Chocolate and Strawberry Stuffed Biscuits(scones)

This is another sweet treat made from good ol’ refrigerated biscuits, which i love except for the moment when you open them. You push your thumb into the edge of the canister until it pops and it scares me every time. These were smooshed flat and stuffed with strawberries, chocolate chips, butter and a pinch of habanero sauce. They turned out a gooey and delicious, although next time i will add less chocolate and more hot sauce.

Monkey Bread, kind of, the Easy Way

The entire Hungryfamily is home to celebrate the presidents, although I am not sure why since most of them have been lying cheating thieves, but I took the chance to make some monkey bread-ish contraption out of refrigerated biscuit dough, melted butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla.  While it was not quite as good as the full bundt pan style monkey bread, it was mighty tasty and took all of 5 minutes to make.  And this is a rarity for me, because i raaaaarely do sweets. I also threw in a picture of brown sugar rubbed bacon getting ready to go into the oven. Dammit i should have put the bacon on top of the monkey bread!!!! Well, as they say, hindsight is 20/20 and I’m nearly going blind. Actually, that was Randy Travis.

What A Freaking Jerk…um i mean Jamaican Jerked Ribs

Well, in order to make a short story long, please allow me to tell you the tale of my quest to have a Decent Lunch today. I started the morning by dropping off the eldest Hungryspawn at school and heading up the hills to the oh so quaint and discreet and not tacky at all, yet still incredibly fun because they have putt putt on the side of a freaking mountain and a moonshine distillery with free samples and you can watch the hypnotic taffy machine all day without anyone wondering if you are “under the influence’ of exotic fungi and you can buy funnel cakes 356 days a year, town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee: Home to tourists by the blue billions and the tackiest crap this side of the Strand at myrtle beach (or i think that it is called). However, just off the the side of the hoopla is a nice little HB Clark designed disc golf course at Mills Park. I met a good friend, we’ll call him the Tomahawker for reasons you are not privileged enough to know and proceeded to give him a disc golf whooping. I mean, i made him go pick out his own switch for the ass whooping! Well, to be honest it was pretty close up until he went all Tin Cup on a hole and threw 5 drivers out of bounds. Anywho, All of this mountainous disc golfing and former college athlete ass whooping made me powerfully hungry and my mind lept to a sign i had seen on the way to the course for the “Rib Doctor’s BBQ” and I decided to check him out. Quaint little place, off the beaten path, smelled great, the owner was nice, BBQ sauce tasted awesome on my finger tips. All in all a nice , traditional BBQ joint. Nothing fancy, no one was in a hurry, not even freaking close to being in a hurry. They were in fact, in an anti hurry. They also do not take debit cards, and since my i had no fancy bendy-foldy money dollars, I left hungrier than I arrived, still tasting the lingering spiciness from my sample o’ sauce. I will return.

So, I headed down the road and came upon a newer BBQ restaurant called Smokin’ Ed’s BBQ. Ever notice how a lot of BBq places don’t like the letter “G” at the end of their descriptive adjectives? Me too. The place was very crowded with a lively group of what appeared to be city workers and secreataries but they sat me straight down, which i am unsure of because they apparantly were not able to present pulled pork sandwich to me in 20 minutes!!! I waited 20 minutes for a sandwich of precooked meat and a bowl of precooked beans. Actually, I waited for them for 20 minutes, then got up and walked to my car, empty bellied and even more unsatisfied than before.  To be fair, the place was new, being only open for two weeks and did not seem prepared for a busy Friday lunch rush. I heard then 86 the cole slaw, and this was at 12:30. Bed planning or half-assed kitchen management obviously coming in to play in my near soul shattering BBQ denial.

Back into the Hungrymobile and off towards the homestead I went, stomach growling and grumbling, visions of smoked meats dancing in my head. That’s when my eyes did divine upon the glorious site of Jamaican Food. OK, not the catchiest name, and I think technically it might be Jamaican Sunrise or Paradise? What you can call it is freaking fanfreakingtastic, and i am not freaking kidding the freak around! The building was originally a King Arthur’s burgers back in the 80’s or 90’s and was a Central Park clone, which is an horrific theory actually. Over the years it also housed The San Antoni Chili Bake restaurant, which served texas flavored “hot dogs” which were basically oblong meatloafs with chili seasoning and chili and cheese, sour cream etc, etc on top of them. I personally liked them but they did not last long. Then it was a coffee shop of some kind or another, Mountain Mudd i think( because everything has to be named after the mountains around here) and I think it was a Gourmet To Go or something like that with a menu so boring sounding the one time I stopped in I decided to just go to sonic instead. Sonic. That’s right, and not just for a big cherry limeade to dump gin into.

Back to the food: I got 1/4 rack of ribs with hot jerk sauce on the side and a slice of white texas toast, untoasted. I also picked up a jerk chicken sandwich for my friend, Lisasellsbooksandishungry. They were both amazing! They were actually “jerked” meats and not just grilled meat with jerk seasoning on them. you could taste the different spices used, and see the onions and yummy bits on the ribs. They each had their own flavor profile though, not just the same flavor with a different protein. The sauce is FREAKING HOT!!!! and awesome, and homemade, and delicioso, and if it wasn’t so damn spicy, I would gargle with it. It is such a contrast to the goopy jerk sauce found at the grocery or on corporate plates.  The menu also included red curry and rice, beans and rice and the specialty of the house, oxtail soup. I have never tried oxtail soup, and I really wanted the ribs, but I plan on returning to try it just on the theory that it might be as good as these freaking ribs!Sorry the pictures of the ribs were fuzzy, but my pupils were still vibrating from the jerk sauce and i could not focus. If you are ever cruising down east Broadway in good old Maryville (Murvill), Tennessee, please do yourself a favor and go get jerked! and then go get some of this fantastic food.

Blackened Chicken Wrap with Spinach, Vintage Cheddar and Baconaisse

I came home from a morning of muddy disc golfin’ with a powerful hunger and whipped up this little sandwich thingy. Used the oddest ingredient there i s, Baconnaise, which is bacon flavored mayonnaise. I also used the blackened chicken breast, some vintage Australian cheddar, organic baby spinach,  and a little diced tomato all wrapped up in some lavesh flat-bread. Very filling and yummy. and healthy and helping me to forget that i freaking 5 putted from 15 feet away today and threw my favorite new driver into the lake, where it floated just beyond reach. Anyway, at least it was a nice sunny day, unseasonably warm and completely free of rabid spider monkeys.

Late Night Snack for the Pregnant

My lovely and brilliant wife, who is with child as they say, managed to work in three complaints and requests at the same time tonight in one short, direct sentence. She said ” I need to take my vitamins but I’m hungry and its cold.” The  nuances of the seemingly innocent statement are as subtle as a freshman year 3rd seat trumpet player. She needs to be fed both an allotment of food and a regiment of nutritive supplement for the growing Babyishungry (yeah for breast milk, but that is another story, on many levels really. OK , I’ve said too much. I haven’t said enough. That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight…oh, umm, anyway) Not only does she need these critical supplies, she is dependent upon me to prepare and fetch them for her. Also she is cold and apparently does not know how to “operate” a blanket and/or a quilt ( which is also another story on many levels, some of them quite off kilter really.)

Did I mention that she said this on the phone? And that I was driving around with Mikeiskindofhungryforalittleguy listening to college basketball on the radio? Apparently, this is a veeerrrry important variable in this particular equation. I was never that good at algebra or geometry, but thank god the guy next to me was. Soooooooooo, I made the following for the Missus

Peanut Butter and Honey Sushi with Chia Seeds and Strawberry Preserves, with a Side of Prenatal Vitamins

I rolled out the bread , put some good nut butter on it(hee, hee, i said nut butter), followed by some honey, some Chia seeds( yes THOSE kind of chia seeds..they are remarkable little things that fueled the Aztec warriors…curious? try google, ya lazy git), and some strawberry, all fruit preserves…then i rolled and sliced it and served it up on a bamboo platter with a garnish of folic acid and some other crazy pregnant vitamin things that probably make your burps taste funny. Look at the Pics!!! Love Them!!! Comment! Share! Send Cash, we’re(me, not the kids or missus)

low on Beer Money!!!

Mexican Corn Bread Stuffed with Deviled Eggs and Bacon

I’ve been toying with this idea for a while and tried a test run tonight of Mexican Corn Bread Stuffed with Deviled Eggs. I took some serious short cuts, but they still turned out pretty darn tasty, although the pictures did not. Basically i made some deviled eggs with thai chili mayo and bacon mixed into the yolks, folks. Then I tried to make little dough balls of mexican corn bread(from a mix) wth some cheese added to it, but it di not want to stick to the eggs, soo i wiped out a little bit of the bacon grease in the still hot cast iron skillet, threw a big ol’ spoon fulls of the corn bread mix into the bacon grease and stuck a deviled egg into the middle of it which was topped with the bread mix, which clings nicely to the top of the deviled eggs. Anyway, after it set for a second i popped the whole thing into the 375 degree oven for 25 minutes and they came out very nicely. I will work on this recipe in the future,as i think it holds promise, which is almost as nice as holding the door for an old lady. Next time around i will make the corn bread from scratch and try a muffin tin, and I may also move the bacon to the outside of the whole thing. It could be chopped up raw and covered in some brown sugar and chipotle chili flakes then spinkled on top of the muffins before cooking….that would work!! no one is allowed to do that yet. Ignore this post!!! Do not share this idea or make it and take cool pics and make me look like a weenie!!! Ignore ME

Thai Shrimp and Mushroom Soup, Unauthentic Style

Made something healthy for the Missus this evening and realized i can cook without bacon or cheese! Who knew? So, anyway, this turned into a hearty meal, chock full of yummy goodness and incredibly healthy and yummy. I’ll even try to make up a recipe for you.

 

I started off by sauteeing about 1/2 cup each of diced red onion and red pepper until they were softened, med-low heat

Then i added 3 cloves of minced garlic and about 20 chopped up mushrooms, allowing them to sweat just a little

I followed that up with a whole carton of Thai natural vegan friendly stock from Wegmans. Here is a link to it and other fine prodcuts

http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=366561&storeId=10052&langId=-1

 

Anyway, i also added a little pineapple chili sauce , a pinch of turmeric for color and a touch of sushi vinegar and brought it all to a roaring boil

Then i added a good handful of peeled shrimp and let it cook for another 5 minutes or so until the shrimp was cooked through. I served it on a bed of whole grain rice and fresh raw spinach with a few fresh sprigs of cilantro. The Missus ate it up in a matter of moments and pronounced it good. The Hungryboys swore they would never even try it, no m atter what i threatened them with. O well. Dig the pics and make some soup! If it doesn’t turn out just right, its just a different kind of soup, that’s all.  Also, see how shitty these pictures look??? I need a new camera!! Please send cash or money order or just a new damn Camera!!!