Easter Dinner (Happy Ham Day!)

Happy Easter! Or Happy Ham Day!

Over the weekend, we have been cooking ham and other goodies to celebrate the holiday as we have done in past traditions.

Sandwiches. . . growing up we joked because we would make our sandwiches “Bleed” as we had an egg Easter bread, beet horseradish sauce, ham and cheese.
Cvikla s Chrenom – Beet and Horseradish Relish (http://slovakamericankitchen.blogspot.com/2014/04/cvikla-s-chrenom-beet-and-horseradish.html )

Easter bread: Paska (https://dcslovaks.org/slovak-easter-traditions-paska-bread/)

Easter Cheese: Veľká noc Cirák (https://slaviccooking.com/slovak-easter-cheese-cirak/)

We kept it simple (we didn’t make Cvikla s Chrenom, Paska, or Veľká noc Cirák but do remember them as a kid.)

We made three hams (actually my friend and my brother made the hams.)

I focused on the sweet potatoes with marshmallows.

What is awesome is that with ham. . . there are so many things you can do with the leftover. . .

You can add it to scallop or augrutin potatoes.
You can add into bean or split pea soups.
Add it to Mac N Cheese
Yes of course you can just keep it simple and make a bunch of ham sandwiches.

Note: Ham has a lot of salt, so make sure you drink a lot of water to get a lot of the salt out of your system.

This ham is addicting that I’m dealing with a stomachache from eating too much. So I am taking a nap now.

Beef Stroganoff

I had sliced beef pieces, mushroom, sour cream and egg noodles. So I spiced everything up and made beef stroganoff. I marinaded the beef with ground pepper and Worcestershire sauce.

(I currently cannot handle onions with my stomach, but I have seem people add onions, and pepper to it.
I’ve also seen people use hamburger with it, but I prefer beef chunks.)

However it a hit a spot and it was eaten so fast, that I forgot to grab a picture.

It is so easy, but I usually never have the left over sour cream. (We had steak tacos Sunday and fish taco Monday, so I had left over sour cream today.)

Noodles are one of my comfort foods.

Busy Weekend

Theme: Bacon

Zero, Turtle and I got another change to work in the huge kitchen again. Saturday we made so much. It was a really nice night, and we accomplished so much.

Zero made Mayo and BBQ chicken with homemade mashed potatoes.
The mayo chicken was creamy and really good with some black pepper over those mashed potatoes.

Then we got out the bacon. . .

Zero made two meatloaves . . . Plain BBQ glaze and cheesy stuffed bacon wrapped one.
I personally loved the bacon wrapped meatloaf just a bit more. (It was even better the next day.)

Turtle made a roasted chicken with bacon and green pepper stuffing.
It was really good and very juicy. I also didn’t realized that green pepper was that good in stuffing. I learned a few things this weekend.

We also got a bag gruyere cheese from a friend as they have extra. We took the cheese sauce with thinly sliced potatoes and of course bacon and made our own homemade au gratin potatoes.

We also made bacon saute yellow squash and french fries.

We had so much food left over. I didn’t have to cook on Sunday. We had left over for dinner and still some left. Yay.

It was nice that we put down the Internet and the phone and just focused on the food. Sometime we need to forget everything around us and focus on what in front.

By the way, I love bacon!

Cabbage and Noddles with bacon

I was at the store and they had cabbage for .59 cent a pound and bacon that was normally 6.99 for 2.99 (save 4.00). . . thick cut too.

(By the way, I love bacon. The crispy sweet yumminess. )

I cooked the bacon and cooked the cabbage in butter and bacon grease. Yum. Then I made enough to share with my neighbor.

I love this dish, because it taste good, filling and you can share with many people. This is why many people usually has this dish as parties or picnics.

Lemon Pepper Chicken

Today, I took lemons and lemon pepper seasoning and put them in the boil water to cook the chicken thighs.

I pulled the thigh out when I felt they were cooked but not over cooked.

Then I took 1/2 cup of veggie oil, butter and infused lemons in it.

I fried the outside of the chicken thighs with the lemon oil. I fried the lemon halves.

I made the skin crispy.

It turned out really good. It was tart and with the grill marks had like a BBQ feel to it.

Blood Orange Tilapia

I made Tilapia fish with a butter Moro blood orange sauce.
It was a very simple meal cook the fish in butter squeezing the blood oranges over the fish.
Once the fish is out if the pan squeeze more oranges and put the pulp in the pan with the butter and fish juice.

Note: Do not put a juicy orange on your computer. (orange in color or blood . . . its’ a moro as there are several types of blood oranges) I just did this to show the color.

We had it over stuffing with side of Asia cabbage salad mix.

Pollack Fish with Lemon Sauce

Today I made with the planning of my brother Turtle. . . Pollack fish with lemon sauce and avocado and lemon rice.

Both dishes are very easy to make.
However with fish, especially as fragile and flaky as Pollack you need to focus and make sure you don’t over cook the fish. I only cooked each batch (which I had two batches I made for three people) for only about 5 to 7 minutes once the butter started to bubble and the pan was hot.

I cooked the fish in a fry pan with butter, fresh squeezed lemon, chives, salt and pepper.

cooking lemon pollack

After I took out the fish, I used the butter with lemon juice and made a sauce. I let the pieces of lemon cook in the sauce and added tablespoon of sugar and butter as it was a bit tart.

I cooked the rice (2 cups of uncooked rice to 4 cups water) and once the water was gone and rice cooked completely added 3 smashed avocados and 1/4th cup of the lemon-butter sauce. I also salt and peppered to taste.

Finished plate

lemon pollack (2)

It’s a simple, light meal great for a date night, if they like fish.

Intro with the cooks.

I’m Beck.
However since I’m about to invite you into my virtual kitchen, I like to be on personal first name basis.
You can call me Beck, just do not call me late for dinner. LOL. (I’m corny, just a warning.)
My best dish is my seven layer lasagna.

I bake as well as cook.

I usually do NOT do my cooking alone.
I also cook with my brother, we call him Turtle.
His best dish is Chicken Cordon Blue.

And our neighbor we call him Zeroman.
His best dish is seafood pasta salad.

We all have different backgrounds in cooking and have all started to cook at very early ages.

Zeroman went to school for culinary.

My brother and I both have pulled our cooking skills from different family members.

If know what is in something, we can pretty much make anything.

Random things

Turtle loves his spicy foods. I cannot do hot.

I love comfort foods and many sweets.

Zeroman usually has a mixture of sweet and salty snacks when we hang out.

So I like to share our culinary and food interests with others out there.

We all need food, so we might as well enjoy it.