In the kitchen
That's Grandpère over the stove and my daughter over the sink and two grandsons. Andrew, in the red cap, cooked a tasty noodles and cheese dish. He thinks he may want to be a chef.
Oh, and I forgot little Gino, the Maltese, in front of the refrigerator.
The Gang of Five
My 18 year old grandson is not in the photo. And, of course, certain of the gang must be silly when a photograph is being taken.
Oyster casserole (for Cathy)
Cathy asked for a picture of my oyster casserole, which is not much to look at but is delicious, if I say so myself. The recipe is for a stuffing for a turkey, but we had prime rib and leg of lamb, instead of turkey, so the dish ended up as a casserole. The dish is tastier when cooked inside a turkey but is still excellent as a casserole. To die for, if I'm honest, and is in great demand in the family, stuffed in the turkey or not.
Recipe? Please? --for the oyster casserole. It is customary in my husband's mind to have "oyster pie" --a casserole in truth because it has no crust --and he makes it with saltine crackers, which is not primo in my mind...
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I'll try to rustle up a recipe. I'm trying to duplicate my grandmother's dish from my memory with help from my mother before she passed on. The ingredients are partly in my head, partly from a cookbook, and partly from decisions I make while putting the dish together. My grandmother never used written recipes. Incidentally, no one in the family has ever been successful at making the dish taste like my grandmother's. She was a superb cook, and we are still missing something after many years of trying by my mother, my two sisters, and me.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, I use plain white bread chopped in very small squares, instead of soda crackers.
ReplyDeleteI can go with plain white bread (been called that before!) --and....
ReplyDeleteMimi, you say it's not much to look at but I disagree, your oyster casserole looks delicious. I'd love a recipe too. (Unless I'm going mad and you've given me one already? I don't think you have.)
ReplyDeleteYour family look like they're having so much fun :-)
margaret, with my gumbo mixture heritage, there's no way I could be labeled white bread, although I may look the part.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I have not sent you a recipe, because it's not simply a matter of copying. I'll have to edit the recipe in the book and do my best to produce a workable recipe, which, in the end, may not work. My grandmother would be stumped by a request for a recipe. She'd say, "I'm sorry, but I'd have to show you."
Looks delish (the casserole, too! ;-p)
ReplyDeleteI love the family scenes. It looks like a lovely Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI'll never forget my New Orleans brother-in-law's disappointment that our parents didn't have oyster stuffing at Christmas. Or oyster casserole. We just didn't know what we were missing.
ReplyDeleteJCF and Paul, thanks.
ReplyDeleteWe had a very nice Christmas, but, in truth, I'm glad the holidays are over. Our Christmas service at church, lessons and carols followed by the Eucharist, was lovely.
Ginny, my mother cooked the dish until she got too old, and then the preparation fell on me. I expect that no one will carry on the tradition after me.
Wait! Now that I think about it, I really need to get something in writing, because Andrew may want to prepare the recipe one day. And my granddaughter Ashlynn tries her hand at cooking from time to time, so she may use it one day, too.
Yes, start writing it down now! I've had to buy about a thousand LA cookbooks to try and duplicate some of my mother's cooking. And I never got to taste my grandmothers' cooking at all. At the age of 5 my gourmet daughter's comment was, "Memaw makes the best biscuits".
ReplyDeleteOyster casserole? Had your family been particularly naughty last year?
ReplyDeleteKJ, why am I not surprised that you dropped in to leave a word?
ReplyDeleteAnd you were once such a nice boy.
Mimi, That looks somewhat like the oyster stuffing my dad used to make. His was part white bread and part corn bread, maybe even some of the little oyster crackers pulverized into crumbs in the mix. Some years he put in some chopped pecans or chestnuts. He was also a "fly by the seat of his pants" cook, so I would have to experiment a great deal to approximate his recipe. I wish we had written it down. Do record yours for your children and grandchildren. They will be glad you did.
ReplyDeleteBooCat, the dish would be good with nuts, too, but I'm afraid that would be too much of a deviation for my family to accept.
ReplyDeleteI swear I thought I left a "Happy New Year" on your "Happy New Year" post.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Mark.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever write that recipe down, please put me on the list for a copy, too :) Yum!
ReplyDeleteDavid, watch this site. I'll put together a written recipe, but I won't say when. I'll publish the picture above and the recipe here at Wounded Bird.
ReplyDelete