Don't miss the Blue Crab Guru on TV !

Whitey Schmidt

Delmarva's own Blue Crab Guru, Mr. Whitey Schmidt, can be seen Monday night at 9pm on MPT(local PBS stations). He is a "crab connoisseur " & his seafood recipes have been featured in Southern Living Magazine, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post and many other publications. He has also authored 10 cookbooks, which are widely available on-line at Amazon and through Marian Hartnett press. Whitey is a Maryland native and Crisfield resident whose crab recipes are famous worldwide. If you love all things crab in the kitchen, treat yourself and tune in!

Chocolate peanut-butter cookies.

Unlike Hillary Clinton,who proclaimed once as First Lady that she was not going to just "sit at home and bake cookies",I LOVE to bake-especially cookies.There are literally thousands of cookie recipes to be had and its really a creative and thoughtful thing to do occasionally to give away to friends.My daughter loves to "help" by cracking eggs and mixing dough and it is great fun bonding over something so simple and fundamental as baking cookies.Sure,you can buy ready to bake cookies or cookie dough but only in so many varieties.From scratch you can create almost any kind of cookie.Soo....
Tonight after dinner my daughter and I made a batch of chewy chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips.Its a great recipe and the finished cookie is almost brownie-like in its texture.I prefer the peanut butter chips but you can variate with chopped nuts,M&M candies,or other chips like chocolate,mint,or butterscotch.It is a quite simple recipe and I will include it here:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup baking cocoa(Nestles is best)
2.5 sticks butter
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 10 oz bag peanut butter baking chips(Reeses is best)


Preheat oven to 350
In large bowl whip softened butter,vanilla and sugar-mix in eggs-blend well.
In a second bowl combine flour,salt,baking soda and cocoa-stir in to wet mixture gradually and beat for 4 minutes or until thoroughly blended.Stir in baking chips and drop by teaspoon fulls about 2 inches apart on a nonstick (*)baking sheet.Do not overcook-bake at 7 min or until tops of cookies start to "crack"they will look underdone-set aside to cool until firm.

* The very best baking sheets are the insulated Airbake products.However if you have regular baking sheets Reynolds makes a great baking parchment paper that eliminates those "burnt-bottom" cookies.
Try the recipe and I know you will like the results!!!!I have to hide them from myself!LOL

Cooking with booze.....

Grand Marnier Rouge

My hubby and I wanted to roast a glazed pork loin today and of all things we were out of brown sugar,so I tried to come up with an alternative and settled on a shot glass of Grand Marnier added to the BBQ sauce/marinade-(I have added Jim Beam to BBQ sauce and marinades in the past for beef-real good).After 45 minutes in the oven at 400,and wrapped in foil,it came out delectable!There was no need for steak knives because you could cut it with a fork!I seldom imbibe but when I do its the top shelf cognac!I went online and there are numerous recipes dor marinades using stuff from your home bar!I know,its so 70's to keep a bar shelf in your house,especially when you only drink 2 or 3 times a year but its just hospitality!Some tequila,vodka,Kahlua,rum,gin,bourbon,Peachtree and cordial liquor like Grand M is all you need for a basic "budget" bar LOL.I know someone who makes the finest desserts and uses various liquors for cakes and whatnot and its amazing how many uses it has around the house.Then I was reminded of an episode of "Mythbusters" where the proved the myth that vodka was just as good a foot bath for stinky feet as a commercially prepared foot wash product AND a bottle of vodka with cinnamon infused in it is just as effective a mouthwash as Listerine!I wouldn't recommend gargling it before driving and I will stick to the store-bought mouthwash myself!

So the next time you are feeling expiremental in the kitchen try whatever is left over from your New Years Eve party!

Fried Green Tomatoes

I usually avoid Lifetime channel during primetime because alot of their "made for TV" movies are just cheesy but tonight they are airing "Fried Green Tomatoes",which is one of my favorite movies of all time!It is based on Fannie Flaggs novel,"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe".I have since lost my copy,but the book actually contained recipes in the back pages for the Southern goodies served in the cafe in the novel and movie.The plot switches back and forth between the 1930's and 1990's in Alabama and the fictional town of Whistlestop was one of the many small railroad towns that became ghost towns after the railroads heyday was over.If you have never seen this 1991 film,give it a whirl.LOL-I can actually make fried green tomatoes if anyone wants to try them,but they are LOADED with sodium and cholesterol!and try finding green tomatoes,unless you grow them yourself.That kind of cooking is good stuff but hell on your arteries!