Pork Chops & Chicken

Triple Berry Crisp

After making Chocolate Berry Rum shakes the other day I realized I still had a ton of these frozen berries to get rid of. Now that they have been thawed, they can't be refrozen. Another situation with ugly fruit and what to do about it.

Since it's July 4th, I thought abut making something American and simple. A crisp. Well I don't know how "American" the origins of a crisp actually are, and since it's a patriotic day, I will just pretend it's all American. The south seems to think it originated there, so why not? Lest we forget the Apple pie isn't American at all, but we like to say it is.

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com.

Triple Berry Crisp

by Polly Giebler

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups fresh blackberries
1 1/2 cups fresh raspberries
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
4 tbls sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups butter

*My frozen mixed berries worked just as well as fresh berries. Just drain off the excess juice from the berries before adding them to this dish.

Preheat oven to 350° F.



In a large bowl gently toss together berries and white sugar and set aside.



In a separate bowl combine flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.



Press half of mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 inch pan.



Cover with berries. Sprinkle remaining crumble on top of the berries.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until fruit is bubbly and topping is golden brown.

Mom! The Meatloaf F*CK!!

Who could forget this classic scene in Wedding Crashers? Living the dream and eating meatloaf.

Well this is my famous meatloaf and fresh green beans with scallion cream cheese mashed potatoes.

This is way better than yo mama's meatloaf. It's better than my mama's meatloaf!

I have made this recipe a few times now. I am going to try a different blog approach to it. I am going to post the pictures in tandem from different times I made this so you can see how easy this recipe is and how awesome it tastes. The only problem is the first time I took pictures, I took the unbaked meatloaf to a friends house and forgot to take pictures of the finished product. So one side will go all the way up until that point. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.



My Meatloaf

4# of Ground Beef or Ground Turkey
1 Large Green Pepper finely chopped
1 Large Onion finely chopped
1 packet Dried Onion Soup Mix
1 cup to 1 1/2 cup Italian Bread crumbs
4 Large Eggs
1 1/2 tbls Garlic powder
1 1/2 tbls Onion powder
3 tbls Worcestershire Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Side Note: This recipe can easily be halved. Use an 8x4x2 in. loaf pan for half recipe.

Topping:

1 cup BBQ sauce or Ketchup
1/4 cup Yellow Mustard
3 dashes Worcestershire Sauce
2 dashes Garlic Salt
1/2 cup or less or Brown Sugar
2 dashes Onion Salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for meatloaf and mash together until all is thoroughly mixed with hands.





 
 




 

Form meat mixture into 9x13 in. pan. For halved recipes use an 8x4x2 loaf pan.



In a small bowl whisk together all ingredients for topping. Then coat the top of the meatloaf leaving 1/3 of the sauce for later.





Bake Meatloaf for 45 minutes. 35 in smaller loaf pan. Remove from over and coat the top of the meatloaf with remaining sauce. Put back into over for another 15 minutes. 10 more minutes for the smaller loaf pan.

 


Green Beans:

Fresh Green Beans washed, halved with the ends cut
3 tbls Butter
3 dashes of Seasoned Salt

Boil green beans in water with butter and seasoned salt about 10 minutes before serving. Boil longer for less al dente beans.



Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

2# of Peeled Potatoes
1 8oz package Cream Cheese
1 Stick of Butter
2 dashes Garlic Salt
2 dashes Onion Salt
Splash of Milk
One Bushel of Chives finely chopped or 4 to 5 Scallions finely chopped 

Peel and chop potatoes into small cubes. Boil in water with a sprinkle of kosher salt until potatoes are very soft.





Drain potatoes and transfer to mixer. Or mash by hand. Add one stick of butter and cream cheese to potatoes gradually. Add Splash of milk, garlic salt, and onion salt. Whip the potatoes until smooth. Add chives or scallions while whipping. Let sit for a few minutes and then serve.

Plate it all up and serve it hot!

Sausage Gravy And Buttermilk Biscuits

This whole post probably belongs on ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com.

It all started with some sausage I needed to cook up. One of the things I love more than life itself is soul food and southern food. I make a mean sausage gravy. It's so easy to make too. So, sausage gravy is what I decided to make with this extra sausage on hand.

The story of these buttermilk biscuits goes a follows. Josh Velazquez, one of the former Chefs of Bukowski's in Cambridge, Ma. and formerly of Deep Ellum in Allston, Ma., once challenged me to a biscuits and gravy competition. We talked shit to each other for about 3 years. We never actually had the competition, but when he moved to Deep Ellum, they had biscuits and gravy on the menu. They were good, but my gravy is way better. His biscuits however, beat the ass out of mine.

For some reason I couldn't make biscuits anymore. I used to make them all the time. I moved to Colorado for a couple of years and still made them good even in the high elevation. When I came back to the east coast something happened. They came out like pathetic dried up hockey pucks. It was a devastating blow to a Southerner like myself. If you can't make good biscuits, you might as well not even live.

It turned out that my baking powder was stale. I had no idea that it could "deactivate" if you will. I blame myself for not being a chef and knowing about these things.

So, he kindly gave me his recipe to try. I have had this recipe now for about a year and haven't made them before. They came out perfectly on the first try. Now I cannot be stopped. No one can beat me, not even your mama's recipe. Not even my mom who taught me how to make sausage gravy.



Josh Velazquez's Buttermilk (Drop) Biscuits

3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter
1 cup to 1 1/2 cup buttermilk



In a bowl combine flour, salt, and baking soda.



Blend in butter. The texture should be like cornmeal when done.

Side Note: I always nuke my butter for a few seconds so it's nice and soft for blending if I didn't have time to let the butter set out at room temp. for a while. I also used my hands for mashing the butter and flour. It's the best way to do it.



Add buttermilk and mix until combined.



Drop 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup on to a greased baking sheet, so as the biscuits touch each other.

Side Note: I didn't put mine next to each other in the pictures because I thought they might expand. They ended up just fine that way.

Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown. (About 15 to 20 mins. in my case.)




And now for the good part, my sausage gravy.



This whole recipe is a give or take method. I will give you about measurements but you really need to play with it. It's different every time I make it. Sometimes the sausage yields me more grease, sometimes not enough. I use more milk sometimes or more flour. So play with this as you make it. This is basically an eye ball recipe.

1 16oz tube of Jimmy Dean Sausage. Regular or Sage.

1 1/2 cup milk

1 cup all purpose flour

Heavy Cream

Salt and Pepper to taste

 

Brown your sausage on medium heat in a skillet.

 

Remove sausage from skillet and place in a bowl. Leave on the side for now.

Leaving all of the left over grease from the sausage in the pan, reduce heat to a low medium. Sprinkle in 1/2 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of milk. Whisk constantly. Continue to add flour and milk until you have a nice creamy base.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

 

Side Note: The reason I have heavy cream listed on the recipe is because once you whisk your base you might find that you need more liquid for the gravy. Heavy cream is a nice way to add more liquid and make it extra creamy. You can reverse this recipe as well to use heavy cream as the milk and use the milk at the end to give it more liquid when needed.

It is awesome when you use heavy cream that way for sausage gravy. But since this recipe probably already has 2000 calories per serving, the heavy cream version will clog your arteries and you will feel you heart begin to slow as you eat it, but it will be worth it. It tastes amazing.

 

 

 

Once your base is nice and creamy and has begun to thicken, turn off the heat on the stove and add the sausage to the gravy.

That is it. That is all it takes. You are now ready to top your biscuits, serve and enjoy.