Boil shrimp in your usual seasonings. Drain and cool. Marinate shrimp in sauce in the ice box 24 hours. Serve chilled. Note: These are delicious for big cocktail parties. Cook bacon until crisp, drain and crumble. Blend with other ingredients. Remove crusts from bread. Cut each slice into four squares and spread mixture on top of each square. Bake at 350 degrees until lightly brown. P.S. These freeze well and are very good! Freeze uncooked, remove from freezer, bake and serve. Melt butter in heavy saucepan, add onions, cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes. Uncover, stir in sugar, salt and pepper. Cook over medium heatuntil onions are golden brown. Remove from heat. Stir in flour, add broth,water and sherry, stirring constantly until blended. Simmer about 30 minutes. Just before serving stir in the Gruyere cheese. Toast French bread on both sides, butter and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Pour soup inoven proof bowls, float toast on top and run under broiler until cheese is browned. P.S. I knew I didn't throw away this recipe! This is for Tommy. AUTHOR'S NOTE: When a broth, or soup, is too salty, add slices raw potato. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a saucepan and add flour, stirring with wire whisk. When smooth, add chicken broth and continue to stir. Season with salt and pepper and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Slice mushrooms thin. Melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in a pan and add mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper and saute until mushrooms are done. Add onions and stir, continuing to cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated. Add wine and cook until wine is reduced to one half. Add the butter and flour mixture and the cream. Bring to a boil, stirring well. P.S. This is a very versatile sauce. Good over an omelet, vegetables, meatloaf and many other things. Combine all ingredients and pour over meat. Marinate (turning meat occasionally) from 3 hours to 3 days in covered bowl or in plastic bag whichhas been securely tied. P.S. Everybody has a favorite barbecue sauce. This is mine. Try it with thick pork chops. Mix ingredients together and store in jar in refrigerator at least overnight. Will keep beautifully for weeks. Can be halved but need to keepsame proportions of salt and pepper. AUTHOR'S NOTE: When using one half of an avocado, leave the seed in the other half-- Refrigerate and it will not turn dark. Mix ingredients in saucepan. Stir over low heat and simmer a few minutes. Serve over fillets of sole or other fish. P.S. Top with toasted slivered almonds for a change. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Set aside. In large mixing bowl sift flour, add sugar and salt that have been dissolved in milk. Mix well and add yeastsolution. Beat 4 eggs and add to mix in bowl. With dough hook attached beat well. Then add other two eggs one at a time. Beat for about five minutes, until dough is smooth. Break butter into walnut size pieces and with mixer on low speed quickly add the butter. Cover bowl with a cloth andlet rise at room temperature for 1 to 2 1/2 hours (until doubled in bulk). Punch dough down and put on floured board and knead by hand for about 5 minutes. Put back in bowl and refrigerate. After about 3 hours in refrigerator punch dough down. Cover and let stay in refrigerator overnight. On a lightly floured table, break dough into about 16 equal pieces and roll each into a ball. Butter individual brioche molds and press ball into mold,filling mold about half full. Indent center and press very small balls of dough in center to form a "head." Let rise about an hour and brush each brioche with a little beaten egg. Place in oven preheated to 450 degrees and bake until brown. P.S. These are very time consuming but well worth the effort. They freeze well. May also be baked in larger brioche mold, covered with fruit or sauceand used for dessert. Add well beaten egg to milk and add to meal. Beat well and add the melted shortening just before baking. Put in well greased muffin or bread stick pans and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes. Note: This is our recipe for cornsticks -- no sugar, please! Pour boiling water over shortening, sugar and salt. Add milk and cool to lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water and stir into cooled mixture. Add beaten eggs. Stir in 4 cups flour and beat. Add enough additional flour to make soft dough. Brush with melted butter and cover bowl with dampcloth. Chill until ready to use. Roll dough to 1/8" thickness. Cut into 2 1/2" squares and fry in hot fat (360 degrees) until brown. Drain on papertowel. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. P.S. This dough keeps several days in the refrigerator if covered with dampcloth. P.P.S. Gigi introduced me to these. One bite and your diet goes out the window. Soften yeast in water, add 1/2 cup of flour. Work to a paste and form a ball. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about an hour. Add salt, sugar and egg yolk then add remaining flour and milk alternately. Knead forabout 5 minutes on a floured board. Cover and let rise for about an hour. Punch down and chill in refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Cut butter into slices. Put dough on floured board and roll into a rectangle 1/2" thick. Put butter on top 2/3 of dough. Fold to the middle the bottom third of dough and then fold over the top third to form envelope shape. Give dough one half turn and roll out into rectangle. Fold as before. Turn and roll again and fold. Put dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes and repeat the above process. Chill dough in refrigerator overnight. Roll dough into rectangle about 1/8' thick. Cut in strips about 5" wide. Cut each strip into a 5 inch square and cut square into triangle. Roll the triangles beginning with wide end opposite the point. Shape into crescents and put on baking sheet. Cover and let double in bulk.Brush with melted butter and bake in 400 degree oven until lightly brown. P.S. This recipe makes about 12 large Croissants or 16 smaller ones. Thesemust be made in a cool kitchen as the butter slices must remain firm. They freeze well. AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know Croissants are a LOT of trouble, but if you find anything else this good that is easy -- Call me collect! Mix well and fry in fat in which fish are fried. P.S. We think fish caught at our own Windy Hill Lake are the best. Wherever you catch the fish, you can't beat these hush puppies! P.P.S. Dad didn't like the onion in them. Slice beef into 4 inch strips. Coat beef in flour. Heat oil and butter. Saute beef, a few strips at a time. Pour beef stock and sour cream in skillet and mix well. Return beef to skillet and stir. Place in casserole dish and top with Roquefort dressing and Parmesan cheese. Place under broiler until slightly browned. P.S. Served with a baked potato and a green vegetable. If you think you don't like Roquefort dressing, try it once. You can always leave it out thenext time if you were right. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Trim all fat and gristle from veal and cut into sections approximately 4" by 2". Pound until very thin to tenderize and dust with flour. In a large skillet, melt butter over low heat. Add pieces of veal and mushrooms, raise heat and saute until golden brown. Liftveal out, draining butter back into skillet. Place veal in 200 degree oven to keep warm. Add brandy to butter and mushrooms in skillet. Mix thoroughly. Add salt and pepper keeping heat low. Slowly pour in cream, stirring constantly. Raise heat to medium. When sauce thickens, reduce by 1/3 and simmer for about 6 minutes until sauce thickens slightly. Stir frequently. Just before serving, remove veal from oven and spoon sauce overportions. Place fat in large kettle, add flour and brown. Add all seasonings and tomatoes to browned flour. Add chicken broth and shrimp. Let cook until all seasonings are absorbed. Add liquid (water or stock) if too dry. Add okra, crabmeat, onion, and celery. (If fresh okra, add 1/2 hour before adding crabmeat.) Let simmer at least 1 1/2 hours after adding crabmeat, stirring occasionally. When serving, place small amount of cooked rice in bowl and pour gumbo over. P.S. If you have fresh lump crabmeat, I suggest you save some of it and when serving add a small amount to each cup of gumbo. Boil hen until done. Save the broth. Remove chicken meat from bones, cut into small pieces and set aside. In large soup kettle or dutch oven, brown the onion, celery and bell pepper in chicken fat or oil. When brown, add okra and let it brown lightly. Add the tomato paste, then add chicken broth, garlic, and bay leaves. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let simmer several hours, adding water when necessary and stirring often. When mixture has cooked to pieces, add shrimp, crabmeat, chicken pieces and oysters (with their liquid). A few minutes before serving add the gumbo file and adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, hot pepper sauce and a couple of drops of liquid crab boil. Serve in a bowl with a spoonful of cooked rice in the center. Note: This is expensive and somewhat troublesome, but is a whole meal. Serve it with salad and French bread and you have it made! Make a very dark roux with margarine and flour. Set aside. In skillet brown onion, celery and okra. When brown, put roux, okra, onion and celery in large saucpan. Add chicken broth, tomatoes, garlic, and bay leaves. Addcrab boil in cheese cloth bag. Cook for a couple of hours on low heat. Salt to taste and add black pepper and a dash of hot pepper sauce. After okra, onion, celery, and tomatoes have cooked to pieces, about 30 minutes before serving, add shrimp, crab meat and (if you have them) crab bodies. About 15 minutes before serving, add oysters and if you like it, gumbo file.Skim fat as needed, remove cheese cloth bag. Serve in a bowl over rice. P.S. This gumbo recipe is a favorite with my family. I serve it with greensalad and hot French bread. Mix bread crumbs, egg, mayonnaise and seasonings. Add crab meat. Mix gently but thoroughly. Shape into cakes (about 6). Cook in frying pan in just enough fat to prevent sticking about 5 minutes on each side. P.S. You can use canned crab meat but it is not as good. Serve with lemon wedges or tartar sauce. Cut sausage in pieces and brown in large heavy pan, soup kettle or Dutch oven. Remove sausage. Dip chicken in mixture of flour, salt, pepper and garlic salt. Brown chicken in kettle in which sausage was browned. Remove chicken and add onions, peppers and garlic. Saute until onions are transparent. Return sausage and chicken to container. Season with Worcestershire sauce (quite a bit) soy sauce (quite a bit) and hot pepper sauce. Add water to bring total liquid to about 6 cups. Bring to a boil. Add rice and shrimp. Cover and again bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 to 40 minutes. DO NOT UNCOVER. Remove from heat and allow to sit(covered) for 10 minutes. P.S. The secret of this is to have HOT sausage, preferably Louisiana hot sausage. If you can't find it, use smoked sausage and 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper. P.P.S. This is a full meal with or without a salad. It freezes well and isgreat to have on hand when you haven't planned ahead for dinner. AUTHOR'S NOTE: A pan of boiling water and vinegar on back burner will prevent fish odor. Saute mushrooms in butter, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Remove mushrooms. Chop onions and heat in skillet. When brown, add drained oysters. Stir and cook until oysters curl. Add cream to which cornstarch has been added. Season with salt and pepper, curry powder, parsley flakes and sherry. Mix mushrooms with oyster mixture and simmer until thickened. Pour into casserole and top with small puff pastries. Run in 350 degree oven 15 minutes to heat. P.S. One Christmas I whipped this up in a hurry, had more people than pastries and had to improvise. P.P.S. You may like to add more curry powder. Mix sauce ingredients and bring to boil. Add shrimp and boil until shrimp are done. P.S. I usually let my shrimp come to a good boil. Then I remove the pan from the heat and let it sit covered for about 15 minutes. Test your shrimp, for the size of the shrimp will determine the length of time they should stay in the sauce before serving. They are tough if cooked too long.
