a nice big soon to be pot of chicken & dumplings steaming on the stove

a nice cold glass of beer

a new knitting pattern

We had warm grape leafs and I had my first Gyro (lamb & beef), which was very very good.

Over all we were very please with the food and the service and would go back again and again!!!!

I ordered a pretty safe meal : brisket sammich, potato salad, and barbecue baked beans.

The barbecue sauce gets a 5 out of 10.  It had an overall good flavor.  It wasn’t overly sugary and had just enough of a peppery bite to let you know it was there.  Not bad.

The brisket I give a 1 out of 10.  It had a smoke ring, but by tasting it, it might as well have come out of a crock pot.  It had no flavor what so ever.

The potato salad gets a 1 put of 10.  Like the meat, it had no flavor and it had celery seed in it.  For me celery seed belongs in coleslaw and not potato salad. The seeds did not provide any enhancement or anything to the salad. I did try to taste it to see if it meshed and it wasn’t for me.

The baked beans get a 1 out of 10. These were run of the mill terrible baked beans. When you took a bite there wasn’t anything special.  Nothing popped out to make them scream “we’re awesome” in your mouth.

Overall I give Piggin N Grinnin 2.5 links out of 10.  I’m glad I didn’t spend money there, but I am glad I got to try them.

So whatcha think?  Thick enough?

The Menu was:

Buttermilk biscuits
Collard greens
Fried chicken

Drink: beer

I made the biscuits this morning since Margaret was studying for her test (which she’ll be taking in 20 minutes). I used her big stand mixer for the biscuits, because I was making a double batch. Quite ambiguous since I’m a cook and not a baker. In the end, I got the wife stamp of approval. I didn’t fold the dough too much, they brown nicely, and they rose without any issues.

Later in the day I got these smoked pork neck bones boiling in some water. While they were boiling I put in a dash of salt, pepper, Cholula, and onion powder. While they were boiling I prepared the collard greens. Threw them in the pot and added very little water and cooked them all down. It was a 2 hour process. 1 for the meat and 1 for the greens. Took the longest to cook down most of the water.

While the greens were hot I cut up a whole chicken placed it in a bowl. Once I was able to discard the remains and clean up the kitchen a bit, I put some flour and seasoning in a big ole plastic bag. I heated up the iron skillet with some vegetable oil and once it was ready, I threw in the coated bird.

After all was said and done, we had a lovely meal. Margaret said the biscuits were perfect, the chicken had the right amount of breading on it, and the collard greens were like what momma used to make.

I have one criticism though. To me collard greens shouldn’t be so overcooked and salty. Next time, I’m going to reduce a lot of the water with the meat in it and then throw in the greens. I would prefer them to have a little crunch and not so much saltiness. Next time though, next time.

Overall I’d give this meal an 83%.

btw, Lucas is a collard green’s fiend. He likes them raw or cooked. Such a pups.

Margaret picked out all 3 for me.  She said she’d be happy if I liked at least one and fortunately I really like all 3.

The Rasputin beer was very tasty.  The Korbinian was almost the same as the Rasputin, but it was less hoppy.  The Belhaven had an odd taste that I couldn’t my finger on, but overall was a great beer and the lightest of the bunch.

Such good brews.  I’d recommend; in this order; Rasputin, Korbinian, and the Belhaven.

And this is what good bread should taste like

I got out all my ingredients, cookbook, mixed, kneaded, shaped, let rise, baked…..

I  love bread! The mixing, the kneading, the rising, the baking, the eating. Yep, I love everything about bread.

Everything except what happens when I try to bake bread while PMSing. I’ve heard my mama tell me for years “women should not bake during their monthly cycle” … I even believe it for the most part, and yet I keep trying to beat the jinx. Well I guess I’ll just keep trying like I did today.

So I trashed the bread and poured myself more wine…. I figure Darryl can always make me some bread tomorrow.

Today is my friend Jennifer’s birthday. To celebrate we went to Pumphouse for drinks and then on to Silver Beach Pizza for dinner!

Happy B-Day Jennifer!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recipe:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

3 tablespoons granulated white sugar

2 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, cold and cut into pieces

3/4 cup raspberry jam or you can use fresh/frozen raspberries

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 large egg, lightly beaten

4 to 6 tablespoon milk or cream

Extra granulated sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F and place rack in middle of oven.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender or two knives. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs. Stir in the eggs, raspberry jam, and just enough of the cream so the dough leaves the side of the bowl

Transfer to a lightly floured surface and knead thedough gently four or five times and then pat, or roll, the dough into a circle and make sure it’s 1 1/2 inches thick. Cut the dough into eight triangles (I use the pizza cutter for this). Place the scones on the baking sheet. Brush the tops of the scones with the remaining cream and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 8 scones.

Since we currently do not have a grill we had to make do with what we have. So we purchased a cast iron Dutch oven and made our food in that. I went ahead and sauteéd the onions and green peppers in some olive oil to release some of the flavor they hold. Then I cooked the flank steak till done and set them aside to rest. Once everything was basically “cooked” I put everything back into the Dutch oven and cooked everything together to mingle the flavors. One nice thing was Margaret suggested putting a bit of salt into the mixture along with some Cholula Hot Sauce. With all that combined, the taste of the fajitas came through. Since we weren’t grilling I had to pour vinegar into the Dutch oven to get the flavor I was looking for. In the end everything tasted magnifique.

I think Margaret’s queso was the icing on the cake though. She always kicks ass with her queso. She wants to perfect white queso at home, but her yellow queso is superb. With her queso on the fajitas it made the taste just explode in your mouth.

I also made salsa, but I’m still not to happy with it. I think it might need more garlic, lime juice, or something. I got a small thing of it on the side to experiment with.

Let’s see, what else……oh yea, we made margaritas too. Man they are soooooo good. Basically if you like margarita’s on the rocks all you have to do is follow this simple recipe: 2 cups margarita mix (lime or strawberry), 1 cup tequila, & 1 cup triple sec. Put all that into a pitcher of ice and you’re set. Make sure you mix up the pitcher a bit so the alcohol mixes and doesn’t settle. You’ll get a perfect margarita each time. If it’s too sweet, reduce the mixer by an 1/8th of a cup and keep the same proportions for the alcohol. Easy peasy, one, two, threesy.

We’re on our second pitcher of margaritas and we’re feeling pretty good. It’s only 3pm right now, so after another glass, it’s water city for me.

Trav, sorry for not posting the recipes, but mom has something substantial you’ll enjoy just as much. Just remember, for banana nut bread the banana peels have got to be blackened and mushy (very over ripe). I never knew that.

One more thing, it’s great having a gas range to heat up tortilla’s. They fluff up and blacken nicely. Can’t do that in the oven properly like you can with an eye from a gas range.

And the ooey gooey cheesy goodness below was made by D for dinner tonight. It is scrumptious!! The recipe was given to him by Francie (one of his co workers). Thanks Francie!!!!

I’ll make D post the recipe later…