"The Black Family Reunion Cookbook" - Part 2

It's that Thyme again! The cover of the "The Black Family Reunion Cookbook" has a quote "Strong families and good cooking often go hand-in-hand. This book is a celebration of both." I love this quote but I might add strong families and great friends. For the next recipes I enlisted the help of a very dear friend. Not only do I enjoy cooking, I enjoy cooking with friends and family. Since I don't take the term chef lightly, I would say that I had an excellent Sous Cook helping me in the kitchen. The menu consisted of Shrimp Curry (p. 138), Basmati Rice, and Buttermilk Hush Puppies (p.28).

I always have to put a different spin on my recipes, so this is "Shrimp Curry" remixed. I used 1 pound extra large shrimp, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon of onion powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of cracked pepper. Place shrimp in a non-metal container and pour these ingredients over and allow to stand for 10 minutes. Heat oil in a large skillet, I prefer to use a more flavorful oil so I used 1 Tbsp grapeseed oil and 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil. I couldn't resist but I had some fresh churned butter from the Amish Market, so I added 1 Tbsp as well. I added a green pepper (from my own garden), 1/2 yellow onion, and 5 scallions and sauteed. I stirred in 2 Tbsp curry powder. Although the recipe called for 1/2 cup water, I added 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup dry white wine. Simmer for 15 minutes and then add shrimp. Cook for an additional 15 minutes. This is a very quick recipe, but it is full of flavor.

For the buttermilk hush puppies, I allowed my Sous Cook to prepare this with my supervision. And might I say they did an excellent job. We combined 1 cup yellow cornmeal, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Combine these ingredients in a large bowl. Stir in 1 cup buttermilk, we used fat-free. It seems to be the only kind of buttermilk available in stores. My view is that when you use buttermilk, you aren't really concerned about fat, but I could be wrong. Stir in 1 egg, beaten (from my farm trip) and 1/4 cup finely chopped onions. We fried our hush puppies in corn oil. They were delicious.

This meal was excellent! The best part is enjoying the meal with a friend. The food was excellent and the company wasn't so bad either.

Thyme's Garden 2011

It is that thyme of year again! Gardening thyme! I am a little late on giving the update on my garden this year. Last year was a wonderful year for my garden, there were some hits and misses. This is year three and I am feeling like a pro. There is still a lot to learn and I think I am well above the learning curve. The changes for this year include no longer growing zucchini, squash, and eggplant. I added cucumbers, yellow onions and red onions this year! They all appear to be great additions. Why didn't someone tell me that cucumbers would take over your whole garden. I will have to rethink this for next year. I planted several varieties of tomatoes including lemon boy, big beef, window box roma, and vine tomatoes. The jalapeno peppers did such a good job last year, that I decided to try it again, I planted mammoth jalapeno. This is working well for me. Of course I decided to plant different varieties of peppers including green bell peppers, sweet red peppers and yellow peppers. I also planted thyme, basil, rosemary and Greek oregano. Overall my garden is yielding great results. I seem to be keeping the pests at bay this year. I have tried feeding my garden with an organic feed, and it appears that it is working. My mom loves guacamole. Before she left to return to home after her very long visit, I used tomatoes and jalapenos from the garden to add some color! The guacamole was a hit.

Let's just say, I am enjoying gardening immensely. I feel that my ancestors are pouring their blessings down on me. I come from a family of farmers and I feel that my grandparents, great-grandparents and my dad would be especially proud of me.

"The Black Family Reunion Cookbook"

For the month of July, I will be reviewing "The Black Family Reunion Cookbook", recipes and food memories from the National Council of Negro Women. As you can see, I will be cooking up a storm over the next couple of days to ensure that I get some of the recipes reviewed. I have owned this cookbook for many years and thought it would be a nice cookbook to review. I enjoyed this cookbook because it also includes a section on African American Heritage. It gives information on different African American celebrations and a nice ingredients section that gives definitions of many of the foods we enjoy.

I enjoy cooking all types of cuisine including Caribbean, Indian, Italian and Creole. I am always looking forward to mastering new cuisine. Next up, Asian, more specifically, Thai food. I have always enjoyed southern cuisine. Although I was born in New York, both of my parents have southern roots, South Carolina and Southern Georgia. I grew up in Florida surrounded by my cooking aunts. I learned a lot from them in terms of southern cooking so there was never a need to explore a cookbook on southern cuisine. The recipes that I will choose will be those that are nice for eating in the summer heat.

This cookbook contained many of the same recipes I grew up cooking with my aunts and mother. The recipe I chose was Jasmine's Party Tuna Salad (p. 48). Since my family was visiting and we were attending a reggae festival at a winery, I wanted something cool to eat. The recipe was simple, but it was prepared different from how I normally make tuna salad.

I tend to use recipes for inspiration. They inspire me to be creative. Reminder, there are some changes from the original recipe. My rendition of "Jasmine's Party Tuna Salad". I used 2 cups whole grain elbow macaroni, 3 hard boiled eggs, 2 cans tuna packed in water, 1 cup mayonnaise, 1/2 cup sweet pickle relish, 2 Tbsp mustard, 2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, onion powder, ground black pepper and paprika for garnish. Just a reminder, since for me cooking is a family affair, I had some spectators. My sister loves sweet pickle relish, so she kept saying "a little bit more". After she said it around 5 times we were up from the 1/4 cup sweet pickle relish to the 1/2 cup that I used in the recipe. The eggs were special because I spent a week on the farm of a friend in Michigan and they were the last of the eggs I collected from the chickens that week.

I am not a taster, as a matter of fact, I rarely taste the food I cook until I am sitting down ready to enjoy. I often rely on tasters for this job. My dad was my taster on most occasions, and oh how I miss him. My sister is my new taster, for starters, she is the spitting image of my dad, and secondly, she is a great taster just like he was. The recipe turned out great! My guests enjoyed it so much that on the way home from the reggae festival, I had to make a stop at the store and purchase 4 cans of tuna, this would allow for twice as much of "Jasmine's Party Tuna Salad". This was a nice cool salad and made our day listening to reggae even better. I am looking forward to next Thyme!