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I have been wanting to make this recipe for a very long time.  We’ve lived in Nashville for 9 years.  Probably year 3, I cut this recipe out of the Tennessean.  About year 5 ago, a friend brought me a jar of pepper jelly.  Well, yesterday and today, I finally did it.  

The recipe was put into the paper by the Nashville Jam Company.  I’m not going to say they lied a little, but there is no way you can get 3-4 dozen cookies 1” thick X 3” round out of this recipe.  I got 44 cookies about 1 1/4” in diameter and 1/4” thick.  I’d recommend you make a dozen to 1 1/2 dozen at most.  They want you to buy them there.  Also I think I will play with the flour to ground pecan ratio.  For some reason the cookie tastes floury.  Maybe 1 C pecans ground and 1 C flour.  

At 3 dozen the cookies are 4 WW pts.  That would double at 1 1/2 dozen.  An iced sugar cookie is 9, so cookies are not very WW friendly.

Ingredients:

2 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese, at room temperature

8 T unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

1/2 C finely ground pecans

1/4 t salt

1 t smoked paprika

Pepper Jelly

Directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients and sweet aside.
2. In a food processor, cream the butter and cheese until well combined.
3. Pulse the dry ingredients into the cheese mixture forming a ball.  Wrap in plastic and chill for several hours. (I did it overnight.)
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Roll dough into 8 oz. balls about the size of ping-pong balls.  Place them 1 1/2” apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a sill pad.  
6. Bake for about 8 minutes until the dough begins to spread just a tad.  
7. Remove from the oven and , using a small circular object such as the bottom of a spice bottle, press the center of each ball leaving a 1/2” indentation.  the cookies should flatten to about 1” think and about 3” in diameter.  Fill the indentation with up to a teaspoon of pepper jelly.
8. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate cookie sheet 180 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned. (Sometimes this takes up to 30 minutes due to climate.  
9. Cool on cookie sheet for 1-2 minutes before transferring to wire rack to completely cool.  
10. Finish with a small sprinkle of smoked paprika.  

Friday I started my Sunday cooking, so dinner was easy, sautéed Salmon and a salad.  Our friends are coming over Sunday and hopefully if the weather cooperate, we can swim and eat.  

Anyway. I started the Apricot Pork BBQ.  This recipe from the Tennessean.  It is from a cookbook called “A Good Meal is Hard to Find: Storied Recipes from the Deep South.  It is written by a cookbook author, not a cook or chef.  There are strange paintings and made up stories to accompany each recipe.  Based on this recipe, they should have been testing the recipes.  

Ingredients:

1/2 C dark brown sugar

1 T hot paprika

1 T kosher salt

1 t ground cumin

1 t garlic powder

1 t onion powder

1 (6-7#) pork Boston butt or shoulder roast

1/2 C apricot jam

1/2 C classic barbecue sauce of your choice

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, paprika, salt, cumin, garlic powder and onion powder.  
2. Coat your roast all over with the mixture.  
3. Put the roast in a slow cooker on high, cover and cook on high for 8 hours.  (Do 10 hours.)
4. Drain the liquid from the cooker into a 4- C glass measuring cup  and allow it to settle while shredding the meat.  Remove any excess fat from the meat Remove any bones.  (This meat was very hard to shred.  I broke it in hunks, took out the big shoulder bone and the layer  of fat and put it in the refrigerator over night.  I also put the liquid which was only 1 C in the refrigerator over night.)  
5. The next morning, Saturday, I let the meat warm up a bit and with a great deal of strength shredded the meat.  With this dry method, I think I would cook it another 2 hours.  
6. Skim the fat from the reserved juices.  Pour 1 C (I only got 2 C) juice over the meat.  Toss your jam and barbecue sauce with the shredded meat.  
7. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour longer.  

Jim and I think it tastes good.  Maybe it was the quality of the meat that made it so hard to shred.   We will see what everyone thinks on Sunday. 

It is now Sunday night.  We didn't get any swim time as it rained here all day.  

The pork barbeque was delicious.  After feeding 4 we have at least 2 more nights.  

Dessert is from the Trisha Yearwood Food TV show.  It is a variation on Linzer Tort.  The recipe suggests apricot preserves, but we used blackberry jelly.  I was shocked at how good it is.  We topped it with unsweetened whipped cream.

Ingredients:

5 oz. buttery salted crackers, such as Ritz or Club (I used Ritz)

7 T unsalted butter, softened

1/4 C sugar

1 3/4 C (about 20 oz.) apricot preserves (or your favorite jam.

Barely sweetened whipped cream for serving, optional

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 35o degrees F.
2. Pulse the crackers in a food processor until very finely ground.  Add the butter and sugar and pulse until thoroughly combined.  Remove a rounded tablespoon of crumb mixture and set aside.  
3. Turn the mixture out into a 9” fluted tart pan with a removable bottoms on a cookie sheet and press evenly along the bottom and up the sides.  Bake until light golden, about 15 minutes.  Lightly press down on the crust if it has puffed up on the bottom.  
4. Spoon the preserves into the tart shell and greenly smooth to spread evenly.  Sprinkle with  reserved crumbs on tip.  
5. Bake until the jam is a shade darker and etc edges are bubbling slightly, 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely on a rack.  Serve with whipped cream.  

This is so easy and delicious, it is going to become my go to dessert for dinner parties.