Thames experiments on the grill

David Thames discovered his love for cooking at a young age. With their mother working nights, he and his sister often had to fend for themselves in the kitchen.

“My grandmother, the late Ida Bell Taylor, raised me until I was 12 years old,” he said. “As I got older, if I popped up at her house, she was going to cook something. She used to cook the best banana pudding and did it all from scratch.”

Originally from Jackson, Thames moved to Philadelphia in 1994 after the casino opened, where he worked for several years. More recently, he spent five and a half years driving a truck before retiring in February following a prostate cancer diagnosis.

Thames said he began to cook more frequently after getting married. He and his wife, Ruth, have been together for 30 years and have five children between them, along with nine grandchildren.

“Every guy wants to have their own grill,” he said. “I started barbecuing steaks, pork chops, and chicken, and then started making pork chop casseroles.”

Thames said his favorite dishes to prepare are steak and seafood. Recently, he and his family enjoyed a meal of Alaskan king crab, shrimp, corn, and potatoes.

“I experiment with stuff. If I see something online, I’ll try it,” he said. “You take bell peppers, onions, zucchini squash, yellow squash and sauté them in a skillet. Then, if you chop up a sirloin steak in there with it, you’ve got a complete meal in a skillet.”

Thames believes his best dishes are seafood-based. One of his favorite recipes is a crawfish dip that he and his wife serve over catfish fillets.

“I cook shrimp, fish, crab legs, and we have a crawfish boil every once in a while,” Thames said. 

Describing his cooking style as “freelance,” Thames even adds crawfish tails and shrimp to pizzas to make a great seafood pizza.

He said he often uses Dale’s, Tony Chachere’s, garlic salt, and Monterey seasonings to help enhance the flavors of his dishes.

“I also use basil, oregano, and parsley quite a bit,” he added.

Thames’ advice to aspiring cooks is to take their time, especially when grilling ribs.

“I just like cooking,” he said. “The payoff is when everybody enjoys it and has a smile on their face.”

HOT CRAWFISH DIP

½ cup butter

1 bunch green onions, sliced (about 1 cup)

1 small green bell pepper, diced

1 (1-lb.) package frozen cooked, peeled crawfish tails, thawed and undrained

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 (4-oz.) jar diced pimiento, drained

2 tsp. Creole seasoning

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

French bread baguette slices

Garnishes: sliced green onion, chopped flat-leaf parsley

Melt butter in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add green onions and bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, 8 minutes or until bell pepper is tender. Stir in crawfish and next 3 ingredients; cook, stirring occasionally. 10 minutes. Reduce heat to low. Stir in cream cheese until mixture is smooth and bubbly. Serve with toasted French bread slices. 

POPPY SEED  CHICKEN

Chicken

8-oz. sour cream

1 cup cream of chicken

1 cup cream of mushroom

Poppy seed to taste

1 ½ stick butter

2 sleeves of ritz crackers

Season and boil chicken to taste. Pull chicken apart and put into baking dish. Add poppy seed (up to you how much). Add both cans of soup and sour cream. Mix together well. Melt butter then put crushed crackers in butter and mix well. Put on top of chicken mixture and bake at 350° for 45 minutes and serve.

BUMBLEBEE CAKE

1 ½ butter stick

1 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp. sugar

1 cup nuts

2 cans biscuit

Cut the biscuits into 1/4 and put into a punt ban and mis the ingredients to pour all over the biscuits.

Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes.