New Outdoor Cooking Patio

For several years, my BBQ area was a pop-up canopy over an area landscaped with small river rock with a walkway running around it and it worked okay for that purpose.  This rainy day shot is the only one I could find.

However, while I’m BBQing here or grilling on the deck,  Bev loves to sit with me and sip a glass of wine, which neither area is very conducive for.  She has wanted to build something more permanent for a couple of years and I’ve been dragging my feet until this happened - due to many years in the sun, a a few recent hail storms, and a big wind.

One day while shopping at Sam’s she called to advise she had bought two gazebos (internet shot below) and I needed to come pick them up – the foot dragging came to a screeching halt.

Like the dock ramp repair, we hired our contractor neighbor to handle the job, as he had the contacts for the various folks needed and could coordinate the effort.  What would have taken me months (or years) looked like this in a couple of weeks (would have been quicker with better weather).

We have some landscaping to do around the area, which is my main to-do while Bev lays around the Caribbean at the beach - she needed it.  Bev now has a place to be with me and we have an outdoor area at the house to entertain our BBQ customers and others.  I post again when it's all finished.

For those of you who may think we’ve won the lottery with all we’ve been doing lately, we’re just doing things we've been putting off, plus trying to make sure we enjoy our kids inheritance while we can - if we run out of money, we'll sell everything and move the motor home into a trailer park to live :-).

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

3/13 event date

Shrimp Fried Rice Ala Mary

For the second time this week, we had a meal from Mary at One Perfect Bite.  The first was the Southwestern Pork and Poblano Stew and this one was Shrimp Fried Rice.  I won’t bother to republish Mary’s recipe since I followed it as written except we used some snow peas we had on hand rather than edamame, which I’ve actually never eaten.  

Check out Mary’s excellent blog for the recipe and a much better shot than mine.

It was enjoyed by all of us and Bev told me to be sure I saved this recipe – she commented a couple of more times during the evening how much she liked it then told a friend the next day and gave her the recipe.  I believe it would be equally good as pork fried rice or chicken fried rice.  Thanks Mary.

Not my best side but neighbor, Steve, drove by and had to take this shot of driver and navigator hard at work at the ranch - using his tractor.

WINNING THE LOTTERY
Bev is off to Sint Maarten for her annual trip with Pat (I went last year) and I've been eating up the leftovers - so far it's been Senate Bean Soup and some kind of brisket mystery stew that I ate over leftover rice and hoped it wasn't for the dogs - tasted good though and didn't make me sick.  While digging around the fridge tonight, I discovered a 2-3 meal bowl of leftover Pork Poblano Stew and felt like I'd won the lottery - I'm easily pleased.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

3/28/13 meal date

Veggie Pizza (Almost) And A Memory (Lost)

We had a bag of raw veggies left over from a stir fry meal and we agreed to use them to make a veggie pizza based upon the “Spring Vegetable Pizza And A Memory” recently posted by Penny at Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen.  Please have a look at Penny’s site for her recipe and photos.

Bev did the cooking and began with a pre-baked pizza crust and a similar sauce of cottage cheese (what we had on hand), black pepper, shredded pepper jack, and pecorino Romano cheese.  Then she added toppings of artichoke hearts, onion, green pepper, mushrooms, spinach (sautéed), tomato, one leftover chicken thigh, and more shredded pepper jack.

My woman knows how to make pizza and this one was very good (keeper recipe) and while eating, I asked Bev where the carrots were to which she answered that she had forgotten to use the leftover veggies (the whole reason for the pizza) and had chopped up new ones.

Several days ago Jenn from Jenn’s Food Journey was lamenting that she’d bought the wrong ingredient for a recipe and I commented “just wait til your my age, that sort of thing happens every day and some days more than once.”  See what I mean Jenn. 

I lifted this from a Facebook friend and wanted to be sure you saw it.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

3/29/13 meal date

Southwestern Pork and Poblano Stew Ala Mary

Last year, I was eating green sauce nearly every time we ate Mexican food in a restaurant, but had not made any at home.  When Mary, over at One Perfect Bite, posted her recipe for SouthwesternPork and Poblano Stew and I remembered we had country style pork ribs in the freezer, I knew it had to be made – although it took us 6 weeks to get to it.

I made a few minor changes to match up with the ingredients we had on hand.  Please check Mary’s excellent blog for the recipe she used and a great photo.

Southwestern Pork and Poblano Stew – adapted from One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 pounds boneless pork country ribs - cut into 3/4-inch cubes - Note 1

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 large sweet onion, such as Vidalia, quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise

3 fresh poblano chilies - halved lengthwise, cored and thinly sliced

5 Sante Fe chilies from our freezer (since they have jalapeno-like heat, I omitted the serrano chilies and used enough to get the right total weight of chiles)

 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

2 cups homemade chicken broth

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions:

1) Properly heat a large heavy pan and add oil. Season pork cubes with salt and black pepper and add them to pan. Cook pork over med-high heat, stirring once or twice, until lightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes.

2) Add onion, chiles, and garlic. Cover and cook over med-high heat, stirring once or twice, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.

3) Add chicken broth and bring to a boil. Cover partially and simmer stew over moderately low heat until pork is just tender and broth is reduced by about half, about 20 minutes.

4) Stir in the 1/4 cup of cilantro, season with salt and black pepper and serve over rice or beside it as Mary did.

Note 1: In case you're not familiar with them, country ribs are often just sliced up pork butt.  The real ones are cut from the front end of the loin backs near the shoulder and often have bones from the shoulder blade, but no rib bones.  Mine were very fatty and it took nearly 4# to get the trimmed 2# for this recipe.
 

Note 2: Mary’s recipe calls for cooking over high heat, but that is screaming hot on our gas cooktop, so I rarely go above med-high except to boil water.

I thought it was very good and while it wasn't exactly a green sauce, it satisfied the urge for now - I forgot the cilantro garnish and lime wedges.  Thanks Mary.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

3/26/13 event date

Easter At Almost Heaven South

Deviating from our normal “any excuse for a party” mode, we decided on just a family meal for the three of us, Pat, and Wende (daughter).  We discussed several traditional meal options and, at Pat’s suggestion, opted to go with the very traditional coconut shrimp J, sided with roasted potatoes and a pickled beet salad.

After cleaning, I butterflied the shrimp then laid them cut side down on a plate in the fridge to help them hold that shape.  I used the same breading and sauce recipes as last time (wow – nearly three years ago – what have we been thinking). 

The potatoes were inspired by Ina’s Rosemary Baked Potato Wedges, except I used Potlatch (seafood) Seasoning and the grill as an oven.  After preheating the grill, I cooked them over direct medium heat until a crust developed on the first cut side, then flipped to the other cut side and repeated.  When the crust was almost formed on side two, I moved them to indirect heat to finish cooking.

Madison wanted to color Easter eggs and per her request, Bev boiled 30, but as is too often the case, Madison was ready to quit after about a dozen – some pretty nice hand painted ones though.

So Bev has been working hard on egg salad recipes and dropped some of the hard boiled ones into a jar of pickled beet juice to use on her Easter salad creation of romaine lettuce, pickled beets, pickled eggs, crumbled Feta cheese, and Caesar Dressing (sweet onion optional).

And what could be better for a southern dessert than bananas foster using the original recipe from Brennan's in NOLA.

The coconut shrimp and sauce were a big hit and, while the potatoes were good, everyone thought they needed a little more oomph.  Bev’s salad invention was very good as was the dessert.  I think we all agreed that we preferred this to any of the more traditional Easter meals – ever wonder who has decided what we should eat for the holiday meals?  I’m not playing by their rules anymore :-).

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

3/31/13 meal date

The New Guy In The Family

When we bought the new RV, Madison realized that she would be on the road a lot and traveling with her ferrets was not really an option, so she agreed to swap them for a puppy.  We found a very good home for the ferrets where they would stay together as a family and we bought a little male Maltese for Madison.  

He is a friendly, high energy little guy who appears to be very smart and is nearly trained to use pads to potty.  Here’s a few shots of the nine week old little feller – nice to have another boy in the family and this past Saturday, Madison decided on the name Bodie (bow-dee).

Nearly everything is a toy for him, especially my toes if he can get them (which I'm working hard to discourage).  While I was shooting him playing with the toys, he ran over and attacked my big toe - those little teeth are like needles so I took the shot quickly.  Fortunately he is, so far, leaving the furniture and electrical cords alone.

Interestingly, in my youth, I always wanted a Maltese and now I’ll get to experience one while Madison lives with us - so far he's a jewel.  He is getting over his fear of Coco and they were tugging on opposite ends of a toy the other day - they both like having a playmate.

And just in case you've been wandering since the patty melt post what to do with leftover roasted red pepper aioli - breakfast of course.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them. 

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

Larry

3/28/13 event date

Krystal For Breakfast

One of my favorite fast food breakfast meals is the Krystal Sunriser and for those of you who don’t have them available – “The Krystal Sunriser is Krystal-sized with a savory Jimmy Dean sausage patty, fluffy scrambled eggs and a slice of melted American cheese served on Krystal's famous small, square, warm and steamy bun.”

The Krystal company is headquartered in Chattanooga, TN and was founded in 1932 (11 years after White Castle) and operates in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee (one store each in VA, NC, and AR).

For this meal,  I went to the fridge and retrieved two leftover standard Krystals  – “a thin, 100% USDA all-beef burger patty grilled to perfection and made more appetizing by Krystal’s traditional toppings: diced onions, tasty mustard and a juicy Dill pickle - all on a square, steamy bun.”

Maybe my version will be a new addition to their breakfast menu, but I doubt it.  I began by poaching two eggs in cups and while they were cooking, I opened the burgers, topped each with a slice of pepper jack cheese, some sautéed onions leftover from the patty melts, and nuked for one minute. 

This was actually quite good and will be my new use for leftover Krystals – in case you’re wondering why we would have them leftover, it’s because Bev, just like her mom, can’t pass up a deal and usually buys the "Sackful" (12).  But in her defense, they never go to waste.

HAPPY EASTER and don't forget to consider Krystal for next year's menu :-).

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

3/26/13 event date