The very best hamburger I ever had

Occasionally (more often than I'm willing to admit) I totally earn my "Princess" status. Today has been one of those days. I've lounged around, gotten familiar with the Cooking Channel and had people I love cook food that I want. We started our with breakfast at Mama's...homemade biscuits, cinnamon rolls, fried eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, gravy. I had to rush home and get in a nap before my bed tousled hair started to calm down.

Refreshed from my morning nap and in a hurry to catch my afternoon nap, I watched a show on the Cooking Channel. It showcased one of the new hot restaurants in NYC: Minetta Tavern. On my 2nd trip to New York I happened upon this restaurant, and I made it my 1st stop until it closed for renovations 2 years ago. I was having a hard day and when I saw that the Minetta Tavern was closed after more than 25 years I almost cried. I've sworn that I wouldn't go into a hyped up version of my favorite restaurant. But...today that may have changed. The new incarnation is apparently a tavern style steak house. They have a hamburger that's $26. After seeing that burger I decided I would indeed pay $26 for it. OR...

HAVE DOC MAKE ME ONE!!!

So today, on Super Princess Saturday Doc made me the greatest burger of all time.

He started with 2 Ribeyes, 1 sirloin and 5 slices of bacon. All of those went into the food processor. (*never, ever again will I make a hamburger with grocery store ground beef. This I promise you!) Doc put it into the processor in batches and pulsed it until it "looked right." (He says to give a shout out to the king of the food nerds, Alton Brown. I believe he's outlined this process well.) That's it. That's all you have to do to grind your own meat. After this was formed into patties and put onto the griddle, he basted it with...yep...clarified butter. The burger was topped off with caramelized onions.

Oh delicious meat.

Yazoo City Tornado

Well, the Ubon's family was blessed this weekend. We made it through all of the damage without even a scratch. Our roof has a stick through it but it's small and Mama lost some glass in her turret. Many of my friends are without tonight. Keep our little town in your thoughts as we begin to rebuild.

Jewish Penicillin

15 days after the end of February, also known as March 15, the Ides of March, or spring allergy season in Mississippi. It's beautiful, but I started coughing and wheezing and being generally pitiful.

Mama used to make chicken soup for me when I got sick. After church yesterday I decided to make some for myself with some extra love.

In a large pot I placed a whole chicken, parsley, a sliced lemon, sliced shallots, carrots, celery, salt, crushed garlic, basil and black peppercorns. I let this simmer together for about 2.5 hours. I saved the broth and added 2 bags of frozen vegetables and the meat from the chicken. Into the soup I added a teaspoon of curry, more salt and pepper, more basil and chopped parsley. I let this simmer for another hour and added frozen dumplins and a cup of cream. This cooked for another 40 minutes or so.

My mama made homemade sho' nuff real buttermilk cornbread and my daddy ate 3 bowls. I'm not exactly sure if it cured me, but I promise I feel much better. I'm pretty sure this was 1 matzo ball short of being the perfect Jewish Penicillin.

Loose Caboose Festival in Newton, MS

I saw the first signs of spring this weekend: sunburned scalp, pecan wood smoke, ribs, mahogany colored whole hogs. Ah yes, 28 degree nights and 60 degree days, 18 hours of smoke. BBQ Spring has sprung!

The town of Newton hosted the first contest of the year, the Loose Caboose Festival. What a great contest. The first contest of the year brings out some major heavy hitters: Diamond D, Party Q, 10 Bones, Magnificent Steve, Red Hot Smokers, just to name a few. We found our way into a 2nd place whole hog (that in my opinion was THE hog to compare hogs to), 4th place shoulder and 5th place ribs. Our friends Red Hot Smokers won a Grand Champion with their shoulder.

What a great day! I'd suggest that all of our friends make a plan to come for next year's event. If you're new, or new to the MBN, this is a great contest to start with simply because there isn't a team there who won't help you figure out what you're doing.

I've been thinking about putting together an outline for doing a barbeque on site presentation. Any interest in this?

What does it mean to be "Southern?"

I had my annual vestry retreat this weekend. We're a very small church with a very faithful congregation. Our Senior Warden is a great guy who drives a long way just to come to church. He's one cool cat. But today he made the comment, "I don't like chicken salad and I don't like sweet tea."

Well, I was taken aback! How can you consider yourself southern and not love chicken salad and sweet tea? I love sweet tea so much that I gave it up for Lent!! Sweet tea is supposed to help me get closer to God! Sweet tea is an art and our birthright as southerners.

I decided to protest my southern yankee friend and make chicken salad for dinner....fancy chicken salad. Here's the recipe.

remove and chop meat from one whole smoked chicken. Chop 3 stalks of cleaned celery. slice 1 cup of red seedless grapes and add. Add 1 package of honey glazed slivered almonds. add 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley. Add 1/2 cup of mayo, 1 teaspoon of curry, salt and pepper to taste.

Then come tell me you don't like chicken salad!

Spicy Mustard

This afternoon my shipment arrived!

I haven’t been able to get it all together to make a much needed trip to NYC. The new sweet baby and the big kid don’t do so well when they are the only 2 at home, so that just wasn’t an option. I’ll make it to New York. We signed our Pitmaster Agreement today so I will be there by June!

All of my pregnancy with Ellie I craved Katz Deli. Please keep in mind that I’ve never been to Katz. Oh, I’ve had my share of New York Delis. (I’m not ashamed to say that I love a boiled egg sandwich from my nearest neighborhood bodega after a hard night of drinking….but we all know that’s not New York Deli.) Something about the way “Katz” rolled off the tongue made me hungry. I threw hints and received a promise or two to shlep a pastrami sandwich back to my home…unfulfilled.

When it became clear that I would be missing my regular February trip to New York, I ordered an overnight shipment from Katz.

*Jewish Rye Bread: There is indeed a heaven.
*Pastrami: Delivered from lackadaisical subpar sandwich meat.
*Chocolate Babka: Sorry cinnamon, you are indeed the lesser babka.
Most of all:

Spicy Yellow Mustard. This perfect blend of tangy yellow mustard and spicy brown mustard has almost made me weep. Damn, just thinking about it makes me want to go into the kitchen and construct a Rye and Mustard sandwich.

I think I will.

Venison Stew with Mushroom Tarragon Porridge.

I think it must be the weather. It’s been cold, cold around here for the last week or so. All I’ve been able to think of for during this cold weather has been steel cut oats. This drafty ole house has been so cold I’ve checked to see if we are living at Hogwarts. JK Rowling always described dinners with very hearty soups and stews that would fight against the cold. So, I suppose nothing is ever original. This recipe might be as close as I get. The idea of porridge isn’t anything new. I doubt the idea for a savory porridge is anything new, but it is new to Mississippi.

This is one of those times when I need to ask you to trust me. It’s going to seem very strange. I didn’t try this with rolled oats or with any quick-type oats, I don’t know that I would. So much of this was textural. I cooked a mushroom porridge and a venison stew. (you’ve seen the stew recipe before.) I served these together in the same bowl. If you’re looking for something different, this is it.

Mushroom Porridge
2 cans beef consume
3 cups of water
1.5 cups of steel cut oats
mushrooms
tarragon
cream
butter
salt and pepper


bring consume and water to a boil. Add steel cut oats and boil for about 30 minutes. Sautee mushrooms and add to the oats after about 30 minutes. Add fresh tarragon, cream and butter, salt and pepper.



serve with:
Coat 2 lbs of venison (this may be a roast that's cubed or stew meat.) with flour. In a big pot heat 3 tbsp OLIVE OIL. Add beef and 2 large chopped onions and cooked until beef is browned. Once beef is brown add 2 cans BEEF BROTH, 1 cup RED WINE, 3 cups WATER, chopped (large pieces or baby) CARROTS (to taste), chopped POTATOES (large pieces or small red potatoes), MUSHROOMS (I'm using shitake), 2 tbsp UBON'S SEASON T'UP, 2 tbsp THAT OLE THYME, Salt, Pepper to taste. The longer this simmers the better it will be. If you've got a fair amount of flour on your venison that will serve as a roux to thicken.