Potato Pancakes At Almost Heaven South

Unless you’re a first time reader here, you probably know I love breakfast food. For Valentines Day (see Mondays post) we had some mashed potatoes that just begged to be made into breakfast potato pancakes – and so they were. Bev, and maybe many others, add flour and/or egg to help them hold together better, but my mom didn’t and so neither do I. I just form them into patties, and cook fairly hot in a butter/olive oil mix and develop a good crust that will hold them together pretty well, if handed gently. I still had a little smoked pork tenderloin in the frig, so I diced up a couple of slices and added it to one of the potato cakes.

I’d mentioned in Mondays post that I’d gotten the potatoes a little garlicky, but after mixing the batch without garlic back in with them, they were perfect. Here they are in the skillet before and after turning – I gave the big perfect looking one to Bev so she wouldn’t say I told you so about the flour/egg addition (hey - I’ve learned a little something in my 63 years).



For mine, I just fried up a couple of sunny side up eggs and topped each cake with one.


Then I busted the yolk, spread it all over the top and enjoyed them immensely – I believe I preferred the plain one better than the one with pork. The best part is that we still have a pretty good bowl full in the fridge.

The title photo is a passing snow shower Sunday afternoon with nice big flakes. Not enough to lay, but it was pretty falling.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments.

Larry

Valentines Day Supper At Almost Heaven South

Sunday, it was a Valentines Day supper for me and my girls – wife, daughter, granddaughter, sis-in-law, and mother-in-law – am I a lucky man or what? I’ve been wanting to cook Beef Wellington for a while and thought we might for Valentines day, but we ended up with too big of a diversity of meat doneness desires, so I just grilled some steaks instead. I had a nice piece of filet that I cut into three steaks for those that prefer them and cooked a strip for Wende and me. I just put some salt, pepper and Tiger seasoning on them.

I cooked them for 2 minutes per side over direct heat then 3-6 minutes per side indirect to achieve the various doneness levels. Here they are after resting and ready for plating.


For side dishes, we had a salad ala Beverly (she takes the time to make the best salads around) and mashed potatoes ala Da Cajn Critter from Dave’s post over at My Year On The Grill. I really liked the ingredients list and they turned out very good except I got them a little too garlicky for some taste – I ran the cloves through the garlic press and estimated the amount. Wende did the mashing and sure made them look good.


We also made a bowl of plain ones for Alex and for leftovers but I ended up mixing them all together – I feel some serious potato cakes coming on.

Here’s a pic of my plate – I obviously like mine medium rare.


To complement the beef it was a choice of V. Sattui Cabernet or Zinfandel - we actually drank the Zin while cooking and the Cab with dinner.

Since this was bread day, we also had it hot-out-the-oven with dinner, and for dessert, Bev made some iced cinnamon pecan rolls using her bread and a stuffing and icing recipe from Recipezaar. I forgot to get photos, but they were tooooo good.

The title photo is a passing snow shower Sunday afternoon with nice big flakes. Not enough to lay, but it was pretty falling.

I finally got around to putting up a picture of myself with my profile – hopefully it won’t scare anyone off.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments.

Larry

Dippy Eggs Ala Larry

I hated to miss posting something new yesterday, but just had nothing to write about (never stopped you before you say), but thanks to Vickie I do today. The other day she posted over at Part Three, about cooking “dippy” eggs for her grandson every day while visiting. When I was a kid, we didn’t use that name but it was my second favorite way to eat eggs (grandma’s moist scrambled was first) and it was a regular breakfast meal, so I decided to have them for breakfast today. For me it means cooking two eggs with very runny yolks then dipping the toast (or sometimes just bread) in them – but it has to be done just so.

First, the eggs must be cooked to provide as much runny yolk as possible while still getting the whites done – or nearly so, which usually means flipping them for a few seconds rather than sunny side up, which will cook the yolk bottoms too much. Here they are in the skillet with a little olive oil just before flipping - which I did as soon as they were set enough.


While these are cooking, prepare two slices of toast – I usually use the first one for dipping out the yolks and the second one for finishing the meal (2nd piece is still in the toaster). I use unbuttered toast so the egg yolk will stick to it better. Here’s the meal ready for the table.


Once the eggs are on the plate, I lightly prick the yolk top with the fork because breaking it with the toast can result in the yolk running out onto the plate and perhaps loosing some of it. One of the keys to the process is to dip the toast into the yolk while keeping it all in the yolk area of the egg – therefore maximizing the amount of it transferred to your mouth via the toast and having none left dried on the plate.


I let a little spill out onto the white, but it was cooked perfect and could be dipped nearly through to the plate.


First one dipped out.


Both dipped out and I like to leave just a little yolk so when I cut them up it's not total egg white.

When all of the toast transferable yolk is gone, I cut up the egg and eat it with the remaining toast, being careful to get any yolk that ends up on the plate.


A perfect meal will result in no yellow color remaining on the plate – as you can see, I have just a little that resulted when I cut up the eggs, but still a pretty good effort.


I really enjoyed writing this little fun post (chuckled several times) as I got to recall the technique I developed as a child and used for the next 50+ years – yes I still do it the same way today. All I needed was a glass of orange juice and a couple of slices of good bacon for the nearly perfect breakfast meal. Thanks Vickie for inspiring the memories and I’ll be surprised if 40 years from now your young man isn’t sitting around reminiscing about your “dippy” eggs.

The title picture is from Saturday morning – we had a dusting of snow, pretty heavy fog and a light hoarfrost.

Happy Valentine Day to all and be sure to take good care of your Sweetie – today and the other 364 as well.

Larry

BBQ On A Cool Day

I had a pretty light day at the smoker on Thursday – BBQ is not a big item in the middle of winter – but it should be. It was 20* when I fired up the smoker at 6:30am and the aroma coming out of it was great on a cold morning. Wednesday was supposed to be BBQ day, but not only was it cold, there was also a brisk wind and a light snow, so I decided to wait a day – I like to BBQ, but try not to be too foolish about it. Thursday never got above 35, but it was sunny and calm – pretty good BBQ weather. I cooked a couple of butts, six slabs of baby backs, two pieces of stuffed pork loin, a fatty, 5# of wings, and a brisket for making into chili in a few days.

I cooked the brisket and butts in foil pans for the first time, as I know many competitors are doing on the BBQ circuit – wanted to see if it made any difference other than less smoker clean up. I thought it turned out real good this way. I dumped the liquid off it a couple of times to allow good bark development and I was able to collect all of the juice to put back into the pulled meat after defatting.

I cooked the brisket, a pork loin and one slab for us, and the rest for friends. I used my homemade rib rub plus Billy Bones XXX Cherry on the pork and Billy’s Beefmaster on the brisket. So, this was pretty much my normal fare except for the pork loin, which was stuffed per the request of a friend. I made up a box of Stovetop Stuffing per directions and added some diced onion. I then heated about ¾ pound of chorizo until it softened and mixed it with the stuffing. I butterflied two pieces of loin (2/3 of the whole and the rest into chops), spread on the stuffing mix, rolled it up and tied it with butcher twine. Even though the stuffing came right up to the end, it stayed in the loin rather than running out.



Then gave it a light dusting of my pork rub and it's ready for the smoker.


I’m looking after the dogs, MIL, and Alex while Bev and her sis spend a couple of R&R days in Gatlinburg, so I’m totally responsible for the meals. I smoked the wings this morning and had several left after I provided for the friends request. When I suggested them to the MIL for lunch, she reluctantly said ok. I brushed them with good BBQ sauce and heated a little in the toaster oven and she loved them – I could tell as she had to wash her hands and face when lunch was over.

Following is our finished slab and stuffed loin and a shot of my plate.



Everything turned out very good and I'll definitely make this stuffing again. I've started cooking my ribs at 225 per the recommendation of the BBQ legend, Mike Mills, in his book "Peace, Love and Barbecue" and I like the way they turn out. They take one to two hours longer, but they have little pull back on the bone and are moist and tender. I cooked and ate these dry and they needed no sauce.

Have a great day.

Larry

Tex Mex Day In Tennessee

It’s funny how a simple ingredient can drive the meals for a day. We had a quart or so of Pioneer Woman salsa left from Sundays Superbowl Party that Bev said she did not want to go to waste, so she planned a Tex-Mex dinner and I had decided on a bowl of leftover vegetable soup for lunch. I was doing meat prep for Thursday's BBQ cook so Bev was doing the cooking Wednesday. After realizing we also had tortilla chips, guacamole, and some cooked hamburger that needed to be used, she talked me into nachos instead instead of the soup – as if I needed any arm twisting. She mixed some taco seasoning in the meat, spread the scoops on a jelly roll pan, filled them with the meat, canned black beans and some cheese, and put it in the oven until the cheese melted.


She removed them added some shredded lettuce, salsa (in lieu of tomatoes), a few black beans and jalapenos, and some more cheese. The title photo is the finished product. Here they are before the final cheese addition.


She added the guacamole to hers and I ate mine on the side – it’s too good to mix with that other stuff. They were excellent and making them in a single layer ensures no bare chips. Here’s a couple shots of my plate.



Then for dinner, it was Mexican rice using another Pioneer Woman recipe, refried beans, and burritos. I nearly always have some smoked pulled chicken in the freezer, so we got out a couple of pounds along with a bag of roasted chili peppers from last years garden. She didn't have a recipe for the filling, but added the meat, green chili's, cheese, cream cheese, can of mushroom soup, cumin, S&P. After the next to last mixing, we both decided it still needed something and she added some chipotle in adobo until it tasted right. Remember - she's the real cook, I'm a recipe follower.

She stuffed the tortilla's, topped them with salsa and cheese, sided with the beans, and warmed them until the cheese melted. Then she added the hot rice to the plate, sprinkled on a little chopped cilantro and black olives and off to the table we went. I didn't get any shots of the process, but here's my plate. It was good and the MIL declared it to be the best burrito she'd ever had.


Definately a good way to keep that salsa from being wasted.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments. Larry

Store Bought Ravioli For Supper

You’ve heard of homemade Italian cooking including the pasta and I’m sure several sites are devoted to it. If you watch the food network, you surely know of Sandra Lee’s semi-homemade cooking by now. But this supper wasn’t either one of those – I did the suggesting and Bev did the ccoking.

She opened a package of Member’s Mark Grilled Chicken & Four Cheese Ravioli from Sam’s Club and a jar of Classico Marinaro and she sautéed some mushrooms that needed to be used. We did top it with some fresh grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and sided with a fresh cut up salad with choice of homemade dressing and garlic bread made from a baguette leftover from the Superbowl party. Here’s a shot of my plate.


It certainly wasn't the excellent Italian food I grew up with, but it was better than I thought it would be. I’m sure you knew we didn’t cook up homemade meals every day, but wanted to be sure by posting this. (LOL)

The title pic is a smoked beer can chicken from last summer.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments and suggestions.

Larry

Even A Yankee Can Fall For Grits

I couldn’t stand it any longer. George, over at A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse… keeps posting about cooked ground corn and I just had to have some for dinner last night. Bev had suggested the leftover pork loin from our Superbowl party and some asparagus from the frig and after George’s posts, I suggested we had to have grits of some sort. It turned out to be just quick grits with some cheddar cheese stirred in it but it hit the spot for me. His a pic of my plate and as you can see, I prefer mine to be a little runny - hence the bowl.


Everything was delicious and I had to have a second helping of grits for dessert while I pondered why I don’t have them more often when they’re so easy to cook.

But what about breakfast food you ask, fear not. For breakfast this morning, I added a little milk, some diced Czech sausage and nuked it for a couple of minutes, then stirred well and topped with a fried egg.




Definately a good way to start the day. I had fried cornmeal mush and scrapple as a kid, but never grits until I moved south - I'm now a big fan.

Wednesday is BBQ day, so I put this beer can chicken pic in the title block to get me in the mood.

Have a great day and I enjoy your comments and suggestions.

Larry