Squash Casserole by Mary

Posted on by May 27, 2024

For this recipe Mary (I) reviewed about 6 or 8 recipes from the Food Network ap and then just went with what we had on hand.

Preheat oven to 350

Yellow Squash – I had 5 medium sized, sliced
Zucchini – 2 large – sliced
2 to 3 tbl of butter depending on the amount of squash
2 strips of bacon – I had thick sliced pecan smoked
1 medium to large onion
3 pods of garlic – minced
red pepper flakes – to taste
1/2 cup sour cream – again this depends on the amount of squash
1/2 cup le Greuyere cheese – again depends on taste and amount of squash
1/2 cup of Asiago cheese
salt and pepper – to taste
1 can of fried onion – Used for toppers of casseroles unless Kelley is around and then they are all eaten as snacks and there are none for the dish.

  1. In a large skillet saute the onion and bacon till the onion begins to be translucent.  The bacon should be cooked but not crisp.
  2. Add butter and red pepper flakes till butter is melted.
  3. Add squash and garlic. Stir occasionally  to mix the onions and bacon with the squash.  Cook until squash is slightly soft.
  4. Pour everything from the skillet into a large bowl.  Immediately fold in the sour cream, salt & pepper and cheeses.
  5. Pour this into a greased baking dish. Top with the onions and bake for 20 minutes (depending on the amount you have made) – I turned it off once it started bubbling.  It sat in the heated oven until Tom got home.

Man was it good.  Lots of leftovers which were awesome.

Aebleskiver’s from Denmark

Posted on by October 5, 2015

Aebleskiver’s from Denmark by Karleen Hester

By Maybelle Bieker Moore on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 9:08pm

My family’s Aebleskiver recipe, straight from Denmark:

1qt buttermilk
3.5 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
2 small tsp baking soda (scoop the top with your finger so it has a depression and isn’t level)
1 tsp baking powder
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites beaten to soft peaks

Mix well all ingredients except the egg whites. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks (the peaks should be there but curl over–you don’t want stiff peaks). Fold in the egg whites. Place about a nickel size amount of oil in the bottom of each depression of the pan over low-medium heat (this always varies depending on the pan and the stove). Fill each depression 2/3 full of batter, then turn each 1/4 turn until fully turned over and cooked. Our family uses either a metal cake tester or bamboo skewers for that.

It takes practice and your first several pans will probably look terrible, but it’s worth it! This is our family’s traditional Christmas meal. smile emoticon I learned at my grandmother’s side. Enjoy!

Fajitas

Posted on by October 5, 2015

10/04/2015

Very thin (1/4″-1/2″) fajitas from Fiesta sprinkled 6 hours ahead with salt. Then 2.5 hours before grilling sprinkled with fresh, course-ground black pepper and granulated garlic. Sat out to come to room temperature for maybe 1.5 hours. Coated thinly with olive oil 30 minutes before grilling.

Lite 3/4 chimney of blue-bag Kingsford for the Weber kettle.

Grilled for about 3 minutes per side. Once time was up moved to other side of grate to stay warm. Once all complete moved to oven at 200 degrees to keep warm.

Results – Flavor was good although by the third one the fire had cooled so it did not have color–kinda grey. Too salty–should not have salted both sides so heavy. Somewhat chewy for the thinnest pieces. One thicker end (1/2-3/4″) was pink in the middle, tender and was like it all should have been.

Hungarian Goulash & Potato Pancake

Posted on by October 3, 2015

Recipe courtesy of Ted Wietrzykowski, Polish Village Cafe on 10/3/15

Total Time: 1 hr 15 min
Prep: 25 min
Cook: 50 min

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

Stew:
4 cups cubed pork butt
1 tablespoon paprika
5 mushrooms, sliced
2 carrots, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 Hungarian pepper, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
Salt and black pepper

Potato Pancake:
1/4 cup ground onions
4 eggs
3 potatoes, peeled and ground, starch reserved
Salt and pepper
1 cup flour, plus more for thickening gravy
Vegetable oil, for frying
Sour cream, for serving

Directions

For the stew: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the pork, paprika, mushrooms, carrots, onions, peppers, salt and pepper in a roaster and roast 45 minutes.

For the potato pancake: Mix the onions, eggs, potatoes with their starch and some salt and pepper. Add the flour until the batter becomes thick but not too thick. Heat oil until hot in a pan. Spoon the batter into the pan and form a pancake. Fry on one side until brown, then flip and continue frying until both sides are brown, about 6 minutes.

Check the pork to make sure it is fully cooked. Strain the juice from the meat and vegetables, add to a pan and simmer over low heat. Slowly add flour into the juices to thicken the gravy.

Place the meat and vegetables on top of the potato pancake, cover with gravy and serve with sour cream.

Watch on Diners Drivins and Dives on 10/1/15. Recipe courtesy of Ted Wietrzykowski, Polish Village Cafe, 2990 Yemans St. Hamtramck, MI 48212
Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/hungarian-pancake-recipe.print.html

Steaks on the Chimney

Posted on by September 28, 2015

9/27/2015 – Bought three rib eye steaks that were 1/2″-3/4″ thick, 10″ long and 5″ wide. Cut them in half to make six small steaks that fit well within the diameter of the charcoal starter chimney. Salted with kosher salt two of them about 1pm and put them on the grill about 6pm. Coals were full grey covered and HOT. Grilled them 3 minutes per side as recommended by Meathead at AmazingRibs.com.

They were a bit chewy and not like a rib eye should be. Flavor was a bit bland as had not added fresh ground black pepper with salt per Meathead. He said the high heat would burn the pepper and make it bitter.

9/28/2015 – About 8am we salted, peppered and added Tenderizer to the other four halves. About 6pm put them one at a time on the Chimney turning them more that once and checking with instant read thermometer. Took them off at 135 degrees more or less and wrapped them individually in aluminum foil. These were more tender and better flavor. I did not detect burned or bitter pepper. Kept two in the foil for leftovers this week.

Journal: Pork–Boston Butt and Ribs

Posted on by September 28, 2015

9/19/2015

Below fairly closely follows Meathead’s recipe for pulled pork and Last Meal Ribs for preparation, temperature and timing. Used Stubb’s hot pork rub instead of his Memphis Dust.

Target is to eat at 6 pm.

Boston Butt:

  1. 8 lbs. bone-in, salted with 4t kosher salt especially into cracks and flaps then tied with butcher’s twine. Back into bag and a SS pot for 24 hrs in refrigerator.
  2. After 20 hours, smeared with yellow mustard and rubbed in Stubb’s Hot Pork Rub.
  3. After 4 more hours coming to room temperature put it in Weber kettle at 12:30 pm with pecan smoke and the ribs below.
  4. Grills bi-metal thermometer showed the frill at about 300-350 degrees. At 3:30 PM the meat was at 150 degrees internal.
  5. At 4:30 pm it still had an internal temperature of 150-160 so it was in the stall. Removed to roast pan on rack covered with aluminum foil and into oven at 350 as prescribed by Meathead.
  6. At 5:40 pm the internal temperature was at 180-degrees.

 

Ribs:

  1. One slab sprinkled with kosher salt a little lighter than 1/2t per pound. Then generous rub of Stubbs Hot Pork Rub. Wrapped in plastic and into refrigerator for 1.5 hours.
  2. Removed and let come to room temp for an hour then to the grill at 12:30 pm.
  3. Had cut the slab in half to fit the small grill with the Boston Butt. The thin end’s meat after about 2 hours pulled back from the bones. Left it on until 3:30 PM (2.5 hours) then removed both halves. Slathered with Stubb’s Regular Sauce both and put the thick half into the over at 225 degrees. Wrapped the thin end in aluminum foil and left to sit.
  4. Removed the thick end from the oven at 5:15 pm still wrapped in aluminum foil.
  5. Results:
    1. The thin end was terribly over cooked.
    2. The thick end was great.

Pecan smoked pork butt on 9/7/2015 at farm

Posted on by October 11, 2015

9/6/2015 at the farm. Smoking at 7:30 AM and took it off at 5:30 PM

Used the Great Smoky Mountain smoker starting out with Kingsford unlit around the sides of the fire pan with a hole in the middle. Dumped a half chimney of burning brickets in the hole. Put hot water in the pan and the meat on the rack two slots above the pan.  Maybe 20 minutes later added a small, short log of pecan. Within an hour a lot of coals were grey and that seem like a lot. Kept adding pecan to keep it burning and that worked fine.  Door thermometer and oven shelf thermometer both read the same with temp staying from 200 to 250. Lower vents set at abut 50% and missing upper vent was maybe 50% blocked with a scrap of sheet metal.

Great Bark but did not taste salty enough. Also did not pull apart like in restaurants.

The above was based on my memory the advice at AmazingRibs.com. What Meathead recommends and I should have done is:

  • “Trim most of the of fat from the exterior of the meat but not all of it. Leave no more than 1/8″ …  Most of the butts I cook are 4 to 6 pounds, pretty well trimmed, and tied with butcher’s twine to keep them from falling apart.”
  • “Rinse and thoroughly dry the meat. Salt it. If you have the time salt it 12 to 24 hours in advance.”   “1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt per pound of meat. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 days.”
  • Apply rub shorty before smoking. The rub will not penetrate, but the salt will. Just before cooking, wet the surface to help the rub dissolve and adhere. Some folks like to slather it with yellow mustard [instead of the water]. “
  • My roast did stall as he warns. “When the meat hits 150 to 160°F, moisture moves to the surface and starts evaporating and cooling the meat like sweat on a marathon runner. As a result, the meat temp will not rise for as long as 5 hours. It stalls at 150 to 160°F. And it significantly lengthens the cook and drives people nuts. But this process helps dry the exterior and form bark. ” I should have let it go longer and it would have pulled apart as it should have.
  • “The meat is at its maximum tenderness and juiciness when it hits 195 to 203°F (203°F is my target, but actual time and temp varies on the individual animal).”

The quotes in the bullets are taken from various pages by Meathead at AmazingRibs.com.

For his recipe for butt smoked for 2 hours then finished in the oven click here and scroll down the page to The Fast Method.

Grandma Mary’s Easter Potato au Gratin

Posted on by December 8, 2024

First made Easter 2013. This is a Tyler Florence recipe from our copy of his book.

  • 1/2 cup of heavy cream
  • 3 dried bay leaves
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme, plus more to finish – used more fresh thyme since I love the taste.
  • 2 garlic coves, chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • unsalted butter
  • 2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8″-inch thick slices
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for broiling
  • A Great Idea:  Mary added Asiago and Le Gruyere cheese
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F
  2. In a saucepan, heat up the cream with the bay leaves, thyme, garlic, nutmeg and some salt and pepper.
  3. While the cream is heating up butter a casserole dish.
  4. Use a slotted spoon to remove the bay leaves and thyme from the cream.
  5. Pour the heated cream into a large bowl with the potato slices. Mix gently to coat the potatoes.
  6. Dust the Parmesan and other cheeses over the potatoes. Season the mix with a bit of salt and pepper. Mix gently.
  7. Spoon a little bit of the cream into the bottom of the casserole dish. Then spoon the potatoes in.  (I layered the potatoes and cheeses). Level out the potatoes for uniform cooking time.
  8. Pour the remaining cream at the bottom of the bowl over the top. Top with some Parmesan and fresh thyme leaves. Cover the dish with aluminum foil, but pull back one corner for the steam to escape.
  9. Bake for 40 minutes.

Mexican Corn on the Cob (Elote) ToTry

Posted on by November 12, 2017

Submitted By: blakleyl
Photo By: Soup Loving Nicole
Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes

Ready In: 20 Minutes
Servings: 4
“As served by street vendors in Mexico. Grilled ears of fresh corn are spread with mayonnaise and sprinkled with grated cotija cheese. You’ll want to eat all your corn this way from now on.”
Ingredients:
4 ears corn, shucked
1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup grated cotija cheese
4 wedges lime (optional)
Directions:
1.     Preheat an outdoor grill for medium-high heat.
2.     Grill corn until hot and lightly charred all over, 7 to 10 minutes, depending on the temperature of the grill. Roll the ears in melted butter, then spread evenly with mayonnaise. Sprinkle with cotija cheese and serve with a lime wedge.

 

From AllRecipes.com

Grannie’s Texas Bean Recipe

Posted on by August 26, 2015

The original recipe and background below for these beans was extracted from AmazingRibs.com. Our mods are in parenthesis.

“There are a million ways to vary this recipe and every Texan has her own twist. Some start with the stripped down recipe below and add potato chunks, bell peppers, anchos, hot sauce, ham hocks, leftover meats, or herbs. Sweeteners, such as molasses, common in Yankee bean dishes such as Boston Baked Beans, rarely appear in Texas beans. Continue reading →