Sunday Dinner – 7 October 2018

Every now and then I get a craving for corn relish. It doesn’t happen often, but it happened last weekend. I looked around the condiments, pickles and salsas in three different grocery stores and wasn’t able to find any. So I decided to make it myself.

It wasn’t that difficult. The canning jar that I used was big enough for a double batch, so when it was safely in the fridge, it occurred to me that we could have it for a side dish at this week’s Sunday Dinner. Then the question became what to do for a main.

Pork burgers came to mind, and my memory went wandering back to the first time I ever ate them as a child. I can still vividly remember the smell of the charcoal, and that first amazing umami bomb bite. It’s my first memory of charcoal grilled food, and I remember it being the most delicious thing I had ever tasted at the time.

The way I remembered it, my brother-in-law, Berwyn, had grilled them, and he had used a special seasoning from the Illinois Pork Producers Association. This was fifty years or so ago, though, so I wasn’t sure. After researching online to no avail, I fired off an email to my sister, which began “This may sound crazy…”

Turns out that the memory was correct, and that their family still uses the spice to this day. Vicki was able to give me an Amazon link, and even went so far as to contact the Pork Producers to find out if it was the same spice recipe as the one made in the 1960s. They said that it is. It’s made by the folks from Custom Culinary in Oswego, Illinois.

So I was all set to relive the taste this weekend, except that the shipment of the seasoning wouldn’t arrive in time.

I improvised, after looking at the ingredients label, with a mix of onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, dry mustard and MSG. I also seasoned the burgers with salt and pepper. They turned out great. Mrs. Noe said “I like these better than hamburgers.”

I also made potatoes with vinegar and salt, which was a hit.

Claudia made a terrific salad, as usual, and she and our daughter, Caroline, made apple crisp for dessert.

Wine was a Columbia Valley Riesling from Aldi’s that was really quite nice.

I still have some of the Custom Culinary seasoning on the way, and am looking forward to trying that before long.

And we’re counting down two more weeks until Aunt Pat joins us at table again. 🙂

30 September 2018

We attended a performance of our local theater company this afternoon, so we wanted to prepare a crockpot meal for Sunday Dinner.

Louisiana Red Beans and Rice is one of our favorites, and couldn’t be simpler. I gently sautéed some Cajun Trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery), adding some minced garlic towards the end, then added it to a crock pot with red beans, Worcestershire Sauce, black pepper, a couple of bay leaves, some dried parsley, Tabasco Sauce and liquid smoke.

This turned out delicious, as always. Claudia made a lovely banana cake with chocolate frosting for dessert. In keeping with the Louisiana theme, I had a Sazerac cocktail before dinner, and we opened the last bottle of one of my favorite French wines (a Côtes Catalanes) to drink with the meal.

Sunday Dinner – 9 September 2018

This was one of the first things that I learned to cook well, and remains a favorite after decades.

It starts with a sauté of onions and garlic, which goes into the crock with kidney beans, pintos, black beans, diced tomatoes, some picante sauce, cocoa powder, liquid smoke, S&P, a bottle of beer and a package of Chili Man seasoning. Usually I add a couple of dried whole cayennes, but we’ve finally run out of the ones we’d grown and dried years ago. I started this on low at 8 PM Saturday night. This morning I cut up a couple of green peppers to add, checked seasonings, and added a little more ground black pepper and some kosher salt. At the very end, I added a handful of rolled oats.

I used to make cornbread from a Miracle Maize mix, but nowadays I mix it up from scratch – 1 1/4 cups of cornmeal, 3/4 cup of flour, 2 T sugar, 2 t baking powder, and 1 t coarse salt for the dry ingredients, then 1 1/4 cup of milk, 1 egg and half a stick of melted butter for the wet. Half an hour in the oven at 375 does the trick.

We served this with chopped avocado, shredded cheese and sour cream. I put Cholula sauce in my bowl. Grampy always has a little maple syrup on his cornbread on the side. The ladies opted for no wine this week. I opened a bottle of Shiner Bock for me, and a can of Busch NA for Grampy (which seemed to agree with him).

Grammy brought an incredible triple berry pie for dessert.

We missed Aunt Pat this week as she had other family obligations.

I’m looking forward to chili cheeseburgers for supper one night this week.

Sunday Dinner – 26 August 2018

We’re celebrating Aunt Pat’s birthday this week, so we made barbecue chicken for Sunday Dinner. Last weekend I told her the story of our Farsi Chicken recipe, so Claudia and I decided to go with that. Luckily this time I was vigilant, and didn’t burn it to a crisp.

Claudia made Basmati rice with Garam Masala, and we also grilled some peppers as a side. I made two of our favorite Wisconsin Supper Club appetizers, marinated olives and marinated mushrooms, and also churned up some lemon custard ice cream for dessert. The wine was an exceptional 2010 Côtes du Rhône.

Everything turned out just about right.

Sunday Dinner – 19 August 2018

Still clearing out the freezer, so I decided to make pork roast with mustard gravy this week from a five pound pork loin.

The recipe came from The Daring Gourmet. Essentially, you slather the roast with mustard, brown it in a Dutch Oven, add some aromatics, wine and broth, and cook it at 325 for three hours. When everything comes out, you add a flour and stock slurry and simmer to thicken the gravy.

This is the sort of simple, savory food that my mother would have prepared when I was a child. I don’t remember her ever cooking this particular recipe, but the flavors brought back memories nonetheless.

Grampy’s 80th birthday is coming up in a few days, and he does love his pork, so I figured it would be a fitting dinner this weekend.

Aunt Pat had other family obligations today, so she didn’t join us, but we did have a chance to get together with her and Claudia’s cousins, Dan and Monica (and Monica’s husband, Ron) Saturday evening for a bit.

We served a Columbia Valley Riesling from Aldi’s with the Senfbraten, and I went easy on it because I may have been overserved Saturday night. It rarely happens, but it does happen. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Grammy brought a super delicious cherry pie for dessert.