Paula Dean

BBQ Shrimp

Creamed Potatoes

Steamed Veggies

French Bread

This is my dinner menu from Saturday night.  I recently purchased Paula Dean's Southern Cooking Bible at WalMart.  I hate WalMart, but that's a story for another day!

I really enjoyed reading the cookbook, she has a lot of great recipes, if you like cream and butter!  I don't think there are any recipes in the entire cookbook that don't include butter!  I thought I would share a couple of the recipes.

This is the BBQ Shrimp, right after I added more butter!

BBQ Shrimp Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter
2 tsp Creole seasoning
Pinch of Cayenne pepper (I left this out, TR doesn't eat anything spicy, so the cowboss and I doctored ours to our liking after cooking).
12 jumbo shrimp, with heads and tails  (I bought a bag of shrimp, frozen because I live in a land locked state with a lousy selection of fresh seafood, they were the larger side, 25/30 per pound I believe.  No heads, but they still had shells and tails).  Apparently they have a better flavor if cooked in the shell.
1/2 c. lager-style beer  (I'm not much of a lager drinker, so we used Mug Root Beer instead.  It was the closest thing I had)!
Freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme  (Next time I will leave the thyme out.  Not a big fan, I think it tastes like dirt.  If you like it use it)!
Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Method:
 1.  In a large skillet, melt 1/4 c. of butter over medium-high head.  Sprinkle Creole seasoning and cayenne pepper over the shrimp.  At the shrimp to the pan and cook for about 1 minute per side.
2.  Stir in the beer, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and thyme.  Let the sauce bubble vigorously for 30 seconds.  Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan, and cook until the shrimp are pink and opaque, about 2 minutes.  Stir in the remaining 1/2 c. of butter and garnish with parsley.  Serve bubbling hot!

Creamed Potatoes Ingredients:
1 1/2 lbs medium creamer potatoes, unpeeled, halved (I have no idea what creamer potatoes are.  I looked in the produce section, but none were called creamer potatoes.  I used baby red potatoes because I like them the best)!
1 tbls. butter
1/2 small yellow onion, finely chopped (I used a sweet onion because that's what I like).
1 tbls. all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 tbls. finely chopped fresh chives

Method:
1.  In a large pot, cover the potatoes with cold salted water.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until the potatoes are almost tender, 15-20 minutes; drain well.
2.  In a medium pot, melt the butter over medium heat.  Add the onion and cook until almost soft, about 5 minutes.  Sprinkle with the flour and stir for 1 minute.  Slowly whisk in the milk, salt, and black pepper.  Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Add the potatoes and cook until they are tender, about 5 minutes.  Serve sprinkled with the chives to give it some pretty color.

My method:
First thing I did was get my shrimp out of the freezer and place in a bowl of cold water to defrost.  Shrimp are tricky little guys, and apparently the best way to defrost is in your fridge over night.  I never think to do things a head of time, probably because I didn't decide I was going to make the BBQ Shrimp until about an hour before dinner.  You don't want to defrost them in the microwave!!!  (Note the three exclamation points?  That means it is super important)!

Second thing I did was scrub and cut up my potatoes.  I just halved most of them, but quartered some of the bigger ones, then put them in a pot of salted water and started them cooking.  While they were cooking, I gathered everything I would need to prepare dinner.  I also kept checking on the potatoes, because I didn't want to over cook them, I just wanted them to start to tender.

When the potatoes were cooked enough, I drained and covered them with a lid.  Following the recipe, when I put the onions in the butter, I got out a skillet and melted the butter for the shrimp.  After I added the milk to the onion and flour, I added the shrimp to the butter in my skillet, then I just followed both recipes simultaneously. 

About 5 minutes before everything was done, I stuck the bag of frozen veggies (Have I mentioned our growing season here is about 2 weeks long?  Not a lot of fresh vegetables here!) in the microwave and cooked per bag instructions.  When everything was finished, I sliced the french bread and served!

These 2 recipes are kind of tricky to have done at the same time, and you don't want to cook one and then the other because the shrimp will be over cooked, or the potatoes will be gummy!

Enjoy!