RIVER CITY DINER
Greetings!
What a blessing to have been raised in Memphis by a country cook who knew what she was doing. Good cooking was just a way of life in our household and among our extended family. My mother prepared the best fried chicken in Tipton County (We grew up in Memphis, but our reunions were in Tipton County.) according to my aunts, uncles, cousins, and great aunts & uncles; I have no reason to doubt their words of praise. I saw at every family reunion whose chicken was the first to go. And my mother wasn’t the only good cook in our house.
My daddy was a master at the grill and could throw together a variety of tasty snacks inside as well. He specialized in oyster stew & Bleu Cheese Dressing; and sitting down with Daddy as we built snacks of smoked oysters, cheeses, crackers, olives, and anything else he could scrape together was a banquet in itself.
The blog entries below come from recipes we enjoy around our household; from recipes I’ve yet to try; from recipes given me by friends and family, and things I’ve read about on line or in real print. Yes, I do still subscribe to magazines that come in the mail. Also there are posts about cooking equipment, techniques, sources for more information, etc. I hope you find something of interest. By all means, feel free to write
Home-made Breakfast Sausage
We're trying to come up with an alternative to high-sodium breakfast sausage; and we figure the best way to get that is to make it from scratch. So, W started with Alton Brown's recipe. I cut his salt from 2 teaspoons to 1, which cut the Sodium from 14% to 8%! Great!...
Sweet Potatoes with Coconut Milk
Sherry gave me this book in 1986. It’s Jeff Smith’s “The Frugal Gourmet.” I’ve cooked a LOT out of this book. This dish is from Kenya. It’s unusual to this southern guy’s taste; but we like it. Try it! Ingredients 3-4 sweet potatoes, peeled, and cubed1 15-ounce can of...
Low Sodium Breakfast Sausage
Jimmy Dean’s Frozen Patties contain 560 mg of Sodium per serving. I found also, a home-made low-sodium sausage recipe here: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1369504 It comes in at a whopping 36 mg as compared to 560 mg for the Jimmy Dean ...
Recording of “Southern Nights”
I use an 8 track digital recorder that is no larger than a cigar box. While it has 8 separate tracks which can be bounced, punched in, dubbed, edited, moved about, etc., the machine only allows two inputs at a time. This is no problem as long as I'm recording solo, as...
Lagniappe
"Lagniappe" is where I put things that relate to cooking, but that aren't necessarily recipes per se (but which sometimes are). You might find some of this interesting. BBQ Is Not a Verb Cajun Seasoning Fool Proof Boiled Eggs How Hot Is that Fire?...
Cinnamon Sautéed Pears
No added sugar; top cereal or pancakes. Sherry did these, and they turned out superb! (November 14, 2020) Ingredients 2 large pears 1 tbsp oil 2 tbsp water 1 tsp ground cinnamon Instructions Peel, core and slice pears into 1/2-inch slices. Place pears in a...
Sheet Pan Meat Loaf
Superb!! Ingredients 1 lb breakfast sausage1 lb mild Italian sausage2 eggsOatmeal (a handful or so)Allspice (Slight sprinkling)Garlic powder1 onion1 medium tomatoBottled BBQ saucePrepared mustard Directions Preheat oven to 400F. Dice onion and tomato; cook in a...
Spinach with Cheese and Boiled Egg
I made this up tonight just on a lark. I'll do this one again! Ingredients 8 oz. Baby spinach 2 T olive oil Salt and pepper 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 to 1 cup grated cheddar cheese 1 boiled egg; shelled and coarsely chopped (or sliced) Sriracha sauce...
Pursued by the Magician’s Assistant
Once, at a Gridiron Show cast party, the magician's assistant made a play for me. I wasn't interested and tried to dodge her. She persisted. One of the other acts was a lady barbershop quartet. They saw what was going on. They liked me too; but weren't at all...
Potato and Sausage Casserole
Ingredients 6 medium red potatoes; sliced 1 lb breakfast sausage; crumbled 1 medium yellow onion; diced 1/2 pound mushrooms; cleaned and sliced 1/2 pound cream cheese; softened 2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese 1 lb frozen green peas; thawed Worcestershire Sauce garlic...