Recipes (In your head?)

In the rush last night to prepare a dish, a traditional holiday treat, my wife could not recall the proportions of the ingredients. This is a dish she makes maybe three times a year. She has never written down the recipe…it all was in her head. After several calls to friends, with whom she had previously shared the recipe, she lucked out and got the details.

My dear, departed Mom made, without question, the best Potato Salad I have ever tasted. Nothing has ever been close. Problem is my Mom never wrote down the recipe and for whatever reasons never shared it with the women in her life. I never thought to ask. She passed on and the recipe didn’t. Lost. Yes, attempts have been made to mix and match ingredients to replicate the dish but really no success. 

So, you already know where this is going. Write down the recipe. Share those recipes. You can enjoy someone else attempting to match your special dish or, shudder to think, improve upon it. Some of you have very special dishes that were handed down to you. Share the knowledge and as I said write it down. Should your memory suddenly fail you, the simple card will save you.

 

Jambalaya….Perfect Cold Weather Nourishment

Food Network Recipe via Paula Deen

I followed this recipe and added spicy Italian sausage and spices to suit family sensitivities to heat…frigging good!

Food & Beverages @ The Art of Manliness

A fine recap of food and beverages at The Art of Manliness

Do you like BBQ…Then Check out Patrons of the Pit

Excellent BBQ Site

Cooking: Rust, Rustic

Iron + Water + Oxygen = Rust

As I have alluded to before, my family & friends have committed to a couple massive hoarding cleanups within the family over the last five years or so. Always in the mix of stuff were many rusted sets of iron cookware. I grew up with such fry pans and never paid any attention to how they were maintained. My Dad, in particular, loved to cook with several different fry pans. I have never been able to mentally invest the energy to use such cookware, although a part of me, for nostalgia’s sake, wishes I did. Some helpful how to’s on maintaining and salvaging cast iron cookware.

Food: Basic, Sourdough Bread and Comfort

Oh Lordy! Warm bread, cold bread, sourdough bread and butter and soup/stew/beans/by itself!

Crusty, flavorful, a perfect match to comfort foods…a comfort food in itself! Sourdough Bread

Warmth and comfort especially as colder temps take over the Northern tier….but even in the Southern tier’s Summer time, Sourdough bread hits the spot! Yummmy Starch!

Fly Fishing: Scuds…hold the lemon

A must have producer for streams and stillwaters, the Scud (‘shrimp”) patterns an enticing morsel. Check the areas you fish for indications of this tasty morsel and tie accordingly in shades of green, grey, the obligatory orange, even blue. Simple to tie, this pattern has been around along time and lends itself to tying the Czech Nymph patterns (Scuds into Caddis Larva/Pupa patterns).

Chironomid.com has an excellent informational re scuds. On the appropriate rivers and streams, fish the pattern like any clinger/crawler nymph that inhabits the bottom and has been set adrift from the cobble bottom. Check out fishing Czech Nymph patterns and adopt much to the dredging techniques for all but the slowest of streams. Slower, weedier waters are usually a much more vertical, precise presentation.

For those of you that have Shrimp & Lemon on the mind…here are many mouth watering recipes.

Food: The Cringe Factor of Chicken Paws

Turn away Vegans and/or PETA types. Last night, my wife and I were doing some late night grocery shopping. As often happens, we divide up and go our separate ways to grab this and that and rejoin along the way. I was in the meat section perusing the ridiculous price increases over the past few years when I came upon a food item I had personally never seen in my citified life time: chicken paws. Freaky looking! Obviously, my non-farming/ranching/sanitized food prep existence has denied me some realities of food prep. But, the Chicken Paws brought me to a halt. 

My humor button was pushed, so I put the Chicken Paws in the cart and proceeded to look for my wife. She returned to the cart and in her normal distracted manner didn’t see the Chicken Paws. I casually drew attention to the paws and her response was beyond my wildest prankster expectations!

She became quite verbal, quite audible, quite animated! Wow! Who knew Chicken Paws could draw forth such a response?

I mean we think nothing of frying up some drumbsticks and savoring that fine meat wrapped around that bone. But Chicken Feet or Paws do seem to elicit a mind tweak of sorts. So to give Chicken Paws their supposed due, here is the food, cooking, recipe low down on Chicken Paw usage.

Simply Recipes: “The “Eww” factor of chicken feet I think comes from the fact that chicken feet look a lot like our hands. Silly eh? Especially when we consider that making stock from chicken feet has been a human activity for thousands of years. Most of our grandmothers or great grandmothers used feet in their stock as a matter of fact. They would laugh at us today to see us cringe. Stock made from chicken feet is fabulous, and incredibly good for you with all that gelatin.“

Now no offense to any visitors here from China/Vietnam, but if you are going to try the Chicken Paw recipes, buy locally produced Chicken Paws!

“Chinese police have uncovered an illegal food storage site in China’s southern city of Nanning that reportedly contained chicken feet nearly a half century old. According to the South China Morning Post, more than 20 tonnes of expired meat were seized in the raid, including beef tripe, cartilage, and the aforementioned chicken feet, some of which dated all the way back to 1967. The site was busted back in May, though the details of the operation have only been made public recently.

A Xinhua report cited by the South China Morning Post notes that the chicken feet were smuggled across the border from Vietnam still frozen. Once in China, they were processed with various chemicals, including bleach, to add weight and improve their coloring, making them appear fresh.” (The Telegraph UK) & HuffPo

Cooking: “Hotel Butter” Recipe

Hotel Butter on T-Seak (The Pioneer Woman)

THE PIONEER WOMAN COOKS

Cookie Recipe: Chocolate Chip Around a Peanut Butter Cup!!!

Found this mouth watering morsel at The Kitchen Magpie by Karlynn Johnston. Great step-by-step for this cookie. I love the chocolate and peanut butter combo.