Cheater's Chicken & Dumplings

It had been a while since I had the pleasure of a meal of chicken and dumplings, and I'd never made them myself, before today; so I decided to hit the Internet and see if there was any inspiration there.

Grandma's Pickles

So I’ve been making pickles for a while now – mostly fermented dill pickles, which Mom doesn’t care for. I tried making “Bread ‘N’ Butter” pickles, which are not fermented, and for a while she seemed to like them, but eventually she decided they were too sweet. They weren't the pickles she had grown up with, made by her mother!

Barbecue Ribs, Take Two

As cuts of meat go, ribs aren't a really good deal. You usually end up paying steak prices for a lot of bone. Recently, however, while shopping with My Honey, we spotted some baby-back ribs at a really good price, and they were really meaty, too. We were able to scarf several racks to bring home.

Mariner's Onion Sandwich Rolls

I learned to hate onions at an early age. When I was about 5 years old, I was victimized by an older, male family member, who thought that it would be funny to give a child a raw onion, saying that it was just a different kind of apple. Being a naïve and trusting child, I accepted the gift of the “different apple”, and took a bite. To put it mildly, I was disappointed, and almost thirty years passed before I would again voluntarily eat anything with onion in it.

Mariner's Smoked Pork Meat Stock

I have frequent need of pork stock in my cooking, and it's not often available on the store shelves. Sometimes, as an afterthought to crock-cooking a large piece of pork, I make my own, by simply covering any bones left after deboning the pork with water, and cooking all of the meat off. This can yield significant amounts of broth, but is somewhat haphazard in terms of the flavor and amount.

Mariner's Cabbage Soup

I don't often make this one, because afterwards, the First Mate usually bans me from the galley (I apparently make a terrible mess!). I particularly like this soup on a cold or rainy day - or a cold and rainy day (like today). There's nothing fancy here, just plain, good food.