Yes, I missed “National Taco Day”, but it’s “Taco Tuesday” so I’m here with some special taco’s I made from all the catfish I picked-up in Caruthersville, MO at this little fish market called Mannns. They have some of the freshest fish I’ve ever tasted and for the price I will be back down there when catfish season comes around again.

Mann’s Fish Market

Just a little place

I love fish tacos especially after working at this place in St. Louis back in the day that specialized in fish taco’s and fish burrito’s. There are millions, ok maybe not that many, but there are a lot of fish taco recipes out there. I looked over quite a few until I found one that really looked good that would use up the fresh corn I forgot I had in the freezer. This recipe came from “Spicy Southern Kitchen”,

I loved the vibrant color of the cream corn so that was the foundation of my own catfish tacos. I did do a couple of changes, I did use the complete recipe for the creamed corn but because I’m not a big panko fan I used the Louisiana classic fry breading mix I keep on hand. Diamond and I were supposed to pick up flour taco shells but somehow we wound up picking up white corn and yellow corn taco shells. Which was okay since she liked white corn and I of course liked yellow corn. One other change I did was instead of using lettuce or adding the cheese and sour cream I used a broccoli slaw mixture tossed in some lime juice to give it a little extra tang and that crunch I like in my tacos.

Go check out “Spicy Southern Kitchen” for her full recipe and other great taco recipes she’s got posted that yes I will be trying out.

Leave me a comment and let me know if you tried the recipe and don’t forget to tag me @baps64 as well as @spicysouthernkitchen.

Peace and joy everyone

Tequila Creamed Corn

Created from Spicy Southern Kitchen

• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup chopped sweet onion
• 1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 2 cups fresh corn (about 4 medium ears of corn)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced (we love garlic)
• 3 tbsp tequila (use what you drink, added more for a bit more kick)
• 4 green onions, chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (we might have used a little more )
• 3 tbsp chopped pickled jalapenos
• salt and pepper

1. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add the onion, bell pepper and corn, cook for about 3 minutes.

2. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more. Add the tequila and heavy cream, cook until thickened slightly.

3. Stir in the green onion, cilantro and jalapenos. Remove from heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Set this to the side.

4. Fry the fish, however you would like it. I used a fish fry breading that I had on hand.

5. Once fish is done, get your tortillas ready by either heating in a skillet till warm or putting in the microwave with a damp paper towel for a few seconds.

6. Fill the taco shells with the broccoli slaw, catfish and top with the creamed corn

I did follow the creamed corn recipe and tweaked it just a little bit to fit our taste. I will be using that creamed corn over some chicken tacos next time.

It has been 13 years since I started working at the Harrahs casino with my work family and over the years we have been through everything, from birthdays, weddings, deaths in the families and even babies being born. Of course as everyone knows sometimes you see your work family more than you see your own family so you can’t help but love them or yeah even hate em sometimes, but that’s family for you.

So it had to be at the start of my time at Harrahs that my work daughter gave me the best birthday present ever. I had been talking about wanting to make homemade pasta ever since the little ole Italian grandmother of the bunch had given me her recipe for homemade pasta sauce, which by the way she made me promise to never give it out to anyone (so hush, I made some modifications and now it’s my sauce). So on my birthday she hands me a pasta maker and I was thrilled to say the least, but alas I never got around to making pasta that year. I didn’t get around to making pasta at all through an ankle surgery, and two moves, until now when this pandemic had us in lock-down.

Now after 13 years, yes I pulled out that pasta maker and I learned not only how to make fresh pasta, which by the way is the most amazing thing I’ve ever tasted. After figuring out how to get the contraption to actually stay on the counter and finding the perfect recipe, which I’m not even going to copy, because there are so many recipes out there it was crazy but after doing a huge search I found one at “The Spruce Eats” which was perfect for me cause it made enough for 2 and hey it’s only me.

Next up was now taking that mixture of ingredients that this grandma gave me, that didn’t even have any sort of measurements for me to use….what the heck…right! So what’s the internet for, I started doing some research just to at least get some measurements or something to help me figure out how much of everything I should use. Just like pasta recipes you got a million sauce recipes, all kinds of sauce recipes, but at least I had a starting point on how much of anything I should use. After all that I was ready to make my own tomato sauce. Continue reading “Work Family: Pasta Maker & Sauce” →

This has been the craziest year I have ever seen in Kansas City (MO), in fact in my whole life I have never seen anything like this before. Businesses closing down even my own job closed down (casino), and of course the biggest shut down’s have been our favorite local restaurants who have had to revamp how they do business but yet a few will close because they will be unable to push through this.

That’s why I was really heartbroken when one of my favorite places closed its door over the past week. Both myself and the Mister really enjoyed Beignet owned by Chef/Owner Bryan Merker, who also had owned our favorite creole place down in the crossroads called Nica’s. This is where we would go at least once a week, celebrated our anniversary and tried turducken for the very first time (yeah I miss that place). But when Beignet’s opened in the City market we were like woohoo, we can still get some great creole dishes and for seven years Chef Bryan delivered.

I hate I never got a chance to go as often as I liked but whenever I did go and Chef was around he always remembered me and would give me a hug in greeting. I wish that I had known and tried to help out in someway.

Beignet’s may be gone but they will never be forgotten and because so many of our local places are struggling I’ve created a list not only for myself but for you guys to help also.

And as this sign said…”We’re all in this together”

How to Support Local Restaurants

Hey everyone, I know it’s been a long time so I’m just blowing off the dust and wiping out the cobwebs to get back in the groove of things. With all the downtime I’ve got with this pandemic it’s time for me to get back up and running with a few changes to come.

I’m looking to still work on my collection of recipes from my mom and the ones I’ve created over the years. Some things that I plan on changing will be the look and a new “tagline” working on ideas for that now. I also want to focus on my KC background.

Kansas City is definitely more than just a cowtown and at one time we were known as Paris Of The Plains. I have two awesome cookbooks of some of KC’s greatest restaurants, some of them long gone and some which are still around.

I’ve got plans to cook through these two cookbooks and hopefully talking with the places that are still around when this crisis is all over.

A few other things I’ve got planed is I finally pulled out that pasta maker I’ve had for over 10 years, along with  making a tomato sauce that’s about that old, that I got from an old co-worker. Plus I’m thinking about canning since yep I’ve got the equipment for that just sitting in my closet.

This is going to become my new norm and I plan on making this my mission to cook my favorite family recipes and of course cooking and eating my way through Kansas City.

I hope you guys join me in this delightful little trip, see you soon!