Homemade Refrigerator Cucumber Pickles

Posted on 09/07/2013 by Walter Blevins

It’s been just flat out hot here in the San Diego area for the last couple of weeks.  So hot that we just don’t want to cook and heat up the kitchen.  So hot, we don’t look at the weather forecast on TV.

Way back in the ancient days of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s we lived in a little house on the southside of Tampa, Florida.  I was just a youngster a little on either side of the whopping old age of 10.

My Mom had a couple of “go-to” dishes that I remember well from all those years ago that she would make in the perpetual hot and muggy climate of Tampa summers back in the days before there was any air-conditioning.

When you’re a kid, you spend your days running around outside during summer vacation.  It doesn’t matter that it’s 95 degrees with 95% humidity every day.  You run around in shorts and no shirt and just as often barefoot.  You don’t notice it.  That’s fine and dandy when you’re 10 but when you’re 60 it’s a pain in the butt.

refrigerator cucumber pickles

To a Mom and housewife spending each day on chores like never-ending laundry and making dinner every night, hot is hot and muggy is even hotter.  So from time to time Mom would make cold tuna noodle salad served with saltines.  I still make and love that dish when it’s hot.

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Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, side dishes, Southern Cooking, vegetables | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Shredded Pork Sammiches

Posted on 09/03/2013 by Walter Blevins

I got home last evening, the first in nearly a week, in time to cook something for dinner.  It’s doubtful in the good old U.S. of A. that there’s any occupation that’s as degrading and unrewarding (both personally and financially) than selling cars for a living.

But that’s what I do.  And I try to keep a good firm grasp on my integrity and my professionalism in an environment where customers tend to approach with trepidation and distrust. But it gives me something to do 50-60 hours a week and enough income each month to almost get “ends to meet”.

Anyway, enough of my whining.  An exchange of texts yesterday with my bride, Mrs. CB, yielded taking out a bag of shredded pork from the freezer for a simple, quick and tasty dinner.  About a month ago I slow cooked a pork shoulder and then shredded the whole thing for a variety of meals that can be made cheaply and quickly.  The menu for the night was what Mrs. CB calls “Shredded Pork Sammiches” (aka Pulled Pork Sammiches).

shredded pork sammiches ready to eat

The pork shoulder was bone-in and weighed almost 8 lbs and cost $.99 a lb.  It yielded right around 5 lbs. of meat.  Normally I would have kept the bones too so I can make “beans” in a couple of months but my freezer is pretty much jammed full and there’s already a couple of left over pork bones in there for whenever I stumble across them when we’ve got a cold, rainy weekend forecast.

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Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, kids meals, party and entertaining food, pork, sandwiches, Slow Cooker/Crock Pot | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Fresh Summer Vegetables

Posted on 08/20/2013 by Walter Blevins

It’s great having a full day off—actually I took my day off for a change.  Seems like the older I get the more time I spend working.  That’s not the way it’s supposed to go, is it?

But, we’re both kind of tired and slept late today.  For me that meant that I didn’t roust myself from bed until a few minutes after 7.  And I was bummed.  My favorite TV show was on last night at 10 p.m.  I think I saw maybe 3 minutes of it—like maybe minutes 33-36 of the hour long broadcast of “Longmire”.

But this morning was kind of lazy.  Mrs. CB had a short list for the grocery store where we shop weekly for produce–and we’re low on fresh summer vegetables.  They have great produce that’s really reasonably priced.  The rest of their stuff is pretty great too but tends to get a bit pricey, except for their feta cheese.

So here’s what we came home with:

Cheap Bastid's veggies

A pretty good haul.  It’s pretty much our usual purchase of produce.  Zucchini, cucumbers, jalapenos, bell peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, onion.  And we’ll eat all of it. Continue reading →

Posted in Comfort Food, family meals, side dishes, vegetables | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Pretzel Buns

Posted on 08/16/2013 by Walter Blevins

Have you noticed the commercials from both Wendy’s and Sonic touting their new pretzel buns?  Wendy’s is promoting a pretzel bun cheeseburger while Sonic is peddling a hotdog in a pretzel bun.

I see those commercials and think to myself, “Self, those look good.”  Have you noticed?  In the world of fast food, they look really tasty.  Something different.  So I decided, “What the heck, Cheap Bastid can do that.”

A year or so ago I baked up some soft pretzels, so I know that I can make them.  It’s a bit of a process though.  Is it worth it?  Well, the writer of “Fifty Shades of Gray” might describe the way Mrs. CB reacted to them as “the throes of ecstasy”.  And yeah, it takes a couple of hours but these are a taste treat, especially since I was going to cook something a bit more substantial than hot dogs—Italian sausages.

pretzel roll with sausage

Now making soft pretzels is the same as making basic bread with the addition of one step that adds about 5 minutes to the process.  The way to get the color, texture and flavor is to parboil the formed rolls for a minute or 2 in water and baking soda. (Purists use food-grade lye). Continue reading →

Posted in baking, Comfort Food, family meals, grilling, party and entertaining food | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Pie Crust Kringle

Posted on 08/07/2013 by Walter Blevins

I’m on a constant quest for my next Cheap Bastid creation.  Sometimes I stumble across something and sometimes I don’t.  So recently I came across something that extolled the virtues of the convenience of store-bought refrigerated pie crust for a Danish Kringle recipe.

And I thought to myself—“Self, you can do that and save a bunch by making up a batch of your lard pie crust.”  This was a recipe for a Danish Kringle using pecans, brown sugar and butter as a filling.

So, a couple of things come to mind.  I did a search for the ingredients in refrigerated pie crust.  My homemade crust has flour, salt, lard and water (and rather than lard you can use butter or shortening or cooking oil).  The ingredient list for the most popular brand of refrigerated pie crust lists a dozen ingredients.  That alone kind of puts me off.

And I also checked out “real” Danish Kringle recipes.  It’s a multi-step process that can take up to 3 days of rolling and folding dough to build up layers of buttery pastry which sounds incredible but which is way beyond Cheap Bastid’s skill and patience level.

Pie Crust Kringle plated

But, I’m always interested in creating new dishes, especially desserts that are homemade and fill the category of “special”.  And this fits both of those.  Plus, it’s not going to hurt my feelings at all if you’d rather use refrigerated/store-bought pie crust to make this.  It’s going to add to the price, of course, but it’s going to reduce time and a bit of aggravation. Continue reading →

Posted in baking, Comfort Food, dessert, family meals | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments