“Meatloaf, Smeatloaf, Double Beatloaf”

Posted on 11/04/2012 by Walter Blevins

OK, time for one of my favorites that I just have to have every few months.  Homemade old-fashioned meatloaf.  Beaver Cleaver used to complain about it.  So did Richie Cunningham.  But they both ate it—begrudgingly.  Their perfect Moms made imperfect meatloaf.

And then there’s Randy.  Who’s Randy?  He’s Ralphie’s little brother in “A Christmas Story”, one of the greatest ever mirrors of the mid-20th century.  Right before his Mom teased him into eating his meatloaf and mashed potatoes by eating like the “little piggies do” Randy said—“meatloaf, smeatloaf..double beatloaf. I hate meatloaf.”

           From “A Christmas Story” on YouTube

Hey! At my house in the mid 1950’s, such a comment would have merited the classic “eat it, there’s millions starving in India”.  There wouldn’t have been any “eat like the little piggies do”—not at our kitchen table.

But, I get that occasional “Jones” for meatloaf.  The fun thing about meatloaf is that you can actually customize it quite a bit with different flavors ranging from traditional to “cheeseburger meatloaf” to incorporating a couple of hard-boiled eggs buried in the meat to barbecue flavor.  And it’s pretty inexpensive to make too.  You can make a dinner and left-overs for about $5 or so.

homemade old fashioned meatloaf Here’s my Cheap Bastid version of homemade old-fashioned meatloaf: Continue reading →

Posted in Beef Recipes, Comfort Food, family meals, Southern Cooking | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

“Mushroom Soupless” Holiday Green Bean Casserole

Posted on 10/30/2012 by Walter Blevins

Garrison Keillor has often included references to Cream of Mushroom soup in his monologues about Lake Wobegon on “A Prairie Home Companion”.  According to him, Cream of Mushroom soup is one of the things that Scandinavian Lutherans and Germanic Catholics in his tiny town share in common.  It’s a staple in the pantry and used to flavor all manner of “hotdishes” for the family table and the never ending church potlucks of the Upper Midwest.

We all remember those limp green beans in a pyrex dish topped with canned fried onion rings and swimming in some mysterious beige/grey mystery sauce—usually cream of mushroom soup.  So I thought I’d try to come up with something with a bit more freshness, flavor and color.  Something that hasn’t had all the taste baked out of it.  Something with a hint of both spice and texture.

So, last fall I set out to come up with a different way of making a Holiday green bean casserole that tastes good and looks good.  It took a bit of experimentation and researching multiple recipes.  But I came up with one that works for me.  It combines the natural goodness of green beans with a few ingredients that, to quote Emeril, “kick it up a notch”.

Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, Southern Cooking, turkey & chicken, Uncategorized, vegetables | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Cornbread and Sausage Stuffing

Posted on 10/28/2012 by Walter Blevins

Thanksgiving is just around the corner so, I thought that I’d share a couple of recipes with you now just in case anyone wants to give it a try.  But first, a little story about Thanksgiving:

The first Thanksgiving dinner I cooked was 29 years ago this year.  Since then, I’ve tried to cook it each year or to cook at least a portion of this celebratory feast.  The reason is simple, it’s my way to celebrate my daughter’s birth.

Susan was born on the Sunday before Thanksgiving in 1983.  The funny part is that my wife went into labor on Saturday and we spent the entire evening timing contractions while I peeled 50 pounds of potatoes for a holiday lunch the next day at church (I was too stubborn to rely on “fake” instant potatoes and insisted on “real” mashed potatoes).

Anyway, Susan was born on Sunday morning and came home from the hospital Wednesday afternoon in the middle of an Iowa snowstorm.  Our house was heated by fuel oil and as fate would have it, we ran out and the house was without heat.  I called the oil company and was promised a quick delivery.  In the meantime, I started a fire in the fireplace and put Susan’s bassinette in front of it.

She snoozed the afternoon away, snug and warm oblivious to the weather or to the lack of heat. A couple hours later, I called the fuel oil company back and inquired when they might be arriving.  I also told them that we were out of oil and had just brought Susan home from the hospital.  The response was, “Well why didn’t you say so, I’ll make sure that you’re next.”  We had a full tank within the hour.  That’s the blessing of living in a town of 6,000. Continue reading →

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A Cheap Bastid Thanksgiving

Posted on 10/25/2012 by Walter Blevins

I’m salivating just thinking about the food in this post.  Last year I managed to photograph most of the dishes I made for Thanksgiving.  And quite frankly, I’m doing the same menu this year.

Over the next week or so I’ll be posting the recipes to these dishes just in case you’d like to make them part of your Holiday Feast.  Today, I’m sharing my version of a Thanksgiving dinner menu.  Every dish includes that most important of ingredients–a little bit of love.

grill roasted turkey breast

Grill roasted turkey breast “resting”

Start to finish it takes me about 7 hours.  I’ll start Wednesday night brining the turkey, making cornbread and making the pie.  Then on Thursday morning I’ll start in again.  Now I’m not the world’s most organized guy—except in the kitchen.  I kept track last year and I cleaned the kitchen 4 times during the day (and that doesn’t include doing the dishes after the feast).

We’ve got a small kitchen and it just works a whole lot better if, after each step, I clean up.  So in the morning I start with all my prep work.  I figure out how much celery and onions and bell pepper I’ll need for a couple of different dishes.  I clean and snap my fresh green beans and get them in the pot so I can blanch them.  I peel potatoes and get them in cold water.  I peel and chop yams so I can assemble the casserole they’ll be going into too.

Here’s the menu for our Thanksgiving Feast:

Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, turkey & chicken | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Italian Sausage, Pasta and 10-Minute Sauce

Posted on 10/22/2012 by Walter Blevins

I don’t know if I’ve written about this before—and in case I have, this will just be another version or a “re-run”—but sometimes I like making up a really quick pasta supper that leaves out the “red sauce” but still packs a lot of flavor.

This is a simple, minimalist dish with some really good flavor.  Even better it uses stuff that I pretty much always have in the pantry and fridge—Italian sausage with peppers, onions and tomatoes over pasta.  This has a lightness to it that makes it really terrific during the summer and start to finish takes less than 30 minutes to make.  Plus, by leaving out the spaghetti sauce it’s a bit healthier too.

italian sausage and 10 minute sauce

I’m using long spaghetti with this but I’ve also made it and put it on top of stone ground yellow cheese grits too.  Both are really tasty. (Note: I first did this a year or so ago and only have a couple of photos).

And hey, if you don’t want to use any meat at all, this is tasty as a vegetarian meal–if you want to add some zucchini or other veggies, feel free.  And, if you don’t have Italian sausage feel free to use brats or ground beef, turkey sausage, soy/tofu–whatever you want.  Cheap Bastid’s recipes are “suggestions” more than “prescriptions”.  So here goes: Continue reading →

Posted in family meals, Italian | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment