12/18/2017 – Mary made this using the broth and meat from the carcass of the turkey I dry “fried” yesterday in the Big Easy. After everyone left, I boiled the carcass that had a little meat left on it and before the cook had been rubbed with the Creole Seasoning. This gumbo turned out great and far better than any we have ever made. Froze some and took to the farm over the holidays. It warmed up great. Continue reading
This seasoning blend was inspired by the one on page 93 of Kit Whol’s book New Orleans Classic Gumbos and Soups. We first made and used it on a turkey “fried” in the Big Easy for the Christmas Family Gift Exchange in Houston on 12/17/2017. We also use it on a chicken to be like rotisserie chicken that is Olivia’s favorite. It uses the red, black, white peppers, and paprika for a fairly high level of peppers in relation to the traditional poultry seasoning. This is the one where we make large quantities and stored it in canning jars so there is always some available.
Continue reading12/16/2017 – Made this for the first time for the 2017 Texas Family Christmas Gift exchange. It did not crack like the recipe that was the inspiration for this cook here. It was good although not as moist as I would have liked. Froze quarters and took to the farm. There it was ok but not that tasty and quite firm to almost dry.
12/16/2017 – We made this for the 2017 Texas Christmas Family meal. It turned out very rich and everyone seemed to pick up a piece so when Monday morning came around there was not much left to have with coffee. Continue reading
Mary bought an 18 lb. ButterBall turkey on Thursday before the Sunday event. This cook used our version of a creole style poultry seasoning blend in one of Kit Whol’s books we have. Although we doubled the amount of sage, rosemary, and thyme from what she cited. Everyone was very complimentary of the turkey. It did turn out well. Continue reading
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup water
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon grease, plus more, as needed
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt. In a second large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, water, eggs and sugar. Add the buttermilk mixture into the flour and stir until just combined.
In a cast iron skillet, heat the oil over medium heat until just barely shimmering. Spoon 1/4 cup of the batter in the skillet, repeating with as much room as your skillet provides. Cook until you see bubbles form all over the surface of the cake. Flip the cake and continue cooking until soft and fluffy, and the center is completely cooked through. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter, adding more oil as needed.
Serve hot.
About the recipe
These flat griddle cakes are so versatile. They can be eaten with a drizzle of maple syrup or honey for breakfast or topped with barbecued pork shoulder as a starch component for dinner. The key is not to overwork the batter — you don’t want to make them tough.
From https://www.southernkitchen.com/recipes/appetizer/corn-johnnycakes
January 2017 – Mary used it for the girls on chicken fried and roasted. Olivia now always wants chicken. Of course, she has always asks for more chicken. Continue reading
12/9/2017 – Molina’s Cantina, the oldest and one of the best Tex-Mex Restaurant in Houston, shared their famous Chili Con Carne recipe. This turned out great and got even better when warmed up a few days later. Unusual for us with no onions and no beans. The Ancho dried chiles made all the difference. Continue reading
INGREDIENTS for 4 pints:
- 6½ pounds apples, peeled, cored and sliced (I used a combination of Granny Smith, Fuji and Honeycrisp)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
- Place apples in slow cooker. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Sprinkle over the apples and stir gently to combine. Cook on low for 10 hours.
- Stir in vanilla extract, breaking up any large chunks of apples that remain. Cover and cook for an additional 2 hours.
- Remove cover and use an immersion blender to puree the apple butter until completely smooth. (Alternately, you could puree in batches in a food processor or regular blender.) If you want the apple butter thicker, you can continue to cook it on low with the lid of the slow cooker slightly ajar so that steam can escape.
- Allow the mixture to cool, then spoon into jars and store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 2 months.
Using bread that is getting stake leave it out on the counter for a day or two to get hard.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons Simon & Garfunkel Spice Blend & Baste or NEW: All-Purpose Italian Spice Blend Try Creole Seasoning.
1 cup freshly grated breadcrumbs
Do this
1) Take the dried bread and break it into golfball size chunks. Whenever I do this in the kitchen I get yelled at for making the floor crunchy, so now I do this outdoors where the birds can benefit from my clumsiness. One cold day I put the hard bread in a paper bag and smashed it with a rolling pin. This is a very effective technique. The big chunks then go into the blender or food processor and are pulsed until they are about the size of kosher salt.
2) Run the crumbs through a colander, not a strainer, into a bowl so large bits are left behind. Pulse the left behinds. Now measure out 1 cup quantities and store them in zipper bags in the freezer. They stay fresh longer in the cold, and then you can season each bag however you like.