G&W - Bavarian Style Sausage Company

This small sausage company located in South St. Louis has great sausages, smoked meats, and atmosphere.

This past Saturday morning, my dad and I were in search of some good sausage, and we were not left wanting. The place is a small building sandwiched between old car dealerships on a road that dead ends at some train tracks. But don't let the outside fool you, or the large bull painting frighten you, inside lurks yummy foods worth the drive. Walking in you find yourself in a small room with 3 large meet cases full of assorted fresh and smoked/curred sausages, fresh meats, cured meats, and cheese along with a variety of Germanic focused dry goods. A few guys are working behind the counter, cutting meat, swapping stories, doling out cooking advice, and tossing you a free beer if the line gets too long (meaning > 2 people, I declined given that it was 9am and I hadn't eaten anything yet).

After sampling a few of their homemade delicacies, we ended up getting an assortment of things: shinkenwurst, smoky and spicy landjager, some great jerky, breakfast sausage, garlic bratwurst, another ham bases sausage, some "black forest" ham sliced paper thin ...

Everything was great and reminded me a ton of my grandpa who was a German-American through and through and didn't consider a day done until he had meat+potatoes and probably some kind of sausage. Sauerkraut, a plus.

Random Web Links for 2008-02-22

• Recipe of the Day: Roasted Brussels Sprouts With Garlic - Bitten - Em made something similar to this a while back and they were actually quite good
• Easy Baba Au Rhum - Bitten - food that gets your drunk :-)
• Save Money with an Indoor One-Pot Herb Garden - I am going to try this in the spring
• Spaetzle for Breakfast - I gotta try this
• The Top 50 Proprietary Programs that Drive You Crazy - and Their Open Source Alternatives - good list of OS alternatives
• Quick Whole Wheat and Molasses Bread - Bitten - i need to try and make more bread

Asian Chicken Wantons

I threw these together at the last minute tonight, trying to use up the leftover wrappers from our Miso soup recipe, and they turned out surprisingly well.

I chopped up one thawed chicken breast into medium sized chunks and put it into the food processor along with a couple tablespoons of diced green onion, ground ginger, red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, salt/pepper, and a few dashes each of soy sauce and toasted sesame oil. After a few pulses I spooned the mixture onto the wonton wrappers and folder/sealed them over the top. A couple minutes in some oil over medium heat and the chicken was cooked and the wonton wrappers crispy. (make sure the chicken cooks before the wrappers get too dark) Dipped in some tempura dipping sauce or some sweet & sour sauce and they were pretty darn good.

Miso Soup w/ Sweet Potato Dumplings

This past week, Em and I made this soup. While not either of our favorites, it had a lot of interesting stuff going on and was pretty good.

I couldn't find pure miso paste (who would have thought Trader Joe's wouldn't carry it) so we ended up with miso soup mix ... which was a good things since Em saw that several people had commented that the soup portion was a bit bland. Our soup tasted just like the miso soup you get in a Japanese restaurant. The dumplings, arguably the best part, were very good. Em would have preferred less additions to the sweet potatoes but I thought it was a nice balance. The only downside was the extra prep time (compared to the tiny amount of time it took for everything else).

All in all, it was a good recipe that we might try again with some variations (plus we have 3 more packets of miso-soup mix so we can experiment).

Valentine's Day Dinner - Big Sky Cafe

This Valentines Day, Em and went back to an old favorite for the first time since coming back to town. We had dinner at Big Sky Cafe, the same restaurant we got engaged at. Although they have changed much of the decor since we were last there, and the table we sat at that night is gone, the food was still delicious, the atmosphere unique and the wait staff well trained.


We started with drinks; a perfect Manhattan for me, as usual, and a Valentines day special martini for Em.

I had Blue Crab w/ Fresh Avocado small plate and the Duroc Pork Rib Chop. Both were great, but he highlights were how light the Parmesan and sage bread pudding was and how all of the flavors in the crab dish hit you at different times.

Em had Roasted Golden & Red Beet salad and the Steak and Cake. From all accounts both dishes were superb. Its hard to "beet" a really great crab cake and a perfectly cooked piece of beef tenderloin covered toasted walnut blue cheese butter. :)


We will have to go back sometime for desert. We were both too full at the time, but they had some very interesting ones on the menu.

Random Web Links for 2008-02-13

• Cooks.com - Recipe - Chicken Wontons - recipe to try ... need a way to use leftover wonton wraps
• Consumer food labeling suits reinstated - you really can sue for anything :)
• Roasted Walnut Oil - I might just need to pick some of this up at some point
• Recipe of the Day: Falafel (Bitten) - recipe to try ... I need a deep fyer
• Best Wine Racks Kitchen-related design from our network - really cool wine rack design. I loves simple and uniquely designed storage setups like this
• Recipe of the Day: Ginger Beer - Bitten - we had some great homemade "real" ginger-soda up in Chicago which was great
• Recipe of the Day: Italian-Style Vegetable Pancakes - Bitten - like potato pancakes++
• Recipe of the Day: Potato Nik - Bitten - I always wanted to try latke, this is just one big one
• Happy World Nutella Day 2008! (Feb 5th) - they have holidays for everything

Fin Inn and Adams Mark Brunch

I didn't get around to making the Miso soup yet b/c Em and I ended up changing some of our plans this weekend ... but its still on tap for this week.

Instead we ended up dining out last night at a very unique restaurant in Grafton, IL ... The Fin Inn. They are right on the river and are famous for the fact that they have large aquariums next to almost all of the tables with very large fish staring back at you. Em and I both had good fish dishes and enjoyed watching the fish stare back at us while we ate. I would definitely recommend it if your ever in the area.

This morning the whole family went out to celebrate my mom's birthday a week early with a very nice brunch at the Adam's Mark downtown. After 4 plates of food, including such yummy things as: eggs Benedict, French toast, potato pancakes, fruits, bagels w/ lox, seafood salad, pasta salad, pork tenderloin, stuffed chicken, more potato pancakes, peach tore and apple strudel ... I was quite full. :-)

Beef Short Ribs Two Ways

This recipe is loosely based on one by Alton Brown that I saw the other day on Good Eats. I prepared two variations of the ribs at the same time so that I could try out different sets of similar flavors.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs beef short ribs (aprox. 6 ribs, cross cut, bone-in)
  
• Alton Brown-esque Method
• Night Before Rub
  
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp thyme
• Braising Paste
• 1/4 cp apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cp tomato paste
• 1 tsp ground herbs (thyme, rosemary, etc)
  
• Traditional Pot-Roast-y Method
• Night Before Rub
• 1 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• Braising liquid / vegetables
  
• 1 carrot diced
• 1/2 stalk celery diced
• 1 large slice onion, diced
• 1/4 cp apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cp chicken stock
  

Steps

1. Separate ribs into 2 large plastic zip-lock bags (1 for Alton Brown-esque method, 1 for Pot-Roast-y method)
   
2. Grind/crush night before rub herbs and seasonings for each method and add to respective bags. Toss. Keep in refrigerator overnight.
3. The next day, remove ribs and pat dry on paper towels. Sear ribs on all sides quickly in a hot skillet and remove to separate bowls.
4. Add respective braising ingredients to bowls and toss.
5. Create two large double-layered aluminum fowl pouches and add ribs along with the braising ingredients. Seal tightly and place on a baking sheet to catch any drippings.
6. Add ribs in pouches to a cold oven and bake at 250 degrees for 4 hours.
7. Remove and drain liquid from pouches. Let stand a few minutes before serving.
   

Thoughts

Next time I will play around with the seasoning and preparation just a bit, but for the most part this dish came out perfect. The meat was literally falling off the bone and juicy. I liked doing two variations at the same time; it was nice having the two different but similar flavors at the same time. The "Pot-Roast-y" method ribs tasted just like a great pot roast and some great beef flavor. The "Alton Brown-esque" method ribs had a good tomatoe and almost barbecue flavor, but it wasn't overpowering. We served the ribs with mashed potatoes and veggies. This recipe makes two good servings based on the amount of meat.

Pot-Roast-y Method still in the foil
(I wanted to put some of the veggies in first, but I forgot, so most ended up on top)


Alton Brown-esque Method still in the foil
(only one was left at this point,
the bone for the second one fell out in the foil when I tried to put it on my plate)

First Fish Fry, Funny Pictures, and the Future

Last night Em and I took in our first fish fry of the season at Sacred Heart Church and it was a great kickoff. $8.50 got you the platter:

• 2 Pieces of fish (any mix of breaded cod, baked telapia, or jack salmon)
• 3 shrimp
• 2 sides (green beans, spaghetti, coleslaw, or fries)
• bread
• drink (water, tea, coffee, lemonade)
• desert (homemade cakes, pies, brownies, etc)

A great deal, good food, and since we got there just after 5 (and took the back way) we didn't have to wait long at all. The only thing missing was mac-n-cheese, but given the quantities I won't hold it against them. They also had numerous other combinations of dishes (sandwiches, all shrimp plates, etc) which was nice. All in all, a great start to the Fish Fry season.

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Truth in advertising?
A poorly laid out sign at our local supermarket.
I believe the brand was "Never Ever"....

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Between tonight and tomorrow I am going to try and make two new dishes. First will be the Miso Soup with Sweet Potato Dumplings recipe I linked to a few posts ago. It sounds and looks great. Second, I am going to try and make braised beef short-ribs in a vareitty of ways. I was thinking to get a few pounds of English-cut ribs and try doing a couple Alton Brown's way, a few with a BBQ inspired rub, and maybe a few in a more traditional pot-roast way. It will really depend on how many I get and how motivated I stay. Wish me luck.

Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip

Adapted from numerous found online and originally tried at a relative's house, this dip is great and oh so unhealthy. Warning: do not make unless you are going to share it with several other people ... dip is addictive. I made this for the trivia night a few weeks ago and this past weekend for the SuperBowl.

Ingredients

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 6 oz cream cheese
• 1/3 cp shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cp ranch dressing
• 1/3 cp hot wing sauce
• 1/3 medium onion diced

Steps

1. Sauté chicken until browned and cooked through, shred/dice while doing step 2
   
2. Sauté onion until softened
3. Add all ingredients to bowl and mix thoroughly
4. Spread into 9x9 baking dish
5. Bake in 350 degree preheated oven 15-20 minutes or until heated through and bubbling on edges
   

Thoughts

I have had/seen recipes for similar dips that also contained diced celery and/or blue cheese dressing instead of ranch. I prefer it this way ;-). All of the ingredient amounts are aproximates, I usually just pour until it "looks right". Hard to go wrong with cheese, sauce and chicken.

Hot Peach Ginger Sauce

I made this up the other night when we were having a chicken-version of the Jamaican Jerk Pork Chops and didn't have any mangoes....

Heat a good handful of frozen peach slices (we had leftover from another meal) in your smallest sauce pan with a half cup orange juice, a splash of lemon juice, a squeeze of honey and a few dashes each of dried ground ginger and cayenne pepper. Heat over low/medium heat until peaches begin to break down and sauce starts to thicken. Either leave as is or puree (I used my hand blender) until thick and smooth.

It was a little on the hot side of what I was going for but ended up complementing the chicken really well. The end result was fruity, sweet and hot. Some fresh herbs might have finished it off well but I didn't have any.