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Bangers and Mash

Jan23

Bangers and Mash

Garrett’s Bangers and Mash

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Bangers and mash, is a common British dish consisting of sausages (“bangers”) and mashed potatoes (“mash”). And is traditionally served with onion gravy.

Bangers and mash is a staple of the country’s overall cuisine and is a popular pub dish. The term bangers supposedly originated during World War I, when meat shortages resulted in sausages’ being made with a number of fillers, notably water, that caused them to explode when cooked.

The sausages may be pork, beef, or lamb, but one of the most traditional meat sticks is Cumberland sausage, a coiled pork sausage from northwestern England.

This is a traditional recipe that we’ve tweaked just a little to our own Americanized taste. Continue reading →

Virginia Beach Creamy She Crab Soup

Jan21

Virginia Beach She Crab Soup

Virginia Beach Creamy She Crab Soup

I LOVE She crab soup and have a bowl any time I can get it when we eat out. I’ve had many versions of this soup all over the east coast, a few places in Texas and California. I’m sorry folks, but no one makes She-Crab soup like the east coast does.

In 2004, Gary and I went to Waterman’s Restaurant in Virginia Beach, where we had the most delightfully tasty she crab soup. It is by far the best version I have ever had! So if you ever go to Virginia Beach, head south on Atlantic Avenue and visit Waterman’s! Everything they have is wonderful.

Unfortunately we were not able to get the recipe from the restaurant. Can’t blame them. So we’ve been trying to recreate it on our own the best we can. It’s under gone a lot of tweaking, but we’re getting pretty close. It’s not exactly the same, but we need to go back to the beach for another visit and another taste testing to figure out what we’re missing.

Here’s our current very tasty version so far. Continue reading →

Tuna Salad

Jan21

Papaw’s Tuna Salad Sandwich

Papaw’s Easy Tuna Salad

My dad loved meat salads. Tuna, chicken and ham salads were his favorites. And he made each one from scratch and usually during the spring and summer months.

This is how I remember his tuna salad dish. He usually had these with crackers. But he’d make them into a sandwich for lunch now and then too.

Preparation time: 15 to 45 minutes
It depends on what you put into the salad mix. If you’re going to add boiled eggs, it’s going to take a little longer. Continue reading →

Irish Potato Soup

Jan21

Vickie’s Easy Irish Potato Soup

Gary and I have been delving into our Celtic roots and trying some of Scotland and Ireland’s dishes.

This is a recipe I stumbled on one day from a BBC cooking show. We’ve tweaked the ingredients a little, just to update it for our own taste. And that allowed us to modify the original preparation and cooking process to make fixing this soup a little easier and less time consuming.

I guess you’ll have to call this an Americanized version of Irish potato soup, for busy families.

Preparation time: About 1 hour
Serves: 6

Continue reading →

Garden Salad with Chicken

Jan21

Garden Salad with Grilled Chicken

Vickie’s Garden Salad with Seasoned Chicken

Everyone in my extended family had a vegetable garden. It wasn’t unusual to sit at my grandmother’s dinner table and see a plate of freshly cut tomatoes, or cucumbers next to the main meal.

There was always room for a salad on my Maw Stoots’ table for lunch. She loved garden salads and always fixed one for me when we were in Tennessee for a visit.

As you grow older, your taste buds change. You learn to enjoy the variety of flavors in foods of all kind. And that’s how my Garden Salad with Chicken came about. They’re scrumptious for dinner or lunch.

Preparation time: 45 minutes  Continue reading →

Cucumber Sandwiches

Jan17

Cucumber Sandwiches

Vickie’s Cucumber Sandwiches

What’s high tea if you don’t have some traditional English treats. I’ve always been fascinated with Queen Victoria, not sure why, just one of those very odd interests people sometimes have in life.

In 1840 the originator of afternoon tea, Anna Maria Stanhope, the 7th Duchess of Bedford, was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria. She created Afternoon tea to ease the grumbling tummies of polite society in the mid-afternoon. With lunch at noon and dinner at 8pm, mid-afternoon was a perfect time for a mid-day tea with light sandwiches.

One of the most common or traditional tea time sandwiches has always been the cucumber sandwich. Because these are designed to be small, they’re created more for flavor than nutrition.

This is my recipe, it’s plain and simple and nothing like the long involved preparation of a traditional cucumber sandwich. So if you’re looking for a traditional cucumber sandwich, this is not it.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes Continue reading →

Chicken Noodle Soup

Jan17

Chicken Noodle Soup

Vickie’s Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken soup has long been touted as a form of folk medicine to treat symptoms of the common cold and related conditions for centuries. And you’ll find a huge variety of recipes from around the world as well.

In 2000, scientists at Nebraska’s Medical Center studied the effects of chicken soup on the immune system. One thing their study found was that chicken soup contains the Amino acid cysteine, which is very similar to acetylcysteine. Acetylcysteine is used by doctors for patients with bronchitis and other respiratory infections to help clear them. So there maybe something to those old fashion cold remedies after all.

Preparation time: 1 1/2 to 2 hours  Continue reading →

The “Cold” Sandwich

Jan17

Tomato, Onion and Cheddar Sandwich

The “Cold” Sandwich

When my paternal grandmother passed, my sisters and I were given the task of going through her things. I discovered a box with recipes, something none of us thought she had. She was a great cook, but she never used a recipe, at least from what we could see.

Inside I found a little note written on a recipe card:
A Tennessee wives tale predicts if you have this 3 times a week, you can prevent the common cold. And beneath the recipe, was a note: “It works” and “From Fall to end of Winter“.

Preparation time: 5 minutes  Continue reading →

Southern Sausage Gravy

Nov17

Southern Sausage Gravy

Mamaw Carey’s Southern Sausage Gravy
A real southern dish that will surely stick to your ribs. I can remember my Mom fixing this dish for various occasions, and not just for breakfast.

Special dinners, such as Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners always had a side of sausage gravy on the table.

Preparation time: 45 minutes to 1 hour
Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb mild sausage roll
    (Bob Evans or Jimmy Dean is best)
  • ½ cup all purpose flour
  • 2 to 2½ cups of milk
  • Salt and black pepper

Directions:

  • Cut sausage roll into 1/4 inch patties and fry them in a deep skillet.
  • Remove cooked patties and set them aside to cool slightly.
    Leave as much of the sausage grease in the pan as possible.
  • Add flour to left over grease.
    Scrape the mix with a fork to mix the grease and the flour until it becomes light brown.
  • Add the milk and stir thoroughly.
  • Crumble the sausage patties into the skillet and stir the mix.
  • Add salt and pepper to desired taste. More pepper than salt!
  • Allow the mix to boil, then reduce the heat and stir constantly until thick.
  • Thickness is up to you.
    If it’s too thick, add a little more milk (1/4 cup at time).
    If it’s too thin, add flour (1 tblspns at a time).

Serve:

  • Serve plain, over country biscuits or buttered toast.
    Personally, I think serving over home made biscuits is best.

Alternatives:

  • Consider sauteing chopped onions with the sausage to add a bit of flair.

 

© 1997-2018 Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D., Springwolf's Kosmos. All Rights Reserved.
© 1997-2018 Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D., Springwolf’s Creations. All Rights Reserved.

Southern Red Eye Gravy

Nov17

Southern Red Eye Gravy

Southern Red Eye Gravy
When I was kid growing up in North Carolina, my Mom (GranMa Sandy) would cook up some ham, make red-eye gravy and black-eyed peas for breakfast. It was always a fill your tummy with warmth and comfort on a cold winter day.

It’s been 20 years since I’ve had a breakfast like that, until New Years 2010 when Vickie created her version of Red Eye gravy just for me. And boy not only did it bring back memories, it was really good too.

I guess those folks from Tennessee know how to make some stick to your ribs gravy too!

Preparation Time: 10
Serves: 2

Continue reading →