Picnic Potluck

Jaycee Sliders

Originally the term “slider” referred only to the wonderful little burgers from White Castle. However since no one has been successful in copying their taste, it has come to mean any small size sandwich – hamburger or not. We find the three bite size perfect for parties. They can be elegant or casual, dressed up or down. Here we make two pans full because they disappear so quickly. 

 

Slave used a 5 lbs roll of hamburger – it was cheaper that way and only have a pound left over for other dishes. Smaller burgers means better portion control! Make up a batch and freeze the patties in zipper bags and the buns in their packages. Microwave a quick lunch when you need for the next 3 months!

 

 Ingredients

• 2 packages (12 ounces each) Hawaiian sweet rolls
• slices American cheese
• 4 lbs pounds ground beef
• 4 red onions grated
• 1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon pepper
• GLAZE:
• 1 cup butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons stone ground mustard

Instructions

Run the red onion through a grater. Trust me, it just takes to long to try this by hand.

Spoon this across the bottom of a two big cake pans.

In a large bowl mix the 4 lbs of ground beef with seasoned salt, garlic powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper, and 2 eggs. Mix this together and gently pat into the pan over the onion. Press evenly making a giant hamburger patty in each pan – it doesn't have to be perfect.

 

Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Allow meat to cool. Drain any excess fat and liquid. 

 

Cut into squares the size of the rolls. Stack and refrigerate until day of picnic. Drain any onion and save that covered in the refrigerator.

On day:

Pre heat oven to 375.

Cut a large piece of aluminum foil and place in baking dish. (If you are using a casserole dish, you may need two 9x13 pans. If you are using a cookie sheet, you may squeeze them all in tightly in the aluminum foil.)

Place the bottom halves of rolls on the aluminum foil.

 

Spoon a bit of onion on each and top with a patty.

Cut the slices of cheese into ¼^th and lay on top then cover with the top half of roll.

Melt butter. Mix in Worcestershire sauce and tsp mustard. Brush butter mixture on top of Hawaiian rolls.

Cover sliders with aluminum foil and bake an additional 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Peel back the top foil and serve from pan.

Now:

Jaycee Terrace Hot Dogs Two ways

Carolina dogs:

 

Ingredients

• ¾ cup yellow mustard
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbs ketchup
• 3 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp white vinegar
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp black pepper

Directions:

Heat oven to 375°F.

Combine all ingredients for mustard-based BBQ sauce.

Cut three 1/4-in. deep slits on each side of the hot dogs; place in a 2-1/2-qt. baking dish. Pour the sauce over the hot dogs. Cover and bake at 375° for 40-45 minutes or until heated through. Serve on buns.

Saint Louis Puppies:

Fix a separate baking dish with a sweet BBQ sauce in place of the mustard sauce.

Bake covered along side.

They recommend cooking sausages to a final temperature of 155°F. 

 

Since I am also serving some roasted bratwurst, I coat them with oil and cut open the ends. Line a baking dish with foil but do not cover.

Place in the oven and roast for 35 to 45 minutes or until the flesh is soft and tender. Test with a fork, the pieces should be soft and the edges starting to brown. The roasting imparts a special flavor that along with the browning makes this wonderful. All ready at about the same time. 
 

This will be the main part of our first potluck dinner of the year.


For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt7SPm7N6D8


So happy to be of service 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

Chicken Cino

Tonight's casserole was designed to honor a gay visionary who started the “off-off Broadway” theater movement in the 60's. This hearty – healthy meal features the wonderful colors of Italy: White, green and red.

Learn about Joe Cino, his passion for theater, his work ethic, and tragic downward spiral in a short article following the recipe. 

 

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts (boneless-skinless)
• ½ box “super greens” rotini pasta (any pasta made with greens)
• 2 (10-ounce) packages frozen chopped spinach, thawed and well drained
• ½ cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1½ cups milk
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 package onion soup mix
• ½ cup whipped cream cheese
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9- x 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

In a large pot of boiling water, cook noodles for earliest amount of time ( if 7-9 minutes use 7!), drain.

While that cooks, brown both sides of the chicken breasts just enough to give it color. 4-5 minutes per side

In a large bowl, mix the drained spinach, butter, beaten eggs, soup mix, and the cream cheese. Blend well. 

 

Place mixture in baking dish and arrange chicken breasts on top. Sprinkle the cherry tomatoes around the chicken. Top with the Parmesan and cover dish tightly with foil. 

 

 

Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until slightly golden around edges.

Serve with a hot bread, maybe some wine.

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

So happy to be 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

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

Joe Cino, an Italian-American theatrical producer and café-owner, created the “Off-Off Broadway” theater movement. He was born in a working-class family in Buffalo.

Joe grew up in a generation that was taught:

You can get anything if you just work hard enough for it: Fame, money, love, anything. But nobody wants a fat boy!

Joe wanted to be a dancer. Joe wanted to be successful. Joe wanted love. This was no different from anyone growing up in the most successful nation in the world.

No matter how hard he worked at it, his goals seemed just beyond his reach. Perhaps he never knew what a great legacy his life had. For when grief proved to be too much, Joe gave up and quit! In a final burst of pain he ended his own life. Never to know what a wonderful gift he had given, nor to understand the hurt his loss caused to so many.

At sixteen, Joe Cino moved to New York City to study performing arts in hopes of becoming a dancer. Though he made a living dancing throughout the 1950s, his continual struggles with weight curtailed his dance career.

In 1958, Cino managed to rent a storefront in Greenwich Village and opened a coffeehouse where his friends could socialize.

Cafe Cino would become a theatrical venue; Cino wanted to host folk music concerts, poetry readings, and art exhibits. Then plays were added to the performance mix.

Cino became so excited by the audience’s and his own response to the plays that he quickly established a weekly schedule for theatrical performances. He would introduce the acts with the phrase, "It's magic time!" All of Joe's life he was reaching for magic to happen.

The Cafe Cino, made its meager living from selling food and drink, where no one was paid except the police who were paid off, where reviewers seldom came and reviews were usually published after a show had closed. He crated a new type of theater. Later dozens of theaters would appear, based on the Cino model, in places which made their living other ways—cafes, bars, art galleries, and churches. To distinguish it from Broadway (large Equity theaters) and Off-Broadway (smaller Equity theaters), this new outside/underground theater world came to be known as "Off-Off Broadway."

Off-Off Broadway does not belong to fat cat “angels” with huge bank accounts; non-show people who may or may not like how you are doing it.

It is not a living it is a way of being. You are given the opportunity to do what you were born to do. Writers can write. Directors can direct. Actors can act.

The Cino was a friendly social center for gays at a time when openly gay life was restricted to bars and bathhouses.

A number of early Cino productions had dealt with gay identity, including Doric Wilson's Now She Dances! (1961). Director Andy Milligan staged a number of homoerotic productions, including Jean Genet's "The Maids" and "Deathwatch," as well as a dramatization of Tennessee Williams' short story "One Arm". It was after The Madness of Lady Bright, the Cino came to be recognized as a significant venue for plays dealing with homosexual themes. This was a time when it was still illegal to depict homosexuality on stage. 

 

Throughout Cafe Cino’s existence, Cino was plagued by police harassment as he continually took heat for licensing violations. (there was no applicable license available.) Window posters were designed so that they looked like abstract art to passersby, yet could be read by “those in the know”. Police knew. Cino paid a great deal of money in payoffs during the 1960s. He was working hard and acted as café host while simultaneously serving as its maintenance man, a server, and a barista. Through it all, he generally kept other jobs in order to support himself and the café.

He lived by his motto, “Do what you have to do,” and encouraged his writers to live by it as well. At the Cafe Cino’s peak, plays were performed twice nightly, with three shows per night on weekends. Even if audiences failed to turn up, Cino insisted on a show. “Do it for the room,” he would tell the performers, and they did.

Cafe Cino relied heavily on electricity stolen from the city grid by Joe’s lover, electrician Jon Torrey. The cafe had no stage which made for intimacy between the performers and audience.

In 1967 Jon Torrey was electrocuted and died. His death was ruled accidental. The event sent Cino into a depressive spiral. He started to do drugs. Cafe Cino itself was suffering. Joe refused to charge an admission or even a minimum.

Within weeks, Joe Cino savagely attacked his own arms and stomach with a kitchen knife. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors announced he would live. However, on April 2, (what would have been his lovers birthday), Joe Cino passed. 

Though friends tried to keep Cafe Cino open, it closed in 1968, finally falling victim to cabaret laws now being strictly enforced.

Police issued summonses so often that when a policeman appeared down the block, actors had to be ready at a signal from the doorman to leap offstage and sit, often in fantastic costumes, at tables with patrons.

Perhaps Joe never knew the gift he gave to life! It would be easy for some to condemn him for being weak. But his struggles and work proved his true strength. Maybe it was the world that proved too weak to support his bright spirit and infectious smile. This gay steward deserves to be remembered!

The Jaycee Sandwich

The egg foo yung sandwich known as the “Saint Paul” has long been identified with Saint Louis. A crispy-brown fried egg foo yung patty served between slices of white bread, with a slathering of mayonnaise, a leaf of iceberg lettuce, sliced tomatoes and dill pickles!

In researching this I was inspired to create a modern classic:

The Jaycee sandwich which I humbly present here for your enjoyment.

What is not to love about fluffy-crispy omelet filled with onion and meat, topped with a slice of cheese? Made with an egg substitute there is very little fat in this surprisingly good sandwich.

Ingredients:

Egg beaters – or similar egg substitute

1 Tbs finely chopped red onion

1 Tbs chopped bologna

1 slice American cheese

2 pieces honey wheat bread – or whole wheat if you chose

1 tbs stone ground mustard optional

Directions:

Do your cutting. I find the best way to finely chop onion is to take some already chopped that has been frozen. 

 

Cut up about ½ a slice of bologna.

Heat 2 Tbs oil in small skillet until very hot or shimmering –  

this is key to any egg foo yung!

Mix up between ¼ to ½ cup of egg replacement with the Tbs of onion and meat.

Pour this into the HOT oil. The egg mixture will puff up quickly and the bottom will start to turn brown, flip this like it were a patty to crisp up the other side.

Serve this on a slice of cheese between two slices of bread. If you like spread a bit of stone ground mustard.

It is as easy as that. The red onion lifts this simple sandwich into something special.

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBwsG8ubFw&index=39&list=PLBE69826D4C8D6FFB

Happy to create 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

The St. Paul Sandwich: A St. Louis Classic

According to legend it was created on board a Steamboat “The Saint Paul” by its Chinese cook. This steamboat regularly moored on the Saint Louis riverfront in the late 1800's. There was a huge influx of Chinese immigrants in those years. Many found jobs feeding the rail road workers, the wagon trains, and steamboats. Some of their dishes became more “American” than they ever were in the old country. Chop Suey, crab rangoon, and egg foo yung became ours and we loved them!

The St. Paul sandwich can be found in many Chinese American restaurants in St. Louis, Missouri, as well as other cities in Missouri, including Columbia, Jefferson City, and Springfield.

The sandwich consists of an egg foo young patty served with dill pickle slices, white onion, mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato between two slices of white bread. The St. Paul sandwich also comes in different combinations and specials, such as chicken, pork, shrimp, beef, and other varieties.

According to the trade publication Chinese Restaurant News, the U.S. is home to roughly 36,000 Chinese restaurants. In other words, there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States than there are McDonald's, Wendy's and Burger King franchises combined.

Crispy Pork Fried Rice

Here is a great way to use up those left overs from the refrigerator. Doing so not only helps the budget but helps the soul feel like you are doing the best you can. 
 

Left over pork chops and some cold rice can blend with soy sauce and a scrambled egg into the most delicious crispy pork rice dish. Throw in some frozen or left over peas and voila! What a restaurant style meal. 

 

Ingredients

• ¾ lbs left over pork chops, cut into ½ -inch strips
• 3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons oil
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 ½ cups cooked rice
• ½ cup peas
• 2 egg, beaten to mix
• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
• 2 scallions including green tops, chopped optional

Directions

Scrape any coating off of the pork chops then cut into small thin strips. 

 

Roll in cornstarch and sprinkle with garlic powder. Let this sit for about ½ hour.

Next, heat a large nonstick frying pan over high heat with some oil. Add the pork to the pan and stir occasionally and cook for 4 minutes, until hot and the coating is brown & crunchy.

Remove from pan to drain on a paper towel.

Put the peas and the teaspoon of soy sauce in the now empty but heated pan and cook for only 2 minutes. Add the cooked rice to the pan with ½ cup of chicken broth. Stir for about 5 minutes or until rice has heated and absorbed the moisture.

Push to side of pan and pour in the mixed eggs. 

Stir eggs until they start to firm up, then mix them into the rice mixture.

Return the pork to the mix and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and serve.

This meal needs nothing more. Serve with a bit of soy sauce or if you have it, some teriyaki sauce.

Enjoy a break from the ordinary.

For our music:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7bJnTIcUEg&list=RD-7bJnTIcUEg#t=6

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_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon