Every fall, my mother-in-law sends us 15 to 20 pounds of pecans from the trees on her San Antonio property.  Then I have to go dig out my trusty (I have had it for nearly 20 years now) Texan 'YORK' Nut Sheller® -- see DocChuck's Notes below -- and spend an evening in front of the TV while shelling the wonderful Texas pecans.

Finally, I divide the perfect halves between my wife and me so that we each can make our own favorite pecan delicacies. 

Here's one of mine:

DocChuck's Choice Spiced Texas Pecans

Makes 3 cups

1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika

1 teaspoon ground cayenne

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½  teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg

½  teaspoon ground ginger

½  teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoons unsalted butter (I prefer Kerrygold® Irish butter)

1 tablespoon honey

3 cups shelled raw pecan halves (about ¾ pound)

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.

Combine the spices, salt and sugar in a small bowl and whisk to blend.

Set aside 1 teaspoon of the blended mixture.

Melt the butter slowly over low heat in a small saucepan. After the foam subsides, turn off the heat and skim any white milk solids from the butter.*

Whisk the spice mixture into the butter in a slow stream. Whisk the honey into the spiced butter in a slow stream.

Place the pecans in a medium mixing bowl and pour the warm spiced syrup mixture over them. Toss the mixture with a spatula or wooden spoon.

Spread the pecans evenly on an ungreased cookie sheet** and bake on the top rack for 45 minutes. The syrup should look dry (it may be slightly sticky) and the pecans will have darkened to the color of mahogany.

Remove the sheet from the oven and sprinkle the reserved 1 teaspoon spice mixture over the pecans.

Serve the nuts as soon as they have cooled, or store in an air-tight container.

DocChuck’s Notes:

*   If you use good quality European butter, this step will likely not be necessary.
** Line cookie sheet with parchment paper for faster cleanup.

The Texan 'YORK' Nut Sheller®, is made in San Angelo, Texas --- not in frickin' china, for your information.  We do NOT buy chinese crap, if we can help it.

The Financial Times reports today that China has banned individuals from registering internet domain names and launched a review of millions of existing personal websites in the toughest government censorship drive so far on the internet.

The story can be read here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bc9684f6-e95d-11de-be51-00144feab49a.html

DocChuck agrees with the Chinese government on their latest measures to crack down on internet and media content.  I have been lobbying the United States congress to take similar measures on all websites operating in the United States.

It is past time to bring government control and hopefully a bit of sanity to the internet.

ALL bloggers operating in the USA should be required to pass a background check, to purchase a license (to be renewed annually with a fee of at LEAST $10,000 per year), and to swear an oath of allegiance to the United States of America.

ALL domains should be owned by the Federal government and LEASED to website operators and bloggers at a substantial yearly fee.

Only then will the internet contribute to the education and security of the legal NATIVE citizens of the United States of America.

DocChuck loves chestnuts.  When his ancestors arrived at Plimoth Plantation, magnificent chestnut trees abounded in the ‘New World’ --- some accounts say that one in every four trees in the Appalachian Mountains was a chestnut tree.

Everything changed in the early 1900s, when a Chinese chestnut  tree at the Bronx Zoo (in New Yawk City) suffered blight caused by a parasitic Asian fungus.

Newly-arrived immigrants at Ellis Island brought more diseases and destructive parasites to North America than can be counted by modern day science.  Asian fungi  was one of the parasites carried by the Asian immigrants.

Unfortunately the mighty and magnificent American Chestnut tree was just one of the many casualties of this immigration (which continues to this day -- witness AIDS and the ‘Swine Flu’ --- not to mention 'Terrorism', for example).

Today, we descendants of the original European settlers are relegated to importing chestnuts from Europe.  The two primary varieties are the castagne, which are generally small (an inch or so high and often fairly flat sided) and the marroni, which are voluptuously rounded, firm, and larger - up to an inch and a half high, and with a distended front.

The European ‘marroni’ chestnuts are acceptable, but reportedly not even close to the fine, delicate taste of the American chestnut, decimated by the Asian fungus.

Leaving history behind, DocChuck is an aficionado of the Chestnut, and understands that the ‘marroni’ will have to do for the present, at least.

Marroni chestnuts are today (usually about the middle of December) arriving in the supermarkets and the Trader Joe’s of America.

DocChuck is spending a great deal of time in the supermarkets hand-selecting specific chestnuts and individually freezing them:

·        a portion of them in-the-shell

·        a portion of them, roasted and peeled, and

·        a portion of them dried.

Over the last few days, I have processed, frozen, and vacuum-sealed (using our FoodSaver) approximately 20 pounds of chestnuts and placed them into our deep-freeze (at our Maryland residence), which we keep at a steady temperature of  -10° F. (that’s 10 degrees BELOW zero).

DocChuck and Doctor Elizabeth will be enjoying our beloved chestnuts (although European in origin) for a year or so, or at least until the next crop comes off the boat.

Cheers, everyone.

When Dr. E. hits the road on her corporate assignment to ‘slay the dragons’ (that means to re-train and/or to discipline the physicians and nurses in her various contracted units), DocChuck has to fend for himself when it comes to dinner, since I do not eat in restaurants.

So, do I suffer culinarily when dinner time rolls around?  Nay, me friends!  I simply call upon my gourmet talents - last night it was English-style Fish ‘n Chips.  After the rather heavy (but delicious) meal, I opted for something lighter for this evening:  my delicious DocChuck’s Choice Tuna Fish Salad.

Ingredients: 
Serves 2

3 cans (6-ounce size) solid white Albacore tuna in water, drained and broken into pieces
2 to 3  stalks celery heart, finely chopped (get some leaves too, if available)
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
1 tablespoon chopped Spanish (NOT the inferior Italian) capers
3 tablespoons sweet relish
4 tablespoons mayonnaise (REAL mayonnaise please! … I prefer Hellmann’s®)
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 teaspoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
¼ teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
dash of coarse salt (I like Morton's kosher - although I don't know what kosher means)
dash of dried red pepper flakes (optional)

For Serving:
 
King’s Hawaiian® Bread  OR  cold, crisp leaves of Green Leaf lettuce

Method:

In a medium non-reactive bowl, thoroughly combine the ingredients, flaking the tuna with a fork.

If not serving right away, cover and refrigerate up to 4 hours.

I plate the salad in a manner similar to above photo, and then I serve the King’s Hawaiian Rolls® at the table, where each diner can prepare their sandwich as desired.

As an alternative, Dr. E.  likes to use the King’s Hawaiian® round loaf.

She cuts a round section out of the top of the loaf, stuffs the cavity with the tuna fish salad, replaces the section, and then slices the stuffed round loaf into “Wedges.”

Serve with:  lemon wedges, Tabasco®  sauce, Crystal Louisiana Hot Sauce®, and potato chips of choice (Chuck prefers “Kettle Fried” chips), or Saltine crackers that have been “crisped” in a slow oven for about 10 minutes.

PS:  I cannot help but wonder if my tuna salad would taste better if I had a bunch of tattoos, cursed a lot, lived in New Yawk City, acted like an idiot, and called myself a 'CHEF' --- LOL!  

In that you felt the need to “address” me with an "Open Letter" on your blog (http://eyezinacookbook.com/), I will break my self-imposed rule and briefly respond to some of your remarks.

·        I never attempted nor desired to ‘befriend’ you.  YOU responded to my MySpace site and requested that I add you to my 'friend’s list', from which, by the way, I removed you several months ago, after becoming concerned about your emotional stability.

·        I stated my ethnicity as “White/Caucasian” because that is one of the listed categories by the operators and owners of MySpace.  If you are offended, I truly feel sorry for you, and perhaps you should take the matter up with the MySpace developers.  By the way, I am quite pleased to be "White/Caucasian."

·        If you choose “ ... not to believe the preponderance of who or what you state you are”, that is your choice. Anyone with a degree of internet proficiency can easily verify my academic credentials, my published dissertations, and anything else they so desire.  What you believe is not really important to me.

·        Natalie, I did NOT attempt to ‘befriend’ you, I only attempted to ‘inform’ you.  For you to think that I am in need of you as an ‘internet friend’ is amusing to me, to say the least.  And, your comment that you "... do not wish to be associated with ..." me,  I guess I was NOT aware that you were.  Such an 'association' certainly would NOT be my first choice.

·        You would have me believe that you are more intelligent than Dr. Sigmund Freud (regarding his studies of females of Asian and African extraction …)?  Sorry, I have serious doubts about your formal training in psychology.  From what university did you receive your Ph.D. in psychology?

·        FINALLY, your comment, “You have never stated anywhere to me that you deny any of these allegations”.   REALLY?  Do you honestly think that I feel the need to deny "allegations" (fabricated by a group of female 'recipe bloggers') to you or to anyone else?  Surely you cannot be serious.  But if you are, then you are unrealistic. 

Oh, and since you seemingly do not approve of the MySpace protocol --- permit me to inform you that the  'Income Level'  choice is once again chosen by the owners and operators of the MySpace enterprise.  In our (my wife's and my) case, it represents a combination of her corporate salary, my several retirement pension incomes (including the SS max), and our income from our real estate investments --- and the total is substantially more than $250,000.00 per year.  So, kindly 'chuckle' all you want, but please do not choke on my account.

Perhaps you did make the right decision in deciding to avoid the internet (and thereby the world).  Some people simply are not emotionally prepared to deal with reality.

Have a good day, Natalie (is that what 'Shalom' means, as you posted on your 'Open Letter to DocChuck' ?).  I'm sorry, but I do not understand hebrew.

"[DocChuck]  .... you make Rush Limbaugh look like a passive left Liberal."

 

Earlier this afternoon, one of my friends emailed me a copy of a segment posted on a website called "A Hamburger Today" which I understand is a division of a website calling itself "SeriousEats", owned and operated by a New York City operator by the name of Ed Levine.

It seems that one of Mr. Ed Levine’s employees, posting by the name of Robyn Lee, and operating a website: http://www.roboppy.net/food,  headlined a post with “Get in My Mouth”. 

Now the reader who sent me this post seemed to be a bit confused as to whether Ms.(?) Robyn Lee was talking about hamburgers, or hamburger meat, or possibly suggesting something else.

My concern is, despite my disdain for ‘bloggers’ like Robyn Lee and her website, as well as the ‘SeriousEats’ website, I am truly fearful about the message(s) that Robyn Lee and Ed Levine send to American children who are free to read these uncensored posts.

The ‘SeriousEats’ website contains a great deal of vulgarity, profanity, as well as many ‘posts’ demeaning folks who are forced to use food stamps:  READ THIS POST (but be prepared for bigoted remarks and profuse profanity) by a ‘JerzeeTomato’ -- http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2009/05/costco-will-accept-food-stamps-at-two-nyc-locations-brooklyn-astoria-queens.html#comments.

Yes, it is my concern, as a Doctor of Education, with a Ph.D. in Psychology, that the potentially corrosive comments and suggestive remarks posted on websites such as Mr. Ed Levine’s ‘Serious Eats’ need careful scrutinization by the United States Federal Government.

Our country's children and their future well-being could be at stake.

DocChuck urges you to write your congressional representatives and DEMAND that 'blogs' sponsoring  and/or promoting inappropriate language be banned from the internet, or that they be required to be licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. 


 

This is a dish that Doctor Elizabeth and I enjoy fairly often, mostly dependent upon when we can find top-quality, fresh jumbo scallops.  I will admonish you to either use Kerrygold® unsalted butter in preparing these babies, OR just fuggedaboutit, as the yankees say.

To avoid overwhelming the flavor of the scallops, use a delicately flavored stock. Homemade chicken stock thinned with an equal amount of water is ideal; otherwise use a thin fish stock. If only salted stock is available, dilute it well and eliminate the salt in the recipe.

Ingredients:

3/4 pound jumbo sea scallops, fresh or thawed (12 to 16 pieces)

4 cups (approximately)  unsalted  stock
1/4 cup dry white wine or Champagne
Large pinch saffron threads
1 tablespoon  olive oil (for the risotto)
2 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
1-1/3 cups Arborio rice
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper to taste
1 cup petite peas, fresh or thawed
2 tbs Kerrygold® Irish butter (for searing the scallops)
1 large lemon, juiced (reserve juice), then sliced into wafer-thin slices for garnish.

Procedure:

Combine the wine and saffron threads in a small bowl and let stand in a warm place.  Pour lemon juice over scallops, let set in a bowl at room temperature for ~ 30 minutes.

Prepare the Risotto:

Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized heavy saucepan and sauté the onion just until translucent.

Stir in the rice and cook a minute or two, coating it thoroughly with the oil. Add the wine and saffron and enough stock to just cover the rice.

Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted stock) and a pinch of pepper and cook uncovered, stirring frequently, until the liquid is nearly absorbed.

Continue adding stock a ladleful at a time, cooking until it is absorbed before the next addition. When the grains begin to swell, taste a grain; it should have a trace of crunchiness in the center.

NOTE:  At this point, set a large  flat-bottom nonstick  skillet (well-seasoned cast iron is best!) on another burner to preheat and season the scallops with a little salt and pepper.

Add another ladleful of stock to the risotto, cook it down and taste again. When the center of the grain is al dente and the outside is beginning to melt away into a creamy mass, adjust the seasoning and stir in the peas.

Prepare the Scallops:

Meanwhile, turn the heat under the other skillet to high, coat the pan with the melted butter, and add the scallops in a single layer.  Add the juiced lemon slices, if using for garnish.

Cook about 2 minutes per side, or until nicely browned.  (Same for the lemon slices).

Spoon the risotto on pre-heated plates in a crescent or circle, leaving space in the center for the scallops.

Optional:
 
Garnish the risotto with finely grated  fresh parmesan cheese.
Garnish the scallops with the browned lemon rinds.

Serve immediately on pre-heated dinner plates (use your best china, please).

Cook’s Notes:

We  served ‘DocChuck’s Choice Cole Slaw’ with this dinner (recipe follows).
For dessert, Key Lemon Pie (made like Key Lime pie but using Meyer Lemon juice).

DocChuck's Choice Cole Slaw

Approximately one-half package of Dole® “Classic” cole slaw (carrots and cabbage mix)
Most of a medium McIntosh apple, grated
A tablespoon of chopped green onion
¼ teaspoon celery seed
Marzetti® ‘Original’ Slaw Dressing to taste   (NOTE: Use lightly on initial application, you can always add more if needed, but a little goes a long way).

Thoroughly mix ingredients and refrigerate for at least an hour to allow flavors to marry.
 

The first snow of the season -- and it is a BEAUTY -- makes DocChuck hanker for a number of things:
 

·        Traveling to and holing up in our condo in North Carolina (near the ski slopes);

·        Prepping our downhill ski equipment for the wonderful season ahead;

·        Whippin’ up some Southern comfort food for dinner for my lovely wife and myself.

2 tbs reserved flour from above
1 cup (more or less) whole, sweet milk, OR Half  n’ Half
Salt and black pepper, to taste

Place tenderized beef cutlets on a platter and sprinkle with the steak seasoning.  Rub the seasoning into both sides of the steak with your hand.  Let sit, covered with plastic wrap, for 30 to 45 minutes after the steaks reach room temperature (to marinate).

Prepare an egg wash by whisking the two eggs with the water in a large bowl.

Combine the 1½ cups flour of pepper in a shallow platter.  Add the salt and pepper.

Heat oil in a 12-inch cast iron skillet to 350°F.

Dip the meat in the egg wash, then dredge in the flour mixture, shaking off all of the excess flour.

Add meat to pan, without crowding, and brown until golden on both sides and thoroughly cooked, about 2 to 3 minutes per side.  DO NOT overcook!

Remove the steaks to a heated, paper towel-lined plate to drain, while making the gravy.

To make the gravy:  add the 2 tablespoons remaining flour to the pan drippings, scraping the bottom with a wooden spoon. Stir in the remaining salt and pepper.

Reduce the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until the flour is medium brown and the mixture is bubbly. Slowly add the milk, stirring constantly, until it reaches a consistency you like. 

DocChuck prefers his gravy on the ‘thin’ side, especially when he uses it on his mashed potatoes!  Place into a pre-heated gravy boat with a gravy spoon available.

Serve the steaks on heated plates*, with creamy mashed potatoes and ‘Embellished’ Canned Black-eyed Peas, recipe follows.

‘Embellished’ Canned Black-eyed Peas

Two (15.5-ounce) cans good-quality canned black-eyed peas (NOT drained)

1 tbs chopped pickled jalapeno peppers (use 2 tbs if  you’re a ‘Chilehead’ like me)
2 strips thick-sliced smoked bacon, chopped (Petit Jean® brand recommended)
½ medium yellow onion, chopped
1 tsp water 

In a glass bowl, microwave the bacon and the chopped onion (add a teaspoon of water) until the onions are translucent.

Combine the jalapeno peppers and microwaved bacon/onion mixture to the peas in a large saucepan.

 

Heat the black-eyed peas and ‘embellishments’ until simmering, then remove from heat and let sit, covered, for about ten minutes for the flavors to combine.

 

*ALWAYS serve a hot dinner on HEATED dinner plates (put into a 150° F. oven for about 10 minutes) - OR - use the ‘Plate Warmer’ setting on your dishwasher.  Placing hot food onto cold plates is a travesty!  It is a strong indication that the ‘cook’ is lazy, stupid, or is from ‘up nawth’ (a combination of the two former attributes -- lazy AND stupid).

 

Nowhere do hypocrites thrive more profusely than in the world of the food industry in general, with all of its various parasites, charlatans and lemmings.

A few of the particularly irritating hypocrites are often called:
 

·        Foodies - persons whose total existence revolves around what they stuff down their gullets.  It seems to be the ONLY subject about which these people are intelligent enough to speak.

·        Greenies - persons who pontificate about the environment and have absolutely NO educational expertise to back up what they are constantly blabbing about.

·        Global Warming Alarmists - Followers of the hypocrite Al Gore (who makes millions of dollars running his mouth and who has not a clue about that of which he is ranting).

·        Vegans - immature throwbacks to the 60's ‘Hippie’ culture who claim not to use or consume animal products of any kind (unless no one is looking).

·        Vegetarians - eaters of fruits and grains and nuts, with an emphasis on the nuts.

·        Locavores - Foodies (see above) bullied by uber-Foodies like Alice Waters and Dan Barber into adopting the European concept of terroir, i.e., “the best stuff to consume is the stuff grown in closest proximity”.*  Of course, the uber-Foodies are making an uber-fortune promoting their uber-agendum.

·        Green Markets - An open-air marketplace for farm products, where the sellers often purchase their 'farm produce' from a wholesale produce vendor (exactly like Safeway and Kroger do), and then peddle it as 'fresh-from-the-farm.'

·        Whole Foods Markets - An "upscale" (meaning expensive) market catering to those seeking ‘all natural’ and 'organic' foods -- as well as a unique shopping experience (meaning 'getting robbed').

·        Organic Foods - Any food that a peddler (or grocer) says is ‘Organic.’

·        Natural Foods - Any food that a peddler (or grocer) says is ‘Natural.’

·        Chef - A man or woman (often, a person who is not really certain which gender they are) who buys a white coat and funny-looking hat from some shop on the internet, gets a bunch of tattoos, and then cooks hamburgers or pizzas or gnocchi.

·        Celebrity Chefs - A Chef (see above) armed with the trappings of Chefdom-hood, but probably with no education or formal training, lands a gig on a television program.  NOTE:  Chefs do not have as much education nor licensing requirements as barbers in this country!

·        Food Critic - Anyone who cons a media outlet (newspaper, TV station, magazine, etc.) into paying them to eat in restaurants, then telling us DUMMIES how good or bad the swill tasted to them (based upon, of course, whatever miscellaneous perks the 'Food Critic' may receive under the table).

·        Food Blogger - A person who cannot land or hold a REAL job in today’s tough economy, so writes (although they call it 'blogging') endlessly, relentlessly, copiously, and amateurishly about all of the above irritating hypocrites.  The payoff?  Hopefully some comped (that means 'free') restaurant meals, some free samples of hamburger meat or spices or pasta, a 'Made in China'  pot or pan, or a free stay at a plebian, third-class, financially-troubled 'resort' such as 'ClubMed.' 
 

Part II of this series will feature a synopsis of some of those 'Food Bloggers' described in the last entry of the above list, and recently eschewed by editors of The Atlantic Magazine and of Eater National. 

* This description adapted from Slate Magazine editorial.

There are 2 versions of Maryland’s ‘Eastern Shore’: 

·        The ‘summer version’ when we launch our cruiser, the Elizabeth Ann from Baltimore and make the journey by water, exploring at our own pace, and dining with friends on board and on the beach.

·        The ‘winter version’ when we make the trip in Doctor E's Jaguar, like touristy landlubbers, for business purposes, staying in commercial accommodations and eating in restaurants.

·        Kent Narrows Inn.  Lousy rooms (although they do have a bay view), lousy attitudes, inadequate spa, and I will NEVER stay there again.

·        Fisherman’s Inn Restaurant.  (Lunch). Nice ambience, mediocre food (Rated 3 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being best).  Lunch about $35.00 for two.

·        The Narrows Restaurant.  (Dinner).  Probably the most 'famous'  and 'fanciest' restaurant in the Grasonville area. Nice ambience, edible food:  my fried Cheaspeake oysters were fair,  Doctor E. said her Cioppino was excellent (she was impressed with the whole lobster tail and the huge mussels).  The Caesar salad was acceptable but the fried green tomatoes were disgusting.  Dinner about $100.00 for two, including a cocktail for Dr. E. and an after-dinner Cognac for DocChuck.

·        Holly’s Restaurant.  (Breakfast).  Recommended by the staff at the Kent Narrows Inn.  I should have known better.  The most disgusting swill that has EVER been set in front of us.  Lousy attitudes, boisterous redneck patrons, dirty table, NO ‘handicapped parking spot’, dirty plastic glasses --- hell, what more can a person want?  Breakfast about $25.00 for two, of which we would not eat.

SUMMARY:

Doctor Elizabeth was happy:  she hired two physicians.  One from asia and one from India.

DocChuck was unhappy:  he wished he had stayed home and played golf.