Mariner's Cookbook

Vegetable-Beef Soup, Revisited by Mariner, posted Jan 20, 2021

Well, last month the doc told me he was concerned about my blood sugar, and that we needed to bring it down. His advice was to go back on a low-carbohydrate diet until the next scheduled exam. Having no desire to become another diabetes statistic in our family (we have several!), I decided to make the effort.

Cheater's Chicken & Dumplings by Mariner, posted Aug 29, 2020

It had been a while since I had the pleasure of a meal of chicken and dumplings, and I'd never made them myself, before today; so I decided to hit the Internet and see if there was any inspiration there.

Grandma's Pickles by Mariner, posted Jul 02, 2020

So I’ve been making pickles for a while now – mostly fermented dill pickles, which Mom doesn’t care for. I tried making “Bread ‘N’ Butter” pickles, which are not fermented, and for a while she seemed to like them, but eventually she decided they were too sweet. They weren't the pickles she had grown up with, made by her mother!

Barbecue Ribs by Mariner, posted Apr 30, 2020

As cuts of meat go, ribs aren't a really good deal. You usually end up paying steak prices for a lot of bone. Recently, however, while shopping with My Honey, we spotted some baby-back ribs at a really good price, and they were really meaty, too. We were able to scarf several racks to bring home.

Onion Sandwich Rolls by Mariner, posted Apr 18, 2020

I learned to hate onions at an early age. When I was about 5 years old, I was victimized by an older, male family member, who thought that it would be funny to give a child a raw onion, saying that it was just a different kind of apple. Being a naïve and trusting child, I accepted the gift of the “different apple”, and took a bite. To put it mildly, I was disappointed, and almost thirty years passed before I would again voluntarily eat anything with onion in it.

Smoked Pork Meat Stock by Mariner, posted Feb 13, 2020

I have frequent need of pork stock in my cooking, and it's not often available on the store shelves. Sometimes, as an afterthought to crock-cooking a large piece of pork, I make my own, by simply covering any bones left after deboning the pork with water, and cooking all of the meat off. This can yield significant amounts of broth, but is somewhat haphazard in terms of the flavor and amount.

Cabbage Soup by Mariner, posted Feb 11, 2020

I don't often make this one, because afterwards, the First Mate usually bans me from the galley (I apparently make a terrible mess!). I particularly like this soup on a cold or rainy day - or a cold and rainy day (like today). There's nothing fancy here, just plain, good food.

Seafood Cocktail Sauce by Mariner, posted Sep 01, 2019

We don't use a lot of cocktail sauce; in fact we've probably used less than four or five tablespoons of commercial cocktail sauce in our home in all 48 years of our marriage. Once in a great while, however, we buy or make something (usually a seafood dish) that just demands to be complemented by that piquant combination of flavors.

Low-Country Boil by Mariner, posted Mar 14, 2019

Some years ago, my Honey and I decided to be spontaneous, and on the spur of the moment hit the road to spend the weekend in Savannah, Georgia - without having made hotel reservations! Big mistake...

Bread-N-Butter Pickles by Mariner, posted Jul 01, 2018

So this past Friday I started another (40 lb) batch of my fermented dill pickles. Most of my relatives seem to like my pickles (at least that's what they say!) but my Mom is not a big fan them... in fact, Mom isn't particularly fond of dill at all, nor does she particularly like most sour foods, . In discussing that fact yesterday, she allowed as how she does like what she calls (and my Grandma used to call) bread-n-butter pickles.