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.