Search

Sass!

The Sweet and Savory Sisters!

Open Search

Turkey Gumbo

20131129-063934.jpgGrowing up our family tried not to waste any food. Money was always tight and we always had lots of mouths to feed. We always had multiple friends spending the night with us and coming over to hang out with us. Our house was where all the young people wanted to be. Not because we were cool or anything but because our mom and dad always had good food and were so generous. After Thanksgiving and Christmas Mom would always boil the turkey carcass down and make a stock. She would make a soup or stew. Our Dad would make a gumbo. This is his recipe for Turkey Gumbo.

Turkey Gumbo
What you will need-
Stock-
1 turkey carcass
3 ribs celery, cut in half
2 large onions, quartered
4 quarts water
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
2 bouillon cubes
5 bay leaves

1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 ½ cups onions, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 ½ tablespoons Cajun seasoning
1 pound andouille sausage, chopped
2 quarts Turkey Broth (Recipe follows)
2 bay leaves
Reserved turkey meat
2 ½ cups frozen okra (optional)
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
2 tablespoons green onions, chopped
Steamed white rice

Put some mumbo in your gumbo-
Take the majority of your meat off of the bones and put meat to the side.Put the turkey carcass in a large stockpot. Add the celery, onions, water, salt, peppercorns, bouillon cubes and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to medium. Simmer uncovered for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Skim any foam that forms on the surface. Remove from the heat and let cool. Strain and set aside any meat that has come off the bone and pick meat that remains on the bone. Skim fat.
Next, Combine the oil and flour in a large cast-iron pot. Cook the mixture over medium heat. Stir roux constantly with a wooden spoon for about 25 minutes. The roux needs to resemble the color of chocolate. In a bowl, season the onions, celery and garlic with Cajun seasoning. Add the vegetables to the roux and cook for 5 -7 minutes. Add the sausage and cook, for an additional 5 minutes. Slowly add the strained turkey broth and bring to a slow boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes. Add the reserved turkey meat and okra and cook for approximately 10 minutes. Add the parsley and green onions. Serve gumbo over a bed of rice with plenty of French bread for sopping.
Let’s just say it doesn’t get much better than this. This is so easy and just makes your soul feel oh so good! This gumbo is like medicine for the soul.

0

Big Bo’s Ham Bone Soup and Pimento Cheese

food pics 218 Amy: Growing up we always had baked ham for holiday meals. Around our house we tried not to waste anything. Mom would take the leftover ham and ham bone and make the best soup. The ham bone makes a wonderful broth. She would use the leftover vegetables and put them in the soup. Mom always made grilled pimento cheese sandwiches to go with the soup. It was so yummy. Feel free to use whatever vegetables you have in the freezer, fridge or pantry. This recipe is very versatile.

Big Bo’s Ham Bone Soup and Pimento Cheese

What you will need-
1 large ham bone (leftover ham, diced)
1 large onion, chopped
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic
3 dashes Worcestershire
1 14 ounce can beef broth
1 16 ounce bag frozen vegetable soup mix
1 14 ounce can corn, drained
1 14 ounce can cut green beans, drained
¼ cup rice or 1 cup pasta sea shells
Salt and pepper to taste

How to do it-
Take the leftover ham bone and remove the majority of the meat off of it. Get your soup pot out and put the ham bone in it and the ham. Add your onions, diced tomatoes, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, beef broth and enough water to completely cover the ham bone. Bring to a rapid boil and reduce heat and let simmer for 2 hours. Add the rest of the stuff and cook until pasta is cooked and vegetables are warm.

Amy: First, I need to tell you what minner cheese is. It’s nothing more than pimento cheese. Our Mom and Mrs. Paula have always called it minner cheese. Go figure! You know how sometimes a smell, taste or something you see will take you back to a part of your life? Sometimes it is a happy place and sometimes it is not. Well, this recipe always takes Suzy and me back to a very happy place, my childhood. Amy: Growing up Mama always had pimento cheese in the fridge. Being who we are, 2 girls that love them some groceries, we found all different ways to eat pimento cheese. Of course, we used it as a dip. That is just a given. We would use chips, crackers, celery or anything around the house that resembled a chip. We would eat a spoonful at the time out of the fridge. We also liked to slap it on some lite bread, add some tomatoes and bacon and grill that baby up. We would spread it on French bread and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes and melt the cheese, now that is some fine eating. Our favorite way would have to be to make a bend back and eat it dipped in our Mama’s homemade vegetable soup. We hope you get as much pleasure out of this recipe as we have. This recipe makes a heap of minner cheese but it will last a good while in the fridge.

Mom’s Minner Cheese (Pimento Cheese)

What you will need-
4 cups sharp cheddar cheese at room temperature, finely grated
3 cups Monterey jack cheese at room temperature, finely grated
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
¼ cup onion, grated
2 4 ounce jars pimento, with juice
1 cup mayonnaise (add more if you like it real mayonnaisy)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
½ teaspoon white pepper
For something a little different, add one of these-
½ cup jalapeno slices, chopped
1 4.25 oz can chopped olives
3 teaspoons capers
¾ cup toasted pecans

Let’s make some of Mama’s Minner Cheese-
We need to tell you the 411 on store-bought shredded cheese. Pre shredded cheese has a preservative added to keep it from clumping. Therefore, when you add the mayo to the cheese, it just doesn’t combine and form the right texture. Now, we do use it from time to time and it works great on a lot of different things. However, it does not work well when making pimento cheese. Also, let your cheese come to room temp before you grate it. We know we put it up there in the list of things you will need but we want to re-emphasize the importance of this step. Now that we have given you the 411 on the 911 let’s get to making the minner cheese. This is an easy one, folks. Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and serve it anyway you would like. Store your minner cheese in the fridge.
IMG_3261

0

Cheese Straws

What you need-
3 sticks butter, at room temperature
1 lb sharp cheddar cheese, room temperature and grated
4 cups all purpose flour
2-3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning (Slap ya Mama)

What to do-
Go on and heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Put your softened grated cheese and butter in the bowl of your electric mixer. Beat until the mixture has the consistency of whipped cream, this is going to take 20 to 30 minutes.

20131127-190614.jpg
In a large bowl, sift your flour twice with your Cajun seasoning. Gradually add the seasoned flour to the cheese mixture by large spoonfuls, beating well after each addition.
Lightly spray 4 cookie sheets with cooking spray. Fill the dough into a cookie press fitted with the star tube and press the dough onto a cookie sheet in long strips that run the length of the pan. Repeat until the pan is full.

20131127-190729.jpg
Bake until straws are golden brown and crisp. This will take about 20-30 minutes depending on your oven. Using your hands or a sharp knife, break or cut the long strips. Let your cheese straws cool on a wire rack. When they are completely cool, serve or store in a tightly covered container.

20131127-190826.jpg

0

Pumpkin Trifle

Amy- Suz and I do love us a trifle. When we were catering a lot of luncheons we served trifles. Trifles are so versatile. This trifle is great for the fall. It looks great in a trifle bowl and tastes even better.

Pumpkin Trifle

Stuff you need-
Pumpkin bread, cubed in bite size pieces (recipe follows or can purchase loaves)
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
16 ounces whipped cream
½ cup ginger snaps, crushed

What you need to do with the stuff-

Yummo, first thing you need to do is combine your cream cheese and sweetened condense milk. I swear I could drink this stuff. In your pretty trifle bowl layer your pumpkin bread, sweetened condensed milk mixture, whipped cream and crushed ginger snaps. End with whipped cream and sprinkle ginger snap crumbs on top.

Pumpkin Bread
Get-
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
16 ounces canned pumpkin
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup water

Make-
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray and flour 2, 9 by 5 loaf pans. Stir together sugar and oil. Stir in eggs and pumpkin. Combine dry ingredients in separate bowl. Blend dry ingredients into wet mixture, add water. Divide batter between two loaf pans and bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until done. Let stand for 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool

20131127-104346.jpg

0

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

DSC_0256 Amy- I do declare, Suz and I loves us some garlic cheese biscuits and can do some damage to a basket of these miniature bites of goodness. We fell in love with these a long time ago at Mrs. Paula’s restaurant, “The Lady and Sons”. I love how they bring the big tray around and serve you these little puffs of heaven and the hoe cakes. We would eat them until we about made ourselves sick. When we started catering lunches for businesses we made these a lot. People just love them and would always choose these for their bread. We would make these by the hundreds. You are going to love how easy these are to make and how fabulous they taste.

Garlic Cheese Biscuits

This is what you need-
2 ½ cups biscuit mix
½ stick cold butter
1- 1 1/4 cup cold milk
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, room temp
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
For the garlic butter-
½ stick real butter, melted
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch salt
Parsley flakes

Make them-
Turn that heat to 400 degrees on your oven. Cut cold butter into thin slivers. Put your biscuit mix into a medium bowl and work the cold butter into the mix with a fork. You want your mix to be crumbly when you get finished. Add your milk, cheese and garlic powder and mix it up. Get you a heaping scoop of the biscuit mix using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes or until biscuits are golden and cooked throughout. While your biscuits are baking, make your garlic butter by combining the butter, garlic powder, salt and parsley flakes. Remove biscuits from oven and brush hot biscuits with garlic butter. Don’t be dumb, get you some. Is that good or what? Got leftover biscuits? Take the biscuits and slice, butter and toast just until heated and golden. Take you a slice of Roma tomato and slap it on the biscuit. Top with some of our dill mayo and enjoy. You talk about some fine eating right there.

0

Collard Greens in Crock Pot

20131126-060027.jpg
Any greens or combination of greens can be used for this recipe. The sisters love greens of any kind. In the south it is a tradition to have greens on New Year’s Day. Greens symbolize economic fortune in the New Year. We not only eat greens on New Year’s Day but all year long. We have not been blessed with economic fortune yet but we have been blessed with so much more. Another tradition is to eat pork. Pigs symbolize progress. So we have added plenty of pork to this recipe. Happy New Years to you and we wish you all, large fortunes and progress in the New Year.

Collard Greens (Crock Pot)
You are going to need these things-
1 pound Smoked pork neck bones
5 chicken bouillon cubes
3 quarts water
2 pounds collard greens, washed, cut and stems removed
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Salt to taste
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

What you need to do-
Place the neck bones in a large pot. Add 3 quarts of water and the chicken bouillon cubes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook for one hour. Wash greens thoroughly and discard stems. Place greens, onion, garlic, salt, and vinegar in crock pot. Pour the broth and meat over the greens. Cover and cook on high until greens are tender, about 2 ½ – 3 hours. Serve with plenty of hoe cakes for sopping the pot liquor.

2

Dark Chocolate Cherry Cake

20131125-052955.jpg
You know it’s weird how sometimes you feel skinny, well after eating a piece of this cake you might feel like a busted can of biscuits. But it is ok, it’s the holidays.

What you will need-
Unsweetened cocoa
1 package chocolate fudge cake mix
½ cup sugar
1 (3.8 ounce) package French vanilla instant pudding mix
4 large eggs
¾ cup vegetable oil
½ cup water
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 (3-ounce) dark chocolate bars
½ cup coarsely chopped dried cherries
1 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Make it-
Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan, and dust with cocoa, set aside. Combine cake mix, sugar and pudding mix in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs and next four ingredients to bowl and mix at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Gradually add oil to mixture and beat for 2 minutes. Coarsely chop one chocolate bar and into batter. Next, add your cherries. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 1 hour or until a wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool completely on wire rack. Coarsely chop 1 chocolate bar. Place chopped chocolate and butter in a small bowl, set aside.Bring whipping cream to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, and immediately pour over chocolate and butter. Whisk gently until smooth. Cool glaze 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Drizzle glaze over cake. Coarsely chop remaining chocolate bar, sprinkle chopped chocolate over cake.

0

Mountain Dew Apple Cobbler

peach cobbler
Our family friend, Opal Cannon, gave us this recipe and we love it. When she first told us about it we were not so sure about using mountain dew but we were so glad we did. This dessert is inexpensive, easy and yummy. It is great with peaches or apples. Don’t forget to top it with vanilla ice cream.
Gather-
2 cans of crescent rolls, separated
2 – 3 Apples cut into 8 sections
1 cup of real butter melted
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups Mt. Dew
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Make it-
Wrap each 1/8 of apple section in crescent roll dough. Place in lightly greased baking dish. Melt butter and mix with sugar, spread over apples. Pour Mountain Dew over apples. DO NOT STIR. Sprinkle with cinnamon and chopped walnuts. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for approximately 45 minutes. Can be served with ice cream or whipped cream

0

Shrimp Etoufee

20131124-064957.jpg Son of a gun you are gonna have big fun on the Bayou with this one, Sha’! This would have to be one of the sister’s signature recipes, right here. We love to sling this dish to all of our friends, especially during the SEC football games. Hint, hint The Almighty LSU Tigers that is. This recipe is just what the doc ordered when you are feeling blue or just need to add a little spring to your step. Don’t be dumb go on and get you some. We usually serve on rice but it is also wonderful served on grits or pasta.

Everything you are going to need-
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 8 ounce can shrimp
Shrimp shells
1 onion, quartered
2 stalks celery, cut into big chunks
2 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
4-5 cups water
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 stick butter
½ cup all purpose flour
3 cups onions, chopped
1 cup bell pepper, chopped
2 ½ cups celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce
2 dashes hot sauce, or to taste
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with chilies
3 bay leaves
Salt to taste
Cayenne pepper, to taste (may omit if you don’t like it real spicy)
Cajun Seasoning to taste
3 cups shrimp stock
2 ½ pounds medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (keep shells for stock)
¼ cup chopped parsley leaves

Lots to do, so do it-
First, you need to get your stock on. Heat you 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add your shrimp shells, can shrimp with juice, onions, celery, 2 sprigs thyme and bay leaf. Cook, stirring often, until the shells are pink and the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add your water and the bouillon cubes. Give it a good ole stir, turn your heat down and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Strain and reserve the stock. In a large Dutch oven melt your butter. Slowly add flour and stir continuously to make a roux. Stir the roux over medium heat until the color of peanut butter, about 10-15 minutes. Watch closely and do not burn the roux. Toss your onions, bell peppers, celery, garlic, Worcestershire and hot sauce to the roux, and cook, stirring often, for about 10 – 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. Add the tomatoes with chilies to the pot and season with the bay leaves, salt, cayenne and Cajun seasonings. Cook for 3 minutes and then whisk in the shrimp stock. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cook the etouffee, for 40 – 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season the shrimp with Cajun Seasoning and then fold shrimp into etoufee and cook until shrimp are done. Add parsley and add seasoning if necessary. Remove bay leaf. Serve on a bed of hot white rice. Make sure you have
some French bread for your dipping pleasures.

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑