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!