Since everyone here but Pat is trying to lose weight, we’ve been trying to cook healthier and lower calorie and this dish seemed to fit the bill. We rarely make stir-fry but I’ve become a fan of “Serious Eats” and decided to use their recipe for Kung Pao Chicken and Cindy wanted to cook so she followed the recipe as shown below which we adapted a little but the original can be found by clicking on the above link.
Big Dude's Eclectic Ramblings
If you like to cook, travel, BBQ, philosophize, or seriously lay around, then stop by and visit awhile.
Monday, May 25, 2026
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Mashed Potato Pancakes And Oven Baked Ribs
Mashed Potato Pancakes
After our baked steak and gravy meal, we had four cups of mashed potatoes and I decided to turn them into one of my favorite things – mashed potato pancakes. I looked around the web and found several similar recipes which I combined into the one below. Since Cindy wanted to cook she took over and followed the recipe.
Friday, May 15, 2026
Baked Steak in Brown Gravy, German Christmas Sausage, and Mexican Out
Whether you call it baked steak, country steak, or steak and gravy, it’s beef comfort food at it’s best especially when served with mashed potatoes and it was a good meal for Pat on her first day home. She had a knee replaced on Apr 27th and after a few days in the hospital, she went to a step-down unit until May 8. She has been doing very well and in much less pain than I was.
Sunday, May 10, 2026
Beef Bone Broth, Gourmet Scrambled Eggs, And Cuban Sandwiches
As in the past, when our neighbors had their beef processed, I ended up with tail pieces (ox tails) and bones which I like to use to make broth and this was the day. I had 7½ lbs. of bones and I began by roasting them at 400F for an hour.
Then I added them to my 16 qt. pot and added water to about ¾ full.
I cooked them on very low for 21 hours to get this very rich broth. I had planned to add onion, carrot, and celery to the pot but forgot until too late.
Then I removed the bones and meat (separated it for the dogs) and let it set until the fat hardened on top and removed it.
Finally, it was strained and water added to get enough for 8 quart plastic
bags. But as we bagged it, two of the
bags had a pin hole leak we could see and a third one leaked out in the sheet
pan that I was about to freeze them on.
I don’t need this frustration so I’ll be buying beef broth from now
on. Since we cook chicken regularly for
the dogs, I may still bag up and freeze these small batches of chicken broth.
Gourmet Scrambled Eggs
Recently, we had Creamy Lemon Garlic Salmon & Shrimp
And Creamed Asparagus and we had both of the creamed sauces leftover which I
used to top scrambled eggs for a delicious breakfast on two separate mornings.
Cuban Sandwiches
Remember our recent Mojo Pork meal, well we had plenty of
leftover pork and opted to invite our neighbors down for Cuban Sandwiches. I made the sandwiches as I had done previously using my yet-to-be-patented panni press.
Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.
Have a
great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.
Larry
4/25-5/2/25
event dates
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Slow Cooker Mojo Pork, Cuban Black Beans And Rice, And Cindy Flowers
Before I get into the food, Cindy likes to make flower arrangements so she picked the flowers from around our place and made this very pretty one.
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Creamy Lemon Garlic Salmon & Shrimp And Creamed Asparagus
When I saw this recipe on Facebook, every word of the title appealed to me and I knew we needed to try it especially since we love salmon and I still had shrimp in the freezer that I wanted to use. There was no link to another site so I just did a copy and paste of the recipe but changed the salmon amounts. Since Cindy wanted to cook again, she took over the kitchen and followed the recipe as written.
At Cindy’s request, the fish came beautifully packaged from the store.
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Muffaletta/ Primavera Pasta Salad And Bev Birthday/Pat's Knee
I made a double recipe of this dish six years ago for a dock party and it was a major hit with our guests – some called it the best ever, so I decided it was time for a rerun but just a single recipe this time as shown below. When I was at the Food City deli ordering the meat and cheese the way I did, the clerk guessed that I was making pasta salad.














