One of my favorite summertime childhood memories involves my parents holding a big crab feast at the cabin. They had a large stone barbecue fireplace that they would fire up and cook the crabs in a HUGE kettle. Then they spread newspapers over the cabin’s rustic dining table and put out potato chips, soda, and all of the boiled crabs you could eat! I never ate a lot of crabs, but I enjoyed the festive feeling of everyone else pounding and cracking the shells. Me, I loaded up on potato chips and soda and I was happy that my parents didn’t pay much attention to how much I wasn’t eating.
Yummy sounding new recipe
by Mary AnneThis past Christmas I gave a crock pot and a crock pot recipe magazine to my youngest son. He had asked for them, and I was pleased that he has taken an interest in cooking and was glad to give them to him! He let me borrow the magazine to look at the recipes, and I found one that I thought I’d try this weekend. The recipe calls for chicken thighs, orange marmalade, chicken broth, teriyaki sauce, broccoli and carrots.
I’m not quite sure when I’ll be going grocery shopping next, but I’ve got all of the ingredients on the shopping list – I think it sounds yummy, don’t you? My hubby might even eat it if I promise him that there will be no onions in it!
Sweet tea
by Mary AnneOne of the things that I find interesting about living in this area is that when I go into a restaurant and order “tea” that if I don’t specifically say that I want “hot tea” that they will bring me ice tea. I don’t understand why the wait staff does not ask for clarification on that. Seems to me that if it is early in the day, say before 10am or so, that a person that orders tea would probably be more interested in hot tea than in ice tea.
Not long ago a friend of mine was going to McDonald’s for lunch and asked me if I wanted anything. She told me that they sell large “sweet tea” for one dollar. So I said, sure, I’d like that, and I gave her a dollar ten (the extra ten for tax) and when she came back with my large cup of sweetened ice tea I was quite surprised exactly how yummy that was! Whenever I order sweet ice tea anywhere else it just is not as yummy. Even if I add tons of sugar, it just is not as yummy. I wish I knew exactly how they made it; I’d try to duplicate it at home! And I wish that they had it available in a sugar-substitute form so that it was zero calorie. I’m sure I could drink a lot of this stuff, but I hate to think of the weight I’ll gain if I do!
Spice racks
by Mary AnneOne of the most frustrating thing to me about my kitchen is that I really have not been able to figure out a good location for any kitchen spice racks. I’ve read that you should not keep spices near a source of heat, and yet most of the time when I see displays of spice racks they are usually right beside or right above the stove top!
To make matters more complicated, I can’t seem to find a spice rack that actually holds most of the spices that I use. Spices come in such a variety of boxes and cans and bottles, and different sizes. I’m the kind of person that would like to have all of the spices lined up in alphabetical order so that I could find the spice that I need quickly and easily. But since they are all different sizes and shapes I can’t get them organized very well at all. I’ve heard that the world will beat a path to your door if you invent a better mouse-trap. Well, I would beat a path to the door of the person who created the perfect spice rack!
English peas
by Mary AnnePoor Paul Deen is getting a lot of snarky comments and flak recently over one of the recipes she has shared on line. Apparently the recipe is for “English peas” and basically the recipe is to take a pot, melt butter in the pot and add the peas to warm them up. A lot of people are being quite rude about the recipe because of its simplicity.
Well, first of all, let me say that I really like Paula Deen. And yes, that recipe does sound very easy. But, and this is an important but, it is different than the way I normally cook peas. I usually dump some peas in a microwave safe bowl, add a couple of splashes of water (I do not use canned peas, they are gross!) and then I cover the pan with a plate and nuke the peas for a couple of minutes, stir, nuke again.
Then I serve the peas with a slotted spoon and let each individual diner choose whether to add butter or not. Some people prefer their veggies very plain, not drowning in butter. And you know what, I don’t like cooking with butter because it burns too easily. Give Paula a break, guys!