Jon's Musings

Sliders

2011-02-03T22:37:00.001-06:00

I was having a hankering for sliders so I came up with this recipe

Ingredients

1 pound of ground beef
2 Tbl dried onion flakes
¼ Cup hot water
½ tsp smoked salt
½ tsp garlic powder
small buns or potato rolls

Directions

Soak dried onion flakes in hot water for a few minutes to soften.
Mix together beef, smoked salt, garlic powder and onion/water mixture.
Divide meat into 8 portions and form into patties about 3 to 3½-inch in diameter.
Fry on a griddle or heavy frying pan until cooked through, flipping once
Slice buns and place a patty on each bun
Add condiments of choice

Condiments

Dill pickle slices
1 medium (or ½ large) onion, thinly sliced and sauteed until caramelized and a nice rich color
BBQ sauce
Mayonnaise
Ketchup (or Catsup)
Mustard

Notes

Dill pickle slices are a must on sliders as far as I am concerned. Everything else is a matter of choice
Serve with frys - or, even better, tater tots - or best, cheesy tater tots

Beef Stroganoff

2011-01-25T11:13:00.001-06:00

We had a lot of family over for the holidays. In preparation for their visit, I had stocked up on cube steak thinking I would make my Chicken Fried Steak. Unfortunately, it never happened; so, now we've got a bunch of cube steak in the freezer which needs to be used before it gets freezer burnt. So, I've been looking for recipes that use cube steak. One such recipe is Beef Stroganoff.

The problem I had with the Beef Stroganoff recipes I found is that they use Cream of Mushroom soup. I don't know what it is, but I really do not like canned soup nor recipes that use them. Maybe it's the preservatives - but there is just some after taste that I don't like in a lot of canned foods.

So, I set out to prepare a Beef Stroganoff recipe that didn't use canned Cream of Mushroom soup.

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients

1 Tbl oil
1 medium (or ½ large) onion, thinly sliced
1 carrot, chopped
8 oz mushrooms, ¼-inch sliced
1 pound cubed steak, cut into strips
½ cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbl oil
3 Tbl unsalted butter
3 Tbl flour
2 cups beef broth
1 cup heavy cream
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 cup sour cream
salt/pepper to taste
Noodles, cooked according to directions on package

Directions

Add 1 Tbl oil to heated pan and then add sliced onion and chopped carrot. Cook until onion starts to brown. Add muchrooms and cook until tender. Remove from heat and reserve
In a separate sauce pan, add 3 Tbl butter and 3 Tbl flour to make a roux. Cook until flour starts to turn a light brown. Then whisk in 2 cups beef broth and 1 cup heavy cream. Continue cooking, whisking frequently, until thickenen. Add in reserved vegetables and fresh thyme and simmer.
Meanwhile, combine ½ cup flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp garlic powder in a plastic bag, shake to combine. Then add strips of cube steak and shake to coat thoroughly. Put 2 Tbl oil in heated pan, add meat and saute until meat is cooked through. Add meat to sauce and vegetables
Continue simmering until heated through, stirring occasionally to keep from burning on the bottom of the pan.
Stir in 1 cup sour cream and heat through. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Remove thyme stem and serve over cooked noodles

Notes

This can be an inexpensive, and relatively easy, recipe to prepare. Our local Kroger store has a bin where they sell meat that has reached its 'sell by' date and a similar bin for vegetables (what I like to call the 'used meat' and 'used vegetable' bins). So, I only paid about $3 for the meat and 89¢ for the mushrooms.
When making the sauce, be sure to select a sauce pan that is large enough to hold everything that will be added later and (if you're like us), to serve from.
Beef Stroganoff is traditionally served over egg noodles; however, I just use whatever pasta I happen to have on hand. When I made this recipe, I used Farfalle (bow tie or butterfly shaped) pasta simply because I had ½ box that I wanted to use up.
Try adding ¼ tsp dried thyme to the sauce in place of the fresh thyme sprig
Try using thinly sliced round steak in place of cubed steak. This would make it easier to trim the fat off of the meat. I suppose you could also use chicken in place of beef - but then it would be Chicken Stroganoff.
I'm not really sure the purpose of coating the meat with flour before cooking - this was just something I saw in a lot of the recipes I reviewed. Try just seasoning the meat with salt and garlic powder (or garlic salt) before cooking

Boiled Turkey Dinner

2010-11-26T12:07:00.002-06:00

On one episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on Food Network, Guy Fieri visited Landmark Diner in Charlotte, North Carolina. One of their specialties is turkey and stuffing. As you can see from watching this YouTube video, they boil their turkey instead of roasting.

In Charlotte, NC, Guy pays a visit to the Greek family-run Landmark Diner.

For Thanksgiving this year, it was going to be just me, Linda, and my son and his wife; so, I setout to try to duplicate this recipe. One challenge is that the chef showed what ingredients he used – but no clue as to quantities. I, of course, also wanted to scale it down to a single turkey.

One problem I anticipated is that the turkey stock is needed for the dressing and the gravy; I didn't want to boil the whole turkey so that the meat was done before I could even start making the dressing and gravy - I wanted to be able to time it so that the turkey was ready about the same time as the rest of the dinner. To accomplish this, I decided to separate the breast meat from the turkey carcass so as to be able to make the turkey stock the day before.

Of course, I can't resist adding my own tweaks; so, I decided to roast the turkey carcass (sans breast meat) before making the stock; I applied a dry rub to the raw turkey breast as it sat overnight in the refrigerator; and, I included thyme, dried cranberries and pecans in the dressing so as to make more of a complete turkey dinner.

Of course, you can't have a turkey dinner without a sweet potatoe dish of some sort; so, for dessert, I made Bobby Flay’s Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Spicy Caramel Apple Sauce and Vanilla Bean Creme Anglaise; although, I didn’t have a vanilla bean nor do I keep bourbon and/or apple schnapps on hand; so, I used 1 tsp of brandy extract in the pudding and a ½ tsp vanilla extract in the Crème Anglaise. I also chopped 2 apples and microwaved for 2 minutes then pressed with a potato ricer to extract the ½ apple juice for the Spicy Caramel Apple Sauce (I thought using fresh apples might impart more of an apple flavor than if I just used store bought apple juice). If I made this again then I think I might try using 3 or 4 apples to get a bit more apple flavor.

So, here is my version of a Boiled Turkey Dinner. The result is a moist, succulent, and flavorful turkey with gravy and dressing that is to die for.

Turkey

Turkey, 12-14 pound
1 large Onion, quartered
3 stalks Celery, roughly chopped
3 Carrots, roughly chopped
1 full head garlic cut in ½

1 Tbl kosher salt
½ tsp whole black Peppercorns
2 bay leaves
Oil (enough to coat turkey breast)
Water to cover

Turkey Rub

2 tsp Thyme
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp white pepper

Day before

Cut up turkey into parts and debone breast from turkey keeping skin on breast
Dry boned turkey breast and rub with vegetable oil, then sprinkle rub over turkey breast including under the skin. Tie breast with twine wrapping in skin and store in refrigerator in heavy ziplock bag overnight.
Put remainder of turkey carcass into oven and roast at 350 degrees for 2 to 2½ hours. During the last hour, add the vegetables (onion, celery, carrots, and garlic) to the roasting pan. Remove thigh meat and save for another use (optional)
Put everything except boned breast meat into a large stock pot and boil for about 5 hours
Strain turkey stock. Reserve stock for making gravy and dressing. Reserve remaining stock to boil turkey breast.

Day of

Add boned breast meat to reserved stock, bring to a boil and cook over medium heat for 1 hour in a covered pan
Turn off heat and leave breast to cool in stock for another hour
Leave breasts in stock to keep warm until ready to serve (reheat if necessary)

Gravy

The gravy can be made the day before using reserved turkey stock

4 Tbl Butter
4 Tbl Flour

4 Cups reserved turkey stock
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in sauce pan
Add flour to melted butter and cook for a bit until starting to turn light brown
Add turkey stock and whisk to fully incorporate flour/butter rue into stock. Cook, stirring frequently, to thicken, if necessary, add salt and pepper to taste

Dressing

¼ pound Butter (1 stick)
1 large Onion
4 stalks Celery
4 Carrots
2 Cups peeled and chopped apples (about 4 apples)
½ Cup brown sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
3 cloves Garlic
2 tsp Rubbed Sage

1 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Poultry seasoning
1 kosher tsp Salt
½ tsp Black Pepper, ground
16 cups Bread cubes, toasted (1½ - 2 loaves)
2 Eggs slightly beaten
4-5 cups reserved turkey stock
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup pecans chopped

Day before (optional)

Finely chop onion, celery, and carrot
Cook onion, celery, and carrot in butter until onion starts to carmelize
Add chopped apples, brown sugar, and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg garlic, sage, salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning) and continue cooking until apples are soft.
If done the day before then store the vegetable mixture in refrigerator until ready to use.

Day of

Add reserved turkey stock and eggs to breadcrumbs, it should be fairly moist, but not soggy.
Fold in vegetable mixture, dried cranberries and chopped pecans and mix well
Spread bread mixture into a large flat baking dish, like a lasagna or 9x13 dish
Bake in oven covered for 1 hour. Remove cover and bake for another 30 minutes to crisp top

Serving

Cut dressing into squares. Remove skin and slice turkey breast
Place a square of dressing on plate and spoon some gravy on top
Place warm turkey slices on top of dressing and cover with gravy. Dip turkey slices in hot turkey stock to warm if necessary.

Notes

When I made the dressing I used a can of store bought apple pie filling. I like the sweetness of the apples in the dressing; but, I thought it was a little two much since a can of pie filling is about 21 ounces; so, I've adjusted this recipe to incorporate just a couple of cups of apples plus sugar and spices typically found in an apple pie.

Chicago inspired deep dish pizza

2010-11-25T10:53:00.001-06:00

I used a recipe by Emeril Lagasse Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizzas as my muse and then added my own tweaks. This recipe makes 2 (10-inch) deep dish pizzas. I don't think Emeril's sauce recipe makes enough for two pizzas; so, I doubled it. Although, there will be a bit left over (probably need to 1½ it). I also used kalamata olives in place of the tasteless black olives, but only ½ as much since they have a more intense flavor. I also used a red bell pepper in place of a green one. And, I increased the amount of sugar in the sauce.

The recipe says it makes 2 12-inch pizzas; however, I had a lot of difficulty spreading the dough in that size of pan. So, I think making 10-inch pizza's is a lot easier. The crust will be a bit thicker - but, it's a tasty crust, especially infused with all of the goodness from the toppings and sauce.

I don't have a deep dish style pizza pan; so, I've used both a cast iron frying pan and a springform cheesecake pan. Oiling the pan plus the oil in the dough makes it come out of the pan very easily.

The first time I made this pizza, I put the mushrooms, bell pepper, and onion in raw; but, this resulted in a lot of liquid in the finished pizza which we had to mop up with a papertowel. The next time I made it I precooked the mushrooms, bell pepper, and onion. I also cooked the sauce longer to remove more of the liquid.

Ingredients

Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza Dough, recipe follows
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh garlic (about 5-6 cloves)
1½ tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, salt free
2 tablespoons wine (optional)
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound mozzarella cheese, sliced or grated
8 ounces pepperoni, thinly sliced
8 ounces mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into thin slices
1 yellow onion, cut into thin rings
½ cup chopped kalamata olives
1 pound crumbled hot Italian sausage
1 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

While the dough is rising, make the tomato sauce. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the herbs, seeds, salt, and black and red pepper flakes, and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, wine and sugar, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 1 hour. Smash tomatoes and then continue cooking until thickened, about 30min to 1 hour. Remove from the heat and let cool completely before using.
Meanwhile, precook sausage in a frying pan, remove from pan leaving as much of the oil as possible. Then precook mushrooms in same pan with leftover oil from sausage. Remove mushrooms leaving as much of the liquid as possible in the pan, then pour mushroom liquid into simmering sauce
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.
Place onion and red pepper slices on a cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper lightly sprayed with cooking oil and bake for about 10-15 minutes until lightly browned
Oil 2 seasoned 12-inch round deep-dish pizza pans with the extra-virgin olive oil. Press 1 piece of dough into each pan, pressing to the edge and stretching about 1 1/2 inches up the sides. Let rest for 5 minutes.
Layer the mozzarella cheese all over the bottom of the pies. Top each with half of the pepperoni, mushrooms, bell pepper rings, onions, black olives and sausage. Ladle the sauce evenly over each pizza and top with Parmesan.
Bake until the top is golden and the cheese is bubbly and the crust is golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven, slice and serve hot

Chicago-style Deep Dish Pizza Dough:

11/2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees F)
1 (1/4-ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons vegetable oil to grease bowl
1 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, combine the water, yeast, and sugar and stir to combine. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add 1 1/2 cups of the flour, the cornmeal, 1/2 cup of olive oil, and the salt, mixing by hand until it is all incorporated and the mixture is smooth. Continue adding the flour, ½ cup at a time, working the dough after each addition, until all the flour is incorporated but the dough starts to pull away from the bowl.
Oil a large mixing bowl with the remaining 2 teaspoons oil.
Place the dough in the bowl and turn to oil all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm, draft-free place until nearly doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Divide into 2 equal portions and use as directed.

Notes:

I read recently it's best to use canned whole tomatoes, instead of chopped, whenver possible because they use the best tomatoes to can whole and the rest for other styles.
Be sure to use good quality (i.e. name brand) canned whole tomatoes. I tried making it with Walmart Great Value brand - and it just didn't taste quite as good as when I made it with a name brand.
If you can't find salt free canned whole tomatoes then try leaving the salt out of the sauce
Precooking the onion, red pepper, and mushrooms is important as it removes as much moisture as possible - otherwise there will be a lot of liquid in the finished pizza.
I used kalamata olives packed in olive oil. After pitting and chopping the olives, I used the olive infused olive oil in the dough to impart a bit of an olive taste.

Roasted Vegetable and Tofu Curry

2010-09-25T19:40:00.000-05:00

This is an easy meal to make, tasty, and inexpensive. Plus, it's a good way to use up vegetables you may have on hand.

Ingredients

1 lb package firm tofu
½ head cauliflower
3 carrots
1 medium sweet potato
1 Tbl vegetable or olive oil
½ large onion (or 1 medium onion), diced
½ red bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbl Curry Powder
½ tsp Cinnamon
2 cups chicken stock
½ cup raisins or dried currents
2 Tbl cornstarch
½ cup water
Salt, to taste
Cooked rice

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees
Remove excess moisture from Tofu: Slick Tofu block in half cross-wise so that you have two slaps of Tofu about ¾-inch thick. Lay down a section of newspaper the put a paper towel on top. Lay the Tofu slabs on top of the paper towels. Place another paper towel on top and another section of newspaper. Then lay a cookie sheet on top of that and weigh it down with cans from the pantry. Leave for about 20 minutes. Then cut Tofu into chunks (not too small)
Meanwhile, wash and cut vegetables into chunks (not too small).
Spray a rimmed cookie sheet with vegetable oil spray and lay out all of the vegetables and Tofu in a single layer. Spray top of vegetables with oil spray
Roast vegetables and Tofu in Oven for about 20-25 minutes, turning over halfway.
While vegetables/tofu are roast, make sauce: In a large pan, heat oil and then add onions and bell pepper, saute until onion starts to turn light brown. Add garlic and continue cooking for another minute. Add Curry powder and Cinnamon and cook for about 30 seconds to bring out flavor. Add two cups chicken stock and bring to boil. Mix cornstarch with ½ cup water and gently pour into boiling sauce stirring constantly so as to avoid clumps. When thickened, remove from heat. Taste and add salt to taste.
When vegetables and tofu are roasted, add them to stock and gently stir so that all of the vegetables are coated with sauce
Serve with hot rice

Notes

For a fully vegetarian meal, substitute apple juice for chicken stock.
For a more meat-atarian meal, substitute chicken for Tofu. Use beef stock, add a dash of Thai fish sauce, and saute some bacon to sprinkle on top - so as to use as many animals as possible.
Try other vegetables (whatever you have on hand): Eggplant, potato, squash, etc.
I like Madras curry powder - but any good curry powder will do
Try serving with Couscous instead of rice

Gumbo

2010-09-04T08:50:00.003-05:00

I've been having a hankering for gumbo lately. My wife an I were at Fish City Grill a week or so ago so I ordered a cup of gumbo. Unfortunately, it had a burnt flavor; so, I sent it back (something I very rarely do). They replaced it with a cup of crab bisque, which was quite good - but it didn't satisfy my gumbo hankering.

The weather cooled down a bit; so, I decided to make some gumbo. As usual, I looked up several Gumbo recipes and then concocted my own. So, here is my Gumbo recipe inspired by Alton Brown, Emeril Lagasse, Paula Dean, & Rachel Ray.

BTW, the shrimp and oyster Po'boy's at Fish City Grill are very tasty.

Rub

2 tsp paprika
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp ground thyme

Ingredients

½ cup oil
½ cup flour
1 onion, chopped
½ red pepper, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 quart chicken broth
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
½ cup water
2 boneless (half) chicken breasts (about 1 - 1½ pounds), cubed
1 pound cooked andouille sausage, cut into ½-inch slices
2 cups frozen okra
2 bay leaves

Cooked rice
Filé powder

Directions

Mix rub ingredients together and then mix with chicken cubes, being sure to coat each cube. Refrigerate until ready to use
To make rue: In a cast iron (or other heavy) dutch oven, mix together ½ cup oil and ½ cup flour. Place in oven preheated to 350 degrees and bake 1½ hours, whisking 2 or 3 times while baking. Rue should be a nice creamy chocolate color.
Remove dutch oven from oven and place on stove top over medium heat. Add onion, pepper, and celery (the holy trinity) and saute until onion is transluant
Add stock, tomatoes, and water and whisk thrououghly. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking frequently, until thickened.
Meanwhile, in a frying pan, fry sausage until browned, remove sausage and add to gumbo
Then cook chicken in the oil rendered from the sausage, when cooked through add to gumbo
Add okra and bay leaves to gumbo
Simmer for 30 minutes (or longer)
Remove bay leaves and serve with cooked rice and Filé powder (to sprinkle on top)

Notes

Kudoes to Alton Brown for the idea of baking the rue - it's so easy to burn when doing it on the stove top
I prefer red pepper over green, but green pepper will suffice
Any smoked sausage (like kielbasa) can be substituted; although, I prefer something spicy
This gumbo is not very spicy, so add some tabasco sauce if you want to spice it up a bit

Tiffany's Chicken Tamales with Queso Fresco & Tomatillo Sauce

2010-08-22T17:16:00.002-05:00

My wife and I are fans of Top Chef (Bravo TV Network). On episode 8 - - Tiffany Derry won the elimination challenge with her Chicken Tamales with Queso Fresco & Tomatillo Sauce. After a bit of googling, I also found a video by last season's winner, Michael Voltaggio showing how to make the tamales. The recipe is a bit terse; for instance, it doesn't even include instructions for cooking the tamales. The video is a bit better. This is how I did it, which is, hopefully, a bit more complete. They are a bit of work - but well worth the effort.

Tomatillo Sauce

12 tomatillos, cut in quarters
1 habanero, seeds and membrane removed
1 lime, juiced
3 garlic cloves
1 large avocado

Place half the tomatillos and all of the rest of the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth
Gradually add the rest of the tamatillos until all are incorporated and the mixture is smooth

Radish Pico de Gallo

1 bunch radish, thinly sliced on a mandolin
1 English cucumber, seeds removed and diced small
½ red onion, small dice
½ bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
½ habanero pepper, seeds and membrane removed and finely minced
2 limes, with zest from 1 lime and both juiced
Salt & Pepper

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then refrigerate for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to blend

Chicken Filling

1 whole chicken
7 whole cloves garlic
3 Tbl chili powder
2 Tbl paprika
3 Tbl salt
1 dried Ancho chili, sliced
1 Cup of Tamatillo Sauce (recipe above)

Place all ingredients into a pot and add enough water to cover
Bring to boil and then reduce heat to medium and cover with a lid
Cook chicken for about 30 minutes
Turn off heat, but leave lid on pot and let chicken simmer in liquid for another couple of hours until cool enough to touch
Remove chicken and separate meat from bones and shred the meat
Add the 1 cup tamatillo sauce to shredded chicken

Equipment

Blender
Mandolin
Chinese bamboo steamer baskets

Tamales

4 Cup Masa Harina
4 oz (by weight) Lard
Water - enough to make a thick dough the consistency of clay
Fresh corn husks, washed to remove any grit
Queso fresco, for garnish

Mix Masa Harina, Lard, & water according to package directions to make a thick dough the consistency of clay.
Remove whole husk leaves from fresh ears of corn, being careful not to tear.
For each tamale, take a piece of Masa dough, about the size of a small egg, and flatten it out in the middle of a corn husk to be approximately 2" x 4"
Spoon a couple of tablespoons of the chicken mixture down the middle of the Masa
Roll the corn husk and tie ends with thin strips of corn husk
Arrange tamale's on a chinese bamboo steamer basket
Place over boiling water and steam for about 30 minutes until firm.
Serve with Tomatillo Sauce and Radish Pico de Gallo

Notes

It was difficult to tell for sure; but, it appears Tiffany steamed just a square of Masa dough in the corn husks and then served them with the chicken mixture spooned on top - sort of a deconstructed tamale. It's an alternative method; however, I prefer them to be a bit more traditional. The advantage of Tiffany's method is you can put more meat.
The Radish Pico de Gallo is very non traditional - bordering on weird. But, it is actually quite delicious. After dinner we had a few tamales left over, but the Radish Pico de Gallo was gone.
I had a lot of the Tomatillo Sauce left over. I suggest cutting the recipe in half as it doesn't keep very well (no more than a day or two).
Be very careful chopping the habanero pepper and wash your hands thoroughly in warm soapy water after handling it.
Although I haven't tried it, I think the chicken mixture would be very tasty in enchilada's. You could make half the amount of tamale's and then make chicken enchiladas as a second dinner for the next day. I would include monterrey jack cheese inside the enchilada's and sprinkle crumpled Queso fresco cheese on top.

Shrimp Ramen Soup

2010-07-27T19:39:00.001-05:00

This probably isn't 100% authentic as I believe traditional ramen soup is made from pork stock - but it tastes pretty darn good. I also went overboard on the vegetables, so it is quite thick, almost a stew. But, that's the way I like it.

Then rent or netflix The Ramen Girl

Ingredients

8 cups chicken stock (preferably salt free)
1 pound small shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 Tbl miso paste
1 tsp sesame oil
4 cloves garlic thinly sliced
½ Tbl grated ginger
3 large carrots julienned
½ large onion thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
8 oz mushrooms thinly sliced
½ head napa cabbage thinly sliced
2 packages ramen soup noodles (minus flavor packets)

Equipment

Pot large enough to hold everything. The 8 cups stock should fill less than ½ the pot
Julienne cutter

Directions

Heat stock in a large pot.
Add onion, carrot, and bell pepper and cook for about 20 minutes
Add mushrooms and napa cabbage and cook for another 10 minutes
Add shrimp and cook for a couple of minutes until pink in color
add ramen noodles and cook for 2 minutes. Be sure to break noodles apart
Serve in bowls with japanese soup spoons

Notes

I used some homemade chicken stock from the freezer. I do not add any salt when making my own stock as I feel it's best to season whatever is being made from the stock. The miso paste will add some salt. If you feel it needs a bit more salt then add a bit more miso paste or, perhaps, some fish sauce. If you use commercial chicken stock then be sure to use the low sodium variety and then add the miso paste to taste.
Just throw the flavor packets from the ramen soup away - they are mostly salt and not of much use for anything else.
If you don't have a julienne cutter cutter then thinly slice the carrot as I think grating it would make it too small and it would get mushy in the soup. Then add a julienne cutter to your christmas list :)
Thinly sliced chicken or pork would also work well. I'm not so sure about beef - but I suppose it could work too.
Snow peas or sugar peas would also work

Chicken Fried Steak

2010-07-27T19:05:00.001-05:00

A Texas treasure - the Chicken Fried Steak. I've tried making chicken fried steak at home in the past - but it never tasted as good as that which you can get in the better restaurants. It was bland and oily.

To overcome the blandness, I experiemented with different seasonings in the flour. A little seasoned salt can go a long way to overcome the blandness; but, too much makes it too salty; so, I added other seasonings. Using buttermlk in place of regular milk also adds a bit of acidy goodness.

To overcome the oilyness and lack of crispyness, I turned to the cooking god himself - Alton Brown. I highly recommend watching his chicken fried steak episode; although, I think he makes it far more complicated than it needs to be. But, he does have some good ideas worth incorporating. For one, using the double dip method (seasoned flour -> milk/egg -> back to seasoned flour). For another, letting the breading sit on the meat for a bit before cooking allows to to stick better to the meat. Also, draining the meat on paper towels to remove as much of the oil as possible and the putting in a warm oven helps to keep it crispy.

For the meat, I just use cheap cube steak from the grocery store - usually I picked it up on the used meat bin (the "about to expire" meat bin) for a couple of bucks per package and then stick it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it.

Ingredients

4 cube steaks (about 1½ pounds)
1½ + ¼ Cups all purpose flour (divided)
1 tsp seasoned salt (like Lowrey's)
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp ground thyme
½Tbl smoked hot paprika
1 Cup buttermilk
1 Egg, slightly beaten
2 Cups milk
½ tsp kosher salt
smoked salt
oil

Equipment

cooling rack on top of a baking sheet
Another baking sheet to place in oven
12" cast iron frying pan
Plate covered with paper towels
Tongs
Whisk

Directions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees
Mix together in a flat bowl 1½ flour, seasoned salt, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika.
In another flat bowl, mixed together buttermilk and egg
Lightly sprinkle both sides of cube steaks with smoked salt
Dip cube steaks in seasoned flour, then in buttermilk/egg, then back in seasoned flour and place on cooling rack
Let steaks sit with breading on cooling rack for 15-20 minutes
While steaks are sitting, preheat frying pan with about ½ oil
Place steaks in oil, 2 at a time, and cook about ??? miuntes per side. Be careful not to crowd them.
When steaks are done, remove to plate to drain for a couple of minutes and the move to cooking sheet in oven to stay warm and crisp
When all steaks are cooked and in oven, drain all but about 3 Tbl of oil from pan, being careful to leave the crispy bits in the pan.
Add ¼ cup flour to pan to stir to brown for a minute or two
Add 2 cups milk and quickly whisk together until gravy thickens, stirring constantly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with mashed potatoes and some other vegetable, like green beans.

Coconut buttermilk pie

2010-06-07T09:19:00.001-05:00

So, I was having a hankering for coconut pie; so, I planned on making one for dessert on Sunday. Problem is, the recipe I found called for a can of coconut milk - which I forgot to buy at the grocery store on Saturday. Still in the mood for pie, I decided I would make a buttermilk pie for dessert instead. Then, while making it, I thought "why not add the coconut to the buttermilk pie?" The result was quite delicious

Pie Ingredients

2 cups sugar
1 stick butter, softened
4 Tbl flour
3 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup unsweetened coconut, lightly toasted
1 tsp coconut extract
1 unbaked pie shell

Whipped topping Ingredients

1 cup whipping cream
2 Tbl sugar
½ tsp coconut extract
½ cup toasted coconut

Directions

Cream together butter, sugar, and flour
Add eggs, buttermilk, and coconut extract and mic thrououghly
Add toasted coconut
pour into unbaked pie shell and bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees

Before serving

Add sugar and coconut extract to whipping cream and whip until stiff
fold in toasted coconut

Put a dollop the coconut whipped cream on top of each piece of pie

Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki

2010-05-03T10:05:00.002-05:00

Note: My friend Craig shared this delectable Japanese recipe with me and I have confirmed its deliriousness. Craig has his own recipe blog here.

Ingredients:

okonomiyaki sauce
yakisoba sauce
japanese noodles
dashi soup stock
thin strips of meat: chicken, pork, beef, shrimp or whatever
green onion sliced thin
thin strips of carrot
fresh mushrooms sliced thin
eggs

Directions:

1) Cook japanese noodles according to package. Then stir fry with some yakisoba sauce.

2) Mix together

2 c flour
1 1/2 C water or water with dashi soup stock
1 egg
1/3-1/2 head of shreeded cabbage

3) pour some batter on a griddle, let it cook for a little, then add toppings (meat and vetetables) and flip over.

4) Meanwhile, cook an egg on the griddle, break yoke and swish it around so that the egg is about the same size as the pancake.

To serve:

Layer on the plate in the following order

some stir-fried Japanese noodles
fried egg
okonomiyaki pancake

Drizzle okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise on top

Notes

I cheated and bought a package of thinly slice cabbage (intended for use in cole slaw).
I used pork when I made it.
I used an electric griddle to cook everything.

Gyoza

2010-05-03T10:05:00.000-05:00

Note: My friend Craig shared this delectable Japanese recipe with me and I have confirmed its deliriousness. Craig has his own recipe blog here.

Ingredients:

1 pound ground pork
2 to 2 ¼ cup shredded white or Napa cabbage
4-5 scallions, finely diced
1½ T grated, minced fresh ginger root
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 T tamari dark soy sauce
1 to 1 ½ t sesame oil
1 ½ T oyster sauce
ground black pepper, to taste
slosh or two of mirin
50 gyoza wrappers, or as needed (also wonton wrappers, basically anything that is round and small)

Directions:

1) Chop cabbage fine, sprinkle with coarse salt, let sit for 20 minutes then squeeze out as much water as you can with a cheese cloth or clean tea towel

2) Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl, adding meat last.

3) Place 1 1/2 teaspoons in the center of each gyoza wrapper and use your finger to put water around the edge.

4) Fold the sides up to form a semicircle, and then pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the rest of the gyoza wrappers until the filling is gone. (Or, cheat like I did and use a wonton press)

5) To cook, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a heavy frying pan over medium to medium-high heat. Add some of the Gyoza, don’t crowd the pat too much, and cook for 2 minutes, or until medium golden brown on the bottom.

6) Add 1/2 cup of water to the pan. Cover the dumplings and cook until the water is absorbed (5 to 7 minutes). Repeat with the remainder of the gyoza dumplings.

Prepared Tamari Soy Sauce

½ C Tamari dark soy sauce
½ C Katsuobushi (dried bonito tuna flakes)
¼ C dried seaweed (nori)
3 T mirin

Put all of the ingredients in a small sauce pan, bring to a simmer over medium to medium-high heat, remove from heat and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Remove the bonito flakes and seaweed with a very small sieve or spider, being sure to squeeze as much liquid out as possible, and then discard.

Gyoza Dipping Sauce

1 C prepared Tamari sauce (see recipe above)
1 C rice vinegar
1 t sesame oil (or to taste. You may also use rayu - spicy sesame oil)

To be added at table and/or to taste. When preserving left over sauce in the fridge, do not add the following ingredients. They do not keep long. Add them fresh to the sauce before serving, and in this way, the sauce will keep in the fridge longer.

1 teaspoon minced/grated ginger root
1 scallion, minced

Optional:

1-2 T fresh grated daikon radish
¼ teaspoon roasted, crushed sesame seeds
dash of lemon juice

Notes

I cheated and bought a package of thinly slice cabbage (intended for use in cole slaw).
I used shrimp when I made it.
It made more Gyoza than would fit in my frying pan. So, I got my bamboo steamer out and steamed the rest on top of cabbage leaves.

Sweet & Sour -whatever-

2010-05-02T17:31:00.001-05:00

Sweet and sour is a very versatile dish. You can use a variety of meats, such as chicken, shrimp, or pork (not sure beef would be good - but, to be honest, I've never tried it). It's also a good way to use of vegetables as just about anything can go into a sweet & sour dinner.

Living on a gulf coast state, we regularly get shrimp on sale in our local grocery stores. This week, our local Tom Thumb had shrimp for $2.99/lb (in 2 lb bags). It was the small (51-60/lb) shrimp - but that's perfect for a sweet & sour.

I found a good sweet & sour recipe in a Thai cookbook recently - which I, of course, have modified to my own tastes. The trick to a good sweet & sour is to have a variety of colors in the vegetables. I like to include the following colors: red, green, yellow, orange, white

Ingredients

Rice
1 - 1½ lbs of meat (chicken, pork, or shrimp)
4 cloves garlic
oil
1 cup cashews (optional)
Variety of vegetables cut into bite sized pieces, such as

pineapple chunks, 1 can *
onion *
bell pepper *
carrot *
water chestnuts, 1 can
bamboo shoots, 1 can
snow peas
sugar peas
cucumber
celery
mushrooms
tomato

* a 'must have' vegetable - in my own most humble of opinions

Sweet & Sour sauce ingredients

1 cup stock (see note 1)
6 Tbl vinegar (nothing fancy, cider vinegar is just fine)
6 Tbl sugar (I prefer brown, but white will suffice)
4 Tbl ketchup (or catsup, whichever name you prefer)
4 Tbl juice from pineapple chunks (if using shrimp, can substitute with 2 Tbl Thai fish sauce, if desired)
4 Tbl oyster sauce
2 Tbl corn starch
1½ Tbl chili sauce (see note 6)
1 Tbl grated ginger

Directions

Start cooking rice. While rice is cooking, cut up vegetables
If using shrimp, peel and devein it and save the shells (see note 1). If using chicken or pork then cut into bite sized cubes.
Mince garlic and mix with meat and let sit until ready to cook (can even be done a few hours ahead of time)
Add a couple Tbl oil to wok and saute the vegetables. Different vegetables require different amounts of cooking time; so, I suggest adding them in the following order, sauteing each for a minute or so until adding the next (if not using a particular vegetable then just skip it). That way, the first vegetables added get cooked longer

carrot
celery + bell pepper + onion
mushroom + cucumber
tomato + snow peas + sugar peas
water chestnuts + bamboo shoots + pineapple chunks (just enough to heat through)

Remove vegetables to a serving bowl
Add a bit more oil to wok and saute meat until cooked through
Add sweet & sour sauce and cook until thickened
Add vegetables back to wok and stir until all is coated
Remove to serving bowl
Service with rice
Go vegetate on the couch after having eaten too much because it tasted so good

Notes

If using chicken or pork then use 1 cup chicken stock. If using shrimp, put shrimp shells in a small sauce pan along with about 1½ - 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Then let simmer for a bit to reduce (and concentrate the flavor). Turn off and let cool with shells in water (which will maximize the amount of flavor in the water). Strain and add 1 cup of the shrimp stock to the sweet & sour sauce.
Don't skimp on the vegetables - use a cup or two of each. Makes it more healthy.
I prefer canola oil, but any vegetable oil will suffice
Personally, I don't like the taste of green bell peppers; so, I always use red, yellow, or orange.
A trick I learned from Rachel Ray (Food Network) is to buy fresh ginger, peel it and then freeze it in a small ziplock baggie. You can then just take it out of the freezer and just grate however much you need. Being frozen, it grates up nice and fine.
For the chili sauce, I use Sriracha sauce - which my children refer to as "rooster sauce" because of the picture of a chicken on the bottle.

Greek Moussaka

2010-02-16T16:30:00.002-06:00

My daughter, who is living with us while her husband is in basic training with the U.S. Air Force, has started following the Atkins diet. I was once on this diet; so, I am familiar with what is and is not legal to eat. I've been trying to be conscous of this as I prepare dinner to either make a low carb dinner, or something where the carb component can be easily eliminated or removed (such as rice, noodles, etc.).

Tonight I made a Greek Moussaka. Not all recipe's for Moussaka are low carb; but, there are some very delicious ones. This is mine which is a combination of three different recipe's I found

Ingredients

2 eggplants (about 2½ pounds total)
½ cup olive oil
2 ounces parmesan cheese, grated

Meat Sauce

1 lb ground lamb or beef
1 small onion chopped
3-4 cloves garlic minced
½ tsp dried oregano
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
smidge allspice
pinch ground cloves
pinch nutmeg
1 bay leaf
14½ ounce can chopped tomatoes with juice

Custard sauce

3 eggs
¼ cup heavy cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
Peel eggplant and slice in to ½ inch thick slices.
Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil and place on a foil lined baking sheet, overlapping as necessary.
Cover baking sheet with foil and then bake for 25 minutes in a 425 degree oven
Brown onion until starting to brown then add minced garlic.
Add ground meat and cook until meat is done
Drain meat/onion mixture and then add spices, cook for about 30 seconds to toast spices and then add tomatoes and bay leaf
Simmer until eggplant is done (about 15-20 minutes)
Assemble by placing a thin layer of meat sauce in the bottom of the baking dish. Add 1/3 of the eggplant slices, cover with grated cheese and 1/2 of the meat sauce. Repeat with 1/3 eggplant, 1/3 grated cheese, and remaining 1/2 meat sauce. Top with remaining 1/3 eggplant. Pour custard sauce over entire surface and top with remaining 1/3 grated cheese
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 minutes, until top is toasted and a knife comes out clean when inserted.

Notes

Many recipes call for leaving the skin on the eggplant. While it may be edible, I personally find it tough and unplesant in the mouth. So, I always peel my eggplant.
Measurements like "small onion" or "clove garlic" are very ambiguous. For this recipe, I used an onion that was about 7-8 ounces and ended up with 5-6 ounces of chopped onion after cutting ends off and removing skin. I didn't measure the garlic cloves beforehand, but I used about ½ ounce minced garlic
A smidge is about 1/8 tsp and a pinch is about 1/16 tsp

Sushi party

2010-01-11T11:20:00.043-06:00

Last week was my son-in-law's birthday. As is our tradition, we have a family birthday party, usually on a Sunday; and, we pick something favored by the birthday guest of honor. For his birthday dinner, we decided to have a Sushi party. This is something we've done, at least, two times before. So, while we're certainly no experts, but we have developed a good idea of what we like.

Many people equate sushi with raw fish; but, you do not have to use raw fish if you don't want to. You can use cooked shrimp or fish, or even make vegetarian sushi rolls.

Disclaimer: I am going to describe how we do a sushi party - in no way am I suggesting that this is how Sushi parties should be done, nor am I claiming that the sushi we create is in any way authentic.

There is a reason that sushi is expensive - it is very labor intensive, there is a lot involved in making it. However, that is also what makes it a good party theme where guests can each take a turn making their own sushi creation.

INGREDIENTS

There are also a lot of ingredients involved; although, if you do any amount of asian cooking then you very well may have a lot of these already on hand. Only a couple of these are essential, the rest being optional, depending upon the type of sushi you want to make. This is what we had on hand for our sushi party.

Sushi rice. This is absolutely essential - you can't have sushi without sushi rice.
Crab sticks. I use imitation crab - which, truth be told, is what many sushi restaurants also use.
Sushi grade fish. For this sushi party we opted for the (cooked) eel; although, we've used raw salmon and tuna in previous parties.
Shrimp. I prefer the 16-20/pound size. Buy it raw, but it will be cooked before you use it.
Nori. This is another essential - it is the seaweed wrapper.
Carrots
Cucumber
Avocado
Sesame seeds
Wasabi powder
Mirin
Sriracha sauce
Chili garlic sauce
Lite soy sauce
Heavy soy sauce
Panko bread crumbs
Rice vinegar. Also called rice wine vinegar. I also comes in regular and sweet, I prefer the regular
Cream cheese

Not shown

Mayonnaise
Pickled ginger slices
Sugar
Sesame oil

Other possible ingredients

Tofu (extra firm)
Scallions (spring onions)
Mushrooms
Snow peas
Asparagus (lightly steamed)
Daikon radish

Notes:

If you have a store that sells bulk items, check there first as it can be a lot cheaper. For example, those bags of sesame seeds and wasibe powder were each only about 50¢. Buying those prepackaged would each cost about $2, $3, or even $4.
If you have a store that has a good fish counter then check with them. Our local Central Market carries frozen sushi grade fish: Salmon, tuna, and eel in 8 ounce packages. The salmon and tuna are raw, the eel is cooked.
The wasabi we get in the US is not true wasabi - it is green tinted horseradish. You can get it premixed; but, it is cheaper to buy the powder and mix it yourself.
Mirin is essentially cooking sake, not unlike other cooking wines. The kind I buy has a bit of salt (to avoid being sold as alcohol) and contains less than 1% alcohol. You should be able to find it in any large supermarket that has a good asian food section.
The Sriracha sauce is sometimes referred to as "rooster sauce" because of the picture of the rooster on the bottle. Available in most large supermakets that have a good asian food section.
The use of either lite or heavy soy sauce is a personal choice. It's good to have both on hand.
Panko bread crumbs are made from bread without crusts and has a crisper, airier texture than other bread crumbs. Many large supermarkets now carry it. Although, it may or may not be in the asian food section - it may be in the baking goods section where other types of bread crumbs are sold.

EQUIPMENT

There is also some equipment you will need.

Chopsticks
Small bowls. These are for holding dips, sauces, wasibi, or whatever else.
Nigiri Sushi Mold. - this is highly optional and is just fun to have
Plastic wrap
Cutting board
Sharp knife
Sushi mat. These are inexpensive, so get a couple so that more than one person can be making sushi at a time

Not shown

Squirt bottles (the kind used for ketchup and mustard at picnics)
Bowls of various and sundry sizes for preparation
Serving plates
Eating plates

Notes:

Nigirizushi is a hand-formed sushi consisting of an oblong glob of sushi rice usually topped with a bit of wasabi and fish such as raw salmon or tuna

PRE-PREPARATION

Some preparation steps can be done ahead of time. I don't recommend doing it too far in advance; but, doing it the morning of the sushi party is fine.

Prepare the sushi rice

First off, be sure to use real sushi rice which is a short grain sticky rice - the long grain variety that is common in the US will not work. Although, sushi rice should be available in any large supermarket that has a decent asian food section. If you have a store that sells items in bulk then check there first as it will likely be cheaper.

Properly prepared sushi rice is essential for making good sushi. If it's too dry or wet then making the sushi will be all the more difficult. Real sushi chef's will tell you that it takes years to perfect making sushi rice; so, as amateurs ours will not be perfect - but we do the best we can.

I'm not going to go into the process for making sushi rice as that would be a blog post all by itself. I don't mean to make this sound intimidating as it really isn't that difficult. Essentially, you cook the sushi rice according to the directions on the package and then, while still warm, gently fold in a mixture of rice wine vinegar and sugar.

The process is well documented on the internet. You can even search YouTube for video's showing how to make it. A good site to check out is:

Make My Sushi

Prepare the shrimp

As I indicated in the ingredients list, I prefer the 16-20/pound size, although any size will work. It's just that the larger ones are easier to work with.

A problem with shrimp is that it curls up tight when cooked. What we want is straight shrimp that can be easily put into a sushi roll. To accomplish this, I stick skewers into the raw shrimp to straighten it out.

Peel and devein the shrimp, trying to leave the tail piece on. Next push a thin skewer through the length of the shrimp to straighten.

To cook the shrimp I simply boil it; although, to increase flavor, I boil it with the shells I removed (there is a lot of flavor in the shells). I also add a bit of seaweed (for a hint of the sea). I add just enough water to cover the shimp, bring it to a boil and then turn it off as soon as it boils and let it cool in the water (to enhance the flavor). To prevent the shrimp from overcooking, I added a few ice cubes and then placed the pan into a larger pan filled with cold water to cool it enough to stop the cooking process.

Leave the skewers in the shrimp until completely cooled, otherwise they will curl if still warm. Remove the skewer by twisting it out. Then put it in a ziplock bag along with a tablespoon (or so) of Mirin. Massage the bag to make sure all of the shrimp is coated with the Mirin and then refrigerate until ready to use.

Slice the vegetables

Peel the cucumber, cut it in half lengthwise, and scrape out all of the seeds. Peel the carrots. You'll want to slice the vegetables into long strips. They should be as long as the width of the Nori. I used a pampered chef mandolin which has a julianne attachment; but, cutting them by hand wouldn't be that hard. Alternatively you could julianne cut them into matchstick size pieces.

You may want to parboil the carrots just a bit to soften them, be careful not to cook them completely as you still want to have a bit of crunch. You may need to run them under cold water after parboiling to stop the cooking process.

Slice the cream cheese

Slice the cream cheese into long slices about 1/2" wide X 1/4" thick and the length of the cream cheese block. It helps to stick it in the freezer a bit to firm it up. Just be sure to not keep it in the freezer too long as if it freezes it will change the consistency of the cream cheese.

Toast the sesame seeds and panko bread crumbs

You can toast them in an oven; however, I have a tendency to burn them. I prefer toasting them in a frying pan (no oil). That way I can watch them and toast them to a light golden color.

Put the sesame seeds and panko bread crumbs each into a shallow wide bowl large enough so that the sushi rolls can be rolled.

Wrap the sushi mat in plastic wrap

This is just to make cleanup easier at the end. Don't skimp on the plastic wrap, I wrap it around 2 or 3 times.

Prepare the wasibe

Start by mixing together equal parts of wasabi powder and water until it is the desired consistency. If you feel energetic, you can make it a bit thicker and then mold it into small shapes. I made mine into marble sized balls.

Prepare the nori

You can use the full sheets of nori to make sushi; however, experience has shown that doing so makes sushi that is too large to eat as a single bite. The nori sheets are perforated with 6 sections. We've found that carefully folding it on the 4th perforation and then tearing it makes the perfect size.

Unfortunately, cutting it in half (along the 3rd perforation) is a bit too small; so, you do end up with the remaining 2 sections as wasted pieces of nori. You could add one or two of these waste pieces to the water when boiling the shrimp. You could also cut the waste pieces into thin strips and add them to miso soup. Or, you could just discard them.

Prepare sauces

There are a number of sauces that can be used either inside the sushi or squirt on top after cutting the sushi

Kabayaki (eel) Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup mirin (sweet rice wine)
1/4 cup sugar
Pour all ingredients in a pan and then stir the mixture well. Put the pan on low heat and simmer for a few minutes.
Remove from the heat and cool the mixture. Store the sauce in a clean squirt bottle in the refrigerator or let cool to room temperature before serving.
Spicy Mayonnaise
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp Sriracha chilli sauce
1 tbsp hot sesame oil
Mix together and store the sauce in a clean squirt bottle
Wasabi Mayonnaise
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp wasabi powder
Mix together and store the sauce in a clean squirt bottle

Starting in the lower left corner and going clockwise

Boiled shrimp
Julianne cut carrots and cucumber
toasted panko bread crumbs
wasabi paste
wasabi balls
toasted sesame seeds

DIRECTIONS

You'll need to setup a work area to make the sushi with all of the ingredients laid out. Include a bowl of water large enough to dip the knife into as this will make slicing the sushi easier. You'll probably also want dishtowels to wipe and clean the hands as they tend to get sticky after working with the sushi rice.

Cut the avocado in half, remove the seed, carefully remove the peel while keeping the avocado halves intact, then slice it thinly. This is something that can't be done ahead of time because the avocado will brown.

If using eel then broil it according to package directions.

Place a sheet of Nori onto the sushi mat, put some sushi rice on top and spread it out into a thin layer across the entire sheet. Dip your fingers in the water frequently to keep the rice from sticking. Be sure to shake off excess water from your fingers so as to not make the sushi rice too wet.

You can then start placing the ingredients on the rice side, or you can make an inside-out sushi roll (as shown) by flipping it over and placing the ingredients on the nori side. Just be careful not to put too much as it will make it difficult to roll. The sushi roll shown has broiled eel (cut into thin strips), cream cheese strip, and avacado slices. You can add a bit of sauces on the inside before rolling. Just be creative.

Then just roll it up using the mat, trying to keep it as round as possible.

If making an inside-out roll then you can roll it in the toasted panko bread crumbs or sesame seeds before slicing. Doing so doesn't work as well if the nori is on the outside as it won't stick to the nori. You can also place avacado slices or fish slices on top and then press it into the roll before removing it from the sushi mat.

Sushi rolls are typically cut into 8 pieces - cut the roll in half, then cut each half in half, finally cut each quarter in half. You can leave the rolls on end and put sauces on the top. Or you can lay them out and put sauces on each piece.

Here are just a few of the sushi rolls we made. They don't look as pretty as those you get in sushi restaurants, but they sure were tasty!

Zesty Cheese Doodles

2009-12-18T14:03:00.007-06:00

Here is the South, a tasty appetizer that is often served during the holidays is Cheese Straws. Well, I think that is true because 1) I've never actually tasted a cheese straw and 2) it's debatable if Texas is really part of the South. Anyway, I was looking at some recipe's in a holiday magazine and came across a cheese straw recipe. It's really quite simple; but, I decided to make it better. The original recipe included a bit of cayenne pepper. I decided to include some garlic powder. I also decided I would put a bit of blue cheese in the middle and roll them in sesame seeds

Warning: These are addictively good

Ingredients

8 oz sharp cheddar cheese shredded
1 cup flour
1 stick butter, softened
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup sesame seeds
blue cheese crumbles

Equipment

cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

Directions

Mix all of the ingredients except for the sesame seeds and blue cheese. It would probably be easiest in a food processor; however, my son borrowed ours, so I just kneaded it by hand. It makes a pretty stiff dough and will give your hands a work out.
Roll into 1-balls with a bit of blue cheese in the middle (maybe a 1/4 tsp or so, eyeball it).
Roll balls in sesame seeds and place on cookie sheet
Bake at 400 degrees until lightly browned on top - about 15 minutes (checking every minute or two after 10 minutes). Note that they will flatten and spread out, so be sure to leave room between them.
Let set on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes after removing from the oven and then slide parchment paper onto a cooling rack

Other variations to try (I haven't actually tried any of these yet)

Substitute 1/2 tsp curry powder for the cayenne pepper and garlic powder
Roll in crush pecans instead of sesame seeds
Roll it around a slice of pickled jalapeño pepper instead of blue cheese
Roll it around a couples of slices of black olive instead of blue cheese
Roll it in panko bread crumbs instead of sesame seeds

Notes:

I was impatient and didn't feel like waiting for the butter to soften; so, I just grated it with the cheese grater and mixed it in with the flour and cheese
You could freeze the balls before baking and then have them to bake whenever company comes over or you just feel like a tasty snack. Either let them thaw before baking or increase baking time

Butternut Squash Soup

2009-12-10T18:06:00.002-06:00

One fall I had butternut squash soup at corner bakery that was absolutely delicious. So, I set out on a internet search quest to recreate this wonderful culinary delight. With a few of my own twists, I think I've done it.

Ingredients

3 pounds fresh butternut squash
4 Tbl unsalted butter
1 large shallot
1/2 red bell pepper
6 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp brown sugar
freshly ground nutmeg

Equipment

Stock pot with steamer insert
Hand blender

Directions

Remove any labels and wash squash under cold running water.
Cut squash into quarters lengthwise. Scrape out seeds and stringy stuff and reserve. Place squash quarters into steamer insert skin side up.
Dice shallot and red bell pepper into small pieces
Melt butter on medium in bottom of stockpot and add diced shallot and red bell pepper, saute until shallot is translucent (about 2-3 minutes)
Add reserved seeds and stringy stuff from squash. The idea is you want to lightly toast the seeds in the butter; but, first the liquid needs to be boiled out. This will take about 10-15 minutes stirring frequently.
When squash seeds begin to take on a light brown color then add the 6 cups of water and bring to a boil
Place steamer basket with squash into stock pot and cover. Steam the squash for about 30 minutes on medium high.
When the squash is tender, turn off heat and lift steamer basket out of pot and let drain. Leave squash draining into liquid until both are cool enough to handle
Strain steaming liquid and reserve, discard solids
Scrape squash pulp into a clean pan and discard skin
Using the hand blender, blend the squash pulp adding just enough of the reserved steaming liquid until smooth textured and of the desired consistency (you may or may not end up using all of the liquid)
Stir in cream, brown sugar, and nutmeg and adjust seasoning
Gently heat, being careful to stir often as it will scorch easily.
Enjoy with some nice chewy french bread

Baklava

2009-12-08T18:13:00.006-06:00

I had a hankering for baklava the other day; so, I bought some phyllo pastry sheets, did an internet search to get ideas, and came up with the following

Ingredients

1-1/2 pounds of nuts (I used 8 oz blanched almond slivers, 6 oz raw pistachios, 4 oz pecans, and 6 oz walnuts)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
1 pound phyllo pastry sheets (18 sheets, 13" x 17")

Syrup

2 cups sugar
2 cups water
1/2 cup orange blossom honey
Peeling from 2 clementine oranges with white pulp scraped off and discarded (i.e. orange zest slices)
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 cinnamon stick, 2" long
3 whole cloves

Equipment

9 x 13 pan
Food processor
Candy thermometer

Directions

If phyllo pastry is frozen, thaw in refrigerator for 24 hours. Remove from refrigerator at least 1 hour ahead of time to let it come to room temperature
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cut phyllo pastry sheets in half cross wise so that you have a pile of 36 sheets 13" x 8.5"
Finely chop nuts in food processor, mix in brown sugar ground cinnamon and cloves, set aside
Brush bottom and sides of 13"x9" baking pan with melted butter
Place a sheet of phylly pastry into pan and brush with butter. Repeat until there are 14 sheets.
Spread 1/2 of the nut mixture on top of the pastry sheets
Repeat placing phyllo pastry sheets brushed with butter for another 8 sheets
Spread remaining 1/2 of nut mixture on top of pastry sheets
Repeat placing phyllo pastry sheets brushed with butter for the remaining 14 sheets
Using a sharp knife, carefully through the sheets into diamond shapes, about 5 or 7 diagonal cuts each direction
Place in middle of oven and bake for 40 minutes, after about 20 minutes check and lightly cover with foil if it is starting to brown on top so as to not overcook the top. Remove from oven when done baking
While the phyllo/nut assembly is baking, mixed all incredients for syrup, bring to a boil and cook until the temperature reaches 230 degrees (just under the soft ball stage)
Remove orange peel, cinnamon stick, and whole cloves from syrup and gently pour syrup over the phyllo/nut assembly. Let stand several hours (or overnight) to let the syrup soak in and cool
Using a sharp knife, gently re-cut the baklava and enjoy

Turkey Enchiladas

2009-11-23T08:09:00.001-06:00

On Friday, November 20th, we left on a 1,500 mile trek to Southern California to spend Thanksgiving with our daughter and her family. However, we still wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving with our local family and friends; so, on Sunday, November 15th, we had a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. We had our two children and their families who live locally as well as a couple of friends over for a potluck style dinner. Oh my goodness! We had so much food. We had two turkeys: One cooked in an oil-less turkey fryer and the other was a pre-cooked smoked turkey (bought on sale) that we heated in the oven. We made cornbread-sausage-apple stuffing. There was also 4 different salads, green bean casserole (using fresh green beans), homemade rolls, and 6 different kinds of pie. This isn't including all of the appetizer stuff we filled up on before dinner.

Anyway, my son took home the two turkey carcasses to make soup with and we divided up the left over turkey with each of the families. We ended up with about a little over a pound of turkey meat. After eating turkey sandwiches Monday and Tuesday on the leftover dinner rolls, I decided to make Turkey Enchiladas with what was left of the turkey meat (just under a pound).

I wanted something that had a lot of other flavors to it - because, frankly, I don't like leftover turkey. I can't explain why, I just don't like the flavor. I like cooked turkey fresh out of the oven. I'm OK with turkey sandwiches. But, beyond that, I don't like turkey (don't even get me started on turkey soup - can't stand the stuff).

So, here is my recipe for Turkey Enchiladas that I threw together using mostly stuff we had on hand. The only thing I had to go to the store to buy was the tortilla's.

Ingredients

1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, finely minced (using garlic press)
oil (a Tbl or so)
1 pound leftover turkey meat, chopped up
1 14oz can Mexican Style stewed tomatoes
1 4oz can of chopped green chilies
1 10oz can enchilada sauce
1 chipotle in adobo sauce, finely chopped (optional)
1/2 cup frozen corn
corn tortilla's (14-16)
cheese (cheddar, or whatever you have on hand), grated

Directions

Saute onions and garlic in oil until soft. Mix in stewed tomatoes, chopped green chilies, chipotle in adobo sauce and corn. Add turkey, mix and heat through
Pour enchilada sauce in a flat bowl and heat in microwave for 1 minute
Heat tortillas in microwave to soften
Pour a little of the enchilida sauce in the pan, enough to coat the bottom

To assemble
Dip a tortilla in the enchilada sauce, add meat mixture (1-2 Tbl) and some cheese, roll up and place in pan seam side down
Repeat until all of the meat mixture is used
Top with cheese

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, until the cheese is melted and lightly toasted on top. Serve with sour cream and salsa.

Notes

I used Del Monte brand Mexican style stewed tomatoes which had surprisingly large chunks of tomato which had to be broken up into smaller pieces while cooking.
I used Old El Paso green enchilada sauce, simply because it was what we had on hand. Any good enchilada sauce should do fine.
I made two 8" square pans of enchilada's - we cooked one for dinner and put the other in the freezer. I suppose it would also fill an 8" x 13" pan.

Peanut Flour

2009-10-30T20:02:00.000-05:00

The October 2009 issue of "Southern Living" magazine has an ad by the National Peanut Board that included some peanut recipes. One that looked particularly intriguing is "Peanut Oven-Fried Chicken with Citrus-Ginger Sauce". We have pretty much all of the ingredients on hand, except for one: Peanut flour. Seriously, we even have the aromatic roasted peanut oil; so, I thought, I guess we're gonna have to get us some peanut flour.

First we first tried Sunflower Shoppe in Colleyville, a large health food store. They had almond flour, hazelnut flour, pecan flour, coconut flour - but no peanut flour. Next we tried Central Market in Southlake, an upscale gourmet grocery store. They had a similar selection of different flours - but no, alas, peanut flour.

So, I went to the web site for the National Peanut Board, found the recipe on their web site, and added a comment asking where I might be able to find peanut flour in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Lo and behold, I received an email within 24 hours from a Communications Specialist for the National Peanut Board with the following message:

Thanks for reading the National Peanut Board blog and for your interest in trying some of our recipes. Unfortunately, peanut flour isn’t yet available in retail stores, but we would be happy to send you some peanut flour to work with and would welcome any feedback you have about using it.

If you send your address, we’ll get that out to you early next week.

I replied, thanking her for responding, and gave her my mailing address. This week, a package arrived by UPS containing a 1 pound package of peanut flour. So, next week we'll be having "Peanut Oven-Fried Chicken with Citrus-Ginger Sauce" for dinner some evening. There are also other recipes on the National Peanut Board web site that look yummy, such as

Peanut-Parmesan Spiced Chicken
Vietnamese Pork Banh Mi with Spicy Peanut Aioli
Peanut Butter Pancakes

I may even try to come up with some recipe's of my own using peanut flour, stay tuned . . .

btw, the National Peanut Board has an extensive selection of peanut recipes - check them out if you're looking for new things to try.

Vegetable stock

2009-10-28T10:45:00.007-05:00

Making a vegetable stock is a good use of excess vegetables in your fridge that may otherwise go to waste. I like to use fresh produce whenever possible. The problem is, so often we have to buy produce in a pre-measured package of some sort rather than just what we need. For example, the other day I was making a recipe that called for a leek (as in one leek). You can't buy just one leek - you have to buy 2 or 3 leeks. A week or so ago I needed a parsnip; but, you can't just buy one parsnip - they typically come in a cello package. Which I don't really understand because turnips, rutabagas, and even carrots (in upper end grocery stores) can be bought individually - but not parsnips, at least here in Texas.

Anyway, rather than letting the leftover vegetables go bad in the fridge (as typically happens), I decided to make a vegetable stock. I used a recipe for vegetable stock on the food network website - although not to the letter. I just used what I had.

My vegetable stock has

2 parsnips
4 carrots
1/2 bunch of celery that was starting to wilt
1/2 onion from the fridge plus a whole onion from the pantry
1/2 head garlic separated into cloves and coarsely chopped
1/2 package of snow peas
Some string beans I bought the other day to have with dinner and forgot to cook
3/4 bunch of arugula
a small red bell pepper from my garden
A dozen (or so) black pepper corns
A good sized handful of fresh herbs from the garden

bay leaves
thyme (2 types)
savory
marjoram
oregan0
rosemary

I washed everything under cold running water; but, I did not peel the carrots or parsnips - I just scrubbed them and cut them into quarters. Even the onion was chopped into quarters, skin and all, after washing.

Just dump everything into a big pot, bring it to a boil, then simmer for several hours. Turn off the heat, let it cool, strain and package into freezer containers and freeze.

I'll be using 1 cup and 2 cup containers. But, I'll have to figure out some way to distinguish them from the chicken stock containers we made a month or so ago. Hmmm, this makes me want to find a butcher to see if I can get some beef bones to make a good hearty beef stock. It's hard to find a real butcher these days since most grocery stores have gone to pre-packaged meat.

You may notice that there is no salt. The original food network recipe didn't call for salt either. Commercial stocks and broths are often loaded with salt - which is a good reason for making your own. We don't use a lot of salt in our home. I often put in 1/2 the amount of salt (or less) a recipe calls for, except for certain recipes, like baked goods, where the salt is essential to the chemical reaction.

A vegetable stock can be substituted in many recipes that call for chicken stock. I wouldn't substitute vegetable stock in something like chicken and dumplings; but, a acorn squash/pumpkin soup I made the other day called for chicken stock - and a vegetable stock would have worked just as well, perhaps even better (it wasn't as delicious as I wanted it to be - which is why the recipe isn't posted here).

Shepherd's Pie (aka Daddy Jon's Pot Roast, part II)

2009-10-10T06:34:00.006-05:00

Since it's just Linda and I, we usually always end up with leftovers after dinner as we just haven't gotten used to the idea of cooking for two. I usually end up eating the leftovers for lunch the next day or two. But, leftover pot roast was just too good to waste on lunch. So, I made shepherds pie.

The shepherd's pie we've made in the past had the leftover meat and vegetables on the bottom, leftover mashed potatoes on top, and baked until the stuff on the bottom was bubbly and the potatoes were lightly browned.

This recipe is different in that it puts the potatoes on the bottom (soaking up all of that good flavor from the gravy) and a biscuit crust on top.

Shepherd's Pie

Leftover pot roast, cut into small chunks
Leftover gravy, heated in microwave until liquefied
Extra potatoes, peeled and boiled until tender
Leftover vegetables from pot roast
Extra vegetables if necessary to make 2 to 3 cups (see note below)
Instant biscuit mix (I used a single-use package of Kroger brand buttermilk biscuits, so I don't know how much actual mix)
3 Tbl butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Potato layer: Place the potatoes in the bottom of a casserole dish and lightly mash, leaving it a bit chunky

Meat layer: spread the meat over the potatoes and then lightly drizzle the gravy evenly over the meat.

Vegetable layer: Spread the vegetable mixture over the meat.

Biscuit layer: Mix up the biscuit mix according to instructions, adding just a bit more liquid to make it thinner than normal and spread it over the vegetables. Drizzle melted butter over the biscuits.

Place in oven and bake for 35-45 minutes until the biscuits are lightly browned.

A note on vegetables: I only had a few carrots and parsnips leftover from the previous dinner. So, I chopped up some fresh carrots and precooked them in the microwave for one minute (covered). I also cut up some fresh green beans into 1 inch pieces and precooked them in the microwave for 1 minute (covered). I then added some frozen corn niblets. I could have used a bag of frozen mixed vegetables - but personally I think they taste nasty. Fresh carrots and green beans (in season) are pretty cheap, and they taste so much better than their frozen counterparts.

Daddy Jon's Pot Roast

2009-10-10T06:04:00.004-05:00

For me, recipe's are more like suggestions than actual rules. I usually start with a recipe, often looking up several recipes - and then I concoct my own recipe using ideas inspired by those I looked up as well as my own.

This recipe is no exception. It started out as Momma Neely's Pot Roast, but I added enough of my own ideas to it that it is now my own recipe; so, I call it Daddy Jon's Pot Roast.

Daddy Jon's Pot Roast

1 (3-4 pound) pot roast (I prefer bone-in as the bones lend flavor)
Vegetable oil (I used bacon grease leftover from my breakfast)
2 yellow onions, peeled and chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, smashed (don't be afraid to add even more garlic)
1 cup red wine (see note below)
2 cups stock (preferably beef, but whatever you happen to have on hand, I used chicken because that's what I happened to have left over from a previous dinner)
2-3 fresh thyme sprigs (I suppose a teaspoon of dried would work)
a handful of raisins
12 whole allspice berries
12 whole black peppercorns
2 bay leaves
3 carrots peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces (1/2 inch if large in diameter)
2 parnips peeled and sliced into 1 inch pieces (1/2 inch if large in diameter)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the oil and sear the roast on all sides. Remove the roast and add the onions, garlic, and tomato paste; cook until slightly colored. Remove the Dutch oven from the burner, spread the onion mixture evenly over the bottom of the pan and lay the roast on top. Add the wine, stock, thyme, bay leaves, allspice, and peppercorns. Cover the Dutch oven and place in the oven.

Roast for about 1-1/2 hours and then add the carrots and parsnips, pressing down into the liquid. Continue to cook for another hour or so.

Remove the roast and vegetables from the dutch oven to a serving dish. Strain the leftover liquid in the dutch oven through a colendar and then return to the dutch oven. Over medium heat, gently boil the cooking liquid to reduce and thicken. Remove gravy to a bowl

Optional: You could also add potatoes along with the carrots and parnips. Although, I put a couple of baking potatoes in the oven at the same time I added the carrots and parsnips to the pot. I left the potatoes in the oven while I reduced the cooking liquid.

A note on the wine: Personally, although I am a Mormon and don't drink, I don't have a problem using a bit of wine in a recipe. Particularly one like this where it cooks for a long while as all alcohol will be long gone by the time it is consumed. I usually keep a bottle of cooking wine in the pantry; although, I've recently discovered that, if you watch sales, you can pick up a bottle of cheap wine for $3-$4 dollars, which is cheaper than cooking wine. To a wine connoisseur, I'm sure it probably tastes nasty; however, my personal opinion is that the typical substitutes (water, juice, stock, etc.) change the flavor profile and that even a cheap wine will produce a result closer to what the author of the recipe intended. However, if you have a problem using wine in a recipe then feel free to substitute.

Painted Desert Soup

2009-09-24T15:08:00.002-05:00

I first had this soup at Blue Mesa Grill - a Mexican restaurant that is more Southwestern in flavor -verses Tex-Mex that defines most of the Mexican restaurants around these parts. Not that there is anything wrong with Tex-Mex - but it's nice to have something different once in a while. Anyway, Blue Mesa Grill has the recipe for their Painted Desert Soup on their web site, as well as recipes for many of the other items on their menu (Their guacamole is to die for).

It is actually two different soup recipes that are then ladled together into the same bowl so that one side is Corn Chile Chowder and the other side is Black Bean (I didn't do a particularly good job of ladling in my picture, but you can get the idea). Each of these soups are very good and could be made individually; but, they aren't that hard to make - and for the full effect, you need to make both and serve them together. As the web site states, it is as colorful as the Southwest.

I've adapted the recipe on the Blue Mesa Grill web site to both cut it down (i.e. make less) and to use more readily available ingredients.

Corn Chile Chowder

3 cups frozen cut corn
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups heavy cream
6 oz. Velveeta Cheese (a slab about 3/4" thick), cut up
1 Tbl canned sliced jalapenos, finely minced (no juice)
½ tsp salt
corn starch - as needed
cold water - as needed

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the frozen corn on a cookie sheet and roast until it starts to turn light brown, about 30 minutes

Take 70% of the corn and the chicken stock and puree in a blender. Pour the puree in to a double boiler and heat over a medium heat. Add the heavy cream and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Add the remaining whole corn, Velveeta Cheese, jalapenos and salt. Continue cooking until cheese has completely melted. Stir often.

Mix corn starch and cold water in a separate bowl and add to soup as needed to thicken. Cook on low heat about 8 minutes until it thickens.

Black Bean Soup

2 slices of bacon (preferably hickory smoked) cut into small pieces
2 ounces (about 1/3 cup) chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic chopped (or pressed, if you have a garlic press)
2 14 oz cans of cooked black beans
water as needed
½ cup chicken stock
½ tsp. chipotle puree
2 Tbl brown sugar
2 Tbl cider vinegar
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
(optional) dash of liquid smoke

Saute bacon and onions in a large pot until they begin to caramelize. Add the garlic and then saute for another 30 seconds to a minute

Add canned beans with liquid to the pan. If necessary, add just enough water so that the beans are just barely covered. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes.

Puree ¾ of the soup and add back with remaining bean soup.

To serve

Simultaneously ladle both soups on opposite sides of the bowl.

(optional) Drizzle with sour cream and a teaspoon of pico de gallo.

Notes:

The chipolte in adobo sauce is the one ingredient people are less likely to have on hand. It's not expensive (a 4 oz can is a $1 or so); but, it may not be worth getting for just a ½ tsp. of the sauce. I don't recommend just leaving it out because the Black Bean soup needs some sort of spice; but, You could try substituting it with some sort of hot sauce. The chipolte in adobo sauce is pretty spice (hence only ½ tsp.); so, if using some other sort of hot sauce, you might want to increase it to a teaspoon or so.
We tend to not use much salt in our cooking; so, you may need to add a bit more salt.
For the picture, I poured the soups into two mugs and then simultaneously poured into the bowl - an option if you don't have two ladles.

New car

2009-08-22T07:37:00.000-05:00

I've worked out of my home for the last several years. For this reason, we've only had one good car and an old clunker (a full sized conversion van leftover from when the kids were all living at home). This met our needs as it was completely paid for; and, we seldom needed to be in two different places at the same time.

After being laid off - we've known all along that we'll have to get a second car once I find a job. The van was OK for occasional short distance trips - but, frankly, I just didn't trust it for any distance and/or long term use.

The Cash for Clunkers deal was enticing (yes, even for this diehard republican). I don't really have a problem supporting stimulus packages like Cash for Clunkers and the tax credit for first time home buyers. Those sort of programs actually stimulate the economy IMOHO. Giving bucket loads of money to banks and car companies -that I have a problem with!

When I read in the newspaper Friday morning that the Cash for Clunkers deal was ending on Monday - I thought "oh crap, if we're going to do this then we need to do it NOW." On one hand, buying a new car when I'm unemployed seems decadent. On the other hand, a $4,500 credit cannot be ignored - especially when I have a clunker that might fetch, at best, a few hundred as a trade-in allowance.

So yesterday (Friday), I went into overdrive and started looking at cars. We wanted something cheap and fuel efficient. We've had good experience working with the local Chevy dealer; and, I had already looked at the Chevy Cobalt and Aveo. So, Friday I went to a couple of other local car dealerships to see what they had.

I had a bad experience at the Ford dealership. Even though I had explained that I wanted something cheap, the salesman insisted on showing me cars in the $25K-$30K range. When I specifically asked to see the Ford Focus - he pulled up with a fully loaded model for $20K. When I asked if I could just drive it around the lot a bit, I was told that I couldn't - that he'd have to drive it to the entrance and then we could take it for a test drive around town. At that point I was done.

Anyway, I went to the Nissan dealer as I wanted to look at the Versa. While there I decided to test drive the Cube - and I fell in love. I am a man who is large in stature - and sitting in these subcompact cars that I was looking at feels a bit claustrophobic. The Cube, while being butt ugly, feels very roomy in comparison.

So, I came back home to think about the cars I looked at - and to collect the stuff needed to qualify for the Cash for Clunkers deal. Unfortunately, we're not the most organized when it comes to paper work. So, we spent the afternoon

Searching through our filing cabinet to find the title.
Going to the county tax assessors office to get proof that it's been legally registered for the last 12 months.
Going to our insurance office for proof that we've had it insured for the last 12 months.

We talked about the cars I looked at - and at 5:30pm we decided to "do it". I cleaned out the van to keep anything I wanted and to throw away everything else and then drove it to the Nissan Dealership. I walked into the dealership, paperwork in hand. And, at around 8:00pm I drove home in a brand spanking new Nissan Cube.

Being unemployed I assumed that I wouldn't qualify for a loan - so we had already decided up front to pay cash. Although, I was surprised to find them still pushing me to finance even knowing I had no income. No wonder we have a credit problem in this country. I'm also surprised that since I was paying cash - it still took over 2 hours to complete the purchase.

It's kinda girlie - even a bit gay; and, I'm twice the age of the target demographic for this party car - but I'm curmudgeonly enough that I don't care. In my world - comfort trumps everything else.

Yet another chili recipe

2009-06-20T14:35:00.005-05:00

I made chili today and adapted my "Texas Smokin" Chili recipe. This one has a richer tomato flavor with just hint of smokiness. It also only makes 1/2 as much as my other recipe.

Ingredients

4 pounds ground meat, browned and drained
2 28-oz cans diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 large onion, diced
8 cloves of garlic, minced
2 canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
2 Tbl tomato paste
2 Tbl hot smoked paprika
2 Tbl ancho chili powder
1 Tbl ground coriander
1 Tbl mexican oregano
1 Tbl thyme
½ Tbl ground cumin seed
½ Tbl salt
1 cup finely crushed tortilla chips (add during the last hour of cooking to thicken)

Directions

Throw everything into a large crockpot and cook for several hours. Top with grated cheese, sour cream, and, if desired, diced raw onion. For a real treat, put some frito's in the bowl first and pour the chili on top for Frito Pie. Tortilla chips can also be used.

Back in business

2009-06-12T22:26:00.000-05:00

Wednesday evening a bad storm moved through the area leaving nearly 400,000 homes without power - including ours. It just came back on today (Friday). Nearly two whole days without electricity has made me realize for the little things that I take for granted, like

Air conditioning
hot water heaters (cold shower - not fun)

The biggest problem - was boredom. Especially after the sun went down. Playing family games by candlelight isn't as fun as it sounds.

But, we went to see Up (the movie) last night - and it was actually much better than I thought it would be. The last 3D movie we saw was Bolt - and I was expecting more of the same. Up has quite a good storyline.

Sacrament meeting talk

2009-06-01T12:37:00.003-05:00

I spoked in Sacrament meeting on 5/31/2009. Below is the text of my talk

Teaching the gospel

This past year I decided to grow a vegetable garden. As such, I’ve been doing a lot of research into organic gardening and how to best grow vegetables in our Texas climate. One thing I’ve learned is the importance of having good soil. Our clay soil here in Grapevine is heavy and essentially devoid of nutrients. I’ve learned that for a successful garden it is important to mix organic material into the soil to help loosen it and add nutrients for healthy root growth.

Working out in the garden gives me time alone to contemplate – as I was preparing for this talk, I began to consider that teaching the gospel is a lot like growing vegetables. First and foremost, we need to provide a fertile ground for the gospel to take root.

In a garden, healthy soil leads to healthy plants. Many problems encountered in the garden are directly attributable to poor soil conditions, be it lack of nutrients, moisture – or even too much and moisture or the wrong blend of nutrients. Healthy plants are able to better withstand disease, insects, and other garden problems.

Likewise, a healthy home leads to healthy families. Many of the problems we see in the world around us are directly attributable to problems in the home – be it lack of love and respect, or even too much attention and over bearing parents.

But, a healthy home may not be enough. That’s where we – the ward village – comes in.

We are fortunate to live in an area with good schools – but as good as our schools are, the teaching is essential devoid of any gospel nutrients. This becomes increasingly critical as our children grow older and more involved in school activities and other worldly endeavors.

So, we as the ward village, provide gospel instruction each Sunday through primary, Sunday School, young men, young women. As the children in our ward village get older, we further supplement this with wholesome activities on Wednesday evenings.

But, as they enter into their final 4 years of school, even that is not enough – and that is where brother Gurney and I come in. We provide gospel instruction each school day before the crack of dawn - to a room full of sleepy and bleary eyed teenagers, we teach them the gospel

After His resurrection Jesus Christ appeared to His disciples. In John chapter 21 we read

15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto
him, Feed my sheep.

Feed my lambs - Feed my sheep - Feed my sheep.

Is there any significance to His saying “Lambs” first? And who are the lambs? They are the children and young men and women in our ward village. First we must feed the lambs – and then we must feed the sheep – and then we continue feeding the sheep for the rest of their moral lives.

So, regardless which role we have – that of a parent teaching the gospel in our home or that of a teacher supplementing gospel instruction at church – we are all gospel teachers.

Something else I’ve learned in my gardening research is that plants are able to take in nutrients through their leaves as well as through their roots. So, I’ve been spraying my vegetables with garrett juice, a concoction developed by Howard Garret consisting of compost tea, liquid seaweed, molasses, vinegar, and other ingredients which helps to supplement the soil conditioning I did prior to planting.

Likewise, all of us called to positions of teaching, in our ward village, regardless of whether we are feeding lambs or sheep - we are the garrent juice for our ward garden - we supplement the gospel teaching that begins in the home.

In the October 2008 general conference, William D. Oswald, 2nd counselor in the Sunday School general presidency outlined 3 principals in teaching the gospel to others.

Principal 1: Show love to those you teach and call them by name

We need look no further than the savior to find examples of this. In the Gospel of John 10:3 we read the words of Jesus Christ saying

3 To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

In the Gospel of Luke 10:20, when the Savior was instructing the Seventy, he said

20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

In the sacred grove, Joseph Smith wrote

One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!

Principal 2: Teach from the scriptures

In the gospel of John, the savior said in chapter 5:39

39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

The apostle Paul wrote in his second epistle to Timothy 3:16

16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Principal 3: Encourage the pondering of gospel truths

The apostle Paul also wrote to Timothy in his second epistle to Timothy 2:7

7 Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

When the resurrected Christ taught the Nephites, he said in 3 Nephi 17:3

3 Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and prepare your minds for the morrow, and I come unto you again.

In a revelation given through Joseph Smith to David Whitmer, Peter Whitmer, Jr., and John Whitmer, the Lord said in D&C 30:3

3 Wherefore, you are left to inquire for yourself at my hand, and ponder upon the things which you have received.

As gospel teachers, let us remember these three simple principals

Now, I have to confess, I did not attend seminary while in high school. Truthfully, I never even heard of seminary until I was serving on my mission. I joined the church in college and was involved in the young adult program – and what the younger kids were doing was not even on my radar. Two years after my baptism I was called to serve a full time mission in Missouri.

While serving on my mission, I was able to interact with other elders – some of whom I developed a great deal of respect for. As I got to know these brethren, I began to notice patterns and trends in their upbringing. One thing I observed is that those elders who faithfully attended seminary were generally much better prepared as missionaries.

Tonight is seminary graduation. It is a time when we honor and celebrate those students who were faithful in their attendance and participation. It is quite an accomplishment and it’s important that we celebrate. But what about those who struggled a bit and fell short?

Back to my garden analogy – probably the most important factor in a successful garden is water. A plant may not thrive in poor soil without adequate nutrients; but, without water it will shrivel up and die.

Jesus referred to His gospel as “living water” when speaking to the woman at the well where we read in John 4:13-14

13 . . . Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

In John 7:38 we read

38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

When it comes to watering plants there are two factors to consider

Provide water regularly
Help the plants retain the moisture in between watering

The same can be said for the Living water. We need to partake of the living water regularly and we need to help those we teach retain the living water.

In the garden, we can help the soil retain moisture with mulch; that is, a dressing of leaves, bark, or other organic material laid out on top of the soil. One of the things I’ve observed in my vegetable garden is just how big of a difference even just a little mulch can make. While more mulch is even better as it can also help curb weeds – even just a little mulch, barely enough to cover the soil, can make a world of difference in the moisture retention properties. I’ve witnessed areas of my garden that had received the same amount of water where the unmulched soil was bone dry while the soil right next to it with just a little much still had moisture.

For those lambs whose seminary attendance was a bit off. Faithful seminary attendance is the ideal – but even just a little seminary attendance can make a world of difference in the retention of the Living Water and help to withstand the pressures of the world.

There are many reasons where attending seminary each morning can be much more difficult for some than it is for others – and it is not for us to judge one another. But, for those who have struggled – I just want you to know that your efforts have not been in vain, and that you will be rewarded for whatever attendance you can muster.

In closing, I want to share part of one of my most favorite hymns - hymn number 85 “How Firm a Foundation”. I especially love the 3rd verse which reads

Fear not, I am with the; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

There is another verse which we seldom sing – the last verse of the hymn which reads

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose
I will not, I cannot, desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake!

May we all partake in the living water of the gospel - in the sacred name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, Amen

Guacasalsa

2009-05-24T17:39:00.004-05:00

This is a slight variation of a recipe from Emeril Lagasse, part of his Grilled Fish Tacos with a Roasted Chile and Avocado Salsa recipe. What he calls Roasted Chile and Avocado Salsa" - I call Guacasalsa, a sort of combined guacamole/salsa. It is quite delicious and worthy to stand on its own.

Ingredients
* 1 Hass avocado, flesh removed from peel
* 2 poblano peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded
* 1 jalapeno, roasted, peeled and seeded
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
* 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
* 1 lime, juiced
* 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
* 3 Tbl water

Stick everything in a blender and puree until smooth

Garden update

2009-05-11T09:30:00.010-05:00

I haven't been very active in my blogging lately; so, I thought I'd give an update on the garden. Above is a picture I took on Saturday. In the lower right corner is where I planted popcorn and am waiting for it to 'pop' up [pun intended]

In the left hand picture below, I have melons (left) and squash (right) growing. The picture on the right hand shows just a few of the 12 tomato plants growing. Can also see the pole beans growing along the fence.

I still have a fair amount of work needed to complete it. For one thing, I don't have the drip irrigation system functional yet. Fortunately we've been getting a lot of rain; so, watering hasn't been an issue. Unfortunately, we've been getting a lot of rain which is hampering my efforts because the ground is too soggy to dig to lay more sprinkler pipe.

The rain has also caused weird fungi to grow in the mulch I laid down around the raised garden beds.

We've been eating salads with the lettuce in the garden; although, the lettuce is starting to look like it might be finished soon. I also used some basil from the herb garden. The other herbs are big enough yet to start cutting from.

I'm taking advantage of my current unemployment situation and try to work out in the garden a couple of hours each day.

A new chapter

2009-04-27T14:09:00.003-05:00

Today was my last day of work at IBM. I was informed I was being laid off the day before Sarah's wedding - and my first day back home from Florida for Trent's wedding was also my last day of work. I had an exit interview at noon where I had to sign some papers. 45 minutes later I walked out of the building for the last time with my severance check in hand, which I deposited at the credit union on the way home. They took out more taxes than I expected; so, the severance check was a bit smaller than I had hoped for.

So, I'm feeling bitter-sweet right now. The last two of my children are married - and I'm unemployed for the first time in 28 years. I really have no idea what my future holds right now. I'd like to do a career change and do something different - but I have no idea what.

Crystal ball - part trois

2009-04-08T12:11:00.003-05:00

On Sunday, I took some engagement pictures for Ryan Elliott and Ashleigh Donner. I'll let him post them as he sees fit; however, I did want to post this one that I took using my crystal ball.

I would like to have taken more using the crystal ball - but it was really windy. I made a gizmo to prop it on top of a light stand (using parts from Home Depot); but, with the wind, I was afraid it would fall off and crash to the ground.

Sarah's wedding

2009-04-08T11:27:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of Sarah's wedding on Saturday, March 28th.

3 down - 1 to go. We're leaving for Florida on April 18th for Trents wedding on April 21st.

The bride (Linda made the dress)

The bride an groom

Sarah and Ray cutting the cake (Grandma McKee made the cake)

Ray's family

Sarah's family

Square Foot Gardening

2009-04-07T17:20:00.000-05:00

Linda bought a book titled Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Overall, I don't particularly like how the book is written and organized - I find his writing style to be condescending. However, the concept intrigues me. He claims you can grow vegetables and flowers in only 20% of the space required by a conventional row garden - thereby saving water, work, and money. Basically, you

Build a 4'x4' raised bed
Fill it with a special potting mixture (called "Mel's Mix")
Lay the garden out in a 4x4 grid of 1 square foot squares

Each square can have something different planted in it, such as 16 radishes, 4 heads of lettuce, 9 spinich, etc.

I had already built raised beds; so, I decided to section off a couple of 4 foot square sections to try out this square foot gardening thing.

Mels Mix is equal parts of peat moss, blended compost, and vermiculite. The vermiculite was, by far, the most expensive part. I think I paid $35 for a bag large enough for two 4 foot squares.

Blended compost is just that - a blend of, at least, 5 different types of compost. I used bags labeled

organic compost
mushroom compost
Texas native compost
Organic humus and manure.

That's only 4 bags - but I figured the last one counted as two :)

I added some additional wood to completely separate the square foot garden beds from the rest of the garden, removed all of the dirt, laid down weed cloth, and filled it with Mel's mix.

As can be seen in this picture, the two 4 square foot beds are near each other and I've laid out the squares using twine. I also laid down drip soaker tubing which I'll eventually connect into the drip system I am building into the rest of the garden. I'm going to add a vertical frame on the north side of the bed on the right (picture is facing east, so north is on the left).

As far as progress on the rest of the garden

The beds are all completed
I laid down mulch around the beds (with weed cloth underneith)
Most of the beds are filled with dirt and ready to plant. I have the dirt - with Sarah's wedding and all, I just haven't had time to get out and finish moving it into the beds.

What I have left

Bury PVC pipe to each of the beds for the drip irrigation system which will be controlled by a sprinkler timer
Finish planting
Reap the rewards for my hard work

Two of the beds are planted with

Onions
Lettuce (red, green, & bibb)
Swiss Chard
Broccoli
Beans (pole and bush)
Spinach
Beets
Radishes
Carrots
Turnips

Although, I think I'm going to till up the part with the spinach, beats, radishes, carrots, and turnips as they really aren't doing that well and plant those in the square foot beds. That way, I can use the space for plants which need a lot of room, such as squash, melons, etc.

Additional vegetables we are planning on planting this year are

Tomatoes
Popcorn
Summer squash
Winter squash
Okra
Melons (cantaloupe, watermelon, etc.)
Cucumbers

I also have a bed reserved (the one closest to the kitchen) as an herb garden. I'll be planting perennial herbs (sage, oregano, rosemary, etc.) in the middle and annual herbs (parsley, dill, basil, cilantro, etc.) around the edges.

Of the plants that are currently growing in the garden, the ones doing best are those that we planted as plants (onion, lettuce, broccoli). Those we planted from seed haven't done as well. Not exactly sure why - it could be its just been too cold since we have had a couple of cold fronts move through the area. It was 37 degrees this morning. Last time it was this cold on an April 7th was 38 years ago.

We did start some seeds indoors. Of those, the pole beans are doing the best and the bush beans are doing OK. I moved the watermelon plants to the garden - but I think the last cold snap killed them. We're still learning

Since the garden is in the front, we want to make it look nice, so we'll also be intersperscing flowers among the vegetables. For example, I planted marigolds in front of the pole beans - marigolds have an additional advanteage of discouraging certain garden pests and root nematodes.

Anyway, this is where our garden stands. I don't know if much more will be accomplished this month since we're leaving in a week and a half to go to Florida for Trent's wedding. But, I'll have plenty of time in May to work in the garden since my last day at IBM is April 27th.

Texas Style Barbecue Sauce

2009-03-24T10:48:00.002-05:00

Along with the smoked brisket, I'll be making my homemade BBQ Sauce. This recipe originally came from "The Best Little Cookbook in Texas" p.278. However, I've made enough adaptations over the years (in parentheses) that I now consider this my own recipe.

2-1/2 sticks butter/margarine (I use real butter)
4 cups sugar
2 Tbl garlic salt (I substitute 4 cloves of fresh garlic, crushed)
1 Tbl cayenne (I reduce to 1/2 Tbl of cayenne)
1 Tbl Tabasco sauce (I substitute Cholula and reduce to 1/2 Tbl)
2/3 cup vinegar (I use Cider Vinegar)
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
2 (14 ounce) bottles catsup (I use one 32 ounce bottle)
(I also add 1/4 cup liquid smoke)

Melt butter in large saucepan. Add all other ingredients and blend thoroughly. Stir while bringing mixture to a boil. Reduce head and continue to stir, cooking until thickened; cool. This sauce is best prepared a day or two ahead.
Yields 2 quarts (will keep a long time in the refrigerator, even longer in the freezer)

(Note, I bring it to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and let it simmer for several hours stirring occasionally.)

(You'll note that I reduced the amount of cayenne pepper and Tabasco/Cholula sauce. Personally, if it were left up to me I would leave the original amounts (perhaps even increase theamount). Unfortunately, a lot of my family and friends are wusses; so, I have to be careful how spicy I make it.)

Texas Style Smoked Brisket

2009-03-24T10:45:00.002-05:00

For Sarah's wedding reception, I'll be smoking brisket.

I wasn't born in Texas (born and raised in California); but, I've been a naturalized Texas citizen since 1984. In the time I've lived here, I've developed a deep appreciation for Texas BBQ. If there is a food of the gods then this is it. It just doesn't get any better.

Before I continue, I should warn anyone who might be reading this: If you are one of those health weenies (er, I mean health conscience) then it might be best if you moved onto another blog to read.

This is a recipe for Smoked Brisket that I've perfected over the years. Some of it based on ideas I've gleaned from other individuals, and some of my own making.

Following is my normal recipe; although, for Sarah's wedding, I'm going to try something different. Rather than starting it in the oven the night before an finishing it in the smoker, I'm going to start it in the smoker the day before and finish it in the oven. This is for convenience since I can't be messing with the smoker on the big wedding day.

First of all, there is some equipment and utensils you'll need.

Smoker. Personally, I like the, so called, water smokers which consist of an upright cylinder with a fire pan at the bottom, a water tray about that, and racks above that. Although other types of smokers would work just as well.

Wood Chunks. I like to use a combination of: Hickory, Mesquite, Pecan, and Fruit (Apple, Cherry, etc.)

Charcoal. There is a brand I get at Bar-B-Que Galore that is chunks of wood charcoal, not the formed briquettes (ala Kingston and other brands). I think it burns hotter and doesn't get smothered in ashes as much.

Roasting Tray. The aluminum kind like you roast a big Turkey in. You might need two of these depending on how many briskets you are smoking.

Ingredients

Beef Brisket (get the untrimmed kind, usually weigh about 8-12 lbs each)
Fresh Jalapeño Peppers (about 5-6 per brisket)
Whole clove of garlic
Limes (about 2-3 per brisket)
Apple Juice (I use the frozen concentrate)
(Optional) Fresh Rosemary (I have a bush growing in my back yard, so I cut off a small branch)

Preparation

The Night Before

Trim the fat off of the brisket leaving about a 1/4" layer across the top. There is also a big chunk of fat in the side of the brisket which should be removed as much as possible.
Half the Jalapeño Peppers and remove the membrane and seeds, then cut into strips about 1/4" wide and 1" long. It works best if you make them triangular shaped so that they are pointed on one end.
Separate the garlic into individual cloves and slice them up into small strips about 1/8" wide and 1" long (or the length of the clove).
Take a paring knife and make a slit in the brisket about 1-1/2" deep and stick a slice of Jalapeño Pepper and a slice of garlic in the slit. Repeat this all over the brisket (top, bottom and sides) making the slits about 2" apart.
Put the brisket in a roasting pan.
Cut the limes in 1/2, squeeze the juice over the brisket and rub it in with your hands working it into the slits. Then put the lime halves on top of the brisket.
Put the roasting pan in the oven and set the oven to 250 degrees F and leave it in the oven all night.

The next morning

Put the chunks of wood into a bucket of water to soak.
Get up early and prepare the smoker. Light a fire in the fire pan using starter fluid. Wait until the flames die down and the charcoal is covered with a light layer of ash.
If using a water smoker, once the flames have died down, put the water tray in the smoker, add the apple juice and rosemary branch, then fill the water tray up to the top with water. Then insert the other trays in the smoker.
Transfer the brisket to the smoker (carefully) and close the smoker. I like to have the meat in the smoker by 8:00am so that it smokes all day.
Add some water soaked chunks of wood on top of the charcoal and close the smoker.

Throughout the day

Check the smoker every couple of hours,

add more charcoal as necessary
add more water soaked wood chunks as necessary
add more water to the water tray as necessary

Try to keep the temperature inside the smoker at around 200 - 300 degrees F
Around noon, it's time to start slicing off chunks of meat to taste (gotta make sure it's good)

Other things to smoke

As long as you have the smoker going, you can add other things to smoke along with the brisket.

Things I've tried smoking (and liked):
Sausage. (Kielbasa or similar), smoke these about 4 hours
Hot links, smoke these about 4 hours
Snow Crab legs, smoke these about 2 hours

Things I've tried smoking (and didn't like so much):
Cheese. Warped in foil poked with holes (turns into a gooey mess)
Shrimp. (shells stick to the meat and are difficult to remove)
Salmon. (I don't particularly like salmon, so I don't know why I thought I might like it smoked)
Chicken. (ended up tough and dry)

Serve this with my Texas Style Barbecue Sauce. Invite a bunch of family and friends over and prepare to feast.

Texas Smokin' Chili

2009-03-24T10:34:00.005-05:00

Sarah is getting married on Saturday. Wedding guests start arrviving tomorrow; so, I'm going to make my award winning(*) "Texas Smokin" chili

(*) awarded for being the best tasting chili at the 2008 Grapevine ward chili cookoff

Ingredients

8 pounds ground meat, browned and drained
3 28-oz cans diced tomatoes
1 onion, diced and sauteed until caramelized
2 cups water
1/2 cup masa harina (Or a cup of finely crushed tortilla chips, cut back on salt a bit)
4 Tbl smoked paprika
2 Tbl regular paprika
2 Tbl chili powder
1 Tbl thyme
1 Tbl salt
1 Tbl ground cumin seed
1 Tbl garlic powder
1 Tbl dried crushed cilantro leaves
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp oregano
2 chipolte chili peppers (smoked jalapeños), crushed up

Directions

Throw everything into a large crockpot and cook for several hours until you're ready to eat it. Top with grated cheese, sour cream, and, if desired, diced raw onion. For a real treat, put some frito's in the bowl first and pour the chili on top for Frito Pie.

Notes

The secret ingredients are the smoked paprika and chipolte (smoked jalapeños) which give the chili a slighty smoky flavor.
I used whatever ground meat I could find in my freezer, which was mostly hamburger, but also included some chicken sausage. It's a great way to use up meat in the freezer.
Regarding heat level, I thought it was mild, my wife thought it was spicy; so, we'll call it medium spicy
You could probably add some beans in place of some of the meat; although, traditionally, when serving Texas chili, the beans are cooked separately and served along side.

Crystal ball - part duex

2009-03-17T12:58:00.012-05:00

I blogged earlier about how I was going to order a crystal ball from a web site that specializes in metaphyiscal paraphanalia (it's like an online Diagon alley). Well, my crystal ball arrived last night - literally, the UPS driver didn't deliver it until about 7:00pm.

It came in a cool red box. Below are some pictures I took today over lunch. The image in the crystal ball is inverted; so, I inverted the images so that the reflection would be right side up.

This is the street in front of my house, my back yard, and some iris blooming in the front yard.

Pad Thai

2009-03-13T09:02:00.001-05:00

Linda works one day per week (usually) on Thursday's. As such, I am responsible for cooking dinner on Thursday. Mind you, I do contribute on other days as well.

Yesterday, I decided to make Pad Thai. As I often do, when I have a hankering for something, I lookup several recipe's on the internet and then combine them into my own recipe. So, here is my recipe for Pad Thai

Ingredients

Sauce
2 Tbl liquid tamarind
2 Tbl fish sauce
2 Tbl palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1 Tbl rice wine vinegar

Marinated tofu
6 oz extra-firm tofu, not silken
1 cup soy sauce
1 tsp chinese five-spice powder

Pad Thai
4 oz rice stick noodles, soaked in warm water (about 1 hour)
1/2 lb shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 Tbl soy sauce
2 Tbl oil (peanut, canola, etc.), divided
2/3 cup green onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, pressed
2 whole eggs, beaten
2 oz mung bean sprouts
3/8 cup chopped peanuts

Garnish
1/3 cup green onion, sliced
1/8 cup chopped peanuts
1 oz mung bean sprouts

Directions

Marinade the tofu in the soy sauce mixture for, at least, 4 hours (up to 12 hours)
Soak rice noodles in warm water (for about 1 hour), then strain
Mix together sauce ingredients and set aside
Dry shrimp and then lightly toss with 1 Tbl soy sauce
Heat wok, when hot put 1 Tbl oil in wok
Put marinated tofu in wok and lightly brown, gently tossing so as to not break up too much, remove when done
Add shrimp to wok and lightly toss until done then remove and add to cooked marinated tofu
Add 1 Tbl oil to wok
Add garlic and onion and lightly toss for about 15 seconds
Add egg and scramble in wok
Add soaked rice noodles and sauce and toss to get everything coated
Add remaining Pad Thai ingredients and toss to get everything coated with sauce
Add reserved tofu and shrimp and toss to incorporate into Pad Thai
Remove Pad Thai to a platter
Sprinkle with garnish ingredients
Serve and savor its deliciousness

Casting our pearls before swine

2009-03-12T13:07:00.001-05:00

To be honest, I'm having a difficult time getting all worked up in righteous indignation over HBO Big Love's plan to depict the LDS temple ceremony. First of all, it's already out there for anybody who's really interested. Just google and a few clicks and you'll find pictures, and even the text of the entire endowment ceremony. And the reality is, it's been available to anyone who was interested for decades. When I first joined the church - way back in college (way way back in college) - I went to the public library looking for books on mormonism. Lo and behold, there was an anti-Mormon book in the library that included the entire temple ceremony.

Now, I do concur that there is a difference between having it available in some obscure media that few are even aware of verses blasting it out to the masses on a cable TV network. And, I think it shows a tremendous lack of respect on the part of HBO to make light of things we consider very sacred.

But, the temple ceremony is more than just funny underwear, odd clothing, words and a few hand gestures. It's being in a beautiful room with others all dressed in white. It's the quiet whispers. It's waiting in the chapel for the session to start in quiet contemplation. It's sitting in reflection in a beautiful celestial room at the conclusion. It's the whole experience. There is no way they'll be able to duplicate that experience on a TV show. What will be depicted on Big Love will be a pale imitation - distorted and out of context. True, a few of our pearls have been cast before the swine - but we still have the pearl necklace held tightly against our bosom.

What is interesting about all of this is the lack of outcry from non-Mormon's. Try depicting sacred parts of Islam and there would likely be a tremendous amount of righteous indignation with much weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth - and not just from muslims. The same would be true for the Eastern religions.

But Mormon's - in fact, Christians in general - are fair game. It's like white guys being the only ethnic group you can poke fun at without being accused of being bigoted. Christianity in general and Mormonism specifically are the only religions you can poke fun at without being accused of being disrespectful. We're the fall guys. We're the plunky side kicks who are constantly running into walls and having pies thrown in our faces. If you're a white Mormon guy - well then there is absolutely no hope - we might as well walk around with a jester hat and a sign on our back that says "kick me".

So, when we are kicked. we can allow ourselves to get all worked up about it - but in the end, it won't change anything. Or, we can just shrug our shoulders, say "whatever" and move on with our lives. I opt for the latter.

Corning the beef

2009-03-10T20:13:00.001-05:00

Saint Patrick's day is coming up next week on March 17th. Traditionally, we have corned beef and cabbage on or around this day. This year we decided to do something a bit different, we are making our own corned beef.

Linda was inspired by a recipe in the 2009 Spring Entertaining edition of Cooks Illustrated magazine. I was inspired by an Alton Brown episode. So, the question was: Which recipe would we use?

Making corned beef is really pretty simple. There are two basic methods:

A wet method where the meet is soaked in a brine with herbs and spices for a week to 10 days. This is the method that Alton Brown used.
A dry method where the meat is coated with a rub consisting of salt with herbs and spices for a week to 10 days. This is the method that Cooks magazine used.

Other than wet vs dry, the biggest difference in the two recipes was the amount of herbs and spices. Cooks magazine used

salt
black peppercorns, cracked
dried thyme
ground allspice
paprika
bay leaves

Alton Brown included all of these, except the paprika, with the addition of

sugar
saltpeter
cinnamon
mustard seeds
whole cloves
juniper berries
ground ginger

According to the Cooks magazine, the taste testers liked the red color that the saltpeter imparts - but did not like the chemical aftertaste.

Both recipes called for a 4-6 pound piece of beef brisket. Unfortuantely, this is not the time of year to buy brisket. Memorial Day is when beef brisket tradionally goes on sale here in Texas - since it is the meat of choice for BBQ. So, my choices were limited. I couldn't find a single brisket that was in the 4-6 pound range - all of the briskets I found were either much larger or much smaller. So, I opted for two smaller briskets - one about 2 pounds and the other about 3 pounds.

Having two briskets opened up a new possibility - I could try both recipes. I started with the Cooks magazine recipe and mixed together

1/2 cup salt
1 Tbl ground black pepper
1 Tbl dried thyme
2-1/4 tsp ground allspice
1-1/2 tsp paprika (I used a smoked hot paprika)
2 bay leaves

I started grinding my own pepper using the pepper mill; but, my hand was getting tired. So, I used about half fresh ground and half pre-ground black pepper. Also, I picked the bay leaves fresh off of our bay laural tree; so, I couldn't crumble them. Instead, I chopped them up finely with a knife.

Using a digital kitchen scale, I measured how much the rub weighed and then reserved 40% of it in a separate bowl. The other 60% I rubbed onto the 3 pound brisket, after poking a bunch of wholes in it with a meat fork. I then put it in a 1 gallon zip lock bag and squeezed out as much air as I could.

To the reserved 40% rub, I added

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
4 whole cloves
5 juniper berries
1/4 tsp ground ginger

I used the blender to grind the mustard seeds, cloves, and juiper berries and then added the other spices (including the reserved rub) to the blender to mix it all together. I then rubbed this onto the 2 pound brisket, after poking it with holes, and put it in a 1 gallon ziplock bag. This isn't quite like Alton Brown's recipe - since he used the wet brine method; but, I figured it should be very similar

Now my two briskets are sitting in our refrigerator - corning as we speak. I will note that the additional spices in Alton Brown's recipe smelled more like what I think of with corned beef. Not saying the Cooks magazine recipe won't be good - but I expect Alton Brown's version to taste more traditional. Anyway, time will tell - I can't wait until this weekend when we can feast on our corned beef.

Cooking will be straight forward; although, I'm going to use the method in Cooks magazine.

rinse the meat and pat dry
boil in water, covering the meat with about 1 inch of water (at least 8 quarts) for 2-3 hours

We've always cooked the cabbage and new potatoes along with the meat, adding them during the last 30 minutes of cooking. But, the Cooks magazine testing noted that doing so makes it difficult to judge when the vegetables are done. So, they recommend boiling the corned beef then removing it to a platter in a warm oven and cooking the vegetables in the reserved liquid.

Cooks magazine also seprates the vegetables into category 1 and category 2 - with the category 2 vegetables being added 10 minutes after the category 1 vegetables were started

Category 1 vegetables

carrots
rutabagas
turnips
new potatoes

Category 2 vegetables

boiling onions
green cabbage
parsnips
brussel sprouts

I'm not a big fan of rutabagas or parsnips; but, I do like a good turnip once in a while. I like brussel sprouts - but it seems like overkill to have brussel sprouts with cabbage. So, we'll probably just stick to our traditional cabbage, new potatoes, and carrots - with the possible addition of turnips (gee, I wonder if any in our garden will be ready by then?)

Compost bin

2009-03-09T15:25:00.002-05:00

oI ordered a compost bin today from www.CompostBins.com

Dimensions: 30L x 30W x 34H inches
Material: 100% Recycled Plastic Resin
Cubic Feet: 14.7
Weight (lbs.): 19

Cost was $99.99 with free shipping. But, I googled the company name to see if there were any promotions, and found a promotion code for $10 on orders over $75. So, I got it for $89.99 (total, no sales tax or shipping fees)

According to their shipping estimate, it should arrive on Wednesday, March 11th. Interestingly, I could have paid extra for 2-day expidited shipping - which had an estimated shipping date of Thursday March 12th [huh???]

I'll be setting it up in the front next to the gate and near the vegetable garden with a metal trellis (which I already have) in front. I'll plant some sort of vine plant to grow on the trellis - I'm thinking of Jasmine or something similar. I still have my composting area in the back yard which I use for overflow in the event this fills up. It will primarly be filled with yard waste (leaves, weeds and plant trimmings), pond waste, and kitchen vegetable waste. I use a mulching mower on the yard; but, I do put the bagger on the mower when mowing around the swimming pool - so there will be a few grass clippings. Oh, and all of the rabbit poop from the bunny will go into the compost.

I may install a couple of drippers from my drip irrigation system to help keep the compost moist - but I'm going to wait and see if that's a problem. If we're continually adding fresh vegetable waste, the moisture in the plant material may be enough to keep the compost moist.

I'm excited about my new compost bin. I'll have a lot of yard waste when I start cleaning up the back yard in prepration for two weddings coming up this spring.

Politically incorrect

2009-03-05T08:05:00.003-06:00

I'm probably going to get hammered for this; but, I thought it was pretty funny.

IF WOMEN CONTROLLED THE WORLD

Headstart

2009-03-02T17:07:00.001-06:00

Saturday Linda and I went to Marshall's Feed - a new store in town - and bought some plants for our garden: Tomatoes, peppers, and some herbs. It's a bit too cold to plant them outside just yet; so, I have them under a florescent light along with some seeds we planted: Beans (pole and bush), squash, watermelon, okra, & peppers. I just wish I had planted the seeds a couple of weeks ago.

A cold front moved through the area this last weekend - got down into the upper 20's at night. I checked the garden this morning - and all of the plants seem to have fared OK. The red lettuce looks a little wilted - but not too much, and I'm sure it will bounce back once it gets a little warmer. Our average last frost date is mid-March; so, (according to the weather forecaster I was watching) this may be our last freeze of the season.

Crystal ball

2009-02-24T16:24:00.004-06:00

I want to take my photography in a more artistic direction; and, one thing I want to do is to buy a crystal ball. The idea is that you shoot through the crystal ball to produce an sureal effect similar to this picture I found on flickr.

I've been discussing this with a member of my photography club - and he sent me a link to a place that seems to have the cheapest prices on crystal balls.

It's a metaphysical supply web site. To find the crystal balls, I have to click on "ritual supplies". They also have a feature, like Amazon, where they suggest other things you might be interested in, such as potions, and magic wands. I feel like I"m shopping on Diagon Alley. I've done some searching on my own - and they do seem to have the best prices.

The price of crystal balls goes up exponentially with size - so, I'm going for a 3 inch one. Small enough to carry around, but not too small. Now I'll need to figure out a way to support it on a tripod. I've got some ideas brewing in my little brain.

Organic pest control

2009-02-24T10:51:00.001-06:00

Garden pests can be a big problem in a vegetable garden. In the rest of my yard, I have enough diversity that having a few chewed leaves here and there isn't really much of a problem. So, I've learned to live in peaceful co-existance with most bugs and other critters (snakes, lizards, etc.) - with fireants being the notable exception

But, a vegetable garden is different. For one thing, there is a concentration of plants in a relatively small area. Also, if the plants are edible for people - that means that bugs and birds like them too. I remember once, a number of years ago (before we moved into the home we currently live in), we had planted some squash plants. Some squash beatles found them and, almost overnight, chewed them down to the ground.

So, here is my plan for organic pest control

Citrus oil - according to Howard Garret (an organic texas gardener who has several books and a radio show), you soak orange, and other citrus, peels in water for a week, strain, then dilute this with water to spray on the follage to discourage garden pests. I've done this. I was concerned about the citrus oil solution molding; so, I've frozen it in 1/2 C quantities - which is the amount to dilute in 1 gallon of water.

Dead bug juice - another idea Howard suggested. If there is a particular insect you are having a problem with, collect some in a container and let them dry out. Then stick them in a blender with some water and strain - and use this as a spray (we have an old blender which will be pressed into service). I don't know how this works - but, evidently, dead bug juice discourages bugs. But, they have to be of the same variety. That is, use dead squash beatles to treat squash beatles, dead tomato worms to treat tomato worms, etc.

This is where our good ol Texas sunshine will become an asset. I figure, a plastic wide mouthed container, with holes punched in the top, used to collect bugs off of the plants - they should dry out in no time sitting out in the sun. And, if that particular bug starts to become a problem, I can use their dried brothers and sisters to make dead bug juice. So, now I'm saving plastic containers that look like they might be useful for my dead bug collection.

Organic fertilizing

2009-02-20T12:54:00.000-06:00

A basic fact of life here in Texas is that our clay soil is heavy, dense, and essentially devoid of nutrients. So, in the vegetable garden beds I'm preparing, I'm trying to mix in a lot of organic matter, primarily kitchen waste as well as leaves and other yard waste.

But, it's going to take a while to enrich the soil; so, I felt I needed to boost the soil this year with additional nutrients. Wanting to stay organic, that meant a trip down to "Green Mama's" - the nearest organic nursery. We used to have an organic nursery much closer, called "Redenta's" - but, they closed a year or so ago. Jon was very sad. Jon is still mourning the loss of Elliotts Hardware store (what's it been? 5 years?) - but that's a topic for another blog post.

Anyway, I talked to the good folks at Green Mama's, and settled on a 40# bag of a general purpose organic fertilizer. Based on some reading I've done, I also bought a bag of lava sand and green sand - which add additional minerals and other nutrients besides the basic N-P-K (Nitrogen-Potassium-Phophorus). From what I've been reading, I'll probably want to get a bag of lava sand and green sand each year to enrich the garden; but, a 40# bag is only $7 each which should be sufficient for my entire garden.

For now, I've been tossing kitchen waste directly into my raised beds and mixing it in with the native soil; but, I need to come up with a place to compost. I have a compost pile in my back yard; but, it's on the total opposite side of the yard as my vegetable garden - as inconvenient as it can possibly be. So, I want to move it to be closer to the vegetable garden since that is where most of it will be used.

But where? Since my vegetable garden is in the front, I don't really want a compost pile in the front yard - not very attractive. I've thought about putting on just inside the gate - but that's where the swimming pool is. Do I want a compost pile next to the swimming pool? Is there a way I could dress it up so that it isn't quite so ugly?

Decorative composting - now there's an idea that needs pursuing . . .

Organic gardening

2009-02-19T15:12:00.000-06:00

In my garden I am mostly organic. I generally try to stick with organic methods of fertilizing and pest control - but there are a couple of exceptions

Fire ants - The imported fire ants we have here in Texas are nasty critters. They have no natural predators. They are extremely aggressive when disturbed - swarming to overcome the invader (i.e. me) and inflicting nasty bites which swell and itch. Their unsightly nests, if left untreated, can reach the size of a garbage can lid.

The only effective way I've been able to deal with fire ants in my yard is to use Amdro or other similar bait - applied directly to and around the mound. The problem with fire ants is that a colony can have literally thousands of queens - so you have to kill all of them, or the colony will simply rebuild. Although, if you disturb their mound enough (such as mowing over it), they will swarm and relocate the colony.

A few times I've found fire ant nest around my pond in the back yard. I am very careful about using chemicals around the pond (don't want to kill the fish) - so, for these, I've resorted to more brute force methods. I put several pans on the stove to boil water - and then pour the boiling water directly on the mound. This causes the ants to swarm out and die in a ring around the mound. I find it strangely satisfying watching them writhe in agony. But, this method is far too labor intensive to be used as a general remedy.

Weeds - Weeds are just a fact of life in gardening. Mulch is the best way I've found to control weeds. Deprive them of light and they will eventually die. In the fall, I use the leaves I rake up as mulch around the yard. But, mulching is not always an option - for example, weeds in the path and/or cracks in the driveway. For these, I will resort to an herbicide, like Roundup, to spot treat.

So, I do have a couple of things I use which would cause a die hard organic gardener to label me an organic heathen - but I justify myself in that I only resort to chemicals to spot treat affected areas - I do not broadcast chemicals all over my yard.

Vegetable garden nearing completion

2009-02-17T18:12:00.002-06:00

I've embarked on a major project this winter to build raised beds for a vegetable garden. What with the economy and all - this could become my sole source of sustenance.

Problem is, with a swimming pool and 2 decks in the back, there really isn't any room for a vegetable garden in the back yard. Plus, whatever space that might be available has too much shade.. So, I've decided to put the vegetable garden in the front yard. But, vegetable gardens aren't always the most attractive feature in a yard; so, I'm trying to make it look nice. I've built raised beds in geometric shapes, intended to be reminiscent of an english garden. Good thing I don't live in Southlake, or in one of them gated communities with strict codes.

On the Northern edge is a long garden where I intend to plant blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry plants. I'll be building a trellis to train the plants on - although, that will probably have to wait until next year. This year I'll probably plant tomatoes there.

There are two trees in the area already: A pomagranate and a jujube. Last summer I was paying close attention how the trees shade shifted throughout the day and designed the boxes to be mostly in the sun. I've reserved a space for a 3rd tree; but, I haven't quite decided on what yet. It will be something unusual, like a quince or a fig. I've also considered planting a peach tree on the other side of the fence, near the swimming pool.

When all is complete, I'll have 400 square feet of planting area. I've filled the beds with soil from around the yard where I've been doing other digging and contouring; but, I'll need to buy some top soil to finish filling the beds. I'll be using drip irrigation on the entire garden with each planting box on a separate drip circuit. I'm also considering some sort of water feature and possibly some statuary.

One of the beds has already been planted with some winter crops, namely

onions (texas sweet)
radishes
turnips
beets
spinich
lettuce (green leaf, red leaf, and bibb)
broccoli
swiss chard

As the weather warms, these crops will die out and will be replaced with summer vegetables, such as

squash
okra

As the other beds are finished, I will be planting

beans (pole and bush)
peppers (both sweet and hot)
tomatoes (multiple varieties)
watermelon
other melons
popcorn
cucumber
eggplant

Many of these we already have the seeds for. I ordered them from a woman who sells heritage seeds. So, we're just waiting for the weather to warm up.

One of the beds (the one closest to the kitchen) will be reserved as an herb garden. In it I want to plant perennials like

sage
oregano (both regular and Mexican)
thyme
chives

I'll also have room for annuals, like

basil
cilantro
dill
parsley
tarragon

I'll also have Rosemary in a nearby flower garden; plus, we have a bay laurel tree near the front door. In the back yard I already have mint growing. I would also like to plant asparagus - which is a perennial. But, I don't think I'll have a bed prepared in time this year.

What I have left is to dig trenches for water lines to each bed for the drip irrigation system and to fill in between the beds. One of my challanges is figuring out what to put around the raised beds (for weed control). Essentially, my choices are

Grass - this would be the easiest since that what wants to grow there - but it would be far too labor intensive having to mow around the raised beds. Also, after a rain, it would be muddy to kneel on when working in the garden. Also, it's questionable how much grass would actually grow compared to weeds.

Pea gravel - this was my original plan since it would provide an inhospital enviornment for weeds. I also think it would look the nicest. However, I've been having second thoughts since pea gravel would be hot in the summer and not be very comfortable to kneel on when working in the garden.

Mulch - I'm concerned that mulch, over time, would promote weed growth. I can put landscape fabric down underneath; but, that would only be effective for the first year or two. Also, new mulch would have to be added each year. Additionally, I'm using mulch in the adjacent flower beds; so, it might be confusing where to walk and where to avoid.

Rubber mulch - this is made from ground tires and comes in a variety of colors. It has the advantage of pea gravel in that it would provide an inhospital enviornment for weeds; but, it seems like it would be more like mulch to kneel on. Problem is - it's very expensive. A 40# bag is $9 - and I'd probably need close to 100 bags. I might be able buy it in bulk - but it would still probably be 3 or 4 times the cost of pea gravel or mulch.

Right now I'm leaning towards mulch. I'll need to order 2 or 3 yards of top soil to finish filling the raised beds; so, it would be an easy matter to order some mulch to be delivered with it.

Achiote Grilled Ribs from down under

2009-02-17T10:25:00.002-06:00

One of the challanges of being empty nesters is having to cook for only two. For all of our married lives we were cooking for a crowd - and now, suddenly, it's down to the two of us.

I found a web site http://www.fooddownunder.com/ which has a feature to enter the number of servings and it will adjust the quantities accordingly. So, I tried one of their recipe's last week. I had to find an online food calculator to convert some of the adjusted quantities, like 1/12 cup (which is 8 teaspoons). Also, I ended up making a few adaptations.

Couldn't find annato seeds, so I left them out

Didn't have any tomato paste, it was only 1/3 cup, so I left it out

The original recipe called for a 2/3 ham hock (after reduced to 2 servings). I thought about using bacon, but I decided to just leave it out since I was using pork ribs which would provide it's own flavor

2/3 gallon of beef broth seemed excessive for the small amount of ribs I was cooking; so, I reduced this to 1 quart

I was afraid that 4 teaspoons of cayenne pepper would make it too spicy for Linda; so, I reduced this to 1 teaspoon

1/2 cup ground cumin seems excessive - I'm not a big fan of cumin, so I reduced to 1/4 cup

One of the ingredients was for achiote paste for which a recipe was provided. After dutifully making the achiote paste, it occurred to me I could have just added all of the ingredients for the paste direcly to the braising liquid

So, here is my adjusted recipe for

Achiote Grilled Ribs

2-3 pounds of pork ribs

Braising liquid

1 qt beef stock
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup ground ancho chilies
1/4 cup ground cumin
4 Tbl lime juice (juice from 2 limes)
2 Tbl garlic powder
1 Tbl tabasco
1 Tbl honey
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp oregano (preferably mexican oregano)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground allspice
4 garlic cloves, pressed
3 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, cut up

Add all braising liquid ingredients to a covered baking dish and mix together. Add ribs, cover and bake in a 350 degree oven for about 2 hours, or until tender. Remove ribs from the braising liquid, cut ribs into sections of 2 bones each, then grill for a few minutes.

Optional: Brush ribs with honey or BBQ sauce before grilling, careful not to burn.

Note: The braising liquid can be frozen (after straining) and used again.

The recipe said to brush the ribs with Ancho Chili Barbecue Sauce before grilling. I didn't end up making the BBQ sauce, but I may try it next time

Ancho Chili Barbeque Sauce

1 Tbl olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 dried ancho chilies, seeded and chopped
1 cup apple joice
1/3 cup worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup cideer vinegar
1 can tomato sauce (assume 8 oz can)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp kosher salt

Cook onions and garlic in oil until crisp tender (about 3-4 minutes). Add remaining ingrecients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer (stirring occasionally) for one hour, or until sauce is reduced to the desired consistency.
8 tsp chili sauce

Who am I?

2009-02-17T10:21:00.001-06:00

I am a middle aged curmudgeny married man living in the Dallas/Fort Worth region of Texas. Although I was born and raised in California, I've lived in Texas since 1984 - so this is my home now. The reality is, I work out of my home and could live virtually anywhere (that has high speed internet access) - I just can't think of any place I'd rather be.

I have 4 children, all of whom have graduated from high school and have moved out of the home. Two of my children are married; so, I also have a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law. Two of my children are soon to be married. I have 4 grandchildren - two granddaughters living in California with my daughter and twins (boy and girl) living here in Texas with my son.

I am an active member of the LDS church (the Mormon's). I am currently serving as the early morning seminary teacher - which means I meet with the high school aged students at 5:45am before school for some religious instruction. There are two seminary teachers; so, we swtich off week to week.

I am an amatuer photographer. I especially love taking environmental portraits of people

I love to cook. I love trying to cuisines and new recipe's. I have a man crush with Alton Brown (Good Eats).

I can't say that I love gardening so much, but I love having a nice garden and am willing to do what it takes to have one. Garden railroading is another interest of mine, I have a G-scale railroad setup in my back yard that winds around the yard. Although, there is some need for some track work, so the railroad is not running at the moment.

I am politically conservative. As a registered republican I voted for John McCain. Although, more accurately, I would describe myself as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. I believe in less government and giving more control to local governemnts; although, there are a couple of key areas where I differ from the republican platform, such as gun control and same sex marriage. I support the 2nd amendment; but, I just don't see why a civilian needs to own a sub-machine gun. I also don't see how allowing two guys to be married poses any threat to me and/or my family.