The Last Of The Posole

It's so great to have my laptop back thanks to good buddy Joe.

So far I've gotten two posts (12/17 & 12/19) from the big pot of posole we made, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to do one more.  A couple of weeks ago, Mary from Barefeet In The Kitchen posted about the Pork Carnitas Hash she made from her leftovers and an idea was born.

I made sure I saved enough of the posole, without liquid, to make into hash.  Since the last of our garden garden potatoes were sprouting badly, I fried up a big skillet full, using olive oil with a tablespoon of bacon grease - yum.  When they were about half done, I split them and added the posole to part of them and continued to cook until the potatoes were done. 

This is my serving of the hash with a sunny side up egg cooked in an egg ring.

Just as with the other dishes, the posole was delicious this way and I look forward to our next batch of it.

WE WISH YOU THE BEST YEAR EVER IN 2013 AND LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUED SHARING OF OUR LIVES THROUGH READING EACH OTHERS BLOGS.

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

Larry
 

12/22/12 meal date
 

Lasagna For Christmas

Bev has been wanting to make lasagna and had several folks she wanted to cook something for as a Christmas gift so she combined the two.  She used the no-cook-noodle recipe we got from daughter, Kathy, which I've blogged about previously, but she made an improvement to this batch.

We had eaten lasagna at an Italian friends home and Bev thought is was much lighter than she'd ever eaten and decided to replicate it on her own.  Normally she would beat eggs and mix them into the chesse filling but this time she separated the eggs and beat the whites and yolks individually then folded them both back into the cheese - similar to folding the whites into a dessert.

This is the pot of meat sauce and the bowl of ricotta, cottage cheese, egg, and parmesan filling.

The pans ready to freeze except the one we ate - she forgot and added cheese to one of them.

This is my first serving. 

It was lighter than our usual and absolutely delicious - I hope the folks who received them enjoy theirs as much as we did ours.

My computer is back but not yet re-set with everything so things may still look a little different.

Thanks for stopping by Almost heaven South.

Larry

12/17/12 Meal Date




 

Season's Greetings

FROM ALMOST HEAVEN SOUTH, BEV, MADISON, AND I WISH YOU THE MERRIEST CHRISTMAS EVER. 

We hope your Christmas dreams come true and thanks so much for reading my blog and being my blogger buddy.

Saturday Humor - With Age Comes Wisdom

Since we made it thru the end of the world, I thought I'd post a funny.

An old man calls his son and says, "Listen, your mother and I are getting divorced. Forty-five years of misery is enough."

"Dad, what are you talking about?" the son screams.

“We can't stand the sight of each other any longer,” he says. "I'm sick of her face, and I'm sick of talking about this, so call your sister and tell her," and he hangs up.

Now, the son is worried. He calls his sister. She says, "Like hell they’re getting divorced!" She calls their father immediately. "You’re not getting divorced! Don't do another thing. The two of us are flying home tomorrow to talk about this. Until then, don't call a lawyer, don't file a paper. DO YOU HEAR ME?” She hangs up the phone.

The old man turns to his wife and says, "Okay, they’re both coming for Christmas and paying their own airfares."

 

Thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

 

Larry

Pork Butt Dishes

As you know by now, I’m a BBQ’er and regularly smoke a pork butt for us to make into a variety of dishes, one of which was the Posole I recently posted about.  We rarely eat just a pulled pork sandwich but usually prefer to make other dishes – usually Tex-Mex such as these three by Bev.

Pork burrito for breakfast.

Pulled pork quesadillas for supper with some pintos made into refried beans by mashing and adding Rotel and cheese.

The next one she made was using the leftover posole.  It was a flour tortilla topped with leftover refried beans, then the leftover posole, all heated individually, then a little tomatillo sauce.

 

Finally topped with two over easy eggs and some garnishment.

I thought the posole was delicious as made, but when used like this, it was over the top.

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

Larry

 

12/16/12 – 12/19/12 meal date

Posole

In case you’ve missed me this past week, my laptop is ailing and using the desk top is more difficult, so I’ve been responding to your blogs from Bev’s IPad, but I can’t post from it.  Today, I bit the bullet and am doing this from the desktop.

While we were in Colorado on our RV trip, we met up with blogger buddy Lea Ann from Highlands Ranch Foodie and her husband Bob. They took us to a duplex cabin just outside the Rocky Mtn. Nat. Park in Estes Park, where Lea Ann served up her posole for supper and we'd been wanting to make it every since.

When I BBQ'd this month, I smoked a pork butt just for this recipe, although we had extra for other dishes. Since Lea Ann's recipe calls for cooking the pork in a crockpot, I had to adapt it a little for the pork cooked on a smoker. Check out her site for the recipe she used and following is how we did it.

Ingredients:
3 lbs. smoked pork butt
1 ½ cups pork juices from the smoking process-defatted
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, sliced
3 cups water
Two 15 oz cans hominy, drained
7 canned green chiles, grilled (all I had)
2 T. dried Mexican Oregano
1/2 t. cayenne
2 t. cumin
S&P to taste

Directions:
1. After tasting and mixing, I ended up using  1 ½ cups of the collected pork juices and 3 cups of water (the juices are pretty concentrated).
2. I added 2 cups of water and 1 cup of pork juice to a pot along with the garlic and onion, and cooked for three hours.

3. Chop the meat into chunks of 2-3 bites.

 

4. Since I didn't use fresh roasted chiles, I grilled the canned ones for a few minutes to get some of that flavor on them – see rant below.

 

5. Add all but the chiles and hominy to the pot and cook for 40 minutes.
6. Add in the hominy and chiles and simmer for 20 minutes.  At this point I added another cup of water and half cup of pork juice to get the liquid amount I was looking for.
7. Ladle into bowls and serve with chopped cilantro, green onions, jalapenos, shredded cheddar, lime wedges (which I forgot), and warm flour tortillas.

I can’t really compare this to Lea Ann’s version as it was eaten about three months ago but I remember it was delicious.  This version was also delicious and you can’t go wrong making it either way, but I will make the effort to get fresh chiles next time.

Rant - Let's discuss Hatch Chiles, a term that often gets thrown around pretty loosely. I’ve been an avid pepper grower for many years and I take them seriously – I’m wearing my chile pepper pants as I type this.  In the Hatch Valley of NM, several varieties of chile peppers are grown and they are all Hatch Chiles - NuMex Big Jim is a popular variety and maybe the most common one seen in chile roasters around the area. Only the ones grown in this area, with it's soil and other environmental factors, are truly Hatch Chiles. The same varieties grown elsewhere, as in the case of my garden are not Hatch chiles but just Big Jim’s, for example. This same thing happens with Vidalia onions which are grown in a specific area of south Georgia, with a unique low sulpher soil, but the same onions grown in other areas of the world are merely Yellow Granex’s.  Signed the Chile Pepper Police J

Thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South and especially for leaving a comment.

Larry

12/15/12 meal date

Sausage and Peppers For Breakfast

Claudia, from What’s Cooking Italian Style Cuisine, commented on my recent post that they like to have their peppers and sausage leftovers for breakfast topped with an egg.  When an Italian tells me how to eat Italian food, don’t you know I pay particular attention, especially when it involves topping something with a fried egg.

As expected, it was delicious and all I can say is “Claudia, when you’re right, you’re right.”

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

Larry

12/7/12 meal date

Saturday Humor - Only In America

A social worker from the Big City recently transferred to the countryside of deep rural America and was on the first tour of her new territory when she came upon the tiniest cabin she had ever seen in her life.

Intrigued, she went up and knocked on the door. 'Anybody home? 'she asked.

'Yep,' came a kid's voice through the door.

'Is your father there?' asked the social worker.

'Pa? Nope, he left afore Ma came in,' said the kid.

'Well, is your mother there?' persisted the social worker.

'Ma? Nope, she left just afore I got here,' said the kid.

'But,' protested the social worker, 'are you never together as a family.

Sure, but not here,' said the kid through the door. 'This is the outhouse!"

 

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

Larry

Sausage And Sweet Peppers

After Susan, at Savoring Time In The Kitchen, posted about Mamma Agata’s Eggplant Parmesan and the cookbook it came from, I had to order one – even though I’m not a big user of cookbooks, preferring your blogs instead.  So for $53, I now have an inscribed copy for us to use and pretend we’re overlooking the Mediterranean from the Amalfi Coast rather than overlooking Tellico Lake from Almost Heaven South, which really isn’t too bad.

Bev had bought a couple of links of fresh-made hot Italian sausage from The Market in Maryville and we had the last of our garden peppers in dire need of being used, so I opted to use Mamma Agata’s Sausage and Peppers recipe, but made the dish with what we had on hand. 

 

Marie over at Proud Italian Cook made the dish back in May if you want to see it made by Mamma’s recipe – I had saved it back then to try.  She also has more and better photos than me.

 

Sausage And Sweet Peppers

Adapted from Mamma Agata

Ingredients:

½ lb. pasta

2¼ lb. sweet peppers (green, red, yellow), sliced lengthwise

3½ T. butter

3 T. EVOO

½ cup white onion, chopped

1 lb. hot Italian sausage

20 oz. fresh grape tomatoes, halved (all we could find)

1½ tsp. dried basil leaves (no fresh on hand)

2 pinches salt

1 cup tomato sauce – our homemade canned version

Canola oil

Directions:

1. Saute peppers in oil until softened, 10-15 minutes, remove and drain on a paper towel.

 

2. Melt butter and EVOO in another pan over low heat, add chopped onion and cook until golden brown.  (I cleaned out and used the same pan).
3. Add the sausage to the pan and sear on all sides, cover the pan, and cook for two more minutes.

4. Uncover the pan and pierce the sausage on both sides to allow the juice to run into the pan and enhance the flavor of the sauce.
5. Add the peppers to the pan and put the sausage on top of them.

6. Add the chopped cherry tomatoes, salt, dried basil, and tomato sauce, cover pan and cook on low for 30 minutes.

7. Remove the sausage, cut into smaller pieces and return to the pan.
8. Meanwhile cook the pasta al dente in salted water, drain and add to the sausage/pepper pan.  Toss and cook for a couple of minutes to marry the flavors.

9. Serve and top with fresh grated parmesan.  (My plated shot was a bust).

For pasta dishes with chunky ingredients, I find shaped pasta easier to eat so I used rotini.  The three of us who ate it all thought it was delicious but mine didn’t look like the other two I’ve seen as my sauce had more liquid – enough that I added the entire pound of pasta I’d cooked.  While I cooked it the specified 30 minutes, I may have cooked it a little too long and should have gone by appearance rather than the clock. 

The sausage wasn’t overly hot and worked very well in the dish.  I had trouble getting it to sear in the onion pan so next time I think I’ll sear it in a little oil before adding the remaining fat to cook the onions.  I’ll remove it while the onions cook than add back at the appropriate time.  It is definitely a keeper recipe and I can only imagine how good it would be made by Mamma Agata - I look forward to the next one from Mamma's book.

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

Larry

12/4/12 meal date

Lunch At Chuy’s

We went to Knoxville this day to have brunch at the Baker Peters Jazz Club before our half off deal expires, but found the doors locked and no one around, so we went to another place Bev had been wanting to try.

Chuy’s is a nearly 40 location chain of Tex-Mex restaurants headquartered in Austin, TX and we ate at the one in Knoxville for our first trip.  We got there just ahead of the after-church crowd and it was already pretty full.  It was well decorated, warm and inviting with 1950’s vintage Chromcraft type furnishings and a tortilla cooking operation behind a piece of glass for all to see.  This is a shot from our table.

They pride themselves on good, fresh made food and everything we saw seemed to agree.  The chips and salsa were maybe the best I’ve had, with very thin, crispy tortilla chips and fresh (not cooked) salsa like Bev makes during the summer.  Their business model may be similar to the one Cheddar’s seems to have (my guess here) – lot’s of good food at reasonable prices and making their money on the high customer volume.

Bev enjoyed her Chile Rellenos, which were made from Anaheim chile peppers and they had an extra crispy coating on them.  She and I both had the Hatch Green Chile Sauce on ours and it was plenty spicy – I didn’t added any of the accompanying sliced jalapenos.

Pat had the Elvis Green Chile Fried Chicken of two breast pieces which were coated with a potato chip crust – also very crispy - and she liked hers as well.

I had the steak burrito and thought it was very good, but about half way thru it, I decided to remove the stuffing and eat it with the lighter chips rather than the fill-me-up flour tortilla it was in.  It came with charro beans which were just okay (we had some real good ones in Texas last year) and green chile rice which I enjoyed.

Our service was outstanding and the server even sent us home with a bag of chips and a couple containers of salsa.  While I don’t go out to eat very often, I will definitely go to Chuy’s again when I get an opportunity.

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

Larry

12/2/12 meal date

Saturday Humor

Sign in Doctor’s Office

I'm sure that you have seen pharmaceutical advertising in doctor's offices on  everything from tissues to note pads This one should get First  prize…

 

I mailed it to my Japanese doctor friend; he e-mailed back: "If light stay on more than 4 hour, call erectrician. 

(This make me raff out roud)

 

This came to me via email from a friend and since it made me raff out roud as well, I had to post it.

 

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

 

Larry

 

Pan Fried Trout

When I bought the seafood for the Shellfish Tower, I also bought a couple of farm raised trout that were cleaned and de-boned.  I’ve mentioned lately that Bev is not the seafood fan that I am, but she does eat a fairly wide variety of things from the sea.  However, when it comes to the lake offerings, her range of acceptability is much narrower and includes crappie and er, uh, hum, crappie and she considers all the rest too fishy, especially trout. 

Since I was home alone, I decided to have one of my favorite meals for the day after Thanksgiving, pan fried trout and fried potatoes and onions – how could you not love this meal.  To ensure leftovers, I filled a 12” cast iron skillet with the potatoes and onions cooking in some olive oil and bacon grease with a lid. 

 

After starting the potatoes, I recalled we had a lot of peppers in the garage that needed to be used, so I diced up several and started them cooking in another skillet.

When they were done enough, I mixed them into the potatoes and added some of the mixture back to the pepper skillet to brown, while I cooked the trout in the same pan.  I just added S&P to the fish filets then dredged them in a 50-50 mix of flour and cornmeal with a little cayenne mixed in.  I added a little butter to the area of the pan where the trout was cooked and started with the non-skin side down.

I considered not posting this since I steamed the potatoes too long (mushy) and then didn’t get a good plated shot, but the fish and potatoes were both just too good - and the pups enjoyed the skin that I didn’t eat.  After all the fish, we had steak sunday night when Bev got back from Florida.

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Larry

11/23/12 meal date

Thanksgiving 2012 At Almost Heaven South

As you may have gathered by now, I was alone on Thanksgiving Day and had several meal options from which to choose, starting with a grilled cheese sandwich by myself through an invitation to dinner in Oak Ridge with Wende (daughter) and her friends up to driving to Baltimore for the holiday with Eric (son).

After the previous week’s seafood meal, I decided to invite my buddy Joe and his wife Carol down for a repeat.  Carol opted for something else but Joe decided to come on down.

We considered what we liked about the last meal and made this one just a little differently.  Since we also planned to winterize the RV, we spread the meal over the entire afternoon beginning with the shrimp cocktail appetizer.

Tell your friends not to order this at Almost Heaven South unless they want some shrimp.  Once again I used Ina’s cocktail sauce.  After the RV job, we had the salad course which consisted of a basic salad with bottled dressing and a half dozen raw oysters.  Similar to chicken on a salad but just a little different J

An hour and a half later we had the main course of grilled shrimp, grilled oysters, clams casino, and a baked sweet potato – we had to have something that made it Thanksgiving dinner in the South.

And finally, another hour or so later, we had Mrs. Smiths pumpkin pie with Ready Whip - not exactly mom's famous pumpkin pie with real whipped cream, but it was edible.

I know I won’t be able to talk Bev out of it, but after this meal, I’d opt to pass on turkey from now on – like last week’s flattened tower, this meal was just too good and as a bonus, it was easy to fix and clean up after.  Also, taking all afternoon to eat it negated the terrible stuffed feeling I have following the normal meal (I know, just eat less, but I can’t help myself).  I'll suggest we have an extended meal next year, even if we serve the traditional menu.

As you can likely guess, I won't be posting any Thanksgiving leftover meals - I ate the few leftover boiled shrimp out of the plastic bag they were stored in the next day for lunch J

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I hope you had a wonderful holiday and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

11/22/12 meal date

Clams Casino

Bev is not nearly the seafood fan that I am, so I’ve been eating my fill while she’s in Florida for two weeks.  When we had the shelled seafood meal, we used all but a dozen clams which I decided to make into clams casino. 

Since I’m usually ready to call it a day about mid-afternoon, I cooked them for lunch, yep you heard right, lunch, using a recipe from Allrecipes, mainly because it included bread crumbs.  With only 12 clams, I made half of the recipe shown below.

Clams Casino –  adapted from Allrecipes

Ingredients:

24 cherry stone clams

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1/2 cup minced onion (I used scallions)

1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper (I used red & orange sweet peppers)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup dried bread crumbs

4 slices bacon (Benton’s of course)

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1/4 teaspoon paprika

2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. In a small skillet, cook bacon until crisp over medium heat. Crumble pretty small and set aside. (I diced then fried earlier with the bacon for the salmon chowder)

2. Add 2 tablespoons oil and butter to the skillet, and place over medium heat. Add onion, pepper, and garlic and sauté until tender. Remove from heat, and cool.

3. In a medium bowl, combine bread crumbs, bacon, oregano, cheese, and sautéed vegetables (including the oil and butter in the pan).  Mix well.

4. Wash clams with a brush and open with a chefs knife by slicing through the middle.  I set them upright on a cutting board, positioned the knife between the two shells and sliced them open – easy peasy if the knife in on the crack (see note below).

 

5. Using a spoon, scrape under the meat in one shell to dislodge the meat and put it in the other shell half then twist the shells apart – careful not to get any of the hinge shell pieces in the meat.  Scape the meat loose in the remaining shell half.

6.  Fill clam shells with the bread crumb mixture, and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle with parsley and paprika. Drizzle with olive oil.  (I misread the recipe and just mixed the parsley and paprika in with the bread crumb mixture).

 

7. Bake at 450 degrees F for 7 minutes. Serve.

Note: Only shuck the raw clams if you're sure they are fresh, otherwise use the Allrecipes method to open - "After scrubbing, place on a baking sheet and heat in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degree C) oven for 1 to 2 minutes, or until clams open. Discard any that do not open. Remove meat from shells. Chop, and set aside."  I made them like my dad did and left the clam meat intact.  Whole clams can be a little rubbery but these were fine like this.

I rarely make an OMG good dish but this was one of them with one minor change - dump all of the liquid out of the clam or it can be too salty as a couple of mine were.  A chile (jalapeno, serrano, etc.) could have been used to replace some of the sweet pepper if a little heat is desired. 

 

I don’t remember having these since my folks left Jersey in the late 70’s, but I guarantee, it won’t be that long until the next batch.  Did I say I really liked these - what a lunch?

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

Larry

11/19/12 meal date

Smoked Salmon Chowder

I’ve been working to eat the salmon pieces I smoked the other day and decided to give a soup a try, so I went looking for a recipe and found one for Our Notorious Smoked Salmon Chowder from Boundary Bay Brewery in Bellingham, WA.   Since I believe fish chowder should start with bacon, I added it and made a few other revisions.

Smoked Salmon Chowder

Adapted from Boundary Bay Brewery

Ingredients:

4 slices bacon (Benton’s smoked of course)

3½ cups diced potatoes

2½ cups diced carrots

3 cups onions, chopped

1 cup celery, chopped

¼ cup garlic, chopped

1½ cups clam juice (I used some homemade shrimp stock from the freezer)
1½ cups white wine
1½ tsp. dried thyme
½ cup butter
½ cup flour
1 cup heavy cream & 5 cups 1% milk (recipe uses all cream)
3 cups smoked salmon, chopped (this is double the recipe amount)
1 tsp. dried dill weed  

Directions:

1. Dice the bacon, fry crispy in a heavy bottomed pot, and remove the excess grease.

2. Add the onion, carrots, celery and garlic and sauté until softened some, adding back some grease or oil as needed.

3. Add the shrimp stock, wine, potatoes, and thyme and cook until the potatoes are tender.

4. Meanwhile, warm the dairy in a small pan and melt the better in another pan, then slowly stir in the flour to make a white roux.

5. Stir the dairy into the roux and when well incorporated, add it to the vegetable pot along with the salmon. 

6. At this point, I tasted it and added S&P and decided it needed the dried dill.  I also thought it needed more salmon and added the third cup, so I ended up with twice what the recipe called for.

7. Cook a few more minutes to heat the salmon and serve garnished with a little dill (dried is all I had).

I added oyster crackers to my next bowl a couple of hours later.

I thought it was very, very good and it will be a definite make again recipe.

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Larry

11/18/12 meal date

Sausage Egg McBigDude

I don’t know what got me thinking about this meal, but maybe the salmon breakfast the other day coupled with the chub of breakfast sausage I saw in the fridge and the English muffins I recently bought.

I began by slicing the pound of sausage into 6 equal rounds and flattening them to about a 4” diameter - I just fried them all while I was at it.  After flipping, I topped the sausage with cheddar cheese so it would be sure to melt.

I had also toasted an English muffin and cooked an egg in a ring mold, leaving it a little runny and to assemble I also added some mayo to the muffin top.

It was very good – maybe even as good as McDonalds J

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Larry

11/18/12 meal date

The Flattened Seafood Tower

Last year during our annual trip to Marco Island, FL, we went to Naples for lunch at The Dock At Crayton Cove where I discovered the Shellfish Tower, which is described as "6 oysters, 12 Prince Edward Island mussels, ½ pound Alaskan snow crab, 6 Gulf shrimp, and 6 middleneck clams with mignonette, mustard and bloody mary cocktail sauce - $34.95."  I’d been looking forward to another one this year but ended up staying home with Madison rather than making the trip to Marco.

Bev had bought a couple of Living Social half priced coupons for the Shrimp Dock Seafood Market and I decided to spend part of it on the makings for my own version of the shellfish tower.  So I invited my buddy Joe over and we just hung out with Madison, made up a batch of margaritas, watched the ferrets play, and made this meal.

Mine was different from The Dock’s in three ways – I forgot to get the crab, part of mine was served hot (theirs is all cold), and mine was flat rather than in the shape of a tower.  We began with 6 cold boiled shrimp, 6 raw oysters, 6 cherrystone clams, Ina Garten’s cocktail sauce, mignonette sauce (from Epicurious), and saltine crackers.

My plan was for each of us to have 6 raw and 6 grilled oysters, but the raw ones were going down so good, we just saved 2 each to grill.

For the warm part of the meal, we had grilled shrimp (for Madison) which were dusted with Emeril’s Essense and basted with garlic butter while cooking, grilled oysters topped with the same garlic butter, and steamed mussels using the recipe from Mary at One Perfect Bite.  Here’s the oysters and shrimp headed for the grill and my plate ready to eat – I poured the liquid from the pan over the mussels, but forgot the garnishment for the plate.

We eat a lot of good grub around Almost Heaven South, but I don't remember ever making a better meal.  While I missed enjoying the Shellfish Tower at The Dock, sitting open-air and looking out on the water, I believe my version was even better as I prefer the mussels hot and liked the addition of grilled shrimp and oysters. And, as a bonus, I’m pretty sure I only had about $35 in everything we ate.  Joe and I decided we need to do at least part of this meal, mainly the raw oysters, on a regular basis.

Happy Thanksgiving To Everyone.

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Larry

11/17/12 meal date

Smoked Salmon For Breakfast

When I buy whole salmon filets, I generally cut off the thinner belly and tail meat, since it cooks faster, and freeze it separately for later smoking and use in many dishes.  When I recently smoked some salmon pieces for a friend who’d repaired my RV, I decided to smoke my small pieces as well.

I first brined, dried, and smoked them using The 3 Men’s Fish Smoking Process (my normal).  They were delicious except the thin ones were a little too salty from the brine but work fine in other dishes such as this breakfast.  This is about 2/3 of what I smoked and you can see three different colors which I believe are:  darkest - wild caught sockeye, lightest - farm raised from Krogers, middle - Scottish purchased in Portland, Me.

Before starting the main part of my breakfast meal (Bev doesn't eat fish for breakfast, especially smoked salmon), I whipped up a simple dill sauce using a recipe from Allrecipes:

Ingredients:

½ cup sour cream
1½ tablespoons Dijon-style prepared mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons chopped fresh dill (I used ¾ tsp. dried dill)

Directions:

Whisk together sour cream, mustard, lemon juice and dill until well blended. Chill before serving (I actually warmed it a little to serve).

I toasted an English muffin and skinned, chopped, and heated the salmon a little in the microwave.  In the meantime, I cooked two over easy eggs using ring molds so they’d be purdier.  This is the final product and it was very good.

I wish I’d added some fruit or sliced tomato for a better shot, but it was BBQ day and I just forgot to think about it.  I made half of the above sauce recipe and it was just the right amount.

After saying on Friday that I wouldn't have much to post about, I have one lined up for nearly every day this week.

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Larry

11/15/12 meal date

Jerk Chicken For Our Wine Club

I’ve mentioned our wine club before, which is really a social group that uses wine tasting as an excuse to get together.  This month, the host couple decided on a Puerto Rican meal (he is from there) so I (Bev is in Florida) took a Caribbean appetizer – jerk chicken wings.

I’ve used this jerk marinade several times in the smoker, but grilling is much better and will be the cooking method from now on.  I marinated them for a couple of hours and put them on the grill over medium heat.

I turned them several times and basted with the marinade each time.

When I got the skin where I wanted it, I put them on a sheet pan in a 175* oven for about an hour while I got myself ready.

I took them to the event wrapped loosely in foil and assembled after I got there.  In keeping with the Caribbean theme, I was able to salvage a leaf from our banana tree (most are dying for the winter) and trim it up to fit my plate. 

I wanted to garnish with some scotch bonnet peppers but all I could find was a bag of multi-colored sweet ones, but they worked okay and were actually eaten.

I thought the chicken ended up being just the right doneness with a still crispy skin (it got mostly lost during the trip to the party) and will use this method again when holding time is required.

I'm now responding to your comments and hope 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

11/13/12 event date