Now that I have that off my chest I want to introduce you to one of my FAVORITE appetizers of all time.  This appetizer is great for several reasons which I will now list:

1. It is full of creamy, seafood deliciousness.
2. It is presented in cute, little, bite size phyllo tartlets.
3. It’s versatile, I like it best with crawfish but oysters are also delicious and I think shrimp would be out of this world!
4. It is my Nana Dinkel’s recipe and reminds me of her and the holidays.  She is 80 and still cooks them for all to enjoy.
5.  This one recipe will make enough for you to host your own party and you will have plenty to bring to subsequent parties that your friends invite you to.
6. They are so good that as soon as  they come out of the oven you have to pop one in your mouth even though you know as soon as you bite down it will burn your entire mouth and you will not be able to taste anything the rest of the day.  That one bite is worth the pain and the goofy face we all make when our mouth is melting.  .

There are more but I think 6 reasons is a fairly convincing number and just wait til you see the little delights.

I hope you and your guests will enjoy this great appetizer for years and years to come.

The players:  butter, cream cheese, sour cream…Yikes, I just gained 3 lbs from typing that, definitely reserve these for special occasions!

The Athens Phyllo cups you see in the back of the picture are usually easily found in the freezer section at your grocery store near the frozen pie crusts and puff pastry.

These are certified Louisiana crawfish!  I feel a responsibility to my state and to my health to stay away from crawfish imported from China.  I went to 4 different stores to buy these and they are worth the extra $6!  Straight from Breaux Bridge Sha.

Something Green!  That definitely offsets the butter, sour cream and cream cheese.  I just lost a lb!

Well there’s that butter again..just found that lb I lost

Very shameful and sad confession…I don’t like mushrooms, I try and try but their texture is very unpleasant to me.  However, in this recipe I chop those fungi til they are unrecognizable and their texture can’t bother me

Sprinkling the flour on the mixture thickens the sauce and locks in the flavor

Fill those little delicious, dough cups to the top

I promise this picture has a purpose.  Since this recipe makes about 6 boxes of patties you will want to keep the packaging in tact as you fill them so you can put them back in the box, tape it and place them back in the freezer.  If you make them to eat the next day make sure you still put them in the freezer so the phyllo dough won’t get soggy.

OH MY GOSH!  I want those now…hmmm is 11 pm on a weeknight.  Is it too late to consume a high fat appetizers?   Oh, it is?  Shoot, I guess I will wait until tomorrow.

Recipe: Crawfish Patties (They are called Patties because they are served in patty shells)
Makes enough to fill 6 boxes of mini phyllo shells which means it makes 90 bite size appetizers.  You could also put them in personal pie shells and eat them for dinner with a salad.  The possibilities are just endless!

1 lb crawfish coarsely chopped (oysters and shrimp would also work beautifully)
1 bunch of green onions finely chopped
1 container of fresh mushrooms VERY finely chopped
1 stick of unsalted butter
16 oz sour cream
8 oz cream cheese (cubed)
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
A few good shakes of hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste
cajun seasoning to taste (I like the taste so I add a healthy shake)
6 Boxes of Athens Mini Phyllo Cups or something similar

1. Preheat oven to 400° if you plan to eat immedietly
2. With your stove on medium melt butter and saute green onions in a large skillet.
3. Add chopped mushrooms and seafood until it is cooked through
4.  Sprinkle flour over mixture and stir until it starts to thicken
5. Turn heat to low and stir in sour cream
6. Once heated through add cream cheese and stir until melted
7. Stir in hot sauce, cayenne, cajun seasoning and salt and pepper
8. Remove from heat and fill phyllo shells with seafood mixture
9. Re-box and place what you don’t plan to eat that day in the freezer.  They will last in the freezer for at least 6 months.
10.  Bake at 400° for 20 minutes until golden brown

I do have a couple of specialties like my creole cream cheesecake with decadent chocolate mousse (look forward to that recipe making an appearance on this blog) and my molten lava pudding cake which my husband will tell you is the number one reason I am married right now.  What it boils down to is unfortunately I am quite mediocre when it comes to baking.

The measuring is usually the biggest issue for me.  In cooking you can pretty much approximate everything but baking is a science and unfortunately science has never been my subject.  I mean how am I supposed to keep up with how many cups of said ingredient I have put in this dish? I am way to easily distracted for this.

One of my BFF’s Lindsay would love to share the story of the infamous honey cookies I made in college.  Apparently powder sugar and flour look exactly the same in generic canisters. Unfortunately flour is a key ingredient in cookies. Those cookies could have been so good..OOPS!

There is a reason I am rambling on about my previous baking faux pas.  You see, this batch of brownies is probably the worst I have ever made.  I don’t know what I did, I may have put too much flour or I might have just overcooked them.  Unfortunately they were far from perfect.

However, Mom, Nana T and I have been making this brownie recipe for YEARS and I know that the error in this batch of brownies was definitely the operator and not the recipe.

This recipe is just as easy as a box and WAY more delicious so please do us all a favor and quit settling for boxed brownies!!

I need to note 3 things about the above photo
1: The players who make these brownies delicious
2: The yellow cookbook, Pots, Pans and Pioneers III is where this delicious recipe is found.
3: On the right you will see Chef John Besh’s beautiful face watching me as I screw up  a batch of brownies.  Isn’t he dreamy?  Sorry Hunter

“Sifting” the dry ingredients, a mesh strainer works fine for this task.

This is definitely my favorite picture of all!  Don’t you just want to lick the batter of that mixer?  Oh, it’s just me?  AWKWARD

This photograph serves absolutely no purpose.  I just liked it because it looks like delicious chocolates floating in a brownie batter ocean.  I really want to swim in that brownie batter ocean. Oh it’s just me?  AWKWARD again

The finished product is in a disposable pan because  I doubled the recipe and brought half to a friend who just had a beautiful baby girl.  I am sorry Heather, I will make it up to you with a much more delicious batch of brownies!!

Recipe: Good Ole Basic Brownies

1/2 c melted butter (1 stick)
1 c sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 c flour
1/3 c cocoa
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c nuts (omitted because of that semi-picky husband of mine)
1 c chocolate chunks (this is optional but strongly suggested)

1. Mix butter, sugar and vanilla with mixer; add eggs.
2.  Sift dry ingredients together and add to mixture from step 1.
3. Fold nuts into batter and pour into greased (just spray it with some pam) 9 inch pan
4. Sprinkle with chocolate chunks
5. Bake in 350° oven for 20-25 minutes.  Cut into squares and ENJOY!

SERIOUS Disclaimer:  While I suggest the above mentioned batch of brownies was a failure I must confess that I ate the entire pan within 3 days.  4 lbs later I would say that it was indeed a big, FAT FAIL!

Pork loin can be a tricky cut of meat, it is very dependent on preparation and seasoning.  This particular recipe will give your pork loin a perfect balance of a rich and savory with a deliciously sweet glaze.

The glaze is definitely the star of the show in my opinion.  My mother-in-law is the master when it comes to making jelly.  She is kind of like Bubba on Forest Gump except instead of shrimp she makes jelly: blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, wild plum, muscadine, scuppernong, and the list goes on…  Well over the summer I asked her to teach me to make pepper jelly.  She had never made it but we went to work with home grown peppers and boy did it come out delicious!  I tried my hand at it again over the holidays and I think I can call myself the mini-master of pepper jelly.  Although I am not so great at other jellies. I managed to screw up an entire batch of orange marmalade (another story for a different day).

If you don’t have homemade pepper jelly it will be just as fantastic with store bought.  I recommend the Tabasco brand or any other brand that isn’t dyed bright red or green (that stuff is SCARY).   I hope you and your family enjoy this recipe.

Butter and olive oil are the first players.  They are going to give you that yummy crust on your pork loin.

Once your butter and olive oil are hot put your seasoned pork loin in the dutch oven (or anotheroven safe dish).  Once every side is brown, including the ends you will cover your pot and put it in the oven for about 30 minutes to finish cooking.

Onions and garlic are your first players in your glaze…mmmmmm, look at that out of focus garlic.

ooooo and some out of focus pepper jelly,  this is your other player in the sauce.

Once your pork loin has reached an internal temperature of 160° take it out of the oven and let her rest while you make your sauce.  This will allow all the juices to calm so they won’t leave the pork loin when you slice her up.

In the same pot you cooked your pork loin you will add your onions and garlic to get nice and brown with all the flavor left over from the pork loin. Then add your pepper jelly which is going to give it beautiful color and sweetness.

Dump the hot glaze over your well rested pork loin.

Slice the pork loin and eat her up…You won’t be sorry

Recipe: Pork Loin with Onion Pepper Jelly Glaze
Feeds 4

2 tbps Butter
1 tbps Olive Oil
1 Pork Loin
salt and pepper to taste
cajun seasoning (I used Tony Chachere’s)
2 sm-med onions diced
3 cloves of garlic minced
2/3 c Pepper Jelly (homemade or store bought)

1. Preheat oven to 400º
2. In a dutch oven combine butter and olive oil on medium high heat.
3. Season pork loin with salt, pepper and cajun seasoning
4. Place meat in dutch oven and brown each side of the pork loin
5. Cover dutch overn and place in 400º oven for 25-30 minutes until the pork loin reaches an internal  temperature of 160º.  Remove from oven and place your perfectly crusted pork loin  on a board to rest while you make your glaze.
6. Place your dutch oven on the stove on medium heat and throw in your diced onions and minced garlic.  Make sure to scrape the pot to get all the delicious bits of from the pork loin.  Once your onions and garlic are nice and brown stir in your pepper jelly.  It should only take a couple of minutes for the pepper jelly to loosen and become more like a sauce.
7. Pour pepper jelly and onion glaze over rested pork loin, slice  and enjoy!!

It is also appropriate because this pepper steak recipe is one she gave me when I got married this past summer.  She noticed how my semi-picky eater husband’s eyes would light up at the smell of her pepper steak.

Now I have never asked but I assume she calls this pepper steak because of the bell peppers, I usually go ahead and load it down with fresh cracked black pepper in case that is where the title comes from. Either way it’s delicious and fast!