Caesar Salad Dressing ToTry

Posted on by October 30, 2020

A steak-house style dressing inspired by the recipe by Karen Weir here.

Ingredients

  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled, + 3 to season bread for croutons
  • ¾ cup mayonnaise
  • 5 anchovy fillets, minced
  • 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese + 3 for the salad
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice, or more to taste
  • salt to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 4 cups day-old bread, cubed
  • 1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces

Directions

  1. Mince 3 cloves of garlic, and combine in a small bowl with mayonnaise, anchovies, 2 tablespoons of the Parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, and lemon juice. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Refrigerate until ready to use.
  2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cut the remaining 3 cloves of garlic into quarters, and add to hot oil. Cook and stir until brown, and then remove garlic from pan. Add bread cubes to the hot oil. Cook, turning frequently until lightly browned. Remove bread cubes from oil, and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Place lettuce in a large bowl. Toss with dressing, remaining Parmesan cheese, and seasoned bread cubes.

Spare Ribs on the Kettle

Posted on by August 23, 2020

8/22/2020 – This cook was good with the pecan coins from our firewood in the kettle with the SNS and lower tray. Tried to follow the similar smoke in March 2017. Dry brined and shook on a good amount of 6POGS to set in the refer about 6 hours. Smoked the scraps on the elevated tray about 2 hours. This was a good smoke with tender, moist, flavorful meat.

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Mediterranean Spice Mix

Posted on by January 31, 2025

8/19/2020 and 6/17/2021 – After considering various recipes, we mixed a few batches of Mediterranean meat seasoning rubs for use on grilled chicken. After a couple of cooks, we made this, shook it moderately on dry-brined thighs, and grilled them on the little gas grill. They were very good.

As of January 2025 No. 4 below is our standard recipe. No. 4 was originally made in June 2021 that is a bit spicier version of No. 3.

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Pepperoncini Pickled Refrigerator Version

Posted on by August 16, 2020

8/14/2020 – Picked our first mess of peppers–from Mary’s Garden–that is enough to fill a quart jar. Looked around for an interesting recipe and found this one. This preparation was inspired by her recipe.

Ingredients

  • pepperoncini peppers – enough to fill a quart jar
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tbsp sea salt
  • 2 bay leaves – They are old and not much aroma.
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1/2 tbsp peppercorns
  • 1/2 tsp Ball’s Pickle Crisp Granules

Directions:

  1. Washed the peppers and stuck a thin knife through each one to allow the liquid and flavorings to get inside.
  2. Boiled the water, vinegar, and salt. Let it cool to a “very warm” level.
  3. Filled the quart jar with the peppers, bay leaves, garlic, Pickle Crisp, and peppercorns.
  4. Poured the very warm liquid over the peppers and let the liquid percolate inside the peppers. Topped off until everything stayed submerged.
  5. Put on a plastic lid and refrigerated for 3 days.

Our Sriracha Mayonnaise Development

Posted on by July 26, 2021

7/12/2020 – Made this for the first time inspired by the recipe at ChiliPepperMadness.com. Enjoyed it in wraps and sandwiches. Spread it all over one side of a 10″ spinach wrap/tortilla, filled it with chicken, red onions, cilantro, and other stuff. The sauce was noticeable but not enough zing. Could be a little hotter. The ingredients were:

  • 1 cup mayo
  • 2 tablespoons Sriracha chili sauce [The ChiliHead used 3T. Most other recipes called for only 2.]
  • Juice from ½ a lemon (about 2 tablespoons)
  • 2 average garlic cloves, finely minced
  • Salt to taste – Did not need any

7/24/2020 – Made this 2nd batch with 1 tsp more Sriracha and a 3rd clove of garlic. We liked it a lot and use often it in lieu of mayo on sandwiches and burgers. The amount of heat was fine.

  • 1 cup mayo
  • 2 Tblsp + 1 tsp Sriracha chili sauce (~17% more)
  • Juice from ½ a lemon
  • 3 average garlic cloves, finely minced
  • Salt to taste

8/30/2020 – This is a double batch and uses Rouses’ garlic-in-a-jar rather than fresh garlic. It almost filled the plastic mayo jar we are using for this.

  • 2 cup mayo
  • 1/4 cup rounded Sriracha chili sauce
  • juice from one lemon
  • 3 teaspoons of Rouses’ garlic in a plastic jar. Equivalent to 6 cloves per the label.
  • 4 shakes of fresh ground black pepper and four pinches kosher salt

Slow Roasted Tomatoes, Frozen

Posted on by July 8, 2020
Roma Tomatoes ready for the oven

7/7/2020 – This was inspired by Collen Leonard and the blog here.

Romas
  1. We trimmed the medium round tomatoes from the garden, cut them in half and removed the seeds and juice. We fixed enough to cover a ½-sheet pan with one layer; not crowded. Did the same thing with the small Romas.
  2. Drizzle liberally with olive oil, add chopped garlic, dried basil (did not yet have a lot in the garden), salt and pepper.
  3. Baked in a preheated 350-degree convection oven for 2 hours.
  4. Pack in zip-lock freezer bags and froze.

After 2 hours in the oven, and the house smelling great, they looked about 50% dehydrated, browned, and crusty; but still too wet to vac pack. The full trays of raw each cooked down to less than a pint in a zip-lock quart bags; i.e. we had four bags each holding less than a pint.

Mary’s Roasted Tomato Salsa

Posted on by July 10, 2024

7/3/2020 – Mary made this the weekend Kelley and Family and Tim and Family were visiting. We had a lot of small Roma tomatoes and some others from the garden that would have been too much trouble to can. She read recipes then made this very good, rich, flavorful salsa that was not too hot but had a good buzz.

For the updated method see Mary’s Roasted Tomato Salsa 2024.

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Mary’s Roasted Tomatillo Salsa

Posted on by July 26, 2021

INGREDIENTS

6/30/2020 – Mary made this with fresh tomatillos from our garden. It was really good.

  • 8 ounces (3 to 4 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
  • Fresh hot large jalapeno with seeds
  • 2 large garlic cloves
  • 6 sprigs of fresh cilantro
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • Salt

Instructions

  • Roast the tomatillos, chile(s), and garlic under the broiler on high until blotchy black and softening.
  • Flip them over and roast the other side. Cool, then transfer everything to a blender including the juice from the tomatillos.
  • Add the cilantro and blend to a coarse puree. Scoop into a serving dish.
  • Add the onion.
  • Add salt to taste.
  • Add water if needed for the desired consistency.

Canning Tomatoes with the Pressure Cooker 2020

Posted on by April 17, 2021

6/29/2020 – Last year’s canned tomatoes were amazingly good so this effort follows that one.

  1. Wash and trim raw tomatoes.
  2. Remove the skin in a boiling water bath.
  3. Trim any damaged parts.
  4. Strain in a colander over a large pot. The liquid that drained was used in tomato soup.
  5. Fill jars including citric acid
  6. Process in the canner at 10 psi for 25 minutes per USDA. But, from Balls web page titled Tomatoes Whole, Halved or Quartered – Pressure Canning. “Process pints and quarts 10 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure in a pressure canner”.

4/17/2021 – Opened one quart and used it in a large chili dish. They smelled great!

Baked Overgrown Summer Squash

Posted on by June 23, 2020

Ingredients

  • 1 or 2 overgrown yellow summer squash, ends removed and halved long ways
  • 2 small spoonfuls of butter per squash half
  • 1 or 2 slices of onion per squash half
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • Non-stick cooking spray
  • Kosher Salt
  • Course ground black pepper
  • Creole Seasoning
  • Grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°.
  2. Cut the squash in half longways. Scoop out the seeds. Brush the cavity with bacon grease and sprinkle with Creole Seasoning.
  3. Spray a baking pan and put the halves cut side down with chopped onion in the seed cavity. Take a sharp knife and cut 4 or 5 slits, about 1/8″ wide, in each squash half, long ways.
  4. Lightly brush bacon grease in the slits and on the skin side of each half.
  5. Drap the halves with thin-sliced bacon.
  6. Place 1 or 2 onion slices on each half over the bacon and sprinkle Creole Seasoning. Sprinkle the shredded parmesan cheese on the halves until they are covered.
  7. Place the baking pan into the oven and let cook until cheese has browned; usually 30 – 45 minutes, depending on the size of the squash.