Recipe comments and tips.

So as not to clutter up the recipe section, I’ve created this category as a place to comment on the recipes, ask to clarify anything about a psted recipe etc.

Welcome to the John Irving Book Club!

   This will be the forum for discussing A Prayer for Owen Meany, but it will include any Irving works that may be of further interest to members.

Baked Shrimps w/Feta Cheese ~ Mskittie

I hope that you will love this recipe as much as we do here on the Gulf of Mexico.

Baked Shrimps with Feta Cheese

12 Fresh, raw jumbo shrimp

2 Tbsp. butter

1 egg

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup finely crumbled feta cheese

a dash of Tabasco

1 large, firm red ripe tomato

Shell and devein shrimp.

Preheat the oven to 400º

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp and stir them around until they just turn pink. Remove the shrimp from the butter and put them into a small baking dish.

Beat up the egg and cream. Stir the feta into the beaten up egg and cream. Add tabasco, to taste, to the beaten up egg and cream and feta. Pour it over the shrimp.

Skin tomato. Drop it into boiling water for 10 seconds and the skin will slip right off. Slice the tomato. Top the shrimp dish with tomato slices.

Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese mixture is bubbling

Baked Shrimps w/Feta Cheese ~ Mskittie

I hope that you will love this recipe as much as we do here on the Gulf of Mexico.

Baked Shrimps with Feta Cheese

12 Fresh, raw jumbo shrimp

2 Tbsp. butter

1 egg

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup finely crumbled feta cheese

a dash of Tabasco

1 large, firm red ripe tomato

Shell and devein shrimp.

Preheat the oven to 400º

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat. Add shrimp and stir them around until they just turn pink. Remove the shrimp from the butter and put them into a small baking dish.

Beat up the egg and cream. Stir the feta into the beaten up egg and cream. Add tabasco, to taste, to the beaten up egg and cream and feta. Pour it over the shrimp.

Skin tomato. Drop it into boiling water for 10 seconds and the skin will slip right off. Slice the tomato. Top the shrimp dish with tomato slices.

Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese mixture is bubbling

Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides.

If you’re not a fan of Oprah, please don’t let the big Oprah Book Club logo on the front of the book put you off of this incredible book.

Written by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex tells the story of a second generation Greek family through the lenses of Calliope, who tells us in the first line of the book that

“I was born twice: first as a baby girl, on  a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.”

     Cali is a case study in the article ” 5-Alpha-Reductase Pseudohermaphrodites”  written by Dr. Peter Luce. Eugenides did his homework. There really is a Dr. Peter Luce and there really is an article by that name written by him. Cali was born intersexed.  Middlesex is the seaminglessly folding together of two stories ~ the complex and shameful history of the Stephanides could only have lead to Cali. And Cali could only have been theirs. Cal/i (because the book switches back and forth between Cal and Cali’s viewpoint I use this contraction ) tells you the story in a voice that is informative, funny ~ every emotional state you can imagine. Eugenides’ prose is exceptional ~ and witty. The title is a clever word play that you don’t realize until far into the book. Middlesex is not a reference to Cal/i. It’s the name of a house that Cal/i’s family moves into.

     In the sense that Middlesex is not a reference to Cal/i, as I initially thought, Middlesex is not just a story about Cal/i. It is the story about every person who has chosen to be who they are ~ even in a society that shuns what is different and unknown. It is the story of every person who has worked and even struggled to bring together their inner and outer selves.

     Please. Read this book.

Wyllow

From MsKittie

Here is a Favorite here in this area.I hope that you enjoy it.From New
Orleans.
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

1 cup oil
1 cup flour
2 large onions, chopped
2 bell peppers, chopped
4 ribs celery, chopped
4 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
4 quarts chicken stock
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons Creole seasoning, or to taste
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 large chicken, cut into pieces
2 pounds andouille or smoked sausage, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 bunch green onions, tops only, chopped
2/3 cup fresh chopped parsley
filé powder to taste

Season the chicken with salt, pepper and Creole seasoning and brown
quickly. Brown the sausage, pour off fat and reserve meats.

In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil and cook the flour in the oil over
medium to high heat, stirring constantly, until the roux reaches a
dark reddish brown color, almost the color of coffee or milk chocolate
for a Cajun style roux.

If you want to save time, or prefer a more New Orleans style roux,
cook it to a medium, peanut butter color, over lower heat if you’re
nervous about burning it.

Add the vegetables and stir quickly. This cooks the vegetables and
also stops the roux from cooking further. Continue to cook, stirring
constantly, for about 4 minutes.

Add the stock, seasonings, chicken and sausage. Bring to a boil, then
cook for about one hour, skimming fat off the top as needed. Add the
chopped scallion tops and parsley, and heat for 5 minutes.

Serve over rice in large shallow bowls. Accompany with a good beer and
lots of hot, crispy French bread.

12 servings.

Merry Meet to All Time favorites!

Merry Meet to Childhood Favorites!

Are there books you loved as a child that are still a comfort to you? Do you remember the first book you read as a child? Have you saved any books from your childhood that you can’t bear to lose? This is the place to share them!

Welcome to recently read books!

Obviously, this is the place for Nottington residents to share with all of us the latest books that they have read whether they be good, bad, or indifferent. Hopefully we can initiate dialogue about new books and find some new books ourselves to read.

Let’s start folks! As soon as I get some tweaking done here, I’ll be back to write about Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. 

Welcome!

   I’d like to see this space become a place where we can gather, discuss books we’ve read and recommend new books. You can write a book review, list some of your favorite books so we we see where our favorites connect. I see this a way of bring Nottington into our offline lives!Hope to see you here soon!

Wyllow