Mississippi recipes – Eat, Play, Love

Magnolia Tree

This past week our stateside cooking adventure took us to Mississippi. While we were researching recipes it became very clear that two dishes are synonymous with the Magnolia State – catfish and Mississippi Mud Pie. It also happens that I need a dessert to take downstate to a family get together this weekend.

My family has a traveling 9″x13″ pan that always carries my favorite dessert when it makes its way up to this part of the state – my Grandma’s Blackberry Cobbler. Then when we head south, my mom whips up a chocolate dessert to take back in the pan. It just so happened that this time, the pan was at my house, giving us the perfect opportunity to try the Mississippi Mud Cake (similar to the pie, but suitable to this size baking dish).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m not big on baking cakes and especially cakes that involve icing; but there are two things I love about this recipe: 1) It’s easy. 2) It’s supposed to look like mud. I figured that the kids and I could tackle this one. We chose Paula Deen’s recipe because she too is synonymous with the south. Continue reading →

After our first weekend of amazing summer-like weather we found our schedule full-up with activities (and an unforeseen event – get better quickly Nana!). Given our wacky schedule we opted to cook-up our weekly stateside meal today, and start sampling new recipes from our next international destination later in the week. The unseasonably humid and warm temperatures reminded us of the South, so today we sampled some traditional cuisine from Mississippi – Buttermilk Biscuits and Crispy Fried Catfish.

We began with the biscuits. It’s a quick and easy recipe. The dry ingredients are combined first, then the shortening and butter are cut in, followed by the buttermilk. Once the dough was formed, we transferred it to a floured surface and began to press it out. Continue reading →