Dad's Garlic Bread Seasoning

Folks-

This is an easy one, but I don't want to lose it, and I especially want to save it for the kids. Just mix these together and sprinkle on buttered French or sourdough bread and heat it up to make a good garlic bread. You can also make top notch croutons by cutting slightly stale bread into chunks, brushing them with olive oil or melted butter and then toasting them.

Just go to town with it!

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon parsley flakes 

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic pepper.

Blueberry Soda

Folks-

Tonight I fixed my new Crab Rolls and served this Blueberry Soda with it. They went well together, but I expect the soda would be just fine by itself.

You first make a blueberry simple syrup, then mix that with club soda, Tonic Water, or similar in a 1:3 ratio. I recommend 1/3 cup syrup and 1 cup soda water. Ice is good in it.

Here's the recipe for the Blueberry Symple Syrup I got from Berly's Kitchen:

Ingredients:

1 lb fresh or frozen blueberries

1 cup water

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and mash fruit immediately with a wooden spoon or potato masher. Allow to cool for 10-20 minutes, and strain through a mesh sieve to get the fruit pulp out. Store in the refrigerator for up to a week. Note: The blueberry pulp you strain out is wonderful on ice cream.

Garlic Butter

 Time for another quick recipe, this one adapted from AllRecipes.

I recently decided to fix grilled burgers for dinner (I know, in summer?!? What am I thinking? The shame!) and I decided to try something decidedly different. I smeared the buns with garlic butter and grilled them in the last 5-10 minutes on the same grill I used to fix the burgers. I left the meat unseasoned, because it probably would have been too much.

But, damn, those were good! Very possibly the best I have ever made.

For the garlic butter, I used a recipe I found at All Recipes and I (wait for it!) modified it. Here's my version.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup softened butter (1 cube)

1-1/2 Tsp minced garlic

3 Tbsp grated parmesan cheese (shelf stable powder works, but fresh is better)

1-1/2 Tsp garlic salt

1/2 Tsp Italian seasoning or French Herb de Provence

1/4 Tsp ground black pepper

1/4 Tsp ground paprika

Just mix it all together. Easily doubled.

For garlic bread, cut a loaf of French bread lengthwise and smear with the butter, and toast open face up under a broiler. Or smear on hamburger buns or sandwich rolls and grill or griddle over medium heat for a wonderful addition to your hamburger or salmon patty sandwich!

Pork Chop Rub

It was hot yesterday, in the 100 degree range. Weather like that demands grilling outside, if for no other reason than to keep the house a bit cooler. I knew I didn't have anything to grill, and as I started to think about what I was going to buy, I felt that I needed to fix something I usually don't. Pork chops spring to mind, and when I got to the store, I found they were less than $1.30/lb. That was less than half of the price for any kind of beef.

I didn't want to just grill them plain, so I started to look up recipes online. I found this rub at heygrillhey.com, and tried it. Here's my modification.

Ingredients

3 Tbs brown sugar

3 Tsp kosher salt

1-1/2 Tsp cracked pepper

1-1/2 Tsp paprika

3/4 Tsp ground mustard

1/2 Tsp cayenne pepper

Combine all ingredients. Prepare a grill for cooking and allow to heat to 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Sprinkle the rub into 4 pork chops and rub into the meat. Sear on each side 2-3 minutes, then move to indirect heat for 5-8 minutes until an internal temperature of 145 degrees is reached. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving to preserve internal moisture.

Enchilada Sauce

I always figured it would be difficult to make a good red sauce for enchiladas.

I was so very wrong.

I looked it up recently to find out how to make it, and discovered that I had almost everything in my pantry. In fact, I could have made the sauce without a trip to the store if I wanted a basic version. I did need corn tortillas to make the enchiladas, so I had to make the trip anyway, so I picked up some good chicken stock for it.

Otherwise, this is just a slightly modified version of the recipe on gimmesomeoven.com.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Grape Seed, Olive, or Avocado Oil 

2 Tablespoons flour

1/4 Cup Chili Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Cumin

1/2 Teaspoon Garlic Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Cocoa Powder

1/4 Teaspoon Dried Oregano

2 Cups Chicken Stock

1/4 - 1/2 Teaspoon salt

Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, whisking constantly.  Add in the chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, cocoa powder, and oregano and cook for 1 more minute, whisking constantly. Gradually pour in the stock, whisking constantly to combine until no lumps remain.  Continue cooking until the sauce reaches a simmer.  Then reduce heat to medium-low to maintain the simmer (the sauce should continue lightly bubbling) for about 10-15 minutes, uncovered, until the sauce has slightly thickened. Give the sauce a taste and season with salt, as needed.  (I typically add 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, but the saltiness of the sauce can vary depending on the brand of stock that you use.) Use immediately.

Note: You can mix together the dry ingredients and store them for up to several months in a Ziploc bag or another airtight container for later use, then just fix it more or less as above.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

A few months ago I found myself with quite a few vanilla beans. This usually happens in the holiday seasons when Costco is selling them in 10-packs. I decided it was time to learn how to make Vanilla Extract. It turned out to be easy. One of the advantages of making it yourself is not having additional preservatives, sugar, or other chemicals.
To make it at home, you need a tightly-closing bottle that holds about a cup of liquid, and is clean without other scents.

Vanilla Extract

5-Whole Vanilla Beans
1-Cup (approximate) Vodka or Bourbon

Split the vanilla beans lengthwise, leaving about an inch at the end uncut. Place the beans into the bottle. Fill the bottle with the vodka or bourbon. Seal the bottle tightly and place it in a cool, dark place for six weeks, shaking the bottle twice a week or so to mix it up.

That's it. If you top off the bottle as you use it, it can last quite a bit longer than you might expect.

Note: One thing I've noticed is a lot of recipes have you add vanilla (or rosewater) to a sauce you're simmering on a stovetop early in the process. This is how you waste vanilla extract. If you're going to make a vanilla flavored sauce or custard, halve the amount of vanilla in the recipe and whisk it in after taking it off the stove. This will save your precious flavor extracts.

Fool Proof Pie Crust

Folks-
It's been a while since I've updated the site with a new recipe, and that's because I use the site as my own personal recipe card file. If I haven't needed an old recipe, have been experimenting much in the kitchen, and haven't found a new recipe that I need to add to the old card file, then I don't update.
Well, one of Zhenie's old high-school friends (she went to school in The Philippines, so how did one of her old friends end up living only a mile away?) dropped off a whole bunch of pairs at our house. I was thinking pie, but didn't find my mom's old pie crust recipe online. Time to fix that.
Here's a recipe that my mom got from one of the cooks at the school she retired from:

Fool Proof Pie Crust

Ingredients:
4 Cups Flour
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Teaspoons Salt
1 ¾ Cups or 335g *Shortening
½ Cup Cold Water
1 Tablespoon Vinegar
1 Large Egg

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, and salt. Cut in the shortening using a pastry blender just until mixed in and crumbly. Do not overdo it or the liquids won't mix in! In a separate bowl, mix together the water, vinegar, and egg. Add liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients just until a kneadable dough forms. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/8 inch thick. If making an uncooked pie, be sure to poke the bottom of the pie crust multiple times with a fork before cooking to prevent bubbles.

Notes:
1. Shortening is getting harder to find these days. I intend to experiment with a coconut oil soon as a replacement. If I do, I'll let you know the results. Update: It works, but gives it a strong coconut flavor. This might work for some pies. I recommend sticking with shortening or maybe ghee.

2. It is best to get the liquids ready first then leave them in the refrigerator until ready. In fact, it's best to make this recipe when it's cold, and store it in the fridge until ready to roll out.

3. I made this for hand-pies recently using lard instead of vegetable shortening and it came out stronger than using the regular shortening. It still refused to seal (especially around the blueberry filled ones.) I may try a completely different recipe for hand-pies. (7/5/25)

Egg Noodles

Folks-
My chicken and Turkey noodle soups are well known in my circle. The real secret to them is the homemade noodles. Since I haven't figured out the measurements for the soup ingredients yet, I'll post the recipe for the noodles first. It's my moms recipe, with a variation at the end from my dad. I prefer the egg yolk version over the whole egg, but it takes so dang many eggs! Both versions are easier than most people would think. Give them both a try and see which you prefer!

Here it is, my mom's homemade noodle recipe!


Egg Noodles
E. Pearl

6 Egg Yolks
1 Whole Egg
1/2 Tsp Salt
1 1/2 Cups Flour

Mix together in the order above until very stiff. Roll out dough on a well floured board to 1/8" thickness. Cover with a towel and allow to dry for 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Roll the dough into a cylinder and slice first once along the length of the cylinder, and then across the cylinder to make noodles of about 1/4" width. Boil for up to 45 minutes.
You can substitute 3 whole eggs for 6 egg yolks and 1 whole egg.

Tyler's Ultimate Barbecue Sauce

Folks-
The best barbecue sauce I have ever had was one I made from a recipe I got on Food Network once. That's a TV network I seldom watch, because it makes me want to cook like mad, and that can be an issue. I ran across Tyler's Ultimate one day, and thought the barbecue sauce recipe looked good enough to have me sit in front of the TV with a notepad and the remote for about an hour, reverse engineering the recipe from what he was doing on the TV (since when does a "dash" equal a small bucket of something?)

Since I first worked this recipe out a couple of years ago, I've found alternate ingredients for some of those in his recipe. I'm including both his basic recipe, as well as the alternates in the ingredient listing below. Enjoy!

Tyler's Ultimate Barbecue Sauce (with alternate ingredients tested by Ed)

2 Strips of smoked bacon or 1/8 teaspoon liquid smoke
Large sprig of fresh Thyme or 1 tablespoon dry
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
1/2 Large Onion or 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
2-3 Cloves Garlic- Crushed and skinned or 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 Cups Ketchup
1/4 Cup Fruit Preserves (Peach, Apricot, or Raspberry have tested well)
1/4 Cup Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon Paprika
1 teaspoon Cumin
2 Tablespoons Red Wine or Basalmic Vinegar
1/4 Cup Molasses
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
Ground pepper to taste

Wrap bacon around fresh thyme and simmer in olive oil. Add other ingredients and simmer 20 minutes.

Ed's Coffee Spices

Folks-
For years I've been adding this combination of spices to coffee grounds before brewing. I find that they turn a rather average coffee into something special. You only need about 1 t for a full pot of drip coffee. I personally use one of the cheaper name brands of coffee with this spice blend, whatever is on sale at the supermarket. Here's the recipe!

2 Parts Ground Cinnamon
1 Part Ground Nutmeg
1 Part "Other Ground Spice" (Cardamon, Allspice, Nutmeg, Ginger have all tested well.)

That's it! For one or two cups of coffee, I just put it in a shaker and shake it over the grounds a couple of times. For a full pot I use from 1 t to 1 T and add it straight to the grounds.

Enjoy!

-Edly