Instructions

In a cocktail shaker, combine booze, sugar, lemon and blackberries.

Feel free to engage in a little preliminary berry smashing with your hands-- and if you have a friend's face handy, it might be a great help in the smashing process (see below for demonstration).

Once muddled, add ice to the shaker and shake until chilled. Strain into a mason jar filled with ice (some blackberry beads will come through, that's ok!) and garnish with a fresh sprig of mint.

Instructions

Start by prepping your tomatoes-- slice each into 1/3 inch rounds. You want them thick enough not to maintain a bit of bite and NOT cave in on themselves after a minute or two at room temperature.

Place tomato slices on paper towels and sprinkle with a bit of salt-- this will both season the tomatoes AND cause some excess moisture to bleed out. After about 10 mins, pat dry.

In the meantime!: set up your breading station next to cookie sheet fitted with a rack. Mix flour, cornmeal, 1 tsp salt, garlic powder, and pepper on a plate. Then, mix egg, buttermilk, 1/2 tsp salt, and hot sauce in a small bowl. Dunk your tomato slices first in your liquid, then dredge thickly with breading-- feel free to press a bit to create as thick a layer of carbs as possible.

Place breaded tomatoes on the rack and allow to rest while you preheat your fry sitch. Add a 1/4 inch worth's of oil to a cast iron skillet and heat on high until the oil pops when you add a drop of water.

Fry your tomatoes in batches of 3 to 4 at a time-- a little less than a minute per side-- until you get a real good scald on them and they turn a lovely golden brown. Wait a bit between batches to allow the oil to come back up to temperature.

Place fried tomatoes back on the rack, and if need be, place in a 300 degree preheated oven to keep warm (but not for more than 5-10 minutes or they'll turn to mush).

'Course, mine never make it to the oven because I've eaten them all immediately...

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. If your rack ‘o’ ribs requires removal of the membrane (which is usually the case), carefully start at one end and pull away until it comes off in one strip.



Brush the ribs with oil and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. If you have it, you can also rub a few drops of liquid smoke into the meat—it’s a great cheat if you don’t have a grill or smoker.

Wrap your ribs with aluminum foil and place on a baking sheet. Roast nice and slow for a total of about 3-3.5 hours. You’ll want to brush the ribs with sauce a couple of times in the last hour.

Speaking of, now it’s time to make the BBQ sauce! This recipe is another riff on a Fannie Flagg recipe—I tend to like a little kick, so I’ve added a few spices.



In a saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the ketchup. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Take off the heat, remove the lemon wedge, and whisk in the ketchup. If need be, you can add more spices to taste.

After the ribs have roasted about 2 hours, gently unwrap them and brush both sides with sauce.



Rewrap the ribs and return to the oven to continue roasting for 30 minutes, after which you’ll brush the ribs once more. At a little over 3 hrs of baking time, check to see if the ribs are tender by inserting a fork into the middle rib and twisting slightly. The meat should pull away from the bone relatively easily.

Set your oven to a low broil and, leaving the ribs unwrapped and meat side up, let the skin crisp a bit for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the broiler and let sit, lightly wrapped to keep warm, for at least 10 minutes before cutting. Ribs can be served room temperature, with reserved sauce on the side.

Instructions

Preheat to 450 degrees. Mix the first five dry ingredients in one bowl, and the egg and buttermilk in another.



Heat the bacon grease in two 6.5 inch cast iron skillets, 1 tbsp per skillet. Mix dry and wet ingredients together and whisk until smooth.

Pour cornbread batter equally into each pre-heated skillet:



...and immediately put into oven—bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown on top and the bread passes the toothpick test (ie, stick a toothpick in the center and no raw bread gunk remains attached when you pull it out).

While cornbread is baking, whip softened butter and honey with a fork until light and fluffy and fully combined. Serve alongside hot cornbread.

Instructions

Combine the first eight ingrendients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Add several dashes of hot sauce for some extra HEAT and a smidge of salt to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve with all your fave crudite veggies.

If you need to, you can always make ahead-- just wrap very tightly in all the cellophane.

Instructions

Who knew you could use candy bars in a cake base? That's right, my gramma did.

Melt your candy bars and 1/4 cup butter in a saucepan over medium low heat, stirring constantly.

In the meantime, combine 1 cup sugar and shortening and beat until creamy. Add eggs, and continue beating until light and fluffy. Combine flour and salt in one bowl, and buttermilk and baking soda in another. Add dry ingredients to creamed mix alternately with wet ingredients. Beat well after each addition.

Stir in vanilla and candy bar mix until fully incorporated. Pour better into a greased and floured 9x9 square cake pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes until done (toothpick test!).

While your cake is baking, move on to your chocolate marshmallow frosting. Melt remaining butter, sugar, evaporated milk, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a soft boil. Add chocolate and marshmallow cream and stir until fully incorporated. Yum. yum. yum yum yum you guys. And I don't even like sweets.

Cool your frosting until thickened, and pour over your cake-- it will spread like ganache. Top with roasted peanuts and refrigerate for an hour before cutting into squares.

Did I tell you my Grandma Ruth was a baking badass? My god.