Food, Fax and Saveur Recipes

I found a point of interest today for those of you who are interested in replacing kitchenware. Houseware companies launch their fall/winter lines this month, so summer merchandise will be on sale. Not a bad idea considering how long I have had my kitchenware, pots and pans, etc.
Here is another tip if you ever need to fax information. There are two sites that you can send a fax free which is good considering I do not have a fax machine. Here are the sites-- http://www.FaxZero.com (send for free), and http://www.K7.net where you can receive faxes and voicemail for free, if you don’t mind a 206 (Washington state) fax number. As long as it is free why not use them. I went to both sites to see if there was a glitch but I did not see anything. However if anyone has used them or has a comment, please let us know.
I did receive an email today from Saveur(my favorite food mag) with two interesting food recipes.
One is for Boston Cooking School Brownies. This recipe for a gooey and rich brownie was originally published in Fannie Merritt Farmer's The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (Little, Brown, 1911).
The other is for spiced apples which make a great foundation for apple pie or strudel. Spiced Apples. Check them out if interested.
BTW, PLEASE VOTE FOR MY SITE OF GRANNY'S TASTIES2 as there is a contest going on at DivineCaroline.com. Look (here) in the top right margin for the badge and click on it to go vote. I surely would appreciate it.

Gustav passed us by!

Not alot going on today as we have been thru quite a weekend just waiting to see what Gustav was going to do. Being on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi it was just where is it going. Luckily where I live on the coast, we only got wind and rain but not flooding. Down around Gulfport it was not so good with Highway90 being flooded and further up Hwy49 bayous were overflowing causing much damage along with the wind. Anyway I am home, safe and sound and only need to go out tomorrow and pick up all the tree branches that dropped.
If you are still getting lots of squash and maybe your neighbors are still giving it to you from their gardens, here is a recipe you might want to look at for a good hot dish. About.com put out a fine recipe to try.
BTW if anyone knows of a site for purchasing decaf coffee pods for my Senseo coffee maker, please let me know. Every now and then I would like a cup of coffee and I only drink decaf. Thanks.

TWO SIMPLE IDEAS

I imagine you are going thru heat withdrawal just like alot of the country. So how about a tall glass of lemonade.
Here are the ingredients:
1 qt. water
1 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice
Put all these items in a quart container(or larger). Place a lot of ice in a few tall glasses and pour the mixture over the ice. Try to let it sit long enough to get cold. Duh!
I am making Crab Louie for supper and needed a dressing. I found this one that should do the trick.
1/3 cup mayo
2 TBSP + 2 tsp chili sauce
1 TBSP sweet relish
Mix all this together and put in refrig until ready to make salad.
Crab Louie Salad is just lots of lettuce for the base. Use a can of crab meat or fresh crab if you have it and spread this over the base of lettuce. The rest of the ingredients are what you like to add. A hard boiled egg(cut in half), cold asparagus spears, tomatoes diced or cut in quarters, and avacado-- whatever makes for a good salad. The dressing itself is a thousand island dressing drizzled over the crab and lettuce bed. The other items are placed around the outside of the salad to eat as you go along. I usually like saltines or hot french bread to go along with this salad. It is a meal entirely in itself depending, of course, on how big you make it. This salad can be found along the coastline where crab are plentiful and is a luxury. This also could be made of shrimp.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. For us they are predicting rain for the weekend to go along with all the heat.

Celebrated the big day

Here we go, another year tacked on to my life. It has been great just to see how the world is evolving what with elections coming up, the stock market up and down, food and gas prices are horrendous, and the heat index sitting in the high-90's. This could really get to anyone BUT I took a day off from all this mess and said "Thank You, Lord for another year." Not much me or you can do with the above mentioned chaos, so I took sometime out for me. I proceeded to have a lovely lunch and said "Well, now what!" which turned out to be fun. I went to my favorite casino and played many different slots for hours. Nooooo, I did not win and did not lose. That is good news. Got a free bloody mary on the house and even tho I would have liked another, I knew one was enough. Living in the South for so many years has turned out to be a joy(until hurricanes come thru) being as I love the food and seafood available all year round. Without being gushy, I have been truly blessed over the years with a lovely husband and sweet pets to enjoy. My travels have taken me all over the USA and overseas. Now I am enjoying my passion, cooking old and new recipes. Enjoy your day as I am enjoying mine.

Summer fruits and vegetables

I was visiting Slashfood.com and found two interesting items to bring up today. The first one is on blueberries. They are in season and possibly you might be able to find someplace where you can pick your own. Someone in my family went out picking and came home with twelve pounds. Now that is alot to work with but they will enjoy. Anyway this site at Slashfood lists(scroll down the page) many different ideas for using blueberries for muffins, pies, etc. You may just find something of interest to use the pickings.
Also at Slashfood-ate I browsed all the blog entries back to 2006. These articles were written by numerous people and covered a large area of food and cooking. I noted that the blogs usually refer to food sites for the topic of the day and this is how I have acquired food blogs I would never had found otherwise. Also I found if I click on the author it will show all that the person has written recently. Usually in the middle of the page there is a list of all those who write for Slashfood over the years. It is a very interesting site to peruse.
I just wondered how your gardens were doing this year. With the price of food, having your own garden would sure help cut the cost of purchasing fresh vegetables. I may have to head to the farmer's market as my neighbor's garden did not put out too much this year. BooHoo! At Slashfood I also found a list of items(scroll down on the page) for all the zucchini that is coming forth.
So Slashfood.com has given me and you great ideas for lots of recipes including those for blueberries and zucchini. Check out the site and see who is writing what.

Soup on a really hot day!!!

I know it is warm out there most everywhere but I really liked this soup. Every now and then Donna Rattray @ About.com hits on a recipe that I have been looking to make. It certainly is not hard but very filling. I thought I had saved the pic but can't find it.

Potato Soup With Country Ham and Cheese

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter
3 leeks, white only, thinly sliced
6 to 8 ounces diced country ham, or smoked ham
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups diced peeled baking potatoes
1 tablespoon fresh chopped parsley, or 1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
2 teaspoons fresh or freeze-dried chopped chives, optional
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cups half-and-half or whole milk
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
salt, to taste
Preparation:
Heat butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add sliced leeks and country ham. Sauté, stirring frequently, until leeks are tender. Add flour and stir until well blended. Add the chicken broth and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Add potatoes; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Add parsley, chives, if using, and pepper, to taste. Add half-and-half or milk and cheese; stir until cheese is melted. Taste and add salt if necessary. Serves 6.
Meanwhile stay cool.

Not alot going on---Just too hot!

Our weather here in the South is just plain miserable. I don't feel that much for cooking but rather like salads or something really easy to go along with a salad.
Today I found something at OLD Bay and made a good recipe for Crab Cakes but I chose to finish them in my small oven rather than frying them. They were just as crispy and very delicious.
Ingredients
2 slices dried bread, crusts removed
milk
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon McCormick® Parsley Flakes
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon OLD BAY® Seasoning
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 pound lump crabmeat

Directions
In a large bowl, break bread into small pieces. Moisten with milk. Add mayo, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, baking powder, OLD BAY, salt, egg and crabmeat. Mix lightly and shape into patties. If time permits, refrigerate patties 30 minutes to help keep them together when cooking.
Broil or fry until golden-brown on both sides.
I made a salad to go along with this with some hot garlic french bread.
Vegetables are coming like crazy now which helps for side dishes and salads. Zucchini and yellow squash make for good sides as well as eggplant. Green peppers and small onions make good in salads and potato salad. The small red potatoes are great in a pot of fresh green beans. So as you can see, the garden saves alot of trips to the grocery store for veggies. The tomatoes are just about ready to pick in a week or two so I have made "fried green tomatoes" which is a great hit. As far as fruit the peaches are just about thru but watermelon is always a hit.
We are right in that hot time now and look forward to fall. But the vegetables make it bearable. I hope you are near a farmer's market or maybe have your own garden to take advantage of all that is growing.

How to Substitute Salted or Unsalted Butter

Today I found the answer I have been looking for when it comes to how do you substitute unsalted butter and vice versa when baking. Note: This article was moved from Granny's Tasties #1. Here is the rule according to Chefs Cary and Kevin @ CHEFSLINE. When recipes are written with just “butter,” and do not specifiy salted or unsalted, you want always to use unsalted butter. As a general rule, most professionally developed recipes call for unsalted butter. When baking a cake, you will usually get the best results by including salt as an ingredient. If your recipe does not include salt as an ingredient, or if your recipe calls for salted butter and you are using unsalted butter, then you should add salt to your dry ingredients. Use 1/4 tsp of salt for a 1 stick of butter recipe and 1/2 tsp. of salt for a 2 stick of butter recipe. Mix the salt with your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, cornstarch – again, it depends on your recipe) and you’ll be good to go.You want to use salt in your baking for flavor, to control leavening, and generally, you just won’t get the best results on these two fronts when you bake with salted butter.
Here is more info about Chefsline and that is you can get help instantly if you are having problems while cooking. It is a 1-800 number which helps. So it seems you get recipes from great chefs and some help instantly if need be. Sign up for the weekly free email while you are there as well. Imagine! Great resource when you need it.

I have returned to the heat of the south

I had a fantastic 4th holiday and hope you did too. My consumption of food was an ongoing thing from morning til night. Naturally I am avoiding the scale cuz I really don't want to know.
Chicago has the best restaurants in the world and I managed to go to a few new ones. First off my friend served the best port wine by DOW. Now that has a fantastic flavor and so smooth.
I wanted to eat from menus that are not part of the routine here in the south. The first meal had chunks of tenderloin filet with onions, mushrooms and green peppers in a wine sauce along with a baked potato. Almost like green pepper steak but certainly a cut above that. Next meal I had a tenderloin filet and chicken breast combination plate with mashed potatoes and green beans. The finale started with a Bloody Mary with an artichoke/cheese dip as an appetizer. Then I ordered chicken linguini with cajun spices as the main meal.
As you can see I really enjoyed this trip which included lots of shopping, visiting with family and friends and certainly good food. Meeting old friends and renewing our friendships was the high-light of the trip. I have already started a list of things I want to do next time that I just did not have time for. Like a rainbow cone on Western Avenue, a SOX baseball game, getting to a musical downtown and so much more.
For now, however, memories of the past week are very vivid and certainly enjoyable.

Happy 4th, y'all

I will be out-of-town over the 4th where it will be as hot as it is right here in the south. I doubt we will be BBQing but I understand there will be fireworks. Every little town out in the burbs will be having their own party. I hope everyone enjoys the 4th their own way and make sure it will a safe one.

Give your computer a rest for a few days and clean it up. This pic should give you some ideas.

Take care, y'all.

Shrimp Season is now open on the Gulf Coast

(previous post)
I am certainly looking forward to this summer with the shrimp season opening. I understand they will be pricey due to the increase of cost of fuel but the shrimp will still be a great item for summer salads, cold shrimp, fried shrimp and casseroles. I found something interesting on how to prepare the jumbo shrimp over at SEASONED WITH ABANDON. The recipe suggests cooking the shrimp in less time so as not to become tough and then stuffing the shrimp using crab meat.
Here is the recipe:
Crab-Stuffed Shrimp
Serve 4 shrimp as an entree, or 1-2 as an appetizer.
For stuffing
1 cup chopped mushrooms (about 1/4 pound)
3 tablespoons minced shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound lump crabmeat, picked over
1/8 cup minced ham or prosciutto
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup white wine
24 Ritz crackers, crushed into coarse crumbs
For Shrimp:
16 jumbo shrimp (about 2 pounds), shelled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Garnish: chopped fresh parsley leaves
Accompaniment: lemon wedges
Preheat oven to 375°F. and butter a large baking dish.
Make stuffing:In a large heavy skillet cook mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and parsley in butter over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and liquid mushrooms gives off is evaporated.
Add ham and crabmeat and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, 3 minutes.
Stir in broth, wine, parmesan and cracker crumbs and remove skillet from heat. Mixture should be fairly moist.
Butterfly shrimp by cutting lengthwise along inside curve, almost completely through.
Split open shrimp and devein. Mound about 2 tablespoons stuffing onto each shrimp, pressing gently, and put shrimp, stuffed sides up, in baking dish.
Melt butter and drizzle over shrimp.
Add a small amount of wine or broth to the pan.
Sprinkle shrimp with paprika and bake 20 minutes, or until stuffing is golden.
Garnish shrimp with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.
This is fantastic and will make a great meal along with salad and maybe a baked potato.
What I like about it is there is no rich cream sauce and it is baked versus a fried shrimp platter.
NOTE: Here is an idea for using summer squash in a casserole. I cannot find where it was posted but here is the recipe without any quantities.
My mom slices the yellow squash, puts sliced fresh tomatoes on top, and then sliced sharp cheddar cheese slices on top of that. Bake till veggies are tender. I'm sure you could use different cheese, too, but there's just something about cheddar cheese and tomatoes. Can't get much easier than this. I definitely want to make this even if in a small quantity.

Chocolate is back!!!!

This dessert is fantastic to look at (isn't it)as well as to eat. Anything made of chocolate can only be good. The recipe title is Malted Chocolate Mousse Cakes, from "DESSERT FIRST" who adapted it from Pichet Ong's The Sweet Spot, which sounds exotic. The pictures says alot as well as looks heavenly. This is purely a company type dessert just by its appearance.

The following meal is something just great for summertime cooking. It is called "Zucchini Strand Spaghetti" from Smitten Kitchen who pulled it from Food Network's Michael Chiarello. As I commented to the chef this takes the place of spaghetti sauce and meatballs for me. It is suggested that just get the zucchini cut and cooked before adding to spaghetti as she says otherwise "it will be crunchy". It is so easy to make and can do great with a salad and hot garlic bread.
This last item is something I would never have believed but "chicken fried bacon" is served to the patrons in Sodolak's Original Country Inn in Snook, Texas. Here in the south "chicken fried steak" is a part of southern cooking in many households. The best way to describe this is to watch this video YOU TUBE showing how it is made and served pretty much the same as "chicken fried steak"(batter and gravy). "Serious Eats" had this on their blog and I just had to post it here. Wait until you watch the video.

This is it for the "FIRST ENTRY" on my new food blog. Hope you enjoyed and will try something new when you want something different.

What was old is NEW AGAIN STARTING HERE!

Welcome to Granny's Tasties #2. I am just starting a new blog due to log in problems which came about due to changing my email log in. Unless blogger can straighten out the problem and move my originial to the new log in, this will be where I will be posting to. Most of the information in the right magin will be the same as before. If you wish to find recipes or articles from #1, you can find them at GRANNY'S TASTIES ORIGINAL SITE. Even if they do straighten out the old site log in, I will continue on here being as I have gone to alot of trouble to carry over "what was to here". If you look on the right I list a site with the recipes that I have posted before prior to July 2008. I will add to that listing the address that will take you to the old postings. Otherwise everything will be sameo--sameo from before. Thanks for your patience in this transition cuz I am truly trying to keep mine.