3/14/2021 – Kelley, Piper, and Olivia arrive this afternoon to visit for Spring Break week. Like in Houston, we smoked Pork Butts knowing they will come over for dinner. This was the second time the old Masterbuilt Smoker quit during the early part of the smoke and the meat was moved to the Web Kettle.
Continue reading3/1/2021 – This “casserole” was a great dish with the chicken making the carmelized onions very rich and the sauce fantastic. It will be one of our longtime Favorites. This recipe was inspired by the one at CafeDelights.com.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 onions halved and thinly sliced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme divided
- 2 tablespoons white wine. [Next time use or add balsamic vinegar or a good red wine.]
- 2 large cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup beef broth divided (Next time add more)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 6 large boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground thyme
- 1 cup shredded gruyere + swiss cheese mix
- 1/2 cup freshly grated asiago cheese
- freshly grated parmesan cheese for topping
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9×12-inch baking dish.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and season with salt, pepper, and half of the thyme. saute until wilted.
- Reduce heat to medium stirring occasionally, until onions are caramelized. Add broth if the pan gets too dry, and keep stirring until the onions are browned.
- Add white wine [try with some balsamic vinegar or a good red wine] to deglaze the pan. Let cook for a minute until the sauce thickens slightly.
- Stir in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Turn off the heat and let cool slightly.
- Trim thighs so they can be wrapped around the onion and cheese–see step 7. Season chicken, on both sides, with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and ground thyme.
- Spoon caramelized onions onto each thigh along with the cheese. Roll them up and secure the roll with toothpicks if necessary.
- Put the remaining caramelized onions into the baking dish. Mix in the remaining 1/4 cup of broth.
- Heat oil in the same skillet. Sear the stuffed chicken wraps until browned.
- Arrange chicken on the caramelized onions in the baking dish. These are the remaining onions that would not fit into the chicken wraps. Spoon some of the sauce in the dish over each chicken thigh. Top with remaining chopped thyme and freshly grated parmesan cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes or until fully cooked.
Next time – I thought there should be more broth. I would increase the beef broth and add the good red wine to increase the richness of the onions and broth that is put over the chicken prior to baking.
3/3/2021 – This dressing was made to go with the pastrami made for Kelley, Piper, and Olivia’s spring break visit. It was based on what we made in 2017
| Ingredient | 2017 recipe | About 2X |
| mayonnaise | 1 Cup | 2 cups |
| ketchup | 1/2 Cup ketchup | 1 cup |
| Siricha | 1/4 cup | ½ cup |
| white or red wine vinegar | 2 Tbsp | 1/3 cup |
| sugar | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp |
| garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp |
| paprika smoky spanish | 1/2 tsp | 1 tsp |
| Worcestershire sauce | 2-3 shakes | 1 tbsp |
| white pepper | 1 tsp | 2 tsp |
| horseradish | 1½ Tsp | 1 tbsp |
| dill pickles chopped | 2-3 tbsp | scant ½ cup |
2/17/2021 – This great entree is truly a Mary & Tom Original stemming from having a lot of cabbage from the garden and chicken thighs thawed out. So, we decided to put the chicken over the cabbage sliced into 1″ thick pieces, add bacon on top of the chicken, then roast it. That sounded great and it turned out that way.
Continue reading2/14/2021 – This Valentine’s Dinner turned out well with Mary raving about how good it was. It was based on our similar prep on 1/26/2016 here that was inspired by Chef Elliot. This cook simplifies the seasoning by relying on Kit Whol’s Creole Seasoning. The dish is very rich and is one of our Favorites. On 10/3/2021, we made it richer with the addition of a handful of chopped Zeigler Bacon Ends fried in the butter/EVO where the sausage had been sauteed. Also included Dixie Lily Yellow Grits and homemade shrimp stock. See * items below for all the changes for that cook.
9/11/2024 – Again this was great dish…but a lot of work.
Continue reading2/13/2021 – This was very good and inspired by the recipe by Jessica Gavin here where she provides many good tips about how to make it and what is important.
Continue reading2/6/2021 – The original recipe was a Copy Cat of Carrabba’s famous soup that we liked a lot. As we did not have Italian sausage we used Conecuh’s Hot (i.e. Alabama level, not really hot) Cajun Sausage and a small ham bone with a little ham on it. The soup was easy to assemble and was good.
Continue reading2/??/2021 – This first-time kraut with cumin was inspired by the recipe here.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 heads of green cabbage from our garden
- 2 bunches of green onions from our garden
- 1 large bunch of cilantro from our garden
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 jalapeno, seeded if less heat is desired
- 1/2 tsp. cumin
- 1.6% salt by weight
1/21/2021 – This is our first fermentation of Daikon Radishes this year. They were pulled, cleaned, and prepared today in the form of a long spear as opposed to last year when we did them as coins. This ferment also uses a 7% brine as suggested from last year’s limp coins made with a 6% brine. The result was crunchy but a little salty. All in all a success some would say but Mary said they smell really bad and I did not care much for the taste. This post was not deleted to record that 7% brine worked ok and the links below to brine calculators.
Continue reading1/17/2021 – This was Mary’s first Broccoli Cheddar Soup and it was GREAT. She said the fresh Brocolli from the garden helped. This recipe was inspired by the one here.
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