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.