County Ham For Supper And Breakfast

Bev has been craving country ham so we headed down to Benton’s County Ham the other day to fetch us some. I wish I could go down to the local dock and buy just off the boat seafood, or get fresh made sausages from the local butcher, etc, but Benton's is one of the little jewels of our area. I dare say, 90% of our population have never tasted old time country cured ham and bacon like they do it – it’s very different from Clifty Farms, Hormel, etc. She wanted to buy several slices and some ham hocks so after comparing prices we decided we’d just buy the whole ham. This way we’ll have plenty to use now, to freeze, and to give to the kids. The pretty center slices are further down in the pile.


As we were discussing dinner, I told Bev I thought I had a plan, but she quickly advised she wanted ham biscuits. She had to twist my arm, but I finally agreed to garlic cheese biscuits and fried country ham. I always have it cut fairly thin, a heavy 1/16”, so it can be cooked quickly and remain soft and moist – too often, it’s cooked into something more like cardboard that can be held by one corner and will still stick straight out – not the way I like it. Since the virtual end of Trichinosis, I think all it needs is a good warming up.



The finished plate of ham.


The garlic cheese biscuits were made with Bisquick using the following recipe.

From Red Lobster

2 cups Bisquick
¾ cups Milk
¾-1 cup Shredded cheddar cheese
¼ cup Margarine (or butter), melted
1/8-1/4 tsp Garlic powder
Some chopped Parsley

· Preheat oven to 450 F.
· Mix Bisquick, milk, and cheese just until soft dough forms. Beat vigorously 30 seconds.
· Drop by spoonful (about ¼ cup) on un-greased cookie sheet.
· Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
· Mix margarine and garlic powder.

Remove biscuits from oven and brush with margarine mixture while still on pan and sprinkle with parsley.


For the sandwich, it was the ham, a slice of tomato and some homemade chipotle pimento cheese – I think Bev's plan was a hit.


And now for breakfast. I saved the pan drippings from last night’s supper and fried up some more country ham for breakfast. After frying, I made a little red eye gravy by adding 1/2 cup of black coffee to the pan drippings and brought it to a boil - scraping up all of the brown bits.

I topped a leftover biscuit with the gravy and sided it with a scramble using some of Bev’s homemade pimento cheese and a couple slices of ham. Gravy made with black coffee doesn't have a particularly pleasing color.



It was a delicious good ole fashion (except for the pimento cheese) country breakfast and I ate early so I was bolstered for another morning of doing battle with the Bradford Pear.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Amish Breakfast Casserole - Feeding Myself Breakfasts – Part 1

Bev, Pat (SIL), Cindy, and Pat (neighbor) piled in the car and headed to Marco Island for their annual trek to the beach and as usual I’m dog sitting and looking after myself.  While they all tried to pack lite, the back of the Buick (back row of seats folded down) was almost completely full but I didn’t think about a pic until they had left.  

Ten days into their two weeks, I will be driving the motor home down along with my buddy, Joe, acting as navigator, extra road watcher, and dog wrangler then everyone but Pat and Bev will fly home (about $50 on Allegient) and we will hang around Florida for a while. 

Often times, Bev will cook me some dishes before she leaves, but since I’ve been in a cooking mood lately, I advised her not to bother and I would cook for myself.  A couple of days prior to her departure, our freezer quit working and we moved everything out until we could get it fixed (turned out to be a blocked drain).  Since we touched everything in the freezer moving it out and back (re-organized) I knew what all was available to me for the week.

Easy Individual Tomato Pies

As summer and tomato season begin to wind down, it’s time to be sure we’ve eaten plenty of the good ones and this meal was to accomplish this goal.  I had something else in mind for breakfast but Bev wanted to make individual tomato pies using the recipe from the Roseville Bed and Breakfast courtesy of Suzanne Cook & Company.  We served them to the attendees at our RV rally in May and they went over well.  

Individual Tomato Pies

I don’t know why, but we haven’t made these in years and they are outrageously good.  The recipe comes from the Roseville B&B in Marshall, TX but I don’t have a link for it.

Summer Tomato Meals

It’s summer time and for us that means loading up on foods that we rarely eat in the off season.  While we eat some grape or cherry tomatoes, we rarely buy tasteless slicing tomatoes, we generally only eat the Malibu Pole Green Beans that come from the Mennonite market although we might cook a mess or two of something else, and we keep a bag of frozen corn in the freezer for use in soups and such but eat none fresh.  While off-season okra tastes the same, it’s just always been a summer dish for us.

So here are some tomato meals that we have eaten recently in addition to the usual tomato sandwiches, tomato and cottage cheese, etc.  First up is Roz’s Italian Cheesy Tomato Pie with Buttermilk Biscuit Crust which Cindy made for the first time and it was delicious.

Halibut Ala Roz And Tomato Pie

We had a 1½ lb. piece of halibut in the freezer and Roz’s (la bella vita) recipe for Halibutin Prosciutto-Herb Cream Sauce in my recipe list, so a match was made.  Check out her site for the recipe, which I followed except I added S&P directly to the fish rather than put it in the herb mixture.

We sided it with grilled green bean bundles and tomato pie that Bev decided to make to use some of our maters.  She went on line and found this recipe from the Roseville Bed and Breakfast in Texas.

Roseville Tomato Pie

Ingredients:
10 count inexpensive buttermilk biscuit
1 ½ cups of grated Monterey Jack/Colby grated cheese (she used cheddar)
1 cup Real Mayonnaise
Sliced tomatoes for 10 Biscuits (from our garden of course)
Grated Parmesan cheese (she forgot to add it)
Salad Supreme by McCormick (she used Penzey’s Florida Seasoned Pepper as it was on hand)
Butter Pam
Dried Basil or Italian Seasoning (she used fresh basil, oregano, and chives)

Directions:
1. Spray foil lined cookie sheet with Butter Pam (Bev used a casserole dish).  Space biscuits and flatten.  Spray biscuits with Pam and sprinkle with basil.  Peel and slice tomatoes and place a slice on each biscuit.  Sprinkle tomatoes with Salad Supreme.  Mix Monterey Jack/Colby cheese with mayonnaise.  Put 1 tsp. on top of tomato and sprinkle heavily with parmesan cheese.
2. Bake at 350 degrees until biscuits are done (about 12 minutes).  Do not let the biscuit get too brown.  Do not be skimpy with spices.
3. Bev sprinkled on more herbs after removing from the oven.

As hard as I try, even using a remote probe thermometer, I still always seem to overcook the halibut , but the sauce was so good it made up for it.  Bev and Pat don’t like fishy fish and Pat will eat very little seafood period, but they both enjoyed the mild halibut with this sauce - which  I'll definitely use again on other white fish.

Even though Bev had trouble getting the biscuits done, the tomato pie was company quality and although I was full, I had to eat a second one.  Next time (which will be soon), she’ll use a cookie sheet per the directions and leave space between them for the heat to get to the biscuits.

And as for the leftovers, sauce over scrambled eggs and fried potatoes.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  A Busy Saturday

Two years ago:  Steak And Avocado Taco Salad

Larry

7/26/12 meal date

Individual Tomato Pies & Old Smoker

It’s been a while since we had these and about seven years since I posted about them so I thought it was time again here in the middle of tomato season.  First, let me say that you are really missing out if you don’t try them as they are roll your eyes back good to us. 

A Southern Breakfast & Sandwich Experiment

For those of you who know Bev is in Florida and may be worried about me surviving, fear not.

Two fresh-from-a-local-farm eggs, Benton’s country ham, and Bev’s homemade biscuits from the freezer.  After I took the shot, I split the biscuits, cut the tomato in half and added them and some country ham to get two delicious breakfast sandwiches sided with scrambled eggs.  It got the day started right and lasted me til supper – I just love breakfast.

It’s BBQ Day Again – Ribs And Fattys

Our Kids visiting from South Korea will be with us for 8 full days during their stateside visit, and that’s how much time we have to provide them the meals they’ve been missing. Arrival day on Friday was homemade vegetable soup, Saturday was chargrilled steak and Monday was BBQ baby backs, mac and cheese, and garlic cheese biscuits – all favorites of everyone.

We used a mac & cheese recipe we like from one of the BBQ forums and the ribs were my typical – sprayed with apple juice and rubbed with my rib rub plus Billy Bones XXX Cherry, cooked until almost falling off the bone tender (Bev likes them that way), sprayed down a time or two during cooking with apple juice then glazed twice with Tennessee River BBQ Sauce. Here’s a plated pic.


Our son specifically requested one of those fatty's he'd been reading about on my blog, so I did a stuffed breakfast fatty and a regular one. The breakfast fatty was stuffed with sautéed onions, roasted red peppers, hash brown potatoes and scrambled eggs (forgot the cheese - again), then I put a little of my pork rub on the outside.




We had it for breakfast Tuesday morning - just warmed up in the microwave and slapped it on a garlic cheese biscuit leftover from dinner last night - very tasty.



Usually when I BBQ, I cook for us, friends and family and I usually keep the smoker full all day cooking a variety of different meats – so I stay pretty busy for 12+ hours not counting prep time the day before. For this cook, it was five slabs of baby backs, the pizza fatty I’d made on Dec 3 and stuck in the freezer, a stuffed breakfast, and a regular fatty. It was almost like having the day off and I enjoyed being able to sit down to a nice meal without being tired.

Last night we went to a Mexican restaurant and they were able to tick off chile rellenos as another of the foods to eat while here. We still need to get in the smoked pizza fatty, sausage gravy and biscuits, fried crappie & hush puppies, ABT's, smoked prime rib and stuffed pork loin. We have four days to do it in after they return from visiting their other set of parents - should be no problem.

Have a great day.

Larry

2014 Charleston Trip – Rally Days 4 & 5 - Angel Oak Tree & Tea Plantation

For day-four of our FMCA Rally, we headed south of Charleston for three stops on John’s and Wadmalaw Islands hoping we could accomplish a few things on a very rainy day.  The first stop was the Angel Oak Tree which is a huge Live Oak and believed to be more than 500 years old, some think maybe even 1500 years.  It shades an area of 17,000 square feet and measures 187 feet across - note the people on the right side.

A Day Trip And Delicious Sandwich

We made a little day trip to Cumberland Gap, Tn the other day, with some friends, for lunch at Webb’s County Kitchen (our second visit) and our son, Eric, daughter-in-law, Ann and granddaughter, Sophia, who live nearby, joined us as well. While there, we walked around town and I took this picture of the still turning water wheel for the old gristmill that is now a B&B. The owner is trying to find someone to help her turn the functioning wheel into electricity - I would think some green industry company or college professor would be all over this. The stream comes right down from the mountain just yards away so I assume it’s spring fed. It must be cold as the little pool in front of it is full of Rainbow Trout, a couple of which I wouldn’t have minded having for dinner.


We also went out to Rose Hill, Va., population 714, to a little Mennonite store and bakery, called Dutch Treats, for some sweet baked goodies, cheddar cheese, and we got a loaf of jalapeno bread, which I‘ve commented on in a previous posts. The bread had a mix of cheese and peppers rolled up inside as well as some peppers on the outside, giving it a nice heat level. They have an assortment of Amish/Mennonite goods (mostly from Pa. & Ohio Dutch country), but they do all of the baking on site.

We’ve been eating on the bread the past few days and since I was on my own for lunch, I decided to turn a couple of slices into a grilled cheese sandwich, which I’d been wanting for over a week. I stuck with a pretty basic sandwich – their bread and cheese, a little thin sliced red onion, and some Dukes mayo. I put butter on both sides and grilled with a lid on to make sure the cheese would melt. It was outstanding and satisfied my craving - it’s amazing how much enjoyment such a simple lunch can provide. I thought it also looked delicious, but unfortunately neither of the pictures turned out.

Finally, I had saved the drippings and some biscuits from a country ham and biscuit breakfast, over the weekend, for use as biscuits and red eye gravy. The last time I made the gravy, Bev complained that she didn't get to sample it. So yesterday morning I fried up the last couple of pieces of ham in the saved drippings, added 3/4 cup of coffee, and put it over the re-heated biscuits. Bev's chance for a taste resulted in the following: "the stuff looks awful and it tastes awful too, I can make better ham gravy than that." I guess it's not for everyone.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Larry

Country Ham And Biscuits

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

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

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

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

So I went to plan B.

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

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago: Dirty Ole Man Joke

Two years ago: None

Larry

01/19/2012 meal date

Prosciutto & Cheddar Scrambled Eggs & Latkes And Not Exactly Oklahoma Onion Burgers

Have you wondered why I'm including two dishes on most posts - even by doing this I already have posts lined up thru Jun 16.  I could post more often but like the three day interval.

I’m getting toward the end of my series on scrambled eggs (2 more) using recipes from the “The Taste Of Home’s” 30 New Ways To Eat Scrambled Eggs and now is a good time for this one as we have some country ham on hand.  Prosciutto is basically country ham (in Italian) that has been cured for a longer period (a year or so) than our normal country ham and it is normally sliced very thin.  For this meal, I used the recipe for Prosciutto & Cheddar Breakfast Biscuits from Taste Of Home, as the previous dishes have been but I omitted the biscuits.

Gourmet Dining At RouXbarb’s

Bev makes good use of Groupon and the other similar deal-offering services and recently purchased one for “RouXbarb” restaurant in Knoxville.  The deal offered a $130 value tasting for $65 and we recently cashed it in for an early dinner.

The building is small and has contained several restaurants that we can remember, but upon entering, it was obvious this was a pretty upscale place – at 5:30pm we had the place nearly to ourselves, but it was pretty full when we left.  This is part of the inside and chef/ owner, Bruce Bogartz, is at the computer - he had on tomato pants similar to the ones I wear. 

Our server, who was as elegant as the dining room, came by to advise about the tasting, take our drink order, and give us a menu to look over to see if there was anything we didn’t want – Bev advised the duck.  We ordered water and a bottle of Poggio Anima "Belial" Sangiovese and the evening was off.

The menu is comprised of small plates, salads, entrees, and desserts from which we were to be given a selection of the chef’s choices – we got one dish of them to share. 

Even though I had the camera sitting there, I got so caught up in the food I forgot to take shots before we started eating, except for two of them.  Rather than do their beautiful presentations an injustice, I’ll only show those two but provide the menu description for those available.

Our meal began with these two, neither of which were described on the menu:

 

SOUP OF THE MOMENT, which was a curried chicken and rice soup containing and assortment of vegetables

 

A plank containing two CHEESE BISCUITS, RHUBARB CHUTNEY, and MARINATED MUSHROOMS 

Next came a plate containing both of these:

 

BROWN BUTTER BBQ SHRIMP

Lemon aioli 

PIMENTO CHEESE HUSH PUPPIES

Pepper jelly  

The next serving was a plate of lightly battered and deep fried flounder and shrimp served with a light sauce – it was also not on the menu, but here is a shot after only a couple of bites:

About this time we realized we needed to pace ourselves, especially when the server advised there was lots more to come, so we began boxing about half of each dish – but we were already pretty full.  Our last small plate was:

SWEET POTATO GNOCCHI  

Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, and leeks with truffle oil and parmesan cheese 

At this point, Chef Borgartz came by to see how it was going and asked what we wanted for our entrée, advising that in addition to the menu choices he had a nice ribeye steak, and a Waygu beef flank steak.  Since I’d been wanting to try Waygu, we agreed on the flank steak before he even got to the seafood dishes.

 

While it was being prepared we were served the salad course of:
 

ROASTED PINAPPLE SALAD

Macona almond praline, goat cheese, and truffled lemon vinaigrette

The FLANK STEAK was cooked medium rare and served with horseradish mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

Since there had been easily enough food for four people, we were way past full at the end of the savory dishes and just took the CINNAMON APPLE COBBLER home – we got a taste then Madison ate it.

 

We loved the flavors of every dish and it was great to try so many at one sitting.  I especially thought the flounder was outstanding with the light batter and it was perfectly cooked.  It was nice to try the Waygu and I can see why people rave about it.  And after this soup I may have to rethink my so-so reception of curried dishes.

I really like restaurants that have daily dishes prepared at the whim of the chef or what's in season.  I hope we can get another tasting deal, but we will be going back either way, as it was a excellent dining experience, with atmosphere, service, and food all being top notch.  I hate I blew it on the photos, but if in this area, we recommend you consider a meal at RouXbarb.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

10/25/12 event date

Asparagus Omelet And Manchego Scramble

By picking two patches, I have asparagus out the wazoo and this is what I get every other day without picking the little ones so I'm eating plenty of it in different dishes and this bunch went to the neighbor.

I took a break from my series on scrambled eggs and made an asparagus omelet using the small spears and a recipe from All Recipes simply named Asparagus Omelet that I modified for a single serving.

Surf & Turf At The Lake

Friends Laura & Dave (Big Daddy Dave) and Laurie’s sister Bonnie and brother-in-law Bill, visiting from St. Louis, came over for dinner at the lake and we decided on a poor man’s surf & turf meal.

We started with crab cakes using a recipe we’d tried before as a taste test and enjoyed from Judy at Free Crab Cake Recipes.  I made them up that morning using the terrific Maine crab we'd brought back from our May trip, covered and stored them in the fridge, then about an hour before cooking, I removed them to warm up a little - a mistake as I had trouble keeping them together.  I preheated the pan, coated the cakes in panko, and fried until golden brown in Canola oil. 

We served them on a bed of sautéed spinach topped with some grated parmesan then topped the crab cake with Mary’s Remoulade and once again, they were delicious - I took two shots and they were both blurry but here's one that Laurie took .

The next dish was a Green Bean, Tomato, and Mozzarella Salad using this recipe from Food.com.

Ingredients

2 cups fresh green beans, cooked til tender

8 ounces mozzarella cheese, cubed (we used fresh)

1/2 cup Italian dressing

4 tomatoes, cut up

1/3 cup chopped fresh basil 

Directions

Mix all ingredients together and chill for an hour before serving.

Bev made it using some of our green and yellow filet beans, basil, and tomatoes (Yellow Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, and Green Zebra).  It was a different kind of salad for me but I thought it was delicious and would definitely serve it again. 

For the main course, it was grilled pork tenderloin, grilled shrimp, and small potatoes boiled then fried in butter.  For the tenderloin, after trimming, I brined it for 7 hours in this brine:

1 ½ cup water

½ cup orange juice

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ cup Kosher salt 

I removed it from the brine an hour before cooking and gave it a coating of Head Country Championship Seasoning.  I grilled them indirect to a temp of 120*, then moved to direct heat and took them to 140*, turning and basting several  times with a Maple Ancho Glaze from John Dawson over at Patio Daddio BBQ.  After a 10 minute rest, I sliced and served with some additional basting sauce. I got too busy cooking and forgot to take pictures and didn’t have a designated photographer.

I thought it was cooked just right but for the second sweet dish in a row, it just didn’t match up with my taste.  Had I not added the additional glaze to the sliced meat it may have worked fine for me, based on the leftovers I had the next day for breakfast. 

While the pork was resting, I grilled the shrimp using our normal process of: spray with Pam, sprinkle with Emeril’s Essence, and baste several times with butter while grilling over high heat to ensure flare-ups and the charring this creates. They were served with a small ramekin of melted butter and seemed to be a hit with everyone.

For bread it was drop cheese biscuits using the recipe from Red Lobster and they were very good as always – plus very easy to make.  She added about 1 1/2 tbsp of minced fresh parsley to the dough as well as 1/2 tbsp to the butter for the top.  They can also be made as rolled and cut biscuits, but these are much easier.

Here’s the disappointing shot of my plate but by this point I was just ready to eat and not too worried about presentation - sorry about that.

We finished the meal off with delicious brownies and ice cream brought by Laurie and Dave.

Laurie got much better shots than I did so please hop over to Big Daddy Dave's blog for a look at them.

I know this is long, but I have to mention Bev's Sangria which she made to taste from white wine, peaches, limes, lemons, blueberries, simple syrup, peach brandy, and vodka.  It was a little sweet for me but Bill and Bev sure seemed to like it - Bev liked it a little too much.

All-in-all it was a very nice and liesurely evening helped in part by preparing and serving each course before moving on to preparing the next one - although I did have the pork cooking indirect while we ate the salad.  It's always fun to meet new people and while it was very hot, being on at the lake and under high preformance fans made it fairly comfortable.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Berry And Peach Breakfast And Tomato Juice

Larry

A Few Tasty Chicken Dishes

We had some leftover chicken a while back and Bev decided to turn it into pot pie.  Since my favorite part of pot pie is the bread (crust), she used frozen biscuits on top.

It was delicious comfort food but since the biscuits were a little soggy on the bottom, next time we’ll just bake them separately and spoon the filling over them – it won’t be a pot pie then but it will still be delicious.

We rarely ever roast a chicken in the oven (I don’t think I’ve ever done one) so I was surprised when Bev came home with a big hen and announced she wanted to have roast chicken.  So I went on line, found Ina Garten’s recipe (who else would I go to), and cooked my first ever roast chicken.

It was very good and we had lots of leftovers for the next dish she wanted to make – chicken broccoli casserole.  So I went to the web and found a recipe that contained rice and measured the chicken by volume rather than number of pieces.  I turned it over to Bev and, of course, she worked her magic on it to come up with this recipe.

Ingredients:

2¼ cups cooked chicken

3 cups cooked rice (1 cup uncooked)

2 cups chopped broccoli

1 large carrot, diced (mostly for color and will use two next time)

1 (8 ounce) can cream of chicken soup

8 oz French onion dip (for a little more flavor)

3/8 cup butter

1 cup or so of chicken broth or water (see note)

1⁄2 cup chopped onion

6 ounces shredded cheddar cheese - divided

Note: Bev used our rice cooker and after mixing everything together, decided it was too dry so she mixed in a cup of chicken both).

Directions:

1. Boil broccoli till tender; drain.

2. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 casserole dish.

3. Melt butter in large frying pan and saute onions till glassy. Add soup and dip and stir well. 

4. Add most of the cheese and mix till melted. Remove from heat.

5. Add all ingredients to a large bowl, mix well, and add broth if mixture is too dry.

6. Pour into the prepared dish.

7. Sprinkle more shredded cheese on top – Bev used Pepper Jack, Cheddar, and Mozzarella - I think we like cheese.

8. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly (Bev made it ahead of time so it was cold from the fridge – she baked it for 50 minutes covered with foil and 10 minutes uncovered).

The casserole was very good and will definitely go on the keeper list - I especially liked the use of the French Onion Dip.

Quick knee update - All seems to be progressing on schedule.  I walk with no aids around the house, but use the cane when I'm going for walks.  Everything I do to rehab my right leg I also do for my left leg so it should be much better prepared when it's turn comes for a new knee.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

12/17/15 event date

Cheesy Asparagus Then Denver Omelet Scrambled Eggs, Each With A Gravy Biscuit

After my first sausage gravy meal that was just two biscuits, I decided to go on the hunt for different scrambled egg dishes to side them with and since our asparagus is now bearing, it seemed like a good place to start.  I did a web search and ended up on the “Taste Of Home” site titled 30 New Ways to Eat Scrambled Eggs.  Since they didn’t have one for asparagus, I just made up the one below.