I might not make it through the night...........

[Tangerine LaBamba]

so, if I'm not here tomorrow, please know that I loved this place and the people in it. The best of DU.

I was just rooting around, hunting down recipes online, what I like to do as the day winds down, and I found this website called

http://secretrecipes.blogspot.com/

Interesting. I wanted a good remoulade recipe, and they had the Red Lobster one, which tickled me. Yeah, I like Red Lobster, especially when I'm in Grease Mode.

So I kept reading through the recipes.

And I found a recipe. From Pizza Hut, a place I don't patronize.

I read it and something inside my head went "CRACK!!!!!!!" Loud. There was pain. I'm not sure my vision has returned to normal, or that it ever will.

My stomach, well, it got up and left the room.

I can't hear.

It was this recipe that did it, and, remember, if I don't show up here again, keep me in your hearts and your cast iron skillets:

Pizza Hut's Cavatini

Ingredients:

4 cups uncooked assorted pasta, cooked al dente
2 pounds ground round
2 tablespoons oil
1 1/2 packages onion soup mix
28 ounces stewed tomatoes, sliced
1 Can V-8 juice - (6 oz)
1 jar Prego meat-flavored spaghetti sauce - (16 oz)
1/2 cup grape jelly
Mozzarella cheese slices
Provolone cheese slices

Cooking Directions:

Brown the meat in oil. Crumble with a fork, browning until the pink color disappears. Turn heat to low. Add remaining ingredients, except cheese.

Stir lightly to combine. Allow sauce to cook, uncovered about 20 minutes, but do not let it boil.

Alternate layers of cooked pasta, the sauce and slices of mozzarella and half the provolone sufficiently to fill individual au gratin dishes - or small oven-proof serving dishes.

This recipe yields 6 servings.

[Stinky The Clown]

1. What do you have against the grape jelly????

Damn snob. Whine, whine, whine.

[Lucinda]

2. My fella is going to love you forever if those Popeye recipes are good

We've tried for a LONG time to get close to it!

[cbayer]

6. That, unfortunately, is not even close to the Popeye's fried chicken recipe.

First of all, they deep fry. They never pan fry, then bake. Secondly, they batter the chicken. I have never found any individual or establishment that came even close to duplicating Popeye's, and I have never had Popeye's outside of Louisiana that even came close to the real thing.

As for the dirty rice, again not even close.

Sad but true.

Popeye's reportedly keeps their ingredients in multiple locations so that no single employee can ever duplicate their recipes. That might just be urban legend, but we always believed it in New Orleans.

:hi:

[Lucinda]

7. :( Ahh well....i'll keep trying.

[mt13]

14. Love Popeye's!

the ingredients and cooking method seem a bit closer in this recipe:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Popeyes-Fried-Chicken-Copycat-89925


What is Popeye's Fried Chicken without Mashed Potatoes & Cajun Gravy?
http://www.recipezaar.com/Popeyes-Famous-Cajun-Gravy-83974

here is their recipe for Popeye's Cajun Rice:
http://www.recipezaar.com/Popeyes-Cajun-Rice-Copycat-185826

[cbayer]

16. Those definitely look closer to the real thing.

I always thought that they actually dipped the chicken in a thick batter and let it set a bit, but this could be close. I also thought the dirty rice had liver and such in it (that's pretty classic in New Orleans), but this one looks really good.

OMG, I miss Popeye's so bad. I actually dream about it.

I lived in New Orleans for over 20 years, and even though I lived in three different houses, I was never more than one block away from the local Popeye's. I could smell it day and night.

:crying:

[mt13]

17. I am so sorry!

i am from NYC originally and there was a Bojangles (renamed Popeye's after being called on the name!) on 23rd St. when i moved to Connecticut, it took a while before my husband and i found one in West Haven. now there are a few more scattered around, even in a truck stop off I-95 that is really good due to the high turnover! one of these years, i am going to order their Thanksgiving special: deep-fried turkey with all the fixin's!

[yellowdogintexas]

20. Bojangles and Popeyes were actually two different chains. We had both for a

while in Nashville. It may be that Popeyes bought out Bojangles

Church's Chicken now features hot chicken and it is very spicy and almost as good as Popeye's

LOL our local Popeye's built a new store across the street from the old one. Guess who moved into the old one? Church's!!!! There is a KFC and a Chicken Express just up the street. We call it ChickenCorner

[mt13]

22. they still are!

i assumed they changed the name when Popeye's took over. see what happens when you assume?!!!

their menus are nearly identical and the colors of their logo are similar!
http://www.bojangles.com/greatfood_menu.html

Bojangles


http://www.lovethatchicken.com/

Popeyes

[troubleinwinter]

3. And you just HAD to share it.

[NMDemDist2]

4. OMG!!!

you have ovaries of brass, my dear, to post that here

:rofl:

[Tab]

5. Grape jelly??

I have nothing against Pizza Hut = not great stuff, but serviceable - but grape jelly??

I'll have to think about that for a bit...

[hippywife]

9. I was gonna say...

you have absolutely no ground to stand on here, Mr. Pistachio Steak Sauce. :o

You do know you're never gonna live that down, don't you? }(

[Tab]

10. Don't knock it until you've tried it

It is pretty frickin' good.

[The empressof all]

8. Well they use the grape jelly in those little meatballs

You know that recipe for the chili meatballs

A bottle of Chili sauce (near the ketchup)
a small jar of grape jelly

Throw in the crock pot with some frozen cooked meatballs.



I know some folks who think this is the height of gourmet cuisine. I wouldn't go that far but in a Sandra Lee kind of Semi Home Made actually kind of tasty.

[The empressof all]

11. Home made Girl Scout cookie copy cats

And since those evil cookie selling children will be in front of your supermarket in the next few weeks...Don't snatch those boxes out of their hands cut them off at the knees and make your own....


I have personally made the samoas recipe and can attest to it's goodness

http://bakingbites.com/2008/01/homemade-girl-scout-cookies-samoas/

There all there folks even the thin mints.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

13. Ohhhhhhhhhhh

Without the high fructose corn syrup, even.

You're a bad, bad person..................

[ginnyinWI]

19. remember the old Scot Teas?

I just found the recipe--haven't tried it yet. I loved that old cookie, now replaced with the more boring Shortbread cookie. This looks good--more crisp than the shortbread cookie, and coated with sugar crystals: http://d21c.com/sugarcrisp/recipes/scoutcookies.html

[Neecy]

12. Nasty. Just nasty.

It's like Hamburger Helper from hell, without all of the salt.

[mt13]

15. aargh!

I can so empathize with your aneurysm! the ingredients in this recipe almost gave me a heart attack.
My Italian Mother and Nana are rolling in their graves.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

[pengillian101]

18. I bet you would have loved TSR .

TSR (Top Secret Recipes) was a hit online 10+ years ago. Foodies gathered and yakked amongst each other for years at that forum, now defunct.

Too bad it went under.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

24. I bet I would have, too........

But I've been looking around, and I found this: http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/

Worth a look.

I'm convinced that every restaurant recipe I love is online somewhere - I just have to look in the right place........

[LaydeeBug]

21. Tangerine, are YOU ok? Your OP has me concerned.

in the real sense of the word.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

23. wheezing, gasping, eyes dimmed..........

Yes, I'm still here, but it's not likely I'll ever be well again.

I keep thinking that people out there are EATING that thing. It wasn't so much the grape jelly, although that was when my liver started to fail, as it was the V8 juice. Finally, I was ruined.

I'm sitting up now, taking some nourishment. I was able to choke down a pizza and some beer at lunchtime, and I'm considering fixing the California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Salad for dinner. If my strength returns and I can get off the life support.

Thank you so much for your concern. You are kind. :::: cough, cough :::::

http://tinyurl.com/avr6nn

[troubleinwinter]

25. I think the salad might help

It has 33 ingredients (including 'bottled Bar-B-Que sauce'). Surely one of those ought to do the trick.