Cactus Cooler Margarita

As many of you know, when you come to our house there is a good chance you will get a Margarita, Mango being the most likely. But I also make a mean Marg on the rocks, Very Berry and the elusive Blood Orange Margarita.


This recipe is for a Cactus Cooler Margarita. I will warn you it is a bit sweet but goes down easy.

Start with a Pint Beer Glass
Fill with ice
1 ½ shots Tequila (I like Jimmy Buffet’s Lime for a recipe like this)
1 Shot Triple Sec
¼ fresh lime squeezed in the glass
Fill Glass with chilled Cactus Cooler
Stir and garnish with a wedge of Orange.
Excellent on the deck on a hot day!

Chicken Hash on the Beach

Tena and I love to sea kayak. We do our best to head out for 4-5 days at a time into the wilderness and our friend Karen Martin joined us. Northern Maine is a perfect spot to do it. This year we started in the South Arm of Lower Richardson Lake, through the Narrows to Upper Richardson. Then a little trespassing to portage to Mooselookmeguntic Lake. The last night we spent on Student Island and we had planned on awaking to the best day of the trip. Two AM awoke us to a driving rainstorm that did not let up until we finally got the courage to crawl out of the tents at 8:30. Then it was just windy and dreary. I prepared breakfast watching the wind blow through the narrow channel between the island and the mainland. But at least we would have a good breakfast!

The recipe was supposed to be Chicken Hash I found in a cookbook written for sea kayaking. The last day of a trip is the day all the leftovers get used up so the recipe changed rather significantly. It didn’t look like much but man was it good!!!

1-2 T butter or in our case reserved Bacon grease from day one (we forgot butter)
2 small baked potatoes (we bake them slathered in butter wrapped in foil then they are ready to fry)
1 small onion
1 Chicken breast (we had grilled on extra on the first day of the trip)
3 Slices of pre cooked bacon (from breakfast on day two)
1/3 Green Pepper
3 T Pesto from the Jar (left over from the previous night)
3 Eggs
Sliced Habanaro Jack cheese
Sliced Cheddar Cheese
Shaved Parmesan Cheese

Start by frying potatoes in bacon grease and once they are beginning to brown, add onion, chicken, bacon and green pepper. Fry those until just cooked. Then add pesto. Mix well. Scramble the eggs and add those. Cook well. Lay all the cheese on top and just let melt and serve.

We were bad, Karen has done awesome on her diet and lost over 50 lbs. Nothing in this dish was on her approved diet list. We still paddled 5 or 6 miles that day so she worked it off!

The Snow Snob and the Ice Wine Queen

Dinner is always better with good friends. When a friend was bringing over his girlfriend from Quebec I knew I needed to be on my game.  Dinner was good and as luck would have it, she brought Ice Wine for dessert. If you have never had Ice Wine you need to try it. Grapes are harvested after the first freeze. This late in the season the sugar content is very high. This results in an extremely sweet wine.  But don't think pink wine sweet, it is more like honey sweet. Very earthy and real.  Don't pour a wine glass full, find aperitif glasses and sip the wine.  Why was it lucky she brought Ice Wine? I had made a Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie for dessert.  The bitter chocolate and bourbon balanced the sweet ice wine perfectly. 

Bourbon, Chocolate and Pecan Pie

Scott's Buttery Crust (recipe below)

1 C Sugar

3 T Cornstarch

3 Eggs

1 C Sweetened Condensed Milk

1/3 C Bourbon

4 T Butter (melted)

6 Oz semi sweet chocolate

2 C Pecans from Maynard's Farm, Ridge Springs, South Carolina (these are priceless!)
Heavy Whipping Cream (and don't even consider Cool Whip or Laughing Gas crap!)

Scott's Buttery Crust

2 C Flour

1 pinch Salt

1 T Sugar

1 t vanilla

1 1/2 sticks butter, cubed

5 T Ice Water

Place Flour, Salt, Sugar, Vanilla, and butter in food processor with dough blade. Whir until butter is cut into small balls the size of BB's. Add ice water and mix until it just rolls into a ball.  Most will tell you to place dough in the refrigerator for 30 min.  I always have better luck just rolling it out.

Place in a 9" Pie pan. I prefer a large quiche pan. Divide dough in 2/3 and 1/3 sections. Roll out 2/3 section and place in pan.

Mix Sugar and cornstarch in a mixing bowl. Add eggs, sweetened condensed milk, and Bourbon.  Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler (or very low flame) and add this to the mixture. Finally add pecans. Roll out remaining crust and do something fancy on top (or at least better than I did).

Bake for 45 min at 350 degrees.

Serve with a dollop of Whipped Cream.

Man that's good stuff!

 

Deadliest Crayfish!!

This summer we set out to battle the elements after the deadliest catch, Utah Crayfish.

We had scouted the rock beds at Skull Island across the Strait of Danger on an earlier trip. The rock beds looked promising for crayfish.  Our crews in the Southwestern and The Cornileius Mary began the trip to cross the strait.

Skull Island and the Strait of Danger

Soon we were dropping prospecting pots looking for that Honeyhole that would get our tanks full and us back to port sooner rather than later.  After a short soak on the pots, we were pulling full nets of 3 and 4  crayfish each haul!  At this rate we would have full tanks in no time!

Crayfish caught in the Net

My Crew

Soon we had our tanks full and were heading back to port for much needed relaxation and recreation.

Olympia, its in the Water

Now for prepration of a crawfish feast.  Anyone who has visited New Orleans during crawfish season has seen huge platters of the bugs come out with lemon, corn and new potatoes.  While they may look marginal, they are yummy!  So what's Scott Cooking?  Crawfish!

Crawfish Boil


1 big mess of crawfish, this particular boil we had 143, fed 6 people well
2-3 packages of seafood boil, found with the spices, Old Bay, etc. I used a Kroger Brand
1/4-1/2 C Cayenne
1 head of garlic, broken up, not peeled
3 lbs New Potatoes
2 Onions sliced
6-8 ears of sweet corn broke in half
2-3 lemons and/or limes


After catching crawfish, let them set in fresh water for at least 15-20 minutes to allow them to purge. Cornmeal can be added.  If needed, they can be kept in ice water for several hours.
In a very large pot (5-6 gal.) fill pot 1/2 full of water and bring to a rolling boil. Add seafood boil, Cayenne, Garlic and new potatoes. Let boil for approx. 5 min.  Add Crayfish, (alive).  Add Onions.  After 2-3 min, add Corn. Boil for 8-10 min. Just like lobster or crab, do not overcook!

Good stuff

To eat crawfish, break them in half at the tail, you can suck out the head (good spices up there) then break off the center fin of the tail and gently pull, the vein should come out with it. Then squeeze the meat out from the tail.  Then repeat, and repeat and repeat. Then have a beer. The Corn and Potatoes are also excellent.

To bad we had to risk our lives to catch these little buggers!

Thanks to Lindsey for some of the Photos, esp, the last one.

Summer Fresh Sloppy Joe's

I love Sloppy Joe's! And I love garden fresh tomatoes. This recipe combines the two!

1 lb Hamburger (resist the urge to buy low fat, remember, life is to short)
3-4 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 onion chopped
1 Chiptole Pepper in adobo sauce
3 t of above adobo sauce
1/2 t Cumin
1/2 t Cayenne
4 oz Beer
1 6 oz can of tomato paste
1/4 C ketchup
1/4 C Barbecue Sauce
1 2.5 oz can of sliced black olives
1/2 Green Bell Pepper
2-3 Garden Fresh Tomatoes
Toasted Onion Buns
Sliced Cheddar cheese
Thinly sliced Amato's sour pickles (only found in Maine)

Salt a Large Heavy frying pan. Heat to Med/High and add hamburger. Once fat begins to render, add garlic, onion, chiptole pepper, adabo sauce cumin and Cayenne. Brown hamburger but don't let garlic to burn. Deglaze the pan with the beer (I supposed you could use water). Turn the heat to Med/Low and the next 6 ingredients. Once it is nice and hot, spoon on top of the buns laid open face. Lay sliced cheese on top and then sour pickles.

A sloppy joe should have enough body not to run all over the plate but you should have to eat it with a fork.