Minestrone

We have somewhat of a tradition going on in the Schrock household.  Every Christmas eve we have a special soup and bread for dinner.  Tonight we had Minestrone.  Because I had to work this morning, I made it last night.  I was also going to make Brioche but didn't have time because we are so busy at the Bistro lately.  So Mom was going to make it, but then she didn't have time.  If you know anything about making Brioche, it is a long process.  The end result is very, very good though.  So instead of Brioche we had cornbread rolls that Mom made.  I am going to finish the Brioche tomorrow and then we will have it with our Christmas dinner.  We also had Caesar salad tonight.  I looked online for recipes that don't call for eggs or anchovies, because we didn't have any anchovies and because I didn't want to use raw eggs.  It turned out pretty good.  I like it.  Homemade croutons to top it off are good too.

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Seasons
by Your Memorial

Meatball Subs

Sorry for the lack of updates as of late.  It's the holiday season so that means lots of work at the Bistro.  I did cook dinner tonight after work.  We were thinking about just heating up some soup, but I kinda sniffed at that.  I asked Mom what all we have to make stuff with.  She mentioned meatballs....meatball subs.  So I whipped them up in no time.  Heated the meatballs in pizza sauce and warmed the bread.  I made a little salad with lettuce, mushrooms, and carrots.  Then assembled the subs.  It was good.  It was quick to make.  That is good.

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Another Way Home
by Remove the Veil

Spicy Pickled Red Beet Eggs / Deviled Eggs

The other day I pickled some eggs.  I pickled them in red beet juice with some vinegar, sugar, and ground hot peppers.  So they were spicy pickled red beet eggs.  They turned a nice pink color after 2 days.  Then last night I made deviled eggs with them.  I mixed the yolk with mayonnaise, lemon pepper, Herbamare, and Italian seasonings.  They were good.  Even my two sisters loved them, and they were saying that they don't like deviled eggs. I don't mean to brag but I think they were the best deviled eggs that I ever ate.  Now my next mission is to make regular hard boiled eggs and devil them.  I want to find out if the pickling made them extraordinarily good, or if it was the filling that I made on the fly.

The pickled eggs with the red beets

The scrumptious deviled eggs

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Finish What You Start
by Woodale

Baked Mac and Cheese

A couple hours ago I asked Mom what was to make for dinner.  She said pigeons.  My cousin shot some pigeons yesterday, Dad cleaned them, then Mom cooked them in the crock pot.  However, we needed something else to go with the pigeons.  Mom suggested baked mac and cheese.  So this was my second try at making baked mac and cheese.  It turned out a little better than the other try. I used a different recipe.  It said to used a pound of cheese and 8 oz of cream cheese.  That's a lot of cheese.  I doubled the recipe so it was a pound of cream cheese and 2 pounds of cheese.  It said to used white cheddar, which I didn't have.  I was thinking about using Velveeta, but that would have used the whole box.  That's a lot of cheese.  So I used a mix of Jackby, Jack Derby, Colby, and American cheese.  It tasted okay.  However, the cheese was a bit curdled or something.  Maybe all the different cheeses I used did not melt properly.  So next time I make this recipe I will either use all cheddar or all Velveeta.  However, I have now found another recipe that looks good, so I will make that recipe next and then maybe try this again later on.

The baked mac and cheese

Mom sliced cabbage. I made cole slaw.

The pigeon breasts.

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Ska Lives Vol. 1

Pickled Beef Heart

Last Thursday I made pickled beef heart.  Well, I actually got it started pickling last Thursday.  I boiled the heart in salt water for 3 hours then trimmed the fat and gooky stuff.  Then I placed it in a solution of water, sugar, dry mustard, onion, pickling spice, some salt and pepper, and let it pickle in the fridge for a week.  Today I sliced it up and tasted it.  It's pretty good.  A bit salty, but very good.  I then made a sandwich with it.  Yummers!

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The Radio Sky
by The Radio Sky

Chili

Yesterday I made chili.  Now, the chili I grew up eating is good, but it's kinda juicy.  I like my chili thick, almost stew-like.  So I kinda came up with my own recipe.  I found a basic recipe for chili and then tweaked it to my liking.  It's good.  Real good.  It's now a secret, so don't ask for the recipe.  I also made cornbread.  I love cornbread, and chili.

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The Fiancée
by The Chariot

Beef Tongue

So last night after we got home from church my neighbor/cousin Jerry was coming out of the house and said that he dropped off some goodies for us.  The goodies turned out to be a lot of beef liver, a heart, and a tongue.  So last night I cooked the tongue in the crock pot.  Covered it with water, added salt, a bit of sugar, lots of fresh garlic, onion, and some carrot.  I let it cook on low for at least 12 hours.  A bit ago I took it out of the crock pot, took the skin off, and sliced it.  Man, it is good.  Very good.  Now I need to make a sandwich out of it.  Beef tongue burrito or something.

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I Stole the Morning Sun
by Andy Zipf

Beef Stew

I love the fall/winter time.  Besides the fact that the weather is cooler, I like the food that fall/winter brings.  Soups and stews and such are good any time of the year, but especially good this time of year.  I made beef stew tonight for dinner.  Served it over mashed potatoes.  It was quite good.   I used a recipe from my mom's collection.  It said for the thickening to use tapioca instead of flour or cornstarch like other stews usually call for.  It looked a bit interesting because you could see the tapioca in the stew, but it was very good.

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Fluorescent Youth
by Conditions

Moo Goo Gai Pan

Sometimes when I would look through my mom's recipe collection, I would see this thing called Moo Goo Gai Pan.  I always kinds wanted to make it, but we never had all the stuff for it.  Mom never made it either, but had been wanting to. So today Janina went and got the ingredients that I needed, and I made it tonight.  Moo Goo Gai Pan...it is an Americanized version of the Cantonese chicken and mushroom stir-fry dish, Ma Gu Gai Pin.  It's rather good.  I made rice and Mom helped make a salad.  I also made two salad dressing, Ranch and Thousand Island.

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Invincible
by Skillet

Gumbo

We make a mean chicken and sausage gumbo at the Bistro.  I figured I would try my hand at gumbo here at the house.  Because I had to work tonight, I made the gumbo last night.  It was a chicken, sausage, and shrimp gumbo.  Mom was then supposed to make rice and cornbread tonight to go with it.  She made the cornbread, but forgot the rice.  Oh well.  It was good without it.

There is really nothing to look at in this picture.  It's just a bowl of gumbo with a slice of cornbread.  It was quite good, though.

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Losing at Life
by Classic Case

Fish n Chips

I love me some fish n chips.  I must say the best I have had so far was from Ned Devine's.  Wait, we served it at the Bistro once, beer battered fish n chips.  Unfortunately I didn't have any because I was working.  Hmm, I think we must run a fish n chips special again one day soon.

I made fish n chips for dinner tonight.  I used fresh-made seasoned bread crumbs for the fish coating and then pan-fried them.  I cut up some potatoes for oven fries.  Mom cooked up some kale and mustard greens.  I also served a pasta salad, which I will not be posting pictures of because it looks weird.  I made the pasta salad last night and used vegetable alphabet pasta since we didn't know what else to do with pasta.  It tastes really good, but look really weird.

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Lost Boy
by MyChildren MyBride

Lasagna

I made my Five Cheese Lasagna again for dinner tonight.  If you remember, a while back I blogged about lasagna.  I made garlic bread using ciabatta.  Mom steamed some veggies and made a salad.  Austin made tea.  It was a good dinner.

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Illinois
by Sufjan Stevens

Woodberry Kitchen

Last Monday, September 27, was Janina's 21st birthday.  Her boyfriend came down from New York for a couple days.  Monday evening we went to Baltimore.  We went to eat at Woodberry Kitchen with our cousins Danae, Donna, and her husband, Brian.  Now, there is a little back-story to all of this.  A while back, before Donna was married, Glen and I went to Baltimore to spend the day with her.  The plan was for us three to do stuff in and around Baltimore, then go eat at Woodberry Kitchen with Danae.  The thing is, we didn't know when exactly what time we would go to Woodberry Kitchen, so we didn't make reservations.  We drove up there probably around 5:00 pm or something, and were told that without reservations we would have to wait 3 hours.  We didn't have that much time because Glen and I were planning to go to Sonar for a concert later on in the evening.  So we went to the harbor and ate at McCormick & Schmick's.  It was very good.  However, we were kinda bummed that we did not eat at Woodberry Kitchen.  So I made sure to make reservations for us Monday evening.  I think we were all impressed with the place.  It has a nice, casual vibe.  They have a big, open kitchen.  It was Monday evening and there was probably 8 chefs working, with about 5 other servers and baristas.  That was different to see, since I am not used to an open kitchen and at most we will have 4 chefs working the line on the busy weekends.  It was cool though to see how they all worked together.  Each one of them had their own specific task to do that made the whole process run smoothly.  The food was excellent.  Our server greeted us soon after we were seated and took our drink orders.  We were given complimentary water and bread before ordering.  The bread was excellent, by the way.  I ordered one of the specials, John the Butcher's Board.  It was a long, narrow board lined with several different cold cuts of meat, shaved hams, pepperoni, sausage, and such.  Oh, and there was some head cheese.  It was served with crusty bread, a bit of jam, mustard, and pickled veggies.  Was quite good.  Then for dessert I had something called Beer and Chocolate.  It was interesting, but very good.  There was some sort of house made cracker on the bottom, topped with a big chunk of milk chocolate, a bit of beer sorbet, a chocolate tuille, and sprinkled with caramel popcorn.  Quite good.  I don't know who would think of putting caramel popcorn with it, but it made the whole dessert better.  The crunch of the popcorn with the chocolate and the sorbet was very good.  They serve a wide variety of ice cream there.  Probably the most bizarre one was basil.  Brian asked the server if he had ever tried it.  He said that he had and that it had recently won an award for best dessert of something in the area.  When he brought out our other desserts he gave us a complimentary scoop of the basil ice cream for us to see what all the fuss is about.  I must say it was good.  Interesting, different, green of course, but very good.

Currently listening

The Hope That Lies in You
by The Glorious Unseen

Pies

This week I once again tried my hand at my nemesis, baking pies.  First I made a shoofly pie.  Since I can't make regular pie crust, I used a crust recipe that said to mix it right in the pan and then press it into shape around the pan.  Um, it didn't really work.  The pie tasted okay, but the crust was too soggy.  I also made two graham cracker crust and baked them.  The next day I used them for a peanut butter pie and a butterscotch pie.  They are good.  The crust is good.  I kinda put in a little bit of cinnamon in the crust mixture.  I was wondering if anybody would notice, and of course Mom said something about it.  Haha!  I think it tastes okay, though.  It's a little twist on peanut butter and butterscotch pies.  I still must learn how to make a real pastry pie crust.  Next time I will use a different recipe, not the kind that you mix in the pan.  I think I would actually enjoy baking if I could learn how do it right and not have everything flop.

Shoofly pie

Butterscotch pie

Peanut butter pie

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Reset & Rewind
by Manic Drive

Pizza Casserole

There is nothing really glamorous about pizza casserole.  It's just a casserole, but it tastes so good.  Mom was making applesauce yesterday, so I didn't want to make anything that took a long time.  So I made pizza casserole.  I didn't really follow the recipe.  I didn't have enough pepperoni, so I used some turkey bacon and pepperoni.  I didn't have enough sausage, so I used some cooked chicken and sausage.  I used bow pasta and elbow macaroni instead of just elbow macaroni.  It made the casserole different.  It looked a bit different, but it tasted pretty good.  It  was a tad bit spicy, because I used Mom's habanero pizza sauce.  Habanero pizza sauce, yea.  That's another story for another time.

 

It tasted a lot better than it looks.

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Shimmer
by Luna Halo

Beef Enchiladas

I love enchiladas.  So yummy.  I made beef enchiladas tonight for dinner.  I was going to make Crock-Pot Enchiladas but didn't have time to let them slow cook, so I cooked them in the oven instead.  I didn't have enough flour tortillas so I used some corn tortillas as well.  It would have been tricky to try and roll up the small corn tortillas so instead I just put everything in a baking dish and cooked them, then scooped them out with a spoon.  Mom made rice.  I made a salad and Janina made croutons for it.  She didn't make them the right way though.  Now croutons are supposed to be small, cubed, crispy pieces of bread.  Janina likes her croutons soft.  She loads them with butter and Ranch seasonings and then bakes them for a short amount of time.  They taste okay, because of all the butter, but they are not crispy like croutons should be.  The problem is, when you let them sit overnight they become stale.  Then they are horrible.  Anyway, that was my rant on soggy croutons.  Time for pictures.

The salad, minus croutons.  I let people put croutons on their own salad if they wanted them.

The enchiladas

The plate of food

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Happy Birthday Denison (It's my party. I can sing if I want to.)
by Denison Witmer

Authentic Cincinnati Chili

I made Cincinnati Chili for dinner tonight.  I actually made it last night because that is the traditional Cincinnati way to do it.  I boiled the ground meat in water for half an hour, then added the other ingredients and simmered it for three hours or so.  Then tonight I skimmed the layer of fat off the top and reheated it.  I also cooked up some spaghetti, because you have to eat this chili over spaghetti.  Now there are five official ways to eat this chili, as mentioned on the Wikipedia page.

• two-way: spaghetti and chili
• three-way: spaghetti, chili, and shredded cheese
• four-way: spaghetti, chili, shredded cheese, and either diced onions or beans
• five-way: spaghetti, chili, shredded cheese, diced onions, and beans

I kicked it up a notch and served it six-way: spaghetti, chili, shredded cheese, diced onions, beans, and sour cream.  It is different than most chili that people are familiar to, but it's good.  I like it.

I also made cornbread muffins.  We didn't have normal cornmeal.  We had roasted cornmeal, so the muffins looked and tasted different than normal, but they were good.  Different can be good.  Different is good.

The cornbread muffins

The food ready to be assembled on the plates

The finished plate

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26 Letters
by Ben Glover

Cream Cheese Danish 2.0

Yesterday I made Cream Cheese Danish again.  I followed the recipe this time and used canned crescent rolls for the dough.  I also sprinkled slivered almonds on the top like the recipe said.  Last time I didn't have almonds and used chopped walnuts.  It turned out quite good.  Tryphena can't stop eating it.

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Sink/Swim
by A Cadence of Sorts