Mais, this is my 1,000th blog post ... who knew I could be so blabby, eh? Seems like this might be a good place to pause for a lil' reflection ~ take a break ~ recharge the batteries. Keep on truckin', y'all ~ see ya down the ol' plank road.
Chunks of boneless pork loin, browned & slowly braised in homemade roasted green chile sauce
Braised pork verde, fork tender
Did I mention it was fork tender?
Rough shred pork verde, for to make pork carnita wraps in corn tortillas served up with homemade guacamole
Cowboy beans - pintos soaked overnight & cooked with bacon, onions, chiles, garlic, tomatoes & about 9 kinda other good herbs & spices ~ pork & beans, my way. Rock Chalk.
Well, this pic has nothing to do with the countdown to 1,000 blogposts ... but it's the only thing I cooked yesterday. (g) I roasted the veggies (cabbage heart, potatoes, parsnips & brussel sprouts) for supper, and the ABTs are prep for tomorrow's gameday snackins ~ will rough chop the ABTs and throw them on top some *Macho Nachos* loaded with queso blanco, black olives, shred cheddar, homemade salsa, sour cream, homemade chili, etc.
Andouille sausage, smoked turkey, the holy trinity, brown chicken stock, lil' Cajun Power garlic sauce, herbs & seasonings
Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou.....
Fresh baked Italian bread, homemade corned beef, Emmenthaler cheese, fried egg, homemade ff and sweet vinegrette slaw ~ Primanti sandwich, my way.
Seems an odd question, no? And yeah, I know there's nothing sexy about a pic of slaw ... but this ain't just *any* slaw ... it parsnip slaw ... dat's right ... cabbage, onions & parsnips sliced very thin and julienne cut (good knife work, huh?) So WHY, you ask, did I put parsnips in my slaw ... because I had some on hand, dat's why! LOL Actually ... I'm up before dawn this cold morning, gettin' my mice in place for to make some big-assed Primanti sandwiches for supper tonight (guest request) ~ so the dough for the fresh baked Italian bread is rising as we speak ... and this slaw will be part of the sandwich, too. Now, if you will excuse me ~ I gotta go peel some 'taters for to make some homemade french fries....
This picture was one of my Dad's favorites. It hung on the wall in his office for many years, until Mama made him take it down when us kids got old enough to read and began questioning why Dad & all his friends laughed so hard every time they looked at it. That lil' snafu aside, it's a cool pic of Dad (on the right) with then Kansas Governor, Bill Avery. That's Bill in the middle (smoking the ciggie) ... I'm not sure what the occasion for this photo op was, but we have gotten a lot of laughs from this pic over the years ... and it now hangs on the wall in my office. Eat Meat.
Scratch buttermilk catheads, homemade apple/maple sausage, sawmill gravy ~ Sunday's were made for this...
Homemade apple/maple sausage fried up just a tad brown, on account it's got real maple syrup in it ... but them biscuits & gravy made me fergit all about it, yeh.
Creamy & thick, buttery, peppery ~ whooooboy, slap me twice & call me Shirley ... just don't call me late to the groanin' board.
Hot out the oven ~ big ol' flaky buttermilk cathead biscuits. Mama taught me good, ah garrontee.
Well, my driveway drifted shut a couple days ago (after a snowstorm) and I hadda do some freezer diving for provisions ~ came up with a pint of homemade chili and a package of good all-beef red hot dinner franks. Pantry scan turned up a can of Bavarian kraut ~ seems I had the makins for chili dogs. I would also point out that whenever I throw a package of hot dogs in the freezer ... I also freeze a package of hot dog BUNS. Why? Because my Mama din't raise no dang fool, dat's why.
Steamed dem red hots in a lil' beer, topped'em wit some dat thick & spicy chili, lotsa good shredded Tillamook cheddar, kraut and a schmear plain ol' yeller mustard. Now, if youse one them city-slickers you could gussie dat chili dog up nine ways to Sunday ... *drag thru the garden* wit yer sport peppers, tomatoes, pickle spears and I don't know whut all ... but dat ain't the way we roll our dogs, here on the nort shore da bayou, no.
The naked red hot, before gettin' dressed Fat Johnny style...
Aged, choice grade hand-cut KC Strip steak, blackened then topped with a couple knobs of homemade bleu cheese/roasted garlic steak butter & slid under broiler to melt the steak butter ~ sided up with roasted brussel sprouts, parsnips and potatoes. 
Here's the steak, hot off the grill - hot pink center - resting before I cut into it. There was some serious plate-soppin' going on at the end of this meal, ah garrontee!
Homemade *Frito* Pie ... layer of crushed corn chips on the bottom, topped with homemade chili con carne & some dat good Tillamook cheddar. Bake until hot & bubbly...
Big fat all-beef red hot dinner franks ~ covered with Bavarian kraut. Bake till franks swell up and split.
Fanestil all-beef red hots dinner frankfurters. Not exactly a gourmet meal, but I'm snowed in & had to do some freezer diving fer my supper ~ tasted real good, actually ~ good cold weather football watchin' chow.
Well ... I lay the blame for this project squarely on my ol' buddy, Paola Greg ~ on account he posted a pic of some good-lookin' fudge he made a few days ago and it threw a cravin' on me something fierce ... I couldn't shake it ... so I hadda haul off and make me some. This is chocolate/peanut butter fudge, garnished with some toasted pecan halves. Now what am I gonna do wit 2 pounds of fudge, Paola Greg? Huhhhhh????
Boneless pork loin chunks, seasoned with Tony's & browned in a screamin' hot dutch oven with onions & garlic
After browned, deglazed with a lil' beer & brown chicken stock ~ thickened with a bronze roux & added some fire-roasted tomatoes & herbage ~ lidded & braised tender
Served up on a rice pilaf smothered in dat good creole gravy & sided up with some sweet stewed/breaded homegrown tomatoes that I canned last summer. Good groceries for a cold, snowy day.
Homemade *taco* pizza ~ scratch cornmeal dough, homemade southwest sauce, homemade sausage, Tillamook cheeses, black olives, red onions, etc ~ sure made my beer taste good.
OK ... I'm frugal to the point of obsession ~ so sue me. I don't throw NUTHIN' away ... that mindset has served me well for many years, and it's made me a much better cook. Anybody can run to the groceria and buy a bunch of expensive ingredients ... and follow a recipe. Me, I work with what my pantry gives me ... aka ... leftovers. This pizza is a good example: everything you see here is leftovers from the weekend - for to make a taco pizza for tonight's MNF game. The meat above is a coil of my homemade hot sausage that I smoked ~ had about a pound of it leftover, so I took it out of the casing & crumbled it up. It's a 60/40 pork to beef with lotsa good spices and homegrown serrano chiles in it ... thinkin' it might make a dandy taco pizza topping.
Everything here is pretty self-explanatory ~ all leftovers from cheese/veggie trays ... but the *pizza sauce* is unique in that I made it from some homemade black bean salsa that I put up last summer, using good homegrown tomatoes & fresh veggies from the garden. I just dumped it in the blender & buzzed it with a couple of smoked chipotles ... bing badda boom ... nice thick smoked chipotle/black bean taco pizza sauce. I'll be making the scratch pizza dough later this afternoon, and don'tcha know I got a couple handfuls broken/crushed lime flavored tortilla chips from the bottom of the bag ... gonna crush them real fine & add them to my taco pizza dough. LOL Did I mention that I don't throw anything away?? What can I say ... dat's how I roll. Rock Chalk!!
Diced baked ham, potato, onion, cheese frittata
Season w/ adobo seasoning & topped with good Tillamook cheddar
I like to cut these frittatas in strips & roll up in a warm flour tortilla ~ serve with some good homemade salsa, sour cream & hot sauce ... makes for a dandy gameday breakfast. Rock Chalk!
This was really delicious ~ now I understand why *hot brown* is such a famous (albeit regional) American dish.
The only thing that was not top shelf about this dish was the hothouse tomatoes I had to use ~ but in my defense, it's December in Kansas ... so gimme a break! (g)
The sauce turned out great ~ made with real homemade turkey stock, roasted garlic & caramelized onions, a lil' beer, heavy cream and cheddar & parmesan cheeses. I also added just a dollop of whole grain mustard to the sauce ... killer.
Typically, hot brown is just served open-faced atop regular bread ~ but I dipped the bread in eggs & fried in bacon drippins first, ala Monte Cristo style ... then topped with tender, moist oven roasted turkey, the Mornay sauce, sliced tomatoes & bacon and slid under the broiler to brown a lil' bit. I'll never be able to look a plain ol' hot turkey sandwich in the face again.
Bacon/Cheeseburger Soup
This soup is thick & creamy, like a chowder in that it also has potatoes in it ... in this case, hand cut shoestring *fries*. Ya cain't have a cheeseburger without fries, can ya?
Additionally, I riffed a bit on the beer/cheese soup thang and added about a half can of beer to this soup ~ along with the whole milk & dat good Tillamook cheddar cheese.
I ground a couple KC Strip steaks to make the *burger* for this bacon cheeseburger soup ~ and the bacon was dat good Burger's Smokehouse bacon ... and yeah, gotta have some onion on yer cheeseburger, no?
Here's the mice in place, before I ground the steak ~ ol' cosmic plowboys can make chowda, too!
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