Sheet Pan Sausage & Veggies And Blueberry Cream Cheese Muffins, Limelight Hydrangea

This beautiful shrub at our driveway entrance is a Limelight Hydrangea providing some great mid-summer blooms.

Italian Pan fried Halibut with Creamy Lemon Caper Sauce Then Greek Sausage

I had some halibut in the freezer that I wanted to use and after searching my blog, I found a recipe that we had made previously but I didn’t have the sauce ingredients so I adapted my normal lemon, butter sauce for this dish.

Homemade Corned Beef With Spices, Cabbage & Carrots And Sandwiches for Card Night

In early October, I made my own corned beef from a large brisket and posted about it in November.  When I made it, I cut it into two good sized pieces and put one in the freezer which is the subject of this post.

Canadian Bacon And An Old Friend’s Demise

While we’ve discussed erecting a more permanent cooking area, my BBQ area has been covered by a 12’x12’ pop-up canopy for a few years.  After persevering through the summer sun, the winter colds, and several hail storms, its loyal service to me was finally ended by a strong wind the other day.  The material was pretty well rotten and full of holes from hail, so I wasn’t surprised and I’m now looking for just a new cloth – the frame is still fine.

For our Christmas meal, which I took no photos of, I brined and stuffed some thick pork chops and since I had a big pot of brine and several pork loin roasts in the freezer, I decided to make some Canadian bacon – Bev had been requesting it for a few months.  I trimmed the roasts of all fat and silver skin and brined them for six days.  I soaked them for a couple of hours in three changes of cold water as my last ones were too salty.

After drying in the fridge for a day (suggested by Chris at Nibble Me This in his Canadian bacon post), I smoked them at 220* to an internal temp of 150*.  Check out Chris’s post for a good step-by-step how to - I cooked mine at 220* vs. his 250* to get more smokiness and color than I’d gotten in the past.  This is my finished product.

The first meal was an open faced Egg McLarry.

Next up was scrambled eggs and cheese sided with Canadian bacon, raspberries, and an English Muffin half.

The third offering was Canadian bacon hash, originally designed to be with par-boiled potatoes, onion, sweet pepper, and mushrooms, but Bev advised we had no potatoes (hard to believe) and suggested I use the remaining tater tots from lunch (yep, that was the entire lunch).  So I warmed the tater tots in the toaster oven to crisp them, while I sauteed the mushrooms and onions (no peppers either).  When the onions were tender, I added the halved tater tots and Canadian bacon to the pan and started a couple of sunny side up eggs.

The flavors went together very well and the crunch of the tater tots was a nice addition.  

I thought the smokiness and salt of the Canadian bacon were just right in the bacon (perhaps a little too smoky for some tastes) and while I'd like it to be a little darker, I doubt I'll get it without some sort of rub, which I don't want to add.

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

1/3/13 – 1/18/13 meal dates

Canadian Bacon

As you may recall, I’ve been trying to use up the stuff we have in the freezer and especially pork loin.  Bev then reminded me that we hadn’t had Canadian Bacon for a while and suggested we use a couple of the loin pieces for some.  I've posted this before and again used the dry cure method so for each pound of meat, I used:

1 tbsp. of Morton’s Tenderquick
1 tsp. of Turbinado sugar
1 tsp. of garlic powder
1 tsp. of onion powder 

I forgot about them and ended up curing it for eight days rather than the usual six, but it was still fine.  I washed off the outside and soaked in cold water for about 30 minutes.

The first use of it was a breakfast Bev whipped up for us - she got a little heavy with the pepper shaker.

At this point, it just tasted like brined pork loin so I gave it my usual smoking process in a 200* smoker to an internal temperature of 145*.  One of them was smoked plain and the other one was given a light coat of Head Country Championship Seasoning.

This was breakfast the next day - I scuffed up one of the eggs getting them out of the pan.

For me, smoking the cured loin is crucial for the flavor I want and I preferred the one with a little rub on it.  The next ones I do will be wet curred with more flavors added to the brine.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  It’s Pasta Time – Tortellini

Two years ago:  A Taste Test With Flounder And Crab

Larry

3/12/12  meal date

Texas Sausage And Eggs For Breakfast

I can tell the readers of my blog are nature lovers (as am I) because several commented on the loss of the poor tree, but no one mentioned the destroyed ramp and the poor me who has to fix it (LOL).

Due to it's German heritage, Texas Hill Country BBQ nearly always includes smoked sausage and, in some circles, the debates rage over who's is best.  As I've read the discussions and ratings over the years, one name that is usually mentioned is Southside Market in Elgin, so imagine my pleasure when I discovered it in the meat case at the H-E-B supermarket in San Marcos, TX.  Since we have many other places we want to visit and not knowing when we might be back in hill country, I grabbed up a 3# package each of regular and jalapeno cheddar, noticing it would keep unopened until Feb 12, 2012 without freezing.

I was shocked when I visited Southsides website and discovered the regular sausage is $6/lb (don't know about shipping) vs. the $3/lb I paid at H-E-B - now wish I'd bought more.

My second morning back home I was ready for some of my good ole scrambled eggs and decided to try a couple links of the regular sausage, which I just heated in the microwave.  The grease on my plate suggest this may not be diet food - except perhaps the Atkins Diet.

I thought it was very good and would have to do a taste test to know if I prefer it to what I make using the Czech spices I buy from El Campo, Tx - it's definitely a lot easier.  The casing is a little tough and I was glad to see Bev heated a piece using the skillet which crisped the casing some and I may have preferred it.  Rest assured it will get used in many ways.

Second of five feel goods.

Teacher Debbie Moon's first graders were discussing a picture of a family. One little boy in the picture had a different hair color than the other members. One of her
students suggested that he was adopted.

A little girl said, 'I know all about Adoption, I was adopted..'

'What does it mean to be adopted?', asked another child.

'It means', said the girl, 'that you grew in your mommy's heart instead of her tummy!'

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

One year ago: BBQ Brisket Hash 

Two years ago: Liver & Onions - Everybody’s Favorite

Larry

Blogger Party – Part Last

If you haven’t already, please have a look at the first two Blogger Party Posts.  
 

This is the one shot I got on the dock after some folks arrived.

Here are some pictures sent to me by Laurie of our pontoon boat ride.  Bev is in her usual all-dogged-up situation.

The front group - looks like folks moved around a little.

The Aucoin girls.

The captain and first mate.

The relief captain and fine docker of boats.

There were some pretty tired folks (and critters) aboard – the teenagers and Chris for sure.

From a food standpoint, Bev and I provided the brisket, sausage, pork ribs, turkey, and slaw.  I used a modified version of Chris Lily’s brisket as he cooked at Kingsford’s BBQ University and posted on Robyn’s blog (Grill Grrl).  It was modified in three ways – first I forgot to rub the meat with beef baste prior to rubbing so I added a tbsp full to my 2 cups of homemade beef broth.  Secondly, since I was cooking whole briskets, I took them to an internal temp of 190* vs. his 185*, knowing I would get drier meat on the thin part of the flat, to render more fat from the point.  I put them in a pan, poured the broth (1 cup per brisket) over them and covered at 170* per his directions.  I cooked them at 220* thru the night, then at 250* after I added the ribs to the smoker – I think the total cook time was about 14 hours.  I like his rub and broth combo and may make it my SOP.

For the pork ribs, I used the process that came out of my recent taste test, but made one slab dry and one with Big Bob Gibson’s Red Sauce.

For the turkey I rubbed it with Wolfe Citrus the night before cooking and wrapped it in plastic.  Since it was already flavor enhanced, no need to brine it, but I did lift the skin and got the rub against the meat then added a good coat all over the outside.  From this point, it was kept skin side down until served.  I like to have the spices and juice that are in the cavity have a chance to seep down through the meat.  I cooked it with the ribs at 250* and pulled it at an internal of 161*.  I didn’t eat any of it, and it looked good, but Bev said it was a little dry.

For the sausage, I used the spices I get from Novak’s Meat Market in El Campo, Tx which was just recently mentioned as one of the top examples of Texas Sausage, but I wish I’d done several things differently – but I was just wanting to get it done.  First, I liked the taste of it, but it was a little salty, so I’ll cut back a little next time.  Secondly I wish I’d added cheese to half of it and cheese and jalapenos to the other half.  Maybe next time but for just my second or third time, it wasn’t half bad.

I thought Bev's slaw turned out good (I had some pre-party) and one of the secrets was the nice sweet from-the-garden cabbage.  Her dressing was 2 parts mayo, 1 part sour cream, 1 part Greek yogurt, then vinegar,  sugar, celery salt, and black pepper to taste - no salt added at this point or it will pull the water from the cabbage.  Hope you enjoyed the party recap - sorry there weren't more photos.  Last year I think there were about 6 cameras going full time, but not the case this year - next time we need a designated photographer - assuming we can find an anti-social, tea tottling, good photographer to do it - I fail on all three of these.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Not a thing.

Larry

Blogger Party 2011 - Part 2

Thanks for tuning in for Post 2 about our Blogger Party – look back to Post 1 for the list of attendees.  Shortly after the fajitas, we served the main meal and I don’t think I took another picture, but here are some that Ross Ramsey sent me and hopefully some of the other bloggers took some and will post them.  These first three are of the fajita appetizer Chris cooked as a demo – I discussed them a little yesterday. 

Is that perfectly cooked or what?  Bev later commented how much she liked the meat marinade and the fire roasted salsa - she can pick out those different flavors.  I told her I thought the fajitas were excellent, but I don't do the different flavor thing very well, and hopefully Chris and Robyn will post their recipes.

We served the main meal meat Lockhart, Tx. style, which meant that Chris, Robin and I were at a butcher paper covered table with the meat in front of us and as folks came by, we cut all but the beef ribs to-order (brisket, sausage, beef rib, pork ribs, turkey breast) served it up on butcher paper topped off with a slice of white bread (Bev’s homemade).  Then it was back to the dock for Texas beans, grilled corn, and slaw (plates were allowed for this part).

And if this was not enough for you, there was key lime pie, banana pudding, brownies, and almond limoncello cake, provided by the Ramsey's, Aucoin's and Hofer's.

Laurie kept us going before the meal with a big bowl of her Chex mix, made with plenty of butter and garlic and we washed it all down with margarita’s, sangria, and an assortment of beer, wine, soft drinks, and tea.

I suppose it was possible to have had a miserable time, but virtually impossible to leave hungry.  I stuck with traditional Texas BBQ and ate brisket, sausage, beef ribs and turkey - pork ribs are a Southeastern thing.  I thought all of the meat was very good except the sausage was a little too salty, so I'll have to recheck my spice to meat ratio.  So my meal looked as close as what we had in Lockhart as I could get it - unfortunately, I got no photo - just try to picture it in your mind - the four meats on the butcher paper, with two hands to hold it and a slice of bread laying across the top.  I didn't have room for any of the sides, but after a rest, I had a little taste of the desserts and they were all excellent - thank you to those who brought them.

After eating, Ross gave us some great photography pointers and demonstration – it never ceases to amaze me how much talent and knowledge is contained in the folks around us all of the time.  This is a shot, thanks to Laurie, of Ross and Chris trying to train an old dog to take a picture of a bowl and have it look the same as my eye is seeing - not sure I'm trainable.

Note the water battle raging around us - as you can probably tell, things are pretty formal at Almost heaven South.

Chris is linked into the owner of the company that makes Grill Grates and arranged to get a set for a door prize, which was won by Sam Hofer after guessing the closest to how many charcoal briquettes were in a plastic container.  No way to cheat as your reaching in to count them would have been quickly disclosed by your black hands.

We finished up the party with an evening cruise on the pontoon boat – it’s never before had its maximum load of 15 people, but we didn’t sink it even though there was one brief attempt.

I had an absolutely great time and hope the others did as well – I’m concerned Chris might not have had as he was working way too hard for most of the day.  Since I was able to start my cooking the night before, by 11:30am, I was able to get all of my food cooked and in the 150* oven to stay warm until serving time, but Chris did his cooking after he got here and thanks to a thunderstorm at his house he started a little behind.  Between the beef ribs and sides and a fajita cooking demo, it kept him really hopping until we ate.  It was nice that, co-Kingsford Griller Robyn, was here to assist him with the fajitas.
 
In addition to the great door prize, Chris also made up some cool name tags, which many folks commented they really appreciated.

And to top it all off, the weather was nearly perfect as it was a little overcast, which kept the temps down, with only brief sprinkle, even though there were serious thunderstorms just a few miles north of us.

In case you’ve ever wondered what H Dog Heaven looks like, I think this could be it - great shot Ross.

After everyone else left, Sam, Meakin, Bev, and I retired to the house.  Last year, they had to leave the blogger party early to make the trip back across the mountain so this year we invited them to spend Sunday night with us.  Had they made it, Jackie and Dave Scott were planning to spend a couple of nights with us as well. 

We ended up sitting on the sun porch and getting to know each other until nearly midnight – I know I’m having a good time when I stay up nearly 3 hours past my bed time.  They had brought us the perfect gift – for me a least, a book by Cheryl and Bill Jamison, titled “A Real American Breakfast” – Sam obviously reads my blog.  The Jamison’s are also the authors of the popular “Smoke & Spice” barbecuing book, which I also have.  I'll be looking hard for meals made from leftover BBQ everything.

Next morning, it was coffee, a BLT, with or without an egg, and some fresh picked blueberries & purchased raspberries.  The BLT was on homemade bread, with Benton’s bacon, our garden lettuce, a locally grown tomato, and Duke’s mayo.  I thought about something fancier, but a good BLT is just hard to beat.

After breakfast, we toured around the grounds and talked veggies and shrubs.  Then we gave them a goodie bag of fresh pulled sweet onions, a head of red cabbage, green and yellow filet beans, and a quart of mater juice, and they headed off to Benton’s (it was on their way home) to lay in a supply of bacon for Meakin’s father – at least that’s what they told us.

I don’t know if we’ll have Blogger Party 3, but if we do, I’m already thinking about a menu – maybe a shrimp and/or crawfish boil, where you just cook it all up in a big pot or two and dump it out on the tables.  I know some folks who live in Seymour that I’m sure could supervise and assist us into a great meal – what do you think Katherine?

Please come back one more time for Part 3.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Fathers Day Greekfest

Larry

Blogger Party 2011

As I write this, it’s 5:30am on Father’s Day and I just finished rubbing the pork ribs – they go on at 6am.  I made and smoked 10# of Texas style sausage Saturday and this is it hanging in the smoker almost done.

and the two briskets are chugging away in the Stumps smoker – I put them on last night and went to bed – I love my smoker.  This is the pre-cook shot.

We still have a few last minutes things to do to prep the dock and then I hope we’re ready for a fun day.

Chris Grove is coming down around 8:30 to get his beef ribs on the Klose smoker which I moved down to the lake for this event.  This is the set up we’re using for Chris to prep and cook his stuff and for serving the meat.  The dock is down to the right.

When I got down to the dock around 7am, to fire up the smoker, this guy was sitting on the dock next door.  He was so still, he could have been a statue.

The dock and Sweetie are all ready for the big day.

Here are the finished ribs (6 slabs for a customer and 2 for the party) and a brisket just prior to adding beef broth and covering with foil to finish cooking.

Chris is on the job and has some good looking beef ribs underway and an easy up overhead, just in case.

It’s now Monday, late morning, and we’re still resting up before we head down to the lake and do a little cleaning up.  The party attendees were:

Chris & Alexis Grove (Nibble Me This) – Knoxville, Tn

Katherine & AJ Aucoin  (Smokey Mountain Café) – Seymour, Tn – Daughters Kaitlin & Lauren, and friend Courtney

Sam & Meakin Hofer (My Carolina Kitchen) – Andrews, NC

David & Laurie Myers (Big Daddy Dave’s) – Tellico Village, Tn

Ross & Rhonda Ramsey, Knoxville, Tn

Robyn Medlin Lindars (Grill Grrrl) – South Florida

Joe Howell (our good friend) – Louisville, Tn

Wende Doolittle (daughter) – Oak Ridge, Tn

Pat Whaley (Bevs sister) - Greenback, Tn, and two of our granddaughter, Reece and Riley from Fort Knox, Ky

Beverly & Larry Doolittle (Big Dudes Eclectic Ramblings) – Greenback, Tn

Dave and Jackie Scott from Kansas City had to cancel on Saturday as they had car trouble on the way here – bummer, and Elizabeth Spelling had cancelled earlier due to the illness of the friend who was coming with her.

We started the meal with fajita’s cooked up by Chris and Robin as part of a fajita cooking demonstration.  They cooked the meat and veggies and made a fire roasted salsa and they were delicious.  This is Chef Chris explaining the different meats and how to get them ready to accept seasoning, while his able assistant Robyn keeps him on track - and has a little sip of a refreshing libation of vodka and Fresca - I went yuck when she told me, but tried it anyway - I'm now thinking of buying some Fresca - already have the vodka.

These two can cook and it's easy to see why they’re part of the Kingsford grilling site.

I think this is long enough for today so please stop by again for a little more info including our overnight guests.  And by the way, it's now 5:09 pm and we're still resting up before heading down to the lake - I love retirement :-).

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Smoked Chicken On The Gas Grill

Larry

Reuben Sausage Sandwich and a Birthday Dinner.

It finally worked out that we had some homemade 1000 Island Dressing, good rye bread, and Reuben sausage at the same time. I’ve had the sausage with mustard but this was the first time with the dressing.

I just browned the sausage in a pan, sliced it in half, and made this sandwich.

It was awesome.

Bev’s birthday was last week and while I made several dinner suggestions she wanted her new favorite seafood dish – grilled shrimp – along with some fresh from the garden asparagus.

She thought the meal was very good and hers was the only opinion that mattered.

All photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

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

One year ago:  Wings And Hoecakes Ala Mary

Larry