Corned beef hash. A no-brainer when you stop off at the diner on your way home from the bar at 4am. At least it used to be. On Sunday I surprised Cheryl with this tasty breakfast made from our St. Patrick’s Day leftovers. Yes we still had some corned beef and potatoes, that’s the benefitContinue reading “Corned Beef Hash: Delicious Simplicity”
Yearly Archives: 2015
Homemade Cajun Spice Bacon
While I make bacon quite often I’m not usually very creative with it. If it’s good and works, why mess with it? However, a friend recently requested some Cajun spice bacon so I felt I needed to do a trial run in order to nail down a new technique. We we were running low onContinue reading “Homemade Cajun Spice Bacon”
Jerk Spice Pork Sausage
We just returned from what is becoming an annual thawing out trip to Antigua. This year our plane took off in a snowstorm which as you can imagine made us very happy when we got the beach. What made us even happier though was returning to Chicago to find spring had sprung! And because ofContinue reading “Jerk Spice Pork Sausage”
Pork Cheek Ragu with Mushrooms
While rummaging through the freezer last week for some fatback to make sausages, I discovered a package of pork cheeks tucked away in a corner. Needless to say, this excited me greatly, and I had an idea what to make with them: pork cheek ragu. A spin on one of my all-time favorite dishes fromContinue reading “Pork Cheek Ragu with Mushrooms”
The Cubano Sausage
The Cuban sandwich is one of my favorite sandwiches, and ever since I started getting creative with sausage flavors I’ve wanted to make one based on the delicious Cubano. I came up with the idea after eating a ‘gyro sausage’ for lunch one day and thought the Cubano’s flavors (pork, ham, cheese, and pickles) wouldContinue reading “The Cubano Sausage”
Pane di Chiavari (Olive bread)
This week has been a particularly nasty winter week so I thought it would be a good time to follow through on one of Cheryl’s recent kitchen requests: bake some bread. While looking at my favorite bread cookbook, Carol Field’s Italian Baker, I came across a pretty low maintenance recipe for an olive bread, PaneContinue reading “Pane di Chiavari (Olive bread)”
Vieux Carré – A Crescent City Cocktail for Mardi Gras
What is it about New Orleans cocktails that they are all so inherently potent? Of the three you’d normally associate with the city, Sazerac, Vieux Carré, and Hurricane, only the Hurricane gets ‘watered down’ with any fruit juice. The other two are just straight up combinations of booze. This week I’m skipping over Valentine’s DayContinue reading “Vieux Carré – A Crescent City Cocktail for Mardi Gras”
Blackstrap Molasses Picnic Ham: The Final Piece from the Cold Smoking Experiment
It’s been over two months since I cured, cold smoked, and hung up a picnic ham to dry. A few days before Super Bowl Sunday I checked the weight and saw it was ready for slicing!
Choucroute Garnie
One benefit of all my charcuterie experimenting is we usually have some sausages and cured meat tucked away somewhere, just in case. At the moment we’ve got quite a variety with some speck, coppa, sausages, and bacon, so there occurred a great opportunity to cook up a pot of cured meat deliciousness: choucroute garnie.
Homemade Chicken Soup From Scratch
I was a little under the weather last week and really needed some good old-fashioned chicken soup. As you may have heard, chicken soup is supposed to help cure the common cold or at least alleviate some of the suffering. Over the years there have been studies about chicken soup’s alleged healing properties and fromContinue reading “Homemade Chicken Soup From Scratch”
The Roaming GastroGnome 