Mary Foreman - Deep South Dish: Homestyle Southern Recipes

Copyright 2015 by Mary Foreman

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-938879-13-5

Photographs by Mary Foreman, except:

Food styling and photographs by Christian and Elise Stella, pages 2, 15, 43, 63, 83, 121, 129, 153, 179, and 189

Photograph by James Stefiuk, page 159

Photographs by Gwen McKee, pages 25, 40, 50, 132, 133, and 209

Quail Ridge Press

P. O. Box 123 Brandon, MS 39043 1-800-343-1583

info@quailridge.com www.quailridge.com

T o the family at DeepSouthDish.com and across our social media pages, you are truly responsible for this cookbook. Your continued support, your heartwarming letters, your prayers, your daily friendship, and frankly, your insistence, are what brought this cookbook to fruition. I hope that it is everything that you expected... and more.

Contents

Preface

Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast with a vengeance in 2005. I had lost my parents a few years before, and now, after a legal career that spanned more than 20 years, the corporate law department I had most recently worked with for many of those years was uprooting and relocating out west. I was left with no job, no daily connection and camaraderie with my coworkers, and in its place was the physical and emotional devastation of Katrina that literally surrounded me everywhere I looked. It left me with a certain indescribable loss, emptiness, and loneliness. With a 50th birthday on the horizon, and economic strife across the country, finding comparable work was a difficult task. So I reached deep down inside, searching for what it was I was supposed to do. And it came to me to turn my talents toward something that I truly loved to do. Well, I certainly loved to cook.

One day I was searching the Internet for something, and inadvertently discovered the world of blogs. It seemed people could share what they did well and had an interest in with other people. Aha! I have always loved writing, so this looked like something I could do.

Soon after, I started my own general interest blog, sharing my daily life and experiences, and in that, finding a connection of friendship with others not only in my neighborhood and state, but across the world. It was enjoyable and something I felt very comfortable sharing.

Being a working mother, I had used shortcut appliances and convenience products like everybody else to get meals on the table, but as I reconnected with the kitchen, creating and making recipes the way my mother and grandmother had, I found a certain peace and solace in the process of cooking the old-fashioned way. As I began sharing memories and writing about favorite family recipes and the dinners I was making every day on my blog, I felt comfort in the memories of the emotional connection with my mother and grandmother. It was as if they were in the kitchen with me.

Before long, the recipes and memories began to take on a life of their own. In August of 2009, I founded Deep South Dish, a website dedicated solely to my homespun recipes and writing. Day after day, I began receiving letters from readers who said my website was like sitting down with a friend and reviving shared memories of times in their own loved ones kitchens while growing up. Many responded how serving a particular one of my dishes brought back memories of favorite tastes from years gone by. One made a recipe for residents of a nursing home that brought smiles and cheers. Others made them for their own parents, reviving wonderful taste memories. Others wrote that as they took the first bite, they were immediately transformed to childhood and being at the table with their beloved grandmother, and the affectionate memories associated with those days. Another wrote how he had reconnected with his own past while bringing Sunday dinners back, helping to teach a foster child the same emotional connection he had had with his own family during those dinners, and creating new ones to anchor his new life.

It was the winds of a hurricane that literally blew the Deep South Dish blog into existence, and as the saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens. Through loss there is often found purpose and redemption. I knew I had found my calling in sharing my memories and my recipes at Deep South Dish.

Today, literally millions of readers visit my blog on a regular basis. And they continue to write, thanking me for the inspiration to return to the kitchen to connect to their own past...for teaching them to cook like their grandmothers...to share their own memories they recalled as they cooked the recipes.... Truly, I have been encouraged never to set my pen down, to continue to share my recipes and my food and my family, along with so many good memories with my blogger friends all over the world.

Mary Foreman

Appetizers & Beverages

Marinated Blue Crab Fingers

Prep time: 10 min

Inactive time: 2 hours

Servings: 46

1 pound blue crab fingers (claw tips)

1 cup bottled Italian dressing

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Juice 1 medium lemon

Couple dashes Worcestershire

1 small rib celery, finely minced

1 tablespoon finely minced garlic

1 teaspoon parsley flakes

1/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

1/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning

1. Place 1 layer of crab claws in a storage container.
2. Whisk together all remaining ingredients, and evenly distribute part of the marinade over claws, repeating layers of claws and marinade.
3. Cover, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
4. Arrange on a platter before serving.

Cooks Notes:

You may substitute olive oil; however, use a light olive oil and not a strong extra virgin olive oil.

Hot Crab Dip

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 20 min

Yield: About 3 cups

1 pound crabmeat

2 (8-ounce) blocks cream cheese, softened

1 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons grated onion

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning

1/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning (optional)

1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire (optional)

1/3 cup heavy cream, more or less

1. Preheat oven to 375. Butter a 1 1/2-quart casserole dish; set aside.
2. Place crabmeat in a colander to drain, and pick through for any stray shell; set aside.
3. Meanwhile, combine cream cheese with mayonnaise, onion, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Old Bay, Cajun seasoning, and Worcestershire. Add cream a little at a time, using only enough to loosen the dip.
4. Gently fold in crab, and spoon into buttered casserole dish. Bake 2025 minutes, or until bubbly and heated through, and lightly browned on top.