Cinnamon Roll Adventures

 

I finally got a chance to make some cinnamon rolls again. This time, I made them using the recipe from King Arthur Flour's website. The recipe I used included the tangzhong method, in which part of the flour is cooked with milk or water (or both) on the stovetop until it thickens. This method results in softer breads, and helps them to stay fresh a little longer than other methods. I love to use this method for rolls and loaves of bread, so it was no issue to use it for cinnamon rolls. 

The rolls were very good. The dough was very easy to work with after mixing, and especially after the first rise. The only thing I wasn't happy about was the cinnamon, so I embarked on a cinnamon hunt to find some cinnamon that was just a little more potent. I never gave it a lot of thought before because I don't use it that often. Besides cinnamon rolls, I use it in oatmeal once in a while, spice cake, and of course in November for pumpkin pie. 

So I gave myself a crash course on cinnamon. I'll have to do a post on cinnamon in the future because I am supposed to be reporting on rolls here. 😆 Since I made these rolls the other day, I have purchased Ceylon cinnamon and Saigon cinnamon for future batches, (which will be in the near future for sure). 

The next batch I'm planning will be made using my grandmother's kolache dough recipe. She used her kolache dough for cinnamon rolls too. Her cinnamon rolls totally rocked! I haven't used her recipe in a while. Last year I made a Keto version of cinnamon rolls and a Swedish version. I think cinnamon rolls should be made more than twice a year, and I am going to get into the habit of making them more often. 

I do recommend the King Arthur recipe. Try it out when you get a chance. Don't be intimidated with the tangzong method. It was weird for me when I first started using it, because I had only cooked flour when making choux pastry in the past. I was just used to using standard bread recipes, so it took a little adapting. I don't use it for all breads, but I do use it pretty frequently now. Click here for the King Arthur cinnamon roll recipe. 

The only thing I changed in the King Arthur recipe was the icing. I didn't use theirs. I made one with cream cheese using 1 stick of butter, 1 brick of cream cheese, 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tsp. of cinnamon, and just a bit of milk or cream, (depending on what thickness you prefer). 

Oh! I almost forgot to mention: KA's recipe doesn't have any sugar. I did add 2 tsps. of sugar, but only to feed the yeast and allow it to bloom before I mixed the dough. 

The cream cheese icing I mentioned above works really well with the KA recipe. The dough isn't sweet, and the brown sugar used for the filling along with the cream cheese icing I mentioned above gave the rolls a very nice balance. They just needed more cinnamon. 😁

Fun with Food in Fiction

 

Larry Underwood Eggs

Food in Fiction

I'm sure I'm not the only person on Earth who enjoys recreating a meal from a book or a movie. I think it would be great fun to have a club dedicated to recreating fictional meals. I'm sure clubs like this exist somewhere, too, but not here, unfortunately. That would be the ultimate book club - have a little potluck with the meals in a book when it's time to discuss the book (assuming that there is any food in the book, or maybe the rules would be that books with meals must be chosen for the club to read. Yeah, that's better). 

One simple dish I like to make sometimes is "Larry Undewood Eggs," as in the photo above. Minus the Debussy playing in the background as it was in the book. (The Stand.)

There are quite a few food items or meals mentioned in that book. Mother Abagail's fried chicken that she made for the guests that she knew were coming, the pork chops, the ears of fresh corn; Frannie's strawberry-rhubarb pie; Nadine's Stroganoff casserole; the meals Nick made for his prisoners, so many options! (Yeah, but we can leave out Lloyd's desperate meal of rat tartar and Flagg's rabbit, lol.)

I also like to "take part" in Dennis and Arnie's leftover Thanksgiving turkey ritual in Christine. The scene in the book was something that harkened back to their boyhood days and made Dennis realize he needed to take action to help his best friend. So I'll have leftover turkey on Wonder Bread with mayo...sort of a double nostalgia thing, my nostalgia for their nostalgia. 

How about movie & tv food? Let's skip the scene in Demolition Man with the burger. 😂 It was funny, though. How about the scene in Twister instead: seared steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy "that is in its own food group." Oh, and all of the food in The Sopranos. Yeah! That's the ticket! 

There are so many examples, it's impossible to list them all here. But it is a fun thing to do in the kitchen sometimes. If that makes me a weirdo, so be it! 

How about you? Do you have any favorite book, movie, or tv food you like to recreate? 

And Now, Another Episode of: "So Many Sausages, So Little Time," featuring -- Eckermann's Sausage

 I got three words fer ya, Pod'nah...Eckermann's Hot Links! 

A Sausage for Every Occasion

We're very fortunate because we live in an area where sausages are prolific. I can name several towns, all within an hour's drive from here, where sausages are made and sold. Some of them carry the name of the town, or the family that owns the company, others have more colorful names. Most of them are pretty darn good. But...then there's Eckermann's. 

When I was growing up, Waak Sausage was a regular in our family. It was the perfect sausage, the flavor was unsurpassed. The grind was just the right size, not too big and not too small. They used a lot of mustard seed in their "secret" mix, and smoked the sausages just right. We had them all of the time at family barbecues. My grandma used them when she made klobásník (a.k.a. sausage kolache). But, if Waak's was not available for some strange reason, Eckermann's took up the slack. 

My great uncle had a meat market and made smoked sausage, but we still preferred Waak's over his. The rest of his offerings, including summer sausage, were great! But his sausage always fell short with us for some reason. The flavor was off...it was either missing something or it had an ingredient that just wasn't agreeable. So we stuck with Waak's. 

Alas! Waak Sausage is gone now. They closed down some years ago. The buildings are still there, but they house some other meat market now. So Eckermann's inherited the throne, at least in our house. Sausage perfection! 

We don't eat a lot of sausage these days, but Eckermann's is definitely the "go-to" when we do. Usually we get the pork version. I couldn't find it last time, so I picked up some hot links instead. It was a great choice! They have just the right amount of heat. 

Around here we like REAL sausage, not that "pink slime wannabe" poser. (I'm not going to name any names, but they used to run a lot of ads on tv, and probably still do.) 

If you're ever in this area, make a plan to do a "Sausage Tour." First, just go to our local Mom-n-Pop grocer in town because they carry a lot of sausages from different companies there. Then map the rest out accordingly. Yes, they DO have several varieties of Eckermann's, including dry sausage. 

If you don't live around here, fear not! Eckermann's has a website and they will ship sausage to you if you order at least 10 pounds of their product. That is SO easy to do. Just order one of each variety. I'd skip the head cheese version though, because I'm not a fan. But if you are, hey! Go for it! 

I rate Eckermann's Hot Links at 5 out of 5 stars! It even passed the "White Bread Test." If you get a chance to try some...do it! Dooooo iiiiiit! 

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A Banana Story: The Bananas That Drove Me Bananas

 Going Bananas

I have to share this banana story, because these were the best store-bought bananas I ever had. I bought them right around the time of the "Big Freeze" in Texas. I can't recall now if it was just before or just after, but when I bought them, the store only had green bananas available. I purchased a bunch that had 6 bananas, grown in Ecuador. I don't recall which company logo was on the sticker. (Dole and Chiquita  are pretty common here.)  

 

I assume the green bananas will not be a problem because they ripen so quickly anyway, thanks to human intervention. Well, someone was asleep at the switch for this shipment, and it yielded some wonderful results. 

The bananas I bought were hung on the banana hook on the counter. They hung there for a week, with no obvious change. So we bought some more bananas, and placed them near the green bananas to see if it would help. 

We finished the newer banana bunch, but the green bananas were still green. So the green bananas were moved into a paper bag and the bag was kept closed. 

Time passed. More bananas were purchased. There were daily checks on the green bananas. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Still green. 

The next time we bought a bunch, we put one of the bananas inside the bag with the green bananas. The newer banana ripened. The green bananas did not. 

Okay. 

I was ready to give up. I started wondering if the bananas would be any good at all even if they did ripen, or if they were just going to rot without ripening. 

Finally, over 3 weeks into this little banana adventure, they started to change color. A couple of them started to show signs of ripening. 

They didn't ripen all at once. They ripened one by one for the most part. I ate the first one that was ripe and it was simply delicious. It had a nice texture, a bit heavier than the usual banana. The flavor was more concentrated too. It was divine! 

The very last green banana (visible in the pic above) ripened over a month after the bunch was purchased. 

So...Wow! I wish this would happen more often. 

Bananas are harvested when they are still green, then dosed with ethylene gas once they reach their destination. Organic bananas are supposed to be exempt from this treatment, but I call BS on that because they ripen just as fast as "regular" bananas. Have I considered that they might pick them after they start to turn and are using a faster shipping method? Yes. I think they would cost a lot more if that was the case. There's not a huge difference in price between regular and organic. Anyway, if you know of a grocer who sources their bananas from a smaller banana trader that doesn't use ethylene gas, instead of one of the huge international companies...do tell! 

We used to have a grove of banana trees, but someone got a wild hair one day and cut all of them down (and dug up the rest). I don't know the specifics anymore, but I do miss the trees, because at least we'd have homegrown bananas from time to time. Looks like it's time to find some again. 

If you're interested, this link to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has some interesting banana facts & figures. 

Unaltered Photo of Men Hauling Bananas With a Bike in Uganda
Emesik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Taco Bell Enchiritos - The Original, Not The Sad Reboot

When Taco Bell had an actual bell on their restaurants back in the day 
(Public Domain photo)

If I had a time machine, I would travel to a Taco Bell like the one pictured above, and order an Enchirito. Maybe even two. I'm talking about the original Taco Bell Enchirito, not that lame version they brought back when they "revived" it. According to Taco Bell lore, the Enchirito first appeared around 1970. It was discontinued as a menu item in 1993, but they brought it back around 2000. Well, they didn't really bring it back. They brought back the shadow of an Enchirito. It was taken off the menu again around 2013, though there are rumors circulating that you can order it from the "secret menu," or order certain menu items for an Enchirito "hack." 

Okay...you can hack all the livelong day or try to order from the secret menu, but you will never get a true Enchirito that way. I do remember the year they took them off of the menu. We didn't have a Taco Bell very close to us but we'd go there from time to time when we drove to Katy or Houston for errands. I remember when they removed it and I was sad. Later, they added it again, and I tried it a couple of times, but it was never the same -- just like when Coke changed their formula and then supposedly changed it back after public outcry. It was never the same either -- (If you can get your hands on a Coke that is bottled in Mexico, it will come close, but even that isn't as good as the original was.) -- but that made it easier to give up an unhealthy beverage, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

Let's get back to the Enchirito though. I have thought about making my own copycat version, and I have made sort of a pseudo-version from time to time. Now I'm thinking about getting a bit more serious about it. I have looked through many copycat recipes to see if anyone is making the original version of the Enchirito, but I have yet to find one. 

Most of these copycat recipes use flour tortillas. That's what I always hone in on. The tortilla. I have also run across some recipes that use corn tortillas. Well, guess what? They are both wrong. 

The Enchirito tortilla was a hybrid tortilla, not flour or corn. Both. I remember the original tortilla, because the first time I tried the "reboot," it was flour, and it was disappointment. The Enchirito's tortilla had a unique flavor. It was absolutely not simply flour, and it definitely did not have the taste or texture of a corn tortilla. 

I know there will be people who want to argue about it, but just think about this: an Enchirito was supposed to be a cross between a burrito and an enchilada. If you use a flour tortilla, you have a burrito. If you use a corn tortilla, you have an enchilada. You MUST have the hybrid tortilla to have a true Enchirito. I trust my taste buds implicitly. 

But to bolster my case, I jumped on a search engine and found some vintage Taco Bell commercials and print ads. I am not going to post all of those here, obviously, both because of copyright issues, and the time it takes to add attribution links to the ones that are possible to use. 

I did find one nice one on Creative Commons though, and I'm able to share that one here. Note the color of the Enchirito's tortilla in the photo, just as I remember, and just as all of the others I viewed. It is off-white, a bit on the tan side. It's definitely not a white flour tortilla, and certainly not a corn tortilla. 

I will be going into the laboratory with my trusty sidekick, Igor, as soon as possible, so we can make the hybrid tortilla that a copycat Enchirito recipe deserves. Stay tuned! 

Original Enchiritos
("Enchirito" by mush m. is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Kitchen Pet Peeve: Breaking Bad With Eggs

 

Okay, I have an egg.....errr....I mean.....bone to pick with certain folks.

This is a HUGE pet peeve for me. It bugs me to no end. People who break an eggs and dump them directly into a pan or a bowl of ingredients, instead of breaking the eggs into a separate bowl and then adding them to the recipe. 

Don't do it. Just........don't! 

Why? Because...

1.

There could be impurities in the egg, especially fresh, "yard" eggs. Fun little things like blood spots or calcium deposits. We had a hen that had issues with that. The eggs were fine, but there were often calcium deposits inside her eggs. Not fun picking that stuff out. Sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot. She was an Araucana, and I don't know if they are more prone to that or not. She was on the same varied diet as the other hens and we didn't see that happening with the others anywhere near as often. 

2.

You don't really know how old the egg is. It might have been missed and on the verge of rotting. Imagine ruining a recipe (or your breakfast), by breaking an egg like that into a pan. There is a water test that can help determine the age of an egg before you crack it open, but if you get in a hurry and decide not to do the test, you might regret it.* 

3.

Pieces of eggshell might fall into your recipe if you don't break the egg in another bowl first. Imagine serving a lovely piece of cake to each of your guests, and one of them ends up stabbed in the gums from an errant piece of eggshell. Eggshell Roulette. Bad. Very bad. 

4.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my grandfather's egg story. He was in the AAF (Army Air Force) in WWII. Shortages of some foods were common all over, even for soldiers. But they did have fresh eggs in the mess halls, when they could get them. Sometimes the eggs were fertilized eggs with developing embryos. So they had extra protein with their eggs on occasion. (I have no reason to doubt this story, because people were very careful about food back then. Nothing was wasted. Unlike today, when food waste is rampant.) So, if you're buying eggs from someone who keeps chickens, you might be buying fertilized eggs, unless they keep their roosters separate from the hens. I suppose that's possible, depending on the size of their operation. I just know that we always had a rooster in with our chicken flock, so we could raise more chickens to replace the ones we lost to critters that would break into the chicken yard on occasion. I assume others might do the same. Of course we kept the broody hens and their clutch of eggs separate from the rest of the flock, but it is possible that some people are careless about it. So imagine cracking a raw egg directly into your cake batter and it has a partially developed embryo. 😒

🥚🥚🥚

Think about it though. How much trouble is it, really, to use one extra bowl and crack your eggs into it for inspection before adding to the recipe? No trouble at all. One extra dish to wash. No big deal compared to what could happen otherwise.

This is one of the things that always drove me nuts on cooking shows. I don't watch those much anymore, but I do watch food videos on social media sometimes, and I find myself bracing for the addition of eggs. 

"Oh, but it looks so cool when I can break an egg open with one hand to add to the recipe," they might be thinking. Well, it will still look cool if it's done over an empty dish. No excuses! 

Here's a little summary...

Photo by: Alex Loup

NO!

Photo by Jordane Mathieu

NO!

Photo by Michelle Henderson

NO!

Photo by Klaus Nielsen

So in conclusion, if you are "Breaking Bad with Eggs," please break that bad habit!

🥚🥚🥚

*The Egg Test

I mentioned this test above, and in case any reader might not be aware of this tip, this is it. (Just remember, this test is in addition to your egg safety check, not "in lieu of."):

You just need a small glass bowl, or a cup wide enough to fit an egg when it's on its side. Fill it with room temperature water (or just directly from the tap), then put the egg in. If it stands up on its end, it is still okay to use. If it floats between the bottom and the top, it might be okay. If it floats all the way to the top, don't use it. 

If you are still uncertain, break the egg on a plate and look at the yolk. Fresh eggs have yolks that "stand up," and the white sits close to the yolk. Older eggs have yolks that don't look as tall and firm, and the whites are runnier. If you see that the yolk is flat or almost flat and the yolk is extremely watery, forget about it! It's no good. Run away from that runny egg! 

Texas BBQ Sauce

 

Texas barbecue sauce. What does it mean to you? If you're a Texan, what is the sauce you believe to be "The Sauce of Texas?" Same question to those who aren't Texans, I like to get every viewpoint here. 

I say, well, in the first place: Good bbq doesn't need sauce at all. It should be able to stand on its own, with sauce on the side for dipping if desired. No question about that. 

Now that that is out of the way, let's address the sauce. To me, a good sauce should also stand on its own. The sauce should be so satisfying that you can eat it with just bread and feel content. The sauce should be so good it should be in its own food group (Yeah, you know, like Aunt Meg's gravy in that movie...ha!) 

To me, a good sauce has sautéed onions, garlic, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon, red wine or apple cider vinegar, a bit of molasses, S&P, chili powder, paprika, a few drops of Tabasco...and no feckin ketchup! Tomato paste is acceptable, but it is optional. Make it, throw it in a blender (optional), and serve it. 

This is the sauce I grew up with. Every bbq event, (whether private or public), had this sauce. Maybe it was a county thing or a regional thing...I wasn't old enough to drive around and sample sauce everywhere, nor did I think about doing such a thing when I was a kid. I just knew that I could expect it no matter where we had barbecue. 

Now I am hard pressed to find it anywhere around here. Bottled sauce seems to be the go-to for many. If it's not bottled, then it is some weak, pitiful version of bbq sauce. Maybe someone around here actually has it and I missed it somehow. I don't eat a lot of bbq these days, but I know most of the places in this area just don't have it. The last few times we bought plates to support various causes in the area, the people responsible for the bbq didn't have it either. 

Sauce seems to be an afterthought most of the time. I can understand that, because if you believe you have the best bbq, why is it needed in the first place, right? Okay, I get that, but if you are going to offer it, offer a sauce that has substance, not these weak, wannabe sauces. Not these sauces that are bottled sauces thinned with water, or a sauce with ketchup, Worcestershire, maybe a little vinegar & molasses. Forget about that! Make a good "stick to your ribs" sauce (pun intended?), and you'll get even more butts in those proverbial seats. 

What the heck happened to the good sauce? I remember watching it being made so many times when I was a kid. The cooks used giant stockpots, or even the giant iron cauldrons that can be hung over a fire if needed.  That's the ticket! 

My grandparents worked with a lot of families in this area when the big events were held, like Father's Day at Millheim Harmonie Hall,  Mother's Day at Peter's Hall, and countless others. I watched Mr. & Mrs. Lux make this sauce for the Chuckwagon Cafe at the fair when I worked there during the high school years. Everyone in our family made the sauce for barbecue. Any excess was frozen for future use, because it does freeze well. I'm sure my grandma has it written down somewhere among her collection of recipes. 

Today I made it for the 4th of July with some assistance from Mom to make sure I had the proper elements nailed down. Taste test, taste test. The ultimate taste test, I grabbed a piece of bread to test it. It passed! Score one for the kid! I know it will taste even better tomorrow, just like chili & stew do. When someone tells you the flavors need to "marry," they ain't pullin' your leg, Pod'nah. 

I hope everyone had a nice 4th of July! 

Brisket with Texas BBQ Sauce on the side

What About Those Poppy Seeds?

Buchta

I grew up loving poppy seed. My Czech grandmother made kolache on a regular basis and we all clamored for the yummy poppy seed kolache. Sometimes she would make them open-face with posipka, but most often she enclosed them in the dough and made a poppy seed roll, and brushed them with butter when they came out of the oven. Once in a while she would glaze them with a simple glaze, but they didn't need any adornments. They were good just as they were. 

That wasn't the only time she used poppy seed. She also made buchta, which is a giant poppy seed roll. It was usually consumed in less than 24 hours. Lemon poppy seed cake was another favorite. She made that one in a bundt pan and glazed it with a lemon glaze. 

She was a purist about her poppy seed filling, and that rubbed off on me. No canned poppy seed. Never, never, never. No way, no how. She had a grinder and would grind it herself, and if we were around we'd help her grind it. Then she would make the filling on the stovetop. 

Sometimes we would try someone else's kolache, but they just couldn't hold a candle to Nan's, and most of the time they were filled with canned filling. The canned version was terrible--too sweet and tasted "canny." I could always tell when someone used the canned filling, and it was always a disappointment. That hasn't changed. There have been no improvements to the canned version after all these years. 

I'm very fortunate because I have her dedicated poppy seed grinder in my possession and that is what I use when I make poppy seed filling. 

Nan's poppy seed grinder,
made in...you guessed it,
Czechoslovakia! 

One thing I never had to worry about, (in fact, I never even heard about until years later), was the issue with the opiate content in poppy seeds. My grandfather and one of my uncles were both engineers with the Santa Fe railroad, and I remember that my uncle wouldn't eat poppy seed kolache unless he was on vacation. (Of course, the rest of us weren't bothered by this because there were more for us.) If he ate poppy seed, it might show up in a drug test. I don't really know when they started doing drug tests, but I don't think they  became standard until after my grandfather retired, or maybe shortly before then. I could be wrong, though, since it wasn't something I had to worry about personally. (Except for the extra kolache factor, that is.)  

I wanted to address it on this blog because I think some people might think that poppy seed will make you high if you eat enough of it. The poppy seeds themselves do contain a tiny bit of opium, but the majority comes from the sap in the pods which house the seeds. There is a chance that the poppy seeds will come in contact with the sap when they're harvested, but the poppy seeds that are available for purchase are normally washed before they go on the market. Still...traces of opiate might remain on the seeds after they're cleaned, and there's also the minute amount that the seeds themselves contain, but it is nothing to worry about.  

In the past, anyone who worked for a company that required regular blood tests could end up with a pink slip. Luckily, the federal government raised the acceptable level from .3 micrograms to 2 micrograms, so it's not really as much of an issue now. Just to be on the safe side though, if you have to have a drug test and have consumed anything with poppy seed, mention it to the tester. 

As far as getting high? No. You would have to consume an insane amount of poppy seeds for that to happen. Many pounds. You won't get a buzz from eating a poppy seed kolach. Well, maybe a sugar buzz, but that's it. 

There are some great articles in Google Scholar that discuss the opiate content of poppy seeds and information related to that if you are interested in learning more. 

I started thinking about poppy seeds because it is about time to make some kolache again. I don't make them nearly as often as my grandma did. I also like to make Mohnkuchen (German Poppy Seed Cake), which has a layer of poppy seed...a "mother lode" of a layer about an inch thick or more. (Still not enough to get a buzz, but the point of eating poppy seed is to enjoy the wonderful flavor. If you need a buzz, break out the wine. I don't know what wine pairs with poppy seed desserts though. You're on your own with that.) 

Thinking about that led me to thinking about some poppy seed loaded treats I made a few years ago. I brought them to a party, and believe it or not, there were leftovers. Leftovers? The poppy seed kolache and the Mohnkuchen were barely touched, but the other kolache were consumed. Hmm. It didn't occur to me at the time that no one wanted to eat the poppy seed because of the rumor of the buzz. It did hurt my feelings a bit. I spent a lot of time and love making the kolache and the Mohnkuchen, so when it was largely ignored, it hurt my heart. It was really my fault because I should have remembered that the attendees were people who eschewed alcohol, so I should have known. It didn't cross my mind though, because I never viewed poppy seeds as drugs or thought about them in that way at all, except for my uncle's drug tests. But there was a bright side. Leftovers! More for the true poppy seed kolache hounds. 

Here is a pic of a Mohnkuchen at a different party. This Mohnkuchen was consumed. 

So rest easy, Poppy Seed Lovers. You can enjoy your favorite poppy seed treats without fear. Be sure to hit me up for all your poppy seed needs, if you're local. Here is a fancier version of poppy seed kolache for your viewing pleasure:

Poppy Seed Kolache Deluxe

You Did WHAT With The Bacon???!!!

Do I have a rant for you? Do I ever! 

I was reading a comment section regarding bacon from Costco and I found myself flabbergasted because...because...someone actually threw useable bacon in the trash! What the...???!!! 

Image Courtesy of: Barry Langdon-Lassagne, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

It went something like this: 

Poster 1: "Oh yeah, I just throw it out. We only use it for bacon and eggs and it was just too thin." 

Poster 2: "Yeah, I usually end up throwing at least one of the packages in the trash." 

Me: "Wait...people actually throw bacon in the trash? Doesn't anyone eat baked potatoes with all the trimmings? WTF???!!!" 

Believe me, I exercised great restraint when commenting about their bacon disposal habits. It took me a few minutes to calm down and pick my jaw up off the floor before I could even post any kind of reply. 

I was completely floored to hear this, especially after the food shortages & delivery disruptions experienced in 2020, which really haven't completely ended yet. We are still having supply chain issues. 

I was under the mistaken impression that most people had learned to be careful and less wasteful regarding food. You know, just because and item is on the shelves today, well, that doesn't mean it will be there tomorrow. I don't shop every day, but when I do shop, I notice that temporary shortages are still occurring with different items. Bacon is one of them. Eggs, various dairy items, chicken, canned goods, etc. It is still happening. (As an aside: There are sites that list what shortages to expect and you can hop on a search engine to check them out.)

Frankly, I was highly offended by the blatant waste of perfectly good bacon. There are people who are struggling to get food for their families, struggling to survive, and these privileged jerks are throwing bacon in the trash! Really? On top of that, an animal unwillingly gave its life to put food on YOUR table, and you're going to show that much blatant disrespect to that (or any, really) animal's unwilling sacrifice? Really???!!! 

It brought to mind the memory of the last time we ate at an independently owned pizza joint in a town not far from here. They have an "all you can eat" buffet for pizza. It's not bad pizza, I've had better, but I've certainly had worse. It's a buffet, that is their selling point, so of course you would expect that it is not going to be stellar pizza. But it is not bad, and they have other pasta dishes there and a salad bar. 

The last time we ate there, we were so disgusted by the food waste that we haven't been back. People would load up their plates, take one bite of a piece of pizza, and discard the rest. There were literally plates left on tables that were piled up with pieces of pizza that had one bite taken out of them, or were only partially eaten. Now, not everyone was doing this, but there were far too many instances of it. It was disgusting. We haven't been back since that night, and that was several years ago. So that was one of the first thoughts I had -- these folks must be some of the ones who operate on the "I got mine, F everyone else" mantra. 

What a terrible example they are setting for their children. Teaching them how to waste food. Maybe they could start a new organization at their schools, like the FFA, but call it the FFWA instead. Future Food Wasters of America. 

A true bacon lover would never, EVER throw perfectly good bacon in the trash, thin or not. (Am I right? You know it!) I can think of many ways to use bacon that is "too thin." 

How about:

• (aforementioned use) Make bacon crumbles for baked potatoes
• Make bacon crumbles for salads 
• Wrap asparagus spears and roast in the oven
• Make stuffed jalapeños & wrap with bacon before roasting
• BLTs
• Use on bacon burgers
• Garnish for baked potato soup
• Chop it up and use it for fried rice
• Make frijoles charros
• Breakfast burritos
• Wrap a boneless chicken breast before roasting
• Use if for "barding" with any other meat
• Pancakes with bacon bits 
• Jambalaya
• Bacon wrapped shrimp
• Bacon-cheddar biscuits
• Use in place of pancetta in Spaghetti carbonara
• Make bacon jam
• Bacon & onion potatoes! 

That's just a short list. There are so many uses! 

But, you know, if you ONLY use it for bacon and eggs, well...how about just doubling up on pieces if it is too thin? Seems like that would be a "no-brainer." I guess that's too much to ask of those who have no vision. 

Food waste is a problem. We all do it. I do it. Things get lost in the refrigerator, things expire, bread gets away from you and gets moldy (especially in warmer weather), etc. Still, I try my best to minimize waste. But, I'll tell you what...Never have I EVER taken a perfectly usable food item and thrown it in the trash. 

Those bacon-tossers should hang their heads in shame. They should just stop purchasing the bacon in question & choose another brand that suits them. Hello? Oh yes, another obvious thing that goes right over their privileged heads. That's just pitiful. There is NO excuse for such wasteful behavior. 

What are some of your favorite uses for bacon? I don't eat it as often as I used to, but it does make an appearance on our family menus from time to time. Here is a pic of some fried rice I made with calabacitas, bacon, onion, bell pepper, & egg, (pictured with leftover roasted summer squash with onions & peppers).

All kinds of YUM! 

Let's talk about...Swedish Meatballs

There are many different kinds of meatballs, but today I want to focus on Swedish Meatballs. Have you ever been in a restaurant that had Swedish Meatballs on the menu? You don't see that often around here. Maybe at a cafeteria. Well, one day I was at a restaurant and I decided to order their "Swedish Meatballs." Talk about disappointment! They brought out a bowl of what could only be described as meatball soup. Meatball soup IS a thing in different cuisines. But Swedish Meatballs are not meatball soup.

Granted, it's not the fanciest place in the world, but the food is usually passable (for the most part), and resembles its menu description. Not so with the Swedish Meatballs. What ended up at our table was nothing but meatball soup. Bland meatballs...not much flavor at all, plus some large pieces of bell pepper, and there were a few waterlogged tomato pieces in it too. I ate it, because I don't like to waste food, but it took a very long time to get over it. Plus, since I was really busy at the time, I didn't have time to make any at home to help erase that terrible meatball experience for at least 6 months.

Anyway, I had to have a rant about that. I've been meaning to rant about it for a while on this blog but  I didn't have time. Well, here it is...finally. (I won't call out the name of the establishment that has the non-Swedish Meatballs. If you want to know, I can reveal the name privately.)

I like my Swedish Meatballs with cream sauce. Some enjoy them with a little ligonberry jam or sauce on the side, but it's not a requirement for me as long as the cream sauce is available, along with some egg noodles.

Here is a batch I made recently, paired with spaetzle and sautéed asparagus. A lot of work but well worth it. I'll have to post the recipe. I got it from a Swedish friend, and of course I did some tweaking...not to change the recipe, but to enhance the texture of the meatballs.

So, until next time...Happy Eating! :)

The Atrocious Fetor of Celery

Celery
(Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

I have been away for far too long. I really have no excuse for neglecting this food blog, other than I have been busy working and haven't had a lot of time for fun. Well, I am going to try and remedy that now.

Let's talk about celery. I'm not here to dissect the entire plant or discuss the different varieties and all of the different applications. For this post, I am addressing your ordinary, benign(?!?!), basic celery bunch that you can grab at the market.

I really don't hate celery, even though the title of this post might suggest otherwise. I enjoy using it in many dishes, and those dishes just wouldn't be the same without it.

My issue with celery can best be summed up by this picture that I ran across when I was browsing in Wikimedia Commons:

Stalk of the Celery Monster

Photo Courtesy of Wikimeida Commons

I don't know the history behind the above photo, but I am hoping that the person responsible is a kindred spirit, because I do feel stalked by the Celery Monster after I am in contact with celery. I seem to have a sensitivity to the odor. I know I can't possibly be the only one. I have questioned others about it but so far, they don't have an issue with celery odor. If I touch it, it lingers for an extremely long time...or at least, my nose detects it for an extremely long time. For example: If I buy celery at the market, I can still detect the odor of celery in the car the next day. It is that pervasive, for me, anyway.

I have tried to link it to an experience in the past, and the thing I could recall was an experience with a TV dinner many, many years ago. It was fried rice. I don't recall the brand. But the fried rice was so overloaded with celery that it was ridiculous. I could not even finish it. When I think of it right now it makes me want to gag. So maybe this affliction is linked to that TV dinner.

I don't have any issue with dicing onions or garlic. The lingering odor from either of those does not bother me at all. It is rather pleasant to make a dish with garlic and still detect the heady odor later. But even those odors can't compete with celery. Touching celery is like sticking a toe in "The Bog of Eternal Stench" - except you smell celery forever, (instead of smelling like the noxious odor of the bog).

I try to stay positive about celery. Mirepoix (celery, carrot, and onion) obviously would not work without celery. Mirepoix is essential for a good stock. You can make it without it, but the flavor is not the same. I have even resorted to using celery seeds in stock if there is no celery in the fridge.

Mirepoix

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Similarly, can you imagine gumbo, as well as many other Cajun dishes, without the Cajun Holy Trinity? No way!!!

The Cajun Holy Trinity
(Onion, Bell pepper, and Celery)

Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Celery is an aromatic and it just MUST be used in many different dishes, all of which would suffer greatly without it. Stuffing (or dressing) for the Thanksgiving turkey; fried rice (yes, in a reasonable amount); Waldorf Salad (which would simply not be a Waldorf Salad if it didn't contain celery); and even that requisite stalk of celery in your typical Bloody Mary. That's just an extremely tiny sample of the use of celery. I could go on for days about the importance of celery, but it's not necessary. Your palate will tell you that.

But that odor!!! Holy Stench, Batman!

I would love to hear from others who have an issue with "The Stalk of the Celery Monster."

I'm hoping to be a better blog steward, especially with the extra time most of us have on our hands during this time. I have some interesting food adventures to share, so I will make a point of blogging about food as much as possible, when I'm taking a break from working in the garden & growing more food.

See you soon, Food Lovers! ♥️♥️♥️

Tex-Mex Tales

I haven't checked in for a while and shame on me! There have been many food adventures since I last posted and I have a lot of catching up to do. Today, though, I need to opine about Tex-Mex.

We recently heard some sad news about the state of  a couple of Tex-Mex restaurants in our little town of Sealy, Texas. There was a report of possible rodent infestation at two of our local restaurants. The sources which generated this information are credible.

I'm not going to mention any names...if you live in Sealy and you want to know, send me a private message. I will describe the incidents, though.

The first incident involved take-out containers. The recipients of the take-out containers are related to me, so I take their word on this. The containers had been gnawed on by rats (or other small rodents). I shudder to think of what else they might be up to in that particular kitchen. Why didn't the waitstaff notice the teeth marks? I don't know. Maybe they did and decided to use them anyway to save money. Maybe they thought no one would notice. Yeah, that didn't work out so well. Now the word is out.

The second incident is far worse. Witnesses described a scene right out of a horror movie...oh, let's say...like "Willard" or "Ben." Meat had been left out on the counter to defrost, (already a big no-no and food safety hazard). The worst part? Rats were gnawing on the meat. Oh, yum-yum! NOT!

That's a little too close to "Demolition Man" food for me. (Remember the burger?) Not that that particular restaurant would have substituted a few of the rodents to make up for the loss of the meat, but...well...my mind wanders.

So...even if there is an announcement that these problems have been resolved...I just don't see myself being able to dine at either of the places again. Ever. It's a damn shame, because both of them were good. Not the greatest ever, but good most of the time.

Now if we crave Tex-Mex, we're out of luck as far as dining out. Well, there is one other place here, but we haven't been in years. Their beans always taste "off," like they weren't held at proper temperatures. (My theory on that was that they must have used them for the lunchtime buffet and saved them for the evening meal.)

That leaves driving out of town or home-cooked Tex-Mex. We do it on occasion anyway, so it's not that much of a stretch. That's what we ended up doing yesterday, on a bigger scale. We did a "combo meal": salad plate with tacos & guacamole...then cheese enchiladas, tamales, Mexican rice and beans. All dishes were made from scratch, except the tamales. Fresh and delicious! Untouched by rodent lips! Win, win, WIN!!

Of course, some of the products had GMO ingredients...hard to avoid since GMOs have invaded so many of our crops. But, the good outweighed the bad, in my opinion. 

Cheese Enchiladas from the home kitchen

No need to boil your corn tortillas to soften them. There is a better way. We'll talk about that later, though.

Loaded Tacos! 

Fortunately, we had some sour cream on hand, too. Oh, and don't buy that nasty taco mix full of fillers. You can make it at home in a snap.

Cheese Enchilada Plate with a tamale, refried beans & yummy rice

All we needed for this was a little extra gravy...I should have made two batches. The beans were brined overnight before cooking. We've been doing this a lot lately...it really makes a difference!

Now our Tex-Mex craving has been satisfied...and we have leftovers!! WOO-HOO!!

Have a great day and may you enjoy "rodent-free" cuisine for the rest of your life!

A shrimp po-boy is a thing of beauty...

I don't dine out very often. Recently I had the opportunity to eat at "Antone's," and that opportunity was one I grabbed with both hands and with great enthusiasm.

It was hard to make a decision because Antone's has expanded its menu over the years.

The shrimp po-boy won the coin-flip this day. At first glance it appears that there isn't enough shrimp in the sandwich. Let me assure you, there was. It had the perfect amount.

It was DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEElicious!!! If the shrimp had been a little spicier, I would have been happy but the coating was still good. The vegetables were super-fresh and the French fries were nice and hot. They were generous with those puppies, too.

On this same day, I heard the sad news about Antone's closing its original location in Houston. I haven't confirmed this news yet, so don't quote me on that. However, I encourage you to stop in for lunch anytime you can, particularly at this location, which is at 610 and T.C. Jester in Houston.

Shrimp Po-boy

When Life Hands You Lemons....

 Make Candied Lemon Slices! WOO-HOO!!! 

Another Successful Dish from Leftover Holiday Turkey

Turkey Croquettes! Okay, so they were patties. They cooked faster that way. The remainder of the Thanksgiving turkey went into these. Good stuff.

On a side note, the mixture itself would have made for some great turkey salad sandwiches<<<and that is coming from someone who is NOT a fan of chicken salad sandwiches. Tuna, sure. Never have cottoned to chicken salad, though. Maybe I will now, however.

You can view the recipe here: Baked Turkey Croquettes.

Baked Turkey Croquettes..err...umm...patties...Ha!

A Restaurant Review to Tempt Your Taste Buds

UPDATE: Unfortunately, this restaurant closed several years ago. 

Bad me! I haven't posted since October! I've been really busy lately with many things, including an additional writing gig with examiner.com. The presidential election also had me spellbound and I had some articles published with Yahoo! Contributor about the local scene during the election. I have a lot of material for the blog that I need to add as soon as possible. In the meantime, here's the link to a review of a restaurant I visited in October. It was a most excellent meal! Click on "Feast" below to visit my review and then go visit the restaurant itself if you're near Houston. Add it to your itinerary if you're planning to visit Houston.You will be happy you did!

Feast

 

Bitter Cucumbers--Does Cutting & Rubbing Remove Bitterness?

Old Wives' Tale?

We had a very lengthy discussion about bitter cucumbers last night. This was a big practice in our family, at least on the Czech side. Mom doesn't remember Great-Grandma Hintz (the German side) doing this, and neither do I. (I remember Great-Grandma Hintz's "cottage of tomatoes," though...that's definitely a story all its own and I'll have to remember to cover it in another post).

E.J. remembers her mom doing this (her mom was my great-aunt, Albina). My Czech grandma, Nan and Aunt Albina swore that this helped remove the bitterness in cucumbers. Their parents told them so, and so they continued the practice unfailingly.

The consensus as of last night is this: E.J. still faithfully executes the practice of rubbing. Mom does it only once in a while. I don't do it at all any more because I stopped being a believer some years ago.

This doesn't mean I am shaming my ancestors or being unloyal to them, as the tone in E.J.'s voice suggested when I told her that I don't do it anymore.

I don't do it anymore because I don't believe it works. There. I said it. I don't believe it works because some years back when we had a bountiful explosion of cucumbers in the garden, I did some experimenting on my own.

I noticed that the bitterness was at the stem end most of the time. Sometimes it did travel farther or was even in other areas but for the most part--the stem end was the problem. So I just started cutting off the stem end (and farther up if necessary).

I noticed that when there was bitterness in the cuke, there was usually an area that looked drier and spongey. I thought it might be related. (I also noticed that if I forgot to water the garden and the cucumber vines got too dry, the cukes were almost always bitter).

We didn't have the internet back then and I didn't go tearing off to the library to get into the reference books. I had plenty of cucumbers to study.

Cucumber Pickin' on the World Wide Web

After our lengthy discussion last night, I decided to do a little research and see if I could find some definitive answers about rubbing the cut end of the cucumber to the other end in order to remove bitterness.

It was an interesting search. I found that the practice is not limited to the South. It's all over the U.S. It's not limited to Czechoslovakians, either. There are Germans who engage in this practice. Some Canadians do it. I found some British practitioners, too. I found practitioners in India as well, but in that instance, I found that the family rubbed the cut end on the cuke to get rid of "latex." (Is the word latex in India exchangeable for the English word for bitter? I don't think so but I didn't look into that little tidbit in depth).

There were variations in the way to do it, and different explanations as to why it worked. Some Canadian practitioners said you must cut both ends off and make notches on the ends before rubbing. An American variation stated that you must sprinkle salt on the end before rubbing.

All of the practitioners that I discovered while I was searching were doing this because it had been passed down the family line. I couldn't find any hard scientific data about this practice. (Yes, I even checked "Snopes," but the only discussion about it was limited to the message boards.)

Am I lookin' for cukes in all the wrong places?

I did find some information at Washington State University about removing bitterness from cucumbers. Cut off the stem end and/or peel the cucumber. You can also slice it, salt it and let it sit for a while, then rinse and prepare as normal. No mention of rubbing.

So Does it Work or Not?

I noticed that many people who engage in this practice either claim that the bitterness is the foaming that is produced by the rubbing or that the bitterness is removed by the "capillary effect." The "capillary effect" subscribers claim that the bitterness always runs underneath the skin of the cuke.

Everyone has explanations about why this practice supposedly works and variations of the practice.

Well, I vote no. It doesn't work. I apologize to any ancestors or anyone else that I may be offending or if it seems like I am blaspheming to make this admission, (I guess E.J. thinks I am nothing but a Benedict Arnold), but I just don't believe in this anymore. That doesn't mean that I don't believe in magic, especially "Kitchen Magic," but this? No.

Show me some definite, hard facts and I will change my mind. Find me a white-haired scientist with bushy eyebrows that conducted actual physical experiments on cucumbers and then measured the results with delicate instruments.

Oh, and I have to add: the bitter cukes are most common if you raise them yourself or buy them at farmer's markets and such. The variety used for pickling seem to be the most susceptible. Another "official" site claimed that commercially grown cukes are bred so that the amount of bitter compounds are reduced. (I can't find the site now but I'm sure that this is probably true since we live in a world of "Frankenfood.")

I would love to know the origin of this practice. Does your family do it? Please leave me some feedback. It really is one of those great mysteries. We'll call it: "The Cucumber X-Files." I think this mystery would leave Mulder and Scully in a pickle. Ha ha ha! ;)

Have a great day! :)

                                                   Hot Dog! He's a Pickle Pickin' Puppy!   

 

                                               (Photo courtesy of Electron at Wikimedia Commons).