Grits a YayYa

Ingredients: The Grits
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups Dixie Lily grits
1/4 lb butter
1/2 poind shredded smoked Gouda cheese

Ingredients: The Ya Ya
8 strips applewood-smoked bacon, diced
1 T minced garlic
1 T minced shallots
3 T butter
White wine
1 lb peeled and deveined jumbo shrimp
1 portabello mushroom cap, sliced
1/4 c. diced scallions
2 c. chopped fresh spinach
2 c. heavy cream
3 cups smoked Gouda cheese grits
Salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste

Directions:
First make your grits Run the chicken stock into a thick-bottomed saucepan and turn on high til it boils. Mix in the grits and stir like crazy. Reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cream if you need more liquid. Then tumble in the butter, drizzle in the rest of the cream and stire til it’s all in the family. Then shake in the shredded cheese and stir very well til it’s all nice and smooth.

Second, while your grits cook, bring a large saucepan to medium heat. Add bacon and cook for about 3 minutes, then add garlic and shallots. Saute and then add butter and a splash of wine. When the butter is half melted, add the shrimp. When the downsides of the shrimp become white, flip them and add mushrooms, scallions and the spinach. Saute for 2 minutes. Remove the shrimp. Pour heavy cream and let simmer while stirring. When reduced by one third, add salt, pepper and hot sauce. Return shrimp to the sauce and combine. Spoon the sauce and shrimp onto heaping mounds of cheese grits.

-Many Thanks to Milton Cowboy for sharing this recipe he found recently.

Chicken Pot Pie

I felt like making a Chicken Pot Pie the other day and used the easy recipe off the biscuit box and no one in my family would eat it. It looked beautiful but they thought it tasted very "pasty". I love Pot Pies so I thought I can't give up yet, I'll have to find another recipe and give it another go around.

So I looked in the first place I thought of and that's the cookbook by my Milton Cowboy friend. He has hundreds of pages of his favorite Southern, and all his other favorite, recipes. Here's the one I found under Chicken Pot Pies....

Ingredients:

8 Tbs. (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, cut into 1/2" cubes

1/2 cup all-purpose Flour

4 cups low-sodium Chicken Broth

1/2 tsp. chopped fresh Thyme

1 Bay Leaf

1/2 cup each chopped Onions, Celery, Carrots,

white button Mushrooms, and red skinned Potatoes

1 cup Chicken Meat

1/2 cup cooked fresh or frozen peas

Salt and freshly Ground Pepper, to taste

4 (6") squares Puff Pastry

1 Egg, beaten with 1 tsp. water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add flour; cook, stirring constantly, 1 -2 minutes. Slowly add broth, whisking until smooth; bring to a boil. Add thyme, bay leaf, onions, celery, carrots and mushrooms. Cook until tender about 5 minutes. Add potatoes, chicken, peas, salt and pepper. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat; cool 5 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Divide mixture among 4 ovenproof bowl; place on baking sheet. Brush pastry with egg mixture. Bush rims of bowls with water. Place pastry square on top of each bowl, pressing edges lightly. Bake until puffed amd golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let rest 5 minutes before serving.

4 Servings

Easy Pie

Ingredients:
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Flour
1 cup Milk
1 stick Butter, melted
1 can Peaches (or other favorite fruit)

In a bowl, combine sugar, flour and milk. Pour over butter, stir and press into pan. Add fruit. Cook in bottom of oven at 450 degrees until brown.

Grilled Zucchini with Mint and Red Chili

This recipe requires a little patience because it’s best to let the flavor of the zucchini develop slowly on a not-too-hot grill, rather than just char them quickly. They get a wonderful, almost fried flavor.

INGREDIENTS:
5 medium-sized zucchini (each about 1/2 pound)
1/2 cup olive oil, divided in half
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
a dozen large mint leaves, finely sliced
as much very thinly sliced red chili as you can handle
coarse salt
Preheat your grill to medium.

Cut each zucchini in half crosswise and then cut each half into 1/8" planks. In a very large bowl, toss the zucchini with 1/4 cup of the olive oil. Lay the zucchini on the grill and cook for about four minutes per side, keeping the heat moderate so you’re sweating them and not really giving them a ton of color. Turn the heat up to high and grill for about a minute more on each side to mark them. Depending on the size of your grill, this may need to be done in batches.

Remove the zucchini to a large platter. Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup olive oil with the vinegar, mint and chili (I just use the bowl I originally tossed the zucchini in). Drizzle this over the zucchini, being sure to evenly distribute the chili, sprinkle with coarse salt and serve.

SERVES: 8
TIME: 15 minutes

"Poke" With Figs

A reader's recipe for the fig jam I found under the tree.

Go down to Publix and get yourself a pork tenderloin. Be sure it is a plain one and not marinated in something.

Dry it (because it makes it brown better) Put some EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) in a pan and quickly sear the tenderloin on all sides.Remove tenderloin and set aside. Geglaze the pan with OJ (or white wine) and save.

Deglaze= heat up pan,pour in OJ in and scrape all the stuff (fond=juices/pieces of meat, etc) off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon and set aside.

Put seared tenderloin in a preheated oven and cook at 350 for a few minutes, maybe 25 (depending on how pink you like your pork).

The last few (5) minutes brush on some fig jam.

Heat the OJ and reserves (pan drippings or fond) to serve as gravy.

Remove pork from oven and let sit 5 min before slicing into medallions. Slice, plate up, and drizzle with OJ gravy.

Nice side dishes are white rice and sautéed pineapple rings.

It's really very versatile but you gotta be careful and not overcook it. Like pork chops and other pork that doesn't have alot of fat it can dry out quickly and become tough. If you pull it out of the oven and it's too pink, don't worry, just slice it and put the medallions in the pan and cook them to your desired doneness.

Pork roast, Boston butts, picnic hams and pork shoulders have so much fat you can cook them r-e-a-l slow for hours and the meat will fall apart (a.k.a. Bar-b-que) but we'll save those recipes for the 4th of July.

Bon Appetit!

Beef Stroganoff

This is the best Beef Stroganoff recipe ever, and perfect for the cold weather we've been having these days...

1-1/2 pounds Sirloin Steak, cut in 1/2 inch strips

1/4 cup Flour

1 teaspoon Salt

2 small Onions, chopped fine

1/2 pound Mushrooms, cut in pieces

1 clove Garlic, chopped fine

3 tablespoons fat

2 tablespoons Flour

1 cup Beef Bouillon (canned)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 cup Sour Cream

Large bag Egg Noodles (or Rice or Toast)

Roll steak in 1/4 cup flour and salt. Pan fry onions, mushrooms and garlic in fat for 5 minutes. Add steak and brown evenly, and then remove meat, onions, garlic and mushrooms from pan. Combine 2 tablespoons flour with drippings in the pan; add bouillon and Worcestershire sauce. Cook until thickened. Add sour cream and heat slowly until gravy simmers. Add beef and vegetables and heat through. Serve hot over noodles, rice or toast. (Note: A tart accompaniment like spiced fruit or tossed salad is good with the stroganoff.)