Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings

Valentine’s Day Breakfast

2012-02-16T04:44:00.066-05:00

We were still at our Gatlinburg time-share on Valentine’s Day, but it was my day to come home so Bev’s power shopping friends could move in, so we had a Valentine’s Day brunch.

We had a Groupon for Mel’s Classic Diner in Pigeon Forge and it sounded like the perfect place as I could have my favorite breakfast food and Bev could have her preferred lunch food – I love a traditional diner, where the owner cooks and the entire menu is available all day – and it has a jukebox. Click on the above link for more info.

Bev ordered the philly cheese steak with fries and I ordered "Ms. Nita's Mo For Your Money Special" – two eggs, hash browns, biscuit and gravy, sausage, and bacon. I forgot a shot when it first came on two plates, but this is how it looked after I fixed it - cut up the sausage, eggs, and potatoes together and moved the biscuit and gravy to the main plate (for the photo).

The cooks posed for a shot as we left.

Bev’s sandwich had a good flavor but would have been better had they chopped the meat (as is traditional) rather than just slice it as it was a little tough. Mine was excellent with eggs cooked just the way I like them, the hash browns had a nice golden crust and the biscuit and gravy were very good. And to add to our dining pleasure was the outstanding service by a very friendly and happy server. If you're ever in Pigeon Forge and like diner food, I'd suggest you give Mel's a try, conveniently located on Wear's Valley Road (US 321) about 100 yards off the Parkway (US 441) - I know I'll go again.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: More From Gatlinburg - Hot Sauce

Two years ago: Potato Pancakes At Almost Heaven South

Larry

2/14/12 meal date

A Couple Of Gatlinburg Breakfasts

2012-02-15T04:44:00.024-05:00

We spent this week at our time share in Gatlinburg, Tn (I came home Tuesday and Bev and the power shoppers are still there) and were very excited at the prediction of up to 6” of snow on Saturday – I could get my snow fix. But alas, we just had enough to barely hide the color of roofs, so we just did our usual things. We usually eat most breakfast meals in the condo then go out for a late lunch or early dinner, and what follows are two of my breakfasts.

When Bev packed up the food stuff for the trip, she tossed in a piece of pork loin that hadn’t been cooked for our pork marsala meal. She fried it in a little olive oil and butter then scrambled the eggs in the same pan, which gave them a great extra flavor – Mom always cooked the eggs in bacon grease, but I do that very sparingly now.

The second day, it was a ham and egg sandwich which included deli ham, cheddar cheese, mayo and the egg. When I grew up a fried egg sandwich was always made by breaking the egg yolk and frying it hard and so I've always done it that way. When we used to go to breakfast with friend Ashley, she nearly always ordered a bacon and egg biscuit with the egg over easy and I always thought “that ain’t right.”

Unless you’re a new reader, you know I like fried eggs with runny yolks and even while watching Ashley, it never occurred to me to use an over easy egg on a sandwich, until now. What was I thinking – talk about food habits run amok – this was it. So for this meal, I fried the deli ham in a little olive oil and butter and when it was done, I moved it over and added the egg.

For the sandwich, I added the hot ham to the bottom mayo’d bread, then the cheese, then the hot egg (the cheese melted some this way) then broke the yolk and added the top bread.

I wish I'd remembered to add a little green onion but I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten my last hard fried egg – what have I been thinking.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Gatlinburg In The Winter

Two years ago: Valentines Day Supper At Almost Heaven South

Larry

2/11/2012 & 2/12/2012 meal dates

Pork Marsala

2012-02-14T04:35:00.094-05:00

A while back, I’d mentioned that Bev had a list of dishes she wanted in the near future and that we were trying to clean out the freezer and these, plus a blog post, led to this dish. One dish on her list is Chicken Marsala, the item we need to eat from the freezer is pork loin, and the posted recipe was Stuffed Pork Tenderloin from Ask Chef Dennis in which he used Marsala Sauce. All I could do is ask myself “why hadn’t I thought of that.”

I’d purchased a year’s subscription to the online video cooking school, Rouxbe, but hadn’t taken any lessons for a couple of months and needed to get back into it. So the Saturday before the Super Bowl, I did the series on sauce making and was anxious to apply my learning’s, providing another incentive for this dish.

Back in September, we made a Chicken Marsala dish that we both loved so I decided to use the same recipe and just substitute pork chops for the chicken breasts. I told Bev I'd cook if she'd prep so she got everything ready (I did the meat) - I know why chefs have a sous-chef.

The cooking began by browning the chops in olive oil/butter.

I removed the chops and added the onion and country ham and then the mushrooms and garlic.

When the mushrooms had cooked down, I added the liquids.

When the sauce had thickened five of the chops went back into the pan and cooked to 145* internal temp.

We sided it with some reheated orzo left from the beef stir fry a few days ago.

I thought it was as good or better than the chicken, but Bev said it didn't have as much of a Marsala flavor.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Cosmopolitan

Two years ago: Dippy Eggs Ala Larry

Larry

Prime Rib – It’s What’s For Breakfast Again

2012-02-13T04:15:00.012-05:00

Unless you’re a new reader, you know we try to eat our leftovers and I use many of them for breakfast, such as these two meals. We had scalloped potatoes, meat, and jus leftover from our recent prime rib dinner and I used all three in each meal.

The first one was simple warming of the potatoes and meat in the microwave and topping the potatoes with an over-easy egg.

For the second one I considered more options like a frittata and basic scramble, but I wanted to thicken the jus. I’d recently completed the sauce making classes from the Rouxbe on line cooking school and wanted to make a Velouté sauce (butter, flour, broth) – turns out I’d been making this sauce for years and calling it gravy. I had 1/3 cup of jus, so I used 1/3 Tbsp each of butter and flour.

I heated the diced prime rib meat in a little oil then added pre-warmed scalloped potatoes and beaten eggs to make a scramble.

The final concoction was a wet burrito.

I thought both meals were good but not company quality – I needed to kick up both of the potato dishes a little – Tabasco perhaps. The gravy sauce could have cooked longer to thicken a little more, but the eggs were done and getting cold and I hate cold food. The burrito wasn’t quite as good as the recent swordfish taco.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Fried Pasta - It's What's For Breakfast

Two years ago: Nothing

Larry

2/5/2012 & 2/8/2012 meal dates

Belated Christmas Dinner

2012-02-12T04:47:00.013-05:00

Cooking by our friends David and Peggy generally meals making a sandwich or heating up something in the microwave so for the last couple of years we’ve given them a prime rib dinner as a Christmas present and they recently came over for this year’s meal. Preferring the smoker version, I can’t remember the last time I cooked prime rib in the oven and I’d never used it for the reverse sear method.

I used my normal homemade prime rib rub and applied it about an hour prior to cooking. To cook, I laid it on a rack over a jelly roll pan, inserted a remote probe thermometer, and popped it in a 220* oven. Then, I ran into a couple of problems – I misunderstood our meal time and the oven cooks a little faster than the smoker, so the meat was going to be done too early to just wrap in foil and put in a cooler until supper time.

I tried cutting the oven temp back to 200* and then 175*, but the internal temp kept rising and was soon at my pull temp of 120*. So rather than using a cooler, at 4 pm, I wrapped it in foil and put it in the toaster oven which I sat on 120* – it wouldn’t do 125*.

Then at 6:00, while we ate our salads, I increased the heat to 140* to rewarm the outside – the inside had gone up to 125* and remained there. Then at 6:30, I unwrapped, and put it into the 450* oven for about 12 minutes for crust development.

Everything was delicious and the meat still turned out very well although it did have a little more well-done around the outside than normal which probably happened when I raised the temperature in the toaster oven.

We served it with au jus, scalloped potatoes, carrots, asparagus, and garlic cheese biscuits – David and Peggy don’t like the same veggies.

Later on we had chocolate lava cake with ice cream but I failed to get a shot of it.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Chicken With Fennel And Olives Ala Marie

Two years ago: BBQ On A Cool Day

Larry

Saturday Humor

2012-02-11T04:17:00.009-05:00

My Favorite Animal

Our teacher asked us what our favorite animal was, and I said, "Fried chicken."

She said I wasn't funny, but she couldn't have been right, because everyone else in the class laughed.

My parents told me to always be truthful and honest, and I am. Fried chicken is my favorite animal.

I told my dad what happened, and he said my teacher was probably a member of PETA. He said they love animals very much.

I do, too. Especially chicken, pork and beef. Anyway, my teacher sent me to the principal's office. I told him what happened, and he laughed, too. Then he told me not to do it again.

The next day in class my teacher asked me what my favorite live animal was.

I told her it was chicken. She asked me why, just like she'd asked the other children, so I told her it was because you could make them into fried chicken.

She sent me back to the principal's office again. He laughed, and told me not to do it again.

I don't understand. My parents taught me to be honest, but my teacher doesn't like it when I am.

Today, my teacher asked us to tell her what famous person we admire most................

I told her, "Colonel Sanders."

Guess where I am now...

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Turkey Salad

Two years ago: Tex Mex Day In Tennessee

Larry

German Night Again – Pork, Spaetzle, Green Spargel

2012-02-10T04:11:00.025-05:00

We’ve wanted to try making spaetzle and we had a bunch of pork loin roasts in the freezer that need to be used, so we found a couple of good sounding recipes and decided go German. The menu was pan fried pork chops with cream gravy, spaetzle, and steamed asparagus (as close as we could get to spargel – white asparagus).

We like the cooking of Tyler Florence so we used his recipe for the chops.

Smothered Pork Chops – Tyler Florence

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons onion powder

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon cayenne

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick, bone-in

¼ cup olive oil

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup buttermilk

Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Directions

Put the flour in a shallow platter and add the onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt, and pepper; mix with a fork to distribute evenly. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels to remove any moisture and then dredge them in the seasoned flour; shaking off the excess.

Heat a large saute pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil. When the oil is nice and hot, lay the pork chops in the pan in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove the pork chops from the pan and add the onions and cook until golden brown. Add a little sprinkle of seasoned flour to the pan drippings. Mix the flour into the fat to dissolve and then pour in the chicken broth in. Let the liquid cook down for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly. Stir in the buttermilk to make a creamy gravy and return the pork chops to the pan, covering them with the sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes until the pork is cooked through. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with chopped parsley before serving. I cooked them to 145* internal temp.

We decided on this recipe for the spaetzle and since Bev just bought a chunk of Gruyere, we went with the cheese part as well but used our pork gravy rather than the sautéed onion.

Spaetzle - courtesy of Roland Radler, owner of Brats Brothers in Sherman Oaks, CA.

Ingredients - adapted

1½ cups all-purpose flower

¾ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 eggs

3/8 cup 2 percent milk

2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

¾ tsp Onion powder (added by us)

¾ tsp Garlic powder (added by us)

Directions - adapted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Sift the flour and salt and pepper together in a large bowl. Beat the eggs and milk in a medium bowl. Alternately mix the milk mixture into the flour until a smooth dough is formed – more like a thick pancake batter.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over medium heat and add 3 T butter. Press batter thorough a spaetzle maker (we used a colander) into the water. When the spaetzle float to the top of the water, remove them with a slotted spoon to an oven safe dish. After first layer of spaetzle, add a layer of Swiss cheese. Continue layering until all of the spaetzle and cheese have been used.

Our spaetzle maker was a colander over a pan of water.

Bake the spaetzle until the cheese is melted, about 30 minutes.

We steamed the asparagus, topped it with grated Gruyere, and popped it in the warm oven for a few minutes.

My plate.

This was as good a pork chop as I've ever eaten and the other diners agreed. This is surely a keeper but the gravy recipe didn't make quite enough for both the meat and a side dish. I liked the spaetzle but didn't get it quite right because, without thinking, I used self-rising flour which made it too light. The colander seemed to work fine for cooking as did cooking it in three batches.

After practicing on the spaetzle another time, I'd gladly serve this to company.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. This was as good a pork chop as I've ever eaten and the other diners agreed.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Just A Couple More Breakfasts From Leftovers

Two years ago: Store Bought Ravioli For Supper

Larry

1/31/2012 meal date

Croque Madame

2012-02-09T04:28:00.024-05:00

A few days ago Bev asked me to look up Croque Monsieur (Crispy Mister) on the internet and after reading the recipe, I told her it sounded very good – as I understand, it’s basically a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich that’s cooked under the broiler rather than in a skillet. It also appears there are many variations with some leaving the bread just buttered, some adding additional cheese to the top, most assemble the sandwich at the beginning, and in looking around, a recipe from Ina Garten toasted the bread before assembly and added a cheesy Béchamel sauce to the top.

I decided to go with the following version from About.com as it was fairly simple and didn’t include the additional calories of the Béchamel sauce. Per them - "This traditional Croque Monsieur recipe is the closest version of the original sandwich served in Parisian cafes in the early 1900’s."

Ingredients for 2 sandwiches:

•1 tablespoons Dijon mustard

•4 slices sandwich bread

•2 ounces baked ham, thinly sliced

•1½ cups grated Gruyere cheese, divided

•2 tablespoons butter, softened

Preparation:

Preheat the broiler to the lowest heat setting. Evenly divide and spread the mustard on 2 slices of bread. Place a few slices of ham, followed by 1/2 cup Gruyere, on the mustard-side of the bread.

Cover the cheese with the remaining slices of bread and spread the butter on the outside surfaces of the sandwiches.

Place the sandwiches on an ungreased baking sheet and broil for about 5 minutes, turn them over, cover with the remaining cheese, and continue cooking until they are crispy and golden brown, about 5 additional minutes.

At this point the Croque Monsieur is completed but I wanted a Croque Madame, which is achieved by adding a tablespoon of Béchamel sauce and a fried egg to the top, but I omitted the sauce and just added the egg.

Mine weren't as pretty as some of the pictures I saw, but they were delicious and next time when we have a lighter meal planned for supper, I’ll try Ina’s recipe.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Big Dude’s Que For February

Two years ago: Even A Yankee Can Fall For Grits

Larry

1/31/2012 meal date

Beef Stir Fry

2012-02-08T04:24:00.019-05:00

We had a rib eye steak left from a freezer package and Bev decided she’d like stir fry, but since she and the SIL went shopping, I was left with cooking dinner. I know virtually nothing about Asian cooking, but I can follow a recipe and I know someone who stir fries a lot – Jenn over at Jenn’s Food Journey. I found her recipe for Spicy Beef Stir Fry and adapted it a little for our meal. Please pop over to her site for the complete recipes and some good shots.

Since we had the same amount of meat, I made up her marinade as written, but Bev said she wanted to use grilled steak, so I gave the steaks a couple of minutes per side on a hot grill. When they cooled, I sliced them, poured over the marinade, and massaged it into the meat for a soak of 3 hours with a few interim massages.

Since I had twice the vegetables, I doubled the sauce recipe but I omitted the red pepper flakes as the SIL isn’t that into hot.

I began the cooking with the broccoli and cooked them to crisp tender then added the onions, peppers, and garlic. Then I added the zucchini, water chestnuts, meat and sauce and cooked until everything was done.

We'd had rice a few times lately and couldn't find the white rice in the pantry, so I just cooked some orzo to put under the stir fry.

I thought it was very good and Bev said it may have been our best ever stir fry - the heat was just right for me but Bev may have added red pepper flakes to hers. The only thing for next time is to use more cornstarch to handle the liquid that comes from the additional vegetables I used. Thanks Jenn, you may turn me into a big fan of Asian cuisine.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Super Bowl Party At Almost Heaven South

Two years ago: A Little Super Bowl Get Together At Almost Heaven South

Larry

Swordfish Breakfast Tacos

2012-02-07T04:52:00.008-05:00

We had a piece of swordfish left from supper a few nights ago (remember, Pat didn’t eat all of hers), so I decided to try a new wrinkle for breakfast. My ingredients were:

2”x2”x1” piece of grilled swordfish, chopped small

I green onion, sliced
1 pat of butter
2 eggs
1 tbsp cream
S&P to taste
1/3 cup shredded pepper jack cheese
4-5 tbsp tomato/caper sauce, leftover from swordfish meal
1 leaf romaine lettuce, chopped
Three 6” corn tortillas

Add butter to pan over medium low heat (on our range) then sweat the onion white part for a few minutes to soften. Add the swordfish and cook until warmed through.

Beat together the eggs, cream, S&P, add to the pan along with the cheese and onion tops and scramble to desired doneness – wet for me.

While the eggs are cooking, nuke the sauce and heat the tortillas on a griddle until warm and pliable.

Add 1/3 of the egg mixture to each tortilla, top with sauce and lettuce, fold and enjoy.

I thought they were delicious with the fish flavor coming through but not overpowering - same for the sauce. I'd grill swordfish just to make these again and believe the normal fish taco sauces would work also work well. We finished off the sauce with some sauteed crappie for supper and it worked very well again.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Rib Roast Meatloaf

Two years ago: Corned Beef And Veggies Two Ways

Larry

1/28/2012 meal date

We Took A Cooking Class

2012-02-06T04:16:00.007-05:00

Bev saw an ad in the newspaper for a class in Northern Italian Cooking put on by Knoxville restaurant owner and Certified Executive Chef – one of only three in town – Deron Little. The class was held at the newly opened Sequoyah Grill and was co-taught by the restaurant’s executive chef, Kirk Emery – Deron cooks at Season’s Café, his other restaurant. We’d eaten at Season’s but this was our first trip to Sequoyah.

After a background introduction, Deron opened the session with a brief discussion of food safety and knives. The class was a nice combination of technique, cooking background info, history, and recipes. They chose Northern Italian for this course as it is Kirk’s food passion, even though he’s never been there, but he did spend several years at a highly rated Italian restaurant in DC learning from their executive chef.

Then they prepared dishes, providing lots of info as they did and we were served the same dishes that had been prepared by the kitchen.

French trained chef Deron, prepared the appetizer course of Chicken Saltimbocca Ballotine on a Roma Tomato Garlic & Basil Coulis (sauce). He showed how to pound the chicken, roll it in plastic to make the ballotine – I’d never heard of them either - and then how to cook and plate it. He made the coulis (also, never heard this word) while it was cooking. This was the one I was served and looked just like his.

The entrée was Risotto topped with sautéed scallops, shrimp, and spinach. Since making my first ever risotto on Lemon Night and not knowing how it was supposed to be when done, this was particular interesting to me. Kirk said he made thousands of dishes of it while working in DC and he described the how’s and why’s and then he walked around the room to show us how to tell when the scallops were ready to flip without lifting them up.

The texture of my risotto, using Pam’s recipe on Lemon Night, was pretty much the same as his and I discovered the reason for adding the liquid in smaller batches is primarily to prevent getting too much.

The dessert was Tiramisu and Bev thought it was excellent – she’s a big fan. Kirk walked us through the entire process with particular emphasis on making the egg custard without ending up with scrambled eggs.

Here's a nugget - According to Chef Kirk, it gets better with age, so make it at least a day before.

We were both glad we attended because we picked up some nuggets of knowledge from good presenters, ate a delicious three course meal, and found a new restaurant. We hope to attend the next class they offer is March. I’ll post the recipes for these dishes if we make any of them.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Great Burgers

Two years ago: Chili Pie On A Rainy Day

Larry

1/27/2012 meal date

Grilled Swordfish From Freezer Diving

2012-02-05T04:07:00.007-05:00

We’re still on a campaign to eat from the freezer and it was time to have some seafood so it was swordfish from our trip to Maine last May - it’s nice to have a good vacuum saver that will keep items well for a long time.

I went on a recipe hunt and found one from Ina Garten (a favorite cook) that sounded just right for us – Swordfish With Tomatoes And Capers.

Ingredients

1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)

1 cup chopped fennel (1 bulb)

3 tablespoons good olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

28 ounces canned plum tomatoes, drained

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons chicken stock

2 tablespoons good dry white wine

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

2 tablespoons capers, drained

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

4 (1-inch-thick) swordfish fillets (about 2 1/2 pounds)

Fresh basil leaves

Directions
For the sauce, cook the onions and fennel in the oil in a large saute pan on medium-low heat for 10 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the drained tomatoes, smashing them in the pan with a fork, plus the salt and pepper. Simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Add the chicken stock and white wine and simmer for 10 more minutes to reduce the liquid. Add the basil, capers, and butter and cook for 1 minute more.

Prepare a grill, brush the swordfish with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill on high heat for 5 minutes on each side until the center is no longer raw. Do not overcook. Place the sauce on the bottom of a plate, arrange the swordfish on top, and garnish with basil leaves. Serve hot or at room temperature.

I followed Ina’s recipe and made a full recipe of the sauce even though we only had half the fish as I thought it would be good for other dishes. I cooked the fish to 125* internal which was about right for the ladies, but could have been a little less for me.

We side it with some grilled sweet potatoes that were steamed then brushed with oil and grilled and orange salad.

We had some oranges that needed to be used and Bev decided that Sam Hofer’s recipe was just the ticket, except she wanted to serve it over greens. This is mine.

I ate half the fish and Bev and SIL, Pat, split the other half – this is my plate.

I thought it was delicious and Bev said “I am now a swordfish fan,” but the non-fish eating Pat said it was too fishy for her and only ate a couple of bites. I’d had it before and thought the texture was more like very tender pork and it has a mild fishiness – but then I’ve never eaten fish that was too fishy. The long cooking of the sauce really concentrates the flavors and it is a definite use again recipe and process, perhaps with different flavors. Since this was our fourth time for the salad, but first with greens, we knew it would be delicious.

Other than keeping a closer eye on the potatoes while steaming, the one thing I'd do differently is flip the potatoes a couple of times and brush them with melted butter.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Carving Up The Rib Roasts

Two years ago: Asparagus And Crab Scramble

Larry

1/26/2012

Saturday Humor

2012-02-04T04:04:00.010-05:00

The Arrogance of Authority

A Young DEA officer stops at a ranch in Texas, and talks with an old rancher. He tells the rancher, "I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs."

The rancher says, "Okay , but don't go in that field over there," as he points out the location.

The Young DEA officer verbally explodes saying, " Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me." Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his badge and proudly displays it to the rancher. "See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish.... On any land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand? "

The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.

A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the Young DEA officer running for his life chased by the rancher's big Santa Gertrudis bull......

With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely that he'll get gored before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly terrified. The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs.....

" Your badge. Show him your BADGE !"

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Brisket Burrito

Two years ago: Surf And Turf At Almost Heaven South

Larry

Fajita Night & Morning

2012-02-03T04:35:00.020-05:00

I wasn’t planning to post this meal, but it was so good I had to. When we had the chicken fried steak a few days previously, I got one too many flat iron steaks from the freezer and the extra one needed to be used. As I often do for grilling recipes, I turned to Chris Grove over at Nibble Me This, plus he made some delicious fajitas at last year’s blogger party. He had several to choose form, but I opted for his April 10, 2010 Steak Fajitas – it sounded delicious, I liked the sauce recipe, and we had everything on hand to make it.

One of the worst inventions for us lazy cook’s is the gas grill, but for this, I forced myself to crank up the Weber charcoal, which only takes an extra 5 minutes of actual effort. I made up the marinade in the morning then the sauce about mid-day and in the afternoon I added the meat, onion, and peppers to it for a 2 hour soak. Check out Chris’ site at the above link for the recipes and photos. I also tossed on a smoked chicken breast to crisp up the skin.

When all was done, I headed for the kitchen.

I made three for myself – they were small you know– and I really enjoyed them.

We all liked both the both the marinade and the sauce and will use it again – thanks Chris for a delicious meal.

For breakfast the next morning, it was a fajita scramble – of course. I lightly nuked the leftover beef, onions, and peppers then added them to my skillet along with some toppings leftover from supper, sliced black olives, and diced jalapenos.

When this was warmed thru, I add halved grape tomatoes, followed a couple of minutes later by six beaten eggs.

When all was done, I topped with Mexican sauce, shredded cheese, and lettuce then sided with warm flour tortilla wedges.

Unfortunately, I’d only made a half recipe of Chris’ sauce and we ate it all at dinner, but the Mexican sauce I’d found in the freezer a few days ago worked well. Bev’s sister, Pat, was here and we all thought it was delicious.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Salmon Scramble Burrito

Two years ago: Bread Three Ways – Way Too Good

Larry

1/25/2012 & 1/25/2012 meal date

Potato Cakes For Breakfast

2012-02-02T04:03:00.032-05:00

If you’re hungry, you may want to stop reading and come back later when you’re not.

We made mashed potatoes a few nights ago as a side dish for chicken fried steak and made sure we made extra potatoes to use on cottage pie the next night. Thinking about a future breakfast, as I often do, I set aside a small bowl of the potatoes for potato cakes.

Potato pancakes from leftovers usually have beaten egg and a dry starch (flour, bread crumbs, pancake mix, etc.) added to them as a binder to help them hold their shape – they contain a lot of liquid. My mom never did that and even though I know it’s the right thing and I just used the potatoes, making them get thin and harder to turn – as I knew it would.

I added them to one side of a skillet with a little hot olive oil and added some sliced Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage from Southside Market to the other side. We brought the sausage back from our RV trip to Texas and I really like them. It’s not available here and their website says it’s available in and around Austin, Tx. so I may have to get my daughter to buy some at H.E.B and send to me (less expensive than from their website). I flipped the slices then removed them when the cheese began to melt.

I added a couple of over easy eggs and a few grape tomatoes for a delicious breakfast. This is more than usual, but this was to be a no-lunch-day, so I had enough to get me through till supper.

As tomato growers, we’ve found the grape tomatoes to be the most flavorful we grow and this seems to continue into the winter market produce, so unless larger tomatoes are a must, we buy the little ones.

As you know, Bev is more likely than me to go the extra mile when she cooks and when she got up, about 1/3 of the potatoes were remaining to which she added a little egg, flour, cheese, and diced country ham - it was very good.

Can you believe it was 62* here on Jan 31 and the crocuses and daffodils are blooming - I'm considering buying 10 acres in Newfoundland and planting some citrus trees before the planet gets much warmer.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Chili and Grits (Mush Really)

Two years ago: Smoky Mountain Shepherds Pie Ala Katherine

Larry

1/25/2012 meal date

Pasta Primavera Ala Beverly

2012-02-01T04:38:00.025-05:00

This meal is brought to you by the real cook at Almost Heaven South, my adorable wife and soul mate, Bev. I don't think this dish is really pasta primavera and it's probably more accurate to call it baked pasta topped with vegetables but I like the name. We had a partial jar of marinara and some leftover vodka sauce from our ravioli meal, and some veggies that she wanted to stir fry and she turned it into a delicious meal.

1 1/2 jars sauce - mix of the two
1 lb shaped pasta - penne rigate for this meal
1 lb Italian sausage, sliced and fried
1/2 lb Ricotta cheese
1 cup or so of shreaded mozzarella cheese

She cooked the penne pasta at dente, and made a baked dish as follows:

Mix the sauces together and then toss with the pasta and sausage.

Add half the pasta mix to a greased 9"x9" dish, spread the ricotta over the pasta, and add the remaining pasta.

Cover and bake at 375* for 40 minutes or until bubbly.

Remove foil cover, top with cheese, and bake until cheese is melted.

While it was baking, she sautéed some broccoli, peppers, grape tomatoes, zucchini, and olives in olive oil and when all was done she plated the pasta then topped with the veggies and some grated parmesan.

I thought it was outstanding and would never have thought of adding veggies to a baked pasta dish, but will from now on. A while back, we began using Dreamfields pasta and really like it - it has less digestable carbs than regular pasta.

I usually don’t have a fire unless the temperature is in the 40’s, but daughter, Wende, came down and it was dreary and wintery looking outside so I built an evening one. There was a brief period when it was almost the perfect looking fire. I should have opened the screen, but forgot.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: A Hearty Breakfast For The Man Of The House

Two years ago: Welcome To Our Pet World

Larry

Traditional Cottage Pie Ala Tricia

2012-01-31T04:58:00.017-05:00

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Shepherd’s Pie was on Bev’s meal want list and we made extra mashed potatoes for it. As I understand, it’s Shepherd’s Pie when made with mutton or lamb and it’s Cottage Pie when made with beef, however most folks seem to use the titles interchangeably. Even though Bev said she wanted Shepherd’s Pie, I knew she wanted the other one, especially since she’s not a big ovine fan.

As it often happens, a recipe popped up on one of my blog reads just when I needed it and in this case it was for Traditional Cottage Pie from Tricia over at Saving Room For Dessert – a blog I only recently began reading. Please check out her site for the complete recipe and some nice step-by-step photos.

Bev and I jointly did the cooking this day and followed the recipe for the meat mixture, which Tricia had adapted from Danny Boome of the Food Network. After freezer diving, I found a one pound package each of ground bison and lean ground beef from our neighbors Belted Galloway cattle. Since I used our homemade beef broth, rather than consumme, I simmered an additional 5 minutes to cook out some or the liquid.

For the potato topping, we used the leftover potatoes made from the Pioneer Woman recipe and added a cup or so of shredded yellow cheddar - all we had - so our potatoes are a little orange and streaky. I considered making individual bowls, but Bev talked me into the easier one pan version.

It took 15 minutes in our oven at 400* on the convection bake setting to get the potatoes lightly browned.

Ours had more liquid in the dish bottom than Trica's appeared to have, but we all thought it was delicious and will use the recipe again. We didn't serve anything else so we could eat more of the pie - which I did.

The next day as I was typing this up, it dawned on me that I should have removed the meat mix with a slotted spoon, leaving the liquid, rather than pouring it from the skillet into the baking dish - thanks Tricia for a very good meal.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Bayou Bay – The Local Cajun Joint

Two years ago: Birthday Dinner For Wende

Larry

01/21/2012 meal date

Country Ham And Biscuits

2012-01-30T04:40:00.011-05:00

In our continuing, and barely making headway, effort to reduce our freezer inventory, Bev suggested having country ham and biscuits for breakfast, and she got a quick "you bet" from me. We had two fairly thick slices of ham and a 12 pack of Food Lion biscuits.

Since the fat is pretty salty I like to trim it off prior to cooking. There are many ways to cook ham in a skillet, but since it’s basically the same thing as prosciutto except aged 6 months less and usually sliced thicker, and since prosciutto is regularly eaten raw, I only try to get my country ham hot without really cooking it.

Frying just seems to make it dryer and more chewy, especially if it’s thick, so I add just a little water to a pan, bring in to a simmer, drop in the ham, and add a lid. I cook it a few minutes on each side and it’s perfect - warm and as tender as it can be - this also removes some of the salt.

My plan was for ham biscuits with cheddar cheese and onion, but after baking this is what I had for biscuits - note the halved one. They were either too old or just lousy biscuits, but they were lousy biscuits.

So I went to plan B.

The sandwich was good, but there will be a next time for the biscuits.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Dirty Ole Man Joke

Two years ago: None

Larry

01/19/2012 meal date

Chicken fried Steak Ala Katherine

2012-01-29T04:35:00.026-05:00

Lately, I’ve been coming up with most of the dinner menus and Bev often asked me “what’s for dinner tonight,” but on this morning she gave me a list of things she’d like to have in the near future all which sounded great to me. However, two of them were also high on my list, helped reduce the freezer stock, and fit well together – chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, then cottage pie using the potato leftovers.

So for this day it was the chicken fried steak and after some freezer diving, I found a package of cubed steak and a flat iron steak to use. I didn’t do anything extra to the cubed steak and tenderized the flat iron with a spiked meat mallet. We have several recipes for chicken fried steak including a jar of homemade rub that is normally used, but I wanted to try the one from Katherine over at Smoky Mountain Café, even though she’s from NOLA and not Texas. But, since she said of hers – “Oh yeah baby, this will show Chicken Fried Steak who's boss!”, it had to be tried – especially since I know she’s a great cook.

Katherine’s spice blend is similar to mine but without cumin or S&P, but her gravy recipe is quite different and is the part that I really wanted to try. Please stop by her site for the complete recipe and some great step-by-step photos.

I cooked the steak per her recipe except I seasoned the meat with S&P prior to breading:

I cooked the gravy per the recipe except I already had some precooked bacon so I started with bacon grease we had on hand. - then I forgot to use the bacon.

Bev made the mashed potatoes using my favorite recipe from Pioneer Woman - mashed them with our new potato masher – the old one was painful on the hands to use, but this one works great.

Mashed Potato Ingredients

■5 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes

■3/4 cups Butter

■1 package (8 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened

■1/2 cup (to 3/4 Cups) Half-and-Half

■1/2 teaspoon (to 1 Teaspoon) Lawry's Seasoned Salt

■1/2 teaspoon (to 1 Teaspoon) Black Pepper

Preparation Instructions

Peel and cut the potatoes into pieces that are generally the same size. Bring a large pot of water to a simmer and add the potatoes. Bring to a boil and cook for 30 to 35 minutes. When they’re cooked through, the fork should easily slide into the potatoes with no resistance, and the potatoes should almost, but not totally, fall apart.

Drain the potatoes in a large colander. When the potatoes have finished draining, place them back into the dry pot and put the pot on the stove. Mash the potatoes over low heat, allowing all the steam to escape, before adding in all the other ingredients. (I think this is an important step that we hadn't done before).

Turn off the stove and add 1 ½ sticks of butter, an 8-ounce package of cream cheese and about ½ cup of half-and-half. Mash, mash, mash! Next, add about ½ teaspoon of Lawry’s Seasoning Salt and ½ a teaspoon of black pepper.

Stir well and place in a medium-sized baking dish. Throw a few pats of butter over the top of the potatoes and place them in a 350-degree oven and heat until butter is melted and potatoes are warmed through (we didn't do this).

We added some carrots and salad to get this:

As expected, Katherine's recipe did not disappoint - the breading produced a very nice crust on the meat and the thyme added a unique twist to the gravy – I’d definitely make it again. With the thyme gravy, it wasn’t your typical chicken fried steak but it was way better than what we had in Texas the Hill Country Cupboard, who’s claim is “the world’s best chicken fried steak.” After a side-by-side comparison, flat iron steak is the new meat for this dish around here. Thanks Katherine for a delicious dinner.

Bev heading to the kitchen with her two favorite libations - diet coke and red wine.

Of course there was the requisite breakfast the next day - it wasn't as good as the supper but we'd used all of the gravy on the four meals.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Beef And Broccoli Stir Fry

Two years ago: Scrambled Eggs Ala Lea Ann Ala George

Larry

01/20/2012 meal date

Saturday Humor

2012-01-28T04:19:00.019-05:00

Hollywood Squares

These great questions and answers are from the days when ' Hollywood Squares' game show responses were spontaneous. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.

Q. According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?

A. Paul Lynde: Point and laugh

Q. According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?

A. Charley Weaver: It got me out of the army.

Q. It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?

A. Paul Lynde: Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected.

Q. Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?

A.. Marty Allen: Only after lights out.

Q. It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps.. One is politics, what is the other?

A. Paul Lynde: Tape measures.

Q. As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?

A. Rose Marie: You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget.

Q. According to Cosmopolitan, if you meet a stranger at a party and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?

A.. Rose Marie: No wait until morning.

Q. Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?

A. Charley Weaver: Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries.

Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?

A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?

Q. If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be.

A. Charley Weaver: Three days of steady drinking should do it.

Q. True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years...

A. George Gobel: Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes.

Q.. Paul, what is a good reason for pounding meat?

A. Paul Lynde: Loneliness!

(The audience laughed so long and so hard it took up almost 15 minutes of the show!)

WE DON'T STOP LAUGHING BECAUSE WE GROW OLD,

WE GROW OLD BECAUSE WE STOP LAUGHING

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Grilled Shrimp With Spinach And Strawberry Salad

Two years ago: Breakfast On A Bun

Larry

Enchilada Casserole

2012-01-27T04:27:00.076-05:00

On BBQ day, I’d ended up with two quart bags of pulled pork for us and we’ve been eating on it since then and we were down to a pound and I was ready for something Mexican. I’d recently discovered a container in the freezer labeled Mexican Sauce and had no idea what that meant but hoped it would work for enchiladas. I was thinking along those lines because we had a big bag of the taco size corn tortillas on hand.

Ever notice when you buy corn tortillas that your choices are a very small bag with hardly enough for a meal or a big bag that would feed an army – this is the size we had.

I decided that rather than just mix together a bunch or ingredients I’d actually measure and create a recipe. I started by sautéing one cup each of diced onion and sweet pepper and a Tbsp of finely diced jalapenos in a little olive oil and when they had softened some, I stirred in the pork.

When they were done, I nuked the corn tortillas under a damp paper towel to soften them up and began to stuff. I quickly learned that their small size would not allow me to get as much stuffing in them as I wanted and after a couple of times having most of it fall out when I turned them seam side down, I went to plan B. I had larger flour tortillas but using them would have created burritos and I wanted the corny flavor of the enchiladas.

So I decided to just make a casserole that came close to being just like a rolled enchilada. I added a layer of tortillas to the pan bottom and topped with the meat mixture, cheddar cheese, and just a little of the sauce, which wasn’t exactly an enchilada sauce, but still very tasty.

Next was another layer of tortillas, about 1½ cups of sauce, cheddar and mozzarella cheese, and sliced black olives. I covered with foil and baked at 400* for 25 minutes, then removed the cover and baked for another 7 minutes. Upon removal from the oven, Bev added some sliced green onion and we rested it for about 5 minutes.

Then it was sliced and served.

I thought it was good but not outstanding in part because it needed more jalapeno heat and in part because the Mexican sauce and the flavor of the pulled pork could have been a better match - next time I’ll use less flavorful pork and add some Mexican spices. However, I did think I achieved the goal of having it taste very close to rolled enchiladas and with a little tweaking, I’ll make it again using this recipe:

2 T oil
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup diced sweet pepper
1 T finely diced jalapeno
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound pulled smoked pork, without pork juice added. (can also use chicken or beef)
To taste, your favorite Mexican seasoning, salt and pepper
To taste, fresh chopped cilantroAbout 10 corn tortillas based upon size, halved
2 cups shredded cheddar, divided
2 cups shredded pepper jack, divided
2 cups enchilada sauce
15 black olives, sliced into thirds
Tops from 2 green onions, sliced

Preheat oven to 400*

Add oil to skillet over medium low heat and when hot add onion, peppers, garlic, pork, cilantro and seasonings and cook until pork is warmed thru and veggies are softened. stir in 1/4 cup of sauce.Taste and adjust seasonings a couple of times while cooking.

Add 1/4 cup of sauce to a greased ?"x?" dish or pan and spread over bottom, then cover with a single layer of tortillas - can double if more is desired.

Cover tortillas with meat mixture, then 1cup of each cheese.

Add another layer of tortillas, then the remaining sauce and remaining cheeses.

Add the olives, cover with foil, and bake for 25 minutes, then remove foil and bake 5 or so minutes until cheese just starts to brown.

Remove from oven, top with green onions and rest 5-10 minutes before serving.

Next time I'll measure the herbs and spices for a complete recipe.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Smoked Salmon Spread

Two years ago: Glad It Wasn’t Snow

Larry

01/19/2012 meal date

Shrimp & Spinach Omelet

2012-01-26T04:12:00.080-05:00

We had a small bowl of the shrimp/spinach mixture left from our ravioli dinner and, as usual, I used it for other meals. For the first one, I stirred it into potato soup and for the second it was scrambled eggs, both of which worked well. For the last of it, I made the breakfast meal I’d envisioned originally – an omelet.

I whipped up two eggs with a little cream and cooked them in a pan with a lid until set – I wish I could do that flip in the pan thing like the pros do. Then I added the shrimp mix to one side, slide it out of the skillet and folded it as I did – I can at least do that part.

I topped it with some reheated Vodka Sauce left from the same meal and sided it with a slice of toasted homemade bread.

Like pizza dough and pasta, I think of eggs as a canvas to build on – as if you didn’t know – and this was as good or better than the original ravioli and a whole lot easier.

News comes to me via my Yahoo web page and this headline cracked me up - "Secret Service: Man detained at Bush home had gun" - because is there anyone in Texas who doesn't have a gun in their car.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Chicken Saltimbocca

Two years ago: Burger Buns For Bread Day At Almost Heaven South

Larry

01/19/2012 meal date

Lemon Night

2012-01-25T04:19:00.021-05:00

I’ve been wanting to make risotto for some time (I think I bought the arborio rice 6 months ago), had found a package of scallops in the freezer, and along came Pam’s recipe for Seared Scallops on Lemon and Spinach Risotto from over at Sidewalk Shoes. Then we had some raw sliced and steamed whole Brussels sprouts left from our hash dish a couple of nights earlier and our favorite way to eat them is steamed and tossed in a lemon, butter, garlic sauce. So we decided to just make it a lemon night.

Check out Pam’s site for some good shots and the risotto recipe, which we followed as written (except I added 1/2 tsp of granulated garlic with the oil) and like her, I used chicken broth (homemade from the freezer).

As an aside, for those of you who buy chicken broth but eat chicken regularly, if you have time, you might want to consider making your own - I'm not talking stock here with veggies and stuff that require more prep time. For me it's simple, for boneless breast dishes, just buy bone-in breasts, cut off the meat (5 minute job), toss the bones and skin in a pan, cover with water and simmer several hours. Then strain, de-fat, and freeze the broth then we grind up the bones, fat, etc. in the Vitamixer for dog food. I'd guess we get a quart of broth for a time committment of 15-20 minutes and it's so much better and richer than the store bought - it can be thinned at time of use as desired, but we rarely do.

I made up the rice part of the risotto ahead of time and covered it while we did other things - this is just before startig the rice.

I'd read several other risotto recipes and ended up adding the broth two ladles full at a time. Here's some shots through the process and our flat sided wooden spoon that worked very well to prevent sticking.

We had way too many scallops for just Bev, Pat and I, so we invited neighbors, Pat and Steve, down to help us eat them. Pat brought a nice salad which, as is our dinner tradition, we ate prior to cooking the main course - except for the risotto this time.

I gave the scallops a light dusting of Emeril's Essense and cooked them in a mixture of olive oil and butter.

For the sprouts, I usually just wing it on the sauce, but I decided to come up with a repeatable recipe and I believe this is it:

½ stick butter

2 garlic cloves, finely knife minced

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Cook everything over medium low heat until garlic is fragrant, but not browned, then add the room temperature sprouts and toss until the sliced ones are done and the whole ones are warmed thru. When about done add some crumbled crispy bacon.

About half way thru entree cooking, I stirred the spinach and lemon zest into the risotto.

We plated first with the risotto, then some scallops, and the brussels sprouts and topped everything with some grated parmesan, added a hot roll (it was bread day) and a lemon wedge, which I used on my risotto.

All we needed was some lemon meringue pie to finish off lemon night, but we opted for no dessert.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Breakfast Po Boy

Two years ago: I Love Good Italian Food

Larry

01/18/2012 meal date

Breakfast Ala Bev

2012-01-24T04:09:00.034-05:00

I know I get lots of comments on my breakfast meals, but if you are a regular, you know I’m kinda of lazy and won’t often go the extra mile in the morning to go from a good to a great dish. But Beverly will and she’d said the previous night that she would be making a special breakfast, which is my cue to not get up and eat an early meal before she gets up.

It was a 20 degree morning following a 60 degree day with a predicted high of 40, so I’d gone to the basement den and built a fire to read the paper, drink coffee, and blog by. I was reading blogs and came to Pam’s post about some perfect looking biscuits over at For The Love Of Cooking. Since I usually eat by 8am and it was then about 9:30, I felt like Pavlov’s dog and had to be sure I wasn’t druelling on my keyboard. These were the third bunch of great looking biscuits I’d seen in a few days and I was then really hungry.

Fortunately, Bev came thru a few minutes later with this:

½ lb of breakfast sausage

½ bag frozen Ore Ida hash browns

A big handful each of diced onion and sweet pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

Toss it all in a skillet and cook until done. Plate it up and top with shredded cheddar and a couple of over easy fried eggs to get this. Maybe I should let her cook every breakfast.

I usually don't show it, but to eat, I cut the eggs up and mix well to get everything coated with the yolk. It doesn't make for a pretty shot, but it was outstanding and certainly took care of the hunger. But, in the very near future, I can still see some of these great biscuits with the rest of the sausage made into sawmill gravy.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta with Feta and Kalamata Olives Ala Kevin

Two years ago: Green Chile Cheeseburgers

Larry

01/17/2012 meal date

Brussels Sprouts Hash

2012-01-23T04:58:00.027-05:00

Bev likes to watch the Today Show and especially the cooking segments, often saving the recipes and recently, she liked the hash part of this recipe: Filet mignon with sweet potato and brussels sprout hash and fine herb yogurt by Chef Eric Gabrynowicz - click the link to see what he did with it.

We like Brussels sprouts steamed, then sautéed in a garlic, lemon, butter sauce and topped with crispy bacon and parmesan cheese and we had some leftover Alfredo sauce (garlic, butter, and parmesan), so this was our hash recipe:

1 large sweet potato, sliced in ½“ pieces, steamed to almost done, then ½” dice

1 lb brussels sprouts, trimmed and sliced thinly lengthwise

3 slices crispy fried smoked bacon, diced, Benton’s of course

Almost ½ cup alfredo sauce from ravioli night

2 wedges juicy lemon, squeezed, or to taste

Preheat pan, add 2 tbsp olive oil, and diced sweet potato.

When potatoes have browned for a few minutes, add the sprouts and bacon and cook until they’ve browned a little.

Then add the Alfredo and lemon juice and continue cooking to desired level of doneness for the sprouts.

We served this with some smoked bone-in chicken breasts from BBQ day, which were nuked for 1 ½ minutes and put under the broiler skin side up until crisp – 7-8 minutes.

Bev’s comment – “Wow darlin, that was a five star meal.” I love to please my honey and this may become the new brussels sprout dish. I have no idea how the recipe would be as written, but it will have to go a long way to beat this and trust me, as weird as it sounds, brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes are very complimentary to one another.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Bean And Sausage Soup

Two years ago: Two Outstanding Breakfast Meals

Larry

01/16/2012 meal date

Shrimp and Spinach Ravioli Three Ways

2012-01-22T04:09:00.035-05:00

If you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you likely know we love to do taste tests here at Almost Heaven South and this meal presented a great opportunity. When we made our first pasta dough a couple of weeks ago, we put half of it in the freezer with the idea of using it for our first ever homemade ravioli. This is a long post, so if you don't want to read it all, please read the verdict at the bottom.

My plan was to have Cajun and make crawfish ravioli from a recipe I’d discovered, but alas, the crawfish tails could not be found, so I decided to just substitute shrimp. Then the chief cook around here decided she’d rather have something else, did a little search on the web, and found a recipe she wanted to use, but she also wanted spinach in it. I’ve learned that when she’s happy, I’m happy, so the plan sounded great to me.

So we agreed (read last sentence above) on a recipe from Epicurious for Shrimp Ravioli With Rosa Vodka Sauce, especially since it was simple and had the vodka sauce I’d been wanting to try since seeing a similar one on Kathy’s blog over at Spoonful Of Thyme.

We used these ingredients for the filling and it is per the original except we substituted spinach for the parsley.

Filling

1 lb of shrimp, after cleaning

2 gloves of garlic minced

3 T of salted butter

1/2 lb of ricotta

3 eggs

3 T parmesean cheese

1 lb fresh spinach, sautéed in butter to remove the water (I cooked it pretty dry)

Cook the shrimp in butter until pink, drain and chop very fine in a food processor (original recipe called for pureed). The original said to stir into the remaining filling ingredients in a medium bowl, but I decided to add the garlic to the food processor with the shrimp and when it was almost the size I wanted, I added the spinach.

Then I mixed with the other ingredients.

Now this is where the taste test came in. Since we didn’t know what sauce our guests would want, we decided to make the Rosa Vodka Sauce, an Alfredo Sauce, and a Lemon Butter Garlic Sauce. Here are the sauce recipes.

Rosa Vodka Sauce

2 cloves of garlic minced

1/4 t red pepper flakes

5 T unsalted butter

1/4 C chopped fresh parsley

2/3 C Vodka

3/4 C heavy cream

1 large can (28 oz) pureed or crushed tomatoes (I used a qt of our home canned tomatoes, drained off some of the water, and the immersion blender to chop them up).

In a sauce pan, add butter, garlic cloves and pepper flakes and saute until garlic is cooked. Be careful not to burn the garlic or it will be bitter. Add vodka and simmer 2 minutes. Add tomatoes, parsley and cream and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add salt for taste and serve with ravioli.

Alfredo Sauce - from Allrecipies

1/4 cup butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat. Add cream and simmer for 5 minutes, then add garlic and cheese and whisk quickly, heating through. Stir in parsley and serve.

Lemon Butter Garlic Sauce - adapted from Cooks.com

1 stick salted butter

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

2 cloves garlic ran thru the garlic press

Melt butter and add juice and garlic, cook on low heat about 5 minutes.

We made the vodka sauce and the ravioli filling before the guests (SIL Pat and buddies Joe and Carol) and had everything ready for the other sauces. After they arrived we made up the ravioli. We used the dough we'd frozen from our first pasta experience, allowed it to come to room temperature and rolled it to #4 in the pasta machime.

Then we turned on the pasta water and set down to a nice Beverly tossed salad.

We decided for the taste test we would cook some ravioli and try with one sauce before moving to the next one and we started with the Alfredo, as it was the mildest. We cooked and plated the ravioli then topped with the sauce and some parsley.

Then it was the Lemon Butter where we cooked the ravioli and tossed them with the sauce in the skillet then plated and topped with grated parmesan and parsley.

And finally the Vodka Sauce, again plated, sauced, and topped with cheese and parsley. Unfortunately I only took one bad shot, but here is the sauce in the pan.

The Verdict: The dough ended up being much tougher and more rubbery than the original and from now on we'll make just enough to cook and not try freezing it. This half dough recipe made 20 nice sized ravioli although I crowed them in and made 30. Our one tablespoon mellon baller worked perfectly for adding the filling. The spinach and shrimp worked well together, and the filling was very shrimpy.

The Alfredo sauce had a good flavor but it was too thin - perhaps I should have packed the cheese tightly when I measured it, but next time I may start with a half strength roux to make sure it thickens. The lemon sauce was not quite lemony enough so next time I'll add another tablespoon of lemon juice. The vodka sauce had a good flavor but it was also too thin - it was my favorite with the shrimp though.

And for dessert, Bev had made a batch of Death By Chocolate Cookies.

A great thing about this meal was we got to experience several firsts – homemade ravioli, using frozen homemade dough, the filling, and the three sauce recipes, but the very best part was the visiting and Carol walking around the kitchen, using a tablespoon as a microphone and doing a play-by-play of the cooking, ala Alton Brown from Kitchen Stadium. I only wish we'd gotten a video of it - I don't think she realizes how funny she can be. While the food was just okay, it was a great evening.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Crappie And Rotel

Two years ago: Special Breakfasts For Alex

Larry

01/14/2012 meal date

Saturday Humor

2012-01-21T05:00:00.039-05:00

The Lawn Mower

A preacher was making his rounds on a bicycle, when he came upon a little boy trying to sell a lawn mower. 'How much do you want for the mower?' asked the preacher.

'I just want enough money to go out and buy me a bicycle,' said the little boy.

After a moment of consideration, the preacher asked, will you take my bike in trade for it?'

The little boy asked if he could try it out first, and, after riding the bike around a little while, said, 'Mister, you've got yourself a deal.'

The preacher took the mower and began to crank it. He pulled on the rope a few times with no response from the mower.

The preacher called the little boy over and said, 'I can't get this mower to start.'

The little boy said, 'That's because you have to cuss at it to get it started.'

The preacher said, I can't cuss. It's been so long since I became a Christian that I don't even remember how to cuss.'

The little boy looked at him happily and said,

'You just keep pulling on that rope. It'll come back to ya.

On a semi-funny note, I learned yestreday that I'm almost one of those old folks who can fall victim to marketing. There is a commercial running pretty often that talks about the financial collapse of American and says you need to go to www.endofamerica3.com to learn how to save yourself. Since I already have some concerns in this area (not to the Chicken Little state yet), I decided to have a look and by the time it was over I was ready to buy - afterall, it's only $49.50 and it's refundable for up to 4 months.

Before I hit the subscribe button and went to get my credit card, I decided to do a quick web search and glad I did. Here are a couple of articles I found interesting - link1 & link 2. Of couse I'd never heard of Porter Stansberry or know if he's trying to scam me or if the other article writers are real or just have an axe to grind, but I do know I'am keeping my $49.50. Getting old is h#(%, but getting old and stupid is even worse - at least I didn't trade for the lawn mower.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: It's Garden Time In Tenneessee

Two years ago: Nothing

Larry

Breakfast Pork Fried Rice Ala Larry

2012-01-20T04:31:00.039-05:00

Not only am I a novice Asian cook, I’m even a novice Asian food eater and although I always enjoy it, it’s only a once a month or less meal for me. Since most Asian dishes include rice, when we eat it out, I nearly always get fried rice if it’s an option. Also a dish I usually see on Asian menus is pork fried rice and I just happened to have some leftover steamed rice from Asian Night and some pulled pork from BBQ day so I decided to have it for breakfast.

I found the following ingredients list for basic fried rice:

1 - 2 green onions, as desired

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon salt

Pepper to taste

4 tablespoons oil for stir-frying, or as needed

4 cups cold cooked rice

1 - 2 tablespoons light soy sauce or oyster sauce, as desired

Note the existence of rice and eggs in the dish. The recipes I found for pork fried were less eggy than I made, but this is the breakfast addition, so my ingredients were:

1 tbsp bacon grease

2 cups steamed rice
1 cup pulled pork
2 green onion, sliced and divided
1 tbsp Sriracha hot sauce

4 eggs

1 tbsp cream

S&P to taste

I forgot to add the planned two slices of pepper jack cheese in a small dice, but I have enough left for another meal and perhaps I'll remember it then.

I washed and chopped the green onion and added the white part with the rice to a skillet with the hot grease and when the rice began to brown a little, I added the pork.

I cooked until the rice had the color I wanted, then stirred in the Sriracha and cooked a few more minutes - about 15 minutes total over medium heat. I assumed the pork had enough flavor, so I added no other Asian type, or other, sauces.

While it was cooking, I beat the eggs and cream frothy along with a pinch of my pork rub and the green onion tops. I made a well in the center of the rice mix and poured in the eggs.

As it started to cook I began stirring it into the rice mixture.

When it was fully incorporated and the eggs were done, I served it.

I’m not sure I could pass off my pork and rice scramble as pork fried rice but it was very good whatever it’s called.

When I told Bev of my plan prior to starting, she unenthusiastically said she'd eat a little of it, then took a bite and said this is really good. As she was going back for seconds she said I really like fried rice and yours is really good - so I guess she liked it.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Alex’s Supper Menu

Two years ago: Baked Potato Filled With Egg, Cheese, And Bacon

Larry

01/14/2012 meal date

German Night At The Ranch

2012-01-19T04:24:00.015-05:00

As it turns out, one of my BBQ customers has a German background and makes his own kraut, a quart of which he gave me back in the fall. I hate it took me so long to try it, but we finally got to it recently. It’s common to cook pork with kraut and in this area it’s often country style ribs, which are really just sliced up pork butt, but I wanted to use some pork loin from the freezer.

Since the pork loin is so lean, it would become very dry if I used the same cooking process as with the ribs and I do not like dry meat, pork or otherwise. So after thawing, I cut the loin into 1” chunks, added it to a pan with oil and browned a little then covered it with the kraut – I had a probe thermometer in one of the pieces and cooked it to 140*. I considered brining the meat, but thought the cooking in the salty kraut would suffice.

I don’t know of a meal more German than pork, kraut, and potatoes, so Bev made some potato cakes from leftover mashed potatoes – adding some chopped chives and chopped crispy bacon – all we needed was some sausage, spargel (white asparagus), and good bread. We also had some spicy brown mustard on the side.

As it turned out, the un-brined loin did not work well in this application as it needed more flavor and it didn’t provide much flavor to the kraut either - I also should have trimmed off the fat as it didn't cook long enough to render and add any flavor to the dish. So I ended up making a very average dish out of some good ingredients - some of the better homemade kraut I’ve eaten. As you can see this was more of a what not to do post. Fortunately, the potato cakes made up for it as they were delicious.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Ye Olde Steakhouse For Breakfast

Two years ago: Dogs & Fries – Finally Pretty Weather

Larry

01/09/2012 meal date

Soup Beans And Cornbread

2012-01-18T04:53:00.018-05:00

This title can mean different things depending upon where you live or were raised. Since I grew up in the North, about 75 miles south of Pittsburgh, soup beans were white (navy in our house) and for my East Tennessee wife they were brown (pintos) and our cornbread was yellow while hers was white. So the other day when Bev said she wanted beans, I was sure it meant pintos, but after a look in the pantry, she surprisingly decided on a mix of navy and great northern beans (we didn't have enough pintos and we're still trying to reduce our inventory in the pantry).

For me, regular cornbread is only good hot out of the oven smothered in butter or beans, but Mary’s recipe, from One Perfect Bite, for bacon and onion cornbread muffins sounded like it would be even good leftover, so it was the choice for this meal.

After an hour soak, we put the beans on about noon with some smoked ham hocks and minced garlic that had been cooking in water for the same hour, and let them cook until 6pm. Bev made the cornbread using the inspiration from Mary’s recipe but used what we had on hand so her recipe became the following (remember, she’s the real cook in this family and pancakes is as close as I get to baking):

Ingredients:

6 thick slices of Benton’s smoked bacon, already cooked and crumbled

½ cup finely chopped onion

1 2/3 cup White Lily Cornmeal Mix

1 teaspoon baking powder (for additional raising)

2 large eggs

½ stick salted butter, melted and cooled

1¼ cups plain Greek yogurt (used due to not enough sour cream)

¼ sour cream

¼ cup milk

Directions:

1) Melt 1 tbsp of bacon grease in a skillet, add onions, and cook over moderately low heat until softened and translucent (or leave 1 tbsp of grease in skillet if bacon is freshly fried).

2) Sift cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.

3) In another bowl whisk together eggs, butter, yogurt, sour cream, and milk, stir in the bacon, onion and the cornmeal mixture, and beat batter well. Divide batter among 12 well-buttered standard muffin cups and bake muffins in middle of a preheated 425-degree F oven for 20 minutes, or until they are golden. Rather than well-buttered, Bev used bacon grease in the muffin tin wells.

4) Turn the muffins out onto a rack and let them cool. Yield: 12 muffins (Ours made 18 smaller muffins).

Bev added no addition salt since she used salted butter and pretty salty country style bacon.

First of all, the beans were very good, but the highlight was the muffins, which were delicious.

The first 12 were made as described above and the final 6 had shredded pepper jack cheese added to them.

My meal of three muffins topped with beans and chopped green onion was outstanding.

But the last muffins with the cheese in them were to die for. After Beverly, my buddy Joe and I ate our fill and sent some home with Joe for his wife, the muffins were gone and one of the things I wanted to find out was if they were still good the next day. Oh well, guess we’ll just have to make another batch.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Chicken Chow Mein

Two years ago: Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese

Larry

01/12/2012 meal date

Man Does Not Live By Eggs Alone

2012-01-17T04:52:00.008-05:00

Sometimes, potatoes are required. I’ve said this before, but when I was a kid, one of my favorite lunchtime meals was fried potatoes and onions, where the raw ingredients went into the skillet together and by the time the potatoes were done, the onions were well caramelized. To this day, I rarely allow an opportunity go by to use these ingredients, like this meal for example.

For Christmas dinner, Bev had made twice baked potatoes, but had baked two that did not get made up and I discovered four green onions languishing in the same fridge drawer. I cut the potatoes into large cubes, so they’d stay together, diced the onions, and added the potatoes and onion bottoms to a hot pan. When they were about done, I added most of the onion tops and cooked until they were soft.

It the meantime, I cooked two over-easy eggs and topped the potatoes with them, along with a few raw green onion tops.

I’d tell you it was delicious, but you already knew that. I'm going to have to be careful or this blog will morph into one of just breakfasts meals from leftovers.

David Made Me Do It

There is a dish out there called eggs in purgatory that is basically eggs cooked in tomato sauce and served over pasta, mashed potatoes, etc. (photo from the web).

One site I looked at it says “If you have never paired up eggs and tomato sauce, you do not know what you are missing!”

If you read my Greek Pasta post on Jan 8, there was this comment from good friend Dave - “Larry, I must admit that your latest breakfast creation is beyond imagination! What's next... a couple of eggs over spaghetti and meatballs ?......” Here it is Dave – leftover homemade pasta and meatballs (all chopped some) in a dish with an egg in a well.

Although it did add a little creaminess, this was probably a waste of an egg as the other flavors pretty well overwhelmed it – but you never know till you try.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Scrambled Eggs And Kielbasa

Two years ago: It’s Stir Fry Night At Almost Heaven South

Larry

01/04/2012 & 01/08/2012 meal dates

Pork Butt How-To

2012-01-16T04:25:00.059-05:00

Pork butt, pork butt, how do I smoke thee, let me count the ways. All you have to do is read a couple of BBQ forums or blogs to discover that many folks win competitions cooking it a number of different ways. I’ll first discuss some of the decisions to be made then the method that has delivered good results for me and is predicated on maintaining as much of the natural juices as possible.

You start with how much if any of the fat cap to leave on the roast and move on to whether or not to brine, marinate, or inject. Then you decide on the rub formulation and is it applied 8 hours early, just prior to cooking or somewhere in between and how much do you use – and you haven’t yet begun to cook it.

Next to decide is the heat source – wood or charcoal or a combination – or you may be using an electric, gas, or pellet smoker - then what temperature to cook it at. Ready for the smoker, okay, will it be fat cap up or down, will it be cooked bare the entire time or wrapped in foil or put in a pan at some point. Will it be basted during the cook and with what, and will you capture the juices. Finally, at what point will you take it off the cooker, and after removing, what do you do with it?

Oddly enough there are many correct answers to these questions and I’ve seen many different ones just on the blogs and forums I read – the answers are often determined by the type of smoker being used - remember, a smoker is just an oven with a smoky environment. So what follows is how I do it for myself and my customers.

First, I buy whatever breed of pork is in the package I get on sale at the local market and it’s nearly always Excel from Cargill Meat Solutions – I’m pretty sure I can’t tell the difference between Berkshire, some other shire, or whatever the local 4-H'ers raise. I usually load up on sale day and freeze them, always using the oldest ones first thereafter.

I remove and thaw them in the fridge for a couple of days and around 2pm on the day prior to BBQ day, I remove from the fridge, unwrap, and rinse them . Then I remove all but about an 1/8” of the fat cap, score the fat in a diamond pattern and apply my rub, which is a 75/25 mixture of Billy Bones Original and XXX Cherry.

After the rub application, I put it fat side down into a foil pan, where it will stay until done – I leave a little fat to provide some heat protection for the early part of the cook. Then I cover with plastic wrap and leave it set on the kitchen counter for about 6 hours (don’t tell the food police I do this) and I know some successful competitors also do this.

At the 7- 8pm cooking time, I add a remote probe thermometer (ThermoWorks or Polder), put it into the smoker at 225* and don’t bother it until next morning. My smoker is a Stumps vertical box-type in which I use all natural charcoal briquettes with some fist sized hardwood chunks (usually oak or hickory) dispursed throughout. I use a DigiQ controller, which maintains a accurate and even cooking temperature.

When I get up, it will usually be in the 165* internal range with the pan about half full of juice, which I dump into a bowl for later use.

Whenever it reaches about 170* and has the deep mahogany color I’m looking for, I cover it tightly with foil and cook to around 200*- 205* using the probe-goes-in-like-warm-butter test or looseness of the bone to determine final doneness.

After removing from the smoker, I again dump the juice, recover with the foil and put into a cooler for an hour or two, then remove, uncover, and allow it to cool to pulling temperature (just cool enough to handle).

When pulling, we flip it and remove any remaining fat cap and break it apart to cool some more.

While pulling, I remove as much of the remaining fat in the meat as possible, then I return the saved and de-fatted juices from the pan to the meat along with some sop (1 tbsp/ meat lb. of secret blend of vinegar, lemon juice, and salt) and mix everything together.

I find that collecting the rub infused juices and returning them to the meat provides as much flavor as I need which is why I don't inject, while the sop provides a slight tang and needed salt. I add no sauce at this point and rarely add it to a sandwich. This is the finished product.

I have no idea how mine would stack up against the product the professional competitors turn out, but I’ve yet to get any I like better from a BBQ restaurant and my customers seem well pleased.

Interestingly, we only occasionally use it for a BBQ sandwich, but rather use it mostly in other dishes – burritos for example.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Hodgepodge Sandwich

Two years ago: Pasta Alfredo With A Twist - Twice

Larry

Asian Night At Almost Heaven South

2012-01-15T04:04:00.014-05:00

Friends Kathy and Ashley (mother/daughter) came down recently so Ashley could cook us an Asian meal and give as some pointers - while in college, one of her good friends was a young man from Japan who gave her some lessons. Tonight’s meal was Japanese Curry, which I didn’t know existed and this is the recipe she used:

3 chicken breasts, bite sized pieces
4 large carrots, diced
4 medium red potatoes,peeled diced
2 large onions, diced
2 celery ribs, small dice
1 sweet pepper, green and colored
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
Chicken juices from sauteing
Water, to cover vegetables
1 large pkg Golden Curry

She started by getting everything prepped.

And began the cooking with the chicken in oil and added S&P to taste.

Remove the chicken and add the potatoes and carrots and season with S&P. When they begin to soften, add the remaining veggies.

Then the chicken juice and water, chicken, and Japanese Golden Curry. Simmer at least 1/2 hour - more cooking makes it better.

Add the broccoli about 10 minutes prior to serving. This is Ashley hard at work – I’m not big on going out for dinner as I hate to leave home in the evening, but I could get into this idea of someone coming here to cook for us.

She served it over plain white rice which Bev cooked in her rice cooker successfully for the first time – and sided it with grilled romaine dressed with bottled Caesar and grated parmesan. This is my plate (first helping).

Ashley advised it can be made with beef or pork, vegetarian, or one of her favorites - canned tuna.

I’ve never been a big fan of curry – considering it okay but never something I go out of my way to eat, but I have to say, I really liked this dish. When it comes to menu selection, I still don’t think curry dishes will be able to compete against the things I really like, but I’ll at least read and consider your curry recipes now, maybe even try one – I’m expecting one “I told you so.”

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Spanish Omelet Ala Mika

Two years ago: First BBQ Day Of The New Decade

Larry

Meal date 01/04/2012

Saturday Humor

2012-01-14T04:21:00.008-05:00

The Haircut

A teenage boy had just passed his driving test and inquired of his father as to when they could discuss his use of the car. His father said he’d make a deal with his son: “You bring your grades up from a C to a B average, study your Bible a little, and get your hair cut, then we’ll talk about the car.” The boy thought about that for a moment , decided he’d settle for the offer, and they agreed on it.

After about six weeks his father said, “Son, you’ve brought your grades up and I’ve observed that you have been studying your Bible, but I’m disappointed you haven’t had your hair cut.” The boy said, “You know, Dad, I’ve been thinking about that, and I’ve noticed in my studies of the Bible that Samson had long hair, John the Baptist had long hair, Moses had long hair, and there’s even strong evidence that Jesus had long hair.”

You’re going to love the dad’s reply:

“Did you also notice that they all walked everywhere they went?”

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Some More Snow Shots

Two years ago: Honey Mustard Chicken Fingers Ala Steph Then Larry

Larry

Homemade Pasta – Finally

2012-01-13T04:45:00.039-05:00

We bought an Atlas Pasta Machine several years ago and it had never been out of the box, except for looking at when we got it – Bev actually knew where to find it. For the past couple of months, we’ve been talking seriously about making some pasta but the motivation had yet to come along – until now. Following a meal with friends, Ashley and Kathy, we were setting around talking and the subject of spaghetti and meatballs got into the conversation. Ashley advised she had a recipe she would make for us and none of us had made pasta, so the motivation had finally arrived.

Without checking any recipes, Bev headed to the store to buy some semolina flour, which I thought all pasta was made from, then I discovered that even Mario Batali uses all-purpose flour in his basic pasta dough recipe. So I did some research about the two flours and discovered the semolina makes a stiff dough and is more difficult to work with but I found some recipes using various combos of semolina and AP flour and went with one that was 50/50 from All Recipes as follows:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups semolina flour

1 pinch salt
6 large eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions – as written

1. Thoroughly sift together all-purpose flour, semolina flour, and pinch of salt. On a clean surface, make a mountain out of flour mixture then make a deep well in center. Break the eggs into the well and add olive oil. Whisk eggs very gently with a fork, gradually incorporating flour from the sides of the well. When mixture becomes too thick to mix with a fork, begin kneading with your hands.

2. Knead dough for 8 to 12 minutes, until it is smooth and supple. Dust dough and work surface with semolina as needed to keep dough from becoming sticky. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

This is the classical method to make it, but I also found some recipes using a food processor or mixer dough hook. We thought it might be easier to get right if we went the food processor route and used this from Mangia Bene Pasta.

Insert the metal blade of the food processor. Place all of the ingredients in the bowl. Pulse until the mixture begins to come together and form a ball. Remove the dough and knead lightly until is smooth and elastic. Divide the dough into 3 or 4 balls, cover, and let rest 30 minutes (at room temperature). Bev whisked the eggs, oil, and salt together then poured it over the flour in the food processor and pulsed until a ball formed.

We made four dough balls and after resting, ran two of them thru the pasta machine for supper and froze the other two per instructions from ehow.com - half the dough was plenty for four of us. We watched the You Tube video posted by Pam over at For The Love Of Cooking and it was very helpful. We pretty much followed that procedure but decided 5 rather than 7 was the right thickness for our fettuccini. I can’t believe I went in to take a shot of the ready-to-cook pasta then got busy and forgot.

A few days after making this, Claudia, over at What's Cookin Italian Style Cuisine, posted a dish that lead back to the same recipe we used and it was called Old Fashioned Egg Noodles, so I guess that's what we made - I wondered about the high amount of eggs (one egg per cup of flour seems to be more the norm).

Prior to making the pasta, Ashley made the meatballs from a recipe adapted from America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook

Meatballs

1 C Panko breadcrumbs

½ C buttermilk

¾ ld ground beef – 85%

¼ lb ground pork

¼ c grated parmesan

2 T minced fresh parsley

1 large egg yolk

2 med garlic cloves, minced

¾ t salt

1/8 t black pepper

Oil for frying

Soak the Panko in the buttermilk for ten minutes, add the remaining ingredients and mix gently to combine. Form into 1½ inch meatballs and fry in oil until nicely browned, about 10 minutes, and drain on paper towels. Add to sauce to finish cooking.

The breadcrumbs swelled up and are obvious in the photo.

She also made a simple tomato basil sauce using a recipe from the same book.

Here’s my plate and it was delicious, with the only negative being I over-cooked the pasta a little – being our first time, I wasn’t sure what the taste and texture should be. Bev loved it and commented that making it fresh was definitely worth the effort.

Prior to starting the pasta, Bev made a salad of two split and grilled romaine hearts topped with bottled Caesar Dressing, cheddar cheese, olives, salami, pepperoni, and grated parmesan - it was also delicious.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Flat Irons On The Grill

Two years ago: Thank You Mister Tree

Larry

01/05/2012 meal date

Rotisserie Chicken On A Cool Day

2012-01-12T04:56:00.019-05:00

I’d been wanting to cook something on a spit for a while and decided this was the day – never mind that it was 30* outside or that snow flurries were predicted for the evening, I wanted to do this. It happens we had a chicken in the freezer and Bev suggested she really liked beer can chicken and I had to explain this was all about the spit. We also had asparagus and romaine that we needed to cook, so it was an entire meal on the grill.

For the chicken, I just rubbed with oil and used Bev’s favorite Wolfe Citrus Rub inside and out added it to the spit and tied the legs and wings.

I can’t recall the last time I cooked chicken or anything else on the spit, so I had to do a little research to get an idea for cooking time and one to one and one half hours seemed to be the general advice. I used the infra-red burner on the grill back for most of the cook, but it wasn’t getting the job done quickly enough – windy, 30* temps and snow flurries a likely contributor.

I swapped the infra-red for the regular grill burners so the heat would rise past the rotating meat and when it was close to the temp I wanted, I tossed on the asparagus and romaine.

In the meantime, Bev made some Hollandaise Sauce using this recipe from Ina Garten

Roasted Asparagus with Hollandaise – asparagus part omitted.

12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

4 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 pinches of cayenne pepper

Directions

Melt the butter in a small sauce pan. Place the egg yolks, lemon juice, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 teaspoon pepper and cayenne in the jar of a blender. Blend for 15 seconds. With the blender running, slowly pour the hot butter into the blender and blend for 30 seconds, until the sauce is thick. (You can leave it in the blender at room temperature for up to 1 hour. If it is made in advance, add 1 tablespoon hot tap water and blend for a few seconds before serving.)

Pour the hollandaise sauce over the warm asparagus and serve.

Bev said it was the easiest she’d ever made, but she missed the UNSALTED butter part and then added one of the 1½ tsps. of salt before realizing it was too salty. Fortunately the asparagus was under salted and it worked okay. It was also pretty tangy and used twice the amount of lemon as a similar recipe from Tyler Florence. While the technique is a keeper, the actual ingredients will need to be adjusted for our taste.

Here’s my plate and it satisfied my current cook-on-the-spit need.

The leftovers made a delicious omelet which I made by sauteeing the chicken and asparagus to reheat, then I stirred in some of the hollandaise which also provided the salt for the dish.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Ham & Cheese Sandwich

Two years ago: Frozen Lake - Now This Is Cold For Around Here

Larry

1/2/12 meal date

The Last Of The Christmas Prime Rib

2012-01-11T04:02:00.018-05:00

If you read blogs and watch TV cooking shows like I do, you see lots of beef sandwiches – Italian beef, French dip, roast beef po boy, etc. and I decided to combine what I considered the best of several to use the last of our prime rib.

The French Dips I’ve seen (speaking about just sandwiches here) have the meat and perhaps cheese on them and they are dipped in warm jus by the eater. For the Italian Beef, the meat is usually cooked in the simmering jus and the bread is often dunked in the juice by the cook.

I sliced the last of the prime rib as thin as I could with a knife and added it to simmering jus in a skillet.

When the meat was warm, I split a roll and dunked it in the jus on all sides, then added shredded pepper jack to the bottom half, then piled on the meat, then more jus, then the bun top, then more jus on top – so there be some on the plate for further dipping as needed.

Needless to say, I ate it with a knife and fork and it was outstanding - nearly roll your eyes back in your head good (speaking of rolling your eyes back, I've researched Ageless Male and believe it probably doesn't work - in case this applies to any of you). I might have added a little horseradish sauce if I’d had some made up, but hey, this was just lunch for me.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: What A Difference A Day Makes - It's Snow Time In Tennessee

Two years ago: Kentucky Hot Brown Scramble

Larry

01-07-2012 meal date

Salisbury Steak Ala Lynda

2012-01-10T04:35:00.045-05:00

Sometimes it’s a little scary how close Bev and my minds are. I’d recently bookmarked a couple of recipes for this dish one within a few days of her asking if I’d ever had Salisbury Steak. I answered perhaps only in TV dinners as a kid, but I’d just saved a couple and had been thinking of making one. She advised we had some already cooked mushrooms we needed to use and we should make it since we had everything on hand but the meat – which she bought the next day.

I looked up the two recipes and found one was for onion gravy and Lynda’s from Lynda’s Recipe Box called for mushroom gravy – check out her site for the recipe, which I closely followed for making up the beef patties - it made two 6 oz, one 8 oz and one smaller patty, which I saved for breakfast. I mixed them with a fork just enough to combine, weighed them out in a bowl, then dumped them on a plate and worked them only enough to get the shape I wanted.

Since I was using pre-cooked mushrooms, I made the gravy by sautéing the onions in the butter, then adding the flour to make the roux. Then I added a couple of tablespoons of the very rich beef broth (the jus) leftover from our Christmas prime rib and the mushrooms (also Christmas leftovers), which had some liquid, and with just a little water, the thickness was just right. Then I poured it over the meat, added a lid, and cooked about 5 minites.

We had an eclectic combo of sides to use things we had on hand and for luck, so it was grilled romaine lettuce and canned black eyed peas (this was New year’s Day) that Bev doctored with some picante sauce and chopped jalapenos.

All I can say is I’m now a big fan of Salisbury Steak – how could you not like a small personal size meatloaf, fried crusty, and topped with brown gravy. Bev commented that she liked the very loose texture of them. And I thought this version was excellent – thanks Lynda for a delicious meal.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Ham & Eggs – Basic Food

Two years ago: Smoked Turkey and Kentucky Hot Browns

Larry

1/1/12 meal date

The Last Dinner Roll Must be Used

2012-01-09T04:55:00.042-05:00

I just love Bev’s homemade rolls and since they are made sparingly, I consider them a special treat. It didn’t matter that she baked another pan 2 days later or that the one from Christmas was then 5 days old, it had to be eaten in a special way.

I try to remember to take pictures of each meal, then decide to post them based upon how they turn out and I wasn’t planning to post this one, but. I was ready for breakfast, Bev was still in the sack, and I headed for the kitchen. The first thing I spotted was a plastic bag with a small piece of cheddar and some sliced green onion and another bag with chopped fried bacon – guess we forgot to put them away. I knew the last roll was wrapped in the foil I saw so I decided to put these items to use.

I sliced the roll and the cheese into three pieces, arranged on a plate and topped the bread with the cheese, the onion, and some bacon. I nuked them for 30 seconds which just melted the cheese a little.

In the meantime, I cooked two eggs over easy – the bread area only needed one, but since it was thick I knew I needed extra yolk to swirl around on the plate to soak up with the bread.

Talk about simple and delicious, this was about as easy as it gets and I’d gladly serve it to you as a guest – maybe fancy it up with a little garnish and some fruit. And now it’s on to the remaining 2 day old rolls.

When you're outside on Jan 6, 2012 in shorts and a tee shirt laying in two wheel barrow loads of wood for the fireplace, it's just possible that something doesn't make sense.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Ham Reuben Sandwich

Two years ago: Prime Rib Makes Pretty Good Leftovers

Larry

12/30/11

Greek Pasta

2012-01-08T04:34:00.061-05:00

I’d mentioned earlier that we were trying to get our house better organized and we’ve started in the kitchen with Bev doing the pantries and me doing the fridge. As always, I find many things to trash but also discover the occasional ah ha, such as this jar of Greek Olives With Feta Cheese from Harry and David’s.

Since we’ve discovered we love pasta with various sauces other than just marinara, especially those made from olive oil, this seemed like a perfect marriage. I don’t know how long we’d had the stuff, but it tasted fine, had nothing unusual growing in it, and didn’t make me ill when I tried it the day before – I couldn’t even find it in their current on-line catalog.

We had some olives left from our Christmas appetizer, some sliced ones from who knows where, and some that wouldn’t fit when I combined the multiple jars we had in the fridge, so I tossed them in with the other items early in the day. We also had some feta that needed used and it went in as well.

Then I remembered the small amount of olive salad from NOLA’s Central Grocery I’d seen in the fridge and it tasted close enough to go into the mix as well. Then I discovered some thin sliced salami that I julienned and added to the oil.

I cooked a pound of linguini, drained and tossed with the olive mixture - I also noticed a few grape tomatoes in a package on the counter and they were halved and tossed in as well. After plating it was topped with some grated Pecorino Romano – it’s what was open and this was a clean out the fridge meal.

We sided it with some leftover rolls made into garlic bread and it was a delicious meal – Bev even had seconds. In hind site - mine's 20/20 you know - I shoud have used a small pasta so it would be easier to pick up the chunky olives with the pasta. If I’d had some capicola and provolone to add, I would have called it pasta muffuletta – hmmm – go ahead and beat me to it.

Breakfast leftovers you asked.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: My World Has Just Changed – Diet Food

Two years ago: Sausage Bean Chowder – Way Good Cold Weather Grub

Larry

12/30/11 meal date

Saturday Humor- For You Old Dogs Out There

2012-01-07T05:52:00.001-05:00

Old Shepherd

An old German Shepherd starts chasing rabbits and before long, discovers that he's lost. Wandering about, he notices a panther heading rapidly in his direction with the intention of having lunch.

The old German Shepherd thinks, "Oh, oh! I'm in trouble now!"

Noticing some bones on the ground close by, he immediately settles down to chew on the bones with his back to the approaching cat. Just as the panther is about to leap, the old German Shepherd exclaims loudly, "Boy, that was one delicious panther! I wonder, if there are any more around here?"

Hearing this, the young panther halts his attack in mid-strike, a look of terror comes over him and he slinks away into the trees.

"Whew!," says the panther, "That was close! That old German Shepherd nearly had me!"

Meanwhile, a squirrel who had been watching the whole scene from a nearby tree, figures he can put this knowledge to good use and trade it for protection from the panther. So, off he goes.

The squirrel soon catches up with the panther, spills the beans and strikes a deal for himself with the panther.

The young panther is furious at being made a fool of and says, "Here, squirrel, hop on my back and see what's going to happen to that conniving canine!"

Now, the old German Shepherd sees the panther coming with the squirrel on his back and thinks, "What am I going to do now?," but instead of running, the dog sits down with his back to his attackers, pretending he hasn't seen them yet, and just when they get close enough to hear, the old German Shepherd says...

"Where's that squirrel? I sent him off an hour ago to bring me another panther!"

Moral of this story...

Don't mess with the old dogs... Age and skill will always overcome youth and treachery!

Cunning and brilliance only come with age and experience.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Just Another Pastrami Sandwich And A Christmas Gift

Two years ago: Philly Style Cheese Steaks

Larry

Twice Baked Potato Twice For Breakfast

2012-01-06T03:16:00.000-05:00

I just love twice baked potatoes and we only have them for special holiday meals so I’m always happy to have them leftover to stretch out my pleasure. I know some of you chuckle at the things I’ll top with an egg, but this one made perfect sense to me since it was potato, bacon, and cheese.

For meal one I just nuked the potatoes to reheat and topped with a couple of fried eggs.

For meal two, I nuked a potato for 1½ minutes to get it hot enough to start cooking the egg and made a well large enough to hold the egg. I put it in the toaster oven, preheated to 350*, for 5 minutes, then turned on the broiler and it took about 4 minutes for the egg to set up.

Added some S&P and chopped parsley and dug in.

I’d be hard pressed to say which I liked better, but I wish the potatoes weren’t all gone so I could run a few more tests. My buddy Joe sent me this in an email and just I had to post it.

A Real Cowboy Has No Fear

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Now That’s A Steak & Our Christmas Gift

Two years ago: Always Helps To Put Things In Perspective

Larry

12/26/11 & 12/28/11

Open Faced Prime Rib Sandwich

2012-01-05T04:12:00.029-05:00

Bev found a pan of rolls in the fridge that didn’t get baked for Christmas and we had plenty of meat left, so she requested prime rib au jus. I don’t know if this was the correct name, but I knew what she wanted – many years together will do that you know.

While the rolls were baking and then cooling just a little, I reheated the left over jus in a 12” skillet and cut and trimmed some thin slices of meat. When the rolls were about ready to eat I added the meat to the simmering jus for a few minutes just to get it warm.

For mine, I sliced two rolls into three pieces each - ate one piece.

Then added some hot jus, then the meat, and more jus.

Not a great photo, but trust me, it was delicious and required no sides to get in the way, although I later had a slice of pumpkin pie.

I just finished watching my recording of the Orange Bowl and for any who thought my Mountaineers had no business in a BCS bowl game, I'd say the record setting drubbing (70-33) they put on Clemson might suggest otherwise.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Hoppin John’s

Two years ago: Steak For Breakfast & Supper

Larry

12/28/11

Egg McLarry

2012-01-04T04:50:00.020-05:00

I had some deli ham and burger buns and I decided on a simple egg sandwich using a ring mold for the egg to fit the bun and nuked the other stuff. Very good.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Manhattan Clam Chowder

Two years ago: Chicken Pot Pie From Leftovers - As Usual

Larry

12/20/11 meal date

Potato Soup Into Seafood Chowders

2012-01-03T04:19:00.042-05:00

Bev likes to make potato soup for either Christmas eve or the day before and she made up a big batch this year. As I’ve posted before, her soup is just potatoes, potato water, and dairy so it can easily be converted into something else. As it turns out, we had about a dozen raw and two grilled shrimp left from our Christmas day appetizer that needed to be used.

I cleaned and chopped the shrimp and added them to several dippers of the leftover soup, thinking it would likely require a little shrimp stock as well, brought it to a simmer, and turned it off with the lid on.

After an hour, I reheated it a little, added to a bowl, and topped with some chopped bacon and green onion. I sided it with some leftover cornbread sticks and it was very good - it needed no additional shrimp flavor.

I ate the remainder of it the next day and stirred in the bacon and green onion prior to nuking to reheat and I preferred it the first way.

Since the shrimp worked so well, I decided to try some from the piece of smoked salmon left over from making the salmon spread for Christmas Day. Since it was already fully cooked, where the shrimp was raw, I expected less flavor from it, so I chopped it pretty small and added it to the soup. While it was good - it was smoked salmon and potato soup afterall - I preferred the shrimp and I think the salmon is better used otherwise - the salmon cakes Bev wanted for example.

We used the last of our potato soup for our New Year's Eve supper then proceeded to our elaborate evening's celebration. We built our first winter fire, put on some old music, ate some cheese fondue, sipped a little champaigne and went to bed around 11pm. I figure this day has rolled around something over 4 billion times, so I was confident it could happen once again without me as a witness - boy what an ole stick-in-the-mud.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: New Years Day At Almost Heaven South

Two years ago: Fried Crappie - Last Meal Of The Decade

Larry

12/27/11 & 12/29 meal dates

Steak - It’s What’s For Breakfast

2012-01-02T04:44:00.053-05:00

When I trimmed up the rib roasts for Christmas, I cut a thin slice from each end to square them up and to give me a good look at the meat. I could just grind these pieces into burger, but a couple of them were too good for that and seemed just perfect for a breakfast steak.

I seasoned a couple and tossed them on the grill for about three minutes per side.

While the steaks were resting, I cooked two sunny side up dippy eggs for me and a scrambled one for Bev. After forgetting to start the toaster oven, then it not toasting when I did – no doubt operator error – I decided warm eggs was more important than toast and just went with bread.

The flavor was good but the meat was tougher than I expected, but I was still ready to face the day. That evening, an old friend, who we hadn’t seen in several years, came over for supper and we had steak again. We seasoned them with Montreal Steak Seasoning and cooked them over charcoal. For sides we had cheesy foil pouch potatoes, and Caesar salad. Fortunately, the meat was nice and tender this time.

After Christmas, I had a repeat of last year using prime rib and a roll for egg dipping.

I had a little trouble with one egg for the picture, but it was still delicious.

After skipping the first 23 bowl games (remember when there were just four on New Year's Day - now I count 35 over three weeks), there are finally several on today I'll have to watch at least parts of and with the temp in the 30's, I think I'll build my first fire of the year.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Finally - The Last Of The Christmas Leftovers

Two years ago: Quiche And Fatty – Real Men’s Breakfast

Larry

12/21/11 & 12/27/11 meal dates

Tilapia In Lemony Sauce

2012-01-01T04:59:00.056-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR

As we begin the new year, I want to thank you for tuning in to my ramblings over the last 12 months and we hope you have your new year off to a good start.

While at Ft. Bragg Bev discovered some frozen Tilapia in the freezer and decided to make it for supper. She found a recipe at All Recipes for Chicken Piccata With Angel Hair Pasta and used the recipe but subbed the fish for the chicken and served it over brown rice. Based upon reviews, she doubled the sauce amount and her recipe became:

Ingredients

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1 pound tilapia
A couple of raw shrimp per serving, cleaned

2 tablespoons olive oil

Garlic powder and squeeze tube garlic (all they had) to taste

1/2 cup butter, divided

2 cup dry white wine

2/3 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

4 tablespoons capers

4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

8 servings brown minute rice – girls preference

Directions

1. Whisk together flour, black pepper, and paprika in a shallow dish. Dredge the fish pieces in the flour mixture, coating evenly; set aside. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat; stir in the garlic.

2. Place 2 tablespoons of butter into the skillet with the olive oil. Cook the fish pieces in the oil and butter over medium-high heat until brown, about 5 minutes per side. Remove the fish from the pan and set aside.

3. Pour the wine into the hot skillet and bring to a boil over high heat, scraping the browned pieces from the bottom and sides of the pan. Boil the wine until it is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the chicken broth, reserved garlic, lemon juice and capers. Cook for 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and parsley. Return the fish pieces to the skillet and continue cooking over medium heat until the sauce thickens, about 15 minutes. Toss the shrimp into the pan the last 5 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, cook the rice per package directions.

5. Remove the fish pieces to a serving dish and drizzle with a few tablespoons of the sauce and capers.

6. Plate the rice, top with some sauce and then a piece of fish and the shrimp.

I thought it could have been very good, but we both thought it was a little too tangy, so next time we’ll initially add half the wine and lemon juice then adjust to taste.

I'm looking forward to another year with the love of my life and hopeful 2012 will turn out better for the planet and our country than I'm afraid it might be - sorry to be a pessimist or realist.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Pretending To Be Young To End The Year

Two years ago: Prime Rib For Family Holiday Dinner

Larry

12/14/11 meal date

Lexington BBQ For Breakfast

2011-12-30T04:37:00.034-05:00

BEV AND I WISH YOU THE HAPPIEST OF NEW YEARS

This is the third of several posts this week and next that are made from leftovers.

I’d mentioned in a previous post that I’d brought home a couple of pounds of chopped pork from Lexington Barbeque in NC and I decided to use some for breakfast. I added some of the pork, half a good sized green onion, and 1½ strips of crisp fried, chopped bacon to a pan and when it was well warmed, I added two beaten eggs.

In the meantime, I sliced some Cabot cheddar, laid it in the middle of a flour tortilla, and nuked it to melt the cheese.

I added the eggs to the tortilla, rolled it up and topped with some warmed Picante sauce from a jar.

It was very good and an excellent way to kick off a busy day – I can’t believe that jalapenos only occurred to me while writing this 10 hours later.

Good-by old friend. After this meal, I retired our 8” non-stick skillet which no longer was. After a couple of years of almost daily use – my egg pan you know – it is now well seasoned as in like a cast iron pan. It has a nice baked-on layer of grease and is completely smooth – no texture at all - and it behaves like a cast iron pan, which is not too good for scrambled eggs, for example.

I did this the same day the new 8” and 10” (which we didn’t have) non-sticks showed up.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Leftovers Ala Larry

Two years ago: Great Salsa – My Opinion Of Course

Larry

12/19/11

A Meatball Breakfast

2011-12-29T04:00:00.021-05:00

We’d had pasta with olive oil/ herb sauce sided with meatballs the previous night and I decided to try a first for breakfast – see if you can guess what before you read on. All we had was hamburger buns so I lightly toasted one and chopped and nuked two meatballs which had no other sauce on them - although sauce would just make the dish similar to Eggs In Purgatory.

Since the bun was round, I used a mold to cook the eggs and planned sunny side up but I had to flip them briefly to get them out of the mold. Even though the mold is slick, PAM is still required for eggs.

I topped the bun with the meatball, then the eggs, then grated Romano, then chopped parsley.

It was delicious and a good meatball may be like good bacon and make most everything better. Other than the cooking spray, the other thing I’ll do different next time is add the meatball to the bun then some white melting cheese and heat again to melt the cheese so it will hold the meatball on the bun while it’s being eaten.

We began our let's-get-this-place-organized winter campaign yesterday as our stuff is totally out of control - Bev did the kitchen pantries and it's my turn to do the fridge - hopefully we can get done by spring.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Christmas With Kids At Almost Heaven South

Two years ago: Chicken & Dumplings - Comfort

Larry

12/17/11

Prime Rib Again For Christmas

2011-12-28T04:08:00.100-05:00

Bev and I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas. The bad news is we didn’t have a white Christmas, but the good news is the driving conditions for travelers in the Southeast were very good.

For the past two years, and again this year, our Christmas menu was centered around smoked prime rib. I’ve often posted about Benton’s Country Ham’s, but they offer more than ham and bacon and carry some nice choice rib eyes which most people buy as steaks. I like their meat and they occasionally give me a break on the whole roasts, so I stopped by the other day and bought the last three they had.

A few days before Christmas I carved them up by first rinsing and taking a light cut from each end. Then I removed most of the hard fat from the fat cap and most of the fatty tail – both just add grease to the smoker without adding any flavor to the meat. From the three whole rib eyes, I ended up with one whole and two half roasts and the rest cut into steaks.

Here are the 1 1/2 roasts to be smoked on Christmas day.

We began the Christmas meal with a social hour that included smoked salmon spread and a cheese, summer sausage, and olive tray. I’d smoked the salmon on Thursday using some of the Scottish Salmon that we brought back from our trip to Maine in May and my normal brining and smoking process - this is just before and after smoking.

We then sat down for an appetizer of chargrilled shrimp followed by Caesar salad with Ruby Tuesday’s delicious croutons. We again used the process of preparing and eating a course then moving on to do the same with the next one.

For dinner, we had 3 children and 10 adults and we served buffet style with the meat being cut to order – it was given a quick dunk in simmering jus for those who wanted it more done than medium rare. This is heading for the smoker after setting out with the rub on it for a couple of hours.

I smoked it at 225* to an internal of 121*, which took 4 hours, wrapped it in foil, and put in a cooler until dinner time. When ready to eat, I put it in a 500* oven for about 10 minues for crust develpment. I'd used 450* last year and will go back to it as the fat was burned a little at 500*.

To go with the meat, we served brussel sprouts which were steamed then sauteed in a lemon/butter/garlic sauce and topped with grated parmesan and crumbled bacon, mushrooms sautéed in butter with a little Kitchen Bouquet added for color, twice baked potatoes, green bean casserole supplied by friend Ashley who used a make-from-scratch recipe from Alton Brown for Not Your Mama's Green Bean Casserole that even had homemade onions for the topping, horseradish sauce, and hot rolls. Here we are ready to cook the main course - it's times like these that I love our cooktop - four 12" pans on it and two other burners under the cutting board in case we need them.

This my plate and I was sure stuffed when done.

I thought it was all delicious and the guests seemed to enjoy it - Bev and I believe, less the nutmeg, this will be the new go-to recipe for the green bean casserole.

For dessert, we had pumpkin pies furnished by SIL, Pat, and Key Lime and French Silk pies furnished by friends David and Laurie which were also delicious.

The one learning from this day was it's not a great idea to have a Grandkids present opening-a-thon in the morning then host a dinner party in mid afternoon. Too much for us old folks in a short period of time and we were pretty well comatose after everyone left on Monday. Bev didn't get out of her nightwear and I only did because I had to take the car in for service.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Leftover Prime Rib

Two years ago: Christmas Day At Last

Larry

12/25/11

Salmon Scramble

2011-12-27T04:54:00.031-05:00

We just happened to have a few small pieces of salmon left from our grilled seafood dinner, while at Fort Bragg, and I decided it would make a good scramble. I began by sautéing a green onion and when it had softened some I added the chopped salmon.

When it was warm I added two eggs, beaten with a little cream, and a diced up slice of provolone cheese.

After plating I added some of the cold creamy parmesan dill sauce and stirred it into the eggs to melt.

If you like salmon and you like eggs, I have to believe you would enjoy this – I loved it.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Holiday Dinner Five - Christmas Dinner For Us And Others

Two years ago: Sausage Gravy And Biscuits

Larry

A Trip To Mecca For BBQ

2011-12-26T04:08:00.085-05:00

On our way back from Ft. Bragg, we decided to go cross country for a stop in Lexington, NC which calls itself the Barbecue Capital Of The World and with twenty or so BBQ joints in a town of 20,000, it would be hard to argue with them - they also hold an annual BBQ Festival. NC has two styles of BBQ – chopped whole hog with a vinegar, salt, and pepper sauce in the East and chopped pork shoulder with a sauce that includes ketchup in the West. Again arguably, the top spot in Lexington is Lexington Barbecue (no website I could find), so that’s where we went - we got there at 3pm on Friday afternoon and they were still pretty busy.

None of the girls wanted BBQ and Bev and I just wanted to try it so we ordered a "small tray" consisting of enough chopped pork and slaw for two sandwiches and hush puppies.

The meat is already sauced – they call it dip – and there was none on the table to add, so they obviously believe they know how their pork is best. The slaw also has something red in it and I assume it’s also the dip. The pork can be ordered several ways, but we chose coarse chopped with extra brown (bark), based upon on-line recommendations. The meat had the right amount of dip for me and the red slaw was pretty good – I ended up mixing them together, but the star was the hush puppies which I really liked - I borrowed this picture from eatitnorthcarolina.com.

Since I first started barbecuing, I’d been wanting to go to Lexington for BBQ and I’m glad we took the opportunity to do it as Bev and I agreed we won’t need to hit any more western NC places – we prefer mine, both in taste and texture (mine’s pulled and theirs is chopped).

I brought home a couple of pounds of meat and made a sandwich for lunch the next day using some slaw we had on hand - same conclusion. SIL Pat tried it - same conclusion. Don't get me wrong, it was plenty good, we just prefer what I cook.

Having now been to two BBQ Mecca's - Lexington and Lockhart, Tx and preferring my own in both cases, I think I'll skip Memphis and Kansas City - however, there are three restaurants I'd like to try if I get the chance - Q Barbecue near Richmond, VA (Tuffy Stone, owner), 17th Street Bar & Grill in Murphysboro,IL (Mike Mills), and Pappy's Smokehouse in St. Louis (Mike Emerson).

Maybe I'll just open a restaurant called "Big Dude's Eggs and Que" and serve both items all day :-).

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Holiday Dinner Four - Fish Tacos On Christmas Eve

Two years ago: Christmas Dinner Sure Was Good

Larry

12/16/11 & 12/17/11

Christmas wonderland

2011-12-24T04:25:00.004-05:00

If I still had power, a good supply of wood for the fireplace, and no kids traveling, I believe this is the snow I'd like to wake up to on Christmas morning.

It's a shot from a house in Littleton, CO that I lifted from a Wunderground webcam on 12/22.

Bev and I wish your the Merriest of Christmas'.

Grilling Out At Bragg Times Two

2011-12-23T04:57:00.044-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

The girls all like seafood and we decided a grilled meal was in order. We stopped at Walmart on our way home from Southern Pines to pick up some salmon and romain lettuce and used other on-hand items. The menu was:

Salmon, Shrimp – little frozen ones on mini skewers – aka toothpicks – all we could find, Bacon wrapped red potatoes, Romain, one green onion – it was laying around.

It all turned out pretty good for what we had to work with except I grilled the romain just a little too long and it’s best to use just the hearts as the outside leaves can get tough.

The only tongs I could find was a pair of scissor tongs that mainly just pushed the food around in the grill.

I did Rhett a favor and threw them in the trash, but Bev retrieved them.

After supper we said we’d like to grill out again tomorrow and the girls said they wanted the same thing, and we were fine with that, but decided it had to be different – the salmon and shrimp left a lot to be desired. So we headed off to Harris-Teeter and bought four nice, fresh, wild caught salmon pieces, some nice wild caught shrimp (from Argentina - our first), and romain hearts. Then we decided to wait a day until their dad returned from Korea and could enjoy it with us. The shrimp shells looked very different.

Madison said she’d like less plain potatoes so we decided on a cheesy version cooked in a foil pouch on the grill. My mom always made these by just layering all of the ingredients but it doesn’t work for me, so I made a roux and melted the cheese in it to make a sauce to pour on the potatoes and onions. Then mixed it all up and sealed in foil.

The shrimp and scallops (a first for the girls) got a light dusting with Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning and were basted with butter as they cooked and the salmon got the mayo treatment. I cooked the shrimp over higher heat to make sure they flamed up for the char-grilled flavor.

We ate the scallops as an appetizer so the girls could try them and they all liked them – I thought they were as good as any I’ve eaten.

Here’s the finished product and my plate and I would happily serve this to any guests in our home.

Bev made up a creamy parmesan dill sauce for the salmon which also went well on the shrimp and the bacon wrapped potatoes – heat cream in a pan, add grated parmesan to taste, add (fresh or dried) dill to taste.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Steak And Gravy Ala Mary - Sorta

Two years ago: It’s BBQ Day Again – Ribs And Fattys

Larry

The Christmas Scramble

2011-12-22T04:25:00.102-05:00

Earlier, it was our understanding that we would be spending Christmas pretty much alone this year and therefore we decided to do very little decorating, then the plans changed. After our week of looking after the Walker girls at Ft. Bragg, we ended up bringing them home while their dad attended to some other requirements. He wasn’t sure when he’d come in to pick them up until I advised we’d be serving smoked prime rib and he immediately said the deal was sealed and they would all be here for Christmas.

Having kids at Christmas put us in a whole new ball game and when we got home, my buddy Joe came over and we prunned (needed it badly) and cut the last Norway Spruce we’d been saving for a kids Christmas. We'd planted several about 10 years ago for this use. Here's the before and after.

After cutting it, we trimmed up the top and tied the two stems together, not too bad for a couple of old guys.

After pruning, we still had a tree that was nearly 10' tall and over 7' wide, which we had to get through a 3' door and trees that big have branches that don't bend that easily. With me pulling and him pushing, we finally got it in the house and set on the stand and then Joe relaxed with his pup.

With some more prunning, it was ready to decorate. I took a little more off the bottom after this shot.

Then we had to drag out the decorations and trim the tree - except for the top part, Bev and the kids did the decorating. All of this for just one tree.

Considering the pine blob we started with, it turned out pretty good and now it looks more like Christmas around here. As you can see, Bev likes to have an ornament on nearly every branch - sometimes two.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Peppermint Bark Christmas Candy

Two years ago: Christmas Tree Finally Up

Larry

Hodge-Podge From Bragg

2011-12-21T04:20:00.040-05:00

One of our duties while at Ft. Bragg was getting the kids off to school and I got the job of standing out in the cold with the other mom’s at the bus stop. It was required for the little kids even though it’s the driveway next door and even though they run all over the area by themselves after school – I suppose there are some bus stops where it is dangerous and the kids are young so it makes sense. Riley likes to be first in line so we went 10 minutes early even though she could wait in the house until the bus pulls up.

The other three parents didn’t want to be in the shot. After school, I went to check out the neighborhood fort up behind the house - is this cool or what.

.As at home, I frequently cook my own breakfast before Bev gets up and this day I looked in the fridge to see what was available. I found some sausage we’d brought from home, cheese, eggs, onion, and cilantro. I cooked the onion and sausage, removed them from the pan and set aside. I beat up 3 eggs with the cilantro, poured them in the skillet, and added some diced cheddar. When the eggs were set, I added back the sausage and got this.

Sided with a slice of rye toasts, it was delicious.

For his career, most of the on-post housing Rhett and family have lived in has been pretty crappy, but as a Lt. Colonel, he finally has a nice place, but you need to know for sure which house is yours.

I discovered once again that it pays to wear your colors. While wearing my WVU shirt at the bus stop I discovered the woman next door was also a WVU grad and later in the day I was stopped at the Harris-Teeter Supermarket by a young woman and asked if I was from West Virginia and turns out she was from my hometown - it's such a small world sometimes.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them. Header photo.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One year ago: Fajita’s From London Broil

Two years ago: Funny But Likely All Too True

Larry