Bananas Foster – Eastern Shore Virginia Style!

Alas, no flambé,  but given my track record for safety, this is probably a good thing.  Nonetheless – when in Cape Charles, Virginia, please visit the Brown Dog Ice Cream store. They are just opening up for the season and are offering a new menu item that has caused quite the stir in this peaceful beachfront village: the Bananas Foster Sundae.

No, not the dessert of the same name from Brennan’s Restaurant in New Orleans – this one is similar, yet flame-less and named for the brown dog himself, Foster! Imagine a sundae with warm buttery brown sugar and rum sauce drizzled over a melee of sliced fresh banana, whipped cream and puff pastry – all atop three scoops of a vanilla-based, bananas foster-flavored ice cream. I had one last Sunday and I suddenly have a craving for another – just from typing the description. Caveat – you must be 21 years old to get the adult version. Those under 21 can receive the rum-less version, which is also mighty tasty from what others tell me!

E gads! And I am six hours away by fast car. The weekend cannot get here soon enough!

If you are visiting the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, it is worth the trip. Let me end with a photo so you can start salivating, too!

Bananas Foster Sundae at the Brown Dog in Cape Charles, Virginia

Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole

Doug’s Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole

The Marine Corps, like most military services, has an acronym for everything. Taken from that elite fighting force borne from legendary Tun Tavern in Philadelphia, today’s nom du jour is SMEAC. This is the process Marines use to start planning any and every mission. It gets complicated from there, but this is how everything starts. It works.  And – this process can be used for almost anything that requires planning.  Check out how SMEAC saved the day at today’s church breakfast.

Situation: The monthly United Methodist Men’s Breakfast at church today was going to be short a few cooks. The meeting was in danger of running out of food. (We Methodists can’t seem to do anything without a ton of food!)

Mission:  Produce a breakfast dish that would feed a dozen or so hungry men whose culinary preferences included the likes of frozen, pre-made biscuits and over-fried scrapple.

Execution: Wake up at 5:30 AM and start the recipe, borrowed from the official Ore-Ida website.

Administration: T-24 hours, put the shopping list on the iPhone; go to the grocery store and pick everything up. At 0600 Saturday morning, pre-heat oven and begin prep. Casserole must link up with oven at 0630 in order to ready for transport to the church at 0730. Breakfast commences at 0800.

Command and Control: Set timer for 30 minutes; check casserole at 0700; adjust oven temperature, if needed.

So, how did my extraordinary planning work? Not so well.

First, I forgot to buy one key ingredient from the original recipe (herb seasoned stuffing mix, something we always have in the pantry – except today.)

Second, I woke up late. Only thirty minutes late, but still – late. In Marine Corps parlance, I was UA (unauthorized absence) and in danger of being brought up on Article 15 charges by the CO, who was still upstairs getting ready for the day.

Time was running short. What to do?

In keeping with the theme of using acronyms, the only option was to use the TMDMP, or the “typical man decision making process.”

In other words – just add more cheese. And bacon.

The breakfast was a success, in part to the extra cheesy-ness of this simple to make, hot and bacon-laden casserole. Try it!

Cheesy Tater Tot Casserole

INGREDIENTS

1 pound bacon

1 small white onion, peeled and finely chopped

3 tablespoons of butter

2 pound bag of tater tots

2 cans of condensed Cream of Chicken soup

8 oz of sour cream

16 oz of shredded Cheddar cheese

8 oz of shredded Colby cheese

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

Ground black pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In one pan, start cooking the bacon.

In another pan, saute the chopped onion with the butter

While these are in process, spray a 9×13 glass baking dish with a non-stick cooking spray.

Put the tater tots into the glass baking dish; spread them out as evenly as possible. Let them start to warm up to room temperature.

By now, the onions should be starting to brown. Take them off the heat and set them aside.

In a large bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients.  Watch the bacon; it is probably just about done cooking.

Go ahead and take the cooked bacon out of the pan and set on some paper towels to help drain the excess grease. Try not to sample. Okay, just one. Maybe two. Stop right there – save the rest for the casserole.

Now, crumble the cooked bacon and spread evenly on top of the tater tots.

Mix the sauteed onions into the cheese mixture and spread evenly on top of the tater tots and bacon.

Say a quick prayer and place in the oven. Cooking time is 60 – 70 minutes, more toward 70 than 60. Just don’t let the cheese on top burn too much.

By the time you brew the coffee, feed the dogs and check your Facebook account, the cheesy tater tot casserole will be just about done!

After you pull it from the oven, you should probably let it rest for a few minutes – especially since we are talking about molten cheese. Then again, is there such a thing as too much melted cheese? And hot bacon? I am not responsible for the consequences but go for it if you dare!

I did!

Happy eating!

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Sweet Potatoes with a Kick

Whiskey-glazed Sweet Potatoes and Apples

When I saw whiskey and cayenne pepper on the ingredient list, I knew this would be a winner.  And true enough, everyone at the Thanksgiving dinner soiree liked it. Easy to make and not too time intensive, this is a nice change from the usual brown sugar slathered, over-baked yams that are so common this time of year. Credit for this one goes to Food Network’s Guy Fieri. To check out his official recipe, click here.

I upped some of the quantities and it still worked out fine. This version serves 8 – 10 hungry people.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Ingredients:

6 medium to large sweet potatoes

4 – 5 crisp, tart apples (Fuji or something similar)

1 cup of pecans, shelled and crushed

4 Tablespoons of unsalted butter

1 cup agave nectar (look for it next to the honey in your market)

1/2 cup of whiskey (the better the quality, the better the dish. Don’t be cheap.)

1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

A good dash of salt

Directions:

First you need to bake the potatoes. After washing them thoroughly, place the potatoes on a baking sheet and bake in your pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. You do not want to cook them all the way through, but the spuds should be “almost” done after half an hour. If you cook them all the way, that’s okay. It is just easier to slice them if they still have some firmness. If all else fails, let them cool a bit more before moving on.

Once the potatoes are out of the oven, set aside to cool. DO NOT TURN OFF THE OVEN YET. Sorry, didn’t mean to yell. But don’t do it.

Sauce time next. In a medium sauce pan, toast the pecans over high heat for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring regularly. If you think they are starting to burn, remove from heat. Burned nuts smell like, well, burned nuts. And no one wants that.

To the pecans, add the butter, which should melt and sizzle very quickly. Then add the agave nectar, cinnamon, cayenne, nutmeg and salt. Stir and simmer over medium heat for 3 – 4 minutes, just enough to get those flavors popping.

Add the whiskey and stir some more, again over medium heat for about 5 minutes. The alcohol will cook off but the flavor will remain.

Remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes.

Peel and core the apples, then slice them into half inch wedge-like slices. The exact shape is up to you, be as artistic as you want, as long as the slices are not too thick. Try to stay at a half inch thickness or slightly less.

The potatoes should be cool enough for you to handle now. Peel off the ‘tater skin and discard. Cut the potatoes crosswise into half inch slices. I went ahead and cut those in half, creating little half moon shaped slices.

Putting it all together:

Find your 9×12 inch, glass baking dish. It’s the one that is always in the lowest cabinet, under the biggest collection of random baking dishes you have. Yes, that’s the one. Now, spray the baking dish with cooking spray to keep everything from sticking.

Place the potato and apple slices in the baking dish. Again, artistry is up to you. If you are in a hurry, just toss them in and mix. I tried to be fancy and alternated potato and apple, using three rows. Just get them in there somehow and you will be okay.

Give your pecan-whiskey sauce a stir, then drizzle all over the potatoes and apples.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. While you are waiting, you can make more sauce (minus the pecans) and drizzle on top once the dish has fully baked. It’s an option, not a requirement.

Now you are done!

As long as you have talked someone else into baking a turkey, you are all set for a feast.

Happy eating, Pilgrims!

 

 

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Slow Cooked London Broil – Success!

Fact: Most of us are too busy.

Fact: Most of us get hungry after working all day.

Fact:  You really can’t go wrong with gravy.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could cook up a tasty slab of inexpensive meat, without taking up a lot of your time, so everything would be ready when you got home from the cubicle farm – and it had hot, savory mushroom gravy?

No, this is not gourmet cuisine. You certainly would not make it past round one of Top Chef. But, if you need some good old comfort food that will impress even the most picky of carnivores. Here’s what you need:

1 small bag of baby carrots

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and rough chopped

1 can of Cream of Mushroom Soup

1/2 can of water – using the soup can

1 Tablespoon of minced garlic

1 1/2 – 2 pounds of London Broil, or chuck roast -whichever is less expensive.

1 teaspoon of dried oregano

1 teaspoon of dried basil

Salt / Pepper to taste

Directions:

We will be building this meal in layers, stacked in a large crock pot or slow cooker. First layer: baby carrots and chopped onions. Next – add the cream of mushroom soup concentrate (In other words, the stuff in the can. Don’t actually cook up the soup.) Using a spoon or spatula, spread the soup around the carrots and onions. Follow on with the half can of water, drizzled on top of the whole mixture.

To make it savory, add the minced garlic. This has a side benefit of keeping vampires away from your kitchen.

Now place the London Broil directly on top. Season with the oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Cover the slow cooker and set to “low.”

The bottom line: prep time – 10 minutes at the most. Cooking time? I returned 11 hours later and the meat was so tender you could easily separate it with a fork.

What you end up with is an awesome, very tender London Broil – and slightly browned mushroom gravy covering melt-in-your-mouth onions, and carrots that are thoroughly cooked yet still have substance and texture. You could serve this is a restaurant and no one would know how easy it was to make. And as for using a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup? You probably don’t want to know how many “fine dining” establishments are charging you big bucks for covers that utilize “fresh ingredients” from a red and white can somewhere in the kitchen, out of sight.

Too busy? Still hungry? Try this recipe and let me know what you think. It worked for me! All I needed was a fork and a piece of bread to sop up the gravy.

Variations: some people add potatoes with the carrots and onions, sort of like a pot roast. Other people add a half cup of red wine. You could even go so far as to sub a half cup of beef bouillon for the water.  Your choice. I prefer to drink my wine. And that is next up on the agenda.

As Chef Rudolf would say – “Happy Eating!”

 

 

 

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Need a little zip?

Add a little zip to your pasta!

I imagine if you asked them, the highly skilled, five star restaurant owning, department store housewares hawking celebrity chefs you see on television would admit that quite often they need to resort to quick, processed foods for meals.  Aside from the notoriety, high pay and on-call makeup artists and hair stylists, they’re regular people just like you and me.  And their job is a lot tougher than mine, maybe yours, too.  If you think about it, these folks and their careers ride the winds of public popularity. That, my friends, can be fleeting.

So tonight I was looking at my stacks and stacks of cookbooks, pondering whether or not quinoa  might be a good diversion from couscous, when a thought occurred.

I can be a celebrity chef, too!

So I looked in the fridge and found the package of pre-made ravioli.  But alas, the nice bottle of spaghetti sauce had gone bad. What to do? Could I go off the beaten path and have ravioli, straight with no chaser? Thankfully, tucked away in the fridge door rack, next to the old bottle of chocolate sauce (and partially hidden by the almost empty bottle of bread and butter pickles, you know – your fridge has the same stuff!) was a bottle of Sriracha Sauce!

I added just a few drops , stirred it in, added some grated Parmesan, then a few more dashes of the red rooster.

Perfect! Just the right amount of zip.

Now to see what’s on the Food Network.

 

 

 

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Virginia is for Bloggers

This is an interesting little group of blogs that I stumbled upon recently. (Click on the graphic above to check out to their site.)  The majority of the blogs focus on food, and all seem to be Virginia oriented. And since Exploding Potatoes covers both aspects, I thought I would join the fun.

Caveat – somehow, when I filled out the brief information required to associate with the blogfest, the only option available for me to choose was “Richmond,” our capital city. You long time readers know “that ain’t me.”

I haunt the vast expanses (chuckle) of the Eastern Shore, across the Chesapeake Bay, the highway and byway for New Englanders to drive through (way too fast) on their way to the Outer Banks for vacation. In fact, I am still hoping to get that interview with the owner of Brown Dog Ice Cream in Cape Charles, Virginia, the southernmost “city.”  The only problem is: whenever I am there she is making ice cream! So alas, I have to order something, and of course then eat it. By the time I am finished, I am so stuffed like a pig happy that I forget about asking any questions and go home for a nap!

Next time!

The Tao of Chocolate Chip Cookies

Perhaps you have heard of the classic Greek elements of earth, air, fire and water?  These have been long thought to be the building blocks of life as we know it.  Modern day equivalents might be WD-40, duct tape, coffee and chocolate.  But every once in a while, you come across something that transcends the ordinary, contains mystical power beyond reason, and crosses cultural and geopolitical boundaries as freely as the wind blows pollen.

I’m talking about chocolate chip cookies.

Now, I am not going to repeat the recipe I used this morning. It is printed on the back of every bag of chocolate chips made. There are slight variations to be sure, but my go-to version descends from the 1930 originator, Ruth Graves Wakefield and her Toll House Inn.  Stories vary on how her chocolate chip cookie came about, but one thing is clear – the good folks at the inn could not possible have realized how their cookie could change the world.

What do we learn by baking chocolate chip cookies?

Sure, we learn that by mixing together a few tasty ingredients, adding a little heat, and waiting for ten minutes, delicious cookies will result. But what do we really learn?

Discipline.  You can’t leave anything out. You can’t bypass a step.

Discipline – it keep you from eating the cookie dough!

 

Patience.  With my particular oven, set at 375 degrees F., a dozen cookies takes 10 minutes to bake properly. Any less and they are not sufficiently browned; any more and they will have that unpleasant, charred piece of firewood taste.

Patience – yes – the cookies “do” need to cool for at least a few minutes once baked. Really. You can wait.

 

Humility. I may think I am a smart cookie, but I doubt I could have thought up chocolate chip cookies on my own. In fact, chocolate chip cookies, in my opinion, come from heaven. Mrs. Wakefield was just the messenger, a modern day culinary prophet if you will. Perhaps she should be made a saint? Worth considering, me thinks.  This is on par with the first goat herder that decided to put coffee beans in hot water.

Love. Who remembers making cookies as a child, learning from grandma or mom? That’s love on a pan, people. And for those who did not experience that rite of passage, why not start the tradition now? (check out the next paragraph.)

Empathy. We like to eat cookies of all types, just ask the Girl Scouts. Each year, in the Spring, they sell literally tons of cookies in order to fund their programs. But we as individuals also bake cookies to simply give away. In December, millions of cookies are sent to friends and relatives (notice the distinction?) One of the best cookie giveaway programs ever involves volunteer bakers from across the land, firing up their ovens in November and December  to produce truckloads of cookies for people who are in prison. Sponsored by the Kairos Prison Ministry, this cookie giveaway program may do more for rehabilitation than any government sponsored program.

So where to from here?

Let’s see if we can harness the power of chocolate chip cookies for the side of good.  If you know someone who could use a little gift of joy, why not bake some chocolate chip cookies and send a tin to them?

Sometimes words are not enough. And as one person recently told me: sometimes it’s best to say nothing and just send cookies.

Now get baking, good people!

Don’t make war – make cookies!