Collard Greens

Ingredients: 

Collard greens (about 2 pounds), large stem portion removed (if desired) and rinsed well (discard any yellow leaves) 

2-3 ham hocks (about 1–1/4 pounds) 

1 tablespoon brown sugar 

4 cups low sodium chicken broth (32 ounces) 

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon salt 

1 teaspoon black pepper

Rinse collard greens- even the precut bagged variety. Stack 3 to 4 collard leaves on top of one another and chop into 2-inch pieces. Place the collard greens in crockpot (6-quart capacity or larger) and add remaining ingredients. Stir to coat leaves with the chicken broth.

Cover and cook on high heat for 5 hours or low heat for 10 hours, or until collards are tender to your liking, but do stir 2 to 3 times throughout cooking time. Remove ham hocks and roughly chop or shred (be sure to remove all pieces of bone; some can be very small). Discard bone and skin. Return meat to slow cooker and stir to combine. Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired.

Note: the last time this was made 5 hours on high was not long enough per JT. Ended up being on high atleast another hour.

Shrimp Po' Boy

Ingredients:
60-70 Peeled Shrimp (if you're smart you get the deveined and tail off kind... not me... LOL)
Zatarain's Fish Fri
Oil
Bread - usually a hard hoagie type of bread
Mayo
Tomato, sliced
Shredded Lettuce


First off... if you use the shrimp you have in your freezer and it happens to have the tails still on it, thaw them in some cool water and pull the tails off. If you are smart enough to have the non tailed kind in your freezer just thaw those bad boys out!


Slap a plate full of Fish Fri. Add a few shrimp.


Toss them around with your fingers till they are nicely coated. Shake off any extra.

Set shrimp aside until it's all battered because the next step goes pretty fast!

Get that oil nice and hot. Toss in enough shrimp for one nice bubbling layer.

Yeah baby... pull those bad boys out once they are nice and golden brown.

Pull that bread out, slice it. Add the mayo, tomato, lettuce and a big pile of shrimp.

Southern Spaghetti Chicken

Ingredients:
1 large can chicken broth
1-2 large cans of water
1 pack of thin spaghetti
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can of Rotel Original
1/3 block of Velveeta cheese
1 grocery store Rotisserie chicken
salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken broth and water in large stock pot. Add entire package of spaghetti to broth and water and cook till preferred tenderness. Once spaghetti is cooked, reserve 2 cups of broth/water then drain spaghetti.

Meanwhile, add cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken soup, and Rotel tomatoes together in a large bowl.


Cut block of Velveeta cheese into cubes and add to mixture.

Chop Rotisserie chicken into bite size pieces and add to mixture.
Add spaghetti to mixture and stir till evenly coated.

Place spaghetti mixture into a casserole dish with lid or dutch oven. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 350 degrees with lid on.


Remove lid. Add reserved broth/water and stir. Bake an additional 15 minutes without lid.


NOTES : Can mix night before and put in Refrigerator cook the next day.
Serving Ideas : Good served with Salad and Garlic Bread

Lemon Bundt Cake with Glaze

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package lemon cake mix
1 (3.4 ounce) package instant lemon pudding mix
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 cup lemon-lime flavored carbonated beverage (I used Sprite)
Zest from one lemon
Juice from the zested lemon
Splash of lemon extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray bundt pan with Pam Baking Spray (this is different than the usual one you would use, this has flour in it).

In a large bowl, mix cake mix, pudding mix, and oil. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the lemon-lime soda, add lemon zest and lemon extract. Mix.

Pour batter into bundt pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool if you can... or eat a piece right away like Jerome and I did.

For glaze combine the juice from lemon and powdered sugar. If the consistency is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add lemon juice (bottled or from another lemon, or even Sprite).