A Good Burger Bun

I’ve said this several times but a good hamburger may well be Bev’s favorite food.  And she likes them loaded up with stuff plus a reasonably thick burger – not like the meatballs you see served by restaurants on TV though.

The problem has always been finding a bun that will stand up to the eating process and not fall apart or turn to mush.  Recently she and the SIL had their first burger at Fuddruckers and Bev said that not only was it a good burger but the bun held up.

As it turns out, their philosophy is “You don't put the World's Greatest Hamburger on the World's second greatest bun. Not if you want to remain the World's Greatest Hamburger™,” so they make their own buns and sell them separately.  Bev brought home a bag to see how they would do with one of her burgers.

She started with burgers that looked like they had to be at least half-pounders and after I grill them, the construction process began and included the cheese added while grilling, lettuce, onion, tomatoes (the good ones), jalapeno slices, mustard, mayo, and pickle slices (I had mine on the side to cut down on the height).  This is mine and I neatened it up a little prior to attacking it - I wish I'd measured it's height.

As you can see, the bun itself is pretty thick and not for those who are on a low-carb diet and to give it a good test, it wasn’t given the extra strength of toasting.  Neither the bun crust or inside were as soft as the typical store bought buns, which seem to just be regular bread dough baked in a different shape, but both were plenty soft enough.  I can’t say if it was the buns thickness, the dough they used, their baking process, or all of them, but the bun lasted until the very end, even though it had to be mauled to get my mouth around it.  These have just become our go-to burger buns.

A tip we learned a long time ago – never put the tomato against the bun as it will soak and weaken it, as will anything wet – ours always gets dry lettuce as the top layer and it's probably best to put the cheese against the bottom half or another piece of lettuce as a juicy burger will also do it in.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

2/16/13 meal date

2013 Blogger Party Planning

With March approaching and summer activities being planned, Chris Grove (Nibble MeThis), Katherine Aucoin (Smoky Mountain Café), and our spouses met at Almost Heaven South to make preliminary plans for our 4th annual blogger party.  We could have done it by email or on the phone, but it’s still winter and every excuse for a party needs to be utilized.

It took us about 5 minutes to do our preliminary planning and about 5 hours to catch up with one another and have fun. 

We each provided an appetizer, we had some adult beverages, and Bev made the dessert of Molten Lava Cake.  For our appetizer I considered several, but Kentucky Hot Brown Bites recently posted about by Steph at Plain Chicken kept coming to the top of my thinking. 

I believe Steph may be the queen of appetizer, tailgating, and sports watching foods and I have several of hers saved.  I used her recipe for the most part but added some onion and garlic to the Mornay Sauce to make it more like the one we use on regular hot brown’s (it came from Chris).  Thanks Steph.

2013 Blogger Party

As for this year’s blogger party, it will be May 26, which is the Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend (same as last year) and we’ve chosen a Hawaiian Luau as this year’s theme.  We still have the details to work out and will publish them in April, but for now we hope you’ll add the event to your calendar and plan to join us to eat, drink, and get lei’d.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

2/23/13 event date

Back-up Power At Last

During our nearly 20 years of living down in the country, we’ve been without power a lot, once for 5 days following a 30” snow storm and we’ve just suffered through it.  I bought a small portable back-up generator at one point but it didn’t last very long and I think it’s still setting in the garage.

Then several weeks ago, Marjie, at Modern Day Ozzie and Harriet, posted about getting a back-up generator and it inspired me to take action.  I shopped around and found that a local electrical contractor that I was familiar with was the dealer for Kohler Generators and we bought one.  It is 20kw (85 amps) at full load and while it won’t run the entire house all at one time, it will run the things we really want power to – water well, refrigeration, HVAC, main TV, portable telepnones, alarm system, water well, water well – it’s the pits to be without water in addition to power.

The circuits that the generator will supply run through an automatic transfer switch which senses when power is lost, disconnects from the power grid, starts the generator, and furnishes power to the circuits wired into it.  When the power comes back on, it reverses the process plus it starts up and runs by itself on a regular basis to be sure it is working.

This is the area where it is to go - under the deck.

As it turned out, a new larger line needed to be run from the propane tank to the generator requiring a ditch thru Bev’s flowers and damage to 3/5 buried water lines for the sprinkler system.  Cute little shovel they had to dig it with.

All finished and ready to keep us powered up.

We may never lose grid power again but at least now we can travel with more confidence that we won’t come home to a frozen up house and freezers full of spoiled food.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

2/18/13 event date

Dinner For My Valentine

Bev was in Gatlinburg at our time share with her sister on Valentine’s Day and when she came home the next night we had a meal of sautéed scallops, prosciutto wrapped filet mignon, and Spinach Maria (from the freezer).

The nice sea scallops were given a light coating of oil then Emeril’s Essence and grilled while being basted with melted butter.  The steaks got a coating of oil and Montreal Steak Seasoning and were wrapped in Benton’s prosciutto which I’d soaked a little to remove some of the salt and soften it a bit.

The scallops came out just right and I nailed the steak cooking (Thermapen wins again) but will stick with bacon when wrapping in the future.  We all preferred the bacon flavor (no brainer for me as it’s my favorite meat on the planet) and the prosciutto was too dry to be wrapped without breaking – but it was worth a try.  We washed it all down with a bottle of good red wine and called it a successful valentine’s date.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

2/15/13 meal date 

Comment Responding - THE RESULTS ARE IN

After hearing from many of my regular commenters, it seems that the follow up visits to read my responses to comments are a very low percentage, so I believe a change is in order.  My new plan is as follows for the comments left by you:

When a question is ask I'll respond via email or if I think others will be interested in my response, I will leave a response in the comments section and send the asker an email.

When a comment is made that I want to respond to, I'll do it via email - it's not like I get hundreds of comments per day :-)

If I don't have access to your email, I'll leave a comment on your blog.

Thanks so much for your candid response to my question.  Larry

 

ORIGINAL QUESTION
Hi Readers - For the last several months, I've been responding to your comments and my blog says that I do - now I need a little info to help decide if I want to continue this in the future.  Please comment and let me know if you go back to read my responses with an often, usually, or rarely.  If it's rarely, it won't hurt my feelings.

Thanks .  Larry

Italian Hash Ala Big Dude

A couple of weeks ago, Roz, over at La Bella Vita, commented on my Beef Filet Hash post that she and her husband had never eaten a bite of hash.  I sent her an email suggesting a possible Italian version and it sounded so good, I decided to try it myself.  Following is what I sent to her and below that is what I did.

“1. Grill or fry some Italian sausage then slice and halve or quarter slices - depends on the size you make the other ingredients.

2. Dice and fry some potatoes - add some garlic and/or onion and/or sweet peppers.

3. When 3/4 done add the sausage and maybe some artichoke hearts.

4. Plate and top with some grated cheese (soft or hard) and a couple of runny yolk eggs and you have a feast. “ 

Italian Hash Ala Larry – serves 4 

Ingredients:

1 ea. link of mild & hot Johnsonville Italian sausage (or all of one kind if you prefer)

2 cups large diced potatoes – waxy varieties work best (I used yellow and purple)

5 cipolline onions – quartered after parboiling

1 clove garlic, minced

A few grinds of Italian herbs 

S&P to taste

½ cup artichoke hearts – more or less to taste

1 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 tbsp butter (makes for a golden potato crust)

¼ cup  Mozzarella cheese per serving (would have preferred Fontina)

½ tsp. grated Parmesan cheese per serving

Chopped fresh parsley, optional 

Directions:

1. Grill one each Johnsonville mild and hot Italian sausage link, cut in half lengthwise then into half-moons – I wanted a chunky hash and cooked them the day before then set out of fridge an hour before cooking.

2. Dice (large) 2 cups of potatoes, peel 5 cipolline onions, and parboil until just tender,  then cool (best if done the day before and set out an hour before making the hash).  After seeing the purple juice on the knife while cutting the purple potatoes, I decided to boil them separately after the white potatoes and onions and sure glad I did as they turned the water green.

3. When ready for the meal, fry potatoes, onions, and garlic in oil/butter along with a few grinds of Italian spices and S&P – I used a 10” skillet but 12” would have been better.

4. Cut the artichoke hearts to match the size of the other ingredients (I halved them crosswise) and add to the potatoes along with the sausage and cook until both are warmed through – flipping (stirring) often.

5. Adjust seasonings, then plate and top with shredded mozzarella, grated Parmesan, and two sunny side up eggs – sprinkle on chopped fresh parsley for pretty.

I rarely create an original recipe but this was roll-my-eyes-back good and would definitely be on my restaurant menu.  Roz – if you ever plan to make hash, this is the one.   Ingredients can be chopped smaller to suit your preference and this recipe made enough hash for 4 meals.  I used the cipolline onions as they needed to be used, were sweet, and I hoped they would stay together in chunks, which they did pretty well.  I decided not to add sweet peppers as it had plenty of ingredients already.  Want to make it Greek - just use lamb and Greek herbs;  German – use brats and perhaps a German potato salad recipe, etc.

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

2/14/13 meal date

Split Pea Soup

Good friend David from Big Daddy Dave had his right hip replaced and we asked what we could do to help and his wife, Laurie, suggested Thick As Fog Split Pea Soup.  After researching, most recipes I could find began with a soup mix of the same name from Bean Cuisine, which Laurie confirmed is what she used then added some ham and potatoes.  Unfortunately Bean Cuisine is out of business so I went in search of recipes, found four that sounded promising, then narrowed it to one with some help from another.  Those for thick as fog and regular split pea soup seemed the same to me.

The recipe I used was Peter Parker's Pea Soup from Ina Garten Recipe which I found on cookeatshare.com then double and modified to end up with the following.

Thick As Fog Split Pea Soup Ala Larry – adapted from cookeatshare.com – Judy Fisher
 

Ingredients

2 T. olive oil

2 onions, diced

5 cloves of garlic, minced

2 t. oregano
2 bay leaf
3 t. kosher salt
2 t. freshly ground pepper
2 lb. of green split peas, covered with water, soaked for 4 hours, drained
5 carrots, diced
4 stalks of celery, diced
8 - 12 cups chicken stock, divided (original recipe uses 16 cups)
1 piece smoked country ham hock (Benton’s)
2 cup yukon gold potatoes, diced (all we had was russet)
2 lb. center slice ham, diced

Directions

1. In soup pot, heat oil and saute onions, garlic, oregano, bay leaf, salt and pepper for 5-10 minutes, until onion is translucent.

2. Add diced vegetables (except potatoes), peas, hock, and 8 cups stock, stir and bring to a boil.  This is the pieces of hock.

3. Simmer uncovered for 50 minutes, skimming off foam and stirring occasionally to keep from sticking to bottom of pot.

4. Add potatoes and ham and cook for 30 minutes.

5. Add additional stock as needed to get desired thickness (I added 2 more cups for a total of 10). Adjust seasonings before serving.

This is my first of two bowls - I needed to add the whole 12 cups of broth as it was a little too thick.

To my knowledge, I’ve never made split pea soup and only eaten it once when my son made it.  I’d bought the peas several months ago in anticipation of making it and Laurie’s request finally provided the impetus and I’m glad it did.  I don’t know if the Thick As Fog mix contains other flavors or if it’s just thick soup which is what I assumed.  I can’t say for sure this is really Thick As Fog Split pea Soup but what I can say is that it is thick split pea soup, I loved it, and will make it again - Bev said not to bother for her.  Laurie advised they added a little Hot Shot Pepper Mix to theirs, which I believe I’ll do to ours as well. 

One of the recipes I looked at topped their soup with a couple of Gouda Crostini’s which sound like a great idea but we had neither the bread nor the cheese - next time for sure.

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

2/2/13 meal date