chicken tortilla soup

I got a letter this mornin’, how do you reckon it read?

It said, “Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead”

I got a letter this mornin’, I say how do you reckon it read?

You know, it said, “Hurry, hurry, how come the gal you love is dead?”

“Death Letter” by Son House

Another good warmer upper for this cold winter weather. I am fully aware that this is not a traditional Mexican recipe, in fact, it is probably way more American than it is Mexican.  The corn tortillas are an awesome thickener that completely disappear into the the soup and also provide a really nice tortilla essence. WTF is a tortilla essence? Man, I need a vacation. The ingredient list is kind of long but everything is really easy to get a hold of (from your local megamart) and relatively quick to throw together. Also, this soup freezes well so don’t be afraid of making such a large batch.

Ingredients:

1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 cup onion, diced
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons corn oil
4 (15 oz.) cans chicken broth
1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1 (10 oz.) can Rotel tomatoes and chiles
2 packets of taco seasoning
8 corn tortillas, chopped
2 large chicken breasts, diced
1 cup of milk
8 oz. Monterey jack, shredded
1/3 cup cilantro, chopped
1 (15 oz.) can of black beans, drained but not rinsed

Directions:

1. Heat corn oil in a large pot
2. Cook carrots, celery, onion, garlic powder, garlic, salt and pepper, until tender
3. Add broth and bring to a boil***Meanwhile, in a separate pan, cook chicken breasts and one taco seasoning packet until no longer pink***
4. To the boiling pot, add tomatoes, Rotel, the other taco seasoning packet, and cooked chicken, bring to a boil
5. Add tortilla pieces and boil for 20 minutes
6. Lower heat to a simmer, add cheese and black beans, cook for 10 minutes
7. Add milk and cilantro and cook for 10 more minutes

breakfast sandwich

Well it’s 1969 okay all across the USA

It’s another year for me and you

Another year with nothing to do

“1969″ by The Stooges

And for my biscuit and sausage week finale…I had to do this…my ode to McDonald’s breakfast: homemade biscuits, homemade breakfast sausage, and a fried egg.

sausage gravy

It was there I found beside the Alamo

Enchantment strange as the blue, up above

A moonlit path that only she would know

Still hears my broken song of love

“New San Antonio Rose” by Bob Wills

I prefer using bacon grease as the starter fat but butter is obviously an extremely tasty alternative.  This makes a very thick gravy, if you like it a little thinner add more milk at the very end.  This gravy will taste very good on top of those biscuits that I inspired you to make the other day. Other good additions to this gravy would be sage, thyme, and/or a little hot sauce.

Ingredients:

About 3 tablespoons bacon grease or butter
1 pound loose breakfast sausage
1/2 cup flour
4 cups whole milk
Salt and (lots of) pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a medium sauce pan, heat milk over low heat but don’t boil
2. In a large skillet heat bacon grease over medium high heat, add sausage and cook until brown and crumbly
3. Sprinkle flour over cooked sausage and cook for two minutes
4. Add milk and cook until the gravy has thickened to desired consistency, season with salt and lots of pepper

breakfast sausage

We’ve lived in bars and danced on tables

Hotels trains and ships that sail

We swim with sharks and fly with aeroplanes out of here

Out of here

“Lived In Bars” by Cat Power

This kicks Jimmy Dean’s ass. I like to grind my own pork but store brought ground pork would work just fine. If you like your breakfast sausage a little sweet, double the brown sugar or add a little maple syrup.  I like to take the extra breakfast sausage and form it into two inch patties and then freeze them in Tupperware on parchment paper.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of ground pork shoulder
1 tablespoon of rubbed sage
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons marjoram
2 teaspoons thyme
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon rosemary
½ teaspoon coriander
½ teaspoon onion powder

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use

buttermilk biscuits

I should be suspended from class

I don’t know my elbow from my arse

I should be suspended from class

“Suspended From Class” by Camera Obscura

I tried bacon fat, I tried lard, I tried butter, I tried shortening, after a blind taste test I wholeheartedly believe that butter gives the best flavor to the biscuits.  While I will continue to tinker with my biscuit recipe, this will be my standard (I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you try it). I am getting pretty fast too, I can have a batch done, from start to finish, in about 35 minutes.

Ingredients:

4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting (the better the flour, the better the biscuits)
2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 and 1/2 sticks), cut into 1/2 inch cubes and chilled (but not frozen) in the freezer
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 500°F and grease a baking sheet with butter
2. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients
3. With a pastry cutter, cut butter into flour until it looks like a small crumb
4. Add buttermilk until just combined, add more flour if too wet or buttermilk if too dry
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface
6. Fold the dough over on itself and repeat 4 more times
7. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to about 1/2-3/4 inch thickness
8. With a biscuit cutter, cut biscuits
9. Place biscuits on a cookie sheet with sides just touching each other
10. Bake for about 9-12 minutes, until golden brown
11. Cool on a cooling rack or the bottoms will get soggy

biscuits

They declared me unfit to live

Said into that great void my soul’d be hurled

They wanted to know why I did what I did

Well sir I guess there’s just a meanness in this world

“Nebraska” by Bruce Springsteen

So I made biscuits, lots of biscuits.  After much trial and error, I will confidently share my new go-to recipe (all you have to do is wait a couple of days!).

bourbon pecan pie

And maybe Marlon Brando will be there by the fire

We’ll sit and talk of Hollywood and the good things there for hire

And the Astrodome and the first tepee

Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me

Marlon Brando, Pocahontas and me

“Pocahontas” by Neil Young

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone has a day full of gorging, naps, booze, and football. Be safe and I will see ya’ll next week.

Ingredients:

Enough pie dough to make one shell
3 large eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2/3 cup light corn syrup
¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons bourbon (I prefer Basil Hayden)
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups pecans, toasted in a skillet or in the oven

Directions:

1.    Preheat oven to 350° F
2.    Put dough in pie tin
3.    In a large bowl, whisk eggs
4.    Add brown sugar and whisk
5.    Whisk in vanilla, corn syrup, butter, bourbon, and salt
6.    Fold in pecans
7.    Dump pecan mix into pie crust
8.    Bake pie for 45-55 minutes until set in the center

fast marinara

Please take a sweet

Come take a walk with me

We’ll sort it out

Back at my place, maybe

“A Quick One (While He’s Away)” by the Who

This stuff is good. Spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, you name it…

This marinara, as the name states, can be made in a New York minute. Start to finish, you can have this entire recipe completed in less than 15 minutes.

Crap, am I starting to sound like Rachel Ray? “Why make hamburger helper from the box when you could make your own hamburger helper in under 30 minutes, yum o!”

Or even worse…Sandra Lee? “Take a couple of cans of crap and sprinkle some crap on top and then pop in the microwave for 30 seconds and viola… crap!”

I think this has inspired me to do something very anti-fast food, barbecue anyone?

Ingredients:

28 oz can of whole tomatoes
1 onion, small chop
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
¼ cup olive oil
Pinch of red pepper flakes
Salt and Pepper

Directions:

1.    Heat olive oil in a large sauce pan over medium-high heat
2.    Add onions, cook until translucent
3.    Add garlic, cook until fragrant, about one minute
4.    Add tomatoes, smash to desired consistency with a fork
5.    Add basil, oregano, and pepper flakes
6.    Season with salt and pepper
7.    Lower heat to a simmer, cook for 10 minutes

bagels

The Mississippi Delta was shining like a national guitar

I am following the river down the highway

Through the cradle of the civil war

I’m going to Graceland, Graceland, in Memphis Tennessee

I’m going to Graceland

“Graceland” by Paul Simon

Photo by Elissa Hemauer

You gotta have something to smear that wonderful cream cheese on to…

This is actually my wife’s recipe (as well as her beautiful photo above).  This was her first attempt at bagels and a very successful first attempt at that. These, like most bagels, are best toasted and smeared with butter or cream cheese.

Ingredients:

4 cups bread flour
1 tablespoon sugar
11/2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 package instant yeast
1 ¼-1 ½ cup warm water (110-120° F)

For egg wash:
1 egg

Directions:

1.    Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl (minus egg wash)
2.    The dough should feel stiff but not extra stiff, add more water if extra stiff or if the mix is not taking all of the flour
3.    Knead for 10 minutes until uniform and smooth
4.    Cut the dough into 10 equal size balls
5.    Cover with damp, clean dish cloth and let rest for 30 minutes
6.    Take each ball, poke a hole in the middle and spread dough to make a 11/2 inch hole in the middle and a doughnut shape
7.    Cover dough again and let rise for 20 minutes
8.    Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water and 1 tablespoon of baking soda to a boil and preheat oven to 425° F
9.    Working four at a time, place bagels in boiling water boil for two minute and flip, then boil for one more minute
10.    Using a spatula, remove the bagels from the water and place on a towel to dry off
***Now would be the time to add toppings (sesame seeds, onion flakes, cheese, etc.)
11.    Place bagels on a parchment lined baking sheet brush with a beaten egg yolk
12.    Bake for 10 minutes and flip, bake for an additional 10 minutes

lemon, dill, and caper cream cheese

He ended up like so many of ‘em do

Back in the streets of New York City

In a soup queue, a dope fiend, a slave

Then prison, then the mad house

Then the grave, oh, poor Larry

But what do we really know of the dead

And who actually cares?

“Dig, Lazarus, Dig!” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

This compound cream cheese recipe is really meant for the gravlax that I made earlier this week. I thought it would be good to create a recipe that would incorporate all of the traditional lox breakfast accoutrements inside of the cream cheese. I don’t know about you, but it really pisses me off when I bite into my lox and have capers rolling all over my plate and onto the floor. Have I mentioned that I am not that graceful?

Now that we have the cream cheese taken care of, what the hell are we going to spread this stuff on? Don’t worry, the bagel recipe will be coming up in a few days…

Ingredients:

8 oz brick of cream cheese
2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced
1 lemon, zested
¼ cup of capers chopped
¼ teaspoons black pepper

Directions:

1.    Soften the cream cheese with a fork
2.    Add all of the ingredients
3.    Serve on a bagel with those tasty gravlax