Bacon Explosion

Heart attack on a plate...but what a way to go!

Peppermint Patties

From Joy of Baking, one of my favorite recipe sites and one to which I've subscribed to the longest in my reader.

Peppermint Patties are also one of my favorite candies;  they're not exactly health food, but they're better for me than most other sweets.

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Homemade Breakfast Sausage

From one of my favorite YouTube channels, Food Wishes, the video feed of AllRecipes.

That Casserole Was Mean to Me!

I was going through recipes I had saved this month and saw one for a breakfast casserole that sounded good and thought I'd like to try some day.  I did a search on my computer and found a few more I had saved and thought I'd see if there were others on the 'net that I might want to save in my vast collection. (I save recipes, it's one of my online hobbies)  I saw this recipe at Allrecipes.com, a favorite site of mine: Christmas Breakfast Sausage Casserole.  The recipe got a four and a half star rating out of five, so I thought I'd skim through a few of the reviews.  The breakdown of the reviews was this:

Out of 1,230 ratings, 841 cooks loved it, 272 liked it, 85 thought it was OK, 22 didn't like it and there were 10 cooks who wouldn't eat it.

No matter how you look at it, that is overwhelmingly positive for the recipe.  Sure, there were a few who were tepid in their praise, some who didn't like it and only a few - less than 1% -  who thought it dreadful.   I rate movies on IMDb sometimes and even the movies I love only get a "9" because I've yet to see a movie that didn't have at least a few flaws in it.  I haven't made the casserole, but I would probably be one of the "liked it" crowd because I'm fairly conservative with my ratings of anything.  (That said, I'd give my ex-wife a "7" considering everything, probably a little generous but I wouldn't want to give her a rating of average - she deserves a few points just for putting up with me)

Now, I understand about ratings; it doesn't matter what it is, movies or mayonnaise, taste is subjective and varies from person-to-person. What I have problems with are people who like something but castigate others for not liking it.  It's one thing to dislike...say, a politician, but they should list the reasons, not dislike someone just because they're fat or skinny, black or white, gay or straight.  I'm a Cowboys fan and many people despise the QB Tony Romo, but they don't give a valid reason regarding his play on the field but criticize him for wearing his cap backwards or for dating starlets (before he was married) or liking to play golf. (they didn't want him to take ANY vacations or have a life outside of football.  Silly.)

One of the "most helpful critical reviews" on the casserole was by "hurryup2002" - posted on Oct. 12, 2003, which made me wonder if they were pleased with how fast the year had arrived or still wanted to gripe about the slow pace of time.  Anyway....

They posted this:  "This is not nice at all, i just want to let people know that this is the worst thing ever. It is not nice."

That's one of the criticisms that I wrote about above;  no reason for disliking it, no honest reason why they didn't like it, not that the cooking time was too long or too short or the bread was overly soggy w/ putting it in the fridge overnight, that it was too salty/not salty enough, etc.  No, "it is not nice."

Not nice?  When they put it in the oven, did it scream at them "Hey dummy! Set the oven at 350, not 400 deg.!" or "You don't need to eat me...you're a little too fat as it is." "Don't add any salt, the sausage has it already, ya doofus!"  ???

What's not nice is my review of that review, but it was nicer than I wanted to be.

Bug in the Frosting

When I got a post in my reader from one of my favorite recipe sites, I did a double-take. What sort of monster bug was in her kitchen?

It didn't seem to have any eyes, but that didn't make it any less frightening.  I then thought that might be the rear end of the bug...even more frightening!

Then I scrolled down to see all the photo.

Whew!

Visit Cooking Classy for some great recipes!

This Soup is Nuts

I love "Something" Soup

Cookbook Giveaways

These two hit my reader earlier:

The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook Giveaway

My Berlin Kitchen Giveaway + Spiced Plum Butter - Food in Jars

If it's Chocolate Guinness Cake

It must mean it's Saint Patrick's Day.

I didn't need to look at the calendar to know today was Saint Patrick's Day.  There have been close to a thousand Irish themed recipes hit my reader this last week.  There were Irish cake truffles, potato cakes, many variations on the ubiquitous Irish stew, something called a "Dublin Coddle", another something called a "Champ", shepard's pie, and at least a dozen recipes for soda bread.

There were shamrock crackers, deviled eggs made to look like leprechaun pots of gold, and a bunch of different green cookie recipes. Then there were the brownies, cakes, fudge, milkshakes, cookies, bacon cheeseburgers, braised lamb shanks, etc. all made w/ Guinness, plus instructions on how to make green beer. (add food coloring, duh) 

Paying homage to the stereotype, real or imagined, that the Irish are big drinkers were quite a large number of Irish Car Bomb drink recipes (which not only reinforces the stereotype that the Irish are a nation of sots, but love to blow each other up over religion.), but it didn't stop there with that - there were Irish Car Bomb cakes, fudge, cookies, brownies, peppermint creams and cupcakes, not to mention at least a hundred recipes, both food and drink, featuring Bailey's Irish Cream.  There were also a large number of deserts made with Irish coffee.  One drink caught my eye, the Blarney Stone...but it had bitters in it, and if there was ever a nastier drink ingredient, I've never tried it. Sláinte, my ass.

At least St. Pats won't be back for a year.  Next up:  Easter and a thousand and one recipes using Peeps.  Gag.

Soylent Tofu

Earlier, I opened up my reader to find several hundred recipes from my foodgawker feed. Along with the other recipe sites I subscribe to, it's often overwhelming to sort through them all. I might not open every post, but I do like to scan the titles for interesting recipes and sometimes go to the website and save them. Far too often the most intriguing recipes are in another language and there's no translator widget on the page. Also, the ingredients are in metric measurements and it's just too much trouble to convert. It's much easier to just Google the recipe and find an English version.

Quickly looking over the titles, I stopped on one - I couldn't believe what I saw! I've always been slightly dyslexic and sometimes it makes for a confusing moment...and a few seconds later, a laugh out loud one.

I thought it said "Human Tofu"

(if you don't get the post title reference or haven't seen the movie: Soylent Green)

Even though I had heard of Hunan, a province of South-Central China, known for its three styles of cuisine, I didn't read it that way.

Here's the recipe that I misread.

Mystery Ingredient

One of my favorite recipe sites is Recipe Lion. It offers a newsletter, a recipe box to save your favorites in, specialty and holiday recipe collections in downloadable pdf format and many other features.

In today's newsletter, one recipe caught my eye: (because I'm a poor man) Poor Man's Steak. I clicked on the link in the email and went to the site, hoping that it would be a recipe worthy of saving. It seemed easy enough and sounded like it would be a tasty and inexpensive dish to prepare.  I saved the recipe, then had a closer look at the ingredients. Here's what I saw:


One of what? A can of some other soup? A diced onion? The finger you lopped off slicing up the loaf? A mystery ingredient, indeed.

I worry about "mystery ingredients" when I get fast food at places where it looks like just teenagers are working

National Pie Day

Today - what's left of it - is National Pie Day. (I always thought a better day would have been on March 14th - 3.14, get it?) My reader has been filled up with pie recipes from all my food sites, which is good for my food porn addiction, especially as I love pie as much as I do any other dessert.

One interesting recipe for lemon pie hit my reader earlier;  it was made without gelatin because the author didn't like using animal by-products. (I've not been a fan of Jello since I learned what gelatin was made of...plus having to eat it the few times I've been in the hospital.  It always astounded me how they could make something simple taste so nasty)  She - the creator of the recipe - mentioned that the pie was not only vegetarian, but kosher.  That made me wonder just how many vegetarian Jews there are, but decided I'd save that search for a rainy day.

She had a novel idea for the crust; instead of making one out of a regular pastry dough or one made from graham crackers, she made a crust from animal crackers.

Novel...and ironic, considering it was a vegetarian dessert.

Roy Rogers Cocktail

From Start Sampling





Roy Rogers Cocktail



TGIF!!!

Non alcoholic

Build:

1/2 oz. Grenadine
fill with cola
cherry garnish

Have a great weekend!!!

Please don't drink and drive!

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In the comments section, a poster recommends adding spiced rum.

I'm not so sure about that; adding liquor to this drink could distort one's judgment, make you forget the way to Grandmother's house, drown in the river, get lost in the woods.

You could even find yourself over the Dale.

WARNING! Disturbing Image!

Disturbing to me, anyway.

Just got this post in my reader from Simply Recipes, one of my favorite feeds:

Root Beer Float



Doesn't that look scrumptious? I look at that, and my mouth starts watering and I can TASTE it. (that's what's disturbing) I haven't had a float in a long time, and I'm past due...but I know I shouldn't. Maybe I should go get some sugar-free ice cream and one of those great A&W ^TM Diet Root Beers and fix me up one of 'em. I dunno, it just wouldn't be the same.

Several years ago my friend elle from England came to see me and we were in a pharmacy downtown and I asked her if she wanted a Coke ^TM float and she allowed she had never had one. After finishing, she then allowed that they were delicious and she'd have to turn her kids on to them when she got home.

It's always best to put the soda pop of your choice in the freezer for a while before making a float; the double whammy cold freezes part of the liquid, making lovely flavored ice crystals that melt on your tongue. I also like to use my straw to suck up the foam that floats atop the drink - the foam from using root beer tastes the best, although I sometimes would make a float with orange soda, also very nice. Cream-flavored sodas make the tastiest floats and while I always have liked Dr. Pepper ^TM, it didn't make for a great float. Just my opinion, and bound to tick someone off if they read that last. I can't recall ever having one with grape soda, but it doesn't sound bad, just not as good as a root beer float.

They Don't Sell Babies

At my local United grocery store.

A funny titled recipe caught my eye at StartSampling.com:

Grilled Baby Burgers

Free eCookbooks

Free Recipe eCookbooks: The Complete RecipeLion Collection

Some great recipes and craft ideas in pdf format. Among the collection are 4th of July, Halloween and Easter holidays, plus Secret Restaurant Copycat editions, Mexican, Slow Cookers and other recipes collections. (Can't wait to check out one of the newest ones, Meat Loaf!)

Sign up for Recipe Lion's newsletter or subscribe to their feed. Register with the site and you'll be able to save your favorite recipes.

Free Recipe eCookbooks: The Complete RecipeLion Collection



Recipe Lion

Bierocks

via Start Sampling

Bierocks (German Meat Turnovers) Pastry baked with a savory beef, onion, and cabbage filling. This is a recipe from my friend's aunt. She served it during Octoberfest. Prep Time: 15 Min Cook Time: 45 Min Ready In: 1 Hr Servings: 12

Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon pepper
1 small head cabbage, chopped
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1/2 cup melted butter

Directions:

Saute beef, onion and garlic, salt and lemon pepper in a large skillet over medium high heat, until beef is browned. Add cabbage, Worcestershire sauce and caraway seeds. Cook until cabbage is limp; drain liquid from mixture.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

On a lightly floured board, roll each loaf of dough into a 12 inch circle. Cut each circle into 6 wedges. Spoon cabbage/beef filling onto center of each dough piece, dividing equally. Pull three points of each wedge up to the center and pinch to seal. Place bierocks on a lightly greased cookie sheet. If desired, brush dough with melted butter or egg wash (1 egg white with 2 tablespoons water).

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot, or wrap and freeze for heating later.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 368 | Total Fat: 16.6g | Cholesterol: 45mg

Source: AllRecipes

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Every time I hear or read of bierocks, I think of Darrouzett, a small town at the very top of the Texas Panhandle. We used to play them in both basketball and football and the concession stand always sold bierocks. At the time, I hated cabbage, but it was delicious in the homemade bierocks.

Note: The first link was to the printable page; here's the page w/ reader comments:

Bierocks

Snow Ice Cream

From Paula Deen at Food Network

Snow Ice Cream

Ingredients

* 8 cups snow, or shaved ice
* 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Place snow or shaved ice into a large bowl. Pour condensed milk over and add vanilla. Mix to combine. Serve immediately in bowls.

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Other than the old joke about not eating yellow snow, this recipe is a joke. If you're in the pristine mountains of Montana, maybe, but I would never make snow ice cream if I was in...say, New Jersey. I wouldn't make it here, either.

I was tempted to make some with our last snowfall, even scooping some up in a large pitcher. Discovering I had no vanilla, I decided it wouldn't be as good as what we used to make as kids (and nuclear testing was still going on, which might explain some of my physical and mental deformities). I forgot to empty the pitcher and the next day the snow had melted, leaving a few pints of cloudy, dirty water.

Besides all that, I'm loathe to trust any recipe from a woman who has wigs made of butter.

5 Layer Mexican Dip

5 Layer Mexican Dip

via Start Sampling

Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 3 hr 10 min
Makes 4 cups or 32 servings,
2 Tbsp. each



Ingredients:

1 can (15-1/2 oz.) refried black beans
1 Tbsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
1 cup KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese
3 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1 tomato, chopped

Directions:

MIX beans, chili powder and cumin; spread onto bottom of 9-inch pie plate.

TOP with layers of remaining ingredients.

REFRIGERATE several hours or until chilled. Serve with tortilla chips.

Source: Kraft

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake

My mom and sisters used to make this cake all the time. It's delicious and definitely is moist. Notice there are no eggs in the recipe (there are eggs in mayo). I could be wrong, but I believe a mayo-like product such as Miracle Whip (tm) could be substituted.

From StartSampling :


Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake


Ingredients:

1 cup water
1 cup mayo
1 cup sugar
2 cups of flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
4 tbsp cocoa

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

There are some recommendations for pan size and such on the comments page. A member of the site was kind enough to post a frosting recipe:

CHOCOLATE SOUR CREAM FROSTING
1/3 cup softened butter
3 (1 ounce each) unsweetend chocolate squares,melt/cool
3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoon vanilla

Mix butter and chocolate well, stir in powdered sugar,blend well. Gently mix in sour cream and vanilla and blend until smooth

TOMATO FEST: Sassy Smoky Salsa

NOTE: This is a test of a new feature which integrates items I've read in my Google Reader and can send to Blogger. I don't plan to make a habit of it, but thought it was a neat thing.

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TOMATO FEST: Sassy Smoky Salsa: "

“It’s difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”

–  Lewis Grizzard

Each summer I can hardly wait until I start seeing red globes peeking out from between the green leaves of our tomato plants.

There are a million salsa recipes out there, and I have tried my share of them over the last 30 years. Trust me on this – I grew up a few miles from the Mexican border and I have eaten hundreds of salsas. If I am a connoisseur of any one thing, it has to be salsa! This recipe is my absolute all-time favorite!  Roasting about half of the tomatoes quickly at a very high heat give a wonderful roasted smoky flavor, but keeping half of the tomatoes raw gives it the perfect freshness and texture. And, the chipotle chile powder and smoked paprika are delicious in combination with tomatoes.

Don’t skip the EVOO. Olive oil used with tomatoes improves BOTH their flavor and health benefits exponentially.

I love to make gallons (literally) of our family’s favorite salsa and then cruise around the neighborhood like “The Salsa Fairy” handing out pints to friends or leaving them on doorsteps as a surprise treat.

You may even be tempted to sit down with a bowl of this with a very large spoon. No, I am NOT kidding.

SASSY SMOKY SALSA

Juice of two limes (about 1/4 cup)

Zest of two limes (about 2 teaspoons)

4 cloves garlic

1 large bunch cilantro

About 12 large ripe tomatoes (to make 8 cups smashed)

2 bunches green onions, tops included

1 bell pepper, any color

4 to 6 fresh jalapeños

1 tablespoon each chipotle chile powder and smoked paprika

2 teaspoons salt (or more to taste)

2 tablespoons olive oil

A few dashes Tabasco sauce, to taste

Cut tomatoes in half and squeeze out all juice and seeds. Place half of tomatoes cut side down on a baking sheet and spray with a little oil. Broil about 3 inches from heat for about 5 minutes, until tomato skins begin to blacken in spots. Let cool. Drain off liquid from pan and then pulse roasted tomatoes and remaining uncooked tomatoes in food processor until tomatoes are in small chunks. DO NOT PUREE. Place tomato mixture in a large bowl.

Place lime juice, lime zest, garlic and cilantro in food processor and blend until smooth. Remove seeds and pulp from jalapeños and mince. Remove ends and outer skins of green onions and mince. Remove seeds and white pulp from bell pepper and mince. Add chile powder, salt and olive oil. Stir all ingredients together and let sit on counter for at least one hour for flavors to blend. Taste. If necessary because tomatoes are acidic, add in a little sugar to taste. If salsa is too runny, stir in a can of tomato paste. Cover and refrigerate for up to 10 days. Serve at room temperature. Makes a HUGE batch!!

Variation: To make salsa hotter, add more hot peppers, such as serranos. Also, leaving the seeds in will make the salsa hotter after seeds have had a chance to blend with other flavors.

Some other fabulous roasted tomato salsas:

Fourth of July Roasted Tomato Salsa, 101 Cookbooks.com

Roasted Tomato Salsa, Karina’s Kitchen

Slow Roasted Tomato Salsa, A Veggie Venture

– posted by Donna

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