Old Kentucky Home Cooking

We’re here in Louisville for vacation and eating very well. Last night my sister made a scrumptious yellow squash casserole. We also made a roasted zucchini dish. Half of the zucchini were from m y garden. I picked them before we left and carried them across the mountains to Kentucky. They were so good.

Roast Zucchini
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 to 8 small zucchini
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons prepared pesto (my sister used Christopher Ranch, and it was very good)

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pour olive oil in a 9 by 13 baking pan, and put it in the oven to heat while preparing the zucchini. Trim zucchini and slice into 2 to 4 vertical slices. Turn them in the oil to coat. Arrange in baking dish and salt and pepper. Bake about 15 minutes. Top each slices with a dab of pesto and bake another ten minutes. Not only do these taste great, but they make the whole house smell great.

Today we had lunch at Lynne’s Paradise Café. It is one of our favorite places. My sister ordered the Fried Green Tomato BLT. She said it was THE best sandwich she has ever eaten. It was standard BLT, but instead of tomato slices there were luscious slices of fried green tomato. I wouldn’t put bacon on mine, but I do intend to try this at home.

Here’s a recipe from Paula Deen’s new cookbook Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics.

This is just her sort of recipe. Lots of mayonnaise and lots of flavor. I intend to play around with this recipe a lot.


Georgia Cracker Salad

1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 large tomato, finely chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 ½ cups mayonnaise
1 hard-boiled egg, finely chopped

Crush crackers. Mix all ingredients together and serve immediately.

Now that’s Paula’s version. I think this is even better if you add one finely chopped bell pepper. I think everything is better with some bell pepper in it.