Here in Maryland, Old Bay Seasoning is almost as common as table salt so Old Bay is our go to seasoning. Originally Old Bay Seasoning was a seasoning for steamed blue crabs, yet it goes well with many other foods including fish, shrimp, crawfish and chicken.
For a quick, delicious weeknight meal that everyone enjoys, nothing could be easier than Old Bay Steamed Shrimp. This is a really fast meal when made using quick peel cleaned and deveined shrimp. Or use wild caught Gulf shrimp too. For real tasty finger food if made with peeled, cleaned and deveined shrimp.
Combine the Old Bay Seasoning, vinegar and water in a medium saucepan.
Bring to a boil. Add shrimp and stir gently. Cover.
Steam until tender; about 3 to 5 minutes.
Drain, remove shells.
Serve piping hot with lemon wedges and Old Bay Cocktail Sauce. If you cannot find Old Bay Seasoning locally, we have Old Bay Seasoning and Old Bay Crab Cake Classic in our online store. Old Bay Seasoning comes in 24 oz, 7.5 lb and 50 lb sizes:
Serving Dish of Baked BaconWhen it comes to making bacon pan frying seems the obvious choice. Or perhaps microwaving bacon comes to mind. But, maybe you’d be surprised, but the best bacon is … baked in your oven.
Maybe you might think ‘Baking Bacon?’. Really, though it’s simple to do, there is no mess and while the bacon is cooking, your stove top is free for other uses. The best part about baked bacon is the final result is a very presentable flat strip of bacon.
The first step is to line a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Then lay the bacon on the paper. The paper will make clean up a jiffy and the bacon won’t stick to it. Bacon on half-sheet pan lined with parchment paper
Toss that pan into a pre-heated 400 degree F oven. Bake for about 15 minutes, checking at 10 minutes just in case. Should look like this at 15 minutes: Bacon In Oven at 15 minutes
We let that cook for a couple minutes longer, and removed from oven. The final product on the half-sheet pan looked like this: Final cooked Bacon on half-sheet pan
Often breakfast is the same old boring meal. Cereal, fried eggs, or toast; again and again. So here is something completely different. It’s a weekend meal, we think, as it takes about 20 minutes to prepare. Honestly, it’s not that much work. Mostly waiting for the baking to complete during which time you can be doing other things.
We’re calling it a Crepe. Maybe it’s a pancake.
1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp butter
Confectioners sugar
Lemon juice
Preheat oven to a moderately hot 425° F.
Meanwhile place the flour, milk, eggs, and nutmeg in a bowl and mix well but not too well. Like for pancakes, leave some lumps. They’ll go away.
Use the butter to oil a non-stick oven proof 9″ frying pan or other round pan.
Pour batter into the pan, this is like a pancake so should be a 1/4″ or 3/8″ thick (9mm give or take) place in oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Check at about 12 minutes to see how it’s cooking. Cook until the pancake is set, lightly browned – see picture above.
Remove from oven. Dust with sugar and dash with lemon juice; serve.
Makes 2 portions.
Lawry’s Wings and Things Seasoning Blends
Hunt Valley, MD – Lawry’s Inc announces their new line of Chicken Wings Seasonings for professional chefs. With these new seasonings chefs can quickly create exciting flavored chicken wings in a jiffy and with the same great flavors every time.
Lawry’s Wings and Things Seasoning Blends comes in four flavor blends:
Mango Habanero – Blends tropical sweet mango flavors with hot habanero pepper flavor to excite taste buds.
Sriracha – Inspired by Sriracha Hit Sauce with it’s tangy flavor, this seasoning is spicy yet not hot.
Spicy Buffalo – Lawry’s version of the classic original Buffalo Wings seasoning based on hot sauce. Not too hot.
Zesty Lemon and Pepper – Something different in the chicken wings, the delicious blend of lemon and black pepper is satisfying and delicious.
Unlike most seasoning blends, with these Wings and Things Seasoning Blends, the seasonings are added after cooking the wings (just like the classic Buffalo Wings Recipe) and just before serving. Generally, 1 to 2 tbsp of seasoning is used per 1 lb of chicken wings and pieces. Separated chicken wings seem easiest to season, plate and enjoy.
Have some Sriracha Sauce on hand to dip the Sriracha seasoned wings in for added zest, and Tabasco or Franks hot sauce for the Buffalo seasoned wings; along with Blue Cheese Dressing and veggies – including celery sticks and carrot sticks.
Pistachios are one of the most nutritious tree nuts. Packed with vitamins and minerals including magnesium, manganese, potassium, Vitamin B1 and B6. Pistachios are relatively low in sodium and calories per serving too. Most of the calories in pistachios comes from fats. It used to be fats of all types we shunned but it’s now thought that some fats, such as from tree nuts including pistachios are actually good nutritionally.
As with all foods, everything in moderation. A 1/4 cup serving of shelled Wonderful Pistachios only has 170 calories, contains 12% of USDA recommended daily allowance of fiber, and no trans fats.
Consider Wonderful Pistachios as a nutritious snack over other foods with lots of salt or fats. Buy Wonderful Pistachios in our webstore.
Our favorite coffee is Kauai Estate Hawaiian Coffee. The deep, rich flavor of Kauai Coffee beans along with it’s low acidity makes for the perfect cup of coffee.
As with anything from Hawaii, with it’s limited land area, generally remote location and limited natural resources, the price of Kauai Estate Coffee is more than other coffees. Often you’ll find knock off brands of Hawaiian coffees, where the Hawaiian coffee is part of a blend with other coffee beans from other countries. Kauai Estate coffees are 100% Hawaiian beans and are delicious.
You can find the package of Koloa Estate Ground Coffee pictured above at many retail grocery stores including Safeway. We carry a whole bean version of Koloa Estate coffee, so for the coffee we offer you will need to have a grinder. It’s our belief that freshly ground coffee makes the best cup of coffee, so that’s all we carry.
You can also shop for a larger selection of Hawaiian Coffees at Kauai Estate Coffee Store including K-Cups. They’re very friendly folks and are quick to answer your inquiries.
From French’s comes a kit including Buffalo Wing Seasoning and a roasting bag. It comes as a set of 3 pouches. Inside each pouch is a pocket with the seasoning and another with the nylon oven safe roasting bag. The nice thing about cooking with a roasting bag is the wings won’t dry out and you can see through the bag to see how cooking is progressing.
Simple to use. Open the bag pocket first and remove the back. Open the bag up, and add wings. Don’t try to stuff too many wings in one bag. Use a second if you need it. With the wings in the bag, onpen the other side of the pouch and add the seasoning, twist the top of the bag, and seal with the nylon zip tie included. Then shake it baby until the seasoning is distributed over the wings.
Cut a little hole in the bag to allow air to escape as it heats up. Place in a 350° to 400° F oven and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Make sure the wings are done but not over done by checking on them as say 30 minutes, 45 minutes, and then every 5 minutes.
Take out and serve with the classic accompaniments of Blue Cheese Dressing, Celery Sticks, and Carrot Sticks. Flavor is mild, so if you want some heat have some hot sauce on hand.
Package of Lawry's Mexican Rice Seasoning Mix
Using Lawry’s Mexican Rice Seasoning is a simple way to make a delicious seasoned rice in 20 minutes. While Lawry’s Mexican Rice Seasoning is a blend of Southwestern US (Mexican) Inspired Flavors, it’s spicy flavor lends well to the flavors of India equally well. So while this Mexican Flavor is great as a side dish for tacos, it’s equally well suited as a side dish to accompany Indian dishes such as Tandori Chicken.
Mexican Rice Wraps
Make a quick weeknight meal with Lawry’s Mexican Rice similar to Chipotle’s.
What you need:
Prepared Lawry’s Mexican Rice
Cooked Chicken (leftover Rotisserie Chicken works well)
Sour Cream (low fat) or Guacamole
Shredded Cheddar or Mexican Cheese Bland
Jar of Taco Sauce
Soft Tortillas
Shredded Lettuce
Chopped Tomato
To Make (Note: Don’t over stuff, a little of each ingredient will work fine):
Chop up the chicken.
Heat Tacos.
Place some chicken in the wrap. Top with Mexican Rice and some taco sauce.
Top with Lettuce and Tomato (if desired), and add cheese, sour cream (guacamole). Wrap Up.
Serve with Mexican Rice on the side.
Prepared Lawry's Mexican Rice In Pan To Make a Stove Top Serving of Lawry’s Mexican Rice
Golden Homemade Chicken Broth
This delicious golden Homemade Chicken Broth is versitle in the kitchen. Use this broth
as a base for Chicken Noodle Soup, in mashed potatoes, in Ramen Soup in place of the little packet of fake flavors, as the flavor in chicken gravies, use in place of water when making rice, etc.
Many years ago, we used to make one big pot of chicken soup, adding all of the ingredients and ending up with, well, a lot of chicken soup. If you make a nice flavorful chicken broth first, you get an ingredient you can use to flavor lots of other recipes. So these days, when we’re planning on making a chicken soup, we first make a broth, and strain it (reserving the chicken meat). Then we measure out enough of our magic golden liquid to make just enough chicken soup for our family’s meal, add some meat, shredded carrots, celery, onion and noodles (Matzo balls). All done, and we have a lot of Chicken Broth left over to use to flavor many more meals.
Here is our simple recipe for making tasty Homemade Chicken Broth:
Rinse the chicken thighs and place in a large pot.
Prepare the vegetables. Don’t fret too much about chopping them nicely. We’re only using them for flavor, and they’ll be discarded when done cooking. Add all of the vegetables to the pot.
Fill the pot to within 1″ of the top lip.
Cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to keep the broth at a low simmer. Cook covered for 4 to 6 hours.
Place a large wire mesh colander in another pot large enough to hold the liquid and strain the broth.
Pick the chicken thighs from the colander and remove the bones and skin. Shred the meat by hand or use a knife to chop. It’s very tender and should fall right off of the bones. Discard the vegetables, chicken bones and skin.
For a clearer broth, rinse the colander well, line with cheese cloth and restrain.
If time permits, let the broth cool, then chill in the refrigerator. When completely chilled, scoop any of the solid white fat that forms on top.
Use as desired.
Quick Ramen Chicken Soup Serving of Homemade Chicken Broth with Ramen
Zatarain’s NEW Lower Sodium Jambalaya Mix is rich and tasty and has less salt to boot. This Jamablaya Mix has only 410mg sodium per 1/2 cup serving. Plus it’s another one pan meal from Zatarain’s. This recipe is for a family size stovetop meal.
A note about Andouille Sausage. We used packaged Hillshire Farms Andouille Sausage which is not too hot. Some Andouille Sausages have a lot of heat, so if you are using another type of Andouille that you are not familiar with, it’s wise to test the sausage flavor after cooking and before adding the rice mix. You might have to cut the quantity of Andouille back if it’s really spicy.
1 Cup of Hillshire Farms Andouille Sausage thinly sliced
1 Cup of Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast (or Thigh), cut up into 1/2″ chunks
In a very large skillet, cook the chicken and Andouille Sausage until done.
Add 2 cups of water and butter, cover, and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile mix the Jamabalya Mix together well, and measure out 1 cup. Seal remaining mix in a reclosable plastic bag.
Add the Jamabalya Mix to the sauce pan, stir well. Return to a boil, then cover and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes (until water has absorbed). Remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Fluff the mix and serve.
