This crockpot barbecue recipe comes straight from my sister, Jennifer, whom you might recall from stories such as this one and this one. She has agreed to teach me the Way of the Crockpot in return for showing her how to make a decent biscuit. Done and done. Take it away, Sista-Friend!

By Jennifer Rather.

Our favorite barbecue joint has a great deal for a normal family: a pound of barbecue, a few buns and a couple of sides for around $10.

Too bad I don’t have a normal family.

My family is large. Two adults and four kids (12, 7, 2 and 11 months). The youngest isn’t gnawing pulled pork quite yet, but the oldest is a 12-year-old boy, fully capable of putting down a pound of barbecue by himself.

It didn’t take me long to realize that, unless we wanted to take out a loan for barbecue, something had to change.

It was time to break out the crockpot.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

I like to imagine that if the Three Wise Men had been three Southern women, they would have come bearing three very different gifts: Something Beautiful, Something Practical and Something Edible. Maybe a handmade receiving blanket. Certainly a big tube of Boudreaux’s Butt Paste. And a basket full of warm Double-Cheddar Holiday Biscuits.

I was going to post the biscuits for Meatless Monday, but then I wouldn’t have been able to mention  just how good they are when they’re warm and filled with peppery scrambled eggs and thick-cut bacon that’s been fried to a crisp. Or country ham and a few spoonfuls of redeye gravy. Or smoked country sausage with just the right amount of kick to it.

Holy goodness.

Then again, it’s hard to imagine anything that wouldn’t be better with one of these biscuits.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

If you’re a female-type person, and you celebrate Christmas, odds are you’ve baked some sort of cranberry-orange abomination. And chucked it directly into the trash. Because most cranberry-orange recipes look good on paper but taste like you sprayed them with Glade Cran-Orange Hell.

But this Cranberry-Orange Bread with Grand Marnier Glaze tastes exactly how I wanted – sweet and moist, singing with orange sunshine and sweet-tart cranberries. More like a pound cake than a quick bread. The Grand Marnier glaze seeps deep down inside the loaf and crusts a little on top, so you get the slightest sugary crunch when you take a bite, like stepping onto fresh snow.

It’s so good.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

Oh, first day of Autumn, how I have lusted for you.

You, Bringer of Butternut. You, Siren of Cinnamon.

It’s been too long.

And, look! To welcome you back, I made this Pumpkin Bread with Pecan Streusel.

It’s dead sexy.

A bread that is so on the verge of being cake. Moist, dense, barely hanging together. The scent of it baking – all cinnamon, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg – is like breathing in Thanksgiving. And the topping? It’s a thick layer of pecans, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon. If you can resist picking it off, I bow to your willpower.

This recipe makes two loaves, so share with a friend. Or freeze one. Or eat them both, and tell no one.

I’d be the last person to judge you.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

When I talk about how I became a professional baker, there are certain things I always mention: driving by a “Help Wanted” sign in my hometown for a bakery I’d never seen before, dashing in right before they stopped taking applications, being hired on the spot as the bakery’s first pastry chef. All absolutely true. Being hired was a magical experience.

Then I had to learn how to actually do the work.

I had to learn how to make every European pastry on the menu, from croissants and kuchen to Black Forest Cake and apple strudel, before the bakery opening, which was just a few weeks away. And then I was on my own to make additional things I’d never even heard of, like bienenstich (Bee Sting Cake) and nuss schnecken (nut swirls). How did I know when something wasn’t right? My co-workers at the front of the bakery were German, so they’d tell me when something was too sweet, too flat, too puffy or generally not like Oma’s.

In great detail.

If it had been possible to die of constant criticism, you could have tagged my toe during those first few weeks at the bakery

Continue reading: Black Olive and Sun-Dried Tomato Fougasse

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

Since I’m still entertaining the Mother of All Chest Colds, tonight’s Meatless Monday dinner was a deliciously lazy one: a bowl of red pepper and tomato soup (straight out of the box) with some Kitchen Sink Broccoli Corn Muffins.

Named because they seem to include “everything but the kitchen sink,” these muffins contain broccoli, onion, cottage cheese, butter, eggs, spices, cheddar cheese, buttermilk and corn muffin mix. Mix everything in one bowl, fill your muffin tins, and bake.

If you’re used to corn muffins that are crusty and a little heavy, like muffin-shaped cornbread, these will surprise you. They’re really light and cakey. I ate two, which probably contained more broccoli than I’d eaten during the entire second half of 2010.

No wonder I can’t get rid of this chest cold. Pass the veggies!

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

When I try to remember what I’ve been doing since Monday, it’s just this woozy blur of cold meds, Kleenex and canned chicken noodle soup. Shots of Robitussin. Sleeping upright. Trying to remember if that pile of clothes next to the bed is what I wore yesterday or what I was planning on wearing today.

You know, living like a total sex goddess.

This morning, I woke up feeling much, much better – like a human, even! – and I’m crediting a strict afternoon regimen of tea and Bananas Foster Bread. (And lots and lots of medication.)

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

When I was a kid, I read so many books that I’d have to write down the characters’ names on an index card and use the card as my bookmark, so I wouldn’t get mixed up as I went from book to book. I loved spending hours getting lost in a story, not moving a muscle except to turn the pages until Mom called me to dinner.

I loved reading books until I started chasing a master’s degree in English. By the time I claimed my diploma, I didn’t want to read another thing. Not a book, not a magazine, not the back of a cereal box. And my mother’s a librarian. FOR SHAME!

This summer, I’m determined to reclaim that Inner Bookworm and read something good. Enjoy the process, even. And I’ve already got a head start.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

For lo these past 16 months, some of our neighbors have given us odd looks and not really said much.

Actually, I’ve been OK with that, especially since the day I saw a few of the men in their backyard hunting for something. With guns. In a fenced-in backyard spanning less than an acre of manicured grass and concrete lawn cherubs.

Bang! Bang!

So, we didn’t think they were quite right. And it turns out, they’ve felt the same way about us.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.

Biscuits require a little finesse, but cornbread is wonderfully forgiving and practically foolproof.

It’s also cheap, which is why many Southerners have made many meals off cornbread and greens, cornbread and beans, and cornbread crumbled in milk or buttermilk.

There’s no real trick to it – make the batter, melt some butter in your cast-iron skillet, pour the melted butter into the batter, and pour the batter into the skillet –but the cornmeal matters.

Continue reading: Sour Milk Cornbread. A favorite of Scott Peacock and Miss Lewis.

© 2011 Rebecca Crump. All rights reserved.