Atlantis Specialty Platter

Today, as a way of dealing with these same four walls, slave decided to take the lowly tuna salad and present it as a highly expensive sea food restaurant would. Yes, food is food, but remember the old song: “Tain't what you do, its the way how you do it!” so lets see if we can make this elegant as a way to show love and caring.

Start with the best tuna, a white albacore, in water. Mix in a small pasta, half & half -mayonnaise & non fat Greek style yogurt, some red onion, a touch of sweet relish and some frozen peas. Then present it in a hollowed out tomato with pretzel crisps, a boiled egg and some shrimp on the side. You might just get a tip!

Ingredients

8 ounces small shells pasta, or your favorite bite-size pasta

7 ounces canned albacore white tuna, packed in water, drained

2 ribs celery, chopped

¼ cup red onion, chopped

4 green onions

1 cup frozen peas

½ cup mayonnaise

½ cup plain non fat Greek yogurt

½ tsp Old Bay seasonings

salt and pepper, to taste

dried dill weed, optional

Instructions

Cook noodles according to package instructions, until al dente. Drain.

Hard cook the eggs.

Hollow out the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt.

Chop your onion and celery, and green onions.

In a large bowl add chopped onion and celery, peas, cooked pasta, and drained tuna.

In a separate bowl, mix the mayo, Greek yogurt and the Old Bay Seasoning.

Stir half of the sauce into the pasta mixture and toss to evenly coat. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Refrigerate pasta and remaining sauce separately, covered, for 30 min. or overnight.

It also helps to refrigerate the fancy plates along side.

Stir in remaining sauce just before serving.

Set out the tomato and place an ice cream scoop from of tuna salad onto that. Over fill it so you get a good sized serving.

Cut the egg in half. Place a Tbs of softened butter down in one corner of a zipper bag. You want these “lines” very small so be sure you only cut a littlest bit of the corner off the bag. Carefully “pipe” the butter in a tiny elegant swirl on the egg half and lightly sprinkle with salt. Place these two halves in one corner of the plate.

Now lay out three pieces of shrimp on the other side of plate. Spoon some shrimp sauce down into the other corner of the zipper bag and carefully ”pipe” a swirl of sauce on the shrimp. Again the tinier the more elegant!

Spread out some pretzel chips along the back side of the tomato for a nice touch of crunch!

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XtAOpvQgfM

What a treat for my Master!

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

Pollo Lento

Just because you are maintaining your presence at home doesn't mean you have to spend all day in the kitchen,(or at least all day cooking ~~ there is all KINDS of other things to do in there). Pollo Lento just means slow chicken. If you are one of the lucky ones telecommuting, You may find your mind drifting on the exciting aromas that develop.

Here is a nearly forgotten standby for the slow cooker. Chicken breasts in spaghetti sauce. Add a touch of special, serve with a crunchy carrot salad and some roasted beans.

Ingredients:

4, skinless, boneless Chicken breast halves

1 (28 oz.) jar Spaghetti sauce

1 can stewed tomatoes

3 Tbs shrimp cocktail sauce

¼ lb. sliced Fresh mushrooms

½ Yellow onion, minced

2 Tbs minced Garlic

1½ tsp. Dried oregano

½ tsp. Dried basil

½ tsp. Ground black pepper

Directions:

Wipe out and spray your slow cooker, Always do this! Set on low.

Rinse and pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Season with salt and paper to taste.

Mince the onion and garlic into a large bowl. 

Stir in the spaghetti sauce, stewed tomatoes, oregano, and basil.

Pour half of this sauce into the slow cooker.

Warm oil in a large skillet and brown the outside of each breast. 

Place them in the cooker as they become golden. 

Pour the rest of the sauce over the chicken. Spoon a tablespoon of shrimp cocktail sauce on each breast.

Cover and let cook on low for 6 – 7 hours, or until the chicken is tender.

For your sides:

Carrot salad

½ lbs shredded carrots

1 apple - peeled, cored and shredded

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/4 cup fat free plain Greek style yogurt

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1 Tbs sugar substitute

½ tsp mustard

½ tsp salt

Directions:

Wash, peel and shred 3 carrots, or just buy it that way.

Peel and core the apple, then grate it into the carrot.

Stir in the cranberries and squeeze lemon juice over all and mix well. (this will help keep the apple from turning brown)

In a bowl mix together the yogurt and mayonnaise, stir in the sweetener and ½ tsp mustard along with the salt.

Stir this dressing into the carrot mixture, cover and let blend in the refrigerator while the chicken cooks.

Green beans:

I prefer to roast the green beans, so rinse, snip, and toss with olive oil. Scatter on a lined, sprayed baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and let roast in a 400 degree oven for about 25 – 30 minutes.

(if you wish, slide in some garlic bread to heat along side.)

When chicken is done, remove each breast and place on a platter. Sprinkle well with Parmesan cheese and cover with a tent of foil to rest for 5 minutes.

Serve on a bed of spaghetti or any favorite pasta.

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoHuxpa4h48

What a wonderful meal for a wonderful Master!

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_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon

Sukiyaki

Here is an old recipe from the Sixties that most households knew. Tasted good but was no so good for you. Here is an updated version that is much healthier. This uses cooked in the can pork and frozen stir-fry vegetables with low sodium soy sauce.

In the Early Sixties there was a popular Japanese recording: “Ue o Muite Arukou”. Which translated to “I look up as I walk”. Record producers knew that it could sell here in the US, in spite of no one understanding the words. Since the disk jockeys could not pronounce it, they re-named it with the only Japanese word people here had ever heard: “ Sukiyaki”!

Ingredients

1 Tbs vegetable oil

1½ Lbs can of cooked pork

⅔ cup soy sauce

1/3 cup low salt beef broth

1 pkg frozen stir fry vegetables

⅓ cup non-sugar sweetener (cookable)

3 Tbs low salt soy sauce

1 Tbs sesame oil

1 teaspoon cornstarch

Directions:

Heat oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

Warm up the pork and then stir in soy sauce, sesame oil, broth, and sugar. Mix in package of stir fry vegetables and cover to let cook on medium for 5 minutes.
Stir in cornstarch, and simmer until sauce is thickened.
Meanwhile cook the rice:

Serve over rice or chow mein noodles.

For our music tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbTsG9jrJsU Sukiyaki

So happy to create this updated version for 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_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon

Chicken Little Stuffed Sliders

Back in prehistoric times, when I was in college, my nickname was Chicken Little. This being my birthday, Master instructed me to whip up a meal just for my tastes! Growing up in the Midwest, naturally I love the sliders from the little castle in white. Here is my take on those classics with a bit of a Juicy Lucy thrown in just for fun.

Bite sized burgers with a surprise in each. Step one make the best egg salad you ever had. Then bury some in each tiny burger on sweet buns! Such a treat and special for today no calories!

So lets start with the egg salad:

4 large hard boiled eggs

1 Tbs sweet pickle relish

2 Tbs mayonnaise

1 Tbs yellow mustard

1 tsp sugar

¼ cup finely chopped celery

¼ tsp salt + 1/8 tsp pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

2 slices bacon

½ cup shredded smoked Gouda 

Directions:

Hard cook the eggs and shell them, set aside to cool. Countless ways to do this, experiment to find what works best for you. 

Cut up the celery and grate the Gouda. 

Any time you use a grater like this, spray it first with cooking spray to ease the clean-up.

Fry up the bacon, drain on paper towels and crumble it up.

Mix the bacon, celery, cheese, and sweet pickle relish in a large bowl.

Add the mayonnaise, and mustard, then the salt & pepper and garlic powder. Taste test to adjust seasonings.

Chop up the hard cooked eggs and fold them into the mixture.

Again, taste test. Cover and place in refrigerator to blend seasonings.

Burgers:

2 lbs ground beef

• 1 tsp salt + ½ tsp pepper
• 1tsp Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup grated onion
• 6 slices American cheese

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed sheet pan with foil and spray.

In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and grated onion. Mix well until all ingredients are evenly distributed.

Let sit for 5 minutes on counter.

Spread out a sheet of parchment paper and a sheet of wax paper side by side.

Using the package of buns and a baking pan as a template, spread half of the meat onto the parchment paper, making the meat about 2 inches larger in each direction of the buns. It meat will shrink as it cooks. Lift it by the paper and ease it into the baking pan. With ends hanging over the pan. You will use these to lift the cooked meat out of the pan latter.

Now spread out the second half of the meat on the wax paper to same size as the meat in the pan.

With a teaspoon drop 12 spoonfuls of the egg salad onto the meat in the pan. Make them equal distance apart. Four rows of three. Just like the buns.

Now turn the wax paper over this on top and peal the paper back. With your hands press the meat together leaving these 12 pockets sealed with meat, pressing edges together. 

Transfer the baking pan to the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until cooked through. Check with a thermometer to read 150- 155 degrees. Carefully remove the pan from the oven and lay out slices of American cheese to cover the meat, return to oven for about 10 minutes until melted.

Remove from oven and let rest for 5 minutes, drain off any grease you can.

Open the buns and cut off the tops. Separate and lay out the bottoms on a platter.

Lift the huge burger by the paper ends carefully and place on cutting board. With a knife, cut into 12 pieces and lift them onto the bottoms. Cover with bun tops.

Slave baked some beans while that was cooking, so they rested along with the burgers. Use that time to microwave the mixed vegetables for a second side dish.

What a birthday celebration! Found some tiny cupcakes, ice cream cups and sparkling cider to make a toast!

To my wonderful Master and my continued slavery!

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OBvnOpUI44

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

James VI and I Stew

Here is an interesting stew made from left over roast pork. When the weather is still so changeable, this is just the thing. The vapors are medicinal! We named it in honor of King James VI and I of Scotland and England. Read about this monarch in a short story after the recipe. Makes good dinner conversation!

Left-over pork, sweet potato, apples, green onions blend together in this stew for a wonderful taste with just a hint of mustard! Try this for a change of pace.

Ingredients

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt + ¼ tsp pepper

1 lbs pork tenderloin

1 tablespoon canola oil

3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 pound), peeled and cubed

½ cup dried cranberries

32 oz reduced-sodium chicken stock

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (or plain yellow)

2 medium apples, peeled and chopped

4 green onions, chopped

Directions:

Do your cutting: The meat and the green onions. 

If using raw pork:

In a shallow bowl, mix flour, salt and pepper. Cut tenderloin into 12 slices; pound each with a meat mallet to 1/4-in. thickness. Dip pork in flour mixture to coat both sides; shake off excess.

In a dutch oven coated with cooking spray, heat oil over medium-high heat; brown pork in batches. Remove from pan.

If using left overs:

Rub any sauce off with paper towels., cut in to bite size pieces and brown in a dutch oven.

As that heats, peel and chop the sweet potatoes, give them a squirt of lemon juice to keep them from getting spots.

Do the same for the apples: 

Remove the pork and add about ½ cup of the chicken stock, to loosen any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. 

Add sweet potatoes, cranberries and broth to same pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 10 minutes or until potatoes are almost tender. Stir in mustard.

Return pork to pan; add apple and green onions. Return to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 

10 minutes or until pork and sweet potatoes are tender.

Stir occasionally to keep anything from burning on the pan.

For our music, one of the most beautiful recording ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpXLdCm8LQ

What a meal for my Master.

315 calories, 8g fat (2g saturated fat), 63mg cholesterol, 513mg sodium, 36g carbohydrate (20g sugars, 4g fiber), 26g protein.

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

================================

King James VI and I

James (1566 – 1625) was king of Scotland until 1603, when he became the first Stuart king of England as well, creating the kingdom of Great Britain. (Thus James VI and I)

James was born in Edinburgh Castle. His mother was Mary, Queen of Scots and his father, her second husband, Lord Darnley. Darnley was murdered in February 1567. In July Mary was forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son.

A succession of regents ruled the kingdom until 1581, when James did take control. He proved to be a shrewd ruler who effectively controlled the various religious and political factions in Scotland.

In 1586, James and Elizabeth I became allies under the Treaty of Berwick. When his mother was executed by Elizabeth the following year, James did not protest too loudly - he hoped to be named as Elizabeth's successor, he was! In 1589, James married Anne of Denmark. Three of their seven children survived into adulthood.

In March 1603, Elizabeth died and James became king of England and Ireland in a remarkably smooth transition of power.

One of James's great contributions to England was the Authorized King James's Version of the bible (1611) which was to become the standard text for more than 250 years.

But he disappointed the Puritans who hoped he would introduce some of the more radical religious ideas of the Scottish church, and the Catholics, who anticipated more lenient treatment.

Abroad, James attempted to encourage European peace. In 1604, he ended the long-running war with Spain and tried to arrange a marriage between his son and the Spanish Infanta. He married his daughter Elizabeth to the elector of the palatinate, Frederick, who was the leader of the German Protestants.

The king, is widely accepted to have had multiple same-sex partners over the course of his life.

There was much speculation at the time about his male favorites, a term used for companions and “advisers”. Though James married Anne of Denmark and had children with her, it has long been believed that James had romantic relationships with at least three men: Esmé Stewart; Robert Carr; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.

Correspondence between James and his male favorites survives. David M. Bergeron theorizes in his book “King James and Letters of Homoerotic Desire”: “The inscription that moves across the letters spell desire.”

At the age of 13, James had made his formal entry into Edinburgh. Upon arriving he met the 37-year-old, married, father of 5, Franco-Scottish lord Esmé Stewart, 6th Lord d'Aubigny, whom the Puritan leader Sir James Melville described as "of nature, upright, just, and gentle". Having arrived from France, Stewart was an exotic visitor who fascinated the young James. The two became extremely close.

“The King altogether is persuaded and led by him . . . and is in such love with him as in the open sight of the people often he will clasp him about the neck with his arms and kiss him,” wrote one royal informant of their relationship.

The King first made Stewart a gentleman of the bedchamber. Later, he appointed him to the Privy Council and created him earl and finally duke of Lennox. At that time in history religion played a most important role in politics. In Presbyterian Scotland the thought of a Catholic duke irked many and Stewart had to make a choice between his Catholic faith or his loyalty to James. At the end he chose James and the king taught him the doctrines of Calvinism. The Scottish Kirk remained suspicious of his public conversion. The Scottish ministry was also warned that the duke sought to "draw the King to carnal lust".

In response the Scottish nobles plotted to oust Stewart. They did so by luring James to Ruthven Castle as a guest but then kept him as prisoner for ten months. The Lord Enterprisers forced him to banish Stewart.

The duke journeyed back to France and kept a secret correspondence with James. Stewart in these letters says he gave up his family "to dedicate myself entirely to you"; he prayed to die for James to prove "the faithfulness which is engraved within my heart, which will last forever." The former duke wrote "Whatever might happen to me, I shall always be your faithful servant... you are alone in this world whom my heart is resolved to serve. And would to God that my breast might be split open so that it might be seen what is engraven therein."

James was devastated by the loss. In his return to France, Stewart had met a frosty reception as an apostate Catholic. The Scottish nobles had thought that they would be proven right that Stewart's conversion was artificial when he returned to France. Instead the former duke remained Presbyterian and died shortly after, leaving James his embalmed heart. James had repeatedly vouched for Stewart's religious sincerity and memorialized him in a poem called Ane Tragedie of the Phoenix, which likened him to an exotic bird of unique beauty killed by envy.

A few years later after the controversy over his relationship with Lennox faded away he began a relationship with Robert Carr. In 1607, at a royal jousting contest, the 17-year-old Carr, the son of Sir Thomas Carr or Kerr of Ferniehurst, was knocked from a horse and broke his leg. According to Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Suffolk, James fell in love with the young athlete, and began to shower Carr with gifts. Carr was made a gentleman of the bedchamber and he was noted as being very handsome, but with limited intelligence; he was also made a Knight of the Garter, a Privy Counsellor and Viscount Rochester. His downfall came when Carr decided that he wanted to marry Frances Howard, a beautiful young woman who was already married. Upon Carr's urging, James set up a court of bishops that would allow her to divorce her husband in order to marry Carr. As a wedding present He was named Earl of Somerset.

In 1615, James fell out with Somerset. In a letter James complained, among other matters, that Somerset had been "creeping back and withdrawing yourself from lying in my chamber, notwithstanding my many hundred times earnest soliciting you to the contrary" and that he rebuked James "more sharply and bitterly than ever my master Buchanan durst do".

At this point public scandal erupted when the underkeeper of the tower revealed that Somerset's new wife had poisoned Sir Thomas Overbury, his best friend who had opposed the marriage. James, angered over Somerset's attachment to his wife, exploited the opportunity and forcefully insisted that they face trial.

Somerset threatened to blackmail the King, to reveal that they had slept together. At the trial, while testifying before the Lords in Westminster Hall, two men were posted beside him by order of the King, prepared to muffle him with cloaks should he begin to divulge delicate matters. They were not needed, and though he refused to admit any guilt, his wife confessed, and both were sentenced to death. The King commuted the sentence. Nevertheless, they were imprisoned in the Tower for seven years, after which they were pardoned and allowed to retire to a country estate.

But James’s most famous favorite was George Villiers. James met him in his late 40s and several years later promoted him to Duke of Buckingham — an astounding rise for someone of his rank. Bergeron records the deeply affectionate letters between the two; in a 1623 letter, James refers bluntly to “marriage” and calls Buckingham his “wife:”

“I cannot content myself without sending you this present, praying God that I may have a joyful and comfortable meeting with you and that we may make at this Christmas a new marriage ever to be kept hereafter . . . I desire to live only in this world for your sake, and that I had rather live banished in any part of the earth with you than live a sorrowful widow’s life without you. And may so God bless you, my sweet child and wife, and grant that ye may ever be a comfort to your dear dad and husband.”

A lost portrait of Buckingham by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens was recently discovered in Scotland, depicting a striking and stylish man. And a 2008 restoration of Apethorpe Hall, where James and Villiers met and later spent time together, discovered a passage that linked their bedchambers.

Though plenty of evidence exists to support a relationship between the king and Villiers, it was long airbrushed from public view.

In his letters to the king, Villiers wrote: “I naturally so love your person, and adore all your other parts, which are more than ever one man had.”

James's eldest son Henry died in 1612 and his wife Anne in 1619. James himself died on 27 March 1625 and was succeeded by his second son, Charles.