Lynchburg Liver

Beef liver can offer an inexpensive diversity to your monthly menu. The problem is; “How are you going to get him to eat it?” A generation has been raised on over cooked shoe leather masquerading as liver. Here we find by the judicious addition of scientifically proven “Man Pleasing” ingredients they will be asking: “When are we going to have liver again?” Use the magic of bacon & Jack Daniels along with garlic & onions!

Like any other food humans have eaten for thousands of years, liver has good and bad points. This is not for me to delve into. To paraphrase Star Trek's “Bones” McCoy: “Damn it Jim, I'm a cook not a doctor!”

Ingredients

1-2 lbs beef liver

1 cup milk (or water with lemon juice)

2 Tbs butter

½ cup cake flour

3 cups chicken broth

3 slices bacon

4 cloves garlic chopped

1 medium yellow onion sliced

2 Tbs maple syrup

1 Tbs Jack Daniels

salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a baking dish.

Rinse liver and place in bowl or dish covered in milk. Let sit for an hour.
If holding kosher try water with juice of a lemon or 1 or 2 Tbs of vinegar.
Pat dry.

Dredge in ½ cup cake flour, sprinkle with salt and pepper then place in baking dish. Save the four.

Slice the onions and mince the garlic. Place in separate bowls.

Fry 3 pieces of bacon until desired “done”-ness and remove to paper towel.
 
Add onions to skillet with the bacon grease and lower the heat. Stir and cook until turning slightly brown. About 10 – 15 minutes.

Add garlic and reserved flour to the pan and stir until well moistened. Slowly stir in the chicken broth and let thicken as you stir occasionally. Careful that it does not burn.

When nicely thick, remove from heat and stir in the maple syrup and Jack Daniels. Taste and adjust any seasonings to your preference.

Lay pieces of bacon in the baking dish and arrange liver in one layer on top.

Pour the sauce over to cover. Then seal the dish with foil and bake for a full hour.

Remove foil and continue baking for an additional 25 minutes.

Transfer the pieces of liver to a platter with a slotted spoon and place the bacon on top. If gravy is thin, pour into a sauce pan with a slurry of 4 tbs water and 2 tbs corn starch. Heat and stir until desired thickness.
This serves well with mashed potatoes or noodles and a side of a broccoli.

What a surprise for your table tonight!
For music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOY6Sd9Q82Y


So happy to honor my Master Indy with a Maple & Jack Daniels version of liver!

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White http://www.amazon.com

/dp/B00F315Y4I

/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via 

@amazon

Alexander & Roberts pie

Since it is the time of Thanksgiving, lets take a moment to be thankful for a couple of brave Pilgrims you might have never heard of. Don't forget to read of their life in the Plymouth Colony after the recipe.

The left-over turkey is starting to run out, yeah! Here's is an interesting reinvention of the classic English shepherd's pie. This uses up remains of the big meal and a few items from the pantry. So it does not take a big chunk out of the food budget that has already taken a big hit.

Really turkey is a great protein that can and should be eaten on more than two days of the year. Try some in all kinds of dishes.

Ingredients:

1 cup cut up left over turkey (approx)

1 cup of a can peas and carrots

12 oz of turkey gravy or a 15oz can cream of celery soup

1 can creamed corn

1 sleeve of butter type crackers (like Ritz)

3 tbs butter

2 tbs flour

Optional: fried onions for a topping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a casserole dish and sit aside.

Cut up the turkey into small pieces.

Open and drain the can of creamed corn.

Drain the peas & corn.

Heat 1 tbs butter or oil in skillet over medium heat. Stir in the turkey and let cook until the edges start to have a touch of brown.

Add the peas and let warm up before adding the gravy or soup. Stir occasionally until well blended.

 

In a medium bowl mix the drained cream corn with a sleeve of crushed crackers, stir in the flour. You want this to be very thick.

Spoon the turkey mix into the bottom of the casserole dish. Next layer the corn mixture on top and dot with remaining butter dabs. Sprinkle the top with some of those left over fried onions.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until golden.

Serve with a bread and have a wonderful hearty meal that will knock the chill off the autumn day and clear out all those left overs.

What a great new idea to serve your Master.

For our music, how about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMFH29gywpI

Serving my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White http://www.amazon.com

/dp/B00F315Y4I

/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via 

@amazon

John Alexander and Thomas Roberts

While the “first” Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1622, our story today starts in the summer 15 years later. Two hard-working English men living at the Plimouth colony faced the possibility of execution after being convicted of a serious moral offense. That horrible crime these two men committed was love. John Alexander and Thomas Roberts had been "caught" in a gay relationship.

Though the penalty was death for being gay, neither man was executed.

Alexander, who was presented in court as being the "seducer" (and therefore considered more responsible) was branded with a hot iron and banished from the colony. Roberts was allowed to stay, though the court forbade him from owning land or participating in the political process (in time, he proved himself "reformed", and Roberts was allowed to own land and to vote). They both received severe whippings.

The colony needed every pair of strong adult hands and couldn’t afford to lose both workers. The judges would have known both of the defendants and were more reluctant to send neighbors (and maybe friends closer than they cared to admit?) to their deaths.

The court records are few (and only a handful of records of other people). What remains give us an idea of what life was like for gay men. Remember that everyone knew everyone else in that colony, so while same-sex relationships with another Pilgrim may have been too-risky for most married men, a tribe of nearly naked Native American guys were living nearby. (Many Natives didn't have the same prejudice towards gays as Pilgrims).

Since we know that some of the female Pilgrims were having sex with male Natives, it's reasonable that some of the married husbands enjoyed gay sex with Native American men.

Many historians also believe that in addition to gays, court documents suggest that bisexuality among married men probably occurred as often then as it does today.

So while there were most certainly others, let us remember and be thankful for the brave LGBT Pilgrims and Native Americans who carved out and built the country we live in today.

Thank You Two Casserole

Anytime you fix a big holiday meal it would be irresponsible to not plan on left-overs. Some can be pretty sad warmed-up rehashes of yesterdays meal. Some can be a new taste from the old. Here is a simple to throw together casserole using up the left-overs and yet adding a unique new taste.

This can also be done as an Italian dish by using a tomato sauce and Italian seasonings instead of the sage and thyme. Experiment with left-overs, it is a free meal!

Ingredients

• Green Beans, mushrooms, onion mix (aprox. 1.5 cups
• 3/4 lb (approx.) leftover cooked turkey meat, dark or light meat, roughly chopped into bite sized pieces
• 3 tbs butter
• 1 ½ tbs cake flour
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon thyme (important, do not omit)
• ½ tsp sage
• 1 cup milk
• Salt to taste
• Sprinkle of Parmesan cheese

Directions

Pre heat oven to 375 degrees and spray a 2 quart casserole.

Put the water for pasta on to boil and cut up the cooked turkey.

When boiling, cook noodles according to package directions (abut 9 minutes - Drain)

Heat butter in a large sauté pan on medium-high heat, adding the cut up turkey. Let that start to brown on the edges.

Add the flour and mix well. When dissolved, pour in the milk and add seasonings. Stir until this thickens well, about 4 minutes. The aroma will be fantastic! 
 

Add the green bean mixture and cook for a couple of minutes stirring occasionally. All you have to do is heat it up.

Pour the drained noodles into the sprayed casserole dish and spoon the turkey mixture on top.


Sprinkle with cheese and let roast in oven for about 25 to 30 minutes to blend these wonderful flavors and scent the room with holiday aromas.

You may wish some heated bread to go with this, but it is a complete meal in a dish as it is. The wonderful homemade creamy sauce pulls this together.


If you have any of the sweet potatoes left over, heat and serve as a dessert in small bowls!


For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOiUfSd3ohs


Serving my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White http://www.amazon.com

/dp/B00F315Y4I

/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via 

@amazon

An EZ Thanksgiving of Your Own

This country's biggest cooking & eating day is coming. It might NOT be the year to go “home” to biological family for this holiday. Perhaps the thought of going to a friends “Experimental” dinner of Turkey Sushi or Sriracha Sweet Potatoes has your stomach feeling weary. What we have here is an easy to fix meal with traditional tastes. However you will find it a bit lighter on both your emotions and your gut! Plan on 2½ hours to fix.

We can still have turkey, dressing, cranberries & sweet potatoes, even the better taste out of Aunt Hoochie's Heavy Green Bean casserole without the gray gloop!

Organize, pull it together, and let an old slave show you how You can do this yourself.

MENU

Roasted Turkey

Gravy

Dressing

Sweet Potatoes

Roasted Green Beans & Mushrooms

Ingredients:

A boneless 3 lbs turkey

(These are in the frozen section with other turkeys. They contain both white & dark meat but no bones, so the approx $9.00 cost is really not so bad. They also include a nice gravy packet for easy to fix fool proof gravy. Just be sure to thaw) NOTE the sodium is HIGH! Do not salt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dressing – check the previous recipe for slider stuffing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sweet Potatoes

2-3 sweet potatoes

1 small can tropical fruit salad

4 tbs light brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ cup Triple sec orange liqueur

1 can WHOLE BERRY cranberry sauce. (look for the upside down can)

Green Beans

12 oz fresh green beans

8 oz fresh mushrooms (or a small can)

1 large yellow onion

2 tbs olive oil

1 tube of bread that you bake yourself,. Either croissants, dinner rolls, Italian bread, whatever you like, they all cook about the same time & temps.350 for ½ hour.

 

Directions:

Before pre heating oven to 350 check to make sure your pans will fit the way you want them.

Read the covering of the turkey! It gives directions on thawing and how to open the package.

Fixing the dressing the night before and keeping tightly covered (plastic wrap) in refrigerator will same time and frustrations. You do have plenty of time to fix it if you wait until the turkey is just put in oven.

You can also set up the sweet potatoes, refrigerated, wrapped in plastic the night before – just don't cook either of these in the wrap!

TURKEY:

The meat is held together with a cotton netting. Careful with that. It stays on while cooking but remember to cut it off before serving! This is not a self flossing bird. The gravy packet is kept until needed. Since this is a flat 3 lbs there is no guessing or trying to estimate times in the oven. However you must still use a thermometer to check before serving.(165) Nobody is thankful for raw turkey food poisoning. It will probably say roast for 2 hours at 350 degrees, but check at the 1.5 hour mark. Read the package! Place in foil lined baking pan on a rack if possible, if no rack will fit that small of a pan, cut large rings of onions and place turkey on that. On the spur of the moment, slave decided to cut a strip of bacon in half and drape over the bird: skin side up by the way.

That first hour and a half gives you time to set up the vegetables which go in for the last half hour. Fix them up and cover with plastic wrap until time to cook. It is SO much easier.

Line a baking tray with foil & spray. Rinse mushrooms and green beans. While they dry, chop up the onion.

Mix the beans, onions and mushrooms on the tray and drizzle with olive oil, set aside.

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes, Sit them in a bowl covered with a damp paper towel as you work because they can develop spots. 

  Spray a small microwave safe casserole. Carefully slice the potatoes with a mandolin type slicer for less than a ¼ inch slices. USE THE HANDLE while slicing. Stack the slices into the casserole on their sides. pour in the triple sec all over. Drain the fruit salad and fit the pieces around the slices. Spoon about ¼ cup of the whole cranberry sauce around. 

  

Yes the cans of cranberry sauce can be confused with the jellied kind. So they make it easier on you by labeling the whole cranberry stuff with the cans upside down! Look for the bottom on top and you get the right one.

Sprinkle with brown sugar. Cover and sit in refrigerator. Spoon the rest of the sauce into a small serving bowl to have along side the meal. While it is just fine right out of the can, you may wish to doctor it up with a bit of cinnamon.

Line another tray with foil. Open the tube of bread and arrange for oven. However do NOT make my mistake of using a foil tray on the bottom shelf – bread will burn. To be safe: put metal pans on bottom rack and foil trays on top rack.

Now with everything ready it is just a matter of when to slide it in the oven.

With half an hour to go: Since the turkey is small there should be room on lower rack to slide the dressing pan in along side. These will not burn like the foil trays will. On the upper shelf goes the green beans and bread.. Watch the times.

The turkey must rest for 10 minutes before serving and slicing. That will give time to make the ez gravy. Dump in pan and stir until it boils! The last to get cooked are the sweet potatoes which only take about 6 - 8 minutes on high. Don't over fill dish and watch for spillovers.

          Remember the temperatures! 

            Not just of the turkey (165).

While the food gets hot – you take time to chill out!

Don't forget to sing while cooking! As you cook, think about things you are grateful for. FOCUS on happiness and the food will taste better.

For music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNKOI9Axots

So happy to be serving as a slave to my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes 

by 

Dan White http://www.amazon.com

/dp/B00F315Y4I

/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via 

@amazon