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

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

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

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

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