Welcome to Southern Maryland Cooking!

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Southern Maryland is a beautiful piece of country nestled between the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River. Our area is rich with farmland, Amish and Mennonite communities, farmer's markets, roadside stands, beautiful waterways and seductive scenery. Southern Marylander's are famous for crabs, oysters, rockfish, and "Southern Maryland Stuffed Ham." Although we are very proud of our famous dishes and relish every opportunity to get together to enjoy them, not everything we eat is seasoned with Old Bay. We do eat "regular" food too. :o) Many families have been here for generation upon generation, each of them blessing the next with many treasured recipes. Our region is populated with several military bases, giving us the added benefit of diverse recipe collections. I hope to share with you our true food heritage, our famous recipes, and some of the diversity we've picked up along the way.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Turkey Pot Pie

Turkey Pot Pie

2 TBSP butter or olive oil

1-2 cloves of minced garlic

1 small onion diced

1 large carrot diced

1 stalk celery diced

1-2 cups of diced leftover turkey (can use chicken instead)

1 can mushrooms (optional)

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup chicken or turkey stock

2 TBSP flour

¼ cup milk

1 pre-made pie shell (the kind that you un-roll and put in your own pie pan)

Thyme

Poultry seasoning



Heat butter or olive oil in cast iron skillet. Add garlic, diced carrots, celery and onions. Saute for about 4 minutes.


Add chopped turkey leftovers and mushrooms. Heat an additional 3-4 minutes.


Season with thyme and poultry seasoning. I put about 6 shakes of each in. (you can taste test and adjust to your liking)


Pour in one cup of chicken or turkey stock and one can of cream of chicken soup. Stir well and allow to simmer until heated through.


In a separate bowl or cup, whisk the flour and milk. Quickly add the flour mixture to the cast iron pan and stir, stir, stir. Once the desired thickness has been achieved, remove from heat.


Unfold one pie shell over top of the cast iron pan. Place pan in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes or until pastry is nicely browned. Remove from oven and serve.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Hot & Creamy Chicken and Pimento Cheesy Dip

Every once in a while I get a wild inkling to create something out of the leftovers.

This was something I threw together on a day that I was working my butt off on homework. I needed BRAIN food in a hurry! I went to the fridge and spied the leftover island mango chicken breast from the previous night's dinner. Hmmmmmm I should probably eat meat and not graze on junk food all day. But I have a problem with meat hurting my stomach, so it has to be super moist. What can I do with this? I spied the cream cheese... I spied pimentos.... and here's what I ended up with:



Hot & Creamy Chicken and Pimento Cheesy Dip

1 large (cooked) chicken breast - diced
1 block of cream cheese softened
1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1 small jar of pimento's drained
1 teaspoon of prepared horseradish
2 Tablespoons sour cream
2 Tablespoons milk

I mixed the softened cream cheese, milk, sour cream and horseradish until nice and creamy... then mixed in all the other ingredients. Put it all in a small baking dish and baked at 375 for about 30-40 minutes - until hot and bubbly and slightly browned on top.

YUMMY!!!!

Is it fatting? Probably if you eat alot of it.... but so was that box of boston cream donuts sitting on my kitchen counter.... so I feel like I made a better choice anyway....

You can eat it on celery sticks, cucumber slices, pepper slices, crackers, little toasted breads, on a sandwhich, or just plain eat it with a spoon. You could even hollow out some tomatoes, stuff the tomatoes, top with bread crumbs and cheese and bake it that way and gobble it up. I'm definitely feeling creative today.

If i had some water chestnuts, I would have thrown them in there too. I just like the crunch they add.

Speaking of gobbling it up - I wonder if leftover turkey would work in this one? Hmmmmm....