I know this because, when I stepped into the truck after work a few days ago, the steering wheel was quite hot to the touch. That means it’s time to plant the black-eyed peas.

I guess that’s phenology, Texas-style.

The kids like it when the peas come in each summer, because I make this savory pie with black-eye peas and chorizo. It’s based on a recipe I saw in a Martha Stewart magazine about 20 years ago.

Black-eyed pea pie

Crust
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. each salt and sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
6 T. ice water

Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter. Stir in enough water to form a ball. Divide into two, with one a little larger than the other, as this will be the bottom section, and flatten into disks. Chill for at least an hour.

Filling
1 cup fresh black-eyed peas
several cloves garlic
Bay leaf
Bunch of spinach
Small bunch of cilantro, stems separated from leaves and leaves chopped
2 T. olive oil
1 onion, sliced
1 jalapeno, chopped
12 button mushrooms, sliced
1/2 lb chorizo, crumbled
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups grated Monterey jack cheese
Cayenne pepper to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
Egg wash (one egg thinned with a few tablespoons of water)

Start the filling by preparing the peas. Put 1 cup of fresh peas in pot and add enough water to cover. Drop in a bay leaf, 2-3 small cloves of garlic, some fresh ground pepper and the stems from a bunch of cilantro (you’ll use the leaves later). Cook until the peas are soft. This could take an hour or more. Drain, removing the leaves and stems and let cool a little.

Wash a bunch of spinach and place in pot with water still clinging to the leaves. Add another 2-3 cloves of garlic and cover the pot. Turn the heat on medium and steam until the leaves have wilted. This will only take a few minutes. Drain and let cool a little, then chop roughly.

Heat 1 T. olive oil in saute pan, brown mushrooms. Set aside. Heat remaining oil in saute pan, add onions and cook until starting to brown, add chorizo and jalapeno and cook until much of the fat is rendered from the chorizo. Drain and set aside.

Whisk eggs and add milk, cilantro leaves and 1 cup of the cheese and a dash of cayenne (more if you think your chorizo needs help) in a bowl. Set aside.

Roll out half the pie dough and place in the bottom of a deep dish pie pan, make sure you have a good inch or two of excess around the edges. Add the spinach, then the peas and chorizo mixture, pour the eggs over the top and then top with the remaining cheese. Roll out the other half of the pie dough and place on top of the pie. Fold the bottom over the top and pinch the edges. Cut an “x” in the middle of the pie and fold back the corners for a vent. Brush with egg wash and bake 45-60 minutes at 375 degrees until golden brown. Let it sit for 15 minutes before serving.

It’s been a while since I’ve looked over Regina’s recipes. I’d put together such a long initial list — brown sugar pound cake, fruitcake, chicken and dumplings, homemade salami, to name a few —  it took a while to work through it all.

But Mother’s Day is coming up and that just requires a cake, so I’ve been going through Regina’s recipes again. She has so many cake recipes. I counted 34 in all that she said were keepers. She has three Italian Cream Cake recipes and four fruitcake recipes and at least a half dozen different kinds of pound cake: buttermilk, coconut, jello, plain, poppyseed, and “Mabel’s” (with chocolate or butterscotch chips mixed in).

Here’s Mississippi Mud Cake, “I think,” Regina said.

This may be our winner this weekend.

This weekend, probiotic potions practice including starting a batch of soy sauce and making a batch of cream cheese.

The soy sauce will probably be done about Christmas, but the cream cheese is ready to go. I promised Michael some of it would go into an old family favorite, black bottom cupcakes. It’s so yummy. And was as easy to make as yogurt, although there are more complex recipes for cream cheese that are in the queue.

I got this recipe from a co-worker at a summer job I worked between my freshman and sophomore years, in an industrial laundry. And that is another story best told over a beer.

Black Bottom Cupcakes

Cream Cheese topping

1/2 lb cream cheese

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Cake batter

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda

1/3 cup oil

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup water

1 T. vinegar

1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Add egg, sugar, salt, vanilla and beat well. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.

Stir together dry ingredients of cake batter. Add water, oil, vinegar, vanilla and beat well.

Line muffin tins with baking cups and fill half way with cake batter. Top with cheese mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.

My mother had a few recipes from her Aunt Bea that were in her regular rotation, including baked beans and sweet rolls.

When we were little, I think the whole family could afford the calories from the sweet rolls a little more often, but eventually, they became a Christmas tradition. So much so, that they get a mention in the book.

I imagine Mom is making them tonight, just as we are. It just wouldn’t be Christmas morning without them. Here’s the family recipe:

Cinnamon rolls

1 ½ cups milk
1 cup butter, cut in small chunks
¾ c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. yeast
¼ cup warm water
2 eggs, beaten
6 cups white flour

More melted butter and cinnamon sugar (2 T. sugar mixed with 2 tsp. cinnamon)

Scald the milk, stir in butter, sugar and salt. Butter will melt as it cools. Sprinkle yeast over warm water. When milk-butter mixture cools to about 100 degrees, stir in yeast mixture and eggs. Incorporate flour one cup at a time, beating in the same direction until you achieve a sticky dough that’s just starting to come together. Place in greased bowl and let rise until doubled. Punch down and let rise again. When doubled, knead gently for a minute. Roll out into a rectangle about one inch think. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Roll up into a log, slice crosswise, 1 to 2 inches thick, place each slice in muffin tins. Let rise 15 more minutes, bake at 375 degrees F. for 15 to 20 minutes. While hot, dip in more melted butter and cinnamon sugar to top.

Yesterday afternoon I had occasion to share a version of this recipe. One of the co-owners of Beth Marie’s, an awesome ice cream shop in Denton that makes its own, was talking about how tough the past week of the ice storm has been on business (I believe the exact phrase was “selling ice to Eskimos”)

Beth Marie’s Old Fashioned Ice Cream Parlor, Denton

Folks around him started brain storming about ice cream drinks, and then adult ice cream drinks, as a way to help and then just because it was fun to talk recipes. Beth Marie’s is a family friendly place, so that’s not going to happen. But it was fun to share this one my mother made occasionally.

Hot Buttered Rum 

Base recipe

1 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened

Cream butter, sugars and spices. Fold in softened ice cream and re-freeze in a sealed container.

To serve

Spoon 2-4 tablespoons of the mix into a mug. Add jigger of rum or brandy (“or brandy” is always an option with people from Wisconsin) and 1/2 cup boiling water. Stir with cinnamon stick and serve.

We are socked in after a bad ice storm because the one thing you can usually count on about Texas weather — it’s changeability — isn’t happening. We’ve been below freezing for about 50 hours and we still have about 20 hours to go. And that non-frozen window is only supposed to last a few hours tomorrow afternoon.

So much sleet fell it looks like snow.

Time to get out great-grandma’s chicken and dumplings recipe. Seventy years later, the notepaper she used to write it down for Aunt Regina is just about as interesting. I’m going to have to consult other recipes on making chicken and dumplings. I’m finding I’m having to do this with some of the recipes Regina kept. During our last visit, Regina, Patti, and I were talking about the skeletal information she had on her recipes and she admitted, “Yes, we wrote them out for people who already know how to cook.”

(I started the fruitcake last weekend. It’s like an Irish soda bread or other boiled fruit cake. The cloves and cinnamon smell so good, as does that brandy.)

Update: Here’s a complete recipe. The kids give it two spoons up.

Chicken and Dumplings

Inspired by Great-Grandma Minnie Dillard and Gourmet Magazine

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon each salt and pepper

1 whole chicken

1/2 cup carrots, diced

1/2 cup celery, diced

1 onion, diced

1/2 teaspoon thyme

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

6 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup apple cider

 

2 cups flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ cup buttermilk

 

½ cup milk

2 Tablespoons butter

Wash chicken and cut into serving size pieces (wings, legs, thighs, breast cut into quarters). Mix salt and pepper into flour, dredge chicken pieces in flour.

In Dutch oven, melt butter and oil. Brown chicken on both sides and set aside. (may need to do this in two batches)

Saute diced onion, carrots, and celery in the oil, butter and chicken bits for several minutes. Add thyme and turmeric and stir a few seconds until it becomes fragrant. Pour in chicken broth and apple cider. Mix well and then gently return chicken pieces to the broth. Cover and simmer 20-30 minutes.

Combine flour, salt and baking powder in bowl. Stir baking soda into buttermilk. Add ½ cup to ¾ hot broth to buttermilk. Stir into dry ingredients and make a rather stiff dough. Roll out thin and leave 10 minutes to rest. Cut in strips and peel off pieces, putting a few at a time in the hot broth until all are added.

Finish the broth with milk and butter.