PLEASE READ THIS

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If you have come to my site here sometime in July and if this blog has no postings for awhile, it is because I am unable to publish at this site. I am lucky to have been able to post this today.
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This is due to changing my sign-in name and password AND therefore cannot get into my blog. If this happens it will be rather obvious and an unfortunate happening for me. Hopefully I can get back in and continue posting to my blog.
For now I can give you the LENS where I will post the NEW ADDRESS which is http://www.squidoo.com/coastingalong
OR you can contact me at coastingalong@ezanga.com with Granny's Tasties in SUBJECT.

Shrimp Season is now open on the Gulf Coast

I am certainly looking forward to this summer with the shrimp season opening. I understand they will be pricey due to the increase of cost of fuel but the shrimp will still be a great item for summer salads, cold shrimp, fried shrimp and casseroles. I found something interesting on how to prepare the jumbo shrimp over at SEASONED WITH ABANDON. The recipe suggests cooking the shrimp in less time so as not to become tough and then stuffing the shrimp using crab meat. Here is the recipe:

Crab-Stuffed Shrimp
Serve 4 shrimp as an entree, or 1-2 as an appetizer.
For stuffing
1 cup chopped mushrooms (about 1/4 pound)
3 tablespoons minced shallots
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 cloves)
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley leaves
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 pound lump crabmeat, picked over
1/8 cup minced ham or prosciutto
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/4 cup white wine
24 Ritz crackers, crushed into coarse crumbs
For Shrimp:
16 jumbo shrimp (about 2 pounds), shelled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Garnish: chopped fresh parsley leaves
Accompaniment: lemon wedges
Preheat oven to 375°F. and butter a large baking dish.
Make stuffing:In a large heavy skillet cook mushrooms, shallots, garlic, and parsley in butter over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and liquid mushrooms gives off is evaporated. Add ham and crabmeat and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, 3 minutes. Stir in broth, wine, parmesan and cracker crumbs and remove skillet from heat. Mixture should be fairly moist.
Butterfly shrimp by cutting lengthwise along inside curve, almost completely through. Split open shrimp and devein. Mound about 2 tablespoons stuffing onto each shrimp, pressing gently, and put shrimp, stuffed sides up, in baking dish. Melt butter and drizzle over shrimp. Add a small amount of wine or broth to the pan. Sprinkle shrimp with paprika and bake 20 minutes, or until stuffing is golden.
Garnish shrimp with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.
This is fantastic and will make a great meal along with salad and maybe a baked potato. What I like about it is there is no rich cream sauce and it is baked versus a fried shrimp platter.
Here is an idea for using summer squash in a casserole. I cannot find where it was posted but here is the recipe without any quantities.
My mom slices the yellow squash, puts sliced fresh tomatoes on top, and then sliced sharp cheddar cheese slices on top of that. Bake till veggies are tender. I'm sure you could use different cheese, too, but there's just something about cheddar cheese and tomatoes. Can't get much easier than this. I definitely want to make this even if in a small quantity.

To All Cookbook Collectors

Here is something you may just like to have if you collect cookbooks or really use it for all your books. It is a software where you catalog all your books. Really fascinating. It is called http://www.bolidesoft.com/allmybooks.html "ALL MY BOOKS". A must-have program for every book collector and book lover! Get your book collection organized! This was taken from the website where you can download it today--FREE. YEAH!!! Just think, you can put all your cookbooks into this file on your computer. Best part here is that you can use the internet to get all the info on a cookbook and store it there for future viewing. I know, why do you want all this on your computer. Well why not. If someone needs to know what cookbooks you have, all the information is already available and you can send your friends an email description. Anyway I have been playing with this today since I downloaded it and it is great. Course you can
also use this software to list all your other books as well. I normally do not talk much about software and computers but this is too good to pass up being that it is FREE. I hope you were able to download it.
Come over and visit my NEW FOOD LENS called "Cooking to Satisfy your Taste" . I decided to set up my food blog in another way for other foodies to visit, so I decided on Squidoo. It was fun setting it up and I tried to separate things in certain modules showing my favorite sites, cookbooks and other sources. Eventually I will add recipes and tips and ideas. Leave a comment, if you wish, as I am always open for suggestions or maybe there is something you would like to see there.

Enjoy Your Memorial Weekend!

With all the hoopla of parades, bands and cooking out, my town is having a concert in the park. Great idea to listen to some music while munching on some great food from the grill. Oh yeah, there always is a food stand where you can buy what you want but food from home sure tastes better.
What better way than to have a Twinkie or cupcake from Hostess. I found a way to make my own Twinkies over at "Top Secret Recipes" by Todd Wilbur. This is a how-to video for you to follow which is quite easy. I know it is so much easier to pick up a pack at the grocery store for your picnic. So try this some time soon. I read about even having a fried Twinkie but have not gone that far yet. But I did find a recipe for fried cheesecake bites at Chefsline.com that I sure want to try.
How about freezing green onions or fresh grown herbs? I happened upon Lunchinabox blog by Biggie where she described how to do this using empty water bottles. So simple but makes sense. Now as she says there is a time limit to keeping these items in the freezer. Sooo, it sure beats throwing this out and having them available, pronto.

Finger Licking Good

I have been all over the cooking blogs today and found some great recipes. For starters go to The PioneerWoman for some down home, finger-licking recipes. Carrot cake, oatmeal crispies, apple dumplings and fried onion strings. The latter, onion strings, I made a batch yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed them along with my hamburger sandwich. Now that I think about it, I should have put some on my hamburger. Duh! Here is the place for the PW's Fried OnionStrings recipe. Here is the site to pick up alot of her recipes. BTW, she also has a great blog for every day. Atta-a-girl.
Get a free book FROM BARILLA PASTA for 2 UPCS. I use alot of pasta so this is not too hard for me to come up with the UPCS. To redeem your free book, simply mail in two valid Barilla Piccolini UPCs with your name, phone number, email address and mailing address to: Barilla Book Offer,
557 Broadway, P.O. Box 711, New York, NY 10012.
Cookware with graduation and wedding season upon us. Retailers will be cooking up some enticing promotions. Even if you're not in the market for a graduation or nuptial gift, you can get your hands on some brand new kitchen goods, which will come in handy for all that summer entertaining. Here are two places that are offering some good deals:
- Save 40% instantly on kitchen & home from CircuitCity.com
- Special offers on small appliances from BestBuy.com

Happy Mother's Day to All

This is the REALLY BIG weekend to celebrate your Mom. Everyone has a reason and mine is as follows: Thanks Mom for how to cope with all the tricks of life that can come along. You were a good example to follow. I have learned to live my life each day as it comes.
Many of the cooking blogs/sites are giving ideas for what to do/give on Mother's Day. Whatever you decide to do, Mom will appreciate the thought. The best gift for me was to go out to eat being as I cooked for 6 people each and everyday. This was a great treat to be waited upon especially for a meal I would not normally prepare. I usually got to choose where to go, as well.
I came across a new cooking blog today at "Cooking Light" called "OUR TABLE". Lots of interesting foods to peruse thru. What I like about the magazine itself, is that there is a different take on cooking more healthy meals. Cooking for 2 makes a big difference as well. On the home page for "Cooking Light" look for the ad for 2 free issues(down at the bottom of page.) If you wish you can always cancel later on. I find getting magazines this way, gives me a chance to decide if I want to subscribe to them.
I just finished baking a 'lemon pound cake' in a loaf pan from "Taste of Home". Strawberries are available again, so I planned the baking in time.
Ingredients: Loaf Lemon Pound Cake
· 2/3 cup butter-flavored shortening
· 1-1/4 cups sugar
· 2 tablespoons lemon juice
· 1 teaspoon lemon extract
· 2/3 cup milk or 1/2 c yogurt
· 2-1/4 cups cake flour *
· 1-1/4 teaspoons salt
· 1 teaspoon baking powder
· 3 eggs
· Confectioners' sugar
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in lemon juice and extract. Add milk; beat for 30 seconds. Sift cake flour, salt and baking powder; gradually add to creamed mixture. Beat on low speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Pour into a greased waxed paper-lined 9-in. x 5-in. x 3-in. loaf pan. Bake at 300° for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Remove waxed paper. Dust with confectioners' sugar.
* I used 1 3/4 c regular flour + 1/4 corn starch
** Have all your ingrediets measured and at room temperature.

Chicken, chicken and more chicken!

Chicken seems to be quite dominant on my weekly menu lately. I like chicken, mainly the breast meat, as I find many different ways to use it. Every month there is a sale at the food markets for .99/pound which is pretty good. So I usually buy a large enough package and freeze each piece individually. Sometimes the breast is rather large, so I cook the whole piece and make two meals out of it. Here is a list of meals I have made--baked as is, chicken tenders, chicken pot pie, chicken sweet and sour with rice, chicken parmesan with spaghetti and chicken nuggets. I know there are lots more but these are pretty much it. When I go out to eat, I notice I look for anything but chicken cuz I do pretty good on that at home. With the price of food going out of site, I am glad I like my own cooking. Also look at what the whole chicken can offer such as the legs and thighs as well. The thigh meat can be used for chicken pot pie or chicken salad. The legs are the legs. Not much to change there and who doesn't go for only chicken legs, breaded and baked. You may have noticed I don't mention fried chicken. True, southern fried chicken is terrific but how about all the fat. I, for one, stay away from it as far as cooking it. So all in all, chicken and all its parts can make for many different meals for one person or a family. Try some variety in your chicken meals and your family may just like it. Two sites that have some great recipes are GROUP RECIPES.COM and EONS-COOKING FOR ONE/TWO(links are to the left.)
Also, try some fish now and then. Broiled or baked filets are great with a salad and baked potato. I may have mentioned that catfish filets are our local venue. True they are not as reasonable as chicken but oh so tasty. This is one item I like to order in a restaurant. I am looking forward to us getting fresh fish markets in operation again where the fish is fresh off the boat.
Now that summer is here and fresh vegetables will be available, try cooking at home more often.