#swedabilly night

[clatterbane]

More definite Swedabilly fare in the works for tomorrow here.

In this case: Crock Pot pea soup and cornbread!

It ain't Thursday, but we'll live.

I got the urge for pinto beans again, but I know the Household Swede is not exactly crazy about that staff of life. Though he does greatly appreciate his ärtsoppa. We also currently have more dry peas than pintos--plus still some of the Christmas ham leftovers in the freezer. So, why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's not brown beans, but it is pretty much the local equivalent.

Cornbread is also miles better to go with any kind of soupy stewy dish than crepe-type pancakes. Fight me. 😈 Even some version cobbled together out of less than ideal ingredient availability.

Being the heathen I am? This time I also can't resist also throwing some celery and carrot into the soup.

I've made pressure cooker versions before, but not slow cooker. Neither appliance seems to be nearly as popular as some other places, so I thought to take a cue from a few British slow cooker mushy peas recipes and go ahead and soak these in advance like usual today instead of just chucking the dry peas in to cook. Whether they're green or yellow dried whole peas doesn't really matter; they both do normally want an awful lot of soaking (with soda) to soften up compared to "normal" beans. Can't really overcook peas in soup anyway, so it really shouldn't hurt anything even if the soak isn't really necessary here after all.

It should also hopefully drain off some of the gas-producing compounds. Even if Mr. C insists that the peas MUST be cooked in the soaking water for full flavor. 😵 (Haven't seen other people here say to do that. It seems to be mostly him.)

So yeah, the plan is to drain them and set the soup to cook before I go to bed like I've been doing with some other stuff lately. Then that just leaves the bread for tomorrow.

[clatterbane]

Have a couple of big (just de-eyed) rather sad baking potatoes that need used up, more of the same potatoes leftover fried with onion, and the tail end of a falukorv you pulled out of the freezer but didn't finish over the weekend? What do you make?

Swedabilly hash!

We've also got some thawed bacon, to make things even yummier.

There. Sausage and "fresh" potatoes cubed up, and bacon already fried. About to brown the sausage, because that sequence made sense to me. We can add it back in with some of the bacon and those cold fried potatoes toward the end.

And yes, I did plonk the taters into the coffee machine pot, because it was clean and right there within easy reach. Just better be careful handling the thing. 😬

As for the rest of the bacon, and what makes this meal particularly Swedabilly?

(Though, most of the shit I cook these days--and definitely anything Swedish--probably turns out more Swedabilly than anything else.)

I've also got some more of that frozen kale stewing up hillbilly style, with part of the bacon just added in and a couple spoonfuls of the grease. I needed more green vegetables in my body.

We do also have some pickled beets in the fridge, to go more classically Swedish with hash accompaniments. (Though you get plenty of those back home too, and I'm the only one in the house who really eats them. I do like the Swedish style better than British.)

Whether or not we get the also classic fried egg on top depends on how many spoons I have left after frying the taters and stuff. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ We could surely use more protein.

I have actually only had the frozen bag kind of hash here so far. (Which is quite popular, and actually pretty good. Readily available with several different meats, and vegetarian with like Quorn pieces.)

But, this seemed like an excellent opportunity to try making some.

[clatterbane]

Sorta lazy leftovers night here.

Not quite as low effort as it could have been, since I did whip up some potato cakes out of the leftover mashed potatoes from Swedish Meatloaf Night. (Fairly basic, with just some onion and pepper for flavor. I did get lazy and just use some onion powder.) Then we've just got some easy baked convenient frozen meatballs. Good excuse to eat up the little bit of meatball-type cream sauce that was still in the fridge.

Then we've just got some packaged pizza salad that Mr. C picked up on the side, not shown because I rarely want vinegary dressing running all over the other food. The stuff Lidl sells here is actually decent, with a little extra salt added.

Can't say I'd ever really considered eating mashed potato cakes with meatball gravy before, but it does work pretty well.

Then again, my family has been known to eat sausage gravy over a more neutral tasting, non-sweet local style of pancakes. Which--surprise, surprise!--pretty closely resembles a no-sugar version of "Scotch pancakes" than what you're liable to get from IHOP or whatever. They do tend toward a little thicker batter too. But, those are good enough with hillbilly gravy or to make assorted breakfast sandwiches out of that I couldn't see why a slightly savory potato cake shouldn't be at least as good with meatball sauce. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And it was. May have to try that with other gravies at some point.

[clatterbane]

Waiting for tonight's delight to cool down enough to attack.

It sounded like a good combo, so I decided to use that leftover Kassler loin ham that we had, sliced up to make my own more Swedabilly take on this:

We also had a carton of mushroom and cheese creamy pasta sauce, so I used that plus some very Swedish grated gratin cheese from a bag. The prepared polenta in this case was 3 cups of water worth that I cooked last night specifically to stash in the fridge. I did have to ask him to pick up the asparagus and more grated cheese.

Could have probably fit that into a smaller baking dish, but I thought I'd give it more room to lay it out nicely for a change. This did also get a couple good sprinkles of Creole seasoning

Smells good, at least. Hard to see how that wouldn't be tasty.

We also have some premade oil-and-vinegar cabbage salad for some contrast and more veggie content beyond the bit of asparagus in the main dish.

[clatterbane]

Tonight's Swedabilly comfort food delight!

We had an open package of falukorv* in the fridge that needed used up, and also a big bag of the ever-popular grated Swedish Mystery Cheese.

So, I decided to split the difference and turn out some baked macaroni and cheese with fried sausage on the side, rather than the more local classic combo with milk-stewed macaroni. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Which also makes an awesome easy macaroni and cheese base, btw!) Plus some microwaved frozen veggies with plenty of butter.

Not a bad meal at all, even if it did sort of remind me thematically of school cafeteria macaroni and cheese day. 😅 Not quite on par with the bizarre pizza and corn pairing, but for whatever reason they inevitably served us this sweaty warmed-up half slice of school cafeteria grade sandwich bologna with the macaroni and cheese. Presumably to fill out the protein requirements.

Freshly browned slices of falukorv make for a much more appealing accompaniment, that's for sure! This batch of macaroni turned out drier than I was going for again, but it was still not bad.

______

* A.k.a. "ring bologna" in the Upper Midwest--what a surprise! 😁

[clatterbane]

Another meal that tastes a lot better than it looks! Bringing all three sisters together, no less.

I realized that we had some leftovers in the fridge that needed to go soon, so why not.

As for the little Swedabilly addition? Mr. C came home, and he is a bad influence. I was laughing about plotting a zucchini party again as soon as he leaves the house, so he half-jokingly asked if I had also pulled out the pickled herring to go with it. (I am also the only fan around here.)

Well, I hadn't considered trying the combo before, but that herring at least does taste pretty good with the cornbread! 😁 Which I made sure to let him know.

Mr. C is out for the evening, trying out some SF/F club meeting. So, it's time to fry up some of the zucchini I couldn't resist putting in the grocery order. 😁

Not exactly how I do it, of course. Cornmeal only, with either egg or buttermilk to help it stick. In this case, part coarser polenta-type cornmeal and part finer corn flour, because that's what I can readily get here. I come from some of the folks who started rolling practically any food in corn products to begin with, never mind squash and the sunflower oil it's going in--and my family still tends to just use that.

(Hell, rice flour is also full of crispy goodness for anything like this if you don't have cornmeal or prefer the rice. It also behaves similarly, in that you need to make sure there's plenty of surface moisture on the food going in and then let it sit for at least 5-10 minutes before frying to let it absorb.)

But, this linked version looks good.

Of course, I didn't mix up enough seasoned meal at the beginning, and had to make more partway through. And then naturally ended up with enough left over to make a few bonus pieces of hot water cornbread. 😊 (After adding a little more plain meal, unless you want it highly seasoned and salty as hell. Which is totally an option.)

[clatterbane]

Tonight's very seasonal Swedabilly delight! Requiring more effort than usual by recent standards, but worth it.

I got a whole chicken on sale, and cut it in half last night, since there are only two people here and I am still not back up to usual eating capacity. (Seriously y'all, I am feeling pretty stuffed after finishing off that kid-sized plateload.)

The half chicken that didn't go into the freezer for later got dry brined with some sage, thyme, garlic powder, and mixed pepper in preparation for baking it today.

I also decided to try brushing it down a couple of times with some of this open bottle of grill oil he picked up.

The taste of this kind is mainly garlic and paprika, which seemed like it should also work pretty well to baste the baked chicken for a little extra flavor and color. Which it did. 😋

That grocery delivery also included our first asparagus of the season, some little new potatoes, and a bunch of dill. So, while it was still nice and fresh we got some asparagus--just microwave steamed and dressed up with butter, a little salt, and bottled lemon pepper seasoning.

Also, depending on perspective, what you could call either creamed new potatoes and frozen peas with some dill and leftover chopped green onions thrown in, or dillstuvad potatis med ärtor och salladslök. 😁

(Was I surprised to see that this is a thing here? Not particularly. If you can put it in a creamy sauce with dill, somebody in Sweden will. And I'm not about to complain.)

Anyway, I was glad to get a couple of different obligatory spring foods in one meal. And I am still so glad to be able to eat semi-normally again. Hoping to get a little more once this settles some. We still have some of the leftover rhubarb-apple crumble from last night, but no way right at the moment.

[clatterbane]

I am very glad I went ahead and made that soup.

Just devoured another bowl of it, being about out of spoons after that IKEA trip.

Have actually been eating off that batch at least one meal a day since I made it. And now there's only one bowl left. 😰

Guess I'd better cook something else at least semi-nutritious soon that I can samefood off the leftovers for a couple days at least. That does work out well for me. And the leftovers do hold out longer if you're the only one in the house who enjoys that approach to food planning. 😅

More definite Swedabilly fare in the works for tomorrow here.

In this case: Crock Pot pea soup and cornbread!

It ain't Thursday, but we'll live.

I got the urge for pinto beans again, but I know the Household Swede is not exactly crazy about that staff of life. Though he does greatly appreciate his ärtsoppa. We also currently have more dry peas than pintos--plus still some of the Christmas ham leftovers in the freezer. So, why not? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's not brown beans, but it is pretty much the local equivalent.

Cornbread is also miles better to go with any kind of soupy stewy dish than crepe-type pancakes. Fight me. 😈 Even some version cobbled together out of less than ideal ingredient availability.

Being the heathen I am? This time I also can't resist also throwing some celery and carrot into the soup.

I've made pressure cooker versions before, but not slow cooker. Neither appliance seems to be nearly as popular as some other places, so I thought to take a cue from a few British slow cooker mushy peas recipes and go ahead and soak these in advance like usual today instead of just chucking the dry peas in to cook. Whether they're green or yellow dried whole peas doesn't really matter; they both do normally want an awful lot of soaking (with soda) to soften up compared to "normal" beans. Can't really overcook peas in soup anyway, so it really shouldn't hurt anything even if the soak isn't really necessary here after all.

It should also hopefully drain off some of the gas-producing compounds. Even if Mr. C insists that the peas MUST be cooked in the soaking water for full flavor. 😵 (Haven't seen other people here say to do that. It seems to be mostly him.)

So yeah, the plan is to drain them and set the soup to cook before I go to bed like I've been doing with some other stuff lately. Then that just leaves the bread for tomorrow.