To Cook Is To Heal

Late yesterday morning I was preparing the ingredients for our dinner of pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. I prefer my sandwich with my homemade Bourbon & Coke BBQ sauce that I keep a stash of frozen. Well this time I forgot that I gave away my last pint stashed in the freezer, so no BBQ sauce ... Once this fact set in, off I go to the pantry to see what was available to make BBQ sauce. I did not want to go out and buy the missing ingredients needed for my regular sauce. After a good 20 minutes of looking in my 2 pantries, freezers and spice cabinet, the proverbial light bulb went off. I'll make an Asian style sauce for tonight's pulled pork sandwich, and since I am making ribs tomorrow I'll use the sauce for them also.  Small portion of ribs with the sauce. When I create new recipes I usually just wing it and forget to right down the exact measurements and what ingredients are actually used. This time I wanted to remember and write down the recipe, as my wife liked the taste...

Sometimes when your pantry is lacking, you create an amazing new recipe out of need.  For years I've made homemade tartar sauce using regular dill relish. Then one day I could not find any at my daughters home and it was too late to go to the store. What to do ? l ook around and improvise...  As I'm searching through her refrigerator for any kind of pickle, I come across a jar of "pickled okra "? Okay never seen that before, though I have used okra in a lot of dishes, so what the heck. I sample one of the pieces and well it will work just fine. I made the tartar sauce as I usually do (only using pickled okra) and served it with dinner without telling anyone. Low and behold everyone liked the tartar sauce, in fact they thought it was great with the fish. Ever since, I've only used pickled Okra... Poppy's Southern Pickled Okra Tartar Sauce ★★★★★ Poppy's Originals Prep Time:  15 minutes  Mixing Time:  15 minutes  Total Time:  30 minutes...

 is one of the next reported upcoming shortages and could also have big price increases. A fair amount of California produces rice, and well look at the the problems that Cali is going through right now. So, I went ahead and bought 10 lbs of Jasmine white rice for dry storage and cooked another 3 lbs for frozen storage.  Cooked rice freezes very well for long periods of time. Make sure to let the rice cool (room temp) on a sheet pan before packaging and sealing the bags. Also remove as much air as you can from the bags, then put the individual meal bags into a large freezer bag and freeze the whole lot.  3 lbs of cooked rice will net me 11+ meals for Marg & me. Or roughly 15-20 (+/-) cents per serving.  Rice is cooked in a professional rice cooker. Putting up food is one of the most important, cost effective adventures you can undertake. I prefer freezing, canning is also a time proven way to preserve food for future needs. Do what suits your abili...

is one of the wonders of the food world. What does it actually mean? usually whatever is at hand for a seafood meal thrown onto a platter and away you go.  Since we have moved to the east coast (South Carolina) we are able to purchase fresh seafood daily if we could afford it. Yesterday's adventure was to go to 3 different "fresh seafood markets" close to us (45 min +/-).  All three are locally owned, some of these for many years. One market we were in, the "captain" of the fishing boat was behind the counter. He did not appear as what you would think a captain looked like, you know, Ahab and such... He was tall (6'4"ish), slim and somewhat tanned, not the beaten down tan type, but roguish looking. He had a steady slow drawl, though he was articulate and appeared to love sharing his knowledge, the sign of a great teacher. As we asked him questions we learned as much as we could, in regards to our quest for knowledge about east coast fresh fish.  He help...