Category Archives: Home Made

Recipes and thoughts from the home front.

a gift for your mouth from deep in the south

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Home Made Bread

Home Made Bread

What’s better than sliced bread? Home made bread, sliced and buttered. Anything better than that? Yep, toasted pimento cheese sandwiches.

Pimento (or pimiento) cheese, however you spell it, is one of those things that transports me straight back to my youth. Kind of like peanut butter and brown sugar sandwiches. They could be found at all levels of society. Finger sandwiches at the tea room or country club, or part of a hearty sack lunch for the steel worker or elementary school kid. Continue reading →

sunday breakfast – polenta and eggs

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Polenta and Egg Breakfast

Polenta and Egg Breakfast

I was talking with photographer friend Jeff Spirer the other day. He usually comes up with interesting food ideas, often dishes I have never tried before. He mentioned that he made a spin off of shrimp and grits that night. Basically he married Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Shrimp Diane recipe with good old fashioned creamy grits and Parmesan cheese. I’m going to have to give this a try.

Somewhere along the way polenta was mentioned which led to me looking it up and then picking up a bag from the grocery. That night I made a cup of the polenta to just get the feel for it. I liked it and got the feeling that I would be able to make good use of it in future meals.

Having grown up in the South this was the first time polenta ever hit my plate but it was not an altogether unfamiliar taste or texture to me since we had grits growing up and for me grits are breakfast food. Continue reading →

17 March 2012 – St. Patrick’s Day Sandwich

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If you are thinking this post is going to be about some monstrosity of a mustard infused corned beef, cabbage and potato sandwich with green bread – you would be wrong. It is not that I am opposed to something like that …. maybe not the green bread, it is just that I didn’t have those ingredients this St. Patrick’s Day. Since we are on the subject of this day here is a link that will tell you all you need to know about the meaning of the day, its origin and what it has evolved into. Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Okay so this does happen to be about a sandwich that I just happened to make on St.Patrick’s Day. Many times making a sandwich is a pretty mundane exercise that we go through in order to quickly knock down that hunger that has been building. I didn’t want to just slap some meat, cheese and perhaps a  vegetable or two together between some bread and call it a day. I wanted to make, create, build or assemble something outstanding. I wanted to make something that looked almost too good to eat. I wanted to be a sandwich engineer or perhaps sandwich artist.

I started reading up on various sandwiches and comparing the ingredients to what I had on hand. Turns out that we had exactly what was needed to make that classical BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato) Sandwich plus a little something extra. Food historian John Mariani claimed the BLT was the second most popular sandwich in the United States residing just behind the ham sandwich and in 2008 a poll reveled that the BLT was the most popular sandwich in  the United Kingdom.

Okay so BLT it is and here is what goes in the classic version -

  • Bread
  • Bacon
  • Lettuce
  • Tomato
  • Mayonnaise

That’s it – simple is good. Depending on the quality of ingredients you use this sandwich can go from ordinary to extraordinary.

We had some good bread to take advantage of. An artisan sour dough loaf that had some nice texture and would become very flavorful once buttered and toasted. It is an investment in flavor when you buy fresh baked breads. They don’t keep as long as the preservative loaded Wonder Bread types but you will finish it before it goes bad because it is just so darned good. Continue reading →

15 March 2012 – Lupo-Lobo Chicken Fried Steak

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Well, how long has it been? Long enough for me to know I have neglected my duties here. I bet it has been six months or so since the last post. My apologies are extended.

About a year ago I posted here with some historical information regarding one of my favorite all time meals – Chicken Fried Steak. Some may call it country fried steak or pan fried steak but for me it is Chicken Fried Steak. It was called that when my Mom first put one before my face many many moons ago and I will call it that until my last days. You can call it delicious.

So today I had the honor of cooking this wonderful Texas classic for my wonderful Texas parents. On my last post I didn’t provide a recipe or go into the details of the preparation. I am going to make up for that today. Continue reading →

21 September 2011 – Mom’s Meatloaf – Sort of

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Now that it has begun to cool off I begin thinking of different dishes to eat. Hearty belly warming type meals. The other day the thought of meatloaf came to me; probably the change of the seasons. Meatloaf sometimes gets a bad rap but I love it. I should say instead that I love the way my Mom cooked it. We had it a couple times a month at least while we were growing up. She made the ketchup/tomato paste glazed variety and for me it is the only way to go. Continue reading →

14 August 2011 – They Go Together

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In my house growing up there was a small picture frame on the North end of the kitchen that held a poem of sorts. I will do my best to recall its wisdom. It went something like this …. An apple pie without the cheese is like a kiss without the squeeze.
The other day I saw some nice looking Granny Smith apples as I went through the store. Now, I do not bake or do pastries of any sort but I was reminded of the poem and decided some nice cheese would go well with the apples. True to my nature I decided some spice would do well also.

Apples and Cheddar

Apples and Cheddar and Some Spice Makes it Better

 

03 August 2011 – When its Hot Out … Migas

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In The Shade

Shady Side of the House

And it is hot right now in Texas. Not just hot but darned hot and unrelentingly so. This is not my first heat wave rodeo either. I survived the record setting heat wave back during the summer of 1980. 42 consecutive days with temperatures at 100 F or higher. The highest temp that year was 113 F and there were 69 days over 100 in total.

Flash forward to the present. We have had 32 consecutive days at 100 F or higher and 39 total so far. It shows no sign of letting up either. We might just beat the the record set in 1980, though it will be a painful record to achieve. Tuesday set a record for the date with 110 F and the heat index (feels like) was at 115 F or more. It is supposed to get hotter as the week rolls on and then cool off to 104 F by Tuesday next week. More info here.

In spite of the weather we still got to eat, right? I have been thinking about Migas for about a week. It is a Tex-Mex/Mexican/Spanish dish depending on where you consume it. It varies with location and is often confused with chilaquiles which can be very similar. You can click those links for the specifics but I am going to tell you what Migas are to me. Continue reading →