Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

2 1/4 c. sifted all-purpose flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. creamy style peanut butter

1/2 c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 3/4 c. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Sift flour with baking powder and salt; set aside. In large bowl with portable electric mixer or wooden spoon beat peanut butter, sugar and vanilla until well combined. Gradually add milk, beating until well blended. Add flour mixture, beating until smooth. Pour into pan. Bake 1 hour or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool 10 minutes. Remove from pan, cool completely on wire rack. To serve, cut into thin slices.

YOUR COMMENTS:

WarsawNan says - A slice of peanut butter bread is awesome spread with soft cream cheese!

Chad Bria HOT WINGS

Seriously, this is an award winning recipe should you ever wanna enter a Hot Wings contest. Best Hot Wings EVER. And give credit where credit is due. Mr. Chad Bria of Surprise, Az taught me this recipe and so far – no commercial wing I’ve tried (and I’m a hot wing coinsure) comes even close.

4 dozen wings

1 bottle of ‘Franks Hot sauce’ (found in the ketchup isle)

1 bottle of Kraft Bleu Cheese Dressing

1 Stick of butter

Garlic Powder to taste (1 – 2 teaspoons)

Crisco for deep fat frying

Preferably a deep fat fryer, but if you don’t have one a deep pot and a wire basket.

Heat your oil to 350 -375 degree’s

Melt the butter slowly with as much garlic as you like,  add the Franks sauce.  When blended, turn heat way down.  Don’t mix in Blue Cheese until the wings are ready to be coated, otherwise it will separate. (if -and when- it does, use a wire whisk to blend it back together).

Rinse and pat dry all the wings.

Toss 6-8 wings at a time into the sauce and coat evenly. Remove and shake off any excess sauce and put the wings into the hot oil. (careful of spattering). After about 3 minutes remove the wings to a paper toweled cookie sheet to drain and cool, start a new batch. Once all the wings are finished – start the process all over again. Recoat the wings in the sauce and re-fry them. This is what makes em’ nice and crusty and tender and spicy. Last step before serving: Toss the wings with the remainder of the sauce until they’re all evenly coated. . . YEAH BABY YEAH!

Don’t like em’ so spicy? Here’s how you adjust the spicy-ness: Equal parts hot sauce and bleu cheese dressing makes them a tad bit spicier then medium. 2/3 bleu cheese dressing to 1/3 hot sauce makes em’ mild. And just the opposite makes em’ spicy. (2/3 hot sauce to 1/3 bleu cheese dressing). So, that extra frying process is what nobody takes the time to do, but it takes these wings over the top to award winning status. When I make these for a party, seriously, I hear over and over “Harry, these are the best hot wings I’ve ever had! – What’s the secret?!”

Well, there ya go – THAT’S the secret!

YOUR COMMENTS:

Jolny T. says – Have you ever thought of using a little pic to some blog content which can keep the viewers way more entertained? Which i just mean I simply just go over with the entire articles created by yours and also this seemed to be very great but due to the fact that I . . . (I dunno, that’s where his/her comment ends…) Have you ever thought of researching what a “run on sentence” is? Have you ever thought of stop posting on blog sites because you can’t compose a cohesive thought or sentence?

Dee L. says - I’m giving this recipe a try for a Super Bowl Party we’re having. I’ll be sure to let you know what everyone thinks of them.

Dee L. says (Post Super Bowl) - Well, the wings were a BIG hit with our guest. We had 3 different kinds. My friend David brought his hot wings and I made this recipe and a sweet bbq wing. This recipe went first and then the bbq. Poor David, his came in last. GREAT recipe, thanks! – Delighted to be of service! (told ya)

by Dee Lowe (writer of our Willie Nelson song “Momma’s Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Bad Cooks” in ‘Cooking with Kids’)

Just made this for dinner, VERY good! I call it Lazy Day Beef and Noodles. It was a cold day here in Florida and I am in need of some comfort food. I am just getting over the flu bug and didn’t feel quite up to making beef and noodles from scratch. Threw this together in the crockpot, made some Reem’s Egg Noodles. Served it with peas and Hawaiian Rolls and butter.

1 ½ lbs. stew meat

1 can Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 can Campbells French Onion Soup

Mix the soups together until well blended. Place meat in crockpot, pour soup over meat. Cook on low for 6 – 8 hours. Serve over Egg Noodles.

So simple, yet so good.

Joe & daughter Joy. Thats the little angel tearing bread for stuffing in my header design, all grown up and beautiful.

Chinese Cooking

Joe Conlon 12/29/2009

Probably my favorite cuisine to both cookand eat is Chinese. My dad turned me on to Chinese food when I was a boy in Indianapolis andhe would take us to the Jong Me restaurant on special occasions. In the early 1970’s, when I was stationed on Okinawa without my family, I was very lonely and very bored. I signed up to take a course in Chinese cooking that was run by the Japanese wife of one of the officers on the base. She taught from her own little paper bound cookbook that she had written, and I loved her course and learned all the techniques I still use today. I still have that little cookbook and it is still my favorite for Chinese cooking although I have added my own little touches over the years to most of the recipes I use.

Sweet and Sour Pork

The best you’re likely to get anywhere. Master this dish and you’re sure to impress your guests with your culinary skills. It tastes better than any restaurant version you’re likely to have had, and the colors are beautiful together. It takes a long time to do the preparation for it, but the cooking itself goes really fast.You can make the meat and the sauce ahead of time and the meat will freeze well so when you make it, you can make extra and freeze what you don’t use for later. This is one of the recipes I learned in my Chinese Cooking class in Japan and it’s one of my family’s favorites. AND the one my little brother and Rattle Them Pots And Pans host used to wow his future in-laws with. It works equally well for chicken or beef.

Meat: 1 pound lean pork loin or chop cut into 1″ cubes

Marinade:1 Tablespoon creme sherry

1 clove garlic mashed

2 Tablespoon Kikoman soy sauce

½ teaspoon Accent (MSG)

1 Teaspoon fresh ginger root minced

Mix the above well and soak the meat 2-3 hours or overnight.

The Batter

2 egg yolks or 1 egg

4 Tablespoons cornstarch

Mix well. Add additional cornstarch if necessary to achieve a stiff batter. Drain the meat and combine with the batter. Roll in additional cornstarch to coat it well. Deep fry the meat in peanut oil at 375 to 420 degrees F. Until it’s crisp and golden brown. Only takes a few minutes. Turn out onto paper towel to drain and save for later. (You can do this part ahead of time and store in the frig or freezer. You can also do the same technique with chicken or shrimp.) Because of my wife and son’s egg allergy, the way I now do this step is to eliminate the eggs altogether and just roll the meat, still wet from the marinade, in dry cornstarch and then fry as usual. If you don’t have the egg allergy problem, do it the original way.

The Sweet and Sour Sauce

6 Tablespoons sugar

½ cup unsweetened pineapple juice

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 Tablespoons ketchup

1 Tablespoon creme sherry

½ cup water

3 Tablespoons white vinegar

2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Combine the sugar, soy sauce, wine, vinegar, pineapple juice and ketchup and bring to aboil. Mix the cornstarch and water together and pour into the boiling ingredients and stir overlow heat until thick. Set aside for later. (This step can be done ahead of time too and stored inthe refrigerator. This sauce is good for dipping Egg Rolls etc. too.)

The Vegetable Mixture

6 Tablespoons peanut oil

1 medium onion cut into chunks

½ cup carrots cut on diagonal ( I usually use the little baby carrots whole)

1 can bamboo shoots, and/or 1 can whole water chestnuts (both optional)

1 green pepper cut into bite size chunks

1 red pepper cut into bite size chunks

1 can pineapple chunks (in unsweetened juice) Or better yet, fresh pineapple cut in chunks

1 tomato cut into bite size chunks

Place the oil into hot wok or large fry pan and heat to about 420 degrees F. Add the veggies inthis order: Onions and carrots (which take a little longer to cook) and stir well for about aminute. Add the bamboo shoots and peppers and stir fry. Addthe pineapple and tomato and stir. Add the sauce and blendinto veggies. Add the meat, combine well until all is warmedthrough. You want the veggies to stay crisp, so this entire steptakes less than five minutes. Serve with rice. Serves 4-6people and you can easily double the recipe if needed.

The No Fail Rice

Use 2 to 1 ratio for liquid to rice.

1 cup rice

2 cups chicken stock

½ teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon butter

Combine ingredients in pot and bring to a boil. Stir,cover the pot and turn down the heat to low. Cook 18-20minutes covered. Fluff with a fork. Serves four.

Pizza King BBQ Pizza

Before I moved away from Indiana, at least once a week I would have for lunch a Pizza King Barbeque Pizza and one large beer. And like White Castle, (see white castle recipe in the ‘recipe’ category) Pizza King has no restaurants here in Arizona. As luck would have it, I nailed this knock off recipe on the first time and have not altered it one bit in 20 years. Twenty years ago, my wife Debbie, while grocery shopping, asked me the simplest question “What sounds good for dinner tonight?”

“Barbeque Pizza” I longingly groaned.

“What?!” she asked with that grossed out look on her face.

I told her my fondness for this pizza and she said “So get the stuff you need and make one… it sounds nasty, but it sounds simple to make.”

So that’s what I did. And like I said, nailed it on the first try. And Debbie changed her mind on the ’sounds nasty’ part too – she loves it!

Pizza King BBQ Pizza

1 tube Jimmy Deans ORIGINAL sausage

½ bottle (aprox.) Bill Johnsons ORIGINAL BBQ sauce

1 tube Pillsbury Pizza Crust

Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Corse ground corn meal

Cookie sheet sprayed with Pam and slightly sprinkled with the corn meal.

Fry the sausage. Make sure you bust it up nice and fine while you fry it. Drain in a colander and quickly rinse with really hot tap water. (you don’t want all the grease out, but most of it.)

Gently spread out your dough. It’s kind of hard to work with, but be patient and try and spread it out so it’s nice and thin. After it’s spread out nicely, put it in the oven and pre cook it a bit. (375 degrees I think – whatever’s on the directions). Take it out right before it starts to turn color. This is going to make for a nice crunchy crust. . . But watch it like a hawk.

Now instead of pizza sauce, you’re going to use the barbeque sauce. Spread it out evenly, then the sausage, then top with the cheese. Back in the oven and watch it like a hawk. You want the top to be slightly golden brown. Tilt an edge of the pizza and check the bottom as it cooks. If the bottom is browning faster than the top, turn on the broiler and finish it off with that.

If there is no beer in the house, don’t even bother making this pizza. ICE COLD Beer in a frosted mug is a MUST with this pizza. And God bless my brother George, who years and years ago sent me a genuine Pizza King mug. It’s kept in a small padded and red velvet lined compartment in my freezer and it only comes out on BBQ Pizza night. When removed from this holy storage spot, a choir sings a long C note. . . “Ahhhh h h h h. . . .”

Our Comments / Discussions

WarsawNan – No pizza stone? No homemade crust??? Surprising. I make pizza frequently. Will give your recipe a try, but will substitute my own sourdough crust, kick the temp up to 500-degrees, and bake on the pizza stone.

Yeah, pre-made crust and no pizza stone – I know. But really, our site here is about ‘easy’ stuff to cook. Not written in stone or nothing. As far as the ’stone’ goes, I use to have one of those but dropped it and it broke. We had a small prayer service for it and then buried in with a short but eloquent ceremony in the back yard. Using a pizza stone gives you a wonderfully crunchy, more traditional crust like it was baked in a brick oven. BBQ Pizza MUST have thin and crunchy crust.

Dee L. – I LOVE Pizza King BBQ pizza! I thought they used beef though on theirs. Guess that must be the Pizza Huts BBQ. Can you duplicate Pizza Kings Hot Sub Sandwich? I’m counting the days down until May when I go back to Indiana for a visit and can go get one!!!!

OMG, I had forgotten all about the PK HOT Sub Sandwich! They’re fantastic! I want one! I remember watching them being made. They’re made on the same prep line as the pizza’s, with the same ingredients as used on the pizza’s. No sauce, but I think they finish them off with Heroin or something. Pop em’ into the conveyor oven open faced and when they come out they’re browned up beautifully! All the meats give off their nice oils that dissolves the Heroin and soaks into the bread…awesome. (I think they might use the Heroin in that BBQ Pizza too). . . day after day you’ll go back with that craving. . . somebody should do something!

WarsawNan says – Had a pizza party last weekend. Would you believe they don’t HAVE Bill Johnson BBQ sauce here! (Indiana – “the horror…” – Apocalypse Now) WTF!! We substituted Sweet Baby Ray’s on one, and we also went by PK and just bought sides of their BBQ sauce. Both turned out pretty good. During my second pregnancy, there was a PK next door to the school I was going to, and I HAD to eat a PK chef salad every single day for lunch. Couldn’t get enough of them!

World’s Best Chicken Soup recipe by Joe Conlon

Good for the body — Good for the soul. Also known as Jewish penicillin or cure for the common cold.

First of all, soup to me is an attitude rather than a specific recipe. What follows is the way I do it. Don’t be afraid to get creative. I usually throw in most of the leftover veggies in the refrigerator and cast spells over the pot as it simmers.  Ingredients:

Stock

2-3 Tablespoons olive oil Lawry’s seasoned salt (about 1 ½ tsp)

2 cloves of garlic crushed ½ tsp pepper

1 chicken 2 carrots chunked

1 large can chicken stock 2 stalks celery chunked

1 medium onion 2 –3 ozs. Creme Sherry wine

several slices fresh ginger root water

Cut up the chicken. Put the olive oil and garlic in the bottom of the pressure cooker and fry for a minute. Add the chicken and fry for a minute or two. Add all the other ingredients to the pressure cooker. I peel the onion and leave it whole but run a knife through the center of the onion to keep it from falling apart in the pot. Place the jiggler on the pressure cooker and cook on high until it starts jiggling. Turn down heat to low and cook for 30 minutes. Place pot under cold running water to release pressure. When the thing hisses and releases pressure, take off the top and remove the chicken and bones and onion and veggies and ginger root. Throw away the veggies and let the chicken cool while you continue the next step. Return the open pot and stock to the flame and add the veggies below.

4 medium potatoes, cut into ½ cup uncooked rice

bite size cubes 1 cup noodles

1 can sliced water chestnuts ½ cup chopped celery

1 can mushrooms pieces & stems 1 small can corn or ½ cup frozen corn

or fresh mushrooms sliced 1 medium onion chopped

½ red pepper chopped (Any good looking leftovers)

Simmer for about ½ hour until veggies are tender. While the soup is cooking, remove the meat from the chicken and add it to the pot. Taste the spicing and adjust as necessary, adding seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder, ginger as necessary. Be careful to not add any bones. Enjoy. This soup gets better the next day and it freezes well. Keep some in the freezer for when you’re feelin’ poorly and it’ll fix you right up. Serve with fresh bread hot from the oven. Mmmm good!

Chicken Soup Stories

“I’ve won several cooking contests from newspapers and ribbons at the county fair with this recipe. Whenever anyone in the family had a cold, I made chicken soup. Scientific research has showed that chicken soup really does help you feel better — they don’t know why, but it works. That’s why the chicken really crossed the road. He wanted to be famous and heard I was the guy that could make it happen. I invited him for dinner and the rest is history.

There are lots of caves in the area around Bloomington, Indiana. When I was in college at I.U. one Saturday I had gone caving. On returning to my room — tired and extremely muddy, I opened my closet door to get a towel planning on heading to the shower. There was a terrible squawk and a blur of white hit me about knee level. I screamed and jumped backward into the hall buck naked. I peaked back into my room to see a terrified chicken running around the room.

One of the pledges of the fraternity had found a chicken wandering around in the back yard and had decided it would be a good prank to put it in my closet and see what happened. Needless to say, he was quite pleased with my reaction. I got an egg from the kitchen and told the pledge the chicken had laid it in my closet and it was his duty to hatch it. I showed all the brothers my parlor trick of how I could hypnotize a chicken (which my great Aunt Marg Reutter had taught me how to do as a boy on her farm in Fowler, Indiana ). A few days later we got tired of the chicken and gave it to our fraternity’s cook who I assumed made soup out of it. A day later a little girl showed up looking for her lost chicken. We lied and said we hadn’t seen it since we didn’t want to break her heart by telling of its true fate.”

Joe Conlon

Story #2: “The first food I ever made for Joyce was my famous chicken soup. It was on the day I met her. She and her roommate Margaret had come over to see my roommate Tom. While Margaret and Tom went into the rear of the apartment to talk, I was left to entertain Joyce. I thought she was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen and I thought she was a dead ringer for Olivia Hussey who starred in a movie of Romeo and Juliet that I had just seen about eight times in the week before I met her. I’d been cooking that day and dearly wanted to impress her. So I offered her a bowl of my chicken soup. It must have worked because we had two great kids together and the rest is history.”

Snickerdoodles

by Joe Conlon

Harriet Dower Conlon, Peggy Dower McNeley, and “Betty Crocker”. . .

This is the first thing I remember “helping with” in the kitchen. Both my mom and my Aunt Peggy made these cookies and we loved them. My first“job” was to roll the dough into little balls and then roll them in the cinnamon. I could make them myself by age 7. I remember being amazed at how the little balls of dough would flatten out in the oven and they’d get this crinkly surface. It seemed like magic to me. “Snickerdoodles” – I loved saying the word. Fun to say – fun to smell – fun to eat warm from the oven with a cold glass of milk. Baking these fill the kitchen with the most wonderful aroma imaginable. I can’t make these cookies without that aroma bringing back my childhood memories. We made them when my kids Joy and Jason were little too. It’s a great recipe to start teaching kids to cook. The recipe came from my mom’s very old (1950’s era) Betty Crocker loose leaf cookbook. It’s the exact recipe we used. I remember mom used to get a chapter of that book each month in the mail – kind of like book of the month club and the whole family would get excited and we’d watch her put the chapter in the binder and we’d look at the pictures and know she’d be trying new recipes on us. I also remember wondering why they just didn’t send the whole book at once. We kids didn’t like just getting “The Side dishes” or “Beverages” chapter – we wanted the good stuff – like these “Cookies”. This last summer I had a houseful of great nieces and nephews for about a week. I put them all to work in the kitchen and we made pizzas, snickerdoodles, and chocolate chip cookies. Even the littlest had their “jobs”. I told them the story above that goes with the cookies. Man! Did the house smell great that day, and a new generation now connects with their heritage.

Joe 12/7/2009

Mix together thoroughly …

1 cup soft shortening (Crisco)

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

Sift together and stir in …

2 3/4 cups sifted GOLD MEDAL Flour

2 tsp. Cream of tartar

1 tsp. Baking soda

1/2 tsp. Salt

Chill dough. Roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in mixture of 2 tbsp. Sugar and 2 tsp. Cinnamon. Place about 2″ apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until lightly browned … but still soft. (These cookies puff up at first … then flatten out with crinkled tops.)

Temperature: 400 (mod. Hot oven).

Time: Bake 8 to 10 minutes

Amount: About 5 doz. 2″ cookies.

My Big Plans For Thanksgiving Leftovers tonight when I get home from work…

Had a huge feast for friends and family at last weeks Thanksgiving feast. Needless to say, there’s leftovers.  Alas, we are now officially sick of Thanksgiving Leftovers. Time to either toss it all or freeze it. This year though, I got another idea in mind…

This year, I’m breaking out the meat grinder.

Last fathers day, I was completely surprised by my gift. A brand new Cabala’s electric meat grinder. I’d been goin’ on and on about my dad and his grinder and my son took note. When he and his mom put their heads together for a gift idea, Harrison brought the meat grinder up. Mom loved the idea and eventually found an affordable one at the best sporting goods supplier on earth – Cabala’s. Hundred bucks. Lots of attachments, serious torque power (insert Tim the Tool Guy’s cave man grunt here).

Gonna break out my trusty meat grinder, attach the medium grind plate and make us some Thanksgiving Brats. That’s right: Gonna take all my left over meat and run it through the grinder into a big bowl.  Mix it with that big bowl stuffing, rest of the gravy, rest of the  cranberry sauce, and the rest of whatever else needs to go. Mix it all up real good and run it through the grinder once again, only this time with just the sausage casing stuffer attachment. Fill the casings the same size as a bratwurst. Dry em’ out real nice, THEN freeze em’. . . well not all of em’.

I gotta believe that once these things are tossed on the grill and they get all nice and golden grilled. . . Man, they just GOTTA be good. We shall see. I’ll take pics and post the whole event.

Your thoughts and or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

OK, I procrastinated too long on doing this. Once I got the stuff out to start, things had that “better not use me” oder to them – especially the turkey. So it all got tossed and the dish remains only in theory. May just have to just cook another turkey breast, small batch of dressing, cranberry sauce. . .oh what the hell?! I’ll wait till next year!

My very favorite comfort food – Persimmon Pudding

Have you ever eaten something that was SO good, it made you cry? Or maybe tear up a bit? Well I have and I’m not ashamed to admit it! It’s a story (and recipe) about two women who love me dearly. My grandma and my wife. My grandma and wife never met each other. Grandma was the quintessential ‘grandma’. Tiny, sweet, adored her grandkids, loved cooking for them, drank whiskey on the sly. . . (LOL!). Anyway, this woman could C O O K !

One of the favorite dishes she did was Persimmon Pudding. And it wasn’t really a pudding either. It’s a super moist bunt style cake. (Bunt meaning it’s cooked in a pan that is ring shaped – finished product has a big hole in it). When it’s finished, it’s going to look like it’s chocolate – nothing like chocolate, but looks like it. The flavor is SO unique. Really hard to describe actually. Think of carrot cake, less sweet, more rich. Dense. Moist. Served warm with a dollop of cream sauce. (NOT whipped cream, but cream sauce) Persimmon’s only come into season in fall (I think) and that’s why this desert is only done at Thanksgiving and Christmas time. At least that’s the only time grandma cooked it.

Small Sidebar: Never once did I feel the need to make a Persimmon Pudding and then mummify it so my grandchildren might enjoy it. Never. (go read “Fruitcakes I Have Know – One In Particular”)

Grandma died when I was 12. I had not had Persimmon Pudding again until I was 48, 36 years later! My wife had heard me tell the story of grandma and her pudding many times. One winter day she was perusing a cookbook and found a recipe. She decided to give it a try and surprise me with it. Man, what a surprise it was! I’d come home from being gone all day, the house smelling very wonderful. It was a few days before Thanksgiving.

“What in the world is that amazing aroma!?” I asked.

“It’s a surprise. Sit. Close your eyes!” Debbie told me.

I did as I was told, felt her come up behind me and heard her place the plate in front of me. As she did so, she kissed my cheek and whispered “Enjoy!”

With a smile on my face I opened my eyes and looked down. Then a shocked expression came to my face.

“What the. . .? Is this what I think it is?….where. . .?. . .how . . .?. . .” I stammered.

“Shut up and taste it!” she commanded. She sat across the table from me with excitement on her face. The smell was coming back to me. . . It smelled like grandma’s house at Thanksgiving. I took a bite and closed my eyes. It was a perfect match! Images of grandma in the kitchen filled my head. Fresh pine tree surrounded by my siblings happily decorating. The smell of that tree mixed with the aroma of that pudding were brought from the dark recesses of my memory. My own house now filled with the same fabulous scents. And the flavor that filled my mouth – like I said, it was a perfect match. I took a second bite and began to chew. My chin began to quiver and I could feel tears forming in my eyes. I looked over to my wife. She had a somewhat confused look on her face. With raised eyebrows and a slight shrug of her shoulders I knew she wanted a verdict. All I could manage was a whimpering “Grandma….”

Have you ever tried to eat while crying?! It’s HARD. But I managed. By the time I had finished I had regained my manly composure and I had questions. First and foremost “How much of this did you make?” and “Can I have seconds?” and “Do you have a good hiding place picked out?” (from our 9 year old son who would devour it like it was a fricken twinky or something!).

So, that’s my story of eating something so good it made me cry. And here is the recipe “to cry for “ :

Grandma Conlon’s Persimmon Pudding

1 cup ripe persimmon puree, strained

1 cup fine table sugar

2 tbsp butter (room temp.)

1 egg, well beaten

½ tsp salt

½ tsp cinnamon

1 cup sifted flour

2 tsp baking soda

Cream Sauce

½ cup milk

1 egg yoke

1 tsp vanilla

½ cup sugar

¼ pint whipping cream, chilled

1 egg white, well beaten

Pudding Preparation

Stir all ingredients together. Put into a greased metal bunt tin and place into your double boiler. Steam for 2 hours (or longer). DO NOT lift lid for the entire 2 hours!

Cream Sauce Preparation

Beat egg yoke and vanilla. In a separate bowl beat egg white until stiff. FOLD egg yoke into beaten egg white. In a separate bowl beat cream until it peaks, then carefully add sugar gradually. Gently FOLD cream into egg mixture. Serve pudding warm and the sauce COLD.

I have lots of comfort foods, and this is without a doubt number 1 on my list. I get it only once a year, and that is fine by me – as long as I get it.

I pose two questions: What is YOUR favorite comfort food?

Have you ever eaten something so good in made you cry? (Choking on something doesn’t count! I’m talking emotional-like crying.)

Grandma, I love and miss you. Debbie, you’re the best wife a man could ever have – I love you dearly!

It’s a better story when these two are told together, here’s part 2

My Mother-In-Laws Persimmon Pudding

I will begin this posting with this statement: I adore my mother-in-law. Definitely NOT the stereotypical M.I.L. And I know she loves me too, here’s why.

I told mom-in-law the story of grandma’s persimmon pudding. She was touched and she decided she’d have a go at making me some. (This happened before my wife’s perfection of the recipe). When somebody takes the time to gather all the ingredients for something they’ve never tried before, goes to the trouble of finding an obscure recipe, and goes to all the trouble of preparing something just for you?, well my friends, that is one of the many definitions of love.

Here’s the thing – my mom-in-law can cook. I mean off the hook cookin’! I can’t remember anything she put in front of me not being delicious. . . There was this one thing: Persimmon Pudding. Yeah, I cried. Tears of agony.

All smiles on her face, she tells me “Harry, I got a surprise for you boy!” (all the men in her life except her husband is referred to as “boy”. Her son, all 4 of her grandsons, and me.)  She puts this bowl of Persimmon Pudding before me. I smile all wide like, delighted that she’s made something ‘just for me’ and look at what she’s put before me. I was baffled, yet still smiling. It looked like a bowl of light salmon colored pate’ of some sort.

“What is it?” I ask.

“It’s that persimmon pudding you were telling me about. I found a recipe!”

Didn’t look anything like my grandma’s. I smelled none of that amazing aroma associated with grandma’s. Hey, maybe I’m remembering it all wrong. What the heck, I’ll have a go at it. And I heartily took a bite. It’s bitter taste transferred instantly to my face. I could NOT help it. It was horrible and disgusting all in one package.

She could tell by the puckering of my face it was bad. She said “Oh, I was afraid of that. I tasted it and thought it was pretty bad too. But comfort food is comfort food! Just because I didn’t like it doesn’t mean you won’t.”

“Mom, the simple act of you just trying means the world too me!” I told her after rinsing my mouth with my cocktail. After a kiss and a hug she put the remainder of her pudding down the disposal, only two bites being sampled.

Love and food go hand in hand.

Your Comments

Dee L. says – Your story of Deb making you persimmon pudding made me cry! I was so touched by her generosity in giving me one of Aunt Peg’s pudding molds. I will be using it to make my kids and grandkids ther first taste of Grandma’s Persimmon Pudding.

Making you cry with one of my stories is equivalent to me winning an Oscar, thank you. Hopefully the next one about my mother in laws Persimmon Pudding made you laugh and shoot liquid out of your nose, (double Oscar). Let us know how the pudding turned out and how the kids liked it. (Dee’s one of my sisters. She and her husband were here in Phoenix visiting for Thanksgiving. Debbie had TWO persimmon pudding molds (antiques) that were our Aunt Peggy’s. And I don’t ever remember Aunt Peggy ever using them for anything.

Wilma W. says - That is such a marvelous story Harry! You made me cry AND laugh all in one very short story. It was so vividly expressed, it felt like I was right there in your grandma’s kitchen. I have just got to have a go at this pudding of yours! Thank you!

NO, Thank YOU! Your kind words mean the world to me! (boom! another Oscar!) Can’t wait to hear how your puddin’ turns out!

Kristen B. says – I’ve read your persimmon pudding stories and LOVE them! I first heard of persimmon’s in college back in South Dakota, (I’m a horticulture degree) I had never gotten a chance to grow them since our winter’s are too harsh. Perismmon’s should be grown in zones 6-9 depending on the variety. I had moved to North Carolina straight after college and heard everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) talk about persimmon’s. You could see their mouths water as they told you their own personal stories of “Grandma cooking persimmon pudding”. Finally, after 4 years of living in NC, I moved to a small rural area which housed a hugh persimmon tree. My landlady gave me a simple recipe for persimmon pudding and said “I had to make it!” So late in the fall I harvested them. I followed the recipe, (which I’ll have to dig out for you) and made my own persimmon pudding. Holy Cow it was good. The smell, the richness, and moist,denseness was incredible. The whole house smelled like the Holiday’s. You won’t know this experience until you try persimmon pudding yourself. Thank you Harry for sharing your wonderful story with us. I truly enjoyed it! Thanks a lot! Means a lot to me.

Article removed because it was a stupid self serving political OP/ED piece that had no business on a cooking / recipe / story site.

No pulling needed, it just falls apart!

Lazy Man/Woman Pulled Pork

4 lb Pork Butt or Pork Shoulder Roast boneless 
2 lg Spanish onions; (sweet)
1 bottle Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce
1 can Ginger Ale (or Coke) NOT DIET
32 Hamburger style buns or 10 kaiser rolls if feeding husbands
Serves 32 people or 10 husbands

Cut onions in half lengthwise slice in 1/4″ slices halve the onion slices and separate into rings.
Sprinkle pork with chef salt. Massage into the pork meat. Place half the onions in crockpot put in shoulder roast and top with remainder of onions. If you don’t have a crock that big use roasting pan in oven at 200 degrees.
Pour 1 can of soda (cola) over all cover and cook on LOW for 10 to 12 hours or overnight until pork can be easily shredded (pulled) with two forks. Remove pork from pot shred in a bowl removing all possible fat. Remove onions with slotted spoon and add to bowl. Discard juice in pot. Return onions and pulled pork to pot add BBQ sauce to all and mix. Continue to cook on LOW for 5 to 6 hours adding more BBQ sauce as needed. Serve as pulled pork sandwiches on buns.

Leftovers may be cooled made into sandwiches wrapped in heavy plastic wrap and frozen individually for later use. They keep well and may be unwrapped, re-wrapped in paper towels and heated in a microwave. You also can freeze without bun but we recommend freezing individual pulled pork sandwiches so you don’t have to thaw more than you need.

Listen, I have two smokers in my back yard. I use them often. Nothin’ I love better than nursing beer all day and tending to my smoker. Low and Slow. . . makes for some incredible meat. BUT, you can’t do that every day. You wanna eat good when you get home from work and when you come home, having your dinner ready to go is unbeatable. It doesn’t get much easier than this.

DO NOT put this Pulled Pork on cheap buns either. Culinary blasphemy! I use those big onion buns. And mix up your favorite BBQ sauce to put on top too. Or get some of your favorite store bought to have on hand. My favorite is Sweet Baby Rays.

3-4 lb pork roast , rub with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Line your crock pot with two LONG sheets of foil, shiny side UP. (when laid out on a table it would look like a big X), excess foil hanging over edge. Place the seasoned pork in the center and bring the foil up and over it, but don’t seal it yet, leave a tiny opening. Pour in 1/4 cup of liquid smoke (almost an entire bottle of liquid smoke), THEN seal it nice and tight, put the lid on and cook for 8 hours on high. It is AWESOME, I guarantee it.

In hindsight, I should have put “Crock Pot” on my MacGyver list….how can you live without one?!

If you’re anything like me, you love an ice cold Starbucks Frappuccino but HATE having to pay nearly 3 buck for a 10 ounce bottle of the stuff. Have I got a recipe for you!

This won’t work unless you make super strong coffee. And it works best when said coffee is made with a French Press. But let’s move on. Make a pot of coffee double the amount of coffee you usually use.

When the coffee is ready, the mix ratio is 1/3 coffee to 2/3 milk. Since you’re making a whole pot of double strength coffee, let’s go ahead and make a gallon. (pennies on the dollar here people!) 1 gallon of whole milk. We’re going to use it’s container as the mixing vessel. Pour 1/3 of the milk into another container and stick it into the fridge for use later with whatever. Or, simply wait until 1/3 of the milk has been used.

Before you put the double strength coffee into the milk, add 1/4 cup sugar to it and mix until dissolved. Depending how sweet you like it, this amount is obviously adjustable. But for the first batch, we’re gonna go with 1/4 cup. Now add the coffee to your milk. Last ingredient is not really necessary, 2 tablespoons pectin. It makes it a bit thicker and helps to suspend the sugar. Use it or don’t, won’t effect the flavor at all. (You’ll find it in the isle with the baking goods) Put the cap on and shake real good.  That’s all there is to it! A GALLON of Frappuccino for LESS than 3 bucks!

Secondary Recipe: 1/3 Kahlua to 2/3 Frappuccino, over ice. MY invention. I have not named it yet and will take all suggestions.

Toss out NO MORE left over coffee. Turn it into frappuccino. Just remember the mix ratio – 1/3 coffee, 2/3 mile, sugar to taste.

Big Fat Greek Wedding impersonation – “Frappuccino, it comes from de Greek you know? Frap, from de Greek ‘Frapicimo’ meaning coffee, and pucino, from de Greek ‘Pucinimos’ meaning extremely tasty. SO, there you go: Frappuccino!”  B.F.G.W. is one of my wife and I’s favorite movies. Probably my favorite impersonation to do. (spot on too I might add) It looses something though in the written version…  And FYI – There is NO Windex in this recipe!

Thanks for the praise on my soup, bro!  I’m like Deb… regardless of what claims a restaurant makes about their “awesome” French onion soup, I never order it because I KNOW it won’t be as good as my own.  No brag, just fact.

As you well know, great cooks seldom measure… our eyeballs and taste buds are our primary measuring tools.  So I don’t have a written-down recipe I can just copy/paste here.  But I’ll share my basic tips on making it.

I use a very large electric skillet to caramelize my onions because you want ALL your onion slices to make direct contact with the hot surface.  If you over-crowd your skillet, your onions won’t caramelize right.  Be patient with this process because it’ll take 30 to 40 minutes to get a good caramelization on the onions…. you can’t rush it.  I use one onion per how many servings I’m making.

I start my soup stock by heating up about 1/2 inch of canola oil in my big soup pot.  Get the oil real hot and toss in a package (or two) of soup bones.  Brown them up really well…. about 30 seconds before the “these are burned” stage.  Then pour in equal amounts of canned/boxed (I use the big boxes of liquid broth) beef AND chicken broth.  Mixing both chicken and beef broth is a valuable trick I learned from Harry, and it really makes a difference.  Add black pepper (not too much), a bay leaf or 2 or 3 (depending on how much soup you’re making), and red wine vinegar.  DO NOT EVER ADD SALT!  You don’t need it!  Trust me on this.  I’m a salt junkie–LOVE salt–but the onions and the red wine vinegar trick your tongue into thinking this soup is perfectly salted.

Remove the soup bones from the stock before you add the caramelized onions. Give the used bones to your favorite dog.

After the onions have browned beautifully, add a little of the soup broth to the skillet to deglaze, then dump it all into your soup pot.  Cover, turn heat to low, and let the flavors blend for about 30 minutes.

The day before making this soup I dry out slices of sourdough bread on my oven rack.  Set your oven to it’s lowest temp.  On my oven, the lowest temp is “Warm”, not a number.  You want the bread as dry as possible.

When you’re ready to serve the soup, ladle it into oven-safe bowls filling to about 1/2 inch from the top of the bowl.  Lightly butter one side of a slice of dried bread and place it on top of the bowl of soup, buttered side down.  The butter acts as a barrier to keep the bread from soaking up the soup and getting too soggy before you can finish and get it served.  Cover the top with your grated cheese mixture (I like mozzarella, asiago, romano and parmesan).

Place the bowls of cheese-topped soup under the broiler until melty and golden brown.

One of my very favorite cooking Guru’s: My big sister WarsawNan. Sis: Your onion heads up on the MacGyver Skills posting got me to thinking about your amazing recipe for French Onion Soup. Let’s have it kiddo!

WarsawNan actually did most of the cooking when we were growing up. She sent me a really nasty email about my ‘about me’ page saying that although our father did hold the title of head chef, SHE did most of the cooking and that I had a horrible memory. I stand corrected sis – you are right.

Her French Onion Soup recipe is so good it’ll make you wanna slap somebody. Usually that somebody is the waiter or chef in the restaurant that brings you their version of F.O.S. I, being a true gastricnaught, will order it from time to time and am always disappointed. I get sucked in to the fancy schmancy wording in the description in the menu and the beautiful picture. Ends up being SWILL. At least it is compared to my sisters F.O.S. (If they can’t do it better than I can, why bother going out for a meal?!) My wife Debbie on the other hand just won’t ever order it. EVER. She’s been spoiled and you will be too should WarsawNan be willing to share her secret….. (I have on my puppy dog eyes and a quivering lip) “Pleeeease?”

Biscuits and Gravy (sausage gravy)

Folks, right here’s a crowd pleaser. Who doesn’t like a big o’ plate of B n’ G’s. (Vegans DO NOT count – their not right in the head!) Most people who try to make home made gravy for the first time end up with a lumpy, nasty mess. Then never try again and stick to the powdered kind or the stuff from the jar. The first time my brother George tried (he was about 14) he came out of the kitchen and asked “How many handfuls of gravy would you like?” with a brown lump the consistency of mashed potato’s. And the biscuits: I gotta be honest here – I either use the canned ones or the recipe on the side of the box of Bisquick. Hey, Bisquick biscuits are excellent and easy! This posting is really more about the gravy, and how to make it perfect! And next time you go camping, take along what you’re going to need to make this and watch the eye’s light up when you announce breakfast is ready! Man oh man, B & G for breakfast out campin’, maybe some bacon and eggs to back it up. . . Nice pot of camp fire coffee simmering. Doesn’t get any better.

Start with cooking your sausage. I use Jimmy Dean’s ‘regular’ in the tube. But the cool reality of this recipe is that it works with any type of sausage. Or meat that has a little bit of fat content. (20 – 30%).

Fry up your sausage, keeping the fat in the pan (YEAH, do NOT drain the fat! Leave it, you need it!) Get out your sack of regular ol’ flour. No measuring is required here. Sprinkle the flour over the entire surface of the cooked sausage and grease. Nice even layer, not thick but a even ’dusting’. Powder it just enough to cover all the chunks of meat. Once you’ve done that stir the mixture around until you see no more powder or grease. Let it sit a minute or so. Your heat should be slightly higher than medium. Now stir it around and let it sit again. Do this maybe 2 or 3 times (stirring and letting it sit NOT adding the dusting of flour) until the flour coating on the meat chunks start to turn light brown.

Pour in aprox 3 cups of milk and begin stirring constantly. Nice and slow but never stop. In a minute or two it’s going to start getting nice and thick. When that happens, gradually add small amounts of milk and stir it in until it gets to the thickness you like. Have a taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let it simmer 5 to 10 minutes, adding tiny bits of milk if it gets too thick. Your gravy is ready to meet your biscuits.

Camping style biscuits: Make them in your Dutch oven. If you don’t have one, simply make them at home, wait until they reach room temperature and wrap them in foil. As you’re cooking the gravy, place the foil wrap biscuits next to the camp fire, and every so often rotate them. It’s a good job for a kid.

There you go – Biscuits and GRAVY. You’re gonna create a family comfort food that is requested time and time again.

White Castle “Sliders”

I live in Arizona. In Arizona the only White Castles available are in the frozen food section of the grocery stores… and they SUCK. Since there are no White Castle restaurants here, the only alternative is to make them yourself. But White Castles have a unique flavor unto themselves. Unlike others “sliders”, White Castles have a certain savory-ness and uniony-ness about them. One of the many memories about growing up is the sacks upon sacks of these wonderful, greasy, bombers being brought home by our dad to feed us six chow hounds, and it was something we loved.

My brother George, upon getting his drivers license asked dad if he could drive out and pick up dinner, “I‘ll even buy!”. Dad wasn’t about to pass up that offer, and he assumed George meant he would drive into Muncie (about 5 miles). Instead, George drove 50+ mile and brought home White Castles two hours later. Dad was furious. Of course, George  just wanted to drive his car. He thought bringing home White Castles would redeem himself…he was wrong. His car was taken away.

Here’s how to make em’:

Meat Mix

1lb 80/20 hamburger

1 six ounce tube of Braunschwagger cubed.

1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix

2 tspn black pepper

2 eggs

¼ cup dehydrated onions – RE-hydrated in a bowl with water and set aside.

Toss the cubed braunschwagger into a food processor with a couple tblspns water and puree to a thick pudding. Transfer it to your mixing bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. (EXCEPT the re-hydrated onions)  Mix thoroughly with your hands. (I use surgical gloves).

Cover your cookie sheet in foil and sprayed with Pam. Take this meat mixture and spread it out EVENLY and very thinly over the entire sheet, edge to edge. Evenly sprinkle the re-hydrated onions over the top and put into a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

When done, remove from oven and set on the counter top at a slight angle. This will allow the grease to drain to one edge. Using a turkey baster, suck up and save this grease in a bowl.

You’ll notice the meat has shrunk into the center of the cookie sheet. Using a pizza cutter, cut the meat into a checker board pattern, you know: tiny squares like a White Castle. Now, evenly redistribute them on the same cookie sheet. On top of each patty put a squirt of spicy brown mustard and 2 – 3 dill pickle slices. And if you like the cheeseburger version (which I do) now’s the time to and a half a slice.

(You should have 18 – 24 square patties)

The bun: Dinner rolls work good but they are expensive and you need to horizontally cut a thin center piece from them (they’re too thick). EASIER and MUCH cheaper (and a more traditional taste too!) is hot dog buns cut in half. Not the crappy hot dog buns, but the medium priced decent buns. Cut them all in half. Using a brush, coat each bun with a small amount of the grease… yeah, I said it: Brush on a bit of grease… JUST DO IT. (I never claimed this was healthy food, it’s comfort food! If you’re looking for health food recipes, you are definitely at the wrong blog site!) Adjust your patty size cutting to roughly match the size of these bun halves. The finished burger won’t be square like the original, but you’ll get over that once you’ve taken the first bite!

Stack the two bun halves on top of each patty. From bottom to top it should be: Meat, cheese, toppings, top bun half, bottom bun half. Now, spay a nice generous mist of water over all set ups. Loosely cover with foil and back into the oven for 10 – 15 minutes.

Uncover and put the top bun on the bottom and you’ve got a White Castle! My sister Marty says they are even better than the originals, which to me, is like winning a culinary Oscar!

I am always asked to bring these babies to all the parties my wife and I get invited to. One such party, I was approached by a new friend and his fiancée. Seriously: they were misty eyed. They too were White Castle fanatics from Chicago and they begged me for the recipe. I was more than happy to share it with them. I later found out that they had their caterer make 500 of them for their reception!

Here’s a master list of all the things you’ll need:

1lb 80/20 hamburger

1 six ounce tube of Braunschwagger cubed.

1 envelope Lipton Onion Soup Mix

2 tspn black pepper

2 eggs

¼ cup dehydrated onions (found in the spice section of your grocery)

Spicy Brown Mustard

1 jar dill pickle slices

Sliced American cheese (optional)

2 bags medium quality hot dog buns

Cookie sheet 12” X 17”

Foil

Spray Bottle of water

Turkey Baster

Basting Brush

Pizza Cutter