I say, if you must eat your veggies, roast the suckers. Or juice them, I like that too. But roasting them gives some enough flavors wherein I am able to choke them down. Toss with good oil, s&p, favorite herbies, 425 degrees in a large roasting pan with lowish sides until done, about 30 to 40 minutes. EAT.
xo, Biggles
editors note: This image is from the back of the book, it was far cooler.
The little book is titled, The New Banana and it hails from 1931. Looks to be an introduction to this new fruit, national news, foreign news, scientific, daily menus for the week & recipes too!
Which leads me to the Bananas and Bacon recipe, no really. If’n you’re interested in a scanned original from the book, please follow the link below.
Bananas with Bacon
6 Bananas
1/4 pound bacon
Roll half lengths of peeled bananas in strips of bacon. Secure with toothpick, if necessary. Broil under flame; or bake in oven-proof dish in a hot oven, 450 degrees F., about fifteen minutes, or until bananas are tender and bacon is crisp. Baste at least once during the baking … Whole bananas may be wrapped in bacon and cooked in the same way.
xo, Biggles
This was and is completely unexpected, Country Fried Bacon.
Our internets has been going up and down, they were expected to come fix between 4 & 6pm. Didn’t have anything planned for dinner, had the hankering for something deep fried.
Found enough oil, two bunches of asparagus, taters … and bacon. Whupped up some beer, flour & salt. Dredged the “veggies” and deep fried at 360 degrees F.
Country Fried Bacon rules. So clean, so perfect, so not greasy and easy.
xo, Biggles
Easter, the aftermath. While I did state that I felt such gatherings were more for the people and the love versus attempting something new in the kitchen. I didn’t mean we were going to feast upon crud.
Initially, I was going to grill. It’s a simple way to add flavor and ease to a day of merriment. But after reviewing what I had in the fridge, it wasn’t a match. I had a large beef tri-tip, a decent pork sirloin roast, a Fatted Calf stuffed country-style pork rib roast, pork steaks and Fatted Calf bacon. If I were to grill, it would mean a lot of tending to the little darlings to make sure it all came out right. If I fired up the smoker I would receive a far better result with tons less effort.
Considering how lazy I am, the smoker was clearly the way to go.
The job got done, perfectly. What I’d forgot was the fact that my family is in dear love with the Hot Sauce. I remembered this when I brought out a dozen little bottle of sauce for the wonderful pasta salad my sister made. I sliced up the smoked pork steaks, and applied various sauces and offered them as they were. It was perfect! Such a treat, very well received. All the depth of the sauces with the smoked pork marinated in salt was a perfect match.
Crackers are great, but can’t hold a candle to smoked meat. This will continue.
xo, Biggles
ps – Here is the rest of the story for Easter 2009.
Last week I got a little delivery of some beef jerky, made by the people who contacted me. It was a gift and didn’t have to post it. But damn, the stuff is good and well worth the post. Plus the pictures came out really well, I thought.
If you take a look at the Green Light Jerky Company and what they have to offer, you’ll see it’s different from what many other companies deliver. First off, they make it. They use local ingredients and attempt to make it as organic and natural as they can. There’s no nitrates, no msg, no thickening agents, No food colorings. This is real beef jerky. I was sent their #18 Jamaican Jerk flavor, but they have a handful of others to try.
This version was of a medium thickness, on the dry and chewy side. Maybe 1″ wide and 6″ long. Once it hit the palate, the spices and herbs began to fly. Since it’s “home made” one piece may have some different flavors from the others, and that’s a good thing. On a finish, it was rich, nice and the habanero came in to play (heat).
If you’re not going to make your own, then then these guys have it covered. I’m impressed, it’s good jerky!
Biggles
Pretty, huh?
I know I’m behind the times, people have been tossing nearly every food product on the grill or in the smoker since the beginning. Yeah well, not me. I know this might sound a little odd, but I enjoy the contrast of the heavily smoked meat product, then the lesser beings (peasant food) to be cooked elsewhere, by others. Understand?
Luckily, Sunday morning found me at the local whatever mart shopping for the coming week’s food. Wanted to grab a few racks of ribs so Zoomie could get her fill. I ain’t payin’ no 18 dollars for a damned slab of pork spares, so it was the country style for me. Almost 8 dollars for a huge mound of fleshy goodness, I picked the one with more fat in it.
I’m not sure what happened or why. But I wanted to go back to the lousy produce section and find me some citrus or a pineapple to toss in the smoker as well. As you can see, the p-apple made it in!
I sat and pondered the unfriendly feeling thing for a while. How to slice? Extra virgin? Salt? Chile pepper? Thin slices and get juice everywhere? Peel? Cut it’s head off? I just love cutting the heads off of things. I opted for the simple approach, cut in half lengthwise and use some kosher salt on the inside. I knew the smoky goodness would not penetrate through the thick halves, but didn’t want to deal with all these fussy little slices falling all over the place.
It was pretty fricken good, for a fruit. Warm, smoky on the outside, tender on the inside. The heat had broken down something molecular on the inside and tenderized the little dear. Slurp! Guess what? It was excellent cold the next day too. Slurrrphah !!!
Biggles
ps – I don’t know how long it was in there, maybe a few hours or more, not less.
I’m dedicating this post to Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. She recently put up a post about grilling bell peppers, simple & yet way easy. I made a comment about it being beneath her skill level and to take a step up, or something along those lines. She fired back a comment, “If it’s so easy, how come I’ve never done it before?” Yes, I can be an ASS.
I found myself wondering throughout the day repeating her question to myself, over and over. All I could come up with is, “I don’t know”. And I didn’t, I don’t. Why don’t we do it when it’s so damned easy?
That evening I found myself standing at the open door of my bachelor fridge attempting to find something to make the boys for dinner. I’d just purchased yet another package of corn tortillas with 1.5 bags of stale ones still sitting behind the empty box of juice bags. If it’s so damned easy, how come I don’t make tortilla chips more often?
And that was that.
Ya know how you’ll be reading your daily reads? And something passes before you and you point your finger and go, “That’s it, that’s the one.”? This was one of those recipes and I did it last night, oh man did I ever. I had a really good idea as to what it was going to taste like, but it was even better when I actually got a mouthful. You, are, going, to, love, this, dish. Thank you Jerry of Cooking by the Seat of my Pants for having Ben Herrera as a guest writer from What’s Cooking?.
Click on lovely to get.
Today’s inspiration comes again, from beans. Am attempting to come up with a recipe for a green chile bean dish.
Wish me luck!
Biggles
Do I know what the hell I’m doing? Absolutely not. However, I am bright enough to know when the inspiration hits? Run like a 9 legged, 3 winged duck on acid. Yeah buddy, contemplate that one on The Tree of Woe.
I visted my favorite El Salvadorean market (Joya de Ceren) last night to pick up some tortillas for Tiny E’s cheese & bacon burritos, Omar wasn’t there though. I just couldn’t leave without something else, had to find something. Turns out they got a bitchen selection of really great looking beans from El Salvador. I grabbed me a packge of the red ones!
The mighty Nick Lindauer of Hot Sauce Blog is hosting his 2nd annual Hot Wing competition. I didn’t make it in last year, but this year is different. I got my act together and put this little recipe up.
Hmmm, I wonder if red savina chile pepper is hot-like?
25 minutes ago these fine specimens were connected to Mother Earth. Are you ready? Are you all set up for this coming Fall?
These are all volunteer pumpkins, we paid for nothing but water and my effort. Neat, eh?
xo
I’d like to lay down paragraphs all about the photograph that you see perched above us there. But I don’t believe it’s really necessary. However, I do want to make clear that I did slice the top off the bulb so the extra virgin could penetrate. Then, the bacon on top completes it.
Once done, smoosh over toasted, buttered, crusty breadses.
How did the bacon start out on the grill?
The bacon started out with this fine meal up on top of a tritip beef roast & pork loin roast. Once it renders down some, grill directly over a mellow fire. Once the bacon is getting close to how you like it, place on nestled garlic clove.
An evening in the life.
xo, Biggles
Once upon a time, at grillside many years ago, handfuls of corn hit the grill with surprising ease. Yet the flavors were something that not everyone includes in their corn meez. Come along my fairytale friend and we’ll discover just what these ears crave.
“It’s easy.” said Jlee. All you need to do is remove that corn fuzz and leave enough of the husk to cover the budding kernals. Treat ear tips with a cone of foil to hold in place, set on grill for 20 to 30. That’s Minutes there, son.
Before their time has come, lay down that bacon slice that’s been smoking at grill side. Allow bacon sauce to enter the cornfolds ever so gently, quietly. Use time to make sure the corn slowly begins to smile. And when it does? Pull the husks back to expose your corn to the direct heat and let the colors turn.
Eat.
xo, Biggles
Monkey Wrangler of Sourdough Monkey Wrangler posted about an old family recipe back on the 4th. Something about wanting to recreate a rice torte that his great-grandmother had done years ago. Yeah, I dunno, it didn’t stir anything in me so I passed.
It wasn’t until Cookiecrumb of I’m Mad and I Eat decided to do her own version that I thought maybe I should jump in. What do you think? I know it’s a vegetarian dish, but wouldn’t it be nice to teach an old dog new tricks?