Happy St. Patrick’s Day

That goes even for you poser Irish out there, LOL. After all, as the joke goes, everybody is Irish on St Paddy’s Day.

I’m the black sheep of the authentically (part) Irish, I suppose. Everybody will be bragging in their blogs today and tomorrow about their corned beef and cabbage. Personally, I’m NOT a fan.

Blasphemy, you say? Perhaps. You might feel the same way in my shoes though. My family thought the correct way to cook corned beef and cabbage was to throw everything into a pot of water and boil the hell out of it. Everything lost it’s flavor, but the fat off the corned beef partially melted and made everything taste greasy.

So yeah… There yah go. That’s not to say I haven’t done corned beef before. I smoked one on our grill years back, along with other meat for meals later that week. You can see THAT post here: Meatzapalooza.

For those not inclined to see the meal, it turned out good overall but the corned beef was over-brined and somewhat too salty for me. It cooked up perfect otherwise:

The next day, being a contrarian, I had to do something different with it for dinner. I didn’t feel like an ornate meal. So, what DID I end up doing, you ask??

Corned beef sandwiches with coleslaw and Havarti cheese on pretzel rolls with fries.

Viola: Corned beef, cabbage and carrots (in the slaw) and potatoes (fries). Untraditionally traditional. 😁 How’s that for clever? LOL

Today we’re doing alot of cleaning around the house and are planning on salad for dinner. Sometimes you’ve just got to break the rules.

In Other News…

My personal “got spammed” record here at WP was broken last night. 56 likes in 2 minutes. I’d name and shame, but they don’t read others’ blog anyway, LOL. Besides, you almost have to admire the effort behind the desperate cry for attention. If you’re going to spam you might as well go all out, right?

That also helped bring my deleted emails folder up to 4,768 deleted emails. 😯

A Mystery and a Possible Decision to Make

Just a short post today, and ZERO politics. I’ve had a TON on my mind the last few days, hence replies to blogs being rather short. I got hit with a culinary mystery yesterday also.

The Case of the Vanishing Chili Flavor:

Couldn’t resist a little flashback fun to open this up.

OK, so before going to bed night before last, I got some chili going in the Crock Pot. Since there is NO edible store bought hot dog chili in Tennessee, we’ve taken to making our own and freezing it in single meal sized storage containers. Nothing fancy, just ground beef, pre-packaged chili seasoning and some tomato paste & water.

I almost always have great luck going this path. Yesterday’s batch should have turned out exceptional, since slow cooking it in the Crock Pot should have really brought out the flavors. This was the most bland chili I’ve ever had in my life though.

Not only that, but every effort I made to doctor it up met with very minimal results. I must have added a quarter cup of garlic powder, along with some paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, chili powder, some hatch chili green enchilada sauce, actual hatch chilis… It’s barely made a difference. Even if the original Shelby’s Chili Mix package had been stale / bland, the added seasonings should have brought the chili to life. All those spices were fresh.

Neither of us could taste much of anything though, and we can taste everything else just fine. Well, all I can say is next time it’s back to Sucklebuster’s chili mix. They never let me down.

Decisions, Decisions…

I don’t know why I’m sweating this situation just yet. The decision is just as likely to be made for me, but…

As some of you will recall, I’ve been sitting out of work for months as my wrists heal from work related injuries. Tennessee’s workman’s comp and other protections are anywhere from nonexistent to a borderline joke. The rest of you here will see when Trump starts stripping away those protections nationally in the name of the economy.

ANYWAY… I got an interview and a preliminary job offer with a company that acts as a consulting firm for the auto plant that worked over my wrists. They help tweak parts designs and act as efficiency advisors for various parts of the assembly line.

The catch is that the job offer has to be cleared with the actual auto manufacturer before an actual offer can be made. So yeah, who knows if it’ll play out.

In a delicious twist of fate though *IF* I get the job, I’d be making 20% more than I did as an actual plant employee, AND I’d essentially be telling the people I worked with how to do their jobs. 🤣🩷🤣

Image generated by Bing AI: Stealing Artists’ Work All Over the Internet.

There are already a couple of potential red flags to me though (aside from needing company approval to return). During the initial screening interview, I wasn’t given an opportunity to ask any questions at all. Even at my first job working fast food decades ago, the manager asked if I had any questions before closing out the interview.

Second was that after I was texted about the potential compensation package, I tried throwing out a great interview question I found online. I asked if there were any books I could read that would give me a better handle on the company’s culture and help me fit in better. I got texted back that they’d handle all that during onboarding. 🤨

Things that make you go hmmmm…. – Arsenio Hall

So yeah, I’m a little gunshy now and wondering what sort of corporate climate I may be walking into. As much as I’d love to get back to work, I would like to avoid a toxic minefield. I’ll be treading carefully here, assuming I even get the opportunity.

Italian Style Meatball Soup

I’ve been neglecting my food related posts, so here’s an Emeril Lagasse recipe (with a few modifications that I made during a recent bout of cold weather).

Rather than just re-do the whole recipe here, I’ll provide a link to the original page:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/meatball-soup-3646042

Emeril is one of my favorite chefs. Almost every recipe of his that I’ve tried has turned out great. This one was no exception.

I didn’t even burn myself this time! LOL

I will add a couple of notes here however:

Emeril’s 2 can’s of low sodium beef broth, 29 ozs or 8/10 of a liter, are not near enough liquid to make this soup. With the amount of meat and vegetables that go into this, it’s almost too thick to be a stew with that amount of liquid. Even more true if you use dry pasta in the recipe.

Bottom line; plan on having about twice that much to get the soup at the consistency in the picture above, or at least be ready to add water.

You also might want to make a little more meatballs than the recipe calls for. This made a crock put full, as you all can see. That’s about 8 decent sized bowls of soup. There were only a couple of pieces of meatball left by the time we got to the last two bowls.

OH… and if you’re using a crock pot and dry pasta… The pasta will NOT be cooked in 15 minutes like Emeril says… More like somewhere around an hour and a half. I *did* add that in late also. Past experience has taught me that slow cooker soups tend to dissolve pasta if it’s added in right at the get go.

End Result:

I almost forgot…

A bowl of the soup finished, and topped with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and served with some garlic Parmigiano Reggiano toasted bread on the side. 🙂

Peppermint Bark Chocolate Brownies

I’m overdue for a food post here, largely becuase my iPhone has decided it doesn’t want to download pictures anymore. >_<

I have a special holiday treat today; peppermint bark brownies. The original, make it from scratch recipe is courtesy of San Francisco’s famous Ghirardelli chocolate company. Occasionally some good comes out of S.F. lol.

Unfortunately for those outside the U.S, everything is in our measurements, so you’ll have to do conversions. If you’re interested in using authentic Ghirardelli peppermint bark, you’ll have to order fast. It disappears at Christmas and won’t be back until after Thanksgiving. Whatever you do, make sure you use high quality peppermint bark here. I tried substituting Costco’s store brand one year and took the tub back for a refund it tasted so bad. Quality ingredients are probably the biggest unspoken “secret” to good cooking or baking.

So, here’s the “from scratch” version:

Ingredients:
1 ¹/₂ cups Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
1 ¹/₂ sticks unsalted butter (12 tablespoons)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¹/₄ teaspoon salt
¹/₂ cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¹/₂ teaspoon baking powder
8 Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark SQUARES™ chocolates, chopped into large chunks (for the brownies)
18 Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark SQUARES™ chocolates, broken in to large chunks (about 8 pieces per square) (for the finishing)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. n

Line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with foil and grease with pan spray.
In a medium saucepan, bring 2 inches of water to a gentle simmer. Put the 60% chips and butter in a heatproof bowl and set it over (but not touching) the simmering water.

Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula until the better is melted and both ingredients are completely combined. Turn off the heat and leave the bowl over the warm water.

Sift together the flour and baking powder and set aside. In a large bowl whisk together eggs, salt, sugar and vanilla. Add the egg mixture to the chocolate mixture and whisk together gently. With a spatula, fold in the flour.

Immediately pour ½ the mixture into the prepared baking pan and spread it evenly. Next, sprinkle the chopped peppermint bark over the batter and then pour the remaining batter over this. Spread evenly.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. The center should be fudgy but not dry. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

Place Peppermint Bark chunks on top of warm brownies and allow them to soften for 1 minute. Using a spatula, gently swirl the melting Peppermint Bark to create swirls of melted chocolate. Refrigerate for 1 hour. Trim the 4 edges of the brownies by 1/4 inch. And cut into 18 squares.

SILK’S EASY SHORT CUT VERSION:

There’s one big shortcut to making these brownies and a few tweaks to make them turn out even better.

The Shortcut: Instead of manually making the brownies from scratch, use Ghirardelli (and only Ghirardelli) brownie mix. The version I think works best is the Triple Chocolate Brownie mix and that’s the one I used this year. Follow cooking directions / time on box.

Substitutions: The brownie mix will tell you to use water and vegetable oil. Instead of vegetable oil, use an equal amount of butter (1/3 a cup). Instead of water, use milk. I use just a little more than the 1/3 a cup that the box calls for; right in the middle of the 1/3 and ½ a cup marks on the measuring cup. That way they stay moist but don’t turn to goo.

Tricks: There are three tricks I’ve discovered with making these. First is to add a half teaspoon of Peppermint Extract to the brownie mix. This adds a bit more peppermint flavor to the brownies without overpowering the chocolate. Make sure to mix everything thoroughly if you go this route so that the peppermint flavor gets evenly distributed into the mix.

Second is a prep trick that makes clean up easier. When breaking up the Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark squares, I use a blender or food processor. To make clean up of the blender / food processor easier, I freeze the squares in the freezer overnight. The pieces will break more cleanly and not start to melt in the food processor. This will let you almost just rinse the processor clean.

Third: I place the Peppermint Bark on top of the Brownies 2 or 3 minutes before they’re ready to come out of the over (when a toothpick will come out of them almost completely clean). They’ll melt into an even topping better that way.