I saw this breakfast meal in a list of diabetic friendly alternatives. I liked the looks of it, and I had just bought some Romaine lettuce hearts a few days ago, and I knew I had an avocado that was very ripe already. As I read through the ingredient list there was nothing that I would need to substitute or leave out completely. Jalapeno, I had bought several bright red ones yesterday at Compare. The eggs came from Aldi’s because they had a very good price on them . Sweet onion and grape tomatoes (I like the Campari tomatoes.).
I put a little olive oil in my small Guy Fieri frying pan and turned the heat on low on a small top electric burner. Doing without meat is usually not pleasant, but I’ve got to say that this breakfast was delicious and I would definitely like to have it repeatedly. I still like bacon for breakfast, but this was delicious. I think the little bit of jalapeno, with a bite of sweet onion, and then some avocado, and a bit of lettuce and some scrambled egg all worked well together.
06/05/25 pic shown above: Without the Romaine Lettuce (because I didn’t have any), cilantro (because I forgot it) or the lime juice (forgot that too).
Spiffing Up Canned Collard Greens
I had bought a cheap can of Great Value Collard Greens from Walmart the other day in anticipation of fixing some for New Years’ Day. Since it is just myself that I am cooking for, there is no need for me to buy a large bunch of fresh collards, chop them up and cook them down.
I googled for ways to “spiff up” ( my words, not the search words I used ) canned collards. One suggestion was to add a little Toasted Sesame Oil. I like the flavor of TSO, but didn’t try that this time. I have put TSO on steamed cabbage and steamed cauliflower, and it does change their flavors positively.
I still had a shallot that I had bought at Whole Foods last week. I diced the shallot in a small dice. I had a small Russet Potato, that I peeled and diced in a small dice, and
I used two slices of bacon that I put in the bottom of a small pot on my stove top. I added a little bacon grease, some garlic powder, Splenda sweetener, and some S&P. I just wanted the bacon to begin to become tender and the shallot to sweeten with a little heat.
I added a little GV Chicken Broth to the bacon and potatoes and cooked the potatoes until they started to get tender. I then added about half the Collard Greens to the pot and continued to cook.
For the quickness that I used to prepare the ingredients and cook them, this side dish worked very well.
For New Years Day dinner, I heated up some chicken gizzards that I had prepared a few days ago. I had fixed some black eyed peas early this morning to make up for those I had ruined a few days ago by burning them on the stove. They were still edible, but a little scorch just sets everything to “wrong.” But this mornings’ peas were delicious. And with the gizzards and peas I had the spiffed up collard greens. It all worked well together.
For lunch today I had some pork chop, pickled beets, red cabbage slaw and butterbeans (that I had fixed early this morning at the same time I was cooking the black eyed peas). That meal was “okay,” but it didn’t quite float my boat. And breakfast this morning wasn’t quite as good as it was yesterday. Not sure if the avocado wasn’t quite ripe enough, or what. One note is that both mornings the scrambled eggs looked grayish. Not sure why.
CHICKEN GIZZARDS:
Bacon grease
Onion
Celery
Chicken broth
Chicken gizzards
Dulse
Marjoram
Savory
Thyme
S&P
Butter
I think the Savory might be the one ingredient that makes all the rest work. They are all necessary. Not sure if thyme or marjoram are essentials, but they don’t seem to hurt either.
I listed the ingredients in the order that I think they should be added to the pot. The bacon grease flavors the onion & celery and when they become translucent, then either the gizzards or the chicken broth should go it pretty close to each other.
More than 30 years ago, I was eating a version of the Bucheron goat cheese. I don’t recall what store I was getting it from, but it was called “Bucherondin.” I forgot about this cheese when I moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1995 and did not recall it until about a year or so ago when I bought the Bucheron Goat Cheese produced by Old Chatham Creamery (FB) at Wegman’s in Raleigh, I think. It may have been their Cary location. When I got the cheese home and tasted it I immediately remembered that I had tasted this cheese a long time ago and even recalled the name it had gone under back then.
I like different cheeses for different reasons and I like both cow and goat cheeses but the goat cheeses seem to be more distinct in flavor. My current favorite goat cheese is the Capricho de Cabra that I have been buying at Whole Foods for quite a few years. It is tangy and crumbly, and I recently had some on a rice cracker along with some Raspberry Fruit Spread that I bought at Whole Foods.
I show the French Baguette above, baked by LaFarm, but sold at Whole Foods in Raleigh, North Carolina because a little over a week ago I bought a loaf, cut it in half and gave Jeff & Robin one half. I’ve not done that before, but hope someone there might enjoy it as much as I did the other half.
I cut small slices of this baguette off and heated it a short time in the microwave (about 10 seconds) and it came out warm and more pliable and then I spread some butter on it. It tasted good. But another time I just folded a piece of the Wegman’s White American Cheese and ate just that and a slice of the baguette, and it was fantastic! So much so that I marveled that just two ingredients could provide so much pleasure.
*I mean, if I have some black eyed peas, chopped sweet onion and seasoning meat, such as a ham hock, this can elicit the same response, but another item has been added.
**Recently I’ve bought several packages of Chicken Gizzards and cooked the gizzards with a little onion and some chopped celery and a little bacon grease in Chicken Broth. After they are done, and you do have to cook them a long time to get them tender, I eat them with some rice. They have such an earthy flavor and it is very rewarding on such few ingredients. Previously I would cook the gizzards with the rice, but I ended up with too much rice.
There is no good reason to mention the following observation under this posting, but I want to put it somewhere before I forget it.
Someone, and it might have been Ray, mentioned that he thought the dill pickle skins became tougher when you applied the Ranch Dressing powder to the pickle juice. I might have begun to agree with him. I had not eaten one of the dill pickle spears in a while. I had put the Ranch Dressing in the jar a long time ago, but just now the dill pickle skin did seem to be tougher. *And, I was just on another blog site and someone had a question about whether the dill pickle skins seemed tougher after the ranch dressing was applied.
I don’t have the year, but I met Mary Ann down in Charleston, SC where she was attending an education conference and then we drove down to visit Yvonne at St. Simons Island, Georgia. Spivey was still alive.
It was extremely hot weather, both in Charleston and on St. Simons Island. The above photo was taken from the porch dining area of the Waterside Restaurant on Shem Creek, which is across the river from Charleston. I think I had a very good “Wilted Spinach Salad” this visit and came home and repeated the salad successfully. I think a little hot oil over the baby spinach leaves does the trick, and it also has a boiled egg chopped up in it.
It may have been my first visit to the Waterside that I had a “Shrimp Po’Boy” sandwich with fries. There were good fried shrimp and slaw on the sandwich, but the addition was a “curry remoulade” sauce. The word “sauce” may be redundant depending upon what “remoulade” actually means. As I recall, at the time, I couldn’t find a good definition of “remoulade” online. Definitions have gotten better since. The curry remoulade made this sandwich and I came home to try and make this curry remoulade. I came to the conclusion that all the ingredients I needed were: curry paste (Pataks), small capers, and mix those up in Duke’s Mayo. The flavor was close enough and I made a small jar and kept it in my fridge for various sandwiches. It was good on ham and chicken sandwiches also.
Mary Ann and Yvonne in Yvonne’s kitchen on St. Simons Island.
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On another visit to Georgia, I travelled to Thomasville which is near the Florida (Panhandle) border to visit Sweet Grass Dairy. At that time they had both goats and cows and made various types of cheeses from both animals. You could also actually visit the dairy where the goats were located and milked.
I don’t recall the dog’s name but I think the cool concrete walkway felt good to his belly.
Jessica’s parents owned the dairy at that time. This is Jeremy & Jessica. Jeremy is married to Jessica. They would take over the cheesemaking and open a restaurant that was located in Thomasville. They later got rid of the goats, and stopped the public visits to the dairy. But for a while they had a store located near the dairy where the public could buy their cheeses and other products. The dairy was several miles outside of town.
I bought a bunch of cheese my first visit, and packed it all up in some coolers I had brought along for the long trip back to North Carolina. On my second visit, I think I bought some Pecan Oil at their newly built store, and gave some away as gifts.
During my first visit to Thomasville, I ate at Liam’s Restaurant, but on another visit Liam’s was closed and I ate lunch next door at Jonah’s Fish & Grits Restaurant. The restaurant was crowded that afternoon. I enjoyed my meal at Jonah’s and I think I had a Lobster Bisque soup.
The food was good, but the special item for me that day was the size of the cutlery. The dinner knife, spoon and fork were all very large, and I liked the feel of these in my hand as I ate. I enjoyed them so much that when I came back home, some weeks later, I drove up to Smithfield, North Carolina to the Lenox Outlet and found an Oneida cutlery set that reminded me of Jonah’s cutlery. I bought them and they have been my main cutlery every day since.
The only negative about this Oneida cutlery is the dinner fork and the salad fork are so close in length that when I put it away from the dishwasher, I have to compare the sizes to figure out which is which.
The Lenox Outlet closed many years ago and there have been few other stores in the outlet that I want to visit. I may visit Carolina Pottery once a year, just to connect with the current holiday. It’s been a while but I also enjoyed shopping at the Pepper Palace.
I am a little over 200 pages into the memoir, and there are only about 70 pages left. I just read where Dick Van Dyke’s father had just been diagnosed with emphysemia, and the doctor had told him, “You’re an old man, and your going to die.” Apparently the doctor had told him this as bluntly as I just wrote the prognosis and this had left Dick’s father and mother crying together in the hospital when Dick arrived. Dick said he ran around the hospital screaming and wanting to beat the crap out of this doctor. I closed the book, returned it to my little basket by my toilet and got up to wash my hands.
As I’m washing my hands, I feeling more sorry for the insensitive doctor than I am for either Dick Van Dyke, or his parents. I’m thinking, “That’s why doctors try not to be so blunt with their patients. I don’t actually know that they don’t.
If I were a doctor and I knew the patient was terminally ill, and old, would I tell him “your old and gonna die? No. I would say, “Mr. Van Dyke (the elder) we’re not sure about your situation, and we are going to need to run more tests.” That would be more preferable than having Dick Van “fucking” Dyke running around the hospital where I worked, screaming and wanting to beat the crap out of me. And I would tell the patient, we need to run more tests even if as I watched Mr. & Mrs. Van Dyke, and their famous son Dick, walk out the front door of the hospital, I still didn’t turn to the nearest nurse and say, “There goes an old man who’s gonna die.”
When I typed that doctors don’t want to be confrontive with their patients, I almost immediately recalled that the last few days that my mother was in the hospital at Chapel Hill, and after having gone through two more weeks of testing and been diagnosed with leukemia, her doctor came into the room and sat by her bed. I think I was sitting on her bed near her as he bluntly told us, “you only have two weeks to live,” and shortly thereafter got up and walked out of the door. *Mom had spent two weeks at Onslow Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville undergoing tests before going up to Chapel Hill. That was after her doctor in Jacksonville, had squeezed her arm one day and the next day she had a hand shaped bruise on her arm. That doctor had put her in the hospital immediately to run tests.
After the doctor left the room, my mother and I turned to each other and quizzically asked one another, “Did he just say you only have two weeks to live.” It’s surprising that in a situation like that when the doctor is sharing so many other things, that little part about, “two weeks and you’re gonna die,” just sort of slips by.
My mom had a transfusion of blood and I drove her back home (maybe a 3 hours drive back then) to Jacksonville, North Carolina. And the transfusion of blood worked miracles. For a few days mom was her old self. She had energy and we actually went out for a drive. She felt like eating.
But a couple of days later, while sitting on the sofa in our living room, the tiredness had returned, and we looked at each other and we knew… She might not die in two weeks, but she was going to die. She did die, but with the transfusions, she lasted four months. And the four months gave all of us time for closure. Whatever in the hell “closure” means.
Closure? Flossie, was the wife of Robert “Bob” Preston Morton who was mom’s brother. Flossie & Bob were living in the old home place, a little two story white farm house, located on Queens Creek Road directly opposite the new Swansboro High School. Flossie came up to Jacksonville to visit with my mom and during the visit mom had said something about wanting some clam chowder. What did Flossie do? She drove back down to Swansboro, got some clams and made some clam chowder and then brought it right back up for mom to eat.
Now we, some of the family, thought Flossie was “a little crazy” because at various times through the years she had done some slightly “off the wall” things. But for me all of that was erased in this one act of kindness she showed toward my mom.
My mom’s last stay at Onslow Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, North Carolina was in December of 1980. One thing I recall is looking out the window from her hospital room. They had put her up front near the nursing station. I guess they do this for all terminally ill patients, so the nurses can keep a closer watch. But I think it was still early morning and dark and I looked across the street toward where the new Jacksonville Mall was being built. In fact, the mall at that time was only the concrete floor and the steel girders and a light hanging from the rafters. I don’t really recall if there were rafters, or if there was more than one light. There would almost have to be more than one light. But I noted the light hanging down and there just being the poured concrete. There were no workers this early.
Mom would die, and the Mall would be completed and I would have a good slice of pizza and a drink at “Tony’s” just inside the front Mall entrance years later. I think it was “Tony’s” or are all Italian pizza joints not called “Tony’s?”
I think the Sears store in the Mall has been closed for several years. But years ago, I did buy a used lawn mower from them. The mower was more powerful than I usually bought and to my surprise the extra power meant I could finish mowing my yard at 204 Johnson Boulevard more quickly. I think I finished about 30 minutes quicker than with the less powerful mower. *I had kept my mower in the unoccupied house at 204 Johnson Blvd. even though I was living and working in Fayetteville, NC. One day when I had gone down to Jacksonville to mow the lawn, the lawnmower had been stolen.
I had stayed the night in her hospital room at Onslow Memorial (December 16, 1980) and had slept uncomfortably in a high backed chair in the corner of the room. Early in the morning, while it was still dark outside, a nurse came into the room and took my mom’s vital signs. My mom still sleeping. While the nurse was by the bed, another nurse came in and the first nurse shared my mom’s stats, one stat being that her blood pressure was, and I don’t recall now what the actual numbers were that the nurse spoke, but they were incredibly low numbers. Something over 14. They weren’t the kind of numbers for a healthy human being. And the other nurse responded understanding that those numbers weren’t good. Then they left.
Later, as the light of day had begun to creep into the room by the one window that faced out toward Western Boulevard and the front of the hospital, I got up from my chair and walked over to the bed beside my mother. I then reached over and touched her. Up to that point, she had been breathing laboriously (labored breathing), with long pauses between each new gulp of fresh air. Her eyes had been rolled back in her head, the whites showing through half opened eyelids. As I touched her hand, it seemed she had awoke, for her pupils came back to the front and she looked “through” me, not at me. There was no recognition of our relationship, no smile or warmth in the love she had showered on me for so many years. I was twenty-six at the time of her death. Her eyes looked through me for a brief moment and then they rolled back into her head, becoming only whites again, and she went back to her labored breathing.
I went to the other side of her bed and sat in a chair facing her, with my back to the only window. I didn’t touch her, and her gulps for air lengthened, until finally one last gulp and then no more, except for the gurgling of air as it escaped her body. They call these “the death gurgles,” which is just the natural flow of air out of a body, which is not being forced out by a working diaphragm. Almost like the sound of running water flowing over rocks in a mountain stream.
I didn’t touch her because I was wrestling with the idea of being “unclean” for a time after touching a dead body. I knew what had happened and I sat there briefly, but intentionally. I knew I didn’t want to immediately run out to the nurses. And I knew that the doctor had already put a “no code” on her. “No code” means that there shouldn’t be any attempt to revive a patient when they die. I knew she was dead, and I knew the pain she had been going through, especially toward her end, and I didn’t want them to bring her back to face more pain. And that doesn’t mean I loved her any less.
After a short while I stood up from my chair and walked out of the room to the nurses’ station. There was one nurse, standing behind the counter, and I think she didn’t even have a light on her work. She looked up and I said to her, “Could you take a look at my mother.” She said, “Okay,” and walked around the counter and went into my mom’s room. What you’ve got to know is that even as I was speaking the words, “Can you take a look at my mother,” there was a voice in my head telling me, “Funny how you said that. You know she’s dead.”
Only a few moments later the nurse came out of the room with a worried look on her face. She looked at me and ushered me around the corner up to where the elevators were located. She knew my mother was dead, but she probably had to have the doctor verify this, and it wouldn’t be her responsibility to tell me, “she’s dead.”
I actually don’t recall talking with the doctor (Dr. Adnan Taj-Eldin, MD) regarding my mom being dead. Not too long afterward, Mary Ann arrived and we began the discussion of “the rest of the process.” Who contacts the funeral home? Who tells everyone when the funeral will be? Where will she be buried? Flowers? Who will perform the funeral and burial?
I do recall the day mom was buried was very cold. We had the memorial service at Jones Funeral Home in Jacksonville and then afterwards, the funeral motorcade proceeded down Johnson Boulevard on toward Hwy. 24 and to the Morton Family Cemetery on the Morton Farm near Swansboro. *Queens Creek Middle School is located where the family cemetery is. The cemetery came first, then the school.
One of the things I recall was a black Jacksonville City police officer. I think there were two assigned to directing traffic. Two so they can leap frog each other from traffic light to traffic light. Each time the hearse and me in the following car passed the black officer he would come to attention, taking his hat off and bringing it to his chest in a sign of respect. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before or since that day, but I knew it was that little extra something special that he did to show respect for someone he didn’t know. More than just a job, or duty, but a small sign of humanity and understanding.
You know, “son of a bitch,” I just realized that the anniversary of my mom’s death passed about four days ago and I didn’t even think about it. Teary-eyed as I sit here writing this, and I didn’t even think of her. But, I do. It’s important that I remember her, when I am ready. It’s not important that I go to the cemetery on that day, but that I remember her wherever I am when those special feelings and thoughts are most meaningful.
I just had a vision of a photo that I took one time when we were down at the cemetery and she had been mowing the grass there. She was squatting down and the mower was at her side, and the morning sun was still low and bright. It wasn’t a great picture.
So she died on December 16, 1980 and the funeral would have probably been three days later (maybe four). It was very cold at the graveside, and the sky was that kind of overcast wintery day. But then again it might not have been that overcast.
How does someone go on, but not just go on, but thrive? Where does the next meal come from? Well, I know a bunch of meals have come from the trailer/home of Jim and Mary Ann Sharpe. I am family and I’ve always been treated as such, and my feet if not welcomed under their table, at least welcomed to stand somewhere and eat from their table. And boy, Mary Ann has cooked many, many delicious dishes.
Mary Ann can cook up a mess of collard greens, with some seasoning meat, and maybe slice up some fresh tomatoes to go with it. Or, have a pot of black eyed peas and chop up some sweet onion to go with them. Soup. Or how about those mashed potatoes that she fixed one Thanksgiving? Those were special because she kept standing there at the stove, adding a little more cream, and then a little more butter, and stirring and beating a little more. And the final result were possibly the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever had.
But, I will say the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten was a few years ago at the Seaboard Station Restaurant in Hamlet, North Carolina. And they consistently have good fried chicken, and really tasty fried pork chops, cut thin. How do they get those steamed cabbage tasting so yummy without seasoning meat? Is that a little sugar?
I was watching a YouTube video and someone was cooking in a pan that had the same (or similar) interior. The Hex Clad pans are similar, but the top rim doesn’t have the repeating flame pattern that this pan has. As I looked at the closeup of the pan I said to myself that I wanted to get one of those.
[NOTE 01/06/25]: I want you to see the bottom of this pan. It is beautiful. I was standing with it, and thought it would look beautiful hung from the wall with the bottom showing. I think it is a well made pan, but it is also beautiful. [end NOTE]
I like the lid for the Dot Clad wok shown below, with the handle instead of a knob. I also like the woks that have a handle on the pan, since these are larger, heavier pans.
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I actually now think that VinChef is a knock-off of the Hex Clad process. I would have to go back on Amazon to see what I paid for this, but I think it was around $54. That’s cheap. No, $67 and others, below are more than $10 less.
I just used this pan for the first time to broil some steaks in the oven. It is oven safe.
I’m going to have to go back and review the cleaning process after each use, but nothing stuck from the steaks and I used paper towels to wipe off the grease. I think oil or cooking grease actually accumulates in the little hex patterns which repeat on the interior of the pan, and this helps with it’s non-stickiness.
[01/01/25]: I just made some hummus and added some Toasted Sesame Oil, Turmeric & Cumin, and when I have a tin of Smoked Oysters opened, I will add that oil to the hummus also. Different, good.
[07/30/25]: A day or so ago I saw a video from America’s Test Kitchen on how to make the “perfect” hummus. Their trick was to boil the garbanzo beans in water with baking soda added to it. What this does is remove the outer covering of the bean, which you wash or skim off. The remaining beans are now more tender and when blended form a silky smooth hummus. *The skins on my beans did not come off whole, almost like a snake shedding it’s skin, but torn and not as easy to skim off, but the end result was a smooth product. Now I like to add both ground cumin and whole cumin seeds.
Turmeric Salad
Sweet Bell Pepper
Tomato
Sweet Onion
Vinegar (Red Wine)
Turmeric
Cumin
Mustard (powder & seed)
S&P
I would think you might also throw in some Cilantro leaves for color.
I just made some of the Turmeric Salad. I used a Campari tomato, some sweet onion & sweet red bell pepper. I put in red wine vinegar, and a bunch of powdered turmeric and less cumin. I don’t think I’ve added mustard before, but seems like it would work. I’ll give it a day to marinate and see. I’m not sure what this would go with. It’s sort of like the Dolce “K” Olive Mix which I love the flavor of, but I just don’t have anything to pair it with.
I bought some Dolce “K” Olive Mix at Whole Foods in Raleigh yesterday, and when I got it home and tried it, I didn’t like the store bought as well as I did the version I made. Although I will say that I have made some of the marinade twice and since I don’t know how much of each ingredient to put in, the first batch seemed to be “spot on,” and the second batch was different, but not bad.
I’ve found that I can use the California Green Olives that I also get at Whole Foods. I see they are about $3 a can now. I’m wondering if I could use another type of olive, say a black or Kalamata olive. Once they marinate for a day, the green olives take on the flavor of the marinade.
Just ordered this citrus zester/peeler to see if it will make getting the orange rind for the Dolce “K” Olive Mix easier. As shown in an advertising video, you can get a long strip of the rind, without the pith. *A grater has worked pretty well to remove the pith, but it’s time consuming.
I’m sitting in my easy chair in my living room at 2:41-2-3 am starting to write this blog entry. I am awake at this time, most mornings. I reach over to a glass beer mug that has a hot citrus drink and take a sip. I really do like the flavor of “Bill’s Drink Mix,” hot or cold. I created this drink combination about a year and a half ago, and almost every day since, I’ve drank about one carafe, cold with ice. But I’ve also heated some up in the microwave, and found it delicious each time.
Neither the picture of the beer mug nor the glass carafe are my actual items, but they are quite accurate as to how each looks. I’ve had the glass beer mugs (6 of them) since Russ & Deborah Savage donated them to “The Hem of His Garment,” over 30 years ago. When I saw them, I priced them and then bought them and took them home. I had them before I moved to Fayetteville, North Carolina from Jacksonville, North Carolina in 1995. The beer mug is “microwave safe.” It better be as many times as I’ve used one of these to heat water for tea, or re-heat coffee. I bought three of the glass carafes (each with a tight fitting plastic cap) probably ten years ago at a specialty shop near Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh. *I may be lying to you about where I bought them, but I do recall buying some glass containers at that store.
[02/18/25]
Well, I guess there comes a time for all.
Note the packet shown below. Each packet is a single serving and they come in a box of 10 each, at WalMart. One of their GV – Great Value products. I normally just slice off one end of the packet with a knife and then pour the contents (a powder) into a carafe of water, and also adding the other juices.
“Bill’s Drink Mix” consists of four items: a little orange juice, a little cranberry juice, one packet of “Iced Tea” mix from WalMart, and one packet of “Pomegranate-Lemonade” mix from WalMart. And, I must have all four of these items included to make “Bill’s Drink Mix.” Any one of them left out, and I wouldn’t be a long-time fan. *I have however replaced the flavored tea packet with actual brewed tea, and the tea can be plain tea, or a more exotic flavored tea. Of course this substitution occurred as a result of me running out of the flavored tea packets. And it’s never certain that I will find both of the flavor packets when I go looking for them on the WalMart isles. **I still long for the “Lime” flavored packet to return to the shelf. The unadulterated version, not the “Lime&XXX” version, like “Watermelon Lime.” The lime flavor was excellent. It wasn’t a favorite at home, but often after lunch, I would enjoy a limeade made with one of these lime packets. I don’t know why.
And, before “Bill’s Drink Mix,” I had two flavors that I alternated back and forth between: “Fruit Punch,” and “Dragon Fruit,” but neither had that citrus punch that I came to appreciate in my mix.
As I started to re-read the above article I came upon the idea of several items that I have used for over 30 years, and still continue to use to this day (and hopefully several more days). The three items that first come to mind are the classic beer mugs that I bought at a thrift store in Jacksonville, NC perhaps a few years before I moved, in 1995, to Fayetteville to live & work. So that’s at least 30 years ago. As I said above, I have one of these beside me as I write, filled with “Bill’s Drink Mix” and served hot this morning.
The next item is the “Revere Ware” frying pan made in 1978. The company stamped the manufacture date on the bottom of each pan or pot that was made. Paul Revere, long dead, delegated the task of making this pan for me.
When I think of how much use this pan has had over the years, and I just roasted some Brussels Sprouts, walnuts & cranberries in it last night, it brings out the New Englander’s frugal nature in me. And I was born in North Carolina. Grew up in North Carolina. And, have only been to New England once that I recall. But I did enjoy my visit with my friend, Gary Golden, very much. It was winter, and snow was all around. I will say that the one shortcoming is the handle. Not that is has not weathered well since 1978, but that it’s not oven proof, so I can’t bake or broil something in the oven with this pan.
*I’ve been on Etsy and seen Revere Ware pots and pans on sale, and some going back to the 1940s. I might think about buying one of these as a present for a young man who is going off to college (and is allowed to cook),
Below is me fixing my Zucchini/Shrimp/Kielbasa dish. Several years ago I made this from scratch early one morning and liked it so much that I’ve repeated it a myriad of times. Six ingredients: beef Polska Kielbasa, shrimp, zucchini, onion, pasta shells & a small amount of tomato (I didn’t want a strong tomato sauce for this dish.). I usually only use a couple of Campari tomatoes, quartered and they disappear into the sauce, except for leaving a light hint of red. I add S&P and garlic powder, but I also add red pepper flakes and maybe even a little cayenne powder. It is a spicy dish, but each item is supposed to be a little island of flavor, with no one thing overpowering the others.
Before leaving the Revere Ware, I would like to mention that I also have a couple of 3 Qt. pots, a 2 Qt. pot & a 1 Qt. pot that I use quite often.
I noted that the pots did not have a manufacture date on their bottoms, and in reading online the logo was changed in 1968 and manufacture dates were no longer stamped on the utensils. Eventually the company was sold to Corning, and the headquarters moved to Indonesia.
I bought a “steamer” insert years ago, that is not Revere Ware, but was made to fit the pot perfectly. This insert has gotten a great deal of use throughout the years. I love steamed asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and cauliflower. Anything that I need to steam goes into the insert which has worked faithfully for many years.
Several years ago, I bought a “cheap” set of Guy Fieri pots & pans at Belk’s and they each had glass lids. What was nice was that these glass lids also fit my Revere Ware pots (but not the skillet) perfectly. I like being able to put a lid on a pot and be able to look through the glass at what is cooking. However, most times I will leave the lid off. I said “cheap” set, but they look to be quality, and have lasted, and are oven safe so I use these when I am broiling a steak, pork chop, or lamb chop in the oven.
Since I’ve been a batchelor all my life, I have had the opportunity to use and reuse many items that if I had a wife, she would have had me “throw out those old things” long ago. I would have had new dishes instead of the “Gibson” restaurant blue stripe plates that I bought as a set at a store in Jacksonville, NC. They were factory “seconds” so some of the striping wasn’t up to par, and a plate might have a slight warp, but none of that has stopped me from using them almost daily since. The picture shows one of my actual plates, with a favorite meal that just happened to be a vegetarian delight: corn on the cob, fried okra, a tomatillo & onion chutney and sliced tomatoes.
I bought the dish set and then was surprised when I turned one of the dishes over at home and saw “Gibson” imprinted on its bottom. I had to do a double take, because of how the “G” and “i” run together, but no, it said “Gibson.” I went online and found that there was a Gibson Company that made dishes. So as a bonus I ended up with a set of monogramed dishes at no extra cost.
Tomatillos remind me of green tomatoes, but they have a different flesh than tomatoes. *”Chutney…” I’ve eaten at the “Blue Willow Inn,” in Social Circle, Georgia, several times since my sister Donna first introduced me to the place many years ago. In fact, and maybe it was my first visit, Donna treated me, my dad Bill (her & my dad), and his wife, Sara (Donna’s mother, but not mine.) to the crowded Sunday buffet. We sat together at a table on one of the side porches and enjoyed the meal and time together on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Georgia.
*I see from their web site that the restaurant must have been closed for a while but is about to reopen. I did think the buffet was a little pricey for what you had to choose from, especially since you could get most of those same items at other “country” restaurants and at a much lower price. And, the ambiance had changed greatly for me when the wooded area behind the restaurant was cut down and a small “strip mall” was built there. I don’t care how old and beautiful the home is if you plop it in the middle of a business district.
One time I was walking along the inner circle of the Blue Willow Inn buffet (it has a U shape so you can have customers walking on both sides of the food) and I took a couple of fried green tomatoes from the bar. I then noticed that they had “tomato chutney” in a small dish beside the fried tomatoes, so I put some of this on the tomatoes. The tomato chutney was sweet and I found it “decadent” that you could have two different flavor profiles that compliment each other from the same fruit. The sweet ripe red tomato complimenting the savory fried green tart tomato.
The following story was added the next day from most of this blog posting, as I recalled another one of my visits to the Blue Willow Inn. I had finished eating and was trying to leave Social Circle and get back on I20 and I was heading back in an easterly direction, but I don’t know why. It was late in the day, and if I had been driving all the way back to Fayetteville, I wouldn’t have eaten at the Blue Willow Inn.
I didn’t see street signage pointing to I20, but I drove down a road quite a ways. I knew I was heading in a westerly direction, and I didn’t want to go back toward Atlanta. Eventually, I decided to turn around thinking I had gotten on the wrong road. I believe I even made it back to Madison, Georgia before heading back to where I thought I20 was located. Unfortunately, the road that I chose took me across I20, but there were no ramps either on or off I20 on this road. But, I continued on and tried to head in an easterly direction. Those roads wound in giant undulating swaths through country, but never was there a road heading back to I20 and an on ramp. I must not have had a smartphone, or at least a smartphone with an Internet connection because I had no map to reference. And eventually I began to wonder if I would run out of gas somewhere in this Georgia countryside. If you look at a map, I must have headed to Eatonton from Madison and only in Eatonton and Lake Oconee was I able to get back to I20. But what a circuitous and angst filled route.
And once I got home and the Internet, I went back on Google Street View and found that before I turned around in Social Circle, I had been just two miles short of getting back to I20.
And the third item that I have probably had the longest is my “John Wayne” P38 – Military Issue field can opener. *I was never in the military, but I grew up (Swansboro, Hubert, Jacksonville, Camp Lejeune) around Marines. I’m thinking that a Marine may have rented one of my aunt’s (“Sis” – Carrie Kellum) mobile homes (trailers) and having eventually moved out, left his John Wayne in a kitchen drawer, where in came directly or indirectly into my possession. However, I do recall that someone told me that the Marines called this tool a “John Wayne” and after all these years I finally googled for the reason “why.” **Seems that John Wayne did the “voiceover” on a military training video for the P-38 can opener. ***I do know why they called the rough brown toilet paper John Wayne. The joke goes it is called “John Wayne” because it’s rough, and tough, and it doesn’t take crap off of anybody.
What’s Mine is Mine… Sometimes.
As I re-read above about what an imaginary wife might have made me do. “Throw out those old things,” regarding the Gibson dishes I had, or the old Revere Ware that has continued faithfully to perform, I was reminded about something that happened to me a year so so before I moved to Fayetteville (1995).
I worked at Coastal Carolina Community College for a couple of years before I moved to Fayetteville. During my time at Coastal, I taught a few introductory computer courses (they were on the quarter system, not semester) and I worked in their computer department doing repairs, maintenance and software installs & upgrades on PCs. I was also working to complete an “Associates” degree dealing with PCs. *My age has stopped me from remembering the exact title of the degree, but if I scrounge around in my old papers, I think I may still have the degree that I earned. It was in a sturdy little folding, thick cardboard holder.
I had come across an old Marine Corps hooded poncho probably at “The Hem of His Garment.” That was the ministry that included a thrift store that helped supply donated items for people in need, and the profit from the sale of the donated items also went to support those in need.
The old poncho was made of a heavy rubber, a dark avocado military green, but despite a few holes it did it’s job well. It may not have looked good, but it did keep the rain off my head and body when it rained. So, I would take the poncho to work and leave it on a shelf just inside our office door. There was a young, attractive girl (woman) who I think was volunteering in our department, and she several times mentioned how awful the poncho looked. And I would “laugh it off” because it didn’t belong to her, and what she thought at least about the poncho didn’t matter. Well, at least it didn’t matter until one day I realized that the poncho on the shelf, was no longer on the shelf.
She had been cleaning up the place (office) and had taken it upon herself to throw my old poncho away. She didn’t ask me if she could throw MY poncho away, she had just done it. And, when I confronted her about it, it was obvious that what I thought about her actions mattered just as little to her, as what I thought about her demeaning my old poncho had meant to me. Nada.
I have given away a bunch of stuff through the years, and I’ve even given up stuff intentionally when I perceived that someone else wanted it more than I did, but this act made me angry then, and when I rarely recall it, still makes me quite angry to this day. What’s mine is mine, sometimes, but don’t take or throw away something that is mine until you check with me first. And if I don’t want you to take it or throw it away, you better not take it or throw it away.
Sometimes I buy something and don’t appreciate it at first. I haven’t had this colander long, and even so, I don’t recall where I bought it. It would almost have to be WalMart, but then I might have been in Target, which I rarely visit now. Maybe I was walking past this item and bought it on impulse. *I almost have a vision that I was in the WalMart that is across town, near the Cracker Barrell and the Mall just a few blocks away. Not sure what I was looking for there, but now I recall walking up and down the isles. I was looking for something, and I think I looked down and saw the colander.
My thought was that I needed a small colander for canned beans. Often canned beans have a thick liquid they are packed in, not just water and instead of just pouring this liquid in the pot along with the beans, it is suggested, and I want to rinse the beans off first. You might be washing extra sugar or salt away with the packing liquid. The image isn’t an actual picture of my new colander, but is much like the one I have.
I have another colander I use regularly to strain out organic leftovers. I don’t want to put these wet items in my regular garbage bag which might later leak. I keep it in my kitchen sink, and when I have the ends of an onion, or potato peels, or some food that I have had in the fridge, but want to throw out, I usually put these in the colander. This strainer keeps the items from clogging the sink. And when this colander becomes full, I take four plastic grocery bags and nest them and then dump the refuse from the colander into them and tie them up. I mentioned that I use four bags and this is to help insure that if one or two of the bags have holes in them that four should keep any liquid from draining out of the bags. I don’t need them absolutely leak proof, but just leak proof long enough to get first to my car, and then from the car into the dumpster.
I’ve used my new colander to strain some black beans that I was using for a soup.
Spice Jars & a Repurposed Lazy Susan
Next is my repurposed Lazy Susan. I used this for my spices until a few months ago when I bought a set of empty spice jars. I’ve filled most of those jars already and I used one of the packing matrices to keep the jars neat and organized. But there is still a problem that I have not yet found a solution to. I use a 3 letter code that I put on the jar lids to remind me of which spice is in that container, but with almost 48 containers, how do I organize them? At first I just placed them alphabetically. But then making a subset of the “most used” spices seemed appropriate. e.g. garlic powder, red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, celery seed, marjoram, cayenne powder, cumin, and even turmeric. And then I thought about grouping the “warm spices”: cloves, cinnamon, ginger, mace, nutmeg and pumpkin spice (which includes the previously listed spices). *I use the warm spices to sprinkle on my fried apples. For years I just used cinnamon, but then I thought of using the other warm spices, and even included coriander. I then thought of making a “warm spice” mixture just for my fried apples.
The apples fried, I put them on a plate and then reach over to the Lazy Susan and get a spoonful of Splenda and sift it across the apples. I then reach back over and get the red topped “warm spice” mix and sift that on top of the Splenda & apples. Works great!
But, now I had the Lazy Susan sitting on the kitchen floor leaning against my portable kitchen island. After a few days I suddenly had a thought for how I might repurpose this Lazy Susan. I could put it over next to my stove and use it to organize my sweeteners (Splenda, coconut sugar, Sweet-n-Low, Agave Nectar and Cary’s Sugar Free Syrup) and several other items like corn starch, corn meal and polenta, and even the oil brush I use to spread oil in pans. No sooner had I thought of this, and cleared off the spot to put the Lazy Susan, but it came to me to try and put my ceramic container of kitchen utensils (spatulas, tongs, thermometer, etc.) in the middle of the Lazy Susan (if it would fit). And fit it did, almost perfectly. It is surprising to me that after so long, this item found its perfect place and use.
It has continued to be a welcomed change. I pull out a spatula for either a stir fry or a hamburger in a frying pan on the stove top. Or, I reach for my oil brush to spread oil in a pan. Or, I choose the sweetener I want for either coffee or tea, or adding Splenda to fried apples. And on the back side, I have my cornstarch that I use at the end of my stir fry.
Indian Long Pepper & the Grinder
Sometimes, if I see a spice, condiment or food item that I’ve never tried, I might buy it if it is cheap enough. I think that is what happened when I saw a package of Long Pepper somewhere. I bought it and then didn’t open it, for probably over a year. And then a couple of years ago I was throwing out unused items (which rarely happens until fairly recently) and happened to come upon this plastic baggie labeled with “Indian Long Pepper.” Fortunately, I didn’t throw it out without first opening the package and tasting the flavor. The problem though is that Indian Long Pepper is unlike the little round seeds that make up most other peppers, be they black, white, green or red. The Long Pepper has a gnarly shape and is very hard. It just won’t fit in a regular pepper grinder. So at first I just used my small mortar and pestle to grind my Long Pepper. But, when grinding, if you don’t cover the top with your hand, or have a cover for the mortar (bowl for grinding), its possible that some of the Long Pepper will jump out of the bowl. And, grinding with a pestle & mortar isn’t convenient.
I went online to see if I could find a pepper grinder that would accommodate the shape & hardness of the Long Pepper. Not sure of the exact words I used, but I finally came upon a nutmeg grinder that incorporated a microplane in the process. I ordered one from Amazon (later ordering more as Christmas presents for those I was also providing with a package of Long Pepper) and when it arrived I was amazed at the remarkable planning that had gone into it’s design.
There are some designs for items that are just a cut above. Form follows function. e.g. The P-51 Mustang is a well designed propeller driven fighter airplane. You just have to look at one to recognize it’s uniqueness. Or how about the old Northwest Airlines logo which I consider the most perfect logo for an English speaking people. Note that the logo incorporates a compass shape, with the pointer pointing (where) Northwest. But then the pointer portion makes the large italicized “N” also become a “W.” How brilliant could you be? I’ve looked, but never found a record of who actually came up with this design.
And a logo that will never be, because of the choice of how to name the institution: A few years ago, Mount Olive College became a university and it was decided, not by me, to name it “The University of Mount Olive.” But my thoughts then, and they have reoccurred to me since, was that it would have been a much more clever name if they had named it “Mount Olive University.” Why, more clever? I visually see them emphasizing the first three letters of “MOUNT OLIVE” as “MOUNT OLIVE.” And then incorporating an advertising campaign something the effect of, “Mount Olive University, the start of your education in Mount Olive.” Okay, maybe not exactly the best advertising phrase. And sometimes when I am passing throuh, I also play with advertising for Dunn, North Carolina. How about, “When you are “Dunn” shopping why not have dinner and a movie?”
So this microplane grinder was perfectly designed. It can grind nutmeg which is an incredibly hard nut. But I also tested it, and I could grind cumin, other small spices and the Long Pepper. There was even a storage compartment in the top of this grinder. And now for the one imperfection. The grinder is made of black plastic, except for the metal microplane, and the screw top of the storage container sometimes seizes. It locks up and can’t be unscrewed. And at least once, when it did unseize, I tried to use olive oil to keep it from seizing, but this didn’t work.
Several years into using this grinder, it just stopped working. I couldn’t figure out why, and finally I noted that the metal microplane was rotating with the grinder handle. I’m not sure if the plane was glued and the glue had come undone, but I bought some Gorilla Glue Gel and just put a dab or two on the outer edge of the metal plane. It seems to have fixed the plane again and I’m going to try it out shortly (before the 24 hours suggested setting period). If it’s going to work, I think it will have already set. *Yes! It worked! **I was hoping the glue wouldn’t prevent the grinder mechanism from rotating so I only put a little glue gel on the opposite side of where the inner protrusion was. It worked fine.
I think the ground Long Pepper is more pungent than regular ground black pepper, and I still have a regular pepper blend in another grinder.
Microwave Onion Cooker
When I was growing up there was an FCX in Jacksonville, North Carolina. The Farmer’s Cooperative Exchange sold all sorts of farm supplies: seeds, plants, equipment, parts for farm equipment, etc. In 1986 the FCX went into bankruptcy and was incorporated into the Southern States Cooperative. I think of the Agri Supply store just outside of Lumberton, NC as being a like business.
I think I may have first bought a “Microwave Onion Cooker” at the Agri Supply store. It looks like a large white plastic onion, that has two halves and a very small steam vent. It’s “first” use is to cook a whole onion in the microwave and it does that very well. But, I then started to think of other things I might cook . I can cook a white or sweet potato in this cooker. I have cooked an egg, even adding onions, peppers & cheese in this cooker. The egg concoction comes out in a flat round shape perfect for an English muffin. You could bake an apple in it, even adding a little butter, cinnamon & sweetener.
The Agri Supply store still sells this item and probably offers the best price for it.
Box Cutter Pens
I do want to mention the box cutter (pen) as one of those exceptionally useful items, not just in the kitchen drawer, but by your easy chair and in your car. Any place that you often have a packaged item that needs a quick open, the box cutter can do the job. *And it also works in helping to peel an orange.
I bought these through Amazon. They easily slice through the Amazon shipping packages, mailers, and taped boxes. Many see thru plastic packages that may contain things like ink pens, fingernail clippers, or have tamper proof seals are easily “gotten into” using this box cutter. The blade length is adjustable and there is a blade lock that is easily manipulated with a single hand. For peeling oranges, just set the blade far enough to slice through the outer rind. Tupperware had a promotional “orange peeler” that they used to give away. This does the job just as well.
Ramekins & 3 Footed Salsa Bowls
I have a set of blue and white ceramic ramekins that I have used as “monkey dishes” for years. I might mix up some cornstarch in one to pour into my stir fry. Or I might mix several spices in one before pouring them into a dish or pot. I’ve also put bacon grease in one of these. But, I also have a few 3 footed plastic salsa bowls. I had a red, yellow, and a green salsa bowl so I might put mild salsa in the green and spicy salsa in the red and homemade hummus in the yellow bowl.
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Not too long ago, WalMart started selling these colored salsa bowls for about a dollar, so I bought a couple more colors (blue & a grayish color). And then it came to me to start using these bowls in the same way I had been using the ceramic ramikins. They are a perfect little mixing bowl, and when needed can be individual salsa, dip, or hummus dishes at a party. I almost forgot, I now put my Greek God’s Plain Yogurt in one and add in a little pureed raspberries, blackberries or blueberries and mix it all up.
Braun MultiQuick Tool
Of all the kitchen items I’ve mentioned so far, this tool with its various attachments is probably the most used over time (except for maybe the onion cooker or box cutter).
I bought the smaller, less powerful, and less capacity version of this Braun manufactured tool years ago when I was looking for a “stick blender” to puree hot liquids while they were still in their pots. I had a “Curried Apple” Soup that had onion, carrots and Granny Smith apples cooked down, but it all needed to be pureed, and a stick blender was the way to go. This tool also came with a whisk attachment, so you could get a carton of heavy cream and make your own whipped cream easily. Depending upon the size of your mayonnaise jar, you could even scoop out a little mayo, add any flavorings (curry, capers, etc.) and blend it all in the jar. *I mention mayo specifically because years ago I had a “Shrimp Po’Boy” sandwich at the Water’s Edge Restaurant on Shem Creek just across from Charleston, South Carolina. The sandwich was good but it was the “curry remoulade” sauce on the fried shrimp that made it special. I came home and tried to figure out how to replicate this sauce. At the time, I couldn’t even find a decent definition of “remoulade” online. But, I finally concluded that I would use Dukes Mayo, some Patak’s Curry Paste, and some small capers and these three ingredients when mixed together formed a yellowish sauce that went well on fried shrimp, but also on a ham or turkey sandwich. *Patak’s Curry Paste is also what I use to make my “Curried Apple Soup” and you can add chicken to this soup or leave it vegetarian.
I mentioned that I had originally bought the less powerful version of this tool, and as a result I limped along for years using the chopper attachment that was too small to hold a whole can of Garbanzo beans, and also not powerful enough to blend the whole can at one time for making hummus. When I finally bought a new larger version, what a difference. I now dump a whole can of chickpeas into the chopper, add some tahini, some cumin and some lemon (I use lime.) juice, blend and you have a delicious hummus dip for an assortment of veggies, or as I also like, for Smoked Oysters.
But I can also whip up a fast, delicious homemade salsa in the chopper. Sometimes, when in season, fresh tomatoes, but often with a can of “Roasted Garlic” diced tomatoes in a can. Roughly chop up some sweet onion, colorful sweet bell pepper, some Herdez “Salsa Ranchera” (smoked chipotle flavor) and during the late summer add some spicy, colorful peppers from the State Farmers’ Market. Or jalapenos and poblanos, that you buy at WalMart, and first roast in the oven for more flavor.
A quick trip through the Taco Bell drive thru, and bring a bean burrito back home to eat with some homemade salsa, chopped sweet onion and sour cream.
A trick for making coleslaw (the mayo version) is to rough chop the cabbage, put it in the chopper and cover it all with water, then blend with a few pulses. The water will keep the cabbage from becoming mush. Pour off the water, add some mayo and some Half-n-Half (a trick I learned from a restaurant I frequented) add S&P to taste. The Half-n-Half makes it creamier (no duh) and I don’t prefer carrots in this, but I do like carrots.
Hillshire Farms Reusable Containers
More than a year ago, I had bought a container of “Hillshire Farms Deli – Pastrami,” and when it came time to throw away the plastic container, I took a second look. It was a nice size for left overs, slightly smaller than the Rubbermaid Easy Find containers I have a bunch of. It had a clear bowl, and the tight seal lid was of semi clear red plastic. It was then that I realized the Hillshire Farms Company had planned for me (or others) to re-use these containers, and had made it especially easy to do so. The advertising was printed on a cardboard sheet and attached to the red lid with that stretchy glue substance. The cardboard and the glue were both easily peeled off. I keep my bacon in one of these and it will hold a whole pound of bacon.
It pays to pay attention to the prices for the same products at different grocery store chains. I visit a varied assortment of groceries during a week and I try to keep in mind which store has the cheapest price for a product. The Hillshire Farms Deli meats (in the 7 oz. container) can range from over $6 to under $5. And I figured that if the meat was under $5, then the storage container was worth the cost. WalMart and Aldi normally have a cheaper price on these products and also on the Beef Polska Kielbasa.
P38 Military Issue – Field Can Opener
I have a steel version of one of these that probably came via the US Marines from over 50 years ago. I got it while I was still in high school and have kept it mostly on my key chains through the years. I forget about it until I need it, and then it never fails… at least not yet.
This was issued to Marines (and probably most other services) to use in the field to open their metal cans of K-Rations. The “Jar Heads” might have called it their “John Wayne.” I don’t know why the can opener would take on that name. I do know why rough toilet paper takes on the name of John Wayne.
I’m at home using my regular hand crank can opener, and then I find a can that for whatever reason won’t open completely. The cutting mechanism doesn’t “catch” in some location and you end up with a can lid that you can’t lift up to get at it’s contents. John Wayne! And he finishes the job, plodding along at one little twist at a time.
New Electric Wok
I’ve had an electric wok that a cousin of mine gave me years ago. I run through periods of use and not use. I forget how easy it is to chop up the ingredients, quickly cook them and easily clean the wok before the next use. The wok I had was made by Westinghouse and has worked faithfully through the years, but apparently they don’t make electric woks any longer.
I have a friend who’s oldest son is to be married at the end of next May and I thought an electric wok might be a good wedding gift. If the young couple likes Chinese Stir Fry, you can’t get much cheaper that making a stir fry at home, or cooking it quickly, and cleaning the wok quickly. And you could make a veggie version, or add your choice or rotate through chicken, beef, pork or shrimp. Cheap that I am, I’ve also got a 3 in 1 Cookbook that probably cost me a dollar. It has a section for Chinese, Thai and Japanese cooking.
So that was the impetus for buying a new wok. I thought it prudent to buy one for myself, and if it seemed sturdy, to buy another for the wedding present. I chose one that looked good, from Amazon, and was relatively inexpensive. It arrived. It looked good. It cooked fine, and cleaned up easily. So I have already put in an order for another one.
New Waffle Maker
I may leave this off because I currently do not have an ideal waffle maker. It’s one of those that you pour the batter in and then flip the unit upside down. Then you wait for the green light to come on and the waffle should be ready. *I got rid of the flipping waffle maker, to the Thrift Store.
I bought a new Cuisinart Waffle Maker. It cooks really quickly, but the one thing I have noted is that the wells for the waffle aren’t deep. I’ve had that observation before with a different cheap waffle iron. Looking at the picture of this waffle iron, the depressions look much deeper than from the actual iron. But this waffle maker was only $25, so I will live with it. I got this one from Amazon.
S Hooks
I haven’t found these yet, and I don’t want to take those off my shower curtain, but those appear to be exactly what I want for my mobile kitchen cart. I want to hang my large non-electric wok on one, and maybe a pot/pan or two if they will fit.
I did buy these, but note the smaller S crook. That was a problem with some of my pans that wouldn’t fit on the small hook, and the small hook wouldn’t fit on the rod. So, I bought these, and they are working fine for all my pots & pans. They have clear plastic protectors on each end of the S hook.
In the above image I see olives, dried cranberries, currants, orange rind, marcona almonds and mustard seeds. I don’t think I see any rehydrated raisins, which I know can rehydrate to almost the size of the olives. A suggestion, although not the final one. I would put in half as much water as vinegar (don’t do equal parts.) I used Avocado oil because I didn’t have Sunflower Oil and about 1/3 of oil to 1/4 water and 1/2 of red wine vinegar. I don’t see any lemon rind. I use lime juice instead of citric acid. I put in some Agave Nectar & Honey. I did put in mustard seeds, red pepper flakes, turmeric, thyme, ground pepper & salt. I shook this all up and found it difficult to split the mixture between two jars. Difficult to pour out currants and other large ingredients and keep them in equal ratios. If I am wanting to put a new mix in more than one jar, I might keep the large ingredients out until I get equal parts of the liquid in each container (e.g. water, vinegar, oil, Agave nectar & honey).
I have enjoyed this olive mix for several years before Covid. I have only seen it on the Olive/Pickle Bar at Whole Foods. It has such a unique flavor that it is quite addictive, but I’ve never really found anything to eat it with. I’ve seen a suggestion of eating it with cheese, or brussels sprouts, and I like both cheese and Brussels Sprouts.
I think the sauce I currently put on Brussels Sprouts is a simple 3 item mix consisting of balsamic vinegar, dijon mustard and agave nectar (honey).
I wrote somewhere else recently that I wanted to “make a run at” replicating the Dolce K Olive Mix, and a couple of days ago I had found myself just finished eating an orange. I looked over from my easy chair and saw the orange rinds that I had not yet thrown away. I then thought, “Well, I have the orange rinds, if I can figure a way to get rid of the pith (the bitter white part of the rind)”. I did a quick google search and found that some people used zesters, and others use a microplane to remove the orange zest, but I wanted to remove the opposite side of the rind, the pith. I then thought that I had a cheese grater and I knew that had an area for fine grating. I figured that I could use the fine grater section to remove the pith. It didn’t work quickly, but it did work and eventually I had about four good sections of orange rind with most of the pith removed. I then chopped the rind up into small pieces.
I then got online and found the Divina link to the Dolce K Sweet Olive Mix, but they only listed the ingredients, and not the amounts/quantities of each item. They also left out currants, which I think come with the Whole Foods version, and which I like.
I started adding the listed ingredients leaving out some of what I didn’t have, and substituting as I thought possible. I did have some honey, but I also added some Agave Nectar and Splenda to sweeten the Red Wine Vinegar.
I had no Marcona almonds, but found I could order the “blanched” Spanish almonds online. I did have dried cranberries, and a few raisins left. Not sure if I had bought the raisins especially for using in the Dolce K mix, but I had eaten some with some mixed nuts. I had the whole mustard seeds and thyme, and I had turmeric which I was already familiar with from using it in various Mediterranean dishes.
I opened a can of Green California pitted olives that I had bought at Whole Foods. I’ve been buying these for years because they taste like black olives. After a day or so, marinating in the juice, the olives took on the new flavors. I mixed in all the other ingredients I had and went back later to add more sweetener, but to my surprise what I made was so close to what I can buy at Whole Foods that I can makes the Dolce K Olive Mix at home.
And one final test will be to try and add up the total cost of making this at home and see if it is less expensive at home.
— I’ve since made some more of the marinade and only have the olives & the Marcona Almonds to add to it. I bought Minute-Maid Currants at Harris Teeter today. But I do see a problem already. My first go around I was almost perfect in the choices I made. I don’t have much marinade in the first jar, but the flavors are all spot on. The problem? As I made the second marinade, I had no clue as to how much of each ingredient to add. Do I use more olive oil, or more red wine vinegar? I don’t know. The second marinade isn’t quite as spot on as the first, but it is relatively close. Do I add more water? Less Turmeric?
The dried cranberries have plumped up, and the green olives have taken on the flavor of the marinade. *An earlier attempt, I didn’t let the olives I was using marinate long enough and they still had the distinct olive flavor. But given enough time, they will become pickled.
Last night I was hungry, but didn’t know for what. I finally decided to fix a clam/pesto/pasta dish. But, the difference was that I also added some hot pork sausage to the mix. I use the Knorr’s Pesto mix that comes in a package, and normally just add that to the clams and angel hair pasta. But, as with other things, like clam chowder, adding a little ham makes the flavors pop.
I used about half of a sausage pak, but cooked the sausage down. This did make the mix “heavy.”
As I was finishing off the left overs tonight, I knew I needed something to cut the heaviness and I came up with the idea to make a simple salad with English cucumber, sweet onion, and sweet bell pepper in red wine vinegar with some Equal sweetener. This did work very well together. **Posted later from the previous sentence: I made some Tzatziki Sauce to go with this meal. I had modified the clams & pasta, by adding finely diced Shallot (I had bought them at Whole Foods in Raleigh the other day.). I also added finely diced Shallot to the Tzatziki. This too cut the heaviness of the sausage.
As I was just taking my nightly grouping of pills, I thought of something else that I wanted to write about. I had decided that I wanted to travel to Hamlet today (Monday) so that I could have lunch at Seaboard Station. I’ve written about Seaboard Station elsewhere, but recall that they have the best fried chicken. In fact, a couple of years ago I ate there and have attested to the fact that I had the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten, in my whole life, and that includes the fried chicken my mom made when I was growing up… all the fried chicken I’ve had at all the church and associational meeting and dinners throughout the years, and KFC or Smithfield’s Chicken -n- BBQ or anywhere else.
And, the fried chicken I had there today was also very, very good, as was the pork chop, the steamed cabbage and the Sara Lee carrot cake. *I would still like the recipe for the Broccoli Casserole that I had at Jeff’s church last year. I’m not like Donald Trump. This was the best broccoli casserole I’ve ever had and would definitely like it again and again, but I don’t know how to make it.
But what I actually wanted to write about was that since I was planning to have a good lunch, I didn’t want to eat my regular breakfast so I decided I would just order a country ham biscuit from JK’s Restaurant. My JK’s breakfast normally consists of one egg over medium, a couple of patty sausages, some of their home fried potatoes, and I eat the edges of the two slices of whole wheat toast (dry – w/o butter). Oh, and I have their coffee which is good, but I prefer the strength of the “Breakfast Blend? Starbuck’s coffee I have at home. I buy the already ground coffee at WalMart. I don’t recall the name of the coffee which I preferred before Covid, but I used to buy the “whole bean” at Harris Teeter and grind it myself at home. When Covid hit, HT stopped selling the whole bean coffees that you could bag yourself.
I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but during Covid, when I wasn’t going out to eat breakfast and couldn’t resupply from HT, I finally ran out of the last whole beans that I had. It was then that I went to my kitchen cubboard and found an unused bag of already ground Cracker Barrell coffee. I would imagine that Deborah had given this to me as a Christmas present some time, but since I preferred to grind my own (figuring that freshly ground would have more flavor – same reasoning for grinding my own pepper) It had remained unused. Not sure if was still unopened when I found it, but I made some coffee from it and thought it tasted pretty good. The next day I made some more, and it was pretty good again. And finally on the third day when I made it again and it was good, the thought came to me. “I hate Cracker Barrell coffee, but this I like.” And I do hate Cracker Barrell coffee, that they serve in their restaurants. So much so that I would always order hot tea instead of coffee. *I haven’t been to Cracker Barrell in a long while, but for several years, when I was still unretired, I would go there for breakfast every Sunday morning, except for a few holidays, and when I might be off visiting relatives or on a mini-vacation. I usually went to the Fayetteville CB next to I95.
So with Covid, I finally finished the Cracker Barrel “gift” coffee. The Covid booster shot finally came along and on the day that I took it, I also went out for a haircut, and I went to Cracker Barrell (the one over by the WalMart nearer the Mall) to buy some more of their coffee. But, what? The package was no longer the same. The package I had tried at home had shiny coppery colors, but the new package was a shiny aqua color. I checked and they only sold two types of their coffee: Caffeinated and Decaffeinated and neither package had the coppery color.
And what? I got the new bag home and made a pot, and it wasn’t the same at all. I don’t recall if it was awful, or just not the same, but in either case it wasn’t what I wanted to drink most mornings so I had to start looking for an alternative.
I tried various types and blends from various sources and each package usually cost about $9 a bag. This was an expensive process since after trying the coffee just once from each bag, I knew, “Nope, I don’t like that either.” I don’t recall how long it took, but finally I tried a bag of Starbucks’ coffee that I bought from WalMart, and it was it. Not what I had pre-Covid, or the Cracker Barrell “gift” coffee I had enjoyed, but a good strong flavor that I liked over and over. *Seems that Walgreens currently has this bag for $7.99 which is about 50 cents cheaper than WalMart.
I probably drink more hot tea than coffee for breakfast, but will probably have coffee at least once a week, and may even re-heat yesterday’s coffee the next day. And, I normally drink from a large cup that is about two cups worth.
Since about 1985, I have enjoyed Bigelow’s “Earl Grey” and “Constant Comment” teas. I think Rick and Linda Bell introduced me to both of these as I would be over at their house a lot. Rick & Linda were the pre-cursors to Russ & Deborah. Earl Grey is flavored with Bergamont, and is very distinctive. The Constant Comment is flavored with citrus or maybe orange. And despite how tea aficionados suggest drinking these, with lemon, or with milk/cream, I like both usually with creamer, but as a change up Earl Grey with lime juice or Constant Comment with no creamer.
I’ve tried other teas throughout the years, but normally haven’t found any that I like better than the two listed above, until… I tried Taylor’s Scottish Breakfast tea and the first time hated it. But fortunately I tried it a second and third time, and fell in love with it. I would describe it as having a “heavy” flavor. I probably drink more of the Taylors tea than Earl Grey or Constant Comment, but still like all three. And then there is Rooibos, which I think I first tried when I bought some loose tea at Whole Foods several years ago. It has a distinctive flavor and reddish color. After all, Rooibos means “red bush.” I like this with creamer also.
I forgot to mention Raspberry Royale also from Bigelow, because I had completely run out of this tea and had not drank any for quite some time. I first tried this tea when I was on a short vacation up in Virginia. I had stayed at a Quality Inn in Lynchburg and the next morning as I was leaving I went up to the office. They had a Continental Breakfast area, and I looked over and saw an assortment of Bigelow teas (individually wrapped bags). I saw the Raspberry Royale tea and took a packet back to my room. I made some hot water with the room’s coffee maker and used a small styrofoam cup to brew the tea. I tried it and it was good, so I took the cup with me to my car and drove to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.
After breakfast I came back to my car and the Raspberry Royale was cold, but I thought, “It will still taste good cold.” And it did. I finished it off later along the route. And that’s how I came to love another Bigelow tea. One time I bought a 6 pack of Raspberry Royale (6-20 ct. boxes) from Amazon and gave them away that Christmas as presents.
Until just recently I didn’t know where I could buy Raspberry Royale. Amazon wanted about double the price you should pay for a box of 20 tea bags, or you had to buy the 6 pack. I didn’t want to do either, and finally I thought to search on the Wegman’s web site. To my surprise they showed that they did carry Raspberry Royale in their Raleigh location and it was listed at a reasonable price. So, a few days ago I was at that Wegman’s and yes, they did have Raspberry Royale, so I bought two 20 ct. boxes. I’ve already had two cups and this is also one of my favorites. I have 5 favorites.
About a year and a half ago, I came up with a drink mix that I now call “Bill’s Drink Mix,” and I drink some almost every day and about a carafe full each day. It has four ingredients that include: Pomegranate Lemonade (mix from WalMart), Sweet Tea (mix with or without Lemon from WalMart), some orange juice, and some cranberry juice. Now all four ingredients are necessary, or it is just not the same and isn’t pleasing to me. But, I have used brewed hot tea to make this mix and that is an ok alternative if I’ve run out of the little flavor packages. Oh, and this mixture is good cold or hot. Hot, it may remind me of what Tang (the orange flavored drink from many years ago) would taste like if heated.
Not tea, but I’ve also tried milk mixed with Turmeric and sometimes have also added powdered ginger to this concoction. When I do that it starts to remind me of Egg Nog. Not exactly but sorta.
I do like egg nog, and the season is once again here, but I rarely drink it, or buy it because it has a bunch of sugar and would throw my blood sugar off. In fact there are quite a few foods, drinks and places to eat that I no longer go to, or rarely go to before I became more serious about keeping my blood sugar under control.
About a year ago I bought some Homestead Creamery Egg Nog, in a glass bottle like the one shown here. The shape is that of the old milk bottles that the milkman (before my time, if ever in the country) used to deliver milk, but I think slightly smaller than actual size. Well, I didn’t throw the bottle away after the egg nog was gone, and now I reuse it for my Half-n-Half. I like the cold feel of the glass for some reason as I pour it into my coffee or tea.
I rarely go to any buffet style restaurants, and several no longer exist since Covid. I was in the habit of eating from Taco Bell once or twice a week (1 Burrito Supreme, 1 Bean Burrito, and 1 Crunchy Taco) and at the last I might just choose two of the above instead of all three. I would bring them home and add sour cream and sweet onion (chopped) and I might make my own salsa including some of the Herdez’ “Salsa Ranchera” sauce. I haven’t driven through the Taco Bell drive-thru in months. *Let me laud the Taco Bell staff that served me when I did go through their drive-thru. They were great at taking my order, preparing it quickly and getting me on my way without a problem, and they did that over and over, and I thanked them repeatedly because I saw this as exceptional service in a low-end job. And, I don’t mean to slight them by labeling it a “low-end” job. It’s fast food, fast cheap food to some degree.
I can make a delicious salsa at home but the problem is that what do you eat it with? Tortilla chips or beans? Either can throw my blood sugar off, so I try not to buy chips. At one time I couldn’t control it. If I bought a family sized bag of tortilla chips or potato chips, I would eat the whole thing… and might finish them off by the next day. But then I found more will power, but then what? The chips go stale if you open them, and then don’t eat any more for several weeks. I will say that IGA sells a smaller bag of Wavy Potato Chips for about $1.48 that is just about right. I can have three helpings from this smaller bag. And, I normally do not buy potato chips, but these are special to go with the Pastrami Reubens that I make at home. I don’t fry fries at home, so these chips have that saltiness that along with a dill pickle spear makes the perfect accompaniment for the Reuben sandwiches. But then again the Pastrami & Swiss are both fatty and salty and bad also for the blood sugar, along with the seeded rye bread.
I’ve learned to like Sauerkraut, and I combine it with my homemade Thousand Island dressing which only has the following ingredients: Dukes Mayo, ketchup, chopped sweet onion, sugar free pickle relish, and some hot sauce (Texas Pete, or Tabasco… NOT Frank’s). After realizing that the Thousand Island dressing “turned” the sauerkraut in a very pleasant way (like sugar turns vinegar — making pickle juice), I thought, “well why not make a side dish out of sauerkraut mixed with some Thousand Island dressing” and it worked. This side would be good with a pork chop too.
I said I rarely go to a buffet, but just recently, about two weeks ago now, I drove up to Asheboro, NC for another visit. I had breakfast at David’s and they have a great price on their breakfast specials. But for lunch, I found a Chinese Buffet restaurant and ate there. It was so reminiscent of several of the Chinese buffets I’ve visited throughout the years. In fact, the chicken on a stick, or the egg drop soup, or even the sliced bananas in a cherry sauce are classics. I really enjoyed eating at this buffet, and hopefully will go back again, but not often.
At one time I visited Hibachi Grill at least once a week, but since Covid, I may have only returned once or twice. It may have been over a year since I last had a meal there. I guess I also became aware of how often you either became ill from eating the food, or got a cold from all the other people messing in the food you would eventually eat. And, I don’t need that. *When you are younger you don’t pay attention to someone with a cold, but after a cold really messes you up… I might hear someone walking down the hall at work, and they were coughing or sneezing, and I would slide my chair over and shut my door quietly. I’m also aware now when I am out and some coughs or sneezes. It reminds me of why I both like to go out, a why I don’t like to.
I do go out, almost every day, and where do I go? I go to several groceries each day. In season, I may buy raw peanuts, okra, or brussels sprouts at Pate’s Farm Market. Or, corn on the cob, broccoli, asparagus, or Romaine lettuce at WalMart… Sweet Red/Orange/Yellow Bell Peppers, Gala Apples or Cauliflower at Food Lion… Harris Teeter has the Greek God’s Yogurt and Tilapia… Sprouts has all those bins of nuts and dried fruits… I may make a special trip up to Wegman’s in Raleigh for their White American Cheese, the Intense Brie, Bucheron, or their Ciabatta rolls… Whole Foods in Raleigh has the Capricho de Cabra Cheese, the Dolce K Olive Mix… and Farm Fresh may have Red Chard or some of the okra chips, and IGA “has the meats” or eggs.
I’ve found Lidl has a good price on Smoked Oysters for about $1.29 a can and I like them with my homemade hummus. **And that’s where I start talking about my Braun Multi-Quick tool that has a food chopper, whisk, and stick blender so I can make hummus from Garbanzo beans, or make salsa with tomatoes, sweet onion and some hot peppers from the State Farmer’s Market in Raleigh.
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**While in Aldi’s yesterday, I bought a tin of Smoked Oysters for $1.25. I haven’t tried them yet. ***I think I just tried these for the first time and here is my brief review: The oysters in the tin are larger than most of the other brands, and I didn’t think the flavor was quite as good, but pretty close.
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If I am in Asheville in the early spring, I will look for ramps at the WNC State Farmers’ Market. And the last time I was up there I found the Dulse (seaweed flakes) at Earth Fair and bought a couple of those little sifters.
After years, I finally broke down and bought 48 clean, brand new, squarish shaped glass spice jars with aluminum lids and the plastic sifter caps that you can use, but don’t have to. And, I’ve already filled up all but about five of them. But, I see that I don’t use many of them or often, except for the garlic powder, marjoram, cayenne powder, and Italian seasoning along with the pink salt that I add to regular white salt and then grind them in my food chopper.
I would briefly like to mention (how brief can it be by now?) that I am really proud of the re-use of my Lazy Susan that I used for my spices before buying all those spice jars. At first I just put the Lazy Susan on the kitchen floor, but then it came to me to see if it would fit on the countertop, to the right of my stove. I already had my sweeteners there, and the kitchen utensils were against the wall in a large ceramic jar. Would it fit? I tried putting the sweeteners on the Lazy Susan first, and then I thought about adding the ceramic jar of kitchen tools, and then flour & cornstarch, and the oil brush (for brushing various oils on pans, or the waffle iron before cooking). It worked perfectly, and now I just rotate the Lazy Susan to easily switch from the sweeteners (for coffee or tea), or the cornstarch for the stir fry. See:
I found that I like the Indian Long Pepper’s pungent flavor, but it’s odd shape and hardness means you can’t just use any old pepper grinder. I found a hand grinder that had a microplane bottom and this works perfectly for the Long Pepper.
I’ve cut back on the fried apples and bacon I enjoy for breakfast, but I’ve even made a special spice blend and put it in a separate shaker for when I do fix these apples (Galas normally from WalMart but also might be from Food Lion). For years I only used cinnamon and sugar (later Equal Sweetener) on the apples, but then I thought that incorporating all the “warm” spices might work, and it did/does: cloves, cinnamon, ginger, mace, nutmeg, and pumpkin spice (which includes all of them already mixed). Not sure if coriander is thought of as a warm spice, but I include that also in this mix.
So, I am now rereading some of the above posting and realized that I never told you what I had originally thought about. My stories do seem more like those told by Garrison Keillor on “A Prairie Home Companion.” He would start a story, and shortly into telling it, he would lead you off onto another completely different tale, for most of the story, only at the last to bring you back to the original story, and tie that up in a neat little bow. More than once I said to myself, “How in the heck did he get me off on that other tale.” I miss the weekly visits. They were “comfort food” that I ate, not with my mouth, but with my heart and mind. And once again I digress. This was what I wanted to say. So I found myself at JK’s restaurant for breakfast on Monday morning, just like I had for so many other times, but with the limitation that I wasn’t going to have my normal breakfast there, but only a country ham biscuit with coffee.
I walked in the front door and stood in front of the “Please Wait” sign and one of the waitresses who was obviously busy called back to me as she whisked herself back into the kitchen with some dirty dishes, “I’ll be back to get you as soon as I can.” So, I stood there and then a couple of gentlemen came in behind me, but they didn’t wait at the sign. No, one gentleman was obviously older and in need of getting to a table so that he could rest himself in a chair. The other gentleman was a bit younger and seemed to be an unofficial caretaker of the more fragile man. Not sure if the protective relationship was due to friendship or to family relationship. And so, I am still standing there, which by now is a little irritating because almost immediately after these two gentleman sat at “their” table, another waitress comes from the back, whips herself around and stops at their table and starts to take their orders.
Finally, a third waitress comes to the front and starts to determine where she wanted me to sit. I already had in my mind that I would like to sit over in the back corner, a booth next to the cash register. I’ve been seated there several times in the past year. It is a comfortable spot, especially since the current practice is for each waitress to bring the customer’s receipt and payment up themselves and then bring any change back to their table before they left. So as she started forward, past me, to lead me to the table, I stopped her and asked if I could sit in the back corner, to which she replied, “I was just planning to seat you there.” And my reply was, “Perfect.”
Now a fourth waitress brings me a menu and asks what I would like to drink. I’ve come prepared with a Rooibos tea bag (a Harris Teeter store brand), but I’m willing to pay them to bring their tea bag, and I will make the switch myself. I’ll have some hot Rooibos tea with my country ham biscuit and take their unused teabag with me when I leave. She picks up on my exchange plan and says, “So you just want hot water,” and starts to walk away. And my comment trails off with her, “But I’m willing to pay you for your tea.” She brings back the hot water which she refilled later in the meal.
I took the menu and started to look for “Country Ham Biscuit” and I found it, but off to the side there was a price. No, not just a price, but something that might have been written in a contract between an Indentured Servant and their Master. “You will work seven years for your freedom.” But in this case the amount said $7.49. I looked again. Yes, it said that a single country ham biscuit would cost $7.49 and that was without coffee. I’m not sure how expensive a price I would have endured for a country ham biscuit that morning but this price was far beyond reasonable. There were prices for bacon biscuits, and sausage biscuits (patty or link), and egg biscuits. All of these within the more reasonable price range. I think $5 and some change might be reasonable for a country ham biscuit, and if I were in a rush, I might even “choke down” a $6 tag, but not $7.49. I can make a country ham sandwich (I’m probably not going to have a biscuit at home.) for less. At least I think I can. But I do question if I can, because several years ago I ordered a sandwich and some soup at Panera Bread and whatever the price was at that time, it seemed exorbitant. And I said to myself that I could make it cheaper, and later would go on to try and prove that assumption. *Was in again, a short time ago, and noticed that the country ham biscuit had been repriced on the menu to something more reasonable.
And, that is where the assumption began to crumble. By the time I had added up all the charges for the various components of the same meal, I couldn’t make it cheaper and I would still have to factor in the cost of running the dirty dishes through my dishwasher… and I couldn’t make just one meal, but had to make more than a meal, because you can’t purchase just the right amount of ingredients to make a single meal. You want to make vegetable soup, but you can’t just make enough for a single bowl, or even two bowls. You open a can of corn = 15oz., and green beans – 15oz., and roasted diced tomatoes – 15oz., and then you dice some onion, and carrots, and potatoes, and maybe throw in another 15oz. can of garden peas. I love garden peas (but they affect my blood sugar also). And I use ground beef instead of beef stew. And by this point your 3Qt. pot is almost full, but you’ve got to add the chicken stock and if they are in season you want some diced okra for that special flavor to your soup. Okay, you can get frozen or canned okra (another 15 oz.). *So I’ve also tried halving the ingredients. 7.5oz. of each, and the other half gets thrown into a large Rubbermaid Easy Find Lids container to be put away in the freezer. You can put the corn, green beans, tomatoes and even the okra in a single tub. Thaw them all out, when you’re ready, next time, and cut up the carrots, onions & potatoes afresh.
**But, anything I put in the freezer is subject to a long hard life in the “Great North,” up beyond the Tundra and into that frozen region where, if left too long, nothing survives. And my freezer is packed with several meals worth of chicken, ground beef burgers, pork chops, shrimp (peeled, deveined with tail off), calf/beef liver, steak, tilapia, and sausages (Kielbasa, Andouille, Jimmy Deans, etc.). I am pretty good, currently, about taking out one or more frozen items to thaw for tomorrow, or at least later today. The Skylark Calf’ liver thaws in about 1 hour and cooks quickly on the stovetop. The Pender’s liver pudding (mush) is ready for the pan and the chopped onions by the next morning. Oh yeah, I forgot, the Round Bone Lamb Chops from Publix have to thaw.
But “No,” I’m not going to pay $7.49 for a single country ham biscuit… at least not this Monday morning, so I order a sausage biscuit (and some mustard) and the waitress asks whether that will be patty or link sausage. Patty of course.
JK’s biscuits are distinctive. They are crumbly in a slightly negative way, and the chef will cut the biscuit in half and toast it on the grill, sometimes, even if you don’t ask. The mustard was the right touch for this, but the biscuit did crumble and it seemed that there just wasn’t enough sausage to even out with the bites of biscuit. *I may take a picture of the menu the next time I visit, focusing on the $7.49 country ham biscuit price especially. For me it’s like listing “Country Ham Biscuit” and then instead of a price, you put a caveat, “WE DON’T WANT TO SELL ANY OF THESE” where the price should have been listed. I can imagine myself standing over in the line of people waiting to, NOT buy their country ham biscuits.
With my Taylors Scottish Breakfast tea I would probably like to have a toasted English muffin with a little butter on it and some Orange Marmalade, or perhaps raspberry jam. Or maybe have some melted cheese, not cheddar, on whole wheat toast. Or maybe even an Egg McMuffin type of sandwich with the egg over hard, a slice of fresh ham, and melted cheese.
[NOTE 02/14/25]: Interesting, as I was re-reading the above posting, and after adding the picture of “the best fried chicken” I’ve ever eaten, I noted the very last comment, above. Since the time of the comment, I found “Sourdough English Muffins” at Publix, googled about, and saw they were Diabetic friendly, so I bought a package (and several packages since). I ended up making a darned good “Bill McMuffin” at home using some Wegman’s White American Cheese, a slice of Hatfield pre-sliced ham, and an egg cooked in my microwave onion cooker. The muffin is first toasted, and then the cheese melted before the egg & ham go on.
A beautifully shaped “Bill McMuffin.”
The first one of these was so good that I ended up making one each morning for several days, and not only worked through several packages of Sourdough English Muffins, but also the whole pre-sliced Hatfield Ham, which had been on special at Harris Teeter (across town, where Pharaoh’s Legacy is located). *Unfortunately I couldn’t get another Hatfield Ham, and I bought a more well-known named ham, but I don’t think it is as good, and I lost the desire for my Bill McMuffins. *I do intend to buy another Hatfield Ham and see if the desire returns.
But, I am now in a brief “Egg Salad” period, on toasted Sourdourgh bread (also from Publix) and with some microwaved bacon. Recall that I think microwaving bacon is THE WAY to go. It is quick, and not messy (as long as you have a plastic microwave safe plate cover). *I am surprised how much egg salad you can put on each (half) slice of toast and it not fall off while you are eating it. I guess the right amount of “grass fed” butter & Dukes mayo makes the smushed egg all hang together really well.
Oh, and I’ve had Pu’er tea both of the last two mornings with my egg salad. Half-n-Half & sweetener yesterday, and just sweetener today. And, today I actually tasted what I consider “tannins” so I googled to see if Pu’er has tannins, like other teas, and “Yes” it does. [end NOTE]
[NOTE]: I don’t think I had this problem with an earlier can of Sauerkraut from Wegman’s, but this one was a shame. By the time I pressed most of the liquid out of the can of sauerkraut, the can was filled with less than half of the solid cabbage product. See right pix.
Bill Gibson, II 