Fried Pickles?

I found this great site called Designs by Gollum where every Friday, Gollum (what a great name) hosts a food fest/orgy. I’m not kidding, it’s a total smorgasbord. I cannot click over there when I’m hungry.

Today I’m adding to the temptation with these friend pickles the husband and I found while over on the other side of the bay last Monday.

The place is called the Stevensville Crab Shack and we have stopped there before to get soft shelled crabs. They are the freshest that we’ve had here in the Chesapeake.

I loved that he had crab art from his neighbor’s kids. How cute.

It’s a small place, really small.

They have crabs don’t cha know.

I saw that there were fried pickles on the menu and was immediately curious, as I am about every single new gastronomic delight I stumble upon. I wanted to try it. I’d never seen nothin’ like that before. I speak in slang when I’m excited.

And oh was it good. Was it realllllly good! The proprietor says to:

1) cut the pickle up into spears
2) rolls the pickle spears into bread crumbs
3) freeze the pickle spears
4) take them out when you want to cook them and drop them into hot oil, frozen and all
5) after about 4 minutes, take them out and sprinkle Old Bay seasoning on them. That will make them “Chesapeake”.

I haven’t tried them yet, but tonight, I’m having an improptu gourmet dinner with three other girl friends. We just decided yesterday to get together and cook. We’re going to have some great food…maybe I’ll fry a pickle or two.

Waterfall Beef ~ The Beef

Vegetarians are not going to find this appetizing. But me? I’m a protein girl. I can go for a little while on vegetables but then I have to have a good piece of meat.

I use a London Broil cut for my Waterfall Beef. If you want to splurge, you can use a tenderloin, that would be delicious. But this cut is good for your wallet.

There’s no marinating or anything fancy. Just throw it into the broiler. Broil it until it gets a nice crust on each side, about 4-5 minutes. I like it medium rare but it’s up to your taste of course.

Later on, we’re going to chop everything up…

Here is the beef at the Lemongrass Restaurant.
Here are the fresh ingredients.

Sorry about the dirty oven, but it’s well used and well loved.

Waterfall Beef, Fresh Ingredients

These are the fresh ingredients you’ll need for the Waterfall Beef.

Red Onion
Cherry Tomatoes
Limes
Cilantro
Mint
Chili peppers

I love this cilantro. It smells heavenly.

The fresh mint, I love the smell. I breathe it in.

Thai chili peppers. You can use dried peppers,  you can use McCormick’s peppers, or if you’re wimpy, don’t use any. But it won’t be the same.

Trust me. Go forth and shop.

Waterfall Beef

I’m going to show you how to make this next week.

I don’t know why it’s called Waterfall Beef.  My mother calls it  yum nuk, without the “k” sound. I call it beef salad. You’ll call it delicious.

Some people eat lots of spaghetti and meat balls. We eat a lot of beef salad. Until then!

What To Eat When There’s Nothing To Eat

As I sit here and wait for the air conditioner repair man…I’m writing this.

I used to go to the grocery store religiously every week. I would cut coupons. I would price compare. I would wait for sales.

Now I don’t do any of those things. I go to the store five times a week to pick up something to cook for that day. I’m not planning well now. When I was a stay-at-home mom, that’s what I did. Plan my weekly menu.

Now I open the refrigerator and say, what can I make? Or rather, what can I throw together? I’m in the process of lessening my out-of-home obligations. So now I hope I have more time to plan. I didn’t realize how much time it takes to plan.

The other day, the family was hungry and looking at me with big hungry eyes.

I threw together this.

I cut some fancy bread and lightly toasted it. I put on some left over sword fish from dinner two nights before. I threw on some fresh spinach and some cheddar cheese. Lots of cheddar cheese.

And I broiled it. It was great.

Always keep handy some fancy bread and some sword fish. That’s the moral of this story.

Now go here and see another gastronomic delicacy. It’s Monday.

He’s here.

A Fish Tale/Tail

It’s Friday. Time for another weird post.

A couple of weeks, Shutter Sisters asked photographers – and me – to think about what defines our styles. I looked through my photos and saw a lot of florals...typical me. I also saw a lot of raw fish.

This is me cleaning fish.
This is me cleaning fish again.
This is me frying fish.
This is me feeding raw fish to the husband.

It’s starting to look like a theme to me.

Don’t you think so Kiji?

So it’s final. My defining style is “Florals and Fish.”

How I Make Eggrolls 2

If you want to see the first part of this eggroll process, click here.

How do you get them to look like that? It can take a little bit of practice but it’s pretty easy really.

Take a sheet of eggroll skin and place a small amount of the mix on top of it and close to one corner.  About a spoonful.

Take one corner and fold it over the mixture.

Roll it over once to get the mixture secure.

It looks like this.

Hold it securely and fold one end over, then the other.

Like this.

Roll the rest around and leave a little bit of the corner.

I put a little egg in a tiny cup or sometimes I’ll just put it right in the mixture. Then I take a little bit in a spoon to use as “glue” so that it keeps it together. I put a little bit of egg on one corner and fold it over.

There it is! A perfect little eggroll. One down and 99 more to go.

I deep fry these until they are these beautiful golden brown yummy rolls. I use a paper bag and place paper towels on top to soak up the excess oil.

The family loves these. Except for the boy. I make him mac and cheese.

Try them, try them now! And tomorrow, I’ll show you how to make the sauce. Actually, I have several sauces. I’ll show them all eventually!

Bon appetite!

How I Make Eggrolls 1

I received some sage advice from someone I respected deeply last week. I was bemoaning the fact that haven’t been cooking a lot lately and I love to cook. He said, “Well, then cook. If no one is home, cook anyway. Someone else could always use a good meal.” He was nice enough not to have added, “Duh” at the end of that statement.

So this is food week! I have been cooking, but not taking pictures. It’s hard to cook and photograph at the same time. I’m not much one for staging.

So here’s the first of two post on making eggrolls. Or rather, how I make eggrolls. How my mother taught me how. These are really simple, the wrapping can be somewhat time consuming but it’s fun. If you can wrap a present, you can make eggrolls. I may have left out half the population with that stipulation…anyway, here goes.

You will need:

1lb ground beef
1lb ground pork
1 yellow onion
1 package of carrots (about 6 or 7 individual carrots)
1-2 eggs (it depends)
salt
pepper
eggroll skins

Here’s the eggroll skins. Giant may have them. I found these in the commisary at Andrews AFB. I know not everyone can get there, I’m sorry. If you can’t find something similar at Giant, try Whole Foods.

Put the pork and beef together in a big mixing bowl.

Season it with salt and pepper and stick your hand in there and mix it up. Then put an egg in and mix up the goo some more.

Chop up the onion into small diced pieces. (I cry every time.)

Wash and peel the carrots. Cut off the top and bottom and grate it. This takes muscle…

Put the veggies in a bowl and set aside for a moment.

Throw the veggies into the bowl of meat…

and mix together with your hand. It’s the best way. Just mix it all together. Don’t be afraid to get a little dirty. It’s all love I tell you.

How easy was that?

Tomorrow, we’ll wrap the egg rolls. See you then!

A Garden Salad 1

You must have something fresh with your fried fish. In this case, I just went to my garden (that my mother planted) and picked fresh heirloom pear tomatoes, fresh jalepeno peppers and some fresh cherry tomatoes. If you don’t have these in the garden your mother planted for you, then go to the store won’t cha?

You should start with the above, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese (freshly grated is best, but expensive), any tomatoes (not necessarily the fancy tomatoes I have in the garden my mother planted for me) peppers and french bread (not shown). Any vegetable that is not soggy will do. For this, I don’t like to put in any kind of lettuce or leaf-like vegetable, although we eat it in other salads. The salt is optional. If you are wondering what those triangle things are, it’s Laughing Cow Cheese. Yes, Laughing Cow Cheese. Moving on.

Here I am chopping the jalepeno peppers. And this is where I lost my photographer. She went to watch tv.

So I chopped the vegetables. And I mixed the balsamic vinegar, olive oil and parmesan cheese together. Sometimes I’ll put garlic in. But not tonight. I pour the salad dressing over the chopped veggies. I spread the Laughing Cow Cheese, yes Laughing Cow Cheese, onto the toasted french bread. I would show you but I can’t take pictures and cook at the same time.

Here’s what the salad looks like.

I put the salad onto the french bread topped with Laughing Cow Cheese (hahahaha). It’s a modified bruschetta and it was a hit with the husband. The kids had mac and cheese. That’s next on the recipe list.

Frying The Fish

So, now we fry the fish.

First I put about 1/4 inch of oil into a large sauce pan. I use to fry it in a wok so that the fish is totally submerged but I don’t do that anymore. Except for french fries. Gotta dunk french fries. This is slightly more healthy. Moving on.

That pan has seen better days but it works just fine.

Now I start prepping the fish. I’m pretty fast now, but if you’re not, prep the fish first and then heat the oil. Trust me, these are words of wisdom.

I then lightly salt and pepper the fish.

Then I lightly flour the fish.

I place the fish into the hot oil.

I wait until one side is done, approximately, 5-6 minutes, depending on the size of the fish and the temperature of the oil, then I turn it over. I do this only ONCE. Doing it more often will soak up too much oil and  you might as well deep fry it.

There you go, beautiful.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you how I butcher a cow.

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