Foodie Friday

Thank goodness for summer comfort food.

Nothing calms the soul like a smoked barbecue sandwich, topped with

homemade slaw. Right?

 



This week, I've been busy writing and troubleshooting at the farm and at the

renovation site.

 A miscommunication with the oven hood taught me a lot. I am a writer by profession, not a designer, and I see the difficulties of trying to plan a complicated space without the help of a kitchen designer.

 

 

 

Lovely workmanship, though. I hope I can repurpose them.



 

I was filled with regret. If only I hadn't kept the old cabinets. Had I really saved money for realsies? Wouldn't it have been better to start from scratch?

Too late now.

 

Down came the columns and up went corbels.

 Not sure this works, either.

The upper cabinet on the far right will be reworked, so it won't have

a super high "fivehead."

 

 

 

Everything will be painted white.

Maybe it will look better then.

 

 

I never expected so much trim.

It grew by the day.

The trim that ate New Jersey!

 

Everyone says it will look different when the cabinet doors

are installed.

 

 

Here's my inspiration picture that I found on Houzz.

It prompted me to blow out the ceiling and add a large window,

two things that were done beautifully and without blowing the budget.

 

This photo is taped to the kitchen window for the subs. They're trying hard, and

their work is pretty...the problem is me. I don't have a clear plan.

 

source: Houzz

The photo was a jumping off point, not something to replicate to the letter.

We had less space and needed a smaller window. A second tier of cabinets (upper)

would have meant ripping out the old cabinets. And the existing cabinets

were in great shape. Also, in a previous kitchen, I had double decker upper cabinets and never used the ones on top. They were just too high!

 

My kitchen has so much trim, I nixed the clock, thinking it would be too busy.

Also, I was trying to be practical: if the clock's battery died, and it eventually would, my sweet husband isn't in shape to climb on a ladder.

 

I can be messy when I'm cooking--lots of splatters--so I didn't add a spice cabinet next to the range.

I put my spice racks in pull out drawers (lower cabinets).

 

I kept the old island, too, and extended it at one end to include seating. I also added a prep sink.

 

 

On a positive note, two walls were blown out, and this made the kitchen seem bigger, though

the original footprint stayed the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A non-weight bearing wall made the kitchen seem smaller.

Gone, baby, gone.



 

 

 Okay, enough about design.

Let's eat some comfort food!

 

 

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 Thanks for visiting us today!

Now tell us all about your recipe.

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How NOT to Cook a BBQ Chicken-Apple-Bacon Flatbread Pizza



 



Don't worry.
I'll share the right way to cook this pizza. It really is easy, if you don't suffer from Kitchen Wildness.
But first, a little backstory. When I told my 85 year-old mom what I was cooking for supper, she said, "I've never heard of such!"

I'd made BBQ chicken pizzas before, using BBQ sauce for a base, and my taste-testers had given it a thumb's up. However, I wanted to be edgy and freaky, so I decided to add apples and apple jelly.

I had no way of knowing that I would embark on a culinary disaster, my own personal Poseidon Adventure. 

source

First, Bandwidth threw away my bacon drippings, which is a felony in the South. But I persevered, slathering extra sauce under and over the toppings.

The finished product looked and tasted like a wet shag rug, not that I've bitten into a rug, but you get the idea.

Bandwidth felt sorry for me, and he was also hungry, so he decided to show me

how to cook a pizza proper! Cooking "proper" is polite Southern slang for, "I'll show you, my pretty, and your little dog, too."

While he cooked, I did a post mortem on my fiasco. If I'd added more Tabasco, or even tossed in some red pepper flakes, I would have only added heat, not depth. The gone-baby-gone bacon drippings would have added depth.

But Bandy's pizzas were perfect.

The cure was to add a small amount of sauce, not a tidal wave.

Easy BBQ-Apple-Bacon Flatbread Pizza

                                               

                                            Quantity: 2 pizzas

2 flatbread crusts

1 deli BBQ chicken

1 apple, cut into small pieces

6 slices applewood bacon, cooked and crumbled

1/2 cup bell pepper, chopped

1/4 cup sliced green onions

snipped chives

1/2 cup thinly sliced red onion

1 - 2 cups shredded cheese

2 tablespoons apple jelly

3/4 cup barbecue sauce

1/8 teaspoon onion salt (or to taste)

Tabasco--dash

ground pepper and Kosher salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Make the sauce: Whisk jelly, BBQ sauce, Tabasco, salt, and pepper. Set aside.

Prepare the toppings: Cut/chop/or slice the chicken, bacon, apple, bell pepper, and red onion. Set aside.

Place flatbread on pizza stones.

Spread a small amount of sauce on each flatbread, a few teaspoons at a time--less is more!

Or you'll end up with Tsunami Pizza:

Use this photo as a guide:

Sprinkle cheese over sauce. Add chicken, peppers, onions, and apples.

Salt and pepper.

Bake pizzas for 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Note: Watch them carefully because

the jam will burn.

Remove pizzas. Sprinkle with bacon, chives, and green onions.

Printable Recipe

An On the Menu Monday contribution.



This adventure left me thinking about odd pizza toppings.

What is the strangest one you've tried? What were the results?

A Foodie Friday contribution.

Photos by MLW; proper pizza by Bandy



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BBQ-Cornbread Casserole

When I'm working on a novel, it's hard to be a serious cook.
It's even harder to blog about food.  I knew I was in trouble when I stopped using cake mixes and began hacking up store-bought desserts.

What to do.

I don't want my family to east fast food.
Yet I have limited kitchen time. Luckily, my eldest son, Trey, is a professional chef, trained in Charleston, South Carolina, and he gave me a new recipe.

 

If you have leftover cornbread and roast, AND if

you like BBQ concoctions,

this recipe is for you. It takes minutes to prepare (or you can prepare it ahead of time and refrigerate).

Chef Trey's BBQ Cornbread Casserole

 

What You Need:

leftover cornbread

leftover pork (or beef) 

bottled BBQ sauce or homemade

chopped green onions

shredded cheese

cole slaw

First, pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Now, cube the leftover cornbread and place it in the bottom of a lightly greased (PAM is fine) baking dish. Next, shred the leftover pork or beef.

Put the meat in a bowl and add BBQ sauce.

Place meat over the cornbread.

Add more BBQ sauce, 1 tablespoon at a time.
This will prevent the casserole from being too dry.

Top the meat with shredded cheese.
My younger son wasn't sure if he would like cheese and BBQ, so I only sprinkled half of the casserole with shredded mozzarella.

 Bake the casserole for 8 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the cole slaw.

Simple Lo-Cal Slaw

1 bag cole slaw mix

Duke's mayo (fat free)

chopped onions, celery, peppers, garlic

green onions

white wine vinegar

salt and pepper to taste 

 Remove casserole from oven.

Oh, Bandy, you'll be sorry about that cheese.

 Sprinkle the top with chopped green onions. 

Add more sauce, if you like. 

(I think Elvis would have approved of this recipe.)

 

I put a dollop of slaw on top and garnished with more onions and sauce,
but I'm decadent that way.

Chef Trey makes a vinegary Carolina sauce. He  serves this dish with homemade hushpuppies.

Thanks, Trey!