Cocktails for Blogger Party # 4

For our luau blogger party, my cooking was all done when the guests arrived so I served as bartender and had a pre-made assortment of island drinks.  After a little research, I decided on four for our luau – Blue Hawaiians, Mai Tai’s, Pina Colada’s, and Margaritas (from the Mexican side on the islands).  This guy is pretty serious about his work.

I used my normal recipe for margaritas and pina coladas.

Margarita

8 oz tequila

4 oz triple sec

18 oz mix (Mayson's Margarita Mix, water, Sprite)

Dash powdered egg white (for froth and smoothness)

Lime wedge squeezed into drink (after rubbing rim)

Add all ingredients to a blender and spin for a few seconds to combine and froth the egg white.  Pour into a margarita glass full of ice with or without a salted rim.  To salt the rim, rub with a lime wedge and dip in kosher salt.

Pina Colada

2 oz pineapple juice

1 - 1½ oz cream of coconut (depends upon rum being used and level of sweetness desired)

1 oz light rum

1 oz coconut rum

Pineapple wedge & maraschino cherry for garnish

Mix well and stir again before each pour as the ingredients separate.

Can use all of one type rum depending upon taste and can be served on the rocks or frozen.

This not the classic Mai Tai recipe, but it utilized the liquor I had on hand.

Mai Tai - Allrecipes

1 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger spiced rum

1/2 (1.5 fluid ounce) jigger coconut-flavored rum

1 teaspoon grenadine syrup

3 fluid ounces pineapple juice

2 fluid ounces orange juice

Orange and pineapple for garnish

Stir ingredients and pour over ice or shake with a cup of ice and strain into glass of fresh ice.

The Blue Hawaiians were provided by guests Joel and Holly using a recipe from Drinks Mixer.  Photo lifted from Penny's blog (Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen).

Blue Hawaiian 

1 oz light rum

2 oz pineapple juice

1 oz Blue Curacao liqueur

1 oz cream of coconut

1 cherry

1 slice pineapple

Blend rum, blue curacao, pineapple juice, and cream of coconut with one cup ice in an electric blender at high speed. Pour contents into a highball glass. Decorate with the slice of pineapple and a cherry.

The drinks were a big hit and many who had brought their own wine soon switched, perhaps because the bartender was friendly with his customers - I forgot to set out a tip jar.

We had a gallon each of Pina Colada's and Margarita's (plus I made a second half gallon of margs), two quarts of Mai Tai's, and the container of Blue Hawaiian's and there was very little left over.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

5/26/2013 event date

Lunch At Lake Lure

During our blogger party, we arranged to drive over to Lake Lure, NC while RVing in Franklin, NC to see Penny (Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen blog) and David’s place at Lake Lure - more to come on the RV trip.  For some reason, I thought Lake Lure was more in the flat part of NC, but found it to be just east of the Eastern Continental Divide and still very much in the mountains.

They have built themselves a great hideaway right on the lake and while Penny has shown the kitchen on her blog, I wanted you to see it from the outside.  Not too shabby, huh.

This really belongs to a man who earned his money the old fashioned way by inheriting it, and he also built these places for his kids.

Actually, their place is much better than these monstrosities as they have made themselves a cozy nest in which to enjoy retirement.  They began with a 600 Sq. ft. weekender in 1984, while living in Greensboro, NC. - it is now the lower floor guest quarters with 3 bedrooms and living area.

It has a screened porch, complete with two twin- bed sized swings built by David.  I asked Bev sit on one so you could see the size of them - talk about a place the do some serious laying around after a hard day of fishing or blogging.

Next they built a very nice one bedroom apartment to live in while they expanded the original structure and it is now a rental property for them.  To expand the main structure, they added a second story composed of a bedroom, living room, kitchen, baths, deck and screened porch.  This is the living room complete with custom built fireplace and book shelves.

Next is the hub of the cottage – the kitchen area and our hosts.  We all loved the area and especially the stone floor.

This is the screened porch from the deck (off the living room) and from the inside – it’s off the kitchen.

This is the view from the deck with a similar one from the porch.

We arrived at Lake Lure about 1 pm and after a house tour accompanied by Mimosa’s and Bloody Mary’s (excellent job David), they served us lunch which Penny had advised would be Sloppy Joe’s.  I was expecting sandwich’s and chips but they laid on a real spread of the sandwiches, baked beans, corn casserole, slaw, fresh fruit, and brownies.  It was all delicious and I hope they had another shift of eaters coming in to help with all of the food - they definitely know how to do lunch at Kafé Klett.

I didn’t take a single food shot and don’t know if Penny did or not, but trust me, it looked as good as it tasted.  After lunch we toured the lake on their pontoon boat - this is their place from the water complete with 2 stall boat house and my kind of lawn. 

During the ride, David gave us an interesting history of the development of the area.  It was built by a fellow in the late 1920’s with the intention of it becoming a big time resort for the rich and famous, complete with its own hydro-power.  For more history about the area, check out these sites: Link 1 & Link 2.  

After the boat ride and David towing some stranded boaters back to his dock for a jump-start, we headed back to Franklin.  Thanks for a great afternoon Penny and David at your Lake Lure Cottage and we’ll sure look forward to the next time.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

6/4/2013 event date

Enchiladas For Breakfast

As I mentioned in my post about enchilada suppers, I had some for breakfast as well – check out the previous post for how we ended up with the enchiladas.  Since we had none of Maria’s sauces for the first meal, Bev just topped them with salsa and pepper jack cheese prior to nuking then added a couple of poached eggs.

For breakfast meal two after we got the sauces, Bev added the red chile sauce to one end and the salsa verde to the other along with some cheddar cheese.

While shaped differently, it was similar to a rolled up Huevos Rancheros in taste.

I’d have a tough time choosing between the supper meal topped with lettuce and tomatoes or the breakfast meal topped with eggs so I’m looking forward to the next pan of enchiladas so I can continue experimenting.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

Mid-May, 2013 meal dates

Post Blogger Party Breakfast

For our blogger parties, Chris (Nibble Me This) and I have provided lodging for some of the guests who need to spend the night or leave the event too early to drive home and, as last year, the Klett’s and two Hoffer families bunked with us.  A month ago, Penny Klett posted on her Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen blog her husband David’s recipe for shrimp and grits and after I commented how good they looked, Penny offered to make them for breakfast while they were here.  I hurt my fingers typing the positive reply so quickly.

The others may post about this meal as well, but I wanted to do one so I could brag about their food. 

Sam (My Carolina Kitchen) brought a very nice bowl of mixed fruit and Penny also brought scones, chocolate biscotti, and another delicious little pastry.

For his Low Country Cooking demo, Chef David took over the kitchen assisted by sous chef Meakin and another assistant, Penny, while Sam assembled the fruit.  

As there were plenty of bodies in the kitchen, the rest of us just stayed out of the way and advised as to where things are located.

Soon, there was a pan full each of cheesy grits and shrimp in gravy.

I had jokingly said I might have to top my shrimp and grits with a fried egg and Stu and David quickly decided they’d try one as well – as always, everything’s better with an egg.

Let's eat.

What a treat is was for Bev and I to again turn the kitchen over to friends, sit back, and watch them work their magic – then get to enjoy the delicious meal with them. The Hoffer brothers did the same thing for dinner the previous year and I'm beginning to think we may should do this once a month.

Photos, courtesy of Meakin's camera, best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

5/27/2013 meal date

Pork & Pork For The Blogger Party # 4 - News Article Link Fixed

Our fourth blogger party took place on May 26, and we had good weather, a good turnout, and of course, plenty of good food.  I’d asked Meakin Hoffer to be the event photographer and Sam Hoffer (My CarolinaKitchen) to do the official post for it, so mine will just be about the food I provided and the cocktails we served (later post).  These are all Meakin's photos which is why they look better than my normal ones.  Check out Sam's blog for her post.

Chris (Nibble Me This) served as the menu coordinator for the event and suggested I smoke an appetizer of pork ribs using the recipe from Chris Lily of Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ and TV BBQ show fame.  I began with his recipe for Sweet and Spicy Pineapple Ribs posted on line at Grilling.com, then amended  the marinade based upon new information in his cookbook as follows:

Marinade

1½ cups pineapple juice

1 T. dry rub

1½ t. balsamic vinegar

1½ t. minced garlic

Finishing Glaze – I used Tennessee River Cranberry Delight BBQ Sauce without changes for my glaze. 

Even though they were a little over-cooked by competition standards, the falling-off-the-bone-tender ribs (which most people prefer) were a hit and I’d use this recipe again.

Kalua Pork

Per Wikipedia - "Kālua is a traditional Hawaiian cooking method that utilizes an imu, a type of underground oven. The word kālua, which literally means "to cook in an underground oven", may also be used to describe the food cooked in this manner, such as kālua pig or kālua turkey, which are commonly served at luau feasts."  Interestingly, the vast majority of on-line recipes I saw were for a crock pot.

We discussed cooking a whole pig, but even in a smoker, it was way more work than I wanted to do plus being three times the cost of pork butt.  After lots of online looking, I discovered that Kalua Pork was pretty much just salt for seasoning and cooked with banana leaves and Koa wood.  This is what I did:

1. Remove nearly all surface fat, score ¼“ deep in a diamond pattern and rub about 1½ T. of sea salt over the roast (closest I could get to Hawaiian salt). 

2.  From a trial run using pork loin, I found that the fresh banana leaves were too crisp to easily wrap the meat without splitting so I cut them that morning and let them lay around the house all day to soften up.

I wrapped the butts with banana leaves, leaving gaps for the smoke to get in, and secured them with kitchen twine.

 

3. They cooked for about 10 hours in my Stumps smoker using Stubb’s charcoal and banana tree wood (it’s not exactly wood though) for smoke.  When they got to an internal temperature of 175*, I wrapped them in foil and cooked to around 203*, then pulled and put them in a cooler until meal time (about 3 hours).

4. To serve, I removed the foil, the leaves, and placed the whole butts on a pan lined with a fresh banana leaf for folks to pull off a hunk to eat.  It helps to have a banana tree (hardy variety - no fruit) when you're throwing a luau.

The pork butt was tender, moist, and very tasty, but it was basically just roast pork with a little bit of a unique flavor – very different from my normal BBQ but I enjoyed it and we have plenty of leftovers for other dishes (I cooked three butts and we only ate one and one half).

Want to see something really cool, check out this article about Chris and our blogger parties in the May 26 addition of the Knoxville paper.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

5/26/2013 meal date

Enchilada’s Several Ways

The new header photo, courtesy of Meakin Hoffer, is Madison and Bodie chilling out at the blogger party.  

We have a new house cleaner who is a young Mexican lady as the adjoining Monroe County has a fairly large Hispanic population, many of whom work at the nearby Monterrey Mushroom plant.  Maria helps support her family by making and selling Mexican food and being one of our favorites, we were anxious to try our first sample of various meat burritos.

We really enjoyed her burritos, so the next week, we asked if she could make us a pan of chicken enchiladas and gave her a pan to make them in.  I was expecting a single layer of enchiladas in the pan covered with sauce and cheese and ready to bake, but what we got was a pan FULL of them and another with the toppings. 

Everything was already cooked and ready to be assembled and heated in the microwave, per her suggestion.  Her standard process is to heat the enchiladas and potatoes and carrots, then top with lettuce, tomato and cheese.  For our first version we just topped them with some cheese and salsa and nuked to warm.

Version two was as Maria did them except we topped the enchiladas with pepper-jack cheese and salsa before nuking and I reheated the potatoes and carrots in a pan with a little olive oil then we topped with lettuce, tomato, and cheese.

We then asked if she made sauces and she brought us a quart each of red chile sauce and salsa verde.  We decided to try both and added red to one and green to the other along with cheddar cheese prior to nuking.

I’m glad she brought the whole pan full as we ate them a lot rather than cook as we got ready for our wine group and the blogger party. They were delicious and we’ll be ordering another pan full soon plus trying some of her other offerings.  The red chile sauce was very good but a little warm, so we went easy on it, and the salsa verde was outstanding.  Stay tuned for a couple of breakfast meals - of course.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

5/18/2013 - 5/25/13 meal dates

Montreal Smoked Meat - Pastrami With A Twist

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY AND THANKS TO THOSE WHO SERVE OR HAVE SERVED IN OUR MILITARY

Awhile back on the Meatwave (competition BBQ team) site, they posted a recipe for Montreal Smoked Meat which they said “is, more or less, Montreal's answer to pastrami.”  It sounded very similar to pastrami but they described it this way “In contrast to the overpowering spicy pastrami rub, the diverse Montreal seasoning created a more nuanced flavor that let the meat stand out, while still providing a robustness.”

Rather than reproduce their recipe here, which I followed except for the smoking process, please check their site for complete instructions and some excellent photos.  I used the Stumps Smoker preheated to 225*, and added the brisket fat side down - ready for the smoker.

I cooked it overnight to an internal temp of 177* using a remote probe thermometer – at this point I removed it from the smoker, sampled, let it cool, wrapped, and stuck in the fridge for use later.

During our recent RV trip, we decided to have it on a sandwich for supper one night, using bread from the Old Mill Pottery House and pickles from Brooklyn Brine Co., along with spicy mustard and Swiss cheese.  

I cut off about half of the brisket, let it come to room temperature, and steamed it for about an hour. 

I sliced as thin as I could with a dull knife, built the sandwich (except for the pickles), and fried in butter to a golden brown.  As you can see, it made a beautiful sandwich.

Unfortunately, it was way too salty even though I followed both the curing and soaking directions to the letter.  I'd hoped my salty sample at home was due to it being the thin end of the brisket.  I'm going to try soaking it again and see if it can be improved.  It’s always good to try new things, as it could have been magnificent, but I’ll stick to my old process for pastrami from here on – it was a purdy sammie though, wasn’t it? J

Sorry I'm so behind on reading and commenting on your blogs, but with readying for the wine group on last Wed and the blogger party today, it's been pretty hectic around here.  Will hopefully be better this week.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

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

Larry

5/14//13 meal date