Tag Archive | southern

Recipes: Bacon Ranch Salmon

Sep7

Vickie’s Bacon Ranch Salmon

I’ve never been one for fish as a kid. But your taste buds change as you get older. Sometime in my late 30s, a friend of mine invited me to a special dinner on the lake.

From their party boat, her husband was going to grill salmon steaks on a little portable grill. He used traditional butter and lemon to saute the salmon. I’m not a fan of lemon either. So I’m pushing my foodie adventures here. Give me a little credit 😉 . It was ok, for my first test taste.

During dinner I dropped a piece of salmon in my salad, which was lightly draped in Ranch dressing. Oh man, did it greatly improve the fish! The following week I tried the new concoction on my husband. Ranch salmon isn’t an original idea of course. But it was new to me and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go over in our house. Thankfully he liked it. Even our 8 year old at the time liked it. Now that the boy is a teenager, he can’t stand Salmon. But taste buds change as you get older.

Over the past 2 decades, we’ve tried variations on the ranch recipe. We’ve added various topings, such as diced onion, diced tomatoes, various types of herbs. But Bacon Ranch has become one of our favorite salmon dishes.  Continue reading →

Recipes: Corned Beef & Gravy

Sep7

Vickie’s Corned Beef & Gravy

A quick and easy meal that pleases the pallet and sticks to the ribs. My boys love this dish and it’s always a fall and winter time favorite. It’s especially good after a cold day of sledding!

I like it because it’s quick and easy to make. Not to mention, it’s one of the cheapest meals to make when you’re weekly budget is already a little stretched.

Preparation & Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4 Continue reading →

Recipes: Slow Cooked Chili

Sep7

Vickie’s Slow Cooked Chili

This recipe is much like my Dad’s Stove Top Chili, with a few tweaks, we add Jack Daniels Honey to ours. And I don’t add beans to this recipe. You certainly can add your favorites to this mix. But no thanks. 😉

As with the Stove Top Chili, the trick to good chili is the meat. You can use chicken or beef with this recipe. But if you use beef, make it a good quality ground beef.

Back in the early 2000s, Gary and I tried Bison with this recipe and it was extraordinarily fabulous. I highly suggest using it for any of your home cooked beef ground meals!

Also: You might like to try the Stove Top Chili recipe as well. It’s different from this one.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 6.5 hours – Crock pot Recipe
Serves: 12+ Continue reading →

Recipes: Jack Daniels BBQ

Aug23

Kevin’s Jack Daniels BBQ

Gary’s cousin Kevin, makes some of the best bbq I’ve ever had! He mostly uses beef, but you can use this recipe with pork or chicken as well. It tastes best with beef though.

Preparation time: 15 to 20 minutes
Cooking time: 4 to 5 hours

Ingredients

  • 1 Beef Roast
    3lbs will serve 5 *
  • 1 tspn Celery Salt
  • 1 cup BBQ Sauce **
  • 1 shot Jack Daniels Whiskey ***
  • 1 large stew pot

* You can use pork or chicken for this recipe as well, just make sure it’s at least 3 pounds of meat.
** Kevin uses Stubs BBQ Sauce. We use Masterpiece Original. You can use your favorite brand.
*** Gary adds 1 additional shot of Jack to spike the flavor. So that would be 2 total. Continue reading →

Recipes: Beef BBQ

Aug23

Grand Daddy Holland’s Beef BBQ

Grand Daddy Hollands Beef BBQ recipe was lost when he left us. But Gary’s cousin Kevin,  has been perfecting his version of that recipe as he remembers it. It’s pretty close to the original. But even if it’s not exactly the same, it’s still fantastic!

Every time we make this, Gary remembers a weekend on the Lake in Love Valley, NC where Grand Daddy built a cabin. The whole family would gather there during the summers and enjoy the water, the woods and the many cook outs. I hope your family can make your own memories with this yummy family tradition. 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 →

Southern Potato Cakes

Aug30

Southern Potato Cakes

Mammaw’s Southern Potato Cakes
When I was young, my Mom always found ways serve leftovers that made them seem like an entirely new meal. One of my favorites was Potato Cakes. Left over mashed potatoes, fashioned into small individual cakes. They were always delicious.

I never helped make them when I was still living at home, so when I called and asked her how do you make potato cakes, she said “you just cook them in butter in a skillet”. So I fashioned the left over potatoes and fried them……yeah that didn’t work. I called back and told her about how they fell apart and she asks “well did you put flour in them?” No Mom, you didn’t tell me to do that.

You really need to go home and cook with your mom and write down the family recipes, because they didn’t seem to do that in my family. I learned how to make them by watching her and I’ve written it down to share with my son.

Preparation Time: 1 hour
Serves: Depends on how many leftover mashed potatoes you have.  We usually have enough to make 3 to 6 cakes.
Continue reading →

Southern Fried Okra

Aug30

Southern Fried Okra

Vickie’s Southern Fried Okra
One of Gary’s favorite southern foods is fried okra. He says it’s like eating popcorn and you just can’t get enough of it.

I make it for him about three or four times a year. For his birthday, our anniversary and on holidays.

Preparation time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 1 to 2 cups of fresh or frozen okra (thawed)
  • ½ cup Flour
  • ½ cup Corn Meal
  • 1 tspn salt
  • 1 tspn pepper
  • ½ stick of butter or margarine

Continue reading →

Green Beans and Potatoes

May13

Vickie’s Green Beans and Potatoes

Beans and Potatoes

A classic way to spruce up your vegetables. Beef stew is a popular favorite in my family. But sometimes stew isn’t really what you want.

One very cold winter day, we just wanted to warm up the house. Too snowy to take to the country roads. It was time to open the freezer and the cabinets to find something good for dinner.

Cleaning out the pantry, we found a sack of potatoes and some green beans in the freezer. And a dinner side dish, became dinner.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes, 3 hours to cook.  Continue reading →