Crooked Tree Cane

Oct 20 2015

I have a neighbor I see always working in his garden in the summer. He has a green thumb and tries planting about anything. The other day he was riding a new riding mower so I went over to see it. He showed me his crooked trees, he had three started along the side about 2 foot high and two taller ones out front. He said he starts them in water.

He said he was making canes and showed me three he had taken the bark off and was drying them. He said pick you out one if you want it. I need a cane most of the time now. I said you pick out one; and he handed me the one I really wanted. It was just about the right height for me and had a natural bend for a handle.

It was a white wood without any grain. I thought about taking the top layer off but when I cut down the end for the crutch tip it was the same looking wood under the first layer. I stained it with a dark walnut but it did not take the stain well and I did three coats on it. It did not take me long to cut it down for the tip; I used my pocket knife and a wood file.

I gave it two coats of all-weather polyurethane semi-gloss spray paint. This will be my Sunday cane!

Before

After

Bacon, Ham, Eggs, Grits w/Red Eye Gravy

Oct 17 2015

After looking at Ahron’s, (a member of LTBBQ site)  omelet this morning I was glad I had a good brunch planned. I fried some jowl bacon, poured the grease off to brown the ham. I used some of the bacon grease to fry two eggs. I nuked the grits to warm up and made some red eye gravy in the ham skillet. I poured in about a half cup of black coffee and a little coke. I served this over the grits and had some corn bread along with it.

It’s been a while since I made grits with red eye gravy and it sure tasted good!  Some make red eye gravy with just black coffee and some will add a little sour and or sweet. I saw on a cooking show where one chef added coca cola and I like using it.

My Brunch

Ham and Grits w/Fried Tomatoes & Cheese Sauce Over

Oct 17 2015

It was only about 50 deg. today, 55 tomorrow but back to the 60’s next week. We will have frost in the AM. I am not used to the colder weather yet. I didn’t have much planned to cook for the week-end. Besides the Grandson has soccer tournament all week-end and the wife went to one game today. Tomorrow she is going with a friend to an afternoon play and then out to eat after. So it’s just me and the dog this week-end!

My wife went for her normal hair appointment at 11:30 and then was off to the soccer game. I had most of the ham left I did yesterday so I got my slicer out to slice, vacuum seal and freeze. I cut it in half and sliced 4 slices from the best half for tonight supper and a sandwich or two. I sliced the rest thin and divided into half pound bags. I ended up with 5 half pound bags and a ¾ pound bag for the wife to make some ham salad from. I think I ate a half pound while slicing!

 Knowing a frost was coming for the week-end I salvaged what tomatoes I could from my garden Thursday. I had six and figured on having fried green tomatoes. I had just bought some stone ground white and yellow grits so a natural for tonight’s supper was some ham, fried tomatoes, grits and a cheese sauce.

I picked a green, a red and a yellow tomato to fry and got two nice slices from each. I battered the tomatoes early dipping in flour, then an egg thinned with beer and beaten and then in cracker crumbs. They went in the fridge to set up.

My wife met a friend she had lived with and both were secretaries at WPAFB, Dayton, Ohio after the soccer game was over at 3:00 for a late lunch. She said she would call when headed home. I had everything ready when she called at 5:00 and would be here at 6:00 or a little later.

I made my cheese sauce using a can of Campbell’s cheddar cheese, some beer to thin, a teaspoon each of Penzey’s Cajun seasoning and sandwich sprinkle, a heaping teaspoon of yellow mustard and a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

I started cooking my white grits at 5:50, ¾ cup grits, 2 cups water, a little half and half, half stick of butter and salt. I had my 12 inch CS Lodge skillet on warm with bottom coated with extra light olive oil and a Tbs. of butter.

When the wife got here the grits were about right, nice and thick. I heated up my skillet and fried the tomatoes. She said she was still too full from a late lunch and just wanted the grits, tomatoes and cheese sauce. So I served her some grits with the fried green, red and yellow tomato on top covered with cheese sauce. I nuked a slice of ham and made up my grits and tomatoes.

That was sure good; the ham was delicious fork tender and I liked the grits and tomatoes. The cheese sauce was pretty good for quick and easy.

Slicing up the ham

The tomatoes

The grits

My cheese sauce

Frying the tomatoes

My supper

Bacon and Ham Stewed Baby Lima Beans

Oct 16 2015

I had bought some Camellia brand baby green Lima beans and I was hungry for some comforting beans. They would taste good, it was cool all day and it looks like frost tonight. Whenever I cook some beans I usually check out Deep South Dish blog spot. My friend Mary knows her beans! She cooks up some fine southern dishes. Our bean recipes are usually pretty close, she always adds some Cajun seasoning to most dishes and I have started doing that too. I followed her recipe pretty close for the baby lima beans.

I ran out of Cajun seasoning so I used some Blues Hog rub that worked well. I omitted the pickled jalapenos and I added a tablespoon of Cholula hot sauce.

I had some jowl bacon and a half a smoked boneless ham, 5.5 pounds from Kah Meats. Their hams are about as close as you can get to old fashioned. I got up early this AM and rubbed a thin coat of molasses on the ham. It took about 2 ½ hours at 315 deg. grill level to get it to 130 deg. IT. After it cooled some I cut a thick slice from the end to get the nice crust flavor in the beans. I had added 5 slices of the jowl bacon when doing the ham that was done in an hour. I took it up to my friend at Beer & Wine Depot to try.

I double wrapped the leftover ham and it went in the fridge. I will slice some up tomorrow and use some for the wife to make ham salad.

I had about 2 cups each of the diced jowl bacon and ham for the beans I had soaked overnight. I got the bacon in my CI Dutch oven and browned it pretty well. I added the ham but it didn’t need browned so I added the chopped onions and some diced red and yellow peppers I had. When the onions were getting soft I added the garlic and stirred it in. I added the Blues Hog rub and stirred in then deglazed with a

splash of beer.

I added in the beans I had rinsed and water to cover a teaspoon of kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper. I brought it to a boil then simmered about 10 minutes. Then all went into A Crockpot and set on high. It was 12:30 and they would be nice and done by 6:00 supper time.

Beans for me calls for some corn bread so I fixed my favorite Miracle Maize Sweet mix in my CI skillet. I added in about a cup and a half of ground pork cracklins and a small can of mild green chilies.

My wife did not want my beans so she had some of the chicken Sandman did on his KBQ and some mac n cheese. She does like corn bread and had some of that; she said she liked the chicken! I had a large bowl of the beans and some cornbread with a little butter! That tasted great; it had good flavor with a little heat and the bacon and ham was good in it! I could hardly taste the cracklins in the corn bread; I would rather add some crumbled bacon.

Click Here for Link to Mary's recipe

The Ham

Coated with molasses and on the smoker

Bacon samples for my friend are done

Ham is done

Ham diced for the beans

Jowl bacon diced

Garlic, seasoning, onions and peppers w/bacon

Bacon browning

Ham added in

Onions and peppers in

Garlic and seasoning added

Deglazed pan with some beer

Beans, water, salt and pepper added

For the corn bread

Corn bread done

Beans done in the Crockpot

My supper

Smoked Wings and Sides

Oct 13 2015

Our daughter went home Monday and took her pet Guinea pig. I was glad; my dog was getting awfully hungry to have some Guinea pig in his diet! For supper I cooked some noodles and added to the Italian beef and had over mashed potatoes. I had bought some chicken wings for tonight.

This am I went to get the ladder from my shed to work on my garage door opener. I needed to get it programed to work with the built in button in my new car. I keep it inside against the one door I never use and just have to reach inside to pull it out. It was stuck and I thought it was something on the floor so I pulled hard. It was actually hooked on a pipe clamp I keep on a shelf above. It came out of there and hit me on the head. I just about went down and by the time I got inside blood was running down my arm I was holding my head with.

My wife got me a wash rag and I got it cleaned up and she said I needed to go to the Dr. and get stitches. I looked at it in the mirror and didn’t think it needed stitches. It was 3 to 4 inches long and looked like the mark of Zorro. I said I would go and let her look at it. Well I didn’t need stitches just 3 butterfly band aides. I am pretty hard headed!

I did get the garage door opener programed. I was glad I had some easy sides bought to have with the wings. I had some new Bob Evens double cheddar mac n cheese with Applewood bacon and a bag of frozen peas for a veggie.

In my older age I am getting to where I use easy things to fix for sides especially during the week. We like most of the sides by Bob Evans that you find in the grocery now and most frozen veggies are always good to use.

I had a pack of 8 wings and wet them a little with some red wine vinegar and a generous coat of Penzey’s Galena St. rub. They went in the fridge a couple of hours before cooking. I made up some sauce of ½ stick melted butter, a ¼ cup of Blues Hog Tennessee Red Sauce and 1 tablespoon of Cholula hot sauce for my wings.

I got the wings on my Traeger at 4:45 and planned to eat at 6:30. I did them at 180 deg. for about 45 minutes, then 250 deg. for a half hour. I sauced my 4 wings and did them for a half hour at 315 deg., grill level. I turned the smoker down to 200 deg. and went inside to nuke my sides.

I had 4 of the sauced wings and the wife had 3 of the un-sauced ones, we both liked them. The mac n cheese had great cheddar flavor but I could hardly taste the bacon. The frozen green peas we like for a veggie side and I added some butter and seasoning to them. That was an easy meal to make.

For the wings

My sides

An hour in and ready for the sauce

All done

My peas

My supper

Adana Kabob Pita Wraps and Spaghetti Squash

Oct 11 2015

With the daughter home and birthday party for the daughter in law and grandson over the week-end I was glad I cooked some food ahead. These kids may have plans but they can change any minute and ole Dad is usually the last one to find out!

My Sunday was the son stopped in after his basketball and got some of my Italian beef to take home and watch a ball game; the grandson stayed here and ate a beef sandwich. The wife, daughter, and daughter in law went shopping and ate lunch at Chili’s. I baked a spaghetti squash to have ready to serve with supper.

The wife and all got back from shopping after dropping the DIL off. The grandson was happy since our daughter took her new pet, a guinea pig, out of the cage for him to play with. My dog wanted to play with it; I think he really wanted to eat it!

The son and wife stopped back to use my printer. I had plenty for them for supper but they had something at home they wanted to cook so all went home.

I fixed supper for the wife, daughter and me. I had sliced some red onion and sprinkled on some sumac berries. I had made some tzatziki sauce earlier from a recipe I got from saveur.com. I sliced some tomatoes and heated up the spaghetti squash and two of the Adana Kabob mini loaves and sliced them up.

We all made up our own pita wraps; I had some of the kabob meat, tomatoes, red onions and tzatziki sauce on mine and had a little butter and Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle on my squash. It tasted great and I had a second pita wrap.

I want to make the kabobs again using a mix of ground lamb and beef and use my wide skewers. The ring bologna shown I removed the casing to get a better smoke flavor. I cut some shallow slits in the top and worked some Blues Hog rub in. I smoked it on my Traeger at 180 deg. for about 50 minutes and then went to 300 deg. grill level for 20 minutes.

I sliced it and took to the birthday party for a snack. It tasted pretty good!

My supper

The smoked bologna

Me and Louie's Italian Beef

Oct 09 2015

My supper tonight started on Tuesday when I took a 2.5 pound sirloin roast out of the freezer. Chicago style Italian beef sandwiches are one of my favorites.  Louie’s Italian beef au jus seasoning makes the best Chicago beef I have done. Some good beef smoked and sliced thin, add the Louie’s seasoning and water, a half a beer, onions, garlic sliced green peppers some pepperoncini peppers and some fresh ground black pepper to a Crockpot and simmer 4 to 5 hours and you have a great Chicago Italian beef with au jus.

Thursday I seasoned the beef roast with some Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle and fresh ground pepper. I did it on my Traeger at 180 deg. smoke for an hour and then went to 300 deg. grill level to finish. In about 2 hours it was at 130 deg. IT I wanted. After it cooled I double wrapped in foil and in the fridge overnight.

This morning I put it in the freezer for 45 minutes and then sliced it thin. It went into my Crockpot about noon; I added the Louie’s seasoning pack mixed with 4 cups of water, a half a lager beer, a couple slices of diced onions, 3 large cloves of garlic diced, six or seven pepperoncini’s and some of the juice. I set the Crockpot on high for an hour and then went to low.

After two hours I sliced up 1 ½ med. onions, 1 ½ green bell peppers and added to the pot with some fresh ground pepper. We ate supper about 6:00 PM.

For a side I had some broccoli and cauliflower I sprinkled on some lemon juice and Penzey’s sandwich sprinkle. I steamed it in my rice cooker. I had some French steak rolls for the sandwiches and dipped each half cut side in the au jus and served with plenty of the beef.

That hit the spot!!! Me and Louie make some pretty good Chicago style Italian Beef!

Roast thawed and seasoned

After an hour on smoke

Done at two hours and 130deg. IT

Cooling then in the fridge overnight

Slicing thin

Ingredients

Louie's seasoning mix and water

In the Crockpot

After 2 hours, peppers and onions added

And mixed in

Ready to serve

My supper