Sweet, Sassy, Southern

Drew with Nana, Sept. 2009

Sweet, sassy, southern. I think that pretty much describes my grandma. I’ve talked about Nana before on this blog and how I spent all my summers as a child at her house. Many of the memories I have of her involve food whether it’s shelling peas on her porch, eating ice cold watermelon on newspaper at her kitchen table, making pickles, or waking up in the mornings to her cheesy grits (which were my favorite).

She doesn’t do as much cooking as she used, but she is and will always be one of the main influences for my love of cooking. She could always get in the kitchen and whip up a wonderful meal with anything she had on hand. I always loved her grits, fried corn bread, cobblers, and spaghetti. I hope Drew gets to enjoy some of her cooking one day!

With the holidays coming up, I wanted to post another of my favorite recipes that she makes every Christmas. I do not like fruitcake in the traditional sense but this recipe is so delicious. Give it a try this holiday season! It’s great with coffee on a cold night.

Ice Box Fruitcake

1 box vanilla wafer cookies, crumbled
1 bag of shredded, sweetened coconut
1 large box raisins
1 qt. chopped pecans
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 package candied cherries (maraschino can be used if desired-drain well and cut in half)

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. (Using your clean hands to mix works best.) Using a small measuring cup, scoop into quart size freezer bags and press into a 1″ layer. Freeze until hardened. Remove from the freezer and slice into squares when ready to serve. Keep leftovers in freezer.

Makes about 2 1/2 qt bags full.

Tasty Tools: Coconut Lime Shrimp

Thanks to Joelen of Joelen’s Culinary Adventures for hosting the Tasty Tools blogging event. This is my first blogging event by the way! Normally I’m just too busy to come up with anything for all the wonderful blogging events, but this is my first effort in getting better at that. The tool of choice for this event is the microplane. I got my first microplane not too long ago and I instantly fell in love with it. The first time I grated parmesan cheese with it, I vowed to never by store bought, pre-shredded parm again! The microplane does a much better job! I also love the fact that I can now make recipes that call for zest. Orange zest, lemon zest, lime zest. It seems like there are so many recipes that call for one of those and I’ve always had to skip that part because I had nothing to zest with. But that’s all changed now. When thinking about what I wanted to make for this blog event, I kept going back to limes. I thought about a dessert of some sort but wanted to do something a little different. That’s when I came up with this recipe for coconut lime shrimp. And these are delicious! The hint of lime zest in the breading adds a nice, fresh flavor. Thank goodness for my microplane or else I would have never discovered the wonders of citrus zest in my recipes. I can’t wait to use my microplane for many more tasks in the kitchen!

Coconut Lime Shrimp

14 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, with tails

2 limes

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup shredded coconut

1 Tbsp lime zest

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

canola oil for frying

Place your cleaned shrimp in a bowl and set aside. Begin by zesting one of the limes using your microplane. Reserve the zest for the breading. Slice the zested lime in half and squeeze the juice over the shrimp. You can cover and refrigerate for several hours or just allow to marinate at room temperature while you prepare the breading. In a shallow bowl or plate, combine the bread crumbs, coconut, reserved lime zest and salt. Next, break the two eggs into a shallow bowl and beat them until combined. One by one, dip your shrimp into the egg mixture and then into the breading. Again, dip each one into the egg and then into the breading again. This allows for a crispier shrimp when cooked. Heat about 2 ” of oil in a skillet over medium/hi heat. Once the oil is ready, fry the shrimp, working in batches of 3-4 at a time. Cook on each side about 2 minutes until the outside is golden brown. Place the cooked shrimp on a plate with a paper towel to drain any excess oil. Serve with the other lime, cut into wedges.