Lots of stuff to post about recently. Here goes…

Home Remedies, Poultices, Salves, and Tinctures

Phew! I am finished writing the non-fiction book Home Remedies, Poultices, Salves, and Tinctures book! I need to do a quick read through for consistency before I turn it over to a doctor friend (yes, he’s an actual M.D.!) to review and write a foreword.

Now it’s off to my other non-fiction piece titled Preparing to Prepare. Given the current state of things nationally and globally, the timing for each of these releases is pretty good I think.

Recipes

Been cooking a lot since this COViD-19 BS took over the country… so has everyone else. Most recently, I whipped up some baby back ribs, pork kabobs, and shrimp burgers! Oh my! Here are some pics and recipes.

Baby Back Ribs

My wife and daughter LOVE ribs and they always ask my wife’s father when he’s making ribs again. We got their recipe and decided to whip up a batch.

The meat at Aldi is pretty good. We picked up this package for less than $8.00!

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Rack of baby Back Ribs
Worcestershire Sauce
Meat Tenderizer
Water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325-degrees.
Cut a rack of ribs in half and place both halves in an 9x13 glass Pyrex dish.
Sprinkle Worcestershire sauce on top of each rack and a little in the glass.
Sprinkle the ribs with meat tenderizer.
Fill the glass dish 1/2 full with water.
Cook for 2 1/2 hours at 325-degrees.
15-20 minutes before finishing in the oven, make a small amount of coals on the grill and light.
When finished in the oven, transfer ribs to a platter and coat with bbq sauce then place on the grill.
Heat on the grill for about 5 minutes per side.
Serve hot.

1 rack of ribs feeds approximately 3 people if there are enough sides to supplement the ribs.

Pork Kabobs

Next up was the pork kabobs. For this we bought a 4-pack at Sam’s Club for $10.00. I cooked two for this recipe and threw the other two in the chest freezer for later. This recipe is pretty simple as well.

Ingredients:

2 Pork Tenderloin (silver skin removed)
4 T Olive Oil
4 T Soy Sauce
2 T Honey
2 T Cilantro Lime Seasoning

Directions:

Wash off and pat dry the pork tenderloin.
Remove and fat and silver skin from the meat.
Cut the pork into 3/4” thick medallions and then cut the medallion in half
Warm the homey in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.
Combine the olive oil, soy sauce, honey, and seasoning in a bowl and mix.
Pour the marinade into the 9x13 glass Pyrex dish.
Add the pork tenderloin and toss with you hands or a spatula to coat.
Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for an hour.
After an hour, uncover and stir then leave covered on the counter for 30 minutes to return to room temperature.
Skewer the meat (preferably on metal skewers) and any vegetables you want to grill as well (separate skewers for the meat and veggies).
Preheat the grill on high for 5-minutes then turn off the two outside burners (3-burner gas grill) and reduce the heat on the center burner to medium low.
Place the meat skewers on the outside of the grill (not directly above the lit center burner)
Grill for 4-minutes per side (there are four sides) but be careful not to let them burn. If burning occurs rather quickly then reduce the heat a little bit.
Add the veggie skewers when you turn the meat for the first time.
Using a meat thermometer, check the temperature. When you hit 145-degrees they are done. Remove all skewers from the grill
All meat skewers to rest for a few minutes.

Shrimp Burgers

The last, most recent recipe I unleashed was my shrimp burgers. Typically I only cook these when we are on a beach vacation but since COViD happened, we didn’t get to the beach this year.

Ingredients:

2 slices Wheat Bread (or 2/3 C breadcrumbs, 1/3 C per slice)

2 lbs. Shrimp (raw, peeled, deveined)
1 Egg
1 T Onion (grated)
3/4 T Old Bay Seasoning
1/4 t Black Pepper
1/4 C Cilantro

Directions:

Chop 1/2 lb. of the shrimp into 1/2 inch pieces. Transfer to a bowl.
Pulse the two slices of wheat bread in a blender to make coarse crumbs (3-4 pulses). Transfer to the bowl with the shrimp (or use prepared breadcrumbs, not the Italian seasoned variety - you want plain).
In the empty blender, add 1/2 lb. shrimp, egg, onion, Old Bay, and pepper. Pulse until there is a mix of fine mince and coarse chopped piece (6-7 pulses). Transfer to the bowl. This will be sticky so use a spatula to assist you in removing.
Add another 1/2 lb of the shrimp to the empty blender and pulse (6-7 pulses). Transfer to the bowl. Repeat with the remaining 1/2 lb. of shrimp.
Add the cilantro to the bowl and mix to thoroughly combine.
Shape the mixture into six individual 1/3 C balls. Flatten to 1/2 inch thick patties.
In a large frying pan, heat 1 1/2 T of oil on medium-high until it shimmers (~ 1 minute).
Reduce heat to medium and add the shrimp patties. Patties will stick no matter what so move them around the pan to prevent sticking.
Cook until the edges are pink and the patty is golden (~ 3-4 minutes). Flip the patty and cook for an additional 3 minutes or until done.
Serve plain with cocktail sauce or a sauce of your choosing with or without a bun. Feel free to add lettuce, tomato, and sauce to the bun if you like.

Garden

And lastly we have the garden. By all accounts, it is doing better than in years past because when the in-laws were out of town last fall I did some unsanctioned tree trimming. Shhhh! I have been informed though that the crap tree that is my nemesis is coming down in October. Hooray! More sunlight for longer!

Given that new information, and coupled with the fact that some of the timbers are rotting, I will be reconfiguring the garden for better accessibility.

Here’s how it’ll be set up for better, easier access for harvesting:

As it stands right now, the beds are too deep to access all of the plants from inside the garden proper. To get to some of the plants I have to be outside the garden… and that’s just weird and highly inefficient for my brain to process..