This recipe is pretty much all prep. The cooking is just to dump everything into a pot, and the pot does all the work for the following 90 minutes.
With the last recipe, I also made some homemade white bread. I didn't make anything new this time because I had a couple of leftover corn toasty muffins from a meal I made the previous week. Can anybody tell me what a corn toasty is? It was for a Rachel Ray recipe, and I couldn't tell what the difference was between these and cornbread. IS it different?
My cocktail with this recipe was a Wild Irish Rose, which I made with Jameson Black Barrel. This might be the smoothest whiskey I've ever had while still being very flavorful. I've had some smooth Canadian whiskeys, but those were not at all very flavorful. This is a bottle that could do some trouble on me. Using it with this drink however was just a waste of good booze. With the inclusion of the lemon juice and grenadine, you really loose any of the whiskey taste; those other two flavors fully take over.
As mentioned, this was a VERY simple recipe. Slice/chop/cut what needs to be sliced/chopped/cut, and combine it all. The recipe says to cook slowly for about "1 to 1 1/2 hours." I brought it to a boil then brought it down to medium heat and covered for 90 minutes.
This was SO good. The smoked sausage I bought had the slightest bit of a kick to it, and it really worked when combined with the other flavors. The recipe only made about half as much as the mushroom/sauerkraut recipe, so it's not quite enough to feed an army. There was enough for me to have for dinner and two lunches, and I gave some to my sister (check out her Instagram hashtag #treasuretrunkdiner) and parents, just about a serving each.
When I was in college a little more than two decades ago, my grandfather wrote and published a cookbook. In the years that have followed, I have only made two recipes from the book, and they were both made while I was in college. One turned out pretty well, the other...not so much. I ended up throwing away a soup pot because of it.
I don't remember ever cooking, or even wanting to cook, while I was growing up. I started in college when I got my own apartment and my first cookbook, the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. since then, I've really enjoyed it. Before Covid, every Sunday would be Cocktail & Cooking day. I'd fix a cocktail from a bartender's guide I've had since college, and my sister would come over and I'd fix a meal from a Rachel Ray cookbook.
Now I'm riffing on my Cocktail & Cooking. Once a week on a day when my kids are at their mom's, I'll be fixing a recipe from my grandpa's cookbook. I'm going to record it, and I'm going to do a write-up here, and we'll see what happens. Generally, I'll get right to the recipe and cooking. I hate all of the cooking blogs with all the random and needless "chatter" beforehand (which is exactly what I've done here). But this should be it for that. From now on, the only thing I'll be talking about in these will be the food.
So...here we go!
First up are the ingredients. The only thing I adjusted is the amount of onions. I'm not a huge fan, and I really think a little goes a long way, so I cut the quantity down from four onions to two. Since no type of onion was specified, I used what I had on hand and what WAS specified for a recipe I'll make later in the week: one yellow onion and one red onion.
With the mushrooms, I used a store-bought package of pre-sliced white button mushrooms. I already had these in the fridge from a meal from the previous week that I never made.
One problem I tend to constantly run into is not reading all of the instructions ahead of time. Had I done that this time, I would have cubed the spareribs before putting them in the put and covering them with water. Sigh.
When I first got the cookbook, my dad said it would be interesting to see how these recipes turned out since Grandpa never really measured anything out. He also probably didn't do much copy editing for this book, because there are two ingredients listed that are never mentioned past the ingredient list: the sugar and the vinegar. I ended up combining it with the gravy that was being made with the skillet drippings, flour, and water.
I enjoy having an adult beverage when I cook. I bought a bartender's guide while in college...or maybe it was when I was in my first post-college apartment before I got married...that I use to make random mixed drinks. It has forced me to try different drinks with different, and sometimes weird, liqueurs. The drink this time around was called a One Ireland. It was basically minty whiskey ice cream float. It wasn't great.
I made some white bread while the soup was constantly simmering. The recipe I used was from the aforementioned BH&G cook book. My timing was a little off in the preparation of the two things, but luckily this was just soup, and it just simmered for about an hour or so extra while the bread was in the oven.
Final thoughts? The bread was delicious, and I can't remember the last time I had warm, fresh-baked bread. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the soup. There was a sweetness I wasn't expecting, despite dumping in half-a-cup of sugar. I'd say that, if you actually want to taste some celery or mushrooms, toss some more in. I was basically tasting nothing but sauerkraut and super-tender spareribs. That's not a complaint at all, but it really seemed like the celery and mushrooms were unnecessary (and would really require a change in the name of the soup).
Here's a video I made. It's not good. I've learned some things, though. Mainly...nobody wants to see me talking about cooking. I'll play around with it for next time. We'll see what ends up working.
Tonight’s drink is a Beanblossom Strawberry
Hard Cider from Oliver Winery in
Bloomington, Ind. My sister went to school in Bloomington, so she brought over
this bottle that she found. When I drink beer, I don’t always like it when it’s
too sweet, but when I drink wine, I like to lean on the sweet side. This drink
was a perfect blend of that, sweet but not too sweet, and the strawberry wasn’t
overpowering. I would really like to try the other ciders that the Winery
offers.
This was a very easy meal to make, and a very tasty one at
that. There were a few changes/substitutions, though.
Obviously, no onion. And the bacon wasn’t used correctly.
Since I didn’t read the recipe ahead of time, I didn’t know that the bacon was
for the toast, which I wasn’t making (more on that later). I bought it, I
chopped it, I cooked it…then I got to the part of the recipe where I was
supposed to add it to the cheese for the toast. Since I wasn’t making the
toast, I dumped the bacon into the soup. No harm there, right? Right.
Whenever I eat soup, I love a sandwich with it, usually a
grilled cheese. So I thought I’d do something fancy this time. Grilled smoked
gouda and bacon sandwiches. Yeah, sounds awesome, right? Right.
So this was a crazy good dinner. The soup was enhanced by
the bacon, and I sprinkled a bit of cheddar on it since I had a bag of it that
wasn’t used for the toast. Combined with the amazingly awesome grilled cheese
sandwiches, this was an unbeatable winter meal.
Also, in case you've forgotten:When I can remember to add this to the bottom of my posts,
I’m going to whore myself out with an impassioned plea: click on the ads.
PLEASE click on the ads. I don’t care if you exit out of it immediately or
actually look around. This isn’t some professional blog where I believe in the
products I’m shilling. These are automatic ads placed by Google. But when you
click ads, I get a little bit of money, and as a single father of three, every
penny from every source helps...especially with Christmas looming on the
horizon. So I’m going to keep this tiny bit of begging at the bottom of my
posts, and I hope you’ll take an extra 10 seconds after reading my blog to
click on an ad. The only thing it costs you is time. :) Thanks so much!
No cocktail tonight. Since I’m cooking with wine, I’m drinking it, too. Tonight’s bottle is a Rosemount Estates Riesling. The recipe calls for a dry white wine. I had two bottles of white in my fridge, and both were sweet. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Riesling, but I remember liking what I’ve had. I decided to use this bottle instead of the slightly more expensive Sauvignon Blanc because I figured I’d like the other one more. Why waste a better wine in a pot of stew? Of course, it’s a 2005 bottle, so we’ll see how drinkable it is.
Well, it doesn’t smell like vinegar, but it looks a bit TOO yellow. When my drink looks like pee, that’s when I pause a bit before eventually tryingit. Well, it doesn’t taste bad at all. Doesn’t taste like anything great, but it’s not bad. Very smooth with a very pleasant but undetermined aftertaste.
I don’t know what red bliss potatoes are. I grabbed the only red potatoes that Kroger Marketplace had. I’m sure they’ll be fine.
This is a pretty easy recipe to make. Most of the time involved in making it is the preparing of all the ingredients. Chopping and slicing and such. It’s amazing how good this smells while it’s cooking.
I knew going into this meal that the kids wouldn’t touch it, so they got something different. Hot dogs, oranges and celery with peanut butter.
I, however, LOVED the stew, and I’m planning on enjoying it for lunch just about every day this week. It wasn’t thick like I expect a stew to be, but it was loaded with veggies and chicken, so I guess that’s why it’s called stew instead of soup. Whatever, it was still incredibly tasty.
Bacon-Makes-It-BetterCorn Chowder
with bacon and Colby-Jack Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
I had to omit the Tomato and Ricotta Salata Salad because my local grocery store does not carry ricotta salata, and I read that it was quite different from regular ricotta. No substitutions!
I got a new knife today at the grocery store (it’s the black-handled one on top). It was on clearance and I didn’t have one like it, so I bought it. It came in pretty handy tonight. It was great for cutting the kernels off of the cobs of corn.
I got the idea for the bacon and grilled cheese sandwiches from my oldest son. He didn’t want any of the soup, but he wanted some of the bacon I was using. I had some extra, so they went on the grilled cheese. Tasty!
Actually, the whole damn thing was tasty. I left the onions and hot sauce out of the soup because they do bad things to me. The flavor provided by the thyme and corn were plenty for a chowder. And then with the bacon crumbled on top? Perfect. And I don’t think I’ll ever again eat grilled cheese without bacon.
Seafood Newburg Stoup with Cayenne-Chive-Buttered Corn Toasties
The drink tonight is a Roulette. Vodka, Campari, orange juice and grenadine. As is the norm with most drinks that contain Campari, it’s very bitter. Nice and drinkable, though.
I was distracted while doing prep work for this recipe, so there is a lack of pictures, plus, this ended up taking a while. I also forgot to get the cornbread going, so that didn’t help. Oh yeah, I’m doing some regular cornbread instead of the corn toasties. I couldn’t find the corn toaster pastries that the recipe called for.
I don’t like chopping meat. And that includes seafood. Actually, the shrimp was messier than the cod (which I’m using because it was the cheapest of the three selections). Cutting up this stuff was as bad as chopping an onion. My hand still stinks.
This is yet another meal I’m sure my kids won’t eat, so I’m making grilled cheese sandwiches and leftovers for them. They’ll be plenty happy, and they’ll at least eat something.
Clam chowder is a Christmas Eve tradition with my family. I don’t know how it started, but I love it. A mug of clam chowder, a silver dollar-size ham sandwich and the Princess Bride. That’s Christmas Eve for me. After making this, I might have to do clam chowder by scratch this year, see how that goes.
I didn’t put a lot of cayenne pepper in the soup because I don’t eat spicy hot things, but I could still taste it in the soup. I don’t know if I’m just that sensitive to it or if the Old Bay seasoning contributed to it, but it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this soup.
(Yeah, I went British with my title so I could get it to sound like make-up sex. I'm that guy.)
I realize I’ve been lax in my food-related postings. Work has been pretty hectic since about Thanksgiving, and my blog suffered. While work is still busy, it’s slightly LESS busy, and I’m hoping to get the blog a bit more regular, starting with the food posts. So here's a run-down of what I've been cooking lately. Click on the titles to go to the recipes.
Pork Chops with Grainy Mustard and Raisin Sauce (Let me know if you're interested in this one. I couldn't find the recipe online, so I'll get a picture from the book if you want it.)
And just for kicks and giggles, here's some of what I was drinking when making these. Thrown in here is a shot of my liquor cabinet. It's well-stocked, and there's some vodka in the freezer, some advocaat in the fridge, and some aromatic bitters and grenadine on the top shelf.
