Coconut Cream Pie Muffins Great Labor Day Dessert

Hello to all my foodie friends out there in Web Land its MadJon again posting on some very tasty dessert.  I got the idea to make these from a group on face book that I belong too called Outrageous Foodies and I just love the group.  I saw a birds nest dish from grated potatoes and to me it reminded me of shredded coconut.  So I went to the taste kitchen and made up this recipe.  You know that coconut came to this country in the late 1800's and a man named Franklin Baker from Pa started shredding and producing the coconut here in the United States for our household use.  Am so glad that he did because coconut is one of my favorite flavors to eat.  They have it in candy, puddings, fresh coconut Milk, coconut oil, cakes, cookies, and even drinks.  I love it in anything!  When we were kids in Miami we'd sit under the palms and the nut would drop and we'd remove the outer shell and place 3 holes on the end of the coconut and drink the milk.  Then we'd get out hammers and break the nut and eat out the meat.  It was great to just go along the sidewalks and pick up the coconuts to eat.  It took us awhile to open them but we used whatever means we needed to get into that juicy white meat. Their were six kids in my family and my Uncle Jack had 16 kids so it was hard to keep a coconut free on our streets.  Any who I hope you give a try.

Shell

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin pan.

Mix together:

2 cups shredded Coconut
1/2 cup sugar
2 TBSP Corn Starch
2 TBSP melted Butter

Shape into the muffin pans to make a nest and then bake in the oven for about 10 minutes and remove from oven.

Filling:

1 1/2 cups Sugar
1/4 cup Corn Starch
1 tsp. Vanilla
3 Egg Yolks, beaten, reserve egg whites
pinch of Salt
4 Cups Whole Milk
1 cup Shredded Coconut

Mix together and pour into muffin pan.  Cook for about 40 minutes or until done.

Topping
Beat the egg whites with 3 TBSP sugar, add  tsp. Vanilla, and a pinch of Cream Of Tarter.  Beat eggs till they are stiff and top the pies with it and sprinkle coconut on top and bake in a pre-heated oven until brown.  Rest for about 10 minutes and loosen the sides with a butter knife to remove.

I hope you enjoy these pie muffins and when they cool is the best time to eat them.  Please visit my Cooking With MadJon and Friends on face book and I also have a new cookbook out on itunes called MadJon Holidays for you ipads.  Write me with your comments at madjon51@aol.com.  Happy Labor day weekend and happy trails to you until we meet again.  MadJon.

Summers End Bounty From Our Garden Stuffed Italian Fried Okra

Hello to all my foodie friends out there in web land.  Madjon here and I hope all is well and that you enjoyed your summer.  The kids are back to school here in South Carolina.  Labor Day holiday is in just a few days.  Maybe you all can make some of this wonderful Okra for your holiday cooking menu.  We have had a lot of the bounty from our garden again this year.  The Okra plants must be a good five to six feet tall this year.  That's what Chicken Poop does for a garden.  Any who I was introduced to this wonderful vegetable called Okra early on in my life, being that my dad was a big mountain man from Tennessee.  He is the one that did most of the Southern cooking at our house.  Okra was high on his list of foods to have us eat along with the pinto beans, greens and yes that wonderful Buttermilk Corn Bread that he used to cook.  Sometimes I'd sit and watch him eat the corn bread hot with cold Buttermilk poured on top.  I could never understand how he could eat such a combination of food!  My pallet just couldn't get past the sour in the buttermilk.  Any who my mom would drink buttermilk for a upset tummies, as she called it.  Any way am suppose to be talking Okra.  You know all you northerners are missing out on not eating Okra because its slime, heck that's the whole fun of eating it.  Did you know that Okra is a natural thickener and high in fiber.  Its been around for centuries and was bought here by the slaves from Africa.  It has been used to make rope and the seeds have been dried and used for coffee.   You can boil it, bread and fry it, stew it with bacon,  Roast it, stuff it and even dry it and use it for chip dipping.
Now I have not even listed half the uses for this wonderful vegetable.  There are a lot of uses for it in Indian recipes.  Any who this is just one way that I enjoy using the Okra.  Last year I stuffed it with Feta Cheese and Jalapeno peppers.
This year I made it an Italian way browned on some olive oil.  So I hope you all give this recipe a try, shall you.

1 doz. okra, cleaned, slit okra and seeds removed
Salt and Pepper Okra to taste

Filling

Three Italian Blend Cheese's 1 Cup
1 tsp. Onion Powder
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 tsp. Dried Italian Seasonings
Mix all ingredients and fill your Okra pods.

Breading
1 Cup Corn Meal
1/2 Cup Flour
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tsp Onion Powder
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
1 Egg, Beaten

Mix all ingredents and heat about 1" of oil in a pan and roll the filled okra in the egg and then roll it in the dry mix.  Place into the oil and cook to a golden brown on both sides.  Remember to turn your pods and don't fry it on to high a heat.

I hope you give this recipe a try and write me with any comments, I always like to hear from you all.  Come like my fan page https://www.facebook.com/CookingwithMadjon and visit itunes to buy my holiday e-book called MadJon Holiday.  Also come watch the TV show at www.aikenstandard.com ASTV 95.  Happy trails to you and yours until we meet again.  MadJon.  Recipes are always welcome.

Texas Beef Standing Rib Roast Go Houston Texans!

Well hello to all my foodie friends out there in Web Land, I hope all is well.  I have spent the last month on the road in D.C. and to the Houston area.  That is where we are from.  My father -in-law has just been told that he has Alzheimer's and we had to help talk him into moving, selling his home and on top of that telling him he can't drive anymore.  What a horrible thing to have to do to some body.  He felt like we were kicking him out of his house.  Poor thing! So my hubby will be going back and forth to Houston for the next few months.  Any who let's do some talking about this wonderful cut of meat called a Standing Rib Roast. As you may know Texas is well know for their Beef and this is what we call a Standing Rib Roast which is a cut of meat from the primal rib section and is a very tender and pricey piece of meat.  My sister-in-law bought it before we arrived not knowing how to cook it.  This roast had five ribs which means that you could serve about 10 people.  It was maybe total weight of 5 pounds.  You can figure that each rib will feed two people.  When you are picking a roast make sure its a nice deep red color not brown.  If the meat is brown then it is too old and it cost to much for you to waste your money on old meat, sort of speak.  You can go to your butcher and get him to cut you one or talk to the butcher at your store and Rhonda bought this one from H.E.B. and I must say that it was a good cut of Beef.   Your roast should be cooked standing up and with Dry Heat.  It should be salted and seasoned with spices and I like to rub my spices into the meat.  You are also going to do what is called searing the meat in a very hot pan with oil in it.  Searing meat caramelizes and browns the meat which adds color and flavors to the meat.  Any who you are going to slit the meat with a knive tip and go in about two inches deep and then you are going to add a garlic glove placed inside the slit.  Your going to do that about 8 times and I put it all over the roast.  Then I rub it with Salt, Pepper, oven and Garlic powders and sear the meat on all side until it is nice and brown.  Then you are going to add some red wine and beef broth to the drippings and add it to the bottom of your roasting pan.  I use a sided cookie sheet so the roast is exposed to the dry heat.  That will give it a nice and brown color as well.  Any Who am ready to give you a recipe on our Texas Standing Rib Roast, go Houston Texans, whcih are my mother-in-laws favorite football team.

Texas Standing Rib Roast

4-5 Pound Standing Rib Roast
6 to 8 cloves fresh Garlic

Slit the rost with the knive and place the cleaned garlic into the slits

Salt and Pepper to taste, sprinkled onto roast
Onion and Garlic Powder, sprinkled onto roast

Rub the spices on the roast with fingers, the best thing God gave you to work with.
1/2 cup Dijon Mustard
6 basil leaves, fresh
1 stick Oregano, fresh
1 stick Rosemary leaves

Finely chop the herbs and add them to the Dijon Mustard.  Rub the mustard all over your roast with your fingers.

3 Tbsp. Olive Oil
Heat the oil in a pan and sear your meat on all sides.


Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees and place roast into your pan after it is seared.  Then to the drippings in the pan you add about 2 cups red wine and 1 cup Beef Broth.  Stir the pan and pour it into your roasting pan with the roast.  Then you bake the roast for 20 minutes on 450 degrees and then turn down your oven to 350 degrees and bake your roast for 18 minutes per pound or until it reaches a temp of 145 to 150 degrees.  Remove your roast and let it rest for about 15 more minutes before carving.  Take the drippings from your pan and heat it with about 1 more cup of red wine and 1 more cup of beef broth. Cook till reduced.  This is a great sauce with lots of flavoring.

I hope you enjoy this recipe we shall did.  Come visit my fan page on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CookingwithMadjon and also go to www.aikenstandard.com ASTV 95 and watch my TV shows.  Also I have a new cookbook just released MadJon Holiday though itunes.  Please email me with your comments or questions about recipes at madjon51@aol.com.  Bona Y'all and Happy Trail to you until we meet again.  Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!

MadJon Holiday E-Cook Book Come Buy It At

Hello to all my foodie friends out there in web land.  Am in the great state of Texas visiting relatives for another 2 weeks.  While I was on my way home on 7-13-12 my daughter text me saying that my cookbook had been released on itunes!  Its called MadJon Holiday and may be bought on the link I have provided.  Am so excited about this book after all cooking is my passion and this helps me pass on all the love i feel for people is though cooking.  I hope that you give this a try and feel all the love that i try to pass on to you though food. Well let me tell you a little bit of how I got into this business.  I invented some products called Me Me's Pasta Gravy, MadJon's Salsa, and Me Me's Cake Syrup.  I needed a location to produce the products.  Well a location opened where I could open a cafe and at the same time have my recipes tested on the public.  Which I opened the cafe in 2007 and in three years I won like 37 different awards plus a Best Apple Pie award.  Then while Madjon's Bakery and Cafe was opened I was asked if I would be interested in hosting my own TV cooking show and I said well yea!!!  Then we started testing the recipes and everyone seemed delighted with  them and so last October we decided to start the first ebook which was a holiday book.  It took months to get everything together and a lot of hard work to get the book on itunes.  First we started the photo shoots.  Then I had to plan out the menu's for the three shows for the taping not to meantion the recipes.  Then we invited the guests and tested the foods on a lot of people.  They had to take a lot of still photo's of the foods and I don't know if you know anything about cooking shows but it takes hours to do a shoot.  Any who the end result is the E-book. Then you have to take everything that we did at taping and turn it into a book and that was no easy task.  It was edited like 4 times and I want to say thanks so much to Stacey who has worked so hard to bring this to market.  Then she had to first get it approved and then re approved.  Any who I just wanted to say I hope that you give this book a try for your holiday cooking this year.  It does have some great recipes in it.. Thanks to the Aiken Standard and their staff for all the hard work that they do for the show and for MadJon Holiday Ebook.  Go to http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/madjon-holiday/id520208369?mt=8 Happy trails to you and yours, Eileen Hutson, MadJon.  P.S. Looking forward to more E-books being released and all it takes is a lot more time!  Just kidding.

When Life Throws You Lemons Make Lemonade

Hello to all my foodies friends out there in web land, hope all is well.  Last week we sent the 4th in Washington D.C. and it was hotter then a fire cracker.  We had to drive our truck down because my hubby wracked our new car again!  Only this time he can't remember how he did it.  He stuck the guard rails over the rail road tracks and I thought the car was totaled however the insurance company says its fixable.  It didn't look like ti to me.  He did over 10,000.00 worth of damage, man!  The car will never be the same!  It doesn't even have but maybe 50,000 miles on it.  Engine isn't even broke in yet.  Oh well that's what I get for buying a red car!  They for some reason have a higher rate of wrecks.   At least my hubby turned out OK, again.  When life throws you Lemons make Lemonade.  Any Who we spent the 4th in D.C. and loved every minute of it!  We had a FBI tour and I say thanks for the FBI!   Had a 4th for July Party in the Hood at 8th and I and met some very interesting people.  Then we went to visit the capitol and before we went in we had to give them our water so when we left it was really hot and we had nothing to drink.  I'd given anything for a iced down Lemonade. Then our picture got taken and we ended up on the front page of the Washington Post!  He took our names and said he didn't know if it would be used but the next morning I went to have breakfast at Ted's Bulletin and they rolled out the paper and we were on the front cover with a small story!  Then my nephew saw it on MSN though his Hot mail.  Boy what a trip.  Speaking of Ted's Bulletin that is a great place to eat.  They make wonderful Pop Tart's and I ate the Corn Beef Hash with Eggs.  It is made fresh by the chef.  The service is wonderful as well, thanks to Christina Thompson.  We also marched in the parade.  We did a couple other exciting things but am going to blog on them later.  Any who I recommend that everyone go visit our capital because of all the wonderful adventures a family can have there.  You learn so much history and most of it is free of charge to visit. Please come visit me at face book fan page Cooking With MadJon and Friends or go see my cooking show at http://www.aikenstandard.com/ ASTV 95. 

Anne's Life's Lemonade

4 Cups Water
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1/3 Cup Lemon Juice
Fresh Mint 4 springs
Fresh Basil   3 sprigs
Lemon 1 Cut in Rings

Place 2 cups water, sugar, 4 lemon rings, 3 sprigs mint and 3 sprigs basil in the pot and bring to a boil.  Then add 2 cups of water to the mix.  Remove the lemon rings and mint and basil.  Pour Lemonade over some Ice and serve with a mint leaf.

i hope you enjoyed this blog and hope that you give this recipe a try.  Please send me your thoughts and recipes at madjon51@aol.com.  Happy trails to you until we meet again.  Bona Y'all.

Red Velvet Cake 4th of July and America

Well hello to all my foodie friends out there in web land I hope all is going well for you all .  If you live in the USA I say Happy Fourth of July.  This holiday is special to me because it reminds me of our freedoms that we still have in this country.  My mom and dad both fought in WW11 behind enemy lines I know for a fact my mom was in Germany.  She got injured and was sent home right before the war ended. She was in the Wac at age 16, her dad signed her up.  I have never known a women stronger in my life and that fought so hard for our rights even after I was grown.  She raised six kids and lived with a man that believed men were superior to women and that we were the weaker sex.  The only thing weaker on me is my strength! However in sports I saw Billy Jean King kick butt with her tennis skills.  Even before our dad died in 1979 she lived in Tulsa and instead of sitting around eatting bon bons she fought for the rights of women vets and was picked by the Governors of Okahoma and when she moved to SC to be the liaison for women veterans.  She fight for any vet who had a problem with the VA trying to take a benefit away from them when she knew what their rights were.  Boy if she believed in something she wouldn't let anything get in her way.  When I lived in WV she'd fly in and off we'd go to DC and meet with the congressmen and senators to discuss what she thought should be done.  I was with her when she went to DC and we met with a women general to discuss the Women's Momorial I saw the plans before it became a reality.  Talk about the greatest generation.  She was one of them and then I think about my generation and how we are not fighting for our rights and our grand childrens rights.  My mom believed in this country, she believed in its people, all of them.  She said its hard to make change but change can be made if you fight hard enough for it.  She'd say always to me, you pay attention to what our government is doing or what other foreign goverments are doing.  You need to write your representives and tell them what is what or one day this country will be taken over without firing a shot.  Are we close to that point now?  Some people would agree with me and some wouldn't.  I still believe in this country with all our problems.  I believe, what a wonderful word which means To regard (something) as true or real, to have an opinion, which we still may express to a degree am just wondering do we still have the right to believe?.  Are we affraid to really say what we believe or write it down.  Freedom is another word which means: The condition of being politically free.  Freedom is what our forefathers fought for.  We are still the greatest nation on this earth if we were't then why do we still have people running to our shores and wanting to be an American in the greatest country on earth.  I just want to say a great big thank you to all who have fought and died for me and my country and which I am happy to call myself an AMERICAN.   I want to say a special Thank you to my mother, Jeanne Varney Newby for everything she did for this counrty and her fellow Americans.  Happy trails to you until we meet again. https://www.facebook.com/CookingwithMadjon

Red Velvet Cake

2 1/2 cups all purpose Flour, sifted
1 3/4 cups Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 cups Oil
1 cup Buttermilk, at room temperature
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tbsp Red Food Coloring or reduced Beet Juice
1 tsp. Vinegar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp Almond extract

Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, salt, and cocoa.  Then add oil, buttermilk and blend well.  The add the beaten eggs.  Ad food coloring and blend well.  Add your vinegar and extracts.  Pe- heat your oven to 350 degrees and grease 3 cake pans and bake for about 30 minutes or until done.  Remove from oven and let rest for about 10 minutes then place on a wire rack to cool.  Icing time.

Cream Cheese Icing:

1 Cup Butter softened
1 pound Cream Cheese softened
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Almond Extract
5 Cups Confectionary Sugar, sifted

Cream your butter an cream cheese until light and creamy.  Add your extracts.  Slowly beat in your sifted sugar and beat until creamy an smooth.  Ice cake when completely cool.  Bona Y'all.

Salad Greens With Cranberry and Orange Slices & Lemon Salad Dressing

Well hello to all my foodie friends out there in Web Land I hope your summer is working out for you.  Well I've been busy with Catering and I had a fund raiser last Friday at the Wilcox and our theme was Hunger Games and I made dishes with alot of berries and wild game like Bacon wrapped Quail with a Blueberry Sauce and Feta Cheese on top.  Then with that i made some Creamed Parsnips with Leeks.  A Cranberry Walnut Zucchini Breakfast Bread and some Strawberry Oatmeal Cookies.  Everyone loved the foods I had selected.  They didn't want to try the Parsnips but after a couple of them ate them then everyone was talking about how good they were and they just had to try them.  Then I filmed with the Women Of Wood side and had a blast.  They made some Rosemary Baked Salmon, Carrots and Grapes, Lemon Rice, Oyster Stew, Herb Beer Bread, and Baked Alaska.  Did you know that the Baked Alaska recipe came from like the 1887 and a chef made it up because of the USA buying Alaska from Russia. I worked with Rita, Gail and our host was Suzanne.  Nice ladies and their group does fund raisers around the Aiken area and they also have about five cook books that they have made over the last five years.  There are some good recipes in those books.  Sorry you can't buy the books as yet but they are thinking about selling them for charity.  Any who a good time was had by all.  Today am going to give you one of the Salads I did on my TV show "Cooking With MadJon and Friends."  I'd like for yo to go and like my fan page on FB https://www.facebook.com/CookingwithMadjon and also go view some of the TV shows at http://www.aikenstandard.com/ ASTV 95.

Cranberry Orange Salad With Lemon Dressing

Dressing:

1/2 Cup Lemon Juice
1/2 Cup Oil
1 tsp Seasoned Salt
1 tsp Onion Powder
2 TBSP Sugar

Mix all ingredient's till well blended.

5 Cups Salad Greens
1 Orange Slices, peeled
1/2 Cup Dried Cranberry's
1/2 Cup Walnuts, chopped

Place all ingredients into a large bowl and pour salad dressing over the salad right before serving.  Serves eight.

Well I hope you give this recipe a try and email with any questions or recipes that you would like to share at madjon51@aol.com.  Happy trails to you and yours and please enjoy the summer.  MadJon.