This is a particular favorite of ours for a holiday party. The beau monde in the dish is the secret ingredient - you can omit it, but the dish is much more tasty with it included. I got to bring a whole container of this home with me this year. Yum! This can be made with low-fat yogurt, cream cheese, milk, and mayo if preferred. Also, from my research online, it seems that both French's and Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauces are gluten-free - in the U.S., anyways.

Maryland Crab Fondue

1/2 cup plain yogurt
6 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 T mayonnaise
1 T lemon juice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. beau monde
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
2 T milk
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 lb. blue crab meat (claw meat is fine), cartilage removed
paprika for sprinkling

In a double boiler or electric fondue pot, combine all ingredients except crab meat. Stir over medium heat until cheeses melt. Gently fold in crab meat and heat thoroughly. Sprinkle with paprika. We usually transfer this to a chaffing dish for the duration of the party, but stir it once in a while so it doesn't burn. Serve with raw vegetables, crackers, or party breads. Yield: 2 1/2 cups.

I promised before Christmas that I would start sharing some of my family recipes, so here's installment number one. But first, a little back story.

Growing up, Mom was always a talented cook, but she worked a lot and thus didn't have much time to teach me how to cook. She taught me to follow a recipe, and how to make cookies, but after that I was pretty much on my own. Every holiday, however, Mom would cook up a storm, and we developed some traditional favorites that we would eat every Christmas. I never learned how to cook any of these since Mom was the one cooking and I was probably otherwise goofing off doing holiday things.

Then when I went off to college, I started to want to cook some of these dishes, but Mom was very reticent about giving them to me. "If I give you the recipe, you'll never come home for dinner!" was what she actually said. It's only been in the past five years or so that she has relented and given me the recipes for these dishes. Also, now we spend more time in the kitchen either making things together or with me writing down what she's doing, which is something I think we both wish she and I had done with Granny while she was still alive, since Granny never wrote anything down.

Last year, Mom gave me the recipes for most of our holiday dishes. I decided to keep them private for a year out of respect for family tradition, but now I'm making them public. I hope that you enjoy them as much as we have. And hopefully Mom won't kill me for posting them on my blog. :)

Shrimp in a Pickle
This is actually a recipe from a dear family friend, but we've adopted it as our own. Makes 10 servings.

2.5 quarts water
3 lbs. unpeeled large fresh shrimp
5 small red onions, thinly sliced
8 bay leaves
1 (3.5 oz) bottle capers, drained
1 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup tarragon vinegar
1 T sugar
2 T fresh lemon juice
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. hot sauce
1/4 tsp. salt

Bring 2.5 quarts of water to a boil. Add shrimp and cook 3-5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Drain and rinse with cold water. Peel shrimp, leaving tails intact; devein, if desired.

Divide shrimp, onions, bay leaves, and capers evenly between two gallon-sized Ziplock bags.

Stir together olive oil and next 7 ingredients in a small bowl, and pour evenly over shrimp mixture in each bag.

Cover and chill 8 hours, rotating bags occasionally. Drain before serving.

Bizarre weather today. It was like fox wedding weather, only with snow instead of rain. It would snow shower violently for five minutes, then burst forth with bright sunshine, only to snow heavily again a few minutes later. I find that photographing snow falling is nigh-on impossible.



For dinner, I made an old recipe that my Dad invented which I haven't made in a very, very long time. I'm going to call them Copeland "Fajitas" because they are almost, but not quite, entirely unlike fajitas. Even back in high school, it was pretty difficult to find anything like authentic Mexican food anywhere. That's my excuse. It actually has more resemblance to some of the Indian food I make nowadays than to anything Mexican. I still like it, but it may not translate to other folks. All amounts are approximate, since I wrote the recipe down without many amounts about, er, 20 years ago.

Copeland "Fajitas"
Brown 2 cloves of garlic and 1/2 large thinly sliced onion in olive oil with a dash of Worcestershire sauce and a dash of soy sauce. I usually add a sliced bell pepper or two here, one green and one yellow or red. Remove from frying pan. Brown 2 thinly sliced chicken breasts in the pan. After browning, add salt and wine vinegar, steam until chicken is cooked. Once vinegar has reduced, add a little more olive oil and brown the chicken again. [I'm sure there's some way to streamline this process, but that's what it says...] Add gravy and spices as below. Cook til gravy thickens and chicken gets the flavor. Serve with flour tortillas [or, in my gluten-free case, over rice.]

Gravy:
1 lg. can of tomatoes
1 fresh tomato, quartered
1 jalapeno
handful of fresh parsley
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
dollop of Heinz Chili sauce
dollop of peanut butter - but don't overdo this, may want to stick to 1 tsp.
blend to mix

Spices (approximate):
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder
splash Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

Pretty bizarre fajitas, huh? Still, I thought they were yummy.

I went to my friends Mitch & Beth's house yesterday afternoon for a nice pot-luck barbecue. There was lots of good food there, including Mitch's famous ribs, which I was *very*, *very* good to have avoided eating.  That took some will power. I neglected to take my camera, so I don't have any pictures, but the three things I brought went over very well.

This recipe for BBQ Shrimp was very yummy. I also got a nice compliment from Mitch, who is a professional chef/restaurant manager, that I had them skewered very well. I put one skewer through the head part of the shrimp and one through the end near the tail, and then alternated with the next shrimp and so forth. It was a pain to do, but made them easy to work with on the grill.

In addition, I made my guacamole, which isn't as good as Mitch's, but is pretty good in its own right.

Guacamole Copeland
3 avocados
lime juice
cumin
Tobasco
chili pepper
salt
salsa

For two of the avocados, cut them in half, take out the pits, put them in a bowl and mash them into a pulp with a fork. For the third avocado, cut it in half and do the same as the above for one half. Hold onto the other half.  Add to taste approximately 1 tsp. cumin, 1 tsp. chili pepper, 1/4 tsp. salt, and several good shakes of Tobasco. Add a good squirt of lime juice (maybe 1/2 lime worth). Also add two tablespoons of salsa. Stir well.  With the remaining avocado half, score it vertically and horizontally into cubes like you would a mango, then turn the skin inside out to deposit the chunks into the mixture. Stir well. Refrigerate.


Lastly, I made some vegetable skewers with mushrooms, cubed eggplant, zucchini slices and baby corn from a can, marinated in my Salad Dressing Copeland mixture. The baby corn turned out really well, as did the mushrooms, but I think I needed to have marinated it longer for the eggplant and zucchini. Or something.

In any case, things generally turned out well and I have leftover ingredients which I can stir fry this week. Yum!

I am now thoroughly addicted to the lentil dahl that hsarik introduced me to, so I made some more of it this weekend. As an accompaniment, I decided to make Crazy Bean Salad, a bean- and olive-based vinaigrette salad that originated with something Mom threw together for my high school graduation picnic and that I've taken and run with over the years.




Crazy Bean Salad

Crazy Bean Salad Recipe
1 can light red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can medium black olives, drained
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1 tomato, diced
salad dressing Copeland (see below)
feta cheese (optional)
capers (optional)

Sometimes in the summer I'll take fresh corn, cook it, and slice it off the cob and use that in the salad.

Salad Dressing Copeland Recipe
1/3 cup olive oil
1/6 cup white vinegar (fill up to 1/2 cup mark on liquid measuring cup)
2 dollops Grey Poupon mustard
cayenne pepper to taste
garlic salt or powder to taste
chopped fresh herbs - basil and rosemary, preferably, plus oregano, thyme, whatever you have


This was the end result this weekend. The dahl looks better than it did last time. It's not like I really needed more beans with all those lentils, but oh well - it's good fiber!

So my friend Michael is having a New Year's Thingy tomorrow where he's making traditional southern black-eyed peas, collards, and corn bread. I honestly did not steal this idea from him but had already bought everything to make the exact same meal for myself for New Year's. So I decided to go ahead and make it for myself today, and just eat more of it over at Michael's tomorrow.

I used this recipe for the black-eyed peas. I also got to use my brand new 5-quart crock pot that Mom and Mel gave me for Christmas, which was really what inspired this whole idea in the first place.




The beans smell really good so far.

For the corn bread, I used the "Uncle Charlie's Cornbread" recipe out of my favorite southern cookbook, White Trash Cooking.



Next time I'll use half buttermilk and half regular milk - all buttermilk is a bit too strong.

I'm going to my friends Rob and Laura's tonight for a late meal and a midnight toast. I'm bringing Salmon Spread, a family recipe that we got from who knows where:

Salmon Spread
14.5 oz can pink salmon, skin and bones removed, flaked with a fork
8 oz package of cream cheese, left out of fridge for a while so it's meltier (that's a technical term)
1 Tbsp horseradish
Worcestershire sauce
celery seed
garlic powder
salt

I'm not sure of the measurements on those last bits, I just sort of throw stuff in until it looks right. I usually put pecans in as well, but since our host is allergic, I left them out this time.



The end result.

I hope everyone has a lovely New Year!

I had an awesome Thanksgiving. I've never been so overbooked for Thanksgiving before, or had so many delightful treats! Here's a picture gallery of the day:




I'm trying to remember all the goodies I sampled, although I know my list will be incomplete:

turkey (of course)
pork loin
bacon-wrapped scallops
bacon-wrapped BBQ shrimp
chorizo-stuffed mushrooms
two kinds of home-made salsa
a tepanade-type thing made of cranberries, sweet potatoes, pomegranates, and I have no idea what
three kinds of stuffing - turkey-based, sausage-based, and mushroom based
ahi salmon with avocado-wasabi sauce
pate with caramelized onions
mashed potatoes (with skins)
potatoes au gratin with cheese and mushrooms and stuff
polenta casserole
broccoli casserole
stuffed olives
sweet potato pie
blondies and cookies

I really tried to only have a teensy bit of everything I tried, but it certainly added up.

Here were my contributions to the day:



Apple Crisp and Horseradish Beet Casserole

My oven doesn't seem to brown things very well - I may have an element out. It didn't seem to hurt the flavor any, though.

My mother will probably shoot me for giving out secret family recipes, but I'm going to brave her wrath and post the following one anyways. The horseradish beets recipe is something that we used to make every year for the holidays. You'll either love them or hate them depending on how you feel about beets. I usually make twice the recipe.

Horseradish Beet Casserole

1 lb. can of tiny beets (or regular beets, in which case you'll need to cut them up.)
Drain beets and save the liquid. Add enough water to make 1 cup.
2 T butter, melted in saucepan
2 T flour - add to butter, stir til blended.
Add beet liquid, cook until thickened, stirring constantly - an egg-beater is optimal.
Then add 2 T brown sugar, 1 tsp salt, and 1 1/2 T horseradish.
Add drained beets, place in buttered casserole dish
Cover with buttered croutons, bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes or until the crumbs are brown.


This next recipe I got from a friend at church. I've also done peach crunch and blueberry crunch - they all turn out well.

Apple Crisp

For the crumb topping, mix together:
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter
1 cup oatmeal
Pare and slice 8-10 Granny Smith apples into a buttered 9x13 pan. Sprinkle the following over the apples:
1/2 cup water
Mixture of 2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1 T sugar
Crumb topping as prepared above.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes

I hope everyone had as good a Thanksgiving as I did this year! Thanks to the hosts/hostesses and the friends who joined in. :)

"I love the holiday season. See you in spring, toes!"
- Homer Simpson

I got this Beef Stew recipe from What's Cooking with Kim O'Donnel on www.washingtonpost.com. It was posted in November of 2002, but it doesn't seem to be on the site anymore. I don't want to violate any copyrights, but here's the recipe (at least the variation that I made):

Marinade:
1.5 - 2 lbs stew beef
a few cloves of smashed garlic
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 medium onion, sliced thin
3-5 T red wine
1/4 cup olive oil
1 bay leaf

Marinate 24 hours. Extract meat from marinade and pat dry with a paper towel. Retain onions from marinade.

Stew:

Olive oil
A few T of flour
1 bay leaf
4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme
At least 2 cups beef stock
red wine
5-6 canned whole tomatoes
2 dozen peeled pearl onions (blanch for 1 minute to remove skin easily)
1/2 lb. mushrooms, quartered and sauteed with thyme and wine vinegar
1 small rutabaga, peeled and diced
salt and pepper

Heat a heavy-bottomed pot and coat the bottom surface with olive oil. With a tong, add meat in batches and sear on both sides, allowing it to carmelize and brown. Remove and set aside.

With a wooden spoon, deglaze, by scraping the bits of meat from pot, adding a small amount of beef stock and stir. Add a few tablespoons of flour to create an informal roux. Bring up to a simmer and return meat to pot. Add tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme sprigs, marinade onions, plus stock and wine. Liquid amount should just cover the meat.

Bring pot to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cover. Check on stew every 15-20 minutes and cook until fork-tender, a minimum of 90 minutes and possibly more than 2 hours. Add sauteed mushrooms, pearl onions and rutabaga at least 30 minutes prior to end. Seasoon with salt and pepper to taste.

Here's the end product, along with some good farmer's market whole wheat bread, some leftover apple crisp I made earlier this week, and a glass of the Smoking Loon Cabernet that I used for the red wine in this recipe:



And boy, was it guuuuud! It was a little more soupy than stewy, so I probably should have made more roux. But in general, it doesn't suck.