Tag: recipes

Single Dad Hack – Don’t Muck it up – OL’ FASHIONED

Posted on by Dad (Michael)
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Dad's Don't Muck it up - OL' FASHIONED

People take a good simple drink recipe, add a bunch of fad ingredients. Well... stop mucking with a good thing. Return to the basics with this Ol' Fashioned cocktail.
Prep Time3 mins
Cook Time0 mins
Total Time3 mins
Course: Drinks, nichtcap
Cuisine: American, Kentucky
Keyword: Bartending, Bourbon, Cocktail, Drink Recipe, Whiskey
Servings: 1
Calories: 135kcal
Author: Dad (Michael)
Cost: $2.00 - $15

Equipment

  • Lowball Glass
  • Muddler
  • A jigger 

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp Powered shugar Substitute 1 sugar cube
  • Enough Good Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey - Woodford Reserve is extremely good, and not so expensive that it would be a crime to use it in a cocktail, unlike Old Fitzgerald, Jefferson’s Ocean Aged Cask Strength, or, God forbid, Elijah Craig 23.
  • Some dashes Bitters - Angostura bitters
  • Few Dashes Water
  • Ice
  • 1 Orange slice or zest
  • 1 Cherry

Instructions

  • Place sugar in the bottom of an old fashioned glass and saturate with bitters,
  •  Add a few dashes of plain water.
  • Muck it all up into a syrup.
  • Place ice in the glass.
  • Fill to the brim with good Kentucky Bourbon.
  • Garnish with orange slice or zest, and a cocktail cherry.

Single Dad Hack – Cooking lessons – Twice-Baked ‘Taters

Posted on by Dad (Michael)
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Single Dad Hack - Cooking lessons - Twice-Baked Potatoes

Single Dad Hack - Cooking lessons number one, don't start a completely new recipe at 4:45 on a school night. It's 7:35, and the taters just jumped out of the oven. Second, you really only need four potatoes for three men, and six is way too much (actually, now that we're into the meal, we only needed three - will they freeze?). My twice-baked potatoes are loaded with sour cream, cheddar, scallions, bacon bits, mini pepperoni, topped with broccoli (not mine), a side salad, and Strawberry ice cream for dessert. And the third lesson, with six potatoes, you don't really need the broccoli, the side salad, or the strawberry ice cream(finding a way to ditch the broccoli was my plan all along). Top that, Mr. Other Single Dads! A little challenge to get our dad's vibes cooking (pun intended).
And the final lesson learned from cooking Twice-Baked Potatoes for the first time on a school night (It was more of an insight than a lesson), I fed my class of 2025 Aggie tonight! AND when he stuffed his 17-year-old mouth with twice-baked potatoes, looking not unlike a ground squirrel stuffed with nuts for burial, he said, "TmhmamTm'ms Rmemamlmy Gmomomd Dmamd!" I understood that perfectly; he loves my cooking! But, more importantly, he's going to hate dorm food! He'll be wantin' a Dad home-cooked meal and will come home just a little more! Ha! That's the best Single Dad Hack you can do.
PS. When viewing the photo, ignore cleaning supplies in the background. I am a single Dad, for goodness' sakes! I can't be expected to cook and clean AND put the supplies away (actually, I did that on purpose to raise my Super Dad score)!
Prep Time1 hr 45 mins
Cook Time1 hr 20 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Class or 2015 Aggie, Confort Food, Potatoes, Single Dad, Single Dad Hack, Twice-Baked Potatoes
Servings: 8 Men
Calories: 659133kcal
Cost: 20

Equipment

  • Baking sheet
  • Mixing bowl
  • Spoon
  • Knife
  • Potatoe Smasher
  • A son to eat what's left in the bowl

Ingredients

  • 6 Russet Baking Potatoes You have two growing boys; you have to have six potatoes, don't ya?
  • 1 Big Ol' Bag Bacon Bits 6 ozs or 9 ozs bag, whatever gets the job done (we're not going to measure anyway, this is a Single Dad Recipe!).
  • 1 Cup Sour Cream Again, a cup, two cups, I don't know. It was a container - Single Dad Recipe measurements.
  • 4 tbsp Butter I used somewhere between a half and the whole damn stick (there were 6 'taters, for goodness' sakes!).
  • 1 lb Shredded cheddar It could have been more, it could have been less, you're getting the trend here.
  • 1 Bundle Scallions
  • 1 Flower Broccoli My sons eat broccoli, I don't.
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Instructions

  • Wash, oil, place potatoes on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, and place in an oven to bake at 350°.
  • Pull potatoes out of the oven and preheat oven at 350°. Help son with video production project and forget to put the potatoes in the oven for about 15 minutes.
  • Now, put the potatoes in the oven and cook it till you can say, "Fork 'em, they're done!" and mean it.
  • Scoop out the insides of the potatoes, forming a canoe. Don't worry about the canoe falling apart like it was just made of Burch bark. The rafts will get covered like a barge chugging down the Ohio River because they are now flat ones. Whoa, wipe your brow after that stretched metaphor. - Put the potato insides in a pot.
  • Dump the pot of potato insides into a large mixing bowl, as you misjudged how much potato guts you'd get out of one 'Tater!
  • Mix in everything but the broccoli (you're going to say, "Damn, I forgot the Broccoli," anyway).
  • Mix it up with the potato smasher and look in awe at how much potato guts and fixin's are magically growing in the bowl!
  • Pile up the potato guts and Fixin's in the canoes (for the ones that fell apart, remember your loading barges). Top with the extra cheese (if you didn't put the whole bag in the mixing bowl) and some extra scallions.
  • Put the potato canoes stuffed with potato guts back on the parchment paper and add the potato barges piled with its cargo. Put all back in the oven. Yell, "Damn," and turn the oven back on.
  • With the oldest son, listen to Robin Willims' bit on Golf and Scottland (full version). Forget about all about the Twice-Baked-Potatoes until the youngest comes in and asks, "when will dinner be ready?" Yell, "Damn!" again, dash off to the kitchen. Pull out the 'Taders, just as the cheese is starting to brown and the edges are a little bit crispy.
  • Dish them out! Marvel, how many 'Taders are left.
  • Beam with pride with your son says, "TmhmamTm'ms Rmemamlmy Gmomomd Dmamd!" Rush off to social media, post everywhere, so the world knows you are supper dad and your kids love you.
  • Wrap each leftover 'Tader with the Immaculate and Infinite, Holy Plastic Wrap Roll! Place in the freezer for next week's Single Dad Lunches.

Simple but Impressive Mushroom Pie

Posted on by Dad (Michael)
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Simple but Impressive Mushroom Pie

I posted a few savory pie attempts on social media. When my sister, Marla started mocking me for making savory pies. She chided me with, "what's next, mushroom pie!?" I thought about it for a moment and thought "Hell ya!" A quick Duck Duck Go search showed that there were a few such recipes out there. One or two look a lot like my old mushroom stroganoff recipe that I used to make with an old girlfriend, Kirsten, but without the egg noodles. The pie crust replaces the noodles. So, I scratched my pandemic quarantine whiskers and had an erica moment witch culminating in the birth of my mushroom pie! Now, it has already become a big hit in my family. 
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time25 mins
Cool Down10 mins
Total Time50 mins
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Father son, Pie, Savory Pie, Single Dad Recipes
Servings: 8 people
Cost: $15

Equipment

  • 12-inch Castiron Skillet
  • Pie Pan
  • Mixing bowl
  • Pie Crimper (Right)?
  • Spoon to Mix

Ingredients

Filling

  • 3 Verities Mushrooms - 4 8oz boxes of mushrooms of differing verity - I used button, Shiitake, and portabella mushrooms. Yes, I know buttons and portabellas are the same species only sold at different ages, Agaricus bisporus. But, Kroger charges different prices for each, so I'm counting it as a three mushroom pie.
  • 2 Medium Red Onions - Chopped fine
  • 4 Tbsp Butter
  • 1 tsp Dried Thyme
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • Lots Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • 8 ozs Cream Cheese

Crusts: (Use whatever is your favorite pie crust, but remember it's a savory pie)(Who am I kidding? I use premade crusts.)

  • 1/2 Cups All-purpose Flour
  • 1 Tbsp Sugar
  • 1 tsp Sea Salt
  • 1/2 Cup Ice Water

Instructions

  • - Preheat Oven to 400°
  • - Melt butter in a 12-inch castiron skillet over medium heat
  • - Saute onions until soft
  • - With hands, break up mushrooms into small pieces and toss in with the onions
  • - Add thyme, salt, black pepper, and Pesto
  • - Saute till mushrooms start to make their juice
  • - Add small bits of the cream cheese until all the cream cheese is melted
  • - Remove from heat and set aside
  • - Make two of your favorite pie crusts, but remember this is a savory pie, so don't do a super sweet crust.
  • - Line a 9-inch pie pan with one of the crusts.
  • - Add the filling
  • - Cover with the second pie crust.
  • - Pinch together the edges of the crusts using your favorite pie direction method
  • - Cut vents into the top crust - I made a line drawing of a mushroom for my vent.
  • - Use a pastry brush to coat the crust with extra around the edges
  • - Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes

Notes

Simple, but Impressive Mushroom Pie
Mushroom Pie
Emmons and Mushroom Pie!
Emmons ate two pieces!

Midnight on a School-Night Spontaneous Strawberry, Pineapple, Mango, And Peach Pie

Posted on by Dad (Michael)
The pie
Elias Kermit Ratliff Eating Pie
Print Recipe

Midnight on a School-Night Spontaneous Strawberry, Pineapple, Mango, And Peach Pie

It’s 11:45 PM on a school night; Elias, my 15-year-old son, and I have our days and nights a bit mixed up, and we both are craving something novel. I blame it all on the pandemic quarantine, social isolation, and distant learning. We need some recreational therapy to help with improved sleep hygiene, diversion, mindfulness, social engagement, and movement toward self-actualization. If only we knew any wreck-therapists.
I always have a couple of Bake House Creations Pie Crusts boxes on the top shelf of the frig, supporting my savory pie habit. I just opened the freezer and discovered a full bag of Season’s Choice: Tropical Blend – Frozen strawberries, pineapple, mango, and peaches. Plus, I spotted an open, practically untouched, second bag of the same jammed between a bag of peas and a pork tenderloin.
Heck, I’m not much of a sweet pie baking kind of guy, but isn’t all I have to do, is dump the fruit into the crust and mix in a conglomerate of butter and sugar, put on a top, and bake till done? So, I did an internet search for “strawberry, pineapple, mango, and peach pie recipe” as kind of a lark. Then, wham, bam, thank you, ma’am, I hit on a webpage!
The page just confirmed my suspicions; dump in fruit mixture and layer with some goop made of sugar, flour, and butter. So, now I’m convinced a strawberry, pineapple, mango, and peach pie is most doable and quite possible a new thing I can claim as my own (ignoring the webpage that outlined the exact recipe based on a peach pie).
I got some encouragement from some social media friends. Recreational therapists are good at that; get your leisure on.
I had almost double the amount of fruit than the templet website did, so I almost doubled the rest of the ingredients.
The fruit thawed some as I typed this. But I’m not going to wait till it thoroughly thaws, am I? Who’d do that at midnight on a school night?
Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time50 mins
Cool Down10 mins
Total Time1 hr 20 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Father and Son, Fruit Pie, Improvised, Insomina, Pie, School Night
Servings: 7 People
Cost: $8

Equipment

  • Pie Plate
  • Pastry Brush (I used a paintbrush from under the sink. Nooooo, I'm joking. Maybe.
  • The Old Fashioned glass or rocks glass 

Ingredients

  • 1 6 oz bag  Season’s Choice: Tropical Blend – Frozen strawberries, pineapple, mango, and peaches
  • 1 Opened bag  Season’s Choice: Tropical Blend – Frozen strawberries, pineapple, mango, and peaches My son had opened this bag at some time and, presuming, eaten a few chunks.
  • 2/3 Cup  all-purpose flour I threw in a little more cause… well hell, this is an experiment, and Professor Stumbo told me I needed flower to absorb the extra fluid from the frozen fruit
  • 2 Cups Brown Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon Okay, I’m just lying here about the measurement. I shook the bottle until the smell made me think, “that’s too much”
  • 1/2 cup Butter I guesstimated here, too; it might have been a little more. The butter should set out on the counter for 20 minutes to soften.
  • 1 Box Bake House Creations Pie Crusts
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 oz Woodford Reserve Kentucky Bourbon The good stuff
  • 2 oz Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Kentucky Bourbon The cheap stuff - Okay, I see a trend here in lying about measurements.
  • Ice

Instructions

  • Pour the Woodford Reserve in a glass, drink, switch out laundry, fold the dry load, beg son to help, and post grandiose baking plans on social media to allow for time so that the pie crust dough warms to room temperature (a must or it will be too brittle to unroll) and the fruit to thaw.
  • Set oven at 350F.
  • Use the butter to grease a 9-inch pie pan lightly.
  • Use the butter to grease a 9-inch pie pan lightly.
  • In a mixing bowl, cut the butter into small pieces, pour in the sugar, flour, and sprinkle in the cinnamon. Mix with two forks until crumbly.
  • Mix in about a ¼ of the butter-flour-sugar-cinnamon concoction with the fruit combination. Continue to blend until the fruit has a beautiful coat of goop.
  • Line the bottom of the pie with half of the fruit. Cover the fruit with half of the remaining butter-flour-sugar-cinnamon amalgam. Then layer the rest of the fruit into the pie shell and cover with the last of the butter-flour-sugar-cinnamon combination.
  • Unroll the second pie crust on top of the mound of the fruit-butter-flour-sugar-cinnamon goodness (yes, I ran out of synonyms for “mixture”).
  • Pinch edges of the bottom and top crusts together, forming the cutesy scalloped pattern that everyone thinks is difficult.
  • Break the egg into a small bowl and mix it with a pastry brush to prepare the egg wash. Brush the egg wash onto the top crust.
  • Cut vents in the center of the top crust.
  • Drink the Evan Williams and fold the next load of laundry while the pie bakes for 50 minutes, or until crust is golden.
  • Turn off the oven, crack-open oven door, and let cool in the oven for as long as you can (I understand this helps the fruit set thicker).
  • Go to sleep; it’s a school night (morning), for crying out loud.
  • Wake and eat pie for breakfast (Okay, brunch, I’m not fooling anyone).
  • Post photos of the finished pie, so everyone thinks your supper, dad. Drop a hint that all the laundry is also finished for the same effect.

Notes

The pie
Pie
Midnight on a School-Night Spontaneous Strawberry, Pineapple, Mango, And Peach Pie