Savoring Kentucky's Recipe Collection

This is an eclectic collection of recipes that doesn't even pretend to be comprehensive (or healthy, for that matter.) These recipes are here because they give great pleasure. They have special meaning to our family or to me. They are like a nicely stuffed but not necessarily comprehensive recipe box. They include some recipes from Hot Water Cornbread, a weekly radio show about Kentucky food and all kinds of goodness. If you are looking JUST for Hot Water Cornbread radio show recipes, go here.

Breads

• Cornbread: One Version: Kentucky Black Skillet/Hot Water* (not sweet, no flour)

• James Beard's Cornmeal Spoon Bread

• Maria Polushkin Robbins's Spoon Bread

• Mother and Dad's Saturday Night Rolls

• Mrs. Moore's Incredibly Tender Rolls

• Teff Waffles with Caramelized Bananas (adapted from Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, by Lorna Sass)

• Tender Buttermilk Biscuits (with grated frozen butter) from Kitchen Savvy; use as the base for shortcakes and cobbler toppings as well

• Tomato Cornmeal Tarte Tatin, a recipe in progress

Cornbreads

• Paula's Mexican Cornbread, a Roberts and Abbott family favorite

• Nachomama's Cornbread,* a Chef Vishwesh Bhatt recipe

Condiments, Dressings, Jams, Jellies, Marmalades, Sauces

• Gourmandistan's "World's Simplest Tomato Sauce"*—roasted and scrumptious

• "Chimi-Cauda,"* a fusion sauce celebrating Pope Francis's visit to the United States

• Lemon Mustard Vinaigrette, the Campsie house salad dressing

• Lois Mateus's Five Pepper Jam*

• *Preserved Lemons,* a Chef Ouita Michel recipe

• Probably Almost Mother's Homemade Tomato Ketchup

• Sorghum Hot Pepper Relish, adapted from Classic Kentucky Meals

• Strawberry Balsamic Black Pepper Jam*, a tart, low-sugar spread

• Wild Fig Jam,* a Chef Ouita Michel recipe

Drinks

• Homemade Hot Chocolate - so much better than you can imagine, and so much easier than you think!

Food Gifts

• Elegant Food Gifts That Require No Baking:* Inspired, affordable ideas from Chef Ouita Michel

• Elegant Food Gifts That Require Minimal Cooking: think chocolate bark, spiced nuts, homemade mustard, hot chocolate mixes.

Fruits

• Homemade Applesauce

• “Ecstavia,” superb simple applesauce dessert

• Kentucky Fall Apple Salad

• Blackberry Wonders: Pie, Crisp, Cobbler, Jam

• Blackberry Recipes: Updated 2022

• Sour Cherry Soup

• Strawberry (and other) jams: Alison Roman’s recipe; the Savoring Kentucky story here

• Grilled Peach-Jalapeño Salsa

• Peachberry: Ice cream topping, standalone dessert, or roast/grilled meat side relish

• Chilled Strawberry Wedding Soup

Main Dishes

• Corned Beef

• Fabulous Flounder, a vacation find

• Fried Stuffed Kibbeh,* a Chef Ouita Michel recipe

• Gramps's Birthday Roast Duck

• Grits and Greens in 45 Minutes

• Judy Rosen's Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

• Mother's "Basted" (Roast) Chicken

• Ouita's Quickly Cooked but Elegant Breast of Chicken*

• Paula's Mexican Cornbread

• Polenta with Garlicky Greens

Kentucky Cooks: Readers and listeners share their weeknight meals made with Kentucky ingredients

• Janice D'souza's Mangalorean (South Indian) dinner

Our Family Breakfast Favorites

• Baked Eggs and Bacon in Muffin Cups

• Cardamom Pecan Olive Oil Granola

• Cowgirl Coffee Cake

• Fran's Big Dutch Babies

• Gramps's Cinnamon Rolls, Apricot Rolls, Lemon-Honey-Pecan Rolls

• Mimi's Homemade Doughnuts

• Ruth's Apple Pancakes

• Tender Buttermilk Blueberry Scones

Our Family Holiday Favorites

• Holiday Croquembouche

• Celia Hopson’s (possibly Cissy Gregg’s) Cornbread Dressing

• Mama Stamberg's Cranberry Relish

• Historic Kentucky Oyster Stuffing* from The Kentucky Housewife (1839)

• Latkes (from Joy of Cooking; substituting rice flour for all-purpose wheat makes the latkes gluten-free)

• The Michel Family Chicken Liver Paté

• New Year's Eve Potstickers

• Pumpkin Chiffon Pie*

• Pumpkin Fritters the Ouita Michel Way

• Snow Day Adult Snow Cream (Hello, Bourbon!)

• Steve's Chicken Liver Paté

• Catherine Hill's Holiday Green Jelled Salad (or it can be not green...)

A Special Feasting Holiday: Epiphany, or Old Christmas, January 6

Menu and 12 amazing recipes

Starches

• Julie Pauly's Grits in Banyuls Broth*

Sweets

• Almond Cornmeal Torte, a recipe-in-progress

• Almond Apricot Pound Cake with Amaretto, a cake I have not yet succeeded with, but find fascinating

• Blackberry Pie, Crisp, Cobbler

• Buttermilk Pound Cake(s)

• Blonde Brownies

• Christine Wilkinson and Edith Patton's Hot Milk Cake (with sauce option)*

• Coffee Butter Almond Ice Cream (From Cuisinart's recipe booklet)

• Lemon Cornmeal Cake (Martha Stewart)

• Loris Points's Championship Rhubarb-Apple Pie with Never Fail Crust

• Marion Flexner's Green Tomato Pie*

• Pumpkin Beignets*

• Ruth Roberts's 3-Fruit Sherbet

• Sorghum Crinkles, formerly "Molasses Crinkles"

• Sorghum Berbere Ice Cream*: Ethiopia Meets Kentucky In the Ice Cream Freezer (recipe in progress)

• Sue Viers Rock's Favorite Pumpkin Pie* (with sorghum)

• Susan Hill's Italian Cream Cake

• Western Kentucky Chocolate Sheet Cake

Vegetables

• Aunt Bea's Immediate Pickly Cucumbers

• Cool English Cucumbers: A theme with some variations

• Fennel

• Garlic Scape Pesto

• Homemade Tomato Puree

• Kentucky Wilted Salad

• Peas: Fresh, English, Shelling, Pod—How To Choose, and Including One Recipe

• Steve's Brussels Sprouts

• Tomato Feta Salad

* All recipes with asterisks have a tie of some sort to Hot Water Cornbread: Kentucky Food Radio, which Rona co-hosted weekly with Chefs Ouita and Christopher Michel of the Holly Hill Inn Family of Restaurants. For three years, we had fun each Tuesday at WLXL-LP FM, 95.7, streaming live at wonderful Lexington Community Radio.