Soups /it's cold

[Barbecueboy]

Good fresh oysters are never an issue except for the months without an R in their name....may , June , July and August we have to buy them from somewhere else, and I usually pass.

Oyster dressing, yes.....steamed oysters most definately a yes.....fried oysters, yes....we even make a Rockefeller version but instead of spinach we use chopped collard greens.....not much in the oyster category I don't like except for raw.

I'm not much onto raw anything including sushi......I joke with my buddies and tell them I like my sushi dredged in corn meal and deep fried

I'm envious right back because as good as our seafood is , we can't come close to the Midwest for great beef.....

[formercrewguy]

Beef Stroganoff made in the slow cooker. We use stew meat from our half beef.
2lbs stew meat
2 cans golden mushroom soup
1/2 cup beef broth
4oz cream cheese
1 packet of French onion soup mix & dollop of sour cream
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
In the slow cooker combine the meat, French onion soup packet, Worcestershire sauce and beef broth
Cook on low for 8 hours, stir in cream cheese and sour cream just before serving
Serve over egg noodles Enjoy

Now THAT sounds good.

[CIRF]

I'm not much onto raw anything including sushi......I joke with my buddies and tell them I like my sushi dredged in corn meal and deep fried

I'm envious right back because as good as our seafood is , we can't come close to the Midwest for great beef.....

BBQB, I echo your dislike of most anything raw, veggie's not withstanding. I've eaten maybe 2 raw oysters in my day. The only reason I ate any at all was to show I could do it and win a silly bet with my roommates at school. I also put a raw egg in a glass of beer and drank it which is not recommended, as well (you can get salmonella from raw or under cooked eggs). Once again it was a silly bet while under the influence at school! I gagged all 3 times. LOL!

One time many years ago during Speedweeks at a restaurant in Daytona I watched King Richard Petty eat a whole plate of oysters on the half shell. I almost gagged watching him. The doctors say it's a very bad idea to eat raw oysters. A lady who lives near us got gravely ill in Florida from eating raw oysters. They're full of bad bacteria.

We do have good beef in the Midwest and I'd miss it if we couldn't get it. However, we had dinner with friends at a little restaurant in Deland, Florida last New Years Day. There was 6 of us and we all had prime rib and every one of us said that it was the best prime rib we'd ever had. One couple in our group is like you, BBQB, connoisseur's of good beef, and they were amazed at how good it was. Generally that is not the case in Florida.

[Barbecueboy]

I appreciate the compliment but Im not sure if connoisseur would fit me....... I just like to eat and make stuff that tastes good to me.

I can do pork ribs, whole hog,Boston butts and chicken in my sleep because we have done so much of it over the years .....smoking beef ribs , brisket , short ribs and that kind of stuff is still tricky for me and I have to work harder and pay close attention so I don't screw it up.

My enjoyment for good food and wanting to learn how to create it came from watching and learning from my grandmother in Jacksonville Florida.....she could make the simplest things taste great and even as a youngster she never ran me out from under foot and always took the time to show me what to do if I asked the question or was curious as to what she was doing in the kitchen that smelled so good.

I've been lucky to be able to have done a little traveling with my job and have eaten at some of the finest places the US has to offer and for whatever reason I have always had a good knack at taking dishes apart, figuring out what's in them and then make them with my own twist when I get back home.......sort of like hot rodding up a motor only with food.

[Barbecueboy]

Quick shrimp creole

I jar of good Bloody Mary mix....we like zing zang
1 bottle motts Clamato juice
1 can of diced tomatoes ( or fresh canned if you have them)
6 slices of celery finely diced....more if you like
2 white onions finely diced
1 red, 1green bell pepper sliced thin like matchsticks
1 small bag of frozen okra( fresh is better but not always available)
1 lb cooked and diced smoked sausage
1lb peeled and deveined shrimp.
1 cup seafood stock( clam juice will work)
5 bay leaves.
Sauté up the onions ,peppers and celery, add Clamato juice, tomatoes,Bloody Mary mix,smoked sausage, seafood stock and bay leaves and simmer for about 45 minutes until vegetables are tender....crank the heat up a little and add the okra and cook for anout 10 minutes and then bring the whole pot to a boil and throw in the shrimp and stir , put a lid on it turn off the heat and walk away for about 15 minutes and it's done.
We serve it over yellow rice with crusty bread and a nice bottle of red zimfandel or a couple natty lights depending on our mood......the Bloody Mary mix has a great flavor for seafood and when it's cooked with all the rest of the ingredients it just works great.

Real from scratch shrimp creole is time consuming and not always practical because you have to stay on top of it, this version you can walk away from and do other things ( like watch the last 10 laps of a NASCAR race, lol).....you can omit everything seafood from this and use chicken stock in place of the seafood stock, v8 juice in place of the Clamato and a pound of cooked deboned chicken in place of the shrimp and have a good chicken creole dish for non seafood eaters.

[fastford]

possume was more of a thing around here when i was young , my grand parents tried and tried to get me to eat it and i never could , to fatty to me , but , the potatoes cooked around it was great , its funny how when you get older , you develop a taste for things you didnt like when you were young , for me , it was english peas and turnip greens , now i love them , i guess the only thing i have never been able to eat is liver , any kind or any way you fix it.......

[Barbecueboy]

possume was more of a thing around here when i was young , my grand parents tried and tried to get me to eat it and i never could , to fatty to me , but , the potatoes cooked around it was great , its funny how when you get older , you develop a taste for things you didnt like when you were young , for me , it was english peas and turnip greens , now i love them , i guess the only thing i have never been able to eat is liver , any kind or any way you fix it.......

No liver for me either....in any form.

The possom stew I had was very greasy too.

[CIRF]

Liver is not only unacceptable taste-wise, it's very unhealthy, as well. Full of cholesterol which far out weighs any nutritious benefit.

We raise our own beef and have it processed at a local meat processing facility so we can have a supply of liver at all times. When my wife and I had been married for maybe a month or so she fixed a batch of beef liver. I didn't have the heart to tell her I couldn't stand to eat it so in the interest of not hurting her feelings I thought I'd just smother it with ketchup and choke it down and all would be well. Couldn't do it! I finally had to take 15 minutes to delicately explain that it had nothing to do with her preparation or presentation. These days we give the beef liver to her dad who loves the stuff.

[Barbecueboy]

Brunswick stew....kind of a kitchen sink recipe and almost everyone has their favorite way to make it but ours has leftover smoked pork and chicken as the protein and then Lima beans, corn, onions, peppers, chicken stock a couple bay leaves and a cup of smoky BBQ sauce to make the broth red and thicker.

We put a spoonful of sticky rice in ours right in the middle of the bowl before I ladle the stew in top of it.

Traditional recipe calls for squirrel , never had it done that way.

[Barbecueboy]

Hamburger and potato soup.....fresh is always normally better but this you can make with canned everything except the beef , onions and celery and it turns out pretty good even with canned potatoes and canned broth or soup.

Hamburger, potatoes, onions,celery and beef stock and /or French onion soup.....I like mushrooms so ours has a couple cans of those in it also.....served hot with saltines at a cold race track and you will make friends for life.

[CIRF]

Hamburger and potato soup.....fresh is always normally better but this you can make with canned everything except the beef , onions and celery and it turns out pretty good even with canned potatoes and canned broth or soup.

Hamburger, potatoes, onions,celery and beef stock and /or French onion soup.....I like mushrooms so ours has a couple cans of those in it also.....served hot with saltines at a cold race track and you will make friends for life.

Now THAT sounds like something I could eat a barrel full of!

We raise what is known as Beefalo for our own use. We inseminate a Simmental (a European breed) cow with semen that has enough genetic markers in it to give the calves the lean characteristics of Buffalo needed to cut way down on fat and cholesterol. In fact, tests done by The Ohio State University have concluded that Beefalo, pound for pound, contains less fat and cholesterol than fish or chicken. Thus, we use the Beefalo hamburger in pasta, soup's and stew's and it cuts down drastically on the stuff that is bad for you without sacrificing any flavor. BBQB, that recipe' sounds like it's ready made for how we use our Beefalo meat!!

Dam I'm hungry, and I just ate lunch!! LOL!

[Barbecueboy]

It has the consistency and turns out like a good French onion soup with hamburger,potatoes and shrooms in it.....( no, not those kind of shrooms lol)

You can make it at the track easily and it feeds a crowd pretty affordably.......it's a favorite of anyone that's eaten it.

[fastford]

hey cirf , we also had cattle and raised our own beef and pork till i was around 16 and my dad went to construction work and my grandpa got older and we sold out , we processed all of our own and i remember it very well , all we have are horses now , we dont eat those lol , but have thought several times about raising a young bull , now that kids are grown and want make a pet out of it , and taking it to a processor but my problem is i dont know if i can trust a processor to provide the beef from the calf i take him , i would trust my deer processor but all he does is deer because of some legal BS.......

[CIRF]

hey cirf , we also had cattle and raised our own beef and pork till i was around 16 and my dad went to construction work and my grandpa got older and we sold out , we processed all of our own and i remember it very well , all we have are horses now , we dont eat those lol , but have thought several times about raising a young bull , now that kids are grown and want make a pet out of it , and taking it to a processor but my problem is i dont know if i can trust a processor to provide the beef from the calf i take him , i would trust my deer processor but all he does is deer because of some legal BS.......

fast, that is, and always has been, a concern when it's not possible to process your own animals. At one time we processed our own beef but it's a big job that is very time consuming. And in addition, if the cuts of beef are not done properly it diminishes the overall quality of the meat. I would imagine BBQB is probably much more qualified to comment on that subject than I.

In the past we have received processed meat that I'm convinced was not from our animal. Obviously you're at the mercy of the processor's. It's impossible to determine if these mix-ups are honest mistakes or not but either way it's going to happen from time to time. Word of mouth is generally the most dependable way to determine if a processor is trust worthy. If you have a reputable processor in your area don't let the fear of meat mix-ups deter you from raising your own beef. At least you know exactly what your animals have consumed and how they've been treated.

We still process all of our pork except for the curing of the hams and slicing of the bacon. 2 or 3 people can kill, gut, skin, cut up and freezer wrap 2 hogs in a weekend providing you have the proper meat saws and sausage grinders.

A couple of things we should be clear on. First I'm very happy to hear that you're not eating your horses! LOL! The other is you probably won't want to finish out a bull calf for freezer meat. We band bull calves (a form of castration) and then implant them with natural hormones that aid in muscle mass gain. Feeding a bull calf to finished weight has way too many down sides. Not the least is some of them can get very mean and aggressive!! LOL!

Sorry so long, fast, but you bring up an interesting subject to those of us involved with protein production.

[Barbecueboy]

Cheesy Cauliflower soup......made a lot like potato soup but substituting the cauliflower for the potatoes.
Chicken stock,heavy cream ,butter, onions, carrots, celery,cauliflower ...fresh thyme , salt and coarse black pepper.

Best way to thicken it Up is to start it out with a good roux and build from there.....the cheating way to thicken it up is to add some instant potato flakes at the end to get it how you want it.

About a half a block of velveeta cheese in the end until it's melted through doesn't hurt anything either....leftover breakfast sausage , chopped ham or cooked bacon in it isn't terrible either.....great with oyster crackers or crusty garlic bread.

Scale of 1 being easy and 5 being hard, this one is definately a 1