New Year's Oyster Poor- Boy's

Hello there to all you foodies out there in webland.  I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and am wishing you a Happy New Year.  I've been busy closing one door in my life and opening another.  I will fill you in later as to the other door.  Any who as I look back on 2010 it went very fast and I had a very busy year.  My catering picked up along with my business and I see an exciting year for me in 2011.  In March I've been invited to cook with 28 other chefs in Atlanta for Les Marmitons and I choose the menu, also in March I will be cooking for some foreign dignatary's coming into Aiken.  My new cooking season starts Febuary 1st.  Can't wait!  My hubby is in Texas at the ranch with Tim & Debbie for New Year's and at the ranch on New Year's Eve they fry oysters so am going to send you all a recipe for some fried oyster poor -boys made the Texas way.

Oyster-Poor-Boys

12 raw oysters-cleaned
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup self-rising corn meal
salt and pepper to taste
1 teas. Old Bay
1 teas. onion powder
1 teas. garlic powder
1/2 teas red pepper spice
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg mixed
4 rolls
Mix all dry goods, mix egg and buttermilk in a bowl, dip oysters in dry mix, then wet mix and then dry again. 
Fry in hot oil until golden brown, drain  Scoop out the bread from some hard rolls or subs.  Spray with pan and toast till brown.  Add some tartar sauce onto rolls and fill with oysters. you will love these.

Try these and let me know how its going for you.  Happy trails to you and yours until we meet again.  Oh and for your FYI I will also be working on a couple of books next year.  Have a great new year!  Eileen Hutson, madjon.

       

Life's A Bitch Make Clam Chowder

Well hello again to all you foodies out there in web land.  I hope your week is going better then mine.  Yesterday we got notice that the mall that Madjon's cafe is in is closing so am losing my lease.  We have until Jan. 10th to leave.  Is that not a pisser, that's all I can say on here anyway, boy believe me I have been yelling it @#@#@#@#@!  After building my business up for the last 3 years, without a vacation or a fun time to be had they come in and throw a piece of paper at me telling me that the mall is closing.  My whole heart is in the cafe.  How do I say this, the people who love my food and love me.   They are my family and my heart hurts that I may not see them again.  I've cried with them and laughed with them.  I've won about 37 food awards at my cafe. The problem with another place is MONEY, you know that green stuff which I don't have a lot of to invest in a company because I put all my money back into the cafe to pay people, etc, etc.  If you have ever been in business you know how that goes.  Any who my heart is very sad this week and I have been crying like a baby.  I want to go to the parking lot and yell my lungs out!  Everyone keeps saying that when one door closes another one opens, I only hope I know when to walk though that door.   Any who I hope your holidays are great for you and yours.  Let's talk Madjon's Clam Chowder, you will love this.  I made up the recipe for a TV show we did at Simply Kitchen in Augusta, Ga.  Lucy is a very nice lady.  Hey Lucy!   One of Lucy's employees emailed me begging for the recipe because she took some of it home and her son, whom she can get to hardly eat fell in love with it and from what I understand she makes it all the time for him.  Recipe Follows:

Madjon's Clam Chowder

1 stick butter, melted
1 large onion, chopped
3 stalks celery chopped
1 ham steak cut up
1 bag carrots sticks
4 to 5 pounds white potato's cubed
1/2 pound smoked bacon cooked crisp, save drippings
1 tabs. garlic chopped
2 bay leafs
1 teas. Mrs's Dashes
1 tabs onion powder
1 teas. garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
dried parsley flecks
1 teas thyme
1 teas Old Bay
Hot Sauce a little
4 Chicken Cubes
32 oz Chicken Broth
1 jar clam juice
4 small or Large cans of chopped clams, not the paper (he he)
1 pint Half and Half

Peel and cut up potato's, melt butter, add onion, garlic, celery,bacon cooked with a little fat, and carrots, cook till onions are clear.  Add all spices and broth, cubes, bay leafs and whatever I have forgotten to mention to the pot even the potato's but not the half and half.  Cook till the potato's are tender and add the half and half.  Serve with some cheese on top like cheddar.

Please let me know how you like this chowder, I know my family loves it.  I hope your week is better then mine is and also I hope the door does open and I know when to walk though it.  Happy trails to you and yours until we meet again, Eileen Hutson, madjon.

Merry Christmas

Hello all you foodies out there in webland I just want to say Merry Christmas to you and yours.  I've been busy with family, friends and the cafe.  I finished my filming of Cooking With Madjon and Friends Christmas show last week.  To which am going to share 2 of the recipes with you all to try for the holidays.  First have you finished shopping for Christmas? Well I haven't as yet.  My hubbys birthday was on the 19th of Nov. and I bought him some pants that needed exchanged for a smaller size (I wish I had that problem) but anywho I went to the store to exchange the pants and there were 4 salespeople at the counter and only 1 customer and the young man asked me what I needed help with and when I told him I wanted to make an exchange his whole being changed.  He pointed me in the direction of where he thought the pants were now and when I asked him for some help all he says is I think they are over that way and pointed but a very nice lady saw what I was thinking and took me in the direction where she thought the pants were and helped me find my exchange.  Well when we got back to the counter the young man was gone and another person helped me.  She asked me if he had done this or that and I said no and told her that it was OK that he wasn't there anyway because he acted like a turd when he found out all I needed was an exchange.  So all the sales people started laughing at the counter and when I was leaving I overheard them explaning to him that all I wanted was help finding the pants and that was the reason he was a turd.  Any who this time of year is hard on all retail people and to them I tip my hat and say thanks so much for your duty at this time of year and I even say it to the young turd man.  That's my story and am sticking to it!  Ok now I have a funny story for you while we were on our way home from DC we stopped to eat.  As we were leaving I went to the restroom and as I walked in the stall I thought these are really clean seats.  While am in the stall I hear someone come in and when I came out of the stall there in front of me was my husband and I said either am in the wrong bathroom or you are and he says, Eileen didn't you see the lateens?  I said no, I paid no attention to them.  Now have you ever done that!  Am only human!  Come on I know you have.  Well here's to you finding help in the stores and your way to the right bathrooms for your gender.   OK now let's get back to food.  I made a Ham with pineapple and cherries, Christmas Yum Balls, and a Apple Walnut Salad with a Cranberry Dressing that I made up a recipe for and they are very tasty.  So here we go now!

Christmas Yum Ball's

5 to 6 cooked yams, cut up
1 stick butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup marshmallow creme
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
1 teas. cinnamon
1/2 teas. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teas. ginger
1 cup chopped pecans
2 cup crushed frosted corn flakes

Peel and cook the yams, drain, mix the next 6 ingredents, then mix the pecans and corn flakes together.  Roll the yams into balls and roll in dry mix and place on a cookie sheet to cool for about 1 hour.  Then deep fry until golden brown.  These a very yummmm.

Apple Walnut Salad With Cranberry Dressing

4 to 5 cups mixed salad greens
1 cup roasted walnuts chopped
2 apples chopped
Blu cheese crumbled

Dressing
1 cup vanilla yogurt
1 teas. vanilla
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teas. seasoned salt
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup cranberry sauce

Mix the greens and top with the other ingredents.  Mix all ingredents for the dressing and serve with the green salad.  This was yummm as well.

I do want you to know that tonight I took a hayride though the woods at 30 degrees with my family to look at Christmas lights and we ate hot dogs, and drunk hot chocolate at Breezy Hill Church and it was wonderful.  If you live in this area they are holding it though Friday.  I hope you try these recipes and let me know how they turn out for you.  To you and yours I say Happy Trails until we meet again.  I will be adding a couple more recipes for you before Christmas and the Christmas show will air on the 15th of this month on ASTV95 http://www.aikenstandard.com/ .  See Ya, Eileen Hutson, madjon.

Dressing Cooked In A Crock Pot

Hello to all you Foodies out there in webland I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving.  I'm in DC at my son's.  DC is a wonderful place to visit during the holidays.  There is so much to see and do. I think we have eaten at almost every resturant on 8th street.   I hope all the dishes you made for your family and friends were out of sight.  I on the other hand did no cooking.  Chris did it all.  When he cooks you can't even put your foot on the tile in the kitchen.  Ever know anyone like that?  He made Turkey and Mushroom Dressing, Roasted Corn, Gravy, cooked Cranberry Sauce, and of course Green Bean Cassarole.  He did something that I have never heard of before he cooked his dressing in the crock pot and it came out moist just like it had been cooked inside the turkey.  He mixed his dressing and then he buttered the pot and cooked it for 1 hour on high and then cookd it on low for about 4 hours,  So if you are short onoven space you could use the crock pot for your dressing for Christmas.  The recipe for his dressing is below.

Crock Pot Dressing

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups chopped onion
• 2 cups chopped celery
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley
• 12 oz fresh mushrooms, chopped
• 12 1/2 cups dry herbed bread dressing mix
• 3 cups cornbread crumbles
• 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 4 1/2 cups chicken broth

• 1 1/2 tsp. onion powder
• 2 eggs, beaten

Directions

Melt butter in pan and add chopped onions,celery,parsley, and mushrooms and cook till soft.  Heat chicken broth and add all spices, seasonings and bring to a boil.  Then pour the corn bread and bread herb mix together with the onions, celery,and mushrooms in a bowl and add the broth until moist.  Then butter the crock pot and add the dressing and cook on high for about 1 hour and then cook the dressing on low for about 4 more hours covered. 

I hope you try this recipe and enjoy it as much as I did.  I wish you and yours a Happy Holiday season and I will be posting some recipes for the Christmas season soon.  Happy trails to you and yours until we meet again,  Madjon.

Thanksgiving TV Show Recipes WBPI Club 36 49

Hello again to all you foodies out there in webland.  I have a few recipes for you from the TV show I did on the 16th and would like to share them with you and hopefully you could add one to your Thanksgiving menu.  The show was alot of fun and its called Club 36 out of Norht Augusta, Channel 49, the Watchmen.  Dorothy and Russell Spaulding, you should read the book "We Walk By Faith".  They are really great people.  Any who am short on time this morning so am going to list the recipes for you and please let me know how they trun out for ya!  Happy Trails to you and yours and Happy Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Soup

1 Large can pumpkin pie mix, sweet or un sweet
1 onion chopped and 4 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 stick butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 teas. cinnamon
1/2 teas. all spice
4 leafs fresh sage chopped or 1 teas. dried sage
1 teas. onion powder
2 chicken bouillon
1 container of chicken broth
1 pint half and half

Melt butter and to that you add onions, garlic, and cook till clear.  Then you add the pumpkin and all the spices and add chicken broth.  Then when it comes to a boil you add the half and half, then you may serve it with bread topped with cheese toasted. Your choice.

Pumpkin Muffins

1 Box Spice Cake
1 small can pumpkin
1 cup milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Then mix pumpkin with cake and add the milk.  Place in greased muffin pans and bake for about 25 to 30 mins.  This makes about 24 muffins.

Corn Bread Dressing

4 cups chicken broth
3 stalks celery
1 stick butter
salt and pepper to taste
fresh or dried sage, about 6 leafs or 2 teas. dried
tbs. onion powder
1 large onion diced
parsley (optional)\
5 cups corn bread
1/2 loaf toasted bread
1 tbs poultry seasoning
2 chopped apples
2 eggs (optional)
2 chicken bouillon, added to the broth

Cook corn bread, toast bread, mix, cook onions, celery, in butter till clear, add parsley, spices, salt and pepper to taste,  and then add to chicken broth and bouillon.  Add to cornbread the broth , apples, and mix.  Then stuff your turkey.  On the outside o the turkey if you wish mix some rosemay and thyme to about 1 stick of soft butter on top the turkey with it add salt and pepper to taste and bake for about 20 mins per pound at about 350 degress.   The rest of the dressing you have place in a greased pan and bake for about 40 mins uncovered till nice and brown.

Twice Baked Sweet Potato's

5 cooked sweet potato's baked & hot
1 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 c march mellow fluff
1 tbs cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
1 c chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla
 1/2 cup graham crackers crumbs
3 tsp butter melted
6 slices crisp bacon
1/2 c white cheddar cheese

Remove sweet potato meat and place in a bowl.  Place the shells on a greased baking pan.  To the meat add butter, spices, vanilla, march mellow,  1/2 of the bacon, full the shell.  Mix 3 tbs butter melted, with graham crackers, bacon, cheese, rest of pecans and top the potato's and bake on 350 degrees for about 30 mins or until toasted on top. 

Pecan Carmel Pie

1 ready made pie shell
1 1/2 cups pecans
3 eggs
1 c lite corn syrup
1/2 c brown sugar
2 tbs butter melted
1/2 c carmel ice cream sauce
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients and pour into pie shell and bake at about 350 degrees for about 50-55 mins. 

I hope you enjoy these recipes and if you have any questions please email me at madjon51@aol.com.  Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours am going to be in DC.  Right now am off to work, all kinds of cooking to do!!!

Fig Cake

Hello to all you foodies out there in webland hope all is well with you. Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I'd like to share my Fig Cake recipe with you.  Its easy to make and very moist.  Did you know that figs contain something called Ficin which is a natural meat tenderizer.  Also did Eve eat an Apple or a fig?  She had a fig leaf.  I'll let you wonder about that.  I also have a fig story about my grandson and I going fig picking this summer.  Have you ever been fig picking, they make wonderful preserves.  If you go fig picking you need to cover your body.  Its really hot and you are in the trees.  You have to fight for the morsels against some pretty fierce june bugs.  They are all around your heads, in your hair, they come at you like they are dropping bombs. They even went down my blouse and boy was I doing the jig.  Any who after we harvested our fruit Jonathan and I were off to get some well deserved Ice Cream and back to the test kitchen. 

Fig Cake

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 cup oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup chopped pecan
1 jar fig preserves
1 Cup Sugar

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.  Spray 9 -13 pan with oil.
In a medium bowl, sift together all dry ingredients, set aside.
Mix oil, buttermilk, fig preserves, and eggs.  Add flour mixture, sugar and beat.  Then add vanilla and sour cream and mix.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Hope you like this recipe.  If you have any questions just email me at madjon51@aol.com.  Have a great day and am off to the store and to the cafe.  Happy Trails to you until we meet again.  madjon.

What's Better Then Apple Pie

 Hello to all you foodies out there in webland.  Am back from a very busy day!!!  Last week my hubby was having surgery and today I had to go and have a few things done.  I need to eat more fiber can you imagine.  I had a very dear friend go and sit with me because my hubby can't drive for 6 weeks. His name is Tim and not only did he sit with me but he also did the pick up for my grands today.  That is a true friend.  Any who I asked him what kind of dessert could I make him for helping us out of a jam and he chose Apple Pie which is good because its so close to Thanksgiving you may want to add it to your menu. I also think that 2011 will be the year of the pie.  At  my Madjon's I sell alot of pies.  I won $100.00 and a trophy for one Apple Pie recipe.  Just for your FYI centuries ago they used pie crust like we use tupperware for their protectors.  At least it was all natural.

Apple Pie

Crust
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 stick butter plus 2 tabs shortening
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3 tbsp sugar
5-6 tbsp ice water

Put flour, butter, salt, sugar in a food proscessor.  Then add the egg yolk (reserve the egg white), and water and blend till smooth.  Refrigerate for about 1/2 hour then roll out of a floured surface.  This makes 2 pie crust.

Apple Pie Filling

6-8 tarte apples cut in wedges
1 stick butter melted
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tabs flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 allspice
1/4 cup orange juice

Place all ingredients into a large bowl, mix til well coated and pour into pie shell and top with the other pie crust.  Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.

I hope you like this recipe and add it to your collection.  I hope it brings back memories from your past Thanksgivings or family gaterings.  If  this is your first Thanksgiving together I say happy trails to you and yours until we met again.  Eileen Hutson, madjon.

Chicken Cor don Bleu

Hello all you foodies out there in webland it is me again, Madjon.  I gotta tell you I have posted 2 more of these posts and saved them but I can't get back to them to finish them.  This computer thing is hard on me.  Any who, I've been busy with my hubby having surgery this week on his leg from a car crash.  Poor thing!  He has to stay home for six weeks, no driving for him.    He stays home while I go to the cafe and work.  Oh well such is life.  He should have been in a bigger car!  He had a little sports car bright orange, he kissed it good nite every nite.  Washed it all the time and it shined!  He was cute in it but I can't say am not happy about it going away.  Any who, we taped the Thanksgiving show today and I had my sisters Patsy and Imogene on.  They were so nervious I had to make them bloody mary's, what a hoot!  It's just a camera I told them.  We made Turkey Breast, Rice Sauage Dressing, Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Apples, and Parsnips with Bacon in a white sauce, Spice Pumkin Muffins, and Cranberry Won Ton's, all my own recipes. It took us about 3 hours to shoot.  It was alot of fun being with two of my sisters. James was very pleased with the outcome and it will be aired on Nov. 15th on http://www.aikenstandard.com/ ASTV95.  Cooking With Madjon and Friends.  Did you know that the first Thanksgiving was really held on Nov. 29 by the pilgrims and it was about 1602 if I remember the right date.
   Now lets get to the Chicken Cro don Bleu, I did a show with this recipe.  I've been making it for years.  It is one of my son's favorite dishes that he remembers me making as a kid.  I hope you all enjoy it as well.  It is easy and a very elegant dish to serve to your family and guest.

Chicken Cor don Bleu

4 boneless chicken breast
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
12 thin slices of ham
8 slices of swiss cheese
3 beaten eggs

1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
dash salt
dash pepper
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp rosemary

1 cup wine
1 small package portabella mushroom sliced
2 chicken bouillon cubes

Preheat oven 350 degrees
Gently pound chicken breast, one at a time, between sheets of wax paper with a rubber mallet until they are thin but not with holes in them, your not making swiss cheese you know.
Season the top of each piece of chicken with salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder.
Lay a slice of hame and a slice of cheese horizontally along the bottom half of each breast, fold a 1/2 strip of each side inward and then fold the top over to enclose the filling completely. Secure with a toothpick, but remember to tell your guest about the tooth pick!
Mix the bread crumbs, flour mixed with salt and pepper, onion and garlic powder, thyme, and Rosemary. Bowl two: Beaten eggs. Dip and coat each breast into eggs, then coat in the bread crumbs misture.
Brown in oil on top of stove. Place chicken into pan. Pour wine into pan with mushrooms, sprinkle with thyme and rosemary, add the cubes.
Bake for about 30 to 35 minutes. When chicken is cooked remove the dippings and place in a pan and add 1 can of mushrooms soup, 1 cup wine and 1 tsp lemon juice, stir and heat.  Serve with chicken as a sauce.

Enjoy this dish as much as my family did and I hope it helps you make some memories down the road that we call life.  This is all I can do for tonight I have a busy day tomorrow.  I will try to post ASAP.  So thanks for letting me share this with you and I wish you Happy Trails.  Much Love to you all, Madjon.

Welcome to Cooking With Madjon Blog

 Hello to all you foodies out there in webland, my name is Madjon.  I'am owner of Madjon's Bakery & Cafe located in North Augusta, SC.  Just for your FYI am also have my own Cooking Show called Cooking with Madjon and Friends.  One of the reasons I do what I do today is because of my kids.   They get me started in all kinds of adventures and this has been truly the most rewarding one that I've been on and the hardest job I have truly ever had. I have won many awards for my cooking over the last 3 years and I've been a co-host for my own cooking show.  There is no better way to enjoy life then through food.  I invented Madjon's Salsa, Me Me's Pasta Gravy and Me Me's Cake Syrup. When you think about food or taste it brings back all kinds of memories from your past.  That is what I do at my cafe.  Everything is home made like momma used to make it. I can't put everything about me on this one little square or what I do I will do that on a daily basis.  Right am so new at this blog thing I hope to get alot better at it though the stories and recipes that I will be posting like when I went to pick figs with my grandson or making dinner for friends.  You can learn a little more about me by watching the TV show on http://www.aikenstandard.com/ ASTV 95.  Right now I need to get going for a catering job tomorrow.  I plan on having lots of stories about the good times and the mishaps of cooking and life.  Until then happy trails to you and yours.