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.
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.
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.
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
As mentioned in the last post, Bev is gone so Cindy and I are having our twice/year seafood-a-thon and it began with the Greek Salmon in the previous post. We had 1½ lbs. of fish left over and she turned them into Salmon patties using the recipe from “Natasha’s Kitchen” while we had mid-March snow showers when a cold front went through.
When Pam posted the recipe for Tuscan Gigante Beans on her “For The Love Of Cooking” blog I new I wanted to make it, but I also know that Bev doesn’t like lima beans in any form – it’s the texture and also applies to chickpeas. However, she does like white beans so I decided to just make the dish with Great Northern Beans. Since I was sure we would like the beans, I made a double recipe as shown below. Click on the link above to check out Pam's site for the original recipe and some great pics.
During a recent market trip, Bev picked up two packages of corned beef and I froze the smaller one and cooked the larger one. I decided it was large enough to eat some for supper with still plenty left over for corned beef hash. The size of the ingredients is a matter of personal preference but after eating some Neuske’s Corned Beef Hash, I think I like the smaller pieces better even though they take more time to prepare.
I’ve always enjoyed breakfast casseroles and have made, and posted about, many of them over the years and lately I decided I really, really like them as they can be made then eaten on for several days. For this one, I used the recipe for Easy Vegetable Cheese Sausage Breakfast Casserole from Serious Eats and I made it as shown below.
Cindy had a birthday while Bev was in Florida so we finally were able to take her out to lunch this day and as a seafood lover, we took her to Chesapeake’s Seafood House in West Knoxville. They are one of the Copper Cellar Family of Restaurants, which is a local chain that, in addition to Chesapeake’s, includes Calhoun’s, Copper Cellar, Cappuccino’s, Cherokee Grill, Corner 16, and Smoky Mountain Brewery with locations around the Knoxville area and in Gatlinburg.
Since most of the trees around here are oak, hickory, and poplar, we don't get much bright color but our burning bushes and providing us with some late fall beauty.
When I was growing up, my mom would get at least three meals from a Sunday pot roast and I’m having some similar results with my brisket. You’ve seen my first two brisket meals (brisket and burnt ends), then my neighbors and Eliza’s dad each got a meals worth of it and then I got a couple more final meals. Following the burnt ends and burnt ends hash, we had brisket sandwiches where the sliced brisket was reheated in the broth then I had mine open faced on a burger bun with each half topped with broth, then a slice of smoked gouda, the brisket, more broth, and pickled red onions - it was delicious.
One of the things I was looking forward to from the brisket cook was making burnt ends for the first time. Normally they are made as soon as the brisket is done cooking but since that happened at 7:30pm, I was not inclined to make them for a 11pm meal, so I waited until the next day.
My desire to cook seems to be waning and both of us have long since pasted the desire to clean up the kitchen so we have decided to eat more meals out and we started with a Sunday visit to the Dockside Grill at Tellico Marina which is less than a 10 minute drive from home. After a 10am BLT for breakfast, we made it to the restaurant a little before 3pm to find just a small crowd, which was perfect. This is the view of the main dining area and the harbor from our table with lots of boats going in and out to just look around.
On Friday Morning we again ate breakfast in the main dining room as our final meal at the Greenbrier and again we ordered from the menu (link above). This is a shot about 2/3 of the room, the drapes and a chandelier.
On Thursday, my back was hurting me bad (from the bed I think) so I skipped breakfast, the croquet game, and exterior history tour done by the others. Here are some pics from Bev and Steve.
I can’t remember where I got this recipe (Perhaps from Facebook) but I wanted to try it as a way to use our Royal Red Shrimp and easily serve our Friday card group. I followed the ingredients list but I changed the cooking method quite a bit to keep the steak from over cooking. The original called for cutting it into bite sized pieces prior to browning it but I browned it first and kept it very rare.
I wasn’t trying to keep making Italian but just thought this dish looked delicious and would be perfect for our Friday get together. The recipe for Easy Chicken Milanese alla Florentine came from the “Ask Chef Dennis” blog and I made several changes to it but the original can be found by clicking on the above link. Chef Dennis Littley’s comment on the dish – “Chicken MIlanese alla Florentine is a delicious restaurant style dish that is made with a crispy chicken cutlet topped with steamed spinach and sauteed mushrooms, topped with Swiss cheese and served with a creamy white sauce. It's easy to make and oh so delicious.”
I’ve mentioned earlier that Bev and Pat are in St. Marten and oddly most of the pics she sends me look like these.
I wasn’t inspired to cook a typical Irish meal on Monday, so we ate the two dishes below instead (one was green and the other was potatoes though) for St. Patrick’s Day but I did drink a couple of Guinness Stout’s to celebrate.
We had some mushrooms and deli turkey in the fridge that needed to be used so Bev suggested an omelet, which I’m always up for. Rather than make two omelets, we just made one large one then shared it. Bev did the prep and didn't measure the ingredients which is why it says "more or less."
Cindy Salmon
Cindy made a very good Salmon dish recently and I didn’t do a post about it as it required typing in the entire recipe. The recipe for Salmon With Creamed Spinach & Parmesan Sauce came from Tieghan Gerard in an unknown magazine and it was very good.
