The Cooking Ladies ON and OFF THE ROAD

Perdido Key, Florida

Our friends Carl and Jane Pierce are fun people. Their home-on-the-road in Florida is Playa del Rio RV Park and Yacht Club on the barrier island of Perdido Key. The RV park is small and intimate. The white sands of the Gulf of Mexico beckon during the day and the cabana on the Old River becomes the gathering place at sunset.

Carl and Jane invited us to join them at Happy Hour at the Playa del Rio cabana. Always going the extra mile, they turned Happy Hour not only into a book signing by The Cooking Ladies but a feast of fresh Apalachicola Oysters. We signed books and made new friends while Carl shucked the oysters. Out came the cocktail sauce, lemon wedges and soda crackers. As an additional treat, Jane sprinkled some of the oysters with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese and Carl grilled them, on the shell, on the barbecue.

With us, it's all about the food!!!!

FRIENDS & FOOD

Breakfast on the griddle. Sweet potatoes, fried green tomatoes, and eggs sunny side up.

Apalachicola oysters in Apalachicola

At Bayou Joe's with Ken, Dale, and Bob

At Hunt's Oyster Bar with Roger and Ruth

Lunch at La Friandise

We joined our friend Jan Bullard for lunch at La Friandise, the dining room of the Culinary Management Program at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City, Florida.
Jan’s brother Jon Bullard who died last year, was a chef instructor and program designer at the College prior to his position as an executive chef with the US Army.
Chef Billy Redd and his culinary management class outdid themselves with Apalachicola Oysters, Chicken Piccata, Louisiana Style Shrimp and Grits, Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, and Apple and Walnut Strudel with Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. The coffee was good too.
As we were leaving, Jan was presented with a personal copy of the menu signed by the wait staff and chefs.

White Earth Tribal Town, Blountstown, Florida

We probably would never have visited the White Earth Tribal Town if we hadn't met Jan and her brother, Jon Bullard.

Blountstown, Florida, is the home of the White Earth Tribal Town, where the Muskogee/Creek Indians hold their seasonal ceremonies throughout the year. Our friend, Jon Bullard’s ashes were buried there during a “Green Corn” ceremony in June 2008. Indians travel from Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee to attend ceremonies on the tribal grounds.

The day we visited was not a ceremonial time so the property was vacant. No celebrants. No shuffled dancing around the fire. No burning coals in the barbecue pit. Four white arbors were still covered with branches from the last gathering. The ceremonial circle sat silent in the sunshine, a line of seashells marking its boundaries.

It's 5 o'clock somewhere

Our e-cookbook is now available on our website.

The Cooking Ladies’ Favorite
Happy Hour Recipes
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere

Add a dash of fun to your Happy Hour with Heavenly Hummus, Zesty Chicken Bites, Beef Wings, Maple Salmon Cubes, Blue Cheese Apricot Swirls, Exotic Island Meatballs, and more....We take great pleasure in tantalizing your taste buds with 30 of our favourites.

And to make this cookbook even more outstanding, we have included a photo of each finished dish. Recipe ingredients are given in both Imperial and metric measurements.

To get our favorite easy-to-make, something-for-everyone Happy Hour recipes now, go to our website www.thecookingladies.com and click on the "Happy Hour Recipes" link .

Price: $6.

Another Best Seller in the works

We have a good reason why we haven't been blogging for several days. We are writing an ebook. Well, it's actually an eCookbook. And it's going to be beautiful with our favourite happy hour recipes and food photos. We plan to have it on the website within a week. So, please check back. http://www.thecookingladies.com

FIRST RECIPE FOR 2009

Time for some fun! Here's a simple free-wheeling recipe that we just created and enjoyed. It was so good, we want to share with you. We're calling it free-wheeling because we're only providing the list of ingredients and the method. The quantities are up to you. Really it's not necessary to have exact quantities for this recipe. You just throw it all together, cook it, and enjoy. If you like the results, please let us know.

SIMPLE SHRIMP

(Makes as many servings as you want)

Ingredients:
Garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Ginger, peeled and finely chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
Really LARGE fresh or frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined

Method:
Combine equal amounts of chopped garlic and ginger in a bowl.
Add enough olive oil to cover the garlic and ginger. Mix well.
Add the shrimp to the bowl and toss to coat them with the flavors.
We cooked the shrimp outside with a griddle on the barbecue.
A fry pan on the stove will work too.
Preheat the griddle or the fry pan to medium-high.
Cook and turn the shrimp until they become flamingo-pink on all sides.

Enjoy! AND HAVE A HAPPY 2009!

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