Well so far July 2011 has been miserably hot here in Central Texas. No rain in sight and probably not until September.
Went to the July 4th PCRA rodeo in Belton, Texas on 7-1-11, it was Military appreciation night and the Expo stadium was filled with soldiers and their family. We took a new younger couple from our church who had just moved to Temple, the rodeo was very good and everyone had a good time. Then on July 4th, went to the Belton, Texas parade which is usually pretty good but this year was not so good. We had not been to it in about 10 years so we were disappointed. The parade was 1 1/2 hours but not many people decorated their floats and there was the horse calvary from Ft. Hood as well as many soldiers. in parade Ft. Hood and Waco had the only fireworks in our area so we just watched fireworks on TV and stayed cool, ha, ha.
The south of the United States is very hot this year and breaking many previous heat records from the 1900's.
I have been putting squash up in my freezer for squash dressing and also for battered up for fried. The deer are starving in our area and they ate up my okra so none of that this year. I have been buying some from the farmer's market in Temple and putting up in the freezer. We are having chicken fried deer steak today. I am posting the flour recipe for it as well as the cornmeal batter recipe for fried veggies, fish or shrimp. Thought the cooks would like the recipes. If we have hunters in Texas we like the venison as it is very lean and better for you than beef. Usually we get 2 deer each year from hunting season.
Marie's Flour Seasoning For Chicken Fried Steak
3 cups all purpose flour-unbleached
5 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Mix all well. For liquid mix, use 1 egg beaten with 1 1/4 cups milk. Place some of the flour recipe into a separate bowl. Dip prepared steaks either beef or venison that has been tenderized into flour first, then dip into egg mix and then back into flour. Shake off excess and fry steaks in medium hot shortening. I use Olive oil for frying on veggies and meat as I consider it more healthy.
I also use this flour to make the cream gravy but I use vegetable oil for gravy.
Marie's Veggie Batter Mix
1 cup cornmeal flour
1/2 cup of the above flour mixture
Mix well. To use as a fish, shrimp or veggie mix. Mix 1 egg beaten with 1 1/4 cup milk in a bowl. In a separate bowl, place some of the veggie dry batter mix.
Take washed cut veggies such as okra or squash and dip into veggie dry batter mix. Then dip the pieces into the egg mixture and then back into the veggie dry batter mix. Shake off excess flour and fry in medium hot vegetable oil or olive oil. If using fish or butterflied devined shrimp, use same procedure as with the veggies.
The only thing I ask on these recipes that I do get credit as they are my recipes after many years of trial and error trying to figure them out. The cornmeal flour is sold either at a health food store or a grocery store. Here in my area my local grocery store carrys the cornmeal flour by Red Mill. Our local health food store used to sell it but then they stopped. Was glad our local grocery store started carrying it.
If any questions on recipes please let me know.
I use the batter mix same way for frozen veggies, just place the veggies after I batter them on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper and place in top of my freezer until frozen. Then take out and place into plastic bags with air removed and label. My butterflied shrimp I half cook, then freeze. Someone when I told them about doing veggies this way thought they needed to be boiled but you do not have to do that as long as you use up within 1 year. So far I have never had any problems and have been using these recipes a long time. The mix is a lot cheaper than buying prepared mix in the grocery store.
Well, hope everyone is well with no problems in their lives. Already looking forward to school starting back up in August as I am tired of all the traffic tie ups. Walmart already stocked for school buying. Also looking forward to this summer being over and cooler weather but here it will not be until October.
In Christ Love,
Marie
In Christ Love,
Marie
