Well, for New Year’s celebrations, we have a couple of seafood recipes for you. Seafood is so lovely when it is fresh… tasty and full-flavored. Seafood is very good for you, too. 

Betty Land’s Seafood Souffle comes from What’s Cookin’?, a wonderful publication put out by the Apopka Woman’s Club many years ago. This souffle is made of butter and eggs and milk and completed with lovely fresh seafood. It is so adaptable, you can use just about any seafood you have just freshly caught… or bought at the market. 

We have John Truby’s recipe for She-Crab Soup from A Taste of Heaven, published by First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda. This looks like a lovely treat for crab lovers.  According to the internet, Florida’s primary crab season for the prized Stone Crab runs from October 15th to May 1st, but different crabs have varied seasons, with Blue Crabs available year-round. This recipe may be a littlespicy for some. They say, “Crystal Hot Sauce is a mild-to-medium, flavorful Louisiana-style sauce with heat comparable to a fresh jalapeño.” Once you add it, you cannot omit! But you can add it in teensy doses, tasting along the way. The recipe calls for six ribs of grated celery. FYI, the primary season for all crab species is October to January when they are often at their largest and populations are highest after spawning. 

Savannah Style cookbook’s Lemon Drumsticks looks like a wonderful way to fix chicken drumsticks. If not using a broiler, this would probably work great on an outdoor grill. Watch it, though, if grilling, because sugar burns easily. Serves 12. 

Carrot Cake… Yumm. From the 1997 edition of Southern Living Annual Recipes, we have their Best Carrot Cake! And the Buttermilk Glaze for the top as well as Cream Cheese Frosting. This recipe was contributed by Phyllis Vanhoy of Salisbury, North Carolina. 

How about Sour Dough Starter from The Original Country Cookbook? Many of us have visions of using starter to make our own sourdough bread. If you don’t have a friend who has starter for you to get a bit in order to get started, the following instructions will get you going. I believe the flour needs to be plain all-purpose flour, not self-rising flour. 

BETTY LAND’S SEAFOOD SOUFFLE 
Recipe from The Apopka Woman’s Club  
WHAT’S COOKIN’? 

1 pound crab or lobster or shrimp (or enough of each to make a pound) 
1 tablespoon butter 
1 tablespoon flour 
1/2 pint of milk 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
White or cayenne pepper 
Nutmeg to taste 
2 eggs, separated 
2 tablespoons sherry 

Melt butter and mix in the flour to make a paste. Add milk, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cook in double boiler until thick. When cool, stir in the yolks of eggs, slightly beaten. Add sherry. Now fold in the stiffly beaten whites and crab meat. Put in baking dish and cook at once in pan of hot water in moderate oven, at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes. Serve immediately. Serves six. 

JOHN TRUBY’S SHE-CRAB SOUP 
Recipe from A Taste of Heaven 
Published by First Presbyterian Church of Punta Gorda 

4 tablespoons butter 
4 tablespoons flour 
2 small onions, grated 
6 ribs celery, grated 
1 tablespoon garlic, minced 
Salt & pepper to taste 
1 teaspoon mace 
1 quart whole milk 
1 cup cream 
1 tablespoon Crystal Hot Sauce 
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce 
32 ounces crabmeat, picked over 
1 hard-boiled egg, finely chopped 
1/2 cup sherry 
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped 

1) In the top of a double-boiler, melt the butter and flour together. 2) Cook for 3 to 4 minutes for a blond roux. 3) Stir in onions, celery and garlic. 4) Season with salt, pepper, and mace. 5) Cook the veggies for 2 minutes. 6) Whisk in the milk, cream, hot sauce and Worcestershire. 7) Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. 8) Simmer for 15 minutes. 9) Stir in the crab meat and continue simmering for 10 to 15 minutes. Re-season, if necessary. 10) Sprinkle the egg on the bottom of each bowl. Ladle the soup into each bowl. Drizzle each bowl with sherry and garnish with chopped parsley. Makes 5 servings. 

LEMON DRUMSTICKS 
Recipe from Savannah Style, a Cookbook by The Junior League of Savannah, Inc. 

1/2 cup cider vinegar 
2 tablespoons cracked pepper 
1 teaspoon salt 
1/4 cup brown sugar 
1/4 cup lemon juice 
2 cups oil 
18 drumsticks 

1) Bring vinegar, pepper, salt and sugar to a boil. 2) Remove from heat and add lemon juice and oil. 3) Marinate drumsticks several hours. 4) Place on a rack over broiler pan and broil, basting with marinade, about 10 minutes on each side. 5) Serve with soy sauce, if desired. 

BEST CARROT CAKE 
Recipe from Southern Living All-Time Favorites 

2 cups all-purpose flour 
2 teaspoons baking soda 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
3 large eggs 
2 cups sugar 
3/4 cup vegetable oil 
3/4 cup buttermilk 
2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
2 cups grated carrot 
1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained 
1 (3-1/2 ounce) can flaked coconut 
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts 
Buttermilk Glaze 
Cream Cheese Frosting 

1) Line three 9-inch round cake pans with wax paper; lightly grease and flour wax paper. Set pans aside. 2) Stir together first fouringredients. 3) Beat eggs and next four ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. 4) Add flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. 5) Fold in carrot and next three ingredients. 6) Pour batter into prepared cake pans. 7) Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. 8) Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze evenly over layers. 9) Cool in pans on wire racks 15 minutes. 10) Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. 11) Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on top and sides of cake. Yield: 1 (3-layer) cake. 

BUTTERMILK GLAZE 
Recipe from Southern Living All-Time Favorites 

1 cup sugar 
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda 
1/2 cup buttermilk 
1/2 cup butter or margarine 
1 tablespoon light corn syrup 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

Bring first five ingredients to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, four minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Yield: 1-1/2 cups. 

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING 
Recipe from Southern Living All-Time Favorites 

3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened 
1 (3-ounce) package cream cheese, softened 
3 cups sifted powdered sugar 
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

Beat first three ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth. Yield: 4 cups. 

SOUR DOUGH STARTER 
Recipe from Paragon Products, Inc., The Original Country Cookbook 

2 cups flour 
1-3/4 cups warm (not hot) water 
6 teaspoons dry yeast 
2 tablespoons honey 

Combine flour and dry yeast in a bowl. Mix honey in warm water and gradually add to dry ingredients. Store in earthenware pot at room temperature for two days to one week.