Jane Bradley says, in her book Southern Style, “This recipe, Dixie Deviled Crab, was given to me by my Great-Aunt Florence (Mrs. Blyth Noe) of Washington, North Carolina. In the early days of local T.V., Aunt Florence did a thirty-minute cooking segment on the Hospitality House show. She did this “live” four days a week! When asked how she continued to be so creative, she responded, “There are as many meal combinations as you have thoughts – there’s no end to it.” This is the easiest recipe for the most delicious deviled crab I’ve ever eaten. It can be baked in a casserole or in scallop shells as a main dish, or in clam shells as a first course. Aunt Florence prefers to use crab shells, but the health department frowns on this practice unless you are picking the crab yourself. She tells me that clam shells stay hotter longer because of their thickness. You can substitute ceramic or glass shells, available at specialty cookware stores.”
Cabbage: nutritious and inexpensive, is easily prepared. You simply need to open your mind and get past your (need I say, “childish”) pre-formed opinions about foods that you may have thought “yucky.” Here is a recipe for creamed cabbage.
From Gullah Geechee Home Cooking, Emily Meggett’s Dirty Rice recipe. One-pot rice dishes are deeply rooted in West African cooking. Dirty rice is yet another dish that is well seasoned, well cooked, and comes together in just one pot, making it an easy and sure-to-satisfy dish to serve to ten hungry people. The pork sausage adds a sweet and savory flavor, and the rice gets a nice velvety texture thanks to the fat from the pork and bacon drippings.
Note: I looked up the ingredient called Nature’s Seasons seasoning blend that Mrs. Meggett uses in her Dirty Rice: It is a Morton Salt product, 100-percent MSG-free, that is used as a low-sodium seasoning, containing a mix of onion, garlic, salt, pepper, and other natural spices.
Maggie Roland, my husband’s wonderful aunt (now deceased), with her lovely Virginia speech, had a recipe called Apple Dobbler Cake that she used to prepare for us and for her church family for special occasions. And here it is as near as I can read her recipe. If you think, “Where’s the leavening agent,” whenever you combine acidic ingredients with baking soda, it forms a “rising” event in the baking. In this case, the acid is found in the apples and also the brown sugar.
Our friend Dale Smith loaned us a recipe book titled The Spice of Veith. It has many great recipes and lots of miscellaneous instructions for “don’t eat that!” this and that formulations. We chose the Baby Wipes directions to give you this week. *It calls for “baby bath,” a tear-free cleansing bath wash and shampoo for babies. Aveeno® puts out a product for this.
DIXIE DEVILED CRAB
Recipe from
Southern Style by Jane Bradley
1 pound crabmeat
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon yellow mustard
1 jar (4 ounces) pimento, chopped, with the juice
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 large eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter for the dish
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 2) Pick any bits of shell or cartilage out of crab. Place crab in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Using a fork, mix very well. Pour into buttered casserole or shells and bake for 30 minutes or until nicely browned and a knife, when inserted in middle of casserole, comes out clean. Individual shells will cook in 20 to 25 minutes. Serve immediately. 3) I spray shells with vegetable spray for easy clean-up. You can also give filled shells a quick spray to aid in browning and to keep crab moist. NOTE: Substitute 1 pound canned crabmeat if fresh is unavailable. Serves: 4 (casserole, scallop or ceramic shells) or fills 12 clam shells.
CREAMED CABBAGE
Recipe from
PATHS OF SUNSHINE COOKBOOK
1/2 head red cabbage
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon caraway seed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 large tart green apple, cored and thinly sliced
Quarter cabbage, trim off core at point of each section; cut each quarter into 1/8-inch thick slices. Set aside. Saute onion in oil in 12- to 14-inch skillet over moderate heat about five minutes or until soft. Stir in vinegar, sugar, caraway seeds, salt and pepper. Add cabbage and apple. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to moderate. Cover and cook until cabbage just wilts, about 8 to 10 minutes, tossing oaccasionally. Serves 4.
EMILY MEGGETT’S DIRTY RICE
Recipe from Gullah Geechee Home Cooking by Emily Meggett
4 slices bacon
1 16-ounce package loose pork sausage
1 large onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
4-1/2 cups (1 liter) tepid water
1 tablespoon Nature’s Seasons
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1-1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet
(optional)
3-1/2 cups long-grain white rice, rinsed
1) In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, cook the bacon over high heat until crisp. Remove the bacon – but not the oil and drippings – from the pot and allow the bacon to cool. Once cooled, cut the bacon into small pieces and set aside. 2) Meanwhile, roll the sausage into small balls. Heat the same cooking pot and cook the sausage in the bacon drippings until browned, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and bell pepper to the sausage and saute for another 5 minutes. 3) Return the bacon to the pot and add the water. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, then add the Nature’s Seasons, crushed red pepper, soy sauce, and Kitchen Bouquet, if using. Return the mixture to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. 4) Add the rice and stir with a fork. Reduce the heat to low and cook until most of the water has been absorbed, about 30 minutes. If using a steamer, fill the bottom halfway with water, transfer the rice mixture to the top of the steamer, cover, and steam for 20 to 25 minutes, or until done.
AUNT MAGGIE’S
APPLE DOBBLER CAKE
Recipe submitted
by family of Maggie Roland
3 eggs
1-1/2 cups salad (vegetable) oil
2 cups brown sugar
3 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups chopped apples
1-1/2 cups chopped pecans
1) Mix eggs, vegetable oil, and brown sugar. Blend eggs, oil, and brown sugar well. Add flour, salt and soda. Mix well. Add vanilla, fold in chopped apples, and pecans. 2) Bake in a greased tube pan at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. 3) While cake is still hot, pour topping over the top in the pan. Let cool completely before removing from pan.
TOPPING:
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 stick (4 oz) margarine or butter
1) Combine ingredients. Cook 1-1/2 minutes until thick. 2) Pour over warm cake in the pan. Cool and serve.
BABY WIPES
Recipe from
THE SPICE OF VEITH cookbook
2 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons baby bath*
1 tablespoon baby oil
Cut one roll of Bounty (or other high-quality) paper towels in half. Remove center cardboard. Place upright in an airtight container and pour solution over it. Cover tightly; it will be ready to use in one hour. The wipes can be pulled up the center just like the store bought ones and torn off at any length.
