Carpe Diem French Onion Pork Chops

 Next week turkey will be everywhere so lets have some fun with an old fashioned pork chop. Tonight we will blend in the rich taste of French Onion soup to simmer our chops. You will love the result. We named this meal after an interesting Guest House in Provencetown. Read about it after the recipe.

Use a thick chop at least 1½ inches. Cook down the ½ inch thick onions, and top with traditional cheese. Wow what a meal.

Ingredients

2 large yellow onions, sliced into rings ½ inch thick

2 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 pork chops cut 1½ inches thick

1½ tsp Salt

1 tsp pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

2 tablespoons all purpose flour

1 cup beef stock (low sodium)

1 tsp Worcester sauce

½ tsp thyme optional

½ teaspoon rosemary optional

4 slices provolone cheese or Guada, Gruyere

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Do your cutting. Slice the onions at least ½ inch thick. As they caramelize they will cook down and if they are thin, just turn into a gooey mess.

To start them cooking (and shorten the time spent standing over the stove stirring), place them in a microwave safe bowl and cook on high for 3.30 mins.

Heat a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and olive oil. Generously season both sides of the pork chops with salt and pepper. Sear pork chops for 3-4 minutes then flip and sear another 3-4 minutes. Remove to a plate and set aside.

To the skillet add sliced onions and cook 10 to 15 minutes now over medium heat stirring frequently the last couple of minutes add in the garlic and continue cooking until caramelized and browned.

Stir in the flour and cook about 30 seconds. Slowly stir in the beef broth, and add in the Worcester sauce and if using the rosemary and thyme. Let the sauce simmer for 2-3 minutes just until thickened.

Pour into a 9 x 11 baking dish that has been sprayed.

Place the pork chops back into the gravy and add the cheese slices on top.

Bake 8-10 minutes until cheese is melted and pork chop reaches 145 degrees on a meat thermometer for an accurate temperature.

Serve with mashed potatoes and a vegetable.

A wonderful surprise dinner for a chilly day. The aroma will enchant and the meat tender and juicy.

you can also use chicken. The ingredients wont change but the cooking time will depending on which part of the chicken you use.

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9PsJm-oRAM England Swings

So happy to serve this 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_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon

                               

 

=========================== 

 

 The Haunted Gay Carpe Diem Guesthouse in 

Provincetown, MA

In what was referred to as Helltown (P-town or Provencetown), the funeral home was turned into the Carpe Diem Guesthouse.

Owned by partners Rainer Horn and Jürgen Herzog, the bed & breakfast is well known for its literary theme, its wonderful breakfasts and being haunted!

Each guest room at the Carpe Diem is named after a famous writer, and the one named after William Shakespeare has seen its share of strange occurrences. One employee often felt a watchful presence in this room, and a guest who spent the night there said she heard a voice telling her to “Get up and get out!”

In the Eugene O’Neill suite, workers have seen an imprint of a body on the bed when no one was in the room.

There have also been reports of disembodied voices and shadow figures in the basement and a female apparition sporting black, turn-of-the-century clothing and walking down the stairs.

A housekeeper working alone in the basement heard someone whisper in his ear and then touch his back, but couldn’t see anyone when he turned around. His experience was later confirmed by a guest using the outdoor hot tub, which is near a basement window. The guest asked the desk manager about the man and woman walking around in the basement wearing Victorian clothing. When the manager descended into the basement to investigate he found no one there. A housekeeper who lived in the basement has also claimed he saw a shadowy figure walking into his room.

The owners of the guesthouse think one of the ghosts may be a former manager named Kevin, who liked working there so much he decided to stick around after death. They don’t know who the other ghosts are, but since the building was a 19th century funeral home, there are plenty of candidates.

All in all the ghosts at the Carpe Diem are fairly mellow, no bleeding walls or glowing eyes staring in the window. Just perhaps a hot male ghost lying in your bed waiting for you at this clothing optional adult spa and guesthouse.

A daily breakfast includes eggs to order, freshly baked muffins and breads. Complimentary Port and Sherry is available 24 hours a day.

Sorry, no French Onion Pork Chops here. Rather just an interesting story for your Dinner conversations.

Orange-Maple Cranberry Sauce

According to a Harris Poll, 46% of Americans find this side dish to be “disgusting.” They asked more than 2,000 U.S. adults about their Thanksgiving food preferences and the canned cranberries were at the bottom of the list. While 68% of Americans hated cranberry sauce, they did admit that they’d still eat it as part of the meal. But there were a staunch 29% who said that they never touch it. Instead of that nasty canned stuff make this fresh sauce.

Recipe yields about 2 cups cranberry sauce.

Cranberries contain a lot of water, and cutting down on that yielded the ideal consistency. Frozen cranberries works as well as fresh, but you need to increase the cooking time slightly. Leaving on the stove for too long turns it into a mushy red mash, so it was important to keep a close eye on it as it cooks.

Ingredients

12 ounces (1 bag) fresh cranberries

½ cup honey or maple syrup

½ cup water

½ tsp orange flavor

½ cup Tripple Sec orange

1 tsp vanilla extract

diced apple Granny Smith

Optional add-ins: ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon and/or ¼ cup fresh orange juice,

Directions:

Rinse the cranberries. Pick out any you don't like the look of.

In a medium saucepan, combine the cranberries, maple syrup and Tripple Sec.

NOTE: Anytime you have to measure out a thick liquid, spray the measuring cup or spoon with cooking spray first. They way you get the correct amount and remember to wipe the neck of the bottle with a damp paper towel so that the next time it will open.

Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries have popped and the mixture has thickened to your liking, about 5 to 10 minutes.

While that is cooking, rinse the apple. Peel it, and cut it into ½ inch chunks. Cover with a damp paper towel or sprinkle with lemon juice to keep the flesh white.

Remove the pot from heat and stir in the orange flavoring, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Taste and, if the mixture is too tart (keeping in mind that cranberry sauce is supposed to be a little tart!), add more maple syrup to taste.

Now is the time to add the diced apple.

The sauce will continue to thicken as it cools.

Let it cool. Spoon into your serving container to serve or store in an airtight container, refrigerated, for 10 to 14 days.

You can also freeze your cranberry sauce for up to 2 months – Fix it for Thanksgiving and use the rest for Christmas & New Years or any parties! Just place the sauce in an airtight zipper freezer bag and transfer to the freezer. Move to the fridge to thaw about 24-48 hours before the big meal.

If you wish try adding chopped pecans!

By making this early, you have one lest thing to worry about on the big day.

I promise you this is so much better than that jelly out of a can.

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DdPJhUUkTk More More More

So excited to serve this 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_vAT4sb0934RTM via @amazon

Stress Free Thanksgiving

HOUSEKEEPING

Set the table the night before, or earlier. All of it — glasses, centerpieces, pitchers for drinks, etc. Take out every serving platter, bowl and utensil you will need, and create a little label saying what will go into each dish. Post-it notes are great for this.

In the lead-up to the big feast, refrigerator real estate is precious. Clear out those space-hogging bottles of dressing and pickles, and stow them in a cooler filled with ice packs. Set it aside out of your way, maybe in a bedroom.

Use another one as a warming drawer — it's insulated, after all. Line it with aluminum foil, add some folded towels and fill it with hot dishes as they come out of the oven. (Employ common sense here and don’t melt your cooler.)

 

Make a Menu and Stick to It. There are lots of great ideas out in the world that you could add to your menu a few days before the big day, or even as you’re cooking. But don’t do it.

Write down what you’re going to cook, what you’re going to ask others to bring, and forget the rest. This will be a big stress-reducer and will also help you work through what you have to do to prepare.

According to a 2019 Instacart survey, 46% of Americans find canned cranberry sauce to be “disgusting.” The Harris Poll asked more than 2,000 U.S. adults about their Thanksgiving food preferences and the canned cranberries were at the bottom of that list. While the poll received information that 68% of Americans hated cranberry sauce, they did admit that they’d still eat it as part of the meal. But there were a staunch 29% who said that they will not touch it.

It was discovered that other side dishes a lot of people seem to dislike are green bean casserole which polled at 29%, candied sweet potatoes coming in at 22%, pumpkin pie polling at 21% dislike, and even 19% dislike turkey.

 

Well here we have a great easy to follow cranberry sauce that IS likable and a great new version of green bean casserole! Here is even a different take on the old candied sweet potatoes! Sorry you are on your own with a turkey substitute.

Make a Shopping List. Do not head-out shopping until you’ve got that list in hand. Write out every ingredient for every item on your menu, then split the ingredients up into separate shopping lists for those items you can buy a week out and those you have to buy a day or two before. This will help reduce (I didn’t say “eliminate”) the number of emergency trips you’ll be running to the store.

Write out a timetable and Schedule a Break. If things are going well, you can actually take that break, but if you’re totally running behind, you have a few minutes to catch up.

Prep all your vegetables a day or two ahead and keep them in the fridge.

You can peel potatoes and carrots, chop onions, wash greens, and do basically any other prep steps called for in the recipes you're using.

Place & label (masking tape & magic marker) in zipper bags and squeeze out the air.

This is the kind of thing that will feel crazy when you're doing it, and AWESOME the next day when you realize you already did.

Be sure to mark what it is and what recipe it is to used in. Use different bags for different recipes. ie: onions for dressing, onions for gravy, onions for casserole, ETC.

Print out recipes and tape them at eye level on kitchen cabinets.

              

The star of the show is the turkey. Here we are using a 3 lbs boneless turkey.

When ready to thaw: Place the turkey in a large dish on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator. This will prevent the raw turkey juices from ending up all over your fridge and other foods. Even after thawed, it can stay in the fridge an additional 1-2 days before cooking.

Plan on putting it in the refrigerator on the Sunday of Thanksgiving week.

By the way: Buy some store made gravy in a jar, use the gravy packet that is in the turkey to supplement. Spoon in any yummy turkey pan drippings if you can and add a spoonful of regular soy sauce!

Do as much as you can ahead of time!

Here are some dishes that you can get out of the way before the day!

Cranberry sauce

Broccoli salad

Pumpkin pie

Cutting for the green beans and the dressing and store in bags.

Write out the timetable!

Make sure your pans fit in the oven.

Top shelf for muffin pans of dressing and sweet potato stacks

bottom shelf: turkey and green bean casserole.

Most of all relax and have fun!

 

Murray Hall Chuck Roast

Here is an easy wonderful big roast that can be used for several dinners. Fantastic aroma and taste. It is dedicated to a brave and capable soul that is almost forgotten today: Murray Hall. Read about this individual for some table conversation, after the recipe.

Chuck roast can be tough if not cooked low and slow. Let the oven do the work. You reap the rewards!

Ingredients:

1 large sweet onion, quartered

3.5 – 4 Lbs chuck roast

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 Tbs mustard

1 Tbs brown sugar

1½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 can condensed beef consomme, undiluted

1 can condensed French onion soup

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

½ lbs sliced fresh mushrooms

1 lbs stew vegetables (thawed)

3-4 pieces of white bread without crusts

Instructions

Remove the roast from the fridge and bring to room temperature (an hour at least).

Preheat oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cut the onion into large chunks. This will support the roast off of the bottom of the pan.

In a small bowl, mix the mustard and vegetable oil with the sugar and spices to make a paste.

Rub the paste all over the top of the roast.

This will help to caramelize the exterior of the roast in a process know as the Maillard reaction.

Place the quartered onions in the bottom of a baking pan lined with foil.

Pour in the soups and Worcestershire sauce.

Lay the roast in and cover.

Put roast in oven and leave for 35 to 45 minutes.

Without opening the door, lower the heat to 200 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for another two hours. (--At the end of an hour and a half, add the stew vegetables and mushrooms.)

Remove the roast and check for temperature. When your roast is within 5 degrees of your desired doneness (120 degrees for rare, 135 for medium rare, 140 for medium), take it out from the oven.

Remove the roast to a platter and cover with foil. Most importantly, once you have taken your roast out of the oven, let it rest for 20 minutes before eating it. Inside the juices are bubbling and hot, and if you cut into it fresh out the oven, you will lose all of those juices. This resting period is KEY. It lets the juices redistribute and the cooking finish.

With a slotted spoon, remove the stew vegetables to a serving bowl.

Use the liquid for an AuJus!

My roast sat out for 20 minutes and only lost 2 degrees because it was covered with foil.

To serve the roast, slice it across the grain. Enjoy.

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

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

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

Murray H. Hall

Many people have a clear image of the urban political boss of the early 20th century, and in many ways Murray Hall, a leader of New York City’s notorious “Tammany Hall,” was its embodiment. Hall was known as a poker-playing, cigar-chomping, whiskey-drinking, “man about town.”

Murray H. Hall (c. 1840-1901) was a Tammany politico.

In 1872, Hall married Cecilia Florence Lowe, a schoolteacher, and by 1874 Hall had established an employment agency chiefly representing domestic help.

Hall was actually born a woman (by the name of Mary Anderson) who “passed” as a man for more than a quarter century.

According to one source, Hall was born Mary Anderson in Scotland and around age 16 began dressing as a male, taking the name John Anderson. Anderson married young, but had a roving eye and a jealous wife who disclosed Anderson’s gender to the police. Fearing arrest, Anderson fled to America in 1870 and assumed the name Murray H. Hall.

Tragically, Hall died of untreated breast cancer and the deception was only discovered at death in 1901.

As noted in the New York Times, January 18, 1901:

A peculiar case was brought to light yesterday when Dr. William C. Gallagher reported to the Coroner’s office the death of Murray Hall, sixty years old, who kept an employment agency. Death was caused by cancer of the breast. Although Murray Hall had passed for a man for a number of years it now turns out that the person was a woman.

A woman who started to go into the employment agency last night found the door locked and crape on the door. She wanted to know who was dead. Upon being told that it was Murray Hall she expressed regret, and added: “Why its only about two years that his wife died.” Further than that she was unable to give any information.

Dr. Gallagher, when seen at his home, said:

“I must positively refuse to give any information about this case. It would be a violation of professional confidence. I have made my report to the Coroner to avoid the possibility of any trouble, but I will say nothing whatsoever about the matter.”

When Coroner Zucca was seen at his home, he said that the dead Murray Hall was a woman, and had dressed as a male in order to help business along. He had referred the case to his physician, Dr. Williams.

Dr. Williams refused to have anything to say in regard to the case.

Hall was a member of the General Committee of Tammany Hall, a member of the Iroquois Club, a personal friend of State Senator “Barney” Martin and other officials, and one of the most active Tammany workers in the district.

Hall registered and voted at primaries and general elections for many years, and exercised considerable political influence with Tammany Hall, often securing appointments for friends who have proved their fealty to the organization—never exciting the remotest suspicion as to his “deception”.

He played poker at the clubs with city and State officials and politicians who flatter themselves on their cleverness and perspicacity, drank whiskey and wine and smoked the regulation “big black cigar” with the apparent relish and gusto of the real man-about-town.

Furthermore, Murray Hall is known to have been married twice, but the woman to whom she stood before the world in the attitude of a husband kept her secret as guardedly as she did.

The discovery of Murray Hall’s "true sex" was not made until he was cold in death and beyond the chance of suffering humiliation from exposure. 

 Hall had been suffering from a cancer in the left breast for several years, as Dr. William C. Gallagher, who attended in the final illness, discovered; but Hall refused medical advice for fear of disclosing, and treated himself. When Hall felt that life was at a low ebb he sent for Dr. Gallagher. He made an examination and found that the cancer had eaten its way almost to the heart, and that it was a matter of only a few days, when death must ensue.

In years gone by, from time to time, "Murray Hall' had purchased volume after volume of works on surgery and medicine until he possessed a good medical library. Those books were studied, and the knowledge gleaned, no doubt, served to a good purpose in avoiding detection.

One can imagine Hall rummaging through the pages, feverish, frantic, memorizing recipes and gathering ingredients: arsenic, conium, iron, iodine, lard, ointment of the hydriodate of potass. He highlighted a passage about physical collisions accelerating the growth of tumors, and sent a letter to the district attorney complaining of being struck by a man on a bicycle. He must have calculated how much morphine he could inject without losing control of a scalpel. When he had run out of options, he sold every medical book in his library one by one.

”I wouldn’t believe it if Dr. Gallagher, whom I know to be a man of undoubted veracity, hadn’t said so,“ said Senator Bernard F. Martin. ”Well, truly, it’s most wonderful. He used to come to the Iroquois Club to see me and pay his dues, and occasionally he would crack a joke with some of the boys. He was a modest little fellow, but had a peppery temper and could say some cutting things when anyone displeased him. Suspect he was a woman? Never. He dressed like a man and talked like a very sensible one.

John Bremer, proprietor of the Fifteenth Ward Hotel, Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue, knew Hall well, and had some business dealings with him. “He was a shrewd, bright man, in my estimation,” said Mr. Bremer, “and I wouldn’t believe he was a woman if it wasn’t for Dr. Gallagher’s statement.”

“So he’s a woman, eh? Well, I’ve read of such characters in fiction, but, if it’s true, Hall’s case beats anything in fact or fiction I can recall.”

Joseph Young, one of Senator Martin’s most trusted lieutenants and an officer of the Iroquois Club, was the Tamany Captain of the district when Murray Hall served in the same capacity for the County Democracy.

“I knew him well,” said Young, “and I remember that we both worked tooth and nail to get the larger vote. If he’s a woman, he’s the wonder of all the ages, sure’s you live, for no man could ever suspect it from his habits and actions.”

“If he was a woman he ought to have been born a man, for he lived and looked like one.”

Hall realized his death would set off a national political scandal, and perhaps he took small comfort in knowing he’d escape the aftermath.

He could predict every story they’d tell. After his death they’d discuss how, on Election Day, he—they couldn’t quite say she—had actually cast a vote, posing for a photograph at the ballot box; how bold, how brazen that a woman would appropriate the franchise.

As an early instance of a gender non-conforming person in New York, this attracted worldwide attention, including that of pioneering English sexual psychologist Havelock Ellis.

His colleagues offered tributes to the press (“She’s dead, the poor fellow!” exclaimed state Senator Barney Martin), but none of them would attend his funeral. Late on the afternoon of January 19, the undertaker collected Hall from the parlor of his home and brought him to Mount Olivet Cemetery. For the first time in forty years he was dressed in women’s clothes, in death becoming a different kind of impostor, this time against his will.