November 28, 2007
Your Soul Food Lovers' Newsletter
Your Soul Food Lovers’ Newsletter
Volume #014
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Welcome New Friends
What’s New !
Feature Article: Holiday Entertaining Ideas
Column: Spice Up Your Soul Food
Cassandra’s Cooking Tips
Soul Food Care Package
Soul Food Resource Center (New)
Link to Your Gift: New Trends in Soul Food Cooking
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WELCOME NEW FRIENDS
Hey Soul Food Lovers! Thank you for joining us. We invite you to send comments, suggestions, and ideas on what they would like to see in this newsletter.
Please feel free to take our reader’s poll. This poll gives us insight into the kind of information you want to see in this newsletter. So please take some time from your busy schedule to let us know what you want us to cover. No need to include your name. Visit the new Soul Food Resource Center (in this newsletter) for the Reader’s Poll link.
Also, if you have recipes or cooking stories from the kitchen you want to share, please feel free to do so. Send them directly to me at Cassandra@soul-food-advisor.com.
Again, welcome, sit back, relax, and enjoy this newsletter.
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WHAT’S NEW! -
5 day Soul Food Bloglet - What’s that? it’s a mini blog where I share my thoughts about soul food cooking, family cooking stories, recipes, and cooking and baking tips at least 5 days a week. 5 fresh bloglets for you to enjoy during the week.
My bloglet is designed to keep in closer contact with my viewers all month long. It gives you a good reason to visit my site other than once a month when you follow the links from this newsletter.
You don’t have to remember to come to my website everyday. All you have to do to receive My Mini Bloglets is to subscribed to my RSS Feed. No email address is needed.
I have put a number of bloglets in the blog since around the first of the month. SO, DON’T MISS ANOTHER BLOG, subscribe today!
To subscribe visit
Soul Food Blog.
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Holiday Cookbook Offer - Soul Food Lovers’ Cookbook.
Special Holiday Price $10.95
Makes a great holiday gift or keepsake.
Orders Received By December 7, 2007 will be
Order Your Copy Today:
Only Available Until December 7, 2007.
Shipped Before Christmas.
Soul Food Lovers' Cookbook
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FEATURE ARTICLE-
Holiday Entertaining Ideas
By Cassandra Harrell
Holiday entertaining is the perfect opportunity to connect with family, co-workers and friends. But planning that perfect gathering does not have to be stressful. I have a few tips for putting together a stress free party.
One way to kick back and enjoy the holidays is to leave the food preparation to someone else. Hire a caterer or have your guest bring a dish to pass. You could even order a meat, fruit or veggie tray from your local store. This don’t have to be expensive just a tray to two might be all you need to get started. Make sure you choose fun and festive foods that compliment your party theme.
To save time and expense, you could email invitations instead of mailing them. You’re get a much quicker response because people always read their email. That way you can cut your expense and you don’t have to worry about people not receiving them.
You can also order flowers from the flower shop or pick up several varieties from a large supermarket and make your own floral arrangement. Again its saves you lots of time.
So whether you make the food yourself or hire outside help, holiday entertaining is more about connecting with family and friends. Once you do that, everything else will fall in place.
For additional ideas and party planning tips visit: holiday entertaining
For quick and easy party appetizers visit: Appetizer Recipes
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GREAT HOLIDAY RECIPES
Southern Coconut Pie
From the Kitchen of Dawn Spivey
2 cups sugar
1 stick margarine, melted
4 eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
2 1/3 cups coconut
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Mix first 5 ingredients. Add coconut and vanilla. Pour into 2 unbaked pie shells and bake in 450-degree oven for about 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 375-degrees and bake about 25 minutes or until filling is set. Cool on wire racks.
Southern Belle Blueberry Pie
2 Graham Cracker Pie Crust
1 (8 ounce) package Philadelphia cream cheese
1 (16 ounce) box powdered sugar
1 container Cool Whip
2 large cans blueberry pie filling
Mix cream cheese, sugar and Cool Whip until creamy and smooth. Divide into two pie shells. Spread one can pie filling onto each pie. Refrigerate overnight. Serve with coffee or milk.
Carrot-Pineapple Cake
From the Kitchen of Dora Grimm
2 cups sifted self rising flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 cups cooking (salad) oil
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups finely grated carrots
1 can (8 1/4 ounce) crushed pineapple (DO NOT DRAIN)
3/4 cup chopped nuts
Heat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease thoroughly and lightly dust with flour two 9-inch square pans or three 8- inch round pans. Sift flour and cinnamon together. Combine oil, sugar and eggs in a large mixer bowl and beat thoroughly. Add flour mixture and beat to blend ingredients. Fold in carrots, pineapple and nuts.
Pour batter into prepared pans and bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pans (about 1 hour). Cool 15 minutes and remove from pan. Cool completely before frosting. (See Cream Cheese Icing for frosting)
Mama's Homemade Banana Cake
From the kitchen of Marion Frye
1 1/3 cup milk (use coffee cup for measuring)
1 large ladle spoon of shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 to 3 very ripe smashed bananas
Cream ingredients together then add
2 cups flour
1 1/3 cup milk
1 package Dream Whip
1 package of vanilla cook and serve pudding
Blend all ingredients well. Place in a large well greased cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-50 minutes or until done. Frosting can be chocolate or white frosting.
Christmas Chocolate Cake
From the kitchen of Jen & Jill
4 OZ. package sweet chocolate
1/2 cup boiling water
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs separate whites and yolks
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 can coconut-pecan frosting
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom of three 9" layer pans with wax paper. In saucepan, melt chocolate over boiling water (in double boiler). Let cool. In small bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt. Set side.
In large bowl (with electric mixer), cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat egg yolks and vanilla. Stir in chocolate. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, beating well. In separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter gently and thoroughly.
Divide batter among the 3 pans- smoothing tops. Bake in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched in center. Cool cake pans on racks for 15 minutes.
Remove cakes from pans and peel off wax paper. Cool cakes completely on racks before frosting. Makes 12-15 servings
Special thanks to all for those delicious recipes.
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SPICE UP YOUR SOUL FOOD -COLUMN - With the holiday approaching, this month we focus on Brown Sugar
Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by the addition of molasses to refined white sugar.
Brown sugar contains from 3.5% molasses (light brown sugar) to 6.5% molasses (dark brown sugar). The product is naturally moist from the hygroscopic nature of the molasses and is often labelled as "soft." The product may undergo processing to give a product that flows better for industrial handling.
Nutritional Value
Brown sugar has a slightly lower caloric value by weight than white sugar due to the presence of water. One hundred grams of brown sugar contains 373 calories, as opposed to 396 calories in white sugar. However, brown sugar packs more densely than white sugar due to the smaller crystal size and may have more calories when measured by volume. One tablespoon of brown sugar has 48 calories against 45 calories for white sugar
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CASSANDRA’S COOKING TIPS
QUICK TURKEY TIPS FOR THE HOLIDIAYS
· Keep frozen turkey frozen until the thawing time begins.
· Thaw under refrigeration, or in cold water. In refrigerator, allow about 24 hours per four to five pounds. In cold water, allow 30 minutes per pound. The water should be changed every hour.
· When purchasing a fresh turkey, order in advance to assure availability.
· Place fresh turkey in the refrigerator that maintains 40 degrees F and use within the time frame on the package label.
· When purchasing turkey, purchase one pound of turkey per person to be served. This allows for your holiday meal with a little left over for sandwiches or turkey salad.
· Do not purchase a turkey if the wrapping is torn, ripped or has been removed.
Watch for more exciting cooking tips!
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SOUL FOOD CARE PACKAGE
Newsletter Subscribers receive an automatic entry into our monthly contest for a chance to win a Soul Food Care Package. This package is loaded with soul food goodies, cooking gadgets, soul food recipes, cooking tips, and a personalized letter from me---Your Soul Food Advisor. So please tell everyone about this offer. Good Luck!
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SOUL FOOD RESOURCE CENTER
Make sure you check out our Resource Center. A wealth of information at your fingertips.
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LINK TO YOUR GIFT
As promised, here is your gift for subscribing - New Trends in Soul Food cooking. The report is password protected. The password is ??????????.
Just click the link below; then enter password. Enter password exactly as listed. New Food Trend
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UNTIL NEXT TIME
Cassandra Harrell is an avid soul food lover and the author of the new Soul Food Lovers’ Cookbook with 250 easy-to-follow soul food and southern recipes from three generations of Southern cooks. Throughout the cookbook you’re find helpful cooking tips and fun recipe stories about the dish.
Cassandra Harrell
Editor & Soul Food Advisor
(c) copyright 2007
Soul Food Advisor