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JACKed sweet potato muffins

I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite recipe. I was going through my bookshelves to see if I had any cookbooks I could live without (spoiler alert: I didn't), and came across this one: Jack Daniel's Spirit of Tennessee Cookbook. This had belonged to my great aunt, and was signed to her from one of the authors, Lynne Tolley. It's a treasure trove! I went looking for something involving sweet potatoes and found these, what they call sweet potato muffin delights. They are SO GOOD, y'all. There isn't a lot of flour, so the eggs and sweet potato make these so light and airy, and the flavors are great! Just a little hint of Jack, but not so much that you can't respectably eat these for breakfast. ;)

JACKed sweet potato muffins

Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup milk (I used whole)
• 1/4 cup Jack Daniel's Whiskey
• 1 1/4 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (microwave is fine here)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• Cinnamon sugar for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425F and grease or line 12 muffin cups
2. Combine eggs, milk, Jack, sweet potatoes, and butter and mix well
3. Put a wire strainer or sifter over the top of the bowl and add flour, salt, baking powder, and brown sugar; shake or press through until all the mixture is sifted into the bowl
4. Mix until JUST combined, then spoon into prepared muffin cups
5. Sprinkle tops with cinnamon sugar, then bake until a toothpick in the center comes out clean; the cookbook says 35-40 minutes but mine were done after 20, so don't go far

Because I am positive that you all need to make these, this is a good time for you to try out my snazzy new ZipList functionality! You can save recipes from One Particular Kitchen (and all these amazing blogs), and create your shopping list as you do it! Just click on that "save recipe" button at the top of my recipes, or you can get to your ZipList recipe box or shopping list from my main menu. Let me know if you have any questions! Also, let me know when you make these muffins, m'kay? Trust me.

Pizza chicken pasta

I found this recipe in Great Food Fast, my favorite pressure cooker book, but it's easily adaptable for baking in the oven too. It's warm and comfort-food-ish without being heavy, and is very kid-friendly as well! I mean, it's practically PIZZA. This is great served with some garlic bread or, I don't know, some vegetables? I seem to have skipped that part. Ahem. Anyway! Try this:

Pizza chicken pasta

Ingredients

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 jar (24 ounces) spaghetti sauce
• 2 Tbsp. water
• 24 slices pepperoni
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• Corkscrew pasta

Instructions

1. Whisk together the salt, pepper and flour, then toss the chicken breasts in the flour mix
2. Heat the olive oil in a skillet or in a pressure cooker set to brown, then lightly brown chicken on each side
3. Put chicken in pressure cooker dish or casserole dish and cover with spaghetti sauce, water, and pepperoni
4. Cook in a pressure cooker on high pressure for 8 minutes, or bake at 350F in a casserole dish for 40-50 minutes depending on thickness of chicken breasts
5. While chicken is cooking, cook pasta in well-salted water
6. Serve chicken and sauce over pasta, sprinkling mozzarella over all of it

Notes

You can also transfer the chicken to a sheet pan, then top with mozzarella and cook under the broiler till melted and bubbling. This would be easy to do in a slow cooker as well! Just allow 4-6 hours for the chicken to cook

Help me out! What's your go-to side dish for spaghetti sauce based recipes?

Cheese straws

After talking and hemming and hawing about it forever I finally bought a cookie press. It's so much fun! I can't believe I waited so long. I just had to try cheese straws first, and they were fantastic. They also kind of made me want to wear a big hat and drink mint juleps, but that's for another day. The cookie press I bought came with a recipe book with this recipe included; I changed it to use butter instead of margarine, because yuck.

Cheese straws

Yield: 5 dozen 3 inch straws

Ingredients

• 8 oz sharp cheddar cheese, graded
• 3/4 cup butter, well softened
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp hot sauce (I used Louisiana)
• 1 3/4 cups flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or more if you like the heat)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven 400 F
2. Blend cheese, butter, egg and hot sauce and set aside
3. Sift together flour and spices, then knead into butter mixture, either by hand or in a food processor with the metal blade
4. Use cookie press with star disk, or pipe out of ziptop bag onto ungreased cookie sheet, and bake for 10-13 minutes until golden brown. Remove immediately to cooling rack; store in airtight container when completely cooled

By the way, show of hands: who has had cheese straws before? Turns out my lived-in-the-South-all-her-life friend Vanessa had never had them. What about y'all?

Candy cane syrup

Who else has leftover candy canes? I love the look of them on the Christmas tree (I should probably take that thing down, huh?), but I'm not likely to sit around and eat a dozen candy canes when it's all over. I love peppermint in my coffee, though, so I figured why not use them up?

Candy cane syrup

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 6-12 candy canes

Instructions

1. Stir together sugar and water in a heavy pot over medium heat
2. When sugar has melted, drop in unwrapped candy canes and stir until dissolved
3. Let syrup cool in the pan, then pour into clean jars

I hear tell this is also great over ice cream. How else should we use it?

Slow cooker pot roast

I love the comfort foods of fall! By August, when it's easily 102F in Nashville, I'm ready for cooler weather, football, and fall foods; this is definitely one of my favorites. I put out the call on Twitter for pot roast preparations about a year ago and got some fabulous ideas which I've cobbled together here. The flour thickens the juice and really brings everything together; it's fantastic. I make it in my combo cooker (affiliate link), but you can also brown in a skillet then move to a slow cooker. Either way, you'll love it.

Slow cooker pot roast

Ingredients

• Chuck roast
• 2 tbsp. oil (vegetable or olive)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tbsp. kosher salt
• 1 packet zesty Italian dressing seasoning
• 1 packet ranch dressing seasoning
• 1 packet onion soup mix
• 1/2 cup red wine
• Carrots
• Red potatoes

Instructions

1. In a small bowl whisk together the flour, salt, dressings, and soup mix. Sprinkle over the roast on all sides, pressing the mixture onto the meat
2. Heat oil in a large skillet or in your combo cooker if you have one, then brown roast on all sides
3. When well browned, add in wine and vegetables and cook all day -- I let mine go 8-9 hours

Your turn! How do YOU do pot roast?

Spicy black bean soup

This recipe was born of a sudden cold day, and the accompanying feeling that I MUST EAT SOUP TODAY. I was ready for fall; what can I say? Fortunately I had what I needed on hand (which was very little, honestly) to throw this together. It's not super spicy, but has just enough kick to warm you up; the protein from the beans makes it deliciously filling.

Spicy black bean soup

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 2 cans (15 ounces each) black beans
• 1 can Ro-tel
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 Tbsp. chili powder
• 16 ounces chicken broth
• Shredded cheese, hot sauce, tomatoes, sour cream, and or green onions for topping

Instructions

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat, then saute the onion till it's nice and soft
2. Add in beans (you can drain if you want, but either way is fine), Ro-tel, tomatoes, chili powder, salt, pepper, and chicken broth; stir well
3. Let simmer for at least 20 minutes or so; you can serve as is or blend a little with an immersion blender, which is what I did. Top with whatever sounds good, and enjoy!

Goo Goo Cluster nachos

Here in the South we love our Goo Goos. They're made right here in Nashville, and lots of local folks have done lots of amazing things with them: Goo Goo Pie, anyone? I wanted to try my own hand at coming up with a recipe for them (although, good heavens they're amazing just plain), and this is what I came up with! Goo Goo Cluster nachos are easy to make, and can be scaled up or down on the homemade scale as far as you want; I landed somewhere in the middle. What else would you top these with? Any ideas? For the record, this post is not in any way sponsored by Goo Goo; I just think they're fabulous.

Goo Goo Cluster nachos

Ingredients

• 1/2 package puff pastry sheets, thawed
• 4 Goo Goo Clusters (I used original, but any would be great!)
• Caramel sauce (I used homemade; any will do)
• Whipped cream
• Optional colored sugar or sprinkles for topping

Instructions

1. Slice puff pastry sheets into triangles and bake at 400F for 12-15 minutes until golden brown
2. While the pastry is cooking, chop the Goo Goos and have them ready
3. As soon as the pastry is done pull each one partially open and drop in a few pieces of chopped Goo Goo (this will make the Goo Goos melty and even more awesome), and put them all on a plate
4. Drizzle with caramel sauce, then sprinkle with any remaining Goo Goo pieces
5. Serve with whipped cream in a bowl for dipping

Trail ' s End cornbread

This cornbread would give my grandmother the vapors. It is sweet (which I love -- don't tell her), which makes it Yankee Cornbread. I actually cut the sugar some, and it's still fabulously sweet without being, you know, a cake. I also cut the recipe in half which made a great size (an 8 inch skillet) for us. The recipe is originally from Disney's Trail's End, but I found it linked here.

Trail’s End cornbread

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. cornmeal
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 1 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup butter or bacon grease

Instructions

1. Preheat oven AND SKILLET to 375F
2. Mix together cornmeal, sugar, salt, baking powder, and flour with a fork
3. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add in milk and egg; beat egg with fork, then stir to combine all ingredients
4. Remove hot skillet from oven and add butter or bacon grease (carefully! It will sizzle) to skillet, swirling around till it melts and coats the pan
5. Pour excess butter/bacon grease into cornbread mixture, stir quickly to combine, then pour back into hot skillet and slide it into the oven
6. Bake until lightly browned on top, about 20 minutes

Skillet enchiladas

I found this recipe at No. 2 Pencil on a day when it felt like a thousand degrees in Nashville; the thought of not turning on the oven to make supper was especially appealing that day. So happy to say that this recipe did not disappoint! It was fast and easy, and tasty as well. It's easily customizable so I could make it crazy hot with hot sauce while not making the Yankee burst into flames a la Spinal Tap. And the leftovers were fantastic! [amd-zlrecipe-recipe:120] What would you top this with? Ideas welcome!