Podcast
Dirk Howard
Hosted by Unknown Author · EN
Journal Of A Long Strange Trip
10episodes
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Butternut Squash Soup
Nov 29, 2018Tap to summarizeThis recipe for Butternut Squash Soup is a modified version from a version shared by a family friend. This version is more suited to the tastes of my family with lighter seasoning, less salt and less fat. Ingredients 1 medium butternut squash, peeled & cubed 1 cup water 1 medium onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 2 Tbsp butter or margarine 1 Tbsp chicken bouillon pepper (to taste) paprika 4 oz cream cheese (1/2 package) Directions In pressure cooker, saute the onion in the butter until onions are softened and begin to caramelize. Add minced garlic and let it briefly saute. Add cubed butternut squash, water, bouillon and spices and pressure cook on high pressure for 7 or 8 minutes. Quick release the pressure and puree with cream cheese. Serve with croutons, toasted cheese bread or garlic bread. Serves 4 The post Butternut Squash Soup appeared first on Dirk Howard.
Transcribe →Low Carb Cottage Pie (or Shepard’s Pie)
Mar 10, 2018Tap to summarizeReady To Serve Shepard’s pie is a dish normally prepared with ground lamb. A cottage pie is prepared with ground beef in place of the lamb. The meat is combined with a tomato sauce and vegetables, then topped with mashed potatoes and possibly some cheese. Very much a comfort food. I had recently started eating a low carbohydrate diet (low carb) for weight loss and to reduce my blood sugar levels. I found a recipe that is the basis for this dish. Instead of mashed potatoes, this recipe uses mashed cauliflower instead. To keep the fat levels down, I used ground bison for the meat. Ingredients: For the topping: 1 head of cauliflower 2 oz grated Parmesan cheese garlic powder to taste For the filling: 2 lbs ground bison 1 Tablespoon olive oil 1 large onion 4 carrots 1 can (28 oz) diced tomatoes 3 Tablespoons A-1 Sauce 2 Tablespoons dark soy sauce Salt and pepper to taste Directions: Preheat oven to 400° F or 375° F on convection bake. For the topping: Simmering vegetables for a bison cottage pie. Cut the cauliflower into one inch chunks. Steam until very tender. I cooked this in the microwave for 10 to 14 minutes. Blend in the food processor with the garlic powder until smooth. Set aside until the filling is ready to top. For the filling: In a pan that can go into the oven, break apart the bison and cook unt...
Transcribe →Cinnamon Pull-A-Parts
Mar 25, 2016Tap to summarizeLast night our neighbor had some leftover dough. She brought it over to share with us. The dough inspired me to make Cinnamon Pull-A-Parts. Since it was late in was late in the evening, I just put the dough in the refrigerator until morning. The next morning I took a castiron skillet and melted some butter in it. I topped the butter with a cup of vanilla sugar. I could have used cinnamon sugar, but I wanted to tame the amount of cinnamon. I then divided up the dough into golf ball or smaller pieces. I dipped each piece into some melted butter and then rolled it in some cinnamon sugar. Any sugar I had left went on top of the rolls. I let the rolls rise for about an hour. I baked them at 375° F for about 25 minutes. Once they were out of the oven I turned the rolls out of the castiron skillet to cool. Once the sugar had cooled below molten lava temperatures, I served them up. My crew agrees that I can do that again. The post Cinnamon Pull-A-Parts appeared first on Dirk Howard.
Transcribe →Dutch Baby Pancake
Feb 13, 2016Tap to summarizeDutch Baby Pancake with Apple Slices I really enjoy using my cast-iron cookware. I have had plenty of cast-iron dutch ovens, the camp style, over the years. I really like cooking outdoors with them. A few years ago, I was given two 12 inch Lodge cast-iron frying pans for my birthday. That was the day that the cast-iron moved inside. One of the recipes that I like to make to show off how easy cast-iron cooking is, is the Dutch Baby Pancake. It is a German pancake that is baked in the oven. The traditional way to serve them is with a squeeze of fresh lemon and sprinkled with powdered sugar. My wife likes hers plain with just butter. I like mine either traditional or with a sliced apple sauce. Ingredients: 2 eggs 1/2 cup milk 2 Tablespoons sugar (I like the Rock Iris vanilla sugar) 1/2 cup flour 2 Tablespoons butter to melt in pan Dutch Baby Pancake straight from the oven Directions: Pre-heat oven to 425° F with your cast-iron pan. Combine the first four ingredients together and blend until smooth. (I use a blender.) Once the oven and pan are to temperature, remove pan from the oven. Melt the butter and coat the pan surface. Pour the batter into the pan and...
Transcribe →Honey I’m Home (beer recipe)
Feb 13, 2016Tap to summarizeMy wife wanted to design a beer recipe on her own. She was interested in creating a malt forward beer that was an easy session beer. She didn’t want something too bitter. Without a beer style in mind she designed the following recipe. I think it would be classified as a Mild. It was named “Honey I’m Home” because of the amount of honey malt in the grist bill. Say it like you are Ricky Ricardo. Ingredients: 3 lbs German Pilsner Malt (1.6 SRM) 3 lbs Two-row Malt (US) (2.0 SRM) 2 lbs CaraPils (1.8 SRM) 1 lb Honey Malt (Canadian) (18.0 SRM) 1 oz Hallertauer [4.8 %] – Boil 25 min 1 oz Saaz [4.0 %] – Boil 25 min 1 oz Hallertauer [4.8 %] – Boil 0 min 1 oz Saaz [4.0 %] – Boil 0 min American Ale Yeast (US 05) Targets: Original Gravity: 1.046 Final Gravity: 1.010 – 1.013 Estimated ABV: 4.3 % Bitterness: 17.5 IBUs Color: 5.4 SRM Directions: Mash grains in single step infusion. Target a mash temperature of 149° F. Mash for an hour or until conversion is complete. Batch sparge the grains and collect 7 gallons of wort. Boil the wort for 60 minutes. At 25 minutes remaining, add the first charge of hops. At flame out add the remaining hops. Using immersion chiller, cool wort to yeast pitching temperature (68° F). Transfer to fermentor and pitch yeast. Ferment at 68° F until complete. (approx 10 days) Bottle or keg. Notes: I really like this beer. When fresh, it has a nice hop character to it. The post Honey I’m Home (beer recipe) appeared first on Dirk Howard.
Transcribe →gdebi
Nov 2, 2015Tap to summarizeI ran into a situation where I was installing a Ubuntu server for a project. This project would have the server without a GUI interface. I needed to install a software package that had software dependencies. dpkg utilities do not follow or solve package dependencies. I needed a command line utility to install packages that resolved dependencies. gdebi is that tool. It is in the gdebi-core package. The post gdebi appeared first on Dirk Howard.
Transcribe →Kim Howard – R.I.P.
Aug 16, 2014Tap to summarizeKim Howard My sister, Kim Howard, passed away on August 6, 2014 from cancer. Here is her obituary and here is an audio recording of her funeral service. The post Kim Howard – R.I.P. appeared first on Dirk Howard.
Transcribe →Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Aug 11, 2014Tap to summarizeCast Iron baked macaroni and cheese I was talking with my youngest daughter about comfort foods that she found while she was living in China. While we were talking about that it reminded me of a favorite comfort food. Macaroni and Cheese. Many times we find ourselves reaching for the blue box. I was wanting something like that, but maybe a little more homemade and more attention to the details. I remembered a Macaroni and Cheese recipe that I found on the Reddit cast-iron forum. One of the features of this dish is that it is baked in a cast-iron pan to help the dish develop a crisp crust on the bottom and sides. This crisp crust contrasts nicely with the tender pasta and the creamy sauce. Ingredients: 1 lb macaroni, cooked and drained 1/2 stick of butter 4 Tablespoons flour 3 cups milk 1/3 cup pre-cooked bacon bits 1 Tablespoon onion powder 1 cup parmesan cheese 8 to 10 ounces medium cheddar cheese, grated dried breadcrumbs While cooking the macaroni, make the cheese sauce. In a medium saucepan melt the butter and add the butter to form a roux. Cook over a medium heat until the flour begins to turn to a golden brown. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook over a medium heat. Add the onion powder and cook until the mixture begins to thicken. Add the bacon bits, 1/2 of the parmesan cheese and the grated cheddar cheese and mix until melted and combined. Grease a cast-iron skillet and pour the drained pasta into the pan. Mix the cheese sauce into the pasta and top with a mixture of breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Bake in a 400° F oven for 30 minutes or until the top and edges have started to crisp. Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes before serving. The post Oven Baked Macaroni and Cheese appeared first on Dirk Howard.
Transcribe →Breaking In New Cast Iron
Jul 10, 2014Tap to summarizeHash browns in a new 12″ skillet I was recently given two new Lodge cast iron skillets. They are the 12″ size and have been pre-seasoned. I like to work in my cast iron by making something fried. It tends to help build up the seasoning. For these skillets I decided to fry up some potatoes into hash browns. Other than the normal pebbly surface of a new pan, these two skillets performed very well. There was very minimal sticking and it all wiped out with a paper towel. I basically cubed up some fresh potatoes and tossed them into the pans. I had heated the pans over a medium-high flame to a point where the pan is starting to smoke. I added 2 to 3 tablespoons of Canola Oil and let that heat for a moment. Then the potatoes went into the hot pan. The post Breaking In New Cast Iron appeared first on Dirk Howard.
Transcribe →Breakfast Strata
Dec 6, 2013Tap to summarizeA breakfast strata is a favorite in our household. It has a couple of compelling draws to it. It is flexible in the ingredients. It makes use of ingredients that might not make a meal on their own. Strata is an easy meal to feed a group. Strata is not so much a recipe as it is “guide lines”.My basic breakfast strata starts with a loaf of stale french bread. If the bread is still kind of fresh, slice it into one inch thick slices and let it dry over night. The bread is then broken into chunky pieces. One slice might yield four to five chunks.Beat 8 to 9 eggs into 1 to 1-1/2 cups of milk. Add salt, pepper and any other seasonings you like (cayenne pepper sauce). Pour the egg mixture over the bread chunks and let the bread soak up the egg mixture. I use a gallon size zipper bag for this. Let the bread soak for at least 40 minutes or over night. Turn the bag over to make sure the egg mixture is evenly distributed through the bread. At the end, the egg mixture should be absorbed by the bread without liquid pooling in the bag. Spread half of the egg soaked bread in a greased baking dish. Add filling ingredients to the dish. In this example I am using ham and spinach with chopped yellow onion. We also like sausage, bacon or pepperoni. Green onions, bell peppers, summer squash and many other vegetables are great to use. Let your imagination run wild. Top the dish with the rest of the egg soaked bread to layer the filling in the middle. Top with cheese and bake at 350 to 375 F for 30 to 40 minutes until the egg mixture is set and the bread is starting to toast or crisp around the top and edges. Remove from the oven and serve hot. This works well in a warming tray as well. If you use vegetables that have a fair amount of water, you may need to salt them or pre-cook and drain. When using fresh spinach, use a thin layer and use an oven temp of 375 F. Don’t press the bread mixture into the pan. You want the bread and egg mixture to be loosely jumbled into the pan so it has more edges to crisp and brown. This helps to avoid a gooey texture. Enjoy! Dirk Strata – Prior to baking ...
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