Erick's Sloppy Joes

Thanks to Erick Click for this recipe. Sounds great, I'll post some notes after I get a chance to try it. Bonus points for the Mennonite move of using the Cream of Mushroom Soup.

Erick's Manwich Beater

• 2 lbs. Hamburger
• 1 med onion chopped
• 2 - 1/2 tbsp worcestershire
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tbsp mustard
• 1 can cream of mushroom

Fry hamburger with salt, pepper, and onions - drain and add worcestershire sauce, sugar, ketchup, mustard and soup.

Add lots of love and enjoy

Nelson's Golden Glow Sauce

For those of you in Northern Indiana, you may remember the awesome smells to be had when driving past a Nelson Golden Glow's chicken smoker. Well, I recently came across the recipe for the sauce. I'll be trying it out this weekend and will post an update to let you know how accurate it was.

 

Nelson's Port-a-Pit Barbeque Sauce or Marinade

Serves/Makes:1 qt. approx.

Ingredients

• 1 lb (.5 kg). butter
• 1 cup (225 ml) water
• 1 cup (225 ml) vinegar
• 4 tbsp (60 ml) salt
• 1 tbsp (15 ml) pepper
• 4 tbsp (60 ml) Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 oz (28 grm). Accent

Preparation

Boil together. This will store well in the refrigerator.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

President Bush will seek to comfort victims of his presidency as they try to make sense of the destruction he has caused.

This could, quite possibly, be the best fake news story ever presented by The Onion.

McCain Vows To Replace Secret Service With His Own Bare Fists

From the Onion, "Lookout Obama, you may have met your match".

230 Years Old - Time to Grow Up

In response to an article in the 'Ville Voice titled "Today’s Ridiculous Charge from the Southside Crusader"

 

I've been keeping tabs on the construction plans for the bomb storage facility in South Louisville. A necessary evil, yet what has the local constituents riled is that the mayor wants to locate the facility atop the city's main water supply at Cardinal Hill. According to the mayor and other officials, there is absolutely no risk in locating the facility there. Tabling the safety discussion for the time being, I'd like to address another side of the issue - transparency.

We arrive at yet another issue where, irregardless of the right or wrong of the topic, those who govern Louisville obscure and obfuscate. We want so desperately to be that progressive city of business, commerce and culture, yet it seems that every week we find out that our leaders take it on themselves to “slide something through”.

If public hearings are held, we're told that the decisions have already been made and there's no point in discussions. From the awarding of demolition contracts for the new arena to the construction of bomb storage facilities, the building of bridges to the desire of the community for something other than freeways across our great waterfront parks (86/64), the philosophy of, “Just shut-up and let us make the decisions” seems to reign.

I don’t know whether the bomb disposal facility has any risk or not. That's not the point. Letting citizens feel that they are a part of the process is.

Listening to the will of the people is definitely less efficient. I know, Mayor Abramson, that you have a lot to do and a short time to get things done. I'm a big fan of yours and was part of the movement to get you back into office. When you are open with your constituents and allow them into the process, then we end up with a city that all of us are a part of, that we all helped to build. The city becomes more than just the place we hang our hats.

I just know that too many projects in this town are handled under the table. Time to grow up Louisville. It’s 2008.

Transparancy is in.

 

In the words of one of my heroes, that's just my own opinion. If you don't like it, sue me. Just don't try to slide it under my table.

Best Bread? No Need to Knead

The best bread I've ever made? Also the easiest. The no knead bread recipe developed by Jim Lahey is super easy to follow and makes some of the best "crust and crumb" that I've ever managed to put out. The secret? Super hot cooking in a Dutch Oven (large oven-safe pot for those of you unfamiliar with the Dutch Oven).

 

Here’s the original article on No Knead Bread. And, here's the recipe they talk about in the article.

Tips and Tricks

• I’ve found that the 1 ⅝ water the recipe calls for can make the dough a little slack (or watery). I know it’s not a huge difference but between 1 ½ and 1 ⅝ seems to work best for me, depending on what other ingredients I may have added.
• Also, they talk about folding the dough several times. This is not necessary, I’ve had great luck using a floured bench scraper to form it into a round and pull the slack underneath to give it that nice tight top.
• Don’t use a towel to put the dough on and to cover – you’ll have trouble with it sticking. Parchment paper works great. When the dough is ready, just pick it up with the parchment paper and pop the whole ball right into the Dutch Oven. Easy, no mess.
• The best place I’ve found to let the dough rise is in the microwave. Keeps the dough nice and warm in a confined space (as long as you can stand to not use your microwave for 12 hours)

Another article, published about a year after the NYT article

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/09/10/no-knead-bread-revisited/

Here’s a video of Mark Bittman interviewing Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery where they actually make the loaf and Jim explains some of the science and “why’s”

http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/09/10/no-knead-bread-revisited/

Here’s the proportions and method I’ve been using

• 3 cups flour (unbleached, unbromated all purpose or bread flour)
• ¼ tsp active dry yeast
• 1 ¼ tsp salt
• 1 5/8 cup warm water

Mix the ingredients in a large mixing bowl until blended. It's not necessary to knead the bread - the yeast will be doing all the work for you. Cover with saran wrap and pop it in the microwave for 8-12 hours (yes, you leave the microwave off).

Pour out the dough onto a well floured surface. Using a floured dough scraper, form the dough into a round ball. Flour the top of the dough and using the dough scraper to help, grab it and place it on top of the parchment paper. Put the parchment paper on a cookie sheet and back into the microwave to rest while you start to heat the oven.

Put your Dutch Oven into the oven and heat to 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Take the bread out of the microwave and with a very sharp knife, score the top of the loaf so that it has room to expand as it cooks. Take your Dutch Oven out and remove the lid. BEWARE: 500 degrees = instant burns.

Fold up the corners of the parchment paper and use it to lift the dough into the Dutch Oven. Replace the lid and back into the oven and turn the temperature back to 425 degrees. After 30 minutes, remove the lid from the Dutch Oven and allow to bake for another 20-30 minutes.

Take the loaf out of the Dutch Oven and place on a wire rack to cool. As tempting as it is, don't cut into the bread for 20-30 minutes. It has to cool on its own to finish developing that internal structure.

Mmm...

 

Of course, every project needs a playlist. Here's one to listen to while you let the bread finish...

Send me an email and let me know how your bread turned out.

You KNOW you're from "Louisville" when...

• You're still bitching that Dillards took over Bacon's.
  You still refer to Bashford Manor Mall and it has been gone for 7 Years.
• Your "International" airport has only one passenger flight that actually leaves the 48 contiguous U.S. States and is also the size of an average mall.
• The in-state sports rivalry is paid more attention to than the national championship.
• You live in an area that occasionally gets considerable snowfalls, floods, and tornadoes... But has no capacity to deal with any of the above.
• You pronounce the name of your city different than anyone else you've heard.

• You think the rest of the people in Kentucky sound like hicks.
  When you think " Kentucky ' you don't automatically think horse racing or fried chicken.
• You ask your doctor for an allergy cure and he tells you to "move"
• You've shoveled 10 plus inches of snow and worn shorts in the same week.
• When people ask what school you went to, they don't mea n Vanderbilt, Yale, or Harvard; they mean Ballard, Male, Manual, Trinity or St. X.
• You know what the Bambi Walk is.
• Your last ten vacations were in Panama City or Destin.
• You make an emergency run to Kroger for bread and milk at the first sighting of a snowflake.
• You've lived here for years, yet somehow you get hopelessly lost each time you attempt a shortcut through Cherokee Park .
• You're convinced turn signals are useless options on a vehicle.
• You've built a shrine to Rick Pitino in your basement.
• You hold up traffic to let a motorist you don't know into your lane.
• You give directions based on landmarks that no longer exist or street names that have changed, but your directions never confuse any of the other Louisvillians
• You have never been to the Derby , but wouldn't miss the Oaks.
• You call in sick to attend the Oaks and spot your boss - who also called in sick - at the next betting window.
• You think all the REAL hicks live in New Albany IN.
• When introduced to another life-long Louisvillian, you spend the first part of the conversation finding out how you are connected. It's never as many as six degrees of separation - usually three will do it.
• You think a pervert is someone who would rather have sex than watch basketball.
• You can read about Rick Pitino in at least three different sections of your newspaper.
• You think the rest of the world knows what Benedictine spread is.
• You think the rest of the world knows what a Hot Brown is.
• You have never eaten fish that wasn't fried.
• You think the whole world puts spaghetti in chili.
• You want another bridge built over the Ohio River , just so long as it doesn't cut through YOUR neighborhood.
• You've experienced a "salt storm" after a two-inch snowfall.
• You think the only thing Southern Indiana is good for is buying pumpkins.
• You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Louisville .