Monday, June 30, 2008

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.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

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.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

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.

Sunday, June 22, 2008

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.