Southernness Cafe

You're about ready to pitch your own giant hissy, so we designed The Original Hissy Fit cooler to be easy to share while you rant.

Ingredients:

Chilled champagne
Chilled tangarine juice
Red currant puree or just a stupid strawberry

Directions:

In a champagne flute, put 2 teaspoons of red currant puree (directions below and can be refrigerated for a week to be hissy-ready) or if you're too ticked to puree, just plop in a fresh strawberry for color. Then add 1 part champagne to 1 part tangarine juice. Drink and repeat. Drink and repeat...

(Directions for Red Currant Puree: Take 3 pints of stemmed red currants, 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons water in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Stir and bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook while stirring til soft (about 15 minutes). Strain as you press through mesh. Discard the pulp. Yields about 1 1/2 cups. Can be refrigerated for a week.)

Better still, get somebody else to make you our Hissy Fit cocktail cooler. Can't they see you're just about ready to pitch a Hissy Fit? If you don't want anything with liquor, light a Southernness Original Hissy Fit candle with red currant and tangarine fragrance and drink lots of something with ice. Cheers Y'all!

DRUNKEN HORNDOGS (beer-steamed, party weinies)

Ingredients:

1 package hot dog weiners
1 bottle (12oz) American beer
1 bottle (16oz) ketchup
4 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. Worchestershire sauce

Directions:

Cut each hotdog into 5 pieces. Combine everything in a saucepan, add hotdog pieces and simmer for 45 minutes over medium heat. Can be served immediately or refirgerated overnight and re-heated.



SWEET BIRMINGHAM SUGARPIE

Many of the classic, Birmingham cafes and restaurants were started by Greek immigrants. Sweet Birmingham Sugarpie is a traditional, Greek dessert with baklava, local honey sweetness.

Ingredients for the pie filling:

1 lb. ricotta cheese
4 fresh eggs
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2/3 cup local, clear honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 farenheit. Blend the pie filling ingredients well in a bowl and pour gently into a baked, cool pie shell. Cook for 35 minutes until the pie is firm and the top is luscious, golden brown. Cool and serve.



LAZYBALLS (Ben South's Famously Easy Bourbon Balls)

Lazyballs are a family tradition. They are the laziest, tastiest bourbon balls evuh. The story goes that my mama's dreamy Cousin Pauline, think Delta Dawn perpetually on a swooning couch, wanted to personally make her husband, Guy Houston, a holiday treat. Mr. Houston liked good bourbon. No one had ever witnessed Cousin Pauline preparing the first dish in her long life. Their cook decided the traditional bourbon ball recipe could be made easier for Cousin Pauline to handle if instead of using chocolate chips and vanilla wafers, they simply started with chocolate cookie crumbs. Eureka, now you've got Lazyballs.

Ingredients:



2 1/2 cups chocolate cookie crumbs (1 package of Nabisco Famous wafers)
1 1/2 cups chopped, toasted pecans
1/2 cup bourbon (we use Evan Williams)
1 cup confectioner's sugar (a little more to roll in)
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 Tablespoons light molasses

Directions:

Pulverize the cookie crumbs and pecans in a food processor until finely ground. In a separate bowl, stir together bourbon, 1 cup confectioner's sugar, cocoa powder, and light molasses. Add this mixture to the food processor and pulse until just combined. Let this dough rest uncovered at room temperature and go rest yourself for 4 hours--or leave lightly covered and go to bed for the night. Use your fingers to roll the dough into little, maybe 1" diameter, balls. Roll each ball in confectioner's sugar; cover airtight to keep them moist, roll in a bit more confectioner's sugar just before serving.

If you're not too lazy, you could serve your Lazyballs in mini-cupcake liners. Just darlin'. Y'all have to eat about six to feel any buzz at all.



SOUTHERNNESS STICKY BUNS 1726

One of the happiest marriages we know is that of cinnamon spice and Southern pecans. Southernness actually found our Sticky Buns recipe from Southern Colonial times and updated it for modern day baking ease. Light yourself a Southernness Sticky Buns candle, make a hot pot of pecan coffee and savor these easy to make, fun to eat, Southern treats.

Ingredients for the Topping:

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. light Karo Syrup
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Ingredients for the Buns:

3 Tbsp. melted butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon quality ground cinnamon
1 (7.5oz) can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 Farenheit. In an ungreased 8" pan, place 1/4 cup butter and wait to melt. Stir in brown sugar and syrup until well-blended. Sprinkle in pecans. In a small bowl, place 3 tables melted butter. In another bowl, mix granulated sugar and sinnamon. Separate the dough to have 10 biscuits. Dip biscuits in melted butter to coat all sides; dip into sugar/cinnamon mixture, coating well. Arrange biscuits with sides touching in the pan. Bake about 20 minutes til golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; turn upside down onto serving plate. Drizzle your buns with the caramel and serve warm.