Sweet Sausage with Squash Pasta Bake

 It may not be purdy, but it is sho 'nuff mighty tasty...

 

Today I am short on words. You are welcome. You can go right to the recipe. It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that everything about this one has been said before, and that's okay.

This in not reinventing the wheel here folks. Every household has a recipe for a dish similar to this one so I am surely not gonna tell a tale and say 'Looky at what I came up with...'

This is just how I do it, my interpretation of it and maybe similar or perhaps far different to how you do it. I don't know, you'll just have to tell me.

Enjoy my version!

Vidalia Corn Stuffed Tomato Salad

This time, I think they got it right...

Sweet Home Alabama, the reality series now airing on CMT, is not what I would consider your average matchmaking TV show, at least not at all like the Bachelor or Batchelorette.  In my somewhat biased opinion, it far exceeds what I like in this class of shows, I mean, I actually like this one, I actually can sit and watch it and feel good about the folks on it.

Like I said, I may be a bit biased. You see, it was filmed right in my backyard, well, right across Mobile Bay in Point Clear at Amanda and Robbie Bacon's bay house which will never be the same after being overrun by these high testosterone young men. The show showcases the sights and attractions of land and water in our area that we take for granted and the tone is touted as country redneck boys vs city slickers, all about courting a southern gal in the heat of the summer. And things do get hot, one chap actually leaves because of the high heat (temperature).

Peach Pepper Pecan Chutney

with cooked shrimp and
cream cheese over crackers

This chutney's kinda chummy...

Hot and spicy, most condiments like chutneys go so well with accompanying meat dishes, think curry chicken or grilled spiced lamb. It also pairs well with vegetables like southern field peas, roasted rutabagas and grilled summer squash. Some folks make certain chutneys for sweets like fried sweet fruit pies, even ice cream. Then there are some that like to use the condiment as an appetizer and served on crackers over cream cheese. However it is made, there is a chutney for just about every dish.

The classic originated from India I believe containing ingredients like onions, peppers, garlic, ginger and imported things like tamarind and mango. Nowadays, recipes for chutneys change with regions and with the seasons. Most commonly are ones made from regional fruits like apples, gooseberries, tomatoes even bananas yet all retain the characteristic quality and texture of a true Indian chutney.

Fresh Lemon Pound Cake with Glaze

Favorite Citrus Pound Cake

For some reason, I tend to enjoy cakes that have a citrus flavoring especially during the hot summer months. Add to the light, fine texture of this fruit base cake a glaze that is thick and full of flavored sunshine, and well, ya got yourself one of my favorite pound cakes I know. Moist and light, the secret is not over-beating the butter-sugar mixture and tenderly incorporating in the eggs and flour.

All around the south and all throughout the states, heck, even all over the world, lemon tends to be a favorite flavor too in so many cakes and desserts. This particular pound cake varies somewhat from kitchen to household in the ingredients used, but the lemony taste and appearance is nothing short of the ultimate essence of a true southern cake. I find small lemons to have better flavor, more juice too than the larger, pithier ones.

This is a classic I'm telling ya. Real fine. Why, it's finer than snuff and ain't half as dusty. Go ahead, get to baking and see what I mean. The cake is like going back in time, to dinner-on-the-grounds, homecoming if you know what I mean. Many folks say this glaze is the best they have had, shucks, I reckon I better stop now before you start beating down my door.

Enjoy!

Southern Lemon Pound Cake with Fresh Lemon Glaze

Cake
3 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 1/2 pound) unsalted butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
3 cups superfine sugar (also known as baker's or caster sugar)
6 large eggs
zest from 2 lemons
fruit sections from 2 small lemons and enough juice to make 1 tablespoon
1 cup whole buttermilk

Glaze
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
juice of 1 small lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 cups or more superfine sugar

Make sure everything is at room temperature! Butter is ready when a butter knife passes through effortless by just resting the blade's edge on top. Eggs can be submerged in warm tap-water for about 15 minutes to help warm them up. Lemons and shortening need to be left out of the refrigerator at least 6 hours, buttermilk at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Grease and flour the inside of a tube pan (9 1/2 or 10 inches wide). It is best to line the bottom with wax or parchment paper to prevent overcooking.

Sift together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl for the cake. Add the eggs to a medium bowl and stir together to mix.

In a mixing bowl, combine the butter and shortening beating with an electric mixer on medium-high speed about 15 seconds until smooth. Slowly add the sugar while motor is still running taking about 30 seconds to do so. Beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes until almost white. Scarpe down the sides once or twice.

Add the eggs very slowly in a steady stream beating at medium-high speed taking about 4 minutes total time. Add the lemon zest and sections with juice and decrease speed to low. Alternate adding the flour mixture with the buttermilk stirring on low speed until the batter is smooth yet just mixed together. Remove beaters and use a rubber spatula to scrape down the sides and fold the batter from the bottom upwards to incorporate all together.

Scrape the batter into the prepared tube pan and smooth out the surface. Place in the center of the oven and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Test with a toothpick by inserting it into the center of the cake and is free of moist batter. A crumb is okay. Cake should not take longer than 1 hour 50 minutes. Look for the top to be golden brown and firm when pressed with finger.

Remove from oven. Let rest for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the sides and center of the pan to loosen and invert onto a wire rack or serving plate. Remove the paper. Let rest another 5 minutes while making glaze.

Make the glaze by combining all ingredients in a medium bowl. Drizzle about half of the glaze over the top of the warm cake and use a cake spatula to even the glaze. Spread the glaze around the sides and in the center hole too. Keep adding the glaze all over the cake until all is used. Let cake cool completely and glaze harden before cutting.

This is really good served with fresh fruit or fruit flavored ice creams. Cover and store at room temperature for a couple of days or refrigerate up to a 5 days if it last that long.

Note: You can substitute your favorite citrus for the lemon if you want ~ lime, grapefruit, orange, kumquat, satuma, tangerine, mandarin, clementine, heck, what ever kind ya think.

Best Grilled Tawny Steaks with Mushroom Ragoo

 This deal actually turned out okay...

Yes siree folks, this one is sho 'nuff good eating, if I may say so myself. I got ahold of some rib-eye steaks, at a pretty good deal. Now I bought them from a reputable butcher, don't get me wrong, but the steaks weren't from your regular American grown cattle. In fact, I stood at the meat counter, standing over a dozen or so slabs of whole rib-eyes, poking my fingers all around the cryovac packaging... I guess that's when the butcher came up and asked my intentions.

It was a deal unheard of, a price just too low - $3.99 per pound. I had already check the expiration date, still a few weeks away. The one thing I did notice, all of them had very little marbling inside, almost no fat at all within the eye and trimmed pretty good with the exception of a layer of fat down around the collar. I told him of my concern, that I thought the meat to be almost too lean. He laugh and pointed to the sticker of origin- Mexico. Now, I hesitated for a moment and then thought, what's going on here, what is so wrong with that? (Of course, the 'E' word also whirled around in my head.) How many times have I enjoyed beef in Mexico? True, it was a bit stringy once, maybe not plumped all up like our over-fatten grain fed cattle, but in many cantinas and restaurants, it was some of the best I remember. I replied to him that it's all in the way you cook it, how you season it, and rather or not you use a marinade. We discussed the use of marinades, both of us agreeing that meat nowadays are bred so differently as in days past, some of the flavors we enjoy are just not there anymore. So with that, he said he would go cut me a couple (at the same price) and let me see if I liked this type of beef before I bought a whole slab. Nice guy!

Cheap cut of meat or prime cut, this marinade is one of my favorites, in fact, it is the best marinade I know in flavoring and tenderizing steaks using Tawny Port Wine. Oh, and yup, I'm heading out to buy one of those whole rib-eyes. (see afterthought below)

Chicken and Sausage Étouffée

Mouth- watering,

I'm here to tell ya...

Now you would think coming back from NOLA we would have our full of Creole or Cajun fare, but don't forget one moment where ya'll at. If you paid attention to the last rambling, you would know we did not come close to Cajun food at all... it just didn't happen. So one of the first things I set my sight on was a big ol' pot of simmering étouffée, and not just any mind ya, rural country fixins with a little city finery flung in if ya know what I mean.

Étouffée normally evokes crawfish or shrimp to most and rightly so, as it is the most popular when making this dish. But in the backwoods, out in the high country where the creek beds run slim to none on mud-bugs, folks turn to other means to get their bellies full of the same flavorful technique the bayou folks use when making the dish with shellfish. Passed along from generations, this technique is simple; using the trinity of Louisianian cookery along with a few spices. My version takes on more of a Creole flair using a darker roux than the rich, lighter Acadiana Cajun one. Some say the Creoles brought a more classical approach learned from the French when preparing dishes such as this one. I don't know about that, I just know that I like a velvety smooth base with a melded finish in bringing together chicken and sausage that is lightly browned, lightly sautéed vegetables all coming together in a rich chicken stock gravy, one bound together from a dark roux that is left over from the pan of brown meats. I'm salivating already.

Little Max in the Big Easy

Most times when folks visit New Orleans, they  head for gastronomical places like the Big 5 as I like to call them -Antoine’s, Brennan’s, Commander’s Palace, Galatoire's & K Paul’s ... oh, I know there are so many more like Broussard’s, Emeril's, Arnaud’s, the Rib Room, any of Dickie B's, Jacques-Imo, as well as my favorite hautes like the the Gumbo Shop, Central, Maspero's and Red Fish Grill.

This time, our mini vacation was about our little Max as we decided on this trip we would not leave him alone in the hotel while we enjoyed any of the 4 or 5 star eateries mentioned above. Now, he did pick his favorite hotel, the Royal Orleans. I think he gets a kick from all the fuss the doorman makes over him and the fact that everyone knows his name. So our food ventures were a limited to dog-friendly establishments which by law means outdoors as in places that serve more food than alcohol and indoors for a few of the bars (yea). He also likes this hotel 'cause it's fairly close to Riverview Park with lots and lots of green space, a rarity in the French Quarter.

AL Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo

Big, Biggest & Best

Terry Knotts holds his 25.17-pound red snapper at the weigh station for the 78th annual Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo Friday in Dauphin Island, Ala. (JOHN DAVID MERCER/Staff Photographer)

The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo is in full swing this weekend, hailed as the largest and oldest saltwater fishing tournament in the world according to the Mobile Jaycees. With Guinness Book of World Records judges on hand this year, they hope to prove it. For many of the 3,000-plus expected anglers, the weekend is a three-day competitive grind. The goal is to catch at least one big fish in any of the 31 categories that hits the leader-board, then survive the last-minute rush before the scales close at 5 p.m. Sunday.

Boiling Green & Raw Peanuts, stove-top & slow cooker

Been missing all ya'll,

and my goobers...

For you folks stopping by to visit, I welcome you and hope you find something worthy of cooking. 

For my devoted followers, friends and family, I am on vacation and this is the reason you have not heard from me in a while. I am looking forward to getting back to our routine even though this post is prewritten, I know I am missing you guys...

Now, I mentioned my sister was in town visiting on my last recipe and while she was here, I intended to do so many things in the kitchen with her... funny how time flies. One thing we did do was boil some peanuts for them to take to the beach. They departed to Florida and we left for New Orleans. Now we did not heat the house up using the below method, instead we we did it in the slow cooker. Here's how, Enjoy!

This is how we do goobers!

Blueberry Muffins with Crumble Topping

Blue is good

I can always tell when blueberries are peaking around the county, our good neighbor heads out early morn to go apickin'. Lucky for us, she always brings us back a nice batch from the patch.

Since my sister and bro-in-law are visiting, I whipped these up this morning to greet them with morning coffee. Hope you give them a try. Enjoy!

Tomato & Spinach Pie

Yummy!

Big ol' juicy tomatoes from the farmers market need a good home and I found one for them in this pie, a rendition of my Tomato Pie we enjoy from time to time.

Like many good summer vegetables, we get to enjoy fresh tomatoes only a short time around here, I mean, real fresh from the vine right from the farm, right slap-dab from Mobile county. It won't be too long from now and the vines will start to fade away from the heat which means tomatoes from foreign soils, which means storage which means not so fresh.

So while the gettin' is good, I'm enjoying fresh tomatoes the best I can. I had so many on this day, I made two pies, one for us and one for a neighbor. Sorry the rest of you missed out but I hope you try this one as we think it is really good. Enjoy!

Marinated Vegetable Salad

Cool, refreshing and mighty good

Of the many side dishes I enjoy making and eating during the summer, cold vegetable salads like this one goes great with so many meals. It was perfect for some of the barbecuing I did over the weekend. Now as you read down the list of ingredients, you might think it contains a lot and I suppose it does. In fact, with this type of salad you can add or adjust ingredients to suit your fancy using just about anything but the kitchen sink. Broccoli, cauliflower, small cherry tomatoes, light red kidney beans, any type of garden vegetable your palate desires... heck, just make it up as you empty out the cabinet and fridge.

This is really a knock-off of another version of my Three Bean Salad, only this time I've changed up vegetables using Italian green beans and purple hull peas, added some fresh things, change the vinaigrette up a bit and added a double marinade with a rinse of white wine. Enjoy!

Grill Recipes for the 4th

Easy grill recipe list: 
This is a short list for some of my favorites I just might throw on the grill this weekend:

Any one of these dogs would be great, but be sure to make my homemade hotdog chili sauce. All four recipes are from a tailgating post I did last year.


Old Fashion Slaw Dogs
Fancy Fixin' Dogs
Raging Cajun Nawlins Cheese Dog


 





My famous hot dog chili recipe





Hamburgers are always a welcome at a cookout and this one is just about the best I have made..

My Better Burger with Creole mustard & caramelized onions




Of course, I plan on having chicken at some point and either one of these will do...

a very flavorful, marinated Mojo Chicken - free of any hoodoo

Buttermilk Brine Grilled Chicken

Barbecue Hot Wings, Southern Grilled Drumsticks, Rajin' Cajun Sticks



 Certainly not going to leave out a slab of beef... not this weekend.

Chili Rubbed Grilled T-Bone Steaks

Beef Brisket with Western Style Pintos

My newest Marinate for Teriyaki Garlic Steak






and last but certainly in my book the most important - PORK!

my cookbook cover rib recipes - Rub & Mopping Sauce

my BBQ Pork Rib & Pork Rub, Bourbon Mopping Sauce & Bourbon BBQ Sauce for Pork & Ribs

succulent marinated Grilled Pork Rib Roast

don't forget the roast:


one for BBQ Pulled Pork using a butt,
or this one for a sandwich sliced from a shoulder roast

of course, there is always the easy way of cooking pork, on skewers with this Beer BBQ pork

Check out more OUTDOOR COOKING recipes on my Index Page

Well now, I guess I may not get around to cooking all of these, but I certainly am going to try at least 3 or 4. What are your plans?

What ever they are - be sure to