Aiken Home Show Fans and some Savory Halloween Pumpkin Dip Yum Yum

 

Savory Pumpkin Dip

 

1 can pure Pumpkin

 

1 Onion, diced

4 Cloves Garlic, minced

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Black Pepper

3 TBSP Sugar

1 tsp. Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1 Bay Leaf

1 tsp. Mrs's Dashes

1 Packet Ranch Dressing Dip

2 TBSP Sherry

1 cup Sour Cream

 1 cup Half and half

1 cup Cheddar Cheese

3 tbsp Butter

1 cup French Fried Onions

2 diced Green Onions

 

Heat the butter in a pan on low heat.  Add the onion and garlic, cook till clear in color.  Then add the pumpkin and all the spices.  Then add the sour cream, half and half and cheese.  Stir in the ranch dressing packet and sugar to the mix and blend well on low heat.  Add the Sherry to the pot and stir, stir, stir.  Cool your mixture down and now you are ready to plate.  This by the way would make a great Halloween treat for your guest.  Place dip in a bowl and top with the onions and fried french onions.  Serve with some Bread cubes toasted or pita chips.

 

Hello to my foodies friends out in web land its MadJon again and want to say Happy Halloween to each of you.  I hope you have loads of fun.  This recipe was made up for the Aiken Home show last weekend and they wanted a Christmas theme to go along with Sears so this was the pick of the season. You know a lot of the fans that came by said they had never tasted a Savory Pumpkin Dip, they had always had a Sweet type of dip made from pumpkin.  When I started looking at recipes that is what I say as well so I decided that a savory dip would be just what the doctor ordered.  So off to my test kitchen I went and ended up with this recipe which by the way I had tons of ladies asking for it while I was there little did they know I had to go back and remember what I did to make the recipe.  So I hope that you all enjoy this dip though the holidays.  Let em know what you think and please email me at madjon51@aol.com and watch the TV show at aikenstandard.tv. If you are a fan of face book please come like my fan page at Cooking With MadJon & Friends.  I wanted to say thanks to all the fans who stopped by and vendors to say Hi and taste the foods I made.  On the menu was the Pumpkin dip, Chicken Salad with Cranberries and Pecans.  Lasagna Bites made with Me Me's Pasta Gravy, Christmas Cranberry Sauce served over Cream Cheese and I threw in some MadJon's Salsa over cream cheese as well.  We served Cookies and Cherry Pecan Brownie Mini Bites that I made up.  Fun was had by all for everyone in the VIP with the Aiken Standard.  I also wanted to thank the nice lady at the Cold Creek booth that said her kids enjoy watching the TV show and enjoy learning how to do some cooking.  Happy trails to you until we meet again.

 

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN with John Vaughn's piano at the cotswolds diamond ju...

Trip to OBX Szechuan Noodles

MadJon's Szechuan Noodles

1 pound Cooked Noodles
1 pound ground Pork or Turkey meat
1 Onion diced
4 cloves Garlic minced
2 TBSP Oil
3 Green Onions diced
1/2 tsp ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Black Pepper ...
1 tsp. Onion & Garlic Powders
2 tsp. Chili Oil
1 tsp crushed Red Peppers
1 TBSP Sugar
2 TBSP Corn Starch
1/2 cup Soy Sauce
1/4 cup Oyster Sauce
2 tsp. Sesame Oil
1/4 cup Sherry Vinegar
1/2 cup to 1 cup Chicken Broth or water

Brown the onions and garlic in the oil and cook until they are clear in color. Brown the meat with the onions, garlic, add your spices, sugar and sesame oil to the mix. Add the corn starch and mix it till it is well blended. Then add the green onions, sherry, oyster sauce, and soy sauce. Stir and then add the broth to the mix and cook until your sauce is thick. If you wish you may fry some rice noodles to place on the top of your cooked noodles for some extra texture to your dish. I top mine with diced green onions and this serves 6 to 8 servings. I usually serve ti up with my Pineapple Cole Slaw. Cook noodles according to package directions. If you have any questions about this dish just message me. Thx, MadJon.See More

  

Hello foodies out there in web land thought I'd give you the recipe first this time.  We went to the Outer Banks for a few days last week and loved it.  We saw a few light houses and climbed one, what a view that gives you.  There are several Light houses in South Carolina and in that area there are 5 and 4 of them are really easy to get to but one is very hard to view unless you do it by air.  I was told that you needed a four wheel drive to get across the beach to see it.  We toured the  Whale head in Corolla and they knew how to live.  The home was beautiful.  We fished and caught dinner one night, we fished from a pier and when we'd pull up the fish it looked really small from the top.  They looked like bait fish.  Had a lot of fun and ate some great Crab Cakes, just as good as Maryland's famous crab cakes.  Our hubby's flew the plane to OBX and my girlfriend and I drive to the outer banks, however it doesn't pay to drive sometimes because I got caught in a speed trap and my gage is off by about 6 miles per hour and I got a big fat ticket for $216.00.  Thirty dollars for the fine and  $188.00 for court cost can you believe that.  Small towns I guess that's how they get some of your money.  They pulled over five cars in like five minutes.  They clocked me he said. Nice Sunday drive well North Carolina will not be seeing me for awhile again.  Any who Happy trails to you uniil we meet again.  Please go watch my TV show Cooking With MadJon and Friends on aikenstandard.tv and come like my fan page on FB at Cooking With Madjon & Friends.

 

Depression Era Foods Article Mock Apple Pie Best Comfort foods

Depression Era Foods and Stories from The Past

 

Recently I had the pleasure of hosting my show with Margaret and she was born in 1925, so she does remember some of the foods that her mom made during that time.  She remembers Roosevelt saying that he would put a Chicken in every pot.  Her mother was a chef and her dad just liked plain old food, as she called it.  He added Ketchup to everything he ate.  Her dad was a mechanic and her mom worked in the airplane factory plant during WWII like Rosie the Riveter.  The year was 1929, the crash of the stock market and our banks.  This was the beginning of the great depression, which lasted in this country until the beginning of WW11.  There were like 25 percent of Americans out of work and I don’t know what number of family members that went hungry from that era.   Thousands of them.  However Margaret’s dad made sure there was plenty of food on the table like chicken, fruits and vegetables.  Her mom would make Chicken Fricassee and she remembers her making creamed peas over toast, and adding canned tuna with it.  She remembers the Vegetable Gardens in front yards and neighbors sharing and working their gardens.  People canned their bounties that they grew in the gardens.  Some families ate better then others, depending on whether they had a job or not.  My mom was born in 1925 as well, and my grandfather was a chef and ran a speakeasy, which they lived on top of, before the Italians moved in, and burned him out.  So he went to work as a mechanic.  She said she could remember going to bed hungry and watching the soup lines and men away from their families trying to find work where they could.   She said she remembers eating a lot of spinach and when she grew up she said that she would never eat spinach again.  That part stayed with her.  If anything had spinach in it, she wouldn’t eat it.  My father lived in Tennessee on a farm with 15 siblings.  They grew their own food and traded for goods at market.  They would cook mush with chicken in it; we call that Polenta today.  They would hunt on the mountain for extra meat.  They didn’t have money, but they had whole milk and made there own butter in a churn.  My granddad would sell a hog at market to buy shoes for the kids in the winter and by the time spring came, they wore shoes with cardboard soles.  They went barefoot in the warm months and maybe that is where the term bare foot and pregnant came from?  My grand mother wore my grand dads worn out shoes because she didn’t have a pair of shoes herself until my mom bought them for her.  She would grow a garden and put up creamed corn, cabbage, sauerkraut, and make mocked Apple Pie, which is a recipe that really came from the chuck wagons that used crackers for the pie.  This pie really does look and taste like fresh Apple Pie but there is not an Apple to be found in it.  I interviewed some friends, Midge and Denny Seymour, while I was in DC. Midge says that her background is Italian and her dad was a head of the Ninth Ward in Chicago and that she never wanted for anything during the depression.  They lived in the Ward with all her Italian family around them.  She said that they had chicken and pasta, all home made with her spaghetti sauce. She would watch them make all the homemade breads.  Sounds like it was wonderful for her.  She made me want to be there with her.  I do have a funny story to tell you about Midge. When she would make her spaghetti sauce she would have to put it in the back of her station wagon after she made it to keep her kids from taking their breads and dipping it into the pot and eating half the pot before she got her dinner ready.  Then there is Denny who has a different story. He remembers eating a lot of organs like the tongue, kidneys, sweetbreads, liver, and onions.  He ate lots of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.  He also remembers the vegetable gardens.  He also remembers Al Capone and that he was like the Robin Hood of that time.  I have a friend, George who says that his Uncle worked for a hotel in town and that he used to be the runner for Al Capone. His uncle loved the running part because he got big tips from Mr. Capone, however the hotel told him since he was getting big tips from Mr. Capone then he could basically get paid from him.  His tips were bigger then his salary. Whatever Al took he always shared part of with the people, but I know he did keep some for himself.  My Aunt Ene says that they lived on a farm in Hockley, Texas, and that they always had food to eat because they raised their own foods and meats.  They would share the meats with other families.  They canned a lot and ate pickled tongue.  She didn’t have money but had a lot of hand me downs to wear.  She says that she still enjoys a good hand me down.  My mother-in-law remembers eating scrambled eggs with calf brains and that is a dish that my dad loved as well.  I used to watch him make it as a kid, but I never let that dish pass though my month.  My mother-in-law remembers getting just an orange and nuts for Christmas and that made them very happy.  I want you to give these recipes a try from the depression era and there are a lot of them.  My favorites are the Rice and Bread Puddings.  I hope you have enjoyed this article on depression foods and remember how lucky we are to be living in this great nation of ours and hearing some of these stories. I think of how lucky we still are and how far we have come.  Some of the folks I interviewed feel like we are a spoiled nation and that we have too much.  They feel like they had the best generation and lived in the best of times.  However they also remember their parents saying I just don’t know what this generation is coming to!  My mother and father said the same thing.  I laugh about it the same way my parents laughed at theirs.  I believe that the best times are ahead of us and that our young will show us the way to their future, and it will be a brighter, smarter and safer generation.  However that said, I wish them luck with all their cooking adventures and go to the Apple store and buy my first cookbook, MadJon Holiday at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/madjon-holiday/id520208369?mt=8 and make some holiday memories of their own.  Email me at madjon51@aol.com with any storiess and recipes from a era gone by and I wish you Happy trails to you until we meet again.

 

Mock Apple Pie                       

2 cups water                                                    

 

                       

1 cup white sugar

                               

2 tsp. cream of tartar  

 

30 buttery Ritz Crackers

 

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

 

1/4 tsp Nutmeg

 

2  ready made Pie Crust for a 9" Pie

 

 

1 cup crushed Ritz crackers

 

1/2 Cup packed Brown Sugar

 

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

 

1/3 Butter, mwlted

 

 

 

 

 

            

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a saucepan over medium high heat, combine the water, sugar and cream of tartar; nutmeg, cinnamon and bring to boil.
3. Drop in whole crackers and boil for 5 minutes. Pour mixture into pie shell.
4. Mix together the crushed crackers, brown sugar, cinnamon and butter; sprinkle over pie filling.
5. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the pie is golden brown.

                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                

          

                     

Tear Down The Barricade's Mr. President and then make Beer Stew

Hello to all my foodies friends out in Web Land its Madjon again coming to you from the great state of South Carolina.  Boy what a busy Nine days our country has had with shut downs, tour Buses being delayed by gunpoint at Yellowstone.  Our Government not paying benefits to our fallen soldier's families and the WW11 veterans being turned away or barricaded out of the WW11 memorial in D.C.  Then the closing of the Normandy National Park as well, by the way I didn't know that our president ruled in France as well,  with veterans being locked out.  You know veterans the ones who fought for our freedoms that we are suppose to have in the good old USA.  Freedom, what a word, its definition is: The condition of being politically free or the state of not being in confinement or servitude.  What is the definition of servitude: its a noun, and it means a state of subjugation to an owner or master.  Is that the state our country is in now or where we are headed?  I don't know about you but am not use to someone telling me what to do and how to do it.  Am so tried of hearing that we are to do this and we are to do that!  I know by writing this blog I could be subject to persecution,meaning, excruciating punishment though certain agencies within our government.  When a citizen of a state or country fears persecution or is punished in anyway for saying what they think or speaks out against a government then you are no longer living in a free country. Has our country come to this?  How sad.  Lets take the health care act Pol after pol shows that most American,76 percent,  do not want this health care bill and yet our government made it a law anyway and besides that i keep hearing our Representatives say, well its the law you can't change it, that's not true. Slavery was a law at one time and it was changed.  One way to stop the Health Care Act is to not pay for it as citizens then it will be defunded. Its cheaper for you to pay the fines. Our government should be fair about this and bring it before the people to vote on it, state by state, why should you force us to obey laws that we disagree with. We are no longer a government for the people or by the people we are a government for the government as we stand today.  Also let's talk about the closing of all our National Parks and even Private Parks. Now the Definition of private is: belonging or confined to a particular person or group as opposed to the public or the government: private property.  Mr. President you closed the parks and private lands, and who pays for them, we the people do, not Mr. President.  If it were all about not having money then sir you would have let them open The Smoky National Park but no you said it wasn't fair to the other parks.  Sir I know that it is true because I called the Mayors office and talked to them and they said that had calls from all over the United States. So I say to you Mr' President stop messing with your citizens your fight is with the Republicans not the citizens of these United State of America, which by the way used to be the land of the free and home of the brave.  However with the IRS on citizens backs because of their believes does not make us a free country anymore, when your citizens are afraid to speak their minds then we are not longer a free nation.  I hope each and every citizens in this country, no matter what your political believes are still want a free America.  You need to let your voice to heard even if the White House is not taking calls at the moment.  My mother, Jeanne V. Newby, always said mark my words,that if you don't watch it they will take you over without firing a shot.  Both my parents fought and were injured during WW11 and am writing this because that is what she would have wanted me to do.  It may not even be read but at least I wrote it.  So am calling on you Mr' President to tear down your barricade's that you have had our government build and leave the citizens of these United States alone.  I believe this could appear to be called abuse of power. Tear down your barricade's and let the people back into there house Mr. President.  If you choose to let us back into our house, then maybe you can work on putting us all back together so that we are one nation under God and not a divided nation.  I say God Bless you Mr. President and God Bless the United States of America.

 

 

Beer Stew

1 pound of Beef Stew or pork

cut into small cubes and dusted with salt, pepper, onion, garlic powders and browned in oil on both sides.  Place in a heated crock pot.

3 carrots, cut and peeled

Potatoes, 2 each, diced

1 Onion diced

4 cloves garlic minced

1 dark Beers

Place all of these ingredients into your crock pot

add:

2 Bay Leafs

3 Beef Bouillons

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 tsp. dried thyme

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 can of water

 

toss this all into the pot and cook until the meat is tender and the juice is thickened.  Bona Y'all.

Come like my fan page on face book at "Cooking With MadJon and Friends".  Watch the cooking show at aikenstandard.tv.  Happy trails until we met again.

 

 

MadJon's Indirect Heat Article In Aiken Standard Newspaper

COOKING WITH MADJON: How to cook chicken with indirect heat

• By Eileen Hutson
• Posted: Tuesday, October 1, 2013 5:10 p.m.

• 
  

Photo by Frankie Guzman Barbecue chicken, grilled vegetables and grilled red potatoes were all cooked using indirect grilling.

It’s the end of season for of “Cooking with MadJon and Friends” on ASTV 95. For one of the last shows I chose to show you how to do some indirect grilling or heat for barbecue chicken and fresh vegetables.

Indirect grilling is where the heat source is not in direct contact with the meat. Oftentimes the indirect source is completely from the grill, like a smoker grill, where a firebox is used to start a wood fire. Then the hot coals continue to provide heat for slow cooking of your meat.

Extra Photos

• photo by Frankie Guzman Eileen Hutson prepares potatoes for indirect grilling.
• 
• 
• 

My brother-in-law, Chef Vern has an Orion cooker, and not only is it an indirect heat cooker, but it is convection, as well. It has two separate heat sources which cause the heat to spin, pulling the smoke from the wood chips and moisture from the liquid tray into the meat. This will speed up the conventional indirect smoker by almost half and adds moisture without the use of a spray bottle.

Now what I used for these recipes was my gas grill. I lit both burners and let it heat up to about 350 degrees; then I cut one of the heat sources off and cooked my chicken and vegetables with just the one burner on.

This makes the best chicken, ribs or pork loin. It keeps the meat moist, full of flavor, making the outside of the meat have a nice crispy texture to it.

In this recipe for the show I added a barbecue sauce onto the chicken while it was in the last half hour of cooking. You should cut the chicken in half, pat it dry on both sides, dust it with your spices, and, remember, when you add the salt, make sure not to add too much; you can always add more salt later.

Also, clean your racks while your grill is hot with a nice wire brush. It is so easy to clean the racks while they are hot.

I placed the meat directly on the racks instead of adding a pan to cook the chicken in, however, if you are cooking a pork loin, I’d suggest that you use a pan to catch the drippings so that you can make a sauce with a beer or wine mixture for your meat.

Another trick for your meat to help keep it moist is to let it rest about 20 minutes before you carve it. The rest time helps keep your juices in your meat.

Now for the cooking the vegetables. Spray the inside of your foil pans before adding the vegetables to keep them from sticking while cooking. Place your pans on the upper racks of your grill.

Mix your olive oils or butters with the vegetables to get a nice coating on them to help keep them tender, and it will help add moisture to your vegetables while they cook. You want your vegetables looking nice and moist and not tough and dry.

Add whatever spices fit your palate, because we all have different tastes when it comes to our foods.

I hope you have a great grilling experience with these few hints I’ve given you. Drop me an email at madjon51@aol.com with any questions that you may have.

I always enjoy hearing from you and hearing about you trying my recipes.

Bon appetit, y’all.

Eileen Hutson is a local professional cook who stars in the ASTV show “Cooking with MadJon and Friends.” Visit her blog at cookingwithmadjon.blogspot.com.

Indirect heat barbecue chicken

1 chicken, cut in half

Salt and pepper to taste

Garlic and onion powders

Smoked paprika

1 cup barbecue sauce

Cut your chicken in half and dry it on both sides of the meat. Dust it with salt, pepper, onion, garlic powder and smoked paprika. Make sure you give it a good coating on both sides of the meat. Place it on side of the grill that you cut off, bone side down so your skin is on top. This process will take about 2 hours to cook the chicken. Coat the chicken with barbecue sauce while it’s still cooking for the last 30 minutes. With poultry, make sure that the chicken is done, meaning no blood is flowing. The desired temperature reached for doneness of chicken should be 165 degrees.

Grilled vegetables

3 yellow squash, diced

1 onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 jalapeno, diced

5 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon of dried basil

Diced all of the vegetables and toss with the salt, pepper and minced garlic. Add in your dried basil and mix. Add the olive oil and mix. Spray a foil pan then pour your vegetables in and cover with foil. Make sure you poke some small holes in the top of the foil so the smoke from the grill can get in. Grill your vegetables for about 20 minutes and stir it once or twice while it is cooking.

Grilled Red Potatoes

6 cubed red potatoes

1 onion, sliced

6 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp. each of onion and garlic powders

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tsp. dried rosemary

½ stick butter, melted

Grease your foil pan. Take your potatoes and mix them with salt, pepper, garlic, onion powder, fresh garlic and rosemary. Melt the butter, toss it with the potato mix and pour the mixture into the foil pan. Make sure you poke the holes in top of the foil cover to let the smoke into the mix. Let it grill on about 350 degrees for about 20 to 30 minutes. You can also add some corn and cooked bacon to the mix.