Morrison’s Cafeteria Deluxe Cornbread Pecan Dressing

Fall is here in Middle Tennessee and there is a chill in the air! The holidays are fast approaching, and it’s not too soon to be planning for Thanksgiving. I have made a variation of this stuffing every year for almost 40 years for family and friends.

The recipe is adapted from a Morrison’s Cafeteria recipe which had been a time honored classic in the south for many years. If you were born or raised in the south, there is a good chance that you have devoured it somewhere along the way with sliced turkey breast and gravy on top. Most likely Sunday’s after church.

Sadly, Morrison’s Cafeterias are now a thing of the past, (I think there may still be one in Mobile, Alabama owned by Piccadilly Cafeterias) but some of their recipes live on.

(Diners in Morrison’s Cafeteria in Tallahassee, Florida on November 15, 1984. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida.)

The original recipe is for 120 servings, and on Sundays, we would quadruple the recipe at Morrison’s. On Thanksgiving, we prepare about 1000 servings! I have broken the recipe down to yield 10 servings.

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Photos from newspapers.com

Some of my most viewed blog posts have been adaptions of Morrison’s recipes, so I thought I would share another one with you. Below are the links to Custard Pie and Beef Stew.

https://kerrysfoodthymes.blog/2019/04/24/morrisons-cafeteria-custard-pie/

https://kerrysfoodthymes.blog/2019/06/28/morrisons-cafeteria-beef-stew/

Servings – 8-10

Cook/Prep time – about 3 hours (less if you cook and dry the cornbread the day before)

For the cornbread…

• 1 3/4 cups corn meal
• 1 1/2 cups milk or buttermilk
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp canola oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and spread batter on a greased pan. Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool. If you are making the cornbread the day before, let it cool and dice into 1/2 “ cubes and let it dry overnight. If you are making it the same day, after dicing into cubes, put it back in a 175 degree oven for about an hour until good and dry. This will make more cornbread then you need. You can just eat the rest while it’s warm!

** if you are making the cornbread the day before, you can also dry the bread cubes, too.

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*** for a shortcut, you may use a cornbread mix, but don’t use a sweet one like Jiffy.

For the dressing….

• 1/4 lb dried bread cubes
• 1/2 lb dried cornbread cubes
• 4 cups chicken broth or stock
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced onions
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp salt (less if using salted broth)
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 boiled egg, chopped (optional)
• 1 tbsp cooked, diced chicken or turkey giblets (optional)

I never use the boiled egg or giblets, but the original recipe calls for them so I have listed them here.

Heat the canola oil in a skillet. Add the diced celery and onion and cook just a few minutes, removing from the heat while they are still firm. Let them cool.

Add the dried bread and cornbread to a mixing bowl. Pour the cooled chicken stock over them, stir and let them set for 20 minutes.

Add the cooled onion, celery and oil and mix together.

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Add the salt, pepper, chopped pecans and baking powder and mix well. Whisk the raw egg and blend it in. If you are adding the giblets and chopped boiled eggs, add them also and mix them in well.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add the mixture to a greased pan and place in the oven and cook for 45 to 60 minute until well browned.

Remove from oven and serve immediately!

That’s it! Enjoy!

Easy Cheesy Grilled Skirt Steak Pinwheels

If you like steak, cheese and spinach, (three of the main food groups) you will love these cheesy pinwheels! They are quick and easy to make and will impress your guests with their attractive display.

If you can’t find skirt steak, no worries! You can use flank steak. I prefer the skirt steak because it has a beefier taste to me.

Cook / Prep Time: about an hour

Servings : Two (about 4 pinwheels)

Special equipment needed: a meat mallet or tenderizer and some kitchen twine.

• 1 lb skirt steak
• 3 ounce baby spinach leaves, chopped
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 lg shallot, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 oz shaved or shredded parmesan
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 1 sprig fresh basil leaves
• 1 tsp ground thyme
• Salt
• Pepper

Pound the skirt steak into a rectangle about 1/4” thick.

Season both sides with salt and pepper. Turn the skirt steak vertically on a counter. Mix the lemon juice and olive oil together and brush onto the beef. Sprinkle the thyme leaves on it. Spread the chopped shallots and garlic evenly onto the meat. Pinch the basil leaves and dot them over the shallots and garlic. Evenly spread the Parmesan cheese over it. Spread the chopped spinach over the parmesan cheese. Add the provolone slices evenly on top.

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Roll the meat up jelly roll style and it should look like this…

Cut 4 pieces of kitchen twine about 12” in length.

Tie them around the skirt roll and cut off the excess twine. Season with more salt and pepper if necessary. At this point, you can pop it in a 350 degree oven if you want and cook for about 30 minutes until desired doneness, or you can slice them and fry them or grill them. In my case, I grilled them.

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Place them on a hot grill and grill them for about 4 minutes on each side and them place them in a 350 degree oven for about another 6-7 minutes for medium rare. They will tend to be tough if well done or overcooked. Let them rest with tented aluminum foil over them for about 5 minutes and serve.

Enjoy!

Meatless Monday: Pan Fried Mozzarella Marinara

Just another meatless Monday… Who doesn’t love fried cheese? I sure do – especially with homemade marinara sauce – and it’s easy to prepare!

You can make it even easier if you use store bought marinara sauce! Just skip the steps to prepare the sauce.

Or if you want to use fresh tomatoes for the sauce, you can find my recipe for that here…

https://kerrysfoodthymes.blog/2019/09/05/homemade-marinara-sauce-using-fresh-tomatoes/

Cook/Prep Time – about an hour

Servings – 2

Ingredients:

For the Marinara sauce…

• 1 – 14.5 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 small carrot
• 1 small celery rib
• 1 shallot
• 1 small bell pepper
• 2 large cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp fresh basil
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• Salt
• Black pepper

For the Mozzarella….

• 3 – 1/4 inch slices of loaf mozzarella cheese
• 1/4 cup dry red wine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp fresh basil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup panko
• 1 tbsp dried Italian seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/4 cup canola oil (for frying the cheese)

For the sauce, finely chop the carrot, shallot, celery, pepper and garlic. Place the olive oil in a saucepan or Dutch oven on medium heat and add the chopped vegetables. Sauté while stirring for about 10 minutes. Add the red wine and cook another 5 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes and turn heat down to low. Chop the basil coarsely and stir it in. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Simmer on low heat, stirring frequently for 30 minutes.

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While the marinara is simmering, prepare a cheese marinade by adding the olive oil, red wine, basil and crushed garlic and a dash of salt and pepper to a dish and add the sliced mozzarella and marinate for 15 minutes.

For the breading, whisk the egg and add the milk and stir together. Set up a breading station with a plate or dish of flour, and another with the panko mixed with the Italian seasoning.

Keeping one hand wet and one hand dry, grab a slice of cheese with your wet hand and place it in the flour and press the flour onto both sides with your dry hand. Place the floured slice into the egg wash and wet both sides with your wet hand. Remove the slice with your wet hand and place it in the panko mixture, pressing it onto both sides with your dry hand. Repeat the process with the rest of the slices.

Heat the canola oil in a skillet on medium heat. When the oil gets hot, fry the cheese slices until browned and flip and brown the other side. Remove from skillet and top with the hot marinara sauce. Serve with your choice of pasta. (I used pappardelle)

Enjoy!

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Suggested songs to listen to while preparing the goodness…..

How about Luciano Pavarotti‘s “Pavarotti: The Duets” released in 2008 featuring duets with Elton John, Eric Clapton, Mariah Carey, Sting, Frank Sinatra and others?

“Manic Monday” – written by Prince and made famous by the Bangles from their 1986 album Different Light. Just substitute the word “meatless” in place of “manic” while preparing this dish!

It’s Launch Day!

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“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”

Walt Disney

Greetings from White House, Tennessee! Today is the official launch day of my new food blog that I have been working on tirelessly for the last couple of months. Please check it out! If you like the content or any of the posts, please follow, like, comment & share. I am also asking you to provide me with any feedback you may have good or bad. This really just started out as a hobby – something to kill a little time while doing things that I love during the cold bleak weather months in Tennessee. Food has always been a passion of mine, and I absolutely love cooking, baking and photographing food, so what better way to express myself than by keeping kind of an ongoing journal of my adventures?

“Whether you think you can or think you can’t… You’re right”

Henry Ford

Please keep in mind that this whole project is still a work in progress. I have self taught myself how to set this up, and I am still learning new things about my DSL camera that I purchased three years ago. Most people that know me well would classify me as technologicaly challenged but I am pretty darn good with grammar and spelling. My total investment so far has been less than a hundred dollars including a couple of books that I bought. I plan to keep furthering my education about photography, blogging and marketing through reading and perhaps taking a few classes.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have”

Maya Angelou

When I told my daughter Leslie that I was starting a food blog, she said “but Dad, you don’t even use recipes!” and she is correct. When posting recipes I will have to start measuring and weighing ingredients, which I am not used to doing, but I will learn.

What can you expect from me and what will you see in this blog?

• I will plan to post no less than one blog post per week
• The reason that my tagline is “Food and other stuff” is because I am not going to limit topics to food only, although food will have the most emphasis. I have many other things that I am passionate about including family, gardening , music, photography, etc. so I wanted to keep the posting topics open. You may see a restaurant or business review. You may see me rant about some off the wall topic, things that are trending or just random things that may be on my mind. You, the reader ,will determine most of the topics due to feedback, likes and comments that I receive about certain topics.
• I am a Christian man but religion and politics WILL NOT be discussed in my blog posts.
• I may or may not be able to make money from this blog. That would likely happen only if I have a certain amount of followers. (Thanks for following!)
• I vow not to plagiarize any content or recipes from any other sites. If I am inspired by a recipe and choose to share it or modify it and use it, I will give credit to that site or person.
• If I am offered any free products or equipment due to my blog, I will NOT promise to endorse anything just because it was given to me. (I will, however accept free products!) 🙂
• I will do my best to reply to all questions and comments.
• I have been in the foodservice field for 50 years and have quite a bit knowledge about food, food businesses and food sales. Feel free to each out to me if I can answer any questions you may have pertaining to these fields. If I cannot answer your question, I know many other experts in these fields including restaurant owners and managers and people in the food distribution business that I could reach out to. My brother Steve has been a very well respected Executive Chef of a country club in Bonita Springs, Fl. for 18 plus years and I love to pick his brain!
• In the future, I may have polls, Q & A sessions, etc. and I plan to do a piece about a local farm soon.

What would I like from you, the reader?

• If you like my site, please like, share, follow, comment and tell your friends!
• I would like honest feedback, but please keep comments clean. Be considerate and respectful and please refrain from demeaning, discriminatory or harassing behavior. If you wouldn’t say it to your own Mother, please don’t say it to me!
• Ask questions – There’s no such thing as a stupid question!
• Feel free to hit me up with topics for discussion or story ideas.
• All photos in my gallery were taken by me and are copyrighted by publishing. Please do not use or copy without my permission.
• Again, please just bear with me as I am still learning on the fly!

“Don’t start a company unless it is an obsession and something you love. If you have an exit strategy, it’s not an obsession”

Mark Cuban