Last night I asked my husband what he had for lunch.
"Beaver," he said.
"What did you say? I think we have a bad connection," I responded.
"Barbequed beaver," he said.
And, that's when I knew...I really do live in the South. :o)
BTW, I was told that the beaver weighed 65 lbs.
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Friday, March 13, 2009
My Little Secret
Don't tell anybody this, but...
I love to eat at Chick-Fil-A! It's one of my favorite places to eat. I've had lunch there twice this week.
Yum....
PS. It's one of the few places that serves "grilled" chicken, as opposed to "fried"...
I love to eat at Chick-Fil-A! It's one of my favorite places to eat. I've had lunch there twice this week.
Yum....
PS. It's one of the few places that serves "grilled" chicken, as opposed to "fried"...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Oyster Roast
Last night I went to an oyster roast! It’s one of my favorite activities of the Lowcountry.
We drove down to the gazebo down by the marsh where you could harvest your own oysters. We were going to be eatin’ some mighty fresh oysters taken from the waters “right’s chear”. It was dark by the time we arrived. As I walked from the car, I could see people already huddled around the tables starting to eat. The fires were blazing and the oysters a cookin’.
What happens at an oyster roast?
Well, you stand around a wooden table that stands between chest and waist high with a big square hole cut out in the middle where you throw the shells after you are done eating. First, the cooks take shovels full of hot steaming oysters and heap them on the table. (If you are cool, you have brought your own glove and oyster knife. If not, then you can just use the community knife on the table.)
Now, what you want to do is to reach over and take one of those hot steaming oysters. Hold it firmly in your left hand while you find the slight opening between the two shells, and with your knife in your right hand, force the shell apart to find the plump, just steamed flesh inside. I like the big oysters where the meat is barely cooked, hot and moist and delicious. A couple of times I got two oysters that had fastened together, with the baby oyster on the outside, its meat firm and well-done and almost smoky tasting, like those smoked oysters my parents would put on Ritz crackers during one of their cocktail parties in the 1960s, and then the main oyster filled with the succulent meat inside, almost raw, but still cooked. The taste of the two size oysters varies so much, it’s almost as if you are eating two different dishes.
Just keep going this way until you have had enough. We had a meal served afterwards, which I don’t understand because once you have eaten your fill of oysters, there shouldn’t be much room in your tummy. Maybe some folks just don’t like oysters. I’m just not one of them.
We drove down to the gazebo down by the marsh where you could harvest your own oysters. We were going to be eatin’ some mighty fresh oysters taken from the waters “right’s chear”. It was dark by the time we arrived. As I walked from the car, I could see people already huddled around the tables starting to eat. The fires were blazing and the oysters a cookin’.
What happens at an oyster roast?
Well, you stand around a wooden table that stands between chest and waist high with a big square hole cut out in the middle where you throw the shells after you are done eating. First, the cooks take shovels full of hot steaming oysters and heap them on the table. (If you are cool, you have brought your own glove and oyster knife. If not, then you can just use the community knife on the table.)
Now, what you want to do is to reach over and take one of those hot steaming oysters. Hold it firmly in your left hand while you find the slight opening between the two shells, and with your knife in your right hand, force the shell apart to find the plump, just steamed flesh inside. I like the big oysters where the meat is barely cooked, hot and moist and delicious. A couple of times I got two oysters that had fastened together, with the baby oyster on the outside, its meat firm and well-done and almost smoky tasting, like those smoked oysters my parents would put on Ritz crackers during one of their cocktail parties in the 1960s, and then the main oyster filled with the succulent meat inside, almost raw, but still cooked. The taste of the two size oysters varies so much, it’s almost as if you are eating two different dishes.
Just keep going this way until you have had enough. We had a meal served afterwards, which I don’t understand because once you have eaten your fill of oysters, there shouldn’t be much room in your tummy. Maybe some folks just don’t like oysters. I’m just not one of them.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Oooooops! A Correction...
My husband reads my blog. Probably to make sure that I don't put in anything too incriminating about him?! :o) Either that, or he's amused by the whole thing. Or not.
He tactfully pointed out on our walk yesterday that I had a misspelling in my last post. It should have read "quail" not quails. Apparently, there is no such thing as quails.
Why not?, I wondered. One quail, two quails. One deer, two deers. One goose, two geese, One moose, two meese.
I'm starting to sound like Dr. Seuss...
He tactfully pointed out on our walk yesterday that I had a misspelling in my last post. It should have read "quail" not quails. Apparently, there is no such thing as quails.
Why not?, I wondered. One quail, two quails. One deer, two deers. One goose, two geese, One moose, two meese.
I'm starting to sound like Dr. Seuss...
Friday, February 20, 2009
Quail Experiment Failed
Last night I tried my hand experimenting with cooking quails. I modified a recipe, but used a sauce that totally overpowered the meat. Frankly, it wasn't very tasty.
Also, I wonder if it's really worth it, spending so much time preparing birds this small? There's hardly any meat on the bones. The ROI was poor. Lots of time. Little return. Almost no meat.
So, my appeal to you...does anyone out there have a good -- and relatively easy -- quail recipe? I'd sure appreciate it!
Also, I wonder if it's really worth it, spending so much time preparing birds this small? There's hardly any meat on the bones. The ROI was poor. Lots of time. Little return. Almost no meat.
So, my appeal to you...does anyone out there have a good -- and relatively easy -- quail recipe? I'd sure appreciate it!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Freezer Burn
In December, Mr. Stanley called to ask when he could bring over the processed deer meat from Landon’s successful hunting outings. He has “harvested” as they say down here, 3 deer, 2 bucks and a doe. That is a TON of deer meat. Where to put it?
Today we’ll have to clean out the freezers. What a hilarious concept! In New York, in my tiny kitchen apartment, I had a freezer which had an icebox the size of a shoebox. I could fit two ice trays, a gallon of ice cream and some assorted frozen vegetable packages. That was it. But, that was fine because I never cooked – the meals I ate consisted of dry cereal or oatmeal or a salad or Chinese takeout or sushi that I would pick up on my way home. I never needed anything from my freezer.
Here in the Low Country, it’s different. We have 4 freezers. All of them needed to be cleaned out in order to make room for the new meat.
The refrigerator freezer in the mud room contains whatever your would need to make desserts…frozen pie trays, blueberries, peach mixture, pecans, strawberries from Mr. Stanley’s garden, and a couple of cooked pies – pecan, blueberry and apple.
Our kitchen refrigerator freezer contains two entire shelves and trays of frozen vegetables that I can use in the various stews that I will be making this winter. The top shelf consists of already prepared meals – Salisbury venison steak, BBQ venison, venison stew. On the next shelf, we have easy to prepare deer meat; maple sausages, some frozen cube steaks that I use in stir fry meals. The bottom shelf drawer holds our fish, mostly catfish.
But it is the industrial size freezers in the garage that need the most work. It took me (and Miss Mary and Miss Flo) 2 hours to get them cleaned out and thawed and the contents organized. Here’s what they look like:
In the small freezer, we have birds: quail, chukka, pheasant, mallard ducks (with the heads still attached for auditing purposes?!), woodcock, wood duck, and We have 65 pounds of shrimp: 20 pounds of small/medium; 25 lbs of medium and 20 lbs of jumbo.
The large freezer is for our venison meat – we still have lots of deer for last season. I’m going to have to make a crock pot a week in order to eat all of our roasts! We have 12 venison roasts, 8 deer tenderloin, 3 backstraps , four shopping bags full of cube steak, stew meat, and then the sausages…we have maple flavored sausages, country flavored, bratwurst and regular sausages. We must have 20 packages of ground venison -- that’s a lot of hamburgers!
Guess I won’t have to go to the grocery store to buy meat – whatever happened to a simple stir fry chicken dish? :o)
Today we’ll have to clean out the freezers. What a hilarious concept! In New York, in my tiny kitchen apartment, I had a freezer which had an icebox the size of a shoebox. I could fit two ice trays, a gallon of ice cream and some assorted frozen vegetable packages. That was it. But, that was fine because I never cooked – the meals I ate consisted of dry cereal or oatmeal or a salad or Chinese takeout or sushi that I would pick up on my way home. I never needed anything from my freezer.
Here in the Low Country, it’s different. We have 4 freezers. All of them needed to be cleaned out in order to make room for the new meat.
The refrigerator freezer in the mud room contains whatever your would need to make desserts…frozen pie trays, blueberries, peach mixture, pecans, strawberries from Mr. Stanley’s garden, and a couple of cooked pies – pecan, blueberry and apple.
Our kitchen refrigerator freezer contains two entire shelves and trays of frozen vegetables that I can use in the various stews that I will be making this winter. The top shelf consists of already prepared meals – Salisbury venison steak, BBQ venison, venison stew. On the next shelf, we have easy to prepare deer meat; maple sausages, some frozen cube steaks that I use in stir fry meals. The bottom shelf drawer holds our fish, mostly catfish.
But it is the industrial size freezers in the garage that need the most work. It took me (and Miss Mary and Miss Flo) 2 hours to get them cleaned out and thawed and the contents organized. Here’s what they look like:
In the small freezer, we have birds: quail, chukka, pheasant, mallard ducks (with the heads still attached for auditing purposes?!), woodcock, wood duck, and We have 65 pounds of shrimp: 20 pounds of small/medium; 25 lbs of medium and 20 lbs of jumbo.
The large freezer is for our venison meat – we still have lots of deer for last season. I’m going to have to make a crock pot a week in order to eat all of our roasts! We have 12 venison roasts, 8 deer tenderloin, 3 backstraps , four shopping bags full of cube steak, stew meat, and then the sausages…we have maple flavored sausages, country flavored, bratwurst and regular sausages. We must have 20 packages of ground venison -- that’s a lot of hamburgers!
Guess I won’t have to go to the grocery store to buy meat – whatever happened to a simple stir fry chicken dish? :o)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Cooking and Me
I’m becoming a good Southern girl. I am starting to cook…
What’s happening to me? When I lived in New York, sometimes, very, very rarely, I would cook for myself. If I did cook, it would be very simple. I would buy a cut of fish from the fish market – either tuna or swordfish (not very politically correct of me, I know) and would walk a couple of blocks to my local Korean deli on the corner, Annie’s, where I would usually buy 10 sugar snap peas. The number was not lost on the cashier. “You mus’ live alone,” she would say, “you only hav’ 10 peas. Ha ha.” I didn’t think it was funny.
It reminded me of the last time I bought German sausages at the famous Schaller and Weber on 86th and Second. I asked for one sausage. The man behind the counter started psycho-analyzing me, in front of his other customers, and said: “You must live alone. What’s the matter with you? You are an attractive woman. Why aren’t you married… you must hate men…” And, so on and so on and so on…” At least I don’t have to face that anymore!
When I lived in New York, dinner consisted of dry cereal, dining out, take out or delivery. Most of the time, if I was at home, I would call and have my food delivered right to my door. I wouldn’t even go and pick it up. Why should I? It was free! Pizza from Mia Pizza, salmon curry from Sala Thai, jumbo shrimp from Chef Ho’s, steamed chicken and mixed vegetables from First Wok, fish from La Mia, or tabbouleh, baba ganoush, and hummus from the Falafel House. One phone call from the couch and it would arrive, HOT, 20 minutes later, rain or shine. Now, that was great!
In New York, no one cooks. None of my friends did. Why cook when you are only cooking for yourself and you can get all sorts of delicious, ethnically diverse food. You know, now that I think about it, I lived in my two bedroom, pre-war New York apartment for 14 years and…I never used the oven. Never. I did boil water for making rice and vegetables on the stove top burners, and occasionally I would use the broiler for making my fish, but I never used the oven itself. Never.
Fast forward to today…when I first got to the Low Country, my husband had a housekeeper in the house who cooked. It’s a long story, which I will tell sometime, but she’s gone, which means I’m the one doing the cooking. It’s hilarious! Stay tuned…
What’s happening to me? When I lived in New York, sometimes, very, very rarely, I would cook for myself. If I did cook, it would be very simple. I would buy a cut of fish from the fish market – either tuna or swordfish (not very politically correct of me, I know) and would walk a couple of blocks to my local Korean deli on the corner, Annie’s, where I would usually buy 10 sugar snap peas. The number was not lost on the cashier. “You mus’ live alone,” she would say, “you only hav’ 10 peas. Ha ha.” I didn’t think it was funny.
It reminded me of the last time I bought German sausages at the famous Schaller and Weber on 86th and Second. I asked for one sausage. The man behind the counter started psycho-analyzing me, in front of his other customers, and said: “You must live alone. What’s the matter with you? You are an attractive woman. Why aren’t you married… you must hate men…” And, so on and so on and so on…” At least I don’t have to face that anymore!
When I lived in New York, dinner consisted of dry cereal, dining out, take out or delivery. Most of the time, if I was at home, I would call and have my food delivered right to my door. I wouldn’t even go and pick it up. Why should I? It was free! Pizza from Mia Pizza, salmon curry from Sala Thai, jumbo shrimp from Chef Ho’s, steamed chicken and mixed vegetables from First Wok, fish from La Mia, or tabbouleh, baba ganoush, and hummus from the Falafel House. One phone call from the couch and it would arrive, HOT, 20 minutes later, rain or shine. Now, that was great!
In New York, no one cooks. None of my friends did. Why cook when you are only cooking for yourself and you can get all sorts of delicious, ethnically diverse food. You know, now that I think about it, I lived in my two bedroom, pre-war New York apartment for 14 years and…I never used the oven. Never. I did boil water for making rice and vegetables on the stove top burners, and occasionally I would use the broiler for making my fish, but I never used the oven itself. Never.
Fast forward to today…when I first got to the Low Country, my husband had a housekeeper in the house who cooked. It’s a long story, which I will tell sometime, but she’s gone, which means I’m the one doing the cooking. It’s hilarious! Stay tuned…
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Fried Things
In the South, they like fried food. Everything is fried. Fried chicken, fried shrimp, fried potatoes, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, fried pickles…even alligator meat is fried, fried ‘gator balls.
Yesterday I went to the local café restaurant and ordered up a “po’boy” sandwich, which turned out to be fried oysters on a roll. Appetizer? Fried pickles. Note to you Northerners: fried pickles are yummy.
But, if you don’t fry it, at least put some fat in it. Bacon drippin’s are the best. You can put them in everything. I was gonna make okra with stewed tomatoes tonight, but Miss Flo said I have to put bacon drippin’s in if it’s gonna taste any good. I once tried to make collard greens by boiling ‘em and put a vinegar and sugar sauce over them, but everyone said if they didn’t have bacon drippin’s on ‘em, they didn’t want even want to try ‘em.
Anyone have a good collard greens recipe without bacon drippins’?
Yesterday I went to the local café restaurant and ordered up a “po’boy” sandwich, which turned out to be fried oysters on a roll. Appetizer? Fried pickles. Note to you Northerners: fried pickles are yummy.
But, if you don’t fry it, at least put some fat in it. Bacon drippin’s are the best. You can put them in everything. I was gonna make okra with stewed tomatoes tonight, but Miss Flo said I have to put bacon drippin’s in if it’s gonna taste any good. I once tried to make collard greens by boiling ‘em and put a vinegar and sugar sauce over them, but everyone said if they didn’t have bacon drippin’s on ‘em, they didn’t want even want to try ‘em.
Anyone have a good collard greens recipe without bacon drippins’?
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