DEAR HELOISE: When my son came home for a visit, I made your Shrimp Dijon and he loved it. I have misplaced the recipe, but I want to make it again when he comes home from overseas. He has served his country, now I want to serve him a dish he really likes. Would you repeat the recipe for me?
-- Hillary in Mississippi
DEAR HILLARY: Here it is:
Shrimp Dijon
¼ cup butter or margarine
1 ½ pounds peeled, deveined shrimp
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup flour
1 ½ cups milk
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 6-ounce package cream cheese, softened
Melt butter or margarine in frying pan, add shrimp and onions and saute for 3 minutes; do not brown. Sprinkle flour into mixture, while thinning the mixture with milk a little at a time to avoid lumping. Add mustard, nutmeg, salt and pepper and cook for 3-5 minutes. Stir in cream cheese until blended, warm through but do not boil. Serve over rice.
Go ahead and enjoy your favorite dishes. As Erma Bombeck once said: "Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the desert cart."
DEAR HELOISE: I try not to use soap when cleaning cast-iron skillets, so I found that an easy way to clean a cast-iron skillet that has stuck-on food is to scrape out what you can, then add some water to cover the bottom. Return to the stove and heat up. As the water boils, it will lift most of the baked-on food with a little help from a plastic or wooden spatula. Let the pan cool before emptying, rinsing and wiping out residue.
-- Stephanie H.,
Rockingham, Vir.
DEAR HELOISE: I love buttermilk but worry that it might be high in cholesterol. Is it? My husband and I are trying to reduce the amount of cholesterol in our diets for health reasons.
-- Suzanna in Maryland
DEAR SUZANNA: Buttermilk does not contain butter. The name originally was derived from being a byproduct of traditional butter making. The good news is that buttermilk contains a type of milk "fat" that can lessen the uptake of LDL (bad cholesterol), so go ahead and enjoy.
Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email