Pepper in recipes.

When you are preparing a recipe and want to double it, always remember, that you do not double the pepper ingredient.  Pepper seems to infuse your food quicker, and if you double it, the recipe will be too spicy!  Just an observation...Bon Appetit!

Pan Sauteed Tilapia

Last night I had to come up with a quick meal that was good look'in for spur of the moment company!

I quickly defrosted pre-packed Tilapia fish filets that took about 30 minutes or less.

I melted 1/2 block of butter in a frying pan and added chopped green onions and minced garlic and sauteed it on medium high.  I then seasoned the fish filets with the Roux Creole and Cajun seasoning mix on page 58.

I browned the tilapia with dashes of lemon juice on a high fire using two spatulas to turn the fish so it wouldn't break up.  I added 1/2 cup of water, covered it and let it steam for about five minutes.

Uncovered it and it was similiar to blackened Fish!  It was absolutely delicious!

While that was steaming, I cleaned two large brocolli bunches, placed them in a covered pyrex dish and "nuked" them for 10 minutes with 3/4 cup of water...poured off the water, seasoned with Kosher salt and cracked melange peppers and dollops of butter.

I cut up a french bread we just happened to have...found a bottle of wine...and voila...company arrived and the table had been set.  Bon Appetit 

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Heat oven to 375 degrees

Ingredients

2 lbs of ground meat
1 egg
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
1 can of tomato paste
1 can of tomato sauce
1 can of cut tomatoes
l large can of whole tomatoes
1 large onion
1/2 green bell pepper
4 green onion tops chopped
1/2 cup of dehydrated seasoning blend (p. 58, in Roux)
4 toes of garlic
Salt and pepper
Chopped basil
Bay leaves

Instructions

First step:

Season ground meat with salt and pepper, mix with egg and 1/4 cup of bread crumbs.
Form into meatballs and place in a baking pan.  Cover with water half way up; bake in a 375 degree oven for 40 minutes.  (The water will evaporate and the meat balls will brown.)

Second step:

While the meatballs are in the oven,
Saute in a large dutch oven tomato paste, garlic, onions, green onion tops and bell pepper until the paste is light brown.
Add  tomato sauce, stir and then add cut and whole tomatoes.
Add about 3 cups of hot water, sprinkle with basil, add two or three Bay leaves, stir and simmer for at least a half hour on a low fire, then add meatballs and simmer another 1/2 hour.

When the meatballs are done, remove from oven and place in the sauce.

Serve over hot spaghetti with french bread.

Bon Appetit.

Oven Grilled Veggies

Choose one of the following to make this recipe.  Fresh asparagus, green beans or cauliflower.

Ingredients:
Fresh cleaned vegetables
Olive oil
Coarsely ground black pepper
Kosher salt
Lemon juice

Heat over to 350 degrees.

In a large mixing bowl, place cleaned vegetables.

Toss with olive oil, kosher salt, coarse black pepper and minced garlic.

Place on a lined olive oiled cookie sheet; drizzle more olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice on the vegetables.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove and serve in a covered dish.

A variation can be prepared by wrapping  green beans and/or aspargus with prosciutti after they have been tossed in the olive oil and seasonings.  Place them on the cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.  Bon Appetit

Lemon Chicken with Capers

Layered chicken prepared for the oven!

Ingredients:

10 chicken breasts
2 or 3 tablespoons of minced garlic
2 lemons sliced
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Capers
Salt
Pepper
Paprika

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
In a covered dutch oven greased with olive oil place one layer of chicken breasts, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt, pepper and paprika, sprinkle with minced garlic, place lemon slices and capers on top; repeat this layer until you have two or three layers ending with lemon slices and capers.  Sprinkle with fresh lemon juice.

Place in the oven covered for one hour.  Bon Appetit!

Lemon Chicken with capers!

New Years Day Ambrosia

Everyone has traditonal food or foods that they serve their families on New Year's Day...in my family the tradition is "Pot" Roast with rice and gravy, Cabbage Rolls (page 19 of Roux), Black Eyed Peas (page 11) and for dessert, Ambrosia (page 39). Here is the recipe below for you, but, please buy my little cookbook to keep our little kitchen in spices and seasonings. Bon Appetit!

(New Orleans) Ambrosia

5 blood or navel oranges, peeled, slices cut in half

1 bag of shredded coconut, sweetened

1 jar of maraschino cherries with juice

granulated sugar

In a large decorative glass serving bowl (punch or morning serving bowl), place a layer of cut orange slices, cover the oranges with one heaping tablespoon of sugar, then cover this layer with a handful of shredded coconut; place several cherries on top of this layer. Repeat this order until the bowl is full. The last layer should be coconut and cherries. Drizzle the cherry juice on the completed layers.  Chill several hours.

Girard Park

We lived less than four blocks from Girard Park in Lafayette, Louisiana.

Daddy and mama would bring everything in the old Chevy station wagon; the coals, chicken, potato salad, a large ice chest full of soft drinks, quilts; just about anything you needed for a picnic.

And if anything was forgotten, we, as a gaggle of children, would walk home to get whatever was forgotten.

In the 50's and 60's almost everyone would have a picnic in Girard park at least once a month.

We children would have the baseball and bat ready to walk to the park just for the fun of it! Not stepping, of course, on any of the cracks in the sidewalk!

So the other day I was digging through some old recipes and found this one that my daddy had handwritten for a barbecue sauce.  Now, I have never tried it, but I thought it was worthy of having as a memory.

Jimmy's Barbecue Sauce

Simmer together for 5 minutes

1 can (8 oz) tomato sauce

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup butter

2 teaspoons of sugar

2 teaspoons of salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon of instant coffee