ric,
my corned beef turned out fantastic!!!!!!
I tell you--that sugar and beer and whatever else made GREAT MEAL.
My guest loved it too and ate 2 big servings--then moaned and groaned.....
he went home with a good portion of the leftovers. Still plenty there....
Gita---tee...heee I am in the address Exchange, so that is NOT a good excuse!
MA Comfort Food
Did you know.....Two cartoon characters Maggi and Jigs did more to promote the use of corned beef shortly after the turn of the century than any other normal efforts to promote it. Maggi's cook pot was clearly marked Corned Beef.
Doc, I remember "Bringing Up Father" it was one of my favorites. I also remember "Gasoline Alley", "Alley Op"and "Lil Abner". Al Capp was one of my favorites. Ric
5 bean chili casserole tonight. We're going to or son's for cards and taking supper along. I like to put chili in a deep dish with a layer of Mexican blend cheese and top it off with corn bread. Ric
Ric, I don't play cards but I'll put the car in auto pilot. LOL Sounds really good!
OMG Ric! That's my kind of comfort food! That sounds really good!
A good time was had by all! especially Holly she won the cribbage game! LOL
I'm thinking easy tonight. Cube steak, mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, red beets, and a couple of Cackleberries I made Friday for an appetizer.
A short funny story, while I was making my eggs Friday. I decided I'd put too many beets in the bottom of my container to get the eggs well covered with pickling solution, so I reached in and pulled a couple out. After cleaning up for a birthday party later, I was caught "red handed". LOL Ric
I must be feeling better, I wanna' cook! Tonight's menu:
London broil, baked potato, and fresh asparagus with a light cream cheese, lemon, and fresh cracked pepper sauce. Ric
Yay!!!! he's feeling better. How 'bout Holly - any better?
Asparagus is in! Eat your hearts out while it is at its best. Even the bed we planted last summer is yielding some where it is least expected until the third Spring.
Glad to hear folks are getting better. Hopefully my pnenumonia, related coughs and gout are on the run too. At least I can now walk. The value of my live in RN has been very highlighted for the past six weeks. We got half a ball game in yesterday.
Well, I planted asparagus seed yesterday; that's a start eh? Glad to hear the MA peeps are feeling better these days .
~
Tonight's comfort food. I call it chicken fricassee. Onion , celery carrrot, sweated, two tsp chicken 'base', water, cut up several boneless breasts, simmer, make gravy, serve over rice. or noodles.
Just a couple sausages and a salad tonight. Ric
Grilled Chicken and broccoli, but there was this nice thick, as a big man's thumb Asparagus in my garden that kept calling my name all day. Put it on the grill about have way through the chicken. Just pure grilled asparagrus, nothing on it, no salt, butter, nothing......every bite was heaven. ; )
the asparagus sounds wonderful! I now cook asparagus in a skillet with olive oil, or bake it with same. Many veggies have so much water --I learned that about yellow squash and its much tastier ever since by not adding water to the saucepan. Grilling and roasting veggies is one of our great steps forward in cuisine lately!.
Sally,
My son-in-law (Mark) is an excellent cook--and he LOVES to grill.
Most every cookout we have had--I bring the steaks (and sometimes the wine too) and he does the asst. veggie chunks in skewers. I buy up steaks when they have the discount $$$ on them--sell by dates, etc...and freeze them.
He does brush OO over the veggies and then seasons them with an herb mix--kind of like the one used for OO mixed with the herbs for dipping bread in.
They are always yummy! I love the mushrooms best--but everything is great....
HD has been clearancing out a slew of grilling accessories....VERY cheap! yellow-tagged....
They had perforated pans and trays meant for grilling veggies, shrimp and other small stuff for $3. Picture a frying pan--but it has holes all over.
Different stores may have different items--but go look! This has now been going on for almost 2 weeks.
I stocked up to give to Mark for his Birthday. I usually give him something to do with kitchen or cooking/grilling.
It is so nice that they now rent the first floor of an actual house--and have access to the back yard where he can grill away. Also a nice front porch to sit at and enjoy the urban traffic....and weird people walking by. it IS one of those kind of areas.....
AND--my daughter, at 45, is slowly trying her hand out in gardening....Whoopie! Growing Tomatoes and beans and Basil etc...some of it MOM grew....some she grew.
OK! Enough digressing.......ALL food grilled is GOOD!
I will try to go by HD--I have been wanting a grill pan. Son is very interested in grilling fish.
Yesterday the store had vac sealed filets wth bacon, 13 bucks for the four but on sell by date so 3 dollars off. I Pop them right in the freezer and later have a restaurant type entree for 2.50 per person. We have a hard time with restaurant prices these days.
Hard time with restaurant prices these days! Quite understandable as the quality of food being served is going South too. We are doing more and more in the home and on the patio with natrual charcoal.
One part of weaning myself from restaurants (accidentally) happened when I leafed through a trade magazine and saw how much mass produced frozen pre made stuff they all can buy.
But--we are heading into a whole season of grilling, and fresh local produce.yum
Yes there are oodles of factory preps that your gormet chef can try to fool you with. They do not however come up to carefully and professionally handled food prep. Most of those factory preps end up in allmost good places. LOL Some of yesterday's good places have slipped to less than desirable in my opinion.
Went to a fairly new Indian restaurant tonight, selection and food was fabulous. Ric
And you can bet THEY don't have a lot of premade stuff commercially available! I've only been once to an Indian rest.. I liked it mostly but everything looked and tasted so different from the familiar that I would have to take some gettting used to to really enjoy it.
~
Sometimes comfort takes a back seat to picking up a pizza on the way home, and no dishes to wash.
The day after the creation or evolution of man one of them made the first pizza...........and the historians were to busy covering man to see this happening. I think I read somewhere the second man was a lawyer. They lie to much so the third man or woman must have been a historian. If the pizza story is correct all these numbers are at least one off.
Sally, Back when I was in college (read ancient history and broke). I lived in a small inner-city row house a few blocks away was an area of small shops, Italian Peoples Bakery, butcher, and produce. Most of the food was bought fresh a couple of times a week and prepared at home. It was less expensive than going to Pathmark and buying prepared foods and probably a lot healthier. If you do that today it's costly and you're considered a bit eccentric. I see why young families eat so poorly any more, it's not just about the convenience but the cost as well. I can still prepare a good meal cheap because I have time to shop smart and the time and ability to prepare it, a working mom would be hard pressed to do that.
Since I've strayed so far I'll include tonight's menu: chicken sausage with feta and spinach, home-fries with onions and fresh asparagus. Ric
Fried scrapple, leftover home fries, and fresh pineapple for breakfast.
BBQ ribs, mixed and wild buttered rice, and broccoli with cheese sauce for dinner.
If it's still raining tomorrow I'm baking a cake! Ric
Yum!
I bought an extra ham before Easter as they were on sale 1.28 a lb for the natural juices, presliced ham. Sell by date in June. Good deal. Wish I could have bought two more. So easy to throw in the oven. Sadly with this crew a 7.5 lb ham just doesn't last as long as I thought it might!
Sally---Hope you save/freeze the ham bone for some yummy soup in the future!
I make at least 3 great soups that use a ham bone---
--Sauerkraut Soup
--Split Pea Soup
--Bean Soup
I am lucky to have a "Heavenly Ham"--(now called "Honey Roasted Ham") five minutes from my house.
They can only slice the hams so far on the slicing machines--when they hit bone--they wrap the remainder of the ham up and sell "The Bone" for $4.99. Sometimes the "remainder" weighs over 2lbs and has SOOO much ham left on it!.
And it is the best, spiral-sliced ham there is!
The "bones" are hard to come by--as the demand is so high. If I call in the early AM and ask if they have one, they will put my name on it and i will stop by later to pick it up.
See if you have one near you!
Gita
Yes I plan to make some soup tomorrow, making good use of the ham bone AND this last chilly snap. Good ol navy bean soup.
Hoping it IS the last chilly snap!
I'm really surprised that there are enough people around still willing to use a ham bone that they sell out.
I never saw or purchased a ham bone like the end being discussed. I do purchase smoked shin bones and smoked knuckles for flavoring the pot and trimming ham tid bits to be left in the soup.
This reminds me of a 1950's song but all I can do is start it.........There was pig feet an pig ears and double breasted stears selling serlion steaks at eighteen cents a pound. That's it.... someone else will have to finish this. I remember playing the uke and the whole gang singing but so help me the rest is lost to me.
doc--
I could send you an amazing recipe that uses Pig's Feet (among other cuts of fresh pork) and loads of veggies, herbs and spices. It is truly great--IF one can get over the "gelled" aspect of it. But as you well know---that comes from all the cartilage and bones in this dish---cooked until everything falls off the bones.......
It is too involved to describe here--but is a revered Party Dish in my land of birth....This cold meat-aspic is served with Horseradish, Mustard, Vinegar------your choice.....
It is gelled solid and can be molded and sliced to serve,,,,.Most people in the US are repulsed by "gelled" meat----
Too bad! They have NO idea what made it gel--or how good it tastes...
Gita
Gita...............in my heritage of Dutch German home folks pigs feet was called souse. It was a butchering day thing to eat souse and swear on a bible it was manna. They lied. I got sick proving I was a man and have not eaten any since. It is not likely will eat any in the future either. I never will know if it was the souse or the hard cider we washed it down with while the women folk pretended not to know the rights to manhood were being administered. LOL
Gita, and Doc. you are bringing back memories. My father's family immigrated from Hungary when he was 5 years old. German and Hungarian. They bought a piece of land in Pittsburgh to farm, not as a business, just to feed the family.Grandfather also worked as a barber.
Dad knew how to make the best pickled pigs feet. There was this big earthen ware bowl full of pickled pigs feet in the unheated pantry in the winter time. I can remember sneaking in there from time to time just to pick at it. He left the bones in it and it was fun to just suck the goodness of the little bones.
I never got yelled at for it, I was such a skinny little rut that mom and dad were happy that I was eating anything.
doc and Chris--
The dish I was describing is neither "Souse" nor is it pickled.....The tangy condiments I mentioned is up to the person eating it.....I prefer a little vinegar....
Imagine fresh pork cooked to death in a broth with good veggies and Parsley and Dill, Caraway Seed,etc in it--just for flavor--and a couple of pigs feet to provide the Gel. There's nothing really "edible" on a pigs foot. It's all gristle and
small bones and cartridge.
Then everything is strained through a colander and the edible meat cut up in bite-sized pieces and put in a dish, or a mold--and the heavenly broth poured all over it. When this is refrigerated--it is gelled solid, with all the fat on top--which is removed before eating this dish. If it was in a mold--it can be un-molded and it looks very fancy. In Latvian--we call this "galerts".
If you re-heated it--you would have a wonderful fresh pork "soup".... That broth is soooo good--I could just drink it! Gita
Gita, I really don't think we are that far off on this. The one I ate was chilled, and eaten cold, well jelled. where you could cut it, and it could be unmolden. I think where the pickeling came into the name is the pickling spices, and vinegar, and a generous sprinkling of Peprika and black pepper on top. There were no vegatables, or added pork. Oh, and I seem to remember.the fat which we scraped off before eating.
I tried making some once after I was married but it did not turn out the same. But I still feast on the memory just the same.
Gita, When we butchered our hogs we made head cheese on occasion, it was not souse although some called it head souse. The skull was cooked into a stock and flavored with peppers and herbs. All meat was diced into small bites, tongue and heart were often added. this meaty stock was ladeled into bread pans to cool and the fat would rise to the top and seal it. When you were ready to use it you simply removed the "loaf", sliced off the layer of fat, and sliced it like lunch meat to be served cold, often with horseradish, mustard, and/or malt vinegar. The gel comes from cooking the feet, skulls, and any large joints. Ric
I'm so glad I already had dinner tonight!
Bblaaaagggghhh!!!!!!!!!!
Hmmmmmmm........My mind is working....smell the smoke?
IF I could keep it cold while outside in the Summer heat, maybe I could make it for the Bec's Swap????
She may even be familiar with this dish.
Not sure how many people would go for it--but sounds like all the ones here are reminiscing about this dish--however it was cooked.....
A tray of ice under the dish and it would work....don't want it dissolving and becoming muck.....
Ric--as far as lunch meats go I always liked Head Cheese (such a horrible name for it!). I liked Souse also--because of it's vinegary taste. I LOVED Tongue Loaf! I love tongue cooked anyway---I think in my early years of marriage I cooked it once.....love the dense texture and the taste of it! It is usually one of the main ingredients in the "Bloodwurst" lunch meat....along with little diced bits of fat. Anyone getting light-headed yet????
When you say "The skull was cooked"----do you mean the whole head? Fat and ears and snouts and all?
YES! The fat always rises--cools--and seals off the meat in the finished product in the container. These last a long-long time in the fridge. Just keep them well sealed--not just with Plastic Wrap!
Actually--I think I have a container in the freezer from----Hmmmm--many years ago! Should see if it has grown green hair.....:o)
Also--"Head Cheese" (the lunchmeat) is made of all the "unedible" parts of the head------snouts, ears, skin, and such. Then it is prepared in a heavily gelled base and sliced for sandwiches.....Try it! You might like it! Most stores sell it.
There is a place about 15 min. from my house called "Egon Binkerts German Meat Products" and they make ALL the sausages and Wursts and smoked Salamis and lunch meats and all the above mentioned on the premises. Most things are all a flat price--currently $4.50/lb.
So many European communities buy all their meats there for their festivals and Special events....
Their Liverwurst is to die for!!! More like a pate. Ohhhh! I am drooling......get the coarse--NOT the creamy!
If you ever come this way--I will take you there.....It is on Philadelphia Rd. just N. of Rossville Blvd.
Tiny little red, brick building that sits off the road a bit--right next to the gas Station which is right next to a Royal Farms store.
OK! enough........Gita
Gita, Do they make honest to goodness currywurst? Ric
Ric---I do not know what "currywurst" is. I don't think Curry is a spice used in Europe... or Germany.
It is more an Indian thing. Can you explain?
...OR--were you trying to be funny????? G.
Gita, When we were in Austria a friend told us we should have a curry wurst, if we could find them. We found 1 place that did and went back twice, I think. LOL They were light in color, like a beer brat and seasoned with what looked like caraway seed and pepper? Very tasty, served hot with a Bavarian style mustard and the local bier, of coarse. Ric
One of the most popular sausages at "Binkerts" is the "Weiswurst" (white sausage) which is made from veal, comes fully cooked and is very pale--almost cream-white.
When you fry it or grill it--it puffs up and splits. So juicy! Very good with mustard too.....
I just put in the oven a bunch of chicken wings which were soaking in buttermilk since yesterday afternoon.
Will see....will see......I just s&p'ed them and sprinkled with onion powder--of course. Can't cook anything without Onion Powder!
G.