BananaTom Chicken

4 Chicken breast boiled and chopped.

Mix in 1 can of cream of chicken soup.

Lemon pepper salt to taste.

8 oz of sour cream  

(If you like mushrooms, they are great to add in also)

Mix the above and place into Pyrex.

Crumble one sleeve of Ritz Crackers and mix them into 1 stick of melted butter to create the topping and spread on top.

Place in oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

This quick and simple dish is addicting.

I can not stop eating it until it is all gone.

Shrimp Creole a l’Amelie

 It’s quick and easy (except for the raw shrimp peeling), and people think you really went to a lot of trouble. Please keep the secret! (full disclosure: I don’t measure. All quantities approximate. Feel free to add or subtract as necessary.)

 2 Tbsp or so, olive oil

2 cups celery sliced

1 big yellow onion chopped

 2 big green peppers chopped

couple of cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped

2 big cans diced or whole tomatoes coarsely chopped 

2 lbs  -or more - deheaded deveined raw shrimp as fresh as you can get ‘em. Frozen ones out of the plastic bag are ok, but do take advantage of your resources if you’re near a fish house.

Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, bay leaf, maybe a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, a half teaspoon  of powdered (or a teaspoon of fresh chopped) thyme, and parsley to garnish, if you have a pot of it handy.

 Long grain white rice, butter

 Baguette of French bread

Salad

Serves 4. Easily doubled or tripled if you have a crowd and a nice big kettle.

Toss celery, onion, pepper and garlic in the olive oil you've heated in a good-sized heavy pot, and saute until onion turns transparent. Add tomatoes and bay leaf, and simmer 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it, adding water as necessary to keep the stuff from scorching.

Start the rice cooking- add 1 1/2 cups of long grain white rice and a tablespoon of butter to 3 ¼  cups of rapidly boiling salted water, reduce immediately to simmer. Keep lid on without peeking for 15 minutes, then turn off heat and let sit for another 5 or 10 minutes.

Now take a look at the creole mixture. If it’s much too soupy,  stir a tablespoon of flour in a quarter cup of water, and add to the stew, stirring to thicken slightly. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper, a sprinkle of  thyme, and a smidge of cayenne pepper to taste. At almost the last minute, after the table’s set, the salad’s tossed, stir in the raw shrimp, and let simmer until they’re pink, 5-10 minutes or so, depending on size. Don’t overcook!! Call guests to the table. Remove the bay leaf,  and put the hot-sauce bottle out for guests to season their own. Ladle the creole over the now fluffy white rice, sprinkle on a bit of chopped fresh parsley if you have some, and serve it forth, with crusty bread,  crisp white wine or good beer.

All the prep work can be done ahead of time; if you're going out for the weekend, do the slicing/dicing at home, put it all in a zipper bag, and dump it in the pot to cook a half hour before dinnertime. Ditto, the spices. (I can't imagine cooking without creole seasoning- you might just get a big can of your favorite brand to keep on the boat, and use it instead of salt/pepper.)

Seafood Gumbo

This is more trouble than shrimp creole, and it’s not cheap to make, but it can be prepared at home, refrigerated promptly, and reheated to be served a day or two later; many people think the flavor improves with time. There are as many ways to cook a fine pot of gumbo as there are coastal cooks, and any cook worth his/her Tabasco Sauce will solemnly swear that is the only One-True-Way to make it. My family raves over this version, but that’s just because they don’t want to get stuck in the kitchen themselves, for complaining.

-Gumbo filet- (powdered sassafras leaves, a sine qua non for gumbo.)

-Your choice of seafood, a couple of pounds worth. A pound of fresh shrimp, a pint or two of carefully picked-over crabmeat, and a half-pint of oysters are my favorites.

-A couple of quarts of seafoody broth is nice- if you have peeled the raw shrimp yourself, toss the shrimp shells in a pot of water with celery tops, garlic, salt, and a bay leaf, and simmer for  15 minutes or so, then strain and reserve. If you happen to have fileted fish sometime, you can make a wonderful broth of the bones and trimmings, etc, and freeze it to use in gumbo later. Chicken broth will suffice, though.

-Okra, sliced crosswise. I use a two-pound bag of frozen okra to save time.

-Onion, chopped, couple of big ones

-Celery, sliced- several cups worth

-Canned tomatoes- one big can ought to do it.

- ¼ to ½ pound of spicy sausage, sliced and quartered, like Andouille, or diced country ham(optional, if you’re serving non-meat-eaters.)

-a couple of cloves of minced garlic

- several cups of cooked hot rice

-browned flour to add a nice brown color and thickening.

-bay leaf, marjoram, thyme, pepper, salt, pepper flakes, other seasonings to taste

Brown ½ cup flour in dry skillet, stirring constantly over med-low heat until a nice golden brown.  Set aside. (this can be done well ahead of time and stored in a zippered bag.)

Chop celery, onions, garlic, green pepper, ham or sausage (optional, but adds good flavor)

1 large-ish bag of frozen sliced okra, or 2 lbs fresh baby okra scrubbed and sliced.

Stir vegetables in olive oil over medium heat until onion’s translucent and okra ‘strings.’

Add sausage/ham if you’re using it, and continue to cook until sausage is well cooked. Add additional olive oil if necessary, then stir in the browned flour, until it thickens to a bubbly paste. This is your 'roux,' the basis of authentic gumbo. Add tomatoes, chopped, with liquid. Add broth, and any liquid from seafood, such as juice from oyster container, and simmer a while. Add gumbo filet- lots of it, several tablespoonsful, anyway, and other spices, your choice. The soup itself should be a nice brownish color. Season to taste- should be a bit spicy, but don’t ruin it for your more timid guests. You can always add it, but hard to subtract too much hot stuff. Finally, add raw peeled shrimp, cooked picked-over crab, oysters if you like ‘em. Simmer until shrimp are pink, oyster edges are curled, and crabmeat is well-blended into the soup. There. It’s done. You can cool the soup and chill or even freeze it now, for reheating on the boat, or serve it now in bowls over a scoop of rice.  Modestly accept compliments, and  offers to take over the clean-up chores.