Category: Recipes

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Touching Serendip

In a happy accident, a couple of bottles of my most recent sparking hard apple cider turned out as apple cider vinegar. Just those two. *shrugs* I’m fine with it, but I kinda wonder why just those two, while all the rest have been as expected.

Still, tonight’s dinner:

Sweet and sour pork chops and veggies cooked in a rice cooker used as an “instapot.”

Chops seasoned with my fav seasoned salt, minced garlic and pepper.
Mixed veggies (red and yellow bell pepper, broccoli, snow peas, green beans) in a mild soy-based sauce.
Sauce added: unmeasured amounts to taste: my apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, sucralose, corn starch.

Was, according to my Wonder Woman, juuuuust sweet enough to offset the vinegar and soy.

*whew!* Experimental cooking that turns out delish is da bomb. (When it doesn’t turn out so well, it just bombs. *heh*)

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Tasty “Keto”

Sorta soda bread recipe with ~5 net carbs per slice. Tasty, nice texture. Good as muffins, too. Add a tablespoon of psyllium husk powder for a wee tad more bulk, and can mess around subbing in a tablespoon or so of chia seeds (well soaked in the warm water) for one of the eggs. *shrugs* The soaked chia seeds become a bit “gummy” and help hold the bread together. Can use less and not cut down on the egg, as well.

Also, make sure all ingredients, except the warm water (~115°F) at 85°-90°F before combining. It just works better that way. Also, 4½ teaspoons baking powder? *meh* 1½ teaspoons and one tablespoon. Faster and easier, IMO. 3 measuring steps as opposed to five. (One tablespoon = 3 teaspoons.)

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A Teensy-Tiny Piece of History

Back in 1959, in observance of Alaska’s new statehood (1958), the Southern Baptist Convention sponsored an evangelistic effort, partnering with existing SBC churches in Alaska. My dad obtained sponsorship from the baptist church in Seward, Alaska, along with its partnering churches in the lower 48, and spent a month as part of evangelistic meetings, clinics on church music and church education, and in personal evangelism.

I have copies of letters between him and the sponsoring church, copies of various agendas for meetings, and a very special “cookbook” compiled by students of Shishmaref Day School, Shishmaref, Alaska.It’s a little ~4”x5” typewritten booklet with a hand lettered cover that includes such “recipes” (descriptions of preparation, no amounts given; kinda like my “Not a recipe” recipes I post here now and then *heh* like

Eskimo Ice Cream

  • grate reindeer tallow into small pieces
  • Add seal oil slowly while beating with hand
  • After some seal oil has been used, then add a little water while whipping
  • Continue adding seal oil and water until white and fluffy
  • Some berries can be added to it

It might be difficult to come by reindeer tallow and seal oil, here in America’s Third World County™, but it’d certainly be “keto friendly.” 🙂

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Once Again, Xmas Stew

This year again, a Xmas meal I make every now and then: Green Chicken (or Pork) Stew. It’s a chicken (or pork) posole made with the following ingredients:

Cooked and cubed chicken or pork. Most folks would probably go with boned and skinned chicken breasts for the chicken, but that’d be a mistake. Use chicken breasts, if you must, but cook them skin on, bone in. Chicken thighs would be even tastier. Bone ’em when you cube ’em. Whether using pork or chicken, be sure to season the meat with salt, pepper, and freshly ground cumin seed (use a coffee mill or a mortar and pestle).

Sauteed chopped onions and minced garlic (use ghee or the rendered fats from the chicken or pork).

Green enchilada sauce and chopped green chiles (your choice of green chiles; everyday Xmas Stew can be fine with the canned stuff)

Condensed chicken or mushroom soup

Cannellini beans

WHITE hominy

A can of Rotels™

Dump the prepared ingredients in a crockpot on low for six or more hours. Served with baked corn tortillas, either whole or cut into wedges before baking.

You notice I have not mentioned amounts. That’s because it all depends on how much you want to make and how many you intend to feed, as well as how meaty/beany/corny/spicy you find you prefer.

Baked corn tortillas: Brush corn tortillas lightly with ghee, coconut oil or [BEST!] bacon grease. Place on middle rack in oven and bake at 375°F for about eight minutes. Ovens vary, so watch it and mod the time to suit your oven. If baking wedges, place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 375°F for about seven to nine minutes–again, watching them. Could be ten for either, depending on your oven, etc.

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Nutritious and Delicious; Tastes Just Like (Pre)Chicken

Breakfast for dinner:

2 people
5 eggs scrambled with about a tablespoon of heavy cream and
1/2 pound “hot” sausage and
1/2 diced onion
1/2 C shredded provolone/mozzarellamix

Diced jalapeno on mine.

Filling, delicious, low-carb (protein-sparing) fare.

(Confession: 1/2 of the way through my plate, I decided the jalapenos, though adequately sinus-clearing, were too mild, so added some habanero salsa.)

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In Which I Adulterate The Holy Brew in Search of an ‘Efficiency Breakfast’

I am amused by how quickly I have developed a taste for my recently-discovered “efficiency breakfast” (crème brûlée-flavored protein powder in coffee, with some heavy cream added for nutritious fat). After my second try, it’s become my go-to quick breakfast. High protein, few carbs, good fat and COFFEE.

While it’s great to have eggs, bacon, sausage, and maybe a wee bit of fruit or berries for breakfast, this does well to fuel the body properly. I do wish the soluble fiber I have available didn’t clump in hot liquids, because I’d like to add some of that, but this’ll do for now.

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Easy-Peasy, Quick and Filling

Because I’m lazy, I like one pan meals. Here’s one we had this evening. Good eats. Note the amounts given, and adjust however you like. *heh*

Take

Some smoked “cocktail sausages”
Some cubed and cooked (boiled) potatoes
Some chopped bell pepper and onion
Some fresh or frozen green peas or other veggie you like (I’ve done this dish with other meats and other veggies; tonight was green peas)
a few eggs, beaten together with some *heh* heavy cream
Some shredded cheese. Tonight I used a packaged cheddar/monterrey jack mix
Some freshly ground pepper

Start warming the lil sausages in a medium-heat pan (~285F). They’ll release enough of their oily goodness to saute the onions and bell pepper (other peppers, garlic, etc. are also good in this–use what you have and like). add the potatoes and let them start browning. Dump in the peas (or other veggies), top with cheese and then pour the beaten egg/heavy cream mixture over it. Cover and let it go for five minutes or so before you turn the heat down a bit. Takes about 15 minutes.

If you started this in a cast iron pan, you could put it in a 325F oven for that 15 minutes, uncovered, instead of leaving it on top of a burner. Nice browning of the cheese and a wee tad more “crusty” from the potatoes. Also good.

Different tastes, different ingredients, different temps and pans, as you wish. It’s still fritata-like delish-dish.

Wanna use leftover hash browns instead of cubed potatoes? I don’t know where one could get leftover hash browns, but sure. It’d be good. Leftover rice instead or potatoes? Also good. Easy-peasy, quick and filling. Delicious. Just Good eats.

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Comfort Food

Although I’ve made the meal for years, last night, my Wonder Woman said, “I’m starting to view this as comfort food.” *huh* For me, it’s always been comfort food, an imitation of a meal my mom used to make on rare occasions back when I was just a lad.

Packaged chicken pot pies
A sort of mock Waldorf salad.

That’s it.

I miss the aluminum pans packaged chicken pot pies used to come in. They were so very useful for many things. Still, packaged chicken pot pies are pretty standardized, nothing to see there, really, but the salad?

OK, “mock Waldorf” because it includes apples and walnuts. The rest is shopped or shredded cabbage, chopped (almost minced) celery and/or celery seed, a can of fruit salad (drained), and mayonnaise. The amounts of cabbage, apple, walnut, etc., are variable, so the amount of mayo–added last–is too.

Last night, a couple of differences:

I just used a package of pre-shredded coleslaw mix that included julienned carrots.
Had no celery. Reached for the celery seed and started shaking some on (“measuring” b’guess-n-b’gosh) and realized I’d grabbed celery SALT. *meh* It ended up all right.

And finally, after decades of making this meal, it’s “comfort food” for my Wonder Woman. So, I have accomplished something in this life.

😉

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Quick Salsa Fresca “Notarecipe”

This is to my taste. YMMV, so adjust amounts/ingredients at will.

Salsa fresca is one of those super easy-peasy things to make that really add a lot to meals and snacks.

Three or four ripe roma tomatoes, chopped or diced, depending on your preference. Size and amount of tomato suiting your taste rules here.

Three or four jalapeño or serano peppers, diced. (Again, to taste–other capsaicin-laden peppers can be substituted, if you wish.)

1/2 yellow onion, chopped or diced–your preference.

Two to four minced cloves of garlic.

Lime juice (to taste).

You may notice I do NOT use any cilantro in my salsa fresca. That’s simply because fresh cilantro tastes stongly like soap (cooked cilantro, perhaps a bit less so, but still. . . #gagamaggot).

Just mix the stuff up and chow down, or store it in a well-sealed container and use it within a day or two, at most.

Bonus: just add this to some coarsely mashed avocado for semi-instant guacamole. Yum.

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Is this “slaw” or what?

I grew up with the following salad as part of a comfort meal that included packaged chicken pot pies, though my mother has, for the past ten years or so, disavowed any knowledge of this salad. . . *heh* I’ll give ingredients only–except for a couple of items–and note that you should simply balance the other ingredients against these to your taste.

1 – 14.5oz can of “fruit cocktail,” drained. (Sip the “drainage” or use elsewhere, if you want.)
1 – apple, chopped
Some coarsely chopped walnut
Celery seed, or celery seed and chopped celery.
Chopped green cabbage
Mayonnaise or “Miracle Whip” type salad dressing (use mayonnaise *heh*)

Combine and then place in the fridge for a few hours. I serve it, as per the childhood “comfort food meal,” with chicjen pot pies, whether home made or packaged.