining Company, the makers of Karo syrup, popularized the dish and state that the pie was a "1930s discovery of a new use for Karo syrup by a corporate sales executive's wife."

This pie is very sweet. Us Southerners love our sugar and the only type of pecan we use are Georgia Pecans.

Here's a recipe for Pecan Pie. We use my granddaddy's pie crust and I can't give you that recipe or the family will kill me. Use whatever pie crust recipe you have and if you don't want to waste time making crust from scratch, purchase a prepared pie crust or the boxed pie crust located with the canned biscuits. I hear they taste just as good.

Ingredients:   2/3 c sugar, 1/3 cup butter, melted, 1 c corn syrup, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 3 eggs, 1 c pecan halves/broken

Instructions:  1. Preheat oven to 375F.  Prepare pastry and line pie plate with crust. 2. Beat sugar, butter, syrup, salt and eggs with an electric beater. Stir in pecans and pour into prepared pie plate. 3. Bake until set, usually 40-50 minutes. Chill for at least 2 hours. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

*After chilling the pie, you can freeze the pie for 3 hours uncovered then cover it and freeze for up to 1 month.
*Decrease the corn syrup to 3/4 cup and add 1/4 cup brandy to the mix for a Brandy Pecan Pie. You can also use bourbon.
*Melt 2-1 oz squares of unsweetened chocolate with the butter to make a Chocolate Pecan Pie.